Create

As most of you know, Brian travels quite frequently. This week he isn't gone for work, but is camping with the Young Men in Zion National Park. I usually take the opportunity to make crafts around the house... shelves, plaques, frames... that sort of thing while he is away. He probably wonders how often he should leave, because he always comes back to something knew. He might also wonder if we will have any wall space left in the house after a while. But then, I'll move on to painting a room or sewing something...we'll see. Anyway, the fact is I love to create. It's in my blood. My mom is crafty and I think I've picked up that gene. I'll post some pictures of things I've been working on soon, but for now I wanted to share this awesome message from the President Uchtdorf. Very inspiring.

check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k

UPDATED 8.11.09. Pictures added of Zoey's photo board and kitchen shelf that I made.

Zoey's growing!

I haven't posted about Zoey lately, and it probably has something to do with not having a camera the past few weeks to document how much she is growing! She is a chunk...check out the picture of her thighs.. you gotta love 'em! She has the most luscious soft skin and I love it!

A couple of weekends ago, Brian took Jackson on a father and son's camp out to Silver Lake (which I'll post about later, but which also left just the girls to be together). I realized that the time I had with her was just what I needed!

She is such a sweetheart, and I haven't had the opportunity to spend that quality time with her as I did with Jackson when he was a baby. Brian has said a few times "I wish all of our kids could be an only child for a while," meaning Jackson is the only one of our children who will get the undivided attention of BOTH parents for a length of time in his life. Everyone else afterwords has to share our attention. Zoey has been the first to experience what that is like, to share. But I think I am learning alot too on what it means to divide my time between them.

I had such a fun evening with her. We did a little shopping, went out to eat, went for a walk, and played together before bath and bedtime. I got her to laugh soooo hard that I realized I hadn't made her laugh as hard, or played with her so much as I did that night and it was so FUN! I realized that although she is so much a part of my day, she had become the baby that sits on my hip while I do chores, or waits to be fed or changed, or rescued from Jackson, or put down for a nap. What I was missing was how important it is to PLAY! It seems I had so much more time for that when it was just one child I was rearing. Anyway, I made a new resolution to be a better and more playful mom to my sweet girl.

Here are some recent pictures of her...she has been crawling for quite a while, is now standing, and I think she'll be walking soon too (I'd give her a couple of months). Jackson is seeing her as a major threat to his toys now that she can book-it to whatever she wants. He has learned the art of sitting on her head, pushing her down from standing, taking her toys (or anything she seems to have in hand), and enveloping her in a scary bear hug. None of which she like. But he also likes to play chase, peek-a-boo, and "follow me Zoey!". She is very resilient and seems to love him anyway, but loves it more when someone is there to play with her.

Her best time of day is first thing in the morning. It is also my absolute favorite time to be with her. Of course I wish it were a little LATER in the morning than it turns out to be, but I enjoy her lying next to me in bed and babbling, cooing, and just being content and happy. She is just such a happy baby at that time of day and so cuddly, I just relish it! I love her to pieces!!

Toddler Humor

Jackson just doesn't know how cute and funny he is. I'm loving this part about this stage he is in because it makes my day (and makes up for all the whiiiiine he does too).

Here are a couple of those funny situations that might make you smile today as well...

1)We usually eat breakfast as a family. Last week, Brian had a hectic schedule with early starts to the day and wasn't around to enjoy breakfast with the family until Friday. That morning, I got Jackson out of his bed and said, "I have a surprise for you!" (meaning his dad was home) so when I brought him into our room to show him Brian was home with us, he looked around the room, sort of confused, and asked, "Where did the treat go?"

2)I told Jackson all morning we were going to the park. I took him to a park that had walking paths, beautiful flowers, ponds, waterfalls, fish and ducks. He enjoyed all of these, but kept asking me "Where's the park?" After explaining to him that we were IN the park, I understood he meant, "Where's the playground?"

3)After sending Brian off to work, we spent the morning cleaning house. Jackson is usually a great help, but this morning he didn't want to, so he rolled up a some paper under his arm and said, "I'm going to work, I'll be right back, OK?"

4)I was trying to get Jackson to eat a piece of bread for dinner, and he looked at me for a while and said, "horse poop!" Excuse me?!?! I looked at Brian, where did he learn THAT?

5)Brian was leaving town and told Jackson he was going to be the man of the house while he was away. Jackson said, "No, mommy is the man of the house!" At least he knows who wears the pants! ha ha
You gotta love this little guy! He's the best!

Our Garden

Here is a post that will make my mother, my in-laws, and my Grandpa proud.

This spring we planted a garden. Brian is a true green thumb, and loves to garden. For the first time in our married life, we've been able to plant a garden! It's been fun.

Our next door neighbors have a huge garden plot and they said we could use three rows to plant whatever we wanted. They are in their 80's and decided they couldn't keep up with as big of a garden as they have had in the past. We turned this opportunity into an FHE event and planted tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and pumpkins.

It has been fun for Jackson to help weed and water our growing plants. He likes seeing the veggies appear and grow( especially the pumpkins...we have six huge pumpkins growing for this fall). He also likes to play in the dirt, but he's a boy, what can I say?

Our Zucchini and squash plants have been producing like crazy! We have had to throw away so much what we can't use between our two families...and I've gotten creative on using up as much as I can. I pureed the zucchini and squash and added it to some home-made spaghetti sauce, which actually turned out pretty good. I've made 16 (and counting) loaves of zucchini bread...and my neighbors love me (or hate me) for it! We've sauteed, grilled, steamed zucchini and squash for nearly every dinner. I also got a really yummy squash casserole recipe from my mom and have made it a few times. My family loves it.

