Devilishly Easy

Easy recipe for the day: Devil Pumpkin Cake Cookies (yeah, I made up that name... like it!)

Seriously, this is so easy! 

Ingredients

1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree

1 box Devil's Food Cake mix

Directions

Mix together the pumpkin and cake mix until moistened. 

Drop spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes at 350° F.

And that's it! They make the softest, fluffiest cake cookies you've ever had. The only thing that would make them better? A handful of chocolate chips... but, hey, I like my chocolate! Oh, and milk! Drink a glass of milk with them!

Also for today, I tried a new hair-do on Aurora. She wasn't quite as cooperative as the other day so it's not perfect, but she's still perfectly cute! Please don't judge the dried snot or the chocolate remains on her face... you can only wipe a nose so many times and what can I say? She liked the cookies!

Oh, and while Cedar thought it was Winter today with their 11+ inches of snow, St. George thought it'd better stick with Spring rain showers mixed with sunshine. I love St. George!

Sunday, Monday, Yada, Yada

These last two days have been kind of great.
To the outside world, they may not look like anything spectacular or out of the ordinary... but for our little family, they've been awesome!

Yesterday, Sunday, Dan got home from work at 8:00am. Aurora and I were already up and getting ready for church. Aurora was looking beautiful in the new dress she got from her Great Grandma Rigby and her cute flower hair clip she got from her Barclay aunts and grandma. Dan came in cheerful, despite a hectic morning at work and he looked so handsome in his church attire. And I was feeling pretty! I mean, all you girls out there can probably attest that that little fact right there can be all it takes for the makings of a good day, right?

We headed to church together and made it just in time for the sacrament meeting to start. The meeting was wonderful and the speakers spoke straight to my heart. It was as if they knew what was going on in our lives at this exact time and said what we needed to hear; the talks were on finding hope through your struggles.

Now as I say that I felt those talks on that particular topic were quite touching to me, many of you might be wondering what struggles we're enduring. Honestly, not too many, but some of the people closest to us are indeed struggling and in need of hope.

As many of you who follow me on Facebook might know, Dan's dad, Steve, is battling Melanoma (skin cancer). I'll share what his mom posted on the Facebook group page we've created to clue you in on his story:

I think that his parents and the whole rest of our family are in definite need of hope while going through this scary time.

The second speaker during the meeting, spoke of his dear mother who has been battling different kinds of cancer for a total of 13 years. He told that she had been given a blessing in the beginning of it all that she would live to see her youngest son serve a mission. During the years that followed, she had to go through stage IV cancer in various forms and survive the pains of having her cancer go into remission and come back multiple times. She was given "death sentences" of a few months to live each time they found the cancer had come back. Yet, through all that, she continued to have faith that she would be able to battle the cancer and she continued to have hope that she would come out stronger. Now it has been 13 years and her youngest son is putting in his papers to serve a mission. Because she continued to have hope even through her struggles, she is still here to see the fruits of the blessing she received so long ago. There were probably many times, that it would've been easy to get discouraged and lose hope, but she didn't.

My beautiful Grandmother Dorothella Smith, battled with Breast Cancer for most of my life. She was diagnosed with it around the time I was born and then it went into remission until the last couple years of her life. My mom always tells us that one thing my grandma really believed in was the power of having a hopeful and positive attitude in light of her struggles. Cancer is brutal and it isn't for the weak; my grandma knew that what you needed most to stay strong in the fight was a positive attitude, a hopeful attitude that you could survive and come out on top.

I think that one of the reasons my grandma battled so long was because of her hopeful attitude. She didn't let the depression of her diagnosis seep in and take over her body's ability to fight, she went about each day one step at a time with brightness.

As I write this, I'm not saying that just having a positive and hopeful attitude will cure cancer or solve all your problems. What I am saying is that it makes it a whole lot easier for you to see the light in the world, even when it seems at its darkest. Hope shines a light and clears your mind to help you see the good through all the bad. The talks on Sunday were a peaceful reminder for us to have hope and to not give up the fight with Steve! It was also a reminder to me that our Heavenly Father does know us each individually and he knows the desires of our hearts. What a testimony builder!

After church, Dan had to help the interior design woman finish getting the homes decorated for the Parade of Homes coming up. Because of my friend, Marissa, and her willingness to watch Aurora, I was able to help Dan. We got a lot done and it has been nice that I've been able to spend this time with him. This little side job has really been such a blessing to us. Dan was asked to help by our good friend, Shaun, and it has really helped to fill in the gaps from when Dan wasn't working. I even got to catch up a bit with Marissa when I got home. I haven't seen her in so long! We are truly blessed to have such good friends living near us.

