How many times a week can you eat mac n cheese?

So I feel like I am in a dinner rut. When you are on a tight budget, and food prices are all going up, it's hard to find a variety of low cost, fast fix meals. Out of lack of creativity we eat the same meals every week, and I'm kinda getting tired of some of them. So I'm calling out for recipes, and asking that people send me thier favorite quick meal recipe, preferably kid friendly! If you can't post it as a comment because you don't have a google account, then just email it to me! Thanks!

It's that time of year again!

Have you ever wished candy grew on bushes, and you could pick and eat as much of it as you want? Well for Nicholas it does. Of course his candy comes in the form of strawberries. He has always been my fruit and veggie kid. He cannot get enough of them, and I am totally fine with that. You should have seen him when I asked him if he wanted to go strawberry picking. He jumped up out of his sandbox and put his shoes on fasted than he ever has before! This was the first year that bringing him was actually somewhat beneficial. He picked 3-1/2 pounds of strawberries all by himself, and I would say that at least 75% of them were edible! I was really proud of him. Christian sat in his stroller the whole time picking and eating all the green strawberries within his reach. When we were done picking them and paying for them, Nicholas promptly found a "Good Spot" in honor of the tradition he has with his Grandpa Dorsey, and sat down to enjoy his fruit. When we got home he dumped out his bucket of strawberries on the table, as it was halloween candy, and looked at and admired each one and told me how nice and red they were. This is my favorite time of year out here, I don't know why, but there is just something about going out to the u-pick farms and picking fruit with my family that makes me happy. Maybe because it has a lot of parallels with Lehi's dream of the tree of life? I don't know, but I love it!

Oh, what do you do?

Last summer Sam went out to lunch with the medical physics director of IHC in Utah, for those of you who don't know that is the major hospital out there. Today he got an email from him telling him of job opening coming up, and he wanted to open it to him before opening it up to the public. Unfortunately, I don't think he realized that Sam doesn't finnish his Ph.D for 2 more years. I told him to just quit and take the job. Yeah right! Wouldn't it be nice though?

Which Jane Austen Character are you?

Take the Quiz here!

I took this quiz from my friend Lisa's blog, as it turns out we are both Elizabeth Bennet, which is funny becuause when we met for the first time, neither of us liked eachother, and we ended up becoming great friends! I guess that is why Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite movies. If you take the quiz, let me know who you are!

The joy of Motherhood

I love General Conference! I am always amazed at how the speakers seem to speak right to me, and at their incredible wisdom. There is no question in my mind as to weather they are inspired of God. I mean how else could a 79 year old man, Elder Ballard, know how young mothers feel, and what kind of advise to give them to help them feel Heavenly Fathers love? I loved when he said "The joy of motherhood comes in moments....Live in the moment a little longer." Amidst all the diaper changing, the fighting with thier friends/sibblings, the tantrums in emabrrassing places, the endless messes to clean, the meals to cook, and the constant 'on the go', there are moments of joy that make it worth it. I remember when I served my mission in Illinois, where baptisms were few and far between. We went to teach a second discussion to a 19 year old girl who was RLDS. Our first discussion had gone really well. When we got there the sat us down and said that before we started she had something that she wanted to tell us. "Here it comes" I thought expecting her to tell us that she no longer wanted to continue the discussions. Instead she said that she had prayed about it, and she wanted to be baptized! As my companion and I left that night we were overjoyed! We talked about how strong the spirit was, and how those were the moments that carried you when it all seemed too hard. The moments that made it all worth it. I never realized that motherhood was the same way until Elder Ballard pointed it out. My most favorite part is when he said to live in the moment longer... Here are a few moments which have carried me, and made it all worth it, in which I would like to live a little longer...
-In church when the opening hymn was "I am a child of God", Nicholas innocently sang out louder than anyone else in the congregation, and everyone noticed.
-Christian finally learning to give kisses without biting, and showering me with them constantly.
-The tree of life family home evening, when I put an apple next to a picture of christ representing the tree, and turned off the lights. Nicholas held onto a broomstick to get to the tree and when he got there he took a bite of the apple and said "The fruit makes me happy!". He loved it! 5 months later he still asks to play the rod of iron game, and runs to get an apple out of the fridge!
-Christian's ridiculous hair. He gets the worst bedhead I've ever seen, I die laughing when I look at him sometimes!
-Christain and Nicholas both playing thier harmonicas together and jaming like crazy!
-Nicholas' victory dance when we go bowling and his ball hits some pins.

Egg Hunt

We had an egg hunt with all the neighbor kids in the back yard. We let the little ones have a head start, and then we let the older kids loose with one rule that the obviously "hidden" eggs were for the babies. It was a lot of fun!

Easter

We bought the boys a sandbox for easter. It is very fun. We have sand ALL over the place but they play in it for hours so it's worth it.