Pooped.

I love working hard. I love feeling exhausted at the end of the day and truly having something to show for it. Today has definitely been one of those days. I weeded my gardens, put away laundry (which is a much bigger task than it should be), ripped out the old medicine cabinet in our bathroom and installed a new medicine cabinet and light fixture, and since I finally painted Samantha's dresser we were able to get the kids room all organized. I should add that Mike helped with all but the weeding and laundry, during which he finished the upstairs kitchen floor so all we need to do is grout. I am starting to feel like we may be done with the house sometime in the semi-near future. The deadline 14-15 weeks away has really helped light a fire under our butts. I am off to put my feet up and try to stay awake during a movie.

Something in the oven...

I found this wall hanging the other day that said "Somewhere inside me there is a skinny girl trying to come out. I usually shut her up with cookies." This holds a lot more truth for me lately than it should. I think I know where the "bun in the oven" expression came from, I have been baking up a storm lately. It all started when I made these bad boys:

Um, heaven! They are pretty much homemade Nutter Butters. I made them for a ward BBQ a while back and haven't been able to stop thinking about them. I got the recipe here. If you haven't heard of ourbestbites.com yet, you are seriously missing out. I have made a number of recipes from their website and not one has failed to be absolutely delicious. And they are witty. And they take great pictures of their food.

Next up, their homemade scones. These aren't the Utah "scones", which I think are really sopapillas, but that's another discussion. These are tea time scones. I can't believe it took me so long to discover my love of scones. They have to be one of the best baked goods ever. The cook at my old job made raspberry white chocolate scones. I think I know why I was a little heavier when I left that job. Here is how to make the ones I made. We had them with strawberry freezer jam and they were all gone that day.

While I was in Utah, my sister got me a little treat, a carrot cake cookie sandwich with cream cheese frosting in the middle. I am on a mission to find that recipe. I tried this one, but it's just not the same. I thought at first they were ruined, but they actually worked out and were much better the second day.

And this week blueberries finally went on sale and this morning we had Martha's blueberry buttermilk scones. Not as sweet as the scones earlier, but absolutely fabulous! All I know is that this needs to end or else I am looking at delivering a 10 pound ball of butter. Somehow I don't think my 30 minute walk on the treadmill each morning is going to offset the extra calories. I'm going to go eat a cookie now...

Giveaway

I have been coveting this wrap for a long time now, and dealiciousmom.com is having a giveaway for it! You can check it out here. Oh yeah, and if you win, you have to give it to me:).

Catch up

It seems like I have been so busy this past few weeks and I had so much to blog about, but now I am so far behind that it feels overwhelming. So, I will sum it up with some pictures and call it good.

We went down to Naperville and picked up about 600 pounds of food storage for ourselves and some friends. Then spent the next day canning it all. Wheat anyone?

We had a sewing project with the young women and had some fabric leftover so I made some baby blankets for Ben (that's probably the new baby's name).
I have been figuring out how to use the Photoshop that Mike got for me:And I went to this awesome girl's graduation from dental school. How amazing is she? I am so proud of her. This is my great friend Jessica, she rocks:Mostly though, I have just been trying to keep up with my little ones. This is what I found the other night when I went in to check on the kids. She had taken her pants off, adjusted her diaper and put her pants back on inside out and backwards. And she was wearing Carter's hat backwards. The great part is that this isn't an unusual experience. Usually she takes off her Pull-up and puts her pants back on. I hope I get some of my energy back after this baby gets here. Otherwise I don't know how I am going to keep up!

And now I am off to a childless weekend in Utah hanging out with my family. My little sister is going into the MTC on the 27th, so I wanted to hang out with her before she left. I am a little worried that I will miss the kids, because this is the first time I have left them longer than overnight. But then I think about sleeping in, not cleaning up poop, and going out to eat with just me and other adults and I'm not so worried anymore. Good luck Mike!

Happy Mother's Day!

