Post Due-Date Pick-me-ups

Sooo ... I have geared myself up for a week of post due-date blues. I had false labor the day after the Halloween party, and now the days seem to drag on.

Here are some fun things we have done to fill the time:

Decorate cookies:
I invited the girls I visit teach over to use up the rest of the frosting and sugar cookie dough. We had some fun with the new sugar colors I got for Halloween :-) Pete gave my cookies to his home teaching families. (Killed two birds with one stone :-)












Caramel Apples:
I invited a family over to make caramel and candy apples. We made these last year. After I burned both the caramel and the candy I realized that this was one of the things that Pete did and I thought I knew what I was doing. Oh well .. the kids liked them :-) I was more successful when I made them with James for his birthday.













Fall Colors:
I took some pictures of our trees on our side yard. I am pressing some of the leaves for a possible decorating project.













Garage Sales and Thrift Stores:
Pete came home with a 4ft tall stuffed Homer from DI.
I would say that is one of my favorite finds. :-)









Cute kids:
Phillip and Lily I think sense that we will have a big change soon. But they had fun today when I got on the trampoline. Maybe the bouncing will help!

Halloween Birthday Party

Well, when we were trying to plan our Halloween party, it seemed like there was a college football game every weekend. And then there is the little event of have a baby in the middle of the month. So... we decided to have a family night Halloween party on my BIRTHDAY. Yay!

THEN:


















Here is a picture of me on BYU campus the first time I struck out on town in the pumpkin outfit. I had to use a pillow to fill out the costume. It was kind of hard to sit at the computer lab in the Tanner building. Pete is glad that I was silly enough to stay single until we met in Philly :-)

NOW:
I didn't need a Pillow this year :-) Great Pregnancy costume. Seven years later, married with 2 kids and 1 on the way. The good 'ole pumpkin costume is always great any time of the year :-)




























Here are some highlights:
Cotton Candy - Edible Witches Hair



















Costumes:
Best Couple costume! - Oma and Opa Wirthlin


















Scariest Costume: phillip (mummy)


















Lots of other great costumes but I was so busy I didn't get pictures of everyone!!

Doughnuts on a string:














We also did bobbing for apples, decorating cookies. We had a live Star Wars fight outside with Pete dressed as Obi Wan Kanobe (spelling?) and Paul Hatch as Darth Vader. It was pretty great for the little boys, Phillip especially, and REALLY scary for the little girls.

Melanie and I did a Skelebones dance with black lights.

We kicked off the Halloween light show at the end of the festivities.

There were about 65 people that came to the party. CRAZY!

Great times! Great Food! Thanks for everyone who came and helped out! Thank you to Pete who did a LOT of the work for the party. I LOVE parties, I LOVE dressing up, and I LOVE halloween.

Random Project - Halloween Wreath

So... we have started digging out all of our Halloween decor. Pete had found a dried gourd from DI and we had saved it to make a Halloween decoration. (I got the idea from an artist at Swiss Days). I made a Pumpkin ghost figurine.

I thought it would be cool to have a halloween wreath to go with everything. Pete had a good idea and told me to use a fall wreath that we bought at a garage sale. I wish I had taken a before picture. Anywho, I spray painted the wreath black. I took the gourds off the wreath and made them into pumpkin, witch, and ghost figurines. I won't say how long it took because it was a really random project.

It looks good on our mantel next to all of the candy decor. (BTW, Lily is the candy police and begs for candy every time someone is grabbing some candy) :-)

Indiana Jones Birthday Party

Phillip wanted a 'Snake' and 'Indiana Jones' party. Phillip is known for changing his mind. I had everything figured out and this morning he said he wanted a 'Transformers' party. Luckily he conceded with having a 'Snake, Indiana Jones, and Transformers' party. ha!

I had too many 'good' ideas. ha! I thought it would be nice to have some middle eastern food to eat. I had hummus from Costco and made tabbouleh. I wanted to keep things simple, but I ended up making pita bread from scratch because I needed a lot and they only had 5 pita bread at the store for $4 and they don't taste that good. I used this recipe from my sister, Becca's blog. (I didn't do whole wheat ... I need to get my grinder working :-) I also had falafel, cucumber yogurt sauce, grapes, oranges, and my mom brought a HUGE veggie tray :-).

