If you had to pick….

Chocolate
or
Cheese

Father and Son Campout

Andy took Vincent on his inaugural Father’s and Son’s Ward Camp out Friday night. They had a fun time. Andy asked our buddy, Nathan, if he wanted to join them for the fun, so he came too.
Vincent woke up a lot at nighttime, but went back to sleep each time. It was nice and hot and there were wonderful trees losing their pollen all over the campsite (and into the breakfast), so Andy, Nathan, and Vincent skipped breakfast and took a drive. They got back about 2pm or so from their male bonding.
Andy and Vincent on the road trip Saturday. There’s an awesome view from the top of Steptoe Butte, it was a bit hazy, but the wheatfields were still green. Vincent wouldn’t look at the camera for Andy, but he did like to be out of the car!Night-time at the camp. Not so good for pictures. The white stuff, in the grass, is fluff from cottonwood trees. There was drifts of it on peoples’ tents.
Vincent with Nathan, resting. The fresh air and breeze up here was a nice change from the stuffy, mosquito, cottonwood fluff, air at the campsite. There were a bunch of people along the road to the top of the hill bird-watching. Nathan thought it would be fun to yell, “what kind of birds are you looking for?” real loud, as we passed by.

We girls, on the other hand, cleaned the carpet in the living room. Woo hoo. Actually, it was kind of fun. I was telling one of my friends about my plans for while the boys were gone (her boys were gone too) and we decided it would be fun to hang out together.

She with her two girls
and me with mine
set up dinner and movies
and got along fine.

I made some fajitas (aka: something Andy won’t eat-doesn’t like the peppers or most veggies) and then the girls started watching “High School Musical 3”. Kim and I started spot cleaning the carpet to prepare for the deep cleaning Saturday morning. After we finished that, we restarted the movie and laughed through its silliness. We had yummy popsicles (red cream soda and root beer float flavors) and the girls all played nicely. After they left and the girls were in bed, I put in “The Music Man” (I’d never seen it before) and watched that while I cleaned the carpets in the family room and cleared out all the furniture just in case we had time to clean that today too. I mopped the kitchen floor and finished all the laundry. We didn’t get to the family room, but it is all cleaned out now, which is nice. I did put most of the things back in the family room already, but I’m still waiting another hour for the carpets to be fully dry in the living room so I can rearrange to my heart’s content. I love rearranging!
So today, Sara (Andy’s sister) came over to clean my carpets (we have a deal to pay off the Wii Fit I didn’t use enough). She did the living room (which is SO clean now) and then had to go to events with her family for the day. We will do the family room next month sometime.
After Sara left and Andy was still gone, I rested, and after he got back, I set out to rearrange the family room DVD bookcase (which is huge). I took all the DVD’s and game stuff off of it and moved it across the room to a better (I think) spot. The room looks better now, I think.
Tonight, we ran errands after dinner and now the girls are in bed while Andy watches the new three-disk set of the old “Star Trek” movies on Blue Ray.
I had a very busy cleaning weekend. The house feels so good.
Time for Vincent to go to bed and for the living room to be fixed up.
Hope you all had a great weekend.

Memorial Day

Monday morning we went up to Andy’s parent’s property by Satus Pass about an hour and a half away. We got there in time to help Andy’s dad finish building a new picnic table and in plenty of time to chat and hang out before our barbecue. We toured the house that is nearly all the way framed (if you would like to see some pictures of the house, check out Sara’s blog. Our pictures were taken without the flash).
Elizabeth, Dylan, and Olivia posing on the four-wheeler. No, Elizabeth did not actually drive it. They were just pretending. They all did have turns with Grandpa George though.Sami loves to color and play with the foam stickers Grandma Shirley had for the kids. She had her own share of the dirt before we got there. All part of the fun at the mountain. The kids love it!One of Vincent’s rare sitting down in the chair his size moments. Well, I guess after lunch, I did strap him into his stroller to see if he would nap. He didn’t, but he did sit in there for a good 45 minutes or so.

The grandkids took some rides with Grandpa on the four-wheeler and the wheelbarrow. Andy took the kids around in the wheelbarrow a little too. The boys worked on cutting down some branches that were blocking the view. From their property, they can see Mt. Rainer, Mt. Adams, and on a clear day, even Mt. Hood.The day was relaxing (mostly) and fun. Vincent was wandering around the seating area outside, so it wasn’t all relaxing, but he was pretty steady for just figuring out how to walk a few months ago. (I credit this to walking around in our uneven grass at home.) He liked finding big sticks and throwing rocks around. He was filthy dirty, but enjoyed being outside so much. We used quite a few baby wipes. Below are the pictures of Vincent eating some watermelon. Olivia was eating some and he wanted it, so she gave it to him and got a new slice for herself. His faces were too cute to not take pictures and share.
Oh, he did like it, just in case you can’t tell. See how dirty this kid got? At least I could clean his face, arms, neck, and hands with baby wipes. He slept well on the way home.

