4 Years Ago Today.....

I married THIS sexy man! LOVE.OF.MY.LIFE.

Thanks for being more than I could ever dream of. Best daddy in the world. Sweetest husband. Nobody I would rather share eternity with. Love you babe! Happy Anniversary!

get crafty with me now

We did a couple little projects around the house over the thanksgiving break.

#1 - sign for above our shadow box

Hailey wanted a sign up above our shadow box in our dining room. We found the wood that composed the frame on the side of the road and the inside is a piece of backing painted with chalkboard paint. We thought it would be cool to be able to write different things in this spot. Mallory is going to use some of her artistic ability to write our first message there. Of course lots needs to be done still. Still need to do the art on the chalkboard and still need to fill our shadow box with pictures. We really like it...

#2 - new lamp

So we have been dragging this lamp around for two years now. I was doing some work in Portland and someone gave it to me for free and we thought we could do something to it. So this weekend Hailey did her thing. Some ribbon, fabric, and buttons later it is done. We think it looks great in the kids room.

#3 New chest of drawers and mirror in the bedroom

Hailey and I have never owned a dresser. We finally got one and mounted this mirror to go with it in our room this weekend. (sorry for the mess on top) Hailey is trying to think of something to on the wall on both sides now.

Hailey and I are different then most when it comes to "decorating" our home. I guess I am not one of the husbands that could care less. For the most part I am just great with whatever Hailey decides to do but sometimes I don't mind at all helpin out. Ya thats right, I don't mind getting my craft on here and there.The other thing I have noticed is we take forever to do something decorating wise. We both wait and wait until we really like the idea of something up on the wall or in the bedroom. Many told us that our place is kind of plain at the beginning, but I think its getting to where we would like it, slowly but we will get there.

El CRUISE

Here are some pictures from the cruise, we were not good at taking pictures...

.... beautiful ....

.... lots of food ....

.... a ton of food ....

.... unlimited soft serve place called "sprinkles" xoxo ....

.... relaxing ....

.... alone time much over due ....

.... missed our babies ....

.... so glad we went ....

Jonah's Party TIME CHANGE!

Jonah's BDAY bash is going to have to wait one more week!

The new party will be on November 6th at the same place. Everything will be the same except no costumes...

We decided to move the party one week because we were invited (very last minute) by Drew's boss on a paid company cruise to the BAHAMAS!

Who is in?

Happy Birthday Mae......back in August!

(Ok, because of my lack of blogging skills I uploaded theses pictures in the wrong order. We partied it up at the water park first and then came home for dinner, cake and ice cream AND PRESENTS!)

Sportin' the new dress up clothes Grandma Everton got her.

Enjoying her yummy cupcakes mommy made.

Her fish cakes she wanted to eat ALL DAY LONG. She was so excited to dig into one of those.

It was so fun watching her open presents on her own this year. No help needed from us, she knew just what to do.

Playing with daddy in the fountains. She was a bit timid that day playing in the water. It was a Saturday so there were tons of people there, which isn't really Maes thing. We LOVED this water park in Colorado though. Such a fun place to take the kids on hot summer days.

That same water park also has tons of grassy area and fun big toys and swings to play on. I'm tellin' ya the parks in Colorado are where its at. We would frequent the parks almost everyday. Sweets birthday was no exception. She could swing for hours.

Looking cute before making our first rounds in the water.

We are biased but our little Mae is just so beautiful. Love those rosy cheeks and wisps of hair blowing in the breeze while she gives us just the tiniest smile. Oh and those blue eyes....she's looking up at her daddy behind the camera with those blue eyes. Never want to forget this cute little face. I can't believe she is TWO!

STEAL OF A DEAL!

