Jade's BD cake recipe

This is from a friend, Karli. I modified it just a tiny bit, since I like more chocolate. She puts fresh strawberries on her version. But again, I just put chocolate........oh chocolate.

12 vanilla ice-cream bars
1 C fudge or milk chocolate ice-cream topping
1 lg tub cool whip, divided
1 (4serving) pkg chocolate pudding mix
12 oreo cookies crushed

Lay long sheets of foil in a small rectangle pan, (cake pan or casserole dish)
Pour fudge topping in a med bowl, stir in 1C cool whip, pudding mix. Then add the rest of the cool whip and crushed oreos. (I added a little more than half of the cool whip)
Layer 6 ice-cream bars, pour half the pudding mixture on top, then layer the other 6 bars and pour the rest of the pudidng mix on top of that.
Gently spread the coolwhip over the top and sides. Pull up the foil around the cake, careful not to pull too tight, and freeze for at least 4 hours. When you are ready to serve, top with chocolate shavings.
This is WAY yummy, more than it looks, honestly!

a little drama before school......would it be any other way?

really quick, here is an update on Jade's wall. This is 100% Jade's design and work. I was going to put a glaze over it to mute it down like my flower wall, but I'm not going to touch it, she loves it, and it's ALL her.

Today was the first day of school for both the kids. I love back-to-school. Although I am usually dog tired from staying up on some last min prep. Last night it was Jade's backpack. I was sewing some of her patches on. Jade loves unique patches and has some from the places we have lived. (I want to find a sushi patch and some cool retro or 80's punk themed ones, which are both styles she likes)

First thing first though. OF COURSE Eddie had to steal the lime-light first thing in the morning with a lovely blow-out. Before I could do anything else, into the dreaded bath he went. He LOVES showers, HATES baths. It was so funny, I had to take pictures of him during his tantrum.

He is SOOOOOO mad!!!

What a relief! Torture is over!

I will post a picture of Jade's backpack here later. She was so excited, she even took an extra patch to share with one of her best friends. There was a little of the usual drama to get Josh's lunch made, breakfast, the dozen times I had to remind him to brush his teeth, and trying to teach the art of tying shoes. (not the best morning for that, but we had time) The kids looked adorable, and both were so excited to go to school, they wanted to leave an hour early.
Jade is a 5th grader, and Josh is doing Kindergarten at a Challenger school. It's a little nutty driving to two different schools, but well worth it. I am really excited for them both this year, it's going to be great!

Eddie's love affair

I have posted about his love of shoes before, but these were just too cute, and it really is serious.
He LOVES shoes. Before he even leaves his room in the morning, he finds some shoes to slip into. Honestly, this was taken about 2 minutes after I woke him up, he just HAS to find shoes FIRST thing! He is my only child to do this, we think it's pretty funny and cute.

Happy Birthday Jade-e-bugs!

Saturday was Jade's 11th birthday. I just love this girl so much! She is absolutely amazing!
We had her party at Classic Skate Fun Center. Olivia, Morgan, Allie, and Natalie were there, and Jade was in heaven

She won a prize on the birthday wheel.

spent 60 seconds catching all the "money" she could grab in the money cube.
I didn't take any more pictures of the girls after that, because I was having too much fun "attempting" to skate or going down the waterslides with them. :)

On Sunday, we had a big family party to celebrate Enos and Jade's birthdays. (only 2 days apart). We made an assortment of sushi, gyoza, Heinzen cake, and this wonderful ice-cream cake I took off a friend's blog. (thank you Karli!)

Enos and Lindsay are leaving next summer, so this was the last combined birthday celebration the two will have for many years. :(

Here is a closeup of the yummy ice-cream cake that was incredibly easy to make. I will post the recipe later.

And here is Jade's Birthday questionnaire........

If you could have one super-power, what would it be? to control the weather and fly

What is the last chore you did? clean my room

What is your favorite song? REM "It's the end of the world"

What is your favorite food? Sushi

What’s the nicest thing you’ve done for someone in your family lately? babysit Eddie

What makes you mad? my brother and people who push me around

What do you like the best about yourself? my independence

Where would you like to go on vacation next year? China

How are you like your dad? I joke around a lot

How are you like your mom? I like art

What’s one thing that dad always says to you? I love you

What is one thing that mom always says to you? You're special

What is one thing that you and your dad did together that you will always remember? he took me skiing for the first time

What is your favorite thing to do with mom? cook

What is your favorite thing to do with dad? ski

What is your favorite thing to do with Jsoh? play uno

What do you like most about Josh? he is very affectionate Eddie? he is so cute

If you had a million dollars, what’s the first thing you’d buy? a shed so I can have some space

How do you know that I love you? all the stuff you do to take care of us

What’s your favorite cereal? Honey Bunches of Oats

What’s your favorite TV show? i-carly

What’s your favorite movie? Walle

What’s your favorite vegetable? cucumber

What is something you never want to eat? mushrooms and scorpions

What personal item would never give away? Bunny-bunny (a little stuffed bunny she got as a newborn from her great-aunt Jodi)

