a sad tale of misery and woe

there once was a happy little miss
who was cute and a great big sis

she loved her hair simple and fuss free
straight and pulled back fit her to a tee

one day mommy said, "lets try something new!"
oh how the giant hissy fit did then ensue!

there were tears, tears and more tears, oh my!
and she even glared at mommy with the stink eye

but mommy prevailed and did not give up
she said, "i will not give in to this insolent pup!"

so in went the bobby pins, followed by the hair spray
and mommy loved it, needless to say

no smile for the camera, this girl was plain sad
so mommy promised a ponytail tomorrow would be had

"i like this hair" said the girl at the end of the day
and mommy smiled, glad the girl now saw things her way.

peant butter and chocolate explosion

on saturday, we tried out a new cookie recipe. i found this great recipe off of this blog and subsequently found another great website, called cookie madness. needless to say, i spent way too much time scouring those sites. but travis and i found a new family favorite and couldn't wait to share! he has been on a quest to find a cookie for this thing at work (long, boring story, he's trying to create a cookie for lin's to sell and he wants to call it Trx. t as in travis, rx as in pharmacy) anyway, these were a hit! i've posted the recipe on my food blog it should pop up first thing, if not, click the word "cookies" from the menu on the top left of the page. enjoy! (i must strongly recommend having a large quantity of ice cold milk readily available because these cookies are rich)

an action shot of the cookie making process
such terrific bakers!
excited to show one of the special ingredients (and excited to try them as well)
loved pushing in the frozen reeses peanut butter cup halves into the dough balls
tada! the finished product in all its hot, fresh from the oven glory. sigh. i love baking.

fun weekend

cousin amber, such a cutie
cindi and christian

me and beccatom and trav
cindi, karlee and the youngsters!

this past weekend, my house held 18 people. 5 jackmans, 5 zauggs, and 8 smiths. we had a lot of fun! my cousin dave and his wife mindy had their adoption of baby miley finalized. we are so happy for them! so once the adoption was finalized, that meant they were able to go ahead and preform the sealing and blessing.

for those not of my faith, i will give a very brief explanation about sealings. in our religion, we believe that Heavenly Father has sent us to this earth to make choices, learn about right and wrong, and hopefully we will choose to follow Jesus Christ and therefore be able to return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the life after this one. This is His plan for us. central to His plan is the family, we are not on this journey through life alone. we believe that He has created a way to maintain family relationships beyond the grave. we do not believe that death has to be the ending pointing for husband/wife, parent/child, etc. In our holy temples, an ordinance is preformed by one who holds the priesthood (the power and authority to act in God's name on earth) and husband/wife and parents/children can be sealed together on earth and in heaven, that their relationship is now eternal. it is a joyous occasion and knowing that we can be together forever with the people we love most is one of the most wonderful blessings our Father in Heaven has given us.
that is why all our family converged on southern utah, to attend the sealing and celebrate with dave and mindy their eternal family.

we played at the park, ate food, played games, ate food, watched a little NBA allstar weekend action, ate food, and just enjoyed visiting and catching up with each others' lives.
my uncle eldon and aunt eldenna (yes, those are their real names. i know, what are the odds of them finding each other and getting married?) live in kimberly, idaho. he is my mom's brother who is just older than her. he is a retired dairyman. they are salt of the earth people whom i love dearly.
my cousin rebecca zaugg (dave's sister) and her husband sean have alex, 6, zachary, almost 4, and natalie, 20 months. they live in twin falls, idaho. she and i could talk for hours and hours about any and everything. i wish we lived closer to each other!
my cousin thomas (dave's brother) and his wife cindi have christian, 16, karlee, 13, kendall, 8, and amber, 3 1/2. they live in west point, utah (near layton, roy, clinton, etc.) tom works for the church audio and visual department at the conference center in downtown salt lake city. i could listen to him talk for hours about all the "behind the scenes" things that happen. its so interesting! i love those guys! cindi seems so quite at first, but once she is comfortable, watch out, she can be the a party animal! :)

our kids just played and played and played some more. i swear i didn't see mason or marissa at all this weekend. how nice! ha ha ha! and baby joe was happy, cherubic and sweet. he let everyone hold him and he never made a peep. just happy as a duck in water. :)
sunday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and were out of the house by 8:20am so we could be on time for dave's 9:00 meeting. sigh. the sacrifice we make for family! anyway, he blessed miley (it is a little similar to a christening in other religions) and did a beautiful job. we were so happy to be there with them. here are some of the miley and joe post church photo shoot.
miley doesn't put up with any sass.
joe just chillin' while miley listens intently to her mama.
miley telling joe,"come back here, i wasn't finished talking to you little boy!"
she loves her mommy very much

we're so glad you are in our family!!

paying it forward

{The Rules}
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along.

Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! SO, REMEMBER...Pay It Forward!

10 things that make me happy

1. preschool

2. 30 rock, (that episode with the generalissimo, freakin' hil-ar-rious!)

