Weekends Are Great!

I started my weekend a little early with a girl's night out with my Best Friend since 6th grade, Hollie.  We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  We talked until we couldn't stand the stink eye from the manager, waiter, and bus boy all wanting our table.  Then we walked around the mall for another 2 hours talking.  It was so nice and we agreed that we needed to get together more often.  Hollie is one of my friends who accepts me completely, knows my faults and still loves me.  It's so nice to have people like that in our lives.  I'm blessed with lots of people like this in my life and always feel such gratitude after spending time with them.

Friday the boys got haircuts.  P needed 2 Otter Pops to keep him calm, but he did great!   Saturday we had lots of work to do.  During the afternoon we were lucky enough to get a visit from Grandpa Randy and Uncle Micah.  My favorite part of the visit was Priya obliging her Uncle Micah's request for a kiss, he was a little taken back by how slobbery baby kisses are.  :)  After they left, I headed for my parents' house with the kids for an overnight visit.  I had some laundry that required front loaders and they asked to see the kids.  It was really nice to spend time with them.  There is nothing like going back to the place you were raised to be with your parents.  My heart is at peace there.  We only spent the night because Aaron went to the Real Salt Lake home opener for a Guy's Night.  He had a lot of fun.  We rushed home early Sunday to make it to church.  It was a tiny miracle we made it on time!  We were lazy Sunday afternoon and all took a nap.  We decided to copy cat a dinner we had at my cousin's house earlier in the week.  I was super excited to make some home made sweet potato fries to go along with it.  They were awful.  I was disappointed, they were a lot of work.  Oh, well.

Sweet Potato Fry---FAIL

He likes the vibration.

I just finished up a batch of chocolate chip cookies with Porter helping through the whole thing.  I was so proud of all the things he could do by himself.  Baking together has taught him some very specific skills.  He scraped the beater with the spatula, measured, poured and (his favorite) turned the mixer on and off and to a higher speed.  He also has learned his safety rules very well. That doesn't mean I don't watch him like a hawk and unplug the mixer until we're ready to use it.  However, he knows- "You can only turn it on when Mommy says, hands on the bowl or top at all times when the mixer is on - no wild hands.  If you don't listen, you don't get to help."  Little quiet moments like this make me so grateful to be their Mother and at home with them.  The funniest thing to watch was Porter tasting the flour after being pleasantly surprised by the sugar... he sputtered and gasped after taking a mouthful of it.  We had a little talk about the difference between sugar and flour.  He took it to heart.   He'll be so proud to serve his cookies at FHE tonight.