Chocolate Chip Cake

Karlee and I made a cake today. I love cakes. I especially love this cake, when it is warm with a glass of milk. I got this recipe from my Aunt Elizabeth, she made it for us when Alycia, Kelsie and I went to visit her in August of 2005 in Colorado. Here Karlee is posing with the HOT cake as it had just come out of the oven.

Chocolate Chip Cake

1 chocolate fudge cake mix

1 (3.5 oz) chocolate fudge instant pudding

1 cup chopped nuts (I don't usually use the nuts)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup vanilla chips

Empty cake mix into large bowl. Mix in 1/3 cup vegetable oil and 2 eggs. Empty pudding into a small bowl. Add 2 cups milk to pudding to set up for 10 min. Blend pudding into mix in large bowl. Spread mixture in well sprayed 9x13 pan. Top mixture evenly with chips and nuts.

Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve Warm.

T of Thee

March 30, 2011

Karlee age 2

Karlee started singing this song today.

So funny.

Karlee's Krack-ups

Tonight After we got done playing a card game as a family, all the kids left except for Karlee who was trying to write her name on a stack of papers that we had use to tally our scores. And this conversation came about from Kyle and Karlee, it had Kyle and I laughing so hard at the end:

Kyle: "Karlee you are smart."

Karlee: "Yeah, cuz I have a computer."

Kyle: "Is it your brain?"

Karlee: "No (pointing to her head) it's in my head."

Kyle: "Where did you get it?"

Karlee: (as serious as she can be) "Santa gave it to me."

She is so funny she was scared to death of Santa at Christmas time, but since then she talks about him all the time. Maybe she is trying to gear herself up for next year.

As the kids were getting ready for bed. Kelsie picked out hers pj's, and then Karlee ran grabbed the same outfit. Karlee loves to do what ever Kelsie does.

Here they are brushing their teeth together.

Over The Hill To...

NEWPORT

We have lived in Corvallis now for seven months. Knowing that we are an hour closer to the beach then when we live in Portland area. We have wanted to go-but we never had the funds to go. One of Kyle's co-workers at the hospital gave him a pass for all of us to go to all three Undersea Gardens/Ripley's Believe or Not/The Wax Works attractions. It is the Saturday into Spring Break, we decided to go. (Kyle and I went to this same thing a little over 12 years ago on our honeymoon. I can say that it has gotten better with time.)

We told the kids that we were going on a adventure today, where they have never been. We loaded ourselves and all the snack food I could find in the house, (it was a last minute idea the night before.) Our warm coats, just in case we found a beach to go walk on. And headed on our way. Within an hour and over a very small summit (700 feet) we made it to Newport.

The kids burst out of the car once it was put in park, but complained of sea legs. I thought that was funny since we were headed over to the Undersea Gardens and they didn't know that they would need their sea legs. We showed our passes and were allowed to go ten feet below the sea. It was dark down there, the only light was from a black light that made you light up and the glow from the light streaming down the stairwell from upstairs. We were able to look out the windows showing the different sea creatures native to the Newport Coast. Giant fish that were the length of Kelsie, 2 Octopuses, and many more. There was a scuba driver name Zach that showed us all the the underwater creatures. The kids all enjoyed it.

We then went back up, and out onto the dock and look down to see the sea lions. I would say they were sun bathing but there really wasn't much sun out. It looked as though one was even shivering, don't blame him I wouldn't want to be in that cold water either. There was three big one and looked like a baby sea lion hanging out on the dock. The kids were amazed that they were seeing them that close and got a kick out of the sea lions talking to each other.

As the rain started to come, we crossed the street and headed to The Wax Works. The lights were dim so that you would think they were the real people. Kallie was not sure of this place at all, half the time she had her hand covering her eyes- the other half buried into my coat. She is not one for the unknown, Kelsie on the other hand is. She loved this place and could not get enough of it. Jaron and Karlee were on the fence about it. We saw the bad/good guys, MASH, D.W. Cooper (or did we?), pirates, Johnny Depp, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and many more. There was an American Idol stage set up where you could sing for Randy, Jen, and Steven with Ryan MC the show. Jaron and Kelsie broke into song for that with Karlee playing on the piano. You had to walk through a tunnel that was spinning like Indian Jones- Kelsie had a hard time with this one. once she walked she grab the pole and just couldn't move. I had to pick her up and carry her through it was kind of trippy. We made it through and exited into a gift shop where Karlee found a dinosaur to growl at me.

After we let the kids catch there breath we headed into Ripley's Believe It or Not. Kallie was not wanting to go in this one. I finally talked her into it saying that it was just a museum of things might or might not done. She was okay with that and came in with her eyes open this time. I kind of wish that they would of had the lights up a little brighter so you see a little better ( I think they are saving a ton on their electric bill.) They had a lot of cool displays. A harp where they were invisible, Egyptian maze, lighted dance room, and many more. Kyle really liked this one where it was a two way mirror but one side didn't know it and you could freak the people out on the other side (because you got freak out when you were on the other side :0) ). There was one room where it looked like it was full of stars and that you were out in space. All the kid loved it except Karlee who just kind of froze in the middle of the room like she was stuck in "space". I picked her up and carried her out. But afterwards I was thinking about, and it must of freaked her out because she doesn't even like stepping over the gap between the elevator and the floor and here she is in a room full of that gap. Crazy. We made our way through and came out into the same gift shop as the wax works. Funny huh- took us a minute to figure that out.

