tad sab log

Aisha's Chicken Bean Quesadilla Dip

2011-11-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Photo isn't the best but I seriously craved this after I had it. My friend Aisha made this for me when I had Evan. I had to get the recipe because I was craving it. She said she made it a lot on her mission because it was so easy to make.

Rotisserie chicken taken off and shredded or cook chicken in slow cooker with lime, cilantro and chicken broth for the day.

1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can refried beans
1 can red beans
1 can Mexican style stewed tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
1/2-1 Tbsp. cumin
salt and pepper
lime, optional
sour cream, optional

In skillet cook onion and green pepper. Drain and rinse all the beans. Add beans, tomatoes, chicken and chicken broth to skillet. Season to taste with cumin, salt and pepper. Let simmer for 20 minutes.

This is a really hearty chili so I liked it more as a quesadilla dip. Use the uncooked tortillas for your quesadilla, I promise it will taste better. Add lime and sour cream to your chili and then use quesadillas to spoon in the yummy goodness to your mouth.

iPhone Photos

2011-11-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Next month Tad will have had his iPhone for a year. I was downloading his photos for my photo a day album (which I love, you can check out Project Life here). Here are just some of my favorites found on Tad's phone.

Aviator Logan

Love this photo of Logan fighting Darth Vader in the Lego store at Disneyland. He carried around that pornographic balloon gun everywhere. Thank goodness it deflated overnight.

Brothers.

Logan and Nyxon on a double date this summer with Mom and Dad.

Not sure if I love this photo so much because it has all my little guys in it or the fact that it doesn't have my multiple chins in it. Maybe Tad secretly has a skinny photo app on his phone.

This gorgeous shot in Moab from the Porcupine Rim trail. I'll never go on this trail so I'm glad Tad could share a view from it.

One of several trips to PCMR this summer.

Ward Christmas Party Decorations

2011-11-21T07:33:00.001-07:00

Two years ago I did the ward Christmas party decorations. I went a little overboard but was so grateful that Brittany, her husband Jared, my husband Tad and several young women in the neighborhood help to put it all together.

We made Christmas trees from old hymn books. I could have never pulled this off if our ward wasn't getting rid of all the hymn books. I think we made 120 trees. The tutorial for the trees is here.
We used lots of popsicle sticks to make stars and mason jars filled with photos of ward members from past Christmases.

I saved the Christmas songs from the hymn books to make little Christmas songbooks. I think most of them ended up in the trash. Oh well.

We also made lots of lollies. These were so easy to make but when you are making 100s that's where it gets time consuming. We called the day we made the lollies - Lolliepalloza. We also had giant lollies on the wall.

The one thing I didn't take pictures of was the luminaries on the stage. To make it I saved cans. Then you put water in them and freeze them. When the water is frozen draw a design (upside down if you aren't using a candle) and use a hammer and nail to make the little holes. We placed the cans on top of a string of Christmas lights.

I thought it turned out pretty cute and everyone loved the little trees and took those home at the end of the night. In case you need some ideas for your party.

Neighbor Gifts - Canvas Bags

2011-11-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago for my neighbors and co-workers I gave canvas bags. I was so excited for these because I'm all about getting rid of plastic bags and who doesn't need another canvas bags. I went to cheaptotes.com and you can get the bags for as low as $.89 right now. Then I just cut out fabric to make a custom bag for each person. Since the whole point of the present was to cut down on waste I just created a gift tag and tied them with some tulle.

Here are some of the designs I did. The yellow and red one says blurg since the Noices are huge 30 Rock fans.

What are some ideas you've done for neighbor/co-worker gifts? I struggle with this every year.

Brek's Sangria Punch

2011-11-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

This a super sugary (almost syrupy) drink that I should have shared this Summer but it's coming to you now.

1 tub Crystal Lite Raspberry Ice Flavor Drink Mix
1 qt. (4 cups) cold cranberry juice cocktail
1 cup cold orange juice
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
3 cups cold club soda
2 medium oranges, sliced
2 medium limes, sliced

Empty drink mix into large pitcher. Add cranberry juice cocktail, orange juice, and lime juice and stir until drink mix is dissolved. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Stir in club soda and fruit. Serve over ice in tall glasses.

Gardner Village

2011-11-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

I love Gardner Village in the fall. They do the cutest decorations and I love their tower of pumpkins or whatever you call it. I think the witches are lame but it entertained my kid. We took Grandma with us so we could take some family photos. Tad had some time off the last week of my maternity leave so it was fun to have him around and get a few house projects done while we were both home.

Happy Baby

2011-11-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

We are having so much fun with this little guy. He is always so so happy. If he's awake he's smiling or laughing. He was 14 pounds at his 2 month appointment so he's a fat happy baby.

Preschool Field Trip

2011-11-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

The day before I returned to work I got to go with Logan on his field trip. We went up to Black Island Farms. It was FREEZING cold and windy so I was glad Dad was home to stay with Evan. Logan goes to the same preschool that my friend Mindy's little boy goes to so it was fun to visit and hang out with Mindy for the day.

Mindy with her two little boys.

Besides playing in the giant box of corn I think the train ride was Logan's 2nd favorite thing to do.

Logan loved the slide and got Mom to go down it a time or two. I'm glad I was able to go on the field trip even if it was freezing. Logan's learning so much at preschool and I love when he tells us what he learned. They learned about veterans on Friday. I still don't think he knows what they are but he has requested that we get veterans to protect our house so the bad guys don't get in.

Halloween

2011-11-13T19:05:00.001-07:00

I know super late but have to put these up because it's not easy task to get Tad to dress up. Logan was a little Boba Fett for Halloween. I love this shot with him next to Darth Vader because he looks so tiny. My parents had a party on Halloween Eve so the whole family dressed up.

Logan turns 4

2011-10-20T17:31:00.003-06:00

Like I said earlier, the theme was taken from the Mo Willems' book I'm Invited to a Party so it was a fancy, pool, costume party. Everyone was supposed to dress up but the invite was "too confusing" was their excuse.

Here is our family all dressed up for the occasion. We tried to do a game for each part of the party but I couldn't think of a fancy game so we had a cheesy photo booth kind of like prom for the fancy part.

For the costume part we did a donut eating contest. I was surprised that all the guys wanted to participate. They must like donuts.

We had a fish pond just because Logan loved the one at the Bountiful Park this Summer and that was his request for the party.

I didn't get a picture of the table but it had three different sections with food that corresponded to each part of the party.

Fancy - veggie garden pizzas, paper goods

Pool - cupcakes and Capri Suns

Costume - caramel apples and Halloweenies.

I could have done a lot more with this theme but for once I kept it simple (Tad please take note of that). It was fun and different.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

We did the annual trek to the pumpkin patch where you have to take the obligatory cheesy pumpkin photos. Evan wasn't left out of this ritual either, such a trooper.

Here you go, I can officially celebrate Fall since I've posted my cheesy pumpkin patch photos.

Along for the trip this year was my Aunt Keri and Jacee. Jacee was all about finding the big pumpkins. Logan was mostly excited about the cart he couldn't push that Aunt Keri did most of the work pushing.

Logan and Jacee in the maze. An hour after this was taken a meltdown occured when Jacee had to go back home to Idaho. I got to hear all day how much he missed Jacee and when she is coming back to visit.

If you are reading this and in my neighborhood, I'd love to borrow your pumpkins for the neighborhood party tonight. Don't worry we'll put your name on the bottom and return to you after the party. Call and I'll pick them up before 4:00 today.

Zucchini Recipes

2011-10-06T09:00:00.001-06:00

Our garden is just about done but we've had plenty of zucchini from our garden. I've tried a bunch of recipes and here are three that were good.

Summer Zucchini Pasta (pictured)- I left the mint out but all members of my family ate this and liked it.

Roasted Vegetable Minestrone - This makes tons so you could share or freeze some of it for later.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna - This really was the best of all three recipes. It makes tons and Tad took the leftovers to work all week and actually ate them. Groundbreaking! It tastes just like an Alfredo pasta not vegetables. It's amazing.

I also made a chocolate zucchini cake and zucchini bread with mini chocolate chips that was good but there are hundreds of those recipes you can find anywhere.

Mo Willems Books

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-06:00

A couple months ago I was on Banana Fudge Swirl, a photographer that started a kids blog, and Chenin recommended Mo Willems books. We still haven't read the one she recommended but have read at least a half dozen of his books. Logan's favorites are the Elephant & Piggie series books. His absolute favorite is I Am Invited to a Party. He loves it so much that his birthday party this weekend is going to be based after that book. So if you have kids you should check it out. It also helps to use silly voices for each character.

Little Getaway

2011-10-04T16:14:00.005-06:00

We recently went on a little trip up to the Yellowstone/Grand Targhee area. We took my parents with us so we got a lot of family photos on the trip. We stopped off in Arimo to get another photo in front of this truck.

Then we did something you can't do in Utah. We took the chairlift to the top of Grand Targhee and Evan was allowed to ride (in UT you have to be 2 years old to ride). It was gorgeous at the top but there were swarms and swarms of lady bugs. Weird.

From this direction you can see the Tetons in the background.

Here is the view coming down on the chairlift. It had me a little freaked out with how steep it was. I would have preferred being on skis coming down than on this chair.

Tad and Logan did a little bit of boating at the cabin. Tad's very generous sister let us stay at her cabin and we had so much fun visiting with them and staying. Thanks. It was the end of September but it seriously felt like July up there with how warm it was in the mid 70s.

I also have to mention we stopped at the King's Discount Store in Driggs. Do you remember King's by Five Points Mall? It was awesome. They had so many cool toys and books. We'll definitely be stopping there every time we go visit.

Now on to Yellowstone. Logan was a little freaked out at some of the hot spots thinking a dragon was going to come out of them at any moment.

Also if you go to Yellowstone all the time I recommend going to the back of Old Faithful sometime when it erupts. We got wet from the steam and this little stream fills up with the run off from the geyser. I thought it was cool since I go to Yellowstone every year to see something new. Also we go to see the Beehive Geyser go off which only erupts every 9-16 hours. I don't have picture of either of these events.

This guy was just happy to have his diaper changed.

Cute boys!

Something brand new at Yellowstone is the Old Faithful NPS Visitor Facilities. The building is absolutely gorgeous and inside it houses all sorts of exhibits about Yellowstone. I think it's about time they had something like this. Logan was checking out the kid's section.

On the way home we went past Palisades Reservoir. The fall leaves in this area were AMAZING. Even though driving this way was an hour and a half longer it was worth it.

We also stopped at Bear Lake. Our favorite place is a beach at the Garden City Park. We'd heard all summer how high the water was. I couldn't believe it. We didn't go in the water because it was high so the boys had a light saber battle with some PVC pipes.

We got a few photos with lots of sun flare that I love. It was such a nice trip and I was very tempted to send Tad home with my parents and stay up there till my maternity leave was over. All ready can't wait till next Summer to visit Yellowstone.

Cola-Marinated Flank Steak and Potato Bundles

2011-09-15T12:01:00.000-06:00

Not the best photo but this meal was amazing. Even Logan ate it all and my very picky husband. Click on the link below for recipes.

Cola-Marinated Flank Steak

Potato Bundles

Also today 13 years ago was my first date with Tad.

Pop Bottle Bowling

2011-09-14T12:01:00.000-06:00

Another cute idea I found on Pinterest.

You are supposed to break glow in the dark sticks in the bottles but we

just played durng the daytime.

Source: parents.com via Sabrina on Pinterest

We loved that our bricked in porch kept the ball from going all over the place.

I'd also suggest using sidewalk chalk to mark where the bottles go so the kid(s) can set up the bottles. Logan kicked the ball rather than threw it since that knocked over more bottles.

Preschool

2011-09-13T12:01:00.000-06:00

Saw this cute idea on Pinterest and since Logan started preschool last Tuesday, we tried it out.

Source: ashleeraubachphotography.blogspot.com via Sabrina on Pinterest

We switched it up a little and had Logan sign his name so we can see his handwriting change over the years along with his size.
Logan totally loves preschool and the first thing he told us about was someone getting in trouble and having to sit in the "thinking chair."