What’s your favorite game? checkers

What’s your favorite book? Leven Thumps

What food would you eat every day if you could? sushi

If you could choose a different name, what would it be? Jasmine

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done? when I fell and got stitches

If you could eat at any restaurant for the rest of you life, where would it be? Osaka in Las Vegas

What’s your favorite candy bar? Almond Joy

What’s the last thing that you did that your were proud of? Super cleaned my room

What’s the best age to be? 16

What’s your favorite holiday? Christmas

What is the best present you ever got? an art easel

Who are your best friends? Natalie and Morgan

What do you want to be when you grow up? an artist

If you would visit anywhere in the world, where would it be? China

What’s your greatest word of wisdom at age 11? Don't let people push you around

Jade's art.....like mother, like daughter

It might be hard to see, so click to enlarge it.
Jade took some chalk and drew out a design on her wall, and she is going to paint it. (my floral painting inspired her I guess) It's hard to see the details, but it's really quite good. I think I should hire her out to do children's room murals. ;)
I can't wait to see the finished product!
She was bored and felt like drawing the other night. She is getting better and better all the time. We love watching her grow in her talents!

THE wall.........continued

Completed floral designs, taped and ready to glaze.
"Linen" technique.
I used a more opaque glaze to minimize the boldness of the flowers, so it's a hint of designs and subtly added color to lighten all the brown we have EVERYWHERE. We tried to put a dark stain over it to bring out more texture, but it didn't work too well, the linen brush we used did not leave enough texture for the dark stain to sink into. So this is it.

I'm told wallpaper is coming back "in", so we now have our own "wallpaper" look.

I can't stand to waste paint, so with the extra glaze I had after scraping the container, I made a "growing" flower in the spot where we have been measuring the kid's height this year. I made it 4 inches taller than Bill. :) Who knows if we will be in this house long enough to see any of our boys pass up 6'8", or if our boys will even be that tall? But I went ahead and painted my little plant tall......just in case.
OK, that's all for my home project distractions. I think. I'm just going to finish the stained glass panel and focus on teaching my art classes. :)

A little about Jade and I

(*Thanks for the idea Jess!)

Tara is Mulan!

Strong and spirited. You're no one's girly girl; actually you are very determined person with a strong sense of self. Never let go of that! The only thing that equals your sense of self is your family, but the traditions of society can always be bent to protect something or someone you love.

Jade is Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Mother/ Daughter time.

This is one way Jade and I spend time together. :) I figured since I'm using stained glass techniques to make the jewelry charms, I would put all the scrap glass I have together and make a "recycled" stained glass panel. It's 3' x 25".
I know it seems a bit large for our first project, that goes back to a wonderful pottery professor I had. When he has us handbuild a pot, we had to do one that was 3 ft tall, and THEN make one that was 14". After doing the large version, the little one was a breeze.
I am using old scrap glass, most of it free, left over florist pebbles, and some beach glass we picked up, so it doesn't fit together nicely, it's pretty crazy actually. But that's us! Jade has been foiling, burnishing, "puzzle making", and *learning to solder, all the little pieces. (*above photos)

We have really enjoyed learning this new skill together, and it will look much prettier in our kitchen window vs. the peel off stained glass that was on there before. She and I decided to make an "impressionist painting" since we are limited to what scraps and shapes we have. We have already soldered the boarder, and will just work piece by piece to put it together. Anyone guess what it is?

Babysitting sMiles

Saturday, Mica's sister-in-law, (who is a friend of mine), flew up to Salt Lake for the day to see Dark Knight on IMAX. (cool reason for a trip) Mica married into a way cool family, and her new little nephew, Miles, is the cutest thing! So we were lucky enough to babysit him while they all went out to the movies. It was really fun, and also a good experience for little Eddie. He was slightly shocked at first, to wake up from a nap and see mommy with another baby in the wrap, but he got over it, and thought Miles was pretty cool.

Although, I think he thought the baby carseat was the best part.

Jade was a big help. She wore Miles in the wrap for a little while when he was fussy.
I showed her how to "bounce and sway" with him, and he started to fall asleep. It was so cute. She was such a big help and is becoming a fabulous little babysitter. (she and a friend "team" babysat again last night so Bill and I could have a sushi date with Alyse and her husband)
Jade is growing up so fast, it really does fly by! I am enjoying this time of her life as much as I can! She is an amazing girl!

A-MAZING!!!

Was that not the most incredible opening ceremony imaginable!?! Bill and I cried, it was breathtaking. I love that we were able to share it with Jade. (Josh was not all that interested, even though he wore his Beijing T-shirt, he watched only a few things) Jade watched every second with us, it was really fun. Completely inspiring!!! I know there are so many political issues happening all around, but what this means for the people of China is just beautiful. I look forward to visiting that country someday. What an amazing ceremony! Wow.

Go Team USA!!!

