Adventures in Bluthania

A 'Friendly' Christmas Evening

2009-12-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well, friendly for all of us that attended, wish we could invite EVERYONE over for a gathering........hard to pick & choose because we have sooo many great friends & people in our lives and soooo little time in December, but that's life ;).........

We always have family parties and get-togethers, which we look forward to, LOVE and cherish every year. This year we also wanted to do a nice dinner with just a few friends (and ALL the kids). Their were 8 of us and 8 kids. We had an adult table & a kids' table. The dinner was traditional with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, Katie's yummy (and naughty) creamed corn, sweet potatoes, rolls etc....... lots of pies! Everything was delicious and we all had a great night. Trevor brined, massaged and injected the turkey with 'stuff', it was really really good! It was a fun and festive way to celebrate with others we love!

Afterward, the kids totally piled on Michael-Ryan, my kids love him, poor guy. But they had a blast. He's great with them.

Thanks all for coming, we had a great night and love having good friends in our lives and our kids' lives, you all have more impact than you know. Thank you for your friendship!

December at our house

2009-12-14T10:07:00.001-08:00

A few more cute shots of the kids, I decided their cute sweaters are not just for wearing to church, they are going to wear them all winter long and get lots of use. Most of them are hand me downs but are in great condition because the other kids probably only wore them a couple times for church too!

I've been keep Christmas music on all day.......everyday and Carter LOVES 'jingle bells' and 'rub a bum bum' (that's how Tannon said it........soooo funny!!)- the little drummer boy. When jingle bells came on the other day, Carter wanted to put on his cute reindeer hat and his 'jingle' bracelet and sing! It was so cute, he's such a funny kid.

A couple more shots of their towers they like to build with blocks. They always want pictures of their creations. Love these boys and love this age.

Hope you and your family are having fun celebrating this special time of year!

Christmas all month long!

2009-12-06T16:02:00.001-08:00

,

We've been getting ready for Christmas at our home, have you? I love this Season and I love sharing it with my children. As they get a little older, they understand more.

For example, this year, Tannon has remained consistent with what he wants Santa to bring him. It hasn't changed since August of this year!!!! That's one serious kid! Want to know what it is??? It's a large plastic boat that comes with a little cage on top which holds sand toys (shovel, small pail etc). When we went camping this past summer at Red Fish Lake with some friends, one of the younger boys (Sam, 15 mos at the time?) had this boat........Tannon played with it the WHOLE time and has wanted one ever since. I tried to find one after summer on clearance but couldn't!!! I figured he'd just forget about it...........nope......... we saw one @ Winco on clearance and he shrieked with joy in the store hoping I would buy it for him.......I did, but them promptly told him that it was for another little boy's birthday gift. He was disappointed, but understood very well that it was not his. He then said that maybe Santa would bring him one for Christmas. I hid it as soon as we got home. He has seen Santa Claus twice now and both times he's said he wants the boat. Santa always thinks it's some big boat to ride in/on, but Tannon corrects him by saying it's a toy boat to play with in the water.

So, we started the month off with crazy early Black Friday shopping (just Heather), I pretty much got what I went for, but the thing that made my day was when I pulled up to my house and I saw Trevor putting up the lights on the house, I think a little coaxing from the kids helped! They look great and I LOVE having a festive home this time of year. Thanks Trevor!!

'
I only love snow for special effects, it makes the lights look so pretty........ but brrrr it's cold!!

The next fun 'Christmas-y' thing we did (another great idea from Trevor) was head to Pocatello on Saturday (Nov 28), Trevor had to finish up a countertop job for PermaGlaze for a few hours. I took the kids to a park to play and then to Costco while he worked. But that evening at the Pocatello Fairgrounds there was a Toys for Tots event, a wrapped toy was the admission and they had 3 HUGE bonfires, hot chocolate, chili dogs, and a visit from Santa! What a fun way to do something different spend the day together.

Carter wasn't too sure about Santa, but the candy cane changed his mind........

Santa was pretty interested in Tannon's 'boat'.

The next day (Sun 29th). We put our tree up and did a family ornament exchange. Carter loves his ornament (Winnie the Pooh glass ball) and was sure to put it rigtht at his eye level so he can see it whenver he wants too. The tree was one of my "doorbusters". Decided to get a new one, we needed something tall & thin to fit our space. Our other one is great, but you feel like it's going to eat you the moment you walk in the door..... there's just nowhere else in our living to put one and our basement isn't finished. So this works for us.

The kids LOVE helping Daddy get the tree up and lights/ornaments on. They did so good and were actually very helpful......only one ornament broke this year.

Tannon & Carter asked me to take their picture in front of the finished tree, funny kids. I did this last year too (in their Christmas jammies) and they saw a picture of it and wanted me to do it again.

That's a pretty skinny tree!!

Just a quick shot of my tiny Nativity (I finally got one last year!), maybe someday I'll have a really nice one that's a little larger, but this works perfectly for right now (and the price was right!) We always hang a stocking for the 'baby Jesus', there's a story that goes along with it and it's tradition for us to give him a 'gift' each year. On Christmas Eve, we read what our gifts were to Jesus from the previous year (personal spiritual goals) and then we write new ones and place them in the stocking to be read the following year.

This past week was the PAT (parents as teachers) Christmas get together. The kids got to make these adorable reindeer hats, make jingle bell bracelets and sing until Santa came. He gave them each a special book and a candy cane! Such a fun time, the kids looked sooo cute in their hats!

Then , we had the kids' "playgroup" Christmas party at a good friend's house. She was brave to host 16 kids, but they all had a blast giving/receiving little gifts. I'm grateful for good friends to do fun things with and also grateful that my kids have a few little friends of their own.

Tried to get a group picture with everyone looking, but they lost interest pretty quickly.

So this is a really LONG post, so I must try harder to update more often! Hope this brings you all up to speed on what our family is doing. We are doing well and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Blessed Season!

A few pics

2009-11-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Whenever I clip coupons, I tend to make a huge mess, but it's all worth it in the end. The kids actually delight in the mess, telling Mommy that she made such a big mess. They think they are doing such good work to clean it up (and they are!). It seems to be a totally fun chore to them (wish that would last forever!).

While Carter would rather take all the waste and put it in the large garbage can in the garage, Tannon gets more creative. He had quite a time of building his garbage tower, making sure none of the crumples hit the ground, he was so proud of it!

Funny kids

The first thing Tannon said when it snowed this week (just a few days before Halloween) was, "Oh my......., I guess I'm going to have to go out and shovel all that snow". So, we battled with the mittens for a bit, got the snow boots and out and off he went to do his job.

Tannon's generally a very happy helper and quite a big help at times, too. I'm thankful for this, he teaches Carter so many things and is a good example more often than not!

Our Halloween

2009-11-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

Well, Halloween has come and gone, our neighbors are all out putting up their Christmas lights and we will soon do the same.....

I love Halloween, I have great childhood memories of this (and every) holiday. I truly enjoy re-living it through my kids!

We had a really fun Halloween week/weekend. Our highlights were:

Tuesday- Trunk or Treat at Grandma & Grandpa Bluth's church house. There's always really fun carnival type games, cookie decorating and of course, Trunk or Treat

Friday- Pumpkin carving, we had a really fun night as a family doing this. Trevor printed out a couple outlines and we did those. The kids drew faces on their pumpkins w/markers and then Trevor carved them out as closely as he could to their drawings, they did such a good job! I was very impressed, they turned out so adorable!

Our pumpkin family

Daddy's shy pumpkin

Mommy's mean pumpkin

Tannon's on the left, Carter on right (so cute!)

Saturday morning (Halloween)- Michelle & I hosted a kiddie Halloween party at her house. I think there were 15 or 16 kids? I don't know, but there were plenty and they had a great time. I've actually never hosted a kid party before, but I think it turned out great! We did these fun things:

"Jack Jack Pumpkin" (duck duck goose)
"Jack says" (simon says)
Musical chairs
Witches Corner- story time
Pinata
Decorated Sugar Cookies
Had pizza & veggies for lunch

Saturday night (Halloween)- Hosted "A Chili Night" at my house with all the family. We had baked potatoes w/chili, broccoli, cheese (all the regular fix ins), lots of cookies, rolls etc.

Then, of course, we headed out for trick or treating. The kids had a blast and it was a really fun holiday for everyone (i think!).

I know gripe about my kids growing up too fast; they are learning/changing growing every day it seems. However, I'm so glad I have this time to enjoy them and do fun things making memories with them. I'm thankful to have family close by whom are part of my children's lives, and I'm thankful for those whom aren't close by but choose to be close to us nonetheless. Families are such a blessing. You all play a much bigger part than you may know.

Hope everyone had a fun & safe Halloween!

Food Storage Analyzer (from Emergency Essentials)

2009-10-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends & Family,

Have you checked this out yet? You can enter your food storage items into this analyzer and see what your total calorie count is to determine how much food and what types (carb protein, fat etc) your family will need to have a well-rounded food storage supply.

I've used an excel spreadsheet in the past just to keep track of everything, but this far surpasses that, it will be quite the process to get mine all converted, but what a GREAT idea and it's so easy! Plus, you get a free $10 gift card just for trying it out!

Check it out for yourself!

This is how to Shop!!

2009-08-18T14:33:00.001-07:00

While I am not going to list all the details of my purchase. I will tell you that coupon shopping is the only way to go these days.......it takes a bit of planning and time, but it is sooooooo worth it in the end. However, today I had to do A LOT of running to get these deals, I don't always try to hit 4 stores in one day, but today is the last day of many sales and I've been out of town......so I did it anyway (and my kids were pretty good..........most of the time)

Here is my breakdown for today:
Albertsons $10.55
(check out my CASE of Post Selects Blueberry Morning cereal!! I got 16 boxes!)
Smiths $19.95
(i got some misc sale stuff i hadn't planned on buying there)
Walgreens $6.83

Total $37.33

Here's the best part, I get a $20 rebate, a $10 rebate, plus I got back $17.00 in catalinas @ Albertsons (to use just like cash in the store for my next purchase!) So, when I add it all up, ($47.00 in rebates/cash back)I actually got paid $10 to shop today!

Oops, I also got these shirts that I forgot to put in the pic, they're just knit sport shirts- they're nice! (already added into my Walgreens total above), but they were $1.74 ea. You can see my catalinas below too (just in case you didn't know what they were).

I love Albertsons (especially the Broadway location), they've been having some GREAT deals lately. Hope you all are able to get in on some of the goods!!

A Fabulous 4th!

2009-07-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Let Freedom Ring! Look at all those gorgeous flags!

I repeat myself, Holidays are much more fun when you have kids. This is true and becomes more and more true (not the more kids you have ;) the more holidays you spend sharing it with them and repeating traditions.

I truly treasure these pictures of my kids with their hands over their little hearts....... I'm so proud of them (even if they don't get it yet).

Carter looks a little grumpy because of a balloon mishap, but behind those angry stubborn eyes, he's happy to support his country's freedom.

We had a great weekend. The late nights started Thursday July 2, when we took the kids to the Drive In for the first time. It was really fun (but a really late night). The weather was perfect, we saw Ice Age (1 2 or 3?? I have no idea, I haven't seen any Ice Ages before and I mostly slept through this one). Trevor totally made us a cushy spot in the back of the truck, I popped popcorn, grabbed some pretzels, cookies & drinks and we were off. Tannon stayed wide awake the whole time & loved it, he thought it was sooo cool to be outside watching a movie. Next time I'll just stick the laptop on the deck and he can sit on his trike......same thing right? That way he can go to bed at a decent hour. Carter mostly wanted to jump on the air mattress and go from lap to lap- which was totally fine since we had nearly 30 minutes to kill before the movie started. He finally fell asleep on me about 25 minutes into it; I was in heaven, I snuggled with him and fell fast asleep myself.

July 3- Friday night (no pics!), we had a yummy dinner at my Mom's house with Joseph (my youngest bro) & Lindsay (they are engaged to be married on Aug 15) and finished with banana splits at my house. Then off to the awesome neighborhood fireworks. A super cool neighbor rented a cotton candy maker and made TONS of bags of cotton candy to pass out to all the kids and many adults; that was really 'sweet' of him. Yes, Mr. S. is now officially the coolest dad on the block!

July 4- Saturday was awesome, I got up and ran the little Firecracker 5k with my fabulous girlfriends & their families (no way was I waking mine up ;). It was a fresh morning and a good little run, a great way to start the day. That is me in the flowery top w/the totally crazy bug-eyed sunglasses, I have a really narrow head okay!

Then I booked home on my bike to get my family for the parade!! I have to say that I LOVE the Idaho Falls parade. Not too long or short. We always get a great spot (without staking out our area the month before!) at the beginning and they still throw candy just like when I was a kid. It's so much fun, and my favorite part is the hazardous shriner cars that drive crazy the whole time. The kids loved it too. Here are a few shots of some parade favorites:

A few of my favorite floats

We all loved the horses with the glittery stars on their bums

The kids loved the fireman & getting hats!

I put Carter in the cutest baby contest, (yes, since I don't have a girl, I feel I have to subject my sons to these things- Trevor just loves it!). Carter didn't win, but his little friend (Noah) took second place and got $50 cash! It was awesome!

BBQ & birthday celebration for Joseph (no pics either, sorry!) later that night. Hope your birthday was fabulous Joseph, the chocolate mint cake was my favorite part! My kids love having Uncle Joseph & (soon to be Aunt) Lindsay visit, they have such a ball playing with them.

No pics of the fireworks, but the deserve a very honorable mention. Unbelievably, they just get better & better every year. Melaleuca does not appear to be in a recession....

As the finale to our LONG celebration of Independence Day, we took the kids to see the Title of Liberty 1776 flag display for Family Night. Wow, I thought it was pretty impressive.

Trevor gave a brief history lesson about the Declaration of Independence and the freedom of our Country. Tannon seemed to grasp the concept when the analogy about a dog being set free from his master's control of a leash was used.......maybe not the best description, but it seemed to help put a picture in his mind.

The kids loved seeing all the flags and it was breezy so all the flags were waving, it was beautiful! If you haven't been out to see it, go take your family. The flags will be up until the 13th of July!

That pretty much sums up our celebration, it was a fun Holiday and I can't believe it's past already. Get out the snow boots, time for summer to wind down I'm afraid.......:)

Hope you & your family had as much fun celebrating as we did!

God Bless America!

How's your summer going?

2009-07-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know we're all still alive. We've had a fun and busy summer so far as I know many of you have also. I just want to document that (in my book) there has been more rain this spring than ever in the history of all the Earth (and it has been a really really long spring.......even LONGER if you have children)!

A few highlights for our family have been:

First and foremost- look at my beautiful flowers! I came home from a really really fun playgroup day with exhausted kids to find Trevor home early and these on my counter. I love all the summer colors and you can't see them now, but there are lilies hiding in there that will bloom in next day or two & smell wonderful (he knows I love lilies). Thanks Trevor for being so sweet and thinking of me. Trevor is the King of 'just because' flowers. I'm ALWAYS surprised when they turn up!

Camping in Salmon for Memorial Day
Super weather all weekend long! I'm a strong believer in the "kids just love camping and it's good for them" idea. Our kids just soak up every second of being outside with the dirt, rocks, sticks & other various things found in nature. The creativity in finding fun things to do (which never ends) is fun to watch. I love it too! A great weekend!

