Happy birthday pepper!

Pepper turns 5!!!!

She decided she didn't want a birthday cake this year she wanted ice cream sandwiches! So thats what she got! And I have to say it was a great change! Yummy. Here she is opening her birthday presents.
She has been asking for a pillow pet forever! and she got the ladybug one from grandpa and grandma carroll~ she was so happy! she also got $2.90 from the money bag!

We met grandma and grandpa bowcutt at the park to celebrate her birthday the week before her birthday. she had a blast, that weekend she got a cute little puppet, and a new bike which she totally adores!

And here she is showing off her most prized possession.

Happy birthday big girl.

I don't have any pictures for this recipe, but I thought I would post it anyway since I haven't posted anything for a while and I thought it was time for a summer recipe. This is my favorite summer salad! So get ready to eat!

Triple p salad

pasta, pea, pesto

2 c. uncooked elbow macaroni (8 oz)

1 c. fresh snow pea pods

1 c. fresh sugar snap peas

1 c. frozen baby sweet peas

(if you don't have the snow pea pods or the sugar snap peas, you can just use more of the frozen sweet peas, and it still tastes great!) I have done it both ways and they are both good. when you are on a budget the frozen peas keeps this recipe cheaper.

1/2 c. mayonnaise

1/3 c. refrigerated basil pesto ( I have found this at walmart or albertsons, or harmons.)

2 med. green onions, chopped

2 teaspons lemon juice

1 teaspoons salt.

1. cook macaroni as directed on package, adding pea pods sugar snap peas and baby sweep peas during the last 2-3 min. of cooking time. Drain then rinse with cold water until cool.

2. Meanwhile in a large bowl mix remaining ingrediedents.

3. add cooked macaroni with meas to mayo mixture, toss to coat. cover, refrigerate for 2 hours or till chilled before serving.

Perfect for Summer!!!!

Enjoy:)

joey swimming with the olympians

Joey got to go to the swim with the olymian fitter and faster tour in Idaho Falls last week.

He had SO MUCH FUN!! They talked with him, gave him advice, and then they swam with him. what a great experience for kids! The olympians that were there where Misty Hyman and Ian Crocker. Joey was so proud and excited. He got their autographs on his goggle case! What an exciting night! Here they are getting thier instructions and Qand A with Ian and Misty.
Here's my Joe man.

Joey showing off his new t-shirt he got.

Ian and Misty doing thier autograph thing!

It sure motivated Joey and got him really excited for the next swim meet! He said he is even ready to try the breaststroke! His least favorite! talk about a motivational speech! Can't wait to see the improvement in him! What a fun night and thanks to grandma and grandpa carroll for driving up to take him since I was at home taking care of Alli and Jason who just got their tonsils out!

Thanks Uncle Jim!!! He helped me figure out how to get the pics from my phone to my blog!! thank you! I am so not into this technology stuff, brian bought me a touch phone and I can't figure out anything, plus I keep calling my friend at odd hours of the night when I try to call brian back. so sorry I am trying to figure this thing out. But I did get the pics I took of the kids the morning of surgery! Here are Jason and Alli right before they went into surgery. A little nervous, but all in all, pretty happy.
I know I know, I keep posting pics backwards, I am not promising that I will figure that out, we will just have to deal with my incompitence there. But this pic is of the kids on the way out to the car after surgery. How sad do they look! But of course I thought it was cute thy both fit in the same wheelchair and I didn't have to carry anyone.

They are getting ready do go back for surgery, they give them strawberry scented masks to practice breathing through, so when they hook up the gas it isn't as scary. They are just so darn cute together.

So here we are on day 3 after surgery and I am tired, Jason still won't sleep, he just cries all night. Alli is doing ok. she is one of those suffer in silence types. she just wants to be left alone and every once in a while a little cuddle, a popcicle, and her tylenol. A few more days, and hopefully things will start returning back to normal!!!

