CHEFS

I have found the trick to getting my girls to try something new at dinner without throwing a HUGE fit!! The trick is to have them HELP cook! Sounds simple right? Well, it is. As stated in my previous post - my girls are obsessed with cooking lately. We've been recording the 10 Dollar Dinners show on Food Network. The host is the recent winner of The Next Food Network Star. We like her at our house & are loving her new show. We've tried two of her meals now & have been happy. The first one we tried was her North African Meatballs with Couscous & Glazed Carrots. I've never even heard of Couscous before! So, this was a stretch for us. The girls were so excited to help & were actually a huge help to me!

Here's the girls hamming it up.... Kylie's making her studeous chef face & Jadyn's actually just laughing! (And yes, I made them cook in their PJ's.)

Here's the finished product....

I would highly suggest this meal. It had a bit of a bite to it which I loved. It was yummy & very good for us to try something out of our element!

I did omit a coupe of things from the recipe though if you try it out. Obviously, I don't keep wine around my house, so I just didn't use that part. It still turned out great I think. Also, if you're not a fan of spicy things I'd use maybe half the amount of red pepper. (We used the full amount.) I also didn't use the dried dates in the Couscous & it ws just fine.

Jadyn even asked for seconds! Erik wasn't the biggest fan, but he doesn't care for beef much anymore. I tell ya - this diabetic apetite is gonna kill me. He doesn't like anything anymore. Oh well! At least it's under control.

Last night we tried her Chicken a l'Orange & it was pretty darn good! Check out her site for some good recipes.....

10 DOLLAR DINNERS

BON APETIT!!

FIRSTS

This post is late in so many ways!! And contains two very non-related topics, but here it is....

Last weekend was the first time I was able to meet my newest nephew! Little Memphis D Hallows was born on July 29th weighing in at 8 lbs 5 oz. Congrats to Rennie - oh & Luke :) - on the newest addition to their darling family!

I was waiting on pins & needles for this little guy to show up. And he was just as cute as expected. As his mom would say, "He's a little Dude!" And he is! Here's a pic of Kylie holding him...

As stated above his name is Memphis. I've told his mom for months that his middle name needs to be Raines. But, she didn't go for it. I, however, will still be calling him Memphis Raines! :) (It's the name of Nicholas Cage's character in Gone in Sixty Seconds & is one of my favorite movies!)

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We had another first just a few days later. For the first time EVER I allowed my girls to make cookies all by themselves. Sure, it was no bake cookies, but still a test of my patience since I'm a control freak. I really did nothing but stand in the background & make sure they were measuring correctly & not burning themselves on the stove top.

Here's the final product...

They did so well!! They were just divine & didn't last long! My girls are obsessed with cooking lately (thanks to the Food Network shows we watch). They're always wanting to cook & I figured this would be something easy to start with. We'll see what they can graduate to later on. For now, this was great!

SCHOOL BEGINS

Yesterday was the first day of school!! I am not the normal mom when it comes to school beginning. I don't sit around & cry. Jadyn started 1st grade yesterday - which means she goes to school all day now & I did the happy dance! I've been waiting for school to begin so I can sit in peace & watch Twilight. Everytime I've tried to watch it the last few months things happen & I never get to finish it. So, yesterday was my day to sit in peace! Well, Erik came home & I didn't get to finish it. Maybe today. At least I was able to get my house organized. (OK-just the front room & kitchen. And, of course, it's already trashed!) We also got our microwave fixed! It's been broken for a couple of months. We haven't really missed it, but it will be nice to have it again. Anyhoo, here's some photos of our first day of school...

Kylie the 4th grader...

Jadyn the 1st grader...

These are Jadyn's shoes. I had to post a picture of these because I LOVE LOVE LOVE these shoes!! Did I mention I LOVE these shoes?! They have glittery chandeliers on them & they're Converse. Gotta love this find in the clearance area at Tillys.com!! Unfortunately, they only had one size, so I was unable to get some for Kylie. But, lucky for us, at least the size fit one of my girls!!

