Will I Ever Sleep Again?

Ugh. Here I am up at 3 a.m. and blogging. To say I can't sleep would be quite the understatement. I have so much on my mind and it just won't "turn off". I have already reorganized the shoes in my closet, clipped about 100 coupons and organized them and now I've dragged the laptop into the bedroom...because you know, nothing like surfing the web to make me sleepy. I hope.
And because I get deliriously silly at this hour, I'd love to share with you some of the hilarious-ness I have run into in blog land in the last hour. And to give credit to where credit is due, most of these are from the Nikki Crumpet blog.

Well, duh.

Lord, please don't let this be a Dominguez boy in a few years.
(He does look like an older version of Jonathan.
And this is something I could see him doing.)

Seems to be working like a charm.

Sara Lee's secret ingredient...not so secret anymore.

People who would need a sign like this should never be allowed on a balcony.

I did the same when I saw this sign.

As a graphic person, not only is the design of this sign a bit dull, but the meaning of it?
Who paid money for this?

These two need some serious brains!

~YAWN~ I better *try* to at least get some sleep. The children will be piling into this bed with us in about 3 hours with Pop Tarts and Nutrigrain bars in hand...begging for milk. Seriously, that's how Jonathan begins every. single. day. Night-night.

We came. We saw. We swam.

The Dominguez boys had a great time at Summer Swim this year.

Benjamin is still a bit timid around the water, but he made great improvements this year from last. We were so proud of him! We were super happy to have Jordan as our instructor again. We found out that we can request him for the next few years, too, since he is still an underclassman...woohoo!

We conquered jumping in, again! For some reason, that pool at the hotel in Austin was a lot more comfortable for B. We had to revisit this fear again....but he conquered it and did wonderfully!

Benjamin likes "swimming on his back" the best!

And he loved diving for rings on free-play day!

Jonathan became quite the fish the last two weeks! He amazed us all by jumping off one of the diving platforms on the last day. His instructor, Chris, was amazed, too. He said he couldn't remember another three-year-old jumping off the platform! We were glad to hear that Chris will be doing the private lessons a few more years, too. We'll be requesting him again, too! ; )

SPLASH!

He's an old pro, now!

We love the Summer Swim program and can't wait until next year!

Time for Summer Swim 2010

If you can't find us for the next two weeks, check the UMHB pool. We are fully immersed in swimming lessons (pun intended)! Jonathan is starting his first lessons ever with his instructor, Chris, who he thinks is way cool. And Benjamin is loving having his instructor, Jordan, from last year (hoping the feeling is mutual).

SPLISH SPLASH!!

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks!

Week 3: Kids' Summer Bible Lesson & Cowboy Muffins

We'll have to pay rewind a bit to catch up on our Bible lessons this summer. We did miss a couple of weeks while we were out of town and daddy was home for a few days.

Week 3 was over the lesson plan generosity. Here is the link if you are interested in these lessons. It was a great lesson for the boys, and they are rockin' the memory verses! Jonathan gets so excited when I write a new verse on his easel. We did the story of Dorcas and our memory verse was 2 Corinthians 9:7

Our craft was a gift for our grandpas for Father's Day (I am that behind on posting). I used the idea from here. I modified it a bit and used phrases like "we love grandpa" and "grandpa is the best". The supplies were:

-- wrapped canvas (can be found in artist section at Hob Lob...just use a 40% coupon to get them cheap!)

-- Letter stickers or use a Cricut to cut out vinyl ones (I want a Cricut like nobody's business...if you see my husband, let him know that would make a great gift for his wife). ; )

-- Acrylic paint and sponge brushes.

Simply spell out your message with your letters on your canvas. Paint. Let dry. Peel off letters to reveal message. This could be modified a thousand ways for different gifts or even wall art for kids' rooms.

The boys LOVED it!

Peeling the stickers (we did it when wet....probably should have waited until they dried).

For our Muffin Monday that week, we made Cowboy Muffins! I love these so much...they were a recipe from our friend, Hollye. She said her son, Cade, always requested them for sleepovers when he was growing up...I am quite sure my boys will, too! They LOVE them. They are best served HOT out of the oven. We shared these with two sweet friends from church.

Jonathan was my big helper for the Cowboy Muffins. He has really enjoyed baking and cooking with me lately. He wants to be a part of everything kitchen related! Having two boys, I have a few big goals (domestically speaking) that I really want the boys to take on with them after they are big grown guys. I want them to know how to do laundry, including ironing an outfit. I want them to be able to prepare well-rounded meals that don't come out of a box (or a drive-through). I want them to know how to bake. And they must know how to properly clean the bathroom. I am not saying I want them to do these things all the time (except the bathroom thing...that's a no-brainer). I just want them to know how to do these things. They may be bachelors for a bit and I want them to know how to take care of themselves.

