ONE!

peekaboophotos

Oh G-Man! I can't believe your one.
It makes me sad, but you make me smile.

Cute things you're doing now that your one.

• Hold up a phone, and say "Dadda, dadda"
• Say in a whisper and pointing "Whas dat?"
• Say "Dayn Doo" when someone hands you food.
  

Giddy Up Partners!

Winter!

Sunday Jan 17

Today I'm grateful for:

• Sundays when Jimmy doesn't work - I finally didn't feel like a widow at Church.
  
• Babysitters - We hired a responsible young women to watch our kids last night, so we could go out to eat. She did a great job, I can't wait to hire her again. It still feels a little weird that I'm the one doing the hiring and not girl babysitting. But it made me feel so adult, and we really had an enjoyable evening out.
• Jimmy's chocolate-chip cookies - I love Sunday's when Jimmy is home, because the kitchen has a warm smell of freshly baked cookies.
• Freshly painted walls - This week we painted a wall in our kitchen, and a wall in Bryce's room. Its actually the first paint job we've done in our new house.
  
• Gov'ment (SNL spelling) rebate check - We finally got our 2008 rebate check, there was a delay because of the house. Anyway, I was able to spruce up our stock kitchen light fixture, with one a really love. I got it on Overstock.com and it was only $2 shipping.

The kids and I won't see Jimmy until the 29th, so this is a little shout-out to him. Miss you babe!

Craft Time Turned Body Art

One of my New Year's goals is to do Craft-Time with Bryce at least once a week (and maybe daily smaller projects). Well, we went to Target, picked out some washable paint. He wanted Red, Brown, and Orange to go in the bowl. I poured a little in. He had a big paint brush and an even bigger paper to paint on. (I used tape to tape it in place so it wouldn't move). He had a long sleeve shirt on, and the sleeves weren't staying rolled. So I said "let's just take your shirt off." Then I did something I shouldn't have. I multi-tasked. While, he was painting in a manner perfectly pleasing to me. I turned on some music, and went to gather the wet towels from the bathroom to put in the washer. That's all the time he needed. Bryce came in the bathroom, while I was still bent over picking up towels, and he said, "Look Mom - paint on my tummy." I picked him up. Took him outside for a picture, then we went back in the bathroom. Bryce went in the shower, and I told him. "That's the only time you get to put paint on your body." He said, "Okay Mommy." Next craft time will be 100% supervised. At least, it was on his tummy, and not my rug.

A little catch up

We're headed to Utah in a few days. I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't wait! Around here it seems January is flying by, and we were without internet for a couple days, so now I need to do a little catch up on posts before our trip. I wanted to share a recipe my sister-in-law shared in response to my last two recipe posts. Thanks Kristine!

Easy Alfredo Sauce ( A lighter Alternate to Regular Alfredo)

1/3 cup margarine

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and stir constantly until smooth. The sauce thickens as it cools. If it gets too thick, add a little milk to thin it to the consistency you like. Using a whisk to remove any cheese lumps that form is also helpful.

We've found that generic brand ingredients work great for this and we also leave out the salt. I double the recipe to feed our crew.

What's for dinner? Part II

On the heels of the last post, I wanted to tell you what else I made to go along with our Chicken Satay with Peanut sauce. The reason is because the chicken turned out yummy and so did the sauce. I left out the raw onion called for in the sauce. Then, I had a pineapple to eat. At first, I was going to make a dip to eat with it. But since we were grilling, I hurried and looked up how to grill pineapple. I found this recipe. It gave the dinner a little something extra to have grilled pineapple. I didn't put the ground pepper as the recipe calls for. I was looking for the sticky-sweetness of Brazillian grilled pineapple. The recipe is less sweet than Tucano's, but it was still good.

Our other side was from another great webbie source. We ate Sweet pepper rice found at ourrecipeclub.blogspot.com. I can also, highly recommend the enchiladas pictured. Yum.


