State Fair

We really wanted to take the kids to the state fair this year, and we're sure glad we did! The girls had an absolute blast looking at the animals, playing, and eating fun food!





Aiden kept pointing to all the animals and, just like the zoo, got frustrated when she couldn't touch most of them. She got her hands on one or two, so that ended up appeasing her! Katelyn loved petting the animals. She also thinks that we need to get our own goat. Why a goat? No idea! She just wants one something fierce now!





The girls loved playing at the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit. Aiden was so excited to have her own little bucket and play right along side her big sister! Katelyn was having so much fun, she kept trying to sprint an exhibit ahead of us! It was just too much fun for her! When they got done "working on the farm", they each got to pick out a treat. Katelyn got cereal and Aiden got her favorite, crackers!











We spent a few minutes looking at booths and what not, but that never lasts long when you have the kids in tow! We decided that it was time for a snack and we headed off to get some twisted taters (aka ribbon fries)! For those of you who don't know what those are, it's essentially a big potato thinly cut into one giant ribbon of potato, fried up like regular french fries, and fun to enjoy! They're one of my favorite things to get at the fair. In fact, I know EXACTLY where the booth is each year! ;) We all dug in, but of course, Aiden was after them more than the rest of us! She'd scoop some off of the plate, take a bite, and head back to the plate for more long before what she had in her hand was gone! The girl knows good food when she sees it!





I love being able to do these fun things that only come around once in a while with my family. Reminds me of when I was a kid and even makes me feel like a kid!

Live List: Anniversary Picture

So, I've got some serious updating I need to do on my Live List. I just need to sit down and let you all know what I've accomplished so far! We'll start with the most recent check off my list!

After Nate and I took a quick snapshot of ourselves out to dinner on our first anniversary a year ago, I decided that it would be fun for us to take a picture of ourselves every year on our anniversary. Nothing fancy, just a quick picture, freezing a quick second in time. That way, we can look back and see how we've changed. We can also show our children the pictures as they get older, to which they can laugh and say "You look so young and dated!", because that's what all kids say about their parents pictures in their younger days, right (I did with my parents haha!)?

We celebrated our anniversary on Saturday, since it actually fell on Sunday. We had a great weekend, just the two of us. We went up to Midway and explored Swiss Days, which I'm so glad we did just the two of us because I might have lost my head chasing children up there! We stopped in Heber on the way home at a quaint little cafe for dinner. Grabbing a bite to eat at some random Mom and Pop diner in small towns is one of our favorite pastimes, so although it may not seem like much, it's one of our favorite things to do! Once we got home, we wanted to see a movie. We decided we were too tired to actually go to the theater, so instead we reverted back into 10-year-olds and went to the store to stock up on junk food. We took our haul back home and snuggled up to watch a movie together. Nate's parents took the kids for the night, so we could be alone for one night. Good times! :D

Sunday we went and picked up the kids from Grandpa and Grandma's house. While we were there, I had Lisa snap our picture. Ignore the bare feet and swollen preggo legs, I ditched the heels as soon as I could! ;)



It's been an amazing 2 years, my dear! I love you so much and can't wait for all the many more memories that we'll share together!

Domestic Diva: Fried zucchini

I've been quite the little domestic diva lately! I find this rather odd since being pregnant, you'd think I'd be fighting just to get through the day on the simple tasks, yet I've taken it to a whole new level! Go me! *Party dance*

For those of you who are LDS or avid gardeners, you've probably heard the joke about locking your car doors when you go to church during the summer, because if you don't, you'll come back to a car stocked full of zucchini. Well, the other day I snagged this ginormous zucchini from outside of someone's house trying to pawn off their over abundance of veggies from their garden. I love zucchini bread, so I knew right away I'd be making some of that. After realizing I'd have A TON of zucchini left over, I pondered about what new things I could do, since I didn't want any of this to go to waste. Then the most delicious idea came to me. Fried zucchini. MMMMMMM. I've only had it as an appetizer at restaurants, but the thought never crossed my mind until now to attempt it on my own! After browsing a few recipes online, I ended up taking pointers from a few and making my own recipe. This is what I ended up doing...

