Girls weekend

As I mentioned below, the boys were gone to Cedar, so us girls had some fun too here at home - well as much as we could with a little sick Katelin. She did a lot of movie watching and sleeping, poor thing. She's doing a lot better now - thank goodness!

I had learned how to make these little flowers and turned them into bows for Kaiya. She wanted to make some too, so we did. Like 6 of them. I also made some for the pillows I was making for our couch. They are so much fun and easy. Oh! I forgot to take a pic of the bows we made for Kaiya!!! Next time. But they are the same as the ones on the brown pillow. I got the idea from HERE. But, I didn't do the twine part. I just pulled at the fabric until it was how I wanted it. So much fun.

I got some of the pillow ideas from Make it and Love it. The one with ties from HERE. And I was thinking of doing a gathered pillow like THIS, but my fabric was different than she used and it turned out looking more complicated than I was up for. So I made up my own!!! The brown one I just folded the material over and over, pinned and then sewed with a cute little zig-zag. Then I though it needed some flowers to blend them all together. Then the blue one I just decided to gather the material over the pillow and made a cute layered flower that I saw HERE on the DIY Dish. I've really had a lot of fun learning how to make new things from others and come up with a few of my own along the way. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, but I can say that I have had my pillow fix for a LONG time!

Then later on in the day we wanted to get out, so we hopped in the car with a pen and paper - Kaiya made tally marks for all of the animals we saw. Now THAT was exciting. It was pretty fun. Ya know you have to find your own fun in a small place like this where there really is no where to go. After we put Katelin to bed Kaiya and I stayed up watching Princess Bride and the next night Peter Pan. She only lasted about 10-15 minutes of each, but it was fun having a sleepover with her anyway.

Then today we found a fun scripture hunt recipe in the Friend magazine. So we all made those together while the boys looked up the scriptures to find the ingredients. Burke took pics of us girls - the girls were just being plain silly.

They just can't help it.

Boys Weekend to Cedar City

Burke's cousin, Sky, had his mission farewell today. Burke and Kaleb decided to head out Friday after school to hang out with his uncle's family and go to the farewell. Katelin had a fever and earaches (again) so us girls stayed home and had some girl bonding time also.

I asked Burke to take some pictures on the trip. He said he'd try to remember - and he did it!!! I'm so proud. Here's the boys heading out. They even took our dog Sally with them. I'm sure she was glad to be included in this trip.

Here's some of the sites they saw on the drive.


I love this picture. They are so sweet. They have so much fun together.They went and helped some people move on Saturday morning. This is Aunt Paula holding Sally. The people they were helping had this HUGE dog! I love how Sally trying to lean away from the huge thing.
And I was really shocked to see this. My little guy next to this big ol' dog. I guess it was nice, so that's why he wasn't so freaked out.
They had a lot of fun hanging out with Darell and Paula and the family, playing games, eating and just enjoying each others company. Unfortunately, Kaleb got had an allergic reaction to their cat and was not feeling so good, so they left at about midnight last night and got home at about 3:30 in the morning. So they didn't even get to go to the farewell, but they were glad they got to say goodbye anyway. Burke realized he didn't even get a picture with Sky! Silly Burke. Oh well. I'm glad they got to go though and have some boy time together.

SO stinkin' CUTE!!!

The cheerleaders from the High School did a Cheer Camp for all of the elementary girls this week that wanted to sign up. There were a couple of cheerleaders over each grade - yah, we have a lot of cheerleaders! Crazy. From the kindergarten there were six girls that signed up. Kaiya was so excited. She was a little nervous about it, but didn't tell me. The only way I knew is because she would say in her prayers to bless her that she won't be shy when they perform. What a sweetie.

Here they are getting ready to go out and perform during half time at the basket ball game tonight.
Kaiya and Jocelyn lookin' a bit nervous while they wait for the music.
Here are all of the cute kindergartners lined up ready to go. What a bunch of cuties, seriously.
Here's a video of their little dance and cheer's. She really loved it, even though she looks a bit nervous. I was so proud of her!!!

New valance

Soooo, I made a new valance for my kitchen window. When we moved in almost two years ago, these were up. They weren't that bad, just not me.

So I got this free material someone was getting rid of at the church. It is white with tiny yellow polka-dots. I just love it!


I decided to fold under the rest and make it poofy instead of just hem it up.
Why do things like this make me so happy??? Like the title of this blog people, It's The Little Things that do it for me!!!

Love Crock Pot soups!

