Slumber Party!

Last night Riggs & Jax spent the night. Noah loved it. Before they got here he was saying, "Riggy is nice." Then he'd say "Jaxen is nice too." That's what he does when he gets excited. Last week I was taking him to Auburn's house to get babysat. On the way there he was so excited and would say "We almost there!!!", then "Auburn is nice."

Anyway last night Noah kept the boys up til past 11:00. He was being really annoying and they just wanted to go to sleep. He was so excited for them to sleep in his room with them but we ended up taking Noah in our room with us just so that Riggs & Jax could go to sleep. It was fun - Riggs & Jax were good sports!

If you have nothing better to do....

Yesterday I experimented with my blog and created a new heading for it. I really liked the way it turned out so I decided to do another for a new blog my sisters & I created. I liked that one way better. (Click here to see it.) Now I want to do mine over, but I'm not letting myself just yet. Anyway, it was not that hard. You actually just start off with a Word document. I'll explain how I did it, but I don't know if everyone else's settings on their computer are the same.

1) Inside Microsoft Word or Word Perfect, type up what you want your heading to say. Use the fonts & colors you want.

2) If you want to add in any shapes, go to insert and click on SYMBOLS. That's where I got my hollow circles, my solid circles, & my lines. Since I wanted different sized circles & lines, I just copied and pasted everything for as many different sizes I wanted, then I changed the font size. Also copy and paste the symbols for as many colors as you want and then change the colors. You don't have to arrange the symbols the way you want them here. You will do that later.

3) With your word document, you will want to turn it into a PDF file. In my Word Perfect, I do this by going File -> Publish to -> PDF. Then just save it. (Save as a word document also in case you need to go in and change anything later. I don't think you can change it once it is in PDF, but I don't know for sure.)

4) Now go in and open up the PDF file. With the little camera icon, select everything. A little message will come up saying something like "copied to clipboard". That's all you need to do with the PDF file. It has turned your word document into a picture.

5) Now go into your picture files and create a new picture. Click paste and everything you selected from PDF will be pasted. Now you can use this picture to piece together your header. You can copy and paste things here in the picture editing. To get my lines of stripes, I put a bunch of stripes together in a random order and then copied that group and pasted it over and over to create a long line of stripes.

6) If you're wondering how I overlapped the circles on top of the stripes, there is a way to do that in the picture editing. Let's see if I can explain it to anyone who might still be reading. Click on the selection tool (top right of toolbox - dotted line rectangle). On my screeen, I see two little boxes at the bottom of the toolbar. Both have shapes in them. When I click on the bottom one on my screen, it allows me to select something and then move it and place it over something without covering anything up, but overlapping it instead.

7) So get your picture just the way you want it, and not too big for your header space. Save it.

8) Log into your blog and edit the template. Click on edit for the header. There is a place to enter an image, and that's where you will browse your computer for the picture you just created. Once you enter the picture, make sure to choose that your picture replaces the blog title & description.

I think that's all. If anyone really read this whole post, get a life! What am I talking about? I took the time to not only create 2 new headers, but then to write out all of the instructions. I wouldn't be such a computer nerd if it weren't for She's Got It All. I learned a lot about editing pictures as we were building the website. Speaking of the website, I'm posting our first project idea tonight. So if anyone is interested in reading a-whole-nother set of how-to instructions, check it out. Or just check it out for pictures!

You like?

I keep on seeing these blogs that don't look like anybody else's so I somehow figured out how to make myself an original design to match my blog. Anyway I have a Sunday project I need to be working on and instead I wasted my time making this new blog header & not getting a nap in! But FYI Noah fell asleep on my bay window cushion as he watched me. A few minutes ago he fell off and I felt really bad. I put him back to sleep and now I'm back at it and of course making a post about it!

From the mouth of Noah

Noah says some of the funniest things. I usually repeat them about 6 times so I can tell my mom, sisters, & Steve the funny things he says. Over the past few days there have been so many!

1) It's always funny to me when he tells us during sacrament meeting that he has to go "on the toilet". (When he hardly ever tells us this at home.) It happened again on Sunday, and can you believe that Steve said "just go in your diaper". Noah will never be potty trained at this rate. He said back to Steve "NO, ON THE TOILET!"

