Visit from Family

It's been awhile so here's some catch-up!

At the end of March we had a visit from family. We love when people visit us! Jon and Jaime and kids suffered through a terrible drive to make it here. They just happened to have about the worst possible weather when they decided to come. Snow in the mountains and a flood watch here. So much for sunny California! :) We had a blast, though, and are so glad they came to see us.

They were supposed to be here in time for the BYU/Florida game but ended up missing it because of the weather. It was a tough game to watch. Moments of brilliance but mostly just a lot of missed 3's. We still supported our Cougs and even made some blue jello.

Elizabeth didn't want to do a 'Y', she wanted an 'E'

They finally arrived that evening and the kids were SO excited to play. We got going early the next morning and took a trip to San Francisco. I'm embarrassed to say that this was the first time we've actually gone to the city since we've lived here (not counting the airport). It was fun to have an excuse to go.

We went to the pier to see the sea lions and the kids all loved that.

A bunch of the crew:

Jon and Jaime's beautiful fam

I love this one:

Checking out this silver guy do his thing:

Then we went over to the Exploratorium, but first we ate some lunch and played at a nearby beach.

Almost got a great family picture.

If only I wouldn't blink all the time

She loves to run from the waves.

We need to go to the beach again soon.

The kids loved the Exploratorium. They were running from exhibit to exhibit. We didn't even get to see all that much and we were there a long time.

This big bubble sheet was cool:

They even watched a cow eye dissection
(it's too bad her hand is blocking it)

Other than that, we just talked, let the kids play, jogged, ate some In 'n Out, and talked some more. Thanks again for coming guys!

What's for dinner?

I am sick of everything I cook. I was talking to a friend the other day whose children are older than mine. Her oldest is in college. We were talking about how her kids have their favorite meals that she makes (don't all kids?--I still make my favorite meals from when I was a kid). I asked if she ever gets sick of everything she makes and she said a resounding "yes!" That's why she is always trying new recipes. Her kids don't necessarily enjoy that, but she has to do it for her own sake. So, apparently this is a common problem.

I recently wrote down all of the meals I could think of that I make. I came up with a list of 52. That was more than I was expecting. You'd think I wouldn't be sick of them all with that many, but I am. I still make them, of course, and I do still enjoy eating most of them. It's just that the thought of making something from that list no longer excites me, which makes cooking feel like an even bigger chore. Anyway, I am going to post the list mostly for my own sake. I think that years down the road I might actually enjoy looking back on this list, just like I sometimes enjoy thinking about the things I made when we were first married and I had no idea how to cook. Here it is:
(Sorry--the list is cut off when this posts and I don't know how to fix it. Hopefully you can still figure out what they are!)

1. roast chicken

2. beef stroganoff

3. pork chops

4. chicken and stuffing

5. chicken taco soup

6. black bean soup

7. corn chowder

8. chicken noodle soup

9. tortellini sausage soup

10. creamy cauliflower soup

11. white bean soup

12. chicken cacciatore

13. mango salsa chicken

14. baked orange chicken

15. stir fry

16. asian chicken salad

17. fried rice

18. black beans and lime rice

19. refried beans and Spanish rice

20. burgers and fries

21. baked potatoes

22. crepes

23. cornflake chicken

24. beef tacos

25. chicken tacos

26. fajitas

27. taquitos

28. sub sandwiches

29. BLTs

30. chicken enchiladas

31. spaghetti

32. beef stew

33. sweet pork

34. chicken parmesan

35. chicken and mushrooms

36. pizza

37. paninis

38. asian roll-ups

39. mushroom risotto

40. spiced beef brisket

41. roast beef

42. french dip

43. baked spaghetti

44. Mediterranean salad

45. café rio pork

46. baked ravioli

47. tomato artichoke pasta

48. spinach feta pasta

49. pasta salad

50. baked chicken penne

51. murkha dal (lentils)

52. indian tomato chicken

Now, if anyone wants any of these recipes I would be happy to send them to you (or give you the link). BUT, you must send one of your favorites to me in return! As you can see, I have a lot of Mexican-type meals already, so unless it's different from one of these and really good, none of those please. If you have any good vegetarian meals, those would be greatly appreciated. Not only are they typically cheaper and healthier, but for some reason I am sick to death of cooking meat lately (I am not pregnant!). Also, I do occasionally cook fish but I haven't lately because we are trying to save money right now and it seems to me that it has gotten a lot more expensive. I used to be able to get a bag of salmon filets from Costco for like $13 but now that same bag is over $20. Maybe I'm just imagining that, but I thought that was the case. Is there a cheaper way to get fish that I don't know about?

If you haven't noticed from my blog already, I love Our Best Bites. Many of the above recipes are from them, including the black bean soup, tortellini sausage soup, and baked chicken penne (except I used roasted red peppers). They are good. I love pretty much all of the recipes of theirs that I have tried.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

Almost Spring

Hooray for March! I was so done with February. Didn't I say the same thing about January? Oops. Maybe it's me. It seemed like February was just full of sickness for us. First some flu-like stuff and then the rounds of cough/colds.

It had its ups, too. A good amount of sunshine to save our sanity, for one thing...

Picking daisies

They rediscovered the joy of making daisy crowns/necklaces/bracelets and beg me for them all the time now. I used to make them before Nate was born but hadn't since then and it was like it was brand new to them! The joy of childhood memory loss. :)

They picked SO many. This is only about a 1/4 of them...

My boy

We also finally finished our alphabet hunt. I started back in October. I haven't made the book yet. I might just put the prints in a dollar store photo album I got and call it good. The kids really liked it although it was much harder than I thought it would be. I'll admit that we manipulated twigs a couple of times to get hard-to-find letters.

Can you see the letters?

We tried to have fun inside, too. I saw somewhere the idea to finger paint with vanilla pudding. The kids loved that, although they were a little upset to realize that their pictures wouldn't dry and had to be thrown away.

We tried to get some indoor exercise by dancing around to our favorite Pandora station (the "Part of Your World" station--it's basically a Disney/Broadway mix). The girls especially love to dance to "Bare Neccessities", "Step in Time" (from Mary Poppins), "I Could Have Danced All Night" (from My Fair Lady), and "It's the Hard-Knock Life" (from Annie).

They love to dance and they love each other

We are all better now. I'm still going strong on my running schedule. Haven't missed a day yet! I even somehow managed to get up last Saturday morning when I stayed up way too late the night before downloading new music for my ipod. Note to self: Sleep is much more important to maintaining the running schedule than new music is. (I'm always up for more suggestions for good motivating workout music if you have any! One I've discovered: "One Day More" from Les Miserables (London cast!!)--I think that song could get me through anything.)

Today was a good day. I got to have some quality time with Nate. We had fun playing and reading books together. For some reason today he started giving me these tight hugs around the neck every time I lifted him out of his car seat. And they would last a long time! Oh how I loved every second of it....

Those hugs could get me through anything, too. :)