Pink Cookies with Sprinkles

Cinnamon rolls...perfect for the weekend!

2012-01-27T14:00:00.008-07:00

YAY for the weekend!

Truly my favorite time of the week, where there are two days in a row that we get LOTS of family time together.

While most weekends are usually busy and running here and there,

or, Tracy and the boys are doing a scout campout,

there are those weekends that come around once in a blue moon,

where it's relaxing and we enjoy each and every bit of the morning time together...

Such was the case over the holidays!

I got up and made a batch of these

cinnamon rolls that come together SO quickly...

the aroma of the baking yummyness awakened my family

and we enjoyed a morning brunch of

Cinnamon Rolls, boiled eggs, fresh fruit and milk/juice.

It was truly a picture PERFECT morning!

(I originally got this recipe 16 years ago

from my sweet friend Marie that I used to work with)

The yummy thing about these Cinnamon Rolls is they taste like

"Maple Bars"

that you get at the bakery, because I add in Maple flavoring to the frosting.

Cinnamon Rolls
1-1/2 cups warm water
3 Tablespoons yeast
1/3 cup oil (I use canola oil)
1/3 cup sugar
Mix these ingredients and let stand for 15 minutes

Add the following ingredients to the above mixture
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
5-1/4 cups flour
2 beaten eggs

Roll dough ½ inch thick (on floured surface) and
spread with butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
(You can also put raisins and nuts if you want...the raisins make them SO good!)
Roll up like a jelly roll and cut into slices.
Place on a greased cookie sheet and
let rise until doubled (about 1 hour)
Bake in 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. (until lightly browned)

Frost with maple/cream cheese frosting.
After frosting, I then pull my cinnamon rolls out of the pan and let them cool on wire racks so they aren't too "doughy"

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup REAL butter
4 (oz) cream cheese
1-2 capfuls Mapleine Extract
2 cups powdered sugar
Beat together butter, cream cheese and maple extract until light and fluffy.
Gradually add in powdered sugar, beating until smooth.

Enjoy adding a little bit of FUN

to weekend breakfasts with your family!

Family...good food...time spent together...

truly life's precious treasures!

Bedroom turned into TV room...

2012-01-24T18:00:00.005-07:00

WOW, it feels good to type again.

My year started off with a whirlwind of events (good things mind you) that I am having a hard time getting my thoughts together to blog about,

SO, I will blog about something that is easy and is mostly photos as I received an email this week from Tracy's aunt, asking if I would send her photos of how we turned a large-ish (12x14) bedroom into our TV/media room.

Little bit of background...

we live in a 3000 square foot home, with 1500 of it as a full UNFINISHED basement. There are 3 bedrooms on the main level, but there is no ideal space to have a TV viewing area (we don't want a TV in our kitchen/dining area competing for family time around the dinner table).

For years we have been enamored with simplifying our lives

and trying to pare our life down and really connecting with "Cozy spaces".

So, when we installed our hardwood floor in 2010, we asked the kids if they would be okay if we took the larger bedroom and turned it into our TV room and they would share the smaller bedroom so it would keep us from spending money to finish a TV watching area in the basement.

They were thrilled with the idea and we

LOVE that we have everything we need on the main level

(except food storage/camping holiday storage which is in the basement).

Our TV room is cozy,

has a full sectional, leather chair, computer desk area for Tracy's computer needs (when he's not sitting in a comfy chair with his iPad) and we took the closet and installed shelves to hold DVD's and games. We purchased a heater that fits perfect in one corner, so we can go in and close the door, turn on the heater and have a nice and toasty area to enjoy watching movies together as a family. (since we keep the thermostat set at 62 degrees for our house, it is nice to have a small room to be able to close the door and be warm, without heating up the whole house).

We also have wall sconces that Tracy installed so we have perfect "mood light"!

It is SUCH a perfect use of space...

not too big, not too small, but just right!

Here are photos of the finished TV room

AND photos of the kids room.

(we still need to get things hung on the wall, but we are enjoying it just the way it is at the moment)

TV/Media room

Kids Bedroom...

Progress is good...
It feels good to make headway on home improvement projects...it will be a glorious day when we finally get the rest of our house finished with new tiles in the laundry room/bathrooms, painted walls, freshly painted kitchen cabinets, baseboards reattached and painted and lots of trim work and built-in shelves.

Until then, I will enjoy what improvements we have done!

Fridays Forgotten Moments in Time...

2012-01-06T22:00:00.015-07:00

SO, I had a busy year in 2011
and there are several events that I never quite had the time to go through the photos and do a blog post about them and SO for the next few weeks, I am going to have Friday be my "ketchup" posts, which I am going to title:
"Friday's Forgotten Moments in Time".

Our Month of December
was a truly joyous month with of the favorite highlights...
that of getting the mail and excited to see whom we got Christmas cards from that day.

It was also full of sparkling Christmas Decor,
excited kids as they counted money and rolled it up so they could go and buy little gifts,
visits from many close friends and neighbors,
singing Christmas Carols,
delivering holiday goodie boxes,
the smell of cinnamon in our house all month long
as we made Cinnamon Almonds, Gingersnaps and Gumdrop Bread.

There were
holiday parties, school Christmas programs,
Nativity re-enactments, getting to play with cousins,
plates of yummy holiday treats,
bowls of fresh fruit, frost covered car windows,
LOTS of family time
playing with remote control helicopters,

snuggling on our big sectional sofa watching movies,

working on projects,
AND, last but not least,
the excitement of teenagers
getting new "stitching jeans"!
(that's what Jade calls the jeans that have the thick stitches of thread around the pockets and down the sides of the jeans...He can't stop looking in the mirror when he is wearing them as he is thrilled to finally have a pair of them! BTW...they're not the $120 ones :-) )

It was a wonderful month indeed.
Here is our month in photos!

While we had many things that made us smile this month,

if I were to think of one particular moment that brought a SMILE to all of our faces, that we kept talking about all afternoon long, it would have been the day we opened up this Chrstmas card with Halloween faces on one side and Formal dress on the other.

Ethan had to keep turning the card over and looking at it in close detail.
He thought that was the COOLEST card he had ever seen!

(BTW, Jennifer if you can't tell, we LOVE the card and it was at the top of our favorites)

Tracy commented over and over
how AWESOME it is when people have a sense of humor.

I made a copy of both sides of the photo so I can have them both showing in my card display in my entry when I take down last years photos and put up this years photos.

It was a HAPPY, JOYFUL month indeed...

sad that it's over,

but looking forward to the adventures and FUN

that 2012 has to offer!

Healthy, Frugal New Year!

2012-01-04T12:00:00.025-07:00

I can't believe "Twenty-twelve" is here.

It seems like just yesterday that we were decking the house with Christmas decor!
While I love all of the yummy, decadent food that comes with the holidays, there comes a point where you are finally craving to be back to normal life and eating simple, nourishing meals.

Although I didn't plan it this way, our New Year started out not only being frugal, but healthy.

As I was cleaning out our pantry I came across some random bags of black beans and white beans and so I soaked them overnight and cooked them until tender.

I also pulled out the UGLY, gross looking ham bone from my freezer that was leftover from my mom's Christmas party dinner and made up a delicious pot of Ham and Bean Chowder.

WOW, such a delicious pot of bean soup, that left my hubby and kids begging
to dish up some of the leftovers
so they could take a bowl of these in their lunch for the first day back to work/school after the holidays.

We also enjoyed a simple treat

of homemade Gingersnaps.

I decided to post the recipes again...(original posts here and here)

Ginger Snaps (one of Jade's favorite cookies)
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup REAL butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup molasses
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1-1/2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons soda
3-1/2 cups flour

Cream together sugar and butter.
Add eggs.
Next add molasses, salt and soda and mix well.
Then add flour, and spices.
Refrigerate at least one hour.

Roll into balls and then roll balls in sugar.
Bake 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until crackly on the top.
Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire baking rack.

Enjoy!

Ham and Bean Chowder

2 cups dried Great Northern beans (OR, whatever dried beans you have)
1 meaty ham bone (OR, 1 cup chopped ham)
2 Tbsp melted butter
2 chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
3 cloves minced garlic
2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth (OR 2 bouillon cubes in 2 cups water)
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 whole clove
salt/pepper

Soak 2 cups of beans overnight—
drain off water and add fresh water and cook until tender. Drain off water.

Then melt 2 Tbsp. butter in sauce pan and add:
Onion, celery and garlic and sautée until tender…
Then add cooked beans, ham bone, water, broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, clove and salt/pepper.

Bring to a boil, Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours (stirring occasionally).
Remove ham bone, bay leaf and clove. (also remove meat from ham bone, cut into small pieces and add back to soup).

This is very frugal soup that is absolutely delicious!
It is yummy served with homemade bread

and garnished with a dollop of
our family's favorite...COTTAGE CHEESE.

Enjoy a healthy, frugal 2012,

putting your dried beans to use to make

a nourishing pot of soup for your family!

I hope you find out as well,

that this is absolutely delicious!

(and don't forget about the cookies...

they are yummo for the tummo delicious)

Our New Years Day was Hot & Delicious!

2012-01-03T18:00:00.003-07:00

YES, that blog title is correct...

Our New Years Day 2012 was definitely

HOT and DELICIOUS...

What I'm referring to is our delicious lunch that consisted of our yearly tradition of
"Hot Artichoke & Crab Dip",

served with homemade grape juice, orange slices, Artisan Bread and Tortilla Chips.

I can't comment enough how absolutely yummy this dip is...

and it is definitely addictive...once you start eating, it is hard to pull yourself away from it.

Very easy to throw together

and is the perfect appetizer for

holiday get-togethers,

Football Parties, OR,

ANY other get-together

that you need something yummy

to dip chips, crackers and Artisan Bread in.

Hot Artichoke & Crab Dip

2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. flour
2/3 cup milk
1 (8 oz) package Neufchatel Cream Cheese
1/2 medium onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves finely crushed
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
1 (14 oz) can marinated artichoke hearts (drained and chopped)
8 oz. crab meat
1 cup freshly grated Romano, OR, Parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp. black pepper

First make white sauce by melting butter in saucepan, then add in flour and blend to make a paste.
Next whisk in milk (with wire whisk) and stir over medium heat until thickened.
Then add in cream cheese in small pieces and stir until melted.
Next add in chopped onions and garlic, green chilies and artichoke hearts (I bring it to a boil)
Last, gently fold in crab meat, grated cheese and black pepper and heat through.

Spoon mixture into a 1-1/2 quart baking dish and
bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes until bubbly and lightly browned on top.

Serve with tortilla chips, crackers or Artisan Bread.

This is also great served with fresh fruit on the side.

Absolutely delicious!

(Artisan Bread recipe...here)

Enjoy!

Happy 2012 to all of my wonderful family and friends!!
My holidays always seem to put me MIA in Blog-land; mostly because my dear, sweet, awesome hubby usually has good intentions of rebuilding my computer, or upgrading it this time of the year, and it usually gets unhooked and it takes a few weeks before it all gets put back together, as he always seems to have a never ending list of tasks and projects he is working on!

Happy to be back blogging

and can't wait to reconnect with everyone!
Hope this finds you having a happy and joyful day!

Two Favorite Traditions at our House...

2011-12-16T16:00:00.014-07:00

"The merry family gatherings - the old, the very young; the strangely lovely way they harmonize in carols sung.
For Christmas is tradition time - traditions that recall the precious memories down the years, the sameness of them all".

- Helen Lowrie Marshall

Christmas is such a joyful time!
I am amazed every time, when I pull out my Christmas boxes, the wonderful memories that flood into my mind from yesteryear... memories, that I hadn't thought about all year, until I saw or smelled something from our Christmas boxes.

Such is the case for these ornaments.

My Grandfather lost his wife my Grandma Laura when I was eight years old and shortly after she died, he remarried a wonderful lady named Ruth. We called her Grandma Ruth.

She was VERY Victorian in her decor

and these ornaments remind me of going to her house and seeing similar things at her house.