So the day after surgery, we are all tired, and cranky. But we are here! We have been missing Zach, he has been up at scout camp since Monday, Jason has really been missing him, (well we all have) he comes home tomorrow, and we can't wait! Alli and Jason had their tonsils out yesterday, I decided to get them done at the same time and just simply get it over with! Jason is bouncing back pretty fast, although today he is struggling a bit, but poor little Alli is having a hard time, but her surgery was a little more intense. Her tonsils were huge, and her adnoids were blocking 75% of her nasal pasage way. the poor girl couldn't breathe! So this will help both of them so much. I just can't wait till we are all sleeping and eating and breathing normal again! So anyway, I just wanted to give you all a little update. I actually took some pretty cute pics of them at the hospital, but they are on my phone, and I am too dumb to figure out how to get them on the computer, so sorry, maybe another day!!!

4th of july

All of my sparklers!

My cute kiddo's on the 4th of July they had so much fun! We just hung out at home this year, and did our fireworks with our neighbors, we had a great time. the kids ran around like crazy people. (they all slept in till like 11:00 the next day except zach who went to scout camp) but oh they had fun. Just look at the grins on their faces!!
Havin too much fun!

All grins and giggles, and sparklers, and fun! overall, it was a great time! Homemade donuts, yummy cake, way too much sweets, great friends, not enough family! but overall a great 4th of july!

zach leavin for scouts, and the kids workin in the yard with dad

So once again, my posts are totally backwards and messed up, but at least they are posted right??? So this first one is of Zach on the morning he is leaving for a week of scout camp. It is 4:45 in the morning of July 5th. He was so tired, and so excited. He is going to have so much fun! And Here are the kids helping Brian work in the backyard, we were pulling weeds for hours, and getting nowhere, so Brian gave up,and went and borrowed the neighbors 'toy' to get the job done quicker, and I have to say, it worked! It was done quicker! And a whole lot funner.
Joey hopping on for a ride.

Well.......what do you do when its Tuesday and you are so bored? you make cupcakes of course!

My kids thought I was crazy, but whats new! This was last week, I am a little slow in posting, but the kids were bored, and I was running out of ideas, so I decided to make cupcakes, and give them frosting, and decorations, and let them have at it! They had a blast! Here is pepper and Alli doing their very best at decorating!
Zachs final creation, of course, he lives in pokemon world! so his cupcake is geared towared pokemon!

Salt, just liked frosting the little cuppies, then licking off the yummy frosting! A kid after my own heart.

Pepper has to eat things one at a time first the frosting then the cupcake!

Joey with all his decorating tools ready to write! Go joey you're the man, look out duff, joey is the new ace of cakes!!!

More fun decorating!
Zach actually decorating! and enjoying it! I think its only cause he gets to eat it in the end!

Allicat posing with her cupcake! getting ready for the frosting!


Pepper, we gotta watch out with this one, if you don't watch her all the frosting will dissapear!!

hmmmm where to start, chocolate chips, or white chips?

maybe both....

so the next time you are bored on a tuesday.... maybe you should make cupcakes!!!!!!

ok so I had a bad tooth a long time ago, and I have been babying it for a while, well, a few months ago, it couldn't be babied any more, and I had to have it pulled, so because I refused to walk around for the rest of my life toothless, I have been looking into all of my options, while my self esteem has taken a major blow! I decided to have an implant put in, to look the most natural,and not have to worry about it anymore! Well, I had that done yesterday. The actual procedure was not that bad, other than the fact that to save a few bucks, I opted out of the sedation, so I totally knew that they were putting a screw into my jaw!!! Not cool, but it didn't hurt..... till I got home, and the local wore off. Now on day 2... holy moly, me and my chipmunk cheek and my bottle of ibuprofen. I feel like a walking bruise! One of the hardest parts, last night after I had it done, they told me, don't eat, drink, or talk for at least 4 hours, well hello, I have 5 kids and a husband who are curious, they kept coming in and asking me questions, checking on me, Jason totally couldn't handle it, he needed his momma!!! And now today, I may be feeling worse, but my house looks worse, oh well no rest for the wicked right??? so this pic shows that when I am totally losing my mind, I just might have a screw loose!! Kinda gross I know and I can't wait to heal its already feeling like forever, but hopefully soon I will get my smile back!

chuck-e-cheese!!!! where a kid can be a kid, and brian can too!

