Calling ALL Pampered Chef Fans!

Alright all you P.C. fans out there......It's finally here!!! After much excitement and waiting the new spring/summer catalog is out and there are sooooo many new products! Not that the other products aren't fabulous because they all are, but it's something about a new catalog and new things that always get me excited! Since I am always looking for ways to celebrate, let's CELEBRATE!!!! But, first of all, you have to check out my Tropical Lime No-Bake Cheesecake! (see picture above) This recipe is in the new cookbook and it is to DIE FOR!! I am not kidding, it is the best thing I have ever made!

As part of the celebration, I'm doing a catalog show this month and offering 10% off and FREE shipping! You can't get a better deal than that! Well, actually you can! For those of you who want to host a show you can get FREE products, FREE shipping, half off items, and up to 10-30% off the entire catalog! I'm also giving away free gifts worth $10-15 of P.C. products if you book a show with me! It's just a little thank you gift I am offering for booking a show! While I'm at it, I just wanted to say "Thank you" to all of the family and friends who have hosted shows the last few months! I have had so much fun getting to know all of your friends and I hope you have been enjoying all your FREE products you earned!!!!

So, if you have my personal website address, hop on over and check out the new catalog! If you don't have my personal website address just leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you! Take a look at all the 28 new products, along with all the other amazing products and let me know what you want to order!

Oh, I forgot to mention....Bamboo products are 60% off for hosts this month. For regular guests, you can get a specialty bamboo spoon set for FREE with a an order of $60 or more!!! So don't waste any more time and go check out the new products!

Kitchen updates

Here are some updates on how the kitchen is coming along...

These aren't the most recent pictures but we are getting soooo close to being back in the kitchen. The cupboards will be finished by tomorrow, I hope! The granite was installed yesterday and it should be ready to use next week. We will hopefully have a sink, oven and stove top the first of next week!!! It's so close I can taste it! (I mean literally with all the sawdust in my food, lol!) The only thing that would make all this re-modeling even better if it were my own kitchen! Maybe someday I will have my own nice beautiful kitchen!!!!! Until then, I get to use this one!

This section of the pantry is pretty much finished except the handles and we have already begun using it!!! It has been sooooo nice. I can't tell you how excited I will be to actually be able to cook a regular meal in a kitchen and not have to do dishes in the bathroom sink!!!! I guess it's only been a little over a month without a kitchen which is so much better than some people have when they re-model. I tell you what, I sure have had to be creative with some meals in the microwave. If it weren't for my pampered chef stoneware and micro-cookers I would be starving everyday and spending tons of money at restaurants! Speaking of pampered chef.....stay tuned for some exciting deals!!!!

Our month in Review

This is what we have been up to this month.....Rayden has gotten to play with his cousin Cameron! He loves to play with his cousins. They were outside playing Lego Star Wars in some old boxes and the jet ski trailer. Boys have such a great imagination! Rayden and Cam play so good together! I so wish we lived closer so they could play all the time!

This is one of Ryker's faces after eating a sour patch kid. He loves to eat sour things and makes the funniest faces!
This was my baking experience for the month. I just got the new Pampered Chef cookbook for the season and we made this yummy Raspberry pink champagne cake! Our first attempt turned out a little interesting but the second one was perfect!!!


My mother-in-law has been remodeling her kitchen and this is what it looks like all torn up! It has kind of been fun to have to "camp" in the front room. We have also been going to Randy's brother's house every night for dinner. It's kind of different and fun to go to someone else's house for dinner each night. The kids especially like eating with their cousins each night!

Our make shift eating area
The kitchen all torn up!! It will be worth it when it is all done and we have a new kitchen! My mother-in-law must not want to get rid of me because it will be hard to live in another kitchen after enjoying her new kitchen (when it's done that is)!


Isn't Ryker sooooo cute? I had the hardest time with him for the first year of his life, he was so difficult for me to take care of. Now that he is starting to talk and play better he is just so fun! I love him to pieces! I also love that he can just fall asleep anywhere! The last couple weeks he has fallen asleep standing up twice! He must get it from his dad!

Ryker also loves to wear my high heels, and I mean HIGH heels!!!! I can't believe he can walk in those heels but believe it or not he does better than me in them!


All he needs to do is click his heels and say "There's no place like home!"


I don't know why blogger put this picture side-ways so just imagine it turned to the left. Anyway, this is one of things that the boys love to do every night after bath. They jump out of the tub and I put the towel around them and they pretend to hide on the mat. Rayden has done it for years and now that Ryker is old enough and he of course copies everything his brother does, he hides too! They are just too cute! I just love my sweet little boys! They are the best boys a mother could ask for and I'm so grateful to have them in my life! They add joy and happiness to my life each day!

It's about time

I know I have been really slacking in posting some pictures on here. To be honest, I haven't really taken very many lately. Here are a few odds 'n ends of what we have been doing, including some Christmas pictures that I never posted. Enjoy!

Rayden has wanted this race track for months and Santa finally brought it to him! He loves playing with it. I was a little sad because I thought it was broken after only a few times of playing with it. I thought maybe it needed new batteries but after replacing them I still couldn't get the motor to turn on. I even called "Santa's workshop" (Matel) to see if I could get a replacement. The day I was to ship it back to the "workshop" I tried one last time to see if I could get it to work. I put the batteries in and still wasn't having luck. I left the switch to on and turned away from it to help Ryker with something. Rayden was just messing around with it and stuck his finger in a little hole and magically it turned on! Then, when he took his finger out, it turned off. Then I realized that I forgot to put the long poles on the sides to help hold it up and that is a step that specifically says not to skip in the instructions or the motor won't turn on. "Duh mom", Rayden said!!!!! Luckily I found out my mistake before I sent it back!

