Backyard Camp-out with Cousins

On April 27-28, 2013,

we invited Zane's brother over with his trailer

and had a fun little camp-out in our backyard.

Hunter and Paizlei LOVED it!

They were able to play with their cousins

and pretend they were camping!

They played with all their fun camping toys

and games.

The only thing that was missing was the lakes for fishing

and the 4-wheelers.

The night they camped out,

Zane's Mom and other Dad came over

and we had a fun little BBQ

and Grandpa Burke made his yummy peach cobbler

in the dutch oven.

 The Vincent boy cousins (minus Cooper) and their boots!

 My Hunter playing monster trucks!

I love that cars are his favorite thing to play, even as he is getting older.

 We had to try cousin Kanyon's cowboy hat on Coopie. 

Although it was super cute, he didn't think so.  

 All 4 of the Vincent boy cousins!

 Doing what boys do best: Playing in the DIRT and ROCKS!

 All the Vincent boy cousins and the one and only Vincent girl cousin!

 Popsicle time from Uncle Travis!

 Sweet cousin Kanyon!

More monster trucks with Hunter!

Lunchtime Creativity

Yes, I am addicted to Pinterest.  Well, not to the point that I sit on it day after day, going through pins.  I have a set time each week that I can visit Pinterest and get some creative ideas.  This "lunchtime creativity" I found a while back was perfect for a cold day.  It gave Hunter and Paizlei something fun to do, and got them involved in preparing meals.

 I sliced the hot dogs and the kids helped me thread uncooked spaghetti noodles through each hot dog.  I discovered through much trial and error (if there is such a thing in a meal like this!), 6 spaghetti noodles is the perfect amount for each hot dog slice.  The kids did get frustrated a couple times because the spaghetti would break, but we would just thread them through like it was nothing.

 An close-up shot of the hot dogs with the spaghetti noodles threaded all the way through.  Once they were all threaded, I dumped them in a pot of boiling,  unsalted water.  I didn't salt it, because hot dogs have enough sodium in them.  I let them boil for about 12 minutes...it takes longer because of the hot dogs.

Once the spaghetti noodles were soft enough, I drained them, put them back in the pan and but a little spray butter on them, mainly for a little flavor.  I also cute up some grape tomatoes and topped with Parmesan cheese.

My kids LOVED it!  They wanted seconds.  Definitely something we will be making for lunch again.  HUGE recommendation for anyone with kids!  They will LOVE it.

Sweet Harvest

This is our first harvest out of our garden several weeks ago.  The thing all the veggies are in, is Zane's ice fishing sleigh carrier thingy.  It's HUGE...the picture doesn't even come close to describing or showing how much we got out of the garden with that harvest.

I LOVE living in a small town...the lots are usually bigger, which means you can have BIG gardens.  The last couple of years, we have had pretty decent sized vegetable gardens during the spring/summer months.  We have NEVER had a garden really produce a whole lot of veggies.  This year, we got more than we bargained for.  It was THE BEST garden we have ever had.  A week or two before we moved, Zane and I harvested our garden thinking it was done, we aren't going to get much more out of it.  To this day, it is still producing veggies...well, as of last night.  Everything froze, except my beloved tomato plants...YAY!!!  We have been going over to the other house and covering them up each night so they don't freeze.  There are SO MANY tomatoes just waiting to ripen and I want to make more yummy salsa.

We were able to harvest a couple tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash and corn.

Last year was my first year canning, and I LOVED it!!!  I have been looking forward to doing it again this year.  So far, I have canned 10 bags of corn (we had over 100 ears of corn and there are still ears on the stocks...not good any more) and 7 pints of salsa.  Once all my tomatoes ripen, I will be doing more canning.  I hope to do tomatoes and salsa.

A small sampling of the corn I canned...well it's bagged, but corn is easier in bags than in bottles.

7 pints of my yummy salsa...SO GOOD!!!  This year's turned out so much better than last years.

My First Time Canning

This is my first year of canning. In the 4 years Zane and I have been married, I have watched his mom can most of her garden. I have always wanted to learn how to do it, so this year I decided to learn how to can. I was afraid it would be hard to do. Actually, it isn't hard at all. It's time consuming for sure, but I actually enjoy doing it.
This year has been a great year for harvesting our garden. We have had SOOOO many tomatoes, I don't know what to do with all of them. And, we are not yet. We still have green tomatoes in our garden. Of course they are being covered at night so they don't freeze. So far, so good. I have canned two batches of yummy Salsa with all of the tomatoes. I'm pretty sure there will be more to come!
In our cute little garden, we also had SOOOO many cucumbers, I wasn't sure what to do with all of them. I finally decided that they needed to be pickled. Today, I have been making pickles and relish with our lot of cucumbers. I have made two batches of pickles (10 pints) and 1 batch of relish (5 pints). I still have a bucket full of cucumbers. Those will probably have to be used in salads or whatever else.

