Love Story

This last weekend was our Ward's Variety Show. Kayley agreed to sing a song by Taylor Swift, "Love Story." She was so cute and we were so proud of her. Nick didn't think she'd do it at all and would end up getting scared, but we practiced every night and then that day, she even took a nap with her dress in anticipation of putting it on and performing. She was so excited and then even at the show, she kept asking me when it was her turn. She got up there and did great! Nick did film it while I was mouthing the words to her at the bottom of the stage. However I have no idea how to put the video on the computer. I'll have to see if Nick can do it. But, I also had my camera on the wrong setting when I gave it to Jess, so the pics aren't that great either! So I had to get some pics afterwards and of course her hair was all falling out, but it looked really cute and I had a flash forward to my future of putting up the girls' hair for their dances when they get older. Sigh!! Oh...and a couple of cute things she did was throw her flowers to the crowd in the middle of the song (she did that all on her own without any prompting) and she also spotted Nick videotaping her and she gave him the cutest little wave. We were very proud of her and love her so much!

Elizabeth's Baptism

This last weekend we got to go down to Farmington to my brother Edward's house for our niece Elizabeth's baptism. I didn't get any pics of the special birthday girl, so thanks Stephanie for posting a cute pic of Elizabeth and Edward! We had a blast with family as you can tell from the pics! The baptism was on Saturday and was great. It was neat to hear Elizabeth sing with Dale or Grand-dad (Stephanie's Dad) and it was good to hear talks from both Mom (Jani) and Denise (Grammy). Then all the nieces and nephews on both the Felker and Wright side that was there sang "I am a Child of God" for the opening song and Kayley was the loudest! I was afraid she wouldn't want to do it cause she is shy about things like that at times, but apparently not, so I'm excited for the Primary program later this year!

Then we went to Ed and Steph's house for lunch afterwards and the kids loved being able to play like crazy in their great spacious backyard! They played until dark as you can see from our trampoline pics. Then it was time for baths and let me tell you that we did start with clean water for all the little kids, but it didn't stay clean for long as you can also see from the pics. Then, we all surprisingly had beds (the adults) and the kids loved being able to sleep with their cousins, so it didn't matter that half of them ended up on the floor. Then Sunday came and our trip had to be cut short as Nick woke up with one of the biggest headaches. He took some medicine that made him nauseasted and he ended up throwing up on the way to church and then we left after sacrament meeting. But we had a great time with family.

One of Kayley's highlights of the weekend was getting the Rainbow Brite doll from Grandma Jani, as you can see in the pics here. She would have taken a bath with her if I had let her. Mom brought the one from when Katie was little that still is in her basement and let Kayley have it and she has been indebted to her ever since. When she gave it to her, Kayley said "Well, I was waiting until garage sales, but they take too long." Needless to say Rainbow went with us everywhere and still does and if she's not with her, she tells everyone that she has one now. It's cute.

Once There Was a Snowman

Well, once there was a snowman...today anyway! This last weekend we were lucky enough to get probably what will be our last snow for the winter. It snowed about 3-4 inches...probably our biggest for the year that I can remember anyway. By the time we got finished with our errands and naptime on Saturday, we went outside to play, but the snow would not cooperate for anything to make a snowman. So, luckily it has stayed cold enough until today and there was still snow on the ground so we put on our gear and built a snowman before it all melts in a few days as it's supposed to get up to 67 in two days (that's Missouri for ya!) Anyway, as you can see, Cora's pants are actually a bit big on her as they are 3T's rolled up, but they worked ok. She and Kayley were both excited to go out, but once we got out, Cora did not like it, between Einstein trying to take off with her gloves and her trying to walk in the snow, Cora was not a happy camper by the time we were finished with our masterpiece. I have to say that I was pretty impressed that I was even able to lift the middle snowball onto the bottom one...it was a lot heavier than I expected and I wasn't about to have to wait until Daddy got home to get it up for me, so I pulled out all my muscles and finally got it up there. Kayley liked it a lot and had a lot of fun. Then afterwards inside the girls sang "Once There Was a Snowman" about five times to each other. Kayley was so impressed with the snowman that she is anxious to show Daddy when he gets home from work, but she made sure to ask me that it wasn't going to melt before he got home. It was cute. It was a fun day and now we can officially say we built a snowman this year! :)

"Ana"

Today Cora woke up from a nap and asked me for a snack. Well, I couldn't figure out what she was saying, probably b/c I was trying to catch up on my blogging and not fully paying attention, but when I finally figured out what she wanted I realized she wanted a "Ana" as she calls it. I don't usually buy bananas very often as my girls go in and out of liking them and then they go bad and I am usually the only one that eats the banana bread, so to save my waist line, I indulge in other sweets! :) Anyway, I guess Cora has since realized that she loves Bananas! :) So I snapped a few pics of her with her bed head!

Our Cousin Katrina

The other day Katrina came over and played while Jess and Jud got some things moved and cleaned up at their place. She had pig tails in, which is now her trade mark according to Kayley. Anytime anyone has pig tails in now she always says they look like Katrina, no matter who it is! :) Well, I decided to see if Cora's hair would fit into pig tails (all of her hair that is) and it did and looked very cute I th0ught. I tried to get Kayley to wear pig tails so they would all match, but she's so into princesses that she has to always have her hair down now. Anyway, we had lots of fun with Katrina, I've never seen her so upset to leave our house before, Jess could barely get her out the door. It was cute!

