new world

For Christmas Chamberlain got this great stool from Grandma and Grandpa Chamberlain.

Its perfect for him to use at his bedside. We put lifts under his bed for added storage and sometimes when he jumps up onto the bed it moves and this stool is the perfect height for him to step right up.

However, its never on the side of his bed at the end of the night.

Usually Siri has lugged it around somewhere in the house using it to her advantage.

I have snapped a few make that a few to many pictures of her toting it around for her personal enjoyment.  

I think she has found a whole new world with the stool and all the possibilities it brings.

Trying to reach our valentines in the window of the back door. 

Notice the snow boot in the picture yep she had to take it off to balance on the stool.

She found she can reach the water on the fridge. 

 Trying to escape out the front door.

 And my personal favorite using it as a chair to drink her bottle.

 Its also a table.

 She likes to kick her feet up.

 Off she goes on her next adventure.

slc's The Leonardo

I won a giveaway on this blog here. 

I feel its been FOREVER since I won something.

It always feels good to win don't ya think.

I won 5 tickets to SLC's The Leonardo.

An awesome new hands on, creative, technology based museum.

Since 5 and under are free that means we would only use two tickets.

Lucky for us we had some family come into town at just the right time so we asked them to meet us there.

Score... all 9 of us got in for free.

We ended up spending nearly 3 hours there. 

I highly recommend it for children age's 5 and older.

The older 3 kids had a blast from one exhibit to the next.

They spent lots of time in the art room creating master pieces,

and acted like crazies in front of the green screen and motion sensor skeleton thing.

Overall I think it was a great afternoon and nice to catch up on our extended family's latest travels.

 Waiting for our cousins to arrive.

 The only picture I snapped of some of the kids and of course it was in a dark room.

Chamberlain walking with prosthesis. 

The White Stallion

I can't believe how warm of winter we have been having.

I personally am loving it.

I feel that I was not made for cold weather. 

However, in the back of my mind I know whats left to come, or what needs to come, for the farmers, our water table and for the Lake. 

We are currently a one and a half car family. 

Which at times can be a little hard, when we have had a snowy week and the kids and I have been cooped up inside our tiny abode without any way to get out and about, and release some energy at a play place of some sorts,

come the weekend we are stir CRAZY.

Well today is a nice and balmy 40 degrees with added sunshine for miles so Josh decided to scooter.

 That's right he is scootering to work and it is January 27th. 

Seriously where is the snow?!

 Because of the lack of snow Josh has been able to ride the scooter longer than he ever has. 

He usually retires "The White Stallion" (as he prefers to call) it in late November early December.

Granted he is wearing snow pants, a snow jacket, a scarf, a balacava, leather windproof gloves, and several layers underneath, along with his full helmet. 

He say's he stays pretty warm for the most part.

This is a record for us and I just thought we should document it.

So when we are old and retired we can laugh at the way we were, and the provisions we took to "get by."  I sure hope we get a really good laugh out of this one.  

I guess the perfect title for these pictures would be (or really how Josh sees it)

Black Knight on the White Stallion

Teriyaki Hawaiian Haystacks.

I was looking through the newspaper this morning and saw this add and thought that would be tasty for dinner...

and some how it turned into this 

(look below), which was just the beginning.

 I guess I was thinking something along the lines of Hawaiian Haystacks more than Pineapple Dragon Stir-Fry.

Which I'm sure Chamberlain would have LOVED to eat that, I mean what boy wouldn't want to eat something with the word dragon in it.  As for Siri she eats anything and everything we put in front of her minus noodles.

(Side Note: Every time I fix or eat or see Hawaiian Haystacks I am reminded of Bekka, a good teammate and friend of mine from UV.  I don't know why she made them, maybe for class or something but since then I always think of Bekka when Hawaiian Haystacks are involved.) 

So before I knew it, I had bundled up the kids and walked up to the creamery for pineapple,  then I thought mandarins would be good, and then I thought ginger, and the thoughts just kept coming and when my small cart was full I decided I'd better stop.  It might not all fit in the stroller for the walk home. 

I slow cooked the chicken with the pineapples, mandarins,  fresh ginger, and teriyaki sauce for about 5 hours and our house smelt soo good all afternoon.

I used brown rice with chicken stock instead of water for flavor and cut up all the fresh veggies and fruit that we had.

I timed it so that when Josh walked through the door we could eat within minutes and the meal would be nice and hot.

I think this was a definate win for us tonight. 

The kids ate everything off their plates and had so much fun making their own "Haystacks" even Siri liked scooping the diced up veggies and fruit and putting it on her plate. 

Here are the results

Warning: this is a very messy dinner choice. 

Just in case here is the recipe

Teriyaki Hawaiian Haystacks

(This recipe serves a large party so I used 1/4 of what the recipe calls for)

about  3 pounds of chicken (give or take a little bit)
15 oz. can mandarin oranges
15 oz. can pineapple tidbits
Freshly Grated Ginger to your liking.
Teryaki Sauce


Place chicken in crockpot. Poor the mandarin oranges and pineapple over chicken. Poor enough Teriyaki sauce to cover the chicken.  Turn crockpot to low and cook 8-10 hours. 