Tannon took Carter everywhere in the wagon

Pb&j lunch break, love this chair

Here's a super freaky bizarre hailstorm that just totally hit Idaho Falls, the day AFTER we broke temps of 85 degrees! It just came down & down & down! Then it was gone...........totally Idaho weather.

Camping with Friends @ Big Elk Creek (no pics!!)
This was a new spot for us and a fabulous one at that. We had a great time watching the kids play and hanging out in a not- so-hot hotspring.........and boy did we eat good (which is totally camping code for "eating really badly"). Thanks everyone for a great trip, we look forward to more!

To Bone & Back Race
My good friend Alana and her hubby put a super fun team together and we all had a blast running that day. We were the "Bleeding Cowboys" (named for her brother in law's tattoo shop), not exactly my thing, but the shirts were awesome and our bandannas totally scared off the other runners! We got there @ 6:30 AM and we all left around 1:30, BBQ that night with the runners & their families. A great great way to spend a Saturday!! Thanks Curt & Alana, for putting it all together for us. It really was a fun fun day!!

Our Team

The super hot Mamas flexing their muscles

Me (in the middle)- totally dying on the last bit of my run- so glad I had some running support @ the end! There are some serious hills in Bone!

I am going to try to be a better blogger, we really do have fun with our little family, friends and extended family members. I love being here in Idaho Falls and I'm sooo looking forward to a summer full of fun!

Can't wait to see what you all are doing too!

Wedding Time!!

2009-06-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS JOSEPH & LINDSEY!

My youngest brother is getting married!! This isn't an engagement pic, just a random cute one I stole off Lindsey's Facebook page (thanks!)

Wedding is set for August 15th! I'm sooo excited, I LOVE weddings in general anyway, but having one in the family will be sooooo much more fun!

Lindsey is from Washington and is absolutely ADORABLE both to look at and be around. She will be a welcome and fun addition to our family (and perfect for Joseph). I couldn't be happier for them!!

Congratulations you two, we look forward to the wedding this fall!
PS- Aug 13th would be a much luckier date (it was mine)!

"MOM, CARTER'S STUCK"

2009-06-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so, I don't hear Carter crying, is he really stuck somewhere? Wherever it is, he "sounds" happy.

Me: "Tannon, where is he stuck at"?
Tannon: "He climbed really high by the storage room and he's stuck"

I panic a little thinking, climbed really high.........onto what? where??

Here's how I found him:

Little stinker.........our basement remains unfinished and this room has misc boxes and a few pieces of furniture.....I suppose it's not the safest place for a climbing 2 yr old! I have moved the boxes and arranged so they now look "unclimb-able" (pretty sure that's not a word!)

A few cute ones

2009-05-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have been a terrible blogger lately.........yep, just too busy doing too many other things and my blogging has taken the backseat. I should be posting more about our super fun CA Coast trip, but there are just soooo many pictures to go through and decide which ones to post etc. So, I thought I'd just post a couple that I snapped today.

"I see you", Carter says, I love how much he's talking- sooo cute. He got these cute shades from a pinata at a birthday party last week.

Carter went pee pee in the potty! Yay! Daddy started putting Carter on the potty this weekend, we're kinda just getting him comfortable in sitting on it etc and he's been doing pretty good. This morning I put him on and he went! Yay! I've let him sit on it a couple other times w/no such luck. But he did go once!

Tannon is very proud to show Carter how to go in the big potty.......

Tannon found "Stripes" today. He's been missing for a couple weeks. He just beamed from ear to ear when he found him in the basement. Tannon "made" Stripes at a birthday party last year at "Bear Buddies", so Stripes really is his "baby"..........seriously, he nurses that tiger

Bluth's take on California

2009-05-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME

Look out CA the Bluth's are coming and we are prepared. Classic vintage trailer, Diesel Truck, Kayak, Bikes, Play Dump Trucks and or course our PPE (Personal Protection Equipment for those not fluent in SITE acronyms). Unfortunately it was kind or rainy when we left and so this is the best shot we could get with the gas masks and keeping the kids in one place. Plus we lacked a cameraman so the Talon had to suffice with the auto timer thingy.

Now I know you only read this because you are interested in Heather and what she is doing... However, I decided to take control(Trevor) for a few seconds while Heather is taking a shower at our super fabulous RV park in Marina CA. Those that don't know that is on the bay of Monterey. Pretty sweet place. So Please excuse the less than interesting post but I usually don't have time to do this. (i've always wanted to sneak in and post something though.)

Our voyage started last Thursday night and we got out of town around 4:30 pm. tried to make it to Reno NV but only got as far as Winnemuacca and we crashed at a rest stop. Look we are just as big as those big guys.

That first night we stopped at of course McDonalds (what good redneck family from idaho wouldn't) and picked up grub because of course, you guessed, Heather had coupons for something free there. Of course, it happened to be one with out a play place so we just let them run all over the parking lot (This would become a common problem here). We are great parents.

Well Friday we started on our way and made it to Reno, nv. unfortunately it started to rain and rain and rain, and yes it rained. Now we come to the part about McDonalds, there isn't one along the entire len-80 with a play place, but you can find one with a casino in it!!!! I do recommend that you go to boomtown on the west side or reno. they have a free merry go round and its inside. kids had a total blast.

Donnors summit. Holy cow i thought our roads were bad. Rain, rain and Donnor's summit with a 32' trailer is not a good combination. Oh I forgot a two and a four year old. First we got up to the top and got our firewood taken away from us from the Agriculture Nazi's, (they can't keep a Mexican from going across the border but Heaven forbid if you bring firewood!!!). It had beetles and we're from Idaho of course and probably are carrying some infections disease for the California avocado or something!!! We did make it and even past a nasty wreck. But all in all we survived. Through Sacramento I got to stare at these fine people.

This is a Classic....

We made it to San Fran and spent a couple of days in the rain exploring. I'm sure Heather will post a much more detail about this but I'm tired. On a final note.... I had to use 4-wheel drive climbing the hills in San Fran pulling the trailer. There was enough rain that i just sat and peeled out. It's California!!!!!! :)

All in all we are having an awesome time, not perfect but its the experience that counts and I love spending the time with the fam damily.

Tannon's First Primary Talk

2009-04-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Families Can be Together Forever

Today was Tannon's first Primary talk. He's been in Primary for 4 months now and loves it, he has WONDERFUL teachers and he loves them too, they do a great job.

I was so proud of Tannon today for being so brave, he was a little nervous to get up in front of everyone, but he did such a great job.

His talk was very simple:

*show picture of family*
"I have a family here on Earth"
"They are so good to me"
"I want to share my life with them"
"through all eternity"

*show pic of Temple*
"Families can be together forever"
"Through Heavenly Father's Plan"

*show pic of family*
"I always want to be"
"with my own family"

*show pic of Temple*
"and the Lord has shown
me how I can"

Remarks- I am thankful that I can be together forever with my family. I am thankful for the Temple.

That was it, pretty short and sweet, but it was adorable and a milestone for him (and me).......he's getting older/smarter/cuter etc.

Mommy helped with the pictures and Daddy sat in the back to watch, then we both went to our classes & he to his.

I love you Tannon and I'm so proud of you, you are a good example to your younger brother and to your parents. I love you at this sweet age, but know that you must continue growing and learning. You are such a great kid and a true joy to our forever family.

Time Out for Women

2009-04-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

I am going to this and want to get a group together! Want to join me??

Everyone I know that has gone to Time for Women has raved about it and loved it. I am excited to go. The tour is coming to Pocatello (of all places?) for a 2 day event on Friday June 5 and Saturday June 6. I am planning on going to both days, but you can also register for just Saturday. This will be such a wonderful, fun, uplifting event and I've been looking forward to it since I've heard how great it is from my friends & family members that attended in Utah a couple months ago!

Here is their typical schedule of a day:
(sorry it's a bit fuzzy, I scanned it)

You can go here to learn more about the speakers, topics, schedule and registration fees etc.

Registration fees break down as follows:
Pre-register (for both days) before May 5- $57
Pre-register (for Saturday only) before May 5- $50
Pre-register a Group of 5 or more before May 5 ($10 off!) $47 for both days, $40 for Saturday
No pre-registration will be $65 at the door for both days and $55 for Saturday only.

Leave a comment, email, call me if you'd like to try to come & get a group together! Tell your family & friends too! This event will be well worth your time!

Carter turns 2!

2009-04-03T20:16:00.001-07:00

I feel badly for the lateness in getting this post up. Last Saturday, March 28, 2009 was Carter's 2nd birthday. We celebrated with family at our home. We had cake & ice cream and Carter (actually Tannon) opened presents. It was a fun evening.

Age 2, birthday morning. First stop, the gym......

Carter got stuck on the first present and didn't want to open anything else! He just wanted to play with his new toy! Tannon took over from there and kept saying "Wow, Carter look at this, is this cool"??? They both had fun sharing Carter's birthday.

This year Carter's cake was a star. He's not really "in" to particular themes & toys, he's too young. But he can sing parts of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and he likes to pick out stars among other shapes. So, I thought he would like a big Star birthday cake. He liked it, but I think he was soooo focused on blowing out his candles (he'd been practicing) that not much else mattered. He blew them out so well, no spitting on the cake either!

It was a strawberry cake with fresh strawberry/blueberry filling & lemon frosting. It was actually really good. I had the cake mix & frosting from a sale and the fresh fruit on hand, so that's what I came up with. It was actually really yummy!

Carter didn't even eat all of his cake & ice cream (seriously, and he likes sweet things!). He just wanted to get down and play with the toys!
The kids played with toys the rest of the night while the adults visited & played too.

At age 2, Carter is:

talking quite a bit, can say many many words. my favorite words are: alright, (aw-wight) sorry (sozzy), come on (a mon), Tannon (nana)
can pick out many shapes- triangle, circle, star oval
loves to write/color
can sing a bit & carry the tune
is in the 65th percentile for height & 50th for weight (bigger than Tannon was at this age)
is allowed to have his "B" binky for nap & bedtime only
loves to take baths
loves playing w/Tannon on the wiggle cars
loves reading books
fights nap & bedtime
gets many compliments on his crazy cute red hair
doesn't look like Tannon!
is still his Mama's baby....
is somewhat of a picky eater, but LOVES oatmeal, cr of wheat, soup (any kind) & bananas
can smell candy a mile away, he's my sweet tooth baby, i have to be on my toes with him around!
is nicknamed "the boobie", he can be emotional & somewhat of a crybaby!

I love you Carter, you've been such a special addition to our family. Tannon loves having a little brother to "teach" things too and to play with. Hope you'll be good buddies for a long long time! I wish you both could stay Mommy's little boys!!!

I spent $37...........

2009-03-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

....and saved $126.27

So, I decided to take advantage of a few deals at Albertsons today.......... We don't typically eat Glucerna cereal, but it was free & it actually looks pretty good! I don't usually use PertPlus either, but those were also free, so they will be great for storage and I'll toss one in my trailer for camping for this summer. Seriously, the M&Ms cost the most because I didn't have the manufacturer's coupon, just the in store one $1.88 (but they would've been $1.38 w/the coupon). Still not a bad price.

I decided to go back a second time and get a few more deals, just in case they ran out for the week. This time I spent $24 & saved $50.65. Again, those darn M&Ms........ but I only paid $3.60 total for all those Wheat Thins. When you buy 4 blocks of those cheeses you get them for $7 and then a $3 coupon prints off......so you really get them $1 each, not a bad deal!

You may be asking: What is she going to do with all that cheese??? Well, most of it doesn't expire until June/July, so some of it will keep. The rest I'll shred & freeze in bags to cook with later. With camping coming up, there are lots of dutch oven recipes that call for a cup or 2 of shredded cheese, plus most casseroles are tasty w/cheese on top . I don't worry about it getting used up.

I should not be buying candy!!! I've been doing pretty good with the candy from the last sale- those huge candy bar bags have remained un-touched in my freezer. The M&Ms will go downstairs on my storage room shelves. They should be pretty safe there. If not, my V Teaching sisters will be finding them on their doorsteps!

I'm going to have a Watch Party!

2009-03-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

This is the only internet photo I could find of a kinda cute beaded watch- but it's not exactly what I was looking for.

You know those adorable beaded watches that everyone has now (with the large beads)? Well, I met a girl selling them at a Flea Market yesterday and she had a lot of really cute ones, but she also does parties/open houses where you can either buy hers ($10-$15) or make your own custom bands with whatever beads she has and it will cost less! She also has a lot of "face" styles.

So if you already have one of these super cute watches, you could buy/make a new band or get a new face, or just come & have some food and see what styles other girls are making.

I haven't set a date yet, but if you'd be interested in more details, leave a comment! I'll post a date soon when I get it scheduled!

-ps, I don't get a free watch or a discount for doing the party, but it would be a good excuse to sit down and pick out what I want (and maybe you could too!)

Happy Birthday Relief Society!

2009-03-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

I signed up to make a cake for the Relief Society Birthday dinner tonite and I thought it turned out nicely, so I snapped a picture. Been a while since I made a cake for an occassion (Tannon's birthday in January). I really wanted to do a good job and have it be totally from scratch; but when the "to do" list got bigger and bigger the last couple days, I knew the cake mix & frosting in a tub would just have to do........ oh well......... but I did splurge & buy the flower from the Albertson's bakery for .45 cents!

It was a nice evening with a fabulous dinner and fun company. A great night out with some fun girls; I got to know a few friends a little better and saw a few I haven't seen for a while. I really do love the Relief Society Program and being part of a group of women that are part of a "greater good". I have enjoyed being part of this Ward and look forward to getting to know everyone a little more each time I'm with them.

Did you catch a leprechaun today?

2009-03-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

A picture of my little leprechauns........
Tannon was on the lookout this morning for leprechauns this morning. Who else would've turned his oatmeal and milk green??? Carter didn't notice a thing, but ate & drank his just the same. Tannon kept asking, "Mom, why didn't they turn "this" or "that" green? He was looking at everything in the house that was or wasn't green. He didn't want to change out of his pjs bacause they were green!Kids' breakfast, I'm sure you must all think this looks just awful & my poor kids had to choke it down.....seriously, they gobbled it all up!

Dinner time, white chicken chili (leftovers) that the leprechauns had somehow turned green?? They also turned our butter green on our toast, yep the milk again too!!

Yep, those little guys even left us some pistacio pudding for dessert! Mommy loves pistacio pudding.........mmmmm........I never make it because I could probably eat the whole batch! Carter definitely had me beat though, I let him have 3 little bowls full!

As I've said before, I enjoy holidays so much more with kids. They're much more fun, they truly enjoy the little things and so do I! I'm "lucky" to have such sweet little ones. Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all, hope you are as LUCKY as I am!

Do you own guns?

2009-03-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

This is my new window sticker.......maybe that dude who stole my purse, will think twice when he spots my car @ the Apple!

As I was beginning this post, I begun wondering about my friends and acquaintances, I don't really know many your viewpoints on gun ownership, having them in your home, using them, fear of them etc. Seems to be a subject we women just don't discuss very often among stories of potty training, preschools, teething, labor & delivery, pregnancy etc.

