We are sad to see the Olympics come to an end. We have been the ultimate fans, faithfully glued to the TV set every night. I even tried to follow some curling one afternoon, but I never caught on to the obscure rules. I should have looked it up cuz I hear it can be interesting if you understand it. :) I was completely looney for all of the figure skating. Did you know Evan Lysacek dated Tanith Belbin (4th in ice dancing)? Innnnteresting. Wasn't that Canadian ice dancing couple gorgeous?!? The American couple was stunning too, and how fun that they are all friends and got to win 1-2 together. As for the women... the whole thing had me in chills. The Canadian who lost her mom and yet bravely and beautifully won bronze... and the American women who were so young and yet so talented. Not to mention the perfect performances from the gold medalist... wow!!
I think part of the excitement of the Olympics is just knowing that it's on the world stage, and you are participating in something so much bigger than yourself. The talent, skill, courage, and determination of the athletes is truly inspiring.
Aaaaanyway, since I was being such a couch potato I decided I needed a project so I had something to show for it. I know a bunch of people having baby girls lately, so I brushed up on my flower making skills. No gold medal material here, but fun nonetheless!
I love this felt flower. I pinned it on my dress today for church. I think I am going to make some smaller ones for my girls' hair, and in the tutorial they have them embellishing pillows. How cute is that?!
Go here for the pattern!
Sheesh 4 years is a long time to wait. What will have happened by then? That's an interesting thought. I could have doubled my kid count and will be in my 30's (ahhhh!). Isn't it crazy to think most of the athletes peak in their early 20's? I am so past my prime! :)
Our friends Molly & Jason have a gorgeous family cabin in Midway, and they invited a group of us to come up for a weekend and relax sans children!!! It was the first time ever away from my kids overnight. I love them dearly, but it was long overdue! I am so thankful to my mom for coming to stay with them (Maddie was as excited about it as I was).
The entire trip was a dream... nothing could have been better. I loved seeing my Vegas friends again and we picked up right where we left off. Why do you always have to move right when you've made friends you want to keep for life? We felt like kids again, playing around-the-world ping pong, card games, stuffing our faces with junk food, and laughing until our sides hurt.
The outdoor activities were awesome. The first night we went tubing at Soldier Hollow in the dark. The next day some went skiing but Molly, Jason, Mike, and I went snow shoeing near Daniel's Summit. It was my first time and I loooooved it. It's definitely a good workout, and the day was sunny and gorgeous.
This is the trail we blazed up the mountain!
Up on top
Molly and I making snow angels
The best part of the whole trip was the master suite! They insisted we take it (since it was our first night away from the kids) and it was dreamy. Fireplace, jetted tub, king size bed... and best of all, sleeping in until 9:30 am. I don't remember the last time I slept that late.
As you can tell, I loved every minute. It was nice to spend time with Mike and see his social (read: crazy) side, and for him to see me carefree and fun again. Liberating... intoxicating... when are we going away next!?!?!?!
OK toenails really have nothing to do with it, but it rhymed.
Proudly announcing... Ella's first pig tails!!!
Ella's hair is so funny--she looks like and old man with a receding hairline on top, but the back is getting long. It's opposite of how Maddie's grew all on top at first. Go figure.
We tried some bows in it. She looks like such a big girl all of a sudden!
She really is getting to be a big girl. She and Maddie play together more lately, mostly because Ella has to be a part of anything fun going on. Like this silly video:
I have used some awesome recipes lately and decided to share them... who couldn't use a menu pick me up once in awhile? You can tell when I run out of good books to read... I blog about food in my spare time! (P.S. Sorry my fonts are all crazy... I pasted one thing and they went nuts.)
The first is from my go-to place for menu ideas. We loved this new recipe, thanks to Jane!
BISTRO CHICKEN
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used about 8 tenders)
- 1/2 cup chopped onions
- 14-oz can diced tomatoes
- Italian seasoning (or a few shakes of oregano, basil, parsley and garlic powder)
- 1 can Campbell’s French Onion soup (I finally found this in the Healthy Request section)
- Swiss cheese, sliced
Brown the chicken breasts in a medium-high skillet in oil or butter. Remove and place in casserole dish.
