i love to see the temple...

Little Love has her Girl Scout meetings every other Monday night, so we have our FHE on Sunday nights those weeks. Tonight we took a drive to see the new Temple in Gilbert. They placed Moroni on top this last week. I was amazed at his size and the detail. Little Love kept talking about how it was only a few more years that she would have to wait to go into the Temple and do baptisms for the dead. I am excited for that, I remember going with my Mom several times, and with the Young Women too. The Temple is gorgeous, I cannot wait to see it finished. 

laughing

Little Love wanted to share some jokes:

What do apes like to eat?

Chocolate chimp cookies

KNOCK. KNOCK

Who’s there?

Hawaii

Hawaii who?

I’m great! Hawaii you?


Where do pirates go for fun?
The arrrr-cade

We Be Planting

Nightmare in Goodwill

I love going to Goodwill!

And dragging …. er taking my family with me!

Not only do I find great deals on things but sometimes I come across 

a few little gems likt these……

This was amazing. I mean amazing.

Someone took the time to create this darling little scene inside this shell. 

I feel like I am staring at a really bad iSpy picture.

CAN YOU SPOT THE PIG FAMILY?

CAN YOU SPOT THE GALLOPING HORSE?

CAN YOU SPOT THE MINI MIRROR POND STRANGELY OUTLINED BY A STRING OF PEARLS?

And to make this gorgeous shell centerpiece even more enticing, they added a music box to it. Yes, while searching for baby pigs and galloping horses you can relax to the soothing sounds of “it’s a small world” - ?????

This cookie jar totally creeps me out! If I was a granny wanting to make sure no sniveling little brats took any of my snickerdoodles, this is the jar I would keep them in! It’s like the four and twenty black birds got baked into Humpty Dumpty who then did some kind of kamikaze jump onto Peter Rabbit!  
What did he ever do to you Dumpty?  Sheesh!!!!

hair accessories. . .the bane of my existence

I am constantly finding Little Love’s hair accessories around the house. She is becoming better at leaving them in her hair for more than two seconds, but they somehow end up all over the place! She uses them to play with – as ropes to tie up a polly, as belts to hold up her handmade washcloth dresses for her barbies, as the reins on her horses! Why is it that we as parents spend the money on toys and accessories for the toys only to have them pushed away for something that is lying around the house?? It’s funny! But amazing that these children with all the modern conveniences and excessive toys we buy for them, still revert to the glorious gift of imagination that our Heavenly Father gave them! I find it hard to stay frustrated at the things I find around my home when that little voice reminds me of how special this little spirit is.

(stepping down from my soap box)

Anyway! I have wanted to make a cute hair bow holder for awhile, but I have not really found anything I like. Then I happened upon this adorable little mirror at Hobby Lobby in their clearance section – only $1.50! Can you believe that? I was so excited! And of course with my lovely obsession with ribbons, I knew I would be able to find something to attach to the bottom! I used some of my leftover flowers from my wreath and glued them on the front of the mirror. Then I glued the ribbons on the back!

How simple right??  And it looks co dang cute in her bathroom!

I made a wreath for my door a few months ago - I was not happy with how it turned out. And then someone mentioned that it looked like algae growing on my door which made me hate it even worse! So this time around - with a gentle reminder from Sweet Knees to take my time and plan out my project - I made a new spring wreath!  I love it so much! The paper roses were time consuming but so much fun to make. Little Love made one too, she is very proud and keeps asking me which one it was after I had glued them on. My only worry is that the sun may fade away the colors - oh and the fact that monsoon season just started!!  It might be tucked inside the house for a little bit before I feel safe enough to put it back outside - like say on the front door of our new house!!! 

My blog stopped working right in the middle of my Easter posts, I was infuriated! I had to take a step away from it for a bit, I almost threw my computer out the window!

But whatever was wrong has now been fixed!

These are just some random photos of what has been going on lately in our lives!

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Totally random I know! But check out those pancakes!

They weigh more than PhotOP’s does!!!

Little Love’s Girl Scout Troop went to a day camp that the older girls put on. It gave them a glimpse at all they fun they will have at the actual camps. The Daisy Troops are not old enough to attend the camps quite yet!!Caitlyn had a blast and came home with all kinds of goodies, she is especially found of her walking stick and tie-dyed bandana!