Well, my viewpoint is that I've (we've) been wanting to purchase a handgun for some time and we finally bit the bullet (okay, yes, pun intended) and got one. Although there is NO ammo available for it right now, it's on back order for the next 8 years;) Thanks Obama.......

Anyway, I am of the belief that guns don't kill people, people kill people. I also believe in self defense for yourself and your family if that need EVER arises, which we all pray it won't! But if it does, I want to know how to be smart, confident & not afraid so I could possibly have control over a situation.

Seriously, crime (mostly theft) has already been on the rise in many other States and even has been here (I do feel pretty safe in Idaho though) with the economic pinches weighing in..........

So, you betcha, I want to protect my family & my FOOD if it came to that! I'm sure that sounds pretty extreme, but if/when society dwindles/crumbles during hard times, people get pretty desperate and resort to those good old fashioned methods of "hunting & gathering", which in our day & age means robbing/killing. Alright, now that IS pretty extreme, but again, you just never know. I'd prefer to be a boyscout and "always be prepared" versus a victim of a violent crime, because criminals are the types that WILL have guns (legal or not).

Okay, I'm jumping off my gun soapbox. I can't wait until we get ammo so I can practice shooting, we do have a few rifles, but this is our first handgun, it's a 9mm. I've gone through all the features and stuff with Trevor, I know how to properly handle, load, engage, shoot, turn safety on/off and all that cool stuff.

I think it's important for ladies to know how to handle & shoot guns, so if any of you gals are interested in doing a fun "Moms Night Out", we should hit a shooting range one night!

Coupon Clipping.........

2009-03-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am one of those freaks (well, trying to be) taking pictures of my groceries- I need to get a life...........or clean my house.......... I was up very late plotting how to get the best deals at Walgreens.......I never ever shopped at Walgreens until I begun learning the "art" of shopping there. I still don't know if it's worth it, it takes a lot of effort to get things to work out "just so".

I spent nearly $15 for the above purchase and I will get $7.00 back in a rebate for that darn "Axe" hair care product (it was the most expensive, but I get a full rebate, so technically it was free). I'm embarrassed that there is actually one more bag of candy not pictured because I didn't want to show you how much of it has ALREADY been eaten.....mostly by me.........all the stress of coupon shopping;) The rest of the candy is in basement freezer, hopefully 'til Halloween or some other candy-worthy holiday.

I would like to give a nasty shout out to the lady who bought $700 worth of diapers and cleaned out ALL 3 stores to get a million dollars in Register Rewards (store credit); the manager remarked today that one person will ruin the whole coupon thing for this town.......... there are honest ways to get good deals (like not copying the coupon 50 times- okay I'm done venting). I am thankful that my efforts (finally) panned out a little bit!

I would also like to thank a generous friend for sharing a few tricks with me. I don't know how willing I'd be to share my secrets.....well, yes I would....maybe for a small fee;)

Ahhh.... Massage......

2009-03-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

The secret is now out, I have my own personal masseuse. I know, yes, you should all be so jealous. I don't even get charged, I get such a good deal.......I don't even deserve it!

His name is Trevor, he is my husband. Today, he treated me by putting the kids down for a nap after church and giving me a hot stone massage. He does a great job and is almost professional (dare I say) in the whole massage process. We have a variety of essential oils/blends for massages that we keep on hand, he'll put on "spa" music (which we also have a lot of), he even puts towels in the dryer to bundle around my legs/feet etc so I stay warm. It is wonderful.

I had no idea he was going to surprise me today....... but I'm glad he did! A great treat for a cold snowy day!

Thank you to a wonderful husband that is more kind to me than I deserve, I love you!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-03-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

This is a very belated post! My Mom was out of town for her birthday on February 19. So we celebrated this past Sunday when she got back!

We had a yummy steak dinner with wonderful trimmings & sides. Then had strawberry-blueberry trifle birthday cake! It was nice.

We're so glad Mom's back and missed her while she was gone!! My Mom is truly the nicest & most giving person I know. She does a lot for our family and is very supportive. She loves to play with my kids and is a wonderful grandma! I'm so glad she is here in Idaho Falls!

Happy Birthday again Mom, we had a wonderful day celebrating with you! Love you!

A sneak peek at Spring?

2009-03-01T21:47:00.001-08:00

What a treat for me! I got to jog outside twice this past week! With temps in the low 40s, it felt sooo warm! Most anything above 35 I feel okay taking the kids out in jogging stroller. It fully encloses and as long as they're bundled up, they stay warm and love it. They really enjoyed new scenery and being outside this week, even if was just in the stroller!

I'm glad they still like going for rides in the jogging stroller, but they're both getting bigger and heavier to push!

I look forward to many more jogs with them this summer: to the park, zoo, gym, friends' houses etc. I love this stroller because it also attaches to my bike, so convenient. Next to buying a crib, this has been the most used & best purchase I've made with regard to "baby & kid stuff"!

Happy Trails!

Valentine's Day 2009

2009-02-24T13:53:00.000-08:00

It's a little late for this post, but I wanted to be sure to squeeze it in, because it did turn out to be a very special day for us!

Above, a cute little cake Trevor's parents brought for us, it was really cute and very tasty! They also brought cute little Mr Potato Head "cupids" for the kids & cupcakes, really cute & fun- Thanks Mom & Dad!

We began with Trevor doing a PermaGlaze job that began the morning of Friday Feb 13 and lasted most of Valentine's Day.

Trevor & I don't get too fancy in exchanging Valentine's Day gifts.....I thought I'd capture the "reality" of our day and how we do gifts:

To Heather from Trevor (he knows better than to buy me candy;)

To Trevor from Heather

I had lots of "fun" plans for the kids......but in reality it ended up being tons of work & clean up for me and some quick fun for them. I made heart shaped brownies (why?? took way too long......... could've made like 16 batches or normal ones in the time it took!) then frosted them and decorated them with fun candies- no pic! They turned out cute and yummy.....I ate way more than my fair share of "broken hearts".

Then we made some "heart healthy" brown rice & millet krispies in heart shapes I used strawberry marshmallows so they'd have flavor & be pink, but they didn't taste like strawberry!- again no pic! They turned out kinda cute.

We cleaned up and delivered all our gifts to friends/family- at that point, I'd had enough Valentines Day fun........but I'd already made "kid friendly" and fun dinner plans for the evening (and done the grocery shopping), so I just stuck with it and we all made our own heart shaped pizzas. Actually, I'm the only one who wanted to make a heart! This was actually a really fun & easy thing to do. The kids loved it and everyone's pizzas turned out sooo good! We all agreed we'd have to have "pizza night" again soon!

Tannon rollin' out his dough, Carter "helping"

Tannon is my artistic child, he placed the olives, pepperoni & cheese just right!

The we baked it! I must point out that the olives ended up being merely for decor, he doesn't like them, nor did he eat them.......but Daddy ate them for him!

Here's Mommy's pizza: spelt crust, olive oil, garlic, mushrooms, spinach, feta & mozzerella, it was sooo good!

Okay, making a heart shape with dough, is harder than it looks! I have a new respect for Papa Murphys on Valentine's Day.......

Daddy finally made it home in time to do his! Yay!

All done! This was super good too (yes, I had to taste-test each pizza)

Tannon loved his pizza so much, that he ate the whole thing! Something about creating it yourself that must make it taste much better!

The remaining dough became breadsticks that we were all too full to eat, but we had them for dinner the following night with soup! They were yummy too!

It was a fun day with the kids..........and in the end it was special. We got to be together with each other on a day that's supposed to be filled with Love. Next to creating his own pizza, Tannon had the most fun delivering gifts, he kept naming people that we needed to take more Valentine's too (everyone in church, preschool, on the block........Santa.......etc.) It was fun visiting many loved ones. Hope you all had a special day too!

New Blog Shout Out!

2009-02-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

I know I can't even keep up with this one........but I am Co-authoring a Food Storage blog with a fabulous gal from Rexburg, Jamie. See the new link button on the left side of my blog. Jamie farms and has LOTS of fresh grains available (red wheat, white wheat, flours, flax seeds, golden flax seeds etc) in various packages (25-50 lb bags, or sealed buckets etc). I ordered 600 lbs of grain (spelt) from her last fall to add to my food storage, what fabulous products grown here locally!!! Also, keep her in mind for fruits this summer: apples, peaches, pears etc......

Anyway, if you're interested in another food storage reference, we will be posting every Wed & Sunday (well, that's the goal anyway)!

My first born.....

2009-02-11T12:41:00.000-08:00

This was actually a Facebook Tag, but I'm publishing it here because I've abandoned my Blog lately and I'm feeling a little bad about it! Stay tuned for my "Couples Tag"!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? No

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes, 7 years

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Shocked, nervous, anxious

4. DID YOU THINK ABOUT ABORTION? No way!

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 27

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Took 1 test, it was negative, took another one a month later, it was positive, I was nearly 9 weeks when I found out!

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? My husband

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes

9. DUE DATE? February 7, 2005

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? No

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? In the beginning- fruit, middle- meats, end- icecream/pudding

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Gaining sooooo much weight! I hated it

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Male, no doubt about it!

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No, we hoped for a boy first

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 60!!! and he came 2 weeks early, It could've been 80 by the time I was done!

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? a couple

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No, but they prepped for an emergency C section at the end because the baby turned, but they turned him back around.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Timpanogos Regional, it was awful....they were rennovating L&D, it was mess and they had nurses from all over the US filling in shifts & spots- nobody was on the same page w/anyone else.

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? Active labor, 3 hours

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My husband

22. WHO WAS WITH YOU WHEN YOU GAVE BIRTH? Just my husband & the Doc & Nurses

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? natural

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? Yep!

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 6 lb 11 oz

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? January 24, 2005

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Tannon Grant Bluth

Here's his 1st pic in the hospital- one day old........ what a little angel........

I tag anyone who would like to post!

The things kids say............

2009-02-01T21:19:00.001-08:00

Kids just say the funniest things sometimes. I need to be better at writing them down and documenting these moments.

Tannon said 2 things this week that had to be documented.

First of all, my Mother had an unfortunate experience this week. She was rushed to the emergency room (she's fine now) and had to have her appendix removed along with a few other things the doctor deemed necessary. I told Tannon that Grandma was in the hospital and had to see the doctor because she had some "owies in her tummy and he needed to fix them". He pondered for a while........then said, "Oh.....Mom, was Grandma running with her toothbrush in her mouth"? I had a discussion with Tannon ealier in the week about this very thing. "You CAN'T run through the house with your toothbrush in your mouth, if you fall and get hurt, you'll have to go to the doctor"!

The second story makes me proud:

On a note from Tannon's preschool teacher, I learned that the kids had recently been discussing Martin Luther King Day and the Inauguration. This prompted me to ask Tannon, "Who is the President of the United States"? He answered, "President Angel Moroni". I loved it, I didn't expect that answer at all. When we travel and pass by the Temples, I always ask him who is at the top of the Temple blowing the horn?? Last year, he had a hard time saying "Angel Moroni" and remembering who he was. But now, he's apparently President of our Country- wouldn't that be awesome-

Anyway, I love this age and wish I could freeze it and make it last longer. Tannon wants to marry me and I'd love to keep it that way.

May you all giggle at the mouths of babes and love your little ones during each phase, they really do grow up too quickly!

Happy Birthday Tannon

2009-01-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

On January 24, 2009, Saturday night we celebrated Tannon's 4th birthday! What a fun night. It was a small party with immediate family. Tannon was excited to have his cousin, Nathan, come to his party (I think that was the highlight of the party for him!), they always have so much fun playing together. Nathan's birthday is in a couple weeks & Tannon can't wait to celebrate with him too!!

I tried to honor as many of Tannon's birthday requests as I could. For his birthday dinner, he wanted: pizza, li'l hotdogs & french fries.....so we had pizza, veggies w/dip and apples instead. It was good and the kids loved eating at their own little table.

Another request was to have a Treasure Hunt. So, I did a small hunt and at the end the Treasure was a pinata. This one was rigged really good, so I had to smash it at the end to get all the stuff out.

The prizes inside were: peanuts, animal crackers, fruit roll ups, toy lizards, yo-yos, fake coins, fruit candies & smarties. The kids loved it! I admit, it felt pretty good to swing a bat at something and break it!:)

Cake time! Tannon kept saying he wanted a "treasure hunt birthday cake", so this is what it ened up being, ta-da, a treasure chest. It looks okay, but I will not post the picture of the super fabulous ones I found online that I tried to mimic........holy cow, there are some super- talented people with a lot of time on their hands!

On several occassions Tannon said he wanted lemon cake and green mint icecream.......... yes, I did ask several times to see if he changed his mind because the combo is just not palatable........but he never changed his mind. So that's what we had! Lemon cake with some lemon & some chocolate frosting (I just couldn't get around not using chocolate, I needed that color!) I also offered Neopolitan for those who couldn't stomach the other. I, for one, LOVE all things mint and was proud to eat lemon cake with mint ice cream.

Next up, presents. Initially, Tannon was okay letting Nathan help open.........but then he got a bit possessive and Nathan had to resort to leaning over the shoulder just as excited to see what was inside as Tannon. They were so cute together!

This nerf gun quickly became Tannon's favorite and he has a very good aim for a 4 year old (says his non-biased mother). Thanks Gma & Gpa Bluth!

Carter loved the remote control digger/bulldozer from Gma & Gpa Shippen. Made lots of noises and music.

Time for good byes. Neither was shy to give a great big hug. It was a delightful little party and we all had a good time!

Tannon is my good little helper and a good big brother to Carter. He is interested in and fascinated by many things. He loves to read his books and look at pictures. He also loves drawing, building with his blocks and playing on his new little computer he got from Grandma Paradis for Christmas- he has learned a lot with it! His favorite foods are (I quote): oatmeal, apples & applesauce. He has a very big heart and a sweet demeanor, although he is also very energetic! He likes to run and ride super fast on his wiggle cars in the basement with Carter. He also loves doing the snowplow with Grandpa Bluth & Dusty!

I love you, Tannon, part of me wishes you could just stay 4 years old forever and be my sweet little boy.

Laptop for Sale! $200

2009-01-19T08:48:00.001-08:00

Know any college kids interested in a laptop? Want one for yourself?

IBM Thinkpad Model T-42, Windows XP, Intel Mobile Centrino Tech. 1.5 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 33 GB hard drive. Has built in wireless card.

It's a very quality built machine. It's not as lightning fast as the brand new ones, but it works well!

Post questions if interested.

Thanks!
Heather

Cleaning with the Kids!

2009-01-17T18:30:00.001-08:00

Yes, today we cleaned......and cleaned.............and cleaned! It was actually a pretty fun and great day with the kids.

We (with many others) cleaned the church house today, which is actually really fun for my kids (I am not lying!). Tannon goes up and down all the hallways and aisles with the "rolling" vacuum- you know the ones that don't plug in and all the schools have them. Carter just follows him around everywhere like he's somehow helping out. It was funny, after 3 or 4 attempts to pick up papers/garbage with the rolling vacuum, Tannon finally got it and was soon on a mission to find everything that even remotely resembled garbage. There are 3 other types of commercial vacuums that get used and my kids just stare at them in amazement; guess because they're just big machines and make a different noises than ours at home.

