Taylor's Birthday Interview

Birthday Boy

How old are you?  Two , no three.

Who is your best friend? Madeline

What is your favorite thing to eat?  Cake

and Carrots, and hot dogs (even though he hardly ever eats hot dogs)

What is your favorite movies? Cars

What is your favorite toy? Rabbit (the toy he just happened to be holding in his hand, he calls it Nicholas even though it's a girl)

Who is in your family?  Mommy, Taylor, Daddy, and Hannah

What is your favorite thing to do? Walk (translation: go on walks)

Pumpkin Patch

 Our neighbor invited us to go to the pumpkin patch in Springville with them.  It is owned by Harward Farms and has lots of free activites.  A petting zoo, a hayride, a corn pit, and two hay mazes.  The weather was a perfect 70 degrees.  It was a GREAT day!

 Taylor, Hannah, Luke, and Thomas

It's kinda cute, Thomas and Hannah play really well together.  And when Thomas saw me with the kids the other day he asked, "Hannah?"

These kids all get together at least once on a week.  On Wednesdays, Nicky and I work on quiet books for the kids while they play.  And than we all have lunch together.  And on Thursday mornings we go over to her house again for Toddler school.  Nicky took these pictures and she also has another little boy who is 9 months old.

This handsome devil just turned 3

BROTHER AND SISTER

Taylor and Luke exploring the hay maze.

 PRETTY GIRL

 Here we are modeling my new hair 

King of the Pumpkins

So much for warm weather, winter has officially hit and we won't see the 70's again until next year.

Home Cookin'

Lately, we have cooking up a storm making Applesauce Muffins, Apple Butter, and Hamburger Vegetable Soup.  My house smells amazing and needless to say with the cold front I haven't ventured outside much the last few days.




Thanks, MoneySavingMom!


I still have a laundry basket full of apples on my side porch and about 4 pumpkins to process.  I really have become super housewife.  But when you have more time than money you get creative and it can really be fun.  Except Applesauce muffins don't last more than a few days around here (:

I have gotten into canning more this year. Tomatoes grew with a vengeance this summer and I had at least 6 bushels between our plants and some from Brian's parents.  I canned about 28 quarts of tomato sauce, 5 quarts of tomato juice, and about 20 pints of diced tomatoes.

And than there are the green beans, 50 pints later we are fully stocked.  We borrowed my mother-in-law's  pressure cooker and now my Grandma Payne is going to let me keep hers at my house.  The next couple things I am going to try pressure canning are chicken and beef/venison stew.

I almost forgot ,with all those tomatoes there were still a bunch that never ripened before the first frost.  And this is how we discovered Green Tomato Curry Sauce on Rice, the kids and and I really love it with just some cheese and coconut on top.  We are now out of it and I am so sad.



Thanks, Mavis from One Hunderd Dollars a Month!

I hope you are all eating well.  Please, share any yummy and healthy resipes you have cookin' up this fall.

Happy Pioneer Week

I will start posting more but for now here is our menu plan for this week.  There is nothing fancy just making do with what we have without having to make a big trip to the store. We are going on a family reunion trip the second week in August and need to eat extra food we have in the house.

UPDATE: WE TRIED TO MAKE THIS OX AND WAGON FOR TODDLER SCHOOL AND IT WAS A TOTAL FLOP.  I GUESS YOU COULD HOT GLUE IT SOMEHOW BUT I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THE WHEELS TO STAY.




Here is a link to Fun Pioneer Day activities like the one above.

Monday
Lunch - French Dip sandwiches and carrot sticks
Dinner - Sloppy Joes, corn, and fruit cobbler

Tuesday
Lunch- Sandwiches and fruit smoothies
Dinner - Broccoli, cheese, seasoned plain yogurt(with a little bit of garlic salt) on baked potatoes

Wednesday-
Lunch- Taco Soup and salad
Dinner - Hot dos with J-Dawg Sauce and watermelon

Thursday
Lunch- Leftover Taco Soup on potatoes
Dinner- PB&J and peaches

Friday- 
Lunch - eat out
Dinner - Ward Campout dinner

Things to make:
Brown meat for Sloppy Joes and Taco Soup
Bake potatoes
Cut up carrots
make cracked wheat
Lemon Zucchini Bread
Pumpkin muffins (minus chocolate chip :(
waffles
homemade french bread

I haven't always been good at following a plan.  But even though I'm not I always do better when I plan something out.  So we will see how it goes.  Looking at other people's menu plans, I am amazed at how simple most meals really can be.

