Rick-n-Whit and crew

I think I'll start a New Year Resolution now....

... to update my blog at least once a week. I'm so behind.. I feel bad. I blog stalk others and get irked when they don't update... LOL. Why should I be the exception??

So, here's an update.

Thanksgiving was quite fun, and rather laid back. We hosted it again and there were less people than last year. My in-laws, my two youngest broters-in-law, my sister (who happens to be married to my husbands *other* brother), and their two boys. I made a delish Sweet Potato Crunch dish that I was quite excited about. Sweet potatos are probably one of my fave dishes around the Holidays, and I was so excited to find a healthy recipie for what seemed like a yummy alternative to the usual butter drowned, brown sugar coated, marshmallow topped yams that my Grandma used to make. Don't get me wrong... my Grandma's Sweet Potatos were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! However... after working so hard to shed 40lbs this past year.. it'd be shame to gain it all back in one meal.

So.... I made the afore mentioned dish, and was so excited to try it. It smelled divine! We all gathered at the table, served the food and began to indulge. The sweet potatos were just as expected... awesome. I took a few bites, and after a moment my left eye began to itch. Crap. Now, I don't know that I have mentioned it here before but I am HIGHLY allergic to cloves. We're takling... eyes swell shut-break out in hives-sneeze fits allergic. Have you ever seen the movie "HITCH" with Will Smith? (very cute, I highly recommend it.) Anyhow... the scene where he eats shell fish, only to discover he is allergic? yes well... we could have been twins.

I knew that the ticking seconds were my enemy. I jumped up from the table and ran for the medicine cabinet. I took two Benedryl (I should have taken 4 right then.. not sure what I was thinking.) I went into the bathroom, wher my dear sweet hubby came to my aid. He asked how many pills I took, and when I told him 2, he quickly got me two more. It was only 2 or 3 mins later but the damage had been done. I took the second dose but it was too late. My eyes were itching like crazy and slowly closing up on me. My nose was so stuffed I couldn't even breathe. My stomach and arms looked as though I had been attacked by an army of mosquito's.

Such a grand start to dinner.

I layed in bed for a bit and then donned some sunglasses and returned to dinner. I scared my kids. Ashley wouldn't come near me, and Cohen just stared at me. Marley didn't seem to care though, she was happy to climb all over me while I tried to finish my, now cold, Thanksgiving dinner [minus the sweet potatos]. (have I mentioned she's my fave?? hee hee ;-)

Now... you may be asking yourself...."But YOU made the dish! Surely you KNEW there were cloves in it?!!". And, I have an answer for you. YES... I knew it had cloves. Actually... it had pumpkin pie spice... which I have been told contains cloves. HOWEVER... my sister made some DELISH Pumpkin and white Chocolate Chip cookies last month, and they had cloves. I ate them anyway... and was fine. However... the cookies only contained 1/8 of a tsp for a HUGE batch of dough (like 24-36 cookies). MY recipie called for 2 tsp for a much smalller batch (like a 2 qt dish).

So.. here is my theory: The cookies had less cloves spread out over a greater amount of dough.... the sweet potatos had a high concentration of the cloves... thus my body rebeled. PLUS.... when I ate the cookies I took a Benedryl about 15 mins before just in case... I *did not* however... take any Benadryl before our Thanksgiving dinner.

Lesson learned.

I need to go to an allergist.... it's no fun missing out on Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving. (yes... I passed on that as well. I needed ONE eye to be partly open so I could do all my Black Friday online shopping. It was hard enough being blind in one eye and having to wear sunglasses.)

Other than the "resembling the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man" incident... we had a great Thanksgiving. :)

I do have pics to share.... just need to up load them and all that... maybe tomorrow... if you are lucky. Until then.. here is one of my nephew, Brady. he's so cute. I'm editing pics I took of my sisters family when they were here on Thanksgiving.... just thought I'd share one.

eNjOy!

bubble dress

I found this great tutorial HERE on how to make this adorable dress!!

It was soooo easy, and quick.  I made it for Marley and will be doing another for Ash sometime next week. (ya know... inbetween all my free time of making Thanksgiving dinner, editing a few sessions, and mailing out orders... haha).

I had *planned* on having the top part be all stretchy by using elastic thread (as you can see from the white stitching across the top part). BUT.... it didn't scrunch up like I thought.... so... it became more decative than anything else. No biggie.. it's cute. I think I know why it didn't work to, so... I can fix it next time if I want to.