I'm sorry if dieting is on your new year's resolution. Because I'm going to temp you to break it. My resolution is to learn to make the Top Secret's Recipe book version of the Bloomin' Onion. Thanks to my bro-in-law, Scott. I have a fun new recipe book full of restaurant favorites. Tell ya what. Don't break your resolution. Instead, find the tastiest healthy recipe and share it with me please.

In a nutshell here's my thankful list:

1. Grilling, dipping, and deep-frying
   
2. Eating Resturuant-type food at home
3. New Cookbooks/recipe sources
4. New Year's Resolutions - Speaking of that, I'm still narrowing down my other resolutions, and will post them shortly.
   

What's for dinner?

Today on my thankful list is good recipes and new sources for them. To me a recipe is good, when 1. I can follow it. (I'm not a master chef here). 2. It comes out deliciouso (Meaning it might fool someone into thinking I'm a cook). 3. The cheaper the better. (I try to spend $70 a week on groceries + $30 per month on food storage items).

Last night for dinner we ate Terry Griecos Kenny's Mother's Frittata recipe. That's a mouthful. Basically, I've saved a recipe from Women's Day magazine. The caption is what lured me to try it. "Mom raised seven(!) kids, and taught me how to feed a family fast and frugally."

You can click on the picture above to enlarge it, or I typed the recipe below.

Vegetables:

• 2 cups sliced zucchini
• 1 cup diced potatoes
• 1 cup chopped onion

Egg Mixture

• 8 large eggs
• 1 cup shredded part-ski mozzarella
• 1/3 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Toppings

• Heated marinara sauce
• Chopped basil

Directions:

1. Turn on broiler. Heat a Tbsp oil in an 11-12-in. nonstick skillet. Add Vegetables; saute 5 minutes or until almost tender.
2. Whisk Egg Mixture in a medium bowl. Pour into a skillet, shaking pan a bit to distribute evenly.
3. Cover and cook (without stirring), about 4 minutes over medium-low heat, until set on bottom and sides (it will still be runny in center).
4. Wrap skillet handle with foil. Broil 2 minutes or until center is firm. Serve out of skillet, or loosen edges and invert onto platter Serve with Toppings.
   
   

Tonight I'm trying TLC's "Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce." I've never made it before, but I have eaten it before (not this recipe). So I'll see how it goes.

Little Women

credit

Growing up my mom used to call us Louisa and her "Little Women." I didn't know why until the movie...which is still one of my favorites, especially at Christmastime. That's why this month I decided to read the actual book. I loved every second of it. Mostly because reading about the March sisters felt like I was reading about myself and my 4 sisters. I laughed as I saw corresponding personality traits. From pretty Amy (Brenna) touring France, to sweet Beth (Becky) whose health troubled her, and of course Marmee who is Leslee. Period. Always doing something for someone else, and nothing pleasing her more than to have her daughters be friends. Beyond similar personality traits however, I was cracking up over life lessons illustrated perhaps more in the book than in the movie. How these girls tried so hard to be grateful...indeed they had much to be grateful for in terms of friends, and talent, respect, and their greatest treasure family. But every-time they determined to be "happy pilgrims" and carry on, some other worldly nicety plagued the young girls. Oh, how I relate. I may not wish for a pair of white gloves so that I may look proper at Sallie Moffats party, but as I was grumpily picking socks and towels off the floor told Jimmy, "I wish I had Sallie Moffats servants." He couldn't help but laugh, and I let a smile too. Well, I don't have servants, but I do have the cutest 2 boys in the world. So I'm signing off to pick up towels and socks, and everything else on my floor. Happy New Years Eve. And if reading a good book is on your new years resolution list, may I recommend Little Women.

Merry Christmas!

Opening presents under the tree.

Two guesses what Bryce got for Christmas.

Here's an excerpt from my journal:

I'm reflecting on all the packages our loved ones sent us. It actually gave me the chance to meet our postman as he daily delivered parcels and postcards. As he handed me one such package, he observed, "You guys are going to have quite the Christmas." And so we did. To paraphrase President Monson, (the prophet of our church) "If we want to feel the spirit of Christmas, we need to only seek the spirit of Christ." I have felt love and peace in my heart as we taught the Christmas story to Bryce. Listened to inspiring talks, imagined choirs of angels combining with our church choir, participated in sub-for-Santa projects, and simply tried to be more patient and kind. I'm sad to see the season pass. I do look forward though to a new start with the beginning of a new...decade.

