I love food!

So most of you know how much I love recipes! I collect them actually. Most of them I have made and like too!
Tonight while surfing one of my favorite blogs (on food of course!) I found this great recipe I MUST try! For all you mom's with picky eaters I think you'll love this! I'll try and post my review on what I think of this recipe after testing it out on my family. Yellow squash Mac'n Cheese.

For those of you who wonder if I've fallen off the face of the blogging planet...I have not. I'm in a station of my life where I'm trying to find a balance of how to get things done and be EVERYWHERE when I need to be there, all the while with a smile on my face. This has been an exciting summer to say the least. It has also been one of the most emotionally and mentally challenging times of my life, hence the need to find a balance. Something has had to give and I let it be my family blog. For all of you who don't follow my other private blog on my mom I'll give you a quick update on my mom. She has clung to life the past 2 months. We really thought she was going to pass away in June. She did a quick nose dive into the final phase of her dementia, but seems to plateauing now. There is no improvement, only decline. She is on a liquid only diet. Her total liquid intake each day varies from 16-40 ounces. Her total calorie intake is about 150-450 a day.
Some of you may wonder, 'Christy, is this hard to see your mom go through this'. The answer is 'yes', but it has been an incredibly awesome and spiritual experience too. The pain that I've felt has been few and far between compared to the sweetness I felt. This has been a difficult experience, I won't lie, but it has been an experience that has changed me for the better and helped shape who I am. If I could go back and have the choice to go through this I probably would do it again. Funny how life experiences however painful can be so strengthening too. I want to be the best 'I' can be, and if that is what I'm to learn then I want to learn it now!

Have you already forgotten about Yellow Squash Mac ‘n Cheese? Let me know if you try it and like it, and I'll do the same!

What's on the menu?

Tonight while I was off picking up my rental car (which is another story in and of itself) Dallas decided to make dinner. She did this all on her own, no coaxing from me! She preheated the oven, found a 9X13 glass baking dish, got out the blender, the eggs, milk and flour. She melted some butter in the oven till it was melted and bubbly and blended together in the blender the eggs, milk and flour. She removed the HOT and melted butter from the oven and poured in the blended batter and returned the dish to the oven. Baked it for 20 minutes and removed it from the oven...all while I was gone, with no idea she was doing it! She called me on my cell phone to let me know dinner would be done soon and when was I going to be back! She then proceeded to fry up some sausage links. When I arrived home in my super stylin' rental car the table was set, and food waiting to be devoured! Can I just say how awesome she is? She's getting all grown up on me, learning to be so responsible!
Her thoughtfulness saved me from frantically doing dinner when I came home. I had a visiting teaching appointment in 20 minutes...dinner would never have been done on time if it had been up to me to do it!
I love watching my kids do thoughtful things that remind me of why I am lucky to be their mother!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

My kids and I got to go spend time with some good friends in Orem today swimming. Our old Bishop has a pool in his backyard (which is really more like a park!). We moved from Provo about 8 years ago, but every summer we continue to go there to swim. This morning we ran to Target to get Dallas a new swimsuit and then got on the freeway to go. At about 106th South I realized I hadn't put my swimsuit in the van :(. We got off the freeway and had to come home! Needless to say we were a little late, but we made up for it by staying until after 4pm! Bradley swam in the deep end the whole time with his fun noodle. He jumped of the diving board perhaps a million times! Dallas and Aundrea loved jumping off the diving board and the water slide too. Colter did go off the diving board after seeing the other kids do it. He however didn't like going under the water! He continued to jump off the diving board, but only if I was holding his hand so he didn't go under the water!

We need to do this again! 3 hours just wasn't enough. Enough to get sunburned, but not enough to last until the next time! And next time I'll remember my camera! Am I not married to a photographer? I should take a camera with me everywhere I go! Oh-well, I will next time...

Happy Father's Day...

It only takes one kid to make a man a Father! And does how many kids a father have define how good of a father they are?

