Fabulous!

PAPAGO PARK:
When the zoo is more crowded than Disneyland, what better to do than hike the Papago Park rocks!

Boob decided she needed to climb down the rocks rather than taking the trail. You can't tell from the picture below but the rock suddenly drops...and she was stuck.

Thank goodness she had Adam and Joey there who were willing to sacrifice their bodies as a ladder for her to climb down on.

SPRING SHOPPING:

Boob and Ro. Enough said.

MOM KOMENDA's BIRTHDAY:

We love you and hope you had a wonderful birthday!

She was SO excited for her new chickens and chicken coop!

Today was absolutely splendid. I did some much needed deep cleaning. All day the windows were open, a breeze was gently blowing, and I felt full of renewed energy.

Then tonight I made cookies...I LOVE baking.

I was so excited at the end of this spring day to finally update my blog. I had pictures of recent events and stories to tell. I popped my little memory card into it's little slot on the computer, sat back, eyes wide, fingers ready to click and type........

and nothing happened :(

For some reason my computer won't read my memory card right now.

No worries.

I shall try again soon.

So for tonight I leave you with one of my favorite memories from our honeymoon.


Love it!

Much spring love from our home to yours...

Goodnight!

Una Fiesta en Mi Boca

I have been searching for new recipes lately; specifically for ones that veer from the norm yet are not too complicated. In my searchings I found a cookbook given to me by Sister Matheson, my singles ward Bishop's wife. I decided to give one of her recipes a try tonight. The recipe looked yummy, and not too intimidating, and it involved ingredients that I had actually heard of :)

And it turned out so good! I love finding a new easy, yummy recipe, so I thought I'd share it here. It's really not too complicated and maybe you've made something similar. It resembles taco salad except it's served cold with a salad dressing.

Southwestern Layered Salad
In a skillet, brown some ground beef, and cook it until it is done. Then salt and pepper it to taste.

In a glass (so you can see the layers) salad bowl, layer the following ingredients in the order given:

Torn/shredded lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Corn niblets
Black or kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
Browned and well cooked ground beef
Grated cheese
Sliced olives
Sliced green onions
Diced avocado

Do not toss the salad. Keep it in the layers, and serve it with tortilla chips.

Serve with Fiesta Ranch Dressing (recipe follows).

Fiesta Ranch Dressing
Mix together:
1 package Fiesta Ranch Dip Mix (it is a dry mix located with the regular dry ranch mixes near the salad dressings).
1 cup mayonnaise
2 cups buttermilk (or more depending on how thick/thin you want the dressing)


And that's it! The dressing was very yummy. But just a note, it makes about 30 oz of dressing so be prepared to have a lot of left-overs! I just stored my extras in an old spaghetti sauce jar and it filled the jar to the top! I wish I would have taken a picture of the salad before we devoured it...Eric did a beautiful job of arranging each layer and it looked delectable!

Just dance, don't be afraid!

Heather turned 16 last Saturday and we had a "16th Birthday Bash". Heather turned 16 the same weekend as 3 other kids in her ward turned 16. So we threw a huge fiesta for all of them! And boy did we rock it!

Prepping for the party. Ro did the hair, I was on makeup duty.

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The kids played several games at the party. One was the "survey game" (I don't know if that is really what it was called, but it consisted of a survey and nothing else, so that's what we'll call it). When each kid arrived at the party, he or she had to fill out a survey (one for the boys, one for the girls). The survey was a page of questions like "what is your favorite type of food?", "what is your idea of a perfect date?", and "what is your best pick-up line?" The kids were instructed to not put their name on the sheet. After each person had filled one out, the 2 birthday boys took the "girls" surveys and each picked their top 3, and the 2 birthday girls did the same with the boys' surveys. The people who had answered the winning surveys got a prize.

The boys reading the girls' surveys.

The girls reading the boys' surveys.
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After the "survey game" the kids played the dating game. Five eligible boys were picked from the group of fifty 16 year olds (there was really 50 of them, I counted). The 2 birthday girls were sent into a different room that was within ear shot. They each had a list of questions to ask the 5 boys. Each boy had a different person answer his questions so as to not give-away his identity. At the end of the round of questions, each girl chose the contestant with whom she wanted to go on a date with. The same process was then repeated with the 2 birthday boys and 5 eligible girlies. The 4 couples won an all expensive paid "first date package" put together by the parents. The 4 couples will go on a group date together for each of their first dates.

