Wednesday Is My Day Off

Wednesdays are my day off... usually. And today, I had the day off... because it's Wednesday. SO I had big plans for my Wednesday, to have fun hanging out with my little cutie, Aurora all day since it was just going to be us.

But then we both slept in and I thought I'd have to babysit my friends' little girl after school and things just weren't working out.

So I was bummed. And Dan's out of town, helping his dad, Steve, with his courier business since he's sick from starting chemotherapy and having a bad cold on top of that. Ugh!

I was just feeling stuck in the house and down.

Around 3:15pm, I was packing Aurora into her car seat to go pick up our little friend from school, when her mom called to say that she ended up getting off work early and I didn't need to babysit today! Woo! Not that I don't love our little friend, but I had "big plans" to do something today, remember?

So I kept Aurora in her seat and we headed out the door with $21 in hand and a plan to find toddler shoes for my walking babe. OH MY GOSH! I forgot to tell you guys! WE HAVE A WALKING GIRL ON OUR HANDS!

Anyway, I needed to stretch that small wad of cash in my wallet as far as possible because I also needed diapers... hmmm... yeah.

For you moms who buy diapers, you know that this was basically not going to happen. Diapers are freaking expensive.

Lucky for us, I remembered seeing an ad on Facebook about a diaper sale happening at a store here in St. George called Traders Discount Markets, so before we left the house, I called them to see if they had some in stock... They did!

Oh! And I also called the Iron County School District to have them activate my application for some open elementary teaching positions! Eeek!

But then, we were on our way!

You guys.

Traders had diapers on sale for pretty much HALF OFF the regular price for the EXACT brand we buy!
I wanted to jump up and down for joy! I didn't.
And I wanted to buy all the diapers on the rack! I didn't do that either... only $21, remember?
So I left there spending only $15 for 138 diapers! That is a steal!

People, that was step 1 to turning my day around.

Step 2 happened after searching Walmart and Target for semi-cheap toddler shoes, to no avail, and ending up at the D.I. (All Target brought us was a fun little jam session with the Beats by Dre headphones haha)

I tried a few pairs of shoes on Aurora at the D.I., had her walk around in them (that was adorable), we chose two pairs, and then we paid for them! Guess how much?

$6!

I spent EXACTLY what I left the house with. Oh, success, you make me happy.

Then we drove around for a bit, enjoying the beautiful scenery of St. George and the summer-like weather before stopping by Albertson's on the way home.

Just one question for ya, Cedar City... Why the heck did you get rid of our Albertson's?! That store has everything! haha I love it!

I left with comfort food (guacamole, chips, a mango, fruit leather, and mini ice cream cartons) and pictures of my cute shopping buddy, so that went well.

When we got home, I watched a small portion of Lilo & Stitch with Aurora before putting her to bed. I am so lucky to be her mom! She is the sweetest thing!

Oh! And I got to talk to one of my best friends, Natalie Wade, tonight on the phone and she let me know that she will be coming to visit St. George in two weeks! I was so happy! I miss her!

AND THEN right after that, I checked Instagram to see that I had WON A CONTEST!!! It wasn't anything huge, but I never win! Never! I was so excited! You all have no idea!

I won a cute little stuffed bunny for Aurora from Apple Park Kids!

And then my cute hubby text me to say he missed me. And my dad called. And my sister-in-law, Kaela, posted a picture for me on Facebook saying they missed me being there.

So even though I'm alone tonight, I don't feel lonely. And even though my day seemed doomed, it turned out pretty good.

Recipe Time--Stuffed Pepper Enchiladas

I (greatly) modified this recipe for Healthy Stuffed Red Peppers that I found on the Six Sisters Stuff blog. Now it is slightly less healthy, but we ended up liking it better than we like stuffed peppers, so it works! It got a thumbs up all around, plus a "Please make that again!" from Dan, so I thought I'd share. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Stuffed Pepper Enchiladas
Author: Liz Johnson
Total Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 yellow onion, chopped
1-2 red or orange bell peppers, chopped (I used one but if you like more peppers, add more!)
3 Tb. minced garlic
3 Tb. taco seasoning
1 tsp. paprika
dash of salt & pepper
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
1 can corn, rinsed & drained
8 soft flour tortillas
2-3 cups cheddar cheese
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained
2 green onions, diced
Sour cream

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F

2. In a large skillet, brown the ground turkey with the chopped onion and peppers, adding in the garlic, taco seasoning, paprika, and salt & pepper for flavor.

