Pass the Salmon please.

I learned something about my family tonight....

....they were not meant to live on the east coast.

We were at Costco today, and Chandler showed a lot of interest in the fresh seafood stand, so I decided to buy some new stuff that they haven't tried. The kids liked the looks of the clams and mussels. I thought, 'oh, this will be fun...we'll have a clam bake, with corn, and potatoes, and this will be great!'. Well, Chandler loved it...at least the mussels. Matt, told me he'd rather have his clams in his chowder. Morgan, I think she tried one bite, shuddered, and that was the end of that. Gabe, said it tasted like dirty water. I thought they were great, as long as I didn't look at the mussels when I ate them. Bear, our dog, however, was a BIG fan. Are dogs supposed to eat crustaceans? Oh well. Too late now.

So for now, I guess we'll have to stick with our local catches of salmon, halibut, and snow crab. (ya, 'cause we eat snow crab on a daily basis) But the kids LOVE it. That, and shrimp. I know, my kids have expensive taste. What can I say?

Happy Memorial Weekend!

Okay, so here's how we spent Memorial Day Weekend. We left Friday for Matanuska River and stayed till Monday afternoon. We had so much fun. Hiking, campfires, singing, playing, reading, and playing at the beach close by our camp. My own personal porta potty that Matt set up for me, close to our tent so I didn't have to go far in the middle of the night all by myself. It was awesome!!! Complete with my own little magazine rack and airfreshner.

This was Matt's favorite family picture from the weekend. I was running from the camera, after pressing the timer button, and I jumped onto the log a little too fast and kept on going. You can see Matt's concern on his face for my well being.

My sweetie and I on the banks of the Mat-su River. Is it beautiful or what? How could you not love this place? It was a wonderful weekend. Sunny, warm, all around great weather. Of course with Matt and Gabe, there has to be sword fighting, right?

Chandler took a wrong step, and went for a little swim in this creek. Can you believe it was that deep?

I love this picture of Morgan. She had just fallen in, and was walking back to our spot to dry off a little.

Happy Memorial Weekend!!!

Our camp was close to a the pioneer cemetary, so we took the kids there, and Chandler and Gabe were able to pass off scout goals.

And the Winner is.....

I'm so sorry, I just realized I never posted the winner of my warmer of the month Happy Birthday to me, drawing! Well, the winner was Cheryl Ekstrum , and your prize has already been shipped down to you!! For those of you who don't know this, Cheryl was actually one of my young women's leaders when I was a Laural. Such a long, long, time ago. I still can't believe they let Cheryl into Young Women's as a leader. She was only just out of High School herself. :) But it was fun having such a good example to look up to. Thanks Cheryl!!! Enjoy your Warmer!

My Adventures in Baking this week.

My SIL Karin is in charge of the cooking school at Allen & Petersen. Its been awesome for Matt to work with his sister when it comes to the cooking school, and classes that he's offering in his store. I was able to go yesterday and take a class from her. It was one I've been looking forward to for months, and it did not disappoint. First we made cake balls. All kinds!! Red Velvet, Chocolate mint, and Coconut. They were totally yummy.

Then, we made delicioso cupcakes. Caramel Apple ones that were to die for, and chocolate fudge, and really moist carrot cake one. I was especially excited to cover them in fondant. We made carrots, and little Carmel apples to stick into our cupcakes. I had a really cute one that had nuts on it, but I gave it to Matt before I could take a picture.

I bet your wondering what these are all about? Admit it, your thinking the same thing I thought when I saw them, "those look like Ethiopian Santa Clause's." You know you were thinking it.

So I was trying to be creative, and thought I would dip little pretzel sticks in red and blue chocolate, and then dip the little end in dark chocolate, and they would look like light sabers that I could then stick on top of Gabe's cupcakes for his birthday at school. The night before, Matt and I were making them. They weren't turning out, and Matt suggested I pipe on some grey icing to look like the buttons on the sabers. After I did a few, I started laughing. "We can't put these on the cupcakes Matt, Gabe's teacher will think I'm racist!" So, we scrapped the 'light sabers' and decided to just sprinkle stars and stick my piped STAR WARS on them. See, for those of you who think I'm always spot on, I do make mistakes, quite often when it comes to baking. I just don't usually spotlight it on my blog. But I'm learning to laugh at myself a little more.

My 21st birthday Celebration!

