Mashed Potatoes

I am a carb girl. If I could eat just bread, pasta, potatoes and rice, I would not so secretly love it. I guess I would miss fruits and veggies though. Anyway, one of my favorites is mashed potatoes. They are one of the ultimate comfort foods. I make them all the time. But I make them differently every time because I am an experimenter. That is also why I'm terrible at baking. Cooking you can add a bit less of this, a bit more of that, and be fine-baking, not so much. Anyway, I made some really awesome ones a couple nights ago, so if you feel like taking a risk, try them out! And since I never measure, all amounts are approximate!

Manda's Mashed Potatoes
8 smallish red potatoes, cut into 1" cubes (I think it was about 4 or so cups)
1/4 head cauliflower, cut into pieces (about 2")
3T butter
1 clove garlic, pressed
1-2T horseradish
1-2 wedges of laughing cow creamy swiss cheese
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes and cauliflower until tender. I think it takes like 10-15 min or so. Just stick a fork in one, and if the potato breaks apart, then get em out! Then drain, and put them in a med bowl. Add the butter, garlic, horseradish, cheese, and salt and pepper, then blend with a hand mixer until creamy!

I swear you can't taste the cauliflower (if you make sure it's cooked all the way) and the horseradish gives it a tiny kick. Also, you could probably use whatever cheese your heart desires. I just happened to have the laughing cow. But smoked Gouda is also good, and I bet good old cheddar would be good too!
And that is why I love cooking.

Four Months (almost) and a Haircut

Ok, so it's still two days till Aimee's officially 4 months, but in the grand scheme of things that doesn't matter, right? Plus I got some super cute pictures of her, and I want to share.

She is becoming more and more like me, which is kind of scary and cute at the same time. And, she is super happy most of the time, but when she's mad, watch out! She screams so loud, it's nearly deafening. But those cute smiles more than make up for it!

Then, there's the other news: I cut Katie's hair again. Let me preface this by saying her hair drives me crazy. For some reason it really wants to be a mullet, and I refuse to let it. The top just doesn't grow. It looks like I cut her bangs, when really I haven't cut any hair at the top at all. She was such a good girl, and held still while I cut (the skittles I bribed her with may have helped) and I think she still looks adorable. Here's the front:

And the side/backish

There we go!

RIP little camera

So Katie has been wanting to wear a swimsuit that her cousin gave her OVER her clothes. She even went to go pick up my nephew at the bus stop with it on because she had a major meltdown when I suggested she take it off before going outside. It is super cute though, and I finally got a picture of it with my little old camera. Here it is. My poor girl is the color of Bubblicious gum! I took a few more pictures, and the color is weird and they're really dark. I think it's time to retire my little Canon Powershot. I do have my nice camera still, but it's so huge, it was nice having the little one I could take with me everywhere. So goodbye little camera, I'll miss you!

Catching up

Here are a few easter pics. I was a bad mom and didn't get any of the girls in their easter dresses, but oh well!

The girls about to start the egg hunt in the back yard

Katie finding and egg!

Aimee found one too!

Looking cute.
My beautiful niece Kristen. (All my nieces are beautiful, but this happened to be a really good picture!)
The girls.
These are of Katie opening her basket on easter morning. She loved that sucker. So much that nothing else held her attention.
She was also really excited about her chocolate bunny (made by Great Grammy)

And now I really have to go to bed!

My not so fun day

Soooo, Thursday morning, I woke up and my back was killing me. I took some ibuprofen and tried to go back to sleep, but it was still hurting pretty bad. I took more an hour later, and it still didn't help. I tried walking around, laying down, and then an ice pack. That finally made it feel better, so off to work I went. It got progressively worse all day, and I couldn't find any medicine at my sister's house. I didn't want to snoop all around to find some, so when we picked up my nephew from the bus stop I asked a neighbor for some. I downed 4 ibuprofen, and it still hurt like a mother. I started feeling nauseated too and I was worried I might not be able to drive home, but I did, and Jon put Katie to bed and I lay on the floor alternating ice packs and heating pads. My mom has had back pain a lot, so I had asked her for advice, (which was the hot and cold) and I now have so much sympathy for the back pain. It probably would have helped more then huh! Anyway, still getting worse, I got an awesome blessing, and I felt a tiny bit better. So I got up to turn off our halogen lamp, and the head fell down on my arm, and gave me a burn. Then a little while later I started throwing up. Over and over. We finally decided it was time for the ER, so Jon's mom came over so we could go. It is SO NICE having them right next door. So I got an IV in with some Zofran and Morphine, (and a huge bag of fluid since I was dehydrated too) and eventually started to feel a bit better. But the nurse happened to put the IV tape right on top of the burn on my arm. It was okay until she ripped the tape off, and holy crap that hurt. They sent me home with some vicodin, but I could only take it if I wasn't nursing Aimee. So we tried to get her to take a bottle, and apparently she will now not drink from a bottle. So I took some aleve and tried to sleep on the floor. I felt better and better as the night went on, and I woke up this morning feeling so much better. So that was my long painful day.
Sorry for the downer post, but I wanted to get it all out!

I'm a slacker

Well, I really was going to print these out and mail them out. I even made two versions, and printed them at Costco, to see which I liked better, and that's where it ended. And Aimee is almost three months old, and I'm not anticipating getting any less busy! So you get the web version. If you want a real one, let me know, and I'll mail you one. (but only if you ask nicely! And possibly bribe me) So with out further ado,

Announcing:

Thanks Aunt Kim!

We finally got them away from Katie long enough to put them on Aimee! We all love them, thank you!

Katie's inappropriate comment

I don't know whether to be totally horrified, laugh hysterically, or just pray we don't get struck by lightning from the sacrilegious-ness of it. Katie saw this picture of Keith Urban:


Then she said, "That Jesus Christ!"

New name!

I was tired of our blog's look, and I wanted to have a name other than our last name. So (after much thought, and some really bad ideas) I came up with the night owls! We all like to stay up late, except poor Aimee, who likes to go to bed and wake up (relatively) early.

Update time

Aimee is two months old now! She's a happy girl, and smiles all the time. We are loving it! Katie got a stomach flu about a week ago, and she very kindly shared it with her sister. So Aimee spent Valentine's day puking everything she ate. Poor little thing, she was so mellow all day. So we finally called the on call dr because she hadn't really kept anything down, and they told us to take her to the ER since she's so little. Anyway, they checked her out and she wasn't dehydrated yet, so they sent us home. She's been fine since then. Oh, and they weighed her, and she was 12 pounds! I guess she's getting enough to eat :) Here's the cutie!
I'm one of those moms that thinks it's fun to dress her kids alike. It's probably dorky, but it's also so cute! I pledge to stop when they're old enough to complain about it!Katie has been cracking us up recently. We went to the store and all the old ladies were saying hi to her, and she didn't say anything, so a couple of them asked her if she was being shy. Well on our way home she was talking to her little toy dog, and she said, "Hi doggy! You being shy?" Then today I told her Daddy was coming home soon, and she said, "Yea, best friend!" So cute!

Also, there was a lunar eclipse tonight, it was cool! It reminded me that we just watched In the Shadow of the Moon. It's a documentary about the Apollo missions and it was so good. The guys are all old now, and one of them was so funny and cute. Anyway, it's a PG, so nothing bad in it.