In the past two weeks...

In the past two weeks:

My oldest, greatest papa turned 80!

He brought Burger King crowns for all the kids to wear at the party :o)

Someone cut the butter with the apple slicer.  Someone also forgot to remove a foil-wrapped chocolate Easter egg from their pocket before their pants went through the wash.  Luckily, when it came out it was still in the foil and intact.  Thank you Hersheys.  

A bike fell on my foot on the dock at DI.  I had a bump the size of an egg on top of my left foot.  After icing it for a couple days, the bruising appeared. When I took Justin to the pediatrician later that week, I asked him if he thought I should have my foot "looked at" and he said that if it's broken, it's broken on top (since I can walk on it with no problem) and the treatment is a good lace-up shoe.  I think I can handle that.

Brayden learned to mow the lawn.

(it's kind of nice that our boys are getting old enough to be "useful")

While I was making dinner for a neighbor who just had a baby, Justin stole the measuring cup out of the flour bin, scooped water out of the toilet, and put it in his potty.  When I found him he was soaked so I put him in the tub and asked Caleb to sit with him while I hurried to get dinner in the oven.  While playing with "Bub-bub" Justin stood up, and then slipped and hit the faucet with his eyebrow.  It popped open.  I didn't think he needed a stitch, but wasn't sure so I called the urgent care clinic to ask their opinion.  They suggested I bring him in, but luckily as the swelling went down, the cut closed up on it's own and he didn't need any stitches. (Both Brayden and Dillon have the same injury, only they each needed 6 stitches in their eyebrows)

I've waited my whole life to trap my kids in a bottle of soap (or at least the past few weeks).  I took their pictures in crazy positions, used Photoshop to take the background out, and had their pictures printed on a transparency at a copy shop.  Then we rolled 'em up and stuck 'em in the soap. It makes me smile.

Todd's mom came to visit and took me and the boys shoe shopping.  Brayden's new shoes are 1 1/2 sizes bigger than his old ones, and they fit ME.

We also had our first school track meet, Brayden and Caleb got awards at school, Grandma came to visit a second time, our friends Travis and Cami stopped by on their way through, we finally planted our tomatoes after getting our sprinkling system fixed, and we took a day trip to Vegas to have my quilting machine serviced and visit a 120,000 gallon aquarium with a Mermaid show.  Whew!  It's been a busy couple of weeks!  I'll blog about this other stuff soon...

Recipes and Reviews

While Todd and I were living apart and waiting to sell our house, I got stuck in a MAJOR food rut.  Who wants to cook when your husband isn't around?

Since moving, I have been on a roll and trying all kinds of new recipes.  A few weeks ago the kids even asked if we could have something for dinner that we've had before.  :o)

I thought I'd take a minute to post just a few of the recipes I've tried, and tell you what we thought.

Banana Bars - These were a HUGE hit.  Perfect for after-school snack. They are easy, cheap, and tasty. They will definitely be a regular at our house...if we ever have old bananas again.  Does anyone else have trouble keeping bananas around?  I think I'll have to start buying three bunches a week instead of two.


Crock-pot Hot Fudge Cake - I loved this, but then I love anything that combines hot fudge and cake, and any dessert that combines hot and cold. Think Applebee's/Chili's/Red Robin's Molten Lava cake for lots less than $6 (and it will feed the whole family). The only problem is that you have to plan at least four hours in advance.  I used a crock-pot condom liner so there was no mess to clean up.

Tuna Noodle Casserole - I made this near the end of the month when the food supply was running low, and I was determined not to go to the store.  We happened to have all the ingredients on hand (well, I used dried parsley, canned mushrooms, and grated parmesan...but it worked). Even though Tuna Casserole will never be one of those meals that I crave, this one is good and I'll definitely make it again.  It'll be a great way to use up the huge supply of tuna and pasta that we have in storage.

Easy Chicken Chow Mein - I wish I'd found this recipe when I was pregnant and craving chicken chow mein.  Super easy and even my husband liked it (chow mein is not his thing).  I didn't have bean sprouts so I left them out, and it was still good.  Next time I'll definitely plan to have bean sprouts on hand when we make it.  I used leftover Costco rotisserie chicken which made it even easier.

Cali's Chicken Burritos (we call them Green Enchiladas) - If you like cilantro, these are really REALLY good.  The green salsa I bought was medium and we are big spice wimps, so ours turned out a little spicier than we'd like, but I've made them twice and everyone at our house loves them anyway. I now keep salsa verde and fresh limes on hand, and I'm growing my own cilantro. The first time I made these, I ran out of tortillas and had extra filling.  I used it a few days later in quesadilla's and they were really good too.

Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic Green Beans - This is the recipe that inspired me to do this post.  It looks SO pretty in the picture, and sounds wonderful...but it's...not.  The chicken was pretty good.  The potatoes were okay, and the green beans were downright awful.  So, so bitter. I read the reviews and someone said it was too bitter, so I only used one lemon instead of two.  It didn't help.  If I were to ever try this recipe again, which I doubt, I would use lemon juice in the marinade and forget about adding lemon slices to the pan. If you decide you must try this one, I would suggest putting the lemon slices on top of the chicken...as far away from the green beans as possible.