This is one of the soups we had for lunch after Kaleb's baptism with all of the family. Everyone really enjoyed it and I promised I'd put it up on the blog. So here you are! It's my new favorite. YUMMY!!!

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 can black beans, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz size - southwest style, if possible.
1 packet enchilada sauce mix (I have also just used 1 ½ cups of enchilada sauce out of the can instead of the packet and water)
1 1/2 C water
1 can (8 oz)tomato sauce
1 can ( 10 3/4 oz) cream of chicken soup
2 C milk
3-4 boneless chicken breasts (I only used 2 chicken breasts - and I just threw them in frozen)

In crock pot, mix the enchilada packet together with the water and tomato sauce. Add cream of chicken soup and milk and whisk together until smooth. Add chicken. Pour drained black beans, drained corn and diced tomatoes on top of that.Cook on low 6-8 hours - or on high for about 4 hours. Before serving, take out chicken and shred or dice, then put back and stir it all together. Can serve with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, lime, avocado, and of course tortilla chips.

ENJOY!!!!!

This recipe also came from Real Mom Kitchen.

Kaleb's baptism

What a GREAT day! My sweet little Kaleb who was always afraid to be baptized - got baptized on Saturday!!! When he was six he would say "I'm so excited to turn seven, but not eight because I don't want to get baptized!" He was worried about going under the water backwards. Last summer we took him swimming a lot and he LOVED it so much and always wanted to go under the water and hold his breath for as long as he could. And that worry left him and he also realized the importance of being baptized. And when he would then hear Kaiya say "Oh, I don't want to be baptized" he would tell her that it is important so we can follow Jesus. He's been so excited for this day and now he's a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm so proud of him. He was all smiles that day.

And especially since his dad, his best friend could baptize him, that made it even better.
After he came out of the water he was so happy even though the water was a bit cold he loved it. When they were changing he told Burke that he wishes his head didn't go all the way under so that he could go under again! He really enjoyed that experience. :)
We're so proud of him. And I've caught him reading his new scriptures and marking them (I think just because he thinks marking them is fun - I need to show him how to do that for reals).
I sure love these two cuties!!! What a special day. I will never forget it.

Hangin' out at the HS

We had a lot of family that came to support Kaleb on his baptism day. It was really wonderful to have them all. On my side my little sis Tiff and her family couldn't come - little Oakley got RSV! Poor little thing. But everyone else came which was really nice. On Burke's side, his mom and dad and Chalei were able to come. All of his other siblings live out of state now. So we missed them. I was grateful for everyone's help. I had horrible rib pain from this bronchitis I had and went to the ER in Price on Friday. Friends stepped in and helped out and then my family came and took the kids and I was in another world it seems because all of the medication I was on. I don't remember much of Friday. I'm sure glad his baptism was Saturday so that I could remember that! THANKS for all of the help everyone. I am SO thankful for you all. I'm on the mend. Whew!

My Dad and Gail and Ryan, Erin & Q slept over Saturday night and then went to church with us on Sunday. It was SO nice to hang out a little longer with them. We headed over to the High School to look at some art Burke has been working on and shoot some hoops. It was fun for all.

Here we are in the art room. Checking out the kids art and playing around.

Everyone looks so studious!
Weeeeellllllllllll, except for my dad. There's always one goof off in EVERY class!!!!! Haha :)

Then we headed on over to the gym.

Here's an action shot of Kaiya, I'm not sure if she is catching or throwing the ball. :)
Katelin was taking pictures of everyone so they all gave her smiles - I had to help her aim on her face or the picture ended up being of the floor every time.

Cute Erin.
Dad the baller.
Gail even made a basket! Woohooo!
Funny face Kaleb, Quentin, and Katelin.
Go dad!

Go Kaleb! (Sorry I keep cheering for everyone else Ryan - it just happened that everyone else had the ball! Just sayin'.)
Thanks for staying guys. We LOVED the company.

Safety first

My funny girls decided to put on all of their safety gear to head outside and ride their scooters on the driveway. They looked so cute, I had to pull out the camera.

Katelin wore Kaleb's as you can see.

It was way to bright for pictures!

And of course they were done within 15 minutes, but it was all worth it.

A sight to see

I've been sick today. The girls decided they wanted to play with Kaiya's make-up. I said sure - then they came to show me their creations. Adorable, what can I say! Hahaha!!!

And here is our new couch I mentioned in Kaleb's birthday post below. Hurray for tax returns! Our first couch purchase. First's are fun! Even the kids love it. They were so excited. Cuties.