(I made a 1/4 of what the recipe calls for and only cooked the chicken for 5 hours on low and it turned out super tasty.) About an hour before serving, shred chicken and place back in crockpot.  Also at this time, combine equal parts of cornstarch and water in separate bowl (start with 2 Tbsp each) and add to crockpot.  Let thicken. 


Serve over cooked rice and top with things like:

mandarin oranges
pineapple tidbits
shredded cheddar cheese
chopped celery
green onion
sliced black olives
diced yellow and red peppers
small chow mein noodles
peas

Carrots 

Water Chestnuts

Tomatoes

Cucumber

Mushrooms

Broccoli
sliced almonds 

The possibilities are endless!

star wars.

Sunday afternoon just felt like a Star Wars kind of day, that and we couldn't agree on a movie to watch during Siri's nap.

It was a fun afternoon. 

Chamberlain sat so close between Josh and I and asked lots of questions. I think it helps that for Christmas from Grandma C. he got Star Wars legos. 

Josh prepped him like a doctor going into surgery.   He has been teaching him about Star Wars since like birth.

His eyes were wide open the entire movie not to miss a thing. 

When it was all said and done he ran to his room and came out wearing this.

He wanted to pretend he was a Storm Trooper like Luke Skywalker did.  Even though he made sure to tell me that he likes C3PO best. 

If you cant tell Josh is Darth Vader...or Dark Vader which Chamberlain kept calling him. 

 The above picture is Chamberlain favorite.

He likes how it looks like he cut off Josh's hand with his light saber that is blue not red.

Here is to the next few Sundays devoted to Star Wars.

And a constant asking to get a REAL light Saber.

Green Gator

Chamberlain asked Santa for a Green Gator for Christmas and he delivered. 

 I think this may be the best remote control car for a 5 year old.

Chamberlain has launched it down Ken and Sandi's hardwood steps about 10 of them, over all of Siri's dolls and much much more and so far it has survived without a scratch.

The Green Gator claims to be all-terrain and even floats and propels forward and backwards in water.

The weather man has been raving about this massive storm that's been approaching the Wasatch front. To be on the safe side I made Josh take the car and not the scooter to work.

So far all we have seen is rain but at least we know Josh is nice and warm having the car and not his scooter. 

For entertainment on these rainy days since we are car-less Chamberlain asked if we could fill the bathtub and try out the Green Gators waterproof moves. 

Success! 

Chamberlain was entertained for a good 2 hours in the tub with the Green Gator.

I think Santa definitely scored on this gift.

Its official

 The Postman was good to us this morning.

He delivered a large, white, envelope at our doorstep.

Josh officially GRADUATED from BYU.

I am so proud of him. 

He worked very hard,  made a lot of sacrifices and it paid off.

In a way I can't believe he is done. It feels like it went by so fast.

However, if I try to remember while we were going through it... I'm sure I didn't feel that way.

Way to go Josh!

It's really real. 

I can't wait to frame it and hang it up.

Its definitely worth wall space. 

It's a symbol of finishing something you started. 

It's a symbol of setting a goal and accomplishing it.

It's a symbol of how Josh can do hard things,

how we as a family can do hard things.

It's a symbol of moving forward and pushing yourself to do better.

I again, am so proud of you.

Here is the Graduate with two very good reasons to finish his education.

It's science...

Weekend Update.

One of my favorite weekends of the year came and went in a flash.

This year we spent time with both sets of Grandparents, went swimming, shopping with my mom, had Marshall stay with us for the weekend, and a baptism. 

I love when my dad has school board meetings the 2nd week in January previous post here and here

We had so much fun swimming with the Larsen's all day Friday, that we skipped Siri's nap.

As long as we were in the pool we were all smiles. 

I loved having pizza delivered poolside and just lounging around the pool such a great day.

I wish I had pictures of all the kids plus Tanner and Sage.

Later we met up with my in-laws at the Villas and played until late hours of the night.

Chamberlain was able to see a Baptism for the first time! We are so proud of Madison for making such a great choice. We were glad to be apart of her special day.

My only regret of the weekend was enjoying the weekend so much that I forgot to take pictures of all the fun things. 

These will have to do. 

At least we know Chamberlain is ready to go swimming with his goggles already on.

a cold morning snack

I felt this deserved a post of its own. 

Siri watched Chamberlain all morning in the snow. 

We were outside playing for about 2 hours when she caught on to eating the snow.

Chamberlain would take big scoops and shove it in his mouth.

Siri soon followed and ate snow until we went inside for the day. 

I think she liked it. I never got a smile out of her she just kept going back for more.

Of course we made sure it was clean snow. 

snowed.

Saturday we woke up to snow and Chamberlain was ready first thing in the morning to make a snow angel.

As for Siri I think she didn't know what to think. It was her first time as a walker in the snow and she was ever so curious. 

I have been enjoying the warmer sunny days we have been having but in the back of my mind still knowing those dreary, cold, wet, snowy days are ahead. I thought for sure those days of warmer weather were over. Nope we had a great snowy day on Saturday and back to warmer sunny days thus far. I like this kind of snow. However, I know its not good for the land and especially my beloved Lake Powell. I know the snowier the winter the better. But this year I am loving the scarce snow, and the more time we get to spend outside.

First Snow angel 2012. 

I believe she is wondering "what is all that white stuff."

So far she likes it and Chamberlain likes throwing snow balls at her.

Of course it wouldn't be complete without Josh dumping snow on Chamberlain.