JT's Birthday

Well, JT's 26th birthday was last week, so for his birthday he wanted everyone to join them for dinner at "On The Border" for dinner. Well, as JT was gone from the table, Jess asked the waiter to sing to him, but to keep it a secret as JT wouldn't have wanted them to sing to him. It was hilarious to see how embarassed and red faced he got. Sorry to enjoy your embarassment JT...er should I say JD as they called him! :) I forget how red faced JT can get. I remember when he and Jess got married and it seemed like the littlest things would get him so embarassed. It's also funny to look at the pic of his "BFF" as Jess and Becky call them. He's in the lower right picture. Salmone (sp?) and Becky Pinarosa joined us for dinner too. Sal is one of JT's managers so they work together 5 days a week, plus they work together in the Bishopric in church, so they see each other 6 days a week. They get along great and their wives sometimes have to tear them apart, but it's fun to see such two BFF's get along so well! :) Happy Birthday JT!

Cashew Chicken Recipe

Ok...so I had a few inquiries about my cashew chicken and since I know there are lots of restaurants that sell this, I wanted to let you all in on a little secret recipe and share Arlaine's (Nick's Mom) recipe of Cashew Chicken, which is Springfield style, which is in my opinion the only way to have it! Hope you enjoy if you decide to try it. I would say that it is almost one of my favorite home-cooked meals too. It is definitely Nick's!

Arlaine Bell’s Famous Springfield Style Cashew Chicken

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour 1 T garlic powder
1 T salt 2 eggs
½ cup milk 5-6 chicken breasts

Directions: Thaw chicken and cut into bite sized pieces. Mix eggs and milk and put chicken in there for about 5 minutes, but no longer. Mix flour, garlic powder and salt in another bowl and put chicken in there (without the milk mixture, go ahead and pour this out as you won’t be using it anymore). Heat skillet fryer to about 350-400 and melt a stick of margarine/butter and about ½ cup of oil. Fry in a skillet until golden brown and serve on top of rice with gravy sauce listed below. Arlaine Bell.

Cashew Chicken Gravy

Ingredients:
Chicken bouillon Oyster sauce
Water cornstarch

Directions: Doing a 1-to-1-to-1 ratio of each item, put a Tablespoon of bouillon and a Tablespoon of Oyster sauce and 1 cup of water to boil on stove top. Make more cups and more Tablespoons according to how much gravy you need. Then add cornstarch mixed in water to thicken gravy and serve on top of cashew chicken with rice. Arlaine Bell

Family Pictures 2009

Our family pictures from February 2009...

Just reminded of how old and grown-up Kayley is getting from all the pics!...Cora too!

We tried to get a few pics of just the girls, but Cora wouldn't leave my side...

Overall I thought they turned out pretty good. I always stress that one of the girls are going to freak out by one little thing the photographer says or does and that Nick's eyes are going to be shut. I was pretty pleased...although as you can see Cora seemed to have a little bit of a hard time at times, but we were able to get one that everyone was smiling and everyone's eyes were open! Wahoo! :)

Dates and more Dates

Nick went with Kayley to this Parents as Teachers Daddy/Daughter Valentine's Day Party. She was absolutely excited about going to it as we told her it was just going to be her and Daddy. She requested to ride in his truck with him and to wear her Sleeping Beauty Princess Dress. They had a blast! They came home with this cute magnet (or maggot as Kayley still calls it!) to be put on my fridge. I'm so glad that I'm blessed with such a sweet husband who is loving and kind to me and will do anything for his girls. It just made for such a special night for Kayley..she is anxiously waiting her next Daddy/Daughter date! Oh...and to make things extra special for Kayley, her song played on the radio on the way to their date. Her song is "Love Story" by Taylor Swift b/c it says "You be the prince and I'll be the princess." She always asks for me to look for her "Prince and Princess" song...you can listen to it below on our playlist if you haven't heard it before.

Then, we had a great Valentine's Day as I'm hoping everyone else did too! We decided to make it low key in order to save money. So to start it off, Nick came home on Friday after work and surprised me with my favorite snack, Jalepeno Cheddar Bites from Captain D's...with Ranch, they are to die for! :) I was excited and devoured them very quickly! Then, Nick's treat was for me to make him Cashew Chicken on Sunday (his favorite meal of all time), which we all enjoyed yesterday! Then we decided to do something different than what we do all the time. We like to go out to eat, but we very rarely go out to eat for Pizza at a Pizza Restaurant. Well, Saturday started and we went out on our normal errands. We got hungry, but didn't want to go out to eat for dinner yet, b/c it was too early, so we stopped at Sam's to get a snack and ended up getting pizza...so that pizza idea was shot. We decided instead to go to El Maguey's. It was still out of the ordinary as Nick is not a big fan of Mexican and we hadn't eaten at this one in Blue Springs yet. So we went and it was a success for everyone...even Nick! We also had a coupon, which made things even better! I love getting a bargain! It was a great Valentine's Day, but the best part was that I got to spend it with my very favorite 3 people in the world, Nick, Kayley, & Cora!

The Cutest Apology

Ok...I just have to write this so that I don't forget because it was so cute to me. The other day was Nick's day off during the week and we went to Petsmart to get some things for our new dog, einstein. Well, we were planning on going to Michelle's to see Shannon in the evening and on the way home from our errands the girls both fell asleep. We decided it would be best to let the girls sleep in the car while we got the dog washed before heading to Michelle's. We left the door open to the garage and the windows down so we could hear the girls. Well, evidently we weren't listening well enough as Kayley woke up saying she had to go potty, but she couldn't get out of her carseat as we had kept her strapped in to keep her asleep. Well we cleaned it up and had a fun visit at Michelle's. On the way home from eating dinner, Kayley got in her seat and as I was strapping her in, she said, "Sorry I peed in my carseat mom." I told her it was ok and it wasn't all her fault and that Mommy and Daddy should have listened for her better. I then told Nick what she said and he told Kayley it wasn't her fault either and then Kayley replied with, "Yep, it's partly your fault Dad." It was so funny and really cute and sweet that her apology was so sincere. I love our girls.