"When Christmas Changed My Heart" Ensign Article

I just found out from my cousin that her dad, My Uncle Bill (my father's brother), wrote an article and it's in the Ensign this month. If you get it in the mail it's on page 31 but I'll also post a link to it online. The last few sentences in the online version got cut out somehow but it's still an excellent article for the Christmas season.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=be11875a62c25210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Kids Say & Do Funny Things

As you all know kids sometimes say the funniest things. Here are some recent conversations we've had the last week.

Jon and I were joking around about different reasons why I married him then he turns to Faith and said-

Jon: "Faith, do you know why mommy married me?"

Faith: "No."

Jon: "It's because I look funny. Mommy likes funny looking people."

Faith: "No it wasn't"

Jon: "That's not why mommy married me? Then why did mommy marry me?"

Faith: "Because you smell!"

Jon and I laughed for quite some time after she said this.

Another funny conversation I had with Faith on Saturday-

Faith: "Mom, does it take a long time to get to Aunt Xandras?"

Me: "Yes Faith it does."

silence

Faith: "We should buy a faster car so we can get there faster."

First drivers ed lesson at 5 years old- PRICELESS!!!

Funny conversation with Logan (we were at Grandma Plumb's house and getting ready to leave)-

Me: "Logan where's your other shoe?"

Logan: "I don't know, I think the cat took it!"

Me: "The cat, why would Grandma's cat take your shoe?"

Logan: "Not Grandma's cat, the invisible cat."

Me: "Really? An invisible cat? Why did he take your shoe?"

Logan: "I don't know. He appeared, took my shoe, then disappeared. Maybe he wanted to wear it so he wouldn't get his feet wet."

We now blame the invisible cat for anything that goes missing.

I got out of the shower and found Faith, Logan, and Lexi coloring on the floor. Faith had even pulled out a page for Lexi to color.

Faith wrote this letter to Grandma Marlene. It says "I love Grandma" and she wrote Logan's, Lexi's, and her name all over it. She even drew a picture of the dog Tia that she used to have.

Totally Tubular Weight loss!

I know it's kind of cheesy to post this on my blog but I don't care. I just wanted to share with everyone that I have lost 10 lbs in the last couple weeks!!! I am soo excited and I don't care if anyone is excited for me or not but I am. Thank you to everyone who has supported me so far and to everyone who has given me ideas/suggestions and helped push me when I was down... you know who you are and I LOVE you guys for it! Thank you Jonathan for making me feel beautiful and wonderful no matter what and helping me through my hard days and pushing me to keep it up everyday- no matter what!

For anyone who is currently trying to lose weight or wants to start any kind of fitness goal I am going to start a post every week where anyone can join in and get support from me or others. It would be fun if I can get all of my family/friends to join in just for support so just post any kind of weight loss/fitness suggestion or supportive comment or whatever. My favorite workout website is wowy.com, you can sign up for free and track your fitness goals. You can chat with others who are working out and meet new people and make friends with people who have the same goals as you do! Come join, become my buddy, and workout with me!

Faith's First Day of School

Yesterday was Faith's first day of Kindergarten. When I registered her for school she kept telling me how she didn't want to go to school or ride the bus so I made it my mission this summer to get her to want to go. So all summer we read books, talked about it, and even watched this show called "Kindergarten" to get her ready. The weekend before she would go around and tell everyone that she gets to go to school and ride the bus, she was so excited and I was very happy. Here's pictures of her first day of school

Anyone who knows Faith knows that she isn't a morning person. Or as my dad would lovingly say "Faith isn't really a morning person. But she isn't an afternoon or evening person either." Well yesterday was a totally different story. When she woke up, she was very excited to go to school. The only thing I did wrong was enroll her in PM Kindergarten instead of AM. All day long she would ask "Is it time to walk to the bus stop yet?"

Of course Lexi and Logan had to have pictures also.

Faith wanted to make funny faces in some of the pictures.

Our cute not so little girl posing

She wanted to make sure and have a picture with her backpack. She even got to ride the bus to and from school. We followed behind the bus and stayed for a few minutes in her class.

Here she is in her classroom. At first she wanted to sit at the purple table (it's her favorite color) but when no one else sat down at the same table she moved to the blue table.

All the kids sat on the rug and the parents were invited to stay for the first story of the day. It was called "The Kissing Hand" and is a really good story about saying goodbye. Logan came with me to pick Faith up at the bus stop. She had the biggest grin I have ever seen on her face and she told me all about what she did after we left and even brought home a picture of a rainbow that she drew on one side and a dragon on the other. She is so excited to be in school and loves it...so far.