Menu Plan

Chili and Cheese Casserole
Cream of Potato Soup(you make this in a crockpot) and Salad
Curried Lentils and Rice

Menu Plan Jan 23-Jan 29

Looks good, huh?

Menu plan, here we go.  Here is a start. In case, you are wondering why we are eating a lot of the same things it is because I am participating in the Pantry Challenge this month.  A pantry challenge is where you still go shopping but you  try to focus on using up what you have on hand.  It has taken me awhile to gt into the swing of things so I might be working on the Challenge for a few months.

Lasagna Casserole (same as last week but my family loves it), green beans
Sloppy Joes, Au gratin potatoes, salad
Homemade Pizza
Chili and Cheese Casserole
Cream of Potato Soup(you make this in a crockpot) and Salad
Curried Lentils and Rice
Dinner out with my Man
Raspberry Oatmeal Smoothie
Buttermilk Blueberry breakfast cake another repeat (:
Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal
Mcdonald's with the kids
Subway with Grandma Merkley

Goals and Slowing Down

So this year, I am trying to get a running start on all of my goals.  At the same time, I keep telling myself to slow down.

Our "plans" need to broken down into bite-size chunks. And we need to regularly be reworking and re prioritizing our plans as life changes.  After all, the unexpected always happens; actually it is starting to become expected round here.  How about you how do you plan for the future?  Babies, house projects, busy schedules, holidays?

Being a mother of young children is less busy in a lot of ways;  I am enjoying slowing down after the holidays and reflecting on my journey.

Little Moments

I am wanting to keep a better record of all the things my kids are doing.  The last two weeks I have started to feed Hannah baby food.  First, she tried oatmeal, then sweet potatoes, carrots and today green beans.  Today she was so hungry she ate almost two full containers in one sitting.  And she is packing the weight on.  In about two weeks she goes in for her two month appointment and I'm excited to see how much she has grown!

Here is Hannah's first time eating (sorry about the orangey lighting).

Ok, one more cute story.  Yesterday morning, while I was getting ready my 2 yr old boy, Taylor, comes up, pats me on the butt and says, "Mom, you're cute."  Haha, Dad, he's watching you!

Menu Plan

I will attempt Menu Planning again; this is not my strong suit so bear with me. Mainly, I am doing this to motivate myself.

Breakfast
Buttermilk Breakfast Cake
Homemade Instant Oatmeal
Peanut Butter Pitas and Yogurt with Blueberries
Cold Cereal and Apple Slices
Baked Oatmeal w/ raisins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins
Toast  and eggs


Dinner
Tacos and Pineapple
Lasagna Casserole and green beans
Meatloaf and Corn on the Cob
Bbq Chicken Sandwiches and carrots
marinated steak, mashed potatoes, green beans
Pizza and Salad
Curried Lentils and Rice

A Look Back - Taylor's birthday - 11-07-2011

Taylor's birthday is like an early Christmas around here. Let the spoiling begin!

We went to Toys R' Us. I, Mom, got him Tag Jr. with two books and Brian/Dad got him the movie Happy Feet and a penguin stuffed animal "Eric." He loved all the singing and dancing in the first movie. Just this past weekend we saw Happy Feet 2 in the theater and he sat through the whole thing. Anything with singing he loves. At church he tries to sing along to the hymns and has fun singing in Nursery.

Sibling Love

Aren't these two cute? I do have two beautiful miracles. Life is getting easier now that sleeping schedules are being established. However, speaking of sleeping schedules I need my sleep too. (: