Thanksgiving 2019

Winter is officially here. And although I thought that during the week of Halloween when the temperature shot down to 20, now there’s snow everywhere… So, I guess that’s that. Only about 4 more months until the snow is gone again, but who’s counting. Haha!

Well, one positive about the snow is that we were gone in Arizona when it came! Our neighbor texted us to see if our power was out and it made me in an even more thankful mood that we were gone. Lol.

Aside from the warmer weather, the best part of our trip was that we got to have a family reunion and visit with everyone in my family (Except Angie and her family since they couldn’t come. We did get to see them this past week though which was fun!) 

We drove down on Saturday, and stayed at my brother, Taylor’s house. On Sunday, we went to church and did a small hike by their house. Right when we started the hike, David said, “Okay. Who brought the knife?” That caught me off guard but he explained that he wanted one so he could cut into a cactus and see what was in it. Haha! We had to explain to him that that’s not allowed in Arizona and he was a little bummed out, but still happy to be able to get closer to one.

During the rest of the week, we did a lot of fun things! With an entire week to spend together, we went to Top Golf, watched Frozen 2, went mini golfing at Castles and Coasters, went to the World of Illumination light show and played lots of board games and minecraft in between. 

Oh yeah, and stuffed ourselves full on Thanksgiving day! 

Another fun thing we did was have a minute to win it contest. We did this at our last family reunion and Tay asked if I could put some games together and we could make it a tradition. In the end, Tay and Christina’s family won, so they’ll be the family to beat next time! John and I will start practicing our balloon balancing and sabotaging strategies now, so watch out guys! Haha!

The drive home was like the drive there except that we gradually had to put coats back on instead of taking them off. And now we’re surrounded by snow again.

Until next time, sunshine. 

Dollar Date: Say It, Don’t Spray It!

With only a month and a half left before John’s done with his MBA, we definitely have a count down! And as busy as he is, sometimes it’s hard to fit in date night. We actually missed date night last week, but made sure to fit in a small activity together this week.

Like I mentioned before, I picked up a few fun date night things from the dollar store a while back. I left them in a bag in my closet so I could pull them out whenever we needed a quick date idea. This week, I pulled out a game I got called “Say It, Don’t Spray It.” 

I’ve seen people play this game before but had no idea there was a dollar store version of it! 

To play this game, we took turns rolling the dice and then reading whichever line we rolled while wearing one of the mouth pieces. 

It was pretty entertaining. Haha!

(P.S. I know I look crazy in that picture but believe it or not, I was trying to smile… And this is the least “serial killer” looking photo I got! Hahaha!)

At one point during the game, John kept trying to say “Pet the Pit bull Pup.” Obviously, since he couldn’t pronounce the letter “P” with the mouth piece in, it just kept sounding like “Pet the Pit bull Huh.” I understood the first half but couldn’t figure out the last word. I guessed everything I thought it could be… high, mutt, butt (sorry mom, lol.)… I was crying laughing! It was so hilarious to see each other trying to say things with the mouth piece in and the other person trying to figure it out.

I would definitely say that this dollar store date activity was a win! Aaand, since the activity only costed us a buck, we used the rest of our date night budget on dinner. So no dishes tonight!!! 

Now there’s my real motivation behind eating out. Lol.

Halloween 2019

Today is the day we’ve been looking forward to all month!

It’s the day that candy goes on sale at Walmart at midnight… Haha!

Ok, ok. What we’ve really been looking forward to is trick or treating! Unfortunately this year, it has been the coldest Halloween in Utah so far (like 20 degrees freezing). I used to think Halloween got a little bit chilly in California growing up, but after living in Utah for a while, I wish I was in California trick or treating again just so we could be warm again!

I think if it continues to be this cold each year, I’m going to have to make my kids dress up as yeti’s from now on… or Chewbaka since Star Wars is “in” again. We’ll just be Chewy’s family. Lol.

This week started off with a lot of last minute costume fixes since I decided on Monday to add some leftover sparkly tulle to the princess sleeves I put on Brooke’s dress. I also had to run to the store for a new tiara since Brooke accidentally broke hers…

With how busy we were, I didn’t get around to making the costume I wanted to put Aaron in, but luckily, I found an old tiger costume we had from when David was little. Someone at our church’s chili cook off and carnival mentioned that it was perfect for him to be Tigger since he likes to bounce a lot whenever I’m sitting and let him stand on my lap. So, in the end it was a good fit for our cute little bouncing boy! 🙂

As a side note, Aaron got his first baby tooth this week! So far all of our kids have gotten their first teeth some time after 9 months so we were wondering when it would be showing up! He also loves to eat! If he sees anyone eating anything, he will start to whine for some. He’s such a fun little guy!