Just a sample

This is just a sample of what I have been doing as far as making things for upcoming boutiques. If you want to see more, go to my Art Blog! :)

What a week!!! (or last 10 days)

This is what I had to buy, (along with a CO2 detector), to pass my inspections for my business licence. The fire extinguisher I had before was too small. So I am just waiting on the paper work to go through, which it will now that I have taken care of all the requirements, and it will be official. I will be a small business owner!
We had Enos, Lindsay, Mica, and Matt over on Sunday. Josh did some of his "special tricks" for everyone. This kid is incredibly flexible. He can hold out both this arms, and rotate them 180 degrees, (which looks pretty freaky), and then bend at the elbow in a very twisted, backwards greeting. He think he is awesome. We all kinda do too. :)

It's hard to tell, but he is doing the splits, with his face on the ground.
Try this yourselves......bend your thumb down to touch the side of your wrist. Josh's thumb can lay nearly flat against his wrist. It's just freaky looking!

Eddie LOVES his "nana". He is all wet and dirty from being outside with me while I worked on the yard and watered plants. He got a little watered himself. I think he signs for banana a dozen times a day, but we try to limit him to 3 or 4 that he actually eats.

My herb garden. Thanks to my dad, my herbs are growing a ton. They may not look like much in this picture, but I keep cutting them back and it's been a yummy treat. (my little sage is dying though, and my garlic chives are still not big enough to plant in the empty space that is waiting for them)
We all know that "blog reality" does not tell our entire life story. So this is just an example. I have been feeling "some" stress lately, I took it out on this wall. It's not close to being done yet. I took a can of paint one afternoon, (and a brush of course), and just attacked the wall on both sides.

The brown was getting to me, so I just started painting. :)

It's a pale robbins egg blue, color. When I'm done with the flowers, I'm going to cover the whole thing with a glaze the same color, and do a linen drag technique, so it will look like linen wallpaper with a hint of a funky floral design underneath. It's hard to tell, and the frame is covering part of the design, (I removed it after taking this picture), but it's kind of a crawling painting. It starts on the side and the design kind of "crawls" along both sides of the wall. I'm not going to add more lines, just a few more flowers and that's it.

I have only done this a few times in my marriage, (stress painting on walls), but I think this one has more potential than in the past, and I'm kind of glad I was able to vent on my wall. :)

BTW- Josh took this picture. Jade and Morgan were making salt-dough Japanese food props for a film they were making, and Josh lined up every webkinz we had in the house for a photo shoot.

This is also the last week of summer school for the kids. They are happy and sad about it. They have LOVED Challenger school, but are ready for a few weeks of summer play before they head back to the regular school year.

Also, if you are interested in the new projects I have been working on for the upcoming boutiques, check out my art blog.

A great Saturday

I do not have any pictures from Friday night, but it was significant, so I will add that really quick. Jade babysat the boys with her little friend from her primary class while Bill, Enos, Lindsay, and I went to see Dark Knight on IMAX. (which was awesome btw!) Leaving the boys with a 10 yr old and 11yr old for 4 hrs was a bit scary at first, but they did an amazing job. We paid Josh to be good, so other than Eddie's blow-out diaper, they all had a blast. Heading into the teenage years is sometimes stressful, but it sure has it's perks! Thank you Jade!!!

I have already done posts about some of my dearest friends, so knowing that I will repeat myself, here I go.... :)
Jamie is my oldest friend, since we were 1 yrs old. Our moms are best friends, and even though we only spent 5 years living in the same town, we have build a deep friendship that feels more like family and just as lasting. She and her husband, Tucker, live in CA, so we do not get to see them that often. One of the things I love about our friendship, is that our ENTIRE family are all friends together, our kids and our husbands. That's hard to find. I feel very blessed, that my two oldest and best friends in the world, have "significant others" who mesh well with mine. (Andrea, I'm still waiting for those pictures from your visit!)

We had a fabulous Saturday. Jamie and Tucker are here in Utah and came by for the day. As soon as the "half tour" of the house was done, the guys took off for a movie and lunch, while Jay and I stayed home with the kids. Like their last visit, Jade took over the kids so Jamie and I could hang out and talk. We love you Jade and appreciate you SO SO much!
She started out with painting flowers on all the pretty little nails she could. That's my artistic Jade!

Jade is like a big sister to Jamie's girls, Jordyn and Lexi. I don't think they mind one bit.
Josh couldn't take the nail painting, so he hung out with one of his buddies, Lego Indiana Jones.
Next, they moved the artistic groove they were on, into the kitchen. Jade made salt dough for everyone, and they spent the next hour making little treasures. Does my daughter rock or what!?!

Jamie's youngest, Peyton, is an absolute doll!

While the creations were baking, the older kids were playing with toys, while Peyton and Eddie played in his old Amby bed-turned-swing.
It was so nice to be able to just sit and visit the entire time. I LOVE having a daughter who can babysit!
Thank you for coming Jamie!!! I love you so much!!! I wish we could have spent longer together, but we had to head off to Bill's work BBQ in the evening. I am grateful for ANY amount of time we get with their family, it was a fabulous Saturday!!!