Some water fun

While we were up North for the temple open house, we also took the kids to Cowabunga Bay water park.  We took Cole Cable with us and he and Kason had a blast.  They ran around together while Tige and I chased after our 2 little ones.  It was very busy when we were there.  The lazy river was wall to wall people.  You couldn't move and had to wait forever for a tube.  I didn't realize at the beginning that the big buckets drops a ton of water, and Taylor almost got it.  Good thing I realized at the last moment and saved him. 

 

 

 We also stopped at Tige's mom's cousin's house for a big family reunion with people we haven't seen in a long time.  The house was enormous, the biggest house I've ever been to and the pool and yard were out of this world.   The kids had a marvelous time swimming and we enjoyed and yummy lunch visiting with family.

Kason and the high-dive platform.

 Rope swing

Tige and his mom's cousin, Mark Morley.  They served their missions together in Chile and then lived together at college before Tige and I got married.

I Love to See the Temple

A few years ago when Utah had two new temples, I said to Tige "the next time a temple is built in Utah, we need to take the kids to the open house."  And here we are at the open house for the Brigham City Temple.  We took a weekend and went up just for this.  We parked a ways away and rode a bus up to the temple. There was a short video, and then we got to walk through the whole thing.  There were lots of stairs and we were worried Taylor would be difficult, but the kids were good.  The inside of the beautiful was beautiful and it was so enjoyable to be there just with my husband and kids.  I wanted to just stand there and hug them in the celestial room, but we couldn't because I didn't want to hold up the line.  I'm so glad we took the time to go.

I pointed this cornerstone to Kason, so when we see the prophet put mortar in the holes at the dedication, he'll remember we were there.

Happy B-day Daddy!

We had a theme for Tige's birthday this year, it was an IRONMAN birthday.  I was really excited about his presents, and couldn't wait to give them to him.  They had been burning holes in my hiding places for more than a month. 

He got some Ironman cologne.  There really is such a thing.  My mom told me about it after his race in May, and I knew he had to have some, no matter how it smells.  After all, he IS an Ironman.

I made him a hard-bound keepsake book of his race.  I bought the packet of professional pictures, so it has some really great pictures in it, as well as Tige's own words about the race. 

And the big one was this frame with 3 of the professional pictures, his bib, his medal, and an engraved plaque at the bottom.  He was surprised and loved it.  It's hanging in our bedroom and looks great.  It was very well wrapped in bubble wrap, and the kids had a hey-day popping it all (while Toffee doggie quaked in fear).

My parents came to town Saturday evening and we went out to dinner with them.  After trying 6 babysitters, we ended up having to take the kids to dinner with us.  We had a nice time and then came home and got in a quick game of Euchre before hot fudge cake & waffle cone crunch ice cream.  Yum!  Happy Birthday Tige!  We sure love you.

Mom the MasterChef!

Yesterday Tige told me he wouldn't be home from work until around 7:00, so I wasn't planning on making anything for dinner (just corndogs for the kids or sandwiches or something easy).  He ended up having his last case cancel, so he came home and grabbed the kids and said "let's go to Harmon's at pick up some groceries for dinner!  Mom will have to use the ingredients we buy to make our dinner!"

Do you watch MasterChef or Chopped on TV?  If you don't, you should.  They ROCK!  Anyway, Tige apparently thinks I'm a better cook than I really am.  He comes home from the store, and puts his "mystery box" ingredients under a towel.  He brings me over to the kitchen and unveils the ingredients I'm supposed to magically make a dinner out of!  He had:

The most beautiful, stunning chicken breasts (said with Gordon Ramsey's English accent)
crumbled bleu cheese
parsnip
chayote squash
cactus pear
a loaf of bleu cheese walnut bread
asian pear
greek yogurt
shallot
shitake mushrooms

Huh?  What the heck?  A cactus pear?  Parsnip?  Chayote squash?  I thought he was insane.  But I put my brainstorming to work, and came up with an AWESOME dinner if I do say so myself.

I pulled some bacon & spinach out of the fridge, cooked and crumbled the bacon, chopped up the spinach, and mixed them together with the bleu cheese crumbles, and folded them inside the chicken breasts (sealed with a toothpick).  Then I took the bread and pulsed a few pieces in my blender to make bread crumbs.  I dipped the chicken breasts in egg, then dredged them in the bread crumbs, browned them in a pan and finished them in the oven. 

I got some carrots from the fridge and put them in a roasting pan.  Then I chopped up and added the parsnip, chayote squash, and shallot.  Drizzled with olive oil, salt, green peppercorn & some nutmeg and popped them in the oven.  At the end I sauteed the shitake mushrooms and added them to the veggies.  They were SOOOO good.  I have never eaten parsnip or chayote squash before, but we ate the whole pan of veggies.  Kason was an especially good veggie eater this time.  I was amazed.

