Cinnamon Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes!

Since I got a griddle several months ago, it's become kind of a family tradition to make pancakes every Saturday or Sunday morning. Keegan loves to help me mix up the pancakes and he's even getting the hang of flipping them, (although I have to make sure there's plenty of room on the griddle, because where they land is anyone's guess!). Doug sets the table and warms up the syrup while we make the pancakes and then we all sit down for a delicious, calorie laden feast!

I have to say that I've come up with the best pancakes ever! First you spread peanut butter on them, then you add slices of banana. On top of that, you sprinkle a touch of cinnamon, then you add the syrup and for the final touch, a bit of whipped cream. Doug turned his nose up at them at first, stating that he like to keep things simple. But then he tried them and their deliciousness won him over!

Our First Ever Family Photos!

Most of you know that Doug and I DON'T really love to POSE for pictures and that we've NEVER had our pictures taken together as a FAMILY. I know it's hard to believe, but we just DON'T GET VERY EXCITED about posing for pics. Anyway, my friend MONIQUE is a photographer and I've been telling her for a COUPLE OF YEARS that we were going to do a session with her. Well, it FINALLY happened this morning and it was really FUN! Keegan was totally ready with his CHEESY GRIN and stuck his TONGUE out for most of the pics. I can't believe she even got any with him looking a LITTLE BIT NORMAL! Here are a couple of the shots from this morning. THANKS Monique! Hopefully now it won't be ANOTHER 5 YEARS before we do it again :)

Happy Valentine's Day

We made and decorated some Valentine's cookies for some of the kids in our neighborhood. I definitely got the wrong kind of icing for the little kids to use and most of the cookies that Keegan and Riley decorated just looked like they had a pile of pink or red poop in the middle of them! But they had fun anyway. After they were done, we drove around and Keegan delivered them. He's such a big boy now - he got out of the car and went up to the doors all by himself. Hope everyone has someone to love and someone that loves them right back this Valentine's Day! I sure am grateful for my two guys - what a lucky girl I am :)

Fancy Dance Party

On Saturday morning I told Keegan that he could wear anything he wanted because it wasn't a school day. So he carefully chose his outfit and came parading into our bedroom, checking himself out in the mirror. I took one look at him and tried to contain my laughter. He had carefully chosen a shirt and pants that matched, but the pants were about 1 1/2 inches too short and he had on a short sleeve shirt in the middle of winter. But just to keep warm, he added his cap and mittens. Oh yeah, he also just put some socks on with his Crocs so his feet wouldn't get cold. He knew that he was going to his friends dance party that day and obviously wanted to look special. I asked him if that's what he was going to wear and he said, "Well you know you have to dress fancy when you go to a dance party." It was just so dang cute that I didn't make him change his clothes, like I normally would have. He did look pretty fancy!

pretty pleased with himself

a nighttime variation

his fancy outfit

I LOVE LOST!!!

I've been looking forward to the season premier of Lost pretty much since last season ended and last night did not disappoint! The hour before was great to catch me up on everything, too. But since I didn't get to see the whole thing, I'm thinking I may have missed a couple of things. Who was the white-haired lady at the end? And when have we seen her before? Is that Faraday's mom? Or am I totally off track? Someone please help!

Go UTES!!!

decked out for the game

showing our Ute spirit in church on Sunday

I'm sure everyone already knows how much we love the Utes, so of course we were looking forward to the Sugar Bowl - although I have to admit that I wasn't really hopeful of being able to pull off an upset against Alabama. We got all geared up for the game and just couldn't believe that we scored in all of our first three possessions! Doug and I were ecstatic! We kept scaring Keegan with our loud screaming and jumping up and down. Eventually Keegan got into it, too. What a victory!!!! That's got to be the best season in Utah football history and then to win against a team like Alabama - we're still on cloud nine :)

New Years Resolutions

this is how i wanted to start the new year. . .

but this is how it happened!

Okay, so I really wanted to start the new year with a bang by getting back to my healthy eating habits that I had totally lost over the holidays. But, guess what? I didn't!!! Pretty much the only things that I've eaten so far this year are delicious morsels of sugary delight! So I decided that I'm going to restart my resolution as soon as all the good stuff is out of my house, (which means after I've eaten it all!) I'll be back on the bandwagon soon, hopefully!

Christmas with the cousins

Keegan had so much fun playing with his cousins this Christmas. They all played so well together that we were all wondering when there was going to be a blowout - and it never happened! They played pretty much all day everyday and were exhausted every night. Keegan was really sad to see it come to an end. He's already looking forward to Mexico this summer when everyone gets together again!

