Happiness

Latest Obsessions

2011-12-22T22:21:00.001-07:00

My mom has had this cabinet since I can remember she used it for her china. It used to belong to my great grandma. My mothers, fathers mother. Apparently it used to be a radio cabinet and then they turned it into a music cabinet. The door is not part of the original cabinet and I don't think the shelves were either. My mom had has it in storage for awhile but we got it out and I refinished it. Of course I didn't get a before picture until I started the project.

This was the first time I used spray painted. I used ivory but I wish there wasn't so much yellow in it. Then I distressed it lightly and put a wax on it. I love the wax finish.

For Christmas this year I thought I would make Josie some clothes since I haven't made her anything yet. I used my old shirt and turned it into a dress.

Adorable, huh.

Then I found this cute tutorial on how to make this cardigan from Shwin and Shwin. Love it!

I made these boots. Pattern from ithinksew. These were harder just because they were small.

They didn't match the dress so I made these cute shoes also from shwin and shwin. These were a cinch.

I just hope they all fit her. I think my new favorite thing is sewing. Can't wait until Christmas. My whole family will be there for a huge party.

4th Of July

2011-12-22T22:07:00.001-07:00

My family did the usual 4th of July in Jackson Hole this year. We used to do this every year but the last few years we have had a hard time making it. We had a 3 bedroom hotel and then Mom and Dad decided they wanted another room so they rented another for them and Cindrie. We stay with in walking distance to the fireworks which is our favorite part. We did the Alpine slide.

We took the boat across Jenny Lake and then hike to Hidden Falls. With all the heavy run off this year the falls were beautiful.

We all gathered at the Falls because they were putting out a very nice cool mist. It was a nice break.

Channy and Kyle got some scowls because they had such a tiny baby. I would have liked to tell them that they do more hiking than most of the people on the trail combined. They hunt! It was such a good time for us all to be together and just hang out. My family is the greatest.

We Moved Again

2011-12-22T21:52:00.001-07:00

Gosh it has been awhile. Sometime I don't feel like I have anything worth blogging and since we moved, well life in a town home is just plain boring. So ya, we moved last June. We are done doing the house sitting thing for awhile. So now we have moved closer to town and work. But oh how we miss our Sophie.

It is crazy how much happiness a dog can give you unless your not dog person of course. I think when we left her we went back to having to figure how to be happy and we were staring at the walls of our place going mad.

To put it nicely we moved into a filthy pigsty. It took us about 2 weeks of cleaning every free moment we had. We replaced all the blinds and repainted the whole place. It is much better but oh so small however, it is cozy and it is our home.

As soon as we moved in I repainted our bed I really didn't like the pine grain and I was loving all the turquoise I was seeing. I absolutely love it. Also to note is that most of my pictures are with my cell phone so not great quality but totally convienent.

I made over the light in the dining room it was the ugliest light but I didn't want to buy a new one. I made this with poster board and hot glued the burlap and fabric and then glued it to the original shade so it can be removed easily. It also dims the light making it romantic for dinner.

We also got an addition that Chris has been dying to have for a few years now. He finally got his plasma TV. He was very proud this day. To be honest I can't believe how much I enjoy the TV as well. Plus it is great for Mario Kart. I also bought a couple of nice dressers one for the TV to stand on and another for the other bedroom to store junk.

I organized the freezer using a dry erase marker for the front to keep an ongoing inventory.

I still have more projects to go but I will always have another project I am working on.

I am an Auntie Again

2011-04-17T13:52:00.001-06:00

My cute little sister Chantae had her little girl. Her labor went so fast that by the time the anesthesiologist was available it was too late, so my sister is wonder woman in my opinion. I had to work all week so yesterday my hubs and I made the trip to hang out for the day with the new little family. Her name is Josie.

Babies are so precious when they sleep. She looked so perfect. She is a good little baby and slept for 4 hours straight and we even went to dinner and not peep came out of her.

Chris loves little girls. I have no idea if he likes boys seems as every baby he has been around for the last year has been girls. He just loves to hold them and play with their fingers.

We had a great time visiting. It was neat to watch my sis and bro in-law learning to be parents. When we went to dinner they drove so slow I had to laugh. I am so grateful I get to be a part of this little girls life. I kept thinking that one day maybe if we are lucky we will have a little girl that will think Josie is the coolest cousin ever. Those will be the days.

Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom

2011-04-17T13:51:00.001-06:00

It has been 30 years today. So glad they figured out how to make it work. Thanks for every thing and sure love you tons!
Thats me the big sister and my little sister Chelsey. I bet I was only four so my parents had been married for 5 years. Our family sure has changed.

