Current Gulity Pleasures

I make this weekly. I don't want to admit how many times weekly. I call it brownie in a bowl. It's super easy. All the ingredients are already in your fridge or pantry. It only takes a tablespoon, a microwave safe bowl/mug and a microwave. I got the recipe from my mother-in-law, who got the recipe from her son, who got the recipe from his wife, who is the woman who has all the most delicious recipes.

The recipe:
4 T flour
3 T sugar
1 T cocoa
3 T milk
3 T oil
3 T chocolate chips
vanilla

Spoon all the ingredients into the bowl/mug. Mix them up. Add chocolate chips once the other ingredients are well mixed. Microwave for 2-3 minutes. ENJOY!

It's easy, it's not messy, it's warm and chocolaty and it's yours and you don't have to share

I usually make it late at night while watching my other guilty pleasure Studio C. Have you seen it? You should. It's funny. It's a comedy sketch show on BYU TV. We watch it online. 

This clip is especially great. 

ENJOY!

I Heart the Moon

The girls love Lucy

 Last week I took my girls once again to Half Moon Bay and the tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. Before going to the beach we stopped in town to take some photos. I saw these cute signs my last time at Half Moon Bay and knew they would make for some great shots.

 While I was taking this picture an older gentelman with a charming accent approached me to tell me he painted the signs and he did it for the children. What a nice man. I am sure glad he made these charming signs and displayed them for all to see and enjoy. It reminded me of the value of art and beautiful things. They bring so much joy to life.

Mally drawing "Mally" in the sand.

 Speaking of joy... I find so much joy at the beach. We met some friends at the tide pools. I planned this trip to be at the tide pools during low tide. It was ingredible. The tide was so low that the rocks and tide pools went out a long way. We saw crabs, fish, shells, and sea lions. Too bad I didn't take any pictures of them and too bad that the rain called our outing short. The kids didn't seem to mind the rain, but eventually we were too wet and cold. So, home we went. We spent the rest of the afternoon wearing cozy clothes, watching movies, drinking hot cocoa and trying to get warm again.

It was a good day.

Why I love this place

I love living here because on a lazy afternoon you can jump in the car and within 30 minutes be at beach. It's awesome. We went to Half Moon Bay and spend a sunny afternoon in warm 60 degree weather. Our sweaters and sweatshirts were not needed. Loved it. 

I gave the camera to Mally. This is me and Lucy from her perspective. 

Cute sleeping Lucy. 

The Holiday Rush

December was PACKED with visitors, parties, family, friends, trips, and travel. Here are a bunch of pictures from the month. 

At the first of the month uncle Marshall came to visit. 

Brothers playing Starcraft together. 

Eva posing outside of DreamWorks before the Family Christmas Party. 

Eva didn't dare get close to Santa, but Stephen and his co-workers gladly posed with St. Nick.

Sunday evening visiting the lights at the Oakland Temple.

We traveled to Sacramento for cousin Rachel's wedding. The kissing newlyweds.

Love was in the air. Us kissing Lucy. 

Eva and Rachel giving thumbs up to marriage.

The eating newlyweds.

Lucy with her newest cousin Conver.

Spending the day with cousin Lanelle visting for the wedding.

Aunt Sarah gladly holding Lucy.

Surfing Santa. 

Lucy trying to look like Santa.   

Taking Grandma Ward on a boat ride around the SF Bay.  

Mally on the Bay. 

Taking Grandma to Pier 39.

Lucy with Grandpa Nat. 

Dreaming of sugar plums. 

Girls playing Silent Night on the hand bells. 

The "Holy Family." 

The Christmas morning lineup. 

Girls with the gifts they gave each other. Eva made a joke book for Mally and Mally made a coloring book for Eva. 

My favorite Christmas gift, Boom Wackers, from the Suggs.  The musical instrument you play by hitting each other. 

We escaped for a night to stay in the Castle Creek Inn. 

The girls crashing in the car 

Seeing the lights at Temple Square with all the Lewis family. 

The Scotts at Temple Square.

With Grandma Mitchell. 

Mally's work of art. 

The girls with their favorite older cousin, Aubriaunna. 

The girls with Logan and Lizzy. 

And that's a wrap.

The Guardians Rise Again

One of the perks of Stephen's job is we get to see free screenings of DreamWorks movies before they open to the public. We went last weekend to see their newest film, Rise of the Guardians. Unfortunately, the power was out in the theater and about a 1/3 of the city. Apparently two hawks were fighting and crashed into a transformer and caused a widespread blackout. You can read about it here. Dumb birds.

So, this weekend we got to go again to the theater, but this time actually see the show.

My review of Rise of the Guardians:
It's magical, delightful and charming. It's definitely a great family holiday movie. It has a great message about belief and hope overpowering fear.

We got to see it in 3D and the first 30 seconds were so visually beautiful that I caught myself saying out loud, "so cool." Except for laughing I usually don't audibly make comments while watching a movie in a public theater. But, the show was too cool not to comment. My girls loved the show and even my baby was mesmerized.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Amazing things come out of our daughters' mouths.

Check out that drool. One continuous stream of milky grossness, from her mouth all the way to Stephen's shoe.  

Mally lost a tooth this evening. She was proud it was the first loose tooth that she didn't cry about the fear of it hurting. 

Crazy things are constantly coming out of Eva's mouth. She is always cracking me up with her comments. Sadly, I can't think of any funny ones to share right now. But I can think of something her friend Mathew said. This little 4 year-old guy turned to Eva and said, "Sometimes I just want to kiss you, but sometimes I am just too itchy." Well said Mathew. 

Speaking of mouths. Look closely, real closely and you can maybe see a mustache growing above Stephen's mouth. It's Movember and Stephen is joining other strange men and growing a mustache this month. You can see his daily picture updates on Facebook. 

8 for October

 It's been a while since I posted anything. It's hard to think of exciting and important things to blog about. So, to make it easy I will simply post 8 pictures from this month.

The happy sisters.

 

Lucy is now 4 months old. She's started eating solid foods.  You can tell by her smile she loves  them.

This is us outside of the Academy of the Sciences in Golden Gate Park. We attempted to spend the late afternoon there but arrived too late. Instead we enjoyed wandering the park. That place is HUGE. We will have to explore it some more another time.

Stephen took a business trip to DreamWorks' southern CA office.  It was more like a field trip.  DreamWorks flew down their whole northern California office just for the day for a company-wide meeting. 

Stephen and Lucy "napping." After Stephen confessed he was faking it and not really napping at all. 

Princess Eva by the SF Bay outside of Stephen's office building. 

A panda posing by the panda. Notice the SF Giants baseball cap on Po? It's to celebrate the Giant's World Series victory. 

Superman with his super cute leopard.