Jolly Old Saint Neil

I had forgotten how round my baby was just 2 Christmases ago. My adorable nephew Ed gets to be Santa this year and it inspired me to look back to Neil's year in the Santa suit:

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!

Updates at Last

First of all, I failed to blog a Happy Birthday to my Joshua. He is now 4 years old. He enjoyed every moment of his birthday weekend, checking regularly to see if it was still his birthday.

Happy Birthday Joshy!(Thanks must go to Aunts Cheryl and Mia who took care of the birthday cake situation with our lack of functioning kitchen facilities..)

And now, by request.. THE KITCHEN UPDATE

We've still got some projects to complete, but here's a sneak peek at how far we have come:

The empty space after demolition

Russ and his helpers

New playspace for boys..

The countertops & cabinets.. I'm in love.

No more excuses.. time to start cooking dinner again. (More thanks in order for those who fed us and let us invite ourselves for dinner while we were in shambles.)

A tag to pass the time..

Catching up on tags while the boys and I are confined to the basement. Cabinets are being installed even as I type (YAY!). Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! (this was not easy) Then I must pass it on to seven others. Here are the questions:

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? Delta
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? Lorraine
5. Your father? Don
6. Your favorite thing? outdoors
7. Your dream last night? strange
8. Your dream/goal? success
9. The room you're in? basement
10.Your hobby? cooking
11. Your fear? failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
13. Where were you last night? Cheryl's
14. What you're not? political
15. One of your wish-list items? this
16. Where you grew up? Jersey
17. The last thing you did? amazon.com (is that one word?)
18. What are you wearing? sweater
19. Your TV? Diego
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? dell
22. Your mood? content
23. Missing someone? Hubba
24. Your car? messy
25. Something you're not wearing? make-up
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? gone
28. Love someone? family
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? Sunday


I tag anyone who would like to participate..

What's cooking?

We just said goodbye to our old kitchen:

And hello to chaos:
The rest of the old cabinets come out this weekend and the new ones should be installed next week.. I can't wait!

Happy Halloween

I don't know when Neil became so opinionated. As of Tuesday, he was going to be Mickey Mouse (because I am lazy and that is the costume we have that fits him). All of the sudden he started saying that he was not going to be Mickey. The boy is 2. The kids are obsessed with Toy Story right now, so luckily Heather saved me by lending me this Woody costume and gave me the tip that there was a Buzz Lightyear costume at the DI. Joshua hasn't taken it off in 2 days and Neil is currently napping in his costume.
Last weekend we were up in Logan with my family and went to the Pumpkin Walk. Here's the boys by the KungFu Panda pumpkins.

The funny thing about this picture is that the girl who put her face in the Yoda cut-out after Josh got her head stuck in the hole. It was not pretty..

And who knew that glow in the dark fangs from the dollar store would provide such entertainment..

Home again and Kirsten's Recipe Tag

Well, I am back from San Francisco. I tagged along with Russ on a business trip and of the 5 pictures I took, none of them are very good, but since my favorite part of reading blogs is the pictures, I have included the gorgeous view from Alcatraz looking back on the city. We've had a busy couple weeks with the trip and getting ready to remodel our kitchen(don't worry, I will document with before and after pictures). Oh yes, and Russ was called as Bishop of our ward, which will surely bring about some changes in our family.

On an unrelated note, Kirsten started a recipe tag-- I love this idea because especially during pregnancy, I have the hardest time coming up with dinner ideas. Everyone who reads this is required to participate :-) and to post a recipe on your own blog. Let me know in comments if you have posted something. I will look forward to all sorts of delicious new simple dinner ideas. Here's one of our favorite standby recipes.

Chicken Pesto Pasta

1 lb penne pasta, cooked

2-3 cooked sliced chicken breasts (I often bake the chicken seasoned with garlic powder, salt & pepper, or even better when we have leftover grilled chicken)

1/2 pint of cream (or milk)

~1/2 cup of prepared pesto to taste

handful of parmesan cheese

sprinkle of garlic salt

Cook the pasta. In a sauce pan, mix the cream, pesto, parmesan cheese and garlic salt. Heat until warm. Mix pasta, chicken and sauce all together and sprinkle some more parmesan cheese on top.

AND, just because that was so easy, here's a bonus recipe. This one I cannot take credit for. It comes from my gormet cook friend Christy, but it has also become a family favorite.

Green Chicken Tacos
3-4 cooked chicken breasts (shredded)
8 oz cream cheese
1-2 cloves garlic
½ red onion chopped
~1/2 bottle green chili sauce (I usually use pace green taco sauce)
dash oregano
1 t. cumin
Tortillas, cilantro, lime for serving.

Sautee onion and garlic with a little oil. Add shredded chicken. Cut cream cheese into dice-size pieces and add to pan to melt. Add cumin and oregano. Add green chili sauce. Heat through and serve. Amounts are all farily adjustable, so just add til it looks good. Its good served with black bean/corn salsa.

Enjoy!

Last little trip of the summer..

Since it appears that summer may now be over (48 degrees this morning!!), here's some pics from our last little trip of the summer. We went down to Capitol Reef last weekend for a couple of days. Its really beautiful there. I think its often looked over in favor of Arches and Zion. Here's some highlights:The boys

Climbing trees

I love this picture of Neil

Neil, enjoying his ride.

Josh, ticked because he doesn't get a ride.

Roasting marshmellows.(I know it looks like there is no fire, but there are a few hot coals left.. I promise)

Picking apples in the orchards in the park.

The end.