That Boy Is DEAD!!!

You know. I really thought he was getting better. And he is. He's just not all the way there, yet. Today, I came down the stairs and spied this:

Which kept going down the next wall.....
And around the corner.
That lovely white patch there would be from the time Porter came charging through the garage door (on the right, outside of the picture) and put the door knob through the wall. It's been in the process of repair for almost a year now. Maybe you need to get on that Scott.

I went and bought that wonderful invention, called the magic eraser to scrub my walls. Apparently, it doesn't work on red Sharpie. Looks like my walls will get a fresh coat of paint. Errgh.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had plans last weekend to go camping with a couple of families in our ward. But then the Youth Temple Celebration got in the way. Both of the other families have youth and there were practices scheduled on the weekend so they both had to pull out. Bummer! We decided not to let that stop us! We headed out to this little lake out in the West Desert of Utah. I have to admit I questioned Scott on his choice, when we drove through a lot of NOTHING. But then we got to this:

That was right next to our trailer! It was so beautiful! And the weather was perfect!

Scott showed the kids how to fish.
Course they didn't catch anything, except muck. And we got to take out the canoe we bought a couple of weeks ago.
We went for a hike and did a little Geocaching. Zoey fell asleep right on Scott's head.

This hill was right behind the trailer and the kids were obsessed with it. Porter kept falling down it and scraping his knee in the same place, squirting blood every time. He just never learns! I think they just sat up there waiting for all the roaming cows to come near. And they did!
Have to get a picture of Scott with the "set-up". He's mister cook while we camp. I love to camp!

We really had a good time. It would have been more fun with everyone like we had planned, but it just gives us an excuse to go another time!

His Royal Highness....

Porter

King of the Alphabet!!!

Congratulations, dude!

Living In A Crazy World...

When our ward put together a recipe book a while back, I didn't get right on submitting those entries. I'm NOT a cook. I'm not totally a failure in the kitchen. But I don't really like to cook. I'm certainly not creative and I don't like to put too much effort into anything. I like the easy, but tasty meals. So, as the weeks went by and we kept getting more and more encouragement to add to the book, I decided that I'd go through my recipes and see if there was anything worth sharing. I think I only added between 5 and 7 recipes, but it seems like every Sunday someone comes up to me and tells me how much their family actually likes one of mine! It's crazy.

So I thought that I would share with you all today the recipe I get the most comments about. I found it online, it's certainly not something I came up with. But it's easy and tasty. My kind of recipe!

Green Chile Chicken Casserole

1 (16oz) pkg. egg noodles
3 cups cooked chicken ( I usually use two cans of canned chicken)
1 (16oz.) container sour cream
2 cups Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese
1 (15oz.) can green enchilada sauce
1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies (optional)

Cook egg noodles according to package. Once cooked, drain noodles and add all ingredients while noodles are still hot. Pour into a greased 9X13 pan. Sprinkle with more cheese, if desired. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

That's it. Easy peasy. Enjoy!

Happy Mom's Day

Some of my most memorable moments of childhood involved Christmas and Thanksgiving. I know...huh? What does this have to do with Mother's day? Bare with me a minute. I'm getting there. Every Thanksgiving my cousins, siblings and I would gather in a room and write a play to be performed on Christmas Eve. We would always, of course, make the play about the true meaning of Christmas and we loved to perform for my parents, aunt and uncle and my nannie. And I'm sure they loved to watch us. Great memories.

So color me surprised when my children decided that the best way for them to give me my gifts this morning was to present them in a short play! So little Red Riding Hood (Hali) traveled through a treacherous forest and escaped the clutches of the big, bad wolf (Porter) even though he couldn't remember his lines, to give her mother some gifts for Mother's day. The story was narrated by Regan and Zoey chose not to participate. It was way cute.

The basket was full of my favorite Mother's day gifts. Those little questionnaires that the kids fill out about me. LOVE those! Porter thinks I'm 3 years old. Hali is sure that my favorite thing to eat is Chili (I have no idea why. We don't really eat it that much.). And Regan thinks she got her good looks from me. You should see the picture. I tried to scan it in, but can't seem to pull it up here.

Most importantly, at the bottom of the basket was this:




That's right. ALMDUDLER!!!! I had to open one up and give everyone a taste. Now remember I haven't tasted one of these babies since 1993, so it's been a few years. I will admit that it didn't taste as good as I remember, but it did taste VERY European. Kind of like selser water with a slight herbal aftertaste. I still have two more left and I will drink them and enjoy them! In fact, I hid the remaining two in the back of the refrigerator so that little hands won't get them.

