Wordless Wednesday

I have discovered I have a thing for pictures of sleeping babies/kids. I thought my days of sweet, little twins sleeping together were over. My boys haven't slept like this since they were babies and I thought they were getting big enough for this sort of thing to be dangerous, so I put them in separate cribs. This picture is part of the silver lining of them being sick for 13 days straight. I just love it, even though they were in between my husband and I in our bed, one of them sideways with his feet in my face!

$100 Visa Giveaway and an awesome Recipe!!!

This is one of my absolute favorite recipe blogs and here's a giveaway to make it even better!!!
Lemon Bundt Cake and $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway
 To enter the giveaway you have to give suggestions for getting kids to eat fruits & veggies.  There were some great ideas for that also!  Here is my response:
Fruits & Veggies have never been an issue at my house. I have always started them with frozen veggies when they have started eating solids. A few other things that I think have helped my kids to like fruits & veggies are:
1.Having them easily accessble, a plate of fruit or vegetables on the table for them to grab as they walk by.
2. Try new things-branch out a little bit from oranges, apples and grapes. My kids all love fresh mangoes, papayas, berries, celery, asparagus.
3. Don't assume they won't like it.
4. Let them help with the produce shopping. My kids love it when they find something new for us to try.

I think...

He likes watermelon!

When did it get "easier"?

One of my good friends had five kids within three years (a set of twins in the middle) and I remember asking her when it would get easier. Her reply was, "It doesn't get easier, it just changes."  In many ways I agree with her, but as I am sure she would agree there are as many things to love and enjoy about each phase as there is chaos.  For me things have gotten a lot easier since my boys turned two.  The first year I am pretty sure we were at the pediatricians office at least once a week many times more along with several specialists, therapists, and the childrens hospital.  The fun and joys of prematurity!  The second year was a little easier, but not much.  When they turned two it seemed like we were still swimming up stream, but could come up for air from time to time.  In the past few months life has seemed that much easier.  I think both of them walking makes things a lot easier.  Now we are having lots of fun chasing them!  Honestly, I have to say that twins hasn't been the hard part for me.  My boys have been such easy babies.  Both of them together have been easier than one of my girls were.  I love my girls just as much as my boys, but they both very VERY hard babies.  I think the thing that has been so overwhelming for me has been having four kids within five years and working through all of the prematurity issues.

Yes, they were both sufficiently scrubbed down and sanitized immediately after this picture was taken!

Are you kidding me, Wells Fargo???

Pardon me for a minute as I vent some frustration regarding one of the larger financial institutions in the country.  If anyone reading this is an employee or fan of Wells Fargo sorry, sort of.  For a majority of my adult life I have done my banking at a credit union and been very satisfied.  Well, a few years ago we refinanced our mortgage and Wells Fargo happened to have the lowest rates and they offered us an even lower rate if we would open a checking account.  Sounds pretty harmless, right?  If hindsight were 20/20 we would have opened that account, kept the minimum balance in it and continued banking with our friendly credit union.  They are occasionally attempting to sneak in some random fees even though we have a "free" checking account, then take several weeks, sometimes months and several phone calls before reversing the fees that never should have been there in the first place.  I have thought of switching back to our favorite credit union, but oh what a pain.  I am sure at some point in the near future it will be worth the chaos of making the change.  I live in chaos and love it, isn't that right!?!

Today my mom and aunt offered to watch my kiddos while I ran some errands.  Of course, I took them up on it and ran like the wind to get to as many places possible.  I went to Target, Costco, and Hobby Lobby.  I spent $18 at Target, $90 at Costco and $8 at Hobby Lobby.   At Hobby Lobby the clerk very casually informed me that my debit card DECLINED.  With my stomach now in my shoes, knowing that there was plenty of money in my account to cover the transaction I asked him to try again.  Still DECLINED.  Fortunately I had some cash in my wallet, which is a miracle since I usually don't carry much if any cash.  Not very smart, I know and if my dad happens to read this I am pretty sure I will be getting a little bit of "loving feedback" and concern for my safety on the subject.  I paid for my purchase and prayed all the way home that the thieves that stole our identity a few years ago hadn't drained our entire bank account in the twenty minutes between Costco and Hobby Lobby.  I was quick to hop online to check the account only to see that, yes there was plenty of money available.  With that information I assumed there must have been some tehcnical difficulties with the credit card processor at Hobby Lobby and went to the grocery store.  I quickly got all of my groceries.  It's amazing how fast grocery shopping can be done when a couple of cute two year olds are not throwing groceries out of my cart as fast as I am putting them in.  I got to the check out and once again my debit card DECLINED....Ugh....My five year old was very upset to be leaving her Peeps (Easter treat, not friends) at the store and I was so mad I didn't even think to just give the clerk $1 for them.  We went to the car and I called the phone # on the back of my debit card to see what the heck was going on.  After entering my 16 digit card #, 8 digit checking account #, SS#, and all of my deep dark secrets I was finally connected with an operator.  She very sickningly, sweetly said, "I am assuming you are calling about the block on your debit card."  My response, "You're right, why is it on there?"  She very slowly explained that my $8 purchase at Hobby Lobby triggered the fraud department and they placed the block on my account.  I said, "Are you kidding me?"  "No, ma'am, we like to make sure that we are always keeping our customers safety as one of our top concerns."  I can appreciate that, but wouldn't it make more sense for the fraud department to be concerned about a large purchase from an electronics store, or maybe online shopping being shipped to a strange address.  No, no, no  Wells Fargo has got my back and apparently my $8 worth of craft supplies is very suspicious.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the whole grocery store adventure happened with three sets of neighbors, one of them in line behind me and two others close enough for me to see, and possibly hear.  I am pretty sure I have never been that close to so many people that I have known at the store at the same time.  Maybe they will all start "anonymously" leaving money on my porch or something.

