Lil' Shiner

While closing her eyes and being led through the house by her little sis, Rylie collided with one of the rock columns in our front room. Ouch! I don't think there's a single one of us who hasn't met the same fate with those darn columns! She hit the side of her eye, but of course the blood pooled under her eye to give her a nice lookin' shiner! She gets asked about it where ever we go. I swear a lady at the grocery store gave me a dirty look when she commented on it. I felt like saying, "Yeah! Serves her right! She won't back talk ME again!" Darn it! I wish I had said that! Oh well. Rylie doesn't seem to know how cool it is to have a black eye. I'm pretty sure Sam is way jealous and wishes he had one too. My first shiner came when I was about 5. My dad and brothers were playing baseball and I wanted to play so badly! They put me in the catchers position in an attempt to make me feel like I was playing but still keeping me out of the way. I squatted down and put the mitt right in front of my face and was ready to catch anything that made it past the batter. One of the pitches flew past the batter right into my mitt smashing my own hand into my eye. Ouch!

Y not Provo?

So we did most of our Memorial Day festivities on Saturday since rain was forecast for Monday. We ventured down to Provo and went to the Provo Farmer's Market. I love little town markets like that. The kids played at the playground and then we bought some Navajo Tacos, but pretended they were elephant ears and topped them with cinnamon and sugar instead of taco stuff. We had never been up to the "Y" so at the last minute we decided we would hike up to it. Here you can see our little trail runner! You must admit she has quite an athletic form for being only two:

Here's a view of Provo from the Y. You can see the Provo temple and the MTC from this shot:

Perched on the top of the Y. Unfortunately the Y is too big to get it in a picture:

This is what daddies are for:

After our hike we went to our favorite bakery in Provo and picked up the best cupcakes ever! The kids never know which kind to choose from their tasty variety, but you just can't go wrong here!

Junkyard!

The third graders got to create mini golf "holes" for a project. They were told to use simple machines to make them...like inclines and teeter-totters. Sammy's mini golf course had a junkyard theme. Sam designed the thing! Aaron ripped apart an old lawn mower and used random things they found in the garage (not really a junkyard, but that's OK) and they built a super cool course. They used a pulley system. I thought it was quite ingenious! I lugged it to school and for most of the day Sam got to show his schoolmates how to use it as classes filed through the gym ready to golf. He loved every minute of it.

little graduate

So long preschool...

...kindergarten, here I come!!!

running....hurdle front walkover...

Little AR-TEEST

Rylie got a whiteboard/chalkboard for her birthday. She spends a lot of time drawing. I love child art! Here are some of her masterpieces:

Rylie & Mommy (I love my long legs):

Sam & Kaeli:

Princess Castle complete with mote and princess and prince walking in on drawbridge:

Daddy (must have had a red bull) & Rylie:

Grandpa & rylie:

Sew creative...

I Made this apron on Tuesday morning for an Enrichment activity. We did a service auction and this was my entry. I ended up purchasing two different baby sitting gigs and a haircut :-) Yeah! It was a fun activity. A few sisters wanted to buy some aprons from me. Little creations like these are fun for me to make the first time, but then it gets tedious. I guess I need to decide if it's worth a little extra mula.

Look Who's FIVE!

Rylie Jane (aka: "Jelly Bean") had a GREAT DAY yesterday! She was pretty sure she woke up bigger. She just doesn't look like a four year old any more. The past five years have flown by! Rylie is super spunky, quite fiesty, very silly, and also incredibly sweet. She is very perceptive and can also be very head strong, which I think will serve her well in years to come :-)

The night before her big day, Rylie told me she wanted a ladybug cake. So I made this, and you'll notice it has a spot for each birthday:

the AFTERMATH...

These shots were taken this morning before preschool:

Rylie is bringing me sunscreen in this picture. She went on a field trip this morning to the fire station and park. Preschool is so cool! It made sense to her to wear RED since she was going to the fire station. You know you gotta match the firetrucks!

Rylie Jane through the years...

1 week old:

1 year old:

2 years old:

3 years old:

4 years old:

This morning...5 years old:

a day for women

I had such a wonderful Mother's Day! Aaron and Sam brought me breakfast in bed (chocolate chip pancakes and juice)! And of course, as any Latter-Day Saint woman knows, Mother's Day at church is the BEST! The primary kids (ages 3-11) sang in sacrament meeting and then flowers were given to each woman. For lunch and dinner I wasn't allowed to step foot in the kitchen. So I curled up on the couch and read! Aaron made me one of my faves...Santa Fe grilled pizza! And then he topped the meal off with the biggest bowl of Strawberry Shortcake I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish it, but I hope to remedy that today. Then we went for a walk. The kids all gave me homemade gifts and flowers...truly the best kind of gifts ever! I love their homemade cards with the sweetest messages written in their childlike handwriting telling me that I am the best mom in the whole world...NO the whole UNIVERSE! And I love to read, "thanks for giving birth to me" or "thanks for raisin me." Those parts make me laugh. And if you haven't noticed, Aaron gave me a camera. My last camera lived a very short and traumatic life. It eventually was finished off in a drowning accident...chocolate milk...what a way to go! So with this camera I vow not to let a single child hold it, or eat & drink near it. And I vow not to take it apart and stick my metal screw driver near the flash only to be electrocuted resulting in the camera flying across the room. Thank you Hubby for the wonderful Mother's Day :-) mmm, chocolate covered cinnamon bears!!!And last but not least....Happy Mother's Day to my FABULOUS mom! It also happens to be my Dad's birthday, too! So Happy 60th to my AMAZING dad! Another highlight of the day was calling them and wishing them happiness. It's bitter-sweet on days like these because we live so far away from each other. I wish I could have celebrated with them.