In Need of Recipes

If anyone has some really good recipes that they and their family just LOVE will you please send them my way. I'm looking for recipes for any occasion. That includes good drinks, appetizers, side dishes, main meals, ANYTHING!!! I already have an amazing enchilada, lasagna, and potato/broccoli soup recipe so anything besides that would be greatly appreciated. Nothing with mushrooms or it will not get eaten. Thank you!!! I am in desperate need of more variety!

Long Time No See

Hey guys how are all of you? I know I haven't updated in a LONG time so I decided to finally get around to it. So I am going to tell you everything that's happened in the last three months. Sorry I don't have any pictures but I'll steal some from Lisa (my mother in-law) and my mom promised to send me pictures so as soon as I have those and can figure out how to scan them onto my computer so I can post them. Well here we go...

May 5th- Jonathan and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary! Wow we've been married for 6 years already and have been through so much. I know a few people didn't think that we would make it past six months but here we are 6 years and three kids later and we are more happily married than ever! For those of you who don't know our story - we met in Utah at a grocery store that we both worked at (Harmon's). I worked with his grandpa for close to a year before he started working there and that is how we met. I asked one of the supervisors about him and the first thing I heard about him was how much he loved working with his Grandpa. The first thing I ever said to him was "nice tie"(he was wearing a forest green Harmon's shirt with a bright purple tie). We joked and laughed about it and after that it was pretty much love at first sight. I was dating someone else the first time he asked me out, I was actually going to tell him no but Xandra my sister told me that I should go out with Jonathan anyway and make my current "boyfriend" jealous. We watched The Count of Monte Cristo and talked about how we wanted to live in mansions with moats and sharks in the moat. He asked me out again for the midnight movie that Saturday and I told him that I "had plans". As my luck goes Jonathan's friends and him saw me at the movies with my boyfriend and his friends. I totally thought he wasn't going to ask me out ever again, but he did. I dumped my boyfriend a few days later (two days before Valentines day to be exact) and look where all that has lead us to today....

May 17th- Jonathan celebrated his 26th birthday. We didn't make a big deal about it as he doesn't think that anyone should have just one day where everyone is supposed to be nice and do special things for him, he thinks that we should act like that everyday :). We pretty much just went to a dinner and a movie like we usually do when we go out.

June- Nothing really happened

July- My mom and her new husband Fred came into town and visited for a few days. It was great being able to see my mom again and to really get to know Fred. He really is a great guy and my mom seems really happy with him. We went to Riverfront Park and fed the geese, took the kids to see Ice Age 3, walked around the Spokane Temple grounds, and just hung out and relaxed at our apartment. They were totally exhausted as they just came from Walt Disney World and Utah before that and I believe a cruise before that. I totally wish that they could have stayed longer or that I lived closer to them. Faith, Logan, and Lexi totally adore my mom and they really liked Fred too. I can't wait to see my mom again.

July 28- Logan celebrated his 4th birthday. Lisa has pictures on her blog as we couldn't find our camera at the time. We had pizza, confetti cake, and strawberry swirl ice cream to eat. Ruthanne even came over, hung out, and gave Logan a glow in the dark CTR ring. Grandma and Grandpa Plumb gave him a children's bible storybook, and Jon and I gave him a couple of puzzles and crayons. He was happy but pretty crabby so he ended up having to go to bed early. For a four year old boy though he is very behaved and a really good listener, for the most part anyway. :D

August 1- Ruthanne and Bradley had their baby. She went into labor Friday afternoon and was born at 5:58am Saturday. He was 7lbs 7oz, 19" long, and they named him Tyler. She was in labor for over 12 hours and it was really hard on her towards the end. Bradley was so cute, he stayed in the room with her the whole time (except when her family kicked him out to have some alone time with her) and he played with her hair and held her hand all 12+ hours. When his baby was born he of course cried, it was really sweet to see him with tears streaming down his face. He is so in love with that baby boy and he is incredible with him. I thought he was great with my kids but he's amazing with little Tyler.

Well that about sums it up. As soon as my mom sends me pictures of their visit here I'll see what I can do to get them copied onto my computer so I can post them, I'm really excited to see what they look like. If you want to see pictures of any of the other events I'm sure Lisa has them on her blog so feel free to go take a look :). Love you all and hope everyone out there is doing well. I really wish I lived closer to all of you so my kids and I had some friends to play with. I'm very glad that you all blog so I can see what you all have been up to, it makes me feel closer to all of you and I love watching you and your family's grow. Keep updating!