Growing up I never spent much time contemplated what kind of a father my husband would be. I spent most of my time thinking about how handsome he would be. I also didn't think much about life (parenthood) with kids. I'd day dream about the things my husband and I would do together and the fun we'd have. Believe it or not, but I imagined us camping, hiking and doing the things I spent my childhood doing. Shocking! I know, because now I don't do those things :)
I know I made the best choice when I married Dave! He is such a great friend! Something I always wanted in a husband. When my husband asked my Dad if he could marry me my dad's response was, 'but I'm not done raising her'. To which he added 'if you want to marry her you'll have to finish raising her for me'. :) Boy has Dave had his work cut out for him! LOL!
Dave is a wonderful father! There have been many nights while I'm away taking care of my mom when Dave would make dinner, feed the kids, clean up the WHOLE kitchen (including my junk piles!), get the house picked up and have the kids in bed before I came home! Big deal? This is something that takes me DAYS if not the whole WEEK to do! See how amazing he is?
Dave is a hard worker. He is a creative thinker too. When I see that there is only one way to accomplish something, Dave is good at pointing out other ways to do the same thing in a more efficient manner. Who wouldn't love a guy like that? I can get pretty emotional and grumpy, and Dave is there to save the day and diffuse me. He reminds me often that I am loved and that I'm somebody special. He does that with my kids too. Amazing!!
Once again I find myself feeling so blessed. I have found the perfect husband for me! And being a great father to my kids is the icing on the cake! Speaking of cake, I should go have a piece!
I love you Dave!
Thanks for your awesomeness!

My 'To do' list!

Get the boys new church pants, socks and shoes...CHECK!









Get a haircut...CHECK!














Buy a new dress...

The Life of a Mother

Isn't it funny that before we have kids we think we don't care how hard its going to be to have them, we just can't wait for the trial and challenges?! That perhaps having children cant' be 'that bad'. But what did we know? Not much! And isn't it a good thing, or we'd never have them.

Last Friday I was throwing up, pretty violently too! It was the worst I've ever had. Several others in the neighborhood had it too, so we were thinking it was food poisoning from something we'd all eaten together. This morning (early!) Aundrea woke up throwing up. I am now thinking that what I had was not food poisoning :(. Poor Aundrea! She is so skinny already! She had nothing to throw up, but dry heaved more than 16 times (she counted!). I spent the day doing laundry!! I think I did more than 5 loads! I spent the rest of the day Lysoling everything Aundrea touched!...and trying to keep the boys quiet enough that Aundrea could try to sleep! I think rainy days equal wild, crazy, loud boys!! At one point I told the boys to go ride their bikes in the garage! The understood what I said as 'go get mom's washcloths and clean the mud off all the bikes in the garage'!

What a day! We all survived. Now the question is, will anyone else get this nasty bug? Please let it pass over everyone else!

There is forgiveness...

Tonight Bradley went to bed thinking he was a killer. While at my mother-in-laws they watched my nephew mow the lawn. Apparently there was a birds nest in one to the pine trees and when the tree got bumped the nest fell out. Some of the eggs got mowed over with the lawn mower :(. One egg did not. Bradley picked it up and wanted to go show it to his Grandma. On the way up the deck stairs he tripped, dropped the egg, and it broke open. Such a traumatic experience! He kept saying tonight when I picked him up that 'it was an accident' 'he didn't mean to do it'. Poor kid!!
Before prayers I asked him if anything good happened today and his response was ' I got to go to Grandma's'. I then asked him if anything happened that made him sad, his response was 'I killed a bird on accident'. I encouraged him to thank Heavenly Father in his prayer for the good things that happened and to let Heavenly Father know how he felt about the bird egg. He said ...'Heavenly Father I didn't mean to kill the bird, it was an accident, and I feel bad now'. I love these kind of teaching moments! Colter on the other hand THANKED Heavenly Father for his owie on his knee. :) I guess I'll still have to work with him on what he SHOULD be thankful for :)