Easter 2012

This year was Adalyn's first Easter. We didn't do too many things, but it was a very nice weekend as a family. On Saturday night we colored Easter eggs. You can imagine that Adalyn participated a LOT in this activity...or not. :) She liked cracking the eggs with her teeth, does that count?

This is as close as we let her come to the dye... Maybe next year she can be more involved. Especially with the cool trick that I heard about this year, put the egg in a wire whisk and then let them dip the egg in the dye. Tons less mess and less eggs cracked :)

The finished product. mmmm...egg salad sandwiches

Oh how we love our sweet Adalyn :) Easter Sunday was pretty low key. Here is how our day went... Finding the Easter basket we the Easter Bunny hid Adalyn's Easter basket (under the table) Then we sent her out to find it. She got an Easter dress, sippy cup, toy purse with fake money (she loves the money...oh dear) Here she is checking out the goods (oh and the candy was for mommy and daddy, the Easter bunny was great at consolidating everything into ONE basket) Also here is a video of her finding it. Not a super exciting video but the first to the blog none the less.

After church we took a quick family photo on the porch, ate a lovely dinner and then went for a beautiful walk along the river.

This year Easter hit me hard, it caught me off guard and I felt a VERY deep feeling of gratitude for our savior and the beauty of the Atonement. We truly can live again and be with our families forever. The hope and goodness that that truth brings into my life in indescribable. I think this is now my favorite holiday. So much love, peace, and happiness are felt during this time of year. No pressure to do tons of commercial stuff, just to remember the love that our savior has for each one of us. Amazing. Have a good night!

Domestic Goals

The past few months I finally got ALL of my energy back. Yes it has been eight months since I had Adalyn, but I was nursing and that also takes energy. When she was about six months I REALLY felt good, I had a routine, and my brain was back. (amazing how much those sweet little ones take out of you). Or then again maybe it was the move and buying a house that took a lot out of me...hmmm... I guess I will never know, but either way my energy came back! So I decided to start setting some goals (more than just "make dinner tonight", that SERIOUSLY was my only goal the first few months it was what kept me going). Most of my goals revolved around homemaking skills with the exception of learning the piano that one was my attempt at fixing my biggest regret from my childhood. Thanks to Pinterest(are we all tired of hearing about that site yet? Honestly I sort of am, but it is SO helpful so I keep using it even if it is ALL over blogland) and talking with a few friends I began a list of things that I wanted to try. But instead of trying to do them ALL at once I broke them down and only focused on one a month. Because as much as all of us women want to be *perfect* at everything we really can only have one or two goals at a time. When I start to get jealous of others because I see how well they are doing at something I remind myself that that is what they are focusing on right now.

I started out with updating our 72 hour kits (added diapers). I have had this intense desire to get prepared for emergencies. I don't always do everything that I should but it is definitely always in the back of my mind. We are always striving to build up our food storage. With some of our tax money we bought beans, rice, and oats in bulk. We eventually want to have enough of the basics for each person that we could "survive" for a year. Surprisingly that is a TON of food. I can't remember exact figures but this website breaks it down per person and even gives you some basic meal ideas to use the food storage with.

Another month I focused on our computer stuff like pictures and videos. I would be DEVASTATED if I lost all of our pictures that are stored on our computer. Adalyn grows too quickly and I already LOVE looking at pictures from when she was a newborn, so precious. Unfortunately I didn't completely finish this project... All I have done is backed up all of our important files onto an external hard drive that I got McKay for Christmas a few years ago on Black Friday. To finish it up (maybe this post will motivate me)I want to put all of the really important pictures and documents on a jump drive to give to my mom or another close relative to keep at their house in case we have a house fire and loose everything. I also want another jump drive with all of the same information in our 72 hour kits to take with us in an emergency. What do you think too paranoid? Probably, but that is ok.