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
Dash of salt
1 egg
Sliced zucchini
3 tbsp oil

In one bowl I mixed the cheese, bread crumbs, and salt. In another bowl I whisked up the egg. I dipped the zucchini in the egg and then coated in the breading mixture. I laid them on a cookie sheet until I was ready to fry them up like so...



(See? I told you that zucchini was ginormous!)

I warmed up the oil in a large frying pan and fried the zucchini on each side until it was a dark golden brown. I say dark, because if it is too light, I don't think you get the awesome crispiness out of the breading that you could otherwise. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the color after they were cooked, as I had a friend come to the door right while I was frying these bad boys up! We dipped the zucchini in a homemade marinara and it was uber delicious! Katelyn even ate it and liked it! We're talking about a kid that we have to force feed anything green to! Amazing, right?

To be honest, it was ridiculously simple to make and I will probably do many more times in the future! Plus, I have plenty of zucchini left still haha! ;)

Home Makeover: Soules Edition!

So, my makeover isn't as dramatic as leveling a house and completely rebuilding it in 7 days, but I am sure excited about what I did! I've had this wood knickknack shelf for over 10 years. When I first got it, I was 15 and ultra obsessed with the color green. So, I decided to paint it a mint green, which was fine...10 years ago. For weeks I've been eying what I considered my green abomination in my living room and wondering what on earth I should do with it. Tossing it was the first thing that crossed my mind, but I figured there was SOMETHING I could do with it. I thought about repainting it, but then immediately concluded that it would take way too much effort. While still brainstorming, I spotted another wood project in my living room that I had made a couple years ago. Simple project really...just some wood blocks that I spray painted and applied vinyl lettering to. Then it FINALLY hit me! Spray paint that green monster!!!

Here's the green shelf in its mint green glory (uck)...


After a $3 can of spray paint and 2 hours later,a new accent piece for my living room!


Watch out Martha Stewart...

First Day of Kindergarten

Wow! I can't believe the day has already come that my little Katelyn is headed off to the "big school" (as she calls it)! Miss Katelyn started her first day of Kindergarten yesterday and she couldn't have possibly been more thrilled about it! She woke up at 7 am, which is a far cry from us usually kicking her out of bed sometime after 9 am. She was so excited, I don't think she could have stayed asleep if she tried! I got to attend her first day with her, as it was more of a parent orientation day rather than a full fledged regular school day for the kids. I think she's going to do JUST fine in Kindergarten! :D

Live List: Go To The Zoo

Yes, I know I haven't posted a single thing this summer, but for good reason! It's been quite the crazy one indeed! Fortunately, this Live List post does cover a recent event, so I won't feel too guilty about not being a dutiful blogging mommy. ;)

I was looking over my Live List this afternoon and I was thrilled to see that I had completed an item on my Live List, without even remembering I had put it there! This particular item happened to be to go to the zoo. All year I have been dying to take my girls to the zoo, hence the reason I put it on my list (but, of course, actually forgetting it was there haha). My sister, Jessica, told me a few weeks ago that she was planning on making a trip to SLC and that on her list of things to do was to go to the zoo, so the plan was set!

We ended up going to the zoo Monday afternoon. We also had quite the crew go with us too! Audrey, Mandy, Kadee, Rae, and of course Jessica, Jackson, and my girls all headed up to the zoo. We spent all afternoon there and my poor body sure could tell! Why, oh why did they build that dang zoo on a mountain?!?!? Oh well, it was worth it! Jackson spent the whole time at the zoo looking for an alligator, which we didn't find until the very end of the excursion. Katelyn's favorite part was the elephants, especially the baby elephant. For the first half of the visit, I would point the animals out to Aiden, she'd point, and then get ticked that she couldn't actually TOUCH the animals! I suppose I need to find a petting zoo somewhere close by! I think one of the favorite things of all the kids was the elephant statue that not only made elephant noises, but sprayed water out of it's trunk! They all were laughing so hard, I don't think they could breathe half of the time! Silly kids.