I think the favorite game was the digging in the sand. We purchased sand especially for the party. I filled the sand box with fake gold coins and snakes. The rule was that if they got 10 coins or dug up a snake their turn was over. After everyone had a turn they all went at it and were busy digging for about 20 minutes.

We had a pinata and everyone got to swing on a jungle vine (Frisbee swing).

Anywho, I think the cake was one of the highlights. I got the idea from this site. Pete's sister made a cake with the barbie skirt pan. I made two chocolate layers to go underneath. I carved the cake to look like a mountain. The inside of the dome cake had a plastic cup. I added the figurines and the logo from the figurine package. When it was time to serve, I broke up the dry ice and put the piece of cake on top. I added luke-warm water to make the smoke. I think Phillip's expression is priceless.

It was a great party! Thanks to everyone who came!

Freezer Meals: Meatballs

I must be on a blogging kick lately.

Anywho, I have been having very erratic cooking "mood swings." I will go all out and make a great meal one day, then the next few days it will be either cereal, or toast. Sooo, I've been trying to figure out how to have better options when I don't feel like cooking. This is a great "pull out of the freezer meal." My only problem now is that we may have meatballs for dinner every other day :-) (p.s. don't look at my dirty oven :-)

This is my latest and it tastes really good. Oven-baked meatballs. I used this recipe (alton brown) as the base.

Here is how I modified it:

• Instead of the 3 different meats, I did one half ground beef and one half pork (ground pork or mild Italian sausage).
• I doubled the recipe so that I could have more for freezer storage.
• You can form the balls by gently grabbing some with a cookie scooper. I ended up just doing it with my hands.
• In this recipe you bake the meatballs in a mini muffin pan so that you can still get a nice crust on the meatball, without having to saute them.
• The meatball shape turns out better if you can let them sit on a plate or tray in the fridge for a few hours. I tried some that were freshly rolled, and they ended up looking like meatball mini-muffins. I guess they still will be good once you cover them in sauce.

Once baked, let them cool then keep them in a zip lock bag in the freezer.

To unthaw, let them simmer in some marinara sauce. (You could also microwave them if you are in a hurry.

They may cost a little more than Costco meatballs, but they taste WAY better.

Anywho, I must be in the nesting phase of pregnancy. Right now Pete and I are painting all of the doors in the house. :-)

Canned Peaches ... I did it!

So, I was inspired by my sister Emily's blog post last year when she canned peaches (notice how many jars she made!!) I stopped by a stand on the side of the street and the lady wanted $20 for a bushel. I figured I'd just get the fancy canned peaches from Costco instead. Later in the week I noticed my one neighbor had a pair of peach trees which were full of ripe peaches. I traded 18 eggs for a bucket of peaches. I picked the peaches at 2:00 PM and I have been working non-stop on cleaning, pealing, cutting, and processing the peaches. Here is the result of my LABOR day. 10 quarts of peaches.

Sooo... I couldn't get a hold of my canner experts while I was doing this, so these are some of my questions

When you process cans do you process them with the lid only, or lid and screwtop (not tightened all the way?)

How do you transfer the pot AND jars from the stove? It was so heavy! (Pete had to help me because I knew that I would end up a burn victim if left to my own devices)

How can you get canning done without having aching feet and back? (I guess I am 8 months pregnant). I wish I could have filled more cans, but I was physically spent by the time I was done with my two batches.

Do you do a hot or cold process for peaches? I did both, but I think the peaches that I did the hot process look kind of mushy.

Anywho, I may pick some more peaches and make some jam later in the week... Maybe.

Most Improved Wall

Before:














After:













When we bought our house, we knew that we would eventually renovate the basement. We would always say, "yeah, this is our dated basement." Most people would say it was a great space, 'retro' etc.

Now that we renovated, almost everyone has said, "THAT was the UGLIEST fireplace" or "That was the most atrocious wall!" My favorite comment was from Pete's mom who said she was so glad that we got rid of the "Dinosaur Toe Nail" tiles that were under the cast iron stove.

So after a lot of hard work and adding a new glass tile surround, I think we have our MOST IMPROVED Wall! :-)

We are making headway on our projects before the baby comes :-)

The Summer Went TOO quick!

I know that I don't have kids in school yet, but it's crazy that all of the kids are going back to school. Here is the picture of Phillip and Lily before their first day of pre-school. I liked Phillip's face. He doesn't do very well with 'posed' pictures.

