Wannabe refashionista...

I have been perusing this blog lately. It's made me miss the HUGE D.I.'s and Savers in Utah. It's made me walk up the hill to my small Goodwill and scour the aisles. I found this skirt (jr. size 10 and short) . I brought it home for Ellie to slobber on. I made this. It was fun to make and it went a lot smoother that I expected. Only a few unpicks, holes and pokes. Taking the official pledge might be kind of hard for me, maybe in January when I make all my New Year's resolutions.

Full Belly

This was for dinner.

{pesto turkey burgers w/ grilled sweet potato fries} And this was dessert.

Full, happy belly!

Sweet? or Sassy!

Today, we had Dallin's little friends over to make peanut butter play dough pizza. It's a super easy recipe:

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

2 cups dry milk

Combine the honey and pb first, then mix or knead in the dry milk. Back to the point of this whole post. This girl is so sweet, but boy, she can be sassy (funny sassy). Paul was talking to her, trying to confuse her, like he does with most kids.

Paul: "Hey Brittaney, boys rule and girls drool!"

Brittaney: "No!!! It's GIRLS rule and BOYS drool!!!"

Paul: "I'm pretty sure it's the other way..."

Brittaney, interrupting him mid-sentence: "You'll just have to get used to it!"

You go, girl!

Food, fun, flowers

A weekend away would have been ideal, but we stayed home and made the best of it. We try to make every meal count when we eat at home on a special occasion, complete with spicy, sweet, salty, and savory.

Summer Art Projects

Gotta love those hot, humid days! We've had some doozies here, so I have been trying to look up some fun projects for Dallin to do to keep him busy inside in the land of air conditioning. I found such a great site. It is a blog that blogs about other peoples craft projects that they have blogged about on their blog. It will take you all over the internet and could keep you busy for hours! It's not only for kids (ok, it might be, but there are some things that I would like to do too. I like to connect with my inner child.)

Here's the link.

Words to live by

Read it.

Needed it.

Loved it.

This worthy.

Tie one on me

You all know about by most amazingly talented friend, Sara. Yes, I like to suck-up to her...she sent me, or rather, Dallin this tie. She made it, with her own two hands. I LOVE IT!
DALLIN LOVES IT!
We all love it, but getting a good picture of it is another story!

Thanks Sara!

Nothing too exciting...

..or elaborate, but we had fun being together on the 4th.

Tutu Tutorials

How'd I make it? I can't find the exact tutorial that I used, but there are PLENTY of them out there.

Here here here are three different sites, but similar ways.

I just made an extra long one the other day for my neighbor girl who needed to fluff up her flower girl dress--wish I took a picture!

Key Lime Pie and Cafe "Me-O"

Everytime we have the missionaries over for dinner, I make the same thing. "Cafe Me-o" and Key Lime Pie. We never get sick of it, I hope they don't. It's enough to make anyone's mouth water. If you are one of the few, unfortunate souls who do not have the recipes, here they are.

Key Lime Pie (easiest recipe you will EVER come by)

1/2 cup key lime juice (or lime, lemon, I've substituted both)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 oz. cream cheese
lime rind, optional

Mix the above ingredients with your electric beaters and pour into your favorite graham cracker crust. Freeze or regridgerate. (I always use fat free ingredients and no one is the wiser;)

These next recipes I found searching the internet, jonesin' for a sweet pork salad and knowing that it was 1700 miles out of reach. I have adjusted them to my own liking.

Sweet Pork

1 pork roast
salt & pepper, a shake here, a shake there
1 garlic clove, minced or a few shake, shakes of the garlic powder
enchilada sauce, small can (14 oz?)
brown sugar (1/4 to 1/2 cup-- too sweet, or not too sweet)
1 can coke (diet, caffeine free works, too)
1 small can green chilies
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, diced really small

Pour all the ingredients into your crock pot and cook until pork is pull-apart tender (high 4-5 hrs, low 7-8 hours). Shred pork into the sauce.

Green Chili Rice

4 t chicken bouillon
4 t garlic –minced or garlic powder
1 can green chiles
¾ t salt
1 T olive oil
1/4 onion, chopped fine (onion powder works well here, I only used 1/2 tsp.)
Add all ingredients with your rice and make your rice according to your rice package (make 3-4 servings).

Tomatillo Dressing

1 ranch dressing packet, make ranch according to the package directions
2 tomatillos or 1/4 cup salsa verde
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic or the shake, shake of the powder
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño

Blend everything in food processor or blender and then refrigerate to thicken.

Priceless

one can of shaving cream: one dollar

thirty minutes of fun: priceless

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone." --Audrey Hepburn

Please hold still!

Little stinker wasn't doing me any favors when I was trying to get a good picture of the SUPER-DUPER cute ruffle skirt that I made her over the weekend. So, do me a favor and go HERE for the fabulous tutorial. I think she adds/decreases a half an inch in the dimensions per size (ie. size 1/2, size 3/4, size 5/6). In the meantime, maybe I will get a better picture, it does not do justice.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Really, do I need to say anything more (Please note no bonus for the sub-total).

P.S. This is Paul again, and this is my score. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

17 Years!

Disclaimer: This is Paul, and Kristen will likely find the post really really lame.

We are being invaded in our part of the country. Above is the invader, the Magicicada, in a photo I took in front of our local library. There are literally millions of these bugs emerging from a 17 year hiatus. There life cycle is as such: Their eggs are laid on the branches of trees by the adult Cicada, who subsequently dies. The nymph Cicada (sə-ˈkā-də) will fall from the tree branches and burrow into the ground and feed on the roots of the tree...for 17 years. After the 17 years pass, the adult Cicada will emerge and make insane amounts of noise in an effort to mate.

I cannot emphasis how insane the amount of noise is. I took Dallin to his speech appointment at the hospital, which is surrounded by trees. It would have been near impossible to speak to someone more than a few yard away. One landed and Dallin's neck, which really didn't go over well with the little fella. I went home and told Kristen how amazingly loud the Cicada's were, and she told me she had heard them, so no need to act interested in what I had to say.

Two days later I got a message on the voice mail at work, "Paul, you have got to hear how loud the Cicada's are here (sarcasm oozing)." Thirty seconds of holding the phone out, commenting on how loud they were, etc. she had had her fun and said goodbye.

Anyway, I thought that the Cicadas were noteworthy and that I would write a post.

Hey, pickins' have been slim lately. Have you seen how few posts we have.

Another baby...they just keep coming!

My sister, Katie, had her baby early this morning! I thought I was going to have to wait three weeks before I saw a picture of little "Tater-tot", but my rockin' sister, Kodi, put some up on her blog. Thanks Toady!