Cook onions in skillet for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, Italian seasoning, french onion soup and cook together to reduce liquid for 5 minutes. Pour sauce over chicken in the casserole dish, top with Swiss cheese and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Delicious served with garlic mashed potatoes.
The next one is from my sister-in-law, Rebecca from one of her favorite food blogs. These are a hit every time I make them, and have had many critics!
Honey Lime Enchiladas
6 Tbl honey
4.5 Tbl lime juice
1 Tbl chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 lb cooked chicken, shredded
flour tortillas
Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
10 oz. can green enchilada sauce
Mix the first 4 ingredients together and toss with shredded chicken. Pour a little enchilada sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish. Fill tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese. Pour the rest of the can of sauce over the top, and sprinkle with more cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Chicken Tortellini Soup
This one I got from my friend Jeanie, who got it from her friend Erica. Just trying to give credit where credit is due here... a recipe is rarely your own, right? I love twist on traditional chicken noodle soup. It's simple, healthy, and tasty.
1 cup carrots, sliced thinly
½ cup onion, chopped
½ cup celery, sliced thinly
1 cup chicken breast, cubed
6 cups of chicken broth (or water and bullion)
1 cup cheese filled tortellini (I actually use frozen ravioli)
½ tsp thyme
¼ tsp black pepper
Cook chicken. Bring broth to a boil; add carrots, onion, celery, and seasonings. Cover; simmer over med-low heat for 15 min. Cool. Add Chicken, pasta, and parsley. Heat over med heat for 15 min. or until pasta is cooked.
Speaking of Costco (in the last post), have you ever tried things from their cookbook? Dana let me borrow hers and I was super impressed! We tried this one and loved it.
Monte Cristo Sandwiches
8 slices bacon
4 eggs
1/4 c. milk
2 Tbl butter
Dash of nutmeg and pepper
8 slices soft bread
brown mustard
whole berry cranberry sauce
Havarti or other mild white cheese (we used Monterey Jack)
deli sliced ham, turkey, or both
maple syrup
Cook bacon. Beat eggs with milk, nutmeg, and pepper. Add 1 Tbl butter to the griddle, turn 4 slices of bread in egg batter and place on griddle. Turn bread after it browns. Spread mustard on 2 slices bread and top the other 2 slices with cranberry sauce. Add meat, cheese, and bread tops. Repeat process for other 2 sandwiches. Pour syrup over sandwiches or use as a dipping sauce. Delish!
The last recipe is dessert, of course. It's a favorite from my mom's kitchen growing up. They are so moist and cakey... and anything with 2 1/2 cubes of butter has got to be good.
Carrot Cookies with Orange Butter Glaze
2 cubes butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 c. cooked carrots
4 c. flour
Sift together dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar, add egg, vanilla, and carrots. Mix well. Add to dry ingredients and stir. Spoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.
She also finally learned to turn around and go down the stair by herself. This picture makes me laugh because Maddie took it! She was proud of Ella and grabbed the camera herself.
My Valentines were so snazzy all dressed up after church. The girls loved their balloons but noticed the lack of sugar... so they ate Daddy's.
It's kind of a dark picture but you can see the Valentine spread. We made our traditional heart pancakes for lunch and heart pizza for dinner. Mike gave me beautiful roses--and a Costco card!!! Funny story: Last V-day he went the Costco to buy me flowers and was told our membership was expired. It was a surprise to us because we were on my Dad's business membership. Thankfully, they let him buy the flowers anyway, knowing they were for his sweetheart! Well, a whole year has been void of Costco samples, pizza, and other goodies, unless we mooched off someone else. So it was fitting to get a new membership on Valentine's Day!
The best part of the day was surprise visits from both Grandma's! (and Grandpa Randy) They were both nearby and decided to drop in to say hello. Maddie was in heaven.
Sweet sister love... sometimes they really do love each other.
