Traditions

I love figuring out new traditions to make with my own little family. I definitely found one for General Conference on Sunday morning.

My sis-in-law (SIL) Dana was telling me about how often she goes to my friend Hannah's blog and tries out her recipes. She was telling me about all the yummy ones she has tried, including the sticky bun breakfast ring and told me I had to try it. So I decided this morning was the best time to make them while I had the LDS General Conference playing in the background.

Let me just say WOW! Delicious! The syrup and brown sugar caramelized while baking, making them so gooey and so so good!

My Aubri said while eating her sticky bun, "these are so yummy mom!"

If you haven't already, you need to check out my beautiful and talented friend Hannah's blog! I have her button on my side bar as well. Its called: All Things Delicious (you can snag a button for yourself from her blog as well). I also love to go to her blog to get ideas for planning dinners for the week.

**If you aren't on Pinterest yet, please let me know and I'll send you an invite. If you are on Pinterest, you can follow me HERE.

Here is the recipe with my results in pictures: (hopefully it tempts you to try it!)

Sticky Bun Breakfast Ring

2 small tubes refrigerator buttermilk biscuits OR 1 tube Pillsbury Grands buttermilk biscuits 

3 Tbsp. butter, melted

1/2 C. pancake syrup (any brand you like, I used Mrs. Buttersworth)

1/3 C. packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 C. chopped pecans, optional

1/4 C. chopped almonds, optional

Instructions:

Spray a fluted pan with non-stick spray. Combine the melted butter and syrup in a small bowl and set aside. In another bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts (if desired). Place about half of the syrup mixture in the bottom of the pan. Then sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture on top. Lay the biscuits on the bottom of the pan, overlapping edges (closely together) to form a ring. Top with remaining syrup and sugar mixtures. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 1 minute in the pan, then invert onto a serving platter and enjoy!

** I ended up using 1 1/2 tubes of the Pillsbury Grands buttermilk biscuits (1 tube didn't seem like enough) and baked it for about 30 minutes. It needed a bit longer to bake since I used more.

**Stay tuned for an awesome post about play dough! 

Siblings

I'm sure, by looking at this photo, you're guessing that my post is about lovey stuff. It's not. In fact, its about lying/telling little fibs. It starts really small with kids. Like when Aubri told me during a dinner that her tummy hurt, right after she told me that she did not like what we were having. She didn't get away with that little fib, so I'm not quite sure why she thought she could get away with the fib she told me yesterday.

It all started when I was in my room working on laundry and the kids were running around playing in the living room with the dog. I then hear Timmy burst out crying and Aubri telling him, "shh shh, its ok Tiger, its ok."

Meanwhile, he is running towards me with his fingers out to me crying his head off. I asked Aubs what happened and she first said, "someone bite him mommy." Looking at me like she's hoping I don't figure it out.

Me: "WHO, bit him Aubri?"

Aubri: "um, HE bite him."

Me: "Aubri, you're going to be in timeout if you don't tell me the truth. WHO bit Tiger?"

Aubs: "um, um, I think it was MJ (our dog)."

Me: "I don't think MJ bit Tiger, I think someone else did and I need you to tell me the truth."

Aubs: "I don't know."

Me: "Ok, go to timeout."

Aubri then proceeds to go to her timeout spot, screaming about not wanting to be there.  I made her sit it out for a couple of minutes before I went to talk to her. I told her it was so much better to tell the truth and say you're sorry, then it is to tell a lie and get caught. With tears streaming down her face, I felt she was most likely going to tell me the truth this time, so I asked her... "Who bit Tiger?"

Aubri: "I bite Tigers finger mom."

Me: "I'm very proud of you for telling me the truth. Now you need to go say you're sorry to Tiger for biting his finger."

She ran over to Timmy and told him she was sorry and he immediately leaned down from his chair to give her a big open mouth smooch. It was so cute! He leaned down about 3 times to smooch his sis and thankfully I keep my camera in a good spot where I could grab a shot really fast and hence the picture above. It was a moment to remember. My daughter trying to get away with her first "real" lie and then how sweet they were to each other afterwards. I love my kids!

Lesson learned. My kiddos do play pretty good together. Aubri is always watching out for her brother and lets me know if he grabs something or does something that is dangerous... cause he's a boy and thats what boys do.

Home Owners Again!

I am so excited to announce, after 4 years of moving moving moving, that we are official home owners again! Yahoo! We are saying goodbye to our old Gypsy ways and have planted our roots in Auburn, WA. We bought a split level home and the big selling feature for me was the huge kitchen and double ovens.  Oh, and the view can't be beat either. The kids have been running around non stop in it with all the space. It's our first home with the kids. It's been so great so far and such a blessing for our family. 

We spent 3 long months waiting to get into the home. It was a grueling process to go thru... wouldn't recommend foreclosures to anyone unless the home is really worth it. We felt like this home was. We also never bought a foreclosure before so it was a definite learning process. Oh, and make sure you have a great realtor that will bend over backwards for you and not one that only txt and sends emails. ;) We'll never be using Century21 again... EVER! Whew! Glad I got that off my chest. 

I felt spoiled waking up our first morning to this sunrise off our back porch...

Here's a pic of us hanging out in the back. Not the best picture of all of us, but our first real photo together at the house, so I love it.

... and Aubs and Daddy jumping for joy. lol!