Boat Ride

Today after grocery shopping, I was doing my (way too much) check of things online and saw a friend from church asking if anyone wanted to go with them on their boat this afternoon, so I responded with, “Really? How about me and three tiny kids? When are you going?”
She wrote back, “Right now, call me!” So I did. And then we left, right then. I woke Vincent up and the girls changed into their swim suits (even though I didn’t think they really needed to) and off we went.
We rode from Columbia Point Marina all the way over to Pasco’s train bridge. There was a train on the bridge too!
Andy was helping his mom and dad building their house in the mountains, so we were by ourselves today. I was trying to think of something fun to do. Hey, it should be a headline that a mom and her three kids did something spontaneous!
Olivia and Elizabeth checking out the boat. I took a jacket off the dock by where they were putting the boat in by accident. That is the one Elizabeth is wearing. We returned it to the dock after we got back. Oops. I borrowed Olivia’s from our neighbor (sunscreen too, since Andy took ours to the mountain.)
Hugs before the big boys went on the tube.Watching the tube blow up, or avoiding that sibling picture shot I was trying for.
Elizabeth was all ready to go! She was super excited after watching two bigger boys tube, even after they fell out. Elizabeth is one silly girl. Lehi went with her both times. What a nice kid. After the second time, he laid down on the bench and Elizabeth laid across the aisle on her side of the bench. She was loving it! They didn’t go very fast, but to a six-year-old, 15 MPH is pretty fast. They were on there probably about ten minutes each time (maybe more).
This is how Olivia sat for most of the ride. She kept telling me to hold on to the handles so I wouldn’t fall out.
Vincent loved the boat. No, he’s not wearing a life vest. They only had big kids and I borrowed the one for Olivia. He didn’t jump in though. I’m sure he wanted to.
We went under the Cable Bridge and past that train bridge in the background. I don’t think the train was quite in this picture yet. Elizabeth is getting better at posing.Vincent waving bye to the other boaters, I think.

Kid pictures!

Right after I finished rambling on in the last post, I took the kids outside for some playing in the grass. After I took some pictures, I worked on my current book, “Tuesdays with Morrie”. It’s not long. Soon I’ll start “Angels and Demons”.

Elizabeth likes to ride her scooter. She was showing me her tricks.Olivia loves to play with babies, still. She was pushing this special “birthday baby” around in the princess stroller.Vincent likes to hit with sticks, so to encourage this, I gave him a plastic golf set to play with. I tried to tell him to hit the ball, but you know, he’s 15 months. He follows me into the laundry room to grab the vacuum attachments and then hits things with them. I think he’s a boy.Oh, and I decided not to wait to show you our van. Here it is. Elizabeth included.

Ramblings

It’s getting warm out there!
It’s also strangely quiet on the blogs I follow, so if you are like me checking for updated blogs, here’s one for you. Maybe (just maybe) I’ll even ramble on and on to keep you busy before you check to see if anyone else has updated too, ’cause I know how you have so much time and how much you love to read all the boring things I say…

My kids are busy!
Well, actually last week the girls both got sick a little, so I was super busy cleaning up and doing laundry along with trying to make meals or snacks for them that wouldn’t cause them to give it right back. (Yeah, that kind of sick.) Vincent never did get it and neither did I, but Olivia had it at the beginning of the week and the end with a day or so in between. Elizabeth didn’t get sick until Thursday night, so she only missed one school day.
So, then on Sunday I was sick with a super bad sore throat. I stayed home from church with Vincent and Andy took the girls. Sunday evening, I missed out on dinner at Ransom’s, but Andy took the girls. I opted out of helping in the class Monday and rested my throat. I feel better now and I think it was just allergies clearing down my throat (you’re welcome for the picture).

Fortunately, I was able to clear my calendar of activities that I obviously don’t need to do (some where things we should do like go to the Temple though, but we couldn’t go when we had sick kids). It is nice to get out of the house in the evenings sometimes, but I’m going to try to not have something on our schedule every single day! Maybe that won’t happen right away, but soon. Maybe that can be on next years resolutions list (WAY in the future!)

