found in my files

pizza! pizza!

We make pizza a lot 'round these here parts.

It's easy, fun, versatile, and quick.

Today, we had pizza TWICE.

Breakfast:

cheese, eggs, ham, ketchup

Dinner:

his side-chicken thia

her side-caramelized onions, goat cheese
(we fed the kids mac&cheese, they wouldn't touch this one)

funny face and ears

Ellie makes the funniest little faces.

She got tubes put in her ears on Wednesday and everything went well!

I have my happy baby back!

Apricot jam!!

My mailbox was a treasure chest yesterday!

Inside was a box that contained this:

and this:
Thanks Kodi!!!!!

(you are my favorite)

Now, let's see if this one works:

Dear everybody,

I love you so.

Please send money.

Love,

Kristen

Healthy-er-ish Carrot Cake

Here's an easy, healthier way to make a cake mix carrot cake.

(I got a variation of this recipe from my friend, Teresa.)1- box carrot cake mix

1- 14 oz can pumpkin

3/4 cup water

Mix ingredients and bake according to package directions.
It makes a dense and moist cake.

{the key}--The Wonderful World of UHF - A Tale by Paul

Here are the answers to this post. I think Breanne won by a mile.

Okay, so back to 15 years ago. We were still digging PBS. How can you go wrong with a show based on a computer game (plus the a Capella theme song rocked) “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego”, a talking aardvark “Arthur”, and a dog doing classic theater “Whishbone”. How many other places do you see multiple talking animals in one afternoon.

However, our tastes had also matured to include the following: Animated dysfunctional mayhem “The Simpsons”, nothing “Sienfeld”, serious drama about saving lives on the beach “Baywatch”, 19th century female urgent care physician “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”, Kubiac lives in a locker “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose”, and teenage aliens in Nevada “Roswell”.

A whole new set of entertainment, with some 60 channels (and somehow there were still times with nothing on TV). We watched Mr Feeny follow his students from elementary to college “Boy Meets World”, a chef kick it up a notch (bam!) “Emril Live”, Beans drive the Stevens crazy “Even Stevens”, the on again/off again of Luke and Lorelei “Gilmore Girls”, Kal-El's crash site “Smallville”, and Bueno Nourishment - food science style “Good Eats”.

We 30-second skipped our way through: crazy time-warp no answers ever confused aviation disaster “Lost”, 80's reference laced friends Sean and Gus (one of the best shows ever) “Psych”, we all have a little OCD detective in us “Monk”, prosecuting seer “Eli Stone”, death be done touch “Pushing Daisies”, and way more sweet and sour sounds of the melodic national golden calf than I would like to admit “American Idol”.

color

Color combinations are amazing to me.

Here is light/bright blue primer on red.Mystery paint color on light/bright blue primer (this one made me nervous).Mystery paint color on white.

That's right. We painted our bedroom mystery color.

2 gallons of miss-tints @ 5 bucks each -- it was too good to pass up

In the bucket it looked grey, on white it looked light blue, on light/bright primer it looked green.
Whatever color it is, we like it.

Light seafoam blue green?
It is quite relaxing (and Dallin still thinks that it is dangerous, which means that he is still out of our bed).

peek

a

BOO!!!

ASAP

Dear Momma B,

Send more apricot jam.

STAT

Love, Kristen

tell him come home

Last night, as I was putting Dallin to bed (in the sleeping bag, in our office--he's staying out of our bed this way!), we read, turned out the lights, then prayed. Then he talked. Nonstop. When he gets going fast, it is hard to understand what he is saying. So while most things were unintelligible, one sentence came out quite clear:

"Heavenly Father talk to Daddy at work, tell him come home."

The Wonderful World of UHF - A Tale by Paul

Long, long ago (okay, just 15 yrs ago...but still), in a land far far (too far) away, I lived in perfect ignorance. It was a time of Hootie (who, by the way is apparently making a comeback going country solo), the "new" Ford Mustang, and teenage awkwardness.

