The cute sayings continue...

I have two for Hailey...

1. The other day we were talking about spiders. Hailey, in her ever growing wisdom, comments, "If spiders don't drink blood, they will get so disappointed that they will take over the world!" Wow! A disappointed spider! I had to explain to her that if they don't drink blood, they die...and then the bugs will take over the world.

2. We were watching a movie some time ago. There was a point in which the Lord's name was used in vain. Hailey always likes to comment that doing that is very bad! She then asked me what I do when there are bad words in my head. I told her that I like to sing a hymn or a Primary Song, or think about something uplifting. She replies, "Oh! When I think about bad words, I just say 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus' and then they go away!"

One Smart Kid!

Early last week, Rion came home from school actually excited to take the state mandated tests. He said his teacher made them a deal...if they scored in the Advanced category in all three areas (math, language, reading), then the only homework they would have the rest of the school year was their daily reading log. Oh he was excited because when they took the ISATs during the winter, he was just a couple of points away from the Advanced category.

A couple of days later, he came home with a note from his teacher asking for our permission to uphold that promise - because he scored Advanced in all three areas. We are so proud of him for working so hard! He is also so excited to only have to read every night this last month of school. I hope this excitement for doing well in school continues through high school!

31 Flavors

Tonight was $.31/scoop night at Baskin Robbins! Oh goody! We decided that it would be best to go early, before everyone was done with their dinner. We arrived shortly after 6:00, and the line was already out the door, and there was only one guy tending the counter. (who happened to be the new owner) What a jolly guy he was, too! Very fun! All in all, we got 12 scoops of ice cream for a grand total of $3.94. Not bad at all!

What a perfect night to spend with friends, too! When we arrived, Shannon and Joseph were already there. Latrisa and Jessica showed up while we were waiting in line. I hope Baskin Robbins does this again soon...it was a fun/cheap evening!

Preparation List - April 26th-May 3rd

I have decided that it would be best to post the week's food storage/being prepared list on Sunday instead of Monday. This way, those who shop on Monday won't have to make another list. Being as May 1st lands on Thursday, I am going to wait for May Week 1 until next week. It might even things out a bit. Instead, I feel it's necessary to post the 72-Hour Kit lists. This is a great thing to work on this week, and hopefully most of these items are already available within our homes. You can pack your kits in backpacks, duffle bags, or whatever will make it easy to grab, carry, and go. Go through your items every 6 months, rotate your food, and make sure clothing still fits. Store in a place that will be easily accessible in case of emergency. I will also be posting (at a later date) a car emergency kit.


Emergency 72 Hour Kit
Cover all emergency needs – food, water, shelter, communications and warmth.

Day Pack
Whistle
Flashlight
Extra batteries
Radio (battery operated)
Poncho
12-hour lightstick
1 roll toilet paper
Pocket knife
Compass
Pocket first aid kit
Pencil & paper
Emergency blanket
Waterproof matches
Soap
Change of clothing
Extra socks

Food & Water
tuna fish, fruit cocktail
peanut butter, crackers
raisins, hard candy

Other
feminine hygiene needs
can opener
tube tent
sleeping bags
sanitation kit
camper’s trowel
tool kit
diapers & wipes
baby formula (if needed)
and a bottle


Sample 72 Hour Survival Food Kit
(will vary depending on personal tastes)

2 Hot Chocolate powder packets
2 cereal bars
4 granola bars
2 beef jerky
2 pkgs apple cider mix
2 fruit rolls
2 pkgs crackers
1 can pork & beans
4 soup base packets
12 pieces hard candy
1 spoon
Water – use a 2 liter soda pop bottle


One site I found created a menu for the sisters in their ward to be able to prepare their kits a little more easily. This is the list that they gave. You can adjust it to fit you family, but at least this is a start!


DAY ONE

BREAKFAST
1 oatmeal & 1 hot cocoa
LUNCH
1 granola bar, 1 beef jerky, 1 apple cider mix
DINNER
1 Ramen, 1 small can of fruit
SNACK
3 pieces of candy, 1 stick of gum

DAY TWO

BREAKFAST
1 oatmeal & 1 hot cocoa
LUNCH
1 Ramen, 1 small can of fruit
DINNER
1 Beef jerky, 1 fruit snack, 1 apple cider
SNACK
3 pieces of candy, 1 stick of gum

DAY THREE

BREAKFAST
1 oatmeal & 1 hot cocoa
LUNCH
1 Beef jerky, 1 fruit snack, 1 apple cider
DINNER
1 soup and 1 apple cider mix
SNACK
3 pieces of candy, 1 stick of gum

Pumpkin Cookies

I know, I've been posting a lot today, but my brain has been quite full! This is seriously one of the best cookies I've had, and the easiest recipe ever! Thanks to Diana, I now can make these whenever I want!


