Wii foots

Tayla put these "slippers" on and told me they were her slippers and then she changed it, they're my Wii foots she says!!! hahahaha!

The art of canning with Mindy

One of the stores here had a REALLY AWESOME meat sale a week ago. I convinced my friend to go first thing in the morning (which was a good thing because by 10 Am most things were sold out) to go get a bunch of meat. I told her how easy it was to can and we needed to do it. We were debating about going later but I told her we needed to go before they opened! We were in the parking lot at 6:30am and shopping by 6:45 even though they didn't open til 7. WHOOP WHOOP score for us!!! I decided that since we had just gotten taxes back that I wanted to buy about a year's worth of meat, and I'm pretty sure I came close! I at least got enough to last until the next sale in October! I told Shaun that with the jam and corn I would be freezing that I wanted to buy a freezer. I found such a pretty freezer that I LOVE so much and FILLED IT!!!!




So after we bought our meat we spent 5 hours separating and wrapping and ziplocking and freezing all of our meat. By the time we were done we both felt like we needed to bathe in Bleach in order to remove all of the ICKness of raw meat!!! We didn't just freeze meat, we also canned it. My camera battery was dead so I didn't get a picture of all of the jars we canned seeings how we have used some of it!!! But I've been working on some today that are just chicken and I did take pics of those. The first pics is some of the meat and some of the prep stuff like bags and such. It was INSANE but I had a blast! Did you Mindy?!!!!













I LOVE my mom for giving me all of her canning stuff and I LOVE all of the opportunities I have had to learn to can. It's like Heavenly Father has been telling me that I needed to learn it and teach others. I have had so many jars given to me just because people didn't want them or my mom was done canning. I am so grateful for the start and the push and the passion I have gained learning how to can.

I am SO PROUD of THESE

One week ago TODAY I planted my garden! I am not a green thumb person. Infact all of the house plants I had (3 to be exact) died at the end of fall. I decided this year I wanted to buy seeds and start them and plant a very good very big garden this year. I learned to can last summer and I have SO MANY plans for my friend Mindy and me with our gardens! Some of these plants are 5 in high! I can't believe it! I might have a green thumb yet. Ok it's yellowish but maybe by the end of summer it will be green! I am SO EXCITED for my garden this year. I'm trying new things (thanks to Mindy) that I didn't think I would want or like, like lettuce, and cucumbers and squash. Anyways, my plants are at the stage that they need to be going outside to soak up the rays. Can you believe it 7 days later and they need to be outside!!! On another note, these right below....I'm proud of them too! I love them to pieces! My Myles is learning soooo many new words. I can't believe that in Oct of 2009 she couldn't even say 1 word. Now she puts 2 and 3 words together (and they make sense major plus!) and has a vocabulary now of probably 30 words maybe more. In October she couldn't understand what we were saying to her. We all were frustrated not just her. She would pound her head against the floor out of frustration and she would scream constantly because she didn't know how to speak. I'm so grateful for a wonderful doctor who wouldn't let me quit going to the speech therapist when the one here in Burley didn't work out. I'm grateful for Heavenly Father for giving me the strength to go to Twin (45 min 1 way) every single week with 2 kids and a hurt hubby. I also grateful that our paychecks stretched further when they needed to seeings how gas is soooooo expensive. I'm also grateful for our car and the fact that it runs and has warranties.

I'm pretty mommy

We had a pretty stress free morning with church...and then we came home! I was on the phone in the kitchen when Mylee came in holding a bottle of hot pink nail polish upside down and letting it spill out everywhere. That was in one hand. The other hand had the brush of the nail polish and she was painting her body. She was so happy and proud of herself. It's in her hair, on her face, on her lips, on her arms on her legs on her belly on her feet, well I think everywhere but her nails!!! Later this evening Shaun and I were watching some t.v. with the girls. Tayla was in and out of timeout and sitting on my lap. Mylee was sitting on Shaun's lap. Tayla had put her lipstick on the couch but as far as I knew it was still there. All of a sudden Shaun yells, "What the crap is this?" I look over and Mylee is covered in lipstick. All over her hands, her face, her neck, her chest. There was probably at least 3/4 of this lipstick left and when Mylee got done with it, there was 0% of it left! It was all over shaun and his pants and his knee brace. It looked like a lipstick massacre!!! Shaun was so mad and all I could do was snap pictures!!!

