Baby Geese

This morning we went over to feed the baby geese at a near by apartment complex. It reminded me of spring time at BYU when we would make almost daily trips to the duck pond. We took some left over bread and Garrett had a great time feeding the ducks. I thought the babies were so cute and fuzzy. The Mom and Dad were pretty nervous about us being there and were hissing at us. As long as we didn't get to close they were fine. JJ has off school today because of a storm that came through last night. It knocked out the power at the school so we get to have him spend the day with us today. It was fun to go spend some time with Garrett. Lucy was at school having a blast at her Easter party. She had an egg hunt and they got McDonald's Happy Meals. She said it was a great day. I showed her the baby geese and told her we will have to all go back another time.

Sunday

Sunday Lucy and I were twinners! She was so excited to be twinners with me and especially excited to have a belt to match her skirt.

Sunday afternoon we headed down to Lake Arkabutla to walk around and relax with the Sullengers. We walked along the beach area and the kids had a fun time throwing things in the water. Garrett was in heaven. We then played on the playground for a little while. I made some pineapple cupcakes to eat while we were down there. I think we will have to go back again the kids loved it.

Sunday on our way to church our tire went flat. We aren't really sure when it happened but we coasted into the parking lot at church on our rim --scrapping the pavement. We were able to just put on the spare after church was over. JJ took it in to get a new tire today and they were able to just repair the flat--yeah, it only cost $15!. There was a big staple that had gone into the tire and so they were able to just pull it out and repair it. I am glad JJ was able to take care of that for me.

2 Dates in a Row

Friday night I went up to JJ's school to have dinner and listen to a presentation from the Missouri Optometric Association President. Sometimes when I go to these presentations I feel really out of the loop with the world and works of the optometry business. I don't know any of the lingo and terminology. Either way I am always interested in seeing that part of JJ's life and learning more about what goes on, especially in life after school. It was fun to meet the president (Dr. Thompson) and his wife, and hear their presentation. His wife talked about the auxiliary committee and what the spouses do as part of the organization. They give scholarships, do brunches at the conventions and get involved in other ways. I was interested to hear about things I can do and ways that I can involve myself if I wanted to down the road. JJ seems like the type that will for sure involve himself in these types of organizations and who knows, we may just become "that couple" that will be involved together in an organization.

Here is the Missouri Club at the school with Dr. Thompson

Riding the elevator down together, we drove separate so JJ could come up early and give a tour of the school to Dr. Thompson and his wife and then to stay and help clean up. BIG thanks to Lisa for watching the kids. They had such a blast playing and going out for ice cream at sonic.

After the dinner and picking up the kids, getting them home and on their way to bed. JJ got home and I left to go to a girls night at Larysa's. She was teaching a group of us how to crochet. I actually learned a stitch, not very good but I think with another lesson and some practice I could maybe make something out of it. It was fun to get together with the girls, eat yummy food and learn a new skill.

Saturday day we were lazy and stayed home, worked out in the morning, JJ worked on the yard, cleaned the house, did laundry and watched a movie with Lucy in the afternoon. I have a hard time having lazy days, I love to get out and do stuff and stay busy. It was nice knowing that we wouldn't have much time to spend with the kids all weekend to just stay home and relax with them.

Here is a fun picture of the kids on Saturday.

Saturday evening JJ and I went to "Senior Send-off". It is a little party they have for the senior's before then send them all away on their extern's. It was fun to get a little dressed up and head out together .

They had the event at the "water works" in Memphis. It was a little store that sold it looked like outdoor living area things like benches, fountains and metal hanging decor. They had a tent set up out back on the patio where they had tables and a dance floor.

We ate a yummy dinner with some of JJ's class mates. It is always so fun for me to get to meet people JJ goes to school with. I am always so impressed with how friendly they are to me and how they are always so interested in getting to know me and my family. It is also fun to see how many of them already know so much about me and my family. It is nice to see the familiar faces of those class mates that I have gotten to know over the years. JJ sure goes to school with a lot of great people! Here are a couple group shots of us with most of the other LDS couples that attend school with JJ.

They had some senior superlatives and JJ won the award for "most likely to open a million dollar practice" . Yeah JJ. I sure wouldn't mind if this did indeed come true. I know that with JJ's background and interest in business this is something he has really put a lot of thought into. He does someday hope to open a great practice and I think with all his hard work he will someday do it. It was fun to see who won all the categories.

We then headed to pick up our sleepy kids. They had a great time playing with the Watts, Lucy looked forward to playing with them all day long! It was sure a treat to "eat out" 2 nights in a row and especially to go out 2 nights in a row!!

April Winner

Wahoo JENNY! You are my lucky winner for this month. I am so excited for you!

