You gotta watch this

Taylor saw this on Yahoo news and we both were amazed. This woman will blow you away. Copy and paste the following address in your web browser.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92464?fp=1

Lesson Learned

Last night after dinner we told the kids we would take them out to McDonalds for ice cream. They played at the play place and then we came home. Taylor and I went to bed and I woke up at midnight and wondered where is my cell phone. I remembered I left my purse under the table at McDonalds. I stared panicking. I ran downstairs and called and someone answered and said someone turned it in about 9:30. The store managers verified in front of their cameras that there was no cash in it. I had $20 bucks in my wallet. So the person stole the money and then decided to be nice and turn it in. At least it was not a lot of money. I tried to go back to bed but just kept thinking about my credit cards. I tossed and turned for about an hour. I finally fell asleep and the kids woke up at 6:00 am so we went and picked it up. All my credit cards and license was still there. Oh, and luckily my cell phone was still in my purse. I have only had this one for about 6 months. We just wonder if the person wrote any of my information down. So I will be more careful of where I set my purse and make sure I don't walk away from my grocery cart at the store.

American Idol!

My brother-in-law, Chase, signed up for tickets to American Idol a year ago. They told him he had 4 tickets available for Tuesday, April 7th. He was going to be out of town so he gave them to me. Isn't he so nice! So yesterday we left Yucaipa at 10:30 a.m. with my friend Jenni, her daughter and her friends daughter. They are huge fans of the show. And of course, so am I. We drove down to Chase's work to pick up the tickets and got there about 11:30. He works in Orange. From there we proceeded to Hollywood. We had to be in line no later than 1:15 p.m. It took us 2 hours just to get to Hollywood which put us arriving at 1:45. We were so sure we wouldn't get in to see the show. We were so bumbed. We found some people waiting to see if there was anymore room in the audience. While in line I saw Derek Huff from Dancing with the Stars pulling into CBS televison city. So cool. He drives a black Audi. About 20 minutes later the producer came out and said come this way. I was like no way. We start to walk up the stairs into the American Idol theatre. The experience was so unreal. Surprisingly, it is very small. The cameras make it look so much bigger. We actaully went to the dress rehearsal part, not the live performance. But it was pretty much the same. All the idols came out and sang and even Ryan Seacrest was there. He was standing like 3 feet from us. It was so cool. All the idols sang so good, even though the judges didn't think so that night. They had pretend Judges filling in. The pretend Simon looked for real. They all immitated Simon, Paula, Cara, and Randy extremely well. My friends daughter and her friend got to be up in the maush pit. They touched Danny Gokey and Chris Allen. They were so excited. I thought Adam Lambert did so good and Matt Gurad too. Also Sinbad was sitting across the aisle too. It was really cool. We had such a great time too. I am sorry I don't have any pictures. They wouldn't allow cell phones or cameras. They wouldn't even let us take pictures outside of the building either. So Dumb! We did get some pics with a cell phone of my friends daughters, friend. I will hopefully get those soon. Thanks Chase for the tickets. It was a great day.

Friends!

These are the girls I went swimming with yesterday, Jenni and Liana. The other picture is of Preston helping himself to Jenni's chips.

Palm Springs!

We went to Palm Springs yesterday with a friend to go swimming. We left our house and it was breezy and a little chilly. But in Palm Springs it was great. The water wasn't too cold either. The kids had so much fun and Callie got more brave in the pool as the day went on. She even went under water. They didn't want to leave. We were all very tired at the end of the day.

All dressed up!

Corona Del Mar

We went with some friends to Corona Del Mar beach on Saturday. It was such a nice beach. We haven't been impressed with some of the beaches we have been too. We left at 9:30 and got home at 7:30. We roasted some hot dogs and cooked some burgers on this ring Taylor made. It was very creative. We even heated up some pizza. Our friends said they have never seen that done. It was very funny. You had to be there. The water was extremely cold, 54 degrees. Yes, I am not kidding. Preston kept wanting to play in the water and wanted Taylor and I to go in with him. My feet felt like they had frostbite. After a while your feet go numb and you can't feel them anymore. Callie was in the water all day too. Kids are nuts. They don't notice hot or cold. It actually was a great day to be at the beach. It was about 75 or 80 outside. It was so neat we saw a few dolphins and sea lions. They were way close to the shore. I tried to take a picture but they would come up out of the water and dive back in before I could snap it. Callie and Preston had so much sand on them and in their bathing suits. It took a while to get it off. A trick is too rub baby powder after your dry all over your skin and the sand falls right off. It really works. We went to eat and this fun place called Islands. It was a fabulous day.