Hike

2011-09-12T19:59:00.002-06:00

Today we went on a hike. We hiked half way up the Cecret Lake trail. Someone was a little whiney so we only went half way. It was stil fun because we had a picnic and saw an entire moose family (mom, dad and baby). The wildflowers were still everywhere and gorgeous and the temperature was 57 degrees. So if you want to get out one last time I would.

Our 1st family of 4 photo. Tad did really good getting the sun flare in the shot.

All Good Things Come To An End

2011-08-22T08:09:00.000-06:00

In case you haven't been to the splash pad in NSL 3 trillion times this summer you better get on it. I noticed that it closes on Labor Day so now you've been warned.

In case you don't know where the splash pad is it's in Foxboro North. Go down 2600 South in Bountiful that turns into 1100 North in NSL. The splash pad park is located right before Legacy Parkway on 1100 North.

Evan Tyler Fuller

2011-08-18T21:25:00.002-06:00

He's here. Born August 5, 2011 at 2:06 AM. He was 7 lbs. 10 oz and 21 inches long. Big brother totally loves him and is such a big helper. This maternity leave has been so much better and easier. Oh and yes he is a complete clone of how Logan looked as a baby.

Cheesy Grilled Tomatoes

2011-06-16T11:57:00.003-06:00

This Summer I have a goal of grilling at least once a week. So far so good and most of the new recipes have been amazing.

Cheesy Grilled Tomatoes
2 large tomatoes
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Heat grill. Cut tomatoes in half crosswise. With small spoon, scoop out seeds from seed cavities. Fill cavities with blue cheese. Drizzle tomatoes with oil; sprinkle with basil and Parmesan cheese. Place tomatoes cut side up, in disposable foil pie pan or on piece of heavy-duty foil.

When ready to grill, place pie pan on gas grill over medium heat. Cook 15 minutes or until tomatoes are thoroughly heated and begin to soften.

Instax Moab

2011-05-24T14:59:00.004-06:00

This weekend we went down to Moab with extended family for Tad's birthday. I finally got around to using my Instax camera. I love it and now I want the bigger size prints. So here are the shots starting top left going clockwise 1) Lo looking all white trash with his Logan Coke and his chair. 2) Windmills outside Spanish Fork. 3) Somewhere in Arches 4) Balanced Rock 5) Lo jumping in the pool with Daddy. 6) Life size checker board that Baby Belle and Lo were playing.

Subscribe & Save

2011-05-18T10:51:00.003-06:00

We’ve all heard of Amazon but have you heard of their Subscribe & Save program? I hadn’t until an attorney at work heard me grumbling about going to Costco just to get diapers. I’ll admit it’s not the easiest to find on their site but I believe that’s because the savings are so great they don’t want everyone to know.

Well I went to Costco anyways because each box of diapers I swear it’s going to be the last box with Logan but next baby I’m so doing this. So how does it work? For the best savings you set up for deliveries in increments you choose. So you chose the item and it’s delivered monthly or up to every 6 months.

So now your wondering about shipping costs. Guess what? IT’S FREE!!!

So let’s look at savings.
Costco has Size 4 Huggies at 179/pack for $39 = $.21/diaper
One time delivery price Size 4 Huggies 140/pack for $27.99 = $.20/diaper (small savings)
Subsribe & Save price Size 4 Huggies 140/pack for $23.79 = $.17/diaper (better savings and not running to the store)
Subscribe & Save + Amazon Mom price Size 4 Huggies 140/pack for $19.59 = $.14/diaper (AWESOME and they deliver to my house for FREE = very happy mom)

It’s not just diapers though you can save on. The attorney that told me about it is single and no kids. She uses it to get cereal and canned goods. I’m all ready thinking of all the things I’ll be subscribing – cereal, shampoo, paper products, canned goods and cleaning products.

Yes I know I could spend hours and hours scouring coupons but I believe time is money and even running to the store is sometimes more time then I want to spend so I was really happy to find this. Let me know if you’ve used it and what you think.

Weenie Roast '11

2011-05-16T12:00:00.001-06:00

A week and a half ago we had our semi-annual weenie roast. It was supposed to be a Royal Wedding Weenies Roast but due to snow/rain we had to postpone a week. I'm sure everyone was grateful so they could watch the event. ;)

Logan hamming it up with the girls.

These two were so funny. While one was digging the other would be putting a pile of sand on the other's head. I'm sure bath time was lots of fun later that night.

Tad helped hold down this bench for the night. It's a crappy picture but I figured I had to throw one in of the guys at the party.
Chelo is in Primary with me and she grew up in Peru. She'd never had a s'more before so we had to quickly fix that.

Logan is so excited to be a big brother. He loves babies and had so much fun pushing Brooks in the swing. He actually cried afterwards because he wanted a baby to push in the swing.

There was lots of yummy food and friends but I think everyone's favorite item was the Milliron's salsa. Below is the recipe.

Milliron Salsa
1 can black beans
1 can black eyed peas
1 can white sweet corn
drain and rinse
2-3 avocados
cut into bite size pieces
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 pint of favorite salsa
1 package of Good Seasoning Italian dressing
Prepare dressing for oil version

April Love List

2011-04-28T14:44:00.005-06:00

Bountiful Baskets - This pregnancy I’ve craved vegetables (never done that before). So I love Bountiful Baskets and now I can just walk down with my little red wagon and pick them up without getting in the car. Yay!

Love this salad dressing, Briannas Ginger Mandarin. Had it at a party and took me forever to find it because it was at Nikki’s grocery store. That’s where my sister-in-law shops and Logan knows I hate it and he tells Nikki that every time they go there. So you can find this at Dick’s Market and not at Smith’s Marketplace (aka Mommy’s store).

I don’t want to move but I dream about rebuilding an old new house where we live. I love love love this floor plan – The Winslow.

Cake stands and tiered stands – I love them but why do they have to be so pricey. I’m in love with this one at Pottery Barn.

Also love this scalloped cake stand at Williams-Sonoma

I love this hand soap. I have a small obsession with basil so I love this. I also love their lemon verbena scent and just saw they have rosemary. I’ve found a few scents at Target but Walmart has the basil scent and a wider variety.

Last but certainly not least - Double Magnums. These are finally available in the US. I'm seriously not kidding when I say that since I had them in Europe every time I see an ice cream cooler I'd make Tad stop so I could see if they had any Magnums. You can now find these at Walmart and I hear Target too.

What are some things you love right now?

Happy Earth Day!

2011-04-20T11:06:00.003-06:00

Hopefully today Tad will mow the lawn for the first time this season. I just wanted to pass on a tip that we started doing 2 years ago that I thought I’d never do.

We live on .4 acre, and for the first 7 years we always bagged our grass after we mowed it. Well one day a neighbor who has a gorgeous lawn told us they never bag their grass, it’s too much waste. I just always assumed if you didn’t you’d have piles of grass (think school lawns). We’d easily fill up 1 – 1½ of our black garbage cans with what we’d mow each week and we’d have to limit it to once a week due to not enough garbage space. Most lawnmowers will mulch your grass after you mow them so you can’t even tell the difference (unless extra debris, long or wet grass). So I’m just throwing the suggestion out there if you’ve never tried just mulching your grass instead of bagging it. In case you aren’t convinced here are some more advantages to mulching vs. bagging:

Saves gas. We get our lawn done in one tank if we don’t bag. It takes more than one tank if we bag the grass. Also you save gas by not having the garbage man haul it to the dump.

Grass clippings provide additional nutrients to your lawn when they are mulched.

You could use your grass clippings in your compost.

Saves time - Less work for your husband and that makes mine happy and complain less.

I’m hoping to throw out some greener suggestions every once and awhile. Don’t worry they’ve been small changes we’ve made at our house but some of the changes have made things a lot easier than the way we were doing them and it’s just another bonus that they are better for the environment too.
Image courtesy of Grievous Bodily Charm

Zucchini Fritters

2011-04-14T16:45:00.001-06:00

I had some zucchini I needed to use and so these were it. I tricked Logan into eating them by telling him they were like chicken nuggets. The real kicker is I got Tad to eat 3 of them. MIRACLE! Might be the fact that you fry them and they probably aren’t nutritious anymore or the fact they don’t really taste like zucchini. We’ll definitely make these again. **I didn’t like them as leftovers they were too soggy so next time I’ll save the batter and only fry what we will eat for that meal. Click here for the recipe.

Lay Baby Lay

2011-04-13T11:01:00.004-06:00

I have MAJOR spring fever at my house so these last two kind of nice days, I’ve spent every second outside instead of blogging.

Today I want to share my favorite site for nursery inspiration. If you aren’t expecting or know anyone expecting, I’d still check out the site. She finds the most amazing prints on Etsy (Bomobob is one she introduced me to) and most of her stuff on there isn’t way over the top expensive like a lot of other style blogs.

I totally love this Lumberjack room she came up with. I totally want to redo Logan’s room right now. Oh and in case you didn’t know we are expecting another boy in August.

Check out LayBabyLay.com

Warning

2011-04-08T11:32:00.001-06:00

Warning – I’ll be back to blogging next week. My weekend goals are this:

Update blog.

Join Pinterest.

Get Logan to quit playing Lego Star Wars for at least an hour.

Watch Masterpiece Theater.

Heart Cake

2011-02-04T13:23:00.002-07:00

Isn't this the cutest cake ever. I'm not a baker at all but I might have to try this with yellow cake mix and chocolate frosting (The Tad's favorite). He'd love me forever (shouldn't he all ready?).

Photo and tutorial are from I Am Baker.

If any one tries this send me a picture or sample.

2011-01-31T14:41:00.002-07:00

So I interrupt this blogging hiatus to tell you about the awesome ski/snowboard events coming to Utah the next two weekends.

Oh and if you are wondering nothing exciting going on at our house, I’ve watched LOTS of skiing from my couch and unless I have a huge following of people who want to talk everything skiing I’ll leave you with – Didier Cuche has won the downhill 2 weekends in a row! LOVE DIDIER!!! Logan even claims Didier as his friend. Maybe we should get out more.

This week coming to Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort are the FIS Freestyle World Championships. Usually this event is just moguls and aerials but this year they are trying to promote the ski halfpipe, ski cross and ski slopestyle to hopefully make it an Olympic sport so there will be a ton of great skiing to watch starting this Wednesday. We’ll make the annual hike up the bunny trail at Deer Valley to watch the moguls Saturday night.

Next weekend is the DEW TOUR! Sorry I really liked the Dew Tour last year so I’m so glad it’s back again this year at Snowbasin. This event will have superpipe and slopestyle for ski and snowboarding. I’m planning on attending the same events I did last year – finals for ski superpipe and final ski slopestyle. Plan on taking the free shuttle up to the resort (if coming from the South then use the Weber Canyon Park and Ride).

Each of these events has a free concert. In case you are interested it’s Julian Marley on February 2nd and Ice Cube on February 11th.

In case you are couch potato and would rather watch these from your family room click on the links.
FIS Freestyle TV Schedule – click link then search “Freestyle World Championships”
Dew Tour TV Schedule

2010-12-29T07:00:00.001-07:00

This year I read 48 books. Out of all those books, here are my top 3.

Hunger Games - I know who hasn't read this book. It seems like it was a long time ago when I read this but it was just January. I also loved the 2nd book - Catching Fire. Strongly disliked Mockingjay.Sarah's Key - Loved this book. It's one of those books that stays with you for the weeks after. Such a good book.

This year we received 125 DVDs in the mail. Wow! I didn't think the number was that high. Going over the list we saw a lot of duds. Well out of those here are my favorites (keep in mind I've become an Anglophile so most are BBC films).

Okay so I've shared some of my favorites of 2010 let me know what you read/watched this year that you loved. Especially books because lately I'm in a book funk.

Twas the Trip Before Christmas

2010-12-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

The week before Christmas we finally went on vacation. We went to Legoland, Carlsbad Beach and Disneyland. The weather was absolutely perfect while we were there and I was glad it cooled down because it was very hot that first day.

