At Last

Okay so remember that lack of creativity I was talking about? Well this morning I was making salsa to take to the lake with us and suddenly remembered that I had planned on posting recipes on my blog a few months ago. I obviously forgot because I haven't posted a single recipe. So today I am going to post a recipe for salsa. I got the recipe from my sister in law, Jennifer. I can't remember where she got it but Jody and I love it. It is very easy and delicious!

Salsa

2-20 oz. cans of mexican style stewed tomatoes

1/4 Cup jalapeno pepper slices

2 Tbls. of jalapeno juice from jar

2 gobs of fresh cilantro

juice squeezed from 1/2 of a lime

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cumin

2 heaping tsp minced garlic (in jar)

Now just blend all of these ingredients up.

I doctored the recipe up by chopping up fresh tomatoes and adding it to the mix to make it more chunky and fresh tasting. Enjoy!

I'm Slacking

I know that I haven't been doing very well with my posts. I go through times when I have a million ideas for posts I want to do on my blog. But then I get them all done and have a dry spell, like the one I'm having now. So I will just give a quick update on things going on in my life.

First and foremost, all of my family will be here this weekend. Lindsey, Alan and Izzy arrived late Saturday night and will be here for another two weeks. Kasey and her gang will be here Tuesday night and then we will meet Chris, Kalie and their kids at Trinity Lake this weekend. So it's a family reunion of sorts. I can't wait to be together with everyone and take tons of pictures that I can post on the blog.

Alex is on her own at college now and seems to be doing great because we don't hear from her much. She too might try to meet up with us at the lake. Ammon is doing great in preschool, it's like he's been going there for months. Cohen is beginning to learn how to walk. He has taken up to 7 steps with the coaxing of his dad, who unbelievably tried to teach him while I was away on my trip! Summer is dwindling down. This could very well be our last weekend at Trinity. So sad! My tan will slowly fade into a nice color I like to call pasty white and the next thing I have to look forward to is Thanksgiving, when we go to Snowbird Utah. Jody is back in school full time and I don't think we'll see much of him during the week because he is going to be very busy. He is also going to be applying for jobs and hopefully will be going to some interviews. It's strange not knowing where we could be living in the next year but also very exciting! So for now life is calming down. Hopefully my lack of creativity will leave and I'll be able to think up some new and exciting posts for you all to read. I love that everyone is beginning their own blogs. My list of daily reads is expanding by the day.

First Day of School

Ammon had his first day of Preschool today. He is going to the Child Development Lab at Humboldt State. My siblings and I also attended this preschool and it is wonderful. I was all prepared to stay with Ammon for an hour or so because it was his first day but he was off playing within the first few minutes. Ten minutes later I hugged him and said goodbye and he could have cared less. I guess it's a good thing. He had a blast at school. We gave his friend Brayden a ride home and they were in the back of the car talking and I heard Ammon say, "We go to school now Brayden, because we are big and we listen to our teachers." It was so cute.

I got home last night from Utah and was so excited to see my kids. It was hard to leave them but once I was gone I was fine. I had a great time being back in Provo. We stayed one night with Alex in her apartment at King Henry. King Henry is where Jody and I met. Being there brought back a lot of memories and feelings. I loved it. I hope Alex has as wonderful of an experience as I did. I also stayed a few nights in Salt Lake with my old roommate and friend Celeste. We stayed up until 3:30 in the morning one night talking about all the funny things we did and people we met in Provo. It was a wonderful trip and I am so glad I got to go. But when it was time to go I couldn't wait to get home to see my kids. My single days in Provo were some of the funnest in my life but I realized that I am so happy to have my own family now. I love being a mom and feel so lucky to have my adorable little boys and loving husband. I realized that there is nothing else I would rather do in life than be a mother and wife.

College Bound

Yes me too! Well not really. Alex, my sister, is heading out to Provo Utah tomorrow to attend Utah Valley State College and live in King Henry Apartments. Wow, are we in the twilight zone? I feel like it was just yesterday that I was doing the same thing. So for the last few months Alex has been grilling me about all my experiences in P-town. Any of you who have been there feel free to comment about things she can do or go see. She has asked me things like: where to workout, what is the funnest thing to do, which mall is better, where to get a job, how to pay bills, and the list goes on and on. She is a pretty random girl who has just in the last few months found enough courage to make her own hair appointments. Scary I know. But I think she will do fine on her own. During these last few months of reminiscing about my old college days I have been feeling a little envious of her. So about a month ago when for the tenth time I said, "I am so jealous, you are going to have so much fun" Alex thought of the most wonderful idea when she said,"why don't you come back with us?" That night I went home and somehow managed to talk Jody into it. So we are leaving tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. to drive little Alex back to Utah. The good things about going are that I don't have to say goodbye to Alex yet, I get to eat yummy food, see old friends, and sleep as long as I want to. I will officially be away from my kids for 6 days. I have only been away from Ammon for 3 days and no more than a few hours from Cohen. Right now I am excited but so sad to leave them. I keep kissing them and looking at their little faces and telling them how much I love them. This may seem a little dramatic but I am sure you other moms know how I feel. I just can't believe she is going. Luckily I have some things to look forward to. Lindsey, Kasey and Chris will all be coming home with their families over the next few weeks and I can't wait to be with all of them.

Dad and Jody packing her car up.

Like Father Like Mother?