Pinewood Durby

Our ward had a Pinewood Durby party on Friday night. Taylor had me paint the car with the Texas Flag on it. Taylor still has that Texas pride. We won best design. Sorry some of the pictures are blurry for some reason.

Birthday party!

Callie went to a friends birthday party on Friday and Preston tagged along. They had so much playing in the sand pit and eating pizza and push pops. They got so messy eating them. I captured some cute pics and a friend sent me a few she took.

Smore's Galore

My mom gave me this recipe. It was so good. Taylor needed me to make enough for 50 people for a YM/YW activity last night. I used chocolate chips instead of Hershsey chocolate bars because they would have cost $16 for just the hershey bars.

Smore's Galore

20 graham crackers
6 hershey chocolate bars or 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 pkg. small marshmellows
6 tbs. butter
3 tbs. milk

Preheat oven to 350. Lay 12 long graham crackers and fill cookie sheet. Fill any holes with small pieces of graham crackers. Toast for 2 minutes in oven. Let cool. In bowl combine 3 cups marshmellows, 3 tbs butter, and 3 tbs milk. Melt in microwave for 1 minute. Stir and add chocolate. Wisk really good. Spread mixture onto graham crackers.

In another bowl break up rest of the 20 graham crackers into small pieces (size of a quarter or nickel). Melt 3 tbs. butter in microwave. Pour over graham crackers and stir with your hands. Add the rest of the bag of marshmellows. Spread over chocolate mixture. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups choc. chips over top. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. cut with a pizza cutter. Enjoy.

Venice Beach

We decided to go to Venice beach too. The kids had fun playing in the sand. It was a cold day to play at the beach though.

Hollywood with Britney and Andy

We decided to take Britney and Andy to Hollywood. It really isn't very exciting but Britney had never been. This is us in front of Kodak Theatre where American Idol is performed. Man would I love to get tickets and go. We walked around the mall that surrounds Kodak Theatre. It was fun. We went to the stars of Fame and saw some interesting characters like a pudgy Batman, Superman, Captain Jack Sparrow and many others. Callie closed her eyes a lot. Some of them were creepy.

Cute baby goats

Britney comes to visit us in California!

Britney, Andy and Baylee drove out from Arkansas, a 24 our trip. I drove Britney up to Oak Glen and took some pictures of Callie and Baylee dressed alike. We are at a Apple farm. They had some goats and a lama. Their were even some cute baby goats.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting!

I received this recipe from my friend Summer. I had to make cupcakes for a Relief Society Birthday party and she suggested these. It was the best frosting I have ever had. They turned out really yummy. Thanks again Summer.

Red velvet cupcakes
1 pkg. Pillsbury German Chocolate cake mix with 1 cup pudding in the mix
*if you don't buy Pillsbury with pudding in the mix add 1(3.4 oz vanilla instant pudding)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 (1 oz. bottle red food coloring)
3 large eggs
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. Place cake mix, sour cream, water, oil, food coloring and eggs in mixing bowl. Blend for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides and beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Fold in the choc. chips. Fill cupcake liners with 1/3 cup batter (makes 24 cupcakes). Bake at 350 for 18-20 min. Remove and let cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

Brown sugar cream cheese frosting

1 1/2 cups softened butter (3 sticks)
8 oz. cream cheese softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
4-6 cups powdered sugar
cream butter and cream cheese together. Add brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Add 2 cups powdered sugar at a time. I used 6 cups powdered sugar.

To garnish grate chocolate on top or mini choc. chips. You can be more creative than I did.

gorgeous eyes

So silly!

Brother and Sister