Freezer Meals

A friend and I sat next to each other at a church activity that was about freezer meals. I told her I'd heard about women getting together and exchanging freezer meals. She took the initiative and six of us have been exchanging meals since October. It's been AWESOME. I love seeing what I come home with and love cooking one day and getting six meals out of it. It's a lot of work depending on what you make, but fun too. One time I made bbq chicken pizzas - all from scratch - and I had to take a picture.

There are some great freezer meal recipe books at my library and I've borrowed books from a friend too. Some are good, some not so good, but it's been worth it. All of us have very small children who don't eat a lot so it's basically just cooking for the couple. I'm becoming a huge fan of freezer meals.

Max in a Suit, Syd in Pajamas

The jacket finally fits.
And isn't Sydney cute?

I Should Start a DIY Craft Blog

The title is a joke. But I am pretty excited (that's the word all the craft bloggers use) about my latest project. It's magnets that have all the foods we eat color-coded by type of food. Mexican is blue, breakfast foods green, Italian pink, etc. I even have magnets for "Out to Eat" and freezer meals that I exchange with friends (which deserves it's own blog post). And pizza and hamburgers have multiple magnets since we eat those more than once a month.
Then I just take my magnets and line them up for the month. I used to write out the menu on this board. But then something would come up and the meals would switch around and I'd have to either erase or remember the changes. Now I just switch around the magnets. And the colors help me see when we ate that type of food last. Also, I have blank magnets so that when I find a new meal, I can write it in and not forget about it.

Ok, I'll admit it, I really am excited about this! It's not super pretty or crafty, but it has been SO useful!

Proof

Sydney is not as sweet as she looks. She bites. HARD.

Poor Max.

The next day he screamed every time she came near him.

Pumpkin Patch!

We went to Staheli Farm here in St. George to go to their pumpkin patch. It's about 2 miles from our house. They had so much for our little kids to do. Max (and Chris) got to rope a steer.

Then we jumped on the "Redneck Trampoline." A bunch of mattresses surrounded by haystacks.

Sydney laughed and loved it.

Sydney especially thought Max was funny. Other little kids having fun make her laugh more than anything else.

Max, of course, had a blast running around and falling into the hay.

Chris got to try to shoot a tennis ball through a tire out of a potato gun. I showed my ignorance of toys-kids-play-with-in-the-west by having no idea what the thing was.

A great picture of Chris - so rare.

A picture of Max actually smiling towards the camera. He wasn't really in the mood to say "Cheez" that day. What we didn't get was a picture of the purple face that Sydney got as soon as we started swinging her. She held her breath because she couldn't get out a scream. Apparently, she hates to swing. Chris got the pleasure of taking Max down the irrigation slide (something else I couldn't have named if asked) and got the bumpy ride down. Max loved it though so they went down the other one too.

Then came the petting zoo. Max fell in love with sheep (Baaaaa!) and liked the goats too. But especially the sheep. Good thing they are tolerant animals.

Sydney was again scared to death of anything strange until she saw Max. He's so fearless that she overcomes a lot of her fears watching him. That's good because we can't raise a sissy.

Sydney LOVED the pumpkins though. Max is looking at me like, "Why do you keep telling me to look at you when that bright, bright sun is in my eyes?"

He had fun playing in the dirt and by the pumpkins though. And Sydney ended up being very cute.

She constantly does this head tilt and Chris and I both think it's absolutely adorable. Then she gives you a big, cheesy, teethy grin.

Yep, to her parents, she is the cutest little girl in the whole world.

To get a decent picture of all four of us requires something short of a miracle. We all smile, but for some reason, never all at the same time.

I tried to get a picture of the two kids next to the barn. Wouldn't it have been a cute picture if they had smiled and stood by each other?

I'm a Marathoner!

