Pigs in a Blanket

This one is a family favorite that everyone loves.

Ingredients:

I used to make the dough from scratch, until I discovered the wonderful fresh made pizza dough at Winco. If you don't have a Winco nearby you can use Rhodes or your favorite dough.

hot dogs

2-3 slices American or cheddar cheese

Slit each hot dog 3/4 through (not all the way)

Cut hot dogs in half lengthwise to make them shorter and cuter. (o:

Cut the cheese (ha!) into strips and place a cheese strip inside the sliced hot dog

Divide dough into enough sections to wrap around each hot dog/cheese

Put the blanket on the piggy.

For the dipping sauce mix:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. mustard

Heat over stove or in microwave for 1-2 minutes (covered) until sugar dissolves.

Wrapping the piggy with the blanket is the girls' favorite job.

Sometimes we get creative with how we put the cheese in - this is actually a bit much.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or whatever temp. the roll dough directions tell you.

Fancy Hair Days

I mentioned in earlier posts my new "tradition" of doing one of the girl's hair fancy each week. Well that tradition isn't particularly consistent on Sundays when I have meetings or JacobJingleheimer* gets called in to work at the last minute. More often than not we don't have time to be fancy. But on Sundays when we have time, we still try to keep this up. Last Sunday I attempted to do some cool braids in Angela's hair. I tried three times . . . my hands are so uncoordinated, I never quite got it. so this is what I did instead. Luckily, Angela wasn't too disappointed, but if she knew better she might have asked, "Why did it take 45 minutes to do THAT?" I love the cute black and white bow.


And while I was at it I took the other girls' pictures...

Natalie hardly ever does normal faces anymore . . . hmmm, just like her dad in so many ways. . .

Some of the Girls' Favorite Things...

I don't remember if I put that top picture in before, but it is so funny, it's okay to see it twice.

Top of the list of the girls favorite things right now is ... playing outside.

I'd like to introduce everyone to "wormy". Wormy is a special toy at our house. I think he probably cost about 15 cents so he was the best bargain toy ever. My girls got this at Sarah's butterfly birthday party when she turned 6. It was one of the party favors each of the kids got, a "caterpillar". It's about 2 1/2 inches long and the girls absolutely love it. Every so often wormy gets lost for a while, but when we find him it is a happy day. I recently found him after a 3 month sabbatical when I was putting some empty canning jars in boxes - lo and behold - there was wormy in the bottom of one of them. I remembered Natalie playing like he was a real worm and keeping him in a jar so he wouldn't squirm away. The girls eat meals with him, make block castles for him and love to carry him around everywhere. He is very portable. They always fight over whose turn it is to hold wormy. Who knew a rubber worm could be so exciting?

These two food items are a favorite for the girls AND they are good for them, so we always keep stocked up on Fiber One bars because we like to be "regular" in our house (o:

And we always have Trident in our gum drawer. The kids think it's a special treat and it is great for their teeth. Our dentist actually encourages them to chew a piece every day.

Sarah has been a big Junie B. fan for some time, but we recently discovered a very fun way to enjoy Junie B. Jones. We found books on CD at the library and we all have LOVED listening to the hilarious commentary on Junie B. Jones day to day problems and quirky ways of dealing with those problems. We all laugh out loud at some of the funny things she says and does. Even Angela understands the humor. We love Junie B.!

Below is a lovely picture of one of the girls favorite things to do outside...

Making "nature soup"

Doesn't it look delicious?

Stuff I Like

One of my favorite shows, The Office, had it's season finale last week. Good thing I enjoy watching them over and over and find new things to laugh about every time. I love all the characters, I think Dwight is my favorite. Kevin is a close second.
And American Idol . . . I was routing for Adam (guy on left, in case anyone doesn't know) until he sang U2's "One" - blah. His high pitched "aahh"ing with his tongue sticking out finally got to me and I couldn't stand it any more. He ruined a song that I really love. But he was always so darn entertaining - especially in his wacky "costumes". I'm glad Chris won - he seems like a really nice guy - very talented too. This was a fun season to watch - one of the most entertaining. P.S. the final show with the scene with Kara and bikini girl - T A C K Y. That was so so so dumb. I have no respect for either of them, but especially Kara. Lame - stooping to bikini girl's level. That's my two cents...

This is the book I am reading right now - I am really enjoying it, I like how Bronte inserts comments to the "reader", cool writing style, especially for how long ago it was written...

We discovered these at Costco recently and all I can say is...

YEEE UUUM! We ate the whole big old bag in a day - they are so yummy and pretty healthy too! Bonus!

