Fame

Yesterday in church this guy in our ward came up to tell me he had seen Liam's picture in a magazine. I have to say I was pretty surprised. A couple months ago my sister in law was telling me how she was entering her little girl into a cute baby contest for Utah Valley magazine. I wasn't really interested in doing it because I already know that he's the cutest baby! lol The day before the deadline though I caved and went through my pictures from my camera to find some cute ones of him and emailed them off. I haven't really thought anything about it and I never heard back from them so I didn't think he had made the "cut" so to speak. So, that's why I was surprised to hear he was in the magazine.

It turns out he is the #5 cutest baby of the entries sent in...not bad. So, if you can get your hands on a Utah Valley magazine you can see him. At some point they'll put the May/June issue online and then you'll be able to see it online if you don't live nearby. I think their website is www.uvmag.com . I'm not sure how long they wait before putting it online, but as of last time I looked it wasn't online yet.

So, my proud mama moment is now recorded. Have a great day!

Clapping, messy face, bowls, and I'm big

Liam has been so cute lately. Who am I kidding....he's always cute!! lol He learned to clap recently so I've put a little video on here of him clapping....correction. I ended up just putting a picture of him clapping because the video was not loading for some reason. So, there you go. Not as cute as a video, but it'll have to do for now.




Liam doesn't like it at all when we try to feed him anything that isn't baby food. If we put anything in his mouth not matter how soft he'll gag like he's going to throw up. I was curious about this since he puts anything and everything in his mouth. So, we got some of those biter biscuits from Gerber and sure enough if we put it in his mouth he'll gag, but he had a great time putting it into his own mouth and he made a big mess so I had to take a picture. I wish I could have gotten his hands in the picture too because they were COVERED with goo from that thing!




I was making dinner the other night and Liam figured out how to open the cupboard. Thankfully he opened the pan/bowl cupboard where he couldn't hurt anything or himself. He loved putting the two metal pans together and shaking the bigger one because it made a beautiful noise for him.




Jason saved his money so he could buy this ripstick. It sure seems like a lot of work to ride, but he loves it. He had left it in the front room by our chair and Liam thinks it's pretty cool too so he was checking it out. He even stood on it with both feet, but I didn't catch that one on camera. Already trying to be like his big brother. How precious. :)

Cafe Rio Recipes

Our ward has re-started their cooking classes. Last month they did recipes for "Cafe Rio" Salad. I personally have never been to Cafe Rio, but lots of people love it and I really loved these recipes. It was my turn to be in charge of family dinner this past Sunday so we had these and everyone loved them. If you don't know--it's basically a taco salad served on a tortilla so you'll need the normal taco toppings to go along with it. The only thing we didn't have was the corn salsa (totally my fault for not getting those in charge of it the recipe when I was supposed to) but I LOVE that stuff. It's really good. Anyway...here are the recipes and hey, if you have any great recipes you and your family love please share them! I'm always needing new ones.

Disclaimer: These are not necessarily the same recipes the actual restaurant uses! I'm told they taste similar though. Hope you like them!

Cafe Rio Chicken

5 lbs chicken breast
1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tbsp ground Cumin

Place chicken and the rest of the ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on high for 4 hours, remove and shred chicken then return to pot and continue cooking for one more hour. (note: I just left the chicken in the crock pot and shredded it using my hand mixer-beware it is a bit messy at first, and I think I would have turned it down to low for the last hour too)

Cafe Rio Pork
6 lbs pork (pork loin works best)
1- 16 oz bottle of salsa or taco sauce
1 can coke (can use non-caffeinated)
2 cups brown sugar

Place pork in crock pot. Cook on high for 5 hours. Cut pork in thirds. Mix together sauce ingredients and pour on top of pork. Cook an additional 3 hours on high. Shred pork. Leaveon low temp until ready to serve.


Cilantro Lime Rice

6 cups water
4 cups rice, regular NOT instant
5 Tbsp chicken bullion
4 tsp. minced garlic (the dried kind)
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 small can of green chilies, chopped
Juice of two limes
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 small onion

Blend cilantro, green chilies, and onion in food processor or blender. IN large sauce pan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer rice- tightly covered- for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir, then cover and let sit 5 minutes.