Matt got me 2 tickets for a girls night out event for my birthday, so I took my girl Renae with me, and we enjoyed an evening of food, fun, and lots of free stuff. Here's our loot below. I won a big beach bag filled with stuff from Hawaii like a sarong, chocolate covered macadamia nuts, chap stick, and boxes of cookies. And once again, people mistook us for sisters all night. That's okay, I'll claim her any day of the week.

Gabe's Birthday Party

Gabe had a Star Wars Party this Saturday. We made Jedi robes for the Jedi Training camp. Luckily, Matt was on hand to be in charge of games, while I took care of the food, and getting kids set up to train in the Jedi way. Morgan, completing the Jedi training. (obstacle course)

Gabe wanted his cake to look like the end of Star Wars III. If Matt was on hand, I'd tell you the name of the planet, and the kind of ship I was attempting to make. As it is, all I can tell you is its on the planet with the lava and fire, and Anni fights with Obi one. (Matt's gonna die when he reads this, and finds out how inept I am at details of his favorite series)

Cupcakes I made to take into Gabe's classroom on Friday. I melted green candy melts, put them in a zip lock bag, snipped off the tip, and piped out the words Star Wars on wax paper. I let it harden, and then stuck it into the cupcake.

I really haven't wanted to post anything after Matt hijacked our blog. Who wants to follow that? I am an amazingly lucky woman to have such a devoted and loving husband and best friend. But, this has been a very busy week, and much has happened. Morgan finished school, Matt and I had a great date night with wonderful eats, I had a birthday, fun girls night out with Renae, Bunco, Gabe's birthday party, and much much more. So, I have posted one of these below, and I'll be posting more throughout the next day or two. LOTS of pictures. Enjoy! (oh, and its been crazy busy, so I'll post the winner of my Birthday warmer tomarrow. Stay tuned!

Morgan's Field Trips.

Morgan went to the transportation museum this week for a preschool field trip. I got to tag along, and had so much fun! There's a large hanger full of old cars, tractors, mining stuff, planes, all kinds of things. Then you go outside, and there's old trains lined up all over the place on tracks. We walked through the cars of some. Morgan also had her last day preschool this week. I met her at the park for their end of the year picnic. Here she is with her Teacher, Miss Brenda.

Morgan was the calendar helper this day.

Warning Blog Hijacking in Progress

I wanted to take the chance while Jenn is participating in a Girls Night Out to "hijack" her blog and talk about her for a moment. (Sorry Jenn you will probably hate this...lots of gushing to commence, if you are faint of heart skip this one...)

I know there are lots of guys out there that think they are the luckiest man in the world because their wife is the best, well I hate to tell them that they are wrong, I got her, Jenn is without a doubt the best wife/mother/woman in the world. I wanted to take today and talk about her for a couple of reasons, 1st: I don't do this kind of thing nearly enough. 2nd: Today is her Birthday and I get to thinking about her a lot...

Jennifer is the kind of person who likes to juggle a lot of different jobs and she does them all well (sometimes referred to as Supermom) When I say a lot I mean A LOT!!!! She is first and foremost My wife and our children's mother with all that goes along with those major responsibilities (Traditional housewife kind of things, with a house full of small children, you know cooking cleaning, laundry, stopping the children from killing each other, laundry, celebrating the fact that she made it through the day without sending the kids off to the circus, Laundry, cleaning, teaching the children the value of working with our family, laundry, cleaning, did I mention laundry? as well as the "extra" stuff like birthdays, school parties, soccermom, etc) She is also active in several jobs in our church, running her own business as a Scentsy consultant, helping a team of other Scentsy consultants manage their business, working for me at Allen & Petersen (so we can see each other), cleaning not only our home but another families as well as a dentist office here in town...she also teaches piano lessons to several people around Wasilla (not just in our home but she travels to their homes too...I believe last time we talked she was somehow managing to fit in about 42 hours in a 24 hour day. Like I said, she likes to stay busy. She is also the kindest, most loving person I know who is able to put up with me (and the kids) on a daily basis (I believe the pope is considering nominating her for sainthood)

Oh and by the way Jenn thinks that she is not that busy and can fit some more things into her schedule...(possibly a sign of mental illness...will keep an eye on her)

Jenn is always there for me and the kids when we have had a hard day at work/school, always helping us to find a way to laugh. I know people probably think we are strange but when I am with Jenn we are constantly laughing and enjoying each other's company I am lucky to have been able to marry my best friend (and it is still true after being married for 10 years). So to all of those guys who thought their wives were the best, sorry guys mine is :) I gotta run Jenn just got back from her Girls night out...

