Sorry if you get this twice I had to edit it because the spelling was driving me crazy!

 Ok so I pardon the tupperware shot, but we had already packed up Danny's lunch before I decided to take a picture. I'm posting this recipe because it was AMAZING, cheap, easy, and you probably have all the ingredients in your fridge right now.

2 Chicken Breasts (the big kind)

2 cups dried pinto beans

1/2 - 3/4 bottle green sauce
(The kind I got introduced to when marrying into the Rich family La sabrozita tomatillo salsa, find it in the hispanic food aisle not the salsa aisle)

2 jalapenos (just because I had them & they we're going bad)

4-5 cups water? ( I just threw some in)

Sour Cream (lots if you don't like spice aka Will, little if you do)

Throw everything in the crock pot for 3-5 hrs on high. Then shred the chicken (it mostly falls apart) and stir in some sour cream. Serve in some corn tortillas that have been lightly fried on the stove. Or it would actually taste really good in a taco salad, or anything really.

Home Teaching? It's ok the note says "Don't worry my wife made it" :)

 It's Carrot Raisin Cinnamon Bread with carrots from our garden.

Saturday morning we drove down to San Antonio to go to the temple so by Saturday afternoon everyone was ready to get out and enjoy the beautiful sunny day. Danny and Will planted some onions we got in the mail a couple of weeks ago. Did you know onions take FOREVER to grow? We have some we planted last fall that are still not grown. No instant gratification there.

Play'n on the Playground

 When Will is grumpy and won't let me get any work done we... go to the park. Ever since he was a baby and had colic going outside makes him SO much happier!!!

Does this look like a grumpy baby to you. 

Playing with Dad

 Danny has a meeting every Thursday night so he doesn't get to spend very much time with us :( Well, tonight Will was just waiting up to say good night to dad... Ok so I'm a softy playing with Dad trumps bedtime (most of the time).

Oh yeah and in case you we're wondering why Danny wanted to get Will blocks for Christmas here's a hint...

Cleaning

 Will's loves to help do the dishes. When I'm loading the dishwasher he pulls out all of the dishes and tries to eat them. Then, when I am unloading the dishwasher he pulls out all of the clean dishes and places them on the floor. Needless to say, we rewash a lot of dishes. But, it keeps him happy while I work so we deal with it. Plus, who could say no to that face?

So I one of my friends had a goal listed on her blog to go through the fly lady program. I hadn't heard of it so I looked it up. It's this overly friendly southern lady who walks you though how to have a continually clean house with "baby steps" each day. Maybe she just reminds me of my grandma (though my grandma did know how to clean) but I was really drawn to it. So step one is to shine your sink and keep it shiny. The idea is even if everything else is a mess you have one spot to focus on and in the morning its like a little friendly "hello". It isn't very hard so it's easy to keep up, but it spreads so that gradually you have a bigger and bigger "clean" circle. btw thanks Jess!

Our almost... finished family room

 Yay! one room of our house is almost finished! Today I put up take 2 of curtains. I tried making my own curtains out of drop cloths to look like this:

But instead the looked horrible! and that ok looking curtain rod from Walmart? looked really cheap on the wall. So I pulled everything down and took back the curtain rods. I found the curtains above for cheaper than I had spent on fabric and rods for less than the ugly Walmart ones at IKEA! Fortunately, my windows are narrow enough I only need one pkg of curtains. I just cut each pannel in half and hemmed the sides. Volia!

Oh and another reason I love IKEA, I got Will a really cute stuffed snake for $0.49 :)

You can't really tell because of the lighting but our walls are now a platinum gray. It was my first painting experience and my first non white wall. Danny gave me a Lowe's gift card for Christmas and told me I could pick any color even pink with purple polka dots. (He wasn't too fond of the painting idea.) I think he's converted now!

Good ol' Texas Sunshine!

Just because I talked to Crystal while she was driving in the snow. Yes, Crys you want to move to Austin :)

A New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!


So about a month ago our bishop pointed me to this Talk by Julie B. Beck. In it she calls women to become the "lioness at the gate of their homes". As I see it my job as a stay at home mom is to create a home that is a refuge from the world. A place where my family can come to rest, learn, and grow. I think I can do better than I have been. So here's my plan for improvement.
In the talk Sis. Beck suggest organizing priorities by creating 3 lists. Things that are essential, necessary things, and nice-to-do things. I've started these lists and made goals for the year based on them. So here are my goals for 2011.
*FHE every week
*Daily personal scripture study and morning & evening prayers
*100% Visiting Teaching
*Quarterly Neighborhood Potluck
*2 missionary referrals (ward goal)
*Stick to a budget (especially grocery)
*Blog weekly
*I solid hr of cleaning everyday
*Run 5k monthly
*Journal daily to track goals
*Temple every month
*Fast with a purpose every month

So basically it breaks down to making spiritual things a priority, increase effort to do missionary work, and create a house of order. Also, in the same thinking as missionary work I've removed the restrictions on our blog so that anyone can read it. That means you won't have to log in anymore :)

Also, I found this great idea of taking a picture a day. That way you catch a better glimpse of your life because some days it's mundane and some days are more exciting. Anyways, I'm going to post them here so that at the end of the year we can get a book published. That said if you are currently getting emails of our updates and do not want to get a picture of us everyday just let me know.

Our Dead Dog

Jk she's not really dead just enjoying the sun. She has been cooped up all week with the cold and this was her first full day outside.

Mom's New Table

I built this table with a little bit of help from Danny and Will. We'll Danny was a little bit of help and Will was...  we'll a little bit not helpful. I found the plan on this site http://ana-white.com/. I'm excited to build something else now! oh the tops we're in the garage drying but they cover up all the legos and toys!

January 20, 2011

Bortsh

Bortsh, Bortsh,  Bortsh
Fun to make
Fun to eat
Not so fun to clean
But makes funky diapers to change!

Thanks for the tips Kevin!

January 15, 2011

Date Night: Sundae for Two

For Christmas my older sister gave me and Danny a box full of cheap date ideas. I thought I'd post our weekly adventures here so that everyone else can use these awesome ideas.

This week was Sundae for Two - Grab the biggest bowl you can find and 2 spoons. Then make the biggest ice cream sundae for two of you to share. Make sure it has all the toppings and ice cream you both like.


We opted to use a medium size bowl instead of our biggest since we ran a 5k today and we're feeling a little on the healthy side.

Flour Power!

Me and Danny buy our flour 100 lbs at a time about every 4 months. In the meantime we store it in old BYU ice cream buckets to keep it fresh. Well as I was filling up the buckets Will decided to help. I tried everything to keep him out of it, but in the end I decided if you can't beat them might as well preserve the memory. So here is Will messing up all of my new flour. * Sigh * what's a little wasted flour?

January 6, 2011

Coffee Table

Danny demonstrating how I built my table. I promise he only put in a couple of screws but this is the only picture we got :(

Ghost Stories!

January 2, 2011

Will's favorite activity these days is to pull everything off the bookshelves. So far he's only torn 2 books which is pretty good since he plays with them all day everyday.