Things Going On At Our House

This past weekend and this week have been really nice and pretty warm. I filled up the little water table and had this empty container sitting around so I put some water in it as well. Garrett just sat down and had a great time pouring water onto himself and in the grass. We have filled up the water table several times this week and they love it.

Lucy made this cow at preschool this week, she was pretty proud of it.

The other morning while Lucy was at school Garrett and I got out the finger paint. He didn't really like it all that much and didn't like that his fingers were all dirty and a different color. After a little while he got more into it and thought it was pretty fun.

One morning it was raining and Garret just wanted to stand out there and watch it rain.

I think sometimes they can be so sweet together--I am always happy when I can catch a sweet moment with the camera.

Today we made finger/hand print bunny cards for Easter. We made enough to send to the Grandparents and cousins. Lucy remembered it from last year and was excited to do them again.

Garrett did really good letting me paint his hand and then got the hang of making a print pretty quickly. He thought it was a lot of fun, I was worried he would make a mess but he didn't.

Here are the finished products, we drew on the little faces and wrote "Happy Easter" I think they turned out really cute and Lucy is excited to get them in the mail to everyone.

After I made that scrub I let Lucy scrub her feet with me one time and she really enjoyed it. Today she wanted to do it with me again--in fact she asked me ALL day long. When Garrett woke up we filled the bath tub with a little bit of water and soaked our feet for a little while and then scrubbed them. When it came time to scrub them Lucy said "this is the best part!" She really enjoyed scrubbing her feet with me and sometimes I can even get her to rub some lotion on my feet when we are all done. I am glad she enjoys doing things like that with me, it is fun!

Planning Ahead

This past Saturday I was able to attend our stake RS conference. The theme was "joy in the journey" and they had some good speakers and classes to attend. I picked 2 classes on cooking, 1 for snacks and 1 for meals--so I got to spend most of my morning sampling foods. I am always looking for new recipes that are healthy for my family. Especially snacks I think are more difficult because it is so easy to just grab some crackers. There were some fun ideas given in the class that I am excited to try. Anyone who knows our family knows that we try hard and enjoy eating healthy food--and they also know we love to spurge and enjoy not so healthy foods! You can come over on any Sunday and find us baking and splurging on our favorite treats. I have also learned that eating healthy takes a little preparation. If you don't prepare you will gravitate towards the foods that are easy and move convenient. So last night I spent some time preparing a few new recipes that I got from the snacking class.

This is Granola, she said her kids love to eat it as just a snack or prepare it on a breakfast parfait. That is how I ate it on my breakfast this morning and it was very delicious!!

Here is the recipe:

6 cups oats

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup all-bran cereal

1/3 C sesame seeds

1/3 cup flax-seed meal

1-2 cups nuts

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup honey ( I used local to hopefully help in any way with our allergies)

3/4 cup canola oil (I used applesauce to make a little healthier)

3/4 cup water

In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients. Blend well. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, water, oil, honey, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla. Heat until hot but not boiling. Pour syrup over dry ingredients and spread in two prepared jelly-roll pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes or longer for a crunchier texture. Cool and add dried fruit if desired.

Makes about 16 cups. I figured a serving size was about 1/2 C and it is worth about 5 WW points +

One of the other ones I wanted to try was these peanut butter balls. You can freeze them, which I love. They are not the absolute healthiest thing you can eat but I figure compared to a handful of crackers it isn't that bad, plus I am all for adding some variety and a little protein.

1 Cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup nonfat dry milk

1 cup corn syrup (see I told you it wasn't the healthiest recipe, if anyone knows of a good substitute for this let me know!)

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup currants of raisins

Place all ingredients in a large bowl (or food processor) and mix. Batter will be very stiff, form into small balls.

Makes about 30, 3 WW points + (just as much as my home made peanut butter cookies, but these have raisins)

Garrett loves these and was excited to have something new, Lucy didn't like them. She doesn't like raisins. Oh well. At least my child who wants to eat non-stop enjoys something new, you can't please them all!

I have to say that it is fun to have some new things to try, so feel free to leave me a comment with something your family loves to eat for snack or dinner. I would love to hear what your kids enjoy! One thing I loved from the dinner class was a quote she had on the board " There is no magic formula to cooking on a budget. Like anything else worthwhile in life, it takes a little planning, creativity and work. But if you think of the reward-better healthy and move money, you'll find it's worth the effort" I was thinking how true the quote is as I was cooking and baking away last night, also grilling up chicken for my lunches this week. I do find it worth the effort to know that I am trying to privde healthy options for my family and I enjoy knowing that I made these foods and know exactly what is in them.