Here is our cute little family before the kids tore into the presents! Ryker doesn't look too thrilled but he loved playing with all the loot Santa brought him! His favorite thing from Christmas has been a little lego dump truck and his ball popper!

We have also gotten quite a bit of snow this winter!!! The kids like to go outside and help Grandma push the snow off the driveway!

Ryker didn't like to be out in the snow very much but he looked so cute in his snow pants and coat! I couldn't keep his gloves on and his hands were freezing!

We went Christmas caroling on a horse drawn wagon for our family Christmas party. We love going caroling and this year wasn't quite as cold as last year, maybe because I dressed warmer! Ryker managed to fall asleep just before the wagon pulled off and he stayed asleep the entire time! Must be a Riddle!

We even went sledding a few times so far this winter. The first time wasn't so fun because the snow hill was packed so hard from people sledding that it was hard, bumpy and a little rocky, ouch! Randy I both let Rayden talk us into going all the way to the top of a very long, steep hill! It took me a few weeks for my bottom to recover from that one!

Ryker LOVES hot chocolate! I can't keep him away from it! I love the mess it leaves all over his face!

Ryker didn't like going down on the tube. I think he was a little scared. Maybe next year bud!

Memory Post

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you.

3. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

4. Please do this on your page too, so we can all share in the fun times together :-)

Roller Coaster!

What a week this has been!!! I literally have felt like I've been on a roller coaster this week. Since now that I work-out all the time and am constantly thinking of aerobic routines I have to relate everything I do to working out. For instance, you know how one way to get a really good workout is to switch back and forth between high intensity and low intensity moves? Well, I wonder if the same goes for emotional workouts. Do you think it is healthy to to exercise yourself emotionally by switching back and forth between high and low emotions???? I hope so because that is what my week has been like.

I have gone from being so excited and happy and thinking I have the best life in the entire world, to completely frustrated and angry and unhappy the next minute. Looking back on my week I have realized that I probably acted foolish in certain situations to bring on my emotional roller coaster so I guess the important thing to realize is that I can learn from my mistakes and try to not repeat them! I also have been reminded this week of what things in my life I can control and what things I have no control over at all!

I have had to learn the hard way, but it sure was worth it to learn early in life that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and that everything happens for a reason. Now, just because I learned this lesson and I know that it is true does not mean that it is easy to always understand. I am constantly having to remind myself!!! Sometimes it is Randy that has to remind me, he always just seems so easy going and relaxed and he is always having to knock some sense into me!!! I don't know what I would do without him...have a nervous breakdown I guess. It really pays off to have a husband who is a pro when it comes to psychology, it's like having my own personal therapist!!

In case you all were wondering what caused my emotional roller coaster, the contract fell through on our house this week and I am so frustrated that I can't even begin to tell you without wanting to punch a hole in something, or someone! So, I won't get into any details but just know that I will probably be pretty crabby the next little while until we can figure out our next steps to take with our nightmare on Elm street! Yes, that is right, our home is on Elm St. and we have joked from the beginning when we had so many problems building that it was a nightmare on Elm Street. I feel that nightmare on Elm street would be a very appropriate nick name for that house, even though I loved living in it, it will always be remembered as a nightmare!!!!

Mediocre

Do you ever just wish you were absolutely fabulous and amazing at something? Or maybe you can't relate and don't have to wish because you already are! For me, I feel that I am good at lots of different things and I consider myself pretty blessed to be able to be a well rounded person in many areas. However, I have really been thinking a lot lately about all my different talents and about all the things I have done in my past. As I think back over the last ten years of my life it seems like I have tried many, many, many different things and I get pretty good at it and then I just hit this plateau and I just can't seem to get past that mediocre mark and into the amazing category!!!

For example, I played softball in grade school and jr. high and I always thought I was pretty good. I did great at the position I played and I had a good understanding of the game and I could think quick and make pretty good plays, but I just couldn't quite bat very well and I think that is what kept me from playing any further. So then I played the piano and I thought I was an okay pianist but I just got to this certain level and couldn't quite play any better no matter how hard I would practiced, so I quit lessons. Then I played the clarinet and I was one of the top of my class for a few years until I got to a certain point, or my mediocre plateau I like to call it, and I just couldn't excel anymore. So I went on to something else, and something else after that, and the cycle just keeps going!!!!

Well, I have really noticed lately how a lot of people I am surrounded by are just AMAZING at certain things, whether it be playing the piano, singing, being creative, cooking or just having an amazing personality that everyone wants to be around. What is it that makes these people just amazing at what they do? I mean really amazing!!! I've thought and thought and thought about it and I just really wish I could figure out how to get past my mediocre plateau with at least one thing in my life so I could say, I am REALLY amazing at something!!! I guess I'll just have to keep trying different things until I find that thing that I am REALLY AMAZING at!!! One good thing about being on my mediocre plateua, I'm always trying new things, meeting new people, and having lots of adventures a long the way.

So for all you mediocre people out there....enjoy the adventure, it builds character (as my mom always says)!