Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Project Life >>> March 2014 Part 2

Hello!  It's another great day. Perfect day to check out a Project Life spread, right?


We had a full and fun week around the second part of March. Still loving the two week spread in the Project Life album. Still telling many of our stories and sharing many of my favorite photos from the two weeks. 


St. Patrick's Day Neighborhood Party /// Creating a Mission Album for My Sister with My Mom /// Hoops in the Driveway /// Audrey Playing Lacrosse


Friend Birthday Party @ a Comedy Club /// Family Lunch at Pizzeria Bianco /// Dolphin Presentation /// Lacrosse Girls /// Choir Concert /// LDS Woman's Conference

There you have it! Another Project Life spread is in the books.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The Sweet Seats

Last week Ward was given some sweet seats to a Suns game from a friend in the second row. Man, it's going to be hard to go back to the nosebleeds.

We went with our friends Adam and Aimee and enjoyed dinner at the arena (included with our tickets!) and an almost great game until the Suns lost at the end.  I think I loved the entire experience just as much as watching the game. The included (not free! I'm sure someone paid for it with the price of the tix!) dinner, the time out games and events plus included halftime snacks of popcorn and cookies made the entire night really entertaining. Did I mention that it's going to be hard to go back to the nosebleeds where you have to pay for your own snacks and water bottles?


Thankfully Adam and Aimee are just as comfortable as we are at taking selfies and asking strangers to snap pictures for us.  They appreciate the art of documenting life Aimee even made friends with the guy sitting next to her and her shares doughnut holes with us. Sweet!


I used the Scrapbook Circle Portobello Road for this page and love how it came together quickly. I had an idea to cut some paper strips and spread them across the page and then went from there. Super happy to have this documented. Most of my pages focus on the kids, so it's a fun change to focus on something fun that the parents got to do.

Today is going to be a fantastic day! My sister Kristen is coming home from an 18 month mission for our church. We've only written weekly emails/letters and talked on the phone twice since she left. It will be great to get to hug her and see her in person! Here's a look at Kristen and our kids just before she left. I wonder if Audrey is now as tall as Kristen. We shall soon see!



Monday, April 28, 2014

This & That Monday

I was thinking that it would be fun on one Monday a month to share a few things that have caught my interest around webland lately. So let's give it a try and see how it goes today.



While I write, this is the view from our family room out to our (still) unfinished backyard. On a happy note the deck has been rebuilt and stained and it pretty much finished. The pool, BBQ and patio have a ways to go...we may swim this summer. Luckily AZ has a long swim season.

Speaking of swimming, I'm loving this floral rashguard. So pretty and I think it would be fun to mix with other prints like polkas or stripes.

Thinking this sandal print is pretty cool.

Looking forward to the book Delancey by Molly Wizenberg to be released next week. I really enjoyed her first book and have eaten at Delancey in Seattle, so it should be a fun read.

This DIY tote would make a fun summer craft project with my girls.

Once the weather is cool again, these tights may need to make an appearance at my house.

These Rosemary Citrus Tacos look amazing. Adding these to the dinner list soon.

Confetti wrapping paper! Yes! This looks like fun (and a bit messy) to put together.

I'm on the lookout for a cute and somewhat simple jewelry holder and this one might be the solution.

There you have it! Hope you are having a happy Monday. I've worked on a bunch of Scrapbook Circle projects today and I'm looking forward to spending the evening at a church meet and greet that I helped organize for new move ins. Should be fun!

Friday, April 25, 2014

What We Ate - April 24

Hello! Well, it's already Friday again and that means I get to share my meal plans from the week. If I was getting a grade for completed meals, it would be a 50%. Not so great, but that's how life goes sometimes. ON the bright side, we did have two great

Monday - Homemade Pizzas

Okay, this is the most requested dinner from Max, so I try to work it in at lest once a month. I usually buy the pre-made pizza dough at Traders Joe's and divide the dough into smaller pieces and let each person make a personalized pizza.