This is me and my mom. I think she's about my age in the picture :-)

Soup-er Teachers

This week is teacher appreciation week! I am Sam's room mom this year and I made this image and had Aaron print it "poster-size" at work for Sam's teacher's classroom door. I love being involved in the classroom and for any parent who wonders if it's worth their time I would tell them it absolutely is. I don't do it solely to help out the teacher. I'm much more selfish than that! I do it to show my kids that their education is important to me and in turn I hope that they decide that if it's important to me than it should be important to them. Also I get to check up on my kids; see who their friends are, what their teachers are like, and see what they're really doing in class and if they're learning what's being taught! I love that I know exactly who my kids are talking about when they're recapping their day or wanting to have a playdate with a classmate. I believe that as parents we are our kids' most affective teachers even after they start school. What a big responsibility we all have! So "happy teacher appreciation week" to all the SOUP-ER parents out there...especially mine :-)

april SNOW showers bring...

CRISPY STEAK TACOS!

Our spring weather has been very "Utah" lately. On Sunday it was snowing! So we decided to bring a little warmth and sunshine to our kitchen and made this Cuban/Mexician dish. We whipped up these tacos that we saw on the Rachael Ray Show. The picture doesn't do it justice! They were soooooo good!

Ingredients:
1 2-pound flank steak, cut into 4 pieces
2 medium onions (1 peeled and quartered & 1 finely chopped, divided)
2 bay leaves
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped, divided
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 fresno chile, seeded and finely chopped
Salt and ground black pepper
3 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
1/2 pound cured chrorizo, removed from casing and finely chopped
6 tomatillos, husks removed, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon honey
1 avocado, pitted
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
2 limes
Soft flour tortillas, for serving

Preparation:
Place flank steak into a medium pot with the quartered onion and bay leaves. Cover with cold water and place over medium-high heat. Bring up to a bubble, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer meat until very tender, 20 minutes. Remove meat from pot and discard water and veggies. (We did that part in the crock pot and cooked it for a few hours.) Shred the steak with a fork and transfer to a medium-size mixing bowl. Add red onion, 2 cloves garlic and peppers to the bowl and combine. Season with salt and pepper and reserve.

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the chrorizo to the pan and cook until golden brown, 5-6 minutes. Add the shredded meat and veggie mixture to the pan, spreading it out to cover the entire bottom, and cook until crispy on the bottom. Flip the mixture over and cook on the other side until crispy, about 5 minutes per side. Add juice from 1 lime.

While the meat is cooking, place a medium pot over medium-high heat with 1 turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Add the remaining chopped onion, garlic, tomatillos, and cumin to the pan, and cook until the veggies are tender and the tomatillos have begun to release their liquids, about 8 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a food processor (we used a blender), add in the honey, avocado and cilantro juice from 1 lime, and pulse to puree.

It says it serves 4, but we served our family of 6 with some leftovers for Aaron's lunch the next day :-) Yum!

Springy Photo Shoot

"sisters"

Sam da MAN

Kaeli Ray

Rylie Jane

Sara Kate

It doesn't get sweeter than this:

Spring Break Begins!

Yesterday was the first day of Spring Break for Sam and Kaeli. The weather was perfect! The kids spent the morning enduring one of my photo shoots at the park (pictures will be posted soon) and then we had a lazy afternoon. After dinner we went for a little walk up Butterfield Canyon. The road is still closed so we just hiked up the road. It's really pretty up there. Here are a few snap shots of our walk:

We like to pose behind "No Trespassing" signs :-)
We're sooooo rebellious!

Sara is always getting a free ride.

We don't have any BIG trips planned for this Spring Break. We were hoping to go camping, but we still have so many things going on that we can't seem to make it out of town for just a few nights. But Aaron is planning to take a few days off this week so we can work on the basement or the yard. I plan to simply enjoy my kids and hang out in the sunshine :-)

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

Click on the rectangle in the lower right corner to see it in full screen.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny made a visit to our home some time on Saturday in the wee hours of the morning before any of us were awake! What a sneaky bunny! Kaeli asked us if the Easter Bunny was a real bunny or someone in a bunny suit. Because how can a real bunny really carry all that stuff??? We're not sure. But Aaron and I are happy that we're not the prime suspects...yet. The Easter Bunny left flip flops and candy in the kids' baskets. So fun! Later that afternoon we decorated eggs. This was the first time Sara got to be part of the decorating fun. We were grateful that the eggs were hard boiled as she carelessly exerted her creativity as any toddler would. Some of her eggish victims didn't survive without their shells being cracked, but she didn't seem to notice.

Here are the kids on Easter morning:

After church my sister-in-law's family and Grandma Karlyn came for a scrumptous ham dinner, and I got to hold the new baby :-)

General Conference

This weekend was General Conference! I look forward to listening to the church leaders every 6 months. I felt particularly excited this year and didn't want to miss a single word. How blessed we are to have have this guidance and direction. If you're curious what I'm talking about or would like to watch some of it click HERE.

Kaeli's BIG day!

On Saturday, Kaeli was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! She looked so pretty in her white dress. We had a houseful of family who came to be apart of that special day.

Kaeli was baptized and confirmed by her daddy.
Kaeli looks like an angel!