Corn Salsa

1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2 avocados, chopped (add just before serving)
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 envelope Good seasons Italian Dressing, mixed according to package directions

Mix in bowl. Store in fridge. Great with tortilla chips

Creamy Tomatilla Salad Dressing -- A MUST have

1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch buttermilk dressing mix
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup mayonaise
3 tomatillas
2 cloves garlic
juice of one lime
3 Tbsp Salsa Verde
1 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp tabasco sauce
Blend all ingredients in blender or food processor. Refrigerate

Spring Break- Day Five

This has taken me a lot longer than I expected to get caught up on our Spring Break goings on. I was having problems getting pictures loaded and then Liam wasn't feeling well and then I got sick. I'm still sick, but hopefully well enough to write a few coherent sentences about our final day of fun for Spring Break.

We went with Heather and her boys to the Discovery Children's museum. I had heard good things about it and wanted to check it out. When the twins were younger they LOVED going to the Treehouse museum in Ogden and we have gone to the Exploratorium in San Francisco a couple years ago while visiting my Grandma. Anyway...off we went. We decided to carpool since we could all fit in Heather's car to save the planet while also saving on gas and parking. It turned out to be a great idea since parking was expensive!! Anyway...

The kids loved the museum and they had an awesome day there. We spent a long time there, then ate lunch and went back for more...we were gone all day long and I was completely exhausted by the time we got home. (I think part of that was because I was coming down with a cold). Here are a few pictures of the fun at the museum.

There was a life flight helicopter outside that the kids could climb into and sit in the cock pit (if they were patient enough to stand in line and wait their turn. They all ended up in the cockpit at the same time, but there wasn't a good way to get them all in the picture so on the left is Em and Camden and on the right is Jason and Brighton. Above is them in the back except you can't see Jason--that picture was right before Easton started crying because it was too loud in the back for him. ;)

Spring Break- Day Four

We had a long day on Thursday. We got up really early so we could drive to Ogden to visit my sister in law and her girls. They have lived in Utah for several months now, but have recently purchased a home and I wanted to go see their house and let the kids have fun playing with their cousins. Jason was sad that my brother wasn't there because he was hoping to go disc golfing with him like the last time they came to our house. He was somewhat placated when he saw that Jim had the game Rock band. He and Emily had fun playing it and it was so fun to see them getting into it. One song Em was on guitar and she was tapping her foot and shaking her hip and Jason was on the drums and he was bobbing his head in time with the music. It was really fun to watch. Drums were a lot harder than Jason thought they would be so he went back to guitar and he was showing off his skills a bit.

Liam had a great time exploring his new surroundings and being "loved by his cousins. Then he somehow scraped the corner of his eye on a book shelf and was a little Momma's boy after that.

After we finished visiting we headed to downtown SLC to visit Dad at work and to have lunch with him. The kids enjoyed the cafeteria style choices since they could pick whatever they wanted to eat. We headed up to see Jason's new office on the 27th floor and the kids and I got a bit dizzy looking down out the window because of how high we were.

Dad left work early to spend the rest of the day with us. We started by having him give us a behind the scenes tour of the Conference center. Because of his job his badge gets him into the offices/control rooms under the conference center where they film stuff for sending via sattelite. He showed us the control room where they control all the cameras for General conference and then we got to go under/behind the stage and organ. It was cool to see that they can raise and lower the stage as needed. Then the kids wanted to go up and see what the organ looked like up close so we went up on the stage. I kept waiting for one of the normal tour guides to tell us to get off the stage, but they never did. The kids thought it was pretty cool. After that we headed to the cemetery where the kids wanted to find President Hinckley's headstone (we did find it, but I didn't get a picture). We got a map with a whole bunch of prophets/apostles/notable people and found a few of them.

On the way home we stopped to pick up the kids' new glasses so they could both see again. We decided to give Liam a break from his car seat and put him in the cart for the first time. Of course I had to take a picture. It was a great day! :)

Belated Birthday Love

Last week was Jason's birthday. We had a great day and he took some time off work to spend time with us. We went out to dinner and ate Mexican food--I think I could possibly say that's his favorite since it's most often what he chooses. So, in honor of my awesome Husband's birthday I'm gonna give you 10 things I love about him. I know you probably don't care, but hey, it's my blog and I'll schmooze about my husband if I want to. lol

1. His beautiful blue eyes--I was really hoping for a blue eyed child since I always wished I had blue eyes growing up. Not gonna happen, but it was a good dream while it lasted. ;)

2. His smile and his laugh. I love when he's showing me something that's funny and he can't stop laughing. It makes me laugh too--even when I don't think the original thing is funny.

3. His patience with the kids. He is so great at talking to them and getting them to tell him stuff when they won't tell me. I LOVE that the kids trust him so much.