Pink Lemonade Cake - this cake looked so "springy" and cute that I had to try it.  I thought it sounded too sweet from the recipe, so I cut the glaze in half and didn't even use all that I had.  It was still way too sweet. I won't be making this again.  I have another recipe for a lemon cake that uses a white cake mix, lemon pudding, and sprite. I could add pink food coloring and still have a cute springy cake that would taste lots better.

Green Smoothies - this recipe has been life changing. I cannot keep enough spinach in the fridge.  I'm seriously considering buying the 2 1/2 lb. bag of spinach from Costco because we go through the 1 lb. container so fast.  My Dillon (who only likes sugar, carbs, and dairy), loves these.  I love that the fruit masks the cup of spinach in every serving.  Todd drinks them in the morning on the way to work. Sometimes he adds his yucky tasting fish oil to get his omega-3's. I'm ready to start trying different kinds of fruit, but I just have to say that adding spinach to a smoothie is seriously brilliant.

Man Pleasing Chicken - How could I not try a recipe with a name like that?  Unfortunately, it wasn't as great as it sounded.  Not bad, just not my favorite.  I may or may not make it again.  I'm not a big fan of dijon mustard, so maybe I'll use regular mustard if I make it again.  Todd thought it was alright, which is saying something because he does NOT like mustard in any form.  I didn't have fresh rosemary so that might have helped.

School Lunch Peanut Butter Bars - Every bit as good as I remember from elementary school.  This is the recipe. I LOVE these things.  I cannot make them often because I eat way too many myself. The first time I made them, I didn't read through the instructions and didn't cook the icing. Before I put it on, I realized it didn't look or taste right, so I succumbed to actually reading through the recipe. When I realized it needed to cook, I stuck the icing in the microwave.  It melted down and worked great.

Pineapple Bacon Burgers - These are excellent.  A new favorite at our house. My only advice is this:  When your husband decides to try cooking bacon on the grill (on a sheet of tin-foil) and you think he's crazy but realize he's tired and decide to bite your tongue and let him do his thing anyway...Don't.  You may come dangerously close to burning your house down with the 4 foot flames it will produce.  Then, when he asks you why you didn't stop him from doing something so stupid...just smile. Have some extra bacon on hand because you definitely don't want to leave the bacon out of this one.  Oh, and grill your burgers and pineapple on the grill...yum.  Also, I added some oatmeal to the meat because the reviews said it fell apart after adding the BBQ sauce.  It held together great and the oatmeal makes it go farther so your eleven year old can have thirds.

Broccoli Chicken Divan - This is another recipe that I made when we were low on food right before grocery shopping day.  It is super easy and tasted better than I expected--and I'm a broccoli lover.  Everyone at our house liked it. Like the tuna casserole, it's not something I would crave, but it's easy, cheap, and good.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese - I love this stuff. Two of my kids don't care for it, but they'll eat it.  They prefer the stuff from the box (what???) I used macaroni noodles instead of bowties, because I have a huge box of macaroni from the cannery.  It's good with ham, or without ham, or with colby jack, or colby cheddar, or probably any other kind of cheese you have on hand, and I will continue to make this until my kids learn to like it.

Easter weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend at our house.

It was filled with church, ham, Reeses PB cups, egg dying and hunting, naps (for the adults), 

and plenty of family time.

It took Justin a while to get into the egg hunting thing...until he realized there was candy inside!

Dillon chose to hunt for eggs in his pirate hat.

We color-coded the hunt to make it more fair.  Each child was assigned a color (or in Justin's case, a character).  They had to leave the yellow, green, blue, and Elmo eggs for the assigned person.

The pink, orange, and purple were free for all.

The golden egg had a coupon, "eggs"changeable for a Wii rental from Redbox.

Other "prizes" included coupons for extra computer time, ice cream, and getting out of dinner chores.

Todd took a spin on Caleb's bike

Our camera batteries died, so I didn't get any pictures of our egg dying activity.  A neighbor girl joined us on our patio, and after every egg had been dyed 2 or 3 times, it got dark so we turned on a light and set up cones for the kids to rollerblade/ripstik/ride scooters around.

Todd and I secretly wish we could ride the ripstik. 

We watched in awe as the kids wove through the cones.

We finished our celebration by watching Easter Bible Videos on Sunday night, 

with the air conditioning on, since it was at least 80 degrees in our house.

Critters

I just discovered the first drawback to living here.

It's a roach.

And it's on my laundry room floor.

One of the best parts of living in "the middle of nowhere" was the absence of bugs.  Besides the ants, the two week long housefly invasion every August, and the occasional spider, there really weren't bugs.  I bet I could count on my hands the number of mosquitos I killed in my house during the six years we lived there.

Since living "down South" we've already encountered roaches (all outside...until now), black widows, Hobos, and the kids say they saw a brown recluse.  We also have a black collared lizard living in the cinderblocks next to our sandbox.

