Home Sweet Home

This photo was taken on Monday afternoon during a rare moment of brotherly love.

It's been a few days since I posted. We have been keeping pretty busy. We are on the mend too! I'm feeling much better. Davin finished his antibiotics, so I sure hope he's feeling better. Weston's good to go. Ian has a cold, but is managing. Spring was in full force on Saturday with gorgeous sunny weather. We took the kiddos to the park around dinner time. It was packed, but we still had fun.

Yesterday we woke up to snow. Again. It was ok though because my parents stopped in for a quick visit! They went to Rexburg, ID to stay with my sister Melanie, but on their way back the spent Tuesday with us. We all went to the aquarium to see the penguins, then got lunch at Chick Fil A. By the time we got home Davin was more than ready for his nap. While the kids napped, Mom and I went to Macey's so that Mom could stock up on some food storage deals. When we got home it started snowing again. Crazy weather.

The rest of the afternoon we just hung around and played. The kids got read to. We played peekaboo with Davin. I made BBQ shredded beef sandwiches for dinner. They were yummy and easy! After the kids went to bed we played some Rumikub. Mom and Dad drove down to Provo after that to spend the night an hour closer to home. Today is their driving day, so hopefully it's going smoothly.
In other news, I am proud to announce that I bought my first ever rotisserie chicken at Sam's Club today! I have never de-boned a chicken and I'm not a fan of eating any kind of meat off the bone, so I usually stick with boneless skinless chicken breasts. I read an article about the ease of using a rotisserie chicken to start recipes on allrecipes.com the other day and wanted to try it. So I got the chicken home and just used my hands to peel off the skin, pull out the bones, and shred the meat. I was really surprised at how much meat there was! The bowl I got out for it wasn't big enough. I put enough for greek chicken pita sandwiches in the fridge, then froze the rest in 1 cup portions in ziplocs.

I have no idea if I did the right thing with the meat. Do you freeze it differently? Use it all? And most importantly. . .

What is your favorite recipe using rotisserie chicken?
I need some ideas!

Be Prepared

I am feeling very accomplished and peaceful this morning. Today I finally bit the bullet and started my food storage. It really, truly is just a start, but I have to start somewhere, right? My whole life being prepared has been an important topic of counsel from my church leaders and from my parents. For the past 6 years (since I have been married and responsible for my family) I have found excuses why I can't have food storage--it's too expensive, I have no place to store it, I don't know how to cook with it, etc. Well, with earthquakes hitting various parts of the globe with alarming frequency and pandemic scares, I decided it was high time I take a little responsibility. If other people can do it, then why not me?

Today I took advantage of some fantastic emergency preparedness sales and bought $100 worth of food storage. Here's what I'm starting with:
50lbs. flour
50lbs. hard white wheat
20lbs. long grain rice
24 cans corn
24 cans cream of chicken soup
24 cans sliced peaches
12 cans assorted beans
2 containers of iodized salt
1 #10 can honey cornbread mix
1 #10 can dehydrated chicken bits
1 5 gallon storage tub for the flour

Things I still want to add:
oil
sugar/honey
water drums
dehydrated beef jerky
dehydrated chopped onions
wheat grinder

Some of these items I will rotate regularly in my normal cooking, like the canned fruit, veggies, and soups. I will use the rice and flour in my regular cooking too. I will have to get/borrow a wheat grinder to use the wheat, but that's one of the things I want to learn. I also am interested to see if I can try making some regular recipes using the chicken bits. I'm sure this is extremely unimpressive to some of you pro food storers our there, but I'm still excited about our start and if you have any tips, recipes, or deals please email me!!!

Bath Time

I love this picture. Weston looks all well-groomed and upstanding. Davin not so much. His hair is mussed, and check out that dirty face! In my defense he played outside today and had just eaten the head of his chocolate bunny before he got in the bath. Davin loves his baths. Weston enjoys bathing too, but isn't quite as enthusiastic about it as Dav. When Davin hears the word bath he starts trying to pull off his shirt and run to the bathroom simultaneously. If he's crabby we try to plan a long bath.

Weston's finally old enough to think bathroom humor is hilarious. We have played letter games for years in the tub because of the foam letter toys. Well now he wants me to do the letters that have funny words. Like P is for poop. Or G is for gross. N is for nasty is his favorite because I make a face with it. I know that maybe I shouldn't encourage him to laugh at stuff like that, but I just think it's funny that he's such a boy about it.
Davin doesn't get what's so funny, but soon enough I'll be kicking myself because they will play this game in public. Speaking of Davin, poor kid is not feeling well. I did finally get him to hold down his double dose of antibiotic this morning. He has always had sensitive skin, but it's been mostly under control for about a year. Today he was itching and fussing. I took off his shirt during a diaper change and his back was splotchy and rashy. I slathered him with Cortaid after his bath. Any other sensitive skin suggestions? We are back to the doctor's tomorrow, so I will be sure to ask Dr. Sally (yes, we are on a first name basis with our pediatrician) about it. My fingers are crossed that Weston will get a clean bill of health at that appointment.

Incidentally, today was easier because I was feeling quite a bit better. Not 100%, but almost. I had energy to take the boys to story time at the library. It was a good day because the topic was bubbles. I had said that afterward we could go to the park. That was before I felt the chill factor in the wind. We still went to the park, but only stayed about 20 minutes. I also cleaned the house today. That hasn't happened lately, but it sure felt good to get it done. Go me! Tomorrow I will tackle grocery shopping.