Our favorite toppings:

Pepperoni
Sun Dried Tomatoes
Pesto
Olives
Fresh Mozzarella Slices

No real recipe here. Just roll out the dough onto a baking sheet, maybe drizzle it with a little olive oil and add toppings. We sometimes as marinara and sometimes don't. Just depends on our mood. Bake at 425 degrees until the crust is finished and the cheese is melted.

Tuesday - Skinny Orange Chicken + Garlic Fried Rice

I had to laugh at the irony of doing a "skinny" recipe along with "fried" recipe. It all balances out, right? Technically the rice isn't fried, so hopefully it's not too bad.


This was the first time I'd used the orange chicken recipe and it was a hit! Every last piece was scrapped from the bowl. I added a lot of broccoli to the chicken.

My go-to recipe for cooking broccoli is to spread it on a baking sheet, toss a little olive oil, salt and pepper on it and cooking it at 325 degrees in the convection oven for 10 minutes. The brocoli browns and gets a little crispy. Love it!

The Garlic Fried Rice recipe is one that I've made many times over several years and we all love it! I always double the recipe and then freeze leftovers for a future dinner. I also cut the amount of butter in half from the recommended amount in the recipe. Instead of the ham listed, we use Boars Head sliced peppered turkey.

Wednesday - Joe's Farm Grill

For some reason, most of our family was open at 5:30 on Wednesday and Ward suggested that we go out to dinner. Sounded good to me!



If you are ever in Phoenix, I highly recommend working in a visit to Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert. My favorite menu items are the fried green beans, BBQ Chicken Pizza and the Bleu Cheese Burger.

Thursday - Little Caesar's and Smoothies

I had a great plan, but this night ended up being a bit crazier than planned. We were gone from 3:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Choir rehearsals, a lacrosse game and a couple of visits to friends filled our night. Little Caesar's was all we could manage since it was fast and the kids wanted pizza. I only ate one slice because honestly it's not my favorite. Once I was finally home, I made myself a smoothie.

Here's my go-to smoothie recipe:

1 banana
1 cup of frozen mixed berries
1 orange/cutie peeled
Enough almond milk to cover the fruit

Blend and enjoy! This makes to hearty servings.

Friday - Banana Bread

This isn't going to be our dinner, but I did bake up a bunch of banana bread today and so I thought I'd share the recipe. We had 9 very ripe bananas sitting on our counter and it was time to make some banana bread. I had pinned a no sugar, no oil, no butter banana bread recipe on Pinterest and decided it was time to give it a try.


I tripled the recipes (we had a lot of bananas!) and think it turned out deliciously. The tripled recipe made four mini loaves plus a regular sized loaf. I did mix a handful of mini chocolate chips into the regular sized loaf because I couldn't resist adding a little chocolate.

The good thing about skipping a couple of our planned meals this week is that now I'm ahead for next week!

Happy weekend to you.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Project Life >>> March 2014 Part 1

Still loving this Project Life documenting!

Here's a look at my March 1 - 15 spread.


This was a busy two weeks for us. It included a lot of festivities involving our Gilbert Temple dedication plus spring great. Lots of good memories!


PAC-12 Trip to Tucson for our Ward & Max /// Playground Pic /// Spring Break /// Cousin's 2nd Birthday /// Yard Renovations


We had so many spring break pictures, so I used an insert page protector for a bunch of 2 X 3 inch pictures to include a few spring break favorites on one side and a big photo of our family in front of the Gilbert Temple cut to fit into the pockets on the other side of the page.


Besides the photo inserts, I also included local newspaper clippings talking about the temple celebration and dedication. Perfect place to store these!


Playing Ticket to Ride /// Temple /// Forefoathers for Dinner with Aunt Michelle /// Singing the National Anthem at Spring Training /// Aquarium Field Trip /// Dr. Seuss' Birthday

One of my favorite things about scrapbooking and documenting our life is the gratitude I feel for all of the things our family is able to do. Recording all of this really helps me focus on the blessings in my life.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Brother & Sisters

A couple of weeks ago on National Siblings Day I though it would be fun to share a layout of my siblings on the Scrapbook Circle Facebook page. Guess what? I discovered that I didn't have a page with the five of us. That surprised me and I decided that I should remedy that by creating a page.


