Family Reunion 2010

This last weekend was a family reunion for my parents and siblings.

This is what a family reunion looks like:

It was held in Paragonah. We also went up Parowan canyon for a picnic where there were more trees and water. However, we were so close to the mountains that our morning walk was a hike in the mountains.
My Dad and oldest sister from California visiting here.

Did I mention that our morning walk was in the mountains? And was 2 hours long?
The first day most of the gang took an assortment of guns out and shot targets.

D likes to shoot.

As many as possible got in on the action.
Some would consider it a shame teaching a sweet little girl to shoot but she learned some important gun safety along with it.This is us in my sisters yard. Great place for a reunion!

Saturday was also our 29th anniversary. We don't usually make too big of a deal of it but we did manage to escape for an hour or so for another shorter hike.

While the majority of the group went shooting the older sisters and Mom took a scenic drive to Cedar Breaks and had a great visit.

Cousins. (second cousins)

It's been called a "redneck reunion" with the guns, 4-wheelers, country atmosphere and dogs but what a fun time us hicks have!

Our family is the greatest!

FUN DAYS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE OLDEST DAUGHTER!She's got a cute man and they are going to have cute baby soon!

We love to hang out and like doing the same things.

She loves her Dad and he does a lot for her.

She loves her sister!!!
This Wednesday was a big day for
the second daughter!

(notice the belly on the older one. yeah, I'm gonna be a Grandma!)

All the guesses were in

And the friends were here!

(see the baby belly?)

Friends and Family had arrived for the "reading"

She got a letter from the prophet and wanted to share it with all these people.

It was a very big deal!

L has been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the London, England Mission!!! She will report to the MTC in Preston England October 1!

We are so proud of her.

Store It!

I read a blog recently that wasn't about food storage but about organizing.

This cute girl was organizing her pantry. It was nice and only a little better than mine but smaller. She was giddy over her storage feeling very blessed to have so much food in the house. Not to be outdone!!!!! I did my own comparison. This is enough to keep us going for a long time.The bottom section of the above picture is food storage cans two deep, labeled!

My storage room downstairs has ALL the staples: And emergency equipment!
I have a cold storage room with MANY cans of beans, rice, wheat, oats, milk, sugar and flour.
One wall has flour, oil, condiments, veggies, tuna, cake and brownie mixes, boxed pasta and stuffing, soup and a plastic box with chocolate chips and brown sugar.

We have enough brownie mixes to give the whole neighborhood a sugar high for a month!

The other side of the aisle has bottled fruit, jams and jellies and a variety of drinks.

We have not one box less than TWENTY boxes of hot chocolate packages and I still go berserk when my kids drink it. It's a special treat! I hoard the stuff but wont let anyone drink it, unless it's especially cold, or a special day or a very special treat. WACKY!

I'm sure we would last a very long time. If I by chance have a reader that has never had a prophet of God tell them to get a years supply of food they might think us a little eccentric. This is the best insurance policy I have ever purchased and I use everything we store. I even learned how to make sweetened condensed milk out of powdered milk! I am officially smart!

If times get bad we're eating better! (we might be allowed a cup of hot chocolate ; ) )

So Sara (blogger) I may not be super organized, don't judge me, but I have a lot of very delicious and very useful food and emergency supplies.

IT MAKES ME HAPPPPPPY!

Fire, Fire, Fire!

Ok, so I know college students are not known for their cleaning skills but really, this is what B's apartment looked like yesterday! This is the new sky light in his hallway. Unfortunately it doesn't meet building codes nor would it protect from cold Cache Valley weather.
The stairs were a mess as well. But, I think those boots belong to a professional. I think he's enforcing evacuation.
B Just moved into his new apartment. The bed had bedbugs so he had to get the mattress swapped and got a plastic sheet to protect him from existing conditions. He had just settled in and had roommates he liked and former roommates and friends next door. He decided not to go camping with them because he was going 4-wheeling with his Dad, brother and Grandpa so he sat home alone watching a movie in his shorts and no shoes. The fire alarm went off next door but upon walking out onto the balcony the alarm sounded distant so he gave it no more thought. The apartment manager took it seriously and entered the apartment but realized the fire extinguisher was not enough and told Braden to call 911 and evacuate the building. Of course, his shoes were upstairs and he wasn't going up for them. By the time the firemen got done there was insulation on everything including his bed.

The fire started in his neighbors bathroom ceiling. One of the guys left the bathroom fan on and it overheated and started a fire in the attic (third floor). This was actually the neighbors bathroom with the offending blackened fan on the toilet. Imagine retrieving your things out of this mess. They all did.

This is the new ventilated ceiling in B's hallway next to his bedroom.

And some charred trusses.

Last week he was homeless because he had to be out of Old Farm on Saturday and couldn't move into this place until Monday. He was there 4 nights. 20 units, all evacuated, only 2 were uninhabitable. Of course, his is one.

The ironic thing is that he got hired at a new job as a bank teller that requires a week of training in Salt Lake so he was going to spend a week with a friend there.

This weekend has been spent washing EVERYTHING that could absorb smoke. The washer and dryer has run constantly for 24 hours. B doesn't know where he is going to live but right now he needs to concentrate on starting a new job. If he gets desperate he can stay with Grandparents or Aunt and Uncle. It's good to have options.