I just have to say what a great husband I have. Today was a fabulous Mother's Day. I didn't have to cook one meal, clean up one stinky bum (three times:)), or do any dishes. And I got an awesome nap. Could a mom ask for anything more?

Alright, these two are pretty great too:

I have to say that I am one lucky mama!

Hooray for Spring!

I am always so anxious to get my garden going in the spring. I am used to Utah weather where you can start planting in April. Out here, the rule of thumb is to wait until Memorial Day to be sure that the last chance of frost is gone. Mike convinced me that this is supposed to be a super warm May and it would be OK to plant early this year - he gets some pretty extended weather reports at work due to the fact that sales are in large part driven by the weather (as I am writing this, all of my plants are covered to protect them from tonight's possible frost, dang him).

Anyways, frost or not, I spent all day yesterday in the dirt and got it all in! I was most excited about the veggies, but planted some flowers for fun. The flowers are much more photogenic :).

This is my very favorite part of the garden, the herbs. You really can't beat fresh basil, thyme, rosemary and oregano. Not much to look at, but they smell absolutely divine!

I also planted asparagus, tons of tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumbers, corn, peas, lettuce and green onions. Now I just have to wait for them to grow!

On another note, when did I become so domestic? I was talking to my sister about my garden the other day and she was telling me how she was jealous of my garden. Seriously? I am trying to imagine us having this conversation in high school and it makes me laugh. My parents have a massive garden and we rarely bought produce at the store. They also grind their own wheat. Growing up I would have never guessed that would be me in a million years. Look at me now. I now grind my own wheat, bottle/can my own jam and salsa, make my own mozzerella, and am actually really looking forward to canning my own applesauce this fall. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Yes, I am aware that this is pathetically late, and yes, I am also aware that I have no Mexican heritage whatsoever. But hey, any excuse for pinatas and delicious food, right?
This year Derrick and Karen supplied the delicious food and we supplied the pinata (yes, that is an Easter basket pinata -$1 after-Easter clearance - couldn't pass that up!). Everyone got a shot at it, even little Summer. Carter was concerned about doing it with the Callisters because "grown-ups are too fast!" Apparently last time there was a pinata at a church function all the adults/older kids beat him out for the candy. This time, there was plenty for all. And then some. I had to eat and run off to a young women's activity (with another pinata, yeah!), but we had a great time and we can't wait for next year!

It's a boy!

Well, the doctor was out delivering a baby and so we had to reschedule for this afternoon, but we were able to get the ultrasound and it is a boy! I'm 3 for 3 now on guessing my kids' genders. It's like I'm a baby psychic or something. Now if I could just figure out everything after they come out...

Anyways, we are all super excited, especially Carter, who wants to name it Carlos. We will not be factoring in his opinion come naming time (not that Carlos is a bad name, but we have a brother and sister in law with a dog named Carlos). Everything else looked good, so in September we should have a healthy little boy!

Stay tuned...

Tomorrow I have my ultrasound scheduled. So, as long as the doctor isn't out delivering someone else's baby and the baby decides to cooperate, we should find out what we are having. There is definitely less anxiety now that I have one of each, but it will be nice to know how we are decorating the nursery!

Any bets on whether it's a boy or girl?

So long, Time Warner Cable.

After much discussion we cancelled cable yesterday. Today is the first day in the Chaplin home in a long time that we are without cable. Even bigger, we are without DVR. The hope is that we will get more done around the house and that the kids will be more active. I have absolutely no faith that being cable-less will help that, but hey it's worth a shot, right? At least we will be saving money. I am definitely starting to feel the crunch with the baby coming. I know I still have a while, but with how little we get done with 2 kids, how are we going to get anything done with 3? I am sure that we will figure it out, but I definitely need to get going on the house projects. With our favorite babysitter (Dora) gone, how is that supposed to happen? Who needs more active kids anyway?

Free Food!

Today only, you can go here and print a coupon for a free KFC grilled chicken 2 piece combo meal (you can print up to 4 and they are good through the 19th). Um, Yum!