Pumpkin Cookies

1 small can pumpkin (enough to make 1 pumpkin pie)
1 box spice cake mix
chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, or whatever else you feel like adding

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together pumpkin and cake mix. This will be thick, so make sure you mix it enough to get all of the cake mix moist. Add enough chocolate chips, raisins, or nuts for your liking, about 1 1/2 cups. Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake about 20 minutes.

That's it! Easy breezy! Do not add any of the ingredients that the cake mix asks for. The recipe is for the cake mix only. And, it's such a great recipe that my assistant kept eating the batter!

Kids' Sayings - Addendum

I just remembered another one of Rion's adorable little sayings that I previously missed.

When Orion was 3, he was playing with little round magnets on the fridge. He managed to flip the polarity on some of them, and couldn't get them to stick. Frustrated, he says to himself (out loud), "Um, I think I need a hammer!"

Prayers

I'm so glad we are teaching our children to pray and to think about things to pray for before they begin. Tonight was Hailey's turn. She did a really good job asking Heavenly Father to "bless the angels that they would be safe" and the usual request that "Chase will sleep through the night and not wake up until morning." The BEST part was when she asked for blessings that "all the food we eat will strengthen our bodies...except for candy." Personally, I'd prefer that candy strengthen my body, instead of go straight to my hips!

Birthday Fun

As most of you know, my 30th birthday was on the 18th. What a day! I hope to be able to go through my day without typing a novel! I decided that since my birthday was on a Friday, I would take the day off work. Very smart with how full the day was!

The day began officially at 8:00 when Hailey, Chase and I set off to help a lady in our ward move her cow from one pasture to another. Her truck was having issues, so we offered the use of ours. Fancy is the name of the cow. She was pastured about 1/2 mile down the road from Carolyn, and was being moved to another pasture a few miles away. Fancy was certainly very cautious with me there! She kept bucking her head and didn't want to be trailered, but in the end we succeeded. Before we put her in her summer home, we managed to get some pictures with the kids. Boy were they excited!


After we dropped Carolyn off at her home, she was nice enough to let the kids pet her horse. Chase loved that! We still had a little bit of hay in the bed of the truck that he got to feed her with. He squealed every time she took it out of his hand.

Following our new animal adventure, we went shopping at Home Depot for some flowerbed birthday goodies! I decided I was going to attempt to spend the rest of the day outside in the flowerbeds. My green thumb has been aching to get dirty, and the cold weather has not been very cooperative. Fifteen bags of bark, three shrubs, drip-line, and a bulb shovel later, we headed off to get Hailey to preschool, with a solemn promise that I would not start until she got home. In the meantime, it was kitchen cleaning time while Chase and Savanna played.

Two hours later after we picked Hailey up, we were off to Walmart for birthday night ice cream - and ended up with about 12 containers of pre-grown daffodils and 12 containers of pre-grown tulips. Very exciting! I couldn't plant them, though, because of the freeze that the weekend was bringing, so they are still sitting in the wagon. I don't know, they kind of look cute in there! I don't think Chase is too happy with it, though.

At this point, it was now 2:30 and my flowerbed day was leaving me very quickly! I still had to make dinner and shower, on top of getting the weed barrier and bark layed. So, I put Chase down for a nap and got to work. By 4:30, I had a little more than 3/4 of the the biggest flowerbed done, and no more bark! I needed another 6-8 bags to finish the main bed, and another 8 bags for the smaller one in the back. So, I gave up and took my shower.

At 5:30, Shannon and Joseph came over for dinner and cake. Shannon brought a fabulous "shepherd's pie" dish (it's actually a Dutch dish with a shepherd's pie likeness, but I can't pronounce the name). Since we were so full, we settled down to watch some TV programs on the projector, which is when I realized that Chase and Savanna had been missing for a little while. I found them upstairs in my bathroom, shower turned on, soaking wet! All Chase's doing, I'm sure. The little rascal!

