visitors

My parents came for a visit and Elizabeth and her boys were in town, so we meet up at Costco for lunch. My kids were so excited to see their cousins. That Monson baby is such a chunker-I love it! I'm just sad that I didn't get a picture of him! And Marlee was so happy to see Josiah, she says his name a lot. Clayton asked if we could keep Josiah for awhile:)

We went with my parents to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We all looked like Mary Poppins with our umbrellas.




There's a book that visitors can write messages in...

...Clayton wrote this:

There are tons of cool rocks to see-love these blue colors:


Marlee put on the goggles by herself-never could have guessed:)


Marlee would look at the snakes and then turn around and yell snakes, every time she saw one.


Marlee and Grandma checking out the groundhogs:


I like the top of the Century Plant because it reminds me of one of my favorite vegetables-asparagus:




Marlee loved going down the stairs in the stroller:


The otter was awesome and it kept coming right to the window:





On the run as always:



Marlee saw the Bighorn sheep and kept yelling, "Sheep!"


She wasn't sure about this turtle-I think she thought it was real:



Taking a rest:


Clayton is such a good big brother:


It might be obvious that I like to take pictures of birds:



This must be a Porter duck because it is super flexible:


Love these bright flowers:

And this bright face:

Nesting:



Love these people:


On the way home Laun pointed out the moon-I love when you can see it during the day:
For dinner I made a mini Thanksgiving feast-I had to get that turkey out of our freezer, to make room for all that beef (Laun just butchered a cow). My boys enjoyed playing sequence with my mom tonight. And Marlee liked having two extra bodies around to read to her.

paleontologist's in the making

The kids had lots of fun digging in the backyard for "treasures" today. They found lots of rocks and are convinced that they will be future paleontologist's. They have made lots of predictions as to what their future careers will be. Some of Clayton's have been a scientist, an inventor, and anything involving insects and animals. Porter has wanted to be an astronaut, a police man, or the most recent-a garbage man. And Marlee...I think she just wants to be the Boss, wherever and whenever.


Porter balancing a shovel:



Clayton the digger:

We have a sink outside and this is where Porter washed off all of their findings:

Marlee makes the goofiest faces:


These boys are on a mission:
I am excited to see what these kiddos grow up to be...the sky is the limit!

Time for a change...

March 4th was my last day of babysitting the twins, Mark & Kevin. I have watched them for over a year now-time flies! I had them Monday-Friday, from 8am-2pm, on most weeks. I just felt that it was time for a change. It has been a blessing to babysit them though. It was great for Marlee to have some friends to hang out with and it helped us to bring in enough money to pay off our credit card (from school debt). I am looking forward to more time and energy for my family. I am also excited to be able to run errands during the day now, with only 1 child.

This table full of stuff is what left with the twins:
My house is starting to feel bigger already:)

Marlee, the 2 year old, successfull multitasker

Marlee has decided to show interest in using the potty again-yea! She went #2 for the first time & everyone told her what a big girl she was. She loves attention & candy, she gets both when she has success on the pot. I think she has more desire now because I have given her books to look at while she sits.
Marlee reading good ol' Dr. Seuss books^

peace out hop-hops...

We decided to sell our rabbits. Laun put them on craigslist today & they were sold before dinner time. Gotta love craigslist. Plus we only had 2 females left, which = no babies, boring.

We had Salt for over a year, she had lots of cute bunnies:

This rabbit is one of Salt's babies. It looks freaked out-maybe it's camera shy:

We sold the hutch with the rabbits.
When the guy drove off with the rabbits Marlee said "peace out!"

Fiber Chocolate Cupcakes

My sister Laura sent me this recipe she got-Fiber Chocolate Cupcakes. I had to make them for fhe last night (even though we had cupcakes for our last fhe treat) because they had a secret ingredient and I was anxious to see how they tasted. The secret ingredient is... black beans, really. They were very moist and no one could guess what was in them, so I just told them. You have to blend the beans in a blender and I added prickly pear juice (but you can use water)- you blend until it is the consistency of cake batter. This is a great substitute for oil and eggs. Sounds strange, but they turned out really good. I like to double the recipe so that I use a whole can of beans.

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Chocolate Fiber Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold water
1/2 can pureed black beans (Drain can and blend with tap/filtered water. Blend in a blender until it's the same consistency as the cupcake batter)
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle. Combine 1 cup cold water, pureed beans, vinegar, and vanilla in large glass measuring cup or medium bowl. Pour liquid ingredients into the hole in the dry ingredients (there will be some overflow). Using a whisk, stir until batter is smooth. Line cupcake pan with paper or foil liners. Fill cups 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and store at room temperature.) Frost with chocolate or vanilla frosting.
Makes 12 cupcakes. (*can be made in sheets, cook 15 min.)

Alternatives:

White Almond cake: omit the cocoa, sub. in for Great White Northern/Canillinni, and add 1 tsp. almond extract.

Spiced cake: Pinto/Canillinni, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. clove (opt.: coconut, pecans)

Sweet spiced: Pinot/Canillinni, 1/2 c. flaked coconut, 1 grated rine of lemon, 1 tsp. almond extract

Jess Bear

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caught red {green} handed

Last night I made red velvet cupcakes {with cinnamon cream cheese frosting} for our fhe treat. Well....they were suppose to be red velvet, but they ended up being forest green since I was out of red food coloring. Marlee obviously didn't want to wait until fhe to eat cupcakes-when I came into the kitchen this is what I found:


How could anyone get mad at her with a face that cute?

p.s. I found the recipe on the blog called Joy the Baker-yum!