Weekend Update

Hmmm where to begin to cover the last weekend. We didn’t have too much going on so it was a pretty nice weekend to just relax and get things done. Friday we had Jace’s step-grandfathers funeral. It was sad to see him go but at age 90 its hard to say he didn’t live a good long life. After the funeral we ran around and did some errands then had lunch at Chili’s. Good old Chili’s is our standard plan for date night if we can’t think of anything else and since there weren’t any movies we were dying to see we went to dinner. I still love going to dinner with Jace and just hanging out even after almost 2 years of marriage (end of the year). Then Saturday morning we had our rehearsal for the Primary program. We have the 10-11 year olds. Jace and I are pretty great at singing all the songs but I must say there must be a lot of new songs since I was in Primary because they all seem new to me. Anyways, after the rehearsal we came home and cleaned the house. I love cleaning and having a clean house. Vacuumed couches, dusted blinds, scrubbed showers and everything else is the best feeling. Jace was a wonderful helper! Then I ran a million different errands while Jace played with his RC cars. When I got home we headed over to Kayton’s football game. Unfortunately we must be bad luck because they didn’t win but it was still fun to go watch.

Me and baby Noah at the football game. 

Kayton and Noah after the game

 This week we had some broccoli cheese soup which was delicious. Then I also made some yummy spinach dip for a party we went to on Saturday night. The spinach dip is really easy and great for parties. We went to Jed and Amy’s since they ordered the fight to watch. Then Sunday was the big Primary program. It went pretty well and Jace sang along the whole time! All in all it was a good relaxing weekend. Nothing too exciting in our lives but its fun none the less. Below are some of the recipes I mentioned…

The recipe for the Broccoli Cheese Soup is attributed to our old neighbor Krista Hall that she gave to my mom.

Ingredients:

Make Rue:

½ cube butter

½ cube flour

2 cups milk

8 oz. package Velveeta cheese

Salt and pepper-to taste

Carrots and broccoli

Directions:

Cook broccoli in water (save water). Make Rue. Bring all contents to boil. Serve with bread.

The Spinach Dip recipe is from my mom.

Ingredients:

1 box Knoor Leek soup

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayo

6 green onions

1 can water chestnuts chopped

1 box spinach, squeeze to drain water

Mix all together. Serve with sliced bread.

Jace and I before the party. Then the spinach dip in a bread bowl below. 

We also bought some pumpkins over the weekend. I want to carve them when it gets closer to Halloween. Also in case you were concerned about our grass as much as I am, below are some pictures of it coming in. We've put some fertilizer down so hopefully it helps it come in thicker.

Fall Cooking

I love fall weather. It makes me excited for new fall clothes and it makes me want to cook more. Jace and I have been eating A LOT of cereal this summer due to the yard. So now that the we cant touch the yard for 3 weeks, I have time to cook and bake at night! So Monday I decided I would make some zucchini bread. My mom brought us a HUGE zucchini from Ridge’s garden. She said it was time for me to learn how to make my own bread. So I figured I might as well learn.

See the huge zucchini-my knife struggled cutting through it. I need to upgrade to Cutco!

I decided because the zucchini was so huge I would make a double batch. (My loaf pans must be larger than normal though because my double batch should have made 4 loaves and it only made 2 and ½). Anyways I pulled out the Kitchen Aid mixer (which I love!) and the Kitchen Aid Food processor which I had never used before. (Also on a side note-we received the food processor in the mail when we got married but it had NO tag or name associated with it so I was never able to send a thank you note to whoever gave us the processor).  Jace had to help me set up the thing but once I got going it was so awesome.

15 minutes later after Jace figured it out for me.

It would have taken me forever to shred all that zucchini but the food processor was so fast! I got excited and shredded the whole zucchini and froze the half I didn’t use (my mom confirmed this was ok). While my bread was cooking I was so excited to use my food processor and since it was already out and set up (pretty sure I cant use it if Jace isn’t around) I shredded a whole block of cheese too!

The results of the food processor on the huge zucchini.

I like to have shredded fresh cheese but its much easier than doing it by hand. Anyways my bread turned out surprisingly delicious and I’ve eaten almost half of it already by myself. Tonight I’m planning on making some broccoli cheese soup! I don’t have the zucchini bread recipe with me so I will post it later.

The beautiful mixer that does all the work for me!

The end results!



I will be sure to post some more pictures and recipes of the food I'm sure to be cooking the next few months. Yumm! Also Monday night we had a neighborhood BBQ which was fun to go to. Tonight then I have my visiting teaching ladies coming over and I go visit my ladies on Thursday. I feel like such an old lady ha.