Raw as I wanna be

So I have some friends who have been eating RAW for about a year now. They have both lost a lot of weight. Neither were heavy before but they look and feel great. Lauri decided to do kind of a support group so once a month she invites us to her house to share ideas and recipes. The first night was "Green smoothie night" You got it. We all tried green smoothies.

You start with a couple of large handfulls of spinace, chard, kale, romaine or leaf lettuce. I usually use spinach. Pour about a cup of water in the blender with it and add whatever raw fruits and vegetables you like. Since I have a LOT of frozen peaches from our tree I always use about a cup of frozen peaches and maybe half a frozen banana. The best flavor is to add the juice from one lemon and a little packet of Sun Crystals:

It's down below, it just wont move. Grrr Anyway that's like a spinach lemonade. Hahaha

It has the consistency of SLUDGE! Yum!

Not a bad way to start a day although you need to chew to blend with your saliva. I asked if you could just spit in it. I don't think the ladies liked my idea.

The next month we had a salad night with raw dressings. Y'all get salads. Nothing special but I learned to do a chopped salad with my ingredients chopped small. Its tasty and colorful. In this salad I have romaine, kale, spinach, cauliflower (one of my favorite vegies), tomato, mushrooms and yellow pepper. A colorful pepper makes the salad look festive and adds so much flavor. Then I top it off with, raw dressing? Heck NO! I'm as raw as I wanna be! I have discovered Wish Bone Olive Oil Vinegrette. It has 60 calories per serving which is half or less of a ranch or cream dressing. I'm sure I usually end up with 2 servings but YUM!

Now if you really want to increase your raw food intake try pulse. It's supposed to be in the Bible or something but you go to the health food store and get a plastic screen to go on your wide mouth canning jar. It's worth about 50 cents but costs $5.00. You have to use raw seeds and nuts so they sprout. I use sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, buckwheat choats and a little flax seed. I was told to use almonds too but They swell so big and don't distribute well so I do the sprouts and chop the almonds and add it in at the end. I put this on salad and in yogurt. By the way, these ladies are completely down on dairy but I am as raw as I wanna be!
Ahhh, here is that stubborn picture of Sun Crystals, it's a natural sweetener made from stevia. It's super sweet.
Last week we had a get together for raw desserts. Ya know, there is a limit to how raw I wanna be. The facebook group and e-mail group is called "rawaswewannabe" Thus, my constant reference/tirade. I go to get some healthy food ideas and I have come away with good ideas every time but I'm not going 100% on this. I disagree with a few of the ideas and I have not seen any of the references backed by a doctor so it's just a lot of peoples opinions but there is some good information. I'm eating less fried food and cutting down on sugar. I got a new knife just for cutting my vegetables and I enjoy apples regularly and salads all the time now.
The moral of this blog is try it!
Go chew some sludge today!

Hind family baby shower

So yesterday we had a baby shower for A's side of the family. I spared you pictures of all the guests but the aunt at the far right is the long arm quilter that did a beautiful heirloom quilt. This is the stack of presents:This is the quilt I made. R chose the fabric last year and this year likes pink and green instead but it's a super cute quilt and even hand quilted.
These are the receiving blankets I crocheted. I wish the colors showed up better on the pink one. It's so cute. Both have very nice prints. I've probably done 100 of these over the years.

Oh my Gosh!

For cute!

This is a cupcake of burpcloths with coffee filters as the muffin cup. It was all wrapped in celophane. Most of the cousins were very crafty.

Another crafty cousin did a whole set of burpcloths with cute borders and applique. The flip-flops were a hit.

There were some beautiful basics, receiving blankets and onsies.

This was one of many little outfits. This one was pink and brown, ( how cute will baby look in this with that cute little pink and brown quilt Granma Gigi made?) It has a matching onesie and flare legs. Most of the sleepers and outfits were size 6-9 months.

Now for the heirloom:

Aunt Karen got swatches from R's layette set that she's making and made this beautiful quilt. This is a showcase quality quilt. She could hang it on the wall or a rack for decoration.

There were darling shoes, sewn, bought and crocheted, hairbows and head bands which is a good thing considering that R didn't have much hair till she was three but now has enough for three people. Her mother-in-laws family gave a cash gift to help them buy the stroller/car-seat that they want. Now she needs some basics like crib sheets, matress pad, bottles and books.
We will be doing a family party/shower/barbeque on Memorial day for our family. I'm very excited now for this baby to come. R is getting a little uncomfortable but we are so happy things are still going well.

The food was delicious and the presentation was beautiful.

Blindfolded Easter

Not a glamorous picture but I had all my kids decorating Easter eggs. We had some very creative eggs. a strawberry:

a grenade...

and of course a variety of colors and kits.

L is here to demonstrate our adult Easter egg hunt and the hunt begins!

The things we learned or were reenforced during this activity was that R doesn't like being out of control, B is slow and methodical and it pays off, L is rough and CJ just likes having the older siblings around. A was not quite sure why all the kids would participate so willingly even knowing there was money in the eggs. He thought it would be cents but like the others he came away with $$$!

I have great video but after an hour of it saying it was uploading I figure it pobably never would. Darn!

I have another one when we opened the eggs. The surprise was that there were baby sock and baby washcloths in the socks to R and A got a bunch of that stuff too. Then we had cinnamon rolls and watched conference. It was such a beautiful weekend!