Car Seat Cover

2011-04-17T13:44:00.003-06:00

When we went to dinner with Kyle and Channy I noticed that she did not have a car seat cover she had thrown a blanket over the carseat. I told her I would make her one. Yesterday I shopped in Logan and couldn't find fabric I like. (Shopping for other peoples taste is hard for me.) I ended up in Brigham City at my favorite fabric shop. So worth the drive. I can't remember what it is called but it is on Main next to Smith' s also an awesome scrapbook store next to it.

Don't mind the yucky car seat I borrowed it to make sure it fit.

Lamp Remake

2011-04-09T10:50:00.004-06:00

I bought 2 of these lamps a few years ago a TJ Maxx.

I never loved them but I liked the basic style. I have wanted to do something with them for a long time but never quite sure. Then I found this tutorial on a blog and the rest was history.

I used 4 yards of burlap and my craft room was a big itchy mess. Not too mention trying to get all the burlap itch off of my ironing board Sunday morning to iron the hubs shirt. I also repainted them green and brown. We have had our bed linens for 3 years now and I am trying really hard to not change. They were expensive and I still like them I just really want to go gray and yellow. I even have contemplated painting my new bed yellow and then gray over top and doing burn outs so you can see the yellow. Even Chris thinks that would be cool. I am trying to be practical so my dear mother won't give me crap about it. However, I love the way they turned out and I can repaint them when the time comes.

My New Bed

2011-03-19T09:33:00.003-06:00

When we bought our new mattress set almost a year and a half ago we did not purchase a bed frame because we figured we would buy a bed in the near future. Well we couldn't find anything in our price range that we liked so our bed sat on the floor for a long time. Not so pretty that way. Then about a year ago I came across Ana White . Love her site. She has tons of plans you can build. The best part they are free. I chose a bed months ago but I wanted to modify it but didn't have the tools that would make the change easy so I held off. Then she made this bed for her mom. I loved it and the shopping list was made. She made hers queen size and our bed is king so I had to modify the numbers and it turned out great.

I used pine. Not my first choice because I am not a fan of the way it stains but it was good on the budget (which was $130, not bad eh!) I wanted to used gel stain but I couldn't find the color I wanted so I used a dark walnut stain I had at home from previous projects. Then I sealed it with a satin spray. My next door neighbor has a full wood shop in his basement and he is serious about his stuff. He happened to stop by and give me pointers plus he lent me a nail gun. THANKYOU! My advice, have the right tools, nail gun and miter saw. He saw me cutting my miters with a handsaw and a miter box and about died. So he helped with that too. I think it turned out awsome and my hubby is proud of me, not too mention I saved him hundreds of dollars.

Next project will be new nightstands.

Channy's Baby Shower

2011-03-14T23:01:00.010-06:00

My cute little sister Chantae and her hubby Kyle are expecting their first child next month. They wanted to keep the gender of the little one a secret so it was a gender neutral party. Yellow and gray were the colors. My other little sister Chelsey also hosted the shower. We had it at The Fairview Inn in American Falls, the owners were very gracious.
I so bad wanted to do tissue paper pom poms but we could not secure them to anything so we inflated about 100 balloons to suspend them and it turned out nicely.

My mom and I headed to town to buy flowers because we wanted to make it feel not like March and more like May. They sure did brighten things up.

We made napkin ring holders (felt flowers) that they could take home and water bottle labels.

We played games.

We had Firehouse Pizza in Logan make pastas for the food and Mac and Cheese was the hit.

If you can believe it I got so wrapped up in the shower I don't have one single picture of all the fun. Dang it!

This is Chantae at 8 months with her friend Breanne due any second at the time. Thankfully she did have her baby a few days ago. Chantae is a tiny little thing she looks like she could be a few months away. We had a great time with all the family and friends. This is what the good times are and we can't wait to meet the little thing.

2010-11-15T21:14:00.004-07:00

Well I know that it has been a long time but there really isn't that much to write about when I have had a less than stellar summer. We were homeless for the month of July and part of August while we were in between homes so this was our Monday thru Thursday home...

The Crystal Inn and since they are laying the pipeline in Sardine Canyon there was some interesting fellows that were there with us. Then on the weekend we would head up Logan Canyon to a campground and hang out until Sunday morning when we would clean up and head into town for showers and clean laundry. Let me tell you be very picky about laundromats in Logan. The best one is up close to campus the others are SCARY. Moving day was the best. We are now in a house just for 10 months while the owners are at grad school. We absolutely love where we are and the neighbors are wonderful. You could say we are becoming professional house tenders. So to sum it up we had a rough summer with our housing and other things that I may mention at another time but the new house it awesome which leads to the next part.