The last time that the five of us were together was a year and a half ago and thankfully we did a little photo shoot and got this picture. We will all be together again this summer and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!


Layout Supplies /// Portobello Road Kit /// New Goods Kit

Friday, April 18, 2014

What We Ate - April 18

Everyone has to eat, so I've started a new Friday feature here to share what we ate during the week. Hopefully you will find a few new dinner ideas here.

Monday - Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Ward and I were lucky enough to be given tickets to a Phoenix Suns game on Monday and the tickets included dinner. Got to love that. But our kids were all going to be home and needed something they could make for themselves. So grilled cheese was on the menu.

What goes better with grilled cheese than tomato soup? This tomato soup is a quick recipe that I've made many times. The soup tastes so fresh and delicious and it only takes a few minutes to put together. I highly recommend you give it a try.

Tuesday - Honey Lime Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Corn Tacos


This was a Pinterest find and it was really delicious. I used pinto beans instead of black beans, but other than that, I followed the recipe. It was a perfect meatless meal and I'll definitely be making these again. The honey and lime added great flavor to the taco filling.

I used my "inside-out" cooking method to crisp up the cheese on the tacos.

Wednesday - Bean & Cheese Burritos + Salsa



The teenage girls at church did a fundraiser on Wednesday where they sold homemade bean burritos and salsa. Of course, I wanted to support them. We picked up two dozen burritos. I plan to freeze most of them and then have them on hand for quick lunches.

I hear the girls used this salsa recipe from the Pioneer Woman.

Even though I didn't make these burritos, I do like cooking up a tasty pot of bean for burritos. Here's my go-to recipe for crock pot refried beans. All you need is beans and tortillas and dinner is ready.

Thursday - BBQ Beef Sandwiches


Since we'd gone meatless all week, I decided that I'd better throw some meat into our meal plan. I just put a 3 pound roast in the crockpot, poured 3/4 of a bottle of BBQ sauce over the roast and cooked on low for 8 hours. Before eating, I shredded the meat with two forks. This was a perfect meal for our busy come and go night and dinner was ready whenever people were ready to eat.

We used little slider buns and topped the meat with avocado slices and coleslaw.

It was a bit of a simple dinner week around here, but sometimes that is just what is needed.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

My Stitch Fix >> April 2014

My April Stitch Fix box arrived yesterday and I was excited to dig into my box to see what came this month. It's been a couple of months since I've blogged about my Stitch Fixes because time has gotten away from me, but I made it a point to get pictures right away today so I could share.

Wondering what Stitch Fix is? You can read more about it in my post here.

I'm still loving this service. Here's my top list of why I love this service:

1. Element of surprise
2. Clothes is my size are picked out and arrive on my doorstep
3. No need to did through clothes racks at stores
4. Saves time
5. It's fun!

Okay, I have until Saturday to mail back what I don't want to keep. What should I keep and what should I send back?

Here's a look at what I saw when I opened the box. I was excited to see a cool tribal print, polkas and stripes. It looked promising.


Somerville Tribal Print Short Sleeve Top



I love the print on the front and think the mix of the solid fabric on the back adds an interesting touch. This shirt is size XS, but it's still a bit baggy. It could just the the style? So what do you think? Too baggy? Cute and keep?

Jojo Polka Dot Capri Jean



I've requested that all shorts and skirts are knee length (which is sometimes really hard to find!) and I was happy to see these meet my length requirement. But they seem to hit at an odd spot. Thinking that if I keep them I might want to cut off a couple in inches and let them be frayed at the bottom.

Callafia Short-Sleeve Wrap Dress


At first this dress had me reminiscing about wrap dresses that I owned 10+ years ago. Are they coming back in style? Did they never go out of style? What do you think? The fabric is super soft, so that's a point on the positive side. 

Downing Striped Knit Shirt



Okay, this is is cute and fine. I could probably find something similar at Old Navy. Fits well and is soft. Love that. I'm on the fence on this one.

