Summer Summer Summer Time

I'm not so good at keeping up with what we're up to. Probably because I can barely keep up with all we've been up to in the first place. It's summer, need I say more? But it's good. It's really, really good.
Ummm, I'm getting nowhere with this post! Tayvie's insisting on seeing the picture of herself so much so that I can't type cause we have to keep scrolling up to see her beautiful blurry little face! So, I'm giving up and glad I atleast got pictures up and a couple sentences out whether they make sense or not :).
Hope everybody is having a fabulous summer!

I Love Music

I really don't have words to describe how I felt watching Paul McCartney play on Tuesday night. It was so surreal to see an actual living legend in person. When I was young, young, young I remember singing songs from Please Please Me, Sgt Pepper's, Abby Road, & The White Album. My parents had several Beatles records and we loved to play them. When I was older my favorite movies were Help and A Hard Days Night, I had them memorized. I also collected all of The Beatles songs I could find and, as those were the days of the cassette tape, I would listen to Breakfast with The Beatles every Sunday morning and record all the songs. I read books, learned to play their songs on the piano and the guitar, I watched biographies and anthologies, I drew countless portraits of John, Paul, George, & Ringo...I was a fan.

And last night I got to see the one and only Sir Paul McCartney live in concert!

I had heard that he puts on an amazing show, and I believed it, but it was even better than I had expected! This man is 68 years old, but he sings and sounds like he always has, he dances and moves just like he did in those old movies. He was so full of energy! He would bounce from guitar up a few stairs to the piano and after almost every song he would pump his hands up in the air and say "Thank you!" He was silly... classic silly Paul things... just random silly things he would say. He also told stories about other legends, he mentioned Eric Clapton, told a story about Jimi Hendrix, talked about John and George. He played songs from his solo albums, songs from Wings... he did a little Foxy Lady, and of course a whole bunch of Beatles' songs. Hey Jude, Let It Be, Drive My Car, Something (one of my very favorites!), I've Just Seen A Face, Yesterday, Back In The USSR, A Day In The Life, Black Bird, I've Got A Feeling, Day Tripper, Get Back, Helter Skelter, Sgt Peppers, And I Love Her, Lady Madonna, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Paperback Writer, The End and a few more. The best thing though? He did not stop! He played a solid 2 hours and 45 minutes without a break! His band left the stage a couple times while he performed by himself, but he played almost 3 straight hours!

During Live and Let Die the front of the stage lit up in flames and fireworks exploded from behind the stage. There were fun moments of story telling and sing alongs, and then amazing all out rocking out. It seemed obvious that he still loves what he does and I love that he came to Salt Lake and did it. This was definately a once in a lifetime sort of thing for me!

Swedish Pancakes

Just what you wanted: A dark grainy webcam photo of me making swedish pancakes.

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It's been 3 whole months since my last post!

So much has changed!

I have so much to share, I don't know where to start!

Not only the big changes in our lives, (and there are plenty of those) but all the little day to day things too.

Like how Tayvie is on her 3rd outfit of the day and it's only 11:00 am (nope, it's not that she has spilled on them or anything... she just changes her clothes about every hour).

Like how we have a NEW nephew & a NEW niece!!!...and we are so excited about them we can hardly stand it!

Like how Ayla and Tayvie started preschool and love it!!!

Like how our little Lyndlee is 7 months old!

Like how Tony just got promoted to a supervisor at L3!!!

Like how I am the owner of a very well loved Nikon D40 with 3 BROKEN lenses! (& 0 working ones)

Like our little trip to Snowbird last month...that was heavenly!

Like our 3 1/2 week vacation at Tony's parent's new house in West Jordan!

Like how we spent a week with the girls cousins and all the fun and pictures we got!

Like how Aunt Julie sent all three girls rockin' Beatles tee's on the very day we were going to the Imagine concert!

Those things are all much more exciting, but since I don't know where to start,

I thought I'd just tell you about our obsession with Swedish Pancakes since I'm cooking them right now.

When I was growing up (which is in the past, cause I'm not growing up any more), my dad use to make Swedish Pancakes on Saturday mornings... but not every Saturday morning, cause they take so long. So we were always super excited when it was a Swedish Pancake Saturday!