The primary children sang in Sacrament meeting today and somehow my son managed to make himself the memorable part of the performance. Our congregation is at least half children, so to have them walk up onto the stand is an undertaking. Apparently, Porter wanted to be by Hali, but couldn't seem to find a spot. So, I'm standing on this little stool thing in the isle and the song starts and the children start to sing and Porter comes running off the stand crying his little eyes out and throws himself around my legs. I somehow remain on the stool and continue to lead the children, all the while ignoring the fact that I have a child wrapped around me, crying on my skirt. Scott did manage to pull him off of me, but by then, more eyes were on me than the kids.

After church, Scott's sister Amy and her family, came over for dinner and then we went to the park across the street and had a wonderful time. It was such a beautiful day! I had a great Mom's Day, I hope all of you had a great day, too!

Poor Porter.....

He's really been having a rough couple of days. Yesterday, we had Scott' Grandpa Vern for dinner. After we ate we were trying to talk and the kids were being so loud, so we sent them upstairs to watch TV in our room. I guess they were getting really rowdy and jumping on our bed, which they know we don't allow. Anyway, Porter was lying on his back and Zoey was bouncing and fell and cracked her head right on Porter's nose. We hear Porter hysterically crying and rush upstairs to see what's going on. As soon as Porter gets up, the blood starts gushing from his nose. It took a while to get him cleaned up and calmed down, but his nose started to swell pretty quick.

But that's not all. Today, we were getting in the car to take Porter to school and he got excited about something, I can't remember what, and starts to jump up in my car, not realizing he's directly below the overhead TV. Cracked his head right on it. And bursts into tears. I get him calmed down and to school and come home to have my quiet time, while Zoey sleeps. About an hour later I get a call from Porter's school. During recess, Porter somehow managed to smack his head on a metal pole. I'm sure the school director thought I was crazy, because I started to laugh.

So here's the picture of the lump on the side of his eye, the swollen nose and you can kind of see the beginnings of the shiner.



You can see the shiner just a little better here.

The pictures really aren't doing his injuries justice. I just know he'll be the first of the kids to break some limb. Poor guy.

A Quick Congrats!!

Congratulations to my niece, Elyse and her wonderful man, Rob! They just got engaged! Let us know when the date is, so we can make sure we are there!

Love you both!!!

Notice Anything Different?

My baby is getting so grown up. Yesterday, Regan got contacts! She hasn't actually managed to get them in, yet. I had to pop them in this morning, but she can get them out. She just sits there with the contact on her finger and says she's too scared to put them in. *sigh* I'm hoping that now that she's had them in for a whole day, she won't be so scared to try it on her own tomorrow. But she loves having them. Now we just have to get rid of the braces.

Wicked!

Love the musical! We actually went a couple of years ago to Denver with all of Scott's family and saw it there. I think I blew it for myself in Denver. I had been looking forward to it for so long (like two years or so) and while I loved it, there were certain things that bugged me. See, I had been listening to the soundtrack and the Elphaba just didn't compare. I know, who can to not only a recording, but to Idina Mendzel. But still.

This time, even though we've had the tickets for months, I made sure not to get too excited. I didn't even listen to the music until the day of. So color me surprised, when Elphaba AND Glinda were FABULOUS!!! So great! I liked it better the second time than the first!

Scott and I went out to dinner first. We could have gone to dinner with Scott's brother, his wife and a bunch of her family, but decided to just be together. Ok, so we decided to go really cheap. I get that from my mom, no offense mom, but we all know the truth. We ended up going to one of my favorite places to eat! Siegfied's Deli, which also happens to be two shops down from the theater. They have the BEST German food in Salt Lake. Surprisingly, they aren't the only German food here. But what I love best is that it's also partly a market. The import all sorts of German yumminess. Like CHOCOLATE! (picture me drooling like Homer Simpson). Of course, I had to ask them if they carried what I most crave from my days in Austria. The necter of the gods.....Almdudler. (again, I'm channeling Homer) It's a soda drink, by the way, unlike any you've had before. We don't have anything here to compair it too. She said they didn't have any in, but were expecting a shipment next week. I turned to Scott and told him, that's what I want for Mother's day! I can't wait!