Daisy Embroidered Hem Fit and Flare Skirt



This was a favorite when I pulled it out of the box because of the cool design along the hem of this skirt. Plus it's knee length. I would pair the skirt with a different shirt if I keep it. Stitch Fix suggests pairing it with a grey tee here and that could be the perfect look for a casual day. 

There you have it. My 5 items from my April Stitch Fix box. What do you think? Keep it all? Send it all back? 

Here's a look at my past Stitch Fixes:

Stitch Fix January 2014
Stitch Fix #10
Stitch Fix #9
Stitch Fix #8
Stitch Fix #7
Stitch Fix #6 (forgot to blog about this one!)
Stitch Fix #5
Stitch Fix #4
Stitch Fix #3
Stitch Fix #2
Stitch Fix #1

This is not a sponsored post. I just love Stitch Fix, use my own money to purchase the items and just want to share with you. The links in my post are referral links, so it you click and sign up for your own stitch fix, I will receive a referral credit.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Project Life >>> February 2014 Part 2

Collecting bits and pieces from our family's daily activities and compiling them into my Project Life album continues to be one of my favorite memory keeping activities. This album helps me keep the "must save" papers under control because there is a planned place to put them. Plus, I will never have enough time to create a single layout featuring all of these photos, so it's another way I enjoy telling our family stories.



Doing two weeks per spread has proved to be the best thing for getting me excited about this album again. Producing a spread for each week in 2012 and 2013 just became a little too much for me. It is great to look back on those albums and see so much detail, but simplifying a bit is much better for me. It was either simplify or take a break from PL for a bit and simplifying was definitely the right choice.


Santa Barbara Choir Trip Highlights


Mom's Birthday Brunch /// Our Backyard Pool Digging Begins /// Bike Riding /// Basketball /// Water Gun Fight at the Neighbor's House


Since going to two weeks per spread, there have been more insert pages. Fine with me! In the end, the same highlights from what is going on are recorded and I love that. This spread's inserts include our choir badges from the Santa Barbara trip Audrey and I took, a program from the choir trip, a report Hannah wrote on Egypt and an All About Me poster Hannah made for school. Perfect place to collect all of this!

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Go Tigers!

Early in January a friend called and asked if Audrey would want to join a lacrosse team. No one in our family had ever seen a lacrosse game, let alone thought about playing it. But Audrey was really excited about giving it a try, so we signed her up and she started the next day.


Since then she's been practicing every weekday for 2 hours after school. (Except for Thursday because of a choir conflict.) These girls are in really great shape. Seriously. I kind of wish I had to go to a two hour workout everyday. Then again, do I really want to work out for two hours a day?

I love team sports not just for the exercise, but for everything that can be learned about team work, working hard, kindness, respect and dedication.


So now we are three months in and still loving it. I love watching the girls play hard in their games. It's amazing and exciting to watch them progress throughout the season.  Games end in a couple of weeks and I'm sure Audrey will miss the daily practices which is a good sign that she is doing something she loves. That means that I love lacrosse too.

Layout Supplies /// Portobello Road Kit /// New Goods Add-on

Monday, April 14, 2014

Around Here: April 2014

Here's a little peek at a few of things things we are up to around her right now.










Trying to let these daffodils hang on for one more day. A sweet friend dropped them off for me last week.

Making lists and getting grocery shopping for the week done today.

Looking forward to breaking into my Freckled Fawn embellishment kit very soon.

Working on a layout inspired last week by National Siblings Days using the Portobello Road Kit.

Playing at the park with my youngest. Love that she still loves to run and play on the playground.

Restocking our fruit and veggie bowl.

Enjoying our newly rebuilt and freshly stained deck in our backyard.

Watching a lot of lacrosse games this month. Only two games left which is probably good since the weather is really heating up around here. 

Waiting for our backyard projects to be finished. The original finish date was April 15, but now I'm just hoping it's finished by June 1. 

Friday, April 11, 2014

What We Ate - April 11

Hello! I've been thinking about this blog and that I want to mix things up a bit around here. This has mainly been a space where I share my scrapbook layouts and I still plan to do that. But there are so many other things I also love in my life and want to share more about other things too.