My girls with their cheese ball faces...

My girls doing what they do best. Singing their hearts out to Paramore's "That's What You Get" on the way to school!!

They had a great day. They're excited to have the teachers they have. We're blessed to be able to attend such a wonderful school!!

BOUNTIFUL BASKETS

Thanks to my lovely sister-in-law Rennie I just found out about this. Maybe this is old news, but I'm sharing it anyway. There's a great program out there called BOUNTIFUL BASKETS. This past weekend was my 2nd time participating. (There was a couple of weekends that I was out of town.) You pay $15 for a basket full of "goodies". Half the basket is fruit & half the basket is veggies. You never know what you're going to get. Which makes it kind of fun! The above picture is what I got this week. Here's a list of what I got...

1 head of romaine lettuce
1 bunch of spinach
2 heads of broccoli
1 bunch of green onions
1 bunch of raddishes
1 bunch of celery
7 bananas
1 carton of grape tomatoes
1 carton of strawberries
2 cartons of raspberries
8 pears
11 peaches

The first time I participated I got nectarines, cherries, a bag of potatoes, bananas, plums, a bag of carrots, celery, white onions, lettuce, etc...

I am amazed at what I get for $15! You can also add some "extras" to your order. Such as bread - which I pass on. :) The first time I placed an order I ordered an extra box of cherries & an extra box of nectarines. I canned the nectarines & froze the cherries. Every week something different is offered. This is my new favorite thing!! Make sure to check it out (if you live in AZ or UT)....
bountifulbaskets.org

GIRLS CAMP

LOS ALTOS WARD GIRLS CAMP 2009

Being in the Young Womens program I had the priviledge of helping with & attending Girls Camp this year. It was a blast! We have a small group, but were so excited that we had a large group show up for camp. It was a ward camp & we had 7 girls come. That's wonderful for us considering we have maybe 2 girls that attend church & maybe 3 that attend mutual each week. We had a wonderful camp director that had things so organized for us.

We had fun getting to know each other, making scripture tote bags, making journals, going on a short hike...

& endless amounts of friendship bracelets...

And that was just the first day & a half. The second day was spent having a "beauty" day. (After our early morning hike.) We made bath salts & lip gloss & had make up tips from our camp director Liisa. We also gave the girls assignments & budgets to shop for & cook dinner for the Bishop. Bishop came up later this day & gave us a devotional, played his guitar, sang songs & played games with us after a wonderful dinner prepared by the girls. Nothing better than playing "Squeel Piggy Squeel" with the bishop & his wife. HI-larious!! Saturday morning came a scavenger hunt & clean up time. All in all it was a WONDERFUL time!

The above picture is in here just for fun. Bonnie is our YW President & one of the coolest ladies ever. She's so fun! We were laughing hysterically at this & I honestly don't even remember why. Just that something was so funny & we made Erik take a picture of us squatting over the dutch oven dinner! Fun times, fun times....

MONTICELLO PART 2

The next morning was Saturday & the big day in Monticello. Apparently, they have a big celebration every year for the 24th. Only they waited to celebrate it on Saturday the 25th. The day began with a pancake breakfast at the Lion's House in town. (Which we missed - it was so early & we had a HORRIBLE night's sleep.) After that was the parade. Always a highlight for kids & our kids were so happy that we didn't miss it sleeping in. Lucky for us, it didn't start until 11 am. Almost every "float" (it was a small town parade - mostly people riding quads, etc.) threw out candy to the crowd. Luckily, my girls wanted to wear their hats, so they were able to gather candy in their hat. They even had the fire truck spraying & cooling off the crowd. They had a line of tractors at one point & I had to take a picture of every one. I knew I had to get pictures of them for my nephew Carter who loves tractors. This one was the coolest...

And what small town parade is complete without the unicycle? (Although, these are pretty crazy!)

After the parade we walked around their little festival for awhile. They had food booths & a few vendors. It was crazy crowded - I guess people come from neighboring towns for the festivities. We saw the booth for fried candy bars - have you seen those? Basically anything can be fried. Even a dill pickle. Weird, eh? I wanted to try a fried Ding Dong. Ha! We told ourselves we were going to try it after we ate something, but then we forgot. We were so mad later when we remembered. That's just not something you see everyday.