After that, we came home and did some much needed cleaning in our own house. I got A LOT done and they were soooo good today, they helped me so much (mostly by playing nice & not fighting too much); they were such good boys.

It was sooooo funny, Tannon would scream something silly into the vacuum hose and Carter would crack up hysterically, he thought it was just sooooo funny.

Then, Carter would try to yell something back, it was pretty cute....well to me.... - hey it couldn've been so much worse- like them shoving the hose down the toilet and dropping my jewelry into it or something very "boy-ish" like that. I'll take screaming into the hose any day!

It could've been a long, trying and not very fun day, but somehow we managed to have a fun time cleaning and the kids earned a special treat, which I decided could be..........................

..............a movie

We let them pick out a movie at Blockbuster, Tannon wanted "the kitties", he's never seen "Aristocats" but liked the picture on the case, so that's his treat for being so good today! Probably doesn't sound like that great of a reward, but to him (because we're too cheap to pay for any type of cable or TV signal), this is special- ok, so he's deprived, what can I say!

Yep, popcorn & all, it's a real date! Look, they're even sharing!

Roasted Turkey with Mushroom Herb Sauce

2009-01-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is not the actual picture for the recipe, but it looks appetizing nonetheless. I got this recipe from Broulim's of all places. I bought a couple turkeys & froze them when the price was right during the Thanksgiving week craze (I paid $6 ea. for 2 17 lb turkeys!). We decided to cook one up for Sunday dinner & it was fabulous!!

Both the sauce & seasoning method for the turkey are very simple! The sauce is awesome over mashed potatoes & the turkey, I will make this sauce again & again, it's a new favorite!

Just a side note, Trevor prepped the turkey and (I didn't know this until we were eating it) had put a very small oven safe dish inside the turkey with some sherry in it (i admit, i keep many cooking wines on hand). It steam cooked it and made the turkey so incredibly tender, it was just fabulous!!! I think that's the same idea behind cooking "beer butt chicken", I've never made it, but people swear by the method.

Ingredients
Servings: 14

Turkey
1-1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
16 lb whole turkey, thawed, if frozen
No-stick cooking spray

Sauce
2 Tbs butter
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup half and half (okay, so I used fat free half & half and was still divine!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°. Stir together poultry seasoning, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper in a small dish to make seasoning mixture. Remove neck and giblets from body and neck cavities of turkey. Drain juices and dry turkey with paper towels. Turn wings back to hold neck skin in place. Place turkey, breast side up, on a flat rack in a shallow roasting pan. Coat turkey with cooking spray and sprinkle with seasoning mixture. Roast turkey 3 to 3-1/2 hours (ours was closer to 4 hours) or until thigh registers 180° on a meat thermometer. Cover breast and top of drumsticks with foil after two hours to prevent overcooking of the breast. When done, let turkey stand 15 minutes before carving.

For sauce, melt butter in a small pan over low heat. Add mushrooms; cook and stir 1 minute. Stir in flour, poultry seasoning, salt, thyme and pepper. Gradually stir in broth and half and half. Cook and stir constantly over medium-high heat until thick and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more. Serve over sliced turkey

2009 Goals.............

2009-01-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, I choose not to call these Resolutions, because I really don't want to resolve to do them for just one year. I really want to master these things; many of them are things I should have mastered by now and it's sad that I have to list them, but you know, we all have our weaknesses!!

I'm also hoping that by posting/sharing them with others that I will be more likely to really make an extra effort to accomplish these things. Plus, I tag all of you whom would like to post yours!!

Here we go:

1. Temple Attendance- attend 1-2 times/month (but at least once per month!)
2. Early to Bed! 9:30 in bed reading, 10:00 lights out
3. More quality time- play/read/activities with kids, Family Night every week!
4. More time/less busy- commit to less "things", learn to say no, don't overextend my hours in the day (this one is really hard for me.......)
5. Practice/Gain Patience- 'nuf said
6. Service- look for more opportunities, involve the kids (they loved cleaning the church!), give more of self, serve immediate & extended family too.
7. Spiritual Education- daily scripture reading, finish monthly church publications (those of you who know me, know that reading is NOT something I enjoy- at all- so this is a stretch for me!!)

Okay, 7 is a lucky number right? So, i quit with 7 new goals for this year and the many years to come, in fact, I will likely just repeat this post on Jan 1 2010!:)

Again, happy new year to you all and I hope you are able to achieve your goals for the coming year!

Canning Butter

2009-01-08T18:58:00.001-08:00

Okay, so there is quite an art to doing this. I've had the recipe/instructions for the past 2 years and have meant to do it since then! Today, I finally decided to try it out. As a side note, the next time I do this, I will be sure my husband is either around or able to take the kids out for a bit, because butter is not very forgiving if you burn it (I didn't burn mine, but I nearly did while taking care of a screaming fit and trying to get kids dinner......... butter is too expensive to burn!!). I also underestimated the amount of time it would take. Needless to say, I learned A LOT today!

Here is my 10 lbs of butter in the pot, getting ready to boil, then simmer, then can. You don't need a canner to do this!!! Just an oven & a fridge!

I actually have 16 more pounds that I will be doing, I buy butter during the Holidays when it's on sale (right now @ Albertson's it's 2/$3!!) and freeze it until I need it. Butter freezes fabulously! Once your butter has been canned, it has a 3-5 yr shelf life (yes, on the shelf, not in a fridge/freezer) in good conditions and I've heard that it tastes wonderful!!! Since oils/fats have a very short shelf life, this is a great way to store them!

If you'd like more info on doing this yourself, feel free to email (therunna@hotmail.com) or leave a comment.

Bad bad blogger! & Happy New Year!!

2009-01-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's been a while since anyone's heard from me........ yes we did celebrate Christmas and it was just sooo wonderful this year. Christmas Eve was the best..........I have lots of pictures and I've been using the excuse that I'm too busy to go through them/edit/select and post about them...........but I will will get there and give you all a recap sometime before Valentine's Day!

The kids really had fun the whole Christmas season, as did I, New Years' was "kid friendly" and super low key, but still kinda fun.

Happy January to you all, may you keep your resolutions and may the snow melt before you have to shovel it again!

Happy Birthday Trevor!

2008-12-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, adventurous, caring husband! I picked this picture because it shows Trevor doing something he loves (posting a picture of "just him" would be totally lame....in his eyes). Here we are on the Middlefork of the Salmon River (we ran 100 miles of river on this trip, it was AWESOME!!), Trevor was the lead guide pretty much all the way, he's awesome.

We celebrated Trevor's birthday tonite. Out to dinner with ALL the family, yummy Mexican food at Plum Loco, it was good. We came back to our home for presents, cake & ice cream. It was a fun night. Tannon opened all of Trevor's presents, he probably had the most fun tonite!

I made a yellow cake w/rich chocolate frosting (per his request), it was pretty & tasty. I got a picture with my sister in law's phone (who knows if it will come out, or if I will ever get it) since my camera was stolen yesterday!! No one else brought a camera...:(

Anyway, for those of you who don't know Trevor, he is really fun and loves to explore new places/locations, he is our trip planner and always wants to go somewhere new and different. I'm always glad to be along for the ride, I'm a HORRIBLE planner!

I love you Trevor and hope you had a happy & memorable birthday! I am proud of all you do for me & our family!

Let it snow!!

2008-12-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

Trevor got Tannon his own little snow shovel this year. Last year they sold out before we could get one!

Tannon just loves it, to say the least! He's actually a very good little shoveler. He shoveled the driveway the other night with Trevor and today he shoveled the deck all by himself!

He also shoveled the grass because there's way more snow there than on the driveway :).......... he puts it on the driveway and then shovels it back onto the lawn. Lots of hard work for a little boy. I love watching him, but he's growing up quickly....sigh.......

Silent Night......... Beautiful Lights

2008-12-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

I meant to get a picture of our home last winter with the lights up and just never did. We had massive amounts of snow too! So this year I wanted to be sure to do it. Also, many friends/family from out of town don't get to see it (not that it's newspaper worthy or anything, just kinda fun).

I love Christmas lights, especially when they "glow" from being covered with snow! So beautiful. I'm glad many of our neighbors put up lights. When the roads are covered in snow (like the past couple days), we look like a little village, to me it's very calming.

I really love that my little (very slow) digi camera captured the snow falling! Merry Christmas all! I hope you're enjoying the season.

50 Things- Tagged

2008-12-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

1.What color is your tooth brush? totally 80s hot pink and white- compliments of dentist this week.

2. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Having dinner w/awesome friends.

3. What is your favorite candy bar? does York peppermint patty count?

4. Have you ever been to a strip club? yes

5. What is the last thing you said aloud? "Good night, I love you!" Just tucked Tannon in

6. What is the best ice cream flavor? Peppermint stick!! (Farr's)

7. What is the last thing you had to drink? Water

8. What are you wearing right now? Jammies & robe

9. What was the last thing you ate? Asphalt pie

10. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Yes, for kids, not me

11. When was the last time you ran? Yesterday

12. Who was the last person to send you a message/comment on your blog? someone i don't know!

13. Do you take vitamins daily? Well, supplements: Omega 3s & Glucosamine

14. Do you go to church every Sunday? When we're in town, yes

15. Do you have a tan? Yes, but that's unusual, I vacationed recently in some fabulous weather!

16. Do you like Chinese food over pizza? Thai food over pizza

17. Do you drink soda with a straw? I don't drink soda

18. What does your last text message say? I don't text

20. What are you doing tomorrow? Church, teaching primary, having dinner w/Mom & brother visiting town

21. Where is your dad? In Utah

2. Look to your left, what do you see? My wall!

23. What color is your favorite pair of shoes? white w/stuff (gym shoes)

24. Do you use chap stick? I must!

25. What's your favorite thing to do in your free time? Exercise, clean, re-organize.....

26. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? Drive Thru.

27. Do you have a dog? No, I Craigs' Listed him..........i miss him sometimes...

28. Last guy you talked on the phone with? Trevor

29. Last girl you talked on the phone with? Katie

30. Any fun vacation plans soon? California coast trip in May

31. Do you dye your hair? Yes

32. Can you say the alphabet backwards? Yes

33. Do you have a maid service clean your house? I am the maid service

34. Are you jealous of anyone? Of course

35. Do you love anyone? Many

36. Do any of your friends have children? most of them

38. Do you like cats? Yes, especially kittens

39. Have you ever been to six flags? Yes, love it!!!

40. How did you get your worse scar? Horrible wicked cat scratch!

41. What is your favorite smell? Cozy homes (candles, food baking) & fresh rain

42. What is the last DVD you watched? Boston Legal

43. Have you ever been to Disney world? Nope

44. What is your favorite number? As a kid it was 14, but I really don't have one now

45. Do you toast your pop tarts? Who knows, I was never allowed to have Pop Tarts as a kid and I don't buy them now...... does it really matter?

46. Have you ever waited tables? I bussed tables at age 14

47. Where did you have your first kiss? I don't remember!!!!!! Must not have been that memorable! Wow, I must be really old.........

48. What should you be doing? Many things other than this!! Washing face, brushing teeth....

49. Do you enjoy wasting time blogging? ya

50. Who do you want to tag? As many whom are willing to do it!!

Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies

2008-12-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I said the caramel brownie bars (posted last week) were on my list for baking, but they've been bumped for these. Peppermint is just too good to pass up. I'll have to make these for an upcoming party/event/gathering- someone invite me somewhere so I can make these! Trevor's not a huge fan of mint, so if I make these for us at home, he'll have 1 and I'll have 23! More is definitely not always better..........

Here's the recipe:

Yield
16 servings

Ingredients
Cheesecake batter:
1 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Brownie batter:
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
Cooking spray

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare cheesecake batter, place cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add granulated sugar and peppermint extract; beat well. Add 1 egg and 1 egg white; beat well. Add 1 tablespoon flour; beat mixture just until blended.
3. To prepare brownie batter, weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 4.5 ounces flour, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, 2 egg whites, and 1 egg in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add flour mixture to brown sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended.
4. Reserve 1/2 cup of brownie batter. Pour remaining batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Carefully pour cheesecake batter over top; spread evenly to edges. Dot cheesecake batter with reserved brownie batter. Swirl top two layers of batters together using the tip of a knife. Bake at 350° for 26 minutes or until top is set. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 213 (32% from fat)
Fat: 7.5g (sat 2.6g,mono 2.3g,poly 1.1g)
Protein: 4.4g
Carbohydrate: 32.3g
Fiber: 0.7g
Cholesterol: 37mg
Iron: 1.3mg
Sodium:
169mg
Calcium:
32mg
Cheesecake batter:
1 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Brownie batter:
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
Cooking spray

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare cheesecake batter, place cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add granulated sugar and peppermint extract; beat well. Add 1 egg and 1 egg white; beat well. Add 1 tablespoon flour; beat mixture just until blended.
3. To prepare brownie batter, weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 4.5 ounces flour, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, 2 egg whites, and 1 egg in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add flour mixture to brown sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended.
4. Reserve 1/2 cup of brownie batter. Pour remaining batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Carefully pour cheesecake batter over top; spread evenly to edges. Dot cheesecake batter with reserved brownie batter. Swirl top two layers of batters together using the tip of a knife. Bake at 350° for 26 minutes or until top is set. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 213 (32% from fat)
Fat: 7.5g (sat 2.6g,mono 2.3g,poly 1.1g)
Protein: 4.4g
Carbohydrate: 32.3g
Fiber: 0.7g
Cholesterol: 37mg
Iron: 1.3mg
Sodium: 169mg
Calcium: 32mg

PermaGlaze of Idaho

2008-12-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

Great Job Trevor!

Here is what a refinished bath tub (it looked pretty gross before) and tile shower looks like. We have some new stone finishes in our product line and this is the first job we tried one on. I think it came out really nice! This particular finish is called Landslide, we have several others on our website permaglazeofidaho.com

I am kicking myself for not taking better "before" pictures of this job. I was the one who met w/the client, took the measurements etc. but was in a hurry when it came to pics.

Before:

We also refinished the sink & counter top. The sink was really stained and had rust all around the drain. Looks brand new now! This client is still remodeling this bathroom, but it will look great when it's all complete! Can't believe I didn't even get a before pic of this, the counter top was pretty ugly.

So, this is what Trevor does on his days off from the Site, he works hard and does a great job! I'm so proud of him! He feels this type of work is much more rewarding than (well, you know) working for the Govt. :)

FYI- the surfaces that we refinish are: ceramic, porcelain, acrylic, fiberglass, appliance surfaces, tile, formica, cultured marble & vitreous china.

Christmas Oreos

2008-12-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

I've been making these this morning for (shhhhh) neighbors. They are quite easy & tasty! The recipe is below.

Merry Christmas all!

1 box Devils Food Cake mix
3/4 c butter, softened
2 eggs

1/2 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 c butter
1 T vanilla
3 c powdered sugar
1/4 c peppermint candy cane, crushed* (optional)

Cookies: Combine first 3 ingred., then chill 10-15 min. Roll into small balls and bake on greased cookie sheet 8-9 min @ 350º. Cool.

Filling: Beat cream cheese, butter & vanilla. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Stir in peppermint. Spread on cookie, top with another. Makes about 2 doz.