3. When turkey is browned, stir in black beans and corn and continue to cook for a few more minutes.

4. Remove mixture from stove and using a large spoon, put about 2 spoonfuls of the meat mixture into each tortilla one at a time, generously sprinkle cheese over the mixture, then roll the tortilla and place seam side down in a 9x13 glass baking dish horizontally. (You will have left over meat mixture!)

5. In a separate bowl, combine red enchilada sauce and diced tomatoes, mixing in the rest of the meat mixture.

6. Pour enchilada sauce mixture over the rolled tortillas and spread evenly, being sure to fill in any cracks or empty spaces between tortillas.

7. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Remove and cover with remaining cheese. Continue to bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

8. Remove from oven and sprinkle top with diced green onions.

9. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.

Devilishly Easy

Easy recipe for the day: Devil Pumpkin Cake Cookies (yeah, I made up that name... like it!)

Seriously, this is so easy! 

Ingredients

1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree

1 box Devil's Food Cake mix

Directions

Mix together the pumpkin and cake mix until moistened. 

Drop spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes at 350° F.

And that's it! They make the softest, fluffiest cake cookies you've ever had. The only thing that would make them better? A handful of chocolate chips... but, hey, I like my chocolate! Oh, and milk! Drink a glass of milk with them!

Also for today, I tried a new hair-do on Aurora. She wasn't quite as cooperative as the other day so it's not perfect, but she's still perfectly cute! Please don't judge the dried snot or the chocolate remains on her face... you can only wipe a nose so many times and what can I say? She liked the cookies!

Oh, and while Cedar thought it was Winter today with their 11+ inches of snow, St. George thought it'd better stick with Spring rain showers mixed with sunshine. I love St. George!

Recharged

We had the opportunity to visit both of our families in Cedar City on Tuesday and Wednesday, and while it didn't go quite as planned, it was SO AWESOME to see our families! We've been missing those people!

Poor Aurora has been growing four new teeth in on the top so she's been absolutely miserable for the past week; extremely stuffed up, ear infections, sick belly, the works. She has a sore throat from coughing and hasn't wanted to eat or drink anything. Plus, she threw up in the car when we got to Cedar and kept us up ALL NIGHT on Tuesday night... so we also took a trip to her old pediatrician there to make sure she was alright. Thankfully, she is just stuffy which is the cause of all our her troubles, so they did a deep suction on her nose and she was SO much better for the rest of Wednesday. She even slept all night for us on Wednesday night! Hallelujah! 

Despite those few things, we had such a great time! 

We got to meet our cute new nephew, Lucas, and he is so wonderful! When we took pictures of the cousins together, Aurora absolutely loved being able to snuggle with her arm around Grace and her other hand holding Lucas' hand. 

This is such a fun time in life with our siblings and us having kids around the same age. It's crazy to see how much our families have grown over the years AND how the children (us) are becoming parents and the parents are becoming grandparents! Life is sure moving along and we're just doing our best to keep up! 

We realized we now have a niece and a nephew on each side of the family. We are loving it! 

Over the time we were there, we were able to:

•Have Dan help his dad, Steve, deliver packages for his courier job while I spent time with my sisters and my parents

•Try out a new recipe (Ranch Pork chops) with Dan's family

•Hang out with Dan's brothers and visit with his dad, Shon

•Have Dan help Jeremy give his dad, Steve, a priesthood blessing for comfort and health

•Take turns trying different methods of comforting Aurora as she screamed the entire night... finally resulting in me taking her on a drive at 6:00am so we could get some peace... bright side? I saw the beautiful sunrise

•Eat breakfast at Denny's with Dan's brothers, Caleb and Ryan (Caleb missed school because he had to catch up on sleep from the Aurora all night crying thing)

•Go to that lovely doctor's visit for Aurora

•FINALLY TAKE A NAP (only 1 hour but, hey, I'll take what I can get!)

•Eat dinner with Dan's family at The Pizza Factory and Kaela even came with the kids so Aurora got to see more cousins! We miss living by them!

•Play games and chat with my family... we played Quelf Antics and laughed our butts off at my mom's interpretive dancing skills, Becca's humming skills, Steph's song writing abilities, Erin's artistic renderings, Dan's miming expertise, and me trying to play Jingle Bells using my mouth as a kazoo! haha If you are now curious about the game, go play it!

•Get pushed around in a toy baby stroller... oh wait, that was just Aurora!

•Get a much needed early bedtime and a full night of interrupted sleep at my parents' house

We got home this morning just in time for me to shower before Abi got there for me to babysit! And let me tell you, that mini-vacay must have been just what we needed to recharge our batteries, because today went great!

