My baby is 12

It can't be true, but the calendar doesn't lie.  My baby turned 12 today, at 10:15 a.m.  She was so excited for this day to come.  I'm not entirely sure why it's so exciting to turn 12, but boy, she's excited.

 She finally gets to shave the "jungle" on her legs as she calls it and wear just a wee bit of makeup, and ditch primary and become a Beehive, and basically grow up before her mother's eyes without my permission!

  I've told her to knock it off, but she doesn't listen.  She just keeps on growing up anyway.

My little girl.  My baby.  And I know she'll always be my baby, just like I'll always be my mom's baby.  And she was always her mom's baby.  That's just the way it is.

We're all just a bunch of babies.

Happy Birthday sweet Isabelle.

ZIPPER

My camera that I've only had for a year and a half has kicked the bucket.  I'm kind of lost without it.  So I will revert to my old point and shoot.  The blog must go on.  This post is about the new addition to our family.  I'm pregnant.
Heck no I'm not!!
This is about this crazy girl's love of animals.

She has more than enough love to go around.  You can see how much she loves this guy:

She has been asking for another puppy for a longgggg time.  I finally told her when she can buy the puppy herself, we'll get one.  So she worked, babysat and saved her money until sure enough she found the puppy she wanted.   I wasn't really ready for it but how can you tell that to a girl you've made a deal with?
So we added this little cutie to the family last week.

 Just wook at that witto face!!

Her name is Zipper.   aka Zippity Do Dah, Miss Zip, Zippie, etc, etc.
She's just a little thing, probably 2or3 lbs. right now.  She'll get to be about 10 lbs.  She a chihuahua terrier mix.  So far she's just about the easiest puppy we've ever had.  She knows how to go in & out of the doggy door and loves to go outside.  She's only had a couple of accidents on the floor.  She sleeps when she's tired and plays when she's not.  Her and Zero have become good friends and love to play.  But when he's tired of her, all he has to do is jump on the couch and go to sleep.  It's good for him to have a companion when we're all away from home.  A new puppy is an adjustment for sure, but everyone in the house just loves her.

  And no one is happier than this girl!

lemony sunset bubble clothes

I just put all the words together describing this post.  It's a mish mash.

First off is this lemon cake I made yesterday.  I got the recipe off pinterest, but instead of making the cake from scratch, I just used a french vanilla cake mix I had and sifted it and added lemonade concentrate and buttermilk and egg whites according to the recipe.  Then frosted it with a lemon cream cheese frosting.  Oh my goodness gracious sakes alive it was good.

 Next up is this picture I took of the sunset the other evening.  It was just before a big dust storm, so the clouds were all weird colors.  Too bad it wasn't a big rain storm.

I did a little photo shoot of Isabelle about half an hour before this glorious sunset.  This was our favorite one.  I really like it.

And finally, I really don't like to hang clothes up on the line.  But since I have a nice clothes line and outside is basically like a big hot dryer in the summer, why not save a little extra energy and just do it. By the time I'm done hanging them up, they're practically dry.  Ahhh Arizona.

Hope you enjoyed my lemony sunset bubble clothes update.

She's a Trekky Girl

Oh the Trek.  What can I say?  Except I'm so glad it's here and she's on her way.  Because I'm not really a seamstress, we decided to buy her trek clothes.  Can I just tell you that we went to at least four Goodwills and a Savers about three times each looking for long skirts.  I found several long skirts at each store but they had to pass the Emily pioneer fashion test.  The blouses were pretty easy, but you kind of need to match the blouse to the skirt and if you can't find a skirt then you don't have your outfit.  And you need to match the apron to the blouse AND skirt.  But, we finally got it together.
  Here is Miss Emily Pioneer.

They'll have a great time, I'm sure.

And here's the Fathers Day cake the girls made for their Dad.  Yep, he's a golfer.

San Diego part 2

Last summer we went to San Diego while Phillip had a conference for work.  I blogged about it.  The girls and I got the sunburn to top all sunburns.  Last week we went again.   Same hotel, different conference.  We stayed across the street from the Gaslamp Quarter downtown.  Walking distance to lots of  restaurants and shopping.  A short drive to Sea World.  Trolley hopping to Old Town.  Easy driving to Coronado.  The girls and I had a great time.  I love San Diego.

Here's why:

 Dolphins.  Seriously so cute.

 Rides that get you wet and give you wet ride hair.

Three girls that will pose for me whenever I ask.

A super view from our hotel.

 Biting into a lemon wedge on a dare.

 Bike riding around the oh so lovely neighborhoods of Coronado Island.