*I didn't use the peppermint (as much as I LOVE all things mint!!!) because my plates will have other goodies on them and I didn't want everything to taste like mint (although how bad would it be, really?)

Enjoy!

Death by Caramel Bars

2008-12-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

Actually haven't made these, but they are on my "to-do" list...

These showy brownies are nice and tall with pockets of caramel goo. They are wicked enough on their own, but for an over-the-top dessert, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle with caramel sauce.

Yield

2 dozen

Ingredients

3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 cups unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup uncooked regular oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 (2.07-oz.) chocolate-coated caramel-peanut nougat bars, chopped ( Snickers)
1 (14-oz.) can dulce de leche*

Preparation

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; stir well. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture, stirring just until blended. Fold in chopped candy bars.

Spoon batter into a greased aluminum foil-lined 13" x 9" pan coated with cooking spray, allowing foil to extend over ends of pan. (Pan will be very full.) Spoon dollops of dulce de leche over batter; swirl slightly into batter with a knife. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack, and cool completely. (This may take several hours.) Use foil to lift uncut brownies out of pan. Peel foil away from sides of uncut brownies, and cut into bars.

*Find dulce de leche with other Mexican ingredients or on the baking aisle.

Thanksgiving in Puerto Vallarta 2008

2008-12-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

What, you all didn't sport swimsuits for Thanksgiving?? We did! We had a blast on our family trip to Puerto Vallarta. I've put off posting because I've gone through over 400 pics of this trip and I'm trying to create a Memory book to print out as a family keepsake. Those who went: Mom & Dad Bluth (thanks for taking us all to your timeshare!), Mike, Krysta, Ashlei, Trevor, Heather & the kids.

The answer to every question is YES. We had a wonderful time, it was absolutely beautiful everyday. Not too hot, the kids had more fun than I thought possible. I had more fun w/them than I thought possible. It was just perfect. Food was fabulous, it was fun and relaxing at the same time.

Water water water and then there was the beach........ just too much for kids, a bucket & shovel goes a long way for entertainment. They couldn't get enough

Here's us at sunset (didn't show up in the pic) heading to the beach for a very nice Thanksgiving dinner. There was live violin entertainment and a 4 course dinner with each table set to carve their own stuffed turkey. It was wonderful! I'll elaborate more in my Memory book, but just wanted to share with you all that we had a great Holiday together. I will treasure this memory with my kids for a long time.......

Who says only newborns can be swaddled?

2008-12-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

Tannon has a slight chlostraphobia fear.............. knowing this, we (actually Trevor) thought it would be fun to burrito wrap him like him a baby. He couldn't move a muscle and was freaking out!!!! The pictures don't do it justice, but it was actually pretty funny........I know we have a sick sense of humor, but isn't that partly what having kids is for??

Header??????

2008-11-30T21:52:00.000-08:00

Anyone else having problems changing their Header with Blogger? I changed my template, but for some reason, I can even get to the screen where you can change your header!

Any ideas/help??

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2008-11-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

We're outta here, see ya'll in a week or so!!!

Tannon, eat your beans!

2008-11-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

I was cleaning up dinner tonite and telling Tannon to finish his food, when I hear this from across the kitchen, "Mom, I'm making a hexagon with my beans". Typical dinnertime conversation in your homes too, right?

Shapes seem to be one of his favorite "subjects" (if you can call them that) in preschool, I think he could take or leave the numbers & letters. Such a funny phrase to hear from a 3 year old. Kids just surprise you, they're funny & creative in ways that we aren't. Anyway, I just had to laugh, say "good job", and "Tannon, eat your beans".

Oatmeal Crusted Chicken Tenders

2008-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

Oatmeal in the breading adds crunch to these chicken tenders, which are sure to be a hit with adults and children alike. Serve with commercial honey mustard or light ranch dressing for dipping.

Along with my "Cookie Countdown", I also receive the "Dinner Tonite" emails (both from Cooking Light), lots of fun ideas and new recipes. This one is super easy and looks like everyone in my family would eat it! I think we'll have it Tues night.......haven't decided on a side dish yet...

Yield

4 servings (serving size: about 4 ounces)

Ingredients

1 cup regular oats
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound chicken breast tenders
Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°.

Place oats in a food processor, and process for 20 seconds or until coarsely ground. Add cheese, thyme, salt, and pepper. Pulse to combine, and place in a shallow bowl.

Place each chicken breast tender between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Coat both sides of tenders with cooking spray; dredge tenders in oat mixture. Place tenders on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until browned.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 283 (26% from fat)
Fat: 8.3g (sat 4.1g,mono 2.4g,poly 0.8g)
Protein: 36.9g
Carbohydrate: 14.2g
Fiber: 1.9g
Cholesterol: 80mg
Iron: 2mg
Sodium: 710mg
Calcium: 278mg

Bacon & Potato Soup Mmmmmm

2008-11-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

I got this recipe from the Winco bulk food section, we had it for dinner last night and it was really good!!

Please note, this is NOT what the soup looks like, I just wanted a picture to go along with this post. It's not a creamy soup, as chicken broth is the base.

Bacon & Potato Soup

6 thick slices bacon (I used 4)
1 1/2 t Olive oil
1/2 C chopped onion
1/2 C chopped carrots
2 stalks celery
4 C cubed potatoes (i love red potaotes)
4 c low fat, low sodium chick broth
1/8 t red (cayenne) pepper (i used 1t, i like things warm)
1/2 C shredded cheese (colby adds wonderful full flavor)
1/2 t sea salt

Cook bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels. Discard bacon grease and wipe pan clean. Prepare vegetables. Add olive oil to pan and onion, carrot, celery as they are cut up. Saute until onion is soft, but not brown (3-4 min). Stir in broth, potatoes & pepper; bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (10-15 min). Stir in cheese, heating just until melted, don't boil.

Chop/crumble bacon & add to soup. Add salt if desired.

*Note, the bacon & cheese added plenty of salt for my taste. Also I had a couple baked potatoes left over from another night, I scooped them clean, mashed them and added them to my stock, it made the soup much more "creamy" and thick- very very good!

Enjoy!

I entered to win a darling quilt..........

2008-11-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

But none of you can enter, just me! You can go to the link and check out her adorable things though! I need to learn how to do "links" so I can add them without looking like an idiot, here's my best attempt:

http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/11/05/sstack.jpg

Yes, please take pity on me and leave a comment telling me how to do this the right way, count it as your good deed for the day

Cookie Countdown........

2008-11-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

Carmelized Sugar Cookies

Okay people, why am I signed up for the Cookie Countdown?? My mouth waters at the same time everyday!! Pavlov was no dummy.........

Every day until Christmas a new cookie recipe is put in my inbox, it begins the day after Halloween! Do you know how many cookies I need to taste test??

These look super yummy and check out the nutrition facts, they're not that bad!

Enjoy

Yield
Makes about 55 cookies
(holy cow! freeze half the dough for later!)

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (3/8 lb.) butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preparation

1. Butter a 12- by 14-inch piece of foil and set on a baking sheet. In an 8- to 10-inch frying pan over medium-high heat, melt 1/2 cup sugar, frequently shaking and tilting pan. When mixture is a light caramel color (in about 6 minutes), pour onto foil. Let stand until caramel is hard, about 5 minutes. Break into chunks, then, in a food processor or a heavy plastic food bag with a mallet, crush into 1/8- to 1/4-inch pieces.

2. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and remaining 1/2 cup sugar until well blended. Beat in 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

3. In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Stir or beat into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in crushed caramel.

4. Drop dough in 1 1/2-teaspoon portions, 2 inches apart, onto buttered or cooking parchment-lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets.

5. Bake cookies in a 325° oven until edges are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking.

6. Let stand on sheets until slightly firm, 1 to 2 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

Note: Nutritional analysis is per cookie.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 50 (50% from fat)
Protein: 0.3g
Fat: 2.8g (sat 1.7)
Carbohydrate: 6g
Fiber: 0.1g
Sodium: 33mg
Cholesterol: 7.4mg

Grandma's Tea Party

2008-11-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

For Grandma's 85th birthday, we decided to do a special Girls' Night Out for November (her birthday is November 19th) before she headed to Arizona. On November 3rd, we all met for a formal evening of Tea at the Historic Stillwater Mansion. If you've never been there, it's fabulous!! Such a fun thing to do for a birthday, bridal shower, baby shower, or girls' night/moms' night!

When you arrive, you are "adorned" with formal accessories, there are A LOT of accessories to choose from. Formal place cards are set before your place setting addressing you as "Lady". The following Ladies were in attendance and adorned this evening:

Lady Marge (birthday girl)

Lady Heather

Lady Sheri

Lady Jeanne

Lady Kelly

Lady Debbie

Lady Michelle

Lady Krysta

Once everyone is dressed and seated, the ritual of "Tea" begins. You learn how/why Ladies met for Tea and many other "period" facts; there are many formalities that go along with Tea. It's really neat and fun to learn about and experience.

Appetizers, beginning with a fruit/cheese plate are served with the first pouring of tea (all are herbal and wonderful blends mmmmmm, even if you're not a tea fan).

Ladies relax and "discuss"/gossip, laugh and bond.

Main course (petite portions) is served as potato bacon tart, cabbage tart (these were so good!), wafer cracker w/herb cheese, tomato & basil, cucumber sandwich & raisin/nut cup. All food is as true to period as possible.

Dessert with third pouring of tea was fabulous! We had apricot/white chocolate scones with homemade lemon curd mmmmmm and a small blueberry cheesecake.

You are welcome to drink as much or as little tea as you desire. This truly was an enchanted and fun evening with many happy and special birthday wishes given to Grandma. I believe it will be a birthday memory she will treasure and never forget!

Happy birthday Grandma, you are loved by so many.

Disgusting.........

2008-11-06T07:47:00.000-08:00

It's a little late for ghosts to be visiting my house............No, this is not Carter with Halloween make up.....

He didn't feel very good yesterday, he kinda had the runs....... and then when it was bed time, his entire bottle came back to haunt him......... it was nasty.

Sorry for the graphics, but since Trevor captured this wonderful moment, I had to post the pics. Tannon's joyful "outpourings" showed up 2 hours later........... then Carter, then Tannon again............

This is actually the first time my kids have been sick like this, so I suppose I should be grateful, but it was a disgusting evening/late night.

May your children remain as healthy as possible this season and may you not get any germs from reading this post!

-perfect timing, as I'm doing this post, both of my kids just had another "go" of it......... sick....... get me out of here.......

Oh, the Laundry........

2008-11-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while it can be fun, right? It must be the sound of running water that draws boys to the laundry room. They have to see the "waterfall" and see how everything works.

I asked Tannon to please take the laundry basket in so I could unload the dryer. When I got there, he had unloaded the whole thing himself! "Mom, I can do it by myself", which has been a popular phrase lately.

Carter wanted to help so badly (Tannon wouldn't share the warm dry clothes), so I let him load the dryer with the wet clothes that had just been washed. He was so excited, seriously..... he thought it was really fun. But not as much fun as loading the washer.

(Please don't call DCFS and report me, yes, I let him do this....... sitting dangerously up there and close to more than 1 inch of deadly water) Carter loves sitting up here and throwing all the clothes in, I also used to let Tannon do this when he was this age. It's the next best thing to throwing rocks in a lake, stream, puddle, river........ etc.

Yes, even laundry can be fun..........well, maybe if you're 1 year or 3 years old (or the mother of both).

Happy folding Mommy!

Our Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

Halloween was so much fun this year. As I've said before, Holidays are just so much more fun with kids!!!! I love dressing them up and getting them excited for all the festivities and activities. I think it's because I have great memories of all the Holidays from my childhood and I really want my kids to have them too. I s'pose that's what life is all about!

Tannon was the cutest little Monkey and Carter was a "sweet" Skunk, I was a kitty. Here we are ready to head out for Trick or Treating. Before we left, we had family over for some super good chili (Thanks to Mike & my Mom), hot apple cider, and other fun Halloween foods. Dinner was really good and lots of fun with so many people to share it with.

My Mom was on donut duty. She made regular (fluffy yeast) and cake donuts, drizzled with a bit of icing, they were WONDERFUL!!!!!!! Thanks Mom! Everyone enjoyed mmmmmmmm

Here are a few pics of the kids:

I had to get a picture of Carter's bum, his costume says "Li'l Stinker". The fluffy tail was really cute too. Tannon liked pulling Carter's tail......

I set the candy bowl down for 1 minute......... and they flocked like birds!

Do we have to get another picture, can't we GO??!

Here's my nephews, Orion & Isaac, both as Jack Sparrow, they looked really cute!

Tannon was an avid Trick or Treater, he ran the WHOLE night long....... I kept telling him to wait for his cousins before he rang the doorbell, here's a couple pics of him waiting.......

Kids waiting for everyone before ringing doorbell. The weather couldn't have been nicer this Halloween, it was just pleasant and WARM!! We will remember this as the warmest Halloween in Idaho Falls (in the many years we've been here!)

End of the night, back home, they are going through Isaac's candy...... how nice of him to share :) (whether he wanted to or not).......?

Pre Halloween Festivities

2008-11-02T08:30:00.001-08:00

We had a really fun and busy week! Lots of activities and fun things going on for the kids.

The fun week started on Monday night, we went to a friend's house to carve pumpkins for Family Night. The kids ran around while Trevor & I carved 3 of our little garden pumpkins. The 4th one was a big one that Trevor won at the Parents as Teachers kids' carnival for guessing it's weight (19 lbs 4 oz!, he guessed 19 lbs).

This was my idea, and it was supposed to be cute, but my camera didn't take a very good picture. The above is a pumpkin with a star, the other has a star and a moon......maybe the picture taker didn't do a very good job :) I couldn't get the tops to stay on the pumpkins either, I had to turn them sideways....

Tuesday night, we went to the 28th Ward's Halloween Carnival/Trunk or Treat (no pictures, couldn't find the camera!). We used to be in that Ward and Trevor's parents are still in that Ward (so are some cousins), it's always a really fun time. We had chili dogs, donuts & cider. The kids decorated cookies, played "musical tombstones" and many other games for little prizes. After all the games, they headed outside for a really great Trunk or Treat!

Wednesday night, I went with my cousin Michelle to the gym and learned Michael Jackson's "Thriller", it was AWESOME! Just so much fun, except my neck hurt the next day from all the side-to-side head flips, but it was such a fun time! Wish I had pictures, there were probably 20-25 people in that class. I didn't dress up, but some people did. If you've never been, you must go next year!

On Thursday, I took Carter to a historical park in Shelley with a playgroup where they had a really awesome "themed" pumpkin patch walk. Lots of participants made up displays using pumpkins, it was pretty cool. A donation of canned food got you in, they had lots of displays, hay bale mazes for the kids to go through and cookies/hot choc at the end! Thanks Crystal for suggesting this, it was great, I'd love to go back next year. I got a few pics of Carter (Tannon was visiting Grandma Everts and his cousins on this day, they went hiking up to see the big Windmills!! so no pics of him, but he had a GREAT time doing that!)

Love this cute old wagon, I probably would've been thrown out if they saw me put a child in here, but I couldn't resist a cute picture opportunity.......