This is rather random but I also wanted to show off my good lookin' new pillow! It's not perfect, but it was made by your's truly. I was quite proud of myself. I have been wanting to add new colors to my living room and was excited to get this gorgeous fabric for $3 a yard.
And that's what been happening in this neck of the woods.
We have been crafting lots of Valentiney things! Maddie asks me every day while Ella is sleeping if we can make something together. I think we both love it. (For a few ideas check the Grow blog here.)
Maddie's Valentine of choice is Daddy, of course. He taught her how to slow dance to a favorite song (Josh Groban 'when you say you love me'... she sings it all the time).
A close rival is her buddy Carter, who just moved to Utah from Vegas too. Give Maddie a cupcake and she will love you for sure.
We had a little Valentine playdate with some other friends and the kids ate a whole bag of dum dum suckers! Needless to say, they had a little too much energy, so we were glad when they started playing duck duck goose outside.
The evidence.
Maddie loves the mailman, so I thought she would enjoy her own little mailbox for her Valentines. She put all the stickers on and is so excited that it's filling up!
The girls played together so well this afternoon. It's been awhile since they dressed up and Ella really got into it!
Twirl baby twirl!
She kept coming back for more. It was just too cute.
When I had to start dinner they followed me to the kitchen, and then to the back yard... Maddie has been working on planting 'carrots' in her 'garden.' Ella just likes to sample the dirt.
The best way to garden is in tutus and purple velvet fedoras. Don't you know?
We have been enjoying these balmy days outside. There is still snow in the shadows of our back yard and Ella ate it while Maddie made golf cart (and bum) tracks.
As for the 1,2,3 we have started working on numbers! Maddie knows most of them by sight, but we finished the uppercase alphabet, and the lowercase (26 more?!) seemed like a big project. Mike suggested we do numbers and maybe even start talking about math. Maddie loves the calculator and can recognize the plus and equals signs... so why not?
1 sister
Maddie wanted to play hopscotch and I thought it was a great opportunity to talk about numbers.
And we found some cheap magnetic numbers at the craft store. We'll have her reciting pi in no time! (I'm not even kidding... has anyone heard Mike do this out about 20 decimal places??? My kids have a chance at left brain thinking, thanks to my engineer husband. )
We were a little sad to hear that the groundhog saw his shadow, although we took it in stride and enjoyed the gorgeous sunny day by going on a walk with Auntie Dana and cousin Daxton! We may have 6 more weeks of winter, but it doesn't mean we can't enjoy the swings.
We got this little craft from library story time... I usually do things with Maddie while Ella is sleeping, but Ella is showing interest in coloring and being up at the table with us, so she 'made' one too! She loved it.
The groundhog comes out of his hole...
And gets scared by his shadow so he goes back in!
Last night after I sang to Maddie in bed, she wanted to know what we were going to do tomorrow (a stalling technique). She always wants to go through every step... eat breakfast, watch cartoons, play with the dollhouse (x100, honestly I could go with never hearing that again ;) , eat lunch, read books, take a nap, cook dinner, play with Daddy--at which point she exclaimed, "It's going to get dark AGAIN?" It made me laugh (with Groundhog's Day in mind) that yes, our days are pretty repetitive... almost so much so that they all seem about the same!
We are sad to see the Olympics come to an end. We have been the ultimate fans, faithfully glued to the TV set every night. I even tried to follow some curling one afternoon, but I never caught on to the obscure rules. I should have looked it up cuz I hear it can be interesting if you understand it. :) I was completely looney for all of the figure skating. Did you know Evan Lysacek dated Tanith Belbin (4th in ice dancing)? Innnnteresting. Wasn't that Canadian ice dancing couple gorgeous?!? The American couple was stunning too, and how fun that they are all friends and got to win 1-2 together. As for the women... the whole thing had me in chills. The Canadian who lost her mom and yet bravely and beautifully won bronze... and the American women who were so young and yet so talented. Not to mention the perfect performances from the gold medalist... wow!!
Go here for the pattern!