Logan loved Legoland. He had to wear Dad's aviator glasses while flying the plane (Addy please notice Tad's glasses they no longer look like girl glasses).

Logan loved seeing the 'real' Bob. When we got to Disneyland and saw Buzz Lightyear he said, "It's the real Buzz like the real Bob!"

He got to see Aladdin. His favorite ride was Peter Pan and he loved the roller coaster at Legoland because Tad told him it was the Dinosaur Train.

We missed Woody every time but Logan loved shooting Jessie with his Buzz blaster

We went with Tad's sister's family and we got into Disney for free because of them. It was the best present and we had so much fun with them.

Here is Logan with Santa at The Grand Californian. Tad had to prop him on the chair because Santa didn't really have room on his lap.

Ski Day

2010-12-26T20:20:00.002-07:00

During Thanksgiving two of the cutest guys went skiing - Logan and Miles. I love that everyone makes sure they match each other. I'm sure that's so they could pick up more ski bunnies.
Lo with his new goggles. He might be even worse than his daddy in thinking he needs new skis each season. When mommy was getting her new boots and skis a little boy was having an absolute fit because he wasn't getting anything but goggles.

Then the tantrum extended because we didn't go skiing that day but it was the beginning of October. Like father, like son.

Miles shredding the pow pow.

Remember these two because in 15 years they'll be the stars of the World Cup.

I'll Be Back Again Someday

2010-12-07T14:54:00.003-07:00

I know everyone is busy so can’t use that excuse. I guess blogging has dropped on my priorities. Tad’s been doing his internship with Jr. Jazz so he’s been gone a couple nights each week and then on the weekends he’s off skiing (working). If you wondering, no I don’t really see him but ski season ends in April. I've really enjoyed all the Logan time I've had though.

I’ve got tons to post for Christmas ideas but it will just have to wait. Work is calming down for a little bit (I may have just jinxed myself). I volunteered to do the Ward Christmas decorations again this year and have to have those done by Thursday. Tonight after Logan goes to bed I’ll be having a spray painting party. I’ve got a bunch to do before another deadline of Saturday. Primary fliers to create and deliver. Also where have all the weekends gone? I was kind of in a melancholy funk this weekend so that really ate up my motivation. Don’t worry nothing personal or to worry about just something that had me down.

Since I need a photo and something a little uplifting to this post, I did make it to the American Craft Warehouse Sale. I love their products and love this sale. I REALLY love their binders. So you should check it out, it’s worth the drive down to The UC (Utah County).

Also Heartland Paper is going out of business. I know kind of sad (depending on if you are Sabrina or Tad) but all their stuff is marked down 20%.

December POTM
Someone asked me whatever happened to these. Well I’ve kind of done them but also really failed miserably. I do have a December POTM but I’m letting my deadline be January 4th because I’ll need at least a full day to work on it so may have to use that Monday off as one. Also I know this will sound lame but I can’t tell you what it is. I’m weird and want to surprise Tad with it. I’ll probably be the only one in the family or elsewhere that thinks it’s cool.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

End of Season

2010-11-21T20:20:00.003-07:00

This Summer was the first Summer I'd ever done a vegetable garden. I wasn't expecting anything because we've done tomatoes for years and never had success. I all ready can't wait for next Spring to do another garden. I loved it. Even though a lot of my plants (peppers) didn't give us anything I'll let you see that we still had plenty of produce.

Yes I know I'm a nerd that I kept track of every single thing that was harvested. Also all these numbers are low because there are some days I forgot and 2 weeks that veggies were picked but I was out of town.

Yellow Squash (1 plant) = 38
Hot Peppers (1 plant) = 74
Tomatillos (1 plant) = 111
Regular Tomatoes = 191
Grape Tomatoes = 610
Sun Sugar Tomatoes (small yellow cherry tomatoes) = 924
No wonder I’m sick of tomatoes and why in the end of September I cut up my sun sugar plant.

Again I can’t wait for next Spring and trying some new plants and eliminating a few I tried this year.

Thanksgiving Decor

2010-11-14T18:44:00.009-07:00

I printed these off of Craftily Ever After. They have a couple different printouts so if you want to download one just scroll down through her blog to find one you want. I changed the bottom one because I wasn't in love with the one she posted. This was super simple and so easy to do.

Then I had this small frame above my sink that I needed to put something in it. There are two different designs at Second Sister and they are actually candy wrappers but it worked for my frame too.

Then I had to include a couple other shots around the front room. I'm pretty proud of those little pumpkins. They are all from my garden (I had 13 total). They were grown from seed and if you remember that was a resolution of mine last year.

Then I had to do one of Martha's monogrammed pumpkins. I also painted another pumpkin with a black square of chalkboard paint so I could write on it. The photo didn't durn out though.

Noice Family

2010-11-12T11:38:00.002-07:00

A couple weeks ago I took the photos of the Noice family. After I took these photos I noticed I take their pictures every other fall. I joked with Brek that I don't have to do this again till 2012. hee! I'm totally kidding, I love taking their photos and love this family. I'm glad their our friends.

So do you have your Christmas photos done? I don't and so don't want to go out in the cold to do them either. Hmm I guess I shouldn't have procrastinated.

Are you sending out homemade cards this year? My goal is to have my done by the end of November because December is going to be crazy. Anyone want to have a craft night? We'd just bring stuff we need to work on for the holidays (like our Christmas cards)? Let me know and maybe next weekend or something.

Feed Me

2010-11-08T12:10:00.001-07:00

Okay so I’ve signed up for the Bountiful Baskets here and there. It’s a great deal and you get TONS of veggies and fruit but I hate that you never know what you are getting. I didn’t think I was picky but I’ve found when it comes to veggies/fruit I’m VERY picky. This week was the worst week for me. I only sign up every other week because it’s just a lot of produce for our family. Here is where I need your help, this week I’m really struggling with finding something to make with what I have. If you have a recipe you love or heck even looks good and you want to try please send it to me. Below are the items I’m working with.

Persimmon (yeah never heard/seen these things before)
Swiss Chard
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Pears
Asian Pears

Happy Halloweenie!

2010-10-31T18:57:00.000-06:00

We had a halloweenie roast in our backyard. I wasn't the one who sent out the email but the person that did made costumes a requirement. We had 3 dragons and a princess. I couldn't believe all the dragons.

Halloween is my friend Brandi's birthday. She throws a fit if we don't make a big deal out of it. ;) Well years ago Erin made a pinata of her head that we used, so a pinata has kind of become a Halloween tradition. She said we couldn't make a pinata of her head so I found this pinata and since this is her unofficial title in the dance community it worked.

Luckily Erin was there to break open the pinata with her flailing. I think we all about lost it when she whacked herself with the bat.

Joe even showed up to the occasion. If you are in need of a dentist call him, he's a great dentist - Willowcreek Dental.

Logan's Pirate Party

2010-10-28T07:30:00.002-06:00

This month we had Logan’s 3rd birthday party. It was a pirate party which if you have an October birthday I recommend because it’s easy to find lots of pirate décor.

For his party I was going for simple. I guess this year I’ve kind of gone over the top on some parties and just wanted something pretty simple. I made the garland with patterns I found online or Paper Crave or the blue stripes and red polka dot, I just created in PowerPoint. Easy. Then I had my mom sew them together since I was busy and she’s nice.

We mostly just had a lot of skeletons because lots of the pirate décor is very cheesy. Most of the stuff came from Dollar Tree.

Even some of the guests dressed up for the party and Logan loved it.

Is it just me or do 3 year olds have too much stuff? I had no idea what to get him. I felt pressured that we had to get him something huge but honestly I can’t think of anything out there that he’d love or need. He loves everything he got and was so excited he wouldn’t nap and got up at 5:30 the next morning because he just wanted to play but I’m glad I also went simple on his gifts. Now I need to rack my brains for Christmas because he seriously doesn’t need anything.

I got a Diego digital camera off eBay. He loves it and uses it all the time. I’m just glad he’s not using my camera. It was brand new but I got a sweet deal so I won’t feel bad if it doesn’t work in a month or that it takes crappy pictures. He loves it. We also got a bunch of books (his all time favorite things) and Paint with Water books. He loves to paint and Nan has run out of pages for him to paint from our books when we were kids. I got them on Amazon but it’s crazy how expensive some of them are.

Then we had a piñata filled with more candy and prizes and the kids loved that.

PaperCrave/Domestifluff

2010-10-27T14:55:00.004-06:00

While preparing a post about Logan's birthday and looking for a link I was checking out Paper Crave again. Paper Crave has some of the cutest downloads and crafty ideas. Like seriously isn't this 13 Day Advent calendar the cutest. Actually the nest would look great for an upcoming baby shower and those book paper trees - so cute (might have to rethink the church Christmas party).

Domestifluff is the craftier/recipe side of her graphic design site. She has tons of yummy looking recipes and a lot of them are gluten free. Usually gluten free stuff doesn't look worth it but her recipes looked awesome.

Halloween Advent - Crafting Chicks

2010-10-20T12:01:00.000-06:00

I had this idea last year to do a Halloween advent. I’m sure it wasn’t my idea but honestly can’t remember who inspired this. Well like most projects I didn’t finish it in time for last year. So this summer I finished it up so I could use it this year.

In case you want some more Halloween ideas check out the two following blogs.

Crafting Chicks

Eighteen25

Both blogs have been posting a Halloween craft almost every day since the beginning of September. Also both these blogs have tons of fun kid projects and crafts throughout the rest of the year that I’ve used. Enjoy.

Summer 16 List

2010-10-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

I really should have change the tag to Summer 16 because it wasn’t all around Utah. This was seriously the best idea I had this year. I loved how we had all these places we wanted to go so it kept us from just staying home and working in the yard or doing nothing. We got out and did something. Okay so here is our list (two things we didn’t get to but they are on the top of our list for next year).
Bear Lake
Yellowstone
Jackson
Cecret Lake
Zoo
This Is the Place
Eat a frozen treat at Pace’s Dairy Ann
PCMR/El Chubasco
Legacy Parkway
Castle Park
Ogden Dinosaur Park
Eat China Platter in the park (my new favorite place to eat Chinese food)
Snowbird
Silver Lake
Ensign Peak
Salt Lake County Fair

The two places we didn’t get to that we’ll do next year are Red Butte Gardens and bike the Park City Rail Trails. Although our list changed a little bit from when I first wrote it for the most part we did everything I wanted to do.

I picked up Brandon Grigg, Utah Curiosities, at the library last month that if you wanted to come up with your own list, this book would totally help. This book is great and Tad even read the whole thing. It doesn’t have your typical places in Utah that you’ve all been to but odd places you’ve probably never heard of. I’ll probably check this book out again to come up with my list for next year. I know Gilgal Gardens is on our list (it just sounds too weird not to check out).

I loved this idea and loving the mini book I’ve been making so much I’ve jumped on the December Daily album that Ali Edward’s has done for the last few years. I always watch and think it’s a great idea but this year will be the year I participate. Even though I’ve got a trial and vacation planned during that time I’m still going to do this.

I’d love to hear places out and about that I should check out for next year’s summer activities.

Gotta go I've got a pirate party to attend to.

Snowbird - Octoberfest Edition

2010-10-15T10:00:00.000-06:00

This was the last of our Utah 16 Summer activities. So we didn’t make it there till September but I’m counting it. We made our annual trip to Snowbird. We usually go with Teisha’s family but she was too busy her last trip to Utah so we went with my parents.

Oktoberfest was going on up at Snowbird so there were a lot of people up there but surprisingly they were only in the tents/eating area.

Yes, that would be my parents on the zip rider. Logan was so sad he couldn’t do that but it just gave him more time on the alpine slide.

We went to the top and while up there they had alpine horn players. I like this photo even though it’s out of focus. It kind of makes it more like they are straight off the Swiss Alps rather than college kids in lederhosen (one of the guys reminded me of my neighbor Chase, I’d totally see him doing this).

We’ll totally be back to the bird next year. I’ll post a list of all our Summer 16 activities tomorrow.