Learning to Ride a Bike

So now that the hydro seed is in the yard and we can’t touch it for 3 weeks (my heart is NOT broken about this), what to do at nights after work? It means I actually cook instead of cold cereal, hot dogs and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches every night. It also means that we can just hang outside like we did last night. We were outside enjoying the night with our neighbors (also my brother and sister-in law Jake and Marci Packard) and Jace decided he wanted to help little nephew Owen (who just turned 3) learn how to ride his bike without training wheels. Owen has this awesome little thing called a strider that he is a pro at that has helped him learn his balance and he has got that down. Now its just for the pedals. So Jace and Jake ran up and down the street a hundred times pushing Owen and he actually started getting the hang of it. I took a bunch of pictures that you can see below.

Owen's famous cheese smile and Noah trying to take over the Strider.

Jace testing out Owen's new bike. 

Owen decided the Strider was easier.

So Noah took the new bike. 

Then mean uncle Jace took the new bike from Noah.  

They decided to have a race. Jace lost.  

Noah on the bike with Marci. 

And I just liked this picture because Owen has his fingers up his nose.

Halloween Decorations

Ok so as I mentioned in my last post that this last Saturday while doing yard work it started raining on us. It was kinda sad but happy at the same time because we really need to get the yard work done but I really needed a break. So we ended up going inside to wait the storm out and while inside I decided I would put up the Halloween decorations (I was inspired by my sister-in-law Marci). She put all her’s up and while she has many more than I do it was fun to get them up. I’m so excited for fall, mostly because then I wont have to work in the yard anymore (if you’ve ever put in your own yard, you understand this). So I popped a bag of popcorn (my recent favorite snack-I always offer to share with Jace but usually eat 90% by myself, good thing I’m going back to the gym with Chad and the guys at work!)

Anyways here are some pictures I took last night of the house when I should have been working on my Photo 1 & 2 assignments for school (stupid last Fine Arts credit). These are horrible lighting, and my instructor would be horrified by these but this was all I got and I promised Kensley I would get some house pics up so here ya go…

Looking in from the family room to the kitchen (which is normally more clean). See my pumpkins up above the cabinets. 

Close up of the pumpkins and my ghost by the stove.  

More glass/fallish pumpkins. I like these becuase they work for Thanksgiving too! 

My new Spooky sign from Tai Pan. I think I need to add some cobweb looking stuff around it. 

The family room and kitchen view. You can barely see my Halloween decorations in the candel/lantern thing on the coffee table.  

I can't decide if the ghost should go in the front room or kitchen.  

Jace says he thinks it's missing another "b" on the end...

My 2 signs in the kitchen.  

My little ghost and pumpkin hanging by the downstairs guest bedroom/bath.

Yard Work & Rascall Flatts Concert

So this summer has been pretty dedicated to yard work. We bought our house in March 2010 and still don’t have our yard in so this was the year we were going to get it done. We have around ¾ of an acre so its A LOT of work to get it in. We’ve done everything ourselves and we even bought a bobcat to help out (best investment we ever made!) Its been a lot of work but its kinda fun to see our hard work finally starting to pay off. Wednesday morning were getting seed and then we should be mowing in 2-3 weeks according to the guy putting the seed down. I’m so excited to have a yard its ridiculous. Here are some pictures so you can see all our hard work.

Jace putting in the filter for our sprinklers.

Super nasty since we've been outside all day but this was my genius idea to put up a shade tent and work under that. I'm sure it looked really awesome from the street in our front yard but it was so much better to work under.

On another note Friday we were able to go to the Rascal Flatts concert with my Mom, Dad, Aunt Sharon and Kami. We had a lot of fun. It started pouring on the way to the Amphitheater and we were nervous since the concert was outside but luckily it stopped in time for the show. It was good to take a break from the yard for a night and just relax. Saturday it also rained some so I decided to get out the Halloween decorations and put them up. I didn’t get very good pictures so I will take some more and get them up later.

Mom and Dad.

Jace and I

Sharon and Kami

Kami and I!

Labor Day-Dunes

Well we went down to the sand dunes this weekend. Its all to familiar of a place for us on big weekends. It was a good weekend however becuase we got smart and brought back up vehicles for us. When the Teryx blew up after only 10 minutes of riding it was nice to have the RZR as back up. It was also fun to have my Dad, Paige and Ridge with us this weekend. (Mom was down in Las Vegas with my Grandparents). They all had a blast and my dad now must have a 4 seater RZR. (Thanks to Jake for letting my family borrow theirs). Then when my Dad and Paige had to leave Jake came out with the nephews Owen and Kayton. It was fun to have everyone stay in the trailer with us (Which I must mention is soooo much better than camping it-I dont mind camping it but the dunes is a little too much to tent it). All in all it was a good weekend. Most everything worked all weekend and most importantly no one got hurt. So if I can figure out how to load pictures to this blog I will...

 Ridge and Kayton ready for a ride

 Cute little Owen giving me his "Cheese" face

 Jace and Kayton jumping the RZR (you cant see but it has black and hot pink seats-yes I got to pick the colors on it!)

 Not a cute picture but the only one that I made it in.

I like this one-Owen liked playing in the sand alot