My Progeny #2

My little Timothy Tiger! I love this boy! He is at the 1 year old age where he gets into EVERYTHING! Its so much work to keep track of his messes, but I sure love him to pieces! He is super super tender hearted. You tell him no or scold him in any way, he will break down crying like his heart got broken into a million pieces. He loves to give super wet, slobbery, open mouth smooches. I love them! He's starting to favor his Daddy and follow him where ever he goes, but I'm pretty sure he's still a super mamas boy. At least I can still be the only one that makes everything better. :)  He tries to do everything his sister does and he now will fight for a toy instead of just letting Aubri come up and snatch it. We're constantly working on sharing in our house. ;)

*Just had to share a little about my two favorite little people before they grow and change on me again.

My Progeny

I can't get over how beautiful and grown up my little 3 year old looks in this picture. Sometimes I wish I could freeze time... it goes too fast. My Aubri is full of life. She can make friends where ever she goes and tends to be the leader of the pack. I love to sit back and watch her interact. It reminds me of myself when I was a kid.

Another thing I love about my girl is she really LOVES being in primary. I took her potty when we were in Costco the other day and she was singing all the way, as loud as she could, "I love Jesus Christ! He is my Father!" I immediately shushed her and corrected her that Heavenly Father was our Father in Heaven and Jesus is our brother in Heaven (so confusing for a 3 yr. old). But she didn't care and kept singing it. It was so innocent and so sweet. We love her!

*I got my craft on and made a couple of cute frames for Aubri and Timmy's new rooms. I'll post the final frames tomorrow. Super happy with how they turned out & that I still have the crafty touch.

Summer Lovin'

Last week my sis-in-law Lurlyn and I took our kiddos to the Clark County Fair. I think I want to start making this a tradition every year because the kids have so much fun! All the animals are fun to look at and they loved the rides. It's so expensive though... ugh. Why does everything have to cost so much? Especially when you want to do something fun with your family. One of the fair workers was trying to entice you to come play their games by saying, "only $3.50, that's cheaper than gas."

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves on the fun factor. Beware, it's a picture overload. Always hard for me to choose just some when they are all my favorites. ;)

p.s. I wish I could have a fair in my backyard for my future photography business. I love the backdrop of bright colors and smiling faces.

Ok... here we go. First we started off looking at the sheep, the chickens/roosters, and bunnies. There were some crazy cool chickens! Who knew. Quiz: one of the chickens wanted to peck my eye out and one of them are called "show girls". Can you guess which ones? 

Now we are on to the goat exhibit. This one was the most fun for the kids because goats like to be pet. They even poke their heads through the wire for more. My little Timmy especially loved this exhibit. I loved the 2 pics of Aubs below... isn't she growing up too fast?!!! :'(

Warning: we are onto the reptile exhibit. Not for the faint. (you probably saw the snake pic before you saw my warning... sorry. It was a cool pic. I had to include it.)  The kids loved this exhibit. I think we spent the most time here. They also had a baby skunk, a baby tiger, and a crocodile. Ooooh!



I love this pic below of all four kids.


This year they had a bird show on a pirate ship. It was actually pretty cool. The guy mostly talked about the birds to educate people not to buy them unless they know exactly what they are getting into. The little kids sat thru the first part and then we had to go... too many ants in the pants. I thought it was cool that he trained his birds to collect dollar bills from the audience and then they delivered it to the dish on the stage. Impressive.




On to the rides. Lurlyn started off giving her little Sophie a pony ride. Isn't she cute?!


So Timmy and Sophie were too small to ride the kid rides this year but the guy that ran the cars let them on. They loved it! If you notice in the pics all of Timmy's expressions. Yeah... he loved it so much that when it was time to get off, he threw a huge fit and clawed my face and pulled out a chunk of my hair. He wanted back on really bad.







The train ride. Also a favorite.


And the airplane. An adult had to ride with them... sorry Lur. She doesn't do too good going round and round in circles but she sure looks good. ;)

Burning Something...

The kids and I made it to Washington just in time for the 4th of July with the Hubby! We missed him too much!

We had a great weekend visiting with Dana and her family in Yelm and then down to Battleground where we did fireworks with Lurlyn & Leif and the kiddos! I love when all the kids get to play together! They get along and don't get along perfectly. I love it!

We went to a block party of one of Lurlyn's friends. It was really cool. All the adults were hanging out in their lawn chairs, meanwhile all the kids were running around sharing sparklers. When it got dark enough, the adults let off the grown up fireworks. I don't mind sitting around watching other people burn their money. ;)

I got some great pics of the kids enjoying themselves!

Tiger loved the sparklers... so much so, he grabbed his cousin Sophies. :'( Poor little man... it hurt for a second but then he wanted to grab them again. All boy.

This is Aubri's cousin Leify. aka her best buddy. aka my boyfriend. Funny story... I was standing in the street watching all the kiddos with their sparklers and Leify comes up to me, wraps his arm around my leg and says, "mommy, I want to burn something!" I got a huge laugh out of that and proceeded to let Lurlyn know she might have a pyromaniac on her hands. ;) Lol!

This is Aubs letting off a Roman Candle with her dad. She loved it and normally she isn't very brave to do things like that. She begged to do more.

This is sweet Sophie! She is a pure doll and spit fire wrapped up all in one. I love her. She calls me mama Cole. :)

Picture overload after the sun went down. I couldn't just choose a couple. I like them all, so I'm sharing them with you.