Shannon ran home really fast to grab some pj's for Savannah....however, when she returned, she brought a babysitter with her! I couldn't believe it! I normally see right through things that Eric has planned, and I nearly ruined the surprise the night before if Eric hadn't have done some quick thinking, but he managed to surprise me. I don't know if they talked Chase into playing in the shower, but it sure fit in to the scheming! Shannon and Eric had been planning a dessert date at Mona Lisa's Fondue Restaurant in downtown Nampa. All I can say is YUM! I had never had fondue before, and this combined with the French romantic atmosphere of the restaurant made a perfect end to very full day!

I am grateful for such a wonderful husband and great - albeit sneaky - friends! I just wish I could have shared this special day with everyone.

Apostles Song

I just found this on someone else's site (I was blog hopping) and I just HAD to share it. Make sure you go to the bottom of the blog first and pause the music. Otherwise these two will mix. Enjoy!

Are You Prepared?

I have decided that I am going to start a "being prepared" list every Monday. This will help all of us to follow the Prophet's counsel and get our food storages in order. The idea is to purchase as much as you can each week of the listed items. Then, as you use the item, you need to replace it. Make sure to date the items you purchase so you can rotate accurately.

Here goes! (please note - some of the week #'s may seem odd. Just go with it!)

April - Week 4

Pasta: Spaghetti, macaroni, egg noodles, etc. Don't forget the macaroni and cheese!

Not too bad! That's easy stuff. Good luck, and hopefully by this time next year, you'll be feeling a lot better about your preparation!

It Must be Love

So cute! Savanna and Chase are playing together this morning. At snack time, Chase got out a plate for himself, and a bowl for Savanna. His favorite thing for breaksfast is oatmeal, so he got a pack out for himself, and one for Savanna. Then he put cheese puffs in her bowl for her. Who says chivalry is dead??!

Update: About 20 minutes after the snack chivalry, Chase bumped his head on the door, and Savanna kissed it better! Ohhhh....

Who needs toys?

You know, that's a question we ask every time we find the kids playing with something that we thought would be mundane. I found Hailey and Chase today playing in the playpen that was set up in my closet. (That's where my niece Rylee sleeps when she is over.) This is what I found:

Kindergarten Registration

Today was Kindergarten Registration. Hailey was SOOO excited to leave that we didn't even have time to brush her hair! To keep her busy while I was filling out paperwork, she played with the Chuck E Cheese's tokens we found in the stroller.

Once the paperwork was all done, we got her marked on the map for the school bus route, and then saw the nurse to make sure she had all her immunizations up to date. After that was the fun part! A tour of the bus!

Shannon brought Emmitt to get him registered too, so we all had the tour together. Hailey and Emmitt loved the bus, and practicing walking across the street in front of the bus. I can't speak for Emmitt, but I know Hailey can't wait for August!

Abracadabra - The Amazing Rion

Tonight was Pack Meeting for Cub Scouts. The theme, as you can tell, was Magic. Rion was asked to do a trick, so he "pulled a rabbit out of a hat," but the rabbit ended up being a beaver with bunny ears. Then, to top it off, he "pulled a hat out of a rabbit". This got them going! It was quite cute!

Here is a little video clip. Rion was in such a hurry to start the act that I missed him actually pulling the "rabbit" out of the hat. I also missed him flinging it across the room for extra drama. Silly boy!

Love and Kids

Shannon called me today to tell me about a funny situation during preschool.

So, during play time the kids were talking about who they love. (Must have been a girl thing...leave it to the girls!) Hailey says, "I love David Stone. It's true, I really do!" She then goes to Shannon in the kitchen and says, "Miss Shannon, I love David Stone. It's true, I really do!"

Together in Mischief

Once again, I find Savanna and Chase together, this time playing in Hailey's bed. Silly kids!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I have compiled a list of funny things that Rion and Hailey have said over the years.

Let's start with Rion:

*It took Rion some time to learn to say certain words. One of our favorites is "loose," or else shoes. A combination of this is "gurch loose" (church shoes). We would take his "loose" and have him repeat very slowly after us "sh - oos", which would go well. So we'd blend it "shhhooooosss" with the result being "shhhlllllooooosss."

*Before the potty training process began, Eric and I would constantly talk to Rion about where people go potty and poop, versus where he goes potty and poop. On one occassion, after asking him, "Where do Mommy and Daddy go poop?" the answer that followed was, "Mommy and Daddy go poop in my pants!"

*Toward the end of my pregnancy with Hailey, we were visiting Sarah and Joseph, and our friend Trina was down from D.C. She got a kick out of Rion getting excited over being excited, with a new coined phrase, "More Yay!!"

