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.

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!

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!

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.

Photo Credit

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.

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.

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

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.