Grateful Sunday

Today I’m grateful for:

The primary program at church.  Nothing beats watching little kids up in front of the whole congregation and all the funny stuff they do.  I didn’t even have any kids in it this year!

Having Daddy back home with us.  He was gone all week and we missed him.

Smart kids—seriously I just checked their end of term grades and both of them have more than one class that they have over 100% in…something tells me they aren’t being challenged too much…they both have straight A’s too!  Way to go kids!

BYU Football

For awhile now Jason and Jason Jr have been going to a football game at BYU each year.   Grandpa generously shares his season tickets with any kids/grandkids that want to go and even though my husband isn’t a huge fan Jason LOVES it and so they go.  Well, this year it just so happens that Jason got some free tickets from work to the same game that he was already going to so I got to go with them (I’m pretty sure this is the first football game I’ve been to since I was a freshman at BYU) and Jason brought a friend from school too.  (boy this talking about both of my Jason’s is getting a bit confusing!)

Last week was beautiful weather, clear skies and we spent tons of time outside in the 70 degree weather.  So, of course it was pouring on our way to the game.  We were soaked before we even got to our seats.  Thankfully the rain stopped soon after the game began so we could start drying off a little bit—but not much.  Here are a few pictures of the game (it was an exciting one!).  The bonus was that BYU actually won!  Jason Jr. said they’ve won every game he’s gone to—maybe he needs to go to a few more.  ;)

We sat on the 3rd row—it was the closest I’ve ever sat. Me and Jason-I wanted one of both Jason’s, but never got one. Jason with his friend Riley can you see how wet Jason’s sweatshirt is? I love watching the cougarettes and the cheerleaders.  the marching band has a soft spot in my heart too.  OK, we were sitting pretty close to the Wyoming fans and there were these two guys that were totally cracking me up.  They were screaming, and I mean SCREAMING at the refs and criticizing TONS of the calls and they were both so animated about it.  I’m pretty sure they were father/son or at least related in some way.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of them actually screaming because to me it was hilarious.  I obviously don’t take my football seriously enough.  The ROTC doing pushups for the score. 

It was tons of fun and I think I embarrassed both of my Jason’s with all of my cheering.  They are both more of the sit and watch the game quietly kind of guys.  I figure what’s the fun in it if you don’t yell and cheer a little?  At least as long as you don’t get so angry you look like you might hurt someone over a game.  ;)  For the record I don’t get angry about sports-mostly due to the fact that I barely know the basic rules so I don’t understand enough about the game to get really mad.  :)  I like it that way. 

Are you a die hard sports fan?  Have you ever yelled at the refs when you were watching a game or gotten angry? 

Grateful Sunday

Today I’m grateful for:

My Mom and that’s she’s okay.  I love her and would hate to lose her.

My husband.

The rain even though it’s currently making a pond in front of our driveway because of construction on our street.

Pumpkinland

There is a place called Vineyard garden center in Orem that has a really cute fall activity for toddlers and preschoolers called Pumpkinland.  My big kids thought it was kind of boring when I took them last year (I took them when they were little and they loved it) so this year I thought I’d plan it for the playgroup we go to each week.  It turned out to be a great idea because we got the same pricing as preschools so it was a lot less expensive than it would have been if we’d just gone on our own.  Liam had a great time and so did all the other kids.  I was ready for a nap when it was all over though.  I always feel that way after taking my kids to do fun stuff…it’s tiring! 

When you first go in you are actually in their garden center shop and they have it decorated for Halloween including a couple cute photo backdrops.  We did the best we could to get all the kids to sit still, but if you have 2 and 3 year olds you know it’s impossible.  There were a couple kids that we realized were missing after we took the picture, but the kids didn’t want to sit anymore.  Liam thought it was really funny to hit that scarecrows leg and make the whole thing bounce—you can tell all the kids were intrigued by it too.  This was the only time that I got Liam’s picture in one of these things with other people too…and he’s not even looking. Off into the corn maze.  These two hooligans kept running ahead and I’m really surprised that they didn’t get lost.  This cracks me up. I wanted a picture with Liam and this is all we got.  I still love them because they totally show his crazy personality. This is the point where we hit a dead end and these two were leading us all (the kids took turns leading and choosing which way to go).  We got there and they both said, “what happened??”  It was really funny.  We did finally find our way out of the maze (its actually a fairly easy one compared to most of the ones around here) I think he was glad to be out.  After the maze came the animals and the playground.  Liam ran around from one thing to the next hardly stopping at all.  I really wanted him to peek his head through the jack o lantern for a picture, but he refused. He liked the house of mirrors and climbing on this thing.  Then we walked over to the picnic area for lunch and he spent a ton of time playing on the playground that’s there.  We had a blast.  I hope everyone else from our playgroup did too.  It’s kinda hard for the Moms to visit at a place like this compared to the places we usually go, but its so fun to see the kids playing together and enjoying themselves.  This is the train we had to wait for on our way home.  This was the third train we’d seen since we got to Pumpkinland.  One drove right by us super close while we were walking from the corn maze to the animals.  Liam waved to the engineer of that train and he tooted his horn for us, but it was so loud since we were so close (like 20 feet away with just a chain link fence between us and the train close) that it kinda scared Liam I think.  Liam is still talking about the “gate” that closed so the train wouldn’t run us over in our car. This is him showing me how the train goes, “choo, choo!”  This may have been the highlight of his day he loves trains so much. 