Weekend In Zion

2010-10-14T12:01:00.000-06:00

First weekend of October we went down to Zion National Park. I’d never been to Zion (being 3 doesn’t count), so I was excited to try something new. Last minute we invited my parents which ended up being a wise thing to do.

We stayed at Sand Hollow (Sandpit) Campground. There isn’t a tree for miles but it has flushing toilets and hot showers. Actually it was a very nice campground, I just wouldn’t go if it was any hotter and it was actually in the 90s when we went. Also it was a good thing my parents were there because while we were away at Zion, our tent blew over with the cooler inside. We have a Springbar tent and in order for it to stand you have to stake it in. The campsite is all sand and when the sand was wet there was just no way of getting the tent back up so the second night we stayed in their tent trailer. Also if you ATV or boat you can ride your ATVs from the campground and the reservoir is right there.

Thanks to Tiffany’s blog she went to this cool splash pad in St. George a couple months ago. I knew Logan would love that so we went there first thing. It seriously is the cutest park; this splash pad is surrounded by historic buildings. Wish my city had something cool like this but that’s a whole other issue. If you need directions, click here.

The next morning it was off to Zion. On the drive out there we saw that the Red Bull Rampage was going on. Search on YouTube for videos because those guys are seriously crazy. Tad totally wants to go to this some day.

I was a little apprehensive about the shuttles but I shouldn’t have been. There is always one ready to go and actually if there was a petition I could sign to support this in Yellowstone I would. It was so nice not to be stuck in traffic in the park and also while we were up hiking not to see/hear a stream of cars the entire you are looking out over the valley.

First stop was Weeping Rock. It’s an easy walk up to the “mountain that’s raining” as Logan calls it.

Second stop was the Riverside Walk. This is a longer hike but we hit it so we were in the shade most of the time and its flat so Logan did most of the hike. We ate lunch here and I wish I’d packed water shoes but I assumed with the shuttles we wouldn’t have time to walk a little bit of the Narrows and I’d all ready be carrying too much stuff. Both ended up being totally untrue. We’ll remember this next time.

Last stop in the park was to hike to Lower Emerald Pools. We had a little melt down with Logan over ice cream in a cup rather than a cone but it was a score for me since I ended up getting to eat it all myself. Someone was very tired so he was asleep within minutes of starting our hike. We thought we’d just hike the Lower Pools but it was so pretty we continued on. Middle and Upper Pools were glorified puddles because of being so late in the season plus the hike was a little more intense. The weather was perfect for us while we were in the park other than some huge wind gusts at the very end of this hike. Little did we know wind and rain were tossing our tent around back at our campsite.

On the way back from Zion we stopped in Grafton, a small ghost town. It was locked up and getting dark so we didn’t get to look around. Logan’s eyes couldn’t have been any bigger though because he was sure we were going to find ghost. No ghost but we saw a tarantula. Yuck!

Before we drove home we stopped at the reservoir to play in the water. It was so clear and warm. I wasn’t feeling well so we didn’t stay long and started the trip home. It rained the whole way home. It was a very fun trip and Tad says he thinks it needs to replace our annual trip to Yellowstone because he liked it so much. Hopefully next year we can find some friends to go with us so Tad can hike Angel’s Landing.

Ana-White

2010-10-13T10:30:00.001-06:00

Last night while sitting around the campfire cooking smores with some girlfriends the subject of home décor came up (along with other topics that will never be mentioned ANYWHERE). I was telling them about this site I love to look at Ana-White. It recently changed web addresses and got a huge face lift. Ana White lives in Alaska and she’s an engineer turned BAHM (build at home mom) that loves to take designer furniture and create easy to use plans that anyone can build their own furniture.

I’ll admit when I first was checking out her site it seemed like lots of the finished projects were cheesy and poorly done. I honestly believe it was just bad photos now. Since her site has grown the photos and the projects have gotten so much better.

Some day I hope to have this desk built by Tad in my scraproom (yep it’s just like Pottery Barns). Yes that photo is an actual desk built from her plans.

I’ll admit I don’t think her site is very well organized but it’s better from her old site. So check it out there might be something you might want to try. The best way to see all plans is click on "Plan Catalog."

Below are links of items I’d love to make

This outdoor sectional (not sure where I’d store it in the winter)

I so want a single lounger like this. The thing that kept me from making it is how expensive the cushions are.

This kid’s kitchen is so cute. Too bad there is no need for it in my house.

The Farmhouse Bed – I so want to replace the oak bed we have with this.

Also totally unrelated but HWTM has a cute free Thanksgiving download. Proceeds go to Operation Give Thanks.

You Can Make This/DIY Dish

2010-09-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I was able to catch one day of Spark. I'll post more about that hopefully this weekend. While there I met two of the nicest ladies, Kim and Kris. They live in Utah and are identical twins and they have a web show that they host (new episodes go up each Monday night). I'd heard of one of their sites, You Can Make This but I hadn't heard of their web show site, DIY Dish. Talk about cute ideas and they are on Studio 5 all the time.

I love this garland idea for utensils. I've got to make that for next year's BBQ season. I'll definitely be checking out their site from now on.

Camping and PCMR

2010-09-14T21:00:00.000-06:00

I started this post a couple weeks ago, then went out of town. While I was out of town it changed from Summer to Fall. It seems like overnight because where I was it was definetly still hot.

This little guy absolutely loves camping. If we tell him about a camping trip he'll ask about it each day until we go. I'd been super busy with work but I told Tad that no matter what Logan and him were going to our Ward Campout. Luckily I was able to go too.

Here is Logan painting his picture frame.

Our campout was just past the Park City exit and it was gorgeous. If I could I'd buy a winter house up here so I could drive 10 minutes to go skiing. One can dream.

After camping we checked off 2 more items from our Summer 16 list. We rode the chairlift at PCMR, alpine slide, merry go round and the airplanes. Logan was sad to leave.

We also went to El Chubasco up in Park City. I love the salsa bar at this restaurant. Also I covet their motel chairs out front. They have them in bright colors and I just want to take them home.

Tomato-Basil Pizza

2010-09-09T07:00:00.004-06:00

This is my new favorite pizza. This summer we ate this meal once a week. At the beginning of summer we used fresh basil from our garden but that quickly was depleted. I took the recipe that PW had posted and modified it a little because her version was a little too salty.

- Roll out favorite pizza dough.
-Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Spread it around the entire crust so it makes a very thin layer over it.
-Make a layer of fresh basil leaves over the crust (you could use a pesto spread but the fresh leaves taste better)
-Slice tomatoes and put a layer on top of the basil
-Slice fresh mozzarella to put over tomato layer (I've also used grated not so fresh mozzarella and it tasted fine)
-Sprinkle grated Parmesan over the top (optional)
-Bake pizza according to crust directions

Web Wednesday - Martha

2010-09-08T20:30:00.000-06:00

By now you know that I love those tissue pom poms. For Easter dinner this last spring I was trying to use up what I had around the house so I made mini pom poms for napkin rings. They turned out so cute and super simple.

Then I used some Ikea plates that I wish I'd so bought a case load of. I love the design, hugeness and square shape of them. I thought the look turned out very cute.

While I don't frequent Martha's website, it seems like a lot of my favorites in Flickr have ideas that go there and so I use her site a lot even though it's usually through other sources.

J. Wong's Asian Bistro

2010-09-02T07:00:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago we had family pictures done. After we went to our favorite restraunt for our FFF's. J. Wong's Asian Bistro. It's in downtown SLC right behind the Salt Palace on 200 South. It's our favorite Chinese restaurant. In case you don't want to go downtown then go to China Platter in Bountiful (it's Jason's mom's restaurant).

In case you want to know what we like here you go

potstickers (Logan's favorite)
lettuce wraps
salt baked shrimp
steak salad
sweet n' sour pork
Thai basil beef (Tad's favorite)
walnut shrimp (my favorite)
sticky coconut rice with mangos
deep fried cheesecake bites dipped in ice cream

Pretty much everything is good.

Click on the names of the restraunts below for the menus
J. Wong's Asian Bistro
China Platter

Web Wednesdays - Jefra Linn

2010-09-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

Recently I've been going through our photos and found some that aren't perfect. Usually when I shoot I want that perfect shot. Perfect pose, metering, lighting, white balance, focus, etc. Well last year at Spark Jefra talked to us about photography. I love Jefra's approach to photography. She showed us some techniques but the biggest thing for me was just showing us how to play and that shots don't have to be perfect. Check out her site and her amazing garden here.

This was a set up shot for a self portrait on our hike in Yellowstone. I love the small bit of focus.
This next shot would probably be better if I had a black border around my photo. I love how over exposed this shot is that you can just barely make out the island at Bountiful Pond.

Another overexposed shot of Logan at the pond.

Love how you can only tell the water is there in the corner of the shot and the rest is overexposed but not Tad and Logan.

This shot I just love because I didn't pose Logan that way, he just did it with my glasses. I wish it was in focus but few shots are with how fast he is on the move.

I'd love to see some shots you've taken that are "happy accidents."

Twilight Concert - She & Him

2010-08-30T09:51:00.002-06:00

I know some of you were sitting on the edge of your seats wondering if I made it to the She & Him concert. I did. It was good. It would have been fabulous if the 1000s of hipsters that talked so loud you could hardly hear the music would have stayed home. Also when did 6'2" become average height? I so should have ate more vegetables growing up.

I won't go into all the things I said in anticipation to this concert because then you'd truly see how weird I am but let's just say I was really looking forward to it.

At the very back of the concert were some weird family members. It was great to see them even though they were in the VERY back. Who does that at a concert? I had to put both pictures of my sister-in-laws because obviously that can't look normal in unison. Both of these ladies are Logan's favorite people ever. I think he prays each day that they will take him home and one of them will be his mom.

Tad got a little brotherly love from Nate.

Web Wednesday - Hostess With The Mostess

2010-08-25T07:00:00.007-06:00

Probably my favorite things about blogs is all the ideas I get from other blogs and being pointed in new directions for new ideas. So since I visit a lot of blogs I thought on Wednesdays I'd try to point out some of my favorites.

Hostess with the Mostess, HWTM, has the coolest parties ever. Yes all the parties are more than any party I'd ever have or could afford but just taking one of the ideas from their parties can make your party go from ordinary to extraordinary. Seriously, I know cheesy but it does.

I had two baby showers in April and HWTM had cute downloads that totally saved me. You can find the downloads to this party here.

Ashley's shower was first and she was having a girl. I had a death of a close friend and also got a cold/sinus/ear infection the week before so I wasn't creative at all for her party. I was able to use the downloads on the invites, cupcake toppers and I framed the signs and hung on the wall and it still looked cute.

Laura's shower was the next week and she had a boy (her baby came a little early). I had a couple more functioning brain cells that week so I used the downloads for cupcake toppers, garland and lollies.

I hope you'll enjoy HWTM as much as I have because it's totally helped me in several parties/showers I've had.

August Love List

2010-08-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

This Summer we have ate a ton of basil. What's better than basil? Pesto. I'll take my basil either way. Love it on pasta, caprese salad, pizza and even crackers. Yum! Buitoni's is actually my favorite store bought brand.

We started watching this a couple weeks ago and love it. Since then we've been downloading a couple episodes here and there so we are ready for the premier September 21st. Who's your favorite. Mine is a toss up between Sue Silvester and Kurt Hummel.

I love anything that is wood grain right now. So I was super excited to download this digital paper kit from Jessica Sprague's site. I might have to use these on Christmas cards.

Knotty girl

Love, love, love this camera bag from Jo Totes. I'm hoping this is under the tree for Christmas. The inside is black and white houndstooth. You can try to win a camera bag on Danielle Thompson's blog this week.

Brittany's 30th Birthday

2010-08-22T21:00:00.000-06:00

On the 7th we had a party for Brittany's 30th. If you didn't know she's a total foodie so the menu had to be super cool even though I wasn't sure she'd eat any of it.

Love this shot Diana took of Logan. It makes our dilapidated shed look almost cool in the background.

Logan and Eli had their own table. I think they are finally getting the friend thing down and are starting to get along.

