back yard!!!

Our backyard is so so pretty right now. With the tree in blossom and the purple flowers it is just gorgeous.. I wanted to share!!!!

A NON MORMON STUCK IN MORMON CENTRAL!

*disclaimer..... this is NOT a Mormon bashing post!!! I repeat this is not a Mormon bashing post!!! Many many of my family and friends are Mormon and I would NEVER bash the church. This is just a struggle with Sam and I... I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A MORMON BASHING POST!

I normally do not blog about personal things or deep things.. I am going to today...
Sam had never lived in Utah and had NEVER been around a influence of one religious group in his life UNTIL he hit Utah. Sam was use to many many churches and everyone being together as one no matter what church you went to. Utah is a little different and Kaysville is even more so. 98% of our neighbors our Mormon and I mean VERY VERY Mormon. I am happy for them, I am glad it works for them, BUT we know it does not work for US. The problem with that is where do you find a life in a neighborhood that is all one religious group when you don't go to that church.... hmmmmmmm....
I am use to the Mormon culture. In fact there are aspects of it I thrive on and look up to, and obviously (because I have chosen differently) there are some things that do not click in my heart. I said to a church leader one day.. "I kind of feel like I woke up in a town that everyone was driving backwards, EVERYONE, and no one asked.. HEY WHY ARE WE DRIVING BACKWARDS? They just did it because their neighbors, their parents, and their grand parents did it. I told him "I don't want to drive backwards because everyone else is, if I choose to drive backwards I want to know why I am".... That is how I feel about the Mormon church. I did NOT want to be Mormon because my neighbors are, or my parents are or... or... or...
It has been a hard decision on me and I have felt like an outsider A LOT!!! A LOT... Sam just does not get it.. He does not get the living your religion for "other people" he struggles with the entire concept of things. I have said to him many many times... DON'T HAVE A BEER IN FRONT OF THEM OR DON'T DO THIS.. He looks at me like I have 8 heads... He doesn't understand it at all. Sam and I definitely are "WHO WE ARE". We don't "pretend" we don't drink alcohol, we don't "pretend" we don't go to a bar, and we don't put up a facade to make us look better in a neighbors eye. It has been hard... HARD!! A lot of times as I have been in Kaysville it seriously has went through my head. I SHOULD GO TO THE LDS CHURCH so I can get a life... I AM SERIOUSLY JUST CONFUSED AS HECK ABOUT THIS... I am not saying that this is exclusive to the "mormon" religion. I am sure if we moved in to a neighborhood that was 98% Jewish we would have the same problem.
Sam is the most spiritual person I have ever been with. He talks about the hereafter, and god and what he believes.
So I don't work outside of the home so I don't have "work" friends, my kids are older and getting all grown up so I don't do the "room mom" thing any more. We don't hang out in bars or clubs (well very often) because we don't have a group of friends... So we have struggled with the "friend" thing here in good ole Kaysville!!! anyone else????????

CLEAN SHEET NIGHT.

I love to go to bed in clean sheets with freshly shaved legs!

I have washed all the sheets in our house today and wanted to share one of my LOVES...

hmmmm.

I have to admit!!! I forget how lucky we are to have Cassidi. Cassidi is definitely a teenager and comes with her own share of drama and disrespect BUT in general Cassidi is a very easy teenager. She respects us, comes home when she is suppose to and TRIES to do the right thing. I just want to send her a great big thanks.
Cassidi had a dance tonight and for the dance they all came to Sam and I's house to have dinner. It was fun to see everyone but WOW with teenage girls come drama. We made it through and no FIST fights.. HA HA.. Fun kids and I hope they have a great night.. KEEP IN MIND THE THEME WAS THE 80'S OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!

Here are some pictures and some pictures of Sam and I's back yard. It looks so so pretty right now.

The other day Debbie was cooking dinner and Cass and I were hanging out chatting with her as usual while she cooked. I turned and was talking to Debbie for a sec and I heard a loud squeal to my left and this picture above is what we all saw. "What the hell?" was my first thought. This seemed to defy the rules of gravity. So then Cass started to play with it... the video below.........






This was the strangest thing and was good entertainment for a few minutes and thought you might enjoy it. It apparently takes just the right amount of fluid in the bottom to make it do this. I have no idea how much but give it a shot.

I am coming home to you tonight honey.... I love you and miss you tons.

yummy yummy sweet pork burritos... MAKE THEM!