A little funny

The other night I was trying to wrangle the kids into bed.  You know, that time of night when you’ve asked them five hundred times to go to bed and they still aren’t listening?  I was to that point and walked into the living room to find Jason wrestling with Liam so I gave him an affectionate (read: gentle) kick on the rear end.  He rolled off Liam and jokingly started saying, “child abuse! child abuse!” to which I replied, “It’s not abuse until it leaves a mark.” (jokingly of course) Then he came back with, “It left a mark on my heart.” to which I replied by busting out laughing and telling him thanks for the laugh but to still get his buns to bed.  :)  I’m so glad my kids are so smart and funny it sure makes life more fun and interesting. 

What’s something funny your kids (or anyone else for that matter) has said to you lately? 

Navajo Tacos

I thought I’d post about our dinner from the other night.  My kids love this dinner and although I highly doubt it has actual roots in Native American fare, it’s still delicious.  I’d never had nor even heard  of these until I moved to UT, but they seem to be well known here.  Basically you make a bread-like dough, fry it up in oil and top it with whatever you want then eat it.  Here’s a quick step by step with (crummy) pictures too.  Start off by breaking off a piece of dough and making it into a rough ball.

  Then stretch it out gently until it’s the shape you want.  Oblong ones fit best in my pan so that’s how I make them, but any shape you want is fine.  Place them carefully in the hot oil making sure to set them in away from you so you don’t accidentally splash hot oil on yourself.  Let them cook until you can see a little brown around the edges then flip them over so the other side can brown.     Drain them on a paper towel after you take them out.  It makes me feel a little better about all the oil if I drain them like that.  Now, I’m sure there are all sorts of ways people top their Navajo tacos, but in our house we use chili and then add normal taco toppings like lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and salsa to them.  I had some cilantro so I used a little on mine because I love the stuff and would probably put it on just about anything.  I think the reason my kids love these so much is because it has built in dessert too.  For a really simple dessert  top a “scone” or fry bread or whatever you wanna call it with butter (it has to melt and pool a little bit) and then powdered sugar.  Beware though that powdered sugar and boys equals one big mess it doesn’t matter if they are three or twelve. 
But it sure is fun!  If you want to get really super yummy and a little more fancy put some nutella, sliced bananas, and whipped cream on a hot scone—that’s heavenly for sure, but I never have nutella on hand so powdered sugar is what we normally do at our house. 

The recipe we use for our “scones” is one I got from the boyfriend (now husband) of one of my college room mates.  I usually make double of this recipe so we have leftovers for the next day.

Butch’s Scones

1 Tbs Oil

1 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs yeast

1 c water

1 tsp salt

1 c white flour

1 c wheat flour

Mix together water and yeast and let proof (unless you use instant yeast then it doesn’t have to proof) then add the rest of the ingredients with the flour last. knead until you get a soft but not too sticky dough. Let rise anywhere from 2-20 mins (I let mine rise while the oil is heating up and it's perfect) Shape them, and cook in hot oil.

Cheese Thief

We have a cheese thief in our house.  If I ever happen to leave a piece of cheese out after or during shredding I inevitably come back to find it like this: A big bite taken out of it.  If the thief wasn’t so dang cute I think I’d have to punish him somehow. 

But look at that cuteness…what’s a girl to do when faced with it?  I’ll tell you what I do—I laugh mostly because if I didn’t I’d cry, but ya gotta love these little ones!What crazy stuff does your little one do that makes you laugh?

