Visiting the Ogdens

We had the opportunity to go down and stay with Jason's grandparents in Nephi for a few days. The boys just loved being able to visit and play. Tab especially loved the horse. He wasn't even the least bit scared.Well, until it came to feeding him. And then he was a little nervous. But he got over that quickly.Tab sure loved to pal around with Grandpa.He was always asking where grandpa was. Here he is waiting patiently for grandpa to come back inside.Now this picture is strictly for blackmail one day.Benton loved his makeshift highchair. Although I do think he got annoyed when the phonebook would start sliding out from under him. At the Ogdens is when Benton really started to crawl. He had been working on it for a while and would go a step or two. But apparently the conditions were just right because he took off.

Catching Up

So I've been gone. I know, gone is the understatement of the century. I was away from home for seven weeks and thus it has been about eight weeks since I've blogged. My appologies. I really do have good excuses. The main one being the dialup that my parents try to pass off as the internet. I love you mom and dad, but it made me want to stick a toothpick in my eye. Here's hoping that highspeed makes it to the boondocks sometime this century or at least before we visit again. My excuse for not blogging in the week I've been back is that I didn't know where to start. I spent two weeks in Utah and five in Pennsylvania and we did A LOT, so I have more than a lot of pictures. So I have decided that I will try to divide everything up into different posts to try to share our trip. So we'll start with part of my trip to Utah.

Jason had to do a two week preceptorship in St. Louis. Since he was going to have the car my in-laws were nice enough to fly me and the boys out to Utah for a visit and to help with my sister-in-law, Kristine's baby shower. (I'll post some pictures later.) I was a little nervous about flying with the boys by myself, so I went prepared with all sorts of bribery, little of which I needed. They were seriously angels. I had several gentlemen comment about how well behaved my children were on the plane and how they had been nervous, etc. It made me pretty happy.

After we arrived, my sister Rebekah picked us up and we went straight to my brother and sister in law's house. We had a little get together with the family. Matt was taking the picture, thus he is not in it. What a sport.We spent a little time outside hanging out. The boys really enjoyed being outside after the plane ride.We then went back to Rebekah's house. She kindly put us up for about a week. The boys enjoyed getting to know Cameron. They even got to bathe together. Would you look at those cute little butts. Ok so Benton's got a big baby butt. You can't say you don't want to reach out and squeeze those cheeks.And I thought I would throw in this picture just because the kid is so stinking cute!Look for posts about our other adventures.

Visiting the Ogdens

Rebekah's Senior Recital

Hanging with the Pinegars

The Salt Lake Bee's game and other Utah adventures

The Drive to PA

Grandma's Chickens, Grandma's chickens and more about Grandma's chickens

The Dogs

Gardening

Cherry Picking

Grandpa's Woodshop

The "Gate"

The Quilt Show

Lazing Around

Rope Swings

Lightning Bugs

The "Tub"

The Bounce House

Water

Mother May I and other Yard Games

Shucking Corn

4th of July

The Park

Play Group

Blueberry Picking

Bowling

Geocaching

The Backyard

The Highchair

Guitar Hero

The Gecko

Missouri or Bust

Congrats if you read that list. Do you see why I had a hard time starting? And that was narrowing things down a bit!

In Utah...

If you've been wondering where I've been... the answer is UTAH! I've been visiting friends and family. I'll be headed to Pennsylvania in another week and then hopefully I'll be back to my regular blogging.

I'm really not old enough for this am I?

Tab turned 3 on Sunday! I can't believe I have a three year old. I seriously don't think that I am old enough for this. What ever happened to the past three years? What happened to this tiny thing? Sigh... On Saturday we had a birthday party for Tab. A bunch of his friends came over. It was supposed to be an outside running in the sprinklers/water type party, but it poured all morning and didn't warm up enough for that type of thing. So last minute we came up with some other fun games. We did pudding finger painting. It started out with a lot of little fingers cautiously poking the pudding and then being licked.I think they were a little nervous about being allowed to use their fingers and make messes.This one is my favorite. Isn't he just adorable?
And then Tab did this!Leave it to my kid to get the party started. He ain't shy about making a mess. Miss Q caught on pretty quick too.I think, this cutie did the most fingerpainting out of the bunch. According to her parents this is a typical eating session in their home, so I'm sure they really "appreciated" the encouragement.I think that Tab had a pretty good time.But really, I don't know why I bothered planning any games...they really just wanted to splash in the mud puddles and poke around at them with sticks.
Finally it was time for the cake. I made Tab some cute cowboy boots for his cake. Didn't they turn out so cute? He seemed pretty pleased with it.He liked blowing out the candles. At least this year he didn't try to put his lips to the candle when he blew them out. I guess he has matured a little bit in the past year.And then he of course got to open presents. He got a lot of new trucks to play with. He was thrilled! Thanks to everyone who came!

Who are you ...

