Coloring Easter Eggs

Haddie colored Easter eggs for the first time Thursday night. Daddy helped her while Mommy ran the video and digital cameras.

She was so excited when she dropped an egg in and the water splashed all over. She insisted on plopping them in, rather than worrying about cracking the shells.

She also insisted on grabbing them out with her hands. What do we need egg dippers for?

She kept trying to taste them as she'd grab them out. She doesn't care much for the taste of vinegar!

She also kept trying to put 2-3 eggs in each cup. Multi-tasking, you know.

The finished products. She's so proud of them! And Daddy just likes to eat them.

Haddie's masterpiece. Boy am I glad I thought to put a towel underneath her before she got started!

Happy Easter to everyone tomorrow! Be safe in your travels.

Gettin' Old Blue

Last Saturday Kellie, Hollie and I made a trip to good old Malad, Idaho. We were going to pick up our very own Old Blue! A family friend raises beef cows and gave us a great deal on 1/2 a beef to split. All day, Kell and I were so excited to go. We felt like big girls, getting our own cow! So we packed up in Kell's van and head up to Idaho. *Disclaimer - after this next sentence, I don't wanna talk about it anymore!* I got us lost. Okay, not lost, but if I'd had my way we'd have been going to Boise. Kellie asked me which way we went when we got to Tremonton. I told her go left, so she did. A few miles past Tremonton and Kellie asked me "Linz, are you SURE we go this way?" Um, yeah! Because we have to go past Plymouthhhhh......Oh crap! The OTHER road, the RIGHT road takes us past Plymouth!!! So we had to back track a bit. And we were a bit late needless to say.
The whole drive there we talked about animals. We'd ask Hollie what a baby cow says and she squeaks out a petite little "Moo!" Momma cow? A different petite "Moo!" A teenager cow? "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Then we saw a deer crossing sign. What does a deer say? I pipe up and say "Baaaaaaaaa" just like a um, sheep! Oh wait, wrong animal. Then we named our cow Old Blue and would honk and wave at cows in pastures along the road "Hi, Old Blue's family!" "We'll let you know if he's any good!"
So we made it in one piece and picked up our fabulous beef. When we got home, we unloaded it in my garage so we could split it up between the two of us. We filled up laundry baskets and 18 gallon totes full of Old Blue. My, how lovely my freezer looks with all that meat in there! I like to open it just to take a peek. These pics are of all of our meat, in my garage.

This list below is just my portion of meat that I paid $333.50 for!

Ground Beef : 24 pounds
Hamburger Patties: 48
Rump Roast: 1
Sirloin Tip Roast : 2
Round Steak: 10
T-Bone: 8
Tenderloin Steak: 2
Sirloin Steak: 3
Chuck Roast: 6
Rib Steak: 8

So far we've eaten T-Bones and Ground Beef. Oh my, I know why I prefer meat from the butcher! So much better tasting! Tonight we're trying out some patties on the George Foreman - yeah for Hamburgers!

Home Decor

I've gone a little crazy with vinyl and decorating my house. Here are some pics showing what I've been up to!

This is the end of the hallway. This 'Home' sign was given to us at our wedding. I cut the vinyl below it with my Cricut.

I made this cross-stitch when I was pregnant with Haddie. I've had it done forever but finally framed it. It's hanging in her room.

Another cross-stitch I made. This one was finished before we even got married 2+ years ago. I also just framed this one. It's hanging in the living room.

Vinyl cut with my Cricut, on our bedroom wall above the dresser.

The wall above the bathtub. Haddie loves her baths so I wanted to do something fun in here. This one was so much fun to make! (Again, made with the Cricut)

Vinyl on Haddie's wall above her crib. It's from my favorite children's book, I'll Love You Forever. If it's not readable, it says "I'll love you forever I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living My baby you'll be."

The outside of Haddie's door. More vinyl. "With a butterfly kiss and a ladybug hug, Sleep tight little one like a bug in a rug" I love this one! I want to cut more bugs like these to put on her changing table and armoire.

And the rest of these are also cross-stitches I made while pregnant. They're all hanging in Haddie's room. (Obviously, her room is decorated in Care Bears!)

I also have vinyl on my laundry room door "Laundry Room - Drop your drawers here" but haven't gotten a picture of that. I have a couple more ideas but they're a work in progress :)

Haddie loves Daddy!

Haddie is definitely a Daddy's Girl. (She's Mommy's Girl when Daddy doesn't give her her way, however)

Mark leaves his PJs on the floor next to our entertainment center in our bedroom every day. One day while he was working day shift, I walked into the room and found Haddie carting around Mark's pajama shirt.

