2013 Photo Album

I finally finished last year's photo album and ordered it!  Phew.  It's big.  If you want to see it, it might take a minute to load.  

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

April 5 - April 11: Conference Weekend and the PDA Conference.

April 5.  This Saturday started out like many Saturdays--with the kids climbing all over their dad.

Next Nana and Papa came over and dropped off a Conference treat.  Well, actually 15 treats.  Each treat had a picture of one of the 12 apostles or members of the First Presidency attached.  The kids had to wait until that apostle spoke in Conference before they could eat the treat.  I have never seen the kids so excited to listen to Conference!  They got to eat a treat in the car for Elder Holland's talk while we drove to our friend's house for a birthday party.

After we got back the kids also broke out their snacks from their emergency kits.  (Or as Stan calls them "mergency pits").  In January I finally put together 72 hour kids for all of us.  We have decided that in order to rotate the food the kids can eat it at conference.  This is what their stash looked like for the second session:

Bryce had made plans to have his brother Derek and his dad come out for the priesthood session.  Derek's girlfriend and her kids were going to dye eggs with us.  Unfortunately, Derek and Melanie were unable to make it, but we still had fun with Grandma while Bryce and Grandpa went to the meeting.

Grandma taught the boys the special tradition of dumping all the egg dyes down a white sink and the same time to make rainbows.  We had to use my (messy) bathroom sink.

April 6.  Sunday morning I got up and made chocolate chocolate chip muffins.

These were low fat with banana and applesauce.  Bryce told me they were just "ok" and that the last muffins I made were better.  I told him that's because the last ones had butter and sugar in them.  Even with healthy muffins on the menu we enjoyed the rest of conference.

Kimball worked on making a lego chess board.

April 7.  When Abby starts throwing pencils and crayons, Stan thinks it's okay to join in.  They did help me clean it up, but I had to pay them.  I paid $0.25 to Kimball since he didn't create the mess and $0.10 to Stand since he did.

April 9.  Kimball finally found enough pieces for his chess board.  I like how the two Darth Mauls are the bishops.  Haha.

Today I dragged the kids down to the Utah State Bar offices to reactivate my bar license.  I promised them Slurpees if they were good.  They ran up and down the halls between the cubicles.  But I was so glad to have it done I treated them anyway.

The reason for activating my license is that I have taken a second job.  I have found a firm that was looking for someone to do corporate work from home.  I am pretty excited.  I will get to do lawyerly things, but my kids can remain my focus.

April 10-11.  These were big days for me.  As the Executive Director of the Parental Defense Alliance I planned and executed a two day annual conference at the Park City Marriott.  Below is a pic of me and Kirstin at the conference.  It was a ton of work but I think overall it was a success.  I am so grateful to Bryce, my Mom and my In-Laws for taking care of the kids while I was able to go work for two days straight.

How To Make 38 Frozen Burritos for Lunches

This post is for my friend Maria.  We were talking the other day about how I make  freezer burritos and I thought I would put it in a post for her.  And you.  Whoever else is reading this.

This is one of my favorite projects because these burritos taste soooo good.  The hubby likes to take them in his lunches.  I like them when mac & cheese and dino chicken nuggets are on the menu and would prefer something else.

You can also use these for a quick dinner.  Place 4-6 burritos in an oven safe dish.  Cover with a can of green enchilada sauce and cheese.  Bake until warmed through.  Yum.

There are two main parts to my freezer burritos: homemade refried beans and sweet pulled pork.  They are both made in the crock pot and are both very easy.

THE BEANS.  Homemade refried beans taste vastly better than canned stuff and they are super easy to make.  I use this recipe I posted for the beans.  There are only two changes I make since that first post.  I add bacon grease from 1/2 to 1 pound of cooked bacon and I no longer remove any water.  I just cook them down after blending.

THE PULLED PORK.  I wish I had two crock pots.  Then I could made the pork in one and beans in the other.  Since I don't.  I will make the pork one day and beans the next.  Or the other way around.  Here is what I throw in for the pork.

3 lbs. pork roast

1 16 oz. jar of green salsa

1 c. brown sugar

I cook on low for 8-10 hours and then shred it.

Once the beans and pork are done you can assemble your burritos.  I use flour tortillas.

First a little beans . . .

Next a little pork . . .

Then some shredded cheese . . .

Roll them up and freeze them on a cookie sheet.  This will prevent them from sticking together when you put them in a bag.  You can also wrap them individually, but I usually don't bother.  This makes a lot, but it depends on how much of the ingredients you put inside.

Bonus Post: March 23

I was checking Bryce's phone for pictures and found these.  I didn't get them posted in their proper week, so they get their own post.  A few Sundays ago when we were at Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's the kids played in their fifth wheel.  They had fun hiding in all the closets and climbing all over.

March 29 - April 4: A Sleepover, An Anchor and the Dinosaur Museum

March 29.  Today was the General Women's Meeting of the Church.  The first of it's kind to include all women 8 years of age and up.  I drove down to Lehi to attend the meeting with my mom and Kirstin.  It was worth the drive to sit next to my mom.

