parents and pastries. and camera ramblings.

Every year the elementary school does a "Parents and Pastries" morning. 

This means if you show up for school an hour early with a parent and a book you all get a donut.  And a coupon for bowling at Fat Cats.

Mostly I just like being with my circus.  Especially if it encourages reading.

It's time for me to renew my phone contract and upgrade my phone.  I'm struggling with which phone I should use.  I've had, and loved, a Blackberry for the past five years.  I am most definitely not a fan of touch screen.  I want buttons.  West is a supporter of the iPhone.  He has me hooked on some of the game apps.

I think what it's going to boil down to is which phone has the best camera in it.  Sad but true.  I'm tired of sub-par pictures because I use my phone all the time.

And while we're on the subject, ever since my water camera decided not to be waterproof anymore, it's been leaving white spots in my pictures.  Despite what a kind reader said to me about it being spirits in my pictures, I assure you, it's spots inside the lense.  I can see them.  So I need a new water camera too.  Because now that I've had the ability to take my camera into the water, I don't want to stop.

Also, I want a fancy camera.  But I don't know which one.  I just know that I'm obsessed with taking pictures of my family and life, and I'd like them to, you know, actually turn out good.

So that's my to do list.  Phone with a decent enough camera, a water proof camera, and a "fancy" camera.

Is it too early to have a Christmas list going?

spreading the love in hot pink leggings and neon orange Vans

Valentine's Day at our house was perfect. 

West loved the blanket that I sewed for him on my new sewing machine. 

Cas wore a sparkly black dress, hot pink leggings, and neon orange vans to her 6th grade Valentine's dance.

Her favorite dance? The very last one where she didn't have to have a partner.  Sorry boys, you're on your own for Valentine's.

Cali gave me a sweet valentine this morning.

I got to have a last minute lunch with my man at my favorite Mexican restaurant.

I started assembling a three layer, three tier wedding cake.  Red velvet cheesecake.

When I make a cake I like to make sure that the mess explodes all over the entire kitchen.

Cas helped me with dinner by "dehydrating the chicken."  Translation: Cas   defrosted the chicken.

We had some extra red velvet cake batter so we made some cupcakes and spread the love to some of our neighbors.

Don't forget our family dinner by candle light.

new beginnings and other things

I've been stalking a "new" blog lately.  She's wonderful and I love to read the things that she writes.  If you haven't heard of her blog, 71 Toes, you've heard of it now.  What an amazing woman (I want to be like her when I grow up).  She's written a book and Blossom on the Vine is giving it away. 

I want to win.

Given, I never win give aways, except that one time when a whole box of gum ended up on my door step, but other than that I never win give aways.  This one is worth trying for. 

If I don't win I'll just have to buy the book on my own.  I love reading her that much. And her story is incredible.

Over the weekend I learned that I need to be a better budgeter.  I hate budgets.  Loathe them.  Mostly because I'm sporadic and spur of the moment, and when I want to do something nice for someone, or buy something cute for my circus or my man, or if I want to start a project, I want to do it now, and not when I have a minute to sit down and fit it in to my budget.

How do you survive budgeting?  I need to figure out a way that this can work for me.

I've decided I'm not going to survive my girls being in Young Women's.  I have watched all four of my girls go to kindergarten with out a single tear, but our first New Beginnings and it's all I can do to hold myself together during Casidee's spotlight.  And all they did was give her flowers and a YW pendant...

I'm so proud of my circus and the choices they make daily, and the people they are becoming. 

The theme for Young Women's this year is Arise and Shine Forth.  I love it.  It's so full of action.  Check out this music video.

Disco cupcakes for New Beginnings:

They literally shimmered, it was the neatest thing.  The young women loved them.

googling hippo milk. candy gram service. secret admirer.

It amazes me how many people google "hippo milk."
I read it once on a fact website that hippo's milk is actually pink.  I was dumbfounded.  I did some googling on it myself and came up with yes indeed, hippos milk is pink.

And so I posted about it.  How could I not? It was such a random and ridiculous thing.