I have been trying to pin down what my style is and I have been apparently sending mixed signals to Chris about it. So here goes my observations. I like rustic furniture but not log furniture and I am thinking about making a reclaimed wood table. Pricey I know. OUCH!! But I love it. I also like modern, but comfy. I hate vinyl lettering I think it is way over used, small doses maybe but not for me. Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Restoration Hardware none of them use vinyl. Don't be offended if you like it I just don't. I love hard wood floors but not perfect ones. I want it to look 100 years old. I love upholstered dining room chairs but I realized how impractical this is after staying with my bosses children for a few days so I might have to compromise. I HATE country decor and "cafe" kitchen decor. I love color, but not to bright however, I still love brown. So needless to say my hubby has relinquished any control that he thought he had over what comes in the home to me. He knows how to make "Sweetie" happy. So to slowly decorate my home so I don't brake the bank all at once I had a crafty weekend. I made this wreath from burlap and put fabric flowers on it. It is rustic with the burlap but I added the modern with the silk and satin flowers. I think it turned out great now I just need to find a good spot for it.

Then a few months ago I saw this book page wreath and loved it but I forgot all about it until I saw that a friend had made one and posted it on her blog and I decided to make it. Now I am very picky about what it is in my home. Some of the tutorials to make this said to get a dollar store book. Have you ever looked at a dollar store book... FOUL! So I hit the trusty DI. They had great selection although I did feel kind of bad that I would destroy this book, actually I re purposed it. Then the employee brought out a hug bin of choir books. I snagged hundreds of them for 4 bucks, awesome. I love the way the music looks in my wreath and it is uplifting words also.

Beautiful!

Here is the tutorial if you care.

Birthday Quilt

2010-04-03T17:06:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Cindrie, my little sister, turned 14. I have had her present finished for a few weeks but I couldn't post it due to the surprise factor. The pattern is jelly roll by thimbleblossoms and the fabric is blush my moda. I even created a label and wrote her a love note with my own hand writing.

My friend Teri and I made this diaper cake for our other friend Erika who is having twin girls. We were pretty proud of ourselves.

Pattern

2010-02-07T20:56:00.001-07:00

If you want the pattern for the bag it is free online just click on the word "pattern" in the previous post. Have fun it, was very easy. She has even given tips on how to make it bigger.

Basket of Jeans

2010-02-04T18:04:00.003-07:00

For about 8 years now I have carried with me a laundry basket full of worn out jeans, they have survived 4 moves with us. Well I have always thought that levi quilts are ugly until I stumbled across a blog, which I can't find now, and she did her quilt in strips and I thought that it looked a little better. When I finished I still thought that it was ugly. So I incorporated flowers from my sassafrass quilt pattern. I bought expensive flannel fabric for the back ( I am a self proclaimed fabric snob, no JoAnns here). I absolutely love the quilt and it is a great size for a snuggle quilt.

Then I decided while the sewing machine was out I would attempt a purse for me since mine is showing signs of wear. I thought it would be bigger so I don't know if I will keep using it for a purse. It is cute and the pattern was easy to follow.

Christmas

2010-01-02T10:29:00.004-07:00

We were in St. George for Christmas this year with Chris' family. We had a great time with everyone and enjoyed the nicer weather. Chris has a huge family and when we all get together it is NOISY. Chris and I are not used to noise since we don't have kids. We enjoyed ourselves anyway.
This year for Christmas Chris got me an electric pressure cooker. I have been wanting one for about a year now since I broke the crock pot by adding cold water, oops. Since I don't have time to come home for lunch and start a crock pot I thought the pressure cooker would be awesome because I can come home from work and cook a roast and it will be done before Chris is home. We also got a camp chef stove which I am so excited about because next year when I am canning I can do it outside. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Freezer Meals

2009-10-04T20:08:00.002-06:00

The last month or so has been a month of preserving. I kind of feel like a chipmunk storing for the long winter to come. I have canned salsa, marinara sauce, peaches, jams, I froze tomatoes ( to exhausted to use them). On Saturday I got together with Chalet and we did freezer meals. This idea is genius. We decided to start small because we had no idea what we were in for. We each chose 4 meals. We didn't really double anything because we both feed ourselves and our husbands so we figured if we split each recipe that would be enough for 4 people. Chalet's choices were: baked spaghetti, cream cheese chicken, meatloaf, and she prepared chicken tortillas soup the night before. My meals were: cheesy spaghetti bake, traditional lasagna, chicken pot pie, beef enchiladas. We also cooked ground beef in onions so we would have some on hand. I went to Chalet's at 8:15 am and walked out by 12:30. Huge success and we had a great time. We each went home with about 12 meals because we froze the enchiladas on a cookie sheet with no sauce then put them in freezer bags and froze the sauce separately, then we will take how many enchiladas we want and put the sauce on top and done. The chicken pot pie made a lot of filling so we each go an extra filling, just add crust. When I cook meals at home I have been cooking only half of the recipe and putting the other half in the freezer. Most meals are designed for 4-6 servings and Chris dislikes leftovers so this works great. We will do this again.