We then made our way back to the car dashing in and out of the rain drops. Drove around town and showed the kids where we stayed on our honeymoon. Tried to see a Light house didn't make it there. We continue to drive hoping to find a beach. But we didn't get down to one, the tide was really in. This is the closest we got to the Ocean.

We had a FUN family day trip.

Spring Break 2011

Spring has Sprung

Look what Karlee and I found on our walk today.

I LOVE all colors that come back in the spring.

Sunday Twins

When Jaron was getting dressed for church we decided not to have him wear his suit, (he has worn it every Sunday since he got baptized). He wore his Khakis and white shirt instead. Kyle said that he wanted to be twins with Jaron, he wore the same. Then they went on a search of matching ties. They were going to wear the red ones from Alycia's wedding, but Jaron's is a little short. They looked in Kyle's closet and found two dragon ties that Emily and Scotty had sent him from Japan. Jaron said something sweet about remembering, praying, and thinking of the people who live Japan effected by the earthquake and tsunami. And tying it to the ties. But I can't remember what he said.

Father and Son

Jaron was so funny, Kyle had a belt on and so Jaron wanted one too. He doesn't have any, I ran and grab one of mine. Put it on him and it wrapped around him twice-so we just used it for the pictures. He wanted to wear it to church too-he is funny.

Kelsie actually let me curl her hair and put it up (doesn't happen that often).

I thought she looked so sweet in her whole outfit.

The others girls also let me curl their hair and a picture.

You could a say this is a spaced out family picture.

It was a beautiful sunny, warm Sunday when we left for church, but while we were in church a storm blew in. It made a mess of things on the way home and the rest of the night.

Story of One Boy's Car

Saturday was Jaron's first pine wood derby, what a ride. Let me tell you a little bit about the making of this car. Jaron received the pine wood derby kit for Christmas from his den leader. It sat for a time waiting to get made. Around Valentine's Day Kyle took it up to Portland and had his brother help cut it into a shape. It came back looking like this:

I thought it was very nice looking and very smooth. Kyle wanted to get it even more smoother. (Make it go faster?) Kyle got it wet and then stuck it in the microwave to get the fibers to stand up. So when he sands it- it will be really smooth. He took it out of the microwave and the car was smokin, and kept smokin. We then dunked it water for a while to make sure it wouldn't smoke any more. I thought they should of painted it red with red flames, because it was on FIRE. :0)

Jaron didn't go for that, he wanted it to look like Bumblebee from Transformers. He painted it yellow with two black stripes. He put the number 28 on the car. The 2 because 21 is Kyle's number and he did the car with Jaron. The 8 is Jaron chose for his age right now.

Kyle and Jaron took the car to the race and had it weighed, it was under so they hot glued weights on the back. In the picture below the yellow car is Jaron's during a race.

"Bumble Bee 28"

I was very surprised by how high tech this track was. There was a levy thing that made it so they all left at the same time (out of the starting gate). Then at the end it told you what car made it in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th place. Each time the cars went the whole gym was quite. It was a very serious thing. I think all the boys did a great job on their cars. They all looked so different-especially from the block they started out as.

Here are all the racers with their cars.

And here are the winners of the derby.

There are 3 winner per troop, (2 troops raced together today)

Jaron won 3rd place.

Here he is with his car. Way to go Jaron!

Here is one of the races of Jaron's car, his car came in first.

I love how he reacts at the end of the video.

Lunchroom with Ma2

Today my mom came down for a visit. So good to see her. She wasn't going to be here when the kids got home from school so we went and had lunch with all 3 of them.

This is our walk over to the school, bringing lunches for everyone.

First we had lunch with Kelsie, she was so excited to see Ma2 (all the kids were excited) she just kept giving her hugs to Ma2 all through lunch. I bet she talked about it all morning long too. She likes to share her good news with everyone. Ma2 even got to meet Kelsie's teacher.

Jaron's class came late to lunch, but finally made it. He was excited to have us there too, almost so excited that he was forgetting to eat his lunch.

Kallie came while we were still eating with Jaron. It was a Party! All the kids were excited and wanted to show Ma2 off to all their friends. After lunch with Kallie, we walked around to show Ma2 all of their classes. Thank you Ma2 for coming and visiting us. We love you!!!

Baker in the Making

When I was younger for Christmas I remember getting a lot of these

I had a blast with them.

Thinking I was quite the little baker.

I loved it.

I still like buying them to have on hand for quick making.

Today Karlee wanted to make muffins for lunch.

It was such a simple recipe (all it was to add milk).

Which she did so well.

It was so funny I was trying to figure out what to put the oven at.

I looked at the back of the bag and set it down.

She picked it up and looked at to check it out too.

She wanted to be the only one to stir.

I had to help out at the very end just to make sure that everything got mixed in.

Just one more, a great smile of the young chef.

Never to young to start baking, I guess.

I can't believe she is going to be "3" next month.

My baby is getting so big.