Dan got a nap, 

I played with the girls and picked up my friend's foster daughter from school,

I tried a new hairstyle on Aurora and she actually sat still long enough for me to do it (!),

Abi got picked up and we took the other ladies with us to Smith's to go food shopping, 

We got all the food on my list plus a bit more for THE EXACT amount of money we had planned (Boom, baby!),

We had dinner from Arctic Circle since we were starving (Yes, we're those people that spend money on food shopping only to become hungry faster than we can cook it and eat out...),

We got to chat with our friend, Kara,

I cleaned out the fridge AND the pantry (Go me!),

I made dinner to send with Dan to work (Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Casserole),

Aurora actually ate and drank stuff today (It's the little things!),

Aurora went to bed on time... peacefully,

Dan got off to work on time,

and I'm blogging!

Next goal? Get Liz to sleep before midnight!

Sunday, Monday, Yada, Yada

These last two days have been kind of great.
To the outside world, they may not look like anything spectacular or out of the ordinary... but for our little family, they've been awesome!

Yesterday, Sunday, Dan got home from work at 8:00am. Aurora and I were already up and getting ready for church. Aurora was looking beautiful in the new dress she got from her Great Grandma Rigby and her cute flower hair clip she got from her Barclay aunts and grandma. Dan came in cheerful, despite a hectic morning at work and he looked so handsome in his church attire. And I was feeling pretty! I mean, all you girls out there can probably attest that that little fact right there can be all it takes for the makings of a good day, right?

We headed to church together and made it just in time for the sacrament meeting to start. The meeting was wonderful and the speakers spoke straight to my heart. It was as if they knew what was going on in our lives at this exact time and said what we needed to hear; the talks were on finding hope through your struggles.

Now as I say that I felt those talks on that particular topic were quite touching to me, many of you might be wondering what struggles we're enduring. Honestly, not too many, but some of the people closest to us are indeed struggling and in need of hope.

As many of you who follow me on Facebook might know, Dan's dad, Steve, is battling Melanoma (skin cancer). I'll share what his mom posted on the Facebook group page we've created to clue you in on his story:

I think that his parents and the whole rest of our family are in definite need of hope while going through this scary time.

The second speaker during the meeting, spoke of his dear mother who has been battling different kinds of cancer for a total of 13 years. He told that she had been given a blessing in the beginning of it all that she would live to see her youngest son serve a mission. During the years that followed, she had to go through stage IV cancer in various forms and survive the pains of having her cancer go into remission and come back multiple times. She was given "death sentences" of a few months to live each time they found the cancer had come back. Yet, through all that, she continued to have faith that she would be able to battle the cancer and she continued to have hope that she would come out stronger. Now it has been 13 years and her youngest son is putting in his papers to serve a mission. Because she continued to have hope even through her struggles, she is still here to see the fruits of the blessing she received so long ago. There were probably many times, that it would've been easy to get discouraged and lose hope, but she didn't.

My beautiful Grandmother Dorothella Smith, battled with Breast Cancer for most of my life. She was diagnosed with it around the time I was born and then it went into remission until the last couple years of her life. My mom always tells us that one thing my grandma really believed in was the power of having a hopeful and positive attitude in light of her struggles. Cancer is brutal and it isn't for the weak; my grandma knew that what you needed most to stay strong in the fight was a positive attitude, a hopeful attitude that you could survive and come out on top.

I think that one of the reasons my grandma battled so long was because of her hopeful attitude. She didn't let the depression of her diagnosis seep in and take over her body's ability to fight, she went about each day one step at a time with brightness.

As I write this, I'm not saying that just having a positive and hopeful attitude will cure cancer or solve all your problems. What I am saying is that it makes it a whole lot easier for you to see the light in the world, even when it seems at its darkest. Hope shines a light and clears your mind to help you see the good through all the bad. The talks on Sunday were a peaceful reminder for us to have hope and to not give up the fight with Steve! It was also a reminder to me that our Heavenly Father does know us each individually and he knows the desires of our hearts. What a testimony builder!

After church, Dan had to help the interior design woman finish getting the homes decorated for the Parade of Homes coming up. Because of my friend, Marissa, and her willingness to watch Aurora, I was able to help Dan. We got a lot done and it has been nice that I've been able to spend this time with him. This little side job has really been such a blessing to us. Dan was asked to help by our good friend, Shaun, and it has really helped to fill in the gaps from when Dan wasn't working. I even got to catch up a bit with Marissa when I got home. I haven't seen her in so long! We are truly blessed to have such good friends living near us.