Annual Lava Float

2009-08-15T15:48:00.003-06:00

Every year Chris and I go to Lava Hot Spings to float the river and this year my mom, Chelsey and Cindrie came too. We camped for two nights, at times camping was not enjoyable but we made the best of it. We went during the week so it wasn't very busy compared to weekends. The water was higher this year and we suffered injuries and losses. Everyone got dumped at least once really good except Cindrie, which is ok. (She has been injured previously with my Dad so he will never do again, but she was brave and had a good time.) Mom scraped her back real good on the lava rocks when she went over backward, Chelsey got dumped and hit a rock real hard and scared her, I fell off on the easy part but got caught in the current and thought for sure I would be making a trip to the ER but turned out fine, Chris on the other hand came out unharmed but his glasses will forever remain at the bottom of the river. Needless, to say that was an expensive trip. Great times and we'll be back next year. The pictures are Chris, Mom and Cindrie.

4th of July

2009-07-06T22:26:00.004-06:00

Chris had Friday- Sunday off with me for once. Friday consisted of the never ending yard work and gardening. I have my first crop of peas ready to eat and ate my first tomato. We are excited about our garden this year. I plan on learning how can this fall . So we are currently weed free thanks to Preen (weed preventer). We went and bought the first Transformers movie cause Chris slept through it the first time we watched, unbelievable. He loved it. I caught a glimpse of what he was like as a boy for the first time. (this happened a few times this weekend) Then on the 4th we went a watched the 2 nd Transformers at the theatre this is the first movie we have gone to since we moved to Cache Valley 3 years ago! Great show, absolutely would not take any children under the age of 18 due to language :(

Chris went and got some fireworks and yes they were the wussy safe and sane because we have lots of dry grass around and I don't want to be responsible for fires. I am pretty sure the one he is holding isn't supposed to be held while going off. The pyro came out in him.

Bridal Shower

2009-05-24T21:02:00.004-06:00

This is Chantae, the bride. She was pretty nervous about what she was in for. We were actually pretty nice to her.

The funnest thing we did was to divide into four groups and each group got 4 rolls of toilet paper and they had to make a wedding dress.

We were pretty impressed about how well they did. It was a pretty big pile of TP when we took it off.

These are the cupcakes that nearly caused me to have a mental breakdown. I baked them two days before and the cake mixes weren't cooperating (lesson learned was always use Betty Crocker cake mix). Our local grocery store sold cupcake holders so I could transport them safely, which saved my life. Then the night before the shower I frosted them. My parents don't have AC and their house was crazy hot and my frosting was melting faster than Chelsey and I could get it on. We stopped and waited until about 10 pm to finish. However, I think they turned out so cute...all 60 of them!

The bridal shower turned out to be a success but I don't think I will ever volunteer to do another one. Thanks Julia for your help.
I forgot my camera for her wedding but it turned out perfect and we had a great time sharing the experience with them. Congratulations Kyle and Chantae!!!

I'm Can't believe I did It.

2009-05-02T09:08:00.004-06:00

My little sister is getting married in a couple of weeks and her maid of honor and I are throwing her a bridal shower. Come to find out when I finally got her invitation list she has 50 people on it! Well, needless to say that many people sure changed my entire plan. No more handmade cards, party favors and really great punch (requires a lot of expensive ingredients). So I had to rethink things. First was invitations, to send that many invites was going to cost me around $80 at least. Then I thought if I could do a post card that would cut postage in half, Yeah! Well I couldn't find a post style anywhere unless I had them special made and then my price went back up so I thought well why can't I make one. So I don't know how to digital scrapbook even though I have been wanting to start. So I downloaded the program, purchased a few items and 5 hours later...urgh.... viola. I scribbled out the personal info so if there are any freaks out there.

Food Storage

2009-04-09T22:58:00.003-06:00

Chris and I were both taught about food storage growing up. Part of being LDS is being prepared. Well we never really got into the whole food storage thing but we did go to case food lot sales and we always had food in our house. I love to cook I am just never in the mood to cook when I get home to work so we didn't use a lot of our food because Chris loves cereal and I love pasta so that is an easy dinner. Back in January we had a few surprises financially and so the grocery budget got slashed to nothing and it went on into February. Needless to say Chris and I realized how important it is to have food storage and most importantly have food you know how to use. My friend Chalet got me onto a program called grocery smarts and obsessive shopper ( look on my sidebar) and now even Chris loves to go shopping with me. I am kind of competitive so we shop at 5:30 am on Wednesday mornings. We don't go every week in fact I don't think we've gone a month but it is so nice to not need to go grocery shopping. We have also been ordering some stuff from the cannery every month too. So slowly but surely we have been building and we are doing OK. The food drive came around and I unloaded some of the shelves on them. I feel like what we are given we are suppose to share, so I share.

