Last Year

Happy New Years!

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I have written but I thought that today would be a good day to review our adventures this year.

January: Terrance turned 25!
February: I turned 24.
March:
April:
May:
June: Terrance started at AMX.
July: MEP. Fireworks! Terrance Walked at BYU-I's summer graduation
August: PAC Parkinson annual campout.
September: My mom and me went to pick up Matt from his mission and saw Nauvoo and many church sites. Cousin Camille got married.
October: I quit Little Caesars
November: Terrance quit AMX and started at BYU-Idaho
December: Terrance officially graduated form BYU-Idaho. Cousin Crystal got married.

So I can't think of any thing exciting for 3 month but I will just call them our relaxing months.

I am excited to see what next year brings for us! Good luck to everyone.

Crystals Wedding

My cousin Crystal got married on december3rd and the pics are up so I can finally post about it.
It was a good ceremony, everyone looked great.

Crystal and me before the wedding.

The oldest cousins/good friends all together.

The Ceremony, it was really nice. I for one didn't know what to do except stand there and watch them, it was weird.


The wedding party.


All the girls:)


This is my favorite pic, and my pose idea that I saw on pinterest.


It was a very busy and long day but everything seemed to go Great. Congratulations Crystal and Donnie.

Squash Soup/ Apple crisp

Have you every wondered what to do with that nasty squash that comes in bountiful baskets every once in a while well I found a really good recipe for one of them.

It is called Butternut Squash Soup II from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
2. Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper

I apparently put too much pepper in it for Terrances liking, so i have to eat the rest but it is good to me.


Well that was dinner and I am making apple crisp for desert (I think T is really hungry because he only hade like 5 bites of his soup because "it is burning my throat". But that is ok I am just learning his spice level. (Which is kinda bland for me but it is easier to add for me then take away for him.)

Apple oatmeal crisp (also from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3 cups apples - peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Lightly grease an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, oats, flour and butter. Mix until crumbly. Place half of crumb mixture in pan. Spread the apples evenly over crumb mixture. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and top with remaining crumb mixture.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Note: nextinge I will put in only 1tsp cinnamon and 1/4th a cup of white sugar

Won Tons

I made Won Tons tonight and they were really good.

This is how I made them.

The filling:
Cream cheese
Green onion
Salt, pepper
Garlic salt

in half of them I added some crab because T doesn't like crab or any sea food which is so sad.

To figure this out I just looked up some recipes on allrecipes.com and modified my own mixture to what I had available.

I also made the wrappers and this recipe I got off of allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, beat the egg. Mix in the water.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Create a well in the center of the mixture and slowly pour in the egg and water. Mix well. If the mixture is too dry, increase the amount of water one teaspoon at a time until a pliable dough has formed.
3. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until elastic. Cut dough into two separate balls. Cover the balls with a damp cloth for a minimum of 10 minutes.
4. Cut each ball into four equal pieces. Roll the pieces into 10 1/2 by 10 1/2 inch squares. Cut each into nine 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch squares. Use in any recipe that calls for wonton wrappers.

I deep fried them all and for my first attempt they turned out really good I think. Some broke open a bit and the filling came out but it happens.

New decorations

I made a tree skirt and a table cloth these little additions just pull everything together.





The tree skirt is double sided.




I am loving all the sewing projects that I have been able to get done, and all the new things that I have been able to make.

Yeah Christmas is coming!

We decorated for Christmas some on Saturday.





It was so much fun to put up our first large Christmas tree and all the trimmings that we got last year, we also decorated the railing in our house.



I really enjoy this time of year when houses glow with the joy of Christmas lights and there is always something exciting going on.



Happy Holidays!


Sorry the pics are giant my blog is not uploading them correctly again so i have to get them from Facebook and apparently they are HUGE! (not any more I fixed the html thingy to make it a bit better)

Mom's tricks

So we have just finished tiling our house thanks to my parents and it looks great! For the sealing part of it they weren't there but my mom gave me some tricks that helped a ton.

this is the sealer that we used.

You put that into a contact solution container.




then you just tip the bottle into the cracks and it pours a great straight line along the grout. you don't even have to squeeze it just comes out.


My mom wrote the instructions on the bottle for us to remember.


The first coat soaks up a ton, that is why you have to make sure your grout is dry so it will get soaked all the way in.

The second coat you put on 1/2 an hour later this soaks up a bit but not nearly like the first does.

The third coat is applied 1 hour later and this just seems to sit on top but it is just slowly seeping in.

Let this sit for 6 hours to dry completely( at least in Idaho where it is so dry).