We have given a lot of our veggies away to friends and to the neighborhood "share the bounty" system. It's a pretty cool idea. A neighbor built a veggie shack where people can drop off and collect anything they want for free. It's a great concept to share the different things people grow in their gardens, while also providing a way to share the surplus with others who would use it. I have hated throwing away so much good food, so we drop off our veggies at least a couple times a week. Great Idea.

Here are some pictures of the fruits of our labors...







Here is the Squash Casserole recipe, it's pretty liberal so you can change it to fit your family's tastes:

2 Zucchini
3-4 crookneck squash (small to medium size)
1 large onion
green onions or chives to taste (optional)
2 eggs
2 cups croutons or dried bread peaces (I use cheesy garlic croutons, but you can use any flavor)
1/2 stick butter plus extra for sauteing
2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus extra for topping

Pre-heat oven to 350*. Chop squash into bite size chunks and steam. Drain. Meanwhile saute onions and chives in butter until soft. Mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add the squash and onions. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish. Top with a little shredded cheese and seasoning of choice (I like Cajun seasoning, but Italian also works well). Bake for 30-45 minutes and serve.

About time!

As some of you have heard, our camera was either lost or stolen a few weeks ago. Luckily I was in the routine of downloading our pictures off of it frequently, and so we didn't lose many pictures (random shots of the kids, our St. George trip...which I'm sad we'll never get back). But I HAVE lost a bunch of opportunities to take pictures of our family and the kids in the past few weeks of not having a camera. I hadn't realized before just how much I use it!

We finally decided the old camera was not going to show up afterall and broke down and bought a new one. The Sony Cyber-shot. I love it already! I shot 100 pictures the first day...mostly becoming familiar with the settings and all, but it does a great job for what we need it for. It's quick, great at close-ups, has face and smile recognition...great features for when you have kids.

Anyway, I'll be posting some updates of our family now that I can post some pictures to go along with them!

French Bread

Jackson LOVES french bread. He especially loves it when we time it just right at the grocery store and the french bread is getting bagged and sold oven-fresh. He loves holding the warm bread throughout the entire shopping experience...some kids might want a cookie, but Jackson wants to hold the french bread! Yesterday, I was doing my grocery shopping and Jackson was BEGGING me to hold some "warm bread", so he calls it. No harm in that. A little while later, I realize that Jackson is cradling his bread and singing "rock-a-bye baby" to it! So funny! I love that he finds comfort from his warm bread!

Red, White, and Cherry pie....oh, I mean Blue

Some days I love technology, and other days it drives me CRAZY! All within a week our computer crashed, my phone died, our camera was lost, and Brian went swimming with the electronic keys to my car. Needless to say, I've been going crazy without a sense of touch to the outside world! I'm stealing precious time from Brian and his laptop to get in a few updates of our family.

Hope everyone had a fab 4th of July. Ours seemed to extend throughout the whole weekend...Friday to Monday. It was fun to say the least.

Friday, we were invited to a superb pre-fourth of July party at some friend's ranch in Walsburg. They were hosting a pie contest, among many other things (like a mechanical riding bull contest), and so Brian set out to make a beautiful cherry pie. For those of you who know Brian well, you know he's a great cook, and his projects turn out to be masterpieces. The trick was getting the pie from our oven to the party (in WALSBURG, let me remind you...30 minutes away) in as good of shape. We were running late, and so the pie didn't make it out of the oven until we were supposed to be on the road, so I had the job of balancing an oven-hot cherry pie on a cookie sheet up the canyon. It was too hot to rest in my lap, and the rest of the car was packed with things for us and the children, so we decided me holding the pie on a cookie sheet would work. I have to say I did pretty well at keeping the pie from sliding too much, or the juiced from spilling over the side...UNTIL the final stop sign before the party! One glance away on my part, and a jolty start on Brian's part, made the pie slide right up to the edge of the cookie sheet next to my chest, spilling it's ruby red juices all over the front side of my shirt! I was so mad, sad, surprised, I didn't know what to do! I wiped as much as I could with some wet wipes from the diaper bag, but it just made a bigger mess. Then I remembered I had some travel size oxyclean spray....so I went to town with the spray. Within minutes, the stain was GONE! No lie. Cherry juice was completely erased from my shirt. I couldn't believe it, but I whole-heartedly endorse the spray for stain removal!

A week ago....

We have lost our camera and I truly miss it! Luckily my MIL had a camera on her last week so we could get a few snapshots of the family fun.

Last week was our Beutler reunion. We had alot of fun...of course I might be biased because Brian and I were hosting it this year and so we got to plan all of the activities and stuff. Thursday was the kickoff with a movie, BBQ (we also made homemade ice cream in #10 cans), slide show and games. Friday, I taught a couple of rounds of Yoga, then we headed to the pool and played until the thunderstorm kicked in, did some crafts and science experiments with the kids (who doesn't like to create bombs and rockets?), came home to play a round of kickball, and stayed up late listening to fun family stories (and playing mafia...a Beutler favorite), Saturday started off with what Brian and I called "Lindon Survivor", which were games we modified from the TV series to an "attempted at-home" version. We had high hopes, but it really turned into a family dispute over rules of the games and declaring players cheaters and such. Ultimately it ended in a big water balloon and shaving cream fight. All in good fun.

Here are some pictures of the highlights.