Today brought with it 70° weather and beautiful sunshine plus two happy girls and one happy mama/babysitter. I watched Abi today and I'm happy to say that she AND Aurora are both feeling so much better after all this sickness that's been sticking around. I was lucky enough to find another high chair seat that I could use for Abi at lunch time on the St George Yard Sale page over the weekend, so we got to have both girls eat lunch at the same time, on their own. They were loving it!

We also spent some time outside today and we had a fun time following Miss Abi as she walked around the apartment complex. It only became not quite as fun when Abi decided she was too tired to walk any further and I ended up carrying both girls back to our apartment. Together they are heavy!

I also took a few pictures of the girls while we were outside; they both looked so cute! My favorite one is one I took standing on our porch looking down on them from above. I'm sad I could only get the one shot but that's about all you can do when you've got toddlers on the move!

Dan was able to work over at the parade/model home again today while I babysat and then got off early enough that we could hold Family Home Evening! We had so much fun. We got Panda Express for dinner and then couldn't help ourselves and got doughnuts from The Fractured Prune while we were over there. But, really, can you blame us? I mean, look at those things!

When we got home, we sang a hymn and said prayer before putting Aurora to bed and watching a movie. Dan fell asleep during the movie, but it's ok. After his busy weekend of working working working, he deserves an early bedtime!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Baby Showering

So basically, I'm about to do a not-so-humble humble brag and say that my mom, Steph, Erin, and I threw my sister, Becca, the best jungle themed, boy baby shower ever. It was seriously so cute!

I'm feeling the need to share with you all the things we did so that in case you're ever in the market for ideas on jungle themed baby showers, you can find them!

Food:

We decided to do a Banana Split Bar for the food because, hello! What fits better with a jungle theme than bananas, right? Right!

So my mom came up with these really cute name tags for each food item that corresponded with a little animal of some sort that would kind of fit. Then we decorated the table with all sorts of animals and plants. Jungle food.

Jungle Juice-- equal parts Fruit Punch and Sprite
Flavor Falls-- Chocolate, Caramel, and Strawberry syrup
Zebra Cakes/Bites-- (we cut these into bites before the party began) Zebra Cakes
Twigs-- Pretzel sticks
Gorilla Grub-- Ice Cream
Giraffe Whip-- Whipped Topping
Lion Droppings-- M&M's
Elephant Snacks-- Nuts
Ants-- Chocolate covered raisins
Monkey Treats-- Bananas

Decor:

Aside from the food table decor, my mom and sisters got really creative with the living room decor (where the main party event was happening). And I mean, really creative! They constructed a big tree (right!?) along the door to the living room, complete with balloon leaves and critters on the tree branch!

It. Was. Beautiful.

Games:

We played a total of six games. Now, before you get thinking that that would've made the party WAY too long, let me say that one of the games was done in 30 seconds, right as you got there and two were done at the same time! So... not too long. And it was fun!

A lot of the time, what I hate about shower games is that people tend to make the games super gross or embarrassing. We were having none of that. We chose games that required little movement since we had a full house, no smelling or tasting questionable things, and no measuring of the already self conscious mom-to-be's growing belly.

1. Guess How Many-- We put a number of M&M's in a jar and had everyone guess how many there were right as they walked in. Part way through the party, we checked all the answers and awarded who was closest to our total with a prize.

2. Birthing Babies-- We played this game as people were playing another game (listed as #3) when we passed each guest a mini cup with an ice cube. Each ice cube contained a miniature plastic baby that they then had to free from the ice cube by either putting the ice in their mouth or warming the cup with their hands. Whoever freed the baby first ("broke their water"), would win a prize. And remember, removing it by "c-section" (biting the ice cube) is cheating! Sorry!

3. Baby Animal Match-- As guests were breaking their water, I had them call out the answer of the baby animal name for each animal I would ask. Whoever guessed the most baby animal names, won a prize. Some of them were hard to get!

Answers:
1) Poult, 2) Kit, 3) Eyas, 4) Kid, 5) Joey, 6) Tadpole, 7) Whelp, 8) Bunny, 9) Foal, 10) Lamb, 11) Duckling, 12) Kitten, 13) Puppy, 14) Fawn, 15) Cygnet, 16) Calf, 17) Cub, 18) Piglet, 19) Chick, 20) Hatchling

4. Draw That Baby!-- Each guest was given a paper plate and a drawing utensil. When said to "start", they would close their eyes and draw their best looking baby on the plate. After one minute, have them stop, initial the back of their plates, and the host will collect the plates. The mom-to-be would show the art work and then choose her favorite. The owner of the one she chose will win a prize.