Props to my friend Ashleigh for leading me to this amazing deal on diapers!!!! Woot Woot! Thanks Ash! To get in on this awesome deal go here. We just purchased 4 boxes of Pampers diapers for $82.00 (including the price of 3 magazines to get the promo codes. Note: in one of our magazines there happened to be TWO promo codes. So we lucked out buying 3 magazines but scoring the 4th code for free.) The original price for all of those diapers would have been $196.oo. Even better, its all through amazon.com so the diapers are being delivered to our doorstep for FREE. Now if I can just figure out a cheap way for all my groceries to be delivered to our door. This is a step in the right direction though. ;)

BY THE WAY, the deal we got was for September. So when you look at the website I put a link up for, its still good to go!

Post No Name

I have all these random things to talk about, I couldn't think of a good post title. Hence, Post No Name.

ONE. Does anyone else think Peanut Butter Popcorn sounds good? I found this recipe on one of my FAVORITE blogs OurBestBites, and I can't get it out of my mind. MUST MAKE PEANUT BUTTER POPCORN. Maybe its because I sampled some yummy popcorn at Costco the other day. But Drew isn't really a fan of popcorn so I don't want to make it and have way too much popcorn to eat by myself. Thats not really good Hood to Coast training food.

TWO. I LOVE running. I have recently gotten back into running and each morning I go out I actually want to cry. Tears of JOY! It feels that good to me. Its challenging (especially here in the high elevation of Denver), it inspires me, it makes me happy. Thank you Hood to Coast for giving me one of many reasons to start running again. For those of you who don't know what Hood to Coast is........watch this.

THREE. Drew is A-MAZING. Can I just say that? I love him. He works hard, endlessly, for our little family. He is the worlds greatest dad to our Mae flower and Joners. And he is the only person/thing that keeps me from loosing it on a daily basis. "They" say its good in your first years of marriage to live away from family because it helps you rely on each other more. That is just how it has worked for us and I couldn't feel more blessed to have Drew as my eternal companion. (I know, shmoopy. Get over it.)

FOUR. The weather here is crazy. I can't complain too much about the rain because we are from Oregon and I do love me some rain. But the way it rains here is cramping our style a little. You see Jonah naps from about 10 to noon. Mae naps from about 1 to 3. Jonah naps again from about 2-3:30. THEN we get outside. We go to the park, a long walk or find a pool to beat the heat. But lately, its always raining by the time we are ready to go out. That leaves us in the car a lot or hanging out at Target, Walmart or my favorite Costco. (Or inviting myself over to Lyndsey and Michelles. They definitely help keep me sane as well. :)) I think the main reason why this is bothering is because I know what the winter will be like and I want to get out as much as we can before we are stuck inside. The winters are LOOONG.

FIVE. Update on the muffin recipe I posted previously. Mae and I made them this morning with fresh blueberries and they were delicious. Last time I made them with frozen wild blueberries and they weren't too flavorful. But these plump, fresh blueberries were just the thing. I put in about 2 cups because I always like some extra berries, we are hooked. Thank goodness because the chocolate chips kind of defeat the "healthy" purpose.

Mopits! Mopits! Somtimes Moffits!

(Michelle, this is your plate in the picture from way back when you saved that piece of cake for me. :) I keep forgetting it when I see you guys. I will get it to you soon I promise!)

Alright, I know I just blogged yesterday but I'm in the blogging mood so I'm going with it. I keep meaning to post more recipes but the lack of pictures or a good camera to take a decent picture stops me. I just had an itch to post another recipe so I bagged carrying about the quality of my picture. The quality of the recipe is MOST important.

Mae has been BEGGING for "mopits" (aka:muffins) since I made them last week. She asks for them every day. So we made some more this morning. I love this recipe because it makes quite a bit. And they are much healthier than the average muffin recipe. (Sometimes muffin recipes seem more like cupcake recipes to me.) There are a lot of variations you can do with this recipe and so far our favorite happens to be the chocolate chip variation. Surprise surprise!