She also LOVED my Christmas Croissants and was SO excited when we would visit during the holidays and bring this tasty treat. She LOVED them and always asked me about how I made them, wanted the recipe, etc..

Clam Chowder and Croissants...
that's what you'll find us dishing up to eat on Christmas Eve at our house.

WARNING...
Christmas traditions and treats at our house are usually pretty decadent and not very frugal, but they are only enjoyed during the holidays and the holidays wouldn't be the same without them.

So, this is the one time of the year that we splurge on goodies and calories!

With a little bit of work and planning
you can ENJOY some flaky, delicious croissants at YOUR house during the holidays!

They are worth all of the work it takes to make them!
(Recipes below the instruction photos)

NOW,
for rolling out and baking them...

Croissants (we eat these every Christmas eve with Clam Chowder)
1-1/2 cups butter
1/3 cup flour
2 tbsp. Yeast
½ cup warm water
¾ cup milk
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 ¼ to 4 ¼ cups flour
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk

Cream butter with 1/3 cup flour. Roll mixture between two sheets of waxed paper into a 12x16 inch rectangle. Chill at least 1 hour.

Soften yeast in warm water. Heat ¾ cup milk, sugar, and salt until sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm, turn into large mixing bowl.

Add softened yeast and 1 egg. Beat well.

Stir in 2 cups of the flour. Beat well. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can mix with a spoon. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough. Continue kneading til smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes). Let rest 10 minutes.

Roll into a 14 inch square. Place “chilled” butter on one half of dough fold over other half and seal edges. Roll into a 21 x 12 inch rectangle. Seal edges. Fold in thirds. Roll into a 21 x 12 inch rectangle. Fold and roll twice more: seal edges. Chill after each rolling.

Fold in thirds to 12 x7 inches. Chill several hours or overnight.

Cut dough crosswise in fourths. Roll each fourth into a 12 inch circle. Cut into 12 wedges. Roll up each edge loosely starting from wide edge. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; point down, curve ends.
Cover, let rise until double. (30 to 45 minutes).
Beat egg with 1 Tablespoon milk. Brush on tops.
Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Clam Chowder
2 (6 ½ oz.) cans minced clams
1 large onion finely chopped (I sometimes put in 2 chopped onions)
4 large diced potatoes

3 carrots diced
3 stalks celery chopped
1/4 cup butter
¾ cup flour
1 quart half & half cream
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Drain juice off clams and pour over vegetables in medium saucepan.
Add enough water to barely cover veggies and simmer in covered pan until veggies are tender. (about 20-25 minutes).
In the meantime, melt butter. Add flour , blend and cook for 1 minute. Add cream and cook. Stir until smooth and thick.
Add un-drained vegetables and clams. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper.

(it even tastes better if you cook this up the day before as it tastes better the second day after the flavors have seasoned)

I enjoy SO much the traditions that come

with this most wonderful time of the year!
I've got my butter and flour rolled between waxed paper, chilling,

ready to be made into yummy croissant dough tomorrow.

Hope this finds all of you enjoying

the wonderful traditions of your families

and savoring and cherishing the

"Merry Family Gatherings"

that are abundant during this
happy and joyful month of December!

'Tis the Season for Holiday Goodies!!

2011-12-14T20:00:00.006-07:00

'Tis the season for one of my favorite activities...

making my home smell delicious by making

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds and Caramels.

I just LOVE going to the mall during the holidays
and smelling the aroma of the Cinnamon Roasted Almonds.

It is heavenly and something that I never tire of.

11 years ago we had a family event and Mrs. Taylor brought a bowl of homemade cinnamon almonds and I loved and ranted and raved so much about them that a week later I got a sweet letter in the mail from her with the recipe.
Isn't it wonderful when people share recipes!!

*************************

I have been making them ever since
and Christmas wouldn't be the same if family and friends didn't receive this yummyness from our family.
I don't know how many people tell me that this is what they look forward to all Christmas more than anything else is these boxes of goodies.
Some parents have been known to take the boxes from the kids
and then eat them after the kids have gone to bed.

Usually, I fill boxes with almonds and homemade
Vanilla and GRINCH caramels (caramel recipe here)

HOWEVER, this year, I embarked on a new adventure
of hand dipping chocolates!
WOW, lots of work, but SO worth it!
Despite my deformed hands that can't quite work the chocolate perfect,
things turned out wonderful and what matters most is that they
TASTE so good!
(someday, they'll be perfectly pretty looking as well!)

As long as you have a candy thermometer, almonds, cinnamon, sugar, water, salt and vanilla...
it's as easy as 1, 2, 3...

ANYONE can make up this yummy treat
and the aroma that will fill your house will make you feel like you are out Christmas Shopping at the mall!

(only you don't have to deal with the hassle of large crowds of people)

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

Roast 3 cups of whole almonds in a 350* oven for 15 minutes,

stirring every 5 minutes (so they don’t burn).

Pour almonds into a large metal bowl to cool.

Mix together:

1 cup sugar

½ cup water

2 teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

Bring ingredients to a boil and stir occasionally until soft ball stage.

Remove from heat and add in 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

Pour mixture on the roasted almonds and stir until set and starts to turn white.

Put on wax paper to cool.
Break apart.

Enjoy!!

Happy Holiday treat making!

Go spread some holiday cheer

to neighbors, family & friends...

this is something that is sure to impress,

be a hit and best of all it is so EASY to make!

Christmas came early this year...

2011-12-13T06:00:00.002-07:00

(Tracy's Christmas mouse he's had since childhood....Isn't he SO CUTE? Sad that this was the last photo he would ever be a part of...we sent him on this year as the moths had been a little too harsh on him over the past four decades)

"Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself..."
~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976

I feel blessed beyond measure with true and wonderful friendships!
I have been SPOILED so much...
Christmas came early this year for me, with meeting wonderful blog friends, unexpected gifts in the mail and friends that took time out of their day to let me come and spend time with them in their kitchen.
I was hoping to have this blogged about last Tuesday, December 6th, but I have had non-stop obligations the past week. Grateful that life is finally slowing down a little.

In order of occurrence, here are photos from my past few weeks of my wonderful Christmas I have had!

My sweet friend Jennifro (here)
mailed me a gift for no reason at all, other than to say
"one good turn deserves another...thought you could enjoy this cookbook"!
YES, I have always loved "The Pioneer Woman cookbook", but never wanted to spend the money on it
I'm SO excited to try some yummy new recipes, like Sour Cream Pancakes, Cowboy Calzones, Chicken Fried Steak and many others.
The day this package arrived it was a nice afternoon full of LOTS of sunshine and blue skies, but, then the grey skies set in and it was dark and dreary and I kept saying to myself
"I miss the sunshine"!
Who would have known that sunshine would arrive later that afternoon in the form of a book, in the form of simple, sweet acts of kindness from a friend who lives clear across the country!
I am RICH in friendships for sure!!

I don't think I have ever been more excited

to meet a blogging friend than Connie (here)

It truly was the highlight of my December
getting to meet this amazing woman!
Out of all of the wonderful women that I know in the blogging world she has been the one that has inspired me the most.

She possesses all of those homemaker skills that I would love to have and be better at AND she has such a wonderful way with words and the best sense of humor.
Her daughter Camille was marrying a man from Rexburg and we got an invitation to the wedding reception.
JOY is what I experienced getting to meet her and her wonderful husband Andy.
It was such a great time and we enjoyed great conversations.
She is SO NICE!!

My little Ethan Kip just LOVED Connie SO much, that all night long
(and for most of the day on Saturday), he kept saying
"Connie is amazing! I really wish she could be my grandma. I know that I already have 2 grandmas, but I wish that Connie could be one of them as well. I really hope we get to meet her again.
Did you know that she is just awesome"!

I can't believe what she sent us home with...

a jar of Grape Juice, Grape Jelly and Apricot Preserves!
I made up a batch of Buttermilk Biscuits (here)

and we opened up the Apricot preserves and we were in absolute HEAVEN!!
My kids commented over and over that they haven't had better Apricot jam/preserves!

Saturday, December 3rd,
we were busy trimming our house for Christmas and so it was late when we got the mail and there was a Walmart bag tied to our mail box with a package in it.
It was from my sweet friend Ann Marie (here)
Oh my goodness, the beauty that the box held, Stitched Christmas art, glitter butterflies, a heartfelt note and it was all wrapped in the the most awesome white paper with glitter polka dots that I have ever seen!!
It was one of those HAPPY moments
to know that someone out there was thinking of me!
I can't believe how spoiled I am!!

THE WONDERFUL TAUNA!

(who has a gorgeous smile that brightens anyone's day!)

And then there is this WONDERFUL friend Tauna (here)
I have been the recipient of her chocolates on many an occasion and she just dropped us off a bag of chocolate covered cinnamon bears for Halloween and they were better than ANY chocolate covered cinnamon bears you can purchase at the store.
So, I thought I would just ask her if she would let me a know a good place to purchase chocolate AND if she could email me with instructions how you "dip" cinnamon bears because I have tried and had no such luck.
Not only did she order chocolate for me (as well as toasted coconut),
she took an afternoon
on one of her precious afternoons off and showed me all of the tricks of the trade
to making HAND DIPPED chocolates!
She is truly AMAZING to watch her mix and work the chocolate.
Hopefully, someday I can be half as skilled as she is with my hands, when I work with the chocolate!!
AND I love her cute cozy kitchen...it is PERFECT!!

She used her chocolate for us to dip

(she wanted me to save my block for chocolate dipping at my house...truly an extra miler)

and then she had orange and peppermint fondant for us to dip, we dipped cinnamon bears, we dipped some caramels AND we made some HAYSTACKS!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU

for the gift of time that you gave to me TAUNA.

I appreciate it more than you'll ever know!

(Happy to say, I finally put my large 10 pound block of chocolate to use, by dipping 5 pounds of Cinnamon Santas, caramels, a pound of Orange Slices and made another bunch of Haystacks...NOW to just have the time to put my boxes of goodies together to deliver to friends, neighbors and family)

All I can say, is WOW,

I have some of the worlds most amazing friends and

they are women that have inspired me greatly in my life

AND women that I know because of the wonderful world of blogging!

Here's to friendship!!

(hoping I can be half as great of a friend to them as they have been to me!)

It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas!

2011-12-06T06:00:00.004-07:00

I can't believe how fast the month is just flying by...

here we are 6 days into the month of December and before we know it Christmas will be here!

When I think of a favorite flavor of Christmas time, it is that of

Peppermint, Cinnamon and Oranges!

As I was shopping in November,

I noticed these fun Andes Peppermint baking chips.

I instantly thought of Tracy and Jade who love MINT anything.

Jade loves mint tea, mint gum and loves to take candy canes and break them into his hot chocolate.

Tracy's FAVORITE ice cream is "Mint Chocolate Chip"...every time we go to an ice cream shoppe, I can always count on him to pick out that flavor.

SO, I took my Double Chocolate Cookie dough recipe and made it up,

replaced 1/2 of the chocolate chips for Peppermint chips

and these were MORE than a hit with my family

(I had to make another batch the next day)

AND they are also SO yummy and FESTIVE for the Christmas Holidays!

If you need a quick recipe to make up to bring to a

party or a cookie exchange,

these are easy and definitely a very big HIT

with the perfect amount of chocolate and mint!

Peppermint Chocolate Cookies

(cream together)

1 cube REAL butter (1 cube of butter equals 1/2 cup)

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

(then add in)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips

Roll into balls and bake 350 degree oven for 14 minutes or until no longer doughy.

Remove from oven and as you pull them off the cookie sheets and put them to cool "smash" the cookies down with your spatula. Let cool on wire racks.

Enjoy!

Make some for your family today and it will have you singing...

"It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas..."

at your house as well!

Happy Holiday Baking!

One more Taste of Fall Recipe!

2011-11-30T15:30:00.005-07:00

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes!