I got this recipe from a girlfriend of mine, Jessica, and changed it just a little. Sam and Josh and Brock just raved about this.. TRY THEM YOU WILL LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM....

here is the recipe.. seriously so so good... I put the roast in about 8:00 a.m. and let it cook all day..
Put a 4lb PORK (or if Pork is not allowed beef or chicken, I prefer pork) roast in your crock pot..
Mix in a bowl:1 can doctor pepper
2- 8 oz cans tomatoe sauceand about 1 cup brown sugar (I did not measure)
place in crock pot (WITH ROAST) and let cook for 6 -7 hours.
Take Pork out.. SHRED IT ALL.
*at this point I took a couple of BIG BIG spoon fulls of "juice" out of crock pot. Just so it was not too runny (use your own judgement here).
Put Pork back in crock pot with juice and ad a couple big tablespoon fulls of Salsa (your favorite) and another cup or so of brown sugar.
Let cook for about another hour.
Take tortillas and heat them in microwave (I prefer homade from a mexican grocery store but whatever will work)
after they are heated ad some of the sweet pork from crockpot..
some spanish rice (I used the precooked bens spanish rice that you heat in the microwave for 90 seconds, I bought two packets and could have used three)
some heated black beans (just from the can heated in a small sauce pan)
Roll up.. serve with sour cream/guac..../salsa/lettuce (whatever YOU like)
They are so good.
This reciipe will feed A LOT. I fed my family and took 2 zip locks and froze the sweet pork for another night.
Knoks the socks off any sweet burito you are use to..

*I think this recipe would easily feed 15 to 20 if you used the pork sparingly and bought more rice and black beans...

I am so excited to defrost them and have them in a week and then after that... yummy!!!

TO MUCH HOUSE?????

When we bought our house in Kaysville we knew we needed something big enough for our kids, most of our kids. So we move in with 4 kids and Sam and I. We knew Josh would not be with us for very long. He is 22 (as of Wednesday) and we knew that it would only be a short amount of time before he wanted to go out on his own. Also Sam's youngest had thought about moving in with us and all 3 of my kids were with us.
Well turns out we have way OVER BOUGHT as far as # of bedrooms and square footage.

• Josh will be moving out on May 1st! He is so so excited and is renting a place downtown SLC 5 minutes from his work. We are nothing but happy for him but I am sure Brock will miss him. Cassidi and Josh have also became really good friend so we hope he comes back for lasagna night!!!
• Jordan (Sam's youngest) decided she was going to stay in Sheridan! She lives with her mom and is working and has a life there.
• Taylor, (my middle child) did not like Kaysville AT ALL!!! So she lived here for almost a month and decided to go live with her dad in Wellsville. IT BROKE OUR HEARTS BUT SHE SEEMS TO BE DOING WELL and she comes and visits..

So this BIG house with all these bedrooms are going to be left to Sam, I, Brock and Cassidi and keep in mind that Cassidi will be a senior next year and she will be moving on within the next couple of years also.

We just keep saying that it is good to have all of this space so when everyone comes and visits. In fact when everyone was here we did not have enough beds for all. However this big house seems to be getting less and less active. I think they call this "empty nesting"!!! It kinda a surreal feeling! *sigh!

There is a chance that Sam, I, Cassidi and Brock will be moving to St. George, Utah (about 4 1/2 hours South) within the next month. (STAY TUNED.... If we do we will post it on here.) So if we do that we will definitely not buy a home with 5 bedrooms, office, 1 living room, 2 family rooms and 3 bathrooms. We are thinking a nice 4 bedroom home with a POOL AND A PALM TREE... :-)! Our families know about this but in general we have kept it pretty quiet.

weeks menu.

I have a system of writing grocery lists. I go through the week and like a calendar I put..
Mon, Tues, Wed... etc. and underneath each of them I put what we are going to eat each day and then I do the grocery list. It is also fun to ask each member of the family to pick one night. They usually pick the same thing week after week. Josh is lasagna, Cassidi is these sandwiches I make, Sam is steak, and brock is seafood.
THIS WEEK I DID NOT ASK ANY OF THEM!

I only cook dinner and sometimes lunch for Sam. I only cook breakfast on the weekends and usually only 1 morning a weekend ( I know I am a slacker), and for Sunday dinners we usually eat about 3:00 p.m.. I am not a gourmet cook but I do cook A LOT. I cook simple and foods that my family will USUALLY eat.
anyway..
I am sharing this weeks dinner plan with you. I had a friend email me and ask me to do this so I was just doing my grocery list so here ya go...

Thursday: Angel Hair spaghetti, broccoli with Parmesan, french bread.

Friday: French Dip, with chips,veggies and shrimp dip.

Saturday: Taco Ring, with re fried beans.

Sunday: Oriental Wings with white rice and veggies and dip.

Monday: Sour Cream Enchilada Casserole (thanks Nichole), green beans, and rolls.

Tuesday: Pot Roast in crock pot with veggies and tators. ( I love to put a frozen pot roast in the crock pot early morning with a packet of zesty Italian dressing and au jus and a cup of water over the top, put veggies in and let it COOK ALL DAY!!! YUM)

Wednesday: SAM AND I GO OUT ON WEDNESDAY NIGHTS SO THE KIDS CAN HAVE WHATEVER WE HAVE LEFT!

I also throw on that grocery list top Ramon because my kids love to FRY it. A couple of fast things because Cassidi and Josh sometimes come home late and will say to me.. MOM I AM HUNGRY. I have seriously gotten up at midnight and fixed Cassidi food. SPOILED..
I also usually OVER cook so Sam can have it for lunch.
I hope this helps if ya are interested in knowing what is on the stove at our house let me know and I will try to do this more often..