Baked Omlette-Easy Breakfast Idea #1

No matter how much I try...setting all of the clothes out, getting backpacks ready the night before, getting myself showered and ready before anyone else wakes up, etc, etc...  Mornings still=CHAOS at our house!   I can only handle so many mornings of sending my offspring off to school on a cold cereal, sugar overdose so many days in a row without feeling guilty, so I have been attempting to figure out some breakfasts that I can just put together the night before, refrigerate, and pop in the oven as I am jumping in the shower.  This is a very simple idea that came from my dear mama!  There are really no specifics to this and it's more of the idea than the recipe.  If you decide to give it a try experiment a little on the ingredients and cooking time.   Just blend up your eggs, milk, add meat & veggies spray your pan with non-stick spray and bake it!

This is what the one in the picture has in it.   My fridge was running on empty, so I didn't do any veggies.

8 eggs

milk (approx 1/2 cup)

Season Salt

Lean Ham

I baked it for 30 minutes, covered with cheese and cooked it for another 10 minutes.

*Cooking time will vary depending on altitude, amount of eggs, and other items you add.

Two of a kind: Twins share love of aviation

www.harktheherald.com  April 4, 2011

By Andrew Van Wagenen

It was a classic twin moment. Located hundreds of miles apart, two twin brothers thinking the same thing at the same time, yet completely independent of each other.

It happened 11 years ago, while Mike Patey attended an air show with his father-in-law. Mike's brother Mark, who didn't know Mike was attending an air show, called to tell Mike he found a good deal on a plane and wanted to know if Mike would be interested in learning to fly, which of course he was.

"By the time I got back, Mark was already learning to fly in it," said Mike Patey. "We both got into it and never looked back."

Since the Patey brothers bought their first plane, a Cessna 172, they have custom built five planes, flown to over 350 airports around the country and acquired just about every type of aviation license from commercial plane to sea plane to helicopter.

"We do everything aviation. If it goes up we can pretty much fly it," Mike said.

Their latest creations are two Lancair Legacy single-prop planes built from kits. Mike has a twin-turbo, 550-cubic-inch, six-cylinder engine and Mark has a twin-turbo, 580-inch, six-cylinder engine.

"It's kind of stupid big," Mike says, referring to the plane's engine.

Both brothers work in pharmaceuticals and travel constantly all over the country for their business. Rather than fly on commercial jets, the twins use their personal aircraft to commute between appointments.

"This is why we've built them to be so fast," Mark explains.

Originally the goal was to build planes that would get them home from work faster, but as they got halfway through the project they realized they could break a few speed records.

In March, the twins decided to put their super planes to the test by challenging the transcontinental world air speed record for fastest single engine internal combustion aircraft.

In their separate planes the twins took off from San Diego hoping to break the record on two routes. After flying side by side to Texas, where they stopped to refuel, Mike flew the northern route to Charleston, S.C., beating the record by 19 minutes. Mark flew the southern route to Jacksonville, Fla., also setting a record.

Afterwards Mike flew down to Jacksonville to meet up with Mark and the next day turned around and broke the east to west transcontinental record flying from Jacksonville, Fla. to San Diego.

Currently the twins are designing a new, one-of-a-kind, two-seat jet from scratch.

"We want to be the first civilians to go supersonic," Mike explains with a large grin on his face. "We want to go after some military world records next."

For those who know Mark and Mike, these kind of projects come as no surprise. Jim Robinson owns an air hanger next to the Patey's at the Spanish Fork Airport.

"They are very entrepreneurial-type people," Robinson said. "They create things and they get out and do things."

Robinson, the twins, and other pilots at the airport spend a lot of time trying to solve problems by bouncing ideas off each other.

Six years ago the twins began volunteering for Utah County's search and rescue team. Mark flies a helicopter, co-owned by his brother, Mike, and their friend Dr. Bryan Trapnell, during search and rescue missions.

Lieutenant Dave Bennett, of Utah County Sheriff's Search and Rescue, flies with Mark on most of the missions as a spotter.

"There has been a number of times where someone's life was saved because of him," Bennett said.

Raised in Utah County, the twins had 11 brothers and sisters in their family.

"We grew up really, really poor," Mike said, "but my dad and mom are the greatest people on the planet. They always told us we could accomplish anything, and that we didn't need money to do it. You just had to have a drive and a willingness to go out and try."

Together, the twins started building go-karts at age 9 and rebuilding cars, boats, motorcycles and ATVs before they even had their driver's licenses. They had a small business by the time they graduated high school.

"Always having someone who is like-minded and excited with you no matter what is awesome," Mike said about having a twin brother. "I don't know how much we would consider doing something without the other one involved."

Copyright 2011 Daily Herald. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.