We then headed to our meeting spot again & were able to hang out a little with my cousin Terry & his wife Brooke. Along with their kids. Their daughter was so stinkin' cute! I wanted to eat her up. She was not shy - which fit right along with my girls! Check out this cutie...
This family was the main reason I wanted to come to the reunion. Sure, I was excited to meet everyone, but it's been years since I've seen my cousin Terry Jr. My Uncle Terry Sr. came as well, but unfortunately my Aunt Vi & other cousin Tim couldn't make it. They live across the country, so it makes getting together difficult. Here's a pic of me & my cousin..

I spent a lot of this afternoon helping my Granddad scan pictures. My Uncle Terry brought some albums with pictures I've never seen. My Granddad was nice enough to sit & scan things for me so I could have copies of them. While I did this my sweet Aunt Vee played with my girls. She made bracelets & necklaces with them & they even had a little drawing lesson with her in the backyard...

At this point everyone was taking off & doing their own thing. We went for a little drive up the mountain & found a look out point that overlooked Dead Horse Point in the Canyonlands. Erik having fun with the camera...

The look out point had these cool poles with plaques saying "Dead Horse Point", etc. When you looked through the metal pipe then you were looking directly at the spot that the plaque said. There were 4 or 5 of them & I thought that was a cool idea. Again, something I had never seen before. (I had a lot of firsts this trip!) Kylie looking through one of the pipes...

I'm sad that I don't have any group shots. Somehow I ended up being the designated photographer for geneoly purposes, so I have a lot of headshots of everyone, but no fun group shots. Other than this said tale - it was a fun trip! According to my Granddad this may be the first of many reunions. I hope so!

MONTICELLO PART 1

For the 24th of July we headed up to Monticello, UT for a Carroll family reunion. My Granddad Carroll & his brother quickly pulled together a reunion & I was excited to go! This is my Mom's dad & a side of my family that I don't know very well. It was fun to meet people & to see some I haven't seen in years. We were one of the first to arrive into town. My Granddad pulled into town close after us, so we decided to meet at the temple & we would follow him to where we needed to go. It was fun to walk around & it was the first time I had been to a small temple. It was small, but really pretty!

The first night we just hung out & had dinner up the mountain. My Great Uncle Bob's kids all had rv's & were camping on the mountain. We headed up to them for dinner.

The next morning we headed to Uncle Bob's & Aunt Vee's house for breakfast. (This was our general meeting spot.) After breakfast was the "geneology time". While I uploaded pictures, etc. for my Granddad the girls had fun playing outside. My Great Aunt Vee has an awesome garden (at her neighbors house because her beautiful flower garden backyard ran out of space) & she let the girls go pick cherries, apricots & apples. As sad as it is - I was excited about the cherry trees. I'm not a fan of cherries, but I've never seen a cherry tree before. Ah - the little things in life!

After breakfast & geneology time was over we headed up with my Mom & Alan to the Arches in Moab. Yet again, another thing that I've never seen. I have to say - it was cool, but for some reason I was thinking things were bigger & closer. We didn't do any hiking, so I guess that probably made the difference. Don't get me wrong, it was still neat - just not what I had envisioned. Delicate Arch....

After the Arches we drove by the temple again really fast to show my Mom & Alan. Next to the temple was this awesome field full of wheat stalks & sunflowers. I was all excited to get some cute pics of my girls - but, of course, my battery in my camera died. (Alan took some - maybe my Mom needs to email them to me - wink wink!! :)) I did however get this cute pic of my Mom in the field....

Seriously, this pic doesn't even do the field justice. It was so cool! I'm tempted to make the 7 hour drive again just to do pictures here. I loved it!! After the temple we headed back to our meeting spot & had dinner with everyone. I laughed so hard at my Mom's cousin Kevin. He has a very contageous laugh & funny stories to go with it!