So, if you are still have leftover pumpkin, OR, squash puree

(OR you have bags of puree in your freezer)

and you want a quick and easy sweet treat that is the perfect amount of spice,
is very moist

uses basic food storage ingredients,

is topped with delicious cream cheese frosting

AND makes a batch of 24 cupcakes, this is a great recipe to make up.
(perfect to make up even at Christmas as the flavor reminds me of Spice Cake or Gingerbread)

It's delicious for an afternoon snack for kids,

perfect to send in your families lunches,

OR, to enjoy a "taste of fall" (OR, Christmas)
anytime of the year.

Easy, Delicious and Amazing!!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

1 cup pumpkin/squash puree

1/2 cup buttermilk

(mix together buttermilk and squash puree in a bowl and set aside)

1 cube butter

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 large eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

2 cups unbleached flour

Beat together butter, sugars and vanilla for one minute until fluffy.

Then add in eggs (one at a time) scraping down bowl as needed

Then add in salt, baking powder/soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and mix well.

Then add in flour alternating with buttermilk/squash mixture until well combined.

Spoon batter into 24 muffin tins (lined with baking cups).

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes, OR, until toothpick inserted in comes out clean

Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes.

Remove cupcakes from tins and let cool one hour

Frost with cream cheese frosting and ENJOY!

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup REAL butter

4 (oz) cream cheese

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Beat together butter, cream cheese and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Gradually add in powdered sugar, beating until smooth.

Enjoy a "Taste of Fall" all year long...

as long as you have pumpkin puree in your freezer

you can ALWAYS make these up to enjoy...

and take my kids word for them,

"they are absolutely delicious"!

Five Wonderful Days...

2011-11-29T16:00:00.016-07:00

Thanksgiving 2011 was a wonderful time

(although I had to work both the day before and day after Thanksgiving)

Tracy and the boys had five wonderful days off in a row together.

I LOVED knowing that my boys got to have a few days of "one on one" with Tracy. Dad's work SO hard providing for the the family, that sometimes they don't get as much one on one with the kids...

I love when these moments come around as my sweet Ethan, LOVES following Tracy everywhere, including the attic (where they spent hours pulling wires for our new lights Tracy installed this past weekend).

Tracy and Ethan are the BEST of friends!

It was SO priceless that Ethan kept asking

"Are we going to go up to the attic again"...

he loved the adventure of that SO much!

Here are some photos from our wonderful five days we had together as a family...

Morning Twilight...my favorite time of the day!
It was such a treat to be able to enjoy the morning sun rising over the hilltops. This time of the year I rarely get to enjoy it as I leave for work at 6:30 and it is still dark.

As I was baking in my kitchen on Thanksgiving morn

I kept looking out the window and enjoying the spectacular view of the hilltops being lit up by the morning sun!

Our yearly tradition of the Thanksgiving Choir Program

at the Historic Tabernacle in Rexburg.

I LOVE this tradition...the music just feeds my soul and it is such wonderful thing to be with community members and running into people you haven't seen in awhile.

I also love snuggling on the bench with the love of my life Tracy and seeing the excitement of my boys as they enjoy the program, especially this year, when the choir sang "Grandma's Feather Bed" and people were playing the wash board, spoons and the jug! We had lots of great laughs and were once again AMAZED with all of the musical talent we have in our area.

I had SUCH a wonderful morning
doing what I love to do best...BAKING!

2 batches of rolls,

2 coconut cream pies, Lemon Meringue pie

and Pumpkin cookies!
People have told me I should open a Cafe or bakery and as tempting as that may be, it would take a hobby and make WORK of it and so I'll just stick to baking for fun!

Needless to say, I enjoyed my morning greatly.

This shows we still have little kids in the family...

LOVE the cute little pilgrims that Lisa and her kids colored.

Holidays wouldn't be as fun without the LITTLE ONES that bring SO much joy to all of our lives!

LET THE FUN BEGIN...

We bought new light fixtures last year

when we installed our hardwood floor,

but we barely got our life semi put back together before last Thanksgiving...

and then the busyness of the holidays came and one day rolled into the next and here we were a year later with lights that we still hadn't installed.

SO, since Tracy had to install 3 different lights and make NEW holes in the ceiling and run wire/power to them, he hasn't been too motivated to start on the project...

This is what having 4 days off in a row together is like...

you actually get to make PROGRESS on home improvement projects.

7 new halogen track lights,

New Chandelier over the dining room table

New Ceiling fan over by the parlor stove

AND 2 art glass pendants above our bar in the kitchen.
LOVE how they all turned out.
Along with installing lights, we also hung some things on our walls.
(it's going to be the most exciting day of all, when our brassy kitchen cabinets
have new knobs, hinges and a fresh coat of Beach Sand paint)

This is the glow I woke up to Monday morning...

LOVE how things are coming together in our home.

Someday, it will all be finished...for now I will enjoy what I have, which is WONDERFUL!

We have all been dealing with a
really bad cold and sore throats.

Thank goodness for an awesome dad that takes a chicken carcass, boils it up with LOTS of onions, garlic and garden veggies and Cayenne Pepper and makes the yummiest, nutritious soup for us to enjoy to help us ward off the cough and flu season.
Soup is truly comfort food indeed!

We have also gone through
over nine pounds of limes/lemons

and 1-1/2 large jars of honey, making up mugs of our honey and lemon tea to soothe our throats and to give our bodies a boost of LOTS of Vitamin C.

I think we are now all finally on the mend!
YAY!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"!

SO happy to say that at least one area of my house has

had the magical touch of Christmas Cheer...

I love the centerpiece for our dining room table...

the Christmas balls in my lime green jar are GORGEOUS, festive and give off such a warm glow in the afternoon sunshine!
Looking forward to getting the rest of my house decorated

and for all of the FUN and TRADITIONS

that the month of December brings!
***************
(Christmas Cards, clam chowder, spiced cider, croissants, our home filled with Christmas music, the excitement of kids as they notice new gifts wrapped under the tree, gumdrop bread, cinnamon almonds, Grinch caramels, crab and artichoke dip, Caroling, Christmas parties, Christmas Omelets, enjoying BOXES of oranges/clementines, reading Christmas books, playing "Secret Santa", watching ELF and other family favorite holiday films, and the list goes on...)

What's on the menu for Turkey Day!

2011-11-21T06:00:00.012-07:00

I can't believe it is Thanksgiving week!

I feel like November just flew on by!

Thanksgiving dinner is always enjoyed at parents or siblings house on Tracy's side of the family. However, I like to always do our own Thanksgiving dinner for just the four of us the weekend before Thanksgiving, usually because I have a turkey in the freezer from last year, that I need to get cooked up so I can purchase more turkey that is on sale.

I thought I would share our recipes that we make up for Thanksgiving dinner...

here are recipes that I use for

Classic Stuffing, Baked Yams, Cranberry Relish,

California Fruit Salad and Lion House Rolls,

(PLUS, links to my pie recipes)

Classic Bread Stuffing!

Classic Stuffing...very moist and delicious

(This is my moms recipe from her Grandma Ussing...the only change I have added is the dried cherries and walnuts and I cut the butter down by half)

1 loaf of French Bread, sliced, cut into cubes and let sit 1-2 days

(here for my French Bread recipe)

After bread crumbs have dried

(season bread crumbs well with)
2 heaping Tbsp. of Sage

1 heaping Tbsp. Poultry Seasoning

1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

Cook 1 cup of rice in 2 cups of boiling water 20-30 minutes until tender

Sautee together until very tender

2 Tbsp. butter

1-2 onions finely chopped

4 stalks chopped celery

In large metal bowl pour the cooked onions/celery over the seasoned bread crumbs

Add rice and stir well

(optional... we add in 1 cup dried cherries and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts)

Then add 3-4 cups chicken broth (start with 3 cups and if it seems like it needs more, add more in 1/4 cup at a time)

Put in greased casserole dish

Pour 2 Tbsp. melted butter over the top

Cover and bake at 350 for about 60-75 minutes

Enjoy!

California Fruit Salad!

California Fruit Salad
(this is Tracy's moms recipe)
2 cups miniature marshmallows (colored OR plain)
1 can pineapple chunks
1 cup FRESH orange sections (or you can use 1 can mandarin oranges)
1 pomegranate peeled and seeded (the pomegranate makes it so yummy!)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup coconut
(chopped nuts optional)

Mix all ingredients together—let chill for at least 1 hour. Enjoy!

(this is a Smith Family Turkey-day tradition)

Fresh Cranberry Relish

(from the back of the cranberry bag)

1 (12 oz) bag fresh cranberries

1 orange, peeled and sliced

blend together and then add in

3/4 cup sugar

Blend again

Chill until ready to serve.

This is SO yummy served on top of Turkey

Leftovers are also yummy served with cream cheese and crackers.

Baked Yams!

Baked Yams

1-2 large sweet potatoes peeled and chopped

3 apples peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 heaping Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp. butter

(sprinkle on about 1/4 cup water)

Cover with foil and bake at 350 about 1 hour until tender.

Lion House Rolls!

Lion House Rolls
Ingredients:
2 cups HOT tap water
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder (instant)
2 Tbsp dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter melted
1 egg
5-5 1/2 cups flour (unbleached flour)

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the water and the milk powder and stir so the milk dissolves.
Add the yeast to this mixture then the sugar, salt, butter, egg and 2 cups of the flour.
Mix on low speed of mixer until ingredients are wet, then turn to medium speed and mix for 2 minutes.
Stop the mixer and add 2 more cups of flour then mix on low speed until the ingredients are wet, then turn mixer on medium speed and mix for 2 minutes.
Add in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until you get a nice soft dough...The dough should be soft, not overly sticky, and not stiff.
Put the dough in a large metal bowl with 1 tbsp of olive oil and coat the dough well. (This helps prevent the dough from drying out.)
Cover bowl and allow to rise in a warm place until double in size.

Sprinkle a cutting board or counter with flour and put the dough on the flour. It is now ready to roll out and cut into desired shape and size of rolls.
Place on greased baking pans. Let rise in a warm place until the rolls are double in size (approx. 1- hour)
Bake in a 375-degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until they are browned to your satisfaction.
Brush with melted butter while hot.

These are melt in your mouth, delicious!!

*****************
NOTE:
1/3 cup of butter is 6 Tbsp and so if you cut off the 6 Tbsp.
and set aside the remaining 2 Tbsp.
I use these 2 Tbsp. to melt and brush on the rolls
after you pull them out of the oven
and that way you only use 1 cube of butter to make the rolls
*****************

The Desserts!

(Links to dessert recipes!)
Pumpkin Pecan Bars

Coconut Cream Pie

Pecan Pie Bars

Lemon Meringue Pie

Apple Pie

Happy a happy week, full of MUCH

Thanksgiving and gratitude in your heart

for all of the many things we are so abundantly blessed with!

Taste of Fall...

2011-11-19T13:30:00.001-07:00

Pumpkin Pecan Dessert Bars!

Pumpkin + Spices + Pecans = Heaven!
All you need to do is just try one bite of these yummy Pumpkin Pecan Dessert Bars and you will be hooked!

I'm still swimming in Squash puree as we have been given 2 Hubbard Squash and 4 Banana Squash from family and neighbors!
So, what better thing to make up and use our abundance than another Pumpkin recipe.

I have never been able to make a pumpkin pie and have it turn out. I know, it is supposed to be easy, but mine are usually too browned on the top and not completely cooked in the middle. That is why I was SO excited to have found this yummy recipe. I adjusted the sugar in it as I didn't want it to be too sweet and also adjusted the spices a little as well and added in a little more flour.

It is the perfect blend of an oatmeal/pecan crust,
a custard like pumpkin filling and
topped with savory pecan nuts on the top
and is definitely at WINNER at our house!

The perfect accompaniment to any Thanksgiving Feast,

or, when you're craving pie,

but don't feel like making and rolling out a crust.

Pumpkin Pecan Dessert Bars

(topping...mix together and set aside)
1-1/2 cups pecan pieces

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp. corn syrup

(crust)

1 cube melted butter

1-1/4 cups unbleached flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1/2 tsp. baking powder

Mix all ingredients together well and put into greased 9x13 pan and

bake for 15 minutes.