2) Sunday night as we're watching our show (I won't say the name - if you know the characters, you must watch it too). Anyway, Noah kept asking us, "Where's Gabby?". Then he would ask us, "Carlos is nice?"

3) Also on Sunday night Noah was standing in one place concentrating, and Steve asked him, "Are you poopin' in your diaper?" Noah said back, "Just peepin". I can't even type that without laughing out loud to myself. (Sometimes when we go to change Noah's diaper we ask if he has poops, and he says, "just peeps". So we've gotten used to the word peeps, but not "peepin".)

4) Everytime Steve & I get in the car to go somewhere, I usually ask him, "Do you have the keys?" Anyway yesterday it was just Noah & I, and he said to me, "You have the keys?". He is a parrot!

5) Last night we were getting into the car & Steve jumped out to go back in the house for something. Noah said to me, "Where's Steve?" Sometimes he calls me Shalae too.

Of course all these things he says are funny but what makes it even better is his voice. He is so hilarious. Sometimes a devil too though! Like lately when he's mad at me he'll say one of 2 things:

6) "I'm mad at you!", or "I tell my daddy".

I've realized that he's getting old enough that we should really be careful about what we say around him & what we watch on t.v.

The best recipe for CHICKEN ENCHILADAS!

At Christmas time, my friend Lexi made the best chicken enchiladas. I never got around to asking her for the recipe until just about a month ago, and I was reminded how much I loved them when I finally made them. So, you should all give this recipe a try - it's sooooooo good.

6 chicken breasts, boiled & shredded (I think that 4-5 pieces would actually be enough - 6 is just what Lexi’s recipe said. But I had a sandwich bag of leftover shredded chicken.)
FOR THE SAUCE:
1 pint sour cream
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 small can diced green chilies
1 dozen flour tortillas (small) or 6 flour tortillas (large)
1-2 cups broth from the chicken (add accordingly to how thick you want your sauce.)
1.5 - 2 cups grated sharp cheese (I liked using lots IN the sauce, and then more on top of the enchiladas at the end)
Directions:
*Boil chicken with a stick of celery, 1/2 onion, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
*Bone chicken when cooked and break or shred into bite size pieces.
*Layout tortillas and fill with a healthy serving of chicken, some sauce and cheese.
*Roll and place in a lightly greased pan, close to each other.
*Pour remaining sauce over the enchiladas and top with cheese.
*Cover with foil and bake at 325 until warmed through and cheese is bubbly (this took me about 30 minutes or so).
*Remove foil the last 10 minutes of baking.

You be the judge

People often ask me who Noah looks like more - me or Steve? I have to tell them it's really 50/50. Actually, I think that Noah looked a lot like Steve when he was newborn, but now I think he looks more like me. What do you think? It was really fun to dig up baby pictures of Steve & I to see how much Noah looks like each of us! (P.S. I had to cut & paste the pictures, since I scanned in 12x12 pages & my scanner only scans 8.5" across, so excuse the photo editing.)

Happy Birthday Jaxen!

6 years ago today, my nephew Jax was born. It was such a good day. I still remember it & can't believe he is already 6 years old.

I remember when Jax was a little toddler, I wanted a baby boy that looked just like him and was just as sweet as him. Jax has the cutest brown eyes and Noah got them too, just like I hoped for!

I had to include this picture just because I love it. This is Jax with his brother Riggs. They are the cutest.

And this is the kids with Noah when he was born. Jax of course is the one with his face outlined.Happy Birthday Chan Chan. We love you!!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!!

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, C'MON!

IT'S A CELEBRATION!

Can you tell that I'm really excited? Suzanne & I finished up some last minute editing for our May 1st deadline and as soon as I was done with my part I had to make a quick post about it. It's almost 2am but I'm feeling good right now. Our website is now in the "upkeep" stage and not the "building" stage. This is soooooo exciting for us!! So start shopping everyone! And our website has a cool GUEST BOOK feature that allows people to leave messages - it's kind of like blogging!