SAM COMES HOME FOR JUST TONIGHT AND LEAVES AGAIN TOMORROW MORNING.. :-(... but he is going grocery shopping with me!

42 towels!

I did all my laundry last Tuesday before everyone got here. I MEAN ALL MY LAUNDRY. Sheets, bath mats, EVERYTHING.
I just gathered towels from every laundry bin in the house. 42 towels. 42 towels in a week??? Omyheavens.. Seriously?
KEEP IN MIND 3 DAYS I THINK WE ALL STAYED IN OUR JAMMIES ALL DAY.

42 towels......... not a typo.

lonely?

I am sitting in my family room. NO NOISE, NO TEENAGERS, NOT ONE PERSON HERE!! I am thinking am I lonely???? I don't think so. I have had a house FULL (I MEAN FULL) for 11 days, 11 FULL DAYS.. We have done so many fun things, Moab, roller skating, played games, dinners, cake decorating, etc. I am now sitting here all alone and thinking.. "It's good for things to get back to normal!" I am not saying I did not enjoy everyone because I DID. I am just saying if I had to do it every single day I think I would be a little anxious.. OKAY A LOT!!! lol..

So Sam and I have had a house full for 11 days and today would be a kinda quiet day and evening and guess what!!! SAM WILL BE TRAVELING A LOT THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. So he is gone to Idaho Falls tonight, will be back tomorrow late afternoon, leave again tomorrow morning and be back late Friday night.... and then start it all again next week. GO FIGURE.

I have to tell you about our cake decorating contest. So I baked the cakes and the deal was we all had to use the basic same shape of bunny but decorate any way you want. We were put on teams. Sarah and I, Cassidi and Jordan, and Taylor and Sam. We went to different rooms to decorate. Sarah and I went to the basement.. Here is us decorating our cake.

Sarah would color frosting and do the ears and tail and stuff and I would do the frosting work.

Sarah's and mine final project. I don't have close ups of the other cakes, I think Sam does on his laptop, but Sarah and I won. We came upstairs and poor Sam and Taylors bunny was called the "junk yard" bunny. It was even smoking. The poor bunny had a pretty hard life!

I am getting caught up with blogging and maybe will finally post some Moab arch pictures tomorrow. MAYBE.. MAYBE NOT. I am enjoying this quiet.. ha ha.

EASTER/SPRING BREAK = BUSY BUSY BUSY!!

It's been a little while and I am sorry for that. We have been busy as heck. Everyone came for Easter. Sarah (came from Laraime), Jordan (came from Sheridan), Taylor (came from Wellsville) and I had a friend from St. George (Jodi) stay on Sunday night, and my Mom and Nolan came for Easter dinner. So to say the least we have been busy. I HAVE COOKED, CLEANED, COOKED CLEANED, COOK CLEANED.. way to much. I am going to see if Sam will TAKE US OUT tonight!!! :-)

We mostly stayed in the house and played the Wii but we did get out a couple times. We went to lunch at Applebee's one day, went ROLLER SKATING, Yes Roller skating!! Sam and I even got on skates.. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!

So after skating we came home.. I COOKED AGAIN. LOL and the weather was good enough for us to sit on the patio. Brock made a fire.. ALL BOY! We hung out and chatted!All the way around it was a pretty good weekend. JUST A LOT OF WORK. Sarah went home yesterday morning, Taylor went home last night and Jordan is with us till tomorrow. I will blog more later about Moab last weekend and our bunny cake contest etc.

It was fun but boy I have no idea how people can afford to "feed" and keep their sanity with 4 teenage girls, a dog, a tween son, husband and wife and all that goes along with that. WOW...

WHAT PRICELESS MEMORIES!

MOAB WEEKEND

What an awesome weekend. We had a blast even though it snowed and was cold our first 2 days. We made the best of it and had a great time. Cass was a trooper and even though she is a teenager who would rather be at home with friends still had an OK time... lol
We stayed in a cabin in a camp ground with bunk beds and a heater that barely worked. So at night we would snuggle up and tell funny stories in the dark.... I better keep these stories a secret.... especially the ones about me.
So me and Brock wake up and of course have to go pee with Winnie so we proceeded outside and found SNOW on the ground. So much for a Spring Break WOW... COLD. So everyone rolled out of bed dressed warm and we hit the parks and Moab. We had never been to Moab for play before... I had been there for work since there are two Maveriks there but never to goof off. There are TONS of things to do there especially if you have a couple of 4 wheelers, jeep or a dirt bike....... so much dang fun. We are definately going back when its warm and maybe with some toys and friends...... make it an adult weekend... lol

Sunday was way warm and we went on a hike of all hikes but I will let Debbie post about that one with pictures.... what a great time.

HOLE IN THE ROCK HOUSE

4 Wheelin in the park

Cold Arch Hike

Fun Gift Shopping with a Blizzard Outside

Afternoon Siesta after a day of cruizin through the cold parks

Weeekend Getaway....

Hey everyone we are headed out to Moab for a weekend get away. I am sure we will come back with some great pictures and stories so come back to see us in a few days..... I promise we will have an update. We have been lazy bloggers lately. Shame on us!!