While crust is baking make filling:
(filling)

2-1/4 cups pumpkin/squash puree

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup unbleached flour

3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Beat together pumpkin puree and sweetened condensed milk.

Add in rest of ingredients and beat until smooth.

Pour over crust and bake 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with Pecan topping

Put back in oven and bake another 25-30 minutes until set

Remove and cool completely. (keep chilled until serving)

Delicious, decadent, yummy, easy to make and

definitely a great replacement for traditional Pumpkin Pie

Enjoy a slice of Heaven today!

Some Moments to Remember...

2011-11-16T18:00:00.007-07:00

LIFE...
as a working mom that gets home around 1:30 every afternoon,
has until 2:45 before she has kids running in the door,
it makes it where my blog doesn't get the attention I would like to give to it.
(it makes it where I don't have much computer time at all and I feel bad that I don't have the time I would like to keep in touch with those friends that mean SO much to me in my life)
It makes it where things get posted MUCH later than I would like them to.
BUT, at least I have a place to journal my life
and so some days I have to say to myself...it's better late than never!!

Today I am thankful for…

Family, Friends, Beauty, simple pleasures
and the sweet innocence of little children!

I got a big chuckle out of Ethan this past weekend when he made the following statement. I had just gotten out of the shower and was putting on deodorant when he came in the room…
”Mom, you mean girls wear deodorant too?”
I had to laugh at how innocent and sweet he was. I guess he thinks that since girls are pretty that they would never get stinky.     Truly a priceless moment!

So, here is my month in photos with everything from beauty, to happy and sad moments and everything in between.
SO grateful for all of the “simple things”
that bring such a great glow of happiness to my life!

I love looking around my home this time of the year,
when my fall décor is everywhere and looking at sweet things on my shelves
that were gifts from family and friends.
I always have happy thoughts when I look and see these.

Love this sweet door handle from Cherie…
I added it to the frame that Tracy made
for my “Children” poster
and it looks like an old door.
LOVE this…
RED is definitely my new favorite decorating color.

The end of the Cross Country Season...
SO sad it has come to an end!

What a blessing it is to have so many WONDERFUL influences, coaches and friends in Jades life that truly care about him and want to see him succeed.
I'm going to miss watching them all run each week!!

Finally having time to make Huckleberry Jam!
We ended up with 28 half pints of this yummyness!
So excited to enjoy this on our weekend pancakes AND to have plenty on hand to be able to share with family and friends as well! WOOT!

SADDEST moment of my life, when my sweet Ethan had to experience the sadness when our dog Butch was hit by a car.

Ethan has never known life without Butch and this is the first time he has ever experienced the loss of a pet.
These photos bring tears to my eyes, every time I look at how SAD he was…he has never cried harder in his whole life!

Tracy taking time out of his EVER so crazy and busy life to make a frame to hang our 3D Dracula.

LOVE how it turned out and LOVE that I have a hubby that can make ANYTHING I ask him to!
He is truly a marvel, with SO MUCH TALENT!

Gorgeous drive to
Grand Teton National Park…

The colors were stunning, the drive was enjoyable the time spent together as a family enjoying great conversation, music and beauty was priceless!!

SCOUT SPIRIT ROCK!

What a blessing for my sons to have a dad that ALWAYS takes time out of his busy schedule to help them with projects.
Here Tracy is helping Ethan add his wording and a picture to the SPIRIT rock for Scouts.

(SO funny to me that Ethan pulled off his shirt as he didn't want to risk getting paint on his shirt).

And that’s why they call her the “Easter Egg Chicken”…
We purchased a new batch of baby chicks this spring and thought it would be fun to have at least one Ameracuana chicken, since they lay green and blue eggs.
Well our hens have been laying eggs for the past month and a half, but all of our eggs have been brown. Imagine the EXCITEMENT that we had on one Sunday afternoon, when we went and gathered the eggs and there was a GREEN one waiting for us!

Sweet packages in the mail for no reason at all, other than that someone wanted to let you know that they were thinking of you!

SUNSHINE!
I love those days when there is sun shining in my windows
ALL afternoon
and love the gorgeous glow it gives to my great room and kitchen and the cool shadows and reflections it makes as well.

Coming home to a sweet love note waiting for me on the counter after a long tiring day at work.
What a blessing it is to be loved and cherished
each day of my life!
What an absolutely WONDERFUL life I have!

This quote perfectly sums up my life...
“When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.”
–Bob Hope

Warm up with a bowl of Hearty Meatball Stew!

2011-11-11T16:00:00.006-07:00

Today I am grateful for...

SOUP!

If you were to ask me

what my favorite meal is, it would definitely be some kind of soup,

served with some kind of homemade bread or bread sticks.

I can honestly say that I never tire of soup!
Those bowls of comfort and nourishment,

those pots of soup, that you put whatever veggies/meat that you have in your fridge, you simmer them together and they taste absolutely delicious!

Kimmie + a bowl of soup = HAPPINESS!!

While most of the soups I make up are really brothy this is definitely a HEARTY soup to warm you up and give you energy during the fall and winter months.

My favorite thing about this soup is the variety of veggies in it,

with my favorite being SWEET POTATOES.

You wouldn't think that a soup with sweet potatoes in it would be so good,

but it is and is definitely in our family's top 5 favorite soup recipes.

I have always made my meatballs with ground beef,

but, I had some excess chicken breasts and so I decided to try grinding them up and made chicken meatballs for one batch of soup.

Both the beef AND chicken

were hits with my family and it's nice to have a meat grinder so that when you get low on ground beef you can grind up chicken breasts instead to add to your recipe.

Meatball Stew with Winter Vegetables
2 medium potatoes diced
2 large carrots diced
1 large onion finely chopped
1 to 2 Tbsp beef Bouillon granules
1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. pepper
(seasoned meatballs…recipe below)
2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
3 stalks of celery chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup flour
---In a Dutch oven or large pot bring 6 cups of water to boiling. Add in potatoes, carrots, onions, bouillon granules, oregano and basil and pepper. Return to boiling….reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
---Meanwhile, prepare seasoned meatballs. Add in sweet potatoes and celery to hot broth mixture. Add uncooked meatballs a few at a time to the hot broth mixture. Return to boiling and reduce heat and simmer for 15 more minutes, or until veggies are tender and meatballs are fully cooked.
---Stir in frozen peas
---Stir together, ½ cup water with 1/3 cup flour (until it is not lumpy) and stir this into soup…cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more. Enjoy!

SEASONED MEATBALLS
In a bowl mix
1 pound ground beef (OR ground turkey or chicken)
1 beaten egg,
½ cup dry bread crumbs,
1 tsp minced dried onion,
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce,
¼ tsp garlic powder, dash of pepper.
Mix all ingredients well and shape into one-inch balls

Enjoy taking your abundance of veggies

and making up a hearty pot of soup today!

I hope it becomes a favorite with your family, like it has with ours.

Carrots + Apples Make Yummy Muffins!

2011-11-08T05:00:00.007-07:00

Today I am Thankful for...
an abundance of all of the YUMMY things
that my family enjoys so much, that of
APPLES and CARROTS!!

Each time I bite into a crisp apple, or crisp, sweet carrot,
I feel SO blessed and think that there are millions of people that are starving and malnourished in this world that would LOVE to bite into a yummy, healthy, nourishing apple or carrot.
Wish so badly that we could all make a difference for people in other countries by being able to share our abundance with them!
Having nourishing food to eat is something that I NEVER take for granted!

What to do with all of those garden fresh carrots and apples

we are swimming in this time of the year!!

I love taking fresh garden produce
and making delicious things for my family to eat!

These muffins are SO good, hearty and healthy and a wonderful way to get veggies into your kids diets AND a wonderful way to use your garden abundance.

The recipe called for 3/4 cup oil,
but I didn't want to use that much oil,
SO, I resorted to my trick I do anytime I am making a sweet bread...
dumped in a SNACK sized applesauce container (which is 1/2 cup)
and then I filled the container 1/2 full with oil (which was 1/4 cup).
It made the muffins moist AND made it where I only used 1/4 cup oil versus 3/4 cup...
they turned out Fabulous!!

Carrot Apple Nut Muffins

2 cups grated carrots (about 2 or 3 large ones)

1 large apple, peeled, cored and grated

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup oil (I used a snack sized apple sauce and then filled the container 1/2 full of oil)

1 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 heaping Tbsp. Ground Flax Seed

2 cups unbleached flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Grate apples and carrots and set aside

In separate bowl mix together sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla.

Then fold in grated carrots and apples.

Then add in salt, cinnamon, baking soda/powder and mix

and then add in flour and pecans stirring until moistened.

Pour batter in greased muffin tins, OR, tins lined in baking cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, OR, until toothpick inserted in comes out clean

(this made 18 muffins)

After removing from oven, lightly butter tops of muffins and un-mold from muffin tins.

Let sit 10 minutes and then store in Rubbermaid container to keep moist. (freeze extras to pull out for future breakfasts, snacks or lunches)

Perfect accompaniment to Spiced Cider (here)

Enjoy!

Have fun disguising veggies in a yummy way

and enjoying something delicious as well!

Another year older...another year gone by!

2011-11-05T10:00:00.032-06:00

Today I am Grateful for...
True Love!

I am grateful
that Tracy and I both made it to celebrate another birthday together
and that both of us have our HEALTH!!

I truly am the luckiest girl in the world...
I'm married to the most amazing man who I LOVE to share and experience everything with!
What an absolute JOY it is to get to have birthdays to celebrate together as well!

Tracy and I are definitely an odd couple
as we both can't wait to see, show and tell each other about our day or any and everything in our life! Tracy loves to email me links he finds on the Internet or take camera photos of magazine photos and he looks forward to discussing them when he gets home from work...whether it be a quote or frame-able wall art, a cute photo, food that looks yummy, a fun idea for a costume, trim work ideas for our house, tree-houses for kids, landscape ideas, backpacking ideas, places that would be fun to travel to, etc...

I can't wait to show Tracy things I have experienced with my day...like showing him a new blog post I'm working on and asking his opinion, showing what creative thing I did, or what I cooked up in the kitchen, or, showing him a FUN blog post from my close friends...

There is NOT a moment in our days
that we don't have each other on the mind
and even if we can't experience everything together, we share all about our day through thoughtful acts, photos, etc...

We make all of the decisions on our house together...
not a photo gets hung on the wall without deciding together.

Life is pure bliss, when you're married to your best friend
and you want to experience everything you can together!!

As is tradition for my birthday posts each year, I like to post random things about me, or things I have been thinking about. This year I thought I would throw in some of my favorite quotes as well.

(This is my most favorite quote of all!!)

Here are some random things about Kimmie...

--I am a perfectionist to a fault! I have many good intentions, but many times I don’t do something if I can’t do it PERFECT and so there have been many a time I haven’t sent off that package, letter, or delivered a meal, because I couldn’t do it to the level I wanted it to be done. Thank goodness for goals and having a husband that has helped me realize to:

"Do the best you can at the moment,

even though it’s not perfect”!!

This is definitely something that I am striving

to do and be better at each day of my life!

--I LOVE getting cards, invitations, letters and packages in the mail!! As much as I love technology for staying in touch, I always get exited for REAL mail.

--I LOVE the art of preserving...I have never and probably never will make freezer jam. I LOVE my freezer for freezing berries, but to me bottled jams/preserves are SO much more yummy and can't be beat!!

--Corn is my least favorite veggie! I would rather eat anything but corn AND I don’t want to waste space in my garden planting it. I would much rather plant another row of carrots and beets, than plant corn. HOWEVER,

my kids LOVE corn and so I always try to buy some so they can enjoy it during harvest time.

--I LOVE my Chaco sandals!!

It took me a few years to really love them as they always made my heels dry and cracked.

NOW, I wear them daily (I don't think there was a day this summer/fall that I didn't wear them) and I'm sad that as I type this, snow has fallen on the ground and I have to put my sandals away until warmer weather.
These truly are my VERY favorite shoes that I own!

(HOWEVER, I am looking forward to pulling out my sweaters, leggings and boots and bundling up in style for the winter months).

