I've Been Tagged!!

I've been tagged

A- single or attached: attached
B- best friend: Dan
C- cake or pie: cake, unless it’s an apple pie with ice cream on it
D- day of choice: Saturday-all the fun happens on Saturday because everyone is home
E- essential item: anything in my kitchen. Me and food are tight so I need just about
anything you can find in there. Also can’t live without my cake books and other various recipe books
F- favorite color: blue and green. I do enjoy pinks and oranges on occasion
G- gummy bears or worms: bears, lived in Germany, must have my gummy bears.
H- hometown: army brat-but spent a lot of time in Fayetteville, NC
I- indulgence(s): chocolate, since I’m limiting my sugar it would be that. Especially if it’s a lava cake……yum!!!!!!!!
J- January or July: July, fireworks, bbq’s summer, sun swimming, etc etc etc.
K- kids: 3 monkeys
L- life is incomplete without: my family, church, friends
M- marriage date: April 14, 2001
N- number of siblings: 2 brothers, 1 sister
O- oranges or apples: apples, but only granny smith and the more sour the better
P- phobias or fears: driving over bridges with water under them. Can’t do it…..
Q- quote(s): "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God."
~Nelson Mandela
R- reason to smile: my kids, my friends, my self on occasion when I do something dumb
S- season: winter
T- tag five: Sue, Pam, Jillyn, Monica, & Danielle
U- unknown fact about me: I want to learn to play the banjo….I really do.
V- vegetarian or oppressor of animal: meat all the way baby!! And I’d like my steak rare if you don’t mind!
W- worst habit: I worry about things I have no control over, obsessively
X- x-rays or ultrasounds: x rays. I think I’ve had the same number of both.
Y- your favorite food group: dairy, since that’s where we get cheese and ice cream and most chocolate is made with cream which amazingly enough goes in that category as well. So there you go!
Z- zodiac: Taurus and it fits because I’m so dang stubborn and bull-headed according to Dan! haha

The Canning Diaries pt 1

I received some tomatoes from my mom in law before we left. I've been trying to get to canning them but never had all the ingredients. So today I made salsa (finally got everything I needed) using my mom's recipe. It's really chunky and I added corn to it. I was going to add black beans, but I would be the only one eating it. So i'll have to make more and add my black beans to that.
There were enough tomoatoes to make 5 pints and 1 quart (convenient since that's the amount of jars I had without buying more). I even have a tiny bit left over to eat and taste test on Dan. I tried it and it tasted good to me. So i'm excited. I have also been keeping an eye on my garden and I finally have some cucumbers growing. I planted tomatoes this morning so in a few months I should have some more (unless I kill them, which I am famous for doing).I'm really excited to have all this fresh produce to can and freeze to my hearts content. And now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to go have a few chips with my freshly made salsa!

Family Fun Magazine cake contest

Jenn B. emailed the info to me. I decided I should enter. Might as well. More exposure and most importantly......practice! Once again, I doubt i'll win. But the mere practice and coming up with a design was fun enough for me. Plus, now we get to eat it and you can never say no to chocolate cake (btw, I found a cake mix that is now 50% less sugar!!!! Hoorah for healthy cake!)
So after Chuck E Cheese I came home and spent the next 2 hours working on it. I found floral wire, but it was green. Oh well. Work with what you have. I still enjoyed making it even though the vision in my head for what I wanted differed slightly from the final cake. It was still fun to do even if I don't win (which I doubt I will). Thanks Jenn for sending me the link!

Chuck E Cheese

As part of potty training we always set a large prize when they are completely trained. We let each child pick from a variety of options. Keegan picked Chuck E Cheese (no surprise since that is what Seth also picked). We meant to take him while we were still in Utah but never got a chance and then we moved and that delayed it even further. So we finally got the opportunity to take him (4-26-08). He had a BLAST!!!! Of course there isn't one down here so we had to drive up to Tucson and of course got lost because we have no idea where we were going. (Thanks to Richard by the way for guiding us via phone to where we needed to be! KUDOS!)
We had a hard time keeping everyone in check while we waited for pizza. And of course we also picked one of the busiest times to go. I think there were 3 birthday parties going on. But we had a lot of fun. The food was good and the games kept everyone entertained until almost 9 o'clock. (Good thing church doesn't start until 1pm-we could all sleep in.)

Congratulations to Keegan for officially being a really big boy!

(better late than never I guess!!)

School Lunch

We had lunch with Seth today (4-25-08). His school was holding a family BBQ so we decided to go. He had lunch so early though that Dad was not able to attend. But we got him a plate and took it to him later. It was nice. All the kindergarten classes and their parents were there. They served hot dogs or hamburgers, baked beans, corn, sugar cookies, potato salad, macaroni salad and a variety of fresh fruits with milk (we all chose chocolate milk). It was really nice to spend some time with Seth at school since they don't really have parent volunteers at this school. I think Seth really enjoyed it as well.

the skinny diary

This was taken back in the day. We had gone to a country club for some line dancing fun.

I am on a diet again. Surprise surprise. Actually this time i'm doing it with a friend who happens to be about 3000 (give or take, but who's counting) miles away. She's in NC and i'm in AZ. This whole thing was her idea and like the lemming I am, I jumped on board. Eating healthier and exercising as well as using each other as an accountability for what we eat. Less likely to grab the extra (400) cookies or the (entire) tub of ice cream when I have to tell her what I'm eating. She's going to be my rock on this adventure. Thanks for kicking my butt into shape! (now if I can just get her to sign on to the 1/2 marathon I'm considering......) :D

I also subscribed to this website (HTTP://WWW.HUNGRYGIRL.COM) that sends out healthy substitutes for really good food. The lastest was a sub for the CHEESY BEEFY MELT at Taco Bell. Which I have had and it's really good. I got the ingredients and decided to give it a try. It was really good. It's one i'm going to have to keep in my repertoire for a while.

