Healthy & Yummy Recipes!

You just didn't know they existed, right?! I know when the new year rolls around everyone says lose weight, exercise more, yada, yada, yada.... My quest began before then when my OB said no more sugar because my glucose test was border line for gestational diabetes during my pregnancy. I thought that just isn't right, but Randy sealed my fate by saying: "Can you NOT eat chocolate?" Nothing like a good old insult to kick ya in the butt. At that time I decided might as well make a life style change. It will be better for me in the long run anyway! Now that meant my family had to get on board, which isn't always easy. After all, I do have the pickiest eaters for kids. Everybody knows that though. I now look for recipes to try that are healthier, they might be less calories, lower GI, change some ingredients and we have added a lot more veggies to our meals. If you are creative it can really dress a meal up and make it look fancy without too much effort. So I have decided to share some of my yummy recipes that I find. In most cases I can even get my kids to eat these ones. I'll keep a recipe section on the side and update it every week or two. If I have nutritional crap for them I will add that too! Give 'em a try and don't feel intimidated if they look involved, they more than likely aren't because I like easy meals!!!

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Happy, Hoppy Easter!!!

What a fun Easter! Ciara is at the age that she doesn't know what to think but she knows it is fun! When the kids woke up, and I grabbed her to go get the camera and she caught a glimpse of her Easter stuff on the way. I thought she would see Ky and Dal looking for stuff and start copying them, but as soon as I put her down she took off for her stuff. She had watched me stuffing eggs a few days before, so she already knew there was good stuff inside and immediately started braking into them and was so ticked when I put them all up. Ky and Dal had to look a little harder for their stuff this year but had a good time trying to find their stuff. They got new bedding which was so much fun, that I have never seen them so excited to make their beds! I would have to say that the egg hunt was the highlight though. It was so cute to watch Ciara. She would find an egg and want the candy right away and we would put the egg in her bucket and start looking and she would just want to get the eggs out of the bucket so she could eat the candy. Randy finally gave her some and sure enough she got the chocolate all over her dress. Eek! Luckily, it all came out. We had a great day and the weather was perfect! I hope your Easter was great!

Who needs a Mule?


So I told you that we are starting our yard work and what a task that will be. We bought our house 1 year ago from people who had lived here 9 years and never did anything to the back yard. Let me tell you, I would love to know how people actually level out their yards. That is the yuckiest part. Randy tilled up all of our ground last week and now we are trying to level it so we can plant the grass. I was raking some of it today and it takes forever and then Randy came out and tied some rope to a large piece of wood to pull around over what I had raked. I had to take some pics because I always knew he was stubborn like a mule but didn't know he could work like one. He literally took the yoke today! He said it was a tiring workout for his legs, so I thought I would try too. I jumped in the rope with him and hello.... that is some hard work. I'll stick to the raking thanks! And no pics of me looking like an a**. LOL Oh, and for any who are wondering if you can borrow him, he probably isn't for hire unless you pay in firearms or ammo...and please don't offer!

Last Thursday I took Ky to a modeling agency and let her audition for them and they liked her and had her come back yesterday. Since she has no experience they will train her over the next 3 months and then help her do auditions and shoots and all that fun stuff. I am so excited for her because she has really wanted to do this for awhile. Randy has been really supportive for her too which has made this so much easier. She has such great personality behind a camera and has since she was a baby, so I bet this will be very enjoyable for her. They were a bit surprised to find out that she was only 12 when they looked at her app after they had everyone walk the runway. They thought she must be at least 15 for how tall she is! I wish I could slow down her growth, but I think I will just have to accept that she will be taller than me.

Huge Congratulations!!!

I have to send a huge congrats out to my sister and her family as their adoption paperwork was finally logged in to the register in Vietnam. They decided to adopt last year and have been working on it since July. Their paperwork has been sitting in Vietnam waiting to be logged and it is finally done! So now that it has been almost as long as a full-term pregnancy the labor begins and we will see how long it lasts! he he he I am so proud of them for their continuing patience they have shown through all of this. I know that they are eager and anxious to get their little Malia here. Good things come to those who wait... and wait.... and wait.....

My sister and I have also embarked on a new project of starting a new little business. It is still in the beginning process of getting things together and making stuff. We have started by selling our hair clips on Etsy.com and more will be added and we are working on starting our own web site. If you get a chance check some of it out and if you know somebody who is looking for the same kinda stuff, send them the link! beecreations.etsy.com We are really excited and hope to make this into something fun! I will keep it updated and let everyone know when the website is done! Let me know what you think...I accept criticism also!