Now they're Ayla's favorite food. She begs for them almost every meal. I usually make a big batch once a week and keep them in the fridge so they're handy for breakfast. Ayla and Tayvie love to help me add the ingredience and stir. I love cooking in our new kitchen, we have a great big bar for the girls to sit at and help with everything, and lots of counter space. Last week, we were out of flour (my big Lehi Roller Mills bag of flour got lost in the move...anyone know where it is?) Ayla knocked on 5 neighbors doors before we found any! But we found some so life was good for the 4 year old!

Here's my recipe:

6 eggs

A whole bunch of sugar

4 cups of milk

3 cups of flour

1 cap full of vegetable oil

a really, really hot griddle coated with butter

...

I put butter and powdered sugar on mine.

Ayla and Tayvie like butter & syrup on theirs.

Tony will some times put butter and jam on his.

Yep, not the most healthy thing in the world, but they are super yummy!!! One of my big goals is to get back to healthier eating, it's been a little tricky to do that the last little while, but we're getting settled now and we're doing good!

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Maybe you should tell me what you want to hear about first...?

Easter Dresses

Trickster's My Middle Name (& he knew that when he married me!)

I have always looooveeeed April Fool's Day! All of my life! I am like everyone else, I don't like to be tricked, but I sure love to be the tricker!

When I was a kid, I shared a room with Marci, ~lucky girl~. One April 1st she woke up completely dressed in red from head to toe (inspired by The Beatles' movie "Help" when they keep painting Ringo red because he is supposed to be sacrificed). Another, she woke up tied to her bed and lying next to the vaccuum! Dumb I know, but I still think it was hillarious! I also loved to break into the bathroom when someone was showering and steal all the towels and their clothes. When I was younger, I remember getting up as early as I could before my dad would leave for work, I would sneak in his room and put icecubes in his shoes (of course I put the icecubes in plastic bags so he wouldn't have wet shoes).

I've always been dedicated to my craft.

So this year, we spent all day baking!!! The girls and I made "Chicken Pot Pies," "Red Kool Aid," "Chicken Nuggetts & Fish Sticks," & "Cup Cakes." They were so excited to surprise daddy with our special meal- although, I think I was probably the most excited.

When Tony got home he was excited to see dinner ready too! And excited for pot pies! He was already to break up his crust and mix it all up with some salt and pepper, but before he did he took a bite. The look on his face was PRICELESS!!! hahaha! Totally worth all the effort! It was really pudding, with apples, bannanas, and orange Starbursts to look like Carrotts! Tasty, yes, but not at all what he was expecting! So then he tries to take a drink and his drink is JELLO! He was seriously shocked again! By this time he had caught on so he wouldn't even try peanut butter covered marshmellows & waffers disguised as chicken nuggetts & fish sticks, and when I served the pink frosted cupcakes, even after being told they were meatloaf with mashed potatoes on top, he just sat and stared at them, trying not to gag! I promised him it was meatloaf and mashed potatoes and it was yummy, and he said "I don't know what to do, I can't take a drink because my milk is green..." (hahaha! we had put some green food coloring in his cup before he poured his milk!) Poor guy! Eventually, he ate a couple cupcakes. Ayla was licking the mashed potatoes off the top of hers as if it were really frosting, and Tayvie was really funny with the "Kool Aid." Even though she was in on the hijinx, she kept trying to drink hers, then she'd put it down and say "STUCK!" then she took Tony's and tryed his and did the same thing!

So I have to admit, I do think it's a little boarderline to mess with someone's food, but Tony was a good sport and he thought it was "cute." I also promised to make real chicken pot pies soon!

Studio Photo

Do you like my studio?

I go to all this work, setting everything up and I get one picture!

For the record, I was wearing my purple dress too! :)

An LDS Tea Party

Ayla and Tayvie have the funnest little cupcake set and tea set. Last week they were playing with both. They "cooked" the cupcakes in their room and then set them all up nicely on their trays. Tayvie went to take a "bite" and Ayla said "NO Tayvie! We haven't said the prayer yet!" I grabbed my camera as Tayvie immediately bowed her head and started to pray, Ayla came right over and did the same. Then the tea party resumed and even Lyndlee got to enjoy a plastic cupcake!