Truly not a baker...

I'm hosting a Tastefully Simple party tonight and part of the preparation is making some dips, drinks, etc.. You have no idea how simple Tastefully Simple food is to make. Each food item only requires adding 1 or 2 ingredients such as sour cream, mayonnaise, cream cheese, or some sort of alchohol. Well for normal people, these tasks would be very easy. For me, on the other hand, I am almost always destined to screw something up. I'm sure I just wasn't meant to ever be in the kitchen, no matter how simple the baking should be. It all started with the drink buckets. I am making a Tiki Mai Tai drink and Pomegranate Blueberry Margaritas. The mix comes in a bucket and all you have to do is add rum to the Mai Tai bucket, tequila to the margarita bucket and water to both. Here's the clincher... they needed to be added YESTERDAY so they could freeze overnight. So say a prayer that 11 hours is enough time for them to freeze because of course the drinks are the thing I'm looking forward to the most tonight! The next screwup came while making the Key Lime Cheeseball. The directions say to add the #1 packet to 4 oz of cream cheese. Very simple, right? Well, the girl-who-doesn't-belong-in-a-kitchen added BOTH the #1 and #2 packet to the cream cheese. So, now the mix looks like green cream cheese with brown boogers mixed in it. The #2 packet is the graham cracker crumbs that is supposed to go ON the cheeseball, not IN it. Ugh... I think I'll just blame the mistakes on the two toddlers who were yanking at my legs while I was trying to make it. I can't really blame the drink mistake on them though..dang! The good news is that the other 5 dips, beer bread, and the chocolate chip toffee almond cookies turned out great! I must have paid attention to their simple directions.

P.S. My friend Susan challenged me to a 30 day blog challenge. So far I'm 3 days in and doing okay. There probably won't be any pictures today though... Well, I guess I could take a picture of the brown booger cheeseball!! :-)

The Johnson's Move Away:-(

Today was our last day with Amy & Weston. Amy is so very special to me because she is my very first friend I met after we moved back Colorado. We met at the gym in step class and I knew she had to be cool because she was from Texas! Texas plates and all:-) They are moving to Missouri tomorrow. Weston's job moves them every 9 months to a year so I knew it was coming but of course it always comes too quick. They will be 8 hours away so at least we can road trip it to their new place!

Today we went to 3 Margaritas since that was our "first date" restaurant:-) I again had margaritas but Amy had to go the non-alcholic margarita route since she is now "with-child":-) Cody Weston Johnson will be here in August. I am so sad I won't be around for his birth! We'll go visit afterwards though... Here's some pictures of the twins telling them goodbye. By the way, Hunter LOVES his Amy. He acts so giddy and bashful around her! It kills me! He doesn't act that way around anyone else. Ahh.. his first crush;-)

Grandpa's New Boat

A couple of weeks ago, we all (Granda Brett, Grammy Jan, Ryan, Hunter, Reagan, and I) went over to Barr Lake by our house to "Christen" Grandpa Brett's new fishing boat. It was the perfect day. Luckily he didn't bash the bottle of champagne against it so we had plenty for the boat ride and picnic:-)

Hunter was lovin' the picnic food

The perfect Colorado day. I am really ready for more of these...SOON!

16 months old-yesterday....

So.. I am learning that with every month that passes by, life gets a little bit trickier. You'll notice that I don't have any cutesy pictures on this post. Well.. it seems I only catch Hunter and Reagan in ornery acts these days..not cutesy acts. The proof is in the pictures...

Umm.. yeah.. just where you should be when your parents are scrambling to get to church on time!!

Who said mashed potatoes are supposed to go IN your mouth?? In your hair is much, much better...

"I just like to do what Sissy does..."

Maybe the stair-stepped shelves weren't such a great idea for the playroom... This is where I found Hunter when I went in to get him for breakfast.

Okay... the crazy bedhead is pretty cutesy if I must say so myself:-)

So here's the big one.....

I'm thinking about buying stock in The First Years considering we need to buy absolutely every safety device they make! I knew I needed to buy a lever lock once Hunter figured out how to open the pantry door. I was okay with the temporary fix of moving all the food items to the top shelves so they couldn't reach it. That temporary fix quickly ended the other morning. Hunter and Reagan were playing ever so well in their playroom while I was in the kitchen paying bills. They were hiding in the closet which they love to do. I probably left them in there a good 15 minutes while I listened to them having so much fun. I finally decided to go in and check on them. When I rounded the corner, much to my complete HORROR, I found the basement door WIDE OPEN!! Keep in mind, the stairs to our basement are straight down and at the very bottom of the very long flight of stairs is nothing but cold, (VERY!) hard concrete! I knew they hadn't crashed to the bottom considering I would have heard it but I raced down the stairs nevertheless. I got down there and you would have thought they hit the jackpot. Hunter was throwing around everything he could possibly get his chubby, little hands on. Reagan was sitting in the middle of all of her old toys having a glorious time. I think they were most amused by the traumatized look on their mommy's face. Ahhh... 16 month olds....gotta love 'em:-)

These two love their Jeopardy

Dancing with the Stars Nerds on jeopardy

For quite some time we have been trying to capture what we call the "Jeopardy Effect" where the kids tend to zone out and dance to the theme song of Jeopardy. Although this clip wasn't the best representation of the phenomenon, we caught Reagan caught up in the moment when she realized the theme started behind her. Concurrently, Hunter was jamming out on his new little chair.

