Meanest Mommy in the World (tonight)

Do you know how long it takes for my 2 year old to go through every person he knows possibly on this earth? About 5 minutes. That is a lot of people he knows. Why am I telling you this? Because we found this on the wall tonight in two different spots;

...and when I asked Christopher who did it, he proceeded to tell me that dad did it, Bekah Hewlett (that is how he refers to her now) did it, Porter did it, Zach and Ryeleigh did it (yes they are in Utah still-but what talent to get crayon on the wall from there), 'friend' as they call the girl next door did it, grandma did it, and a whole long list of other names did it-if you are reading this, you very well may have been blamed for this crayon drawing. He stood in time-out after the first-dad did it-and stayed in time out until he ran out of people and finally said;

"Me did it mommy, sorry" with the biggest grin on his face you've ever seen.

The little stinker.

I made him clean the smaller of the two messes with a magic eraser (thank heaven for those things! I should buy stock in them!).He moaned and groaned the whole time, he couldn't scrub very hard, so it was taking quite a long time. It might have been a little strict and hard for a 2 year old to handle, but I was already at my wit's end with him for all the little fibs he was telling, and for not eating his dinner and spilling the whole bag of gold fish crackers on the living room carpet just minutes before discovering the crayon.

Chad came and helped him with the last little bit by pushing on his hands while he scrubbed, I think he really might think twice before doing it again though-he was miserable cleaning it up!

"You're mom goes to College"

No, not really, but their dad does.
Chad had his first day at OIT today!He wouldn't let me take a picture of him on the front doorstep, like I wanted, so I had to use his first day of kindergarten picture, (isn't he cuuuute?!?)...I did get a picture of him walking to the car though (still soooo cute!)......so here he walks with determination, eyes on the prize, mind ready to soak up the knowledge needed for his chosen path.

He has 4 classes this term-Math, Chemistry, Human Anatomy and Medical Imaging Intro.

All of them are super time consuming and intensive-so that means all sorts of time spent studying and on homework. On top of all that he is still working on his Bachelors from University of Phoenix-which already takes up a good portion of his week, and once his hand heals he is going to have to go back to work too.

So that means a whole lot of leaving him alone while he gets edu-macated-it's going to be all sorts of tough! It'll all be worth it in the end though right?

New News

So I can't believe in all the posts I did about our month long excursion in Utah that I didn't mention our new baby-not once. Not Porter, but our new car.

We are both so absolutely ecstatic with it-and that is sooo unusual for us.

It has everything both of us could want, for me; the leather, the captains chairs, 2 dvd players, and it's pretty. For Chad-it's a 3/4 ton, he got fancy gauges for it, he's planning on putting bigger tires on it and other stuff I don't get, plus he can do all sorts of 'manly' things-like tow and pull stuff with it.

It get's horrible gas mileage of course, but I think to be that happy with a vehicle, and to get such a great deal on it like we did, it's worth it to pay a little more at the pump.

Added bonus-it would take one heck of a deer to total out this bad boy!

Our other new thing is this trampoline that we got off Craigs list this week. We got a great price on it, since the lady was moving and just needed it out of her backyard so the house would show better. It has a safety net included that we still need to put up, so they shouldn't be able to get too hurt on it. They couldn't be more excited about it.

Cupcake Friday-Red Velvet

We are going to start a new weekly activity at our house called

"CuPcake Friday."

Let it roll off your tongue, and feel the warmth of it.

Bekah and Topher love helping me in the kitchen, so I thought it would be fun to do this each week and then share the love and the yumminess with you.

You're welcome.See how they help?

Today's recipe is one of my FAVORITE kinds of cupcakes-

ReD VELVeT

yield: about 24

• For this recipe you will need:
  2 1/2 c. All-purpose flour
  1 1/2 c. Sugar
  1 tsp. Baking Soda
  1 tsp. Salt
  1/2 c. Cocoa Powder
  1 1/2 c. Vegetable Oil
  1 c. Buttermilk
  2 lg. Eggs
  1 Tbsp. Red Food Coloring
  1 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
  2 tsp. Vanilla
  
• Directions:
  Preheat oven to 350
  Line muffin tins with cupcake paper-preferably the foil kind
  In a med. mixing bowl, sift together; flour, sugar, baking soda, salt & cocoa powder
  In a lg. mixing bowl beat or whip together well; oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar & vanilla. Add dry ingredients until smooth. Do not overwork batter or your cupcakes will be stiff.
  Divide batter into tins about 3/4 of the way full
  Bake at 22-25 minutes.
  Cool completely before frosting with delicious frosting below
  
• Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
  1 brick cream cheese
  1 stick of butter
  1 tsp. Vanilla
  2 c. sifted confectioners sugar
  Combine all ingredients and let chill at least 30 min. before frosting.