Thursday night, we all headed to Boo @ the Zoo. My brother, Jarrett and his kids, Orion and Isaac were visiting this week, they came too. I think all the kids really liked the Zoo, the lions and tigers were out wandering around!

This picture is sooooooo fuzzy, sorry, it was the only one I got with everyone in it and NO other people walking in front of my camera, it was really packed that night.

On Friday (Halloween), Tannon painted his own pumpkin at Preschool, then had a fun Trunk or Treat at the end, he was very proud of his pumpkin, it was very cute!

After preschool, we went to, yet another, playgroup party (different group) and had lots fun "Halloween-ish" food and games, it was really fun and a lot of work went into it. Tannon played for a while, until he found a book he hasn't "read" yet. He's been a book fiend ever since he was really little. He loves looking @ pictures and reading to himself.

So, the kids really had a fun-filled week and I had fun running them around to do all the fun things. Since I am journaling, I'll include that poor poor Daddy was home on the couch or in bed most of this week. He hurt his back really badly and was put on bedrest for pretty much all of this week. He is improving and will hopefully be able to get back to work on Monday. It's hard for the kids to have Daddy home when they can't climb all over him, wrestle and play...... they are trying to understand. Tannon blesses "Daddy's back to get better" every night in his prayers!

I'll post Halloween night next.

Get out and Vote!

2008-10-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

See latest stories on Yahoo! News

Actually I support Sarah Palin and any other party/person who is against Obama. I'm not going to get all political on my blog, but I just want to say I have VOTED and I'm DONE with hearing campaigns, lies, promises etc. I went to the Courthouse today and cast my vote.

Get your duty over with and go now to avoid the lines on November 4th! You can vote anytime between 8-5:00, there were only 10 people there today when I went and there are 8 booths! I even took Carter with me, I strapped him in the stroller and gave him 1/2 a granola bar to keep him quiet & occupied. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes!

Fun Cookies!

2008-10-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Don't these look kinda fun? My friend made these and posted them on her blog. This would be a super fun thing to do for Family Home Evening. Tannon & Carter love being in the kitchen "helping". I think this will have to be our next treat to try on Monday!

Recipe below

Before baking:

Play Dough Cookies

3/4 C butter
3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
2 and 3/4 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
assorted food coloring
....................

1. In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

2. In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir until soft dough forms. Divide dough into Fourths. Tint each with a different food coloring. Wrap in plastic and chill for two hours. (I stuck it in the freezer for 15 minutes because I hate to wait!)

3. Preheat oven to 350. Shape colors into 3/4 inch balls. For each cookie place one pink, one orange, one green, and one blue ball together and roll to make one giant ball. Roll into a 12 inch long snake, and then starting at one end coil roll to make a cookie. Place cookies 2 to 3 inches apart on greased cookie sheet to allow for spreading.

4. Bake for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Recipe from: Little Momma and Company

Frightmares @ Lagoon!

2008-10-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took the kids to Lagoon during Frightmares. If you've never been, it's a lot of fun. The passes are somewhat discounted, lines are usually shorter and the weather is great!! Just don't go during (Utah's) UEA weekend, when every child is out of school and at Lagoon........ which is when we happened to be there. Lines were lllloooonnnnnggg, especially if you're 1-4 years old......they're longer if you're the parent of a 1-4 year old:)

But we all had a really good time! We went with cousins, Michelle & Lynn, and their son Nathan (4 yrs). I think Tannon & Nathan could've spent half the day going in and out of the front gate, they thought it was soo much fun....

Carter was able to go on some of the rides with the bigger kids. He just loved it!! Until you took him off.......

Here's one shot of my whole little family on the Tidal Wave in the kids' area. It was a pretty fun ride!

Tannon & Nathan really had a blast on every ride they were able to go on. Waiting in line was pretty tough, but they did really good!

Carter rode solo on some rides that only allowed 2 riders. But he didn't care, he was just happy when he got to ride. He literally threw fits when Tannon got to go on a ride and he didn't!

These little boats (with a so cute but obnoxiously loud bell) were Carter's FAVORITE, he just loved it!!!! He kicked and screamed when I took him off of it........... it was awful and when we'd walk by he'd put out his arms and try to go to them, he could've easily spent all day here

Tannon & Nathan were so cute on all the rides, they acted like they were so grown up....... and normal? They were really cute.

In the Spook A Boo area, the the kids got bags and went to different rooms to look/learn something that mostly had scientific & educational meanings/messages (nothing scary) and Halloween prizes & treats. It was fun!

We will do this again next year and plan a much better day to go, maybe even a Thursday that is NOT on UEA weekend! We stayed in a Hotel and had dinner together. It was a great time! Looking forward to next year!!

Happy Birthday Trevor!!

2008-10-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

Friday night we went out to dinner with Trevor's parents to celebrate his birthday....... which is on December 18th. His parents always take the birthday boy/girl out to eat at the restaraunt of choice chosen by the birthday child. Well, last December was crazy with all kinds of family parties, events etc. that Trevor's birthday dinner kept getting put off, so we just now ended up at Ruby River over the weekend to celebrate his 2007 birthday! The food was great and a nice evening out without the kiddos..... love them, but it's always nice to not have to "rush" through it. We all got to share some sort of dessert that had lots of whipped cream and icecream, mmmmmm!

Thanks Mom & Dad for a great excuse to get us all out to dinner!!

A 1930s Wife??

2008-10-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

As a 1930s wife, I am
Very Superior

Take the test!

I dunno about these results, but the test was fun! It's pretty quick and easy, go ahead I dare you!

There's no way I'm really an 82........ my husband would likely beg to differ, maybe the true test is to have your husband take it for you!!

October Girls' Night Out

2008-10-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Look like another High School outing??? Okay, this past weekend, we (old ladies) got together for dinner @ the Thai House and then stood in line for nearly 2 hours (it was 1 hr & 45 min!) to go to Dr. Slaughter's House of Terror. It was snowing outside.......... and really really cold. We were all wondering what in the world we were DOING there with all the young (and crazy) tweens and teenagers. There was a small group of girls (had to be 12 years old) practicing their screams just up the line from us.

So after the forever long wait, we finally got in and actually had soooo much fun. They did a really good job this year (yes, I went last year). We were by far the loudest screamers & fastest runners of the evening. We mananged to bump into a few walls, "clothesline" the man dressed from "Scream" (oops, sorry mister...), hit the ground when a blast went off and 3 of the 5 of us actually peed our pants............. yes, it was those of us who have born children.......... Some pants were much more moist than others, I'll just leave it at that.

We went back to Michelle's house and had some ice cream and talked about the night.

What a great time (more fun than we thought it would be)........ Thanks ladies for another great night and fun memory!

Having a Halloween Party?

2008-10-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

Look at these super cute and easy ideas for fun treats!

The hats are upside down fudge striped cookies with a hershey kiss & frosting on them!
These adorable little ghosts are Nutter Butter cookies dipped in Almond bark (or just white choc) with mini choc chips. Sooo fun, EASY and cute!

I love changing seasons and looking forward to the next Holiday. We need a bit of fun in spite of all the depressing economy talk.................. but still, work on your food storage!!

Conference in the Fall..............

2008-10-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

What a pretty great weekend. I was looking forward to Conference this month. I really enjoyed all the messages given on both Saturday and Sunday. I tried to get in as much as I could, but you know how it is with the kiddies........ so I'm really looking forward to the Ensign coming out next month, I will enjoy reading and pondering the deeper messages I may have missed.

We've been wanting to get out of town lately to see some beautiful fall colors. So we headed up Kelly Canyon on Sunday and listened to Conference on the way up, the kids were really good in the car and we actually got to listen the the words spoken. It was really nice. We played/wandered around from noon to 2:00 then got back in the car, had some snacks and headed home.

The kids really loved being up in the mountains with fresh air, gorgeous leaves, rocks, mud and streams. It was somewhat chilly up there, so I'm glad we all had coats.

Carter started off doing so well, he wanted to walk everywhere. He's in Tannon's old coat, it's still a little big, he looks like a little Ninja Turtle.....
He had to watch every step because he was always on uneven ground with all the rocks, he was really focused, it was cute.After a while (this was the uphill part of the path) he started getting tired, but still wanted to walk......
Then he just totally gave up and laid down on the ground!!!

Tannon had to drag his stick through every puddle on the trail, I love this tree, it had the faintest colored leaves of all the ones we saw.

Tannon can never resist adding another stick to the journey, he drug both of them around for a long time!
We happened on this adorable picture perfect little bridge........ and then all of a sudden.......... out of nowhere........... this little boy just showed up.............

If you know Tannon, you know he's a bridge maniac, but I think that's just a boy/kid thing, who could resist running across and playing on such an adorable little bridge?I managed to get them both to sit still and look somewhat in my direction for a quick pic
I really love fall............ I wish I had huge trees in my yard turning colors and dropping leaves for my kids to play in. If you get time this weekend and love fall, pack a quick picnic and head up above Heise or to Palisades and take in some of the beauty before the snow flies. It will be well worth your time!

Girls' Night Out.............. What we really do when we go out!

2008-09-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, I really debated whether or not to post the totally 80s dress on my blog or not......... but I decided I had to. This was such a fun night. All the girls in our family (Moms, Aunts, cousins etc), which is only 8 of us try to get together once a month to do a Girls Night Out. Last week we did a picture scavenger hunt.

I didn't post all the pictures, but if I ever need to blackmale anyone, I have more than sufficient goods.....

I wasn't too sure about getting all crazy and doing this, but it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. So, if you need a fun night out (that reminds you of being in highschool), here's our scavenger hunt list:

1. Raciest Book Title @ Barnes N Noble

2. Try on a formal

3. Try on the ugliest pair of shoes (check out the shoe horn below, it's awesome)

4. Find an outfit your mom would wear

5. Try on lingerie (can be done over clothes)

6. Play in the treehouse area

7. Put on brightest shade of lipstick

8. Act interested in one of the vendors, but do not buy

9. Sample as many things from the food area
10. Make a wish in the water fountain
11. Find the gaudiest piece of jewelry (we forgot to do this one)

The bonus was supposed to be to do one crazy thing of your choice and get a pic of it, but we didn't add it to our list in time.

Here are our silly pictures:

Heather & Michelle in the Treehouse

Yes, these are from Naturalizer if you'd like to pick up a pair, they're also available in black & white (and I think Navy). Super comfy too

Michelle @ Victoria's Secret

Okay, this Indian lady was soooooo excited that we were trying out her products and sooooo disappointed when we didn't buy!!

Mmmmmmmm Gelato- I love gelato (such a cheesy pic)

After all the fun, we headed to Leatherby's for banana splits (dripping with super yummy caramel mmmm) and judged each other's pictures. Everyone got to take home a prize, it was really fun.

Bring the Cannery home!

2008-09-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

This is sooooo easy and kinda fun! I love the Cannery and I'm so grateful that the chruch has set them up to help us accomplish our home storage goals. However, in my opinion, there aren't that many (food) options for dry pack, there actually used to be many more items that they no longer carry for dry pack. So, I decided to rent a can sealer (free!) from them and do A LOT of bulk items myself. The above are kidney beans, steel cut oats, quinoa, blueberry muffin mix, farina (cr of wheat) and something else......?

This was soo simple to do, obviously others have the same idea because the can sealers (7 of them) are rented out for the next couple of months. I'm scheduled to get one again on Oct 3, I'm going to do 600 lbs of grain!!!! Holy cow!! So, that's what I'll be doing over Conference weekend! I'm also going to do dehydrated potato shreds, soup blend mixes and a few other items (i think puffed rice, millet & spelt flakes?).

Friends and family....... things are changing, times are changing, we should be preparing....... that's all I have to say....

I just want to encourage those of you whom have NEVER been to the cannery and know nothing about any of this stuff (that was me 3 mos ago), to sign up, go with a group- whatever- and start learning about preservation and home storage, don't be afraid of it, it's sooo simple and kinda fun. Get your 3 month supply started and grow it into your year's supply. It's not a cheap undertaking, so start saving now for your "i'm going to go to the Cannery in a month fund".

Happy canning/planning & storage to you all.

PS- Don't forget WATER!

Tannon's 1st day of Preschool

2008-09-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a bit behind in getting this post up, but better late than never.

Tannon had his first day of Preschool on Wednesday September 3, 2008. He is going to JumpStart Preschool over in Cedar Ridge (Mommy loves how close this is to home!). His teacher is Mrs. Johnson, he really likes her and he's enjoying learning more and more each class. He attends 3 days per week (MWF 9-11:30). He seemed a little disappointed the first day because it wasn't like "playgroup", he actually had to sit down, listen and learn. This is the first classroom setting he's been in, he missed the Sunbeam cut off this past winter by one month, so he's still in Nursery at church. Just a note on the crazy hair, I meant to get it cut before his first day, but it was also the week of the Fair and things were just NUTS around here, so he was extra spikey that day!!

Tannon is doing very well for is age and likes learning. There is a bit of an academic difference between the kids in his class, some are reading, and others are still learning their the ABCs (like Tannon), but Mrs. Johnson handles all the "diversity" (for lack of a better word) very well. He also likes her cat "Splat" and playing with a classmate named, "Kage" (whom he always says is coming over to his house to play).

Mommy enjoys hearing about what Tannon is learning and how he's doing, it's also nice to run a couple errands with just one child- I can actually fit groceries in the cart without someone sitting on them, rearranging them, smashing fruit, putting in stray items etc.

It's really fun watching him learn and grow, as long as he doesn't do it too quickly. It's nice to have a younger one reminding you to enjoy each stage because they just keep moving on and growing up right before your eyes.

I love you Tannon and I'm very proud of you!! Thank you for teaching Carter so many things!

Holy Zucchnini Batman!

2008-09-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, friends & fellow bloggers, we've been busy doing our booth @ the Fair for the past 10 days (and I'm glad it's over)!!!!! So, I haven't been watching my garden all that closely.............. and oh my word, when I found ALL these humongous zucchinis in one picking I was beside myself!!!! Especially because the week before I had picked like 7 of them also this size!

This soooo begs the question, "Heather, do you like zucchini"? Quite frankly, No, not really!! I have to shred it up and bake it in something to eat it! But there I was with garden bounty and me feeling like I need to make the best of it.............. so here is what I did while I was not at the Fair:

Yep, I did lots of shredding, I sure love my little Cuisinart, that does it sooooo quickly for me!

Mmmmmmmmm, Ever had zucchinini waffles or pancakes?? They are wonderful!! These are mostly for the kids, I keep them in the freezer and pop them in the toaster for quick breakfasts n the morning. I made 10 batches of pancakes and about the same number of waffles.

In between flipping pancakes and hearing the waffle buzzer go off, I was making brownies and loaves zucchini bread, these take a long time to bake, so I would get a batch or two of pancakes/waffles done while these yummies were baking! I think I made 4 batches of brownies and 6-7 batches (with 2 loaves per batch) of zucchini bread. My kitchen was such a disaster............... and who was watching the kids???? hmmmm

I "flash freeze" all my zucchini bread by slicing it when cool, then freeze it on sheets for an hour or so. Freezing individual slices makes it soooo much more convenient to grab a slice and toss in the toaster or microwave for a quick snack or after lunch treat for me/kids. It sure beats thawing out the whole loaf and feeling like you need to wolf it down in the next couple of days before it goes mushy in the fridge. But, if wolfing is your thing, that's okay too-

Okay, ladies & friends, these little cakes may not look so appetizing, but let me tell you, they were the tastiest of all the things I made this week. Little zucchini cakes (a little garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, salt & pepper, fried in a bit o' olive oil) mmmmmmmm, Trevor & I loved them, Carter really liked them and Tannon could still see zucchini in it so he wasn't too hot on them, but he did eat 2 of them!

