Outlooks on the future

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." -Eleanor Roosevelt

We are excited to announce our future prospects, we have worked many long and hard hours to achieve our dreams. Mike has held many full and part time jobs, has spent countless hours studying, and has balanced all of these responsibilities on top of his first priorities of being a husband and father. My role has been to support and try to sustain him in all his academic endeavors, and I have faltered at times but for the most part the kids and I have been supportive through every day. I have taken a full time job (which didn't last long, too stressful) and am currently working a part time job that I have been at almost a year. We haven't seen much of each other in the weekdays, but we felt it important not to get a babysitter, we wanted the kids with either me, Mike, or my mom if necessary.

So without further delay, I'll start with the summer time news. After graduating with a dual degree in Physics and Math, Mike will start an internship/job at the Idaho Accelerator Center here in Pocatello. It is a full time summer position, that will continue on part time in the Fall. From what I understand he will be doing research in Physics, and that is about all I know really. Haha, I would definitely misspell or give the wrong idea if I try to explain exactly what he'll be studying... I don't get physics:)

As for the fall, Mike has been accepted into the Physics Graduate program at ISU. He has received and has accepted a Teaching Assistantship in the Physics department. This will come with a regular salary, which we are grateful for. He has also received a full-ride scholarship for tuition and fees. We feel so blessed and look forward to new adventures... I am grateful that we don't have to move! Hopefully he will do well on the tests for the PhD program so that we can stay in Pocatello for the remainder of his education, I would be thrilled!

Thanks to all our family and friends for their continued support and love for us and for our dreams!

The best cookies ever (no joke)

These cookies are the prettiest, softest, most delicious cookies that I have tasted in quite some time... you HAVE to try them, trust me you won't regret it! The name says it all:

Mini Cinnamon Roll Cookies
(I apologize for my icing skills,
obviously I have no icing skills
judging from the pic I took)

Mini Cinnamon Roll Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 ¾ cups sugar, divided

3 egg yolks

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. honey, divided

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

8 oz. white baking chocolate, chopped

In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 ¼ cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, 1 Tbsp. honey and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Shape a heaping tablespoonful of dough into a 6-in. log. In a shallow bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar; roll log in cinnamon-sugar. Loosely coil log into a spiral shape; place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat placing cookies 1 in. apart. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small bowl, melt baking chocolate with remaining honey; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies. Let stand until set. Store in an airtight container.

**I put the melted chocolate honey mix in a small plastic bag and cut a tiny hole in one of the corners, it was an easy way to distribute the icing

ENJOY!

Dirt and blocks... a boys favorite things!

This is my life... dirt and more dirt! I figured the other day that I could quickly do up the dishes while my boys went outside. I got their jackets on and shoes, we headed outside to check out the muddiness factor, and I was pleasantly to surprised to find slightly damp earth... no mud. I thought "Awesome, the boys can't get dirty." I was wrong.

Brandon's dirtiness far exceeded Kimballs, but that is because Kimball was the one making Brandon dirty. When the dishes were done, I headed out to check on them, and found Kimball spreading dirt all over Brandon's hair and face...

We proceeded to the washer and threw everything in there, and then to the bathroom where they were hosed down (but not before a few good pics right?).

While I was in Idaho Falls this past Saturday, the boys received a special gift from their Great-Grandparents. My grandpa has been quite busy cutting and sanding home-made blocks for all his great grand kiddos! Isn't he amazing, I love him to pieces, and so do my boys. They have had so much fun with this gift, they have asked every day this week to play with them, and so we put them in a special place in the living room.

Kimball's creation

Brandon's road for his tractor

Come listen to a Prophets voice

Conference Sunday was amazing! I received so many "personal epistles" through the talks that were given. I particularly enjoyed Elder Scott's talk about True love in marriage, and enjoyed everything that he shared so tenderly in regards to his late wife. I also loved hearing Elder Carl Pratt's talk about tithing. Mike and I both enjoyed President Monson's address about temples. To hear the him speak about the Rome Italy temple was poignant, more so for Mike who served in Italy than myself.
To prepare my little one's for Conference, I printed off a conference packet for each of the boys. It was complete with coloring pages, activities, cut-out activities, and other stuff. This was our life line of sanity for the first session (they were both asleep for the second session.) I found it on sugardoodle.net, so check it out next conference if you have young ones. They have a nursery version, a JR primary version and a SR primary version.

The boys coloring their cut-out activities
before conference started

Kimball in front of the TV, with what he called
his "Prophet puppets" and the podium

This is the activity that kept Brandon's attention for
about an hour... cutting paper

We also had posted on the glass right next to the TV a picture of each of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve apostles, with a space under each picture to write briefly about their message. Kimball really got into this idea, he would say stuff like "Mom, he is talking about Christ, we need to write that down."
And what would General Conference be without homemade cinnamon rolls? That is our conference tradition, what are your conference traditions?

Baby talk

After working all day Conference Saturday, I came home to some anxious kids who wanted to see their momma. When I walked in the door, Brandon started feeling my tummy and talking to Zach... what a sweet heart right? And yes, I chopped my hair off, although this isn't the best shot of my new do.

Box Play

So with all the baby stuff we ordered last month, we had some pretty good sized boxes just sitting around. I have fond memories of making forts out of boxes, so what better way to make use of these boxes than to make them little forts? By the end of 2 weeks with the boxes, they were well worn out:)

Box neighbors

Brandon trying to crawl through the window

Kimball being a cheese

Aspiring Jedi

Brandon and Kimball... what can I say about these two? My little "bedlamites" are aspiring to be Jedi knights. One of their favorite activities is to run around the house playing "Star Wars". One morning Kimball asked if he could listen to Star Wars music, so I went on a hunt through all of my husbands music to see if he had an album. Indeed, my hubby does, and he also owns a DVD called "Star Wars: A Musical Journey." I popped that into the computer, the boys both ran and got their light sabre, and Kimball grabbed his storm trooper gun and they sat through the whole DVD. I got a few good laughs that morning!

What happens when it rains?

Boys will be boys... right?