Back to the chili cook off… we decided to bring chili again this year because we knew that not very many people brought chili last year and they ran out. Although I made chili on my own the last two years, this year John did most of the work and it turned out to be the best chili we’ve made so far. (I’m just not very good at making chili but I guess John is. Haha!) In the end, only 3 other people brought chili… So definitely not enough again… Either way, we ended up winning! I joked with John that we only won because hardly anyone else brought chili. That might be partly true, but we were still happy with how our chili had turned out this year, so it’s all good.

For trick or treating, Aaron was a tiger (as I mentioned), Brooke dressed up as a pink princess and David dressed up as a sheriff. We went around a shopping center near us that does trick or treating every year and also went to a nursing home in our area. The nursing home was all indoors and was actually pretty hot inside which was a nice change to how cold it was outside!

Later in the evening, John went to class (he only has a month and a half left!) and the kids and I got ready to head out. Some of our neighbors came by before we left and their kids, who are friends with David, asked if he could go with them. After David left, Aaron, Brooke, and I went around our neighborhood. We zigzagged down our street and just got to the end when Brooke decided it was too cold and wanted to go home which was fine with me! I was glad that David went with his friends because he would have been bummed out if he went super slow with us. We ended up getting back home the same time David did, but he went to at least 3 times as many houses as we did.

By the end of the night, David and Brooke each ended up with a gallon sized ziplock bag full of candy… so yeah, it was a pretty good year. And fingers crossed it won’t be as freezing next time!

Pumpkin Patch 2019

With John’s classes being so crazy this month and a final, midterm, and multiple big class assignments due this past week, John finally got to a point again where he could take a slightly slower day today. And by that, I mean that he only did 3 hours of homework in his free time today… And with the rest of his free time, we were able to go to the pumpkin patch!

I really loved the pumpkin patch we went to last year with my dad and two sisters, but as great as it was, it’s a bit of a drive to get to compared to other places we could have gone. This year, we opted for a closer Pumpkin Patch that saved 20 minutes of driving, ended up having more activities, and was in a pretty similar price range as the one from last year! All in all, it was a win.

The only downside was that an early frost ruined a lot of the pumpkins. David got one from this place on a field trip last week and it’s already a little squishy… So although we went to a pumpkin patch, we didn’t end up getting a pumpkin… Oh well.

Luckily, Walmart has a Pumpkin Patch too… Their’s just happens to resemble a large cardboard box. Lol.

With so much to do, our kids had a blast! Some of the things we had fun with were the slides, corn pit, jump pad, hay maze, corn maze, hay ride, mini wagon ride, and looking at all of the animals.

We did the medium sized corn maze which was just enough for our little kiddos although Brookie kept saying we were lost. Haha! They also had a mystery game you could play while going through the maze. It was in the style of the “Clue” board game where we would find signs throughout the maze that would eliminate suspects, weapons, and places until you got down to one answer in each category. We also made it to each checkpoint so our kids got a little piece of candy at the end!

At 4 pm Woody and Jessie along with Anna and Elsa came for pictures. At that point, the wind picked up and it started to get pretty chilly so we got a picture and headed off.

David really wanted to buy a caramel apple (Let’s be honest. So did I…) and I probably would’ve bought one if it didn’t get so freezing right when the line got twice as long! In the end, we came home and made some homemade apple pie caramel apples. Two of them turned out great and two of them just looked like the Evil Queen’s poison apples from Snow White… At least they tasted good though! Haha!

It was such a fun day to spend as a family and also gave us a good break from such a crazy week! Now all that’s left is to pick up some pumpkins to carve next week. Unless we want to take our chances with the squishy one… Ew.

Drawer Liners

This week was one of those weeks that didn’t seem like it would be too bad when it started out, but then got busier and busier as it went along. And by the end of the week, I definitely needed a nap. And got one thanks to John! 🙂

With everything going on (a field trip with David, subbing 2nd grade, 3 trips to the airport, a family dinner and game night, Halloween decorating in Julia’s classroom, not to mention posting this which just happens to be my 100th post! *slow clap* Lol.) I still somehow found time to finish off another house project.

I usually try to do one small project on the house every week. Even if it just ends up being a little spring cleaning (which honestly happens all year just very spread out and a little at a time) We are usually doing something on the house every week (like I mentioned when I posted about the gallery wall I put up).

Well, this week, I was able to cross another job off my list by adding liners in our bathroom’s vanity drawers and it felt SO GREAT!

