Let the good life begin...

Here are my 3 handsome boys on the first day of school.  Simon is starting 1st grade, Marshall is in 4th grade and Max is my 5th grader.  You may be wondering what I am going to be doing with myself with just me and Jo all day.  Well I'll tell you, anything I want!  It is amazing how easy it is to have just one little one to worry about.  She doesn't get sassy.  She doesn't make a mess.  She really just eats, sleeps, plays with her toys and smiles a whole lot.  I am excited to have this time with just me and her.  I will miss my boys but am happy to have them have more life experiences in school.

Getting so big.

Baby Jo is getting so big and growing up so fast. She lights up when any of her brothers walk in the room. She adores her brothers almost as much as they adore her.

It's about time...

We had so much fun when Kim and her kids all surprized us and came into town for the weekend. Lots of swimming, eating, bowling and sleep-overs is what consumed our family for 5 days. Thanks you so much for coming to visit! We already miss you!

Old School

This was an old picture used in a newspaper article.  Don't know the year but that is a fabulous couch and beautiful wallpaper!

This kid is hilarious!

Simon loves to dance. This is quite an understatement. He has rhythm and music running through his veins! Even in public, when he hears a good song come on over the speakers, he can't help himself but to bust a move right there and then. I was shopping at a small second hand clothing store last week and something caught my eye. I looked over and realized it was Simon, doing the Robot in the middle of the floor. He sees nothing when he is dancing. He is focused simply on his feet and the next move he will make. This is a video Liz took with her phone at our last family gathering. She only caught the last 2 minutes of the song, missing the first minute or minute and a half. I was very impressed that he kept going and going and going. Finally, his arms got tired so he had to stop. The next day his legs and back were so sore. Who knows, maybe in a few years he can try out to "So You Think You Can Dance!" (I am so happy Janine won!) ENJOY!

Josie-7 months old

love this girl

Happy Anniversary!

It is hard to believe that Jeff and I have been married for 13 years now.  It seems only a short time ago that we were enduring the humid, upstate New York July weather and eating dinner at Di Pacifics which no longer exists :(  Here we are: 4 kids, 11 years of school, 4 apartments, 3 houses, and 4 jobs later.  A lot has happened in last 13 years.  A lot of changes.  But one thing remains constant:  I still love my husband and he still makes me laugh.  I had no clue when I pushed Jeff into marrying me :) that I would come to love him more and more as time went on.  I look forward to many more years of fun and happiness with him.  There is never a dull moment with him around, and I am counting on that.  I love you hunny and thank you for everything!

Birthday Fun

I would like to thank all of you for the calls, texts, messages and emails wishing me a happy birthday.  It was a great one!  to start, Jeff got me a laptop!  CRAZY!!!!  I was totally surprized and shocked when he brought it in to me, it literally left me speachless.  It is really nice and I can't believe that I am now someone with their own computer.  As far as the other computer...have at it boys!

The rest of my day was fairly uneventful.  I took the boys and Jo to Yogels (frozen yogurt) around 1 to celebrate.  Stopped at 5:30 for som tacos at Del Taco (3 chicken soft tacos for $2 on Thursday night) and was picked up at 7 by some friends.

Off to Cheesecake factory we went.  We mostly got salads and appetizers (crab cakes for me...delicious!) and desserts.  They are huge and when they started bringing them out, we started to laugh at how much we ordered, each girl with her own dessert.  Totally rediculous.  Here are some pics of dinner. 

At 9:30 we rolled out and headed for red rock station casino where we met up with some other friends (and Kate) for some cosmic bowling.  Little did we know on Thursday night when you buy 2 games you can bowl as many as you want until 12:45...so that is what we did.  I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard and had so much fun.  we bowled the first 2 games normal and the next 2 crazy: left handed, acting like an animal, dancing, bowling across the lane, mimicking each other, it went on and on.  My lungs and throat hurt from laughing so much.  The culiminating moment was when one of my friends crossed the foul line and biffed it hard, landing on her behind.  "Be careful," she said. "Those lanes are really slippery, it is like they grease them!"  It took me to bowl with my eyes closed before I got a strike.  Most of the girls then picked my up and spun me around 4 or 5 times while we all screamed.  From the sound of it you wouldn't have known we were all adult mothers and that there was no alcohol involved.

Thank you to all the girls who came to dinner/bowling with me.  It was the funnest party ever.  Next year I will try to be more put together and have a pinata and goody bags :)  All I can say is GOOD TIMES and 33 isn't so bad!

I love these 2!!!