Amanda's footnote: I just want to make sure no one is jealous of my "look".. especially my hair because it is really hard to get it to look that great! Thank you to Ryan for posting this post because I always fail in the video upload area;-)

Nothing new really...

I just feel the need to post something since I haven't put anything on here for 13 days. I know how bummed I get when I go to my other friends blogs (no names mentioned S...) and there aren't any updates. I just now realized that all my "blogger" friends are my Texas friends so obviously I feel the need to always be in "the know" with them:-) So.. let's see..what's new..hmm..hmm.. I found a babysitter! All other times I need a babysitter, I call on good 'ol Grandma (my mom). Other times we call Grammy & Grandpa (Ryan's parents). Yes, they do have Grandpa (my dad) but I think it's in the twins best interest if he stays home and just lets Mom come over. He's the perfect grandpa... when they're not crying or crapping their pants:-) Anyhoo.. Haley is the sweetest 13 year old ever! Her mom Michelle leads our Tuesday bible studies and Haley is homeschooled so her schedule is very flexible. I used her for the first time yesterday while I was at bible study. The twins had booger noses and I refuse to be THAT mom and take them to the little daycare so they could pollute all the other kids' noses. It never fails, every time I take Hunter & Reagan to a daycare setting, they get grody. Back to Haley. I love Haley. She makes me feel "safe" with having a girl. I am so petrified of teenage girls I can hardly stand it. She is absolutely adorable yet didn't have one bit of makeup on. LOVED IT! And she's smart, smart, smart! Can you tell I love Haley?!

Tomorrow night is our neighborhood HOA meeting. You have no idea how stressed I am. You see I went and got myself into something and I'm not sure how I'll ever get out of it. Somehow I was appointed chairperson for our social committee. You don't understand. This isn't like the ever-so-cool Crawford Farms HOA. This is a neighborhood full of negative, crazies! I'm convinced they're all transplants and have to be from east of the Mississippi. People west of it just aren't so nasty. Just had to do a mental note of who reads this and I think I'm safe! So I have to give an update tomorrow night and I don't do well in front of crowds. Period. I can talk your ear off but only one on one or a very small, well known group. I got a D in speech in high school for goodness sakes. My only D! I just tremble. My fault though. Like I said, I got myself into it.

The other thing weighing on my mind is our vacation that is booked for November. We were going to go to Playa del Carmen but my parents absolutely refuse to step foot in Mexico. Evidently the loco drug cartels and murders have something to do with it. I researched the violence and now they have military checkpoints between Cancun and Playa. Our luck we'd get stopped, strip-searched, and who knows what else. Mexican police, and probably Army now, love to make up their own rules as they go along. One time Ryan and I got pulled over for "speeding" even though we definitely were not. They were going to take us to jail if we didn't give them $100. I told them all we had was $40 and they thought about it and then said that would do. No paper trail, nothing. Scary freaks. So... we're looking at Jamaica because you know there's no crime there! ;-) We're liking the Beaches Sandy Bay in Negril. I just need to change it so I can at least get one thing off of my mind.

Okay... I really let loose there. That's just a small piece of the pie for the goings-on in the Edwards Fam this week. I hope you all are doing well!!

Ah... to be a kid again...

Since we (I) decided that school just wasn't an option yet, Ryan and I decided to make Hunter and Reagan their own little "school" (playroom) here at home. We had so much fun shopping for all the decor and furniture. Of course, we had to go gender-neutral as always so we carried on with the jungle theme. But... this is little jungle babies! This is absolutely my favorite room in the house now. Their playroom is right off of the family room so it's so nice that they can play in there while Ryan and I (try!) to get some rest and relaxation.

P.S. Yes.. there are alot of pictures but I just have to post them:-)

Wouldn't you just love to play in this mess?

Thank goodness Ryan "likes" to paint. I just keep convincing myself of that..
Hunter is such a BIG helper! He's helping Daddy hang up their book holder.

Love, love, love this fan. It's so jungle-y!
This is the wallpaper border. The baby animals are soooooo cute!

VOILA!! How cute is the chalkboard! Just their height!

They have their own "media" area. Don't mind the touch up spot under the TV. It will eventually get painted:-)

Oh, by the way... for those of you that know Ryan you will really get a kick out of this. The school that they went to had a video monitoring system that you could log in and watch during the day. Well since Ryan is gone alot, he decided he needed that here. So on top of the TV is a web-cam that he can log into and watch the kiddos. He really gets a kick out of watching the kids but the other day he totally busted me dancing like a complete fool with the kids. I really need to remember that thing is in the room and to turn it off when I'm in there!!!