Seriously YUM!

I am have been wanting to try a few new recipes lately and I stumbled upon this one. I was going to make granola bars, but then one of the reviewers said that if you have kids you MUST try these "Gobble-up Granola Snacks" So, I did. I just made them. YUMMY!!! They are the same texture as a chewy granola bar and they have rice crispies in them too. You can add so many different things. I did raisins and Cran-strawberries (in considering the state of poor Mo's colon :) I can't wait to do some with m&ms and choc chips to. Try it out. Greyson just cam running into the office and said "This is the best granola bar I ever had Mom" Can't beat that review. I followed reviewers advice and upped the Brown sugar, corn syrup, and PB to 2/3 cup and just added as many craisins as I wanted. SO GOOD! GO MAKE THEM NOW, YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal
• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together the rice cereal and oats. Set aside. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Combine the brown sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat just until boiling, then remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the cereal and oat mixture, and mix well.
3. Press into the prepared pan using the back of a large spoon. Allow to cool, then cut into squares.

Never too late for New Moon Pics

Way back when, in November, my friends and I went to a "New Moon" party. It wasn't cheap, and it was kinda lame at points, but hey, we had fun. We are going to do an "Eclipse" party on our own and it will be cheaper and waaaaaay more fun. Anywho, here we are waiting to get in, freezing. Ang, Amy, and Me ( yep, sometimes I feel that my name should start with A to fit in with them:)Next, they had dynamite Quitlette dancers from the res.
Inside they had cutouts of all of our dreamy fictional characters. This is my "As if you can be all whiny and have 2 great guys Bella. Don't look so shocked that they chose me"
They had Bella's birthday cake, it was pretty cool.
I bought that blood red shirt, just for this occasion.
They gave us vampire tatoos and somewhat hideous make-up to make us vampires

And Cullen baseball.......
Since the whole Limo and red carpet that we were supposed to get didn't happen (grrrrrr) So we had to sprint to the Theater to get a decent seat. Overall, I loved the movie, and can't wait for eclipse. Can't wait to party again!

Why I will always be the best Aunt.... in the world part 2

Not your average pan"cakes"
I know what you are thinking. Pancakes with whip cream, strawberries, caramel, chocolate sauce and SPRINKLES! I am super nice........BUT it gets MUCH, MUCH worse than that.
Mmmm...check out this spread. Bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. A Brinner fit for any breakfast lover. But wait.... those aren't just pancakes. They are pan"CAKES!" I have always wanted to try ACTUAL pan"cakes." Meaning, I use cake batter to make pancakes. I always thought it would be the funnest dessert. Tonight I had a more than willing audience of guinea pigs to try it out.
This is where you start. (Imagine the possibilities! I am thinking red velvet on Valentines, Sooooo cute!) Make the cake batter as directed. (you may need to add a few teaspoons of water to make it slightly thinner.) Then, Heat your griddle to approx 300 degrees that is about 50 degrees lower that you would normally cook regular pancakes. Cook until the bubbling stops then flip over as usual BUT they are a little more delicate, so take care. I cannot even tell you how wonderful the kitchen smells when you are cooking them. MMMMM
Here is the hungry crew, minus Maddi and Grey, they are sitting at the bar.
All plated up! Anxiously awaiting their first bite!
Nathan was very exuberant about the results and I think he had 3 (at least) and Lilly had 4. I started to lose count. Oh, oh and it was Lilly's birthday this week, one of the reasons we had cake. Yep birthday pancakes.
It looks like William is slipping into a sugar coma just smelling his food

That is right, I fed cake to my nieces and nephews for dinner! Judge me if you must. I am as bad as Bill Cosby. BUT wait a minute, they had other stuff too, Like some healthy bacon, and sausage......um wait....eggs and hash browns and LOTS of berries which are SOOOOO good for you. Whatever, I may be terrible but it was soooooo good!
AND can you imagine making better than sex cake with this method? So many things to try now. I have opened a whole new world of dessert!

Why I will always be the best Aunt.... in the world part 1

We have been watching my sweet nieces and nephews for the past couple days and we have tried to do some fun things to stay busy. This day, we decided to take on Buttery Soft Pretzels.
Reminiscent of the ones that you get @ the mall. Yumo! I seriously can't wait to make them again! They are delicious! AND next time I can make them look better. The trick is rolling them out super long and skinny, about the width of your finger. Our first batch was too puffy and they raised together so they looked like rolls, but toward the end we got the hang of it.

Will and Lilly showing of their dough skills. Yep, Will has got it down, I think that is why he is winking.
This is my Biz, She thoroughly enjoyed this project.
Nathan is laying down the law on his pretzel.
Here is what the last batch looked like....................mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Brian came home for lunch and was able to join in on the fun. Look at his pretty pretzel he made.

Watch Out for that TREE!!

As previously posted, we had a great day sledding last week. We practically had to drag the kids off the hill. That is until there was a series of unfortunate events, well one in particular which involved William sledding at a high speed and a tree (which was stationary:) He had some great bruises and scratches to ensure plenty of sympathy whenever he told the story. Here are some pics from the day.

Master William had a BLAST! We try to forget about the whole "TREE" episode. He seriously had a permagrin.
Morgan and Greyson preferred playing in the snow.
AND come on, is she not the cutest snow bunny you have ever seen? Seriously though. Cute!
Sigh..... Gorgeous!
Grey was lucky enough to find an icicle...
Here are the snow troops...
AND here is Brian catching some "SERIOUS" air off the jump.
Apparently the landing didn't go quite as planned.

My famous boy!

Brian had the day off, and since we have no snow here in Pocatello, we decided to go sledding in Idaho Falls on Thursday. It was cold, but that didn't stop us. William truly was a blast to watch. He went up and down and up and down, with a grin plastered on his face. A reporter from the Post Register was there and snapped some shots of Will and he ended up in the paper!
All is fun and games until you sled into a tree....ouch. More pics to come.

This song takes me back..............

A lesson learned the easy way...Thankfully

The boys room has been crazy messy ever since we got home from Christmas vacation so I was determined to find their floor today. We spent all morning sorting, tossing, and DI-ing a lot of toys. So what lesson was learned you ask? Well it has to do with this sweet little curious little fella.

Oh, how I love this sweet little man, but he is too curious for his own good. He is constantly in trouble. Not because he is bad, but because his curiosity just gets the best of him.

So..... after cleaning, I ran into my bedroom for a few minutes, was putting other things away, when I hear a knock at my door. Embarrassed and not wanting to answer (because I am still in my PJ"s and bath robe. ) I reluctantly opened the door. To my surprise, it was the handy man who had finished up the last few things on our house. He had a frantic look on his face as he said this " I just wanted to let you know that there is a little boy upstairs, standing in the window sill and he has the window open and the only thing that is keeping him from falling is the screen and I don't want him to fall" I of course thanked him and then sprinted up to the boys room to find my little Grey Bear as explained, standing in the window hollering to the workers below. I snatched him from the window and ran to the stairs where we had a quick chat as to why we A) don't open windows, and B) don't stand in the window sill.

This is the scene of the crime. Though it is winter, all I could think of was all the children Brian treated at Primary's past summers where children have fallen out of windows and been seriously injured or even died and I am so grateful that I did not learn that lesson the hard way. Somebody was watching over us today.