Thad's Wedding

The week leading up to my trip to Florida was seriously one of the most hectic of my life! I had all my school finals, was deathly ill (I may be exaggerating a bit, but it really did feel that way!) and I had to get Christmas ready before I left on the 16th. Somehow everything got done and I was headed to Orlando for my big brother Thad's wedding. The first night there, I stayed up talking all night with my sister Kendall and that pretty much set a precedent for the rest of my time in Orlando. My older sister, Shannon, came down from New Hampshire and my little bro, Ethan made the trip from D.C. All eight Dickmans were there except for my older brother, Frederick, whom we all missed terribly!! My grandparents and Aunt Joanne and Uncle Frederick came, too. It was so much fun being together again. I also had a chance to visit with some high school friends that I hadn't seen since graduation. By the time I left, I was still sick and totally exhausted but completely happy! Congrats to Thad and Bonnie - you're perfect for each other :)

*I know it's crazy that I don't have any pics of the happy couple, but as soon as I get some, I'll post them.

Mom with Kendall's little girl, Harper

Dad, Mema & Wiley

All the girls

Kendall & me

Our last night

Handsome buggers Kip, Ethan & Jeremiah

Volleyball

Go VS!!!!!

My friend Kellye and I decided to put together a volleyball team to play at UNM this semester and we ended up having enough girls for two teams! It was so much fun playing together every Saturday and getting in some good girl time. We even won quite a bit, which makes it even more fun :) Thanks to everyone who played - I can't wait for next season (although I'm sure my ankles are happy for the break)!!

Happy birthdays!

Andrea, Jamie, me and Marybeth

Two of my good friends have birthdays just one day apart, so we celebrated them together with a delish lunch at PeiWei and a session at the temple a couple of days later. Happy birthday girls!

Halloween

Our little race car driver!

Good one, Doug :)

I've been terrible about keeping up with the blog, so I'm going to have to backtrack a bit. I have to put up pics of Keegan at Halloween because he looked so stinkin' cute in his racecar outfit. He wanted to be Batman (the gray body with the yellow belt), but we went to 4 stores and his size was completely sold out. At the last store, I was about to just buy the dang thing in a size too big when Keegan saw the racecar suit. As soon as he laid eyes on it, Batman was completely forgotten!

My New Favorite TV Show!

This is totally the best new show on television right now. If you're not watching, you're missing out! Doug and I sit glued to our TV when it's on - and it's presented with limited commercial interruptions, which is sooo nice for those of us who still don't have Tivo :)

DETOX!!!!

Due to a complete lack of self-control over the past few weeks, (yes, I did eat the entire box of Nutty Bars in just 2 days), I feel like a total cow. I'm bloated and sluggish, not a great combination. So, I'm starting a 3 day detox today - yeah! Doug says he's doing it with me, but we'll see. . . the last time he said he would do a diet with me it didn't work out too well. Anyway - fruit fast here I come!! I'll keep you posted on the results.

Pumpkin Patch

playing in the corn

the three amigos

everyone with their pumpkins

Keegan and Oliver with their favorite girl :)

Keegan had the last part of the week off from school, so we went with a bunch of friends to the pumpkin patch. We drove with Keegan's little friend, Kara, who was the most popular kid at the patch! A couple of fights almost broke out about who got to sit next to her on the hay ride, but they all worked it out without too many tears! Poor Kara was trying to please everyone and eventually Keegan and Oliver got to hang out with her, which made them very happy :)

Colorado

Keegan & Emma with their new best friend, Mike

"Best Friends Cabin!"

The sun hangin on while the storm's a brewing

I hate this pic of me, but it's the only one of the girls :)

At the lake

The boys

Paddle boat

We just got home from SPAR, CO and are pretty tired from our long weekend with friends. We had so much FUN! The weather was PERFECT and everything was beautiful. We didn't have running water while we were up there, so no SHOWERS for 4 days!!!! Thank goodness for BABY POWDER - just sprinkle a little in your hair and you're as good as new :)

Keegan had a great time with his friends and made a new one, too. The next door neighbor is an older man named MIKE. He was working on his cabin and Keegan just waltzed right over and struck up a conversation with him. When it was time for us to go, Doug went over to get Keegan and Keegan said, "Goodbye Mike, I love you!" It was pretty funny - I guess Keegan found a KINDRED spirit.

Right before our friends left for home, I took a picture of the kids in front of the cabin. Oliver said "BEST FRIENDS CABIN!" and all the kids yelled it out as I took the picture. I hope they stay great friends forever. We loved it up there and look forward to many more great memories in SPAR, FAR AWAY!

Carpenter Mieke!

I made this shelf from scratch - can you believe it? I'm so HANDY!!! :) Most of you know that that last statement is totally untrue. But believe it or not, I really did make this shelf. Of course, I couldn't have done it without my friend, carpenter extrodinaire, Suni Pehrson. Sure, we got some curious glances in the Lowe's parking lot as we shoved the lumber for the shelf into Suni's minivan and bungeed it in tight, but the end result was worth all the strange looks. Thanks Suni :)

Keegan's Birthday Party

the monster cake that just fed the 17 kids + adults

Keegan with 2 of his favorite girls, Kara and Riley

Having a great time!

With Josh

Can you find me, Mom?