It's GREAT to be 8

Our little Kaleb turned 8 on Monday! What a sweetie, it's fun seeing him grow. Where has the time gone??? We did a party on Monday since it was a day off. Six of his friends were able to make it.

We started out with a target shooting game. That turned out really fun, Kaleb said it was his favorite game we played. (We didn't have any couches in the front room because our new ones were being delivered later on that day). The boys were so cute to watch as they each took turns shooting. They were so intent on watching to see how many points were earned by everyone.
We ate lunch, corn dogs, french fries, cheetos and a yummy drink. Kaleb really wanted corn dogs for his birthday, so we decided to have them with his friends. Wish granted buddy!

The guys came to move in our couches so we moved this spider web game into Kaleb's room. Luckily we were just getting started, because I wouldn't have wanted to move this:
Then we had a race to see who could string fruit loops on the string the fastest. Before that we played a game that required each team to have their own animal noise and make that noise when they found a piece of candy I had hid so that their team captain could come and get it. We had Tigers growling, dogs barking and fishes...gurgling? It was pretty funny and loud.
Here's all of the boys with Kaleb showing off what they gave him. What a fun bunch of boys.
Kaleb had a great birthday. Now he's looking forward to his baptism on Saturday. He's excited family is coming to support him in his special day.

Katelin and Sally

Katelin just loves this dog. She wants to hold her all of the time, even when Sally wants nothing to do with her. It's so funny what she can get away with - she just grabs her and loves her and plays. It's pretty cute. Sometimes we have to tell her to back off, but for the most part Sally just gives in and lets herself be loved.

This last picture she is dancing with her and twirling her around. Glad I'm not a dog. :)

Tasty Burritos

Here's another recipe for you. It's a goody. Enjoy. :)

Tasty Burritos

1 pound ground beef
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 can (16 ounces) refried beans
6 flour tortillas (12 inches), warmed
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Colby-Monterrey Jack cheese
4 teaspoons canola oil
Sour cream and salsa

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in taco seasoning. In a small saucepan, cook refried beans over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes or until heated through.
Spoon about 1/3 cup of beans off-center on each tortilla; top with about 2 rounded tablespoons of beef mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Fold sides and ends of tortilla over filling and roll up. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown burritos in oil on all sides. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

I really liked this burrito recipe because you kind of turned them into Chimichangas, but didn't have to soak the WHOLE thing in oil - just browned both sides with a little oil. They were oh SO good. Loved them. I got this from Real Mom Kitchen website. :)

Snow, again!

We have had more snow here in Green River this year then ever! I remember when we moved here everyone told us how if it did snow it just melted the same day. And that was true for us that first year. Last year it was freezing and snowy, and this year snow, snow and more snow! I can't believe it. The kids had fun in it Sunday morning before church when it was still snowing. They couldn't resist going out and making a snowman. Burke helped them finish it up. They did the whole snowman by themselves though! I was pretty impressed.

Cuties. And I think they named her Adda?

When they came in Kaleb filled up the bathtub up a little with warm water and they all stuck their feet in for a good warm soak. Nice thinkin' Kaleb! :) I love the ideas they come up with.Today it is nice and sunny. I'm ready for all of the snow to be melted already, but then we have the mud. Hmmm, which is worse?

Kaleb's scripture case

I wanted to make Kaleb a new scripture case for his baptism present. He is getting some new scriptures from Burke's parents and a little hymn book from my mom and Dave - these are Burke's oldies in there for the picture. I used a pair of my old cargo pants and some plaid scraps of fabric for this. I think it turned out really fun and boyish and nice and sturdy too.

Fun with hair

I have always done my girls hair, but really simply. I didn't know how to do anything other than braids or pony or piggy tails. My friends told me about some hair do blogs that are SO much fun. I still can't do a lot of the things on there. They give instructions really well, but Kaiya isn't one for lots going on on her head. So I stick with the more simple hair do's, and she LOVES them! I let her look through the blog. She loves looking at them and finding ones to do on her. Here's a few of the ones we've done.


Some of them I just do part way for Katelin's shorter hair. You can't see it very well, but I just did the same as Kaiya's above, but did it only up top.
I LOVE this new fun one for Valentines day. Kaiya really liked it too. Can you see the heart? So much fun!
If you want to look at some with your girls, the blogs I like are Babes in Hairland, Adopt a Do, and Girly Do's By Jenn. Check 'em out and have fun. If you're a beginner like me you'll have to find the more simpler ones, because believe me there are tons of REALLY intense ones also. Fun to look at though.