*When Rion was 4, he asked us one evening what was for dinner. Me, being the silly mom that I am, responded, "Underpants." Confused, Rion asked, "I eat my underpants?"

*After Hailey was born, Rion was introduced to the wonders of breastfeeding. (You know, because he didn't really remember when he did it.) We were visiting Grandma Vivian for the weekend, and I was nursing Hailey on the couch near Grandma's enclosed patio. Rion was rocking in the child's rocking chair, and pretending to nurse this little teddy bear. After calling him into the house and trying to explain to him that boys can't breastfeed since their nipples aren't made for that, he yells back, "No, Mom, I'm talking about MY nipples!" He then runs back onto the patio, sits in the rocking chair, pulls up his shirt, slams the bear against his chest, and rocks really hard for about 10 seconds. He then jumps up and throws the bear into a little tent right next to him. Wow! That was random!

*Along the breastfeeding line, Rion tells me one day when Hailey is just a couple weeks old, "When Hailey has mommy nipples, she'll have a baby in hers tummy!"

*Kids think they are so smart once they start Kindergarten. Being the educated soul that he was, Rion wakes up before school with an ear ache and tells me, "I have a ear reflection."

And now for Hailey:

*At the age of 2 years and 1 day, we decided it was time to go cold turkey with Hailey's pacifier. So, we cut the tip of the nipple off. At bed time, she put it in her mouth, sucked it, looked at it, and then said, "Suckie broken? We go buy more?" Gee wiz! What kind of 2 year old actually understands this concept...and can articulate it? Of course, she was so mad at her pacifier that she procedeeded to shove it far down in the garbage!

*Eric and I have never skirted around the issue of teaching our children the proper names for body parts. We figure, the more they know, and the more we can be frank about it, the more comfortable they will be with their bodies. So, during Sacrament Meeting in Sarah and Joseph's ward, actually during the passing of the Sacrament when all is quiet, Hailey starts saying, and pointing as she is saying this, "He has a penis, and he has a penis, and he has a penis."

*And again, with the body parts, while Hailey was potty training, I was trying to put a pull up on her before bedtime. Not wanting this to happen, Hailey says, "I wear my pannies on my gina!"

*For quite some time, Hailey's thing at bedtime, as well as the occassions she woke up during the night, was string cheese! She had to have string cheese, even if it was 2:30 in the morning.

*Another night time phrase that would just kill us was, "Will you close my eyes?" She still does that sometimes!

*On our way to Grandma and Papa Gibbons' house, Chase was falling asleep in the car. I made the comment, "Poor Chase." Hailey, not wanting to be left out, replied, "I'm poor!"

*Last summer, Hailey and Rion played quite a bit with Cameron and Rachel Hiler down the street. I realized that Hailey had learned the finer points of a "crush" when she told me, "When I grow up, I'm going to marry Cameron. He doesn't love me, but I'm going to marry him anyway." Boy are we in trouble!

I can't wait for Chase to really start talking! Though, he does say "UP" quite a bit, even when he wants down. I've determined that "up" probably means "the opposite of where I currently am." Makes sense to me!

Yum!

I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight. (One that I found in the Sunset magazine at the dentist office.) Wow, it was good, especially in a tortilla shell! So, here it is...










Salsa Verde Braised Pork

3 1/2 pounds bone-in pork shoulder (aka pork butt)
1 bottle (15 oz.) salsa verde
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons each cumin seeds and coriander seeds
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus some leaves
Salt

1. Trim excess pork fat. Put meat in a large casserole or Dutch oven with salsa, onion, broth, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and oregano. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat, cover, and simmer until meat is very tender when pierced, about 3 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 375°. With 2 wide spatulas, transfer meat to a rimmed baking pan. Bake until richly browned, 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, skim and discard fat from pan juices. Boil juices, stirring, until reduced to 2 3/4 cups, 8 to 10 minutes.

4. With 2 forks, tear meat into large shreds. Add to pan and stir in chopped cilantro. Season with salt. Spoon into a serving bowl and sprinkle with cilantro leaves. Serve with tortillas and more salsa verde.

Slow-cooker Salsa Verde Pork: Put trimmed pork in a slow cooker (5 to 6 qt.) and turn heat to high. In a pan, bring salsa, onion, broth, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and oregano to a boil. Pour over pork, cover, and cook until meat is very tender when pierced and registers at least 165° on an instant-read thermometer, at least 7 or up to 9 hours. Continue recipe with step 2, using a large pot for step 3.