She's recently learned how to put her own coat on and tries to help dress herself if I hand her clothes to her. So...she put Mark's shirt on over her head but couldn't figure out where the arms go

Mark was pretty excited to hear that his little girl misses him while he's gone when I showed him these pictures. They're buddies - Mark almost always takes Haddie with him to run errands and they hang out in the basement together on his days off.

Draper Temple Open House

We went to the open house for the Draper Temple last night. Kell, her husband and 3 kids, my mom, and Mark, Haddie and I all went. I was so glad Mark was willing to go - It meant a lot to me! Especially when he dresses up so handsome in his 'monkey suit' as he so lovingly calls it! (He shaved for me, too!) He looked great. Haddie looked beautiful as well.


All four kids were so well-behaved. I was so proud of them. Haddie got excited when we were walking by the baptismal font. She couldn't take her eyes off the 12 oxen. She pointed and quite loudly exclaimed "Dog-dog!" a few times. (That's what she calls our dog) Apparently she thought they looked like giant dogs! It was so sweet, it had all of us plus some other people around us giggling.


It was a great experience that I'm glad I was able to share with my family. This was the 3rd open house I've attended - First the Bountiful temple (with my fam), then Mt. Timpanogos (with Young Women's) and now Draper.
Last night reinforced my desire to re-activate myself in the Church. I've not attended church since my senior year of high school (5 years ago) and it's about high time I got myself going again. I'm really dragging my feet with this ward though, now. Before we bought our home, Kell and I were in the same ward and we'd go to church functions together and I had great visiting teachers. Since we're now in a new ward, I feel like an outcast. Sure, I've met many people in my ward and have wonderful new visiting teachers - they're great women! But it's hard thinking about going to church just Haddie and I. I know they'd make us feel welcome but I don't like doing new things. (I'm one of those that hates change)
Anywho, it will happen. I'll get there :)

He's a She!

Poor Scruffy...Mark and Haddie took him to the vet this morning while I was at work. We decided we'd better get him fixed so we can get him licensed before March 1st to avoid a fine and citation. Mark picked him up this afternoon and was quite disappointed. Not just because we had to pay $200 (he needed vaccinations too)...but he was distraught because they didn't give Scruffy the Elizabethan collar. He's been looking forward to taking pictures of the poor thing wearing it. Alas, they said it wasn't necessary unless he proves otherwise.
That reminds me of 10 Things I Hate About You..."What's the collar for? Is it to keep him from licking the stitches?" Ha ha I love it.
Anyway. Scruffy whined the whole way home. I'm sure he's upset with us for taking away his manhood. Poor picked on dog! He's doing quite well though. We just barely gave him food, hopefully it sits well in his stomach.
Oh my dear husband, he's such a crazy man. A couple hours ago Scruffy had an accident downstairs which upset Mark. The vet's assistant told him he likely wouldn't poop for 24 hours or so because of the anesthesia. So Mark didn't worry about putting him outside. Poor dog hadn't been outside to pee all afternoon! He figured that he wouldn't need to pee because of the anesthesia as well!????? Leave it to him. So I helped the poor doggy out and put him out for a few minutes lol.

Recipe for Jess

Jessica (a nurse from work) asked me to post the recipe for something I took for lunch one day...so here it is! My mom made it for us growing up, and it quickly became a family fave. Sorry, I have no picture to show :( But I promise it's yummy!

Sour Cream Chili Bake

1 lb ground beef
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 package taco seasoning
salt & pepper, to taste
1 can red kidney beans
grated cheddar cheese
sour cream
Nacho Cheese Doritos

Brown your hamburger & add taco seasoning
In 13x9 baking dish, mix hamburger, tomato sauce, salt & pepper, kidney beans and 1/2 cup cheese - Smooth in bottom of dish
Add a layer of sour cream (we LOVE sour cream so we use a ton!)
Add a layer of Doritos, slightly crushed. (I just squeeze them in my hand til they break a little)
Top with more cheese
Bake in oven at 350 for 20 min or until cheese melts

I make this at least a couple times a month. It even freezes well - you just put it in the fridge to thaw the night before. I've even made it when Mark & I were doing Weight Watchers - we just used a 8x8 pan instead, used less cheese, fat free sour cream, less ground beef and Baked Doritos. We'd eat the whole pan, and it was only like 10 Flex points a piece, depending on how lean you buy your ground beef. Enjoy!