So this is what Taco Bell's version looks like. All cheesy, gooey and super yummy. And don't forget..............LOADED with extra calories and fat grams. Oh yeah...they also forget to tell you that there's rice in theirs....oops-faux pas

This little gem is the HUNGRYGIRL version (mine wasn't this pretty so I used their picture instead). The difference in the recipes was that I used a multigrain tortilla instead of a whole wheat tortilla. Also no rice to add the carbs. It really was good. My only goof was getting the burger mixture that was already taco flavored and then added more when I was heating it up. Made for one really "hot" melt. But it was oh so good. And terribly filling.

Here's to learning the healthy versions and enjoying them way more!!!

Viva La Skinny!

Shenanigans

Today has been one of those days......
This morning I painted my toenails (the unofficial start of warm sandal wearing weather) and Paige was completely interested in what I was doing. So I painted hers too. A lovely shade of deep purple. I just know I'm creating a monster! HA!



Tonight we decided to go for a Sunday drive. When we got home it was time for the boys to get ready for bed. After prayer and getting into jammies they were ready to brush their teeth. Seth comes out of the bathroom with this sheepish look on his face and walks over to Dan. He was pretending to put the toothpaste in his hair but it actually got in his hair. He was so embarrased! So like any good mom, what do I do? Take a picture and post it on the family blog. His future wife will want to see this picture. Can you see that I'm getting the look? Pure daggers..........
you gotta admit though, this is just funny!


And finally this was just me fooling around with Paige. She was smiling when I said cheese and at some point broke out into the monster yawn that was caught on film. That is just outstanding.

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Today is mine and Dan's anniversary. 7 years. Doesn't seem like much to some, much more to others. It's been a wild ride for sure, but we've had lots of fun too. We've done a bunch of stuff that I never thought we'd do and now here we are in 2008 with 3 beautiful children in AZ (once again someplace we NEVER thought we'd be) and having a good time.
I love you honey! Happy Anniversary!

Below is just a few pictures of the past 7 years. I had planned to put more in the show, but the program would only let me do 30. Dumb....oh well. What can you do. Enjoy!

Remember When.....

So I totally ripped these pictures from Amber (Thanks! :D). But I have no scanner and she had them so........






Anyway they so take me down memory lane. We had some good times. I miss her! She is a great friend!!









We had a great group of folks but she and I were tops. So I guess what I'm saying is thanks for being such a great friend!! Love ya!

What color thumb do I have? Probably black.......

I have never had good luck with planting. But I'm willing to give it another go. We have lots of space in the back yard at this house. So last night while playing outside I found an empty planter by the fence and decided to put daisy seeds in it. I had some leftover from a planter I put inside so I figured why not.


So here's my little planter. I've planted the seeds, watered the soil, and added miracle grow. Hopefully I won't kill them.



We also found out that we have a fig and a plum tree in our backyard. One is doing well and the other I can't tell. Hopefully we'll get some good fruit off of them. I am hoping to see lots of canning in my future. I will also be getting tomato plants and some seeds for zucchini, peppers and anything else I might be able to grow in this environment plus some more flowers for the front yard. I will try to keep this updated wtih the progress. Wish me and my thumb luck!

Lesson Learned

So here's my lesson learned. I'm a first time gas stover and didn't realize that the drawer under the oven was not for putting pans. It's the broiler part of the oven. Silly me. So i had a bunch of my baking sheets in that drawer and a pizza stone plus this pizza pan. I pulled it out and this is what I got. Ruined. Along with the pizza stone that was underneath it. Luckily none of the other baking sheets were ruined. Arg........
So chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Keegan turns 4!!!

His actual birthday was the weekend that we moved. Needless to say we weren't able to really do anything. So we bumped it to this weekend. Friday night we asked him he could choose anywhere he wanted to go for dinner. He chose McDonald's because it has a play land (the only one in town I might add). So we took him there for dinner and came home and opened presents. Thanks to mema and papa and Grandma and Lynn (he got a goodie from them before we left Utah). He has seriously loved all his presents! Then Saturday I made his cake. Not very spectacular but he loved it and it made me feel good. It was really yummy too. A checkerboard cake with strawberry and white cake with fudge frosting. We decorated it with CARS characters per Keegan.

I can't believe he's already 4. Next year at this time I'll be preparing him for kindergarten. Time goes by so fast. He's such a big boy!!! He's not my little boy anymore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEEGAN!!!! WE LOVE YOU!

Our new home!

Here are pics of the new house.

the front with my dirty van.

The garden part of the back yard. This actually goes the length of the side wall.

the other end of the back yard.

Paige's room. We are hoping to have all beds put together by the weekend.

Seth's room.

Keegan's room.

master-there is a door to the outside in this room as well.

master bath, the closet wraps around the back of the tub.
the toilet is on the opposite side of the tub from the sinks and there is a door to the closet on that side as well.

the street from our driveway.

kitchen

dining room

living room

looking in from the front door.
if you go right at the wall with the star there is a mud room that goes into the garage.

I can't wait to have everything in it's place so it looks livable. Now there are just boxes everywhere.