Valentine's Day

Over the three-day weekend, we went with our friends, the Warby's, to Chette's parent's cabin at Brian Head. It's a huge, beautiful cabin and we had SO much fun. It was Valentine's on Saturday, so we did some fun stuff.

Here' a picture of Ryan with his candy necklace...

This is Cleod, concentrating on placing his candies on the plastic wrap. (Then you just roll the plastic wrap and tie with ribbon inbetween each candy.)

Cleod, Kianna and Ryan with their necklaces.

Chette made pink, heart pancakes. The kids LOVED them.

Here's the kids waiting for food.

We also went sledding. Grant was happy in the house, but he hated being outside in the cold.

Cleod is a little whiny but he was so brave when we went sledding. He was a champ.

Here's Kianna and Ryan. Ryan hated being outside and he only lasted about 5 minutes. He went back inside and watched us from the window.

And the aftermath. I think it took more time to get ready than to go sledding.


(If you didn't notice the link eariler, go to http://warbytales.blogspot.com if you know Brett and Deruchette Warby.)

Crafty? Who me?

I am not so crafty, but there are some things that I have done and I am pretty proud of, so I am going to occasionally post some tutorials for the benefit of my lovely audience. (hehehe)

SO, in October we went to a pumpkin patch and we got a lot of pumpkins. A few were for decoration but two big ones were for consumption. The last few years I have become fond of pumpkin cookies and pumpkin rolls but those cans of pumpkin are so expensive, especially around the holidays, so I made my own from a pumpkin...image that.

Here you are...HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PUMPKIN GUTS...

#1...Aquire a pumpkin. (We like cheap pumpkin patches.)

#2...Cut pumpkin into large chunks and spoon out any seeds and stringy stuff. Place on cookie sheet.

#3...Place in oven, cook at 325 for a while...until you can make an indent in the crust with your finger. I think it was at least 20 minutes if you only have one cookie sheet in at a time.

#4...Remove from oven. Place on clean dish cloth to cool.

#5...Once it's cool, cut off the crust. Then cut the pumpkin into piece small enough for your food processor or blender. Blend.

#6...Measure your pumpkin guts.

#7...Here is my load. It doesn't look as magnificent in the photo as it really was. I cooked 2 large pumpkins and got over 30 cups of pumpkin guts. You can keep this in your freezer for at least a year.

Next year I am going to can pumpkin. I wanted to do it this year, but found out that you can't can pumpkin guts but you CAN can pumpkin cubes.

Never Mind...

We bought a new car! YEA! We shopped around and so we had some leverage. We had a payment amount we wanted to be close to and we were trying to be picky about the car even though we were on a budget. The one we got was a little more than we planned but it is awesome. It's a 2007 Suzuki XL-7. Yes, some of you will know that that is the same make and model we had, but our old one was a 2002 so it's a lot newer. AND it has SEVEN seats instead of 5. Beautiful! The main reason that we went for it is that it only had 4500 miles on it. It's pratically brand new but used enough to have already depreciated enough that we could afford it. I wanted to get a picture of it, but it's all snowed on now, so here's one I found online that looks JUST like it.
Isn't is pretty?? It's a smooth ride and feels really fancy to us compared to our previous car. And although we are paying a little more than we planned, they did sell it to us for at least a couple thousand less than the original price and they gave us $1000 more on our trade-in than the other dealships would. We feel REALLY blessed to finally have a vehicle that we can grow into instead of one to grow out of.

Oh, and by the way, Grant has finally started sleeping through the night. (He's 3 1/2 months old now.) Last night was the 3rd night in a row. Oh the beauty of a good night's rest!

I hate cars...

So, Silas and I really want to get into a new car. We like our car, but it's only 5 seats and it's getting old. The problem is, we owe way more on it than it's worth. On top of that, the cars that we would like cost way too much. This is my favorite right now...it's a 2006 Mercury Mountaineer.
There's one at a dealership in town and it is beautiful. The inside is roomy. It's a couple thousand more than what we'd like to spend plus we'd have to had a few thousand from our low trade in. What a vicous cycle. We don't know what to do. Do we wait and try to pay the car down while it continues to need repairs and depreciates every day or do we get another loan for more than our new car will be worth? We can't really afford monthly much more than we are already paying...AHHHHH!!

I wish I was rich.

The CUTEST thing ever!

So, yesterday we reached a milestone...Grant LAUGHED! It is basically the cutest thing in the whole world. Yesterday Grant turned 3 months old and it has been a great 3 months for our family. We love Grant and he is so nice and friendly. He is a VERY good baby and Silas and I have a really special feeling about him. We're not sure what it is, but he's going to do big things.

Enjoy!

Grant's blessing

Sunday was Grant's blessing and it was a lovely day. My mom and dad came from Vegas and Silas's sister Kizzie and her husband Andy came from Provo with their two boys. We also had some family from in town come. We really appreciated those who came and enjoyed the company after church. The blessing itself was lovely. One of the main things was that Grant would have patience. In this crazy family, that is a necessity!

Word for 2009

Two of my sisters-in-law have posted a word that they are going to use throughout the year and I thought it was a great idea. My word for 2009 is PREPARE! I have in the last year or so been feeling a real need to get our food storage and 72-hr kits organized. I am close to having a 3 month supply for my family and finishing that is one of my main goals in the next few months. I also want to be more prepared in other ways.

Physical preparation- I need to lose about 30 lbs.
Spiritual preparation- Silas and I are going to try to get to the temple twice a month since gas is down. Anyone want to trade babysitting?
Meal preparation- Sometimes I have a whole month's meals planned and other times I am searcing the pantry. I need to be more organized.

Some other goals I have are to use more wheat in our diet, sit down and read or play with my boys more, and to be more positive in general.

What's your word for 2009?