I'm realizing we had two D families at the party. The first D family has the cutest twin girls that are 4 months old and so cute. I was glad they could make it.

The other D Family even dressed to match the decor. Speaking of decor I had big plans for the decor but a huge rainstorm came in 2 hours before the party. It cleared up and we moved the party back outside but no cute decorations.

We even had "my paralegal," Diana and her husband at the party. Diana is mine and Brittany's sanity at work even if we don't work together anymore and have silly fights about photoshop and room temperatures.

There were more guests that showed up but I didn't get photos of along with photos of all the food.

I'm so glad Brittany lives in my hood and we've become such good friends. I know she's my right hand woman when it comes to all these crazy ideas I've had for church projects. She's an awesome cook, fabulous makeup artist and I hope she enjoys eating again because Logan and I both miss our dinner buddy.

Okay so now onto the menu. We did a sliders party because Britt said one time that it would be fun to make a bunch of different ones for a party. It was fun and I think it was Tad's favorite party food to date. We had four different sliders: BBQ chicken, BBQ meatball, inside-out cheeseburgers and mushroom & Swiss sliders.

Probably the most popular sliders were the inside-out cheeseburger and mushroom & Swiss sliders. For the meatball slider I originally wanted a meatball with marinara like at a deli shop but then I was lacking the time and ingredients so I make Pioneer Woman's BBQ meatballs instead.

The bbq chicken is a super simple recipe. 4-6 chicken breasts thrown in a greased slow cooker. Pour 16oz of your favorite BBQ sauce over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Right before serving, shred chicken. Recipe is from Stephanie Ashcraft's 101 Things to Do with a Slow Cooker

The D Family brought a really yummy fruit salad and I made a caprese. If you've never had a caprese salad it's so simple and easy. Grape tomatoes, sliced thinly basil, sliced fresh mozzarella or fresh mozzarella balls, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. See easy.

Salt Lake County Fair

2010-08-13T16:00:00.004-06:00

Last night we decided to run to the Salt Lake County Fair. I wanted to go because I was sick of hearing the ads on the radio and thought the petting zoo sounded fun for Logan. Well we had a fun time. Parking is $7 but there is no admission fee and there isn’t really a way around the parking thing unless you have a chauffer.

Logan hated the petting zoo. Okay he tolerated it. Even though most of the animals were only up to his waist he was pretty scared and wouldn’t touch them. There was a teeny tiny goat/sheep/llama that I so wanted to take home. I’m not sure which one it was but it was black, was probably only 8 inches high and so cute.

Also at the fair were the ponies. So I’m toying with the idea of getting a Party Pony for Logan’s birthday so this was like a trial run. I don’t want to get the pony because it’s a little more than I’d like to spend but Logan loved riding it and talks about Bullseye ALL THE TIME. Wouldn’t it be cute to do a Toy Story party and have a real life Bullseye. Yeah jury is still out on the pony.

Then the lighting was perfect so I had to get some carnival background shots.

Too bad my child wasn’t perfect for the shots though.

Tomorrow at Gallivan Plaza is Craft Lake City. I went last year and loved it. If you don’t have anything planned I’d check it out. Goes from 2:00-9:00. Call me if you want to go with me.

Cecret Lake - Albion Basin

2010-08-10T12:01:00.001-06:00

A couple Sundays ago we went up to Cecret Lake. I only found out about Cecret Lake 3 years ago. I honestly think it’s the most beautiful place in Utah. The wildflowers there are seriously how Hollywood tries to portray the mountains but the thing is they are all real in Albion Basin. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I believe I almost saw Bella and Edward laying in one of the meadows. Okay totally kidding about that part.
This hike is super simple. It’s just ¾ of a mile one way. It’s relatively flat except for the 3 switchbacks but if you just think there are only 3 really steep ones its okay. Plus as soon as you do the switchbacks you are there at the lake.

It’s so pretty up there take a look at the view from the road. The parking lot was full so we had to hike a little more but it was a cinch.

Greek Feast

2010-08-05T10:00:00.001-06:00

Lately we've been grilling a lot. Here is a recipe for chicken souvlaki that I had for my mom's birthday party. It was so good. This is a recipe that was in the Salt Lake Tribune, March 13, 2002 (it's about time I tried it).

1/2 cup lemon juice
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. fresh Greek oregano, chopped
1 Tbs. fresh thyme, chopped
2 Tbs. garlic, minced
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 lbs. chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
Wooden skewers

Combine lemon juice, vinegar, oil ad spices in a bowl. Add in chicken pieces and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight. Soak wooden skewers.Thread meat on skewers and grill until juices run clear and internal temperature reaches 170 degrees.

** I added red onions and summer squash that I had from my garden.

The other Greek dish that I made was Mediterranean Orzo Salad. I absolutely loved this pasta salad but then again it had feta and basil in it. What's not to love. Found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen right here.

Paper Bag Flowers

2010-08-04T09:57:00.005-06:00

Last night I made a few of these flowers made from paper bags for an upcoming birthday party at our house. They were so simple to make. Click here for the tutorial. Thanks Martha!

Jackson from Logan's Perspective

2010-07-29T11:30:00.002-06:00

Logan seriously is so funny. He's always seeing things from a different perspective. Our trip last month to Jackson/Yellowstone was no exception.

At Old Faithful before it erupted he kept calling it a dragon.

Around our campground there were Be Bear Aware signs all over. His response was - Blue's Clues.

His perspective on buffalo was my favorite. When he saw the buffalo he said, "Look, Chewaccas!" In case you are wondering Chewaccas are the same as Chewbaccas from Star Wars.

At Jackson Lake there were a bunch of phone booths. He ran to them and said, "I'm going to call Ghost Monsters." Ghost Monsters = Ghost Busters

Peanut Butter Fingers

2010-07-22T10:00:00.000-06:00

I'm willing to go out there and say these are the best peanut butter bars out there. Our neighbor, Michelle, makes these and I bugged her several times to make sure they ended up in the ward cookbook. Kirsten was so nice to let me use her big belly as the backdrop for this photo. So I'm sure you are having a big BBQ this weekend so make a batch of these to share and you'll be every one's favorite person.

2 cubes butter/margarine

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups flour (best if whole wheat flour is used)
2 1/2 cups oatmeal

Cream together first 6 ingredients. Add remaining ingredients. The batter will be very thick. Spread batter on 9x13 and 8x8 pan or one large cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until slightly brown. DO NOT OVERCOOK. Cool in pan.

After taking out of oven, put peanut butter all over top. After cools, frost with your favorite chocolate frosting. Cut into bars.

Sabrina's notes: I had to bake this longer than instructed. I also had to wait till it cooled before putting peanut butter on because it just was falling apart when I tried adding while hot. I personally probably ate a 1/3 of the bars, it's that good.

My Mom's Birthday Party

2010-07-21T22:15:00.001-06:00

What mom doesn't want a surprise train birthday party? Yep, we went back to S&S Railroad. We rode both trains this time and if I were to do it again I'd only do the little train. It $4.50 a person but is so much cooler than the big train. Last time they discouraged us from going but except for the newborn we all could have gone.

On the little train you get to go through tunnels.

Look at the ponies in their yard.

Cross over bridges.

Wind around their backyard hoping you don't derail the train because the thing is so narrow. It's way cooler than the big train. In fact we might even got back again when they are open in August.

After the train ride we came back to our house and we had a nice BBQ for her. My grandparents were in town because Baby William was being blessed the next day in church.

I made a Greek feast that was so good. I told my mom it was in honor of her Greek heritage (I wish, no Greek ancestory in my family).

Savannah at the kid table. I think she's the only kid that ate anything at all.

Picture of the adult table. Not the best but the best of the bunch.

Farmer's Market and Twilight Concert Series

2010-07-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday night we went down to the Bountiful Farmer's Market. If you ask me I believe it has outgrown it's current location but it's still fun to go there. We didn't really need any produce so we made dinner out of our trip. Tad got the chicken Philly meal for just $6. I got the Hawaiian BBQ chicken meal for $7. Next time though I want to try the Philly. Logan took the other shots, he loves taking pictures right now. The farmer's market happens every Thursday 4-8 now until October on Main Street in Bountiful and 100 South (just South of the Bountiful Tabernacle).

Another thing happening on Thursday nights is the Twilight Concert Series. No there won't be any vampires here just some AMAZING bands. It's free and at Pioneer Park which I believe will be a better venue than where its been in the past. This week is Modest Mouse and I'm so going. You should come with us too. I'm also not going to miss She & Him. Here is the rest of the lineup.

July 8: Modest Mouse, Avi Buffalo
July 15: Girl Talk, Memory Tapes
July 22: Beirut, Twin Sister
July 29: The New Pornographers, The Dodos
Aug. 5: Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Jamie Lidell
Aug. 12: Matisyahu, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
Aug. 19: Big Boi, Chromeo
Aug. 26: She & Him, Dum Dum Girls
Gates and the Twilight Market open at 5 p.m. on show days. Concerts begin at 7 p.m.

Country 4th

2010-07-07T10:00:00.000-06:00

On the actual 4th we went up to Tad's aunt's house in Kamas. They live on a farm with real cowboys. Logan absolutely loved it because he got to see Bullseye. There were lots of cousins to play with and tons to discover and see.

He loved riding on this cow that you use to practice team roping with. He'd make Tad pull him around the yard.

The main reason we went up was to visit with Tad's cousins that were in town from California and to find out what tv shows they are working on now.

I only had my little point and shoot but Aunt Darlene's peonies were absolutely gorgeous and there were so many of them in bloom. I love that their seasons are a month behind and seeing all the plants that I can't grow at all in my yard because of the heat just thrive up there. I was very jealous of her columbine and lupine. Oh well I'll keep my winters to just 4 months of the year though.

5th of July BBQ

2010-07-06T15:15:00.000-06:00

This whole weekend was filled with lots of work and projects. As I was downloading the photos though we also had a lot of fun too. We invited over a bunch of our neighbors for a BBQ Monday night. Kind of a different BBQ since most of the men had to run and help the YM take down the flags in the city but the girls still had fun chatting about everything and anything.

I downloaded these free cute cupcake toppers that I found from Janna Wilson’s blog (she seriously has the most creative scrapbook/crafty ideas on her blog) which she pointed to from Bella Grace Party Designs.
I also put all our drinks in Logan’s wagon and filled it with ice. So easy to put them away and drag a bunch of other things back to the house when the party was over. Totally recommend that idea for your next BBQ.

This is how we keep Logan from getting into stuff.

I also had to put to use all those felt mustaches so I made a quick back drop out of the doors in the corner of our yard. The pennant garland came from Creature Comforts. There are also matching cupcake toppers on the free download. Then I made a lolly that I found from Country Living’s site here.

Cami wasn't interested in getting her photo taken.

We miss having the R family at church each week. I miss seeing their smiling faces and Logan flirting with Phebe each week.

Notice Mike's creative use of the faux mustache since he all ready has facial hair.

After we got a photo of everyone we did sparklers. Poor Logan wouldn’t wear shoes so he stepped on a piece of burnt sparkler and burnt his toes. I used these cute sparkler cards from Twig & Thistle. They were so easy to put together.

Jackson 2010

2010-06-30T23:22:00.008-06:00

This is going to be picture overload and you’ll feel like you’re on the trip but maybe you’ll see how much fun we had and next year someone will go with us on this trip.

I absolutely love Jackson and Yellowstone and try to make it an annual trip. It didn’t happen last year for me so I was determined to get up there this year. We left early so we could stop at Maddox and also stop at lunch counter to watch the rafters. Did you know there are 6 ways to get to Jackson from Bountiful and only 15 minutes between them all? I found that rather odd that they all are the same time frame. I just wish there was interstate the whole way to Jackson. We went through Soda Springs and saw the sweetest mullet ever and it was on a woman.

We got to our campsite set up in record time and then ran off to the Bar J Wranglers for dinner. I'd heard about this and wanted to see it at least once. It was good but unlike a lot of people there it won't be an annual thing but once was great. My parents would absolutely love it though. We ended up getting great seats at the very front row. Oh and in case you are staying north of Jackson the 'shortcut' through Moose to Wilson is not in fact a shortcut, no matter how cute the old camp hostess looks, she's full of crap.