Alli's birthday was the midldle of May, and she told Grandma and grandpa Carroll that she just wanted to go to jungle jims. well, we realized that it is made mostly for kids under 9, and now she is in double digits, so she decided to go to play with chuckee cheese! pizza games the whole works! It was so much fun! Here are salt and pepper playing a game, collecting the oh so coveted tickets.
Jason and daddy playing the water squirting game. ( I think jason acutally won! sorry b)

here is pepper playing the bowling game! She absolutly loved it!!!

Joey and Alli racing in the motorcycle races!

Alli loving her late birthday celebration! It may be late but worth the wait! Thanks so much Grandma and grandpa!

southern utah family reunion

Jason being his crazy self on the drive playing with the slinkys. what a nut! The theme was for our family reunion was fiesta! So they had dress up things for us, we had so much fun! And yes even the adults got in on the fun. This is me and my sister Kami posing with our cute hats and moustaches! we had so much fun! although it was hard to be serious with moustache hair tickling your nose! I don't know how men do it!!!
Alli and Joey, so cute! I especially love Joeys crooked moustache It just fits his personality so well!

And Zach with his serious face just looks so good!

But this one is my favorite!!! They all look so serious! It was so funny! I was busting a gut laughing! We had so much fun! The weather was great, the food was yummy, the family was awesome! what more could we ask for~!

warm swim meet, big owie, new dryer, old friend

Swim meet in Draper Ut., this was a fun meet! It was warm, and beautiful, and Joey did awesome! Here he is getting ready for the backstroke! And here is the whole crew! Well we just had a small portion of the swim team at this meet, but we had fun anyway! Go Lava Heat!!!
And here is peppers big owie, she wanted to ride Jason's big boy bike, she got going just a little too fast, and CRASH, road rash. She said she decided to just ride her littler bike, I told her that was probably a good idea. ( by the way, the owie totally went away, to scar at all thank goodness)

ok, so more drama in the carroll household, my dryer bit the dust! On the upside..... I now have the dryer that matches my washer! YEA!!!

And more fun for me, I as able to meet up with my friend I grew up with! Those of my family that read this blog I am sure you all remember April! We met up with my friend Jennie (yes there is a long story there) and all had breakfast the other day! It was crazy and so much fun! It is so wild what a small world it really is! But wow it was amazing to see her again. And the memories it brought back!!!

A day at the park

We decided to hang out at the park the other day while Joey was at swim team practice. The kids had a blast. It was so relaxing, and fun! Alli literally hanging out, upside down.
Alli striking a pose, while pushing salt and pepper on the swings!

Jason getting ready to cruise down the slide!

More swinging! weeeee.

pepper filling an empty water bottle with sand.

What a relaxing evening! It was great weather (for a change) the kids loved getting out of the house for a while, the change of scenery did us all good!

lol

I realized yesterday that I have not laughed out loud for a very long time! I think everybody gets in funks, I have been in one, sure times are rough all around, everybody is broke, beinga a single mom is not what I signed up for, I run from sun up to sun down, and beyond, it seems I am always telling the kids do this do that..., medical issus with the kids, alli getting her tonsils out this summer, alli and joey getting glasses, zach getting braces, salt and pepper starting kindergarten, my own medical problems I am having a hard time with, things have been turbulent in the carroll household, Well, we were heading out of town the other night, Zach was in the front passenger seat playing his D.S. surprise surprise, Joey was directly behind him, playing gameboy, both boys had their windows down, Not even thinking I drove right by a sprinkler, and sure enough it went right in the window and got both boys, the looks on their faces were so priceless!!! I LAUGHED OUT LOUD in fact we all laughed out loud! we couldn't stop! we were all so shocked! It was so funny! So thank you to the person who was watering the road on the way out of town!!! You made my day! It felt so good to laugh again.