We've started some fun projects. We are already working on some of our Christmas and Halloween light show items. I think we are a little bit different than most people. We went to the Dollar store to see what Halloween stuff they had. While we were there there was a lady that saw the Halloween stuff and said, "Gaah... Halloween isn't for another 2 months!"

We had a pretty good garage sale yesterday and last week. I got an exercise ball, some clothes for Lily and the baby. Pete got a bunch of tools and even a witches weather vain. I think the problem with us and garage sales is that most people would see a witches weather vain and think 'junk.' For us it is a GREAT find. :-)

Here is my current project. Hopefully it will help justify our garage saling habit. Selling stuff on Ebay. These are a few items that Pete picked up at DI (except for the dental tools). Maybe I can put some of the money towards our new favorite product we saw on TV. HA!! I saw the commercial and thought it was the funniest thing!

Anywho, just trying to get some projects done and not get too big. (it's kind of hard when you get fried cheese curds from A&W once a week). :-)

Summer Recap

Well, It has been a while since I posted an update. I seem to be getting more tired and bigger by the day. It's funny how I don't seem to be as much of a shutter bug when I'm pregnant.

Here's a recap of our summer highlights:

Lagoon:
We got Lagoon passes this year. I've gone with just me and the kids a few times. We've also gone as a family a bunch of times. I think it was worth the investment as we have already gone 7 times and still have the last few weeks of Summer and then Frightmares.

Phillip's favorite ride is the "Terror Ride." He doesn't get scared. I guess he kind of likes the thrill of the scary figures. Phillip really likes the big rides. He went on Tidal wave and the Red Dragon ride. Next year it will be fun to go on the big rides with him when I'm not pregnant.

Fireworks:















We got to watch some good firework shows for the 4th of July and Pioneer day. Good Food, Fireworks, glowsticks, and sparklers :-)

Parades:
We did the Centerville kids parade for the 3rd of July. Phillip loved riding his trike in the Parade. We also went to the Bountiful parade for Pioneer day. Phillip thought that he was going to ride his trike again. I think the Bountiful parade was the hottest I was ALL summer. It was well above 100. Luckily we were in the shade :-)

Basement Project

Main Room Before:


















Main Room After:












Toy Room
Before:














During: See the following picture of Pete working on the newly cut window.

After:













Kitchen Before:














Kitchen After:







We are on the home stretch with our basement remodel. We have new carpet which has made the BIGGEST difference. We chose a low pile pattern carpet and the carpet guy said that we should probably remove the linolium tile that was underneath the old carpet. WOW! What a job! There were 3 layers of linolium to pull up. Once that was up, it exposed this black tar that was originally used to glue on the linolium. Needless to say, while we were painting the walls and trim we ended up getting tar stuck to our feet and legs. I showed up to church one sunday with paint and tar all over my legs without knowing it!

I have to say, eventhough it has been stressful, I am glad we did it. I didn't take many pictures along the way. I dug up some pictures that I took during our walk through of the house. It's amazing how much brighter everything is.

The kitchen is still in progress. We saved the bar stools and will have a bar with the stools secured into the floor. I found the table set on KSL last weekend. It's in great condition and the red matches the little red side chairs that gave me the diner kitchen inspiration.

Boating & Swimming

We have gone swimming a few times and did go boating with Pete's family. I have had the hardest time with Lily. Her skin is so sensitive, that I either miss a spot and she gets sunburned, or I go crazy and she gets sunblock in her eyes. FYI, the "TearFree" sunblock label should be used with a grain of salt. Lily started crying after rubbing in some sunblock in her eyes.

Summer Fun!!

We've had a busy summer of projects but are still having time for fun.  The Trampoline has been GREAT!! Phillip LOVES to jump on the trampoline.  Lily loves it too.  She makes me nervous when she runs straight to the edge and sits on the bum right before she gets to the edge.  Phillip loves to do tricks.  Here is a picture of him doing a 'kung-fu panda' move.

Lily is showing off her love of shoes.  Here she is in one of my 4 inch heals and some BCBG flats.  She'll go and play in her play house with her babies, cookie cutter bracelets and wear my shoes.  I keep buying shoes for her at garage sales because she seems to have a talent for hiding her little shoes around the house.  

We haven't gone swimming much this summer.. the weather and projects seem to get in the way.  It doesn't mean we aren't ready.  :-)

I was telling Pete, "I don't know what's with me this summer.  Last summer I had tons of barbecue parties, and play-dates, etc.  This summer I haven't done anything and I'm still tired."