Todd says they found a tarantula in the kitchen where he works.

A lady in front of me at Walmart was buying some kind of product because she found a scorpion in her garage.

I think a scorpion would put me over the edge...

Ten years

My K-bubbers is ten years old today.  

(He's probably too old to be called K-bubbers) 

Caleb Trivia:

*He is the most responsible of our kids
*He has a great singing voice
*He had seizures, at least weekly, from the time he was 9 mos.-18mos. and hasn't had one since.
*He's the only child I've ever called an ambulance for.
*He likes to bake.
*He's never had a broken bone or stitches (unlike his brothers).
*He likes salad, shrimp, salsa, and other "grown-up" foods.
*He doesn't care for cold cereal.
*He is a whole head shorter than the other kids in his grade.
*He loves to rollerblade and ride his ripstik.
*His favorite animal is a clownfish.
*He loves cub scouts.
*His latest catch phrase is "I know, right?"
*He likes to get up early.
*Did I mention he's my most responsible kid?  By a landslide.
*He makes friends easily.
*He always takes his dishes to the sink, and usually thanks me for making dinner.

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Hopefully we'll get to have his "bakery party" this weekend.

Our Conference Weekend

It will likely take me a few days to post my semi-annual "Conference Favorites" post since our conference weekend didn't go exactly as planned.

It started out great.  Friday afternoon we had 84 degree weather and I remembered the slip'n'slide that I discovered while we were packing up to move.  Justin was a big fan.  I love this picture of his soaking wet shorts hanging down to his ankles.

After dinner that night, we discovered America's Funniest Home video's on Netflix instant stream and sat around as a family giggling the night away.

I was a little behind on my preparations for conference (packets not printed, and kitchen not completely clean) but I had meals and activities planned and was looking forward to taking notes like I did in October.

Saturday morning came along earlier than I expected :o) and at 9:45 I was printing conference packets for the kids.  I had planned to have them help me tidy up the kitchen/living room before conference began, but Todd got to them first and had them move all the food out of the storage room so he could fix the shelves between sessions.  I wish I had a "before" picture.  The shelves were so warped they were almost unusable.  I don't know exactly what Todd did, but they look 100% better.

When I went downstairs this morning to see my new shelves, I noticed that the rest of the food didn't quite make it back into the storage room...

Our friends Don and Becky were in town, and agreed to stop by between the Saturday sessions to look at my quilting room floor and tell us what we needed to do (Don is a contractor, and Becky is a longarm quilter).

Since they were coming, I spent the Saturday morning session listening to conference while I cleaned up my kitchen and living room, and mopped the floor.  Actually I kind of enjoyed it because the kids were downstairs "working on their conference packets" and Justin was taking his morning nap.  It felt good to make my kitchen floor sparkle, but I didn't take notes and by the end of the session I couldn't even remember the topic of one of the speakers!

Don and Becky got here between sessions and looked at my quilting studio, told us what we needed to do, and Don offered to help us that evening after his class.  He said it was a two hour job.  Of course we jumped at the offer!  I guarantee if Todd and I had tackled this ourselves, it would have been an entire day project, cost more than it needed to, and there may or may not have been swearing involved.  We ran out of cement mix and Home Depot was closed, so it's not finished, but at least we know what to do.  Don was right...it took them about an hour and a half to "feather" the cement and even out the 1" gap on the floor.  I am SO grateful for good friends!

Unfortunately, Todd had to miss the priesthood session of conference to get the room ready and buy the supplies needed in order to work on the room that night with Don.  I'm so glad the church makes it easy to access conference so he can still watch or listen to the session this week.

Sunday morning, our plans continued to get "derailed" when I woke up with a stomach bug.  I had told Caleb that we would celebrate his birthday on Sunday, because Todd is teaching a class on Monday night, and on Tuesday (his actual birthday) the kids have a choir concert.  Because I was sick, he didn't get the "bakery party" he had requested, but Todd fixed one of Caleb's favorite dinners (Navajo taco's) and made him a birthday cake.  He opened his presents straight out of the amazon boxes.

I listened to the Sunday sessions on the couch, between frequent trips to the bathroom.  Last night, before the kids went to bed, I asked them to bring me their conference packets so I could read what they wrote.  It turns out that they weren't exactly working on their packets while they were downstairs by themselves :o).  I didn't get much, but I loved Caleb's picture of Sister Beck.  I think we're going to review conference talks one at a time, for FHE over the next few months, and I'm going to have them fill out their packets one talk at a time.

I thought I was going to feel better today, but at 4 AM I was up tossing my cookies.  My wonderful husband, who was supposed to be at work at 7:00, re-arranged his schedule so that he could get the boys ready for school and drop them off.  (We are down to one vehicle until we get our tax return and fix Todd's truck, so I would've had to walk the kids to school because they have to cross a busy street without a crossing guard).

This is what I saw when I walked into the kitchen this morning...

Since I'm still not feeling well, I think I'll ignore the kitchen, put Justin down for a nap, and re-watch conference.  This time I'll take notes.