 Playing on the beautiful beach.  Sunscreen applied.

 Eating ice cream for dinner, because we can.

Farewell San Diego, until next time.

truly scared and true love

The first part of this post involves a practical joke played on my two youngest.  It's not something we do regularly, but it sure was fun.  Phillip and I watched the newly released on DVD movie "The Woman in Black" with Daniel Radcliffe.  I'm soooo glad I didn't see it in the theater.  It's pretty intense.  We had it for 24 hrs. so we made Amanda and Emily watch it later.  Isabelle was not interested in having nightmares, so she declined.  Later that evening, Emily and Isabelle went out to heart attack some girls in our ward for their bdays.  That's when the inspiration hit.  We knew Emily was freaked out by the movie so we decided to play a little joke on her.  We (Phillip, Amanda and myself) took my dress form and put a long black dress on it.  The dress had a hood attached, so we put a basketball inside for the head.  We then placed it by the backdoor and put a battery glowing candle behind it so it glowed the silouette.  It was creepy.  We had so much fun.  I just felt bad that Isabelle had to be a victim.  Well they didn't get home until very late, after we all went to bed so we didn't see their reaction.  But they recounted for us the next morning that Isabelle was first and as soon as she saw it, she got behind Emily.  Emily saw it and just froze.  She was frozen with fear.  It took her a couple minutes to figure it out and then she just started laughing.  And laughed for the next ten minutes.  Here's the pictures with the flash and without.

 kind of hard to see, but you can tell it's creepy.

I know, we're bad parents.  I just hope they don't get even with us.

Now on to a little bit lighter.  Amanda's good friend Beth is getting married tomorrow.  I didn't know what to get her, I didn't want to just get her a generic wedding gift, I wanted it to have a little meaning for her.  So I went thrifting.  I found this frame and it was perfect.  I didn't have to do anything to it.  It was even already distressed. AND had a burlap backing!!

I already had some scrabble tiles and played around with them until I liked the letter arrangement.  I glued them down and added some flowers that I made awhile back and waalaah.  A personalized wedding gift.  I also bought a big "G" for their last name at hobbylobby, keeping with the letter theme.

So there you have it. a little bit of chills, a little frills.
the end.

Guest Post : Isabelle

Hello fellow bloggers! Isabelle here. Nobody hardly EVER posts about me soooo.... here it goes!! I am 11 1/2 years old, I am out of school and starting 6th grade next year. The summer is always fun, and that's what it is this year.... FUN!! Tomorrow I will be babysitting! Just so you know I LOVE babysitting! :} My mother(Becky) signed me up for a 4 week Gourmet Cooking class starting June 1st.on Fridays. THAT IS WHAT I CALL FUNNN!!!! I never really do anything awesome in Summer so this will be the snickerdoodle for me! We also have a San Diego trip and fun like that coming up. I will also be visiting Grandparents and I will have a great time with cousins. And I know we will be going on a camping trip in August! This will be a summer to remember!!!! :}

Black Bean Salad

I've had this recipe for probably about ten years now.  I usually make it and serve as a side to a mexican dish or eat it as a salsa with chips.  But since I'm looking for easy fresh things to make that don't require the oven, I thought I'd try it as a main dish salad.  I didn't take pictures but it was pretty yummy.  Here's the recipe:
1 or 2 (I used 1 because I wanted less beans and more dressing for this dish) 15 oz cans black beans drained and rinsed.
1 cup corn ( I steamed a fresh cob of corn and then cut the kernals off.  Yum)
1 red bell pepper chopped (I didn't have bell pepper so I chopped a tomato)
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
3 or 4 green onions chopped
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1/8 tsp. cayenne (or more, I like it with a kick)
1/4 tstp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
mix all together and chill until serving.

I sliced up some leftover grilled steak and put in the mixture while chilling.
Then I served it over some mixed greens and had some tortilla chips on the side.

It would be great with grilled chicken also.  Some chopped avacado would be yummy too.

Try it, you just might like it!

another Cook graduates

It's a little hard for me to swallow that my little Emily has graduated from high school.  I blinked and she grew up right before my eyes.  I'm so incredibly proud of the awesome young woman she has become.  She's always (except for some teenage years) been a bright spot in our family.  Always making us laugh, leaving us love notes, being helpful and just alot of fun to be around.  I present to you Miss Emily, the most recent graduate of the Cook family.

 Her choir group perfomed two songs at the graduation.

Getting her diploma on the jumbo tron.

 The family

 It was really sunny. and hot. and windy. and sunny.

 The grandparents

 The fab friends

Congratulation Emily dear!