Speaking of resolutions, one of our goals was to limit our eating out. We have done really good so far. We are trying to only go out once a month (We had been going out a few times a week) and then Andy and I usually go out to eat on a date night once a month too. This has helped a lot with other resolutions to save money and get out of debt. Groceries are still expensive, but stretch farther and if I make a really good dinner, everyone is full and satisfied and there may even be enough leftovers that I don’t have to cook the next night. Big bonus for me.

I don’t remember if I posted about the “brand new van” we bought. That’s what the girls call it. They are super excited to have a van with a sliding door and keep telling people about our “brand new van”. It is actually a ’96 Ford Windstar that has a broken side window (so there’s plastic and duct tape holding it together for a few weeks to make sure the car is reliable before putting more money into it). We bought it off of Craig’s List (like ebay) for SO cheap (like $850 cheap) and replaced the battery, licensed it, and today I went and got the oil changed. We have now had it for two weeks. Jiffy Lube told me that there was only a few minor things that we need to do to keep up on maintenance, so I told them I would pass that on to my husband and discuss it. Obviously, Jiffy Lube is NOT where I would take it for things like that, because they charge too much, but we haven’t really had to have a mechanic yet, so who do you see in our area?
Oh, story behind the car switch-
Andy’s Jeep was leaking oil pretty bad, so he had given up on driving it for work (he drives a lot).
We started looking at Craig’s List and decided that it would make more sense to buy a cheap van for me to drive around town and then have Andy drive our nicer car (that we still owe on and the kids were spilling crumbs all over) for work. I don’t really care what I drive, as long as it runs reliably. Anyway, too much information…
So, now I drive our “brand new van”. It’s sky blue and seems like a pretty nice van so far. I loved that Elizabeth told her teacher at school about it the first day she got to ride in it and the teacher told me that she said she “got a brand new van that has a broken window!” Then, one day I was running a little late picking Elizabeth up from school because I ran to the grocery store between helping in the classroom and pick up time (and stupidly, got in the worst line ever!), so Elizabeth started jumping up and down when I pulled in and when she got in the car said, “I knew it was you because of the broken window!” Great, kind of white trashy, but maybe next week we will have a window and I’ll take a picture of the car for you.
At least it runs.

What’s new with you?

Our Busy Kids

On Monday, I bought Vincent a boyish looking phone at the checkout stand at WalMart, so he’d quit carrying around the pink and purple phones the girls’ had. His is Mickey Mouse. That’s about the best we could do. The other options were Tinkerbell and Princesses, so Mickey Mouse it was.
He’s been busy playing with it all week. What a great investment! He even shared it at ballet (ballet for Elizabeth, not Vincent) with another little boy. Vincent is a sneaky little guy who likes to pull on wires, open cupboards, throw his toys in the garbage, and push buttons (especially ones on our answering machine next to the computer). Really, he is sneaky. Just look at his side-glance in the picture above! Oh, and yes, the pacifier will go pretty soon, in case you are wondering.
Elizabeth enjoys it too. Vincent shared with her…sometimes.

Vincent “sharing” his phone and Elizabeth talks about her day at school. (This was a different day than the Mother’s Day Tea below, but her outfit was clean and she wanted to wear it again.)

Vincent saying hello on the phone.
Elizabeth’s class had a special “Mother’s Day Tea” last Friday before Mother’s Day. They have been learning about ladybugs, so they all had antenna and wings on during the party. Elizabeth showed me her bug jar full of things they made in class with ladybugs and learning about their life cycle, counting, etc. She also made me a clay ladybug that she painted. So cute! The kids sang songs to us and we had a little snack of Keebler “Bugs” (graham crackers) and grapes (aphids) with orange juice (bug juice).
Here’s my little ladybug. I should have taken another picture!
Olivia too-she has been a little sick this week, but she likes to just sit and watch movies or watercolor or read books. Sometimes, movies and books or movies and watercolor together.
She was really only sick a couple of times, but to be cautious, we had to stay home.
Both girls were sick (threw up) last night, so today we’re hanging out at home all day. They are acting fine this morning though. I wish we could still do the fun things on our schedule. Sad.
There will be more fun things to do on Saturday and next week, assuming Vincent and I don’t catch anything!

Cafe Rio Salad

My friend made this awesome salad (really a main dish) for a baby shower/dinner. It was SO good that I had to request the recipe to share. Most of you have had this before, since I’ve heard a lot of talk about Cafe Rio, but here is the recipe for the meat, the pico de gallo, and the dressing.