I made some with wild blue berries last week. They were pretty good but lacked in flavor a bit. A typical thing to have to work on with "healthy" recipes. I'm still fiddling around to make the muffins the way I like them but the texture is just right. I love how perfectly moist they are and a great consistancy. I think some lemon zest and a touch more salt would help my blueberry muffins. You really can't go wrong with chocolate chips. I also think orange cranberry would be so yummy. Or a spice blend. Raspberries might give them more of the zing I was hoping for with the blueberries. But for now as I continue to experiment, the chocolate chip muffins are the winners. So finally, here is the recipe. Funny, the two recipes I have posted so far just happen to be from the same website. These are the "Healthy Blueberry Muffins" from the blog Savory Seasonings.

Healthy Muffins

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oats, blended until fine in a blender or food processor
1 cup sugar
1 TBSP plus 1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
4 TBSP oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 TBSP water

1 1/2 cups blueberries, raspberries or blackberries (or chocolate chips), etc.

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine wet ingredients, then lightly fold into the dry ingredients. Batter will be thicker than traditional muffin recipes. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 14-15 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

*Note: These freeze really well which is awesome since they yield around 24 muffins.

Pearly Whites

Our poor little Joners is teething. He is miserable which means we are miserable. We are pumping him full of teething tablets and Motrin. He's just not loving those pearly whites invading his gums.

I love watching my kids grow. It amazes me the milestones and phases they go through in just one year. But sometimes I can't help but feel like it needs to slow down. Jonah getting his teeth and now crawling like a champ as well as pulling himself up to standing position on anything that he possibly can, has me thinking he will be walking before we know it!!!!! What happened to my halloween baby?! I swear it still feels like he was just born. "Time sure does fly" as you all know just as well as I do. There is a small part of me that is excited for Jonah to start walking. As busy as it will be, I can slow down on the weight lifting for a bit. haha I always say little Joners but he's pretty big. I get asked almost every time I'm at the grocery store or in our apartment parking lot how old my twins are. I would put stats up of the kids if I had recent ones but I don't. I will do it first thing when we are back in Utah. They already have dr. appointments scheduled. Wow, we will be back in Utah next month!? Again, can't believe how fast the summer is going. Seriously, anyone feeling like we just skipped from October to now in like a day?

Heaven Iced Hey

You know that game MadGab where you read phrases like "Heaven Iced Hey" and you have to figure out what the phrase is saying? Heaven Iced Hey would be "Have a nice day. That is how understanding an almost 2 year old is! I remember this game every time I'm trying to figure out what Mae is saying.

Example: Yesterday morning I asked Mae when she woke up if she would like me to make blueberry muffins for breakfast. She of course, replied with an ecstatic "YEAH!" Then she got down from my arms and went to play. A minute or so later she came running up to me shouting "Mopits! Mopits!" You would think I was smart enough to realize right away she was saying muffins....but I wasn't. I could not figure out what she was excited about. I assumed it just had to something to do with what she was playing with. So I just replied "yeah fun" and a head nod. Then she started saying "Mopits? Mopits?" Wondering if she was going to get some muffins. I was still trying to figure out what she was talking about. Got It! Mopits are muffins, duh!

She has a whole slew of other words in her vocabulary. For memory sake here's what she's saying these day.

What Mae says: What she means:

mope....................................milk

ah no....................................oh no (pretty close huh?)

noun.....................................down

dewsh...................................juice

bother..................................water

doosh....................................shoes

beet.......................................bird

ohs........................................horse

maymet................................blanket

Nono.....................................Jonah

Any.........................................cousin Kennedy

Pompa or papa...................Grandpa

Mama....................................Grandma

Ah-men..................................Marianne (one of our friends)

maf.........................................bath

deent......................................drink

nun.........................................done

dose.......................................shows

uv oo......................................love you

The list could go on but thats all I can remember. We are loving how much she is talking. She is not loving that we can't always quite understand her, but we will get there. :) She is too cute and keeps us smiling everyday. Her nickname "Sweets" is very fitting. Can't believe she will be 2 years old soon!

Anyway, Heaven Iced Hey!

On a lighter note......

