"A Beautiful Thing"

5 Cans of spaghetti sauce
7 lbs of hamburger
4 lbs sliced + 7 cups diced chicken
6 lbs pork ribs
4 bags frozen, diced onions (time saver)
One splash in the eye (stirring the ribs)
One knife gash on my hand (cutting open the parsley)
3 cracked knuckles (from washing my hands so much)
30 meals in my freezer = A Beautiful Thing!

A few months ago a friend told me about the book Dinner is Ready that shows you how to prepare 30 meals in one day. Since we eat corndogs or cold cereal for dinner more often than I care to admit, I decided that I wanted to try it. I hope it will help us to eat more healthy, as well as make dinner more organized so we can actually sit down together (and maybe Mason will actually take a bite of a casserole some day!). I bought the book over a month ago and finally had a slow weekend to try it--and thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr., I had today off work. There is a computer program that has all the recipes and will make the shopping list for you, but I wasn't smart enough to buy it before I made the huge shopping list on my own! Saturday night I went out for a couple of hours and got all the groceries. I purchased the software online that night and was able to print all the recipes and preparation labels for the menu I had selected (for my first time I followed her menu pretty closely). Last week I was at Macey's and happened to catch a sale on chicken--40 lbs for $40! The only problem is that it's not trimmed. So, Dan spent a couple of hours last night trimming and cutting the chicken. I went ahead and cooked the diced chicken and decided to put those two meals together last night. So, I guess I kind of cheated by making two of the recipes last night rather than doing it all in a day (I should mention that you select 15 recipes and it makes enough for two meals each).

Here's Mason checking the inventory of groceries last night.

Then he really wanted Tristyn to sit 'right here' by him.

This morning I woke up about 7, but by the time I showered and got kids fed and off to daycare, I didn't start cooking until 10 am. I started the crockpot meals, then the oven meals, then the stovetop and assembly meals. By the time Dan got home with the kids at 5:30, there was one meal left in the crockpot and a few meals on the table ready to be packaged, but everything was pretty much cleaned up (other than the pile of pans and bowls, which Dan so graciously washed!).

Here's a photo of all the junk on my counter. The author recommends that you leave everything out and that you have a separate set of measure spoons and cups for liquids and dry ingredients. So, with that plus all of the groceries, pretty much every counter was covered! The crockpots were on the counter that doesn't show. Notice the Mtn Dew can--that's what kept me going all day!

The funny thing about the book Dinner is Ready, is that the author says "is a beautiful thing" about 100 times! It's beautiful to have grated cheese, to have chopped onions, to have two sets of measuring spoons/cups, to be free from freezer burn, to have a full freezer, and to be able to say "Dinner is Ready". I'm sure it will be great to say that dinner is ready and not be referring to a frozen pizza. You can see for yourself that having a full freezer is a beautiful thing (nevermind that 1/4 of it is full of Eggo cinnamon swirls since it is one of the few things Mason will eat):

To celebrate (or really just because Dan wanted a treat), we made brownies tonight. I tried to get Mason to eat the batter off the beaters, but he just wanted to fling them around. At least he tried to wipe up the mess!

As a side note, you may notice that I'm way behind in blogging! Things happen every day that I want to blog, but I've really wanted to keep my entries in cronological order and have been holding off until I can post Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well, I'm still trying to get to them! I have lots of cute photos of Tristyn crawling and pulling herself up on things, so I've been anxious to post all of that -- it's coming (sooner than later, I hope!).

Old Friends

A few weeks ago we got together with a bunch of friends from college for some BBQ and reindeer (not BBQ reindeer). We enjoyed dinner at Famous Dave's and then went to Thanksgiving Point to feed the reindeer. It was a cold night, but luckily we shopped indoors for a little longer than we actually fed the reindeer! Mason was more excited about the sucker in his hand than the animals (nevermind that he had dropped that unlicked sucker on the floor at FD's about 10 times--yuck). He did enjoy putting the money in the food dispenser, but didn't actual want to feed it to the reindeer. At first they didn't seem interested in food anyway, but after a few people cleared out, they came over and ate the pellets out of Dan's hand. We didn't drive through the lights because it was quite a long wait, but we really
enjoyed visiting with our friends--we really don't get together with them often enough anymore! We missed the de la Houssaye's and Ericksons--hopefully they'll come back to town soon!

Here are some photos.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Birth . . . month?

When you're turning 30, it's not good enough to just have cake one day and leave it at that . . . you deserve to celebrate for the full month, right?! My birthday celebrations started a few weeks ago when I went to a Metallica concert with Dan and Melissa. These guys can strum a guitar! I'm glad I was finally able to cross them off my list of 'want to see bands'. I haven't bought any of their albums for several years, so I didn't know a lot of their songs. I wish they would have only played songs from their Black album, which is by far my favorite! I quickly became very aware that my 'mom' attire doesn't quite fit at events like this! The highlight of the night for Dan was when a guy walking up the stairs tripped and spilled his beer all down Dan's leg! I guess that's to be expected when you're in the company of hard core rockers!