He said, "yeah, you're pregnant."  Ha!  So far so good!  

Saturday Morning Ritual: Garage Sales

Well, this morning we were out the door with both kids at 8:00 AM.  We usually start south in North Salt Lake and make our way north to Centerville.  There is a girl in my neighborhood who goes garage sale shopping every week too, and we usually see her.  On our way to Bountiful we will stop at the Corner 22 gas station and get a fountain drink and some treats for us and the kids.  

Because of other plans and Pete working, we haven't been able to go garage sale shopping for a long time.  We definitely made up for it today!!

My favorite finds:

• American girl bitty baby doll with a carrier and outfits ($10).  Lily was reaching for it and I let her hold it for a little bit.  When we were leaving I had to take it away from her and she had a FIT!! I realized it was an American girl doll, and then I probably wanted it more than Lily.  I'm saving it to give to her before the baby comes.
  
• Trampoline ($50) - It's a pretty big one and was in really good shape.  The kids are a little young now, but I'm sure they will like it!
  
• Little table and chairs ($5) - I really like the colors even though it's a little worn.  I debating whether or not to paint it into a little girl table.  
  
• Animated Scripture Series ($10) - I was about to buy the same thing at a garage sale for $70 a few weeks ago, but couldn't justify it.  I saw it again and bought it.  It wasn't a complete collection but was glad to have most of the videos.  We then saw another garage sale that was selling them for 25 cents a piece and I was able to complete my collections. Even-though it's VHS, I'm glad to have them.  
• A sled - free - I wanted to go sledding with the kids last January and couldn't find one at the store.  Now we have one for next year.

Pete's favorite finds:

• Weedwacker - He got 2 for $2.  He got two in case there were missing parts and he needed to fix it.  This is something we were going to go out and buy
  
• A animated nativity music box - We both love christmas stuff!  We tried it out and it has all of the pieces and Phillip was fascinated with it.
  

We got even more stuff from Pete's sister's garage sale: Bike kid seat, extra car seat, and some baby toys.  I also bought some little toys, spider-man t-shirts, a chicken salt-and-pepper shakers (something EVERYONE needs) and a pair of shoes for Lily.

Wow! what a day!  

Our Backyard Surprise

Pete came home the other day and saw a family of deer grazing in our backyard. Scroll down to see a picture.


































Ha!! Pete played the same joke on me and I thought I would try it in our blog. We picked up 3 more reindeer at DI. We now have 9 reindeer, ha! Enough for Santa's Sleigh. We may have to display them in our backyard until our basement is finished. I think they look pretty classy :-) I thought it would be nice to send some power to the deer so they light up at night. Christmas in June. Maybe our neighbors will want to replace the chain-linked fence. HA!!

Here's Phillip, their cousin Brinklee, and Lily sitting by another Christmas find. We had some time before my Mom's birthday party so we drove around their neighborhood. They had the 'Spring Cleaning' trash day and we found a home-made light-up christmas tree and candycane on the side of the road. Pete knocked on the door and asked if it's o.k. if we took it home. It turns out they are friends of my parents. Ha! Someone's trash is another person's treasure!

Lily seems to be more like a little girl than a baby lately. She LOVES her babies and tries to take them everywhere. She LOVES shoes and is always wearing mine or Pete's shoes around the house. She even says, "sh.." for shoe. Her new favorite thing to do is to get cookie cutters out of the drawer and wear them as brecelets.



















Phillip is funny as usual. I can't seem to get good pictures of him lately. I say, "Smile" and he looks at the floor. I say, "Look at the Camera" and he looks at the sky. ha! I guess I have to be satisfied with candid shots. Phillip got some new sandals and always wants to go on walks. He said, "Mommy lets go bumping." I asked what was 'bumping?' I turns out 'bumping' is jogging because it makes your body go bumping up and down.

Honey Teriyaki Chicken

Well, I am at the half-way mark for the pregnancy and feeling good. I wanted to get better at grilling this summer. I finally figured out how to grill without the outside getting too burned ... still learning though. :-)

This is a Tyler Florence recipe for grilled teriyaki chicken. It turned out really good. I think it would be easier to buy a bunch of wings or drumsticks. That way you don't have to worry about cutting up the chicken breast and leg quarters. We added some red peppers to the grill to have some vegetables.