I am LOVING these Pita Pockets right now. Pita Pocket salad....my meal of choice presently. So easy, fresh and filling. Love. It. This is my favorite way to get some raw veggies for the day. I just chop up some crispy romaine (my personal favorite because of the crispy part), dice some red onions (I believe this to be the key ingredient), carrots, tomatoes, and avocados. I would like to add cucumbers too but I keep forgetting to grab some at the store. I swear my memory has never been the same since having kids. Sprinkle some feta cheese. Stuff it in the pita half. Viola! It doesn't even need dressing!

To accommodate Drews tastes buds I made a philly cheesesteak pita the other night. Really, I just made it for me and Drew ate his the traditional way. On a nice white, toasty sub. Mmmmmm.

I would have pictures of these glorious ways to eat-a-pita (that is fun to say) but we ate them before I could take a picture. And even if I did get a picture the quality would be so embarrassing it wouldn't be "blog worthy". So a picture of my favorite pitas will have to do. Try it and love it like I do!

B James

I ache for my brother Beau. I miss him and am looking forward to catching up with him (and the rest of you siblings and in-laws) soon. He has been through a lot this last year. Its bittersweet looking at these pictures. He is not the same, but there is a new Beau to love just as much as the old. I can't wait to hear his stories (where he is and what he is doing haha). I can't wait to go on walks with him. I can't wait to hear him giggle and crack jokes. I can't wait to be with him. I miss our late nights in high school or our long talks on the phone in college. I miss having him over to Drew and I's place to sleep over and watch movies. I miss him giving me every ounce of music he owns (and it was always A LOT). I miss his smile. I even miss his bad moods. ;) It's been too long since I've gotten to talk with him. And he was in the hospital during that time.

I just really do ache for him. Its hard to let go of the past and embrace the now. But I find a lot of hope in Gods plan and that he is VERY mindful of Beau. For some reason tonight Beau's current situation is really hitting me. It ebbs and flows, sometimes I can deal with it well. Other times, it hits me like a ton of bricks and weighs on my mind. But like my dad always says, we have every reason to be hopeful and trust in Heavenly Fathers plan. I am hopeful and I trust in Him.

Good Things to Come

Drew and I really love the Mormon messages that are posted on YouTube. I know we have a link to them on our sidebar but we are especially loving this one right now so I thought I would post it. It hits home for us as I'm sure it does for everyone else. We can all relate. Enjoy!

Our One in a Million

You are the glue that holds us together,

what keeps us sane.

You are their HERO

and my everything.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY, BABE!

some more kid photos/video

For your viewing pleasure....

A little play time before bed. Mae is really into saying "ewwww", just started that today. She thinks it is so funny. Jonah is on the verge of crawling but can't figure out how to move those arms. I keep trying to get a video of him using his voice but can't catch him yelling. They sure are busy bodies keeping us on our toes. Love them to pieces and can't get enough of their squishy cheeks.

MAcc Daddy

We found out a couple weeks ago that Drew made it into the BYU MAcc Program (aka: Masters of Accounting)! I couldn't be more proud of him and all that he has accomplished. It has been a rough road getting here mainly because of the brutal Junior Core. Not only did he survive with flying colors, he welcomed our little Jonah into the world right smack in the middle of it. Hours and hours of endless studying, group projects, and wicked crazy exams, HE DID IT! I have always known he is amazing but he amazes me more every day. Love ya Babe!

Enchilada Sauce

(This picture is actually courtesy of Drew. He made these with some sauce I had in the freezer while I was visiting home. Didn't he make a great little meal for himself?)