Here are a few pics (I took so many, so a bit of editing down was necessary haha) of the adventure...


Katelyn and Jackson watching a King vulture devour a rat. It was pretty nasty, actually...


Mama elephant and baby elephant (Zuri was born at the zoo last year)


The cousins: Jackson, Aiden, Katelyn, and Kadee


You can't go to the zoo all afternoon and NOT expect the kids to want a snack!


Katelyn and the giraffe


Aiden and Mommy were checking out the giraffes downstairs while the others (who were not confined to a stroller haha) checked them out from upstairs!


Here kitty, kitty...(I actually got the kids to say that all throughout the cat exhibit heh heh!)


This is about half of what my pictures consisted of, the back of the kids as they looked on at all the animals!


...and this would be the elephant statue that the kids had a blast with! Purely comical!

All in all, it was a fun day at the zoo. Time to check that one off the List! ;)

Happy Mothers Day!

I hope all you moms, grandmas, aunts, sisters, etc. had a wonderful Mothers Day yesterday!

My husband is my rock and it wouldn't have been a wonderful Mothers Day without him making it so! Some pretty crummy things happened yesterday, but they don't even seem that important because Nate did the best he could to make me feel wonderful! Love you honey!

I ended up getting an impromptu Mothers Day gift on Saturday, a new washer and dryer!!! Nate and I had been starting to browse for a new washer, since we knew we were going to need a new one soon. We needed one that was bigger, to fit our ever expanding laundering needs, and our current one needed some repairs, but we didn't want to go to the trouble of fixing it if we needed something larger. Looking online Friday night, I stumble upon an absolute steal of a deal for a washer/dryer set that we just could NOT pass up! Buying this particular set was half the price of the the washers alone that we were looking at. Since we had the money do it, we figured now would be the best time! Saturday morning I got up to go look at the washer and dryer to make sure it was what we wanted and TA DA! We are now the proud owners of a new washer and dryer! Wahoo!



It's nice having a washer and dryer that were made in this century! HA!

I spent Saturday evening with Melissa beading and making watchbands. I had been absolutely itching to learn how to make them. Now I think I've officially caught the beading bug! I'll show you my creations when I do my Live List post about them :)

As for the rest of my gifts, Sunday morning I got from Katelyn, Aiden, and Nate Season 4 of CSI (which I've been wanting for quite a while, but just never got around to getting it) and some Teddy's root beer, which is quite tasty stuff! I also got a cute throw pillow from my in laws too.

I got some great stuff from Katelyn that she made at preschool for me. This is the stuff I love to get and haven't gotten much of since she really hasn't had much opportunity to do it over the years. She brought me home an artistic rendition of myself (as pictured below), a picture frame that she made, and a card that had a survey about mom in it. It was one of those surveys that the kid gets to fill in the blank about mom. My absolute favorite was "My mom weighs ______ pounds." Her answer? "She's lost a few." Good girl!!! No gigantic number in that blank! Haha! ;)



She was so proud that she managed to use just about every color in the rainbow to draw me!

Sunday I didn't get breakfast in bed because we had 9 AM church and we were up late the night before. I did, however, get lunch "in bed" (being defined as lunch while lounging on the couch haha). I got to enjoy some lumpia and rice, which you can never go wrong with!

Nate was wonderful in taking care of the kids and letting me rest as much as possible, and by rest I DID get a Sunday nap in, YEAH! He played with the kids and tried to keep them as quiet as possible, so I could get a nap because sleep has been hard to come by the past few days!

We had dinner at my in laws that night. I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but I had a really killer headache come on while we were eating! Fortunately after dosing myself with drugs and a short nap, I was healed! For Nate's mom's Mothers Day gift, we bought her an ice cream cake, which we got to enjoy after dinner. It was a peanut buster parfait ice cream cake from none other than Dairy Queen! Oh my deliciousness!!! It was awesome! We had to store the cake at my dad's Saturday and he jokingly asked where his cake was (as PB parfaits hare his absolute favorite), so I think we know what he's getting for Fathers Day! ;)

I hope everyone else had a fantastic Mothers Day too!