As for the 2 weird pears, I cut them up and put them in a dish along with a peach and mango I had.  I coated them with the greek yogurt and then made a "crumb" topping out of flour, sugar, brown sugar, butter and a few spices.  Then we cooked it for about 20 minutes or so.  Turned out like a cobbler and was actually quite good.

My kids loved this adventure.  Kason said it was my best dinner ever.  I love when he says that!  My kids are good eaters.  Anyway, Tige is funny.  I don't know where he comes up with these ideas.  He was my sous chef and did whatever I told him to and cleaned up after me.  I was proud of my spontaneous dinner using weird stuff. 

Abby's Room

Abby's has a new room!  It's been a long time coming.  She's been sleeping in her crib with the railing off like a "day bed."  I bought her this cute floral/stripe bedding about 6 months ago, and have been trying to find a bedroom set that I really liked that wasn't $1,000.  I was after white furniture to go with her white dresser and our white closet doors and trim, but I've been looking for months.  I've been to every store in town, plus looked online and just couldn't find the right stuff.   I've also been checking online yard sales and craig's list.   Then a few days ago I ran across this "hot pink" furniture.  I dismissed it at first, but after thinking about it for a day or 2 and showing it to Tige, we decided to go see it.  I took the bedspread to see how it would match, and it looked pretty good.  So we snatched up the furniture and I was releived my search was finally over.

It included bed with headboard and footboard, a night stand, and a desk with an attached mirror and chair.  I didn't really need the desk set, but thought it was cute anyway.  After getting the furniture, we went to Costco to buy a mattress while they were on sale.  It didn't come with a box spring though.  Abby was in smallest room of the house, so we decided to do a grand shift of the bedrooms moving all of Taylor's stuff into her small room and moving her into Taylor's room. 

My friend Cathy was over for lunch and I showed her the new stuff out in the garage.  She said "well let's get busy! I love this kind of stuff."  I thought she was completely nuts.  I mean, who would want to disassemble 2 rooms and switch them around.  I was so overwhelmed even thinking about it, and of course, Tige gets growly about this type of thing too.  I said "I don't even know where to start!"  Cathy said "we'll empty Abby's room, vacuum and clean it, move Taylor's stuff over, then vacuum and clean his, and move all Abby's new stuff in."  She was like a champion--using Tige's tools to take apart cribs and rehanging pictures, etc.  We finished everything in less than 4 hours.  I swear it would have taken me 2 weeks without her!  Tige came home in the middle of the project and couldn't believe his eyes.  We sent him to DI for a boxspring.  He came back with one that was only $15.  So $119 for a brand new mattress at Costco, and $15 for the boxspring.  Awesome!

Anyway, here's the room.  I LOVE it!  I smile everytime I walk by.  It's cuter than I ever imagined in my head.  I was nervous about that hot pink, but it matches perfectly and is darling.

Here's the bedding, and nightstand and the striped curtain.  The lamp is front her nursery set, and the white basket in the nighstand was a baby gift from my Aunt Tricia and used to hold her hair stuff in the bathroom.  It was perfect to put in the nightstand. 

Here's the desk with mirror and chair.  It has white hardware.  Those 3 ballerina wall hangings were for Abby's nursery that my mom made when she was born.  I loved them and didn't want to part with them.  I decided to hang them up anyway even though they are a little pastel.  They look great.  Kason says "now Abby has a lego table too!"  He gave her a few legos to assemble on her new desk, but I took them back to Kason's room.  I only want 1 million lego pieces in ONE room in our house, thank you very much.

This is the dresser she already had.  The rod was already on the wall from a previous wall hanging, and Cathy just slipped my "A B B Y" letters onto the rod.  So cute!  I would have just pinned with up with T-pins and never would have even thought of hanging them from the rod.  Again, I was so glad she was there to help me.

The temple picture I made for Abby for Christmas.  With it's white frame and hot pink lettering, it looks even better in here than her previous room.  The little flowers on the wall are vellum stickers from WALMART!  What a find. I was planning to buy multiple colors of vinyl and cut flowers and designs on my cricut (hello, TON of work), when I ran across these stickers at Walmart shortly after buying the bedding.  They were perfect!  Tige & Abby helped us stick them up.  They are all over the room.  "Way better than painting!" Tige said.  Yeah, babe.  I knew you'd say that.  Which is why I got the stickers.  ;)

Here's the little Miss in her new big girl bed.  No peeing allowed please!

Here's a closer picture of the desk. 

We are all excited about  the room.  It looks so cute and definitely fits Abby's personality.  Now if we can only keep it clean!