Frost. Eat. Enjoy. Thank me.

Cupcake Friday Legal Disclaimer: This Blogger holds no responsibility for any side effects that may occur from eating these cupcakes. Side effects may include, addictive behaviors, selfishness, and complete satisfaction. In case of accidental overdose larger hips, buttocks, belly or thighs may occur.

Enjoy at your own risk.

Recipe created by: Ana Cabrera, Thank you Ana.

Just When I Think...

...I am done blogging for the day, my kids come back from "helping" thier dad from picking up apples looking like this.

Maybe you need a closer look. Go on, take it. I guess they thought their time would be better spent rolling and bathing in dirt then picking up apples. We have a whole backyard full of grass to play on. They choose the small patch of dirt. Typical Kids!

Apples of my Eye

I know, I know cheesy title...I'm cheesy what can I say? But this is not about cheese. It is about apples.

Anywho-We have two apple trees in the backyard that are FULL of apples and the ground around them is constantly covered in them. The trees haven't been pruned or taken care of-so there are just way too many and they are way overgrown. We will be remedying that this year-but until then we are gathering up 1000's of apples and putting them on the side of our yard in this hole that is now very full, you would never have guessed there was a hole there to begin with. It takes hours, and the kids are so done with it. Chad and I try to bribe them with treats and even money-but they are done. Most of the burden ends up in Chad's hand-singular. We have saved a couple and they actually taste really good-there are just SO many, we aren't bothering looking for the good ones, just trying to get them off the lawn. Next year we should have a pretty good harvest though-and maybe we can do some canning and be like all of you canning fools out there.

This is just a quick little snapshot I took of my kidletts today on the way out to the backyard-I don't know if I ever really thought of this door much, it's just on the side of the garage-but it is really cool. I love my house and all the quirky little things I keep finding in and about it-lots of great places for taking pictures! I will have to remember this door...

Get a Room!

I could get a room with this cake, and I think I could show this cake a good time!
It is a yummy yummy cake that is just the right amount of sweet-you should make it. Really.
To make this cake you will need:

• A box of white cake mix (and everything you need to make that like oil and eggs)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can coconut milk
• About a cup of heavy whipping cream
• About a Tablespoon of white sugar

Directions:

• Make cake according to directions on box...
• Let cool, if you are impatient like me, about 10 minutes should suffice.
• Mix sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk together. Be careful not to cut your fingers (or tongue) on the sharp edges of the sweetened condensed milk can as you attempt to get every last drop out. That stuff is way too yummy!
• Poke holes in cake, I used the handle of a spoon-it worked great
• Pour delicious coconut mixture into the holes and salivate as you watch the cake soak it all up like a sponge

Got it so far? Yum huh?

• Make whip cream with the cream and sugar-spread on top of cake like frosting...but better.
• Cut, Eat, Sigh
  

You're welcome.

Mystery Solved

We have been a little crazy lately and have gotten out of the habit of our weekly "Discovering Oregon" trip. A reminder of what that is for us-when we lived in Utah we didn't really get out and do anything that Utah had to offer-you know the things people come to Utah for. For instance Chad has never been to Canyonlands or the Arches and I have never been to Lake Powell. Not once. I know..pathetic right?

Well when we moved to Oregon we promised ourselves we would not do that here. For the most part we haven't let that happen-we have seen and done so much while we have been here. We used to do something weekly, but it's been awhile.

Since we have been in Klamath Falls we have done a few cool things around here-Lake of the Woods, The Lava Caves and of course Crater Lake. We decided we need to get back on our weekly discovery trip.

So this week we 'Discovered Link River Trail.'

In 1867 Klamath Falls was settled at the Link River and named Linkville. It wasn't changed to Klamath Falls until 1893. It was named Klamath Falls after Klamath Lake and I believe that was named after an Indian tribe.

Since we have moved here, everyone that has never been here asks us if there are falls here. We hadn't seen any-just a lot of lakes, until today. There might be bigger falls somewhere down the river or somewhere else in town-but this is all we have seen. We found it pretty humorous that the town could be named after this water fall. So the big mystery has been solved!

Along the trail there were many berry bushes to pick yummy berries from.