Gingerbread houses and flannel pjs

We had a fun Christmas Eve Eve get-together with our friends the Baughs. This is the decorating gingerbread houses festivities.

Then later we did our Christmas Eve tradition one night early since Jimmy is on call tonight. We opened one present each from Grandma Joanne, and Grandma and Grandpa Woolstenhulme...flannel pjs!

Bryce's Candy Cane

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Festivities!

via

• Mesa LDS Temple - The Christmas lights here are spectacular, they have outdoor concert choirs too. My favorite is the palm trees, and the grapefruit trees loaded with citrus this time of year sparkling and light up with lights. It's a living Christmas tree with edible decorations!
  
  
• Ribbon - This time of year, I rekindle my love of ribbon and wrapping paper.
  
  
• Apple Turnovers - I'm looking forward to our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of bacon and apple turnovers.
  

Christmas Sweater Party

Hello Christmas 2009!

Jim's co-resident invited us to their annual Christmas sweater party. We had so much fun. But since we don't own Christmas sweaters we wore the next best thing, our hand-knitted stockings! Which leads me to my thankful list:

• Aunt Eileen knitting all of our stockings
• Parties! - We had so much fun Danielle and Brandon
  
• Babysitters - Thanks again to Joel and Jill, we owe you.
• Yummy soup and salad - Jim and I both went back for seconds
• White Elephant Gift Exchange - Always good for a laugh and an ice breaker
  

My friend, Lindsay's Christmas card a couple years back said, "Oh the weather outside is...75 and sunny!" I think that fits since we're putting up decorations with short-sleeves on. I don't mind it one bit.

Vistitors & Oreos

• Visitors – Last night I got a call from my cousin Joe Woosltenhulme, who said he and his family were in town for a conference. We were able to have a BBQ together today and have our kids play together while they went to the Mesa Temple.
  
  
• Wild West – While we loved our time in St. Louis, one reason we were happy to make our way to the wild west is just so we could live closer to family and more frequent visitors.
  
  
• Small World – Speaking of St. Louis, I just found out that someone in our Church boundaries down here is the sister of a friend from St. Louie. What's funny, is that prior to finding this out, I thought to myself, I want to be friends with Sarah because she reminds me of Emily.
  
  
• The Adams Family – We're sad to see Koston, Jak, Penny, Chelsey and Daniel move to Cali though. We were spoiled to live by them in St. Louis and then again in Arizona for a time. But all I can say is Beach Trip!
  
  
  
  
• Oreos – Brianne and Brandon saw these decadent chocolate-covered oreos at a cute boutique in Redlands. Brandon had the idea to make their own and give them out for neighbor/friend/teacher gifts. Bri asked me to make a label similar to the ones in the picture. After doing so, I decided I want to give them out too! If you also want to jump on the chocolate-covered Oreo gift train, I'm happy to swap your name on the label. Just leave a comment or email me with what you want it to say. Then I'll email you a pdf you can print on a full sheet label paper.
  
  
  
  
  

A little list

As my Christmas wish list, and to-do list grows, I'm going to try and be good at keeping my Thankful list up-to-date.

• Relief Society Christmas Program – I enjoyed beautiful musical numbers and Christmas stories, and yummy gingerbread cake with hot chocolate sauce last night.
  
  
• Give and Take Table (at the afore mentioned bullet). They had a table for people to donate gently used items, and you could take them. I got a cute pair of green heels that probably were never worn!
  
  
• Hot Showers - I'm fully appreciating these next two items because the weather is cooling off and it actually gets a bit chilly in the morning.
  
  
• Hot Chocolate - delicious
  
  
• Christmas Stories - AT the Christmas party last night they read, among other, a story call the "Last straw" by Paula McDonald and then gave us each a little manger with straw. You can read the story here, and order here. I'm going to read/tell it to my family so we can add pieces of straw to our manger like in the story.