Next on the agenda was creating menu plans. In the beginning I planned to just make two months worth of menus complete with grocery lists and rotate those back and forth. We did that for a couple months and I honestly LOVED it. I have no idea why I didn't do it sooner! Crazy that this is such a novel concept for me :) It was wonderful to be able to just grab my list and go to the store and I had meals for a whole month. (no planning for hours before) Some months I would even buy extras of the shelf ingredients so on the tighter months I didn't have to spend as much money. Today we still use those two menus but i think that I am going to make a few more to give even more variety. I have found so many yummy dinners on Pinterest and blogs so it is fun to try those out. One of my favorite recipe blogs is Six Sisters Stuff (yummy and most of them are fairly easy, we especially love the enchilada pasta)

Last month I focused on making homemade whole wheat bread. I love that it is more filling, less expensive, and tastes better than store bought. It wouldn't be worth it to everyone to make it every week because it is A LOT of work and honestly before this point it wasn't worth it to me but right now is a good time in our lives to make it a habit. I have the time and I really like saving the money. The recipe is my mom's and she definitely still makes it better than me, but I have high hopes that it will eventually be as good as hers. McKay just said today that he could live off of my homemade bread so I hope that is a good sign that I am figuring it out.

This month I made homemade black beans in the crock pot. It was really easy and is healthier and cheaper than the ones out of the cans. You just cook them and freeze them. I got the recipe from here (this lady used her crock pot every day for a whole year!). I will definitely be doing this again!

Next month I am planning on making that homemade laundry soap that everyone is going crazy over. It sounds SUPER easy and I have only heard good reviews about it. We already have to use All free and clear liquid soap because I have really sensitive skin (and it is better for a baby to not have perfumes) so it will be nice to have a cheaper version that still doesn't have all the perfumes and dyes. Here is one tutorial of it, but there are tons everywhere and I think they are all pretty similar.

Later I will hopefully try freezer jam (somebody clue me in on when strawberries go on sale!) Homemade bread will taste even better with homemade jam! Well that is all for now. If anyone has any other cool domestic tricks or things (I am still very new at all of this stuff) that you think I should try I am all ears! Have a wonderful night/week!

My Thoughts on Tax Day

First off my post has nothing to do with taxes it was just the title that popped in my head when I sat down to type so there you go. While I am writing this post Adalyn is asleep in her crib, folks that is AMAZING! Her sleep schedule is WAY off and both mommy and baby are feeling it. How many naps is an 8 month old supposed to take? (oh I didn't tell you that she turned 8 months old? Just proves how good of a blogger I am, or not...) She is taking about 1 1/2 naps a day these days. I wish it was more but I wont complain. McKay is currently with 6 young men (teachers) "cooking" in the kitchen. Should I be afraid? I hope not. He will be on cleaning duty afterwards so I am not too worried. They are making hamburgers and oreo cookies, both fairly simple which was planned on purpose (they are 14 year old boys after all) They are also very loud, so now Adalyn is awake. This would be a time that I wish our house was bigger so that she would sleep longer.
We sold our car today and I am still mourning the loss of it. It was big, fancy, and it was nice to have two cars. But we hated having debt with a monthly payment. We didn't NEED it so in the end I am glad that we sold it.

We also finally bought a new computer, and as soon as we get the wireless card you guys are going to have blog post overload with how much stuff I have to write about. I have progress pictures of the house and Easter to write about along with a millon cute pics of Adalyn. Here are some quick pictures to hold you over until then...

Daddy helping Adalyn (pretty talented to be able to put her diaper on while she sits up)

Well I think I smell smoke so I better go "supervise" the men. Good night!

First Tooth And Grandma visits

So this is a late post, but with our computer problems I am a little behind. Speaking of computer problems we still haven't bought a new computer yet. McKay's computer started to somewhat work again so we are just using it for now. We are working on putting our yard in and all extra funds are going to that right now so I just keep praying that we won't have to buy a computer for a few more months.

But anyways enough about problems, on March 25th my mom and Mykelti came to our house for a quick visit. It was nice to see them and show them around our house. Adalyn loved having visitors and was not a happy camper when she woke up from her afternoon nap on Monday to find that they had left while she was asleep. She also maybe wasn't a happy camper because after screaming for a while Sunday night we found out that she had gotten her first tooth that day! What a big milestone! She has since gotten another tooth with another one on the way. She doesn't like us to put our fingers in her mouth to see them but she definitely enjoys biting anything she can get her hands on. (including me!) Adalyn loved playing with Mykelti and showing off all her cool toys and tricks. Also while they were here my mom taught me how to make her wheat bread. If you have been reading this blog for a few years you might remember that she had taught me in the past to make bread but when you don't make it for a few months I feel like you have to learn it all over again. So thanks mom for teaching me the ropes again. :) We loved having you guys and can't wait to see you again!