Today brought with it 70° weather and beautiful sunshine plus two happy girls and one happy mama/babysitter. I watched Abi today and I'm happy to say that she AND Aurora are both feeling so much better after all this sickness that's been sticking around. I was lucky enough to find another high chair seat that I could use for Abi at lunch time on the St George Yard Sale page over the weekend, so we got to have both girls eat lunch at the same time, on their own. They were loving it!

We also spent some time outside today and we had a fun time following Miss Abi as she walked around the apartment complex. It only became not quite as fun when Abi decided she was too tired to walk any further and I ended up carrying both girls back to our apartment. Together they are heavy!

I also took a few pictures of the girls while we were outside; they both looked so cute! My favorite one is one I took standing on our porch looking down on them from above. I'm sad I could only get the one shot but that's about all you can do when you've got toddlers on the move!

Dan was able to work over at the parade/model home again today while I babysat and then got off early enough that we could hold Family Home Evening! We had so much fun. We got Panda Express for dinner and then couldn't help ourselves and got doughnuts from The Fractured Prune while we were over there. But, really, can you blame us? I mean, look at those things!

When we got home, we sang a hymn and said prayer before putting Aurora to bed and watching a movie. Dan fell asleep during the movie, but it's ok. After his busy weekend of working working working, he deserves an early bedtime!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Double Post?

Ok, I know what you are thinking! But I promise, this is not my second post of the day... not technically, anyway!

You see, I'm what you'd consider kind of a night owl. Especially when Dan is off working graveyard shifts. I just can't, for the life of me, go to sleep at a decent time. Tonight though, I'm going to try!

Which is exactly why it is going to look like I'm posting twice in one day, but really, I posted once last night (around 2am) and once right now (at 10:30pm) and I live by the phrase that "It's not the next day until I go to sleep!" haha

And besides, I'm trying REALLY hard to keep up on the whole blogging front because I know how much you all hate love having to read my catch-up posts. So I gotta post! I gotta!

Today was a semi-lazy Saturday. I say 'semi-lazy' because while I did get a few things accomplished, I still didn't do all I probably should have.

Highlights included:

♥ Day #2 of my Jamberry Nails trial.
I'll admit... I wasn't that impressed on day #1, but they are much better the second day... kind of like soup! And now that I can see my regular nail polish start to chip while the Jams are holding strong... Love 'em!!

♥ Waking up to my hubby getting home from work and a text from my sister, Becca, announcing the arrival of their new little man, Lucas Knight Riddle!
Don't feel bad if you didn't even know she was in labor... neither did her own family! haha I was a little sad that I had no idea until the little guy made his appearance, but I'm glad mom and baby are doing ok and that my brother-in-law, Alex is taking good care of them. That's about all the information I have to share other than his stats: He came a week before due date (even though Steph and I teased she'd be a week late, like us) and weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 9 oz.! Welcome to the world, little Lucas! Isn't he beautiful?

♥ My sister-in-law, Laura, was awesome and came to sit with Aurora while she napped, so that I could go with Dan to work for the interior design lady again.
If you missed the last post, he helps her move furniture and decor for model homes in St. George. Today was a short day, but I got to look at one of the homes he helped with and OH. MY. HECK. I want to move in like yesterday! I told Dan that one day, one day, I'll decorate the inside of our home like that. It was beautiful. Both homes we had to run by were in spectacular areas of town; Entrada and The Ledges of St. George. And the sun setting on the cloudy skies was the cherry on top of a wonderful time with Dan. I mean, look at those clouds!

Oh, and p.s. Laura and Cody are pregnant!! They will have their baby sometime in August! It is the year of the new nieces and nephews, apparently!

♥ Seeing Aurora's face light up at seeing her dad and then watching her try to eat the peel off the orange was great too. I just really love my daughter, ok!? Could she get any cuter??

Girls Night Snapshots

Obviously, I need to do a girls night thing and invite my sisters more often because Erin's response to my question of "What are you doing tonight?" was, "Why? What do you need?" haha

Despite that sad fact, we had a grand time eating garlic bread pizza, playing Ticket to Ride, painting nails, and watching My Girl. Even Jack, Harlie, and Aurora joined in until bedtime!

Sisters from both my families = Lots of fun!

I'd Never Do That...