The next day we ate at the Bunnery. It's my one requirement when going to Jackson. It was good as usual and Logan got a balloon dog from some clown there. That made him happy. We headed into Yellowstone for the day. Logan was asleep and it was still cloudy so we took the long loop towards our destination. Wouldn't you know as soon as we went that way, Logan woke up.

The photos below are at Upper Falls in the Canyon area. This was the last picture I took because I walked down to where Tad and Logan are, looked over the edge and then said it was time to go. I'm not so much scared of heights it's more a fear of the structural integrity of the device I'm standing on and fear that it will crumble and I'll fly down the waterfall and die.

Don't worry this is no where near the waterfall. I wouldn't sacrifice my son for a photo op.
Here we are at our destination for Yellowstone. The goal of the trip was to hike to Fairy Falls. It's a very easy hike.

I have a goal to master the self family portrait. This would be one of them and I think the boys find entertainment just watching me run into position.

The beginning of the hike you walk around the backside of Midway Geyser Basin so here is a photo of it's backside. I know this is riveting stuff.

Here is a photo to kind of show the size of Fairy Falls. It's not the best photo but it had some sun flare and I adore flare. Logan's favorite part was throwing rocks into the pool.

Another self portrait shot. We'd asked this kid to take our picture and he pretty much got all the gravel in front of us so I had to do a self portrait once he left.

Just beyond Fairy Falls is Imperial Geyser. We had a very whiney, tired kid so we decided to skip that and head back. In the left of the photo you can see the steam in the background so it's only .6 miles beyond Fairy Falls to get there.

Logan walked probably 1/3 of the 5.2 mile hike so he totally needed his rest on the last little bit.

After the hike we went to the Old Faithful Cafeteria and I had the best chicken parmigiana. It probably wasn’t really that good but I couldn’t tell because I was so tired and hungry. Then it was a ½ hour till Old Faithful was to erupt so we got ice cream and waited.

And waited. There was a ranger giving a presentation on bears. I was very glad I heard this after our hike. She was saying how rare grizzly bears are. So I'm thinking there is maybe about a 100 or so. Nope, there are about 600 in the Yellowstone/Teton area. Those are the rare ones so just imagine how many black bears there are. I was leaning strongly about going back to Jackson and staying in a hotel after that. It was a really good presentation though.

I love the view of all the people gathering just to watch a steaming hole in a field. Well Logan erupted in his shorts and temper long before Old Faithful. About 20 minutes later Old Faithful went off. We left half way through because Old Faithful had nothing on Logan.

Then the long drive back to Gros Ventre campground.

We were going to head back into Teton the next day to do another hike but I hate the drive so bad to/from Jackson that we decided to break up the drive by a stop at Bear Lake.

We got lunch and shakes and went to the Garden City park. It was there we found the best beach at Bear Lake. The water is so high right now that this might be the only place with nice sand beaches. The only bad part was some idiot blasting Eminem. Why is it that people blasting music always have the worst taste? The water was still freezing cold but Logan didn't know that and had a blast.

S&S Shortline Railroad

2010-06-29T11:20:00.000-06:00

Just got back from a perfect weekend in Jackson. Love that place! I’ll have pictures tomorrow of our trip. Let’s just say I was up till 2 AM reading a romance novel rather than doing anything on my to do list.

I’m a little hesitant to post this. The pictures are from last year when we went to this railroad. I would have posted last year but they are only open the first Saturday of the month from May – September so that’s only 5 days a year. So I got this post all ready to go in May but then when searching for their website noticed it had been deleted. I hope they are still running their trains because I’d love to take Logan up there again. If anyone goes or has been this year let me know.

Here is the address
575 North 1525 West
Farmington Utah

Logan was and still is totally in love with trains so we thought we'd go up to Farmington to this family's house that has these trains to ride. Yes this is someone's house. Crazy.Our kids were too small to do the above train but they still had fun.

We took along the Aerins and L&L.

Erin don't hate but doesn't she look great being only like a week or two post partum.

We had to get a shot of all the kids. This was the best we could get with 2-2 year olds and 2-18 month olds.

Snowball Fight

2010-06-25T07:01:00.001-06:00

We had the Aerins over for a BBQ a couple weeks ago. I gave Logan and Acelin one snowball each to throw at each other. Well then I went back to the table and they were out of view from the table. When I came back they'd demolished our snowball bushes and were in a full on battle.

In these photos it looks like Logan is doing all the throwing but don't worry Acelin was holding her own and there were actually no tears the whole time. They were so funny, every time they threw one they'd yell, "Snowballll!"

Ensign Peak

2010-06-21T07:01:00.000-06:00

It seems like lately a lot of friends are moving out of state. I keep saying that if I lived out of state I'd totally take advantage of all the cool things to see and pretty much be a tourist in my own back yard. Well I'm still in Utah so I guess I should practice what I whine about.

Also I was reading on Ali Edward's blog about making sure you remember to live. I love the quote she used in the post.

ANNA QUINDLEN : Life is made of moments, small pieces of silver amidst long stretches of tedium. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won't happen. We have to teach ourselves now to live, really live...to love the journey, not the destination.

I don't know anyone who isn't busy but I strongly believe that you totally have time for the things that are important to you. I think people some times forget what is important. I want to fill Logan's childhood (heck, who am I kidding I want to fill up my memories) with memories of doing fun things and not always filling it with projects around the house.

I came up with a list of items I want to complete this summer. They are all fun things. I'm hoping to make it into a small scrapbook but that might be awhile since I've been so busy living and gardening (which I'm so in love with more so than usual).

One of our first stops was Ensign Peak. I've been there with YW but Tad and Logan had never been there. It's so short anyone can do this one. Logan did the whole thing himself except for a short section at the top. He absolutely loved it. You don't really do this hike to see the scenery on the way up because it's not all that pretty but once at the top the view is amazing.

At the time of this hike Logan was in love with Jungle Book so he said he was man cub and we were in the jungle. We kept looking for Bagera on the way up.

Self timer shot that isn't the best but I was loving all the wisteria vines. If you haven't smelled wisteria before you need to, it smells heavenly and it blooms in the spring.

Dinosaur Park

2010-06-17T16:01:00.002-06:00

Awhile ago we went to Dinosaur Park up in Ogden with the Aerins. I thought it was all right. Maybe when Logan is a little older it would be better. Inside they have some moving dinosaurs and that kind of freaked Logan and Acelin out. Outside they have speakers making it sound like dinosaurs are growling or walking around so yeah that also wasn't the best. Also part of it might have been my fault because I told Logan we were going with Acelin because that way if the dinosaurs were hungry they'd eat her first. Oops.

Logan loved digging for the bones and probably would have stayed there for quite awhile but his counterpart wasn't too interested.

Had to get a picture at the extremely cheesy cut outs.

Even though we went there at the end of April Logan will still say, "Oops, sorry guys, dinosaurs ate Acelin." It makes me laugh every time.

Before and Afters

2010-06-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

I love when people post before and after shot on their blogs. These might not be as exciting but I'm happy with the results.

We've had this old bench that was my parents. In the before shot I'd all ready spray painted most of the cream/rust covered bars. Now all our outdoor furniture is the same colors so I'm happy about that.

Above I bought three ugly frames that had some great designs to them. I hated the colors so I took my spray paint to them. These would also be cute in bright colors but I wanted them for a photo wall I'm doing downstairs in black frames.

Below is my April POTM.

Tad and most of my family think the doors are dumb but I like them and so does Nikki. If I explain they're for Tad's brother's wedding reception people accept them though (No, Tad's brother is not getting married, I wish just so I could help with decorations). I'm not sure if the after photo looks better because I weeded everything, added weed barrier and bark and all our plants are green and growing but the after looks good. I like the doors because then I'm not looking at all the mismatched fences.

Also right after I finished this project I got a new book in the mail. I felt good about my decorating and came up with some more ideas (insert Tad's eye roll here).

60th Party

2010-06-08T07:00:00.001-06:00

I actually completed a POTM in time. I guess I really didn't have a choice in this one since it had to be done on May 29th. Well it turned out so much better than I could have ever expected. I was so worried about the food assignments and how people would react to all the decorations and help I needed that day but everyone was so nice and didn't complain once. I even had my 2 uncles (one is mayor of the town and the other is a total cowboy) making the coffee filter garland.

For each of the 8 tables I had 6 various jars that I filled with flowers. I was devastated when the flower guy went to the wrong Costco location but no worry he'll be there at 7 AM on Saturday. Saturday at 9 he wasn't there but he'd be there right at 11 AM. Go back to Costco at 11:20 AM (absolute latest time I could stop by before going to Idaho) still no flower guy and it's Memorial Day weekend. I wanted all white flowers and I still think it would have look best with all white but plans had to change. It was also fun to have about 1/2 of the flowers coming from my yard.

Here is the corsage I made for my Grandma, it really looks so much cuter in person. I loved how it turned out. I found the tutorial on Project Wedding and then modified it a little bit from a bouquet I saw that had strips of burlap in it.

My mom had the whole family put together letters to my grandparents and then she had it made into a digital scrapbook and then bound into a book. This is my aunt, Nalene and she looks so much like my mom.

Menu

BBQ Beef or Pork Sandwiches

White Chocolate Strawberry Trifle (I need to get a picture of it because it's really is to die for)

Nutella Cupcakes (my latest addiction)

Southwest Black Bean Salad

Artichoke Dip and Baguettes

Fruit Kabobs

Costco chocolate and carrot cake

and many other desserts and salads

Another thing at the party that was the big hit of the night was the photo booth. I got pictures of every single family member. Tad made the quote chalkboard and we had fun putting silly sayings on it. I might have to drag it up to the reunion.

It was a lot of fun to get ready for but was also a big relief to have it over and see that it turned out so well.

Not sure what my June POTM will be but it won't be anything compared to last month's project.

Today's Happy List

2010-06-07T12:13:00.001-06:00

living - mint mud room 2
Originally uploaded by giac1061

Lunch with a friend and at one of my favorite downtown restaurants – Siegfried’s

Netflix customer service

My garden

Getting a month back from my summer because a trial got bumped

Mint green – thinking of painting our downstairs’ foyer this color but maybe more minty. We’ll see.

Summer BBQs

Knowing when I get home my whole house will be sparkling clean

Castle Park

2010-05-27T17:50:00.001-06:00

I saw a picture of this park on Flickr and then when I saw it was in Kaysville, I knew we had to check it out. It’s not the best for toddlers but if you have an adult or big kid to go along with them then it’s great. They have a small toddler area that is separate from the rest but like Logan wanted to play in that area. Also if you have little ones I could see how this park could be crazy if it were crowded with a bunch of big kids. Overall it was a lot of fun and we’ll definitely go back but not if it’s crowded.

Directions
If you are Highway 89 when it splits off of I-15 there is a light for Nicholls Road. Turn down that road and it is down that road about ½ mile on the North side of the road.

Castle Heights Playground-1200 East Nicholls RoadKaysville, UT 84037

Photo Booth

2010-05-26T14:15:00.000-06:00

I wanted to do a photo booth because I thought it would be a great opportunity to get photos of relatives that we never have. Something I'm sure you've seen everywhere are the faux mustaches. There was this great tutorial and pattern on how to make felt mustaches from Lisa Wedge's blog.

The ones in the photo are actually mustache suckers that I think are so funny, you can get them here at Amazon. Wouldn't this be cute for Father's Day lunch?

These images are from http://www.hostessblog.com/ from the Mr. Man Party.

60th Wedding Inspiration

2010-05-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

All weekend long I worked on the decorations for this month's POTM. The big party is this Saturday so nothing like procrastinating till the last minute. I've been thinking/planning this party since February but like usual waited till the last minute to get started. Below is where I got my inspiration. Hopefully each day this week I'll give a crafty idea that I've used for this party.