4. His patience with me. He's so great to take all my mood swings and bad attitude and he still loves me anyway.

5. He is seriously the smartest man I know. The kids are always asking me stuff I don't know and then they'll say, "We'll ask Dad, he knows everything." I should probably get that one on tape for use on them in a couple years when we know nothing anymore. ;)

6. His knowledge of the scriptures and church History. I can ask him almost anything about the scriptures and church history and he knows the answer and also can find the quote or whatever I'm looking for in a flash.

7. He does the dishes almost every day. Since Liam came Jason does the dishes pretty much every day. It's a small thing, but it makes my life a little easier and makes us all happy!

8. His love of books. He is ALWAYS reading something and unlike me it's usually something intellectual or a biography, not silly fiction books. I love my silly fiction--I do try to throw in serious stuff once in awhile just for him. I love that the kids see him reading all the time and they love reading too. I know it's because they see their parents reading that they have grown to love books themselves.

9. I love when he holds my hand or puts his arm around me. I feel so safe and secure and I like knowing that he isn't "too macho" to let other people know that he loves me.

10. I love knowing that to him I'm the most beautiful girl in the world. That probably sounds conceited, but hey, he's my husband so he better think I'm the most beautiful girl because if he doesn't who will?? He's great to tell me that all the time too.

I love you Jason and I'm so glad we get to spend forever together! Happy Birthday!

Spring Break-Day Three

Wednesday the kids spent the morning playing with friends. Then in the afternoon we got to go have fun at Cissy's house. Cissy is a friend I met in my last semester at BYU. We were in the same advanced Human Development class and we have kept in touch ever since. It's so great that no matter how long it's been since the last time we've seen each other it seems like no time has passed at all. I love friends like that!

Jason and Matthew spent most of their time outside shooting hoops, playing baseball (with ghost runners since it was just the two of them), and riding ripstick/scooter/bikes.

Emily had a ball with Jamie Beth playing house, dolls, and other creative and imaginative games. The little ones hung out by the moms and the Mom's had a great time talking and catching up on what's going on in our lives. Time flew by and before I knew it we had been there a couple hours and it was time to go so we could all get dinner. Thanks for having us over Cissy! I've posted a couple pictures, but the ones of Cissy and I and one of all the kids Cissy had to take because my battery died in my camera. As soon as I get those I'll post them.

Spring Break- Day Two

Tuesday we had a semi-lazy morning. The kids wanted waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. I had promised them we could have them over spring break so I had to wake up to make them so I didn't wake up to a big mess in the kitchen after the kids tried to make them. :) They turned out really good. It's one of my all time favorite breakfast dishes!

We went to see a movie in the afternoon. I let the kids decide between Nim's Island and Horton Hears a Who. They really wanted our good friends and neighbors to come with us and since their kids had already seen Nim's Island we ended up at Horton Hears a who. It was really cute and the kids loved it. There were several times when I could hear the kids laughing loudly at what was happening in the movie. (They wanted to sit away from the moms and "babies") They talked about the movie all night and were quoting it and everything. So, it gets a thumbs up from our family.

After the movie it was REALLY windy here and we hurried to go buy some new sheets for my bed because ours have a big tear in them. When we got home it was SNOWING--yep, you read that right SNOW. Monday it was 80 degrees, Tuesday it snowed. It's still cold today and is supposed to stay more on the cold side the rest of the week. I can't tell you how sad that makes me! I REALLY want it to be warm and Springtime and to STOP being cold and snowy!!

I hope you are having nicer weather where you are. Have a great day!

Spring Break- Day One

Yesterday was day one of Spring Break for the kiddos. We had a pretty relaxing day, didn't get ourselves ready until nearly 11 am. (I love days like that) Then we headed to the park with some friends for a picnic lunch and fun in the sun. It was a beautiful day and ended up being pretty hot since the park we were at didn't have much shade. The kids organized a game of kick ball and had a lot of fun with that until they got too hot.

After we'd played for a couple hours and were all baked through we headed to get the kids' eyes checked. Emily's prescription had changed quite a bit so she needed new glasses. Jason's hadn't changed much, but he's been so hard on his glasses that they are literally falling apart. I've super glued them 3 times already and we've taken them to be bent back to the right shape at least 5 times in the past year. So, even though he didn't need new ones for the prescription he had to get new ones so they would stay in one piece. We decided it might be worth it to get him those kind that can bend and then they spring back into shape in the hopes that he can keep them in one piece for longer than a few months. So, a huge sum of money later and they will both be seeing well as soon as their glasses arrive at the end of the week. I'll post pictures then!