It took a lot of convincing to get Bekah to try one-so much that I had to threaten her to take her back to the car if she wouldn't. She sobbed and sobbed until she finally tasted one and then we couldn't stop her from picking them....

Or the flowers.

We had no problem getting Topher to try the berries-and this is what his hands looked like after a few minutes-he also had them all over his face and legs and feet...I swear this kid can get so messy-so quick!There were also these orange wild plums, I think they were, that were OH SO GOOD! I want a tree of my very own. The kids probably ate 50 each. I'm sure I ate twice that!

Porter slept in the snuggly the whole way up until the last 2 minutes, so he had pretty perfect timing. He loves being in the snuggly or the sling.Me and the kids in front of the river. Such a fun walk-the kids can't wait to go back, and I'm excited to have something so fun so close!

Follow Me-Giveaway

If you want to be awesome, and I think you do,
Become a follower of this blog.
All ya gotta do is click on
Follow this blog.
You will be awesome.
Do it.
Tell your friends.
Go,
Live Awesomely.

Edit*** My Awesome friend Sara is doing a giveaway on her blog for her followers, and I thought I would do the same.
At the end of the month I will draw a name from the followers and send one Awesome person some of my scrapbookin stash.
I NEED to give some stuff away!

Holy Blog Posts Batman!

I am officially updated! I haven't blogged in about a month with everything that's been going on!
The following posts are very out of order, and there are so many I won't get offended if you just browse through the pictures!
Here's a brief synopsis of the order they should be in:
Chad took Topher to the lava caves
Scott, Suzanna, Connor, Tage, Ryken, Tess and Grandma Mona came to visit us in Oregon.
We went to Utah for Kaleo's funeral and got in an accident on the way.
Chad had to get surgery and we ended up staying in Utah for over 3 weeks.
I didn't blog about this, but on the way home to Klamath Falls, we went to Portland to spend my moms birthday with her, my other 2 sis's came too-so we were all together. Way fun!
Thanks for being so patient with me-MOM!
Have fun catching up!

Anyone seen RV?

Well grab a bowl of popcorn and settle in for a story not unlike that.

Scott and Suzanna, and Mona (Chad's sister and her husband, their 4 kids and Chad's mom) rented a motorhome to come visit us.
Sorry there are no pictures-you will have to use your imagination. It shouldn't be hard if you have seen the before mentioned movie.
It's about a 10 hour drive to our house from theirs.
First of all they were planning on leaving Monday morning-after everything was said and done they didn't get on the road till 5.
The fridge didn't work-they paid some guy $200 to fix it-kept going-still doesn't work.
Late Monday night get to Winemucca Nevada the armpit of America-park and go to sleep for the night.
Early Tuesday morning someone is banging on the door. It is a police officer asking them if they are aware they are parked right in front of a correctional institution. After a quick look for unwanted homicidal hitchhikers they were back on the road.
Oh yes, did I mention they brought no GPS, no Mapquest, no atlas, no nothing.
They call Chad who tells them to get on 95 and then turn left on highway 140.
They get on 95, we are expecting them by about noon.
At about noon we call them to see where they are-they are still on 95.
They were only supposed to be on 95 for 35 miles, instead they stayed on it for over 300. They missed the turn and are now clear near Ontario, Oregon.
Are you kidding me?
That motor home ain't cheap to fill with gas.
They get on 20 which means they are heading toward us again, we expect them by 7 pm.
We call them at about 5, they are still on 20.
Ooops missed the turn again to 395-they are now clear up by Bend.
At least they can'y say they didn't get to see much of Oregon.
They don't get to us until almost midnight.
2 whole days of their vacation shot.
Well it's got to get better right?
Wednesday morning.
What is that smell?
We need a dump station fast. The tank might have never been emptied. There is no hose. One more expense.
It's clogged and stuck-Scott beat the crap out of it...literally.
Luckily it all goes in the hole and not all over Chad and Scott.
Come back to our house-Something banging on the roof of the beast-the satellite is busted.
Chad and Scott on the roof. Christopher decides to take a look inside.
BANG!
What was that? It wasn't Topher and it wasn't the guys.
BANG! Again. What the???
Topher comes out and is standing on the step.
BOOM!
Topher goes flying off the step and water goes flowing from every corner of the motor home. The water tank had exploded. Topher is banged up and soaked and the force of the explosion broke the tile in the motor home.
Sweet.
Well what's done is done.
Let's pile in the thing and go to the Lake.
It's one of the hottest days of the summer-oh look the AC stopped working. WONDERFUL!
We get to the Lake of the Woods all is good until... See "Lake of the Frogs?" post below.
Thursday we are all worn out we take a day off. Tage, their second son has tubes in his ears and they are draining bad and Tage is in all sorts of pain-what's fun to do on vacation?
Spend 3 hours in an emergency room with a crying, sick 3 year old.
Friday we all decide to try out the motor home again and go to Crater Lake. Almost okay-see "Crater Lake" post below.
Saturday we decide to all go down the coast, play at the beach, maybe go to Astoria. Then we would go to Portland find a nice restaraunt and see some of the sites downtown and maybe the temple. Sounds like a perfect day right? See "Say Cheese" below.
They get home Sunday night, they unload on Monday.
Scott takes the motor home to the gas station to top the blasted thing off.
On the way out of the parking lot, it bottoms out.
The oil pan falls off.
Oil all over State street in Pleasant Grove, luckily it's the middle of the night and there aren't many cars on the road.
After a fight with the tow company and $200 later they come and tow it about a mile down the street.
Scott ends up paying for the oil pan.
Suzanna has to come pick him up, Scott is pretty sure he is having a stroke.
Luckily he wasn't, I would have.

