Christmas

Dallin has chocolate lips. Kari brought her son Max over and Wes had fun sharing the blocks. Wes and I went to Cari's toddler gymnastics class and Wes absolutely loved it.






Our stockings waiting for santa. Wes learned to scoot the first day we got here and he was constantly going for the presents and ornaments. Baby Eve with a smile in her sleep.





We went to Oakland on saturday for John's cousin Justin's wedding. Wes was afraid of the waterfall.




Wes after a fun bath. Baby Eve being so cute. Rose about to pop. Cari having fun. and Wes with his first present. His first tooth came in on Christmas day.

Wes vs. The Vacuum or Wes vs. The Basketball

There are only two things in the world that Wes is deathly afraid of. The vacuum and the basketball. I can understand why he would be afraid of the vacuum, its loud and big, but the basketball?

Weekend

This weekend we had lunch at Aunt Julie's and then the Christmas Orchestra Celebration at the Conference Center.

Projects

These are my projects for the month of december (plus a few more that are gifts so I'll have to post those later). Fleece bean bags, holiday trees, quilted tablerunner, baby girl sweater dress, wool bag, and a vintage apron.

Cake

My long lost favorite chocolate cake.

Clapping

Wes learned to clap this week. This is a picture of him clapping, you just have to imagine it. He likes to clap when he eats something yummy or he is excited. And here is a picture of my hair cut.

Yum

Coupons

I don't know when it happened. I used to think that clipping coupons was a waste of time. I even remember thinking that boys that used coupons were cheap. But somewhere after getting married and having a baby I started collecting coupons. I think it may have been the cost of diapers, $5 off of every pack of diapers is definitely worth the time to clip a coupon. I started collecting coupons for friends and family and sending them across the country. I then starting giving coupons to people in my ward. People call me and ask me if I have coupons to certain stores or where they can find them. The other day someone called me the Coupon Lady and I think that was the first time I realized that I may have become addicted. I don't think its a bad thing, It's just hard now to buy anything without a coupon. I hate the feeling of paying full price for something, especially when I know that there are hidden deals out there somewhere. Does anyone else (besides Rose) love coupons, or know where to get some great deals?

'Tis the Season

We finally set up our holiday decor and Wes can't stop looking at the tree lights. It seems like we are a little short on our decorations, just a few stockings, a tree, and our wooden reindeer. It looks like I might need to get out my glue and sewing machine and see what I can make.

Pizza

If you like good food and gourmet pizza you should check out Pizzeria 712 that just opened up in the new Midtown Village in Orem (those big buildings on state street near orem center). I'm not going to tell you that it's really good or that it's the best pizza Iv'e ever had, you just have to go there and see for yourself.

Spelling

I just learned that the correct spelling of barbecue is barbecue not barbeque, its a very common mistake. I have been learning a lot while I have been organizing my recipes.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Idaho. We ate lots of food. Went shopping. Decorated the tree (Wes was enchanted with all the lights). Watched movies. Ate more food. Played games. Watched the BYU game. Played video games (the boys). The usual fun vacation stuff, it was a blast, and now we are a few pounds heavier.

Shirt Hat

Soup

This has been one of our favorites (thanks Amber). If you like Italian flavors you will love this soup. And it's full of iron for all of you pregnant ladies.

Florentine Chicken Soup

1 c uncooked pasta
6 oz cooked chicken (we like to grill it)
4 c chopped fresh spinach
7 1/4 oz jar roasted sweet peppers, drained, sliced
3 fresh sprigs rosemary chopped
1/2 t garlic powder
1/4 t pepper
1 T butter
1 1/2 c chicken broth
3/4 c alfredo sauce
3 T prepared pesto
Topping: parmesan cheese and pine nuts

1. cook pasta according to package directions
2. in a large saucepan saute chicken, spinach, red pepper, rosemary, garlic powder, and pepper in butter till spinach is wilted
3. stir in the broth, alfredo and pesto
4. cook for 4-5 min
5. drain pasta and add to soup
6. garnish with pine nuts and parmesan

Tiger

The Mormon Way

We were reading US News today and found this article with Elder M. Russell Ballard. It's pretty interesting, I like how the church came off sounding real.

Puddin

I just wanted to remind everyone about pudding. I was feeling like I needed some chocolate last night after dinner and I found a box of chocolate pudding in the cupboard. Well for $.50 (it may have been a little more, I can't remember) it's a pretty good dessert. That's probably why we had it all the time growing up. You can always make your own from bakers chocolate and real cream and vanilla, yum, or make the powdered kind which takes about 30 seconds.

Black Beans & Peas

don't ask me what that little curl is doing on top of his head

Halloween

Here are a few shots of our halloween. Yes Wes is a tomato, I know, its so cute.

Organization

I get excited every year when fall comes around. I start to get the cleaning organizing streamlining bug. So I have been working on ways to simplify my life and I thought I would share with all of you some of the things I came up with. I added a bar to the right with links to the files that make my life a whole lot easier. Take a look and let me know what you think. I made a master grocery list, a monthly budget tracker and a weekly schedule. These tools come in handy when making goals to work toward the Prophet's counsel on budgets and food storage too. Im working on a food storage file and I will post that when Im done.

Dinner

October 28

For our last barbecue of the season we had hamburgers, fries, fruit salad, rootbeer, and apple crisp, all american. Wes' favorite activity lately is to play the harmonica with dada. I did flowers for a wedding this weekend.