Anyhow, my family had only hears of the elusive cable TV service. We were living quite blissfully unaware of the multitude of programming options available. We were living the UHF dream (not the movie, which is awesome, but broadcast TV). When I was in first grade my sister and I fought what was going to be watched, Mr Rogers or The Price is Right (is there really any question)? Besides, my sister was in third grade, what was she doing watching the Price is Right anyway. One of us, the creative one, would take the knob off of the TV once set to the proper channel (PBS) and nothing else could be watched without the knob (or a pair of needle-nose pliers).

Okay, so back to 15 years ago. We were still digging PBS. How can you go wrong with a show based on a computer game (plus the a Capella theme song rocked), a talking aardvark, and a dog doing classic theater. How many other places do you see multiple talking animals in one afternoon.

However, our tastes had also matured to include the following: Animated dysfunctional mayhem, nothing, serious drama about saving lives on the beach, 19th century female urgent care physician, Kubiac lives in a locker, and teenage aliens in Nevada.

As it always does, time goes on and so does life. A few years went by, and Kristen had me pointed out to her and she thought "eh, nothing special", a year passes we officially meet and sparks fly, another year passes and we are married. Along with a new wife, comes a new apartment, and a new service called Satellite (\ˈsa-tə-ˌlīt\).

A whole new set of entertainment, with some 60 channels (and somehow there were still times with nothing on TV). We watched Mr Feeny follow his students from elementary to college, a chef kick it up a notch (bam!), Beans drive the Stevens crazy, the on again/off again of Luke and Lorelei, Kal-El's crash site, and Bueno Nourishment - food science style.

There are things in life that you will never be able to do without, once you have had them (good guess Breanne). DVR entered our life in October of 2006. The 30 second skip button is one of the best inventions of the last 100 yrs, we never watch commercials. Shows take literally 2/3 of the time to watch as they do with commercials. The 10 second skip back button also rules. Sadly, I find myself listening to the radio and wanting to skip back to hear what I missed (someone please tell me that I am not the only one).

We 30-second skipped our way through: crazy time-warp no answers ever confused aviation disaster, 80's reference laced friends Sean and Gus (one of the best shows ever), we all have a little OCD detective in us, prosecuting seer, death be done touch, and way more sweet and sour sounds of the melodic national golden calf than I would like to admit.

So there you have it. All that suspense for this: We are pulling the plug on both DVR and Satellite at the end of the month. In fact, we don't even currently have the glory of UHF. As I was cancelling I asked the rep., "What day will the service be cut off, we need to watch a lot of TV the night before. I'm joking ... but seriously, what day will it be."

To misconstrue a quote from our friend Bart, " Goodbye TV my old friend, it's time to turn you off again. (to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's: Sounds of Silence)".

P.S. While I am not as cool as my wife and can't hand make any prizes, try to guess the shows!

T minus 10 days...

I can't beleive that we are going to go through with it...

Not a baby any more

I feel like I have blinked and some how missed Ellie's babyhood. She will be 15 months old in a couple days and it is making me really sad. I wish she would never grow up! Here are a couple photos I found that I don't think I ever posted.

LOVE THIS GIRL!

XOXO

Last year we did this. This year, we going big, and romantic. We are painting our bedroom...still. Quite romantic, huh? Happy Valentine's day!

I could kiss the mailman.

He's been quite popular at our house this week.

On Tuesday, the Mr. Mailman brought a Valentines package from G&G Duncan with a bag of Snickers--which were gone in no time at all (I had no self-control--that was the first time I cheated).

Then, today, I got a most wonderful surprise: A box FULL of chocolate (m-m-m's as Dallin likes to call them) from Aleisha all the way in Italy. I LOVE you, girl. You know how to make me smile!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

We will try to ration it, but I make no promises. We all know I don't keep them anyway!

i cheated...

chocolate+blog=

a cure for:

stress

anxiety

craziness

pms-ness

sickies

screamers

I caved on Tuesday. I went one whole day. And then I caved.

Lame.

Paul kept asking me when I was going to tell everyone.

I have spent the whole week eating chocolate and looking at blogs in guilt and secret.

In my defense, I have had a less-than-stellar week.

In more defense: I finished a book, went off sugar, and blogs all on the same day. Triple whammy. I felt like someone had died (sarcastic drama).