Over a year ago I told Dan that I wanted to go on a trip for my 30th birthday--maybe a cruise or something. Well, I wasn't really thinking at that point of leaving a baby at home! So, the cruise was out, but Dan did plan an awesome trip to Vegas! I knew he had planned something, but didn't know what until the week before what it entailed. We flew to Vegas on a Saturday morning, had lunch with our friend Chris at Hardrock Cafe, walked the strip for a couple of hours, then went to Mama Mia. We flew back home on Saturday morning, so it was a really quick trip, but a lot of fun. He arranged for his sister and sister-in-law to watch our kids (thanks Julie and Cheryl) so it was nice to leave them in hands we trusted! The kids had a lot of fun while we were gone.

Last weekend Dan arranged to go Quantum of Solace (007) on the opening night. We went with his coworker and his wife. It was a good show and was followed by a yummy dinner! It was nice to have an actual date--Thanks for babysitting Melissa!

We were all sick on my actual birthday, so we didn't do anything huge. We both worked during the day and we just ordered in for dinner. It was way less stressful than taking kids out! My coworkers ordered pizza and brought a cake in, so that was another yummy treat!

I did actually plan to go to Celine Deon this weekend too, but the concert was postponed for some reason! So, we just vegged at home with our kids (I shouldn't say that because we actually chased Mason around with hand puppets, played hide and seek, baked cookies, and spent about 2 hours trying to get Tristyn to sleep).

I'm not sure if I'll be able to squeeze anything else into the month, other than Thanksgiving next week! There are several of my family members that also have birthdays in November, so it always seems like we celebrate all month. Although I've been busy doing a lot of fun things, I'd consider taking it all back if I could stay 29!

I have photos of Vegas and some other things from this month, so I'll update this post when I can add them!

Mason's Day

Our little guy celebrated his 3rd birthday earlier this month. For breakfast Dan made him cinnamon rolls, which is one of the few breakfast things he'll eat. He also got a bouquet of balloons, so that made his day!

After helping Dan rake leaves and take care of a few things outside, Mason got to open one of his gifts--a Little Einstein submarine for the bathtub. So, of course he had to try it out! He hasn't been able to take a bath since then without having Rocket in the tub! After nap time we had a birthday party with a few neighbor friends and cousins at an indoor playland.

The highlight of my day (maybe not his) is when he actually ate part of his cake! It's his first birthday where he didn't freak out when we put it in front of him! Actually, he was licking the frosting on the cake before we could even round up all the kids to come eat some! He finished off a chocolate cupcake and started into a vanilla one! It was awesome!

Here's a photo of the group (less the Nelsons who had to take off early).

Mason opened a couple of gifts at the party--a Lightning McQueen and Mater radio control car set and a Thomas the Train Smartcycle game. He looks a little dazed in the photo--must have been all that cake!


He and Meredith had a fun ride on the airplanes.

He loved driving these jeeps, but I think they were a little slow for his taste!

He twirled around with Kenzie and Drew.

And clenched on tight when we rode the roller coaster with Hallie! He made me stay on with him for 5 rides in a row! Ugh!

Later that evening Mason tried out his new Smartcycle game. He caught on to it quickly and has had a lot of fun with it (it's also provided a lot of solo time for mom!!!).

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate! Mason had a fun day! We ended up taking over 200 photos that day (most at the playland), so I'll try to post a slide show of them soon! Mason also received a fun Spongebob card from his Uncle Charlie, who is on a mission, so that was a fun surprise!

The past three years have gone by so quickly! We're so lucky to have Mason! He's pretty much the cutest, smartest, and most clever little guy ever (I may be a little bias). We love him tons and hope to some day have enough energy to keep up with him!

Halloween Fun

I'm a few weeks late in posting about Halloween! It was a busy day. In the morning I took the kids to my work. Mason refused to wear his Mike costume (from Monsters, Inc), but didn't have a problem still asking for candy (he wouldn't say Trick or Treat--just please). He had a bag full of treats before we left! Tristyn was super cute in her Ragmuffin Doll outfit. She was so tired that she fell asleep on my shoulder--which she normally doesn't do. We were there for over an hour because I couldn't drag Mason away from this M&M dispensing fire truck that my coworker, Rebecca, had on her desk. She ended up giving it to him (probably just to get him out of her hair!). He loves it and took it everywhere he went for a couple of days (and still pushes it around the house). This photo was the next day when he helped Dan rake leaves.

Then I took the kids to Dan's work downtown. It was the first time we'd visited his new office and we found that it's quite an ordeal to get there because of construction. Mason still wouldn't put on his costume! The nice thing is that both kids were asleep before I got on the freeway!

That evening we forced Mason into part of his costume (he was missing the eye, the shoe covers and the hard hat) and walked to the ward party. Our neighbor had just raked his leaves and Mason couldn't resist shuffling through them! I'm sure the neighbor really appreciated it!

After the party we made our way through the Trunk or Treating and hit a few homes on the way back. We have a few neighbors that go all out to decorate for holidays! I was really surprised that Mason dared go to this door, but he learned quickly that they give you candy whether the porch is scary or not!

