Rest of Colorado Trip

So here is a quick update on the rest of our trip to Colorado. Saturday morning Jace and I took Paige to a breakfast place in town. After breakfast we came back and got ready for a long four wheeling ride. Below are a bunch of pictures from the area we went to. It was a really great spot near I think Marble, Colorado? Some of the coolest scenery I’ve seen so I took a lot of pictures.

Some views as we were driving. 

All the trees were so great.

There was some snow through the mountains. 

An old mine we rode to in the middle of nowhere!

Ridge got his leg wet trying to cross the river, then no one else wanted to try. 

Jace and I at the mine.

Ridge and Connor. 

They decided to do some modeling. 

Caleb 

The lake. 

Addy and I at the house

We had such a blast with everyone and were sad we couldn’t stay longer. Will be excited though to see everyone at Thanksgiving!



Colorado Trip

So getting ready to go to Colorado was a little more of a process than we thought it would be. First of all, I struggle with packing. I always pack way more than I need to. I just cant decide what I will want to wear when I go somewhere and always worry about the weather (so I end up bringing short sleeves, long sleeves, etc.) What ends up happening is. I go into my closet and pull any and everything I think I might want to bring and throw it into a huge pile. Then I go through and weed out what I know I shouldn’t bring and pack the rest. It kinda looks like this…

But anyways after I Jace and I were all packed to go then we had to worry about all the vehicles.  Jace said that our 2 seater RZR would fit in the back of his truck no problem. He failed to mention it fits with stock tires. So we were lucky to be able to borrow some stock tires and got that loaded up. Then we loaded Jake’s 4 seater RZR onto the trailer along with 2 luggage carrier bags full of our stuff, my mom, Paige and Ridge’s stuff. We put the mini 170 RZR into my dad’s truck and headed down to Provo. We were hoping to leave Farmington around 4 and we didn’t get out of there until closer to 630. We got to Provo to meet up with Mike and Krysta and their kids to drive down together. We were going to through the mini RZR on their trailor with their four-wheelers so we only had to drive down 2 vehicles instead of 3. By the time we did that, stopped by AutoZone to pick up some stuff and Arbys to eat we didn’t leave Provo until 1030. It was then a long 5 hour drive to Glenwood Springs, CO. I did my best to stay awake with Jace the entire time but I admit I feel asleep a little. Below is what we looked like driving down.

Thursday morning Jace and I got up and went down to the little town to check everything out while all the kids were at my cousin Matt’s dental practice getting work done. They have lots of cute boutiques of women’s clothes and bike shops. I ended up getting a really cute top. We’ve been doing a lot of relaxing at the house and playing with all the kids and eating lots of good food. Then yesterday we ended up going up with everyone on the mountain trails. It was a lot of fun. Below are a bunch of pictures from yesterday’s ride.

Getting ready for the ride.  

Sharon, Natalie and Maddy in the Rhino. 

Everyone at the halfway mark.

The top of ride. 

Jace and I at the top.

Mom got a little dusty on the way up. 

Dad, Krista and Sharon.

Paige with Addy and her cheesy smile. 

Som of the guys at the top.

Some of the vehicles. 

Caleb fell asleep in the Rhino. 

Jace and I in the RZR.

We will be going on another ride today so I will be sure to take some more pictures and post about the rest of the trip later!