Today we plan on having another relaxing day. We may go see a movie...check back tomorrow for all the juicy details. lol

Have a great day!

Lunch with a friend and a dinner date

I just got back from having lunch with my good friend Sariah. We've known each other since High school and its always great to catch up with her! We went to Mimi's Cafe and it was pretty good. I'd never been there before so it was nice to try out a new place. I meant to take my camera and have our server take a picture of us together since we don't have many pics of us. But I forgot my camera when she called me from Mimi's to see if I was coming and I was still at my house because I thought she was coming to my house first and then we were going to Mimi's. lol So, I rushed out the door and met her there. She was a great sport about it. So, the picture will have to wait until next time.

Tonight I have a hot date with my awesome husband. He's so great and this is the first time we are going out without Liam in tow so it'll be nice. Grandma and Grandpa are baby sitting for us so I know all the kids will be in capable hands. We are going to Red Lobster...why you ask are we going there when neither of us like fish?? Well...Jason got a gift cert. for there from work and so we are going there in the hopes that they offer something that is non-sea food to eat. I know they do, but it'll be funny to them I'm sure to have us go there and both of us order chicken or something like that. lol So, I'm looking forward to a nice evening tonight.

Have a great weekend!!

What to do?

We have Spring Break coming up soon and I am trying to figure out how to have some fun with the kids during the week without breaking the bank. What I'd really like to do is go somewhere (like St. George). Dh keeps saying sure we can go somewhere, where do you wanna go? I tell him St. George and then he asks what we'll do there...I honestly don't know, but I'm pretty sure it'll be warm so I wanna go there!! Anyway...I'm guessing there's not much chance of us going since it's next week and we still haven't planned anything.

So, I'm trying to think of fun things to do around here. Anyone have any suggestions? I asked the kids and so far they want to go see Horton hears a who, and play with some friends we haven't played with in awhile, but that's all they've got. Those of you who live around here please share your favorite places to take kids! I need LOTS of ideas since I have two kids who make it their job to NEVER agree with one another on what we should do. ;)

Sleepy time

Last night I was getting dinner ready after just feeding Liam his "solid" foods. He had been a bit fussy so I was surprised when he quieted down and was thinking it was a good thing he was happy now. Then I turned around and saw this...


isn't that cute!? I didn't want him to get a kink in his neck so I took him out after I took pictures and of course as soon as I moved him he woke up. lol

April fools day fun

I don't normally do any pranks or anything for April fools, but this year I wanted to have some fun with my kids. They got a kick out of these pranks too.

The first prank I did was I put a sign on our back door where they usually come in that said "Wet Paint please use front door." Then I put another sign on the front door that said "Wet paint, please use the back door." I watched for them to come home so I could see their reaction. Luckily they came home at the same time and one didn't stay out talking to friends. Once they got around to the front door Emily's face was hilarious! I couldn't see Jason's face, but he's the one who thought to ring the doorbell. I got a good laugh out of it and the kids left the signs up for Dad to find when he got home from work.

The second prank I did was that I made Jello and put it in fancy glass cups so they could see it. It looked a lot like pink lemonade so I made a pitcher of that too so that it would seem more realistic. Jason was at karate so he didn't see Em's reaction which made it even better. She tried to drink from the cup and nothing happened and then she poked the stuff in her glass and asked me what it was. When Jason got home to eat I was trying to watch without being obvious, but as he started lifting his glass I burst out laughing so he quickly put it down and said he wouldn't drink it so I picked up the glass and "poured" it on his head. He really flinched and then we all laughed.

The last thing I'm doing is an oldie and I haven't seen their reaction yet, but I hope they'll think it's funny. I shortsheeted their beds so we'll see how they react to that tonight at bedtime.

I think this is the most fun I've had at April fools in a REALLY long time.

Did you pull any pranks on your kids? What did you do? I need to find more ideas for next year.

Hope your April fools was a fun one!

Not yet!

Sunday I was downstairs trying to finish blogging about our new floor when the kids and dh started yelling that I had to come quick to see something. So, I went upstairs and this is what I found.... see how proud his smile is? He pulled himself up all on his own except for some cheering from the kids and dh. He's only seven months old...I thought I had more time before he did this stuff. I'm glad he's developing and growing, but wish he wouldn't do it so quickly and ahead of schedule! I thought I had at least a month of crawling before we got to this. So, now he pulls himself up on everything. I think his birth mom was right--he's gonna walk early no matter how hard I try to slow it down. ;)