... AND WHERE

DID

(and no he's still not crawling, just getting closer every day)

YOU

TAKE

MY

BABY?

Oh, there you are. Phew.... I thought you went and grew up on me when I wasn't looking.

Mmm Mmm Mmm: Peanut Butter

When it comes to food, Tab has issues. There are very few things that Tab will always eat. Chicken nuggets and a peanut butter and honey sandwhich are amongst them. The other day I came into the kitchen to find this. Can you see the mix between the I just got caught and I'm not doing anything wrong look?


And of course he had to choose a knife with which to spoon the stuff into his mouth.In case you were wondering, this is the "I know as soon as she puts the camera down I'm gonna loose this jar of love and get in trouble and have to stand in time out so I better shove one last bite into my mouth" look.

I love the 'Ville

I love this place. It seems like there is always some community event that I can take Tab to. Saturday the County Amubulance place (I don't know what they really call it, a station maybe ... anyway ...) had a bunch of activities for kids. The best part is that is was all FREE! You can't beat that. They had a huge blowup slide thingy. We had a lot of fun going down that. Jason was actually kind of disappointed when I went down with Tab, as last minute he chickened out on going down by himself. They had all of the firetrucks and ambulances out to show. Tab loved that. Here are Jason and Tab inside of an ambulance. I know the picture is kind of blury but I can't even begin to tell you how hard it is to take a picture while holding Benton.Posing in front of the ambulance.

They let the kids pretend they were driving the gator. I think that Tab could have done that all day if we didn't remind him that there were horses to ride.They also had the life flight helocopter there. Tab was so excited about that. We had several meltdowns while waiting in the short line because he was having a hard time waiting for it to be his turn. Remind me not to take him to an amusement park until he understands the whole line thing. And as I mentioned, there were pony rides. That boy sure looks good atop a horse...ahem...a pony. (Random Tidbit for you: I can't stand the word pony. Saying it is like nails on a chalkboard. Unless you are saying My Little Pony. And then for some reason, it doesn't bother me so much. Yes, I know I'm weird.)And as if all of the fun free activities weren't enough, they fed us some hotdogs for lunch too.

The Scooter

About a month ago we bought a scooter from some other med students who were graduating. Jason is loving having the freedom to get up and go to school to study at 5:30 AM. And I am loving not having to wake boys up from naps to pick him up from school, etc. We are both loving the money we are saving on gas, especially in this town where the max speed limit is pretty much 35 mph. It is killer on the gas mileage. Every.Single.Day when Jason gets home from school Tab bolts out the door for a scooter ride to the end of our dead end street and back. After that they drive a few circles around the truck. I think Daddy getting home is the highlight of Tab's day. I'm not sure if that is because Daddy is home or because of the scooter ride. I think it may be a toss up.

Guitar Hero

We recently invested in Guitar Hero. We figured that what we paid for it would be equivalent of about three dates after we paid the babysitter and all. So we use this as our date now. We usually play after we put the boys to bed. But this past weekend we had some friends over to play. The Guymons totally rock... really they got pretty good at it!

Check out the concentration. Sarah, you totally have the rocker stance.

Jason felt the need to do this weird thing with his face. At least the focus it took to hold his face like that made him mess up.Sarah and I thoroughly enjoyed rocking out together. She was a little hesitant at first when I forcefully made her move up to "medium", but she almost schooled me, almost.Lest you think we ignored our kids the whole time, they had a blast too.

Ok, so we didn't pay the closest attention to them and are probably lucky that they did wonder off down the street. But look at sweet Bekah. I just love this girl. She brought me a couple of books to read to her and she just snuggled right up. Why did I have two boys that don't believe in snuggling? Thanks for the snuggle fix Bekah.

Apple Pie Ice Cream

I'm beyond in love with my ice cream maker. I think I'm technically verging on infatuation. I made this Apple Pie Ice Cream as a bribe for Jason to have his friends to the house to study a few nights ago so that I could go hang out with some lovely ladies. Well, they apparently forgot about it because it was still in my freezer when I got home. Heaven on a spoon. This is by far my favorite recipe yet. I think I felt myself gain five pounds while I was making it though, just so you are warned.
Wow can you see the apple and cookie yumminess. Ok, ok, I'm done gushing.

Apple Pie Ice Cream

8 oatmeal cookies, crushed (I used iced oatmeal- can you really go wrong)
3 Tbs. melted butter, divided

2 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into fingertip sized pieces (the recipe actually says to slice them but I thought that would be too big, so I cut mine into small pieces...perfecto!)
3 Tbs. white sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

3 cups whipping cream (I subbed in 1/2 cup 2 percent milk and next time will likely do more)
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the crushed cookies with 2 Tbs. of melted butter and press onto a baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely and then crumble.

Melt the remaining 1 tbs. of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the apples, 3 Tbs. sugar, and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Cook until the apples have lightly browned, and the sugar has begun to carmalize, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely.