Here is our pantry in the kitchen, of course
Our cereal shelf, we actually need about 3 of these by the way Chris eats cereal. We need about 100 boxes... that's about 3 boxes a week, by himself. I am not kidding. I have not paid over $1.25 per box!

The other shelf downstairs. I will have it full in no time. The rubber maid containers are full of sugar and pasta. So here is our new hobby.

Time Off

2009-04-09T22:10:00.009-06:00

I took a week off of work due to some health issues...everything is OK. So I decided to make the most of my time. It only ended up being two days of nothing to do because we went to a funeral in Vernal. Chris' grandpa passed away. That was a long drive so we broke it up and spent the night. I have been having the urge sew lately and since what I would sew for myself would cost upward of $150 I decided to make some cute things for my neices. We are going to St. George for spring break and we will get to see them open them. The crayon roll idea I got from here.
I also made this adorable super easy purse for them to keep their treasures inside. Pattern here. I enlarged mine to 175% because I made them for little girls. Super easy though and there is even a video you can watch that teaches you how to do it.

My sister in-law is due to have a baby any time now and I wanted to make something for her plus I was in a sewing mood and these burp cloths are nearly instant gratification. Here are the instructions. Finding cute boy fabric is ridiculous unless you like Winnie the Poo or little bottle and diaper print, not me. So once the fabrics were picked it was easy.

Temples

2009-03-14T11:42:00.002-06:00

I was on lds.org this morning and they had this video and I just wanted to share it with you. Our temples are so wonderful and they provide us with a feeling that is not available any where else. I am so thankful that we have temples that are so accessible for us to worship as often as we would like.

I can be crafty...sometimes.

2009-02-16T10:42:00.006-07:00

I don't have anything new or funny to share with anyone so I thought that I would post my projects that I worked on yesterday. The box is a my creations box from close to my heart and it was so easy to use. Then I just decorated it. Some people might say that I didn't put enough stuff on it but I am more of a minimalist scrapbooker I guess.

My mom's birthday was earlier this month so I made her this card which I think turned out super cute.

Yummmm

2009-01-25T15:29:00.004-07:00

I am so excited because I found my camera, it was still in my bag. Maybe now I will post more often. Chris and I have decided to make a budget and stick to it we figure now is a great time to learn how to do that. With this said I have had to get creative with cooking. I was cleaning out my recipe cupboard yesterday and found great recipe that I had to try and I had everything in my pantry to cook it which was even better (except cilantro). You should try it. It kind of reminded us of sweet and sour pork but with a kick. I made chicken today and used the left over rice and sauce and we liked it even better. By the way the rice is sort of similar to Bajio's sweet rice.

Tropical Pot Roast
boneless pork roast
4 oz can of whole green chili peppers, drained
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1?2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne or chipotle powder
1 fresh jalapeno pepper
20 ounce can crushed pinapple, undrained
2 Tablespoon cornstarch

I did mine in a crock pot. We don't care for a lot of heat so I did not put the jalapeno pepper although the lid on my cayenne fell of so it was plenty hot. Anyway, cut a pocket down the center of the roast and stuff the chili peppers in. Then mix the spices together to make a rub and then rub the roast. Put half of the pineapple in the bottom ( I didn't have crushed so I used my blender and made my own out of chunks) then place the roast in stuffed side up and cook until done.
Mix the cornstarch and remaining pineapple with the juice from the roast. Heat until thick.

Sweet Rice
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped ( add more depending on your taste)
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 1/3 rice
4 cups chicken broth, very important
1/2 cups sugar

Put oil in pan and heat, saute onion until translucent add cilantro saute one more minute. Then add the rice, saute until brown but DO NOT BURN. Stir the sugar into the broth then add the chicken broth stir around once then put a lid on and let simmer until water is gone. Make sure you watch it when the water is almost gone so you don't scorch your rice or it will be cah, cah.

I didn't do the cilantro because I didn't have any and it tasted fine. Another note about the rice. I went to a Mexican food cooking class once and the instructor said when you are cooking rice you stir it very little and it won't be sticky. I stir this rice when I added the broth and then when it was cooked that's all. Good Luck I hope you enjoy. I don't think the picture does it justice.