5. Animal Pregnancy-- Guests were given the print out and asked to guess how many days each animal listed was pregnant for. Whoever had the most correct, won a prize.

6. Pregnancy Brain-- The host gathers together 10-20 baby items for the mom-to-be. The items are placed on a tray and guests have a total of one minute to look at and memorize what is on the tray before it is covered. Then using the back of the paper for the last game, guests will have one minute to list as many of the items that were on the tray that they can remember. The host then shows each item and whoever remembered the most items wins a prize. The mom-to-be gets to take the items from the tray home.

Gift Opening:

We thought it would be fun for each guest to share a tip or a story about raising boys for the mom-to-be since we grew up in a family of all girls. So as each gift was chosen to open, the giver would announce that it was from them and share their story or tip. It was so fun to hear all the things said about raising boys! It made Becca excited... and sometimes nervous (haha) to have a boy!

All in all, it was a wonderful success! Thanks to everyone who came!

Baby Food

When your baby no longer wants a bottle for her main source of food anymore, that can be an exciting thing! It's fun to feed them "real" foods and it's even more fun to see their reactions!

BUT things really start to get interesting when they add crawling/walking into the mix!

Here's where both become REALLY fun:

1) When it doesn't matter what you give them to eat because... if you are eating, then your food automatically becomes 10X better than anything they have (even if it is the exact same thing)

2) When you feeding them anything by spoon quickly becomes boring, and a meal you once thought of as mess-free, becomes VERY messy (and cute... most of the time haha)

3) When they stuff their mouth FULL of whatever you feed them/have them feed themselves and then they begin crawling around. Next comes choking and a totally bewildered expression from the baby when they can't connect crawling and food with choking.

4) When they crawl to eat things off the floor... anything works for this, really... lint, gravel, wrappers, carpet pieces, crumbs from who-knows-what...

Oh, babies are silly.

And even though mine just got over having a small cry fit because she choked on avocado while crawling so I took it away...

I wouldn't trade my silly, cute baby for anything!

I love being a mom ♥ Every day is an adventure

Sweet Potatoes

I'm glad it's been such nice weather around here as of late! It's been wonderful to be able to go outside with our little family and have some fun.

This morning was the road bike race in Cedar and Dan volunteered/got volunteered to help Jeremy run the booth for Tropical Smoothie Cafe at the park for the event. So when all the kids got up, Kaela and I loaded them up in the strollers to walk to the Main Street Park to meet up with the boys.

We got there around 11am and ate lunch on the lawn as we listened to the announcer shout out the names of the cyclists coming in from their 100K bike rides! I was amazed that they could go that far so fast... AND riding basically all uphill through the canyon. It was great to witness. The top people were coming in at close to 3 hours time!

After a while, we were all getting kind of hot and decided to see if the splash pad at Festival Hall was on. It wasn't. So we walked toward home, after deciding we'd get the kiddie pool out when we got there.

When we arrived home, Dan left for work at Ernie's and Kaela found out the kiddie pool had a hole in it. BUT Aurora and Jack were already in their swimsuits sooooooo....

We went swimming in my bathtub instead!! haha

Aurora has learned to splash as of today so that was cute and fun and Jack entertained the two of us, ladies, with his made up song "I'm swimming! I'm swimming! Swimming swimming swimming! ..." and a great rendition of  the primary song, "Book of Mormon Stories". I had to set a timer for that boy to get out or else I think he'd still be in there! haha

Me: "Ok, Jack. I'm going to set the timer for 10 minutes and then when it goes off, you have to get out and go home."
Jack: "No, not 10 minutes!"
Me: "Ok, I'll set it for 15 minutes but that's it."
Jack: "NOOOOO!! Set it for 11 minutes!"
Haha well, alright. I set it for 11. That kid.

When Jack went home, Aurora took a short nap and then we went to visit Dan at work. Aurora loves seeing daddy at work! It's so cute.

The rest of the night, involved:
~ watching Harry Potter 1 & 2... again. Yup... those are my go-to films. Therefore, I can quote almost every line and I'm not even ashamed.
~ reorganizing all my kitchen cupboards and drawers. I'm sick of not being able to find anything.
~ and playing with Aurora on the floor/couch. She loves it when I dance bobbing my head side to side with my tongue out and sing made up random songs haha Who knew I was so entertaining and hilarious??
~ also, we tried some sweet potatoes tonight! She liked it pretty alright but she mostly just liked playing with the spoon!