Combine cream, half and half, 1 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla, and 2 tsp. cinnamon in a large bowl and blend well. Pour into your ice cream maker and sit back and watch. Oh and do try to keep your husband from taste testing while still in the ice cream maker.

When the ice cream has finished , stir in the crumbled cookie, caramelized apples, and walnuts. Add the dulce de leche by the teaspoon while stirring to evenly distribute. Return to freezer to allow to firm up.

Tagged

My good friend Sarah tagged me to describe myself using the letters of my middle name. Little did she know I was going to get off easy with only three letters.

L- Lazy Perfectionist: Many of you have heard me refer to myself as this. I really want everything to be done perfectly, but I'm much too lazy to make it so.

Y- Yo-Yo: I'm a total looney sometimes. Lately I'm crazy because I've got so many things going on that I can't complete a sentance without changing subjects. What do you mean our meeting and my laundry have nothing to do with eachother?

N- Novice: I love to do a lot of things including cooking, sewing, scrapbooking and sleeping. People often think I'm really good at these things. But they are fooled, I really am just a novice at all of these things. Well, all of them but sleeping.

Um, I tag... Rebekah and Rachel...this will give you something new to blog about.

I'll have the Bananas and Rice Cereal with a side of Poop

This morning I got up and changed Benton's diaper and didn't bother to put his pants back on him. I put him in his high chair and fed him breakfast. He was being such a happy camper that I just left him there to play with the car that Tab had provided him while I picked up in the other room. I came back and he had what I thought was greenish food all over him and his highchair tray. I couldn't figure out what Tab had given him to eat. I moved a little closer and noticed the unmistakeable smell of poop. It was then that I had to tell myself not to gag. And then of course I had to snap a picture before cleaning him up, which was the most disgusting thing in the world.

You can't really tell from the picture but his tray was smeared with poop as well as his hands face and mouth. Gag.

Pillow Hockey

Jason and I attended a "Date Night" activity hosted by the SAA group that I am a part of. It was advertised as dinner and pillow hockey. We thought, ok we'll go and "play", thinking it would be an ok event. Can I tell you how wrong I was. We had an absolute blast. Everyone was sweating and laughing. I hope that this is one that they do next year too.

If, during the game you kicked the ball, or usedany other body part to progress the ball, you had to sit on the floor for 10 seconds. My friend, Tasheena spent a lot of time sitting on the ground!

I've been at it again!

It has been getting warmer and you know what that means right? Yummy fruity, refreshing desserts! To me it also means canning. So in the past few days I have made a few treats. First up was a Lemon Mousse with Raspberry Sauce. It turned out to be super tasty. I didn't pay attention enough to the recipe however before I went to the store because I didn't realize I needed two packages of jello. So we ended up with a Lemon-Lime Mousse. It was still yummy.Lemon Mousse with Raspberry Sauce

1 1/2 cups boiling water

2 pkg (4 serving size) Lemon Jello

2 tsp. grated lemon peel

ice cubes

1 cup cold apple juice

1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip

1 pkg (10 oz.) frozen raspberries, thawes, pureed in blender

Stir boiling water into Jello and lemon peel in a larger bowl for at least 2 minutes until Jello is completely dissolved. Add enough ice to apple juice to measure 1-3/4 cups. Stir into Jello until slightly thickened. Stir in whipped topping with wire whisk. Pur half of the raspberry sauce into the bottom of your dessert dishes. Top with mousse. Spoon remaining rasberry sauce over top. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

Then I decided that I needed to use my ice cream maker again simply because I'm in love with the thing. I thought to myself, "self, something light and refreshing... that's what we need." So I made some lime icecream. It is DIVINE! Lime Ice Cream

2 cups milk

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/3 cup lime juice

1 1/2 tsp. lime zest

1 cup heavy cream

In a saucepan, combine milk and sugar. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture reaches 175 degrees F. Cool to room remperature. Stir in the lime juice and peel. Freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

Transfer frozen lime mixture to a bowl, allow to soften slightly. (At this point I tasted it and considered not adding the cream. It tasted to full of flavor and almost like a sorbet consistancy. Next time I will double the first ingredients and leave it at that). In a small mixing bowl, beat the wipping cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into softened lime mixture. Allow ice cream to firm up in your freezer for 4 hours before serving. You may now die and go to heaven.

Finally, just a few minutes ago, I finished making some Strawberry Freezer Jam. The recipe for this was nothing special, but it is pretty good. I think next time I might try a reduced sugar recipe because holy cow 4 cups is A LOT of sugar. I'm still excited despite the sugar because this is the first time I have made freezer jam.

Starting to try...

To crawl that is. Sorry, I'm lame and took the video sideways. That is what happens when I use the camera to video and forget that I can't turn the image to be right side up. Alas, I think you can enjoy it nonetheless.