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T20:01:00.001-07:00

OK OK so I have totally slacked off with posting about our Christmas. We left for my parents on the 23rd hoping to beat any storm coming in and we did just fine. Christmas eve consisted of normal family traditions. Candy was made, we even went to KINGS to go down the isles and see what kind of junk we could find, actually they have wool work socks for pretty dang cheep so Chris got socks. I got chapstick I couldn't find mine. Then my family has this hilarious tradition that we call "Singing at the candle" We have a candle that has 1-25 and we sing Christmas songs every night in December until we reach the next number. The reason why this is hilarious is because there is not a single one of us who can carry a tune. You should hear us sing the 12 days of Christmas ( we aren't allowed to sing this until a few days before Christmas) We sing ok until the last verse and when it is time to count down the race is on to see who can sing it the fastest. We aren't very good but we have a blast and I know the lyrics to just about every Christmas song out there. Christmas morning came and for once we didn't get up at 5:00. Chelsey usually get us up (she is 23) but this year with the bad storm she and my dad had to go out and get the horses put in the shelter. She was tired and slept in. We had so much wind that we were snowed in. My grandma was feeling bahumbugish and so my dad went in town with 4 wheel drive (mandatory in Idaho) and pick up my grandparents so they could have dinner with us. Now for the reason I have not posted anything.....we got a WII! We have stayed up late every night. I alway to Chris there was no way we would ever own a video game system ever. I was the one who really wanted it. We got Rockband which is a blast and wii fit, and mario kart. I also got the Shaun White snowboarding however I am not sure I should play it becuase it makes me angry and Chris has to force me to take a break. We love our Wii. As for new years eve we did nothing we are boring but we like it. I have me new goals all written down and hope this is a great year for me and you.

Christmas Time Is Here

2008-12-12T19:58:00.002-07:00

Wednesday was my work Christmas party and it was the best night. Pickleville playhouse from Bear Lake put on a Christmas production up at the university with a dinner catered by The Coppermill Restaurant. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Chris and I will make this a tradition every year to go. I would recommend it to everyone who wants to have a great time. If you want information picklevilleplayhouse.com.
Chris and I are very excited this year for Christmas. We are going to my parents house this year and get to be with all the girls. I thought this year I would start my Christmas shopping early so back in October I started shopping but know as Christmas gets near I realize I still have shopping to do! I think there comes a point when you have to just walk away from the Mall and say ENOUGH! I had a patient say that if we had unlimited money shopping would be easy and you could take your list and be done with it. Not for me if I didn't run out of money at some point I would never stop shopping.
On a different note some of you know that I have tried to have a little different Christmas this year by remembering Christ more. Well to be honest it is a little difficult. I like cute Christmas cards with Christmas trees, snowmen, Santa, etc. The card that remind us of the Savior are sometime way to over the top of awfully goddy looking. I was feeling bad because I ended up buying cards with Santa on them and said "oh well, I tried." Well today as I was writing Christmas cards I was using my book "I Believe in Santa" as my hard surface and I read it. I am so glad I did. The book talks about how so many people get frustrated by Christmas decorations going up in stores so early but she doesn't because they all remind her of Christ. Then she does a comparison of Santa and Christ. I love the book, I always have since our Sunday school student told us about it several years ago. I had just forgotten the wise words of it. Merry Christams.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2008-12-02T22:13:00.002-07:00

Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la la. We are so excited for Christmas this year. We gave Santa our list and now we just have to be good so we get what we want. We always joke around about being the Griswald's because of how we have to bring our tree home, strapped to the car. Our tree this year I think is the biggest except for when we chopped one down with Chris' dad. You can never tell how tall a tree is when the sky is the ceiling. Our tree this year was large though but it did turn out wonderful. I just hope it will stay alive until Christmas.

Some day I will have a designer tree. This will do for now.

The funniest news of all is that Chris was asked to be our ward Santa! I laughed so hard when he told me because he doesn't look one bit like him. Chris in skinny and bald. They gave him suit that looked like a dollar store suit (If I would have known that it was going to be that cheap I would have went a rented a nice suit.) He did great, he didn't rush the kids and I got lots of comments of what a good Santa he was. Now I am afraid that as long as we live here he will be the Santa. Next year though I will get the suit.

Tagged

2008-11-07T14:43:00.002-07:00

I was tagged. I had to pick the fourth folder and fourth picture and write about it. This is my little sister Cindrie. I took this a couple of years ago around her birthday. She is with her horse Spruce. All of my sisters ride horses, I am the odd ball. I played sports. To tell you the truth it scares me to ride. Cindrie is adorable. She is the youngest and she is also what keeps our family young. She plays the violin very well and I look forward to see how far she will go with the violin.

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T20:00:00.004-06:00

Well another Halloween has come and gone. Chris and I have enjoyed dressing up the last couple of years this year our ward had a Halloween party. There was a chili cook-off complete with cornbread and we put fritos chips in our chili and it was sooo good. They had some story telling and then a costume parade and it was time for every one to go trick-or-treating how they wanted, short and sweet. Chris and I decided to dress up as rodeo clowns this year it was fun and alot more comfortable than costumes past. Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

The perfect weekend.