I had been searching for a while for the perfect pattern and material to add to these drawers but just couldn’t quite find what I wanted. Then, on a quick trip to Walmart, I happened to walk past their drawer liners. (Does anyone else run in for “the basics” and end up in random isles on the other side of the store for half an hour?? Haha!)

When I saw this pattern, I decided to just go for it. I thought it was cute and fun and if I kept searching for “the perfect liners” I would probably never get this project done!

Another bonus was that it was a peel and stick liner that was super easy to cut and put in the drawers!

I just traced it on the back of the drawer, cut it out, and stuck it in.

I decided to stick it down on one side and then smooth it out a little at a time vertically instead of going from the center out like the directions suggested.

I thought these liners turned out so cute! And the best part is, if I ever do change my mind years down the road, they are so easy to change out or cover. Aaaand it was only 5 bucks for a big roll that I still have at least half left of.

I’ll have to decide what else to stick the rest of it to now… At that price, nothing in the house is safe. Lol.

Front Room Gallery Wall

I have been realizing lately that there are different types of home decorators.

Some like to change things up every so often just to keep things interesting. My bonus mom (aka mother-in-law) is like that and her house always looks fantastic!

Being in this house for 4 years, I’ve felt like I’m more of a “one and done” kind of decorator. Once a specific part of our house is decorated, I’m content with it staying that way for the next 5+ years.

This might just be because most of our house isn’t done being made over/renovated yet (I’m looking at you 1960’s basement…). But who knows. If I ever get around to finishing all my tiny random house projects, maybe I’ll actually want to change things more often. For now, I’m happy to leave the pretty places pretty and focus on the rooms that need some extra TLC.

That being said, for a while, I had the idea to create a gallery wall on the big empty wall that’s seen as soon as you step through our front door. The whole wall just made everything feel a bit… empty.

Well, I finally put all the frames up over the summer, and just barely finished getting the right pictures in the frames.

I started by laying the frames out on the ground to decide the placement and then traced them all on newspaper to decide where to hang them on the wall.

Believe it or not, there were a few times that different people thought I was doing some kind of extreme couponing in my front room… Sorry to say, I’m not that cool… Haha!

Then after painting a few of the frames, hanging them up, and switching out some of the photos that were already in the frames, I was done!

I wanted to put up “The Living Christ” and “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (two proclamations our church has come out with) since they perfectly sum up our family’s ideas on the two most important things in our lives: religion and family.

I also put up some of my dad’s photography, a quote, and some family pictures. I think the next time I switch photos out, I’ll try to fit more family photos in… Once we take new ones that is…

By the way… Sorry John for the pain that taking family photos is, but kids grow so fast!

Mom’s Soft and Fluffy Dinner Rolls

A few weeks ago I made some nostalgic BYU mint brownies… and they were heavenly.

Well, this week, I decided to make something just as nostalgic and heavenly again. Except this time the recipe didn’t include chocolate…

I made my mom’s super soft and fluffy dinner rolls!

I seriously love these rolls! They are the best dinner rolls. Period.

And up until now, I have mostly left off cooking this recipe, preferring to leave them in the hands of the true master (my mom 😊) since she always makes them turn out amazing!

That, and the first two times I tried to bake them, I messed up and ended up with a weird blended loaf of rolls… oops. Turns out this recipe needed 1/4 cup of extra flour since I live in a much higher elevation than she does now. Who knew such a small fix could make such a huge difference?!

(P.S. The recipe I put at the end calls for 3 1/2 cups of flour for higher elevation. The original recipe calls for 3 1/4 cups of flour and works great if your house is basically sea level.)

One awesome thing about this recipe is that you can let the dough form in a bread machine which saves a ton of time!

First, add the water, softened butter and egg into the bread machine’s loaf pan. Then dump the flour on top of the wet ingredients and use a spoon to create a small well (indent/hole) in the middle. Put the yeast in the well and spread the sugar and salt around the edges of the pan so it doesn’t touch the yeast. Once all the ingredients are in, close the lid and start the bread machine on the “dough” setting.

When the dough is done, shape it into rolls and place them on a greased cookie sheet. I usually break the dough in half and continue to break the sections of dough in half (or sometimes thirds) until they are a good size. This way I make sure I get pretty even sized rolls.

Once that’s done, cover them with a light hand towel and let them sit in a warm place for 30-40 minutes, until they are doubled in size.

Bake them at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-15 minutes.

The last part (that’s optional but honestly shouldn’t be) is to butter the tops of the rolls. I usually just peel the wrapper back a little on a stick of butter and rub the tops of the rolls with it. If you do this within a few minutes of them coming out of the oven, the butter melts perfectly over the top.

Having these soft rolls with dinner this week was wonderful. They definitely taste like home.