Potato Cheese Soup

So-I’m just now getting around to writing about my weekend. Friday wasn’t very eventful. Jace worked on painting and fixing up the flatbed trailer he and his brother had bought. While he worked on that I went to the grocery store and then we watched a movie in bed with popcorn. Pretty exciting I know. Saturday wasn’t a whole lot better. We got up early to go help lay sod at my mother-in-law’s house. It went pretty quick surprisingly with everyone there. Then we went home and Jace, Jake and I finished the trailer. (I should’ve taken a picture because it did turn out pretty good). I cleaned the house and Jace worked on the garage. Then his brother and his friend showed up to play with RC cars. I was in the middle of making a dinner for my visiting teaching partner in the ward that just had a cute little baby girl. When I got to a breaking point though I took some time to run over to the new shopping area in Farmington with my sister-in-law Bonnie (she didn’t want to play RC cars with the boys). I found some cute candles and stuff for the house. I also needed a rolling pin and found one at Home Goods (my new favorite store). I ended up making Potato Cheese Soup, Halloween Rice Krispie Pumpkins and Ghosts. I saw the pumpkins on Kensley Rowland’s Facebook then found the Ghosts online. I think the pumpkins were cuter though. I also made the yummy strawberry salad my mother-in-law Janalyn made a few Sunday dinner’s ago (unfortunately Smiths didn’t have any strawberries when I went, apparently they are all really bad right now-but I replaced it with raspberries and blueberries and it still turned out good). I will post the recipes all below. After we dropped off dinner we just cleaned the garage and washed my car. We were both so tired that we just fell asleep that night. It was a pretty uneventful weekend but it was still fun to just have time off and get so much done. Tomorrow were going to Glenwood Springs, Colorado to visit some cousins and spend time with family. I’m excited to have a small break and see all the cousins. I will be sure to come back and blog about it J

Potato Cheese Soup

Karen Lewis

 Serve fresh cheese, green onion and bacon bits to add to the soup

Ingredients:

12 chicken bouillon cubes

2 large carrots, grated-food processor heaven!

3 qt. water (12 cups)

1 heaping Tbsp. parsley flakes

6-8 medium size potatoes cubed (tip-add more potatoes and cut BIG)

1 heaping Tbsp. minced onion

Directions:

Put all ingredients in pot, boil till potatoes are done. Add 1 qt. half-and-half. Bring to boil. Meanwhile in another pan melt 2 cubes butters. Add 1 cup flour. Mix with wooden spoon till smooth (make rue*) add to boiling soup mixture. Simmer 5 minutes serve warm with cheddar cheese, bacon bits and green onion.

*Mix some soup with the rue to make it runnier so it is easier to blend into soup. (Rue: corn starch and warm water)

Its also best to do more potatoes and less water to start with then add more so its not to runny to start with.

Strawberry Salad

Janalyn Olson

Dressing-I blended it in my magic bullet I got as a wedding gift. 

Dressing Ingredients:

 1 T. poppy seeds( + 2 teaspoons poppy seeds)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 T minced red onion

(I added 5-6 berries) 

* add all ingredients into your blender and blend

Salad Ingredients:

 Spinach 

 Strawberries (sliced)-I used raspberries and blueberries

 Feta Cheese 

 Sugared slivered almonds (instructions follow)

 The perfect dressing

Almonds

Toast 3/4 c sliced almonds in fry pan until light brown add sugar mixture and stir until coated.  Pour on wax paper.

2 cup sugar-This was way too much I thought, would use much less.

1/8 tsp of nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Pumpkin rice krispie (just add orange food coloring, a tootsie roll stem and green frosting)!

 

The ghosts just have coconut on the bottom and M&Ms. The pumpkins were easier and cuter I think.

Breadsticks were super easy. Take Rhodes rolls loaves, thaw, roll out and cut into strips. Put butter, seasame seeds and parmesean cheese then bake according to package.

 

Haunted House

So last Thursday Jace and I went to “Nightmare on 13^th” with my best friend Haley and her boyfriend Mike. We’ve gone to this haunted house with them before while Jace and I were dating. Since Haley lives down in Provo we hardly see each other so I was excited to get together with them. The haunted house didn’t seem as scary this year as it had before. (The guy that was behind us though was pretty scared-it was more fun to watch him squeal like a little girl). But even though the haunted house wasn’t super scary I still had fun seeing them and got me even more excited for Halloween. I like Halloween since it’s the start of the major holiday season. I’m also excited that will be going down to Colorado to visit some cousins for the long weekend from Wednesday to Sunday. I will be sure to take pictures and post later.

Jace and I before the haunted house.

Haley and I at the haunted house. (Yes I know its blurry-thats what you get with my phone camera and Jace taking the picture...)