Tonight is one of those nights where I eat my words as I, once again, realize that something I said I'd never do as a parent when I was a non-parent, I now do as an actual parent.

You know... we all know those people who aren't parents who say things like "Oh, I'm never going to do that when I have kids!" Well, yup... that was me.

So here I sit, tonight at 11pm not going to do something because Aurora is asleep. 11pm is her bedtime.

Before I had kids and our friends with kids would say that they couldn't come to something because their kids had to be in bed, I'd say to Dan, "I'm never going to do that. I'm never going to say we can't come to something just because our kids 'have to be in bed'. Kids can sleep anywhere! We'll just bring them and they can sleep at our friends' houses or whatever."

Well, Dan gently reminded me of this comment when I said, as an actual parent, "Ya know, we're going to have to start limiting our late night hang outs with friends because Aurora is starting to get on a sleep schedule and needs to be in bed by 11pm." haha

I've since learned that kids do better when they have routines; sleep schedules (aka 'bedtime') included. AND I continue to learn new things as a parent every day.

So the question you may have then is: Are you sad that you can't have your late night hang outs anymore??

And to that, my answer is: Not really.

INSTEAD of going out, I've had the lovely opportunity tonight of rocking my sweet, beautiful baby girl to sleep. I got to put on a movie favorite of mine, What About Bob?, and enjoy eating an avocado with a spoon, straight from the shell. I've had time to blog and blogging is completely relaxing to me. AND I get to have a bit of "me time" where I just get to sit and do nothing but relax in my pjs while Aurora is sleeping and before Dan gets home. "Me time" is nice... AND, sometimes, needed.

Parenting is definitely rewarding! We love our wonderful, little babe!

And, besides, we had a full day today.

Dan had a doctor's appointment this morning. And had blood work done. Hopefully they can figure out what's wrong with his body. It's time for him to start feeling good again! What a blessing it would be for him to be rid of his aches, pains, and ailments!

After the doctor's appointment, I dropped Dan off at work and Aurora and I headed over to the horseshoe pits to watch Dad and Erin compete in the doubles tournament with their partners for the Utah Summer Games. We braved the high temps with Mom and Cole and had a good time. PLUS, Erin and her partner won the bronze medal for their bracket! I love that horseshoes is something we can all do as a family. We've loved attending league on Thursdays and Dan loves pitching! We're looking forward to other tournaments this summer that Dan can participate in, too.

Aurora and I continued the afternoon with Artic Circle burgers at my family's house and then going over to visit her daddy at work. I love how excited Dan is all the time to show off our daughter and carry her around. He's such a wonderful father to Aurora! I sure love him!

When we finished there, we drove over to our Aunt Amy and Uncle Trav's house for a little birthday cake and ice cream for Grandma Rigby's birthday. She ended up leaving early with Grandpa because she wasn't feeling well but it was sure fun to spend a small part of her special day with her! The longer I know her, the more I grow to love her. She is one amazing lady! AND spending some time with the cousins and Dan's mom and dad and Caleb was lots of fun! Yummy cake, delicious ice cream, juicy blueberries, and lots of laughs!

Pretty Darn Great

9 Things that made the last 2 days of our lives pretty darn great:

1--I started out my Sunday morning with a 1.5 mile walk from my house all the way to the cemetery. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the smells of summer/spring are in the air and I just loved it!

2--I went to church with my family yesterday because Erin was giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting on gratitude. She did great! I ended up staying for the whole meeting and I went to Sunday School and Relief Society with Collette since both our parents are in the nursery. I was so SO glad I went with her. In RS they covered a talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks called "The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood" from the April 2014 priesthood session. It's a great talk that helps us as men AND women to understand the priesthood a bit more. Needless to say, this talk was exactly what I needed. The topic has been on my mind lately and I was blessed to have the confirmation that my Heavenly Father knows me and knows what my needs are by having me be in that specific meeting to hear that specific talk at that time. Then I got to share what I had learned with Dan and we ended up having a good discussion about it. The gospel is so true!

3--Dan came to pick me up at my parents' house after church on Sunday and my mom and Erin were kind enough to watch Aurora for a little while so I could go with Dan over to his family's house to spend some time for Ryan's birthday. That was lots of fun! Cody, Jeremy, and Cody's friend, Carter Brown, were playing the guitar for us; we spent sometime outside flying a huge foam airplane, riding the mini-motorcycle around the yard, and swinging on the tire swing; we had a yummy frenchtoast dinner and lemon bars for birthday dessert; and just spent time as a family. I left around dark because they were about to start a fire in the backyard and I needed to get back to Aurora. Dan stayed for a bit longer and then I picked him up and we headed home. I missed him while he was having his brothers weekend activities so I was glad to have him home!