When I decided to do the St. George marathon a year ago, I was two weeks from giving birth. I thought it would be a great way to lose the baby weight and it was on my bucket list.
Seeing our friend, Dave, finish last year was very inspiring. I decided to go for it this year. I found a running partner, she got pregnant; I found another running partner, and 10 months later we both did a marathon. The training was tough and we learned a lot about our bodies, health, and nutrition.
Here are some things we learned about running a marathon: You don't run a marathon to lose weight. It's expensive. We spent more money on running shoes than I have spent on clothes in the past 4 years. We spent more money on energy packets (that are absolutely disgusting and make you gag). We set our alarms for times in the morning I don't think is decent to tell you on a blog - Chris called it "0'dark thirty." Some goats are very, very friendly. Goats urinate on you when you pick them up and they are scared (but the goat is safe from the street! and I still had to run 1.5 miles home). Border collies can't be worn out and the better shape they are in, the worse it gets. A half marathon is FUN; a full marathon is HARD. I realized even more what an incredible, supportive husband I have and how insanely patient he is. I think he may be pretty glad the marathon is over too. I gained a new respect for people who do anything like this and am still in awe of them. There are not currently any marathons in my future.
This marathon has what are called Pace Teams who help you come in at your goal time. I didn't have a goal time but my running partner wasn't with me (she ran a different marathon two weeks earlier) and she is my pacer. So I joined up with the 4.5 hour pace group. It was one of the best parts of the marathon. The pace leader was great, giving us running and nutrition tips, telling stories the whole time. I held back a lot in the beginning because of the pacer and conserved energy for the end. I stuck next to her and the group until mile 23. At the aid station at mile 23, I couldn't get my speed back up and stayed about 10 feet behind. At aid station 24, I lost her. That was the hardest mile I have ever run in my entire life. The sun was beating down and had been for hours. I had tried to keep up on hydration and the energy packets, but I was running low on steam. But I forced down another packet, kept going and it finally kicked in about mile 25.5. So I looked fine for the pictures.

Above: Chris and above him, my brother-in-law Travis, looking for me. Chris was a little worried because I was supposed to come in around 4 hours 30 minutes and by the official clock, I was almost 10 minutes late. We had no idea it would take me over 8 minutes to get to the start line. But I was near the back of over 6,000 people.

Me waving to the camera, happy to see the balloons at the finish line.

Done! It was in the mid-80's and a friend said it was probably 15 degrees hotter than usual for this time of year. My time! Official time 4:31:05. Thank you Chrissy for letting me use your watch and training with me the WHOLE time (even AFTER you did your marathon!). I still can't believe I did it. I think it made it feel like even more of an accomplishment that mile 24 was so hard. I wanted to walk so badly. But I thought of all the people waiting for me at the finish, that I had made it 24 miles without walking unnecessarily, and I just kept going. Now I just need to thank whoever invented gu.

*New* Kitchen Table!

Our little family has needed a new kitchen table for awhile. The one we've had since we've been married has served us well but not only were we outgrowing it by ourselves, but it was impossible to have people over for dinner.
Above is our old table.
So I found this one on Craigslist that had a leaf in the middle and came with four chairs.

I think it turned out great!

Chris came up with the color scheme to match our kitchen.

It took awhile to finish. The one reason it took a LONG time to finish was not my lack of enthusiasm or willingness to do it. I got the table completely sanded and ready to paint. Then I read on the paint and stain that I shouldn't do it when it is more than 90 degrees outside. And it should stay below 90 for 4-6 hours for it to dry properly. Well, this was in July in Southern Utah. The only time it is below 90 degrees is for a short period of time right before dawn! So we finally ended up converting our kitchen to a shop for less than a week (it had taken me 3 weeks to get two coats of stain on it) and it was done! We had to keep kids and dogs away from it though so our kitchen looked like this:

I'm going to do the chairs this fall when I can take it back outside. We'll paint the backs and legs black and stain the seats. I'm sure I'll post those pictures too. It's going to look awesome! and for MUCH cheaper than a new table!
For now it looks like this and it has already been really nice to have the extra space. It fits our little dining area perfect too. Not bad for $110 total :)