Advise: if you miss the crack a bit with the sealant that is ok after it is dry it will slowly wear off. If you don't want to wait for it to wear off then you can use a magic eraser and it comes off even dried.

Good luck

Jobs

Some of our friends and family know and some don't but we have had a few job changes here recently.

For starters I quit Little Caesars about 3 weeks ago, I think. Time flies when you are having fun. Since I quit we have been tileing with my parents and have completed our 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and entry way. It looks great and we love the update to our house. There will be a before and after blog when the rooms get put all back together again. I have also been doing some sewing projects that I will blog about soon.

Now it is Terrance's turn, he has quit AMX and is starting work at BYU-I tomorrow.

These changes are big, exciting, and scary all at the same time. It is amazing how every little change in our life brings big adjustments, like schedule changes or more accurately I have been trying to figure out a good schedule that works for me. I have been trying to fit all the things that I want to do and all the things that I need to do into the same week and sometimes into the same day, many days there never seems to be enough time.

We are also trying to implement better habits like eating healthy meals at home. One of the ways we started this goal was to get Bountiful Baskets every other week. By getting these baskets we get many different fruits and vegetables that we would not normally get, and because we try not to be wasteful I have been able to try lots of different recipes to use our new produce.

Along with all the new changes we are still involved with our normal business endeavors, along with a few new ones.

So currently or life seems pretty crazy, but so much fun. (Sorry there are no pics for this post)

got a hair cut!

This was on sat the most resent pic of me before my cut.


and here is the cut, it feels good to have a fresh look.

Happy birthday LuJean!

Last weekend we as my Mother-in-laws birthday. we through her a surprise party in Island Park. It was so fun to see so many MEPPERS and to be up at the condo there.


Here is the birthday girl!

We sat around ant talked a lot this is my awesome sister-in-law, and me.

My Handsome husband, and his cousin Brian, with me in the background.

It snowed all night and all day we drove up in the snow. But when the first of the family drove up it was not snowing, we love that the first big snowfall is always during the first night at the condo.

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween! We went to Newdale to visit his family and see what they were doing for the holiday. Everyone seemed to be having fun (except Cambria who was not feeling well) it is fun to just sit back and talk with family.

Can you guess what we dressed up as?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkin seeds

So I baked my first pumpkin seeds today, I failed. They look good and taste good on the outside, but on the inside they are all burned. I didn't think that baking seeds would be that hard. But hopefully I have better luck next time.

Pomegranates

Pomegranates, that is what we got 22 lbs of just over a week ago, 22lbs is about 39 pomegranates.

We decided to deseed them and freeze the seeds.

First I cut off the ends and cut them in half, then soaked them in hot water to loosen the seeds.

I got the seeds out by pretty much flipping the halves inside out then rubbing them off in the warm water.

the little yellow skin pieces float in the water you just skim those off the top.

Then strained them out of the water

This is about half of them.

then we put them on a plate and froze them.

and put them into zip locks to eat throughout the year.

That is it, it was a success and they taste awesome after frozen. They all get sweeter after frozen and you don't run into those bitter ones that make you cringe.

Picking up Matt part 11

Friday we flew home! It was such a good trip, we are in the airport parking lot.

These are our little cousin who met us at the airport to welcome Matt home. They had to wait an extra hour or more because our flight was delayed due to fog.

Picking up Matt part 10

On Wednesday we stayed in a hotel with a water park in it, it was so cool. We played in it that night and the next morning.


We love playing in the water!


This was our room there.


The next morning they had the water slide on Matt got going pretty fast.


After playing we went to Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith received revelation for many parts of D&C.


This is the Community of Christ temple.


They had a lot of art work in the temple.


This is a piece that represents the the burning bush that Moses saw.


I thought that this tree was really cool it was made of metal.



My mom liked this one.



This is a fountain behind us it looks like there is just an inch of water but really it is more like 4 feet. Apparently a kid thought it wasn't deep too and wanted to walk on it so he jumped on in, luckily his dad was quick and fished him out fast.

Picking up Matt part 9

On Wednesday we went to the part of Nauvoo that is owned by the Community of Christ church, one of the many break offs of the LDS church. They own these buildings.

The first is the red brick store, at least that is what I think it was called. This is where the relief society was established, in this room.




This was the outside.




This is the final resting place and grave for the Prophet Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and Emma Emma smith. Origanally the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were secretly buried and then even moved so that their graves were not destroyed. Emma was the only person who knew where they were buried when she passed away, she never told anyone. She only told her kids that they were close to a shed. Eventually they found their bodies and placed them here.



This is Josephs house, it was very pretty.



It was a very good tour that they gave there.