--If I’m eating Pringles chips I can only eat them if I put them in my mouth with the rounded part up, so it is the same shape as my mouth.

--I don’t like Cotton Candy!

--I don’t like Candy Corn, but I LOVE Candy Corn Taffy!

--I am not a fan of JELLO and it is pretty pathetic that the only time I have made JELLO in my life is when I was asked to bring “Jello Jigglers” to a scout activity and I actually had to ask someone how to make them as I didn’t have any experience in making this. My kiddos are definitely Jello deprived and it’s funny when we go to ward potlucks, Ethan is a typical kid and always dishes some on this plate.

--I could eat squash every day and never tire of it! I LOVE, Banana, Hubbard, Zucchini, Summer, Sweet Meat and Butternut Squash and love them plain or love anything made with them!

(hilarious observation: in the above photo

(taken near Lewis & Clark Caverns) Ethan is giving me a "tittie-twister")

--If I could think of one event in my life that I truly miss (other than the fact that I wish my kids would stop growing, Or, I miss the simpler times of Newlywed days), it would be that of having a sweet baby to nurse and feed! Nursing my kids was truly one of the favorite times in my life!

--I LOVE yams and sweet potatoes and I always have a few of these for us to enjoy. This is also something I could eat everyday and never tire of it. Love them baked up and with just a tiny pat of butter and sprinkling of salt and pepper. My other favorite way it to cut them up, slice up an apple, top with pecans and bake them up. Sadly, I do NOT like them the way that most people do, smothered in butter and brown sugar and topped with marshmallows…YUCK!

--Butterflies…I absolutely LOVE butterflies and have many butterflies all over my house. I have always loved them...even before they re-surged in popular home decor.

To me they symbolize re-birth, renewal, freedom...the confidence to be myself and not be stifled or held-back as I soar to new heights!

--I like my fried eggs with completely cooked yolks. I do NOT like runny yolks at all. I’m the odd ball in my family as Tracy and the boys LOVE their fried eggs with runny yolks.

--I have learned that you should always feel GRATEFUL for each stage of life and that you'll look back and wish you looked a certain way. I have always been worried about my weight (not in a bad way...just always have wanted to be trim and in shape) and in these photos above, I was not the "skinny as a rail" Kimmie I used to be and so I was always working out, biking, walking, etc... NOW, I look back and would LOVE to be that skinny!! Looking forward to working hard and losing the 10-15 pounds I have put on these past few years. Tracy keeps telling me, that the same thing will happen again...in a few years, I'll look back at how I look now and WISH that I could look that good.

You need to SAVOR and ENJOY each season and moment in time to the fullest!

--I’m so efficient with things that I have measuring cups in many of my containers of staples. I have 1/3 measuring cup in our container of Steel Cut Oats ½ measuring cup in my unbleached flour, ½ measuring cup in our rolled oats and 1/8 cup in our Morning Moos powdered milk. That way when I’m baking I can just measure things out quickly and always have the right measuring cup available. Steel Cut Oats have 1/3 cup as you add in 1/3 cup of oats per one cup of water. Powdered milk you use 1/8 cup milk per one cup of water and my flour and rolled oats I just like measuring things by ½ cup increments at a time.

--I struggle when the days are shorter and it’s still dark at 7:00 in the morning. I am VERY much a morning person and LOVE the long days of summer when the sun is starting to crest over the horizon at 5:30 in the morning. Love morning twilight!

--I LOVE nice thick dishcloths that are black and beige. LOVE how nice and big they are and LOVE that they don’t get looking all stained up. They always stay looking nice.

--My favorite comfort food is cheese. I buy pounds of cheese and freeze it so there is never a moment that we are not without some kind of cheese to add to our meals.

--I don't enjoy being called "Kim" and I'm always amazed how many people call me this, even though I always refer to myself and introduce myself as "Kimberly" or "Kimmie"! Maybe one of these years, people will get it right.

--I have to have my towels folded a certain way…they have to be folded with the folded side edge along the LEFT side and put in the drawer or stacked on the shelf so that the FOLDED side is facing out. (raw edge is on the right and at the top) While I very much appreciate when my family helps fold the laundry, it drives me crazy to look and see the edges on the wrong side. It's moments like that, that I realize the things that truly matter in life and it's not how the towels are folded.

--I love altering recipes so I can make them without adding any kind of boxed mix to them. It’s kind of a passion of mine to tweak recipes so I can make them using just staple ingredients. (ie…no pudding mixes, no cake mixes, no jello mixes, no boxed rice mixes, etc…)

--I LOVE this quote...

I truly believe with all of my heart, that the best thing in life is to just

BE your BEST self!!

--I can tell if someone has been in any room in our house. I have a certain way that I leave things and I can always tell if someone has been around and moved things, or left crumbs, or feet prints on the freshly vacuumed carpet, spots on the faucet, etc… It drives my kids and hubby crazy when I ask them about something and they say…”How did you know I did that”, or “How did you know that I was in there”.

--I am ALWAYS looking Upward!! I can spot birds in trees everywhere we go. I absolutely LOVE birds. I love looking upward and noticing the ever change sky and clouds. I love to notice if there are planes or birds flying in the sky. I am a lover of nature and love to enjoy each and every part of it that I can…even when I’m driving in the car.

--I love the smell of rubber tires...I always like to linger when I'm in the tire store.

--I am a creature of habit…every morning without fail I listen to NPR on my way to work and the instant I get to the stop light at the South Rexburg Exit I have to see what the price of gas is. I love to track the prices of everything.

--I am very much a creature of habit and when I find something I like, I stick with it. It makes my life SO much easier, to not have to keep for searching for the “perfect” whatever.

However, It was a sad year for me this year as my bra style, my Lipstick I use and the brand of jeans I wear were all discontinued and so I have had to go back to square one and find something else that will work for me. I’m still searching for the perfect bra, I finally found another lipstick option and YES, I found new jeans that are better than the last style I had. (LEI Ashley, low rise, long, boot cut jeans). Can’t wait to find a new bra option that is exactly what I want. My bras are looking pretty shabby and need replaced!

----My handwriting looks like "chicken scratch"...seriously I have some of the world's worst handwriting and try as I might, it doesn't really improve. SO, cards/letters from me are ALWAYS typed up nicely and signed.

--My favorite place to be is anywhere in Nature...especially being up in the high country, where we have backpacked all day to get there!

--I am enthralled with small space living.

I love finding ways to “scale down” and live and function in smaller spaces. We love our home but it has much more space than we really need. We hardly go in our "front room" and the large, unfinished basement just represents another potential bathroom to clean, unfilled bedrooms to clutter with more craft and sewing things and another unneeded family room to clean and heat, etc... The only really useful space down there (to us) is our food storage and backpacking gear storage room. I think it would be fun to dramatically scale down and be smart with the space.

My dream home would be

to build a home similar to the main section of our home,

HOWEVER, it would end at the main bathroom with a wall at the end of the hall that would have a door that went outside to a porch that wrapped around from the side of our house to the front porch of our house). It wouldn’t have 2 bathrooms, but rather one LARGE bathroom with the sink separate so someone could get ready while someone else is showering. (we have found that we never use our other bathroom). A half bath off the utility room would be nice. It wouldn’t have 3 bedrooms, instead it would have a sleeping loft in the main great room of our house with a room for the kids and a room for Tracy and I. Where the living room is right now, this would be our TV room and it would have a “barn style” door to close and have it be conducive to watching movies. It wouldn’t have a full basement, rather more of a food cellar, large enough for our food storage, holiday storage, camping gear, etc...

It would have a funky, modern exterior shape and have cool roof angles and be sided in natural materials. And, as long as I'm dreaming, it would be set in a mountain town like Boulder, CO, Telluride,CO, Wilson, WY, or some other small town nestled in the midst of hiking trails and scenic beauty.

--I don’t really enjoy pasta. However, my kids and hubby like pasta and so I try and make a pasta meal at least once a month so they don’t feel deprived.

--I don’t enjoy green bean casserole!! It seems to be a big hit this time of the year, but, I can’t stomach the stuff.

--I LOVE to swing!! I love to go to the park and swing and swing. I LOVE it and it makes me feel like a kid and makes me feel free. Someday in the not-to distant future, we are going to have SWING in our backyard so I can enjoy this whenever I want!! (here to see what we are patterning our back yard retreat after...it will be complete with a TALL swing for us to enjoy!)

(some favorite photos through the years)

10-20-11 = Kimmie turned 41

10-22-11 = Tracy turned 43

Looking forward to another wonderful year together,

feeling grateful that I have a body that functions, that even though it is starting to show signs of aging, I can walk, run, talk, breathe, smile, cook, bake, snuggle on the couch with my kiddos and hubby, hug & kiss them each day, walk hand in hand with my sweetie as we go on walks around the block, or walks on our dates and most of all I have my health!
(looking forward to enjoying another 40 years of LOTS of health, happiness, romance & loving with my best friend and love of my life!)

I am truly grateful for all of the many simple pleasures in life that fill my life with much joy and love...

with the top of the list being Tracy, Jade & Ethan!

Warm up with some Spiced Cider!

2011-11-03T15:00:00.006-06:00

November...

that month of the year where there is a "Crisp" in the air,

where after lots of hard work preserving the harvest,

life slows down and days are more calm

and there is time to reflect on how greatly blessed we are,

and to pause and give thanks for all of the many wonderful things we have in our lives.

To celebrate this wonderful month of gratitude and Thanksgiving,

I thought I would start all of my posts out

stating things I am grateful for.

Today I am grateful for...
Sunshine!

I love the sun that shines in my kitchen and dining room windows.

I love how it brightens up the room and warms those who sit in her light.

I love sitting in the sun and sipping on something warm and making my daily lists, or reading a book, or just sitting and pondering and reflecting how abundantly blessed I am.

I am grateful for...

mugs of Warm Spiced Cider that I can wrap my hands around and feel the warmth and then sip the warmth.

I am grateful for my senses of smell, taste and feel...

that I can smell the wonderful cinnamon fragrance that permeates the house
and makes it smell "heavenly" when spiced cider is simmering,
feel the warmth as I hold onto the mug with my hands and as I put the mug to my lips

and taste the amazing blend of apple, orange and spices.

Spiced Cider
(definitely one of our family's Fall Time favorites!)

1 gallon unsweetened apple juice (I buy the 3 quart bottles of unsweetened apple juice)
1 orange sliced
whole cloves
cinnamon sticks
Bring apple juice to a boil on the stove.
Pour in crock pot and then put in
1 large cinnamon stick
1 orange sliced with 2 to 3 cloves studded in each orange slice
Cook in crock-pot on low for 2-3 hours. (remove oranges and cinnamon sticks after 2-3 hours so it doesn't get bitter) Enjoy!

Make up a batch today to warm up

and enjoy these crisp fall days and take a few moments to reflect on the many simple pleasures that bring joy to your life!

"The unthankful heart...

discovers no mercies;

but let the thankful heart sweep through the day

and, as the magnet finds the iron,

so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings"!

~Henry Ward Beecher

Oh the FUN we had on Halloween!

2011-11-01T16:05:00.003-06:00

I'm saddened as this most FUN day of the year is over!!
I've never had SO much fun on Halloween and never have I seen more excitement in my kids than this year.

Our weekend started off with

our annual Halloween Concert at BYU-Idaho

and they performed music from Indiana Jones.

Ethan was THRILLED as Indiana Jones has always been a favorite in his life.

Two years ago he wanted a Fedora for Christmas...that is all he wanted.

He was ecstatic to be able to go in costume to the concert and he even pulled out his MAPS he had made a few years ago and put them in his satchel.

It was priceless seeing his excitement and

getting to enjoy Symphony Orchestra music as family.

The excitement of kids is something we

ALL should have more of in our lives!

I love the art that kids make in school.

Ethan brought home the most ADORABLE skeleton he had made using his name written in cursive...it was SO clever and cute and the face reminded me of one of my favorite Halloween characters..."Jack Skellington"!

Love the teeth he drew on the face.