*Total Prep-Time: 18 hours, technically. But most of that is just waiting for the pork to cook. I’d say active cook time for the entire meal was perhaps an hour, maybe 1 hour 15 mins. Lots of this meal (dressing, pico) can be made before-hand and kept in the fridge until it’s time to eat.
* Was the recipe easy to follow: Extremely easy. It’s mostly chop, dump and marinate. Easy-peasy.
* Are the ingredients easy to find: It took me a bit of searching in the Mexican Food section to find Chipotle Chilies in Adobo Sauce, and also a bit of googling to figure out what, exactly, a tomatillo looked like. But I found everything at my grocery store.
* Do you need special equipment: Large-ish crock pot and a blender. A food processor would make quick work of the pico, although I chopped mine by hand.
* Does the end result taste delicious: YES! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This was the best meal I have ever made, hands down, no questions. And there were enough leftovers for my neighbors, and my roommate, and a couple of meals for me. This makes a ton of food, but it will be eaten quickly. Try it, taste it, and you’ll understand why.

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

5-6 lb. pork roast

21 oz. Dr. Pepper (or Coke, do NOT use diet soda)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
7 oz. can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
6-ish oz. red taco sauce (I used hot)
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Place roast in crock-pot, cover half-way with water and cook on low for 12 hours. (I started my Pork Adventure at midnight and everything worked out perfectly for Sunday dinner at 6:00 pm.) After 12 hours, drain pork (retain liquid if you want sauce for burritos, simply mix with a can of verde enchilada sauce and away you go).

Mix remaining ingredients until sugar dissolves. I didn’t keep the actual chilies, I dumped the can into a bowl and added enough Dr. Pepper to get all the sauce off of the chilies, then I tossed them. I also rinsed out the can with Dr. Pepper for more adobo goodness. My version had a fairly good kick to it, but if you LOVE hotness, then blend everything + 2 or 3 chilies in the blender. (Also, the adobo sauce tends to stain plastic, using a glass or metal mixing bowl will make your clean-up of adobo sauce considerably less frustrating).

Add Dr. Pepper mixture to the roast and cook on low an additional 4 hours.

Take out roast and shred, add back into sauce and cook for 2 more hours. At this point the meat was so tender it practically shredded itself.
OR CHICKEN
Café Rio Salad
Chicken:
1 bottle (16. oz) Kraft Zesty Italian dressing
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cumin
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 lbs. chicken breasts
Mix ingredients and pour over chicken breasts in a crockpot. Cook on low for 4 hours. Shred
the chicken and cook 1 more hour to soak up the juices. Serve with a slotted spoon.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Easy Pico-de-Gallo


3 tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, minced
1/2 sweet onion, minced
1 section of green pepper, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
about 1/3-1/2 cup vinegar (use your best judgement)
salt and pepper

Mix it up really well and refrigerate. I put my pico in a Tupperware and shook it up really well right before serving to re-mix.

Dressing:

2 tomatillos, peeled and chopped
½ bunch cilantro
1 garlic clove
1 lime, juiced
1 jalepeño , limit seeds to reduce how “spicy” you want it
1 8-oz. pkg buttermilk ranch dressing (regular ranch works too)
Blend in food processor: tomatillos, cilantro, garlic, lime and jalapeno. Make dressing according
to the directions on the package (but use less milk than requested). Then add the blended
ingredients and chill. The longer it sits the better.

Rice:
4 cups water
4 tsp. chicken boullion
4 tsp. garlic, minced
½ bunch cilantro, chopped
1 can green chilis, undrained
¾ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. butter
½ onion, chopped
2 cups rice
While bringing water to a boil, combine in a food processor: cilantro, green chilis & onion. Add
all ingredients to boiling water. Cover and cook for 20 min at a simmer.

Layer:
-tortilla sprinkled with cheese (slightly crisp in a frying pan)
-rice
-shredded chicken
-black beans, rinsed and drained
-romaine lettuce, chopped
-tomatoes, chopped
-avocado, chopped
-dressing
-fresh lime squeezed over top, quartered
-top with Fiesta tortilla strips (optional)
***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Now, invite some people over and get cooking!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is a mom, wants to be a mom, and to everyone who loves their own mom.
Mom’s are so great. I really enjoy being a mom. I have learned from the best. Here are some memories I have and thoughts about each of the moms who have influenced our family the most.