Canada

(Ruthanne, Bradley, Tanner, Kaylee, Alyssa, Me, & Jonathan)

We made a day trip to Canada the Saturday before Mother's Day with my In-Laws. We decided to go before the U.S. closed it's boarders and you need a passport to get back in. We went to this campground that they used to go to all the time when they were growing up.

There is this really cool playground and tons of grass to run around on between the campground and the lake. All my kids had a blast, especially Lexi.

Bradley and Ruthanne had as much fun playing on the playground as Faith and Logan did.

Jonathan snuck in a picture of me.

Jonathan took Logan to the lake and Logan was playing with the sand. Well as the sand was sifting through his fingers Logan said "Dad, the sand is melting!"

I love having Alyssa home from BYU-ID for the summer. She's been a great help with my kids and they adore her!

We bbq'd hotdogs for lunch and Lexi grabbed one and started eating it whole. She ate at least three.

Jonathan and his dad cooking hotdogs

Logan and Kaylee playing

Lisa (my mother in-law) has this tradition that whenever family gets together we play Apples to Apples and whoever the winner is gets to sign this purple crown and wear it for the day. Logan liked it so she let him wear it while we played. You can see Jon's and my names on it.

On our way home we decided to take a different route and go on the ferry. Here's all of us waiting for over 1.5 hours for it.

While we waited for the ferry we bought some ice cream. It was the most expensive and nastyest ice cream any of us has ever had.

Grandpa Plumb too Faith and Logan to the shore to feed the ducks.

The ferry finally came

Here's what Jon, Bradley, and I did on the ferry

Here's what everyone else did

It was a really fun day trip. I hope we do it again soon. Thanks Lisa for letting me steal pictures off your blog :).

Easter & Lexi's Birthday

I know it's been forever since I updated but here's pictures...finally. Lexi turned 1 on March 20th. We didn't really do anything much but had an ice cream cake and we had everyone over for a movie. Here's the pictures.

We had literally a whole month of Easter. The Saturday before Easter Lisa's (My mother in law) best friend Kep had an Easter Egg hunt in her unfinished basement (it was really cold and rainy outside), then on Easter Sunday the Easter bunny had an Easter egg scavenger hunt at Lisa's house, and then last Saturday a lady in the ward had an Easter Egg hunt in her back yard. The Easter bunny even came (Alyssa, my sister in law, volunteered).

Family Pictures

My mom finally got back the family pictures that were taken in Utah so here they are.

Chicken Enchiladas

Several people have asked for the recipe I use for my enchiladas. It's not my recipe, I took my favorite from allrecipes.com and changed it a bit but here's the modified one I use.

Chicken Enchiladas:

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1lb) - boiled and shredded
• 1 (7 ounce) can diced green chile peppers (if you love spicy you can use diced jalapenos or half green chilies, half jalapenos)
  
• 1 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 12 (6 inch) flour tortillas
• 2 cups shredded Monteray Jack cheese
• 1 (10 ounce) can green enchilada sauce (I use medium)
• Diced tomatoes, olives, and lettuce for garnish
  

Meat Mixture: Cook chicken and green chilies in a skillet for about 5 minutes. Add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions.

Cheese Mixture: In a medium bowl stir cottage cheese, sour cream, salt, and pepper until blended.

Preheat oven to 350. Heat tortillas until soft. Put just enough enchilada sauce to lightly coat the bottom of the baking dish. In each tortilla put a spoonful of meat mixture, then a spoonful of cheese mixture, then top with Monteray Jack cheese. Roll it up, then place in baking dish. Cover enchiladas with enchilada sauce and top with any remaining meat/cheese. Garnish with your favorite veggies (I like using fresh diced tomatoes and sliced olives).

Cook for approx. 30 minutes. Makes about 6 servings.

Faith's Birthday

Faith turned 5 on the 10th but since Jared, Heidi, Xander, and Alyssa were all in town the weekend before we celebrated on the Sunday before. I made enchiladas for dinner and we had ice cream cake for dessert. It was fun and nice to have all that family around to celebrate with us.

I tried getting a picture of Faith, Logan, and Xander together but this is the best I could manage. Logan and Xander weren't being very cooperative lol

Alyssa and Joe

Bradley, Jon, and Jared. This is all they do when they get together... Jared eventually caved and got his PSP out too, I guess great nerds think alike.