Okay so lately everyone has been saying that my two boys, Ammon and Cohen, look identical. When Cohen was first born we thought he was the spitting image of Ammon but he quickly changed. He is much thinner in the face and body then Ammon ever has been and he has blue eyes. To me Ammon looks a lot like my baby pictures but I can see Jody in him also. I thought Cohen looked exactly like Jody but after pulling out some of my own pictures tonight I am seeing some of myself in him. I don't have baby pictures of Jody but Cohen does look a lot like them. One of the funnest things about having kids is seeing who they will look like. We always wonder if/when we have a girl what and who she will look like. So what do you think? Does Ammon look like me or Jody? How about Cohen? Do they look alike? I will post another picture of both of them at the same age tomorrow. Happy judging!

p.s. Don't you love the picture in the tub? Doesn't everyone have these? I know I already have a dozen or so of my kids with their cousins in the tub. Kasey looks like Kaden in this picture. Poor kid. J/K!!!

p.p.s. Congrats Benji! He was the winner of SYTYCD last night!

Happy Birthday Cohen

Cohen had his first birthday last week! Ammon enjoyed it more than he did but at least we got some cute pictures from it! His favorite part was eating the cake. We just got back from another wonderful weekend at the lake. I just have to tell one funny thing Ammon did. On the way home he was eating some ritz crackers and fell asleep with them in his hands. Halfway home I heard him getting some crackers out and assumed he had woken up. I looked back and his eyes were still closed. With eyes close he got a cracker out, ate it, got a second one out and ate that one. After his second cracker he was fast asleep again or did he ever wake up? My mom and I got a good laugh over that one!

Cohen loves this push bike Kalie got him.

The Never Ending Triplex

I wish they would have consulted me before they painted it!

Okay so many of you have probably heard about "the triplex." This is an investment my husband made with three other guys obviously to make some money. They bought the triplex last June, so it has been about 14 months. This thing was the nastiest place I had ever been in before they started working on it. I can't even begin to describe how nasty it was. So the plan was to totally gut the inside of it, change the floor plan, and put all new everything into it and this was all suppose to take 3 or 4 months. Yah right! Since March I have heard, "It will done next month." Fourteen months later I can honestly say that there is an end in sight. It has not been the easiest year because of this junker. Jody was going to school all last year, we had a new baby, and he was working. Then he would go out to Eureka to work on it in the evenings when he didn't have a softball game, church meetings, or school work to do. Basically I spent a lot of time with my parents and Alex. I know that it doesn't look like much but they have made vast improvements to it. Jody has also learned a lot considering he had never worked in construction before. We should be refinancing and putting it on the market this month. It will be wonderful to finally see the fruits of our labors! $$$$$$$

Good Times

We are back from our trips to Trinity Lake, Vacaville, Portland and Seattle. Life is slowly getting back to normal. Luckily I did laundry before I left and before I came back and I left the apartment in pretty good shape. So the worst was unpacking the car and cleaning it out. We had a wonderful time on our trip and enjoyed seeing our family. We started out Thursday night and drove to the lake. We stayed there until Saturday morning. We drove to Vacaville Saturday to go to my cousin Jami's wedding reception, which by the way was beautiful. It was fun to spend time with my grandparents, Rona, and her girls.

On Monday morning we got up and drove from Vacaville to Portland. We wanted to stop in Portland so that we could take turns going through the temple. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Jody and I were married in the Portland Temple and it just holds a special place in my heart. When I was there I kept remembering our wedding and the feelings I felt that day. I love going to the temple. Jody and I have made it a goal to go every month and I am starting to get addicted to it. I just love the way I feel when I am there and the way it puts everything thing in life in perspective. I come away remembering why I am here and what this life is about. Most importantly it makes me grateful for my family and the blessings I have been given. I am grateful to have a testimony of the gospel and can't imagine ever feeling pure peace and joy in my life without it.
After the temple we drove three more hours to spend five days with my brother Chris and his family. Well maybe I should say just his family because he had to go to San Diego while we were there and we didn't get to spend a lot of time with him. But I loved spending time with Kalie and her kids. I love that she is married to my brother, he really lucked out with her. If we lived close I know she would be one of my best friends. Madison and Kyle are adorable kids and Ammon loved being able to play with Madison from sun up to sun down. Poor Jody got stuck going shopping with us, going to a play group, and listening to our conversations about girl things. But he was a trooper and even watched all four kids so that we could shop at a store by ourselves.

All in all it was a fun, relaxing trip. I love my family and am so grateful that I am close with all of them. I only wish I could see them more!

Moving on!

Happy Day! Jody officially passed both summer classes and if all goes well will graduate in December! This has been a long time coming. When we first got married we came to McKinleyville to finish up school and move after two years. Well four years later, two kids, and too many odd jobs to list we are finally going to move on! When we first moved here the plan was for Jody to get his degree in business. Because he didn't have California residency yet he had to start at College of the Redwoods where he took a couple of business classes. After talking to our brother in law Matt who had decided to quit the whole "working for someone else" type of job and go to dental school, Jody decided to give it a try also. So he switched his major to Biology and began going to Humboldt. After his first attempt at the DAT and applying to 10 or so schools and not getting in, he decided to drop the dental school thing and look for something else. Meanwhile he was approached by a guy in our ward to become a real estate agent and work for him. Jody jumped on the chance to quit working at my dad's mill and make some real money. So within a few months he was a licensed agent. It has been a great job for Jody except that it has slowed down his progression in finishing school. We love the paychecks we get when a home closes but the stress of not knowing how much you will make each month and having deals fall through days before you are going to get paid isn't worth it. So Jody has jumped back into school full time and will now finish. Our plan has changed many times. But for now he hopes to get a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep and move near relatives in Seattle, Georgia, or Denver. But we have to take what we can get and hope that we will be able to move up. I just want to live near someone. I can't imagine leaving my parents alone in Humboldt County but hopefully they won't be far behind!