This week Randy has been working hard tilling up the backyard. We are getting ready to start some landscaping. I'll have to get some pics and keep it updated cause this is our big...I mean HUGE project this spring. Hopefully our plans aren't bigger than our eyes or pocketbook!!! Right now it has gone from being a dirt pile to a tilled up dirt pile. Hopefully by the end of the month there will be some grass seed going in. We are thinking of hydroseed, so if you know anything about it let me know, good or bad.

Have a Little Dough!

I was given a calling in the Young Womens at the end of December to do Personal Progress. I get to go to all of the activities and have to plan one each month. This month we had a talent show. It was a lot of fun, even though some of the girls backed out last minute. I was making some chocolate chip cookies for the activity and Randy decided to share the cookie dough off of the beaters with Ciara. At first she didn't know what to do but after she got her first taste it was all great. You can see from the pics Randy's finger giving it to her and pretty soon her taking the whole beater and trying to fit it all in her mouth. It was really cute. Kylie played her violin for the talent show and did a really great job! She also did a mime with some of the other girls that was a lot of fun. I couldn't believe how quiet the room was during the mime. The leaders were even surprised and joked that we should start miming all of our lessons. They are never quiet. Even when I had to teach the Beehive class a couple weeks ago, they were not quiet. They really are cute girls though. It probably didn't help that I had Ciara with me when I taught.

Last week we had the Boy Scouts Blue and Gold banquet. It was the Chinese New Year theme so Dallin and the other Webelos did a little dragon parade. The dragon was really cool. Ciara didn't think too much of it though. She was a little frightened. Atleast it kept her in her seat for 2 minutes. Dallin received a few awards and we had dinner and had a good night.

I'm blogging some pics of Ciara at the piano. I think she could be my little piano player, she already has such great interest in it. She has always liked touching the keys when she would walk by, but now she has to sit on the bench and have music in front of her to play. She will plunk around on the keys a little bit and then turn the page in the song book to find a new song. It is so funny! She really likes a little applause afterwards too! Maybe it is just a music thing for her, cause she really likes to dance also. She always is dancing when music is on, even if you start singing her a song she will dance. She mastered the throwing game a long time ago, but she now adds her uh-oh to it. She is just to cute!

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Happy Birthday Randy!!!

Today is Randy's b-day! He is a big 3-1. Unfortunately he is in Montana again this week learning new stuff on their tools....ugh! It makes it kinda hard to make the day special, so I decided to grout the tile wall so he doesn't have to when he comes home. Wow, it looks good too! I am so impressed. It is always different when Randy is gone, but I can sure get a lot done. I still want you to come home though...so don't get any ideas of staying longer.

I sure am grateful for all that you do for our family. Life just wouldn't be as interesting without you. Thanks for being such a good worker, weird, hubby, and goofy dad! I hope that you have a good b-day even though you are away... We love you so much!

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Ice cream, You scream, We all scream for ice ...

Skating, that is. I was asked to help drive the YM & YW on Saturday morning to their ice skating activity that day. Randy was working, so naturally I had to take Dallin and Ciara too. Nothing like turning a church activity into a family activity. Dallin wasn't to thrilled about the skating part after he fell and I had to bribe him to go out again. That worked like a charm...when we left he said he had so much fun that we should do it every Friday. I don't know why Friday, but atleast he had fun. Kylie had just gone the week before with her school for having a good GPA last quarter, so of course it was nothing to her. They both did well on the ice. By the time that we were almost done, Dallin was even skating pretty fast. Meanwhile, Ciara and I watched from above the rink. I wasn't brave enough to take her out, but no problem because she was enjoying the tunes and had a great time dancing. She really is quite the dancer too. She shakes her tush and can even do a half shimmy....that is a one shoulder shimmy!!! She even has a little stomp action going on or some bouncing up and down. It really is cute!

We all had a great time, and to end all of that fun off with...there is nothing better than getting stuck in a driveway at one of the girls home when I was dropping her off. Joy, joy, joy!!! I kinda felt bad because their was a hole where the tire sunk in the mud, but I just couldn't bring myself to ruining my favorite shoes to push it back down. I know....I'm bad!!! Atleast I got un-stuck, right? (Is that even a word?) I was just showing them where not to drive their cars! LOL :)