Halloween day

was the HAPPIEST day ever!

I LOVE Halloween...

its the ONE day of the year where you can dress UP and be ugly, scary, or crazy and it's okay!!

I had the most excited boys

and all I heard out of Ethan's mouth all afternoon was

"I can't wait until Jade gets home so I can do my makeup and hair like "Frankenstein"!!
I thought I was going to go CRAZY as I had two hours of Ethan saying this until Jade walked in the door.

Such EASY costumes to throw together...

took old pants and cut them jagged at the bottom,

stitched on patches,

made vests out of burlap, which was worn over flannel shirts

(the kids embellished them with FAKE spiders)

cut the fingers off knit gloves

and the make-up was SO much fun to do and here is how it all looked like when we put it together.

(Tracy painted my eyes with butterflies, SO I tried to dress the part...I can definitely tell I'm "40 something" looking at these photos...my face is not as young, smooth and supple as it used to be)

After having FUN taking photos, we headed off to the house of some of our good friends to enjoy Homemade Chili and Homemade donuts!
After 12 years of doing this, it has become another yearly tradition that we look forward to!

NOW off to be scared
at the famous Haunted Mill (here)

Priceless moment #1... how Ethan had to keep looking scary and walking around the house and everywhere we went like a zombie.

Priceless moment #2... Jade did his own makeup and hair and did a pretty awesome and amazing job!!

Priceless moment #3... how Ethan looks up to Jade SO much and wanted to do his makeup and hair just like his brother

Priceless moment #4... how Ethan had to keep checking his makeup every five minutes to see how he looked and to keep touching it up.

Priceless moment #5... how Ethan introduced himself to others...

"Hi, I'm "Frankie-Stein" and this is "Freaky-Stein"

Priceless moment #6... how both of our kids got scared at the Haunted Mill and were found clenching our hands when they were scared.
Priceless moment #7... that Ethan woke up this morning and said:
"That was the BEST Halloween ever"!

BTW...Jade is already planning out and talking LOTS about NEXT years costume and makeup and wants to be a ZOMBIE!
(I think it's going to be a LONG year until next years Halloween)

Savoring the sweetness and EXCITEMENT of my sweet little monsters...not wanting to wish one moment of time away as they are growing much faster than I want them to!!

I sure do love my monsters...

Frankie and Freaky!
Thanks for all of the fun and joy
you abundantly fill my life with!

Taste of Fall...

2011-10-28T12:00:00.002-06:00

Pumpkin Spice

Pull-Apart Bread

YAY, it's almost the weekend!
I love weekends...
I love having time with my family
(but I don't like having 1:00 church...
can't wait until January 2012 to start having 9:00 church again).

Since Sunday mornings are pretty laid back
as we don't have church until 1:00 it means we can take our time with getting up and we can go on a morning walk around the block and then lounge around and write in journals or read a book
AND there is plenty of time in our morning to make this yummy bread recipe to enjoy for breakfast.

This reminds me of "Monkey Bread"
that mom used to make for us when we were kids
(with canned biscuits rolled in cinnamon and sugar and sprinkled with brown sugar and butter).

It's absolutely delicious and another FUN way
to use our abundance of cooked squash and pumpkin.

Don't let the steps fool you...
it is VERY easy to make.
Plan on about 2-1/2 to 3 hours from start to finish
(with most of it being RISING time)
(if you started making this at 7:00 am
you could plan on eating BRUNCH around 10:00)

Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread

(ingredients for bread dough)
2 Tbsp. REAL butter
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 cup pumpkin or squash puree
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. salt
2-1/2 cups unbleached flour

(ingredients for sugar filling)
2 Tbsp REAL butter

2/3 cup brown sugar (recipe originally called for 1 cup...feel free to use that amount if you like it more sweet)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

(ingredients for glaze)
2 Tbsp. REAL butter
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 capfuls Rum flavored extract (if you don't have this, use vanilla)

Melt butter in saucepan until lightly browned. Add in milk slowly until heated through.
Put milk/butter mixture in mixing bowl and let cool 6 minutes
Add in yeast and flour and let stand until bubbly (about 6-8 minutes)
Then add in salt, pumpkin mixture and 1 cup flour and stir.
Add in rest of flour and mix with dough hook for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Put dough in oiled bowl and coat well with oil, cover and let rise one hour

(while dough is rising, melt butter and then add in sugar and spices and mix well)

After one hour of rising, punch down dough and roll out on floured board into a 20x12 inch rectangle.
Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture onto dough and press it into the dough with your palms.
Cut rectangle into 6 strips
Lay strips on top of each other and then cut each strip into 6 squares (cut in half and then in half again)
Stack strips vertically in either a greased bread pan, OR, Bundt pan.
Cover with towel and let rise 30 minutes.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes until top is golden brown.

While bread is baking make glaze by heating butter, milk and brown sugar.

Bring to boil and then add in powdered sugar and extract.

Turn to low and make sure not to burn.
After pulling bread from oven, drizzle with however much glaze you would like...

I just put the tiniest amount as I didn't want that much sugar

Dump out bread onto a clean plate,

dig in, pull apart and enjoy!

The perfect accompaniment to boiled or poached eggs

and some kind of yummy beverage

whether it be Herbal Tea, Warm Cider, or a COLD glass of milk!

Enjoy some Taste of Fall today

and have a wonderful weekend!

Adding Fun to Dinner! (just in time for Halloween!)

2011-10-27T14:00:00.080-06:00

Spaghetti Squids (and Monster Mouths)

make Happy Kids!

SO, with Tracy's new love for Pinterest, we were browsing through photos and our kids spied a FUN photo and begged us to try making it up.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a little bit of a "health nut"
and I am not a hot dog lover at all!

Thank goodness

that Tracy balances me out and he always tells me that

"eating a hot dog once or twice a year isn't going to hurt you".

SO, since I can't handle cheap hot dogs, we at least eat Nathan's ALL beef dogs.

We still had a package of Nathan's left in our freezer

and so this is what we did to make what our kids call

"Spaghetti Squids".

AND I do have to tell you that after eating

this, it was REALLY tasty and yummy

(and that says a lot, coming from someone who is not a fan of hot dogs).

(BTW... we only used 5 of the hot dogs

and saved the rest for Tracy to take on a campout)

Try adding a little bit of FUN to dinner-time

and watch the faces of your kids light up with excitement!
(it would be fun to surprise them and not see you prepare it and have them wondering

"How did you do that"!)

This would be SO much fun

to make as a meal for Halloween!

OH, and don't forget about
"Monster Mouths" for dessert!!

Apples, Peanut Butter and Candy Corn

come together to make a tasty, holiday treat

(original post about Monster Mouths here)

Life is about balance

and it's okay to splurge on a

not so perfect, not so healthy meal
every once in awhile.

Enjoy the taste and fun of the season!

20 Weeks...No Major Shopping...Wrap up!

2011-10-25T06:00:00.024-06:00

WOW...we made it and what's even better,
is I'm finally getting this blogged about!

For those not familiar with this challenge...
our challenge allotted us $20.00 each week to spend on produce
and a gallon of milk every other week...
the rest of the things we ate, came from our food storage.
If you would like to see
what meals we ate for 5 months and what produce we bought,
click HERE and scroll through the posts...
there are LINKS in each post to the recipes I used
and HELPFUL TIPS for what we did to make things stretch.

While I initially wanted to be done with this Challenge
the first part of September, here
I still had another months worth of the staples such as butter, sugar, flour, yeast, cheese, etc... and so I decided to go until I ran out of butter.

This took us a little under 20 weeks from start to finish with no major shopping and you know what, we didn’t really feel deprived at all!
Other than the fact that I was down to the last cube of butter and roll of paper towels and I had ran out of BLEACH, raisins and gallon sized freezer bags, we survived going 20 weeks with no major shopping.

(here are links to click on to to see

what we ate/did week by week)
week 1 week 2 week 3

week 4 week 5 week 6

week 7 week 8 week 9

weeks 10-11 week 12 week 13

weeks 14-15 week 16 week 17

weeks 18-19

Call me strange, but, I really do enjoying challenging and “stretching” myself…
it’s something that is in my blood and something that is SO enjoyable to me!
Preparedness truly does bring peace!

Here are the things I learned this year...

The CASES of canned beans, canned tomatoes and canned chilies we don't go through that much for how many cans we have in our food storage.
I will never again buy a case of 48 of anything, unless it is tomato sauce, OR, Tuna Fish. We realistically can't go through them before the expiration date.

You go through A LOT of dish towels cooking every meal from scratch. While I have a large supply of kitchen towels and dishcloths,

I did laundry twice a week just for washing dish towels!! (usually go through 5-7 a day and sometimes more), depending upon what I'm cooking.

I realized that it would be REALLY nice to have a few cans of cooked chicken on hand, for those hectic afternoons when all of a sudden it's dinner-time and I am scrambling to throw something together!
(excited to pressure cook up some chicken breasts this week after I get my Zaycon Chicken order)

POWDERED MILK makes wonderful summer-time treats (here)
I used this to make homemade Fudge Pops, Chocolate peanut butter milk shakes and peanut butter energy balls. (here)

We also enjoyed a few batches of HOMEMADE yogurt made from powdered milk as well. (here)
Love this recipe and LOVE that it uses things I always have on hand.

Artisan bread is one of our new favorite breads (here)
AND it is the perfect thing to make up if you don’t have any crackers on hand.
Bake it, toast it and it is perfect

Homemade Hoagies are now officially a staple at our house! (here)

We use them for everything and the versatile thing about my French Bread recipe, is you can make up a loaf of French Bread AND 6-8 Hoagie buns, so you can make the most use out of the dough, if you don’t wall all hoagies or all bread loaves.

Homemade Tortillas are also a staple at our house as well! (here) I haven’t bought store bought tortillas since the first of the year (when we purchased some for Tracy’s scout campout breakfast burritos).
They were wonderful to make up and use our garden veggies and make wraps/roll ups. They were perfect to line a bowl and fill with taco salad. They were wonderful to fill with yummy things to take hiking and they were wonderful made into Enchiladas, Quesadillas or Breakfast Burritos.

It truly is the best feeling in the world to be able to make 95% of the things your family eats from scratch all by yourself!
Everyone is happy when the food they are eating,
was made with love by YOU!!

We also realize the more we hike that my basic Oatmeal Cookie recipe (here) with LOTS of raisins, dried cherries and walnuts make PERFECT energy bars to take hiking and it is SO much cheaper than purchasing CLIF or ODWALLA bars.

Here is a list of the major things we went through
in our 5 months of no shopping.
With cooking every meal from scratch, we went through A LOT of the staples...