I’m going to go youngest to oldest, so no one should be offended. This isn’t the newest picture, but I love it. My mom made my wedding dress while I was away at school. She’d try it on me when I visited home a few times. She works hard at everything she does. I love my mom. She is fantastic and is always doing so much for other people, whether it’s making quilts for babies we don’t know or quilts for a friend of mine from school whose house burned down or helping her kids and grandkids, she is great! She thinks of others and tries to visit me each time she is in town. We miss her living closer, but enjoy the time we get to spend with her. She loves to cook, bake, sew, quilt, watch movies and tv, go out to eat, shop, and so much more! I love you mom! Thanks for waiting for me, even after those two crazy boys I like to call brothers. You made it through all of us! Good job!
Andy’s mom, Shirley is so wonderful too! I am blessed with great examples of motherhood all around me! She is so much fun and loves her grandkids. She also loves to do crafts-wood crafts, painting, gardening, sewing, embroidery, interior design. She does it all!
This picture is from a trip we were able to take with Andy’s parents to Las Vegas when Elizabeth was 15 months old. She looks exactly the same. I love my mother-in-law! We get along so well and I’m so glad that she raised a great son for me to marry and raise my family with.
Andy’s Grandma Ellen is so spunky and great! She has the most energy of almost anyone I know. This year she turned 81 and she is still going like crazy. She has worked in the Temple, served in Primary, helped with Family History, knows how to run her computer to check email and do Family History, and is now remarried and gardening with her husband too. They are fixing up their new place nicer all the time and I wish that I will have the same sweet spirit when I am 81 as she has now. I’m so glad she moved back to our side of the country when Elizabeth was a baby. We have loved being around her.
This picture is from when Olivia was a baby. She is so cute.My Grandma Zora is a hard worker too. When she had just started her family, my grandpa and she moved to Washington from Idaho away from family to start up a farm in the Basin desert of Eastern Washington. They have become a great example of steadfastness and thrift and kindness. My Father-in-law says that my dad is the kindest person he has ever met, but I know most of my dad’s kindness comes from my grandma. I remember spending the night at her house and playing with cousins on holidays when we’d get together for picnics. She helped all of us cousins to become close by hosting events at her house, like obstacle courses where everyone recieved a medal and games of Flinch where everyone was a winner. She has won us over with her generosity and kindness. Andy loves to go to visit them and play Scrabble with Grandma Zora.
She’s holding Vincent in this picture from January 2009.

Get-away

My parent’s invited the grandkids (EIGHT of them-ranging from almost 9 to 15 months) to stay the night and get up early to go to the Balloon Stampede in Walla Walla. I have the best parents EVER! Thanks for taking good care of our kids.

Sorry they:
a. Woke you up
b. Wouldn’t go to sleep
c. Wandered to the park with a cousin
d. Whatever else they did that you didn’t mention!
e. All of the above and more

You’re Amazing!
Colby, Jared, Seth, Coy, Grandma Mary, Grandpa Paul, Trevor, Olivia, Elizabeth, and Vincent at the Balloon Stampede. If you want to see more pictures of the balloons or kids, go to my mom’s blog.
After dropping off the kids, Andy drove us to LaGrande where we stayed the night and Saturday morning we drove to Wallowa Lake. I had never been there. It was really pretty up there and just the beginning of Spring. The rivers and streams were all so full of water!
We had a fun time browsing in a few shops and looking at all the scenery. Andy loves to drive, so it was great! I read the rest of a book I was almost done with and cross-stitched a little and napped a little and we talked about silly things.

Here’s the pretty lake. It was a little too cold to do much more than look.
Andy and NaDell at Wallowa Lake. Surprisingly, Wallowa Lake’s water level was a little low.
Grande Ronde River by Joseph, Oregon. The river was overflowing in this part.
We drove home through Clarkston and Lewiston and then picked up the kids on our way home. They were so tired. Olivia and Vincent fell asleep before we were even all the way out of Walla Walla. It was a peaceful trip home. Although, we did have Elizabeth explaining to us how she is “in love” with one of her cousins and how they wished on a dandelion. I asked her their wish and she said if she told it wouldn’t come true. I started explaining that you can’t marry your cousin and she said that she’d have to make a different wish then. Great! She told me that next time she is going to see him, she’ll have to wear ugly clothes, so he won’t like her anymore. I am glad they get along though. Just not quite that much.

Olivia was so tired that even after we got home and Andy carried her in to the couch, she sleep another hour!

Vincent was all ready to go when we got back. He was almost doing laps. I think he missed home.
After we rested at home for an hour or so (I used that time to unpack and put everything back where it goes), we left for a dinner party with some friends. Andy left the party early to go to the movies with a buddy (Star Trek-in case you’re wondering-and no, I did not want to go.)
Now, it’s time for bed and
H
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