I am sad that another year of Girl Scouts is over. Little Love had the most amazing troop leader this year!  Miss Anna was involved with the girls and let us know about all the extra activities to earn patches – Little Love got a lot of patches this year! When a Girl Scout moves from one level to the next they have a bridging ceremony for the girls to bridge from one to the next. We met at a park with the other troops in the area for pizza, drinks and a great – and tear jerking – ceremony! I am so proud of Little Love, she has come such a long way and Girl Scouts has helped her a lot. I was so emotional seeing her come around the corner with her troop and to hear them call her name and welcome her as a new Brownie. I hate that she is growing up, but so proud of the amazing little person she is becoming.

My supervisor at the school has the most amazing garden and orchard! We were invited to come and partake of her spoils!!! I learned so much about fruit and veg, it was wonderful! She kept filling our baskets with her garden goodness, we had a whole back seat full!! I had to call in some friends to take some of it off our hands! It all tastes so good, you just cannot compare the home grown to store bought! I made some delish patty-pan soup and stored it in the freezer for later – just wishing it truly became cold here in the desert so we could really enjoy a proper bowl of hot soup!! Little Love picked a mini patty pan and was so proud of it – those leaves are kind of itchy! As we were checking out our pickin’ and snapping pictures I glanced over at sweet innocent little Penny and saw her nibbling on something…..oh she had somehow undetected snuck Little Love’s little patty pan and was eating it! Little Love was in the depths of despair! We salvaged about half of it! We have been invited back for more when the corn is ripe and the grapes have turned purple – we cannot wait!

Ever since we took LittleLove to a local high school production of Seussical the Musical she has been playing the music and acting out the scenes! She loved it! The play that was put on was very done very simply, no elaborate costumes and no sets. It was a wonderful play, but I knew that I had to give her more! So when I saw that Seussical was being put on by a local dinner theater – and let in on a secret discount day – I knew I had to buy our family tickets. We did not tell Little Love about it, simply that “Dad was taking us someplace special for dinner tonight!” She thought we were taking her to McDonalds – we need to get out more!! We blind folded her and wouldn’t allow her to take it off until we were in the theater. They curtains on the stage had a huge Cat in the Hat  on it and the words “Seussical” in giant letters across the top – prefect! She was so excited when she saw that hat! We had great seats, I knew the cast would come into the audience and different points and wanted us close enough for that! Little Love got to pet one of the strange circus animals – highlight! The food was good too! We had a great time! Next is Cinderella – Rodgers and Hammerstein style. I hope I can get us tickets!

Little Love and I were browsing through some craft ideas I had and we came across the soaps with little trinkets in them. It was love at first sight – she knew she wanted to make them for her Dad for Father’s Day! She was so funny about it all! Had her little shopping list, she insisted on smelling every scent to find the right one for her Dad, and nothing would be better than fish in his soap! We had a lot of fun crafting these little soaps and they were so stinkin’ easy!

Have I mentioned how much I am in love with Hobby Lobby?

Okay, I have a picture of Little Love and her gorgeous smile, but this picture just screams “HER” so I had to post this one! I love her toothless grin!!

A few of the soaps!

The diver’s legs are poking out of the soap or water! When turned over and looked at from the bottom there are little bubbles around him so it really looks like he is just diving into the sea!

minced onions

Recently tried out a new recipe

{ homemade ranch dressing }

and y'all...

it. is. incredible.

I think I might just gag at the next bottle of ranch I see on the grocery store shelf!

Who do they think they are, posing as ranch dressing! PFFT!

the nerve

Here is the fantastic recipe, it is so easy and made with

things you have just hanging around in your kitchen waiting to be turned into something most fantastic....

well wait no longer pantry goods, your time has come!

Combine in blender

1 cup mayonnaise

2/3 cup buttermilk

1/4 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp parsley

1/8 tsp dill

1 clove garlic

1/4 chopped onion

1 1/2 tsp dried chives

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp dry mustard

Mix it all up! And that's all!

The recipe tells us to refrigerate for 4 hours for best results,

but we enjoyed it right out of the blender!

Now....enjoy your ranch dressing-gasm!