This DIY project on Style Me Pretty was the biggest inspiration for me. I love how they used the paper mache initials and the flowers. They also used a lot of vintage photographs and I thought it would be absolutely perfect for the anniversary party. To see the whole DIY post click here. Then the very next post used burlap with the flower arrangements and I thought this would be perfect with the rustic look I was wanting. I also loved their use of all white flowers. I've kind of strayed away from all white flowers but now it looks like I might use all white flowers again and whatever flowers are blooming in my garden on Friday. To see this wedding post click here.

Tomorrow I'll show you lollies which are the solution for any party with a budget of $0.

May Flowers

2010-05-20T12:01:00.000-06:00

We took these at someone’s house up in Farmington. This little guy is such a hard subject to photograph right now. Sometimes you just have to hold him tight and tickle him or bring bubbles as a distraction.

He’s also getting very opinionated. On Sunday he was wearing a teal/orange plaid shirt (actually the same shirt he’s wearing in the Toy Story photos below) but he had to wear a tie like Daddy. Would he change his shirt? Nope. So he wore that shirt with his only tie – red, black and grey.

He also refuses to wear sandals. He just stands there and screams, “My feet, my feet! I want my socks and shoes!” Ugh! He has two pairs of the cutest sandals but he won’t wear them.

Also this week he has been refusing to take naps. Keep your eyes open on craigslist.org because he might be making an appearance there if he isn’t nicer in the evenings. ;)

Buzz & WOOdy

2010-05-11T15:14:00.002-06:00

These photos may or may not have been in a presentation to the makers of Toy Story 3. I'm just saying but then most the time I don't know what I'm saying. Well not the last two photos but I liked those ones so I posted them.

May POTM

2010-05-03T15:07:00.003-06:00

The April POTM is so close to being done. If there had been good weather it would have been done. Hopefully this weekend because so far all my weeknights are full.

It's May so time for another POTM. This one has a definite deadline - May 29th. It's my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. I decided to take over and I'm planning the whole thing from the decorations to the food. I've decided I want it to be nice and not a touch of redneck. This might be quite a challenge given my family. I've got all the decor and most of the menu planned out. I'm a little worried about passing out the food assignments because I'm worried there might be some backlash.

Here are the invites I did for the event. I was a little nervous when my mom mailed out another 30 invites. So far that's 70 invites that have gone out so I'm hoping I can pull this off.

So this month I might be asking random decor/food questions. Speaking of questions - so we usually just steal wi-fi from our neighbors. Well whoever it is has closed up shop. So I'm curious who your internet provider is and how much? I don't want cable or phone just internet. Let me know.

The Best Day Ever!

2010-04-30T08:47:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve 2009, marked a most glorious event at the Fuller househould, Logan's first day skiing! What, you were expecting something about Christmas? I have been looking forward to this day since Logan was born, and I was not dissappointed when it finally came. In fact Christmas was kind of a let down after this amazing day. clickin' in for the first time.

First slide on skis, he wasn't too sure about this.
Ridin' the chair for the first time. This was his favorite part of skiing. When we were done, he kept saying "chair?", cause he wanted to ride the chair more.

Our first family ski photo, as you can see mom and dad love it but Logan isn't quite sold.

Slidin' down the turtle trail, Logan didn't like me getting too far away, so I had to ski right next to him. I have it on pretty good authority that this is my better side anyway. Logan made it 2 whole runs, before the signs of a toddler being too tired to continue showed. My whole goal with his first time skiing, was just to get him out on the snow and have fun sliding, so that on future trips he wouldn't be scared of it. So far mission accomplished. He has gone four more times, and loves it. He is starting to make his own wedge, and tells me to not stand so close, just not so nicely.

Rain, rain go away

2010-04-28T10:33:00.010-06:00

Does this rain have you down? I know it does for me. Tad started a huge yard project and I just want to get out there and work on it but nope, it’ll have to wait. In the mean time here are some fun things going on that are out of the rain.

A couple weeks ago Masterpiece had The Diary of Anne Frank on. I totally loved their version of the story. Even though I’d read the diary in school I was still on the edge of my seat just hoping they wouldn’t get caught. Just a sad story and you kept hoping it would end differently. You can still view the program online here and I totally recommend watching it.

The Salt Lake City Library also has an exhibit on the life of Anne Frank on display only till May 11th. I haven’t made it down there yet but I think this is something you shouldn’t miss. It’s completely free and if you need more information on it click here.

Registration for Spark is this Saturday, May 1st. I won a spot to this last year and I can’t wait to go again this year, for more details click here.

Starting tomorrow the Making Memories Warehouse Sale begins. Do you really need an excuse to go shopping? I didn’t think so. To get all the details for the sale click here.
Thursday, April 29: Noon - 8:00 PM
Friday, April 30: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday, May, 1: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

This Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day. I’m sure there will be tons of giveaways, inspiration and what not going on all over the web. One contest I heard about is on Becky Higgin’s blog. Photographers have gotten together all over the country (and world) to give away a photo session to a deserving family. So that’s definitely something to check out/sign up for. That happens this Saturday so go to www.beckyhiggins.com to check that out.

Did I miss anything else worth while this weekend? Instead of get out and do something, stay in and do something.

Meatballs

2010-04-27T11:30:00.000-06:00

I got this recipe from our neighbor who has a HUGE neighborhood Utah/BYU tailgating party. The recipe is so simple. If made right they are sweet with just a little kick. I don’t recommend making them while you have a cold or the sweet/hotness ratio gets messed up and you burn your guests’ mouths.

Ingredients
Costco meatballs
Frank’s Original Hot Sauce (it’s rumored Sam’s Club sells this sauce in bulk but it isn’t sold at Costco)
Brown Sugar

I cook half a bag for an event and it’s plenty of meatballs.

Directions
-Cook meatballs according to directions on bag.
-While meatballs are cooking mix hot sauce with almost equal amount of brown sugar in pan on the stove. For ½ bag of meatballs two large bottles of sauce are enough.
-Cook sauce on stove until the sugar does that caramelizing thing (caramelizing may not be the proper word). Make sure you taste the sauce to know if you need to keep adding more sugar to make it more sweet.
-Add meatballs to sauce and either cook on stove or put in crock-pot just to warm everything.

Firetruck Park

2010-04-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

We have a favorite park in our house. There isn't a day that a little boy doesn't asks to go to firetruck park. So I have to share this park with everyone else because I didn't even know about it till this winter.

It's located right off of Main Street in Bountiful right across from Bountiful Lumber and right by the fire station. Have fun and if you need some company call us because I know we'd love to go.

Also I'm on the look out for any other cool parks so if there are any you know of please share.

Great Weekend

2010-04-18T23:54:00.004-06:00

Today was the best weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect. Also I don't think this has ever happened but I got everything done on my to do list. Usually my list far exceeds what's humanly possible but I got it all done. Also Tad didn't have to work this weekend which was SO NICE.

I put Logan and Tad to work on the mowing the lawn. Aren't they cute. Logan's not smoking a cigarette he's got a bit of a sucker habit and we have to make a trip to the store almost daily for his fix.

Also if you look behind Tad, that is where I'm hoping to put my April POTM. I spent quite awhile weeding that corner.

This is also my favorite time to go to the church grounds. Everything is in bloom right now so if you haven't gone down to check it out you should. I like walking around the plaza more than temple square because the gardens are just amazing. I took these photos on my way to meet my dad for lunch.

Also my favorite daffodil field is in full bloom if you wanted to check it out. Just don't go there alone since it is right by the homeless shelter.

The Fullers also got their first bike ride in for the season. We had a picnic down at Mills Park.

Green Chili Pork Tacos

2010-04-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

We made this recipe a couple weeks ago and it was so good. We forgot to use the tomatoes and I also halved the recipe because let's face it we're not the Duggars. I totally recommend this. We're eating some of the leftovers that I froze. Click here for recipe.

April POTM

2010-04-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

Not sure if I'll have any readers after yesterdays little prank.

Last year I would do this thing where I'd do a project each month. Some were failures and some were successes. Well this project is inspired by the 4th photo in this wedding set that is from Style Me Pretty. When I saw that door I instantly thought of the old doors I have sitting in my garage. So my project is to take those old doors. I have to find a 3rd one and put them all together to make something similar to a room divider. Except these aren't going in my house but out in a corner of our yard. So my goal is to just get the doors together in that corner.

Later on I really want to make a living wreath which is pictured below. I always thought these were the coolest things but would never put them on my door because I figured it would ruin your door. Well now I have an old door out in my yard I could hang it on. Who knows this project might be a total failure. I won't be doing the wreath till probably June since it can freeze clear into mid-May.

Surprise!

2010-04-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

Look at what we picked up today. For more details click here.

New Calling

2010-03-31T22:59:00.002-06:00

Well I didn't get much of a break at all. I was called as the Primary Secretary. I think it will be totally different pace compared to the last calling except this last week was a little crazy. I had the monthly report to do plus over half the teachers were gone and only one member of the presidency was there. So I'm hoping there aren't many weeks like last week but so far I'm really enjoying my new calling.

Also I'd planned on reading the Old Testament this year. The night before I got my calling I was working on some bookmarks that would correlate with the Sunday School requirements but also have all the other chapters too. Yeah it doesn't work out that way. So after I had the worst headache and then got my new calling I made these cute bookmarks with our Stake's theme for the year. With my new calling I don't have to feel guilt that I'm behind with Sunday School because I get a do over. Sweet. I also have a couple leftover bookmarks if someone wants one at church.

March Favs

2010-03-24T12:36:00.012-06:00

It's been awhile since I've done a list of things I love right now. So bear with my randomness in this post.

Love, love these dishes from Costco. I'm sure they are all gone now but they are so cute and also came in green. I didn't get them because I felt like I couldn't justify them with how many dishes we all ready have. In case there are still available you should pick up a set.

Kmart also has some way cute dishes from Country Living.

Love the colors teal and orange together. Not sure if they are just bright and cheerful colors and it was a gloomy winter but it seems like I'm seeing them together all over the place.

Image I think is from Style Me Pretty.

Some patterns I love right now are anything hounds tooth or newsprint. I really want to find some fabric with just black and white text on it. I also have been adding these two patterns to anything I scrapbook lately.

Love botanical prints. I want to get 16 of them in a flashcard size and put them in my old windows hanging on my wall. If anyone knows of a set that doesn't cost as much as my house let me know. I've been wanting these for awhile.

Photo from Decorology.

I love the view out my office window. I can look over the entire valley towards the southwest and watching storms roll in is my favorite. They come in so quick and they're so creepy. I've tried to get a picture trying to show this but it just doesn't do it justice.

This could go for two things I love. Vintage dresses and clothes pin garland. We'll just focus on the clothes pin garland. Right now I just love anything that is put up using clothespins.

Image from vgkchick.

Okay this favorite is one I never thought I'd put. I love texting. I don't love having a cell phone but I love being able to text. I know those who know me probably just fell off their chairs. I'll give you a minute to get back up.

Honeycrisp apples. Yummy! I have a little boy that loves apples and in the last year I've ate a lot of apples and these are my favorite. They are so sweet and good that they are worth the extra price.

I'm still completely obsessed with 30 Seconds to Mars. The Easter Bunny is totally bringing that album to me. Another band I've been in love with for awhile is Passion Pit. Not only is their name completely awesome but so is their music. I love their song Little Secret.

Vintage cameras. I lost an eBay auction last night for a cute mint green camera like the one pictured. I don't want these to shoot pictures but just to sit as a home decor item.

Image from Shannon Williams.

I eat a lot of tv dinners for lunch and I have to say Healthy Choices are the best. Not only are they low calorie but it actually feels like I ate something unlike Smart Ones or Lean Cuisines. The Cafe Steamers are my favorite but aren't always on sale like the regular Healthy Choice.

I'd love to hear what things you love right now.

spring time

2010-03-24T10:50:00.001-06:00

spring time
Originally uploaded by Tara Anderson

Here is a gorgeous picture of poppies that I was trying to find a couple weeks ago. Tara Anderson took this and if you look through her flickr profile or etsy shop she has the cutest scrapbook stuff ever.

I've been loving this spring time weather. Logan and I spent all last Saturday just playing outside. I got lots of yard work done. My goal is to get it all done super early this year so I can play instead of work when it's super hot this summer.

