December 2009 Oahu Slideshow

What's For Dinner?

I had Alexis work on writing while I prepared dinner. I got this exercise from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I have been getting a lot of great ideas on keeping Alexis busy and away from Ellie while I need to do other things. They are also challenging and fun. If you want to see more check out Lexi's blog.


Today I made Turkey Mini Meatloaves. This is the second time I made them. The first time Brian had no idea that there was zucchini in it. This time he knew and ate them anyways. I think he even had three. He says he doesn't like zucchini so I have to hide it some how. We are not bad about eating veggies. I just like to change it up and it gets Ellie to eat better and more varied foods.

You can see the steam coming off of the plate. Yum. Of course we had to have potatoes so I made pearls. Brian loves potato pearls even though he was raised in Idaho.


I thought that this was funny so I took a picture. This is Brian eating the rest of the pearls right off of the serving spoon wearing his Ricks shirt. Feel the Idaho love.

Family Home Evening Monday

For Family Home Evening we made a Disney World savings bank. We did this to announce to Alexis that we are planning on going to Disney World this year and to start making our family aware of saving. This will probably be a mistake when we are tired of hearing about it later. Oh well. That is Alexis sorting her crayons. She didn't want to color or decorate. This kept her at the table and a part of the activity.


Mikey and Daddy going over the quarters to save particular ones. (I love my boys)


Ellie checking out our work before we put it on the oatmeal container.


The girls putting in the money. Ellie worked on this a long time. She really enjoyed putting the money in the slot. This is a great pincer grasp activity.


I made my own potpourri. It didn't turn out like I wanted. The scent is not strong at all but it looks pretty and reminds me of summer.


I was craving something sweet and salty. I went to the pantry and grabbed the stuff necessary to make rice crispy treats plus some extra stuff to throw in. I added crushed pretzel sticks, cashews, and chocolate chips. It hit the spot. I am happy just thinking about it.

Moments From Our Week

I like to have Mikey in the kitchen with me when I am working in there. I think he likes it too. One morning when I was doing the dishes I heard giggling behind me. When I turned around this is what I saw. Ellie likes to make Mikey laugh and he likes to laugh at her. It is a good thing that they are close to the same size or Mikey would be having a hard time having his sister on his lap. (The little pieces on the floor are pinto beans from Ellie's pouring exercises.) This moment makes me smile and fulfilled as a mom.


I made a bunch of wheat berries to try to use our food storage. I found this recipe and I really liked it!!! Instead of milk I used Vanilla Almond Milk and omitted the almond slivers in the end. I also used golden raisins instead of regular just because I like them better. Like I said I really liked it. It says it serves four but Brian and I almost ate all of it ourselves. It certainly makes for a hearty winter's breakfast.


This is Ellie's new favorite spot in the house. It is under the table in our kitchen. She fits so well and it makes for a great hiding spot. She is coloring a baking sheet I got at a thrift store with chalk. I am going to re purpose it to be a little chalk board. It will work great for Alexis and Ellie. I am excited!


This is Brian grilling Hawaiian Teriyaki chicken for me and our guests on Saturday. It wasn't as cold as it has been in awhile. Sometimes you just need a piece of summer in the grays of winter and BBQ does the trick. It was tasty and our guests (who are Hawaiian) were impressed. They were also excited that we served rice. I was perplexed...why wouldn't we serve rice? It's plate lunch meat.

Hmmmm....

I love to cook. It is soothing. However, I do not enjoy the sounds of a crying Mikey, a screaming Ellie and a laughing Alexis while I do it. I cook despite the chaos because I like to eat and I love to watch others enjoy my food. Today I tried a new recipe: Zucchini Rice Casserole. You can find the recipe here.


It calls for zucchini but Brian doesn't care for that vegetable so I used yellow squash. I don't like jalapenos so I used a different pickled pepper. I like this dish. It is a little spicy but it was just what a cold winter day calls for. Earlier in the day I made rice crispy treats with chocolate covered preztle fish for our Family Home Evening treat.


After dinner I didn't feel like a lesson and the kids were driving me crazy. So while I held Mikey and calmed him down, I sang songs with Brian. Then we ate our treat and watched Two Brothers. It's a movie about two tigers. It was a nice movie. Ellie and Alexis liked it. Alexis laughed at the tigers and for some reason it compelled Ellie to dance. It's been a long day and Mikey is crying again. oh well....

Trying to be Deceptive (Evil raised eyebrow)

Last week I tried a Deceptively Delicious recipe. She is all about pureeing veggies and adding them to her dishes. I made the Mac & Cheese 1 recipe. Brian and Alexis liked it. Ellie not so much (but Ellie doesn't seem to eat anything lately). When I told Brian that there was cauliflower in it, he was surprised. Anyways, I will try some of the other recipes.



Today I made one of Brian's favorite dishes that his Mom makes: Sweet and Sour Baked Beans. He even had her teach me how to make it while we were in Hawaii. It turned out well. We had a dinner party for a family whose father was baptized today. I also made my Grandma Doty's Scalloped Corn as a side dish (Love you Grandma. Happy Birthday!!!). Good food and good company. (I cut my finger preparing the garlic. We have really sharp knives.)




Umm .... unfortunately our camera is out for repairs and the flash is not working on the one that we have so the picture does not do my dish justice and the one of my corn is really bad.

Nov 2009 Slideshow

Oct 2009 slideshow (see post below for Halloween pics)