Alright, I'm ready to share recipes. I have so many good ones that need to be shared. I can't take credit for any of the recipes I will probably share. I am a food blog stalker to the core. I will, of course, be giving credit to the bloggers of whom I got the recipes from. And tell you over and over to go visit their blog because their recipes are a family favorite no matter which one we try. I apologize for the pictures I include. They will not be at all impressive because we lack a descent camera to take awesome pictures with. I probably lack some skill as well. ;)

The first recipe I have is a Red Enchilada sauce from the blog Savory Seasonings. I love this blog because she makes a lot from scratch. She uses very pure ingredients and is against anything with flavor enhancers, preservatives, or chemicals added to it. Actually, her body rejects such additives. I'm glad my body puts up with me enough to consume what I do, but ideally I would like the food my family eats to be free from all those harmful chemicals, etc. I'm taking baby steps to get there. I think the hardest part is actually how expensive healthy food can be. But thats a story for another post.

I adore this enchilada sauce compared to the canned, store bought version. The flavor is awesome, especially with the fresh cilantro. And its consistency is perfect (in my opinion), not so runny like the store bought sauce. And there is, of course, room to season to your liking. Here it is.

Red Enchilada Sauce

from blog: Savory Seasonings

1 (28oz.) can diced tomatoes

3 Tb. flour

1 c. water

1-2 Tb. chili powder

2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. cocoa powder (yes, cocoa powder!)

1/4 tsp. cumin

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

In a blender, blend tomatoes and flour until smooth. Pour into a medium saucepan. Add water and spices. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until desired consistency. Now its ready to use in whatever way you like to make enchiladas.

(*Personal note: usually you dip the tortilla in the sauce to coat it. But I've found with this sauce, I like to just spoon it over the enchiladas once they are all in the dish. They don't get as soggy and its less mess.)

(*Personal note #2: For me, this recipe usually makes enough sauce for 3-4 meals of enchiladas. I usually split it up in quart size freezer zip-locs and freeze them for later. LOVE that! Makes for some easy meals in the future.)

LOVE this!

There is no greater joy to me right now then to see this. I love it!

Happy Halloween!

(I think someone is sleepy)

Pj's we got Jonah to wear on his birthday. Obviously they aren't going to make it for Halloween, so we are putting them to good use now. What was I thinking getting 12-18 month pajamas believing that my baby would fit in them at the age stated on the pack? Both Mae and Jonah have always been ahead of the game in the size clothes they wear, Jonah more-so than Mae however. He takes the cake. We LOVE our big boy!

Potty Training

Hmmm, for some reason I don't think our little Mae is understanding the concept of the potty quite yet.

Happy Mothers Day!

WE LOVE OUR MOMS!

For Grandma & Grandpa

birthday/birthday/aprilfools/easter

march/april call for lots of celebrations in this home.

first off was drew's 25th bday. decorations were put up, presents were given, and well received. drew requested sugar cookies for his bday instead of any sort of cake this year. he really really loves them. and because it always makes for a lot of cake when hai's bday is a week later. drew got some new cologne, new shorts, new environmentally friendly slip on shoes (welcome earth) and some dried mangos from costco.

second was hai's 25th bday. more decorations were put up and presents were given. hai got her first full body massage, some matching black leggings for her and mae, real simple subscription, big sexy hair spray, and some other things. hai requested the double fudge cake bites from a dessert shop the sweet tooth fairy. Drew decided they are his favorite dessert ever and best thing he has ever eaten. ever. drew also made cupcakes that turned out well

jonah is on laying on a spicy pink boppy. i know. so after having so many pink things from mae we had to buy a lot of new stuff that wasn't pink for jonah. drew, drew the line at the boppy.

hai tricked us all with a crazy april fools dinner. we had pink frosted cupcakes with juice for dinner! it really turned out to be a meatball like bottom with pink mash potatoes and jello in a cup. HA! it was pretty good, but both decided it was not very easy on the eyes to eat.

HAPPY EASTER everyone!

easter was pretty successful so far this morning. mae got some crayons and a coloring book from the easter bunny. she extemeley enjoyed the hunt for fruit snack filled eggs. hai did a great job doing these cute things for the kids.

cute pic of jonah and mae watching a little show.

mae does this every once in awhile. she just decides she is tired enough and takes a nap in her high chair.

cute pic of our baby boy.