(BTW...we have chickens that we get eggs from, so we didn't have to use egg powder)

(staples)
150 pounds unbleached flour
50 pounds sugar
18 pounds brown sugar
5 pounds powdered sugar
12 pounds RAW cane sugar
18 pounds honey
20 pounds raisins
4 pounds dried cherries
22 pounds wheat
2 pounds corn meal
2 pounds SAF yeast
1 pound baking powder
3 pounds baking soda
4 pounds salt
8 pounds rock salt
35 pounds steel cut oats (this is our mainstay for breakfast Mon-Fri…here )
12 pounds rolled oats
16 pounds powdered milk (4 #10 cans) (here's how I make our milk stretch here)
10 cans Evaporated Milk
5 cans Sweetened Condensed Milk
9 pounds dried beans/legumes
8 pounds rice
1/2 pound wild rice (made this yummy soup here)
12 pounds pasta
4 pounds popcorn kernels
7 pounds raw almonds
3 pounds walnuts
1/2 pound pecans
3 pounds Almond Cluster Nut Mix (here)
1 large bag of DARK Chocolate Peanut M&M's
1-1/2 pounds sunflower seeds
1/2 pound flax seeds
1/2 pound cashews
1 pound coconut
1 large jar lightly salted peanuts, 1 package of mini marshmallows and 1 pkg. peanut butter chips (these combined together to make Salted Nut Rolls here)
34 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder
4 pounds Stephen’s Hot Cocoa powder
25 boxes of STASH brand Peppermint Blend tea
48 oz. REAL maple syrup
½ bottle of Mapleiene Extract (made homemade syrup here)
12 ounces molasses
12 ounces corn syrup
3 packages marshmallows
1 pound coconut
3 quarts applesauce (this along with whole wheat flour turned into muffins here)
3 boxes of pectin (made homemade preserves)
1(4 pack) box of Gelatine (used to make homemade yogurt here)
1/2 pound Citric Acid
4 bottles Lemon Extract
(6) 8.2 ounce bottles REAL vanilla
3 liters Olive Oil
72 ounces Canola Oil
4 pounds cornstarch
72 ounces Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chips
3 pounds Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Bitter-Sweet chips
10 ounces white chocolate chips
(5) 40 ounce jars peanut butter (we went through so much of this as we made a few batches of granola bars (here) and peanut butter energy balls (here)
4 cans non-stick baking spray
5 pounds cottage cheese (we ran out the last 6 weeks…we need to try making HOMEMADE cottage cheese for times like this)
2 pounds sour cream
(5) 8 ounce packages Neufchatel Cream Cheese
.5 ounces of freeze dried mushrooms
(we also used quite a bit of Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, granulated garlic, beef and chicken bouillon, buttered flavored salt, dried parsley oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and poppy seeds, sesame seeds)

(cheese/butter)
12 pounds Monterey Jack Cheese
5 pounds sharp cheese
1 pound Mozzarella Cheese
48 pieces of string cheese
32 pounds butter
2 pounds lard

(meat)
4 pounds chicken breasts
2 whole chickens
2 pounds chicken thighs
6 pounds hamburger
2 beef roasts
1 pound stew meat
2 pounds bacon
2 pounds sausage
(7) ½ cup packages of ham and one ham bone (that we had cut up in our freezer from our Easter ham here for how I do this)
1 pound Tilapia
6 pounds Salmon
1 pound crab meat
1 package Chicken/Spinach sausages (here for how we put them to use)
2 packages Nathans ALL beef hot dogs (had these in our freezer…we stock up on these in the spring to have on hand for summer barbeques...here for 2011 fun)
30 cans tuna
2 packages of Smoked Salmon and 2 large bottles of artichoke hearts
(we made 2 different batches of Salmon and Artichoke dip here)

(misc.)
(many limes, citric acid and Lemon extract turned into this here)
6 packages Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid
1 box of Tangerine Emergen-C (Kids take this in their lunches to drink)
(3) 46 ounce jars pickles
(2) 24 ounce bottles ketchup
(3) 30 ounce jars Mayonnaise
(3) 30 ounce jars Miracle Whip
4 jars Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
10 cans stewed tomatoes/tomato sauce
1 pound frozen peas
2 bottles salsa
2 boxes Sunbelt brand Fruit & Nut Granola Cereal
2 boxes ZOOM cereal (this is what we used for breakfast when we went backpacking)
4 packages dry Ranch Dressing Mix (used to make Ranch Popcorn here)
31 packages Doublemint Gum
2 bags of 200 Menthol cough drops
4 bags Tortilla chips (we ran out the last 8 weeks…wish we had a way to make homemade tortilla chips
(1) 28 package individual chips
50 pounds of onions
25 pounds of potatoes
1/2 bag charcoal briquettes

(we also went through a few cans each of pineapple tidbits, olives, diced green chilies, canned beans, Tomato and Cream of Chicken Soup, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and chow mein noodles...ALSO, a few packages of Ramen for our backpacker meals).

(I lost track of how many pounds of frozen fruits/berries we used for our smoothies,)

(cleaning/toiletries)
(6) 56 ounce containers Soft Soap
(1) 56 ounce container Soft Soap for our bathroom dispenser in our shower (here)
66 ounces shampoo
66 ounces conditioner
52 ounces hair gel
99 ounces hair spray
1 box of hair highlighting kit (here how we use this)
6 bottles of deodorant
10 tubes of Chap stick
(2) 20 ounce bottles Curel lotion
40 rolls paper towels
76 rolls toilet paper
5 boxes PUFFS tissues
72 count box of tampons/(1) 18 count box maxi-pads
2 boxes of each sandwich and snack sized bags
4 boxes of each gallon and quart sized bags
(1) 100 count box of bread bags
(1) 75 ft. box aluminum foil
(1) 75 ft box waxed paper
½ box Plastic Wrap
1 box Q-tips
1 large bag cotton balls
1 package small Dixie Cups for the bathroom
32 oz. mouth wash
3 tubes toothpaste
(3) 100 ounce jugs laundry soap
1 gallon bleach
30 ounces Spray and Wash
2 boxes Borax
165 dishwasher soap drops
46 oz. Jet Dri
64 ounces Glass Plus
1 large can AJAX
18 ounces 409 cleaner
22 ounces hardwood floor cleaner
60 ounces Bathroom/Toilet cleaner
60 ounces Shower Cleaner
72 ounces Hydrogen Peroxide
10 gallons vinegar (we went through so much as I use it in my dishwasher since we have hard water)
1 box Bounce sheets
120 kitchen garbage bags
45 outside garbage bags
2 gallons CAR oil
Oil filters (for changing car oil)
2 gallons windshield washer cleaner

YES, you can eat REALLY well on your food storage...

YES, you can live on your food storage and LOVE it!

So grateful to have had another opportunity to “Stretch” and to put this wonderful quote by Percy Cerutty to the test once again…

"You only ever grow as a human being

if you're outside your comfort zone”.

Taste of Fall...

2011-10-17T15:00:00.009-06:00

Pumpkin Muffins!

Autumn Time wouldn't be complete without making up a few batches of Pumpkin Muffins!
SO yummy and if you like the Pumpkin Bread that you can get a Great Harvest, these are the closest thing I have been able to make that resemble that yummy bread.

I'm always AMAZED at how far one large squash will stretch...

We ate it for dinner 2 times, shared a large chunk with Tracy's parents,

made up 4 batches of Pumpkin Cookies, 2 batches of Pumpkin Muffins

a batch of Pumpkin Pull Apart bread and a batch of Pumpkin Pie Bars.

I bake my muffins in TEXAS sized muffin tins

so they are larger and feel a little more "Gourmet"

I usually make up a batch of muffins and put them in Cellophane Bags tied with festive ribbon and deliver these to the ladies I go Visiting Teaching to in one of the Autumn Months.

I also have a tradition of making these up along with Spiced Cider for
Halloween Morning breakfast and you can guarantee they will be embellished with a SPIDER ring in the middle of the muffin.

Kids just LOVE this!

These freeze well and if you have any leftovers, they are wonderful to freeze and have to pull out when you need a quick lunch, snack, or yummy treat!

Pumpkin Muffins
½ cup REAL butter
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 cup pumpkin (OR leftover squash)
¾ cup raisins OR chocolate chips
Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in comes out clean.

After pulling out of the oven, I always put them in a Rubber-Maid type of container to keep them moist).

These are really good and freeze well and are great for breakfast, lunch or snacks!

Enjoy!

Make up some Autumn Goodness and

go and spread a little JOY and sunshine

to someone in need today!

(whether it be bringing smiles to the faces of your family members,

elderly women/men in your area that need a little cheer,

OR, friends/family that could use some yummy-ness
added to their day).

Taste of Fall... (and a secret!)

2011-10-12T14:00:00.021-06:00

Pumpkin Cookies!

These truly are one of our family's

VERY favorite cookies, just as Sugar Cookies are a tradition at Valentines day, Pumpkin Cookies are a tradition to make up in October

and it is a good thing we only make them up during the Fall Time, because we can pretty much eat a whole batch (which makes 24 cookies) in one whole day.

They are just SO amazingly yummy!

They are the perfect texture,

have a hint of cinnamon flavor

and the semi-sweet chocolate chips and
cream cheese frosting make them irresistible!
WOW,

every event that we bring these to they are always the biggest hit!
Absolutely DELICIOUS!

*************************

I have to make this next step known
as it is something I do out of habit and don't even really realize I do it...
it's that perfectionist in me that wants to make each cookie I pull off the cookie sheet, perfectly round and uniform looking,
But my sister-in-law Cheryl was baking with me a month ago and as I was
pulling cookies off the cookie sheet, she said something to the effect...
"THAT is why my cookies don't
look or taste exactly like yours"!

Who would have known
that such a simple thing of "smashing" a cookie after you pull it off the cookie sheet, could make that big of a difference. Sorry!!
So something to remember when you make the majority of the cookie recipes on my blog...
"The Secret's in the SMASH"!!
(someday when I get more free time I need to add that to all of my cookie recipes)

Pumpkin Cookies
(these are an “egg-less” cookie)
1 cup sugar
½ cup REAL butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup leftover squash/pumpkin
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Cream together sugar and butter and vanilla.
Then add squash/pumpkin, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
Then mix in flour (to make a nice consistency) and last chocolate chips.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 15-18 minutes (or until lightly browned).
When you remove cookies from the cookie sheet, "smash" them with your spatula to flatten them slightly.This makes a really nice, dense cookie.

Frost with Cream Cheese frosting

and you will have the yummiest cookie ever to enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese (1/2 a package)
¼ cup REAL butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
In a mixer bowl beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla till light and fluffy.

Gradually add the powdered sugar beating until smooth.

PS...I keep mine in a cool place until we eat them...either in our cool basement, OR, in the fridge.

Enjoy!

SO happy that we have this yummy recipe

to make up and enjoy during this

wonderful Fall-time of the year!
I hope it becomes a favorite

of your family as well!

This is what 3 months looks like!

2011-10-11T05:00:00.011-06:00

Okay, as I am trying to take care of the last bit of garden abundance from all of the YUMMY things we have from our garden and neighbors gardens with

canning, drying and preserving,
I thought, I would post the list of everything
that we went through in our
"3 Months of No Shopping" from 2010.

Tracy and I are always amazed at this list and marvel
that we really do go through those amounts of things in 3 months worth of time.

I LOVE that we do this challenge
to ramp up our skills and to grow and learn.
It is a passion of mine and I think that I will definitely do this each year, to keep "honing" our skills and to keeping "stretching" ourselves and
seeing even more what we are truly made of!

This year, my meal plans were a little different than last summer as we didn't cook as much with our Dutch Ovens, but come the weekend, I will finally have time to go through all of my lists and add everything up that we went through these past
19 weeks of no major shopping...
(can't wait to compare this year to last year)

until then, here is last years challenge list.

(originally posted September 7, 2010)

Here is a list of the major things we went through.

With cooking every meal from scratch,

we went through A LOT of the staples.

This has been very helpful to help us in planning for LONG term storage.

(BTW...we have chickens that we get eggs from, so we didn't have to use egg powder)

(staples)

100 pounds unbleached flour
25 pounds sugar
10 pounds brown sugar
2 pounds powdered sugar
10 pounds honey
10 pounds raisins
1 pound dried cherries
13 pounds wheat
2 pounds corn meal
1-1/2 pounds SAF yeast
3/4 pound baking powder
2 pounds baking soda
3 pounds salt
6 pounds rock salt
25 pounds steel cut oats
8 pounds rolled oats
8 pounds powdered milk
9 pounds dried beans/legumes
9 pounds rice
12 pounds pasta
3 pounds popcorn kernels
5 pounds raw almonds
1 pound walnuts
1/2 pound pecans
1 pound sunflower seeds
1 pound cashews
(1) 23 ounce container unsweetened cocoa powder
32 oz. bottle REAL maple syrup
12 ounces molasses
16 ounces corn syrup
2 packages marshmallows
1 pound Citric Acid
2 bottles Lemon Extract
(3) 8.2 ounce bottles REAL vanilla
2 liters Olive Oil
72 ounces Canola Oil
2-1/2 pounds cornstarch
72 ounces chocolate chips
6 ounces white chocolate chips
(2) 40 ounce jars peanut butter
(we also used quite a bit of Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, granulated garlic, beef and chicken bouillon, dried parsley oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and All-Spice)

(cheese/butter)

10 pounds Monterey Jack Cheese
1-1/2 pounds sharp cheese
2 pounds Mozzarella Cheese
24 pounds butter

(meat)

4 pounds chicken
8 pounds hamburger
5 pounds pork
10 pounds salmon
22 cans tuna
2 packages Pepperoni & Canadian Bacon (from freezer)

(misc.)

