Brian Head Weekend

We spent this past weekend at my parent's cabin at Panguitch Lake. Just a few weeks ago they finished a theatre room in the basement of the cabin. It is AWESOME and we watched several movies. The kids played outside a lot and everyone had fun. Tige somehow talked my dad and my brother into running the 1st Annual Brian Head 5K with him on Saturday. They raced at over 10,000 ft. elevation on a trail run which included rocks, branches, and a creek. We were proud of all of them for finishing. There were over 100 runners, and all 3 of our boys finished in the top half, with Tige finishing 18th overall. All smiles at the begininng of the race.

This is what the kids did during the race.

After the race, we had a picnic lunch, and then rode the ski lift up to the top of Brian Head. Abby liked it at first, but not so much as we got higher and it got more windy.

The fam at the top of Brian Head

We went back to Cedar City on Sunday where my sweet mom watched the 4 kids so we could attend the broadcast of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. There were many touching stories from the speakers, and I was glad we had the opportunity to go.

My Good Helper

The weaning process has begun. As of last week, I'm down to only nursing Abby one time each day (breakfast). It's been nice to have other people feed her for a change. Kason is my very good helper! He's such a good big brother.

A Day in My Life

And you might ask, "Julie, what do you do all day while your husband is at work and your son is at school?" Here is my answer.

(Warning: video not for the faint of heart.)

Enough said?

First day of Kindergarten!

Kason started kindergarten this week. His school is about 4 blocks down the street (a straight shot walking, and there's a crossing guard). I walked him to school his first day, and this was our conversation:
Mom, you don't have to walk me to school.
Yes, I'm walking you to school.
Mom, you don't have to walk me. I know where it is.
Yes, I'm walking you. I want to be sure you get to the right spot.
Fine, you can walk me ONE time.
No, I'm going to walk you for awhile.
Fine, you can walk me FOUR times.
etc.
When we were about 1 block from the school, it went like this:
Ok mom, quick kiss.
No Kason, I'm going to walk you clear to the school.
And when we got there, he gave me a quick kiss, and Abby a hug and kiss, and he was outta there. So exciting!

I walked home and didn't even cry and was so proud of myself. But when I walked in the door and Tige was there, I lost it and I think I cried 3 times in the next hour. I seriously can't believe my sweet baby boy is in kindergarten! I'm afraid I've lost my hold on him, and the safe, pure environment I've tried to create for him. He's going to hear words and phrases there that he's never heard at home. I hope he can make right choices. I hope he'll be kind. I hope I taught him enough . . .

(I am, however, quickly thinking up things to fill that 3 hours each day, so I'm sure I'll get over it quickly!)

His teacher trying to wrangle the kindergartners into a line.

In line, already making friends.

Swimming like a Fish

Today Kason finished the best swimming lessons. I signed him up for a small group lesson at our gym, but no other level 2 kids signed up for that time, so he ended up having 6 private lessons with the instructor named Stephanie. He got lots of great one-on-one instruction and progressed quickly. He learned how to do the front crawl and the backstroke, along with smaller things like treading, finning, breathing out the nose, kicking off with "superman arms," etc. Abby & I swam too while he did lessons, so we all had a good time.

Wednesday was Tige's birthday. It was not his most exciting birthday as he worked a really long shift that day and got home barely in time to tuck the kids in. But my mom was in town the day before, so she watched the kiddos while we saw a movie. I made a yummy ice cream cake with mint-cookie ice cream in the middle of the chocolate cake layers. We shared it with my mom and our neighbors since we didn't want to tackle it by ourselves. His present was his bike he got last week. (This of course counts for birthday and Christmas presents for the next decade!)

I caught Abby doing this yesterday. Thinking about trying to stand. I smell trouble!

Edible Playdough & Pesto Porkloin

I have some yummy recipes to share. I got both of these recipes from the Good Things Utah website. The first is edible playdough, which I made yesterday when my niece and nephew were here. They loved it and it tasted GOOD! I ate it right along with them. The 2nd recipe is for Pesto Crusted Pork Tenderlion, which I made for dinner tonight. It was moist and quite tasty. You're always looking for good recipe ideas, right?

Edible Playdough

1 white cake mix
1 stick margarine at room temperature
2-3 Tbsp water

Mix cake mix and butter. Add water 1 teaspoon at a time until you've reached desired consistency. (I used exactly 2 T). If you get it too sticky, you could add flour. Add food colorings and enjoy. Store in ziploc bags in the fridge (if there's any left).




Pesto Crusted Pork Tenderlion

1 pork tenderlion, trimmed of visible fat
1/4 cup classic pesto
canola oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat pork tenderlion with pesto sauce on all sides. Add canola oil to a large saute pan and heat over medium high heat until just smoking. Add tenderlion to the pan and sear the meat on each of the 4 sides until nicely browned (about 2-3 minutes each side).

Transfer meat to baking dish and place in oven. Bake until a meat thermometer placed into thickest part of meat registers 150 degrees. (They said this would take 10-15 minutes, but mine took over 25 minutes before it read 150 and the pink was gone).

While meat is cooking, make a little pan sauce by adding 1 cup chicken broth to the drippings in the pan you used to brown the meat. Scrape sides to get all brown bits to loosen from bottom and sides of pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer until sauce reduces by about half, stirring occassionally. Taste sauce and season as needed. Add butter and whisk until melted and combined. Strain through mesh sieve to remove the large bits.

Cut pork into 1 1/2 inch thick medallions. Place on plates and drizzle with the pan sauce.

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All of us liked this dish, even my 5 year old son. It was quick and easy. I'm always up for new recipes if any of you have a good one.

The Bike's here

The best day of Tige's life is finally here. His heart's desire arrived today in the form of a 2010 Trek Madone 4.7 road bike. He's been scouring the internet, magazines, and bike stores for about 8 months researching and planning what bike to get. He picked it up after work (along with the snazzy bike shorts and jersey pictured here) and has been grinning from ear to ear ever since. And he's been out riding for the past 2.5 hours while I got the kids to bed. Hmmmm, hope this isn't a sign of things to come . . .

I took a picture of his cute back side in his tight bike shorts, but promised I wouldn't post it. So I guess I'll stick by my word.

Abby Mischief

Don't let this sweet little angel face fool you! She's off and crawling and getting into all sorts of mischief!

She was doing this tonight by the stairs. She is crawling now and is fast and sneaky. I'll set her on the floor, and 30 seconds later when I look for her, she's gone--she'll already be in another room. Her favorite thing is to go into Kason's room as it's full of small toys just the right size to put in her mouth! Urgh. Any speck of paper, dirt, bug, grass, or whatever else on the floor, and she'll find a way to get it in her mouth. She's definitely entering a mischievous stage, but has such a sweet grin that I guess I'll put up with it! :)

Park Fun

My sis-in-law Melenie is here this week, so we got together with Clark's wife and took the kiddies to the park today. We had to go early to beat the heat, but they had a ball running around and playing together. Poor Melenie just chased Adam around the whole time while Char and I just got to watch our "big" kids take care of themselves. I sure wish there a way I could keep Abby a baby and so she won't ever get into that "chase-the-toddler-because-she's-getting-into-trouble" stage. Abby lovin' the swing!
Jeff's sweet boy

Clark's little princess

Clark's son and Kason