What's Up

This week has been a little bit rough. I have spent time in at least one doctor's office every day this week so far. I might get a day off tomorrow, but will be back on Friday re-checking Weston's ears. I took Davin back in today to get his re-checked because he was coughing a ton last night. Turns out he now has a double ear infection rather than just one ear. Sheesh. Poor kid can't catch a break. I haven't been feeling well either. I've been having really pesky abdominal pain for a week. Boo. Hopefully we will all be feeling better for the warm weekend we have coming up.

Ian has had a busy week at work too. He came home last night for dinner and to help with baths and bedtime then went back into the office until about 1am. He is supposed to get home by kids bedtime tonight, so I'm expecting him soon. We have a Lost to watch tonight.

I'm reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It's really just so inspiring. It's making me not whine so much about the hard things in my own life. It also just is chock full of good advice and wisdom. If you are looking for a short read I recommend it.

I made shepherd's pie for the first time. I thought it was yummy. A bit too salty, but that is my fault. I put in too much Johnny's seasoning salt. Oops. It just worked out really well for using up the Easter dinner leftovers and was super easy.

Weston went back to school today and was very tired when he got home. He took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. Too bad Davin only managed an hour before his coughing woke him up.

I am loving my new Spring purse. It's fabric. It holds a lot. It has just the right length of strap. And it's kelly green. Bonus: my cell phone actually stays in the interior cell phone pocket.

I want In N Out, but I don't think it would make me feel better.

Clearance pricing+15% off entire purchase coupon+$10 off purchase coupon+tax rebate=total savings of $192.48 at Kohl's last weekend. It was fun.

I listened to the 30 second previews of almost every song from the Glee soundtracks and singles on itunes today. I gotta get me those songs. Such great car music. Plus the show returns next Tuesday. Can't wait!

I've had a few items on my to-do list for the last 3 weeks. Why can't I just get them done?!?

I've been on a Shirley Temple kick. I watched A Little Princess the other day. Then I found one I had never seen before, called Stowaway, at the library. It was pretty cute. Black and white. Davin watched it with me this afternoon. I sure love old movies.

What's up with you???

Easter Weekend

We kicked off the weekend with some egg coloring on Friday night. Weston was really excited about it. He did really well with gently putting the eggs in and didn't crack a single one. Davin just wanted to hold eggs the whole time. He also wanted to drink the dye. It wasn't his best year.

Saturday we had a yummy pancake and bacon breakfast followed by some Conference. I wasn't feeling great so I was laying down for the second half of the morning session. The kiddos both napped during the afternoon session, which was great. Ian and I got to watch the whole thing without interruption.

After the afternoon session our friends came over to do an Easter egg hunt. Weston was way excited for this. He had practically filled his entire basket before the little ones knew what was going on. He was very nice about it when I told him he was done and to let the little kids find the rest of the eggs.
Saturday night I took the kids to play at Arctic Circle while Ian went to the priesthood session of Conference. After Ian got home we had more friends over to hang out and we played Guesstures. It was a fun day.

We had a lovely Easter Sunday. Weston was up early, but I made him wait until Davin was up to hunt for his Easter basket. This was the first year that Weston's basket was hidden a little harder (not in plain sight). He still found it pretty quickly. The boys both dug into their candy, but Weston said his favorite thing from his basket was his two new books. I think Davin liked his Cars coloring book the best.

The boys both sat and watched the morning session of Conference with us. They played quietly with their new things and sort of did some Conference bingo. After the session we all went for a walk. It was good to get some fresh air. The kids napped through most of the afternoon session again. I loved Conference! So many great talks. It seemed like so much of it was just for me. I can't wait to re-read some of the talks when they come out in the Ensign.

I didn't want to make a ham for Easter dinner, so instead we had yummy grilled chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, grated baked carrots, deviled eggs, and canteloupe, with Martinelli's. It was a good meal. I think we all enjoyed the Easter weekend and the time together.

Enough.

Ok, enough griping about the weather. I'm done whining. The sun is out today (even though it's still cold!) and it is doing it's best to melt the snow. Yesterday I had good intentions of taking the kids on an outing, but the prospect of digging the van out of the snow did not sound good, so we ended up staying home.

Late in the afternoon I found out that my Aunt Joyce and my cousin Lance were in SLC for General Conference. I had already decided I didn't want to cook, so Ian was going to pick up some Olive Garden soup that I had been craving. It worked out perfectly that we went out to Olive Garden instead with Aunt Joyce and Lance! We had a nice time visiting and they came over to the house afterward for a little bit more of a visit. I always love to see my family when they come to Utah (so if you're my family, or friend, please call me when you are in town!).

Today we went to the mall to see the Easter Bunny. When we got there, there was no bunny in sight. Turns out the Easter Bunny likes to sleep in late and doesn't show up until 11. We passed the time browsing and playing at the dinosaur playground. When we were done playing we walked back to where the Easter Bunny visits kids. The line was really long. I almost reneged on my promises of sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap, but then I realized that I had nothing else to do today, so we waited. I had a nice chat with the girl in line behind me while she chased around her almost-1-year-old. Surprisingly, Davin seemed to like the Easter Bunny. I was worried since he was not a fan of Santa. The kids got bunny ears too.
We popped into Children's Place to get Weston a pair of sunglasses. He has outgrown all the pairs of baby ones that we have. You can't beat the deal on sunglasses there. His were $3.50, which is cheaper than Walmart and Target. The outing was completed with a stop at the gumball machines. This afternoon I have been cleaning the house and getting things ready for the weekend's festivities. I have to make one more quickie run to the grocery store when Davin wakes up, then let the fun begin!

April Fools!

Hardy har har. Day 2 of "Spring" break.

Can I just say I'm over living in Utah with it's never-ending winter?