Here is a summary of how Thursday, alone, went.

Ellie is sick, Dallin is ornery.

What's new, right?

Yesterday, as both kids were screaming and wanting me to hold them (all combined 65 lbs at once, standing) I asked Dallin-screamer in a most exaggerated way, waving my hands in the air (trying to get some humor in), "I am going to go crazy! Do you want me to go crazy?"

YES!, came the very matter-of-fact answer.

I then turned to Ellie-screamer and pleaded, "Will you PLEASE stop screaming?!?!"

She stopped. And shoved her finger up her nose.

Paul got home late from work and I immediately sent him to the store for medication, the chocolate kind.

OTHER CONFESSIONS:

1. I finished book 3 of that one series. I did like this one better than the others. There was so much more background and history about the characters and a whole lot less cheese.

2. I bought a purple vest. It was $5.

3. We haven't cancelled our Dish/DVR yet.

Man, I am getting more lame by the minute. I am a horrible person. Sorry.

4th pic from 4th file

my cousin Natalie tagged me ages ago.

4th picture from the 4th file.

this is where my horrible indecision come in.

do I look at my laptop, or my pc?

pc.

now, picasa 4th file or desktop 4th file?

shouldn't be hard, right?

i like to make things complicated.

so here are a few 4th pics for 4th files.

i love them all. baby dal at the airport picking up uncle brady from his mission in 2005
baby dal and daddy outside the temple for aunt kodi's wedding in 2005

baby dal asleep at aunt kodi's reception. i remember Laurel A. taking this photo to "document" what he was doing this night. truth be told, he slept for 5 minutes and then screamed the rest of the night.

one week

Paul challenged me to go one week without looking at ANY blogs. Google reader will miss me dearly. Although, I can still post on my own blog, for posterity sake, they deserve it ;)

I challenged Paul to go one week without sugar. Yesterday, he claimed that chocolate was like a drug to him. So, no sugar it is. Although, he thinks he can have an exception as well. He can have sugar at work.

Only one week? ONE WEEK!?!? Yes, we are weak!

People that blog: Please don't post anything life changing for a week.
Paul's co-workers: Don't bring any sugar!

Oh, yeah. I am going to go without the sugar, too. I am not sure if you will see me ever again. I might die.

It's been a good run. I love you all.

This is Kristen, signing out.

signs that I take a lot of pictures...

1. My 3.8 year old shoves a pillow-stuffed pillow case on his head and shouts, "Mom! Take my picture!" 2. My 14 month old runs at me with a toy camera saying, "cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese!!!"

{cheeeeese!}

dangerush

We figured out why Dallin doesn't want to sleep in our room anymore (finally, a tactic that works).

We've been painting our bedroom.

And trying to keep Dallin out of everything, stating time and time again to be careful, that it was not safe in there.

At about 5:15 in the AM when Dallin stood outside out door, crying, we told him to come in.

He refused. "Dangerush! Daddy seep in 'puter room!"

He refused to let me in the room, but gladly welcomed his daddy.

Apparently he cares about his father's safety, but not mine.

I am fine with that. I got to sleep in a king size bed all by myself for the next two hours.

Listen!

Listen.
Stop falling asleep.
Are you awake?
Did you hear what I said?
Then will you give me some listening cues, like, "oh, really, uh-huh" so I know that you aren't snoozing on me?

Sound familiar?

These usually come out of my mouth when I am talking to Paul. I accuse him of ALWAYS falling asleep when we are in an important, life changing conversation. (I am never dramatic or emotional.)

Last night, we found ourselves in our bedroom...alone. This is a rare occurrence because Dallin thinks that it's his bed, too. We put him in the office/storage room in our queen size sleeping bag and he thought he was in heaven. WE DID TOO!

What to do in a bedroom, alone???

TALK

AS LOUD AND AS LONG AS WE WANT!!!

It was marvelous! Until someone fell asleep.

It was me.

Guilty as charged.