4--Our whole fam slept in this morning because Dan had the day off. Aurora slept in until 1pm! And even then we had to wake her up! haha That girl!

5--The rest of today was spent with my family to celebrate Memorial Day. Dan and I ran over to check the car wash (Sparkles) for our Uncle Trav while he's gone and then it was on to my family's house. We had the most delicious barbecue in the backyard complete with marinated steaks, dutch-oven potatoes, watermelon, and a summery salad then a jello-poke cake for dessert! It was hot hot hot outside so we mostly hung out under the canopies and laughed and talked until it was decided that we'd better go swimming...

6--Dan, Erin, Cole, Mom, Dad, and I took Aurora up to the Aquatic Center for her first ever swimming trip tonight! She loved it! The water was the perfect temperature and I'm pretty sure she could've just stayed in there for days. She cried when we left haha It was so fun to see how she reacted and it was great that my dad and mom were able to take some pictures for us! First time! Hello! Pictures were a must!

7--After swimming, we all met up at the cemetery to visit my Grandma Dorothella's grave. Alex and Becca met us over there too and my dad played the bagpipes for my grandma. It was such a beautiful moment to hear my dad playing them for her just as the sun was beginning to go down and everyone around was placing flowers for loved ones gone on.

8--To finish out the night, we headed back over to my parents' to play a little game of horseshoes. It was nice to just sit out in the backyard and enjoy everyone's company. And the weather was perfect! We even played fetch with Bec and Alex's dog, Tech! It was fun ...The only thing that made it not so nice was when a stray horseshoe bounced up off the cement behind the pits and smacked Becca straight in the face! Oweee! That poor girl! We'll be moving observation locations for next time... haha

9--When we got home, we all took showers to remove the remaining chlorine and then I fed Aurora while Dan played with my paints I'd left on the counter. When I walked by a couple of hours later, I noticed he had used his artistic skills to paint the ant bait I had on the counter. haha It's actually pretty good! Who knew ant bait could look so pretty!?

Saturday Saturday

Welp, Dan's gone tonight having an all-night bonfire with his brothers. So what did I do?? Well, I went on a walk to try out my new app called Runkeeper (Awesome!), hung out with my family, ate yummy steak and chicken fajitas that my mom made, baked up some brownies and then ate them, decided to apply for a teaching job for next year (Eeeee!!), came home and put Aurory to sleep, and painted myself a cute little lyric art piece inspired by A Beautiful Mess while watching Elf.

Yup. And it was great. Also, the weather was perfect during my walk and the smells of the outdoors were just...ahhh...heaven. I wish I could describe it!

Speaking of the great outdoors... last night we tried to watch the meteor shower that was supposed to happen, but it was overcast, so that didn't happen. BUT we did do a little fire out at my in-law's house in Enoch so Aurora got to experience her first fire. Which gave me the chance to dress her in this super cute, fleece winter-suit we got at her baby shower. Adorable!

Also, I present to you: Aurora's new trick! haha

Taking Stock

I should be sleeping. It's 4:10am. Buuuut... Aurora woke up to eat a little 3am snack and, so, here I sit.

I got distracted with some blog-stalking on my phone while feeding her and found this fun post from The Day Book and decided to join in on my own.

Plus, also, add in some photos from our day yesterday. We had a beautiful Sunday filled with church meetings complete with messages I know were meant for me specifically; an afternoon of marathon-Dominos-playing (Mexican Train style) with Dan's family and a little bit of book reading with two beautiful girlies sitting on my lap (Aurora and Harlie); an evening of seminary graduation for my sister Collette (still can't believe she's almost done with high school!); and a fun night full of giggles with my two favorites, Dan and Aurora.