One thing that is important to me is weekly meal planning. No plan equals poor food choices, grumpiness and a bit of stress around our place. So I do my best each Monday to plan and shop for our meals for the week.

I try to keep things easy on myself and only plan and buy for four dinners. Of course, we buy things for breakfast and lunch too, but those are pretty much the same every week (English muffins, cereal, apples, bananas, strawberries, sandwich stuff) so the main planning is for our dinners. We get together with our extended family on Sunday and I just usually make one thing for that meal. Friday and Saturday nights are generally no cooking nights and we go out, do takeout or get together with friends. So that leaves planning out Monday - Thursday.

Something I'd like to add here on the blog is a "What We Ate" post each Friday to share what meals we've had during the week. I'm always looking for new dinner ideas and I hope sharing our plans might help you out with your meal planning.

Monday - Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Ravioli plus a pre-made salad

I picked up both of these things at Trader's Joe's.  Love that place. Their salads are really delicious and are filled with a great variety of items. I seriously couldn't put a salad like these together for less than $4, so I pick them up pretty often. The butternut squash plus quinoa is my favorite.

Okay, I admit, this isn't the fanciest dinner. But it was fast to prepare and almost everyone in our house ate it without complaint. My kids like to drizzle a little olive oil + balsamic vinegar on their ravioli. I prefer a quick sauce that I whip up:

Garlic
Olive Oil
Spinach
Can of Diced Tomatoes
Pepper
Splash of Whipping Cream

Sauté some diced garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes and then toss in a couple handfuls of spinach and a can of diced tomatoes (juice goes in the pan too) and some pepper to taste. Mix around for a couple of minutes and let the spinach wilt. If you are feeling decadent, pour in a splash of whipping cream. You won't be sorry. 


Tuesday - Dad's Enchilada's


At the request of Ward, this is what we had for dinner on Tuesday. I could be most favorite comfort food meal. They got the name "dad's enchiladas" because they are named after my dad since he made them for our family when we were growing up. He still makes them for us from time to time even now. He didn't do a lot of cooking, but he did make these fabulous enchiladas.

Wednesday - Oatmeal Waffles with Strawberries + Cream

These are my all time favorite waffles! Lots of oats and no flour. They are hearty and delicious. Plus, who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?

Thursday - Meatball Sandwiches + Cantaloupe


No big and fancy recipe for this one, which makes it perfect for a night when you need something you can prep in the morning in 10 minutes and have it ready to go at dinnertime.

Here's what you need:

1 pound extra lean ground beef
1 pound ground sausage
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
Rolls
Cheese (optional)
Crockpot

This made 20 meatballs.

Just mix the ground beef plus the ground sausage together in a bowl. Then roll the meat into golfball sized pieces and put them in a crockpot. No seasonings needed for mixing into the meat because the sauce adds the perfect amount of flavor after simmering with the meat all day. Pour a jar of marinara sauce over the meatballs and turn on the crockpot to low for 8 hours.

We served the meatballs on toasted rolls and added a slice of smoked gouda cheese. Everyone must have liked it because we didn't even have one leftover meatball.

Okay, there's a looks at "What We Ate" this week. What do you think? Do you like see what other people are making for dinner? Do you plan meals out or just take it a night at a time?

Aventure Awaits

There's just something I love about being at the beach. While Audrey and I were in Santa Barbara a couple of months ago, I snapped a couple favorite beach photos. While scrolling through my photos, I decided to pair a couple of them on a layout based on the Scrapbook Circle sketch for April designed by Diana Fisher.


Diana created a cool cut circle cut file to go a long with the sketch this month and I used it to cut out the circles on the background of my page.


It was fun to fill in the circles with bits and pieces from the Bucket List kit.


Ahh...the beach. I'm looking forward to returning for a weekend in June with our family. Until then, I'll just keep soaking up our Arizona sunshine.

Be sure to stop by the Scrapbook Circle blog for more details about playing along with this sketch.

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