40 limes (limes, citric acid and sugar turned into this)
6 packages Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid
25 pound bale carrots
(2) 46 ounce jars pickles
(2) 24 ounce bottles ketchup
(2) 30 ounce jars Mayonnaise
10 cans stewed tomatoes/tomato sauce
2 bottles salsa
2 packages dry Ranch Dressing Mix
20 packages Doublemint Gum
bag of 200 Menthol cough drops

(we also went through a few cans each of pineapple tidbits, olives, diced green chilies, canned beans, evaporated milk, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and chow mein noodles...ALSO, a few packages of Ramen for our backpacker meals)
1 large bag charcoal briquettes

(I lost track of how many pounds of frozen fruits/berries we used for our smoothies, (here) but I had pineapple in my freezer from 2007 and 2008 and it is all used up and we are on this years pineapple chunks..click here for how I freeze pineapple)

(cleaning/toiletries)

(4) 56 ounce containers Soft Soap
48 ounces shampoo
48 ounces conditioner
30 ounces hair gel
33 ounces hair spray
(1) 13 ounce bottle Curel lotion
18 rolls paper towels
60 rolls toilet paper
(1) 36 count box tampons/(1) 18 count box maxi-pads
1 box of each sandwich and snack sized bags
2 boxes of each gallon and quart sized bags
1/2 box Q-tips
20 oz. mouth wash
(2) 100 ounce jugs laundry soap
1 box Borax
90 ounces dishwasher soap
32 ounces Glass Plus
12 ounces 409 cleaner
16 ounces Armstrong floor cleaner
40 ounces Bathroom cleaner
40 ounces Shower Cleaner
64 ounces Hydrogen Peroxide
3 gallons vinegar
1/2 box Bounce sheets
1 gallon CAR oil
1 gallon windshield washer cleaner

As you can tell, the past 2 weeks,
have been full of YUMMYNESS,

FUN meals and meals celebrating the veggies of the season.

Stay tuned this weekend
for the results of this years challenge
of going 19 weeks with NO major shopping.

Have a wonderful, happy,

frugal & joyful day!

Taste of Fall...

2011-10-10T05:00:00.003-06:00

Pumpkin Pancakes!

So, since Fall is one of my favorite times of the year,

and along with Fall comes lots of yummy recipes,

those of my favorite being made with pumpkin or squash,

I thought I would do some

"Taste of Fall" posts

where I share my favorite Fall Time recipes, most of which are a wonderful way

to use up the pumpkin and squash that we have in abundance this time of the year!

Today's featured recipe is Pumpkin Pancakes...

I really don't think I have had a more tasty breakfast pancake than this yummy recipe.

My kids and hubby were WOWed

over by them and we can't seem to get enough of these

light, fluffy, full of flavor, perfect and delicious pancakes.

(I just wish we had LOTS more pumpkin/squash than what we do,

so we could enjoy these ALL throughout the year, they are that good!)

Pumpkin Pancakes

(Mix all dry ingredients together)

1-1/4 cups unbleached flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

pinch of ground cloves

(Mix all wet ingredients together in another bowl)

1 cup milk

2 Tablespoons melted butter

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin OR squash puree

1 teaspoon vanilla

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

Melt butter on a non-stick skillet.

Pour batter on skillet (1/4 cup per pancake).

Cook 2-3 minutes per side.

Serve with REAL butter and REAL maple syrup!

Make up some yummy-ness for your family today that is sure to make your house smell SO good and bring many smiles to faces and "OOHs and AAHs" from your family as they eat them!

Enjoy!

The Joy of Creativity!

2011-10-07T16:30:00.006-06:00

Creativity…

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.

No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.

Everyone can create.

You don't need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty. .

What you create doesn't have to be perfect. . .

Don't let the voices of critics paralyze you—whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside.

If you still feel incapable of creating, start small. Try to see how many smiles you can create, write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space and beautify it."
(Dieter F. Uchtdorf)

I was not raised in a creative home…
my mom took her sewing to the sewing lady and if she needed an idea for a handout, she paid someone to help her do it. She didn’t have a lot of confidence to branch out and TRY anything new!
(sad to say she still doesn't)

It makes me sad to think about how she was
and I wish she would have had this quote from President Uchtdorf, to inspire her to have a YES, I can attitude!
I still remember being a teenager and hating to see her spending her hard earned money to have someone make something for her and then telling her “Let me try and help you with making a cute handout for the girls in your Young Women’s class”.
I remember feeling so much JOY as I created something awesome.

There is nothing that brings more satisfaction than to look back and at something and say to yourself
“WOW, I made that,
I created that with my own two hands”!

What a blessing the blogging world has been in my life
because it has been such a FUN creative outlet for me.

I married into a family FULL of creativity and I myself, have always felt a little inadequate…
I can’t draw or doodle and I definitely have the world's worst handwriting, I can’t look at a photo and paint a wall in zebra stripes, I can’t sew, I don’t throw amazing out of this world parties that have every detail PERFECT, I can’t play the piano by ear and the list goes on.

However,
I have always had a yearning and desire
to be as creative as I can…
I love to make homemade cards, I love to wrap a gift in a fun, creative way,
I love to make my home “festive” for the holidays,
I can bake and cook and be creative in the kitchen,
I can be creative with the way I take photos and present them,
I can be creative in the way I plant and grow things in my yard and garden AND,
I can always bring a SMILE to a friend or strangers each time I meet them.

It’s funny how the desire to create is in us and how when life gets hectic and crazy and you don’t have time to create, how there is a truly a VOID in your life.
That has been the case this past few months…non-stop dealing with all of the curve balls that life throws at you. I have missed being creative and I can’t tell you how much JOY it brought to my life to finally have a few moments to pull up my boxes and decorate my entry shelf for fall. I had yet another moment of FUN, when we pulled out all of the Halloween decorations.
Ethan was SO excited as he pulled each little thing out of the box and talked about the memories he had of the decorations.
He was thrilled when he saw it all creatively put together!

Creativity really is just seeing a pile of various objects
and bringing them together.
Such was the case with my latest creative endeavor.

Tracy has been obsessed with Pinterest
and all of the wonderful “eye candy” there is to enjoy there.
I have seen so many cool centerpieces
that have used various treats of the season to fill their jars with.

I got looking at the branches from the Memory Lane Tree
from our anniversary celebration and thought it would be fun
to fill a glass jar with candy corn,
fill the vase with the branches that I had painted black
and then to hang photos from Halloween Past all over it.

Sure enough, it all came together great…
even BETTER than I had thought it would and this
FUN thing is what is now gracing our dinner table for the next month.

SO, fun,
SO easy
and something that ANYONE
could put together!!

Feel the JOY that comes from taking a pile of random things and
C-R-E-A-T-I-N-G
something wonderful and beautiful to display and enjoy in your home,
office or wherever else you would like.

Happy Weekend...
Whatever it is you are doing, have fun creating something wonderful today!

Have the courage to follow your heart & intuition...

2011-10-05T22:00:00.013-06:00

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."

From Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech to Stanford University,about a year after being diagnosed with Cancer: (here)

What a sad day to lose such an amazing visionary and innovator...

he died way too young!

Steve Jobs...what an awesome man, who truly had the courage to follow his heart and his passions.

I was SO touched by the quote above that he gave as a Commencement Speech, shortly after finding out he had cancer.

I want to live the powerful words that he spoke

so I can be the BEST Kimmie I can be and to live my life for ME, not how others think I should live my life;

and that takes courage!

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary."

PS...Thanks Steve Jobs for inspiring us, for providing us with "Magic" that has made the lives for people all over the the world a more wonderful place, with being able to listen to music, keep in touch, get online, etc... with all of the wonderful products you were the master-mind behind!

iPod, iPhone, iPad, and many others.

I loved how they said you provided "magic", while other companies just provided technology.

It has been inspiring to listen to all of the wonderful things that have been said about you these past two days. I didn't realize that you helped in the beginning stages of Pixar and that their first hit "Toy Story" was greatly because you were on board with them.

(this is such a wonderful tribute about you here)

You are a visionary, remarkable, awesome man

that will be greatly missed!

Thanks for giving us the tools

to help us all have the courage to

"Design our Own Life"!

The Wonderful Milestone of 50 Years!

2011-10-04T19:30:00.012-06:00

What an amazing milestone it is

to be able to celebrate 50 years of marriage!

In a society, where many marriages end in divorce, OR, many people that get sick and leave their spouses to death, I think it is such a wonderful accomplishment to make it to

50 years of marriage, especially in great health!

(sad to say, I most likely won't be experiencing this wonderful milestone with my own parents,
since my father is in poor health)

We had SO much fun planning a

surprise anniversary celebration for Tracy's parents;

while they knew that we were doing something FUN for them, they had no idea the magnitude it would be.

The event was held at the home of Shane and McKenzie with McKenzie, Shelley, Genessa and Ashley working in the kitchen doing SO many things "behind the scenes".

My sister-in-law Cheryl had fresh floral arrangements made for the centerpieces and corsages, there were white linens for the tables along with colored linen napkins. It was complete with a musical number (by Lisa, Shae, Cheryl and Margaret), slide show done by Travis and Tracy, music from the 60's era, The men grilled up veggie and meat kabobs, there were LOTS of yummy salads and a variety of desserts/rolls, that were made with love by their kids and grand kids. Candace created a family tree and we all put our thumbprints on the branches for the leaves. Cheryl made up candle tins as favors for all of us and the evening ended with a family toast around a bon-fire with everyone telling their favorite memories they had of growing up.

It was a perfect and wonderful evening

and I could tell it meant the world to Clair and Josie.

(It was SO windy, the wind was blowing all of the linens off the table, so we had to move everything into Shane's shop for the celebration).

WOW!

50 years has treated the two of you great!
Ready to go inside to the SURPRISE PARTY...

I had spent HOURS and hours of time

putting together photos for a Memory Lane Tree to display.

Clair & Josie spent SO much time looking at each photo and commenting on it and the memory that they had of it.

It was SO awesome seeing them SO happy...
they were full of emotions of all kinds!

Josie's favorite quote is:

"We don't remember the days...

we remember the moments!"

I savored each and every hour that I spent with Josie while I scanned in photo after photo from their family photo albums. I treasured having heart to heart conversations with Josie while she told me explicit details about the photos and I can honestly say I had four wonderful days of "memory lane" FUN.

I was SO excited to really capture the evening well in photos...

However, before we started eating, Jade had a bad seizure and I was spending most of the time with him, making him comfortable, making sure he didn't try to stand up and fall down and hurt himself.
I was pretty stressed out, worrying about him and
feeling SO sad that he was missing out on all of the fun.

Jade is a PEOPLE person

and LOVES getting together with family and friends and he had been looking forward to this night all month long.

He was even ready at 11:00 in the morning and the celebration didn't start until 5:00.

He and I pretty much missed out on the majority of the celebration.

Thank goodness for the photos I did get and Tracy tried to snap some photos as well, in between, doing the slide show.

Jade and I were at least able to watch Clair and Josie dance for us and enjoy the special bon-fire moment.

Precious keepsakes from Josie and Clair's wedding day...

announcement, wedding tiara, garter, flower worn on Josie's wedding suit, tie worn by Clair, ring box, necklace and earrings that were a special gift to Josie from Clair on their wedding day,

Here are some of my favorite photos from my

four wonderful days of scanning in photos

with Tracy's mom Josie...

I love these two people so much...

they always bring so much JOY, laughter and FUN to our lives!

They are just like parents to me and what a

WONDERFUL 21 years of being married to their son that I have had!

What a blessing it is to be able to be a part such an amazing family...

I hope that Tracy and I are just as lucky

and make it to celebrate 50 years of marriage as well.

Here's to many more wonderful years

of health, happiness and love!