what I loved about today...

1. Freshly fallen snow

2. the smell of cookies baking in the oven

3. Mikaila taking a 3 hour nap

4. a clean house

5. time to scrapbook

6. an unexpected phone call from my mom

7. a warm bath

Snow Day!!

What a beautiful morning this has been. I love the trees after snow has just fallen, all covered in white. Takes my breath away!

This is a picture looking out my front door to the green area to my left. So pretty

The neighborhood kids sure had a fun day today, sledding down the hill! I was jealous I wanted to do it too! They go so fast!!

Mikaila was a little unsure of the snow, and she was not going to wear her gloves for nothing no matter how much I told her she needed them her little fingers would freeze. At least she kept the hat on...

I just have to say I wish I grew up in Oregon. I never had a snow day like this! Maybe because school was never cancelled. How lucky for Mikaila it snows 3 inches and school is closed that would have been great! Although living in my neighborhood I now know why. It is just not safe to drive around here. But I really do love waking up to fresh snow on the ground. It makes me miss Utah. But we had an exciting morning watching all the neighborhood kids sled down the hill.

Be careful!

So you may know the hill in my neighborhood is quite slippery when it snows and the children sledding down it, packing the snow, probably doesnt help much for those that try to venture from their house and drive down it.
Well today was no different then any other. It snowed and the children went sledding and yes cars, suvs, trucks made attempts to drive down the slick hill. Today while I was out with Mikaila playing in the snow here comes a Porsche Cayenne down the hill out of control. Sliding side ways down the steep hill until it slammed into the guard rail and then bounced off. The driver parked the suv and had to walk back up the hill to his house.
To the right are the skid marks from his suv from slamming into the guard rail and below...


The damage done to his car. It's hard to tell in this picure but the front panel has a huge dent by the tire with scratches along the passenger door and back door and the bumper detached from the body of the suv.

I felt really bad for my neighbor. It was really scary to watch. I was just glad nobody was hurt. But that's going to be a pricey fix. Just glad it wasn't me!

Guiltless Pleasure

This is a receipe I got from my friend Megan. I made these while I was visiting Utah. These cookies are super easy and delicious to boot! I made them for Mikael to see what he thought and he ate a dozen in one sitting. You definitely can't eat just one!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 box spice cake mix

1 large can pumpkin

1 bag of milk chocolate chips

Mix together, place on cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Makes 3 1/2 dozen

Each cookie contains approx. 92 calories and 3 grams of fat. Not too shappy if eaten in moderation!

That's it. No oil, butter or eggs. I think these cookies are even better after they've cooled. Hope you enjoy!

It's that time of year...again!

So I've been thinking long and hard this year about my New Year's Resolutions. Mine never start on January 1st. Usually because some kind of eating healthy or working out resolution is involved and my birthday is the 6th and I know I'll be eating cake then there are the leftovers and I'm way to tired after the holidays to be going to the gym. So sometime around mid January no later then February do I really take them serious. I'm not sure why I make New Year's Resolutions in the first place. But just like my Dream board I like making a list and being able to mark things off as I get them accomplished. So here it goes...

1. Of course this is always a priority and something that definitely needs improvement. My eating and exercising habits, which honestly haven't been very good in the past few months. Blame it on the holidays, stress, whatever. So making better food choices (Mahina maybe you can give me some of your will-power) and exercising more or at least at all, 3 days a week that is my goal!!

2. Spending more one on one time with my husband. During Christmas we went to see National Treasurer by ourselves, no baby attached. Wonderful!! We haven't done that since I was pregnant over 15 months ago!! So this area is in major need of improvement!!!

3. Finding time for...ME! That's right, I would like a little me time every once in awhile. The last 15 months have consisted of Mikaila and Mikael but no Mandy. So a little self soul searching needs to happen (maybe I'll find my fitness again in the search)

4. Compete in a mini triathlon. I am going to sign up for one in June so I better get training (Bridget, Mahina, Rachael anyone... please I may need your help with this one...swimming tips or a partner at the gym would be great!)

5. Getting Pregnant! Okay I know how to get pregnant but I don't want to until after my triathlon. But this summer would be perfect!

6. Making it to church would be a nice start but I want to be there for the entire 3 hours. So hopefully now that it's at 1pm you will see me there! Although that is right in the middle of Mikaila's nap...again! Oh well, it's only one day a week.

Honestly, I think I could go on forever. There are so many areas in my life that I think need improvement. But I'll just stop there before I get to out of control I'll never live up to my list. Good Luck to everyone who makes New Year's Resolutions!!

Happy Birthday 2 me!

A friend asked me the other night how old I am turning... I told her 24. Oh really she says
I didnt realize you were that young. Ok I'm 24 + 4.
January 6th was my birthday and I turned 28

When people find out my birthday is two weeks after christmas they assume it must have sucked for me as a kid. But honestly my parents always made my birthday better than Christmas. My birthday would last for weeks. First I'd have my family birthday party, then one with my friends from school and then one with the neighborhood kids. It was wonderful. I've always loved my birthday. In fact, my mom warned Mikael when we first met to be prepared for January because my birthday is never ending.

Well times they are a changing, Mikael was in a seminar this past weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday all day long. He kept telling me to wait until Monday that he was going to do something BIG that was the day we were going to celebrate my birthday. Needless to say Monday rolled around and no Big Surprise, NOTHING, ZILTCH!!! Oh well, I should've known. It's always worse when someone builds up that there is going to be something BIG then they do nothing. Even worse when its your spouse. So YES, my husband is in the doghouse. And I went shopping today to make up for my hurt feelings, and believe me I feel much better now!

Oh what a night!

So I have been home from Christmas in Utah for a week now and for some reason I cant seem to want to blog about the holidays. Is this normal? Every time I get on the computer to blog about what a wonderful Christmas we had...nothing. I stare at a blank page for minutes before deciding to move on to reading everyones blogs. Yes, we had a great time and no, nothing bad happened I just haven't wanted to talk about it.

So instead I wanted to share what a fun night Mikaila and I had. Mikael is at a seminar for the next three days from 9 am-10 pm so its just baby and me. I was giving myself my weekly pedi and thought it would be fun to paint Mikaila's toes. She was so excited!! For her to stand there and let me paint them was very hard for her but she is so proud of her newly painted toes and really so am I