Bryce Canyon Half Marathon

Here it is, the pictures from my first 1/2 marathon. We left on Friday about noon. Stopped in St. George for a trip to the running store (water belt, socks and Gu) and then Tai Pan. We then ate at Pizza Factory before getting back on the road. We drove through Zions (big miskake! $25 just to get through) and headed straight to Bryce Canyon. 6 hours later we arrived. We checked in to Ruby's Inn (really nice) and then off to get our packets. Nerves were crazy! I was so excited and anxious. There were so many people there and they made it all the more exciting. We went to bed around 11pm Utah time and were up at 4am. Race started at 6 and down the canyon we went.

First mile was fine, then came the downhill.  Crazy hard to run downhill for 4-5 miles.  My legs were already feeling like jello.  At mile 4, Gu #1 went in, and boy was it hard to choke it down.  But it worked and almost immediately you feel a burst of energy.  Mile #8 was Gu #2, this one wasn't as bad.  By mile 11 1/2 I was started to fade but picked up my pace instead.  I so bad wanted to finish in under 2 hours.  The 3 stops I made to stretch took its toll and my final time was 2 hours 55 seconds! So stinkin' close!  It was a great time with the other 3 girls and I am excited to do it again next year.  

Simon's Kindergarten Graduation.

Here are some pics of Simon on Kindergarten Graduation. They sang a bunch of songs and Simon, of course, was typical; doing all kinds of wierd "signs" and movements. He loves to be on stage...wonder where he gets that from?

Handy Mandy

According to my blog, you would think that my life is fairly uneventful, so I have decided to keep you all in the loop on what is going on around here. A new segment I will have will be "Handy Mandy" because that is what I am: a very handy girl. I will give you updates on all the lastest and greatest projects happening around my house.  Here is the new flushing system I had to replace in my toilet.  The handle broke and instead of just replacing that, I decided to replace the whole inside (the problem was the inside, not the handle.)  Over time, the plunger at the bottom of the tank got hard and created too strong a suction.  It was really hard to flush before the handle broke.  This new system is so much better anyway.  Plumbing technology has come along way in 6 years!   

This is what it looked like in the middle of the project. I hate plumbing stuff. Smelly Vegas water, urine, just the idea of a toilet is enough to make me gag. But I did it, and succussfully too!

3 cute boys at Temple Square

Cinnamon Roll Fundraiser for Mothers Without Borders

Hello everyone out there in blogger/internet land. About ten years ago, our aunt Kathy started “Mothers Without Borders,” a non-profit organization that provides shelter and a family environment for orphaned children in the African country of Zambia. Mothers Without Borders’ "vision" is simple:

Mothers Without Borders envisions a world where children are safe and loved, understand their value, and are given opportunities to thrive, grow, and contribute to their world in meaningful ways. Mothers Without Borders intends make its vision a reality by creating a world where children's voices are heard - where caring adults join together to provide access to clean water, nutritious food, safe shelter, education, and medical care for all children, especially those who are alone and without advocacy.

Many of you may have heard us talk about the work Mothers Without Borders does. In the past five years our parents have spent many weeks over in Zambia helping in the construction of the Children's Village, and our brother Greg and his wife Whitney were able to go to Zambia a couple of weeks as volunteers. The Children’s Village is a wonderful place where Mothers Without Borders’ vision has become a reality. What started out as a raw piece of land is now developed with a huge warehouse, two houses attached to the warehouse, available drinking water coming out of a hose, solar power, cultivated crops, and chickens. The Children’s Village houses two families and twenty-one kids! What a miracle! And if you understood how slow going everything is over there, "miracle" is an understatement. Aunt Kathy was clearly inspired in forming Mothers Without Borders, and all of its success has come as a gift from God.

Why am I writing about Mothers Without Borders on a baking blog? Recently, the truck owned by Mothers Without Borders that has been used to develop the Children’s Village broke down. With more than 300,000 miles on its back, the truck is done. Without a truck, development of the Children’s Village has ground to a halt, with so much good left to accomplish. That is where you come in. We, as a collective Headlee family, have decided to raise as much money as possible to permit Mothers Without Borders to purchase a new truck. To try and do our part to raise funds we are going to have a

CINNAMON ROLL FUND RAISER!!!!!

No pressure needs to be felt from anyone, but if you are feeling a need for something sweet while blessing the lives of many children over in Zambia, please sign up! The cost?

 ONLY $10.00 a dozen!

That is really pretty cheap considering the 12 homemade pieces of goodness dripping with creamy frosting! Please email us at twobakingsisters@gmail.com and let us know how many dozen you would like. We will be making deliveries next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 9th, 10th and 11th, please specify when you would like them.  If you would like to pick them up, no problem. We will be accepting cash, check and can even send you an invoice through PayPal! If cinnamon rolls is not your thing but you would still like to contribute to the cause, that is great! Every little bit helps. Our goal is to raise $500. So don't wait! And all our friends and family here in town, put the word out for us! Copy our post into your blog, or provide a link so others can join in the cause. We really appreciate anything you can do. We firmly stand beside our aunt on this cause and hope that you will too!