Tristyn was a real trooper during the whole thing! She just loved being able to sit up and look around.

We were finally able to get the eye and hat on Mason's costume so he could finish trick or treating at our own house. You can see that we had to bribe him--he had suckers in both hands!

Mason really didn't want to come in, so he and Dan sat on the porch and handed candy out to the kids. He ended up having a really fun time knocking on doors and gathering candy. Hopefully he'll remember next year that it's worth putting a costume on!

While the boys were outside, Tristyn and I sifted through Mason's candy! Yum!

Halloween came and went way too quickly, but we're finding that is how a lot of things are going these days!

Fun kids

I've been wanting to post an update on Tristyn--she's 5 1/2 months now and has been doing some fun things. About a week ago she became an expert at sitting on her own! It has opened a whole new world to her since she can look at things right side up! It's great that she can entertain herself for a little bit longer. She's also bouncing around in her exersaucer and gets extra excited when Mason dances and jumps around. He's great at entertaining her.

Melissa and I went to the gift expo last weekend and I picked up a couple of these super cute hats.

I also have a fun story about Mason. We have a few packets of those Baby Einstein cards and he likes to get them out and tell us what the picture is. To get him to say the words, I let him say it and then 'hop' on that card. Today we were doing that before his nap and he started hopping from card to card and counting them in spanish! He hears it all the time on Diego and Dora, but we've never really gone over them with him. So, it was funny to hear it! He made it all the way to 9 (I can't remember 10 in Spanish either). What a smart kid!

All summer we wished that he would learn to pump on the swings so we wouldn't have to push him all the time. I've been working with him to 'kick and bend' his legs and he has tried that, but this morning he was actually doing it! He got bored of it after I came in, but at least he knows he can make the swing go!

That brings me to my last thought . . . how great is this weather!? Yesterday when I went to lunch I drove back with my window down. I'm not sure that I've ever done that in November! I'm loving it!

Nifty, Nifty,Look Who's 60

The week before Halloween my family had a birthday party to celebrate my parent's birthdays. My dad turned 60, which is what prompted the party. My mom will be turning 39 (again) later this month! He all wore costumes and played halloween party games. The kids (especially Emelia and Braxton) loved bobbing for apples and trying to bite the swinging donuts. Emelia was such a trooper and wasn't afraid to try any of the games.

We had sloppy joes, homemade rootbeer, salads, and birthday cake. We also decorated pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and made a fun birthday book for my brother who's on a mission. It took us about 6 tries to record 'happy birthday' on a recorder for him!

Suzy brought a fun game where we all wrote down the names of famous people and put the tickets in a bucket. The first time through we could talk and describe the person saying anything but the person's name, the second time we had to act/talk like the person, the third time we had to act something out and couldn't talk at all while our team guessed who it was. A lot of times when we get together we only have time to cook, eat, and clean up, so it was awesome to spend time playing games together. The kids had a blast running around and sneaking candy off the table!

The Jenkins Fam (sans Charlie)

Mason wouldn't try putting his face in the water, but had no problem grabbing the apples and throwing them back in to create a huge splash!

Emelia would have put her whole head in if that's what it took! She finally got an apple by the stem!

I love this photo of Diane and Emelia. This was probably the 3rd time Emelia played the game!


Mason was just helping uncle Scott out!

A Redneck and his Baby Doll.

We had to bribe Mason with candy to put his costume on.

The Bennetts

The Brazfields

The Roundys

The Higbees

The Whytes

Little Miss Lolly and Mr Keg

The two who are at fault for this big mess!!!

Happy birthday mom and dad! We hope you had a fun time and we look forward to celebrating many more birthday parties together! We all love you tons!

Zoomania

We were so glad that the weather stayed warm extra long this fall so that we could finally get the kids to the zoo! It was Tristyn's first trip and Mason's third (we've only been able to get up there once a year!). Tristyn really enjoyed being outside and she loves being able to sit up in her stroller rather than cooped up in the carseat.

The first thing we saw when we went in was the Tiger. Mason loved it! He wasn't as excited about many of the other animals, though! When we went past the Gorilla, he hid his head in the stroller and wouldn't look. He did the same thing with the elephants, zebras, and giraffes! He really liked the penguins and thought it was funny when they jumped into the water for their food. We could have stayed at that one exhibit all afternoon! He also liked the black bear and hippo.

Mason hiding from the Gorilla

Tristyn's hand in comparison to the Gorilla's.

The camels weren't really exciting--we just saw their rears as they were eating!

Mason climbed the fence to see the penguins.

Checking out the black bear.

Mason was so excited when he saw the carousel and couldn't wait to give the lady his ticket so he could ride. He wasn't as excited to sit on the animals! We ended up riding in the sleigh--twice! Dan tried to get him on an animal the second time also, but Mason wouldn't have it!

The highlight of his day was riding the train. He loves to make the choo-choo sound while pumping his arm up and down!

The highlight of our day . . . when the kids fell asleep before even getting out of the parking lot!