I'm debating on hosting Easter dinner at my house this year. Does anyone have any amazing Easter recipe they've seen or they use? Seen any cute Easter dinner decorating ideas? Send them my way if you've seen any.

Fabric Roses

2010-03-11T21:03:00.002-07:00

I've made a bunch of these roses and now I just need to put them on headbands or clips. I'm lucky though because I have a really nice hair model. This model has also shown me that headbands can double as a belt. This model however wishes to remain anonymous due to their busy schedule. Here are two I made for my niece for Christmas.

Next I want to try making one of those bib necklaces. The whole clasp/chain thing is what has intimidated me from making one. I want one so bad but not for the $80-$150 price tag.

Changes

2010-03-10T22:35:00.004-07:00

I knew this year would be the year of change and so far it hasn't disappointed. This last Sunday I was released from YW. I've been in a little over 5 1/2 years (6 girl's camps) so I knew it was only a matter of time. I'll miss the girls but I'm excited for whatever the Lord has next for me. I get so excited about what the future holds because I've never had all my nights free. Before I was in YW, I would teach dance or had night classes so my brain is just running wild with all the things I could do to fill up my time.

I'm also so ecstatic about the women they called to take our place. They are all amazing women and I have no doubt they will be amazing. I know that I built amazing friendships with the girls and love all of them so I'm not worried about keeping in touch with them and see them grow up.

Since I won't be at YW anymore I was going to post about this change Sunday but I had to take one last chance to put up photos of the girls since I know they love it so much. ;)

I tried to find photos that I was in so I wasn't just embarrassing the girls. This photo makes me laugh. We were canoeing on the Jordan River and it looks all innocent but I think I'd just gotten done threatening the girls with their life if they tipped the canoe. I remember that I told them how many bodies are pulled out of the Jordan River and I didn't want to fall out then trip on a dead body under the water. Yeah not one of my finest moments but hey I didn't get wet and the girls were terrified. Can't forget camp where we had our 'eye candy.'

One of the fun things serving in YW was getting to see people in our ward's hidden talents. I really got to know the widows in our ward and people I would have never known had we not involved them in our activities. At this one I got to see the amazing skater my sister-in-law Kirsten is.

My cute Beehive class last summer with Kimmy.

I got to camp at gorgeous places. Beehives here is a preview of how pretty Heber Valley is.

I got to hang out with the weird YM too.

I could act as goofy as the girls. Also I feel like I more than made up for my years in YW when I never got to go because I took dance.

Yeah I might need to go into hiding for posting this next picture.

When I first got put in YW we had a very small group of girls but we still had tons of fun.

Serving in YW I also got to work with a lot of amazing women. Looking over the photos there are a lot of them that have moved away that I miss so much. I'm going to miss hanging out with the leaders as much as the girls. Also have to point out cute Brek is preggo in this picture. She'll just love seeing this photo. Hee!

Wow looking at those photos I used to be skinny. So I guess the only advice I can give to the new leaders (if they blog stalk me) is YW makes you fat. I'm not sure if it's that or my love affair with french fries. Hee!

Also I want to just pass on my two favorite sites that I would use all the time for YW.

SugarDoodle - has answers to everything from activities, pp, lesson ideas, etc.

Shanna Vineyard - makes the cutest handouts ever and I've used her ideas several times.

Peace out girls!

Weekend Goals

2010-02-26T21:13:00.002-07:00

I'm hoping to have a pretty relaxing uneventful weekend. After a long work week nothing sounds better. I do however have a few goals for the weekend.

On Sunday I'll be watching the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics and catching PBS's Masterpiece. They are showing 39 Steps. Rupert Penry-Jones from Persuasion (my favorite Austen movie) is the main character. Some people have been teasing me about this for quite some time because they knew I've been counting down to this show. If Captain Wentworth had a dual with Mr. Darcy, I'm sorry but Wentworth would totally win. So make sure you check out the show. It's set in World War II so no tight pants and cravats in case that helps in convincing your husband to change the channel to PBS. You can find more info and online viewing here.

The other thing I'm hoping to accomplish this weekend is to plant some seeds. I've wanted to do this for several years due to how big my yard is and the price of perennials. Also I think Logan will love playing in the dirt. I'm dying to plant some California Poppies. I love their color and how bright and happy they look. Our neighbor across the street have some and they are gorgeous and I'm always jealous I don't have any in my yard. Last week I did a little bit of yard work and it was so nice. Kind of odd since Tad was up skiing.

Hope everyone else has a nice relaxing weekend.

New Beginnings

2010-02-24T09:48:00.004-07:00

This year for New Beginnings we wanted to give the girls lots of ideas for the Personal Progress (PP) projects because when YW in Excellence comes around we never have projects to showcase. Even though we did this for New Beginnings it would work well as just a regular activity. We did the usual stuff you do at New Beginnings then we gave them a cover sheet to a booklet that has hundreds of ideas for PP projects. I don't have a photo of the booklet but I have the file in .pdf format. That booklet is seriously what took forever in planning this activity. I searched the web for projects, compiled them, sorted by each value and then weeded out the duplicates. Time consuming but now all the work is done for you. I'd attach the file to the blog but not sure how to do that. Just leave your email if I don't have it and I'll forward it to you.

Here was the candy buffet that turned more into the junk food buffet. I've wanted to create one of these for the longest time. The girls and dads loved this. Brittany and her mom were lifesavers and set it all up for me so I could work on setting up my rooms. They were the best and I didn't have to worry about a thing.

I collected food for each color of the YW values.

I get to work with the most amazing women in young women. They were so nice when I came up with this idea and knew it would take a lot of work from every one and there wasn't a single complaint. Each leader took a value and they were in charge of decorating a room containing items that value color and displaying value projects for that value. Then as the girls rotated to each room they would get the page for their booklet that was that value color and contained the project ideas. The leader would be in that room and just explain what that value means and give ideas for some of the projects.

I had two rooms - knowledge and divine nature. Knowledge was really easy and I had tons of projects to show for that one.

Then since I couldn't be in two places at once I quickly recorded my message for divine nature and ran that on the laptop for the girls to watch when they got to that room. Divine nature was a little harder to come up with projects. I made a cute bird garland that I didn't get a good picture of.

Here was the Good Works room that Maureen did. She went all out and this is just half of her room decorated. Our church is really old and her room just worked perfect because it has those 70s yellow accordion doors in there that just matched her value perfectly.

Nan our brand new secretary had the value virtue. I was amazed with what she came up with since she just got thrown into YW and I'm sure isn't used to my craziness yet.

We also passed out sheets for the girls to fill out for a project they would work on this year. We are still working on collecting them. It had the goal broken out in steps so we can help motivate and encourage that YW during the year to work on her project and she'll have something to display in November.

The Big 3-0

2010-02-16T22:56:00.002-07:00

Today was my 30th birthday and I had a big roller skating 80's party at Xanadu Skating Center. It was so much fun. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to cancel it because I was so embarrassed to be having a skating party for my 30th. I'm really glad I didn't. It was so much fun. It was also fun to see everyone who showed up. I made this totally narly (or atrocious) backdrop so we'd have some sweet 80s photos.

The star and heart sunglasses were a hit. I wish I'd bought more so all the kids could have one.

Morgan was my little skating buddy for the night. We went around and around the rink. If you want a cardio and strength training workout forget the circuit training just bring an elementary kid rollerskating with you and you've got it made.

Also I'm sure you want to see my sweet leg warmers that my mom made me so here is a shot of that. Logan loved skating and would say "wee" the whole way around.

Thanks everyone who showed up, I know I had a fun time and hope you did too.

I've got the fever . . .

2010-02-12T10:10:00.006-07:00

. . . Olympic fever. The month of January our family got to see so many amazing events leading up to the Olympics. While I'm still sad we don't have any World Cup races here (especially since who knows how my two favorite skiers are going to do in the Olympics due to injuries). So here is a recap of all the fun we had in January.

A month ago the Dew Tour was in town at Snowbasin. I went up Friday night and saw Dashboard Confessional with Tad. It was very cold and the music needed to be louder. I think we had more fun watching people fall on this piece of ice. We’re shallow like that. Saturday I went up to watch the skiers in the halfpipe. They were amazing. My mother-in-law was also with me.
I didn’t get any cool shots of the concert or skiing but Katie’s cousin Bryce did. Click here and here to see them.

That night Tad and I went up to Deer Valley for the mogul skiing finals. I’ve decided that moguls will be an annual tradition for our family.

The next day Logan and I went up to Snowbasin again to watch the skier Slopestyle. Logan loved it – riding a bus, riding the chairlift, playing in the snow and watching people ski. He was only sad he didn’t get to ski. We did get our picture with the yeti and all the ski bunnies thought Logan was so cute.

Click here to watch a video of the guy I thought did the most amazing run, Ian Cosco. I know he didn’t win but doing a back flip off of a rail is amazing in my book and he’s the only one that did.

Fast forward to the next weekend, this was the last qualifying race for the US Snowbird team at PCMR. Oh I got a nice powder day in with my in-laws at Deer Valley and that was tons of fun, then fed the missionaries then headed up Parleys to go see the 30 Seconds to Mars concert. I didn’t think we’d make it because I-80 was horrible. On the way home parts were a complete white out. I was very glad we got home in one piece even if it was 12:45. I’ll admit I only liked one song before this concert but now I’m a full blown 30STM fan. I’d insert a picture of me, Tad and Brandi but the photo hasn’t been approved by Brandi yet.

After the concert they made the announcement of the US Snowboarding team. This picture is really crappy but I had to put it in because there is a very similar one in Sports Illustrated and I felt cool that I was there.

Then the next weekend I went skiing with Brandi at PCMR. This was the first time I’ve ever gone skiing and I was the guide. It was a lot of fun and we got to ski a few runs with the hottest instructor at PCMR (he may not have the hottest accent but he’s the cutest).

Tonight is the opening ceremonies for the Olympics and I can not wait. It’s been a tough week hearing about injuries to my two favorites but yesterday was a little better. Didier Cuche (Swiss skier) broke his thumb a couple weeks ago but he had the fastest training run yesterday. Lindsey Vonn while still really sore was able to do a free ski run. So I’m sending out healing vibes to those two. Also I’m excited to see Torah Bright, Ted Ligety, Maria Riesch, Aksel Lund Svindal, Benjamin Raich, Louie Vito, Shannon Bahrke, Julia Mancuso, Steve Nyman, Heather McPhie, Gretchen Bleiler, Kelly Clark, and Hannah Teter. I’ll be eating Canadian bacon pizza (since the Olympics are in Canada) and having some Swiss cheese since my favorite skier is from Switzerland (Go Cuche!) What events/athletes are you looking forward to watching?

Warning and Challenge

2010-02-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

Warning! Starting Monday I’m going to be back. I’ve had a ton of big projects I’ve been working on and seriously since October I’ve been counting down till February 4th because then all my big projects I was taking one would be over. I also have the most amazing husband, friends and work with the most amazing women in YW. So a full week of blogging next week.

In the meantime there is a big game on Sunday. Also my 3 weeks of Biggest Loser competition ends Sunday before the game so I’ll be pigging out. Don’t worry I’ll start again Monday. One thing that will definitely be on the menu is this queso that Brittany made that is A-mazing!!! Here is the link. Hostess with the Mostess had some great ideas for the menu too. I was checking out this Chocolate Peanut Pretzel Pizza.

This weekend I’m also hoping to make some dang cute Valentine’s décor. There are so many cute ideas out there. I love what Heidi Swapp was making the other night. I haven’t watched the video yet but I saw all the projects. Check that out here.

Also I have a challenge out there for anyone who is up for it. I was looking at my layouts and I really don’t have one about my husband. I have tons of Logan and some with Tad and Logan but my challenge is to make a layout (or if you don’t scrapbook write a journal entry) about someone you love. If you aren’t married maybe do it about a sibling or your parent(s) or just someone that means a lot to you that you don’t usually focus on. Then on Valentine’s Day post the layout on your blog. I think this will be fun.