Taking Stock//
Making: a memory in blog form with this quicky-spur-of-the-moment-late-night-feeding post
Cooking: nothing. Sadly. I'm hungry...
Drinking: water water water
Reading: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Young Adult Fiction is always, always the best!
Wanting: a trip to the swimming pool this week
Looking: at a computer screen when I should be sleeping
Playing: 2048. Completely addicting
Wasting: sleep
Wishing: for a pre-summer, summer vacation
Enjoying: my family
Waiting: for morning to come ONLY so that I can start a load of laundry. I'd do it now but our neighbor upstairs doesn't really appreciate our washer running all night... how rude of her. Late nights/middle of the nights are my get-crap-done time haha
Liking: the silly antics of my hubby and the way he makes me laugh ♥ 
Wondering: when we should start our garden
Loving: that Aurora now blows spit bubbles/buzzes her lips together. It's, basically, the cutest thing ever
Hoping: we all get to sleep in 
Marveling: at all the wonderful things & people I'm surrounded by
Needing: a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Smelling: absolutely nothing.
Wearing: black leggings. I need more of these things!
Following: my late night decisions
Noticing: that the ants who still live in my kitchen, never seem to sleep... or leave my house...
Knowing: that I'm in charge of my own happiness
Thinking: about what adventures will be had tomorrow. Dan's got a day off work!
Feeling: peaceful
Bookmarking: 30 day work out challenges (one day I'll get around to finishing the one I'm currently on haha) and DIY home decor ideas
Opening: my fridge. Always with the same results of nothing good inside. Sad.
Giggling: when I hear Aurora laugh. It is dang cute! You can't help but laugh with her!

Cabin Clean Up & Tornado Snow Storms

This weekend, my Grandma Barclay wanted us all to come up for a little cabin spring cleaning in Midway. She had a whole list of stuff to be done and my whole family was going up to join the rest of the Barclay crew in cleaning and fixing stuff up. Well, Dan had to work on Friday and Saturday nights and couldn't get it off, so he suggested that I take Aurora and go up on Friday and come home Saturday (actually, he first suggested that I leave Aurora here with him and I said, "Woah, no! If I go up there without her, I'll never hear the end of it! Too many people need to see her!" haha)

So, on Friday morning, I got my stuff together and before leaving, my mom and I went to say goodbye to my dear friend, Laura and her cute little boy, Kaden. They moved on Saturday to her parents' house in Layton and we are SO sad they had to go! We will miss those two immensely! Guess, we'll have to plan trips to visit and just keep in touch.

After the visit, Erin and I came home to get packed up in the car to go and the ants were at it again! ALL over my kitchen! ALL over my dishes! GAHHHHH!! So after quickly washing all the dishes and spraying the kitchen down with ant killer, we were finally on the road.

It was so fun to have Erin ride up there with me. We jammed out to the radio and to Disney songs on CD all while Aurora slept in the backseat AND we made funny faces at mom and dad as we passed each other back and forth on the freeway. haha Then we stopped to visit the Henrie's in Spanish Fork.

That was going great untilllllll.... Aurora barfed all over my Aunt Lisa! haha That poor lady took it like only a seasoned mother and loving aunt could.

But then it was back to good and all smiles as we chatted and my cousins, Nick and Alex, sang pirate songs to Aurora. We will be so sad to have them move to Elko! We have loved our spur of the moment visitings to Spanish Fork but will try to head that direction whenever possible!

We then left Spanish and headed up the Provo Canyon to meet up with Steph, Becca, and Alex and Mom, Dad, and Collette for a little pizza and movies at the cabin before the early wake up call for the cleaning to begin.

Poor Aurora continued her barfing at the cabin for most of the night and I was worried we'd have to head home in the morning because she just didn't feel good. Luckily, I had MY mom there to take care of THIS stressed and frustrated mom, and my dad there to tell me that it'd all be ok, because we made it through the night and even were able to stay for the clean up!

Aurora got to meet a few of my cousins and we got a lot done while having a good time catching up. It even got a little adventurous when my cousin, Courtney, lost her wedding ring down the sewer pipe while ripping up linoleum in the bathroom... but don't worry! She got it out! haha I can't wait to stay at the cabin this summer with Dan!

I left on Saturday night and I got home just before the most horrible snow storm hit! This morning it was a beast outside! About 10 inches of heavy, wet snow and TONS of mutilated trees. The poor things just couldn't handle the weight of their new leaves and the snow. Cedar looks like a tornado ran through it! We even made the news!

Oh! And P.S. I almost forgot! Dan found a dog in the car when he went to come home after work on Saturday night! I'm guessing it jumped in the window when it started to get rainy and snowy.

We put it in the kitchen with the baby gate up and gave it food and water. It was the best dog! No barking at all AND it even laid down on this little bed we made it on the floor to sleep! We were going to keep it and try to find it's owners through Facebook but it ran away when Dan let it out to go potty. Oh, well. Hopefully it made it home!