March 30.  Last Friday at the Treehouse Museum the boys were introduced to Chess.  We dug out Bryce's set from China.  Now that's all the boys want to play.  Why can't chess be quick and easy?  I have some books on order from the library.  We'll see how long their interest lasts.

After Church we headed up to Kaysville again for dinner, which was really breakfast.  We had sausage, hash browns and pancakes with homemade blackberry syrup.  Yum!  They boys were lucky enough to get to stay for a sleepover.

March 31.  With the boys gone, Abby got a little one-on-one time with Mom.  We did the dishes.

And watched girly videos of Frozen with head phones (so as not to bother Dad who was working).

The boys in the mean time we having a jolly time and Grandma and Grandpa at the planetarium.

That evening, the kids got another dose of their grandparents, this time with Nana and Papa.  We had a family home evening together.  Nana taught us what to do so we can have a strong anchor like Elder Uchtdorf talked about in the Ensign.

April 1-3.  The middle of the week must have been pretty boring because I didn't take many pictures.  Work, preschool and other things took priority over taking pictures for the blog.  Where are my priorities?  Oh, well.  I got a few cute pics of Abby walking around with only boots on and eating Daddy's cereal.

April 4.  This week's outing with Grandma Hansen was at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  Grandpa joined us too!  I somehow got convinced to buy a membership so there are likely to be more pictures of this place over the next year.  

Grandma and Grandpa treated us to ice cream afterwards.  Abby loved it.

March 22-28: Easter Eggs, Silly Bread and the Treehouse

March 22.  It's too bad I didn't take any pictures this day.  First, because we had some good friends over for lunch.  Second, because the house was really, really clean due to the first reason.

March 23.  We spent the evening after church at Grandma and Grandpa Hansens.  It seems like it has been too long since we've had a Sunday dinner there.  The kids got to play with some new backyard toys and they didn't waste any time having fun.

We also played around at Ed and Cyndy's new rental.  The new carpet had just been put in and there was lots of room for the kids to run around.

March 24.  Bryce had class on Monday night.  I was looking for a way to survive the last hour before bedtime and so we got out our Easter decorations.  Kimball borrowed my camera to snap some pics.  I have dozens on my phone that look like this:

They are all a little blurry.  It may not entirely be his fault.  I think the lens was pretty dirty.  After cleaning the lens a bit I took a picture of all our eggs.

I must have some deep seeded love for orphaned Easter eggs because I keep adopting them.  I remember when my Grandma Cornwall passed away I took her eggs home with me.  This was before I was even married or had kids.  When Mom and Dad were going through their storage unit last August I quickly gravitated to their eggs too.  As a result I have hundreds of eggs.  It will be a fun hunt this year!

I thin the love of Easter eggs comes from my memories of the egg hunts at Grandma and Grandpa Cornwalls.  They would put little scriptures or message in some of the eggs instead of candy.  Messages like: "Share a piece of candy with your Grandpa."  I used to think it was cheesy and kind of lame.  I now see a Grandpa who loved his grandkids and wanted to teach them to be kind and thoughtful.  It makes me teary.  I think I might need to put some of those messages in the eggs this year.  I can already hear them groaning when they get an egg without a treat, but I someday they will understand the real treats of life.

March 25.  I had to get the car inspected and the oil changed so I took it in while Kimball was at preschool.  Abby, Stan and I walked to the library while we waited.

We also had some friends over in the afternoon.  The nice weather and the swing set were a welcome combination.

March 26.  I pushed this little gal around in a laundry basket for about 5 seconds this morning.  She loved it and it brought back such memories of doing the same thing to Kimball at the same age.  Of course, Kimball got pushed around for a whole lot longer than 5 seconds.  Oh!  To be the first born.

March 27.  Abby and Stan helped me make bread.   I tried to swirl it with several colors.  This was my first time and it was a bit of extra work.  I was inspired by my cousin who has made things like this in the past.

I am not inclined to do this again, but I now have a three year old who thinks this is the right way to make bread.  Heaven help me!

Abby helped with the dishes while the boys were at basketball class.

March  28.  We had a wonderful outing with Grandma Hansen this week to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  We used to go there when Kimball was younger and it's been so long since we have been back.  Fortunately, it is still just as fun.  It was Abby's first time and she loved it!

Kimball got chosen to be in a "participlay."  He was the mountain goat and did a great job.  It was fun to see him so excited.

As I was putting the boys to bed that night, Stan asked where Grandpa was.  I told him that Grandpa was busy working on the new house.  "But I didn't get to hug him!"  It was the cutest response.  We quickly called Ed on the phone so the boys could say good night.  Stan was still troubled by the lack of a hug so he hugged the phone.  Kimball wanted to tell Grandpa something funny; I waited for the joke but all he did was sing Star Wars music.  Funny indeed!  These boys sure love their Grandpa.