It has been my #1 post of all time since I posted it.  Even this month it's in the top ten. 

In my stats it tells me what people searched for to be shown my blog. 

hippo milk
pink hippo milk
pink hippo

These show up on my blog stats almost daily.

Of all the things to post about.  Who would have thought that a silly post on hippo milk would keep popping up like it has?

In other news, I'm super proud of Cali.  She used her birthday money to buy candy grams for her siblings at school.  The student council at the Elementary sells candy grams every year before Valentine's day to raise some money.One of the boys in our neighborhood that walks to school with the circus made mention that he never gets a candy gram from anyone. 

Guess what Cali did.  It makes my heart melt.

Casidee got a candy gram from "anonymous"... oooohhhh.... somebody has a secret admirer.

I found this dropped in the yard:

No Super Bowl, Chocolate Fondue, and Mr. Popper's Penguins

Happy 33 to me.
Today's February photo project was "10 am".  I was at church with my circus.  This picture was actually taken a little after noon when church was over, but really, I wasn't going to pull out my camera and snap a picture in the middle of a Sacrament Meeting.  So we took one after church in the Young Women's room, which also doubles as the Middle School's Seminary, hence the desks.
Thanks for snapping the pic Ballison.  Love me some Laurels.

The Young Women's President gave me two papers to fill out for the new Beehives coming in.  New Beginings is next week and they want to spotlight the cute new Beehives.  They were for my daughters.  Can you believe that we have not just one girl turning 12 this year, but two?  It's like I always say... once one hits a a milestone in life, the rest are not far behind.  We don't do anything small around here.  Not even if we wanted to...

After church we headed home only to be greeted by this when we rounded the corner:

My dad and step mom drove 45 minutes to surprise me with this when I got home from church.  Apparently my step mom was being sneaky sneaky with The Man and was messaging with him over facebook about when we'd be gone.  When we rounded the corner we all gasped.  Cool Mom!  That Stephanie Rd. sign? Going on my desk at work.

The Man bought me a sewing machine.  I've never owned a sewing machine before and am super excited.  Especially since I've recently drawn up my first quilt pattern with the encouragement and email guidance of my aunt.  Who is a pro.  Really.  She owns her own quilt shop.  And the circus made me paper flowers with Granny Suzann.

We're pushing forward with the remodel.  Tomorrow a sheetrocker is coming to mud and tape the second laundry room we've created out of a large closet upstairs and the kitchen ceilling.  We've picked out the tile and West even said that while he was working on his project (the laying of the said tile) that I needed a project and could paint the second laundry room and kitchen any color I want. 
You are all my witnesses.  Any color I want. 

I'm thinking I should have gotten that in writing...

In preperation for the nasty dusty sheetrock mess we've emptied the kitchen, even putting the fridge into the dining room, and hung plastic.

When our house is finished, we're inviting you all over for a Hallelujah party.  See that pink counter?  It's next on my hit list.  Nasty thing.
All I wanted for my birthday is no Superbowl, chocolate fondue, and Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Check, check, and check.

And now that I think about it, this would go good with our kitchen remodel, don't you think?

Cali Turns 7

Cali.

Favorite color: Blue
Favorite food: Spaghetti
Best Friend: Anistyn
Favorite thing to do in school: Learn
Favorite thing to do: Play with my sisters.
Favorite movie: Mr. Popper's Penguins
What's something you want to learn how to do this year? Read better.
I made a master list of birthday activities for the circus to choose from for their parties.  All ranging with in the same budget, but bigger, or more expensive activities involved less friends, or family only, while cheaper or smaller activities where able to involve more friends.
Cali chose to go to Airborne, a trampoline arena.  She was able to invite 2 friends.
And in true Circus style, we took a lot of pictures, a few videos, and created quite the chaos which ended up being the time of our lives.  We jumped off the floor, the walls, played dodge ball, jumped off cliffs, tried our best to make it across the rope ladder (West failed, I conquered!), and did a lot of flipping in the air.  Even me :).