New Years goals

I'm not sure how I feel about New Year's resolutions. It's almost like they are made just to be broken. I hate that feeling don't you? I don't know many people who have succeeded in finishing 1 resolution let alone more then that. What is a resolution? A resolution is just a goal right? Shouldn't we be setting goals OFTEN and trying to KEEP them? Isn't that the point of a goal is to conquer it?! Shaun and I sat down and decided goals that we wanted to IMPROVE not just keep. From simple things like not losing our temper with the kids and eachother to time management. We decided on things that we do already but that we don't do often enough or well enough. I like the idea of having a goal to improve not just setting a brand new goal that I may or may not do. One thing I haven't been good with is working out. I have worked out in the summer quite frequently actually, but I haven't been as faithful as I would like to be. We aren't sure if we're done having kids or not. I feel very strongly that our family has at least 1 more child coming to us either by me or through adoption. I'm very passionate about adoption, but where we don't know which way that child will come, I've decided I want to have my body ready in case I do have another child. Then if I don't it's a plus for me I'll never have to lose baby weight again!!!! Don't get me wrong it's all worth it in the end holding that beautiful baby! This is something I want and need to do for myself. Shaun is going to sign me up at a gym the end of this month. I'm so excited I can't wait!!! I am soooo ready to shed the pounds and be skinny again!!! So here's to improving my goals!

New Year's

When I think of New Years the only thing I can think of is....here's to hoping May 1, 2010 doesn't bring any more lifechanging work accidents!!! Our family will NEVER forget 2009. Around Feb or Mar Shaun celebrated 1 year at his job. He was looking into getting a raise for becoming a class 2 driller. On May 1st I got a phone call from Shaun telling me he'd been hurt and he needed surgery. I didn't know how much that day was going to impact the rest of my life. Shaun just had his second surgery of the year and I an amazed at everything his body has been through and how he is still ok. I thank my Heavenly Father daily that my husband was safe and didn't die. I know some people think this accident wasn't him being safe but when you consider the fact that his arm was not ripped off and he did not die, yes this was a safe accident!!! 2009 was a year of challenges, trials, lots of tears, and tons more smiles, giggles, and laughs!!! Our girls are growing too fast. I blink and they're huge!!! Last night we went over to our friends' house where we played games, ate junk food, and laughed ALOT! It was tons of fun! We definitely need to do this more often. THANKS RUSSELL AND MINDY!!! So again I say...here's to hoping May 1, 2010 comes and goes WITHOUT any life changing work accidents!

My late Christmas Post

This year Christmas was AMAZING. We stayed home this year and decided to start our own traditions. We decided to do a BIG Christmas Eve dinner and a BIG FANCY Christmas morning breakfast. Growing up I always had a Christmas dinner (Turkey and the works) and Shaun's family always did a big Christmas Eve dinner with all of the extended family. We (and I really do mean we) made our 1st Turkey by ourselves. I mean we've always helped cooking the turkey but this year we were on our own and we enjoyed it sooooo much. We laughed and giggled as we stuffed the butt of the turkey. We cooked it in my Oven Roaster. I'm not a big turkey fan I don't really like it and I definitely don't eat left overs of it because it doesn't taste good to me. Well I cooked it in chicken broth and it was sooooo juicy and good! Shaun and I were eating it by the fist full as we were trying to get the potatoes mashed and the stuffing in the bowl and the gravy cooked! It was THE BEST turkey I have EVER HAD!!! I guess I'm the turkey maker from now on!! And I'm ok with that!!! So Christmas Eve we decided to make our dinner then we let the kids open up their Christmas Eve p.js. They had matching purple heart jammies and were soooo cute as they were posing for us! Then we went over to our friends' house and brought our pecan pie and ate it with them! That's right folks I made a pecan pie and it was AMAZING!!! Shaun's most favorite pie is pecan pie and I made him one this year. It was sooooo easy and simple and pretty darn cheap. For the stuff (including the nuts) that I didn't have in my cupboard I spent maybe 7 dollars if that. I was soooooooo proud of myself and how it tasted! My friend had gave the girls both a santa and Mylee was running around screaming "ANTA ANTA ANTA" She loves her Santa and has to sleep with him often at night! It's so cute! We came home, read the Night Before Christmas, and put the kids to bed. They sooo refused going to bed. Tayla left Cookies and milk for Santa and then Shaun and I stayed up for a while putting together Tayla's art table and putting presents under the tree. We had a BLAST with Christmas this year! On Christmas morning I made a Creme Brulee French Toast and it was really really good!!