Ummmm.....Ew!

Chad had to get surgery on his hand-he got it on Tuesday the day after the funeral. They put 5 pins in his thumb! We had to wait for 2 weeks after that for a follow up, so we ended up staying in Utah for 2 and a half more weeks. We went in for the follow up and they took off his splint-
his
hand
looks
like
a
corpse.
Eww!
There are pins sticking out in every which way and the skin was all shriveled around each pin and it stinks and seriously you might get a little light headed if you saw the pictures on my phone. I won't share them here-don't worry-just the x-rays! Chad got a little light headed himself and had to lay down on the table. He will have to keep the cast on for at least 4 more weeks and then a brace for 3 weeks more-then he can start taking that off when he isn't doing anything too strenuous. So he won't be working for awhile....or doing dishes....or changing diapers. So not cool.

SOOOO BIG!

Porter telling his bear who's boss!So we got home and first thing Monday morning I called the doctor to get Porter in. Luckily there was a cancellation!
It's been driving me crazy not knowing how big he is-everyone has been asking and I wanted to know even more. Last time we took him in was for his circ, and he hadn't gotten to his birth weight yet-almost but not quite. I knew he had grown but even I was surprised by how much he had! His weight as of Monday September 15 was 9 pounds 9 and 3/4 ounces! His height was 22 inches and 3/4. He really grew in the last month and a half! I am so glad-what a relief! The sad part was his shots that he had to start he had to get 5 and an oral vaccine! OUCH! Poor brave little baby!

And he shall be called...

Porter Samuel Hewlett. There was never a sweeter baby blessing. We had Porters blessing last minute at Scott and Suzanna's house. He smiled through the whole beautiful blessing. Chad gave it and seriously it was so good. Most of his uncles were there to stand in the circle and all of Chad's family was able to be there. It was so special to be able to have them all there for it.

He looked so cute in his clothes, even in his goofy hat that Suzanna and Mona insisted I took a picture of him in. We couldn't get a decent family pic-but whatever!

Roar!

While in Utah we went to Thanksgiving Points Dinosaur museum which is the largest dinosaur museum in North America-I didn't know that. It was really cool. The kids loved it and you could seriously spend all day there-IF you don't have five kids under five and three more one and under. Still even with that many little ones we did manage to kill a couple hours and only had one lost kid scare (Connor again- I swear that kid gets lost more than my sunglasses and that is saying something!).

There were lots of dinosaur bones, sand pits to brush for fossils, a sand and water table to make the dinosaur toys extinct-lots of hands on things-I have SO many pictures, I got tired of looking through them, so I don't even know if I got the best ones! We will definitely have to make another trip back to this place and probably soon!

Learning to Share

I thought it would be funny to see if Tuffy B's clothes fit Porter-they did, and it was funny.

Meet Tuffy B

While in Utah Chad was set on getting Topher a teddy bear, since all little boys need a bear. I was excited because that meant I could convince him to make another trip to Build A Bear. I love that place! So Tuffy B was created, B for short. Topher was a little sick when we went here, so that's why he looks a little drowsy(all the kids got a fever at least once while we were in Utah, not to mention Bekah got a cough and Topher got a runny nose). He had so much fun and that bear has barely left his side since he got it. Welcome to the family Tuffy B!