My boys love the Cowboy Muffin concept (and who wouldn't)...the whole dip in butter, drop in sugar certainly makes a good muffin. And I am just kicking myself that I didn't get a photo of the finished product. You'll just have to bake some for yourself! ; )

COWBOY MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

--

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

6 tbsp. butter, melted

In mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In mixing bowl, cream together 1/2 cup sugar, shortening and egg. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to the creamed mixture, beating well. Fill 12 greased muffin cups 2/3 full (don't use paper liners). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Combine 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon. Remove muffins from oven and immediately dip in melted butter, then in sugar mixture. Serve immediately.

This is the muffin dunk set up. Mmmmm!

Happy Monday!

F.O.J. 2010

We had a nice, relaxing fourth. Went to church that morning and back home to make our first batch of homemade ice cream in the new ice cream maker....which we love!

Jonathan mixing up all the ingredients. He's the king of the wire whip.

Yes, that's an entire bottle of half and half that was used. Yikes.

Daddy and Benjamin pouring it into the ice cream maker.

BTW...if you're in the market for an ice cream maker, we HIGHLY recommend this one that we bought. No rock salt, no ice! And the ice cream was wonderful. And I was even able to use the Bed, Bath & Beyond 20% coupon! Score!

Doing its thing!

Later that evening, we headed over to our LifeGroup's FOJ cookout at the Weaver's house. We had such a great time and a really good turnout for a holiday weekend!

Everyone brought some yummies to share!

We have some very talented cooks in our group and are always eating quite well!

Every group has one.

Miss Avery! Love her.

Jonathan was exercising his right to bear arms.

This is kind of a scary picture, huh? Don't worry...it was just a toy.

The peanut gallery getting ready for the sparkler show.

Lighting them up.

Jenae, sparkler queen extraordinaire.

Jonathan love it! I am glad, too....I had a crazy fear of sparklers as a kid. Glad I didn't pass a phobia along to my kids. At least not that phobia.

Happy Fourth!

The only thing that would have made it better would have been hearing the two best songs ever....Neil Diamond's America (I can still do an entire twirl routine to this song without missing a beat) and Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA. For some reason, I missed both of my songs this year!

Happy Birthday, America!

We are proud to call you home.

P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N

I have been putting off blogging since we got home because, for some reason, it is overwhelming me!!I have two past Muffin Monday/Summer Bible Lessons that need to be posted (and written). But, I really want to post about our trip. But, then the overwhelming amount of photos also wore me out...and there we go with the procrastination again. So, this is an 'as is' post. Not all photos are included....the ones we took with our phones are out there on Facebook land, but unable to make the jump over here.

Our first stop was a night in Pecos with Grandma & Grandpa.

The boys played the Wii bowling game with Grandpa's help.

We're convinced that it's time that Wii joined the fun and bought one of these things for ourselves.

Before heading out in the morning, the boys climbed the fun tree next door with Grandma.

Just climbin'.

Benjamin just had to spend some time with Grandma's turtles before we departed for New Mexico. He loves the turtles!

We headed to Roswell on Friday. One of our first activities was the rehearsal dinner for Cade & Kyla. Here's Benjamin and one of his absolute favorite gals ever, Hollye (the mother of the groom).

Kenna and Abbye...two of our newest BFFs. The boys played with the girls the whole trip!

It was so much fun to hang out with these sweeties.

Jonathan was fascinated with the two babies that we spent a lot of time with on the trip. Here is one of the times he was holding Baby Dane. Precious.

The next day we ran around Roswell and met up with some out-of-this-world characters. We also were able to meet our Hobbs cousins for lunch at the UFO McD's....too fun!

And then it was time to get ready for the big event of the trip...

Cade & Kyla's wedding.

Waiting in the auditorium for the wedding to start.

I feel a bit bad, I didn't send in an RSVP for our alien friend.

One of the boys' favorite things at the reception was the candy bar...YUM.

The letters read "Love is Sweet". There were little boxes to fill with as much candy as the boys could wrap their digits around. The boys were in heaven....they also had a hot dog cart just for the kiddies! The Wootons & Hootens thought of everything!

Just being silly.

Hollye with the president of her fan club.

More candy!

I did manage to get one pic of the bride & groom that wasn't blurry or half-blocked! ; )

We also found a little time to swim at the hotel pool...

....with the girlies of course!

After a couple of super fun nights in Roswell, we headed to the Hooten Holler in Muleshoe for another couple of days of fun....with the girlies! ; )

Loads of fun was had at the Hooten Holler (aka, Gary & Hollye's bEaUtiFul new home)!

I love the little wave....the boys just love Gary & Hollye. When Benjamin was just a baby, my mom fondly named the Hootens our "Muleshoe Grandparents". They are wonderful and we love them to pieces!

Playing with Daddy in the yard.

Fun times.

Abbye Cate

Amy fixing supper one night....we were well-fed the whole trip!

In fact, when we got home, Benjamin convinced us to purchase our very first ice-cream maker/freezer. He just had to have ice cream like Gary made for us.

So much for good ol' Blue Bell.

Besides ice cream....we enjoyed our other favorite dessert. S'MORES!

Kenna showing us her fabulous moves.

Sticky Kiddies

An absolutely wonderful trip!

We saw so many dear, sweet friends and family that I can't possibly name them all.

Loved every minute of it!

We're all ready for a little. . . . s'more.