Happy Baby and Hamburgers

My little Paizlei has to be one of the happiest babies I have ever seen. She very rarely cries and is ALWAYS babbling or smiling! Her little personality is starting to show and I LOVE it! She really likes playing with and talking to Hunter!

I really like this picture of Paizlei! Sitting in the Babe Pod, on the table, while we eat! This is where she pulls some of the cutest faces!

One night last week I made hamburgers for dinner. As you can see, we had Paizlei up on the table while we were eating and she kept leaning over the side of the Babe Pod and looking at Zane's hamburger. At one point she was drooling, it was the funniest thing. The look on her face is priceless, she wants some of daddy's hamburger!

Zane is such a cute daddy! He is always letting Paizlei taste his food. She LOVES Heinze Ketchup! Every time Zane would let her have a taste of his hamburger she would lick the ketchup and then lean over the seat for more.

The Roma Tomato

One day last week as I was getting lunch ready for Hunter and I, I asked him to get in the fridge and get out the cheese and bread because we were having tuna sandwiches. I had my back turned to the fridge so I couldn't see what he was doing. It was taking him a lot longer than I would have expected it to take him to get the cheese and bread, so I turned around and looked and he had opened one of the drawers in the fridge and taken out a roma tomato and was eating it. I asked him what he was eating an he said"numa num mom, numa num"! It was so cute! He then walked over to the kitchen table and climbed up in his booster seat and sat down and ate the tomato. I couldn't believe when he said he was done with the tomato because he ate more than half of it. He has always been a good eater, usually eating whatever I make for meals. He is especially good at eating his veggies. I was totally surprised with the tomato because I had lettuce, cucumbers, carrots and bell peppers in the drawer, all of which he likes and he just happened to pull out the tomato. Zane laughed when he got home from work and I showed him the pictures.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day this year was so much fun! With Hunter being a little bit older, he understood a lot of what we were doing. Through-out last week, we did some fun things to get ready for Valentines Day. One day we made sugar cookies and I let Hunter frost some. He had a ball! I think he enjoyed frosting his face and eating the frosting more than he liked frosting the cookies! He even had cookies that spelled his name! He thought that was pretty cool!

On Friday, I broke out some of my scrapbook supplies and he made Valentines. I asked him who he was making the Valentines for, he said "ma" (grandma) and "pa" (grandpa). I asked him if he was going to make one for Zane and I, and again he said "ma" and "pa"! He had such a great time with the stickers and glue and ribbon and flowers! We used the glitter glue, by the time we were done, his little hands were covered in glitter!

On Saturday, Hunter and I went out, just the two of us, sister stayed home with Daddy! We went to the store so Hunter could pick out a Valentine for his Dad! He got Dad a card and a Coke. He was so proud that he got to pick out Dad's Valentine, but more proud when he gave it to his Dad!

Saturday night, Zane took me out to eat...without kids! Zanes mom, bless her heart, come over and watched the kids while we went out! It was so much fun! It was strange to not have the kids with us. All we could talk about was how cute they are and the little things each of them do! We went and bummed the stores in Richfield, how exciting, I know! And then went to eat at Arby's. The lines at all the bigger restaurants were so long, and I'm not a fancy person, so to Arby's we went!

All-in-all, we had a wonderful Valentines Day! Thank you Val for watching the kids!

What's All The Craze About?

Utah finally has it's very first In-N-Out Burger! They opened it here in sunny St. George! When they opened last week I could not believe the lines. Not only was there an endless line to go into the joint, but the line of cars was ridiculous! In-N-Out sits on a southwest corner lot in a strip mall setting...a fairly big strip mall. They had the drive-thru lined up all all the way around the strip mall and almost to to the next strip mall. I couldn't believe it! Well, the lines have pretty much died down, for the most part. So, we decided to go there today to see what all the craze was about. I must say, I wasn't all that impressed! The hamburgers were extremely greasy and the fries, not only were they extremely greasy but they were not cooked long enough. The hamburgers kind of reminded me of the hamburgers we would get at the Ute Stampede in Nephi...many memories of those yummy burgers! And worst of all, the diet coke had very little carbonation in it. Anyone that likes diet coke (Whitney) knows that for it to be good, you have to get a good fizz in your mouth. I would say that I prefer to eat at Chadder's in American Fork. No, not because the owner, Chad is a friend of mine and I love his 4 kids as if they were my own, but because the food was a lot better there than at In-N-Out and the menu was a little bit bigger at Chadder's. On the menu at In-N-Out all they had was 3, that's right, 3 hamburger choices! Oh well, now we know what In-N-Out Burger is all about! I personally don't think the craze is really worth what everyone was making it out to be.