Happy Birthday

Okay, here is the most updated picture I have of the house, but it is farther along than this. We will be moved in with in the next month. A huge thanks to everyone who has helped us with the house. There is no way we could have done this on our own. We are so thankful for good family and friends. We love you so much!

I know I am fizzing out on blogging ( it has been a while ) so here is a very brief overview of the birthday. We played in the water for Gracie's "party" -if you can call it that- and then headed out to a T-ball game. After the game we went to dinner, which ended with me and the kids sitting in the car since they forgot their manners while eating out. It was after nine before I finished "the cake." That is what I get for trying to be creative. (sigh) The idea was cute- flip flops for the summer birthday. Anyway, sweet Gracie I love you. We are so glad you are part of our family. Happy fifth birthday!

Just something cute

I loved these pictures. Like I was saying, Sander adores his dad. Where ever Evan is, Sander isn't too far behind.

I just thought these where some fun pictures of the kids. Wow- it is going to be exciting when Gracie gets a little older. Make-up, boys, hanging out with the girls. (sigh) Time sure goes fast.

Evan almost 30

I love this guy! Okay, so he did have a birthday last month, we all know I am a little bit behind, but I just wanted to show my sweet guy. For his birthday, they had a father and sons camp out, came home really early for Gracie's first T-ball game, and then slept for the rest of the day to make up for the lost sleep from the camp out. It was worth it right Ev?

The kids just love their dad. Sander is almost not even fun to deal with, because if Evan isn't around it is the end of the world and all happiness. He just doesn't understand why Evan has to go to work every day. HMMM...

We sure love you honey! Thank you for all you do for me and the kids. (oh, Happy Father's Day while we are at it! :) )

T-Ball Queen

Go Braves!! We signed Gracie up to play t-ball. Well, I just love watching these little ones learn to play. (at least learning in Gracie's case...some of these kids are really good) Baseball is the game to play in this town.

They have a sports parade for all the teams. Notice the amazing poster?? Yeah, that would be my super artistic over achiever neighbor, but hey she sure makes the kids look great. Nice work Susan!!.
I have to laugh. Gracie gets excited about her games, but no where near as excited as Sander. Notice him "joining" the team any chance he can get? He will wake up and start asking if Gracie has a game or not. Then he will tell Grace they need to go practice. This boy loves to play.

Grace in action. She has gotten to the point where she doesn't use a T any more. I think because Coach Phil thought it would be cool to have a team who didn't need the T. Fun times for all. Go Team!!

Food Storage Ideas

Sorry Janine, I thought I put this one a month ago, but I guess I forgot to publish it. Anyway, my ward has a blog site that has an emergency preparedness section. You can find it at riverviewward.blogspot.com. There are ideas to build up your food storage each month for about $5-10. There is also a three month food list and dinner ideas! I love that they gave us a menu to work off of, so you aren't left with a bunch of food you don't know what to do with.

A couple other meal ideas are

taco soup:
crushed or diced tomatoes ( whatever consistency you like )
corn
kidney beans ( we love the S&W brand of beans called Santa Fe mix they have beans and corn and such but the sauce is the best!! We buy as much as we can when it is on sale. )
taco seasoning- I don't put tons on- do it to your own taste.
IF you are making it now, put on chips, cheese, sour cream..you know the drill. But we buy a case of all of these to have in storage.

You can also buy the big cans of spaghetti sauce for pretty cheap (around $1) so I thought we might get a case just to have in storage and then stock up on noodles. If we were in an emergency, this would be a meal that would feel like you had eaten.

another meals we try to buy in cases is tomato pasta-

we like rainbow pasta
1-2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
cook your pasta, put in the sauce and tomatoes, and dice up some cheese and it will melt into the pasta.

In an emergency we probably wouldn't have the cheese but the pasta would still be good.

Of course I would say buy chocolate chips and store a bunch, because lets admit it: we could deal with anything as long as we could eat chocolate!! :)

We also have a bunch of oats, and stuff to make granola. Yum yum.
I hope some of these ideas work for you. I will keep looking for recipes made mostly from canned foods. Good luck!

Oh, another thing I like about the web site is, they give ideas on how to prepare your house like how to turn off your gas line and stuff like that. We have a FHE once a month and make sure we go through the list of things to know.