We grilled steak and had these along w/some baked potatoes & green beans, it was a FABULOUS side dish that I will make forever and ever now.

Alas, here are the few beans and strawberries that I got from my garden before the zucchini plants inhaled them like it did everything else............. if you've never grown zucchini or squash (like me!!!!!!), take a bit of friendly advice, either have a HUGE garden or plant them across the street in a separate container behind a fence (seriously, your neighbor would never know until it was too late and then you could just share the zucchini with them!)!!! That way they can't take over your entire garden space!

My beans and strawberries have been fabulous, I didn't expect to get any berries this year, I planted little starts this spring, but I've gotten a handful of berries every few days and they are soooooooo sweet!

Okay, The End........ I hope to get back into blogging now that my freezer is completely full of zucchini creations.......

ps- when I decided I couldn't cook anymore (because I serisously had soooo much, I would get like 14-15 cups of shredded zucc out of one zucchin! any idea how many loaves of bread that is????)), I took zucchini to my neighbors with a list of recipes, I hope they were able to do something with those green monsters!!

Carter, My Cleaner

2008-09-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

Carter is really into copying everything someone else does, which means he's learning a lot, right? He really likes doing things himself and throws a big fit if you do it for him (feeding, brushing teeth, cleaning off high chair tray etc.). It's adorable and maddening at the same time. Tannon was never a big fit-thrower, but Carter seems to be........ Anyway, right now he pulls down my dish towels and is constantly cleaning every surface in the house, it's super cute and keeps him occupied until the house is "spotless" and he has to find something else to do........ which usually means taking everything out of the bathroom drawers and cabinets, then shredding toilet paper!!

I really do love this age, but it keeps you very busy (right Christine??)....

Here's a quick little snippet of him doing his duties.......... click play (I hope it works, I've never posted video before).

Today I like my toothbrush...........and I want to do it myself!

2008-08-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

Carter doesn't like it much when I brush his teeth (we don't seem to accomplish much), so here he is doing it himself.

Freeze individual or smaller servings in same bag!

2008-08-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a great idea. If you buy meat in bulk @ Sams or on a good sale, here's a great way to save time by not having to divide all the meat, plus you save on not using a million ziploc baggies!

I often will use 1/2 - 3/4 lb meat in a recipe that calls for 1 lb of meat. I will usually just add more veggies or something else to supplement. So this idea works great for me!

This will also be fabulous for ground turkey!

*Tip- I find that after you squeeze all the air out of a bag, there's always still some left! Here's what I do: squeeze as much air out as you can and start sealing the bag, when you're nearly to the end, take a straw and suck out the remaing air- it's the next best thing to a Foodsaver vacuum! -and you'd be surprised how much air you can get out!

I just want to do it myself!

2008-08-04T11:37:00.001-07:00

I had to real quick post these shots of Carter. I couldn't get him to eat his "hot lumpy" (I like to call it that just to freak Tannon out), really it's Cream of Wheat, the other day so I gave him the spoon and got the "lovey eyes" in return. I adore the "lovey eyes" from Carter, he does them so well, it melts my heart. I know he's my own kid and I'm incredibly biased, but I think it's just adorable!

Sometimes you just gotta let go and let them figure things out!

"Juliebilt"

2008-07-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Familiar with the logo "Peterbilt"?

A very creative friend of mine thought it would be fun and cute (it totally was) to get logo shirts for all us gym rats that said "Juliebilt". She's the instructor in the middle with the long dark pants. A bunch of us showed up to class one day wearing our new tanks and surprised Julie with one of her own also. It was awesome.

Here in little Idaho Falls, Apple Athletic Club seriously has FIRST CLASS instructors that rock your world every time you go (yes, even Yoga is challenging). Most gyms you're lucky to get one really good one instructor and the rest are usually "so so". This gym has a decent number of very good instructors.

Anyway, if you've ever been to any of Julie's classes, you know that she's hard core in EVERY class she teaches. Amidst various challenges she's had to face in her life, she motivates and inspires us all to keep improving and have fun while working out.

This picture was taken after a 1 1/2 PowerCut class (all out heavy lifting and cardio segments in between), holy cow, it kicked my can............ but it was awesome!

Thanks Julie, for all you do, you are loved by MANY!!!

Keep up the good work- we are all proud to be "Juliebilt"!

Are feds stockpiling survival food?

2008-07-26T12:34:00.001-07:00

(click to read) "Are feds stockpiling survival food?"

I found this article very disturbing........at a time when the prices of EVERYTHING are going up (notice your grocery bill going up.....?), this just makes me feel like we're running out of time to get all of the supplies we need. We need to get them, not just before prices get too high, but before they are no longer available (due to being sold in mass quantities to the govt).

Motivate yourselves to find room in your budgets for your food storage and get it going today!!!!

Find out when your ward is going to the cannery, sign up or organize a group of people to go on a night that works with your schedule. Find out and watch for the local stores doing case lot sales.

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Lots of peas in your garden??

2008-07-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

Recipe for freezing peas:

Pick peas

Shell peas

Wash peas

Boil water. Dump in peas. Cook for 3 minutes in boiling water. Remove from boiling water and immediately cool in cold water (in a sink?). Place peas in freezer safe ziploc bags. Squish air out of bags and seal. Write year on bags (for proper rotation purposes). Place bags in freezer. Done.

Easy. One tip: use strainers for cooking and cooling your peas. You will have less peas that try to escape.

Mom, if you have too many peas, I will take them off your hands!!! I buy frozen peas like crazy, I love them and toss them into a lot of dishes for some extra "green".

"....if Ye are prepared, Ye shall not fear."

2008-07-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been reading some books about the sign of events to come and was surprised how little knowledge I had regarding what we should expect circumstances to be like when things start "going down "! Also, where we will be living.........

I have some food storage, but I don't even have enough to make a dent as far as the recommendations go. So, lately I've been re-evaluating our supply and what all will be needed.........Holy Cow! It will cost A LOT more than I thought to really get our storage requirements fulfilled, and that doesn't even count the the things I would like to have (and eat)!!!! Things like, seasonings, freeze dried fruits/veggies, stews, brownie mix, multi-purpose baking mixes (my list goes on and on and on!!!!). Did you know you can "can" butter??? It has a shelf life of over 5 years! It's very simple, I have the method and I'm going to do that at home, you don't need canning supplies either- just pint jars, butter and your oven.

So, I've made a spreadsheet with the following sections: Food Storage, Clothing-Gear-Emergency Supplies, and Sanitary-Medical. The list of things that we will need is simple but VERY lengthy.

Anyway, I've had a major wake up call and I'm getting in gear and seriously budgeting to get this major undertaking seen to. I honestly told Trevor the only things going on the Christmas list this year are: Cannery gift certificates and he can pick out 2 types of guns & ammo (a gun to hunt with and one for self defense!- gotta guard all our food :))

I've listed on the left side of my blog some preparedness sites that have helped me. I hope it will be useful to you too.

Happy 65th Anniversary!!

2008-07-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

On Saturday July 12, 2008 we celebrated a very special occassion. It was Grandma and Grandpa Shippen's 65th Wedding Anniversary. Wow, what an incredible milestone for these days........... something you don't see everyday. Plus, look how great they look!! They thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening and were so grateful their daughters took the time to put this all together for them.

Everyone did such a good job, it turned out great!! It was a really special night. Many of their family members and close friends were able to come and spend the evening with them. They looked so happy and just thrilled to be with so many loved ones in one event. Many family members came from out of town to be here and we had so much fun visiting with them and catching up.

It was a wonderful party, great weather, really good food. Everyone had a nice time, it was very special to be a part of this celebration in their lives.

My cousin, Kelly put their cake together, she did a great job and it was TASTY!

Following are some pictures pics of the evening

Grandma Shippen

My Carter

Tannon & Aunt Krysta

Tannon & Aunt Ashlei

The girls in the family @ the serving tables

Mom and Aunt Sheri whom put the whole thing together, I think they were pretty pooped by the end of the night! They did a good job!

Again, Happy 65th Grandma and Grandpa Shippen! We love you and have been blessed having you in our lives. We all can and have learned a lot from both of you!

What year do you belong in?

2008-07-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

You Belong in 1958

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

http://www.blogthings.com/whatyeardoyoubelonginquiz/">What Year Do You Belong In?

I think the 50s would've been awesome! Especially because they had the good music and knew how to dance to it back then!!

Playing @ Rigby Lake

2008-07-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a "water day" all day long- actually this whole week has been water-water-water; good thing we're not in a drought............ It's been pretty fun. First we went to a Friend's house in Shelley (with a Mom's group) who had kiddie pools, toys, sprinklers on, trampoline, sandbox etc. The kids had a blast playing together and eating lunch outside. We Moms enjoyed our time under a patio umbrella chatting and watching them have such a fun time!

We got home in early afternoon and I re-packed a bunch of things and took the kids to Rigby Lake with their cousins to play. Another super fun time. Tannon has one cousin who lives here (Nathan, 4) and we have cousin Jaimee & her kids visiting this week. They all had a good time and slept really well.

Carter got adventurous and crawled out into the water just until his face was nearly touching (ewwww), then he would stand up. He was searching for rocks and sticks, throwing them and retrieving them again. He looked like a little puppy playing fetch with himself. It was super cute. He screamed when it was time to get out of the water and go home.

I am loving summer with my kids, it's been great so far!

Okay......... I need help!

2008-07-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

How do you do a cute header/blog title??? I want to keep the rest of my blog pretty simple......... and I'll just change up the colors etc. But I don't know how to change the picture size/length or heading placement/font. It's lookin' pretty bad right now.

Thanks!

4th of July 2008

2008-07-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous 4th! Pretty low key, but it was a lot of fun doing things with the kids. This is us at our great spot in the shade at the beginning of the parade route!

We started off the weekend on Thursday night with a birthday party at my Mom's house for my little brother, Joseph. He's been home from his mission for about 9 mos now and he just turned 22! It's hard to see the writing on the cake, but it says, "Feliz Cumpleanos Joseph", he served his mission in AZ, spanish speaking. It was a chocolate mint icecream cake and it was tasty!!
Joseph, it was fun having your birthday up here!

Hope it was a good one for you too!

My kids love playing with Uncle Joseph, here they are learning how to twirl a whistling pipe!

One of Tannon's highlights (other than the neighborhood fireworks!!) was sitting in a big fire truck with this fire fighter! Grandma Bluth was showing him the fire truck and they asked if he wanted to sit in it and ride through the parade with them! He loved being in the truck, but wasn't sure about riding the parade route............. so he sat with Grandma and Aunt Ashlei and got a loads of candy!

After the parade we headed downtown to see what else was going on and to enter Carter in the Cutest Baby Contest. He was pretty tired, it was @ Noon. Here he is totally zonked just before the contest................. I had to wake him up to do it.

Here he is in line with Trevor, poor tired baby............

He walked part of the way across the stage with me and then he sat down, rolled over and laid down...... everyone laughed, it was pretty funny and cute (we should've won!)

But of course, we didn't win. They called back 7 little girls with cute dresses, bows in their hair and lots of accessories........... of course little girls are totally adorable, but there's just only so much you can do to dress boys up. I think the mothers of the other 11 boys felt the same, not one boy was picked or even looked at twice. So next year Carter will wear a dress and I'll curl his hair............. :) But we did get a cute free T shirt for entering.

Tannon got a firework painted on him and got to pick out one bounce house to jump in.

Then we headed over to my Mother in Law's home for swimming and a BBQ. The kids had so much fun playing in the water, Tannon finally went down the slide with me and loved it. Carter had a ball floating all around the pool with me on the floater, he's such a water baby!

Tannon wasn't sure about the floaties on his arms at first, but then he got used to them. It was a great day! Thanks everyone for all the food and fun, we had such a good time.

Grandma Paradis also came up and stayed at our house for the weekend. She had fun playing and visiting with the kids, it was fun having you here Grandma!

We, of course, rounded out the evening at the Falls for the fireworks. It was lots of fun and the kids liked it, although after the first few I think they all thought it was the same. I love the fireworks here and thoroughly enjoy every last minute of watching. This is just a terrible picture, but I don't think my camera is made for stuff like this!

It was a super fun filled weekend and I'm glad we stayed in town instead of heading up to hills for camping. There's plenty more summer for camping!!

Happy Birthday America, we love you!

We will miss our summer lunches with Daddy...................

2008-07-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today, the kids and I have met Trevor at the little creek in Freeman Park; since he works at the INL building just up the pathway, it's a super convenient spot for us to meet, picnic & let the kids play. Tannon & Carter both must have their "sticks" to splash in the water with.

Last week Trevor was given an opportunity to move up in his department, which is a good thing, EXCEPT that he will now be commuting out to the Site............yucky............ last summer and briefly this summer (the weather was nasty for so long!) we've had so much fun visiting Daddy for lunch time. The kids love being able to see him during the day and have a ball playing in and around the water while Mommy & Daddy visit.

Tomorrow will be last day we can picnic with Daddy on his lunch break............. we will miss him being here in town so much! However, I'm excited for and proud of Trevor for doing such a great job and working so hard for our family. I am so thankful that he provides me the opportunity of being able to stay at home with my boys, which is where I need to be.

We love you Daddy and look forward to having "picnic dinners" with you @ the creek this summer!! Who says we can't have turkey sandwiches for dinner every night?? Love you!!

Day Trip to Mesa Falls & Cave Falls

2008-06-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

"upper Mesa Falls"

Yesterday we packed up the kids and the car and headed out for Mesa Falls. Well, first we stopped @ the Farmer's Market to check out the local fare, we left with big fresh peaches, cherries & some jalepeno-garlic cheese curds!

We got up to the Mesa Falls area and took a pretty small hike (flat trail walk), it was about 1.5 miles to the Falls area. It was beautiful and there were lots of other hikes that you could on, 3-4 mile ones that looked like a lot of fun, but we knew Tannon wouldn't be able to do much more and I didn't want to pack him on my shoulders the whole way either. He did so well on the short one though! It was also a pretty hot day!

Here are the boys, ready for the trek.

It was a pretty walk

If you know Tannon, you know he loves waterfalls! Here we are at "upper Mesa Falls"

Us again at "lower Mesa Falls", you can see how much further away the water is

This picture was on the way to Cave Falls (about 10 miles South and 15 miles East of Mesa Falls). There were fields of these beautiful blue flower all over!

There were fields of small yellow sunflower-like flowers too, but my camera battery died and my spare was at home on the charger! Cave falls was beautiful and also pretty amazing. No pictures!! Bummer- but I let the kids sit on the side of the river and throw rocks for a bit, we would've stayed there longer but it was REALLY buggy! Tons of mosquitoes, I had 4 bites by the time we got back into the car!

