Aisha's Chicken Bean Quesadilla Dip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.