2008-10-24T10:42:00.002-06:00

So another week has past. This week went especially fast for me. The other assistant at work was gone all week hunting which is just fine it just makes my days fly by. In the afternoons we had a sub and she did great so I got to slow down. I am refusing to let this weekend go by like the week did. Chris has Friday off so we are going to get things done around the house before winter comes and then we are going to just enjoy a rare moment of nothing to do!!!!!!!

The End of Summer As We Know It

2008-10-12T21:00:00.007-06:00

Well I guess I need to catch up a little bit since it has been two months since my last post. We have been busy but not terribly busy. We just do yard work and Chris has started school again. I know we have a long way still to go but, I look forward to graduation. I told Chris right after the ceremony (he is walking after all this effort) we are headed to SLC Airport and catching a plane straight to Kauai for two weeks regardless of whether or not we can afford it! Anyway life is still great. General Conference was last weekend. Chris was sneaky and took work off on Saturday so we were able to watch all four sessions and neither of us slept through it. When I watch conference I can't help but to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. On with the update. I cut my hair shorter which is what Chris likes, he prefers short hair just look at him...ha ha (by the way he is in no way going bald).

I finally got sick and tired of raking our yard. It would take about 2 hours of non-stop raking to get it done. My dad bought himself a new sweeper for the grass because his old one was having problems with the tires when the rocks would get stuck. I knew he was coming to visit so I said..BRING IT. What a life saver. No more raking. Plus it is a new toy for Chris. He loves his lawn tractor.

Pete was curious about what Chris was up to he follows Chris around in his pasture to make sure he has a good view of what is going on. He doesn't want to miss a thing.
The best news of the day is that our garden finally died!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a great gardener until about August and then I just want to quit. So when I knew it was going to start freezing I pretended like I had no clue and low and behold this is what I found the next day. Yipee!
I just have to have a picture of the easiest pet ever. We are trying to teach him how to sit.

You know I have heard people say that Cache Valley only has two seasons. Well I believe they are right. It snowed yesterday and today. So Merry Christmas! It went from summer to about a week of fall to winter today. However, it is supposed to go back to fall next week for a few days. Our mountains do look beautiful covered in snow but I don't even own a snow shovel yet and they are not even in the stores yet.

I have also been working on a family meal planner and I have been pureeing veggies to sneak into food. The problem is that it is impossible to sneak them past the cook so I try really hard to not remember. They have been turning out decent except I made banana bread with some cauliflower and it just didn't taste quite normal. I have also started Chris' scrapbook of his life. So I feel like I am doing quite well on the organization part of life for the time being. Well that is our story for now.

2008-08-05T18:56:00.000-06:00

You Belong in 1991

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Chris was 1996

S'mores Anyone

2008-08-03T21:59:00.002-06:00

We had such a good time camping that we decided to carry it over. We have a great fire pit at our house so we decided to make s'mores. Here is my famous s'more recipe. 1 large graham cracker broke in half to form a square. Symphony chocolate broken on one piece of the graham cracker. Roast marshmellows until brown. Place on chocolate to melt. Then enjoy.

1 Year Anniversary

2008-08-03T19:08:00.002-06:00

July 31,2007 started off like any other day and then I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize and heard Chris say "I was in an accident." He was rear ended by a big truck pulling a loaded horse trailer. He was flat on his back for a couple of months and took a med. leave from work. He is doing great now... a year ago I wouldn't have believed it...so we thought we should celebrate our health by challenging our bodies to a good ol' river run at Lava Hot Springs. We decided to make a small trip out of it and took our tent and camped.

Chris was not a happy camper in fact he was in a lot of pain and me being a paranoid wife wouldn't let him take too much pain killer for fear of dependency.

We forgot Chris' contacts and his glasses were way to nice to take down the river with out proper gear. Thank you "Chums" we bought floaties for Chris' glass. They really will float.
Despite what this photo says it really is not a "lazy river" it is complete with water falls and waves.
Just when you think you can relax for part of the trip. Whamo! A rock. You have to float this river with you hind end up or you hate it because at every wave there is a rock and it isn't that far below the surface and your butt will take a beatin. We still had a blast we did it 6 or so times before we were worn out.

More family reunion pics

2008-07-22T18:59:00.004-06:00

Cindrie would wait above the door and then pour water on you

Chelsey on the Slipn' slide

My cousins daughter London loves my mom.

Chantae and Kyle, who "took a wrong turn" on the way.

Finally, Grandma and Grandpa the ones who started all this fun.

Nash Family Whoo-ha

2008-07-22T18:13:00.004-06:00

My dear Aunt Susan passed away a little over a year ago, she was never married consequently, she never had a family of her own. She loved all of her extended family so much and she was truly involved and concerned about all of her nieces and nephews and supported us all. I think that one of her favorite times of the year was our family reunions. She loved a great family party and she new how to liven up the party. She was always in to gags. She was always involved. Before she passed away she set up a fund for reunions that way there could be no excuses any more. This was the first reunion since she passed away and I couldn't help but to think of her through out the weekend and I hope that we made her proud. All of us made it except for my uncle Blair's entire family. So great job Nash's. Here are pics of all the fun.