What to do?

I have this little problem…by the side door to our house.  It’s the door we use most often and so it gets WAY more traffic than our front door.  My problem, is what to do with wet/dirty shoes once they are taken off.  There’s not much space really.  Here’s a picture—see to the right where those shoes are?  That’s where I need something to contain the mess.  (of course I cleaned up five pairs of shoes that were there before I took this picture) My only idea is a basket, but I’m not sure how to keep it clean if the shoes are wet or muddy.  Plus, I’m not sure there’s really room for a basket there because the walkway to the kitchen is already so narrow.  When I bought the rug that’s there I thought it was bigger than it is.  Maybe I should just get a bigger rug that would go all the way to the counter?  I need some other ideas!  What would you do?  I need something that will keep the mess contained but not take too much space and keep my floors safe from the wet and look nice too if possible.  HELP! 

New cousin

The end of last week was fall break so the kids and I headed up to Ogden to meet their new cousin.  He looks just like his dad did when he was a baby.  Congrats Jim and Jen!  He’s definitely a keeper.

Jason LOVES to hold new babies and he’s really good at keeping them calm, happy, and most of the time asleep.  Em loves babies too.  Need to teach Em the art of not cutting off heads in pictures.  My nephew sent us his “flat Stanley” and we are supposed to take pictures with him and then send the pictures back with him so he can see what flat Stanley did.  I thought Ronnie would like to see that flat Stanley met his new cousin and got to play with Bryannah and Shayla too since I hear that he misses them.  My goofy brother…he was trying to hide his face behind flat Stanley, but I got him anyway!

Grateful Sunday

I am loving this post tradition because it makes me think about things to be grateful for even when the day hasn’t been a great one.  It’s a good thing to remember to be grateful. 

Today I’m grateful for the times when Liam is happy and cooperative.

For a great YW class that participates in lessons and makes them great.

For yummy Sunday dinner and time together as a family.

For my big kids and all the big help they give me all the time. 

What are you grateful for?

Organ concert

I never got my grateful Sunday post up because I didn’t have any time yesterday!  After church we went straight to my in-laws house and then when we got home from there the kids and I went to an Organ concert. 

Apparently when our Stake Center was being built there was an organ builder in the Stake and he started building a really great organ, then they ran out of money and had to finish it the best they could so for all these years it’s been waiting to be finished properly.  At least this is the story as I understand it.  So, the Organ was finally renovated and they had a concert to celebrate.  There were five performers.  The first was our own Stake Organist and then three accomplished organists from BYU and finally the Tabernacle Organist. Did you know that the Tabernacle organ has 11,623 pipes??  I had no idea it was so many!  The Stake center organ we heard last night had 876 pipes if that gives you a frame of reference at all.   

Now, I have never really heard an organ concert before.  I’ve heard the organ accompany singing at church and that’s about it for me. So, I was amazed at what a beautiful instrument it is for solo performance.   There were several times that I really wanted to applaud even though it wasn’t the end of the performance.  The music was so moving and simply gorgeous. It’s amazing how many different kinds of sounds an organ can make.  My favorites were the classical pieces that were played.  It was awesome.  It makes me want to go to the Tabernacle for the organ concerts there…I think my kids were really surprised  too and I was surprised they both really liked it too.  At least that’s what they told me. I’m glad to know they can appreciate culture.   

Have you ever heard and Organ played solo?  What did you think of it? 

Tami’s Birthday

My good friend Tami’s birthday is this week.  A couple weeks ago her Mom gave me a call and asked me to help organize a surprise for her for her birthday.  I called around to some of her friends and was able to find a few that could join us for her celebration.  It was a fun night and I was happy that she never figured out her surprise which seems to happen all the time when trying to plan surprises. 

Tami’s Mom planned everything and I just got people to come.  We all went to dinner at Olive Garden and it was a lot of fun.  Tami’s Mom asked each of us to write down what she meant to us so we all gave her cards—thankfully we got out of having to read them out loud because I am such a blubber baby that I would have been a total mess.  I only have a few pictures because it’s  kinda hard to eat and take pictures at the same time. :) I love that Tami isn’t afraid to be goofy in front of the camera.  She’s serving up cake for all of us.  Rosalie and Tina Ashton and Arlene (Tami’s Mom) Bonnie and Me The Birthday girl all of us thanks to the server. 

Tami is an awesome friend and I’m totally lucky to know her.  Hope you had a fabulous day Tam!