This is just 1/3 of all the kids there. My camera lens couldn't catch the span of kids. They were everywhere. 50, I'm not joking.

The 5 eligible boys.

The 5 girls.

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At the end of the night the kids played a game called "keys". There is really no technique or skill, or real point even, to this game. Boob, Ro, and I decided that it might as well be renamed "The game where deprived Mormon kids are allowed to get close to each other." Basically, one person holds a set of keys. Everyone else sits around that person in a big circle. The person with the keys calls a person from the circle, and that person has to come and somehow touch the person holding the keys. Then that person calls another person to come touch the key holder. And so the game continues, until these kids are literally piled on top of each other. When the person with the keys drops the keys, everyone has to scatter back to the outside of the circle. The last person to get back to the circle has to be the person in the middle with the keys.

Now, each person touching the key holder could very easily just lay one finger on the key holder, but for SOME reason, these kids had to be between legs, upside down, twisted around each other, and bending over backwards. I'm still confused.

The beginnings of one round of "keys". Notice the twisting, bending, and contorting.

The children scattering after the keys are dropped.

Boob, Ro, and I playing our own game of "keys". We had to understand the thrill.

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With all the food, music, and games, the party was loads of fun. Happy Birthday Heff! I hope you had a super sweet 16!

How sweet it is to be loved by you....

We had a wonderful weekend.

I was wooed once again by my darling husband. Roses at work, a card that made me cry (a happy cry), sparkling cider, and a romantic dinner.

I'm not a huge Valentine's Day die hard, but I don't think it's a bad idea to have another reason to celebrate love.

On Sunday we ventured over to Peoria. We had a fiesta with my mom's side of the family. I could sit around and visit with family all day long...and do nothing else...and be perfectly content and happy. I love it.

Today, on this President's Day, I've decided that I've finally reached the point where I'm going stir crazy on my days off and I need to pick up a hobby. I've decided to teach myself how to quilt. I think it's easier said than done, but I'm determined to try. I would welcome any tips and/or suggestions that anyone may have. I could use all the advice out there :)

I'm in love with decorating the house for holidays. So today I took down all of my Valentine's Day goodies, and covered our house with green for St. Patrick's day!

I purposely took my camera with me everyone we went this weekend. And I didn't take one picture :( I promise to do better!

Happy President's Day.

And then there was 3...

Guess what?!?

Eric and I are going to be an uncle and aunt...again!

My brother Austin and his wife Kelly are expecting their first baby this fall.

And I'm SOOO excited!

This is will be the first grandchild on my side of the family. My mom still crys with happiness everytime we talk about it...she is also SO excited!

September couldn't come fast enough!

Just because I need to satisfy my cravings...

I have been craving blogging lately. It's not like I don't get online everyday to check my blog/other people blogs. But I haven't had anything to write about. And I'm craving a recent post. So this post will mostly be for me (and my cravings) and second mostly for my mom (because I'm pretty sure she's the only one who cares about our boring, yet pleasant and wonderful life.)

So we've been up to pretty much nothing lately but it's been fabulous non-the-less. I felt super spoiled having Eric home for a month over Christmas break. We had lots of fun hiking the mountain (our new hobby!), going out to breakfast, going to the temple, baking, and being lazy together. Now that school started again a couple of weeks ago, I feel somewhat selfish, wanting him home all the time.

Work is going very well. We've had an uneventful (which for my job means good!) start of the new year. I started chemo class today and am nervous (yet excited!) to be a "chemo provider". The course is a series of 4 class, so I will go once a week for the next 3 weeks, then be checked off by another nurse on the floor, and then boom! Next thing ya know I'll be giving chemotherapy :)

We've been looking for a new car for a few weeks now. Still no luck...

For my birthday weekend, we're going to DISNEYLAND! This is probably the highlight of my life right now. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Disneyland. So excited!!

I've been in the mood for baking lately. Last week I made banana muffins, "girl scout thin mints" (which turned out to basically just be chocolate cookies), and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. If I could bake something everyday, I would. I love it!

That's about it for us. My goal is to blog about our everyday fairytale once a week. We are so grateful for our health, strength, home, job, education, but most of all our each other and our families. Sending lots of love!