Coupon Tips!

Ok, so since I got married I realized how much it sucks to shop for groceries. (I really hate buying toilet paper and paper towels-so expensive but I like the soft TP and can’t bring myself to buy the cheap stuff). So anyways I decided that after watching “Extreme Couponing” that I was going to try it (a little-I don’t have 80 extra hours a week to dedicate to getting 502 free tubes of toothpaste). But I did start looking through the paper at the coupons and figuring out pretty quickly how to save quite a bit of money. I’ve started tracking my progress in a spreadsheet (what I would have spent and what I did spend) and on average I save about $400-$500 a month, which is defiantly nothing to complain about. I’ve been very excited about sharing my tips with other married woman but decided I should write a blog about it so here it goes.

First thing I figured out to help me save money on my grocery bills is to make a list and only go to the store once a week. I use to go every other day and was just picking up stupid things I don’t need. I sit down every Saturday morning with my recipe book and my coupons. I look in my fridge and figure out what I’ve got that is going to go bad soon (meat, cheese, etc.) then I pick my meals based on that. I’m also realistic and know I’m not going to cook every night. I average 2-3 nights a week and we eat the leftovers since it’s just Jace and I. Then I go through the recipe and write down every item it requires, if I already have it in my pantry I cross it off then leave only the things I don’t have left to buy. Then I go through and pull out my coupons that match the items I need. I also look at coupons that are about to expire and see if I need those items (for instance a $1 off Tide is a coupon you never pass up!)

I find a lot of my coupons online. My favorite type of coupons are “ecoupons” or electronic coupons. They are the best because you just go online and upload coupons to a rewards card number. For instance I shop at Smiths for the majority of my groceries. Smiths has a rewards card (similar to Kroger and other stores), you can go to smiths website and sign up your rewards card online. There you can track your points, how much $ your saving and the best part-add coupons to your card. So for instance I upload 20 or so coupons a week and then I usually forget I have them. When I go to check out though at Smiths, when I swipe my rewards card it will automatically pull them off for me and lower my bill! Here are some other helpful links I use to:

Coupons.com(these are just easy printable coupons-hint only select things/products that you actually buy, otherwise you have a million coupons that you never end up using).

Shortcuts.com (this is a website with ecoupons and printable coupons).

Shopathome.com (lots of different types)

Couponnetwork.com

I also suggest getting a coupon file/holder (I got a small cheap one I carry in my purse at Office Max) and separating your coupons by categories (frozen food, juices/beverages, toiletries, cleaning supplies/household products, perishable items, etc). It will make it much easier to find things when your looking. I also suggest before you go to the store pulling out the coupons you know you will end up using and even some you think you might use. You don’t want to be the idiot holding up the line looking for your coupons. There may be trips that you do really good (one trip I saved 55% of my bill! And other trips you only save $1. But it all ends up helping. I usually only spend a ½ hour to an hour a week. I go through the Sunday paper and pull out the things I think I might use and always throw away any coupons that have expired.

Another thing I must mention because I love Smiths so much and their rewards program is the fact that you can earn points that go towards gas discounts. For those not familiar with Smiths it works like this. For every 100 points you earn (typically you earn a point a $1 you spend) you get 10 cents off of gas. You can use it then or accumulate up to 1000 points or $1 off of gas. Jace and I don’t go through $1,000 of groceries that often but what’s great about Smiths is they have gift cards that you can use towards points. So this summer when Jace and I were spending a lot of money at Home Depot and Lowes, we would first figure out how much money we were going to be spending there and then go to Smiths and buy a gift card. So if were spending $400 at Lowes, we get the 400 points towards gas (40 cents off a gallon!) Even better yet, is sometimes they do 2X or ever 4X the rewards points which really adds up fast! It makes it great to see how much gas we save. This year we’ve saved close to $300 in gas which is great in my opinion.

Its also helpful to Google search for specific restaurant coupons sometimes. There have been a lot of times we decide were going to Olive Garden or Chili’s or somewhere for dinner and before we leave I will look online for printable coupons they may have. I also sign up for the email to many places since they email coupons frequently. One of my favorites is Cinemark’s weekly coupon. They email you things such as “Buy a small popcorn get a free small drink” or other great things for the movies.

So anyways these are my small few coupon tips. They help me a little here and there and really aren’t too bad to do every week. I love hearing new ideas or websites so if you have any let me know!

Recap-First of October

So a recap on last week/weekend. I needed a baby girl gift so I went to Madeleine L’Amour-my favorite little boutique place in Centerville. They have the cutest girly stuff in there. My friend Jeni Carlson and her mom own it so I love going in there and I always find something cute. I was able to find this super cute necklace for the expecting mom and this skirt for the little one. I also found myself a little jacket :) They were also super sweet to wrap it all pretty for me. Check out their blog here… Madeleine L'Amour Blog

Baby girl skirt-little big for an infant but she can grow into it 

Necklace 

The cute wrapping!

I’ve been loving the cold weather! (As long as it doesn’t snow). I love the boots and jackets and scarves I get to wear. Thanks to Elise Curtis I have been using this website to find different ways to tie a scarf. Here!I’ve also made hot chocolate about every day this past week. With marshmallows is the best. Friday was a fun night. My youngest brother Ridge wanted us to take him to Lagoon with our season passes (yes we have season passes) but it was way too cold so I told him we would go bowling instead. We went to Five Guys in Bountiful (I’ve never seen a little kid eat so much in my life) with my parents and Ridge but unfortunately it was league night for bowling so we ended up going home and just playing cards. Jace won, I was sad. Then Saturday my mom and I went to brunch with Cindy Fish who was visiting from Texas. I’m upset I didn’t get a picture so here is the picture from the summer we all got together last time she was here. (This one is at Chilis, we went to iHop this time). Its always fun catching up with her but I wish she would just move here!

(From the left) Cindy, Mom, Me

Anyways after brunch, my mom and I did a few errands and while we were out we stopped at the TJ Maxx/Home Goods store in Brickyard. I found and fell in love with a dinning room chair there. Jace and I just ordered our new kitchen table which I’m so excited for (it doesn’t get her until November 14^th…apparently it’s a pretty happening table at ZGallerie.) But I’ve been on the hunt for chairs now and I found these. They were also $50 cheaper than other places I’ve seen. I also stopped by Mr. Mac with my mom to pick up some stuff to send to my other brother on his mission in St. Louis, Missouri. She told me for Christmas she is going to be sending him the “12 Days of Christmas” and in each package write a cute little poem like “On the first day of Christmas my family sent to me, one ugly Christmas tree…or 5 ugly DI ties.” So if you can think of any cute ideas/poems to send a missionary let us know!

Anyways when I got home Saturday from brunch/shopping with my mom I told Jace we had to go look at the Home Goods by our house at these chairs I had found. We went and agreed they were a must. They only had 4 and the lady said they were Chocolate Brown but the Brickyard location had 2 that were black. I told her she was wrong and that I would go back to Brickyard and bring them back to show her they were the same color. So Monday during my lunch break I did just that. I managed to get 2 of these chairs in my car (I really should have taken a picture because I looked like an idiot with a dining room chair sitting in my passenger seat of my Audi). I was so happy when we went over to pick up the other 4 chairs (in Jace’s truck) that they were all the same color (I’m still not sure if they are classified as chocolate brown or black-either way I like them!) So here are the picture of my chairs.

These are technically my Christmas present this year and I’m so excited for them!! We also ended up seeing “The Ides of March” on Saturday night. It was really good I thought with George Clooney and Ryan Gosling in it. Sunday we had church and then a birthday dinner for my nephew Kayton who then turned 9 on Monday.

Not a great picture from my phone-but this was the RC car from us and his parents. He was pretty excited to drive it even though it was raining. All in all its been a great last few days.

First week of October...

So yesterday was a pretty crazy day but I feel like I got a lot accomplished. So I had planned to bring dinner to a lady in the ward whom just had a baby boy who unfortunately ended up passing away. Its so crazy what can happen in life so even though it didn’t feel like much, it felt good to bring them some dinner. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to do everything Tuesday night so Monday night I made the Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes I found on The Sister Café Blog http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2011/10/pumpkin-spice-cupcakes-cinnamon-cream-cheese-frosting (one of my favorite to find new recipes on). Then I also decided to cut, cook and shred all my chicken Monday as well so I would just have to do frosting and combine everything Tuesday. It was a good idea because everything ended up taking a little longer than I anticipated. But I ended up making Poppy Seed Chicken (again thank you Kensley Rowland!), Apple Pecan Salad from my mother-in-law Janalyn Olson and I even talked Jace into making some Cinnamon Sugar Bread for me. We got everything ready and were able to take everything over there. It was good to see how at peace their family was with everything. It was very impressive and comforting. (I forgot to take pictures before I took everything over so these are pictures of what I made for Jace and I-and Jace was to impatient to wait).

Poppy Seed Chicken  

Jace's Cinnamon Sugar Bread 

Apple Pecan Salad 

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and my cute little Halloween cupcake decorations from Target :)

So then we came home and I cleaned up the kitchen (which became a disaster). Jace failed to tell me at one point during our cooking session that he was melting butter and taking it out of the microwave so I ran into him and butter all over me, the cabinets and floor-not pretty so I didn’t take a picture! Then I decided to make my cute little Halloween Light Block I had seen in the advertisement for Ben Franklin. The project was surprisingly not that difficult. I think it took me longer to find everything in the store than to put it together.

Supplies from Ben Franklin (all in all I think it was about $25) 

The end product. I think its cute! 

In the kitchen by my ghost and Halloween picture frame.

Also going back to the weekend, it was General Conference so of course we watched that. Friday (long story short) Jace and I picked up a boat then I had a test Saturday morning for school so we picked up some Chili's to go and I studied all night long. Then Saturday Jace wanted to go try out the boat. So we just went to Willard Bay then he went to Priesthood and then we meet up with his dad and brother for dinner. Then Sunday I made homemade waffles (no pictures). We relaxed and then went to his mom’s for lunch in between sessions. It was a great weekend and very nice to relax. 

Don't be deceived by the photos. It was pretty dirty and needed a lot of buffing, waxing, shampooing, cleaning and loving... 

On the lake October 1st in Utah is pretty nice :)

One last side note-I love Kohls, I was in there yesterday and found these cute little guys so had to buy them for my nephews. (Yes the purple one is kinda girly for a boy but I knew Noah would like the fluffy dog!) All in all it was a pretty great weekend and good start to October. But now the snow and cold is going to start coming in :( I will post some of the recipes I do have on my computer now and the others I will have to put up later.

Waffles-Karen Lewis

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cup flour

3 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 beaten egg yokes

1 ¼ cup milk (use more milk than recipe calls for, make sure batter is fairly thin before folding in egg whites)

2 stiffly beaten egg whites (fold in last)

*Optional 3 Tbsp. sugar; 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Pour ¾ cup batter into waffle iron and let cook until waffles are golden brown.

Apple & Spiced Pecan Salad-Janalyn Olson

Ingredients:

6-8 cups assorted greens (anything but Iceburg)

¾ cups crumbled feta cheese

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1 large red-skinned apple, diced

Dressing:

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon salt

Dash Tabasco sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

Whisk together dressing ingredients

Spiced Pecans:

3 tablespoons butter

1 ½ tablespoons sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup chopped pecans

Over medium heat, melt butter in a pan and add sugar, spices and salt. Add pecan pieces and stir until well-coated. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until sugar caramelizes and pecans darken slightly in color. Transfer mixture to a paper bag to cool. Shake bag occasionally to break up pieces.

Assemble salad ingredients & top with cooled pecans. To avoid browning apples, can be added directly to dressing or diced just prior to serving. Toss salad with dressing and serve.

Thats all I have for now. Enjoy!!