We were going to picnic at Cave Falls but since there were so many bugs we loaded the kids back up, gave them a small snack and headed for the Rexburg Spray Park. We found a nice shady spot there and let Tannon play in the water. Madison High School was having there 20 year reunion there (of all places!), so it was pretty packed! Nonetheless, we had a nice lunch and the kids had fun.

We came home, unloaded the car and actually put the kids in the bike trailer and headed out for bikeride (probably around 6:00). I had some stale bread for the ducks, but they must have been fed ALL day long, because they all turned their heads and swam away when we threw the bread!!! We stopped a few times on the river, all the ducks were full! I've never had that happen before, Tannon almost cried, he kept saying, "here duckies! we have food for you!" We stopped at a park and let him play for a while before heading back home.

It was a fun-filled day, we packed a lot in because we didn't schedule any Perma Glaze jobs and Trevor got to spend the WHOLE Saturday with just us!! I can't remember the last Saturday we've been able to do that!

It was a great day.

Check this out!

2008-06-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

Enter to win all kinds of prizes, gifts and neat things!

Happy Birthday Ashlei!

2008-06-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

What a fun weekend! We did a little getaway for the girls in the family. Early Friday morning (6:00 AM!) my Mother and sister in law picked me up and we headed to Utah bound for Lagoon. First we drove to SLC to check into our Hotel, pick up our Lagoon tickets and meet Ashlei (the birthday girl, my other sister in law), she's going to school and lives in Provo. We got to Lagoon around 11:00 and played in the park until 11:00 PM! I haven't been in years, so there were 4 rides I'd never been on, it was really fun! We had a good time at Lagoon A Beach too, we rode one waterslide with our tubes probably 30 times! The line went quick and it was pretty fun. It was also in the mid-high 90s! So, it felt really good to be wet. I think Wicked was my favorite ride, although I only "saw" part of it!!! I'm kind of afraid of heights so I closed my eyes when we went up & down the big hill (I know I'm a baby!) and opened them for the rest. But, hey, at least I went on it!

We got back to the Hotel around 11:30 and decided to celebrate Ashlei's birthday by opening presents and (oh my gosh!) eating cake around midnight- just before bed!!! Mom got the cake from a french bakery in SLC and it was super good- would you like to hear it's contents?? 3 layer chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream (the good stuff, definitely not fat free cool whip!) in between with sliced strawberries! The top had chocolate dipped strawberries........mmmm, pretty fancy and super good!

She got lots of cute clothes!

Saturday morning, we had breakfast and headed to the UT College of Massage Therapy and had massages...... ahhhh melted away all the yanking/jerking around from the rides.
Shopped @ Gateway for just a bit and then headed to Provo to the University Mall. I found a few things @ Bath & Body, some kid stuff @ Gymboree and got some See's for Trevor to say thanks for spending the weekend with the kids.

We had Ashlei's birthday dinner @ PF Changs (super good choice Ashlei!!), I love that place. Then we had dessert @ Pudding on the Rice. It's the "Cold Stone" of rice pudding. I think they have 20 flavors of rice pudding. It's cold, not warm, but super good! Some flavors were: karamel, toffee, blueberry, raspberry, amaretto, cinnamon, coconut, mint choc chip (I had that!)......... it was fun and really good!

Thanks Ashlei for having a birthday so we could all celebrate with you! It was a blast!

Trevor played with the kids in Idaho Falls on Friday and took Tannon 4 wheeling with his Dad on Saturday. Carter spent Saturday with my Mom! Thanks everyone for taking the kids and letting me sneak away for some fun! I need to do this more often............. :)

Father's Day at our House

2008-06-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

What a fun day (weekend!)

We started off this morning decorating huge "tie cookies" for the Dads and Grandpas in our family (the cookie dough was a soft choc chip mmmmmm). They turned out pretty cute (and tasty!!). Tannon did such a good job decorating them. He was very meticulous about where & how he placed all the mini M&Ms. He also waited very patiently all day long until Daddy was ready to have a few bites and share with Tannon. Tannon kept telling me during the day that we "needed to make some little round cookies" for him, since all the BIG boys got tie cookies.

Then Tannon colored and added his own "personal touches" to each Father's Day card.

Later we had the whole family at our house for dinner (21? I think). On the menu was baked potatoes, homemade crockpot chili w/cheese and lots of salads/fruit. For dessert we had homemade brownies & blondies. I wanted to make this yummy looking citrus-chiffon cake, but I decided it was Father's Day (not Mother's Day) and the guys would probably like some finger-food dessert.

I didn't get any pictures during the dinner of any of the great Fathers in our family! Wish I would've......... I was too busy getting after Michelle for trying to do all the dirty dishes!

Thanks to everyone for coming and making it a special Father's Day at our house!

A Beautiful Weekend................

2008-06-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the weekend was a while ago, but I'm just now updating my blog. This beautiful picture was taken Sunday evening, it just decided to rain for about 10 minutes, then cleared and this gorgeous rainbow appeared. It was so big I couldn't get the whole thing.

Okay, I'm having a hard time w/font........... what is going on??

But I'll start at the beginning. Thursday afternoon, Carter (long story super short) bumped his head on the concrete steps out front- the concrete totally won, look at that raspberry!! Poor baby, we both cried together on this one............... he totally had concrete dents in his head!

But we made it better late that night when we went to one his little friend's 1st birthday party! 4 babies got to share the birthday cake, some were shy and some new what to do. It was cute and fun.

Friday, I packed up the car and the kids headed to Utah to spend some time with family. It was great, we jogged at the Ogden Parkway, took the kids to the Treehouse with a few of their cousins (the highlight of the trip) and had lunches in the parks a couple days.

Okay, the Treehouse had soooooooooo many fun and adorable hands on "learning" things for kids of so many ages to do.

Here's Tannon planing and picking in the gardening section

There was a basket of wood in the actual Treehouse part and he decided to build a fire, just like Daddy does when we go camping. Too cute, I was just trying to show him the wood to teach him what trees were made of............little minds are much smarter than we think!

Then he decided this squirrel wanted to chew on a piece of wood.

Carter also found things to keep him busy........

Then off to the park for lunch and more play time! It was somewhat chilly in Utah, but NOTHING like it's been here.

The boys were very proud of their volcano!

We spent a couple late nights at Grandma Paradis' house keeping her up playing Yahtzee. After the usual Saturday Night CostCo run, we got Papa Murphy's pizza and made rice crispy treats (which has somehow become a tradition?). It was lots of fun!! And, yes, I even let Tannon get sticky and pick all the straggling rice crispies off the big spoon, he loved it!

We also went to a family birthday dinner & party in the park on Sunday, yummy food and lots of fun things for the kids & adults. We "big kids", (Aunts Uncles etc. included!) played a fun game of kick ball, which brought back some fun Elementary school memories for me- been a long time since I've played! It was a blast.

Then we came home to Idaho............. and it snowed.........................?? But we're glad to be back and remember that we had a great time and look forward to going back this summer and visiting everyone again.

We're also VERY excited that 2 of our cousins are expecting babies this fall!! Yay, more kids to play with (in a few years!) Congrats girls! Also, Brianne is getting married next month and that will be a fun and beautiful event!

See you all soon!

Rescheduled...........

2008-06-09T20:05:00.001-07:00

Okay, with nasty weather on the way for tomorrow, this fun event has been moved to next week.

Hope you see lots of you there!

This sounds like fun!

2008-06-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this again for those of you who may not have seen it the other day! Where is everyone?? Hope to see lots of new (and familiar) faces next Tuesday!
What a great idea! This will be a lot of fun, tell all and invite all. Hope to see you all there!

My Mother's Day

2008-06-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

I never did post about my Mother's Day. Here's a picture of the gifts I gave to my Moms. I have to say, I thought it was kinda clever (no, I didn't see it in a magazine or on the internet...... they probably have way better ideas anyway). I found cute pots, lined them w/green tissue paper, filled them with "soil" which consisted of Dove chocolates. Then I wrapped a candy bar I thought each one would like in green tissue paper for the flower's stem. The petals are just bunched up tied tissue paper. We also gave pics of the kids..............

Anyway, but I just LOVED what I got, no, not a big trip or day @ a spa (we really don't splurge on big gifts for each other for Holidays). Trevor, my wonderful husband and father to my boys actually built Tannon a sandbox the Saturday before Mother's Day (he didn't intend this to be my gift). We really don't have room for a large one and we didn't want one on the grass killing the lawn, so he made one. It was just soooo sweet, thoughtful and handy! What more could a Mom want than a such a good dad for the kids. Tannon just thought it was the neatest thing ever, especially since Daddy built it just for him.

My other gift were 2 absolutely beautiful Asiatic Lilies to be planted in my flower beds. They are quite large and have tons of buds on them!!! I've been dying for them to bloom so I can see what color they are! They are perrenials and will come back, I love flowers................... he knows me well! To me, getting flowers are much better when they can be planted and enjoyed year after year. It was a wonderful weekend.

We also got together with family for a fun BBQ at my cousin Michelle's house. Lots of fun and lots of food! The weather was actually kinda nice back then!

What's for Dinner?

2008-06-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

Turkey Burgers with a Twist............... recipe below

Okay, I finally got everything sorted out for dinner this week AND I'm getting it posted......... As usual, I haven't made any of these things before, so I hope they're good! For those of you who don't know, I plan my menu out of my monthly issue of Cooking Light, so I experiment A LOT! I'd be happy to post recipes if anyone would like to try something.

Mon- Taco salad w/homemade cilantro garlic lime dressing. I used some leftover cumin-lime marinated turkey strips from last week (yummy!), side of mini corn tortillas w/refried beans. *by the way, this dressing was tasty, easy & very low fat

Tue- Chicken (turkey) & brown rice with cilantro-poblano sauce, melon salad

Wed- Garlic studded Flounder, sauteed carrots, sauteed chard w/pancetta (I'm licking my lips for Wed, this should be good.

Thurs- Turkey burgers w/special sauce, garlic & cumin fries w/chipotle ketchup.

Fri-Sunday- I'll be in UT doing fun family stuff with my kiddos! Trevor will be doing a job in Jackson, so I imagine pizza & movies will be going on this weekend at my home.

Turkey Burgers

Ingredients
1/4 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pound ground turkey breast
Cooking spray
1/2 cup Special Sauce (see below)
4 (1 1/2-ounce) whole wheat hamburger buns
4 curly leaf lettuce leaves (spinach for us this time)

Preparation
Prepare grill.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Divide turkey mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 3/4-inch-thick patty. Place patties on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 6 minutes on each side or until done.

Spread 2 tablespoons Special Sauce over top half of each bun. Place lettuce leaves on bottom halves of buns; top each with 1 patty and top half of bun. Cut each burger in half.
Yield 4 servings (serving size: 1 burger)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 318(21% from fat); FAT 7.3g (sat 1.6g,mono 1.8g,poly 3.3g); IRON 2.8mg; CHOLESTEROL 70mg; CALCIUM 73mg; CARBOHYDRATE 31.7g; SODIUM 812mg; PROTEIN 32.5g; FIBER 3.6g

Special Sauce
Ingredients
3/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

Preparation
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover; refrigerate.
Yield

Garlic & Cumin Fries w/chipotle ketchup
In this recipe, strips of potatoes are tossed with dried spices and baked to a crunch. The ketchup on the side delivers an extra punch of flavor.

Ingredients
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 pounds peeled Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
Cooking spray
Preparation
1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Combine cumin, salt, and garlic powder in a large bowl.
2. Preheat oven to 450°. Place baking sheet in oven.
3. Toss potatoes with oil. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on preheated baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes. Turn potatoes; bake an additional 5 minutes or until golden and crisp. Add potatoes to cumin mixture; toss gently to coat. Serve immediately with ketchup mixture.

Yield
6 servings (serving size: 1 cup fries and about 1 tablespoon ketchup mixture)
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Nutritional Information
CALORIES 143(16% from fat); FAT 2.5g (sat 0.3g,mono 1.7g,poly 0.3g); IRON 1.1mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 13mg; CARBOHYDRATE 26.1g; SODIUM 329mg; PROTEIN 3.9g; FIBER 2.7g

Garden Goodness

2008-06-02T10:24:00.001-07:00

Mmmmmmmmm spinach. Last week for lunch I had a spinach, mushroom & gruyere cheese omelet. It was soooo good. I wanted to take a picture of it, but it came apart in the flipping process and definitely wasn't picture worthy. But it tasted fantastic nonetheless.

Anyway, I have a lot of fresh spinach right now and I've been looking for recipes to use it in, so my menus will probably have some sort of spinach dish in them, which I am looking forward to!

I love summer & gardening! We've never really been able to do much gardening in our past few homes. We built them, got the yards in and kinda sold them. So I'm excited to be able to grow a few things and eat out of my garden.

Tannon came to me today and showed me all the seeds he found............... I freaked out, there goes my beans!!!!!!!! He picked out a bunch of sprouted seeds from the garden. I can't keep that kid out of the dirt, he's just constantly hanging around the garden area, which can be cute and really annoying at the same time.

I've been a blogging & menu slacker lately! Just been busy. Actually we've had great menus, I just haven't posted them! I'll update with my menu soon.

Good luck to all of you doing gardening too!

Camping @ Spring Creek, Salmon River

2008-05-28T07:07:00.000-07:00

We loaded up everything and hit the road Thursday afternoon for our annual camp out. We always go up on the Salmon River, rain-snow-or shine and have a great time. While we did get plenty of rain, we also had quite a bit of decent weather. It wasn't too cold to be outside running around, walking the trails, playing cards and enjoying the great outdoors and beauty of that area. I love it there. We didn't run the river, too cold on Friday & Saturday, Sunday was nice! We went and sat in the Hotsprings, the kids LOVED that. Not too hold or cold, just right, a bit muddy, but it was fun!

We had lots of super good dutch oven cooking and ate too many snacks, played lots of cards and threw lots of rocks in the river, that's Tannon's favorite thing to do. Here are a few pics:

Carter finally found something fun to do, he "drove" Tannon's truck all over the campsite and got just filthy! He had so much fun!

I found Tannon a fuzzy caterpillar, he loved it! It was so cute

I think this was Saturday night, it was just pouring and Tannon was trying to catch (in his mouth) the stream of rain in his falling off one of the trailer awnings. He was soooooo soaked, but he had so much fun.

Grandma Everts brought a puzzle for Tannon to do when the weather was yucky. He loved putting it together over and over again. Thanks Grandma, that was so much fun!

I had to put this picture up, here's Tannon "nursing" his tiger. He still does this from time to time! I think is sooo funny and adorable. This will be a great picture to show his high school friends someday!

Tannon got clever on the ride home with his "quiet book", he decided to decorate the window of the truck. It was funny...........

Well again, we had a great time and are looking forward to our next outing. It will be a fun summer! Hope you all get a chance to go some neat places this summer. We've decide to go to a new place every summer. This year we will go to Virginia City and see what that's all about!

Happy Trails!

Kids' Pics

2008-05-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

Just a couple photos of my boys. These were taken right around Carter's first birthday. Carter is holding a number 1, I love it. So, they're not the most original pictures, but still cute nonetheless. Ahhhh..... my boys are getting bigger every day...........