My dad and cousin Eric

Chris and I

You can't camp without S'mores

Ember on the slip'n slide

Emanuel and his daughter

July 4th

2008-07-22T18:06:00.003-06:00

July has been way busy for us this year. To start off we went to Idaho to hang out with my family over the 4th of July. Usually we go to Jackson Hole because they have the absolute best fireworks show. This year my parents didn't really want to go because the following week my mom was in charge of her family reunion, so off to Idaho we went. My Dad had some fireworks that he bought in Wyoming a couple of years ago and for all of you out-of-towners, fireworks that you buy in Wyoming are not usually legal in Idaho. A family that we grew up with were also having a party but they lived in town and couldn't light there fireworks so they came out. We had about 35 people out for fireworks. We had a great time that weekend. Hopefully, next year we return to JH.

Our New Home

2008-06-20T13:38:00.002-06:00

Well we finally made it. We have most of the boxes unpacked. Check out the pictures and see how absolutely wonderful it is out here. We can see all the mountains. It is so quiet that sometimes I freak myself out. We have a few empty spaces because there is so much room. We planted our garden now hopefully it will grow. Life is great.

2008-06-20T13:34:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Last Day

2008-06-13T08:15:00.002-06:00

Well, today is our last day in our apartment. I can't believe that we are finally going to move. Tonight we will load the truck so tomorrow we can just unload it. We are so excited. Our new furniture will also be delivered tomorrow morning and our garden is going to be tilled so now I will have to weed a garden. Needless to say we are excited. Keep an eye on the blog because I will share pictures of the whole thing.
Also, correction on the red gravy it is 2 Tablespoons of cayenne not teaspoons. Have a great weekend.

2008-06-06T08:32:00.003-06:00

Well today is Friday it is our favorite day because Chris goes to school in the morning and then he comes home and we hang out all day. I always have Fridays off which is awesome. Today is also Chris' last day of economics. YEAH! Next week he will start Math. YUCK! However on the bright side we have one week left until we move. We haven't started packing yet because if we do then we pull everything out of the closets, put them in boxes and then they are in the middle of the floor. Ken and Deb beware... it will be a disaster when you get here.
We have a fun kitchen store here in Logan called Love to Cook at Kitchen Kneads and they offer cooking classes. Last night I talked Chris in to going with me because it was taught by the owner of Callaways, which by the way is the best Italian restaurant in the world. We learned how to make several mother sauces and how to mix them to make their recipes that they use in the restaurant.

Here is their Alfredo sauce- 1 cup heavy cream, 1 stick unsalted butter, 2 cups parmesan cheese, 1/8 teas pepper, 1 pinch of nutmeg and the secret ingredient is a few drops of lemon juice. Reduce cream over medium heat. Add butter, will incorporate. Add parm, pepper, nutmeg. cook until smooth.

Now if you like spicy here it is. Red Gravy. Your can put this on anything from pasta to potatoes and roast meat with it, what ever.
1 cup olive oil, 20 cloves of garlic, cut lengthwise, 6 bay leaves, 2 cups chopped onions, 6 cups chicken stock, 6 cups tomato sauce, 2 T minced garlic, 4 tsp salt, 2 T cayenne, 2 tsp basil, 2 dried thyme, 1 tsp white and black pepper.
Place oil, garlic, and 4 bay leaves in a 4 qt pot sauce pan over med heat; brown garlic on both sides 2-3 min. Stirring constantly, don't burn. remove garlic add onion and saute until onion starts to turn brown 6-8 min. Stirring, Add remaining ingredients except tomato sauce and reduce by half. Then add tomato and simmer for 20-30 min. This will have a kick.

Add equal parts of alfredo and red gray and you get santa fe pasta

Hope everyone enjoys these recipes.

We just want to keep everyone who cares up to date.

2008-05-30T20:54:00.000-06:00

Hi to anyone who cares. Chris and I decided to start a blog to show all of you what we do on any given day. Some days are boring some are busy but most of the time they are pretty dang good. Chris is taking some summer classes up at USU while I just work as a dental assistant and I love my job... most days. In two weeks we are going to be moving in to a home that we are renting/house sitting while they are away for business in Mexico for 2-3 years. We have been doing a lot to get ready for this move. We bought our first piece of furniture, a beautiful sectional which led to another piece, an ottoman, then another, sofa table and we decided that we better quit until we save up more money. Furniture shopping is fun and addicting however I don't think that I have ever spent so much money in one week. We are excited be because Ken and Deb are coming to be with us while we move... we will try not to work them too hard. When we get moved in we will post some pictures of how great the place is.