(P.S.S. Thanks Mom! ♡)

Volunteer Date Night

This week for date night, John and I dressed up like dinosaurs and chased a bunch of little kids…

We really did.

But it’s not how it sounds.

We volunteered to help with David’s school fundraiser which was a jog-a-thon. And since we signed up late, jungle duty was the only thing they still needed help with. But that’s ok. Nothing beats real life Jurassic Park bonding. Lol.

Basically, all we did was put on costumes and high five, wave, and roar at kids as they ran through the course that was set up. It was pretty fun to see all the cute kiddos (especially David) running through!

Some really fun (and cheap!) date ideas can come from volunteering. In the past, John and I have volunteered to help at a food pantry, done adaptive aquatics with children that have special needs, and even helped clean a church run pasta factory. (That last one left flour and dust everywhere!)

Depending on the location and activity, there can be a lot of time you spend talking with each other.

Also, what a great way to get to know someone by seeing how they serve? And what a great way to strengthen a relationship by working together to serve others? Plus, you might even have time to grab smoothies or a dessert on the way home. So… win, win. Haha!

Some other volunteer activities could be:
cleaning cages and bowls at the animal shelter
visiting a retirement home
cleaning up trash at a park
raking a neighbors leaves
making a treat together to drop off to someone (and then enjoying the leftovers afterwards!)

I would definitely say that not every date night should be a volunteering one, since you do need to make sure you have dates where you can just focus on each other, but at the same time, volunteering together can be a great way to switch up date night and help others as well.

Plus, who wants to pass up an opportunity to dress up like a dinosaur?

Maybe next year we’ll get lucky and try out the gorilla costumes as well! A girl can dream, right? Lol.

Jenny Skirt

It’s no secret that I have amazing in-laws. They’re fun, kind, awesome. Pretty much the dream team if you were to hand pick your future family members. Haha!

Another extra perk is revealed every time one of them is getting rid of some clothes and we happen to be up for game night. This last time, Jenny was getting rid of a bag of clothes and said I could have any of them I wanted. One of the first things I pulled out was this skirt. (Hence the title: Jenny Skirt. Lol.)

And before you think that Jenny is a 3 year old getting rid of bags of clothes, she’s not. But since the skirt was too small for me anyway, I figured that by sewing it a little bit smaller I could turn this skirt into a 3 year old skirt for Brooke instead! 

I kept the top of the skirt by turning the skirt inside out and sewing a little bit in on both sides of the waist band and then sewing the new edges down to hold them a little better. Next, I pinned and sewed down the sides making sure to leave an even amount of excess fabric on each side. 

After that, I just hemmed the bottom of the skirt and it was done!

This was a super easy, quick project and I still have enough fabric leftover I could probably make another dress for Brooke out of it if I wanted to! Or maybe something random like a pillow… We’ll see what wins when I get around to using it. Haha!

BYU Mint Brownies and School Starting!

Everyone has certain foods that bring up memories or remind them of places. And if you don’t, you should…

For me, cinnamon raisin bread make me think of my Grandma Cail’s house, blackberries make me think of camping in California, and mint brownies make me think of BYU.

Although this isn’t the only food that brings thoughts of BYU to my mind (creamery ice cream and j-dawgs, anyone?) it definitely brings back the nostalgia of walking from the freshman dorms to The Creamery on 9th and passing the tempting 33 cent brownies in their glass case on my way in. I’m sure it took a lot of combined Freshman willpower not to buy them all up every day… No wonder gaining the “Freshman 15” is a thing! Lol.

Well, now that I’m done with school and not passing the creamery every day, I don’t have to continue to be tempted by those yummy treats All. The. Time… And since BYU Magazine has published the recipe, I can make them whenever I want and choose to be tempted by yummy brownies. At least this time it’s a choice rather than a consequence of buying a gallon of milk. Haha!

I will say, these brownies are super fudgey and delicious but I was surprised by how much sugar and butter was in them. Next time I make mint brownies, I may use a recipe with less butter and sugar (even just a box mix would have less!) but still use their mint icing recipe.

The actual recipe can be found here: https://magazine.byu.edu/article/byu-mint-brownies/

Not only are these brownies super tastey, but it’s also a fun way to celebrate my youngest sister finally starting her first college semester at BYU as well as John starting the last semester of his MBA and David starting 1st grade!

I’m pretty excited for all three of them, but for pretty different reasons. David was the most excited for 1st grade so he could have lunch in the lunch room now. And tomorrow he’ll get to bring one of these brownies! We’ll have to give him his fill now so he’ll be immune to them by the time he’s old enough to attend BYU. Haha! 😉