our weekend

 :: batman movie night (I didn't realize someone took tons of pictures of the movie until I loaded them on my computer this morning) :) ::

 :: home depot date! deciding on a pathway between our trees, and we finally found something we both agree on ::

 :: yard work saturday, the boys worked in shifts on helping us put the rest of the drip system in the garden ::

 :: rudger really, truly loves to help ::

 :: beautiful saturday afternoon nap outside ::

 :: these boys woke up for a 7 am priesthood meeting ::

 :: sunday morning nap ::

 :: sunday church nap ::

Obviously I love to take pictures of Adeline napping :)

Unfortunately this weekend we didn't get a very good Saturday adventure in because we were working on projects most of the day. We had our garden to finish planting and the new sprinkling system to build. Justin and I also went to the Home Depot to buy all the wood for our picket fence, arbor, and gate that will go on the side of the house in front of our fruit trees. I am so excited about it!! But it also means we have many hours of work ahead of us. It's okay though because we are crossing things off our yard to do list.  Saturday night daddy and the boys spent a couple of hours playing Mario (that was Justin's way of making up for the fact that we worked all day) and I cleaned the whole upstairs. 

Sunday was a good day of rest. We also had treat night with our good friends. Then we came home to try to get to bed early, but we are finding it harder and harder to get to bed at an early hour.

We are down to just a couple of weekends before summer break! It seems like we have been in school for.ev.er... yet I can't quite wrap my brain around the fact that in a couple of weeks these kids will be home all summer!!! I can not wait!

11.19.2014 - for our yard

As we have been cleaning up our yard and putting it to sleep for the winter, I have been grateful that we were able to have our plants and flowers to look at throughout the warm season. I love knowing that it will warm up again and we will be able to enjoy the beauty of those plants again.

signs of autumn around the yard

The past few weeks when we walk around the yard we have seen lots of fall. It makes me happy. 

We loved watching our pumpkins grow this year. We grew a big pumpkin, regular sized pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and white pumpkins. 

Happy Fall! And now that the weather is just a little chillier, we broke out the supply of hot chocolate.

five steps to saving our food budget this month

Last week I sat down to punch in some numbers on our expenses that I hadn't bothered to do for half the month. And like usual I spent way more than I thought I had. I had 53 dollars left in our food budget for the month of July. Fifty three dollars. And it was July 17th. (I find the graph of our spending on the tablet hilarious. We haven't seen the inside of a store in days.)

I was determined to not overspend this month. So I challenged myself. 

First Step:
I searched out all the ads and found which store had the best deal. Kents was my hero that day. 

* 3.99 for 5 dozen eggs - we love our eggs
* 2.50 for a gallon of milk 
* 8.99 for tillamook - we can never ever not buy cheese

My total at the grocery store to get us through until the end of July. $53.46. Boo Ya!

Second step:
No buying unnecessary foods. Goodbye adorable-small-prepackaged applesause, pudding, and fruit leather packets.

Third step:
Cheapest meals possible. Many of the ingredients for these we had in our freezer, fridge, food storage, pantry, or garden.

* BBQ chicken pizza
* Black bean pizza
* Omelets
* Black bean burgers
* Chicken Enchiladas
* Skillet Summer Vegetable Lasagna
* Crisp Bean Burrito
* The ultimate stuffed zucchini
* Tuna Sandwich
* Chili over potatoes
* Pancakes, Eggs, Hashbrowns

Fourth step:
Make as many things from scratch as possible. Bread and treats.

Fifth step and my favorite:
Eating from our backyard.

* we have had green beans with half our meals
* we pickled some beets
* I love walking outside and grabbing an onion or green pepper
* potatoes are our favorite 
* cucumbers for snacks
* stawberries for something sweet
* zucchini and yellow squash are taking over
* we had our first corn on the cob last night
* we are sort-of patiently waiting for our tomatoes. 

 Someday soon we will have cantaloupe and watermelon.

And a little later we will have an abundance of fruit off our trees. (plus cute pumpkins to decorate our porch with)

Hope I can do this.

Why did I bother posting this. Our posterity will totally 
be fascinated by this someday. Right? 

breakfast that we (mostly I) love

steel cut oats + almond milk + unsweetened coconut + chia seeds + pistachios (almonds) + bananas (craisins)

In attempt to make our family healthier we have been cutting out most sugaring cereals and adding more real foods...starting with breakfast. I haven't completely convinced the boys of the spinach smoothie, but when there are no other options that I give them, I'm almost certain they will grow to love it. (However, dad won't go for it. He would rather have a plain fruit smoothie and then eat his spinach by the handfuls along with it)

greek yogurt + almond milk (apple juice) + fruit + chia seeds + spinach

 Also, it made me happy to look out the kitchen window this morning and see the alfalfa growing into a field of beautiful green. And it makes me happy to see our firepit which is slowly making progress and I'm really hoping we can work on it tomorrow. And I'm getting spring fever like crazy and want nothing more than to dig through the dirt planting things...like spinach...so that I can put them in the smoothie that our boys will love.

for our view

The first day we moved into this house, I felt so grateful that again we were able to purchase a home that had a spectacular view. I love the horses and cows, the great big fields, antelope island in the distance, and the breathtaking sunsets. Which also makes me so grateful for my sight. (even though I have to wear glasses instead of contacts right now because I washed mine down the drain)