The Mother of all Mother's Days

For my mother's day, my wonderful, generous, thoughtfull, sexy, sweet, amazing husband gave me the perfect day. It began with him waking up early with the kids and making the best breakfast in bed. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, and oj. Yummy. Then they brought in the presents. A bag full of great spa and taking it easy things like lotions, bath gels, and candy. Then Matt brought out the pedi package. Not just your every day pedi, but the full enchilada, (I'm talking massage, wax, and everything ladies!).

Church was good. I was asked to help out in primary for a mother's day sharing time. They had several moms stand behind a curtain, and we stuck our feet out so that's all they could see, and then kids asked yes or no questions, trying to guess who it was. Morgan was able to tell pretty quickly just by looking at the nail polish color. (which I was the only mother who wore any) Senior primary was fun. Chandler seemed to recognize my foot right away, and thinking himself very smart, asked mother #3 (me) if I had had bacon for breakfast. Being the very tricky mommy that I am, had a brother from our ward answer yes, for me. The deep voice totally threw Chandler for a loop. Oh what I would have given to see his expression!!

After church (we have early 9am church) I was tired. But had planned on baking cupcakes for my mom, and a friend in our ward. My husband once again came to the rescue. He sent me upstairs to partake of my candy, the lovely quiet bedroom, and a new book, while he baked the cupcakes, boiled the chicken I needed to cook for dinner, and straightened up the house. He also kept the kids downstairs so I could nap. What a wonderful guy!

After I was well rested, he asked me what I wanted for dinner, and we decided to make sub sandwiches, and salad for a picnic. We drove down the point, and found a spot to eat and look out at the inlet. It was the perfect day. The kids were very excited about heading down this pathway and taking a walk after dinner tonight.

This was the grassy spot we found to take pictures at. The kids had fun throwing rocks and empty shells over the cliff down to the beach. We really do live in an amazing place. Full of beauty and gifts from our Heavenly Father.

I loved this spot we found, where there was a little piece of grass, next to the bluff. We stopped for a while, and I think the kids were hoping we've let them shimmy down the side of the cliff to where to ocean met the beach. (about 100 feet down) Ha! silly kids. So after they had given up on that dream, and I was done taking their pictures, they ran around playing with Matt and I was left laying in this spot, just enjoying the day. The quiet, serene day I had spent with my family. And it was a beautiful day too. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right.

It's so hard to get this one to hold still long enough for pictures. He is a terrific kid. Smart, loving, and full of life.

These two are such good buddies. I hope (in vain) that they will always be able to appreciate each other, and the wonderful brother/sister relationship they have, and hopefully will continue to have.

This is why I love being a mom. For moments like these, when the homework is done. The laundry is clean, and the fighting has stopped. I love these kids, and feel so blessed to be entrusted with the raising of such strong spirits.

"that's my monkey man!

I love this little girl's face. She has the kind of smile that can brighten the worst of days.

We've been enjoying the b.e.a.utiful sunshiny days that have frequented us out here in the valley. It has been so wonderful to go from a snowy Easter to sunny 70 degree days. For about 2 weeks straight now, this has been the norm. Morgan made this at school for me. Isn't it cute? She kept telling me to look at her hair. I was driving and not paying attention, till we got home, and I was putting her plant in the window sill. She made pigtails out of her grass plant. I loved it. So cute!

Happy Cinco De Mayo

For dinner tonight, I didn't feel like pulling out the usual, Tacos for Cinco De Mayo. So I pulled out my new favorite. If you haven't tried these things, you've just got to! You can get them at Costco, and they are a.ma.zing! I'm not normally a big plain tortilla fan, but I could eat several of these in a sitting if I let myself. They come in two separate packages, you can store them for like 2 months in the fridge, and they cook up in like 20 seconds. You can't even warm up the regular ones in the microwave that fast!

I started with onions, and peppers. Cut into strips, cooked them up, then put aside. I cooked my strips of chicken, added seasoning, and then combined it with the peppers and onions.
To cook the tortillas, all you have to do is get out a pan, turn on the stove, (no sprays, no butter, no oil...just a dry, warm pan) Place the tortilla on it. Wait till it starts bubbling, then flip. So easy, even us busy moms with piano students, scouts, and soccer can do it!

The best part? Here's the result. And I'm glad to say, all the kids cleared their plates, and didn't even notice they were eating yummy, good for you peppers. Yeah for me!

**As a side note, I'm thinking of starting another blog to keep track of my new ventures in recipe land. What do you think? Good idea? Mostly I want to do it for me, and my family, so in a year or so, I can blurb it and have a copy to put on my bookshelf, and say, "look what I did!"