I have a bunch of this material left over, so I'm debating in making Ash a matching one, OR.... doing hers in the pink fabric and then the straps in the print. hmm.. not sure yet.

look what we got....

yup... a kitten. We kinda got tricked into it by my in-laws. But you know me.... I couldn't turn the little guy out in the cold. (it's my mom in me). h kids named him Gary, after Sponge Bob's snail.... *sigh*

He's actually a really great cat. He puts up with whatever the kids dish at him. He has't scratched at them or hissed or bit, or anything. ANd believe me... our kids have put little gary through the ringer already. He gets "carried" all the time. Poor little kitty... lol

Bo is also a big fan. He thought he was the coolest new friend the first day we got him, and couldn't understand why Gary just wanted to hide and sleep all day instead o playing with him. haha

In other news; We are heading down south this weekend for Stake Conference (for those not hip to the LDS lingo.... that's a semi-annual gathering of the local Wards or "LDS Churchs" in our area where we meet together to hear the local leaders of our Church speak.) I'm excited for some warmer weather, and of course to see my seester and my nephews.

Have a great weekend all!!

SoCcEr DaYz...

Cohen had his last soccer game last saturday. I have more pictures of him accutally playing.. haha.. promise! All the little kids got tropheys after the last game. Cohen was so excited! It's his first tophey and he loves it! lol He kisses it good-night every night before bed. LOL so cute. ;-)

I also have pictures from Michigan and Halloween and Knotts that I still need to post. I think I may do a MAJOR picture post tomorrow of all the pics I need to share. You'd all love that, right?! haha

a little disturbed....

Have you seen this doll?

It's the new Dora Links doll. It's aimed at older girls.... like 6-10.

I've been seeing the commercials a lot latley, (since Nick Jr is on pretty much all the time at our house... *sigh*) ANYWAY.....

I'm a little disturbed/upset/irritated by this doll. She's designed to connect to the internet via your computer. You can interact with her in this virutal world. Okay, that's cool. You can make her hair grow longer via the webite, again... cool. You can even change the color or her necklace using the website. Again... pretty cool. You can also change her eye color.....from brown to blue. HUH?!!!!!

This is where I got off the "cool" train and hopped on the "concerned mom" train. 

Now, Dora is hispanic, and pretty much ALL the hispanics I know have brown eyes. WHY in the world would Mattel create a hispanic doll that can change her eye color from brown to blue?! If I was hispanic (and I'm not... I'm pretty much as white as they come.) I would be soooooo insulted by this doll!! I'm white and I'm insulted by this doll. My kids all have brown eyes (curtosey of my hubby). What kind of message are we sending our girls when we give them a doll who can change her eye color from brown to blue?!

To me... it's like they are saying..."Gee.... we know Dora's is Mexican and all... but ya know... brown eyes are just so... *not* pretty. Let's let her have blue eyes instead. Blue eyes are so much prettier."

With all the 'self esteem' issues young girls have these days, with size 0 models in all the magazines, and blonde pop-princesses on TV.... do they really need someone telling them they aren't "pretty enough" unless they have blue eyes?!

Now, this isn't an issue of "brown eyes are better than blue" or vice versa..... it's a matter of being proud of who you are!!! If Dora was a white girl from California, do you think the Dora Links doll would be able to change her blue eyes and blonde hair to brown?? I don't think she would. (or maybe she would.... but then it would be sending the message to girls with blue eyes that they aren't pretty enough unless they have bown eyes.... ya follow me??)

To me.... Mattel is saying "Brown eyes aren't pretty enough, so we made her to have the ability to change them to blue. Because blue eyes are so much more appealing."

What is wrong with just letting Dora keep her brown eyes? She is afterall.... HISPANIC (or did Mattel forget that when Dora grew up all of  sudden???).... people of hispanice decent generally have brown eyes. Why does Mattel feel the need to change her???

I guess the thing that really bugs me is that they are marketing it as "give her a new look/disguise." So why not purple eyes??

Why blue!?

Are you not good enough unless you have blue eyes? And why the need to change her eye color at all?! People can't change their eye color IRL. (unless they get colored contacts....but are you gonna get colored contacts for your 6 year old so they can be like Dora Links??) If they want her to be able to "change her look", then give her some dark glasses, or a mask, or a green wig. Something outrageous, like a real costume.

I don't mean to ramble and beat an issue to death. It's late and I'm tired, and it's hard to convey things over the internet sometimes. I've just been seeing this commercial sooo much latley and it bugs me everytime I see it.

 Needless to say, I will be contacting the lovely people at Mattel in the morning to express my distaste with this new Dora doll. (I would have emailed, but couldn't find one...)

I really hope that other moms/dads/grandparents will pick up on how "un-cool" this feature is and avoid purchasing this doll. I just think... in this day and age... the last thing our young girls need is yet ANOTHER thing in the media telling them they aren't good enough the way they are......

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