Oh, this turned out pretty tiny - this is my favorite piano song at the moment... Moonlight Sonata - an easier version, of course, but nonetheless, still a very pretty arrangement. I love, love, love being able to play the piano - it is such a joy. I'm so glad that I decided to learn even though I'm so "old". (o: I had my third recital this weekend - I'll try to post a video of Sarah and I doing our numbers. This song wasn't my number, but one I've been working on recently. It is such a beautiful song.

Okay, this might sound like a weird one, but Hank* and I love this show. I guess I like to get freaked out a little. Ghost Adventures is the most interesting "ghost" show I've ever seen. These guys are pretty funny, the guy on the right is especially hilarious because he's kind of chicken. These guys take video cameras and other equipment to try and document ghost activity in haunted locations. They have someone lock them in at each location overnight - they've documented some pretty crazy stuff. While I'm not a big fan of people getting too preoccupied with this kind of stuff, as one priest put it, these guys are "playing with fire" - it is still so interesting to me.

You'll Be Glad To Know

Have you ever heard of the Cassowary bird?

I hadn't either until last week.

I provided some pictures so you can see the freaky things.

Apparently, it is one of the most dangerous birds in the world! Bet you didn't know that.

Well, you'll be glad to know that there is one less Cassowary on the loose thanks to my brother...

My brother is a police officer in Utah and has some pretty great stories from the past year on the job. But this story made it on the news. Wanna see? Click on the link to the title to see a video of my brother's 10 seconds of fame. They didn't even spell his name right, but I guess you can't be too picky. Andy kind of got framed by his police officer buddies. They all saw the news reporter before he did and took off leaving him there. (o: Apparently, there is a strict rule that anyone who gets interviewed on the news has to bring pie for the whole crew. Bummer for Andy.

I think he's pretty cute though - what a professional - is that the same little brother that used to light things on fire and stick potato bugs in his nose? (o:

Thanks all...

I appreciate the comments... it turns out the one from my cousin April - putting the html < br > (without the spaces) did the trick just FYI. Thanks!

Kindergarten Zoo Field Trip

Isn't the baby elephant so cute?

We had two field trips to the zoo in the last little bit - one with Angela's preschool group a couple weeks ago and one with Natalie's Kindergarten. We love the zoo! I was excited to be paired up with Shannan. We had a small group with our own kids and Ashtyn. It was a great day! Good weather, cute kids, and a picnic break with Ms. Hric made for a fun time!

Natalie is always enthralled by the sea lions. She LOVES this exhibit - a girl after my own heart. On her homework for the next few days Natalie drew lots of sea lions in blue water.
Our cute field trip group. (o:

The penguin exhibit stinks! We like it, but it stinks!


Petting big old cockroaches.

In the polar bear cave!

Memorial Weekend '09

We have had fantastic weather the last two weeks. Usually this time of year is still hit and miss with rain and cooler weather, but we have been blessed with absolutely gorgeous summer weather for a looong stretch and it has been divine.

Sooo, on Memorial weekend, when we discovered Louie* wouldn't have to stick around for work. (It's so hard to plan anything ahead of time these days - we never know what days hours Louie* will be needed to fix problems that crop up at work. In case anyone is wondering, since the topic has come up a lot - things are VERY busy at work and will be through the summer as Louie* helps ramp up a new technology. It is a pain, but we are grateful for job stability. We're also grateful for an awesome daddy who works so hard for us!)

Sooo, as we celebrated getting to spend the day all together and deciding how we wanted to spend it - in our shorts out in the sunshine - we decided to go to the beach! Sometimes we forget, though, that just because it is 85 and sunny in town, doesn't mean the beach is having the same weather. Good thing I had emergency backup clothing with long pants in the back of the van. It was freezing! If the girls weren't so excited to play in the sand, I would have suggested we go walk around in some nearby stores to pass the time.

Louie* and I set up the beach tent and hunkered down while our girls, who were oblivious to the cold, dug and played and ran and laughed as if we were on a white sand beach in Waikiki.

Here was my cute view of Angela from the tent. (o:

Natalie coming in the tent for a mango snack.
Sarah loves to dig holes at the beach! (o:

We, of course, had to stop for dinner at Camp 18 and get some hot chocolate!

On Memorial Day, we had a low key day around the house. It was fabulous weather in town again. We bought lemonade at the neighbors lemonade stand . . .

We played jumprope . . .

Natalie even got the hang of it!

And, of course, a little roller blading and a BBQ to top off the evening.