Have a great day!

Cut it in half please :)

Well with taking ALL of last summer off from running while I was pregnant I can now declare that the running bug is back in full force. I crave going for runs outside in this beautiful weather, I am truly loving it, it is the BEST time of my day. Even if it is a little more complicated now with Adalyn tagging along and where we live. The roads around us are not conducive to running with a stroller so we load up the car, jogging stroller and all and head to the park a few miles away that has a path. Tons of people that I know are prepping for this run or that race and I just feel the need to be a part of it. (yes I guess I am a crowd follower) I don't see a marathon in the near future just because of the MASSIVE amount of time that it takes to train and prep for... BUT I really want to do a HALF marathon. After the full marathon a half marathon sounds *perfect*. It will be challenging for sure, but do-able. I am not sure which race to do but I am leaning towards either the Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon in September or The Provo River 1/2 marathon in August. I already did both of them once and know the trails which makes me feel more comfortable. But who knows maybe I will try one out in Idaho? If YOU have any suggestions let me know! So excited to start training and I am very grateful for a body that allows me to run and stay active. Have a great day!

Spring Time

OH the weather outside is amazing! Here in Idaho we are loving the warmer weather(even if it isn't as warm as most places we will take what we can get right?). We also had a fun weekend in Salt Lake and I was sad that I didn't bring any of my summer clothes because it was hot! Conference was great and I am SO excited for the talks to be available in print. I felt like I had all of my questions answered and I am ready to start working towards some new goals. Life is so full of ups and downs but I am very grateful to have a prophet on the earth to give us counsel from our father in heaven in thoughtful and loving talks. Here are some pictures of our spring time baby over conference weekend. Oh how we love having her in our family!

Also on Saturday we spent time with McKay's family in Logan where we had a baby shower for our future nephew that Natalie is going to give birth to in a few weeks. We are very excited to meet him. :) Lots of cute baby boy clothes and enjoyable company. It was a late night driving back to Salt Lake that night but luckily my mom had been able to babysit Adalyn so that she didn't have to drive tons too. Thanks mom (and apparently all the fry cousins because they had a get-together at my moms house that night)for babysitting her! Look at all of those beautiful ladies!

It was a great weekend, McKay commented many times on the way home about how fun it was. It is not necessarily the easiest thing to do, travel that much with a baby and it can get expensive with how much we spend on gas (we go to Salt Lake/Utah A LOT) but McKay and I decided at the beginning on in our marriage that family was the most important thing to us and it is worth the sacrifice to spend time with them. We love all of the memories that we have been able to make with family and wouldn't trade them for the world. Have a great day!

Busy Life

Update: I wrote this post last week and right in the middle of it McKay's computer crashed (mine crashed a few months ago) So we are currently computerless until we save up the money to buy a new one. I am trying to be really patient until we get a new one, it is hard when I feel like the computer was my connection to the outside world (I wish we could just declare this an emergency and use the emergency funds lol jk) So hopefully we will have another one soon! But enjoy this post in the mean time!

Hello! Sorry I didn't post over the weekend I just never could drag myself to the computer long enough to down load the pics. Life has been busy, as it seems it has been for everyone (I haven't seem many updates from very many people the past few weeks, probably the nice weather is to blame). We have been planning and prepping to start finishing our yard. And luckily with our tax return we might actually be able to to do a few things like put in a sprinkler system :P (not my favorite thing, but I guess it has to be done) I love this nice weather too, but am a little worried about what the side effects will be from it (food prices going up, wild fires, water shortage?) Hopefully we will continue to get some moisture. Adalyn also turned 7 months old on the 10th. She started really crawling the day before that and is now quite fast (when she wants to be). She also pulls herself up on shorter things and in her crib. She loves her crib right now and will play forever in there. Here are a few pictures of her.

She loves to climb all over me and she also loves that now she can crawl she can follow me all over the house. It is sort of like having a puppy. :) Always there at your feet...

Notice the thumb? Yeah I am ignoring it and hope it goes away (but secretly I think it is really cute, she sticks it back in her mouth between each bite when I feed her, just to get a taste lol) silly girl Well that is all for today! Have a great day!