A quote from Paul

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." --Hal Borland

No chocolate in the house

No chocolate. None. There is cocoa powder, but eating that would require baking something. I'm not in the mood. If I did have chocolate [kisses], and pretzels and M&M's, I would make these.

mmmmmmm.......chocolate

bloggled

Back up your blog at BLOGGLED.

If you are like me and talk about making your blog into a book and haven't done it yet, you don't have to worry about things getting lost.

Genius!

Hidden gems

I forgot I had these little gems on my phone. Little Librarian

{sitting on Sis. Pack's lap after Stake Conference, sporting her glasses}

S'up, my homies!
{shopping with Mom at the mart}

Not so beautiful....

....all the damage done by the ice. Driving on our way home from church today, we tried to snap a few shots of the damaged trees on people's yards. It looks like a war zone in the older neighborhoods.
An "established trees" neighborhood was something that we would have loved to move into. We now, however, are grateful for our 4 little, three-year-old trees.

Some people in our church still don't have power and school is already cancelled for tomorrow. At times, I feel quite guilty (and VERY grateful) that this storm did not phase our little family at all.

Here's to hoping that spring comes soon and we have other things to write about.

Shake up your pancakes!

We like to eat dessert for breakfast. Lemon meringue pie, s'mores, and upside-down pineapple cake...pancakes. So far, everything has worked out to taste pretty yummy.

Here is the basic pancake recipe that I use.

Ingredients:
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 egg, slightly beaten
· 1 1/2 cups milk
· 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
· Flax seed (optional)
Preparation:
Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. (This is where I like to add the flax seed bran. It adds Omega 3’s without the fishy taste.) In a separate bowl (who uses a separate bowl? More dishes to wash, yuck!), combine egg, milk and oil; add to flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Cook on a hot, greased griddle, using about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Recipe for pancakes serves 4.

Lemon Syrup
For “Lemon Meringue Pie” pancakes, garnish pancakes with whipped cream in a can.

2/3 cup water
¼ cup lemon juice
1 ½ cup sugar

Boil for 5 minutes.


Brown sugar syrup
For “Pineapple Upside-down” Pancakes, garnish pancakes with pineapples and maraschino cherries.

½ cup water
1 cup brown sugar

Boil for 5 minutes.

****For thicker syrup, whisk in 1 tablespoon corn starch when the syrup starts boiling.****

S'more Pancakes: Chocolate chips and marshmallows. When putting the marshmallows in the pancakes, they melted, leaving fun little holes to pour the syrup into. And, of course, top it off with graham cracker crumbs and spray whipped cream.

Steelers Ribs (Cowboy ribs)

My STEELErs won.

Funny, right? I am trying to work on my humor.

At the beginning of the Superbowl game today, Paul asked me who I was rooting for.

Isnt' it obvious?

(for 20 years, 8 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day I was known as Kristen Steele)

Truth be told, we hadn't watched a single football game in our home this season until today.

Now, onto the food portion. I wanted lots of it:

ribs

shrimp

wings

jalepeno poppers

spinach artichoke dip

veggies and dip

the works!

We were eating alone. Ellie was sick and Dallin is picky.

I didn't want to spend all day cooking a feast for 2.

In comes the "small portions" freezer section at the grocer.

Everything except the ribs.

(I accidently threw the recipe that I used away. A quick google search led me to this recipe. I have changed it up a bit, trying to remember what I did. This is SUPER easy.)

Spicy Western-Style Danish Baby Back Ribs

2 whole slabs danish baby back ribs

1 cup water

1/3 cup butter

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup dry mustard

1/4 cup chili powder

1/2-1 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place ribs on shallow baking pans; cover with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile combine water, butter, lemon juice, dry mustard, chili powder, brown sugar, paprika, salt, onion powder, garlic powder and cayenne in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Remove ribs from the oven and slather the bottom of the ribs with sauce, broil 5-7 inches away from heating element for about 5 minutes (I had mine on low, got impatient, turned it on high, smelled it burning, turned it back to low). Turn over and cover top of ribs with sauce and repeat broiling. Serve ribs with additional sauce of desired.

This recipe would cover 3 or 4 small slabs.

**I thought that the sauce tasted funny in the pan, but the finished product turned out quite tasty.