3. sunny skies in beautiful southern utah

4. friends who like to talk about books

5. sugar cookies

6. cousins

7. tylenol for cranky, coughing babies

8. spring time clothes

9. my awesome husband

10. marissa folding and putting away her own laundry (i sort it, but then she takes it downstairs to her room where she meticulously folds and puts away all by herself, she gets upset if i try to help)

Angry Blog

from the title of this post, you should be able to surmise the direction we are headed.
last night, a bunch of us ladies from the neighborhood went and saw the new movie, "he's just not that into you." if you are planning on seeing it, you should stop reading. i don't want to taint your movie going experience. i don't regret going. i liked it. except for several key factors which i will now discuss.
MONOGAMY
hollywood would lead you to believe that this notion of being faithful to one's partner is antiquated and over-rated. they would also lead you to believe that on your journey of finding your mythical "one and only soul mate" its okay to step outside of marital relationships, that the machiavellian reasoning of "the end justifying the means" is completely acceptable. wedding vows? only when it suits you. honesty? when its convient. its all about satisfying the inner self and gratifying every fantasy.
WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!
i'm disgusted. last night, every time the couple who was having the alduterous relationship came on screen, i wanted to scream. their on-screen dialouge was so smut filled and every time they talked about his marriage or his wife, it was in the most dirogatory way. and while i restrained myself from screaming at them, i did manage a few loud boos. and i was not alone.
they painted his wife as frigid, cold and emotionally unconnected to her husband. she was frumpy and nothing about her character was redeeming, heart warming or endearing. except in the end when she decided to divorce him, then the movie producers decided it was time to paint her in a smart, independent, assertive, and likeable manner.

one of the other main reasons of this angry blog is to rant on scarlett johansson. i can't stand her. as an actress, as a person, and especially based on her character last night. you guessed it, she was the strumpet who was sleeping with the married man (who was played by bradley cooper. i loved him as will tipin in "alias." why did he have to be a jerk last night?) not only do i think she has zero acting talent, but her voice, mannerisms and most of all her pushy fake boobs make me want to punch her in the face. i warned you this was angry post! and whoever her publicist is, sure is doing a lousy job. she looked fat and wore ill-fitting, very unflattering clothes and her hair was over-processed. in short, she looked horrible. and granted, i understand the job of an actress, they portary a character, not themselves on screen. however, the character she portrayed i honesly don't believe is a far stretch for many women today. meet a guy, have a physicaly attraction, pursue him regardless of his availability- it is an all too common way of thinking.

alright, i think i'm done now. thanks for letting me vent. hope i haven't come across as an uber-bitch.

6 months and counting

little guy turned 6 months old yesterday. here is a snapshot from of him with his favorite new toys, the keys. they make him oh so very happy. and he will death grip hold onto them forever.

who knows what this expression is?

some serious head tilt going on here. oh how i adore hats.

snuggling with grandma j in mason's old jammies. brings back memories.

a smile. love the smile. he is generally a very pleasant, easy going baby. but the other day, staci was holding him and he was bawling his eyes out. major tears. granted, he was a mean combo of hungry/tired, but still, caused me some worry. stranger anxiety isn't usually for a few more months and with the twins, it was very mild. i am hoping to continue on my "no clingy babies" streak. lets hope joe was just in a mood and this is not a sign of things to come.
happy 6 months to you!

heart hair

in a total and complete rip-off from my friend amberly's blog, i give you marissa's heart hair. as it turns out, her hair is not long enough to have the heart arc appropriately so the braids just form loops instead of actual hearts but i like it nonetheless. and she liked it too!

this is the website amberly got it from: http://hair4myprincess.blogspot.com/2009/01/quick-easy-cute-heart-ponytail.html

breakfast

it is a slow news week apparently. not much happening here. so in an effort to document the minutia of our lives, here is an in depth look at typical jackman family breakfasts.

things we like to eat for breakfast:
pancakes, pancakes and more pancakes. they are requested at least 4 or 5 times a week. my current recipe is my most favorite pancake recipe of all time. they are light, tasty and soak up the syrup. restaurant pancakes got nothing on these babies. i have posted the recipe on my good eats blog. thanks for introducing them to us staci!

eggs. since i am not a huge egg eater (pregnant anne loves eggs and craves protein hourly, but every day anne is not an big egg fan) i make them just for the kids. mason loves over hard eggs. this is the way i always make them because too runny of a yolk plain grosses me out. really. marissa likes eggs fine and also likes cheesey scrambled eggs, mason not so much.

breakfast meats. we all are huge carnivores and enjoy ourselves some bacon and especially sausage. this is a special treat and only once in a while will we break out the good stuff.

we also love french toast, waffles (homemade and eggo) banana bread, hootenany pancakes, oatmeal pancakes (really very good, very filling) cinnamon rolls, muffins, yogurt, and lots of fruit. special occassions find us eating blueberry sour cream coffee cake, sticky pull-aparts or special breakfast casserole. i also have a recipe for a sinful syprup that is has been dubbed "crack sauce" by the shaws and "special syprup" in my house. i make it for the kids' birthday.

we are also big toast eaters. cinnamon sugar toast is a big favorite, we had that just this morning. but we will also eat it with jam or plain with butter. i think it can be traced back to our british isle roots, we could eat toast any time of day and when we need a quick snack, toast is often requested.

to drink we typically have milk, chocolate milk or fruit juice. yes, orange juice is pricey. but i feel justified in buying the good stuff (read not from concentrate) because we always drink all of it and its a great source of vitamin c and a full serving of fruit/vegetable for the day.

so there you have it. more than you ever wanted to know about our morning meal habits and preferences. and we ALL love brinner. for those not in the know, brinner is code for breakfast for dinner. and it is always a big hit.

cereal is not on the list because my kids don't like it. they do like small bowls or cupfuls of lucky charms or fruit loops DRY cereal to munch on whilst watching saturday morning cartoons. but to quote marissa, "now i'm ready for real food mommy."