SALSA

Last weekend i decided to try my hand at canning. I knew that my sister Deena had a good salsa recipe that she had made for quite a few years and i had a garden full of ripe tomatoes just waiting to fill some sort of calling. So a trip to my garden, my neighbors garden and about a dozen phone calls to my sister later i began my first ever journey into the world of canning. The recipe calls for 48 medium tomatoes, that's a lot of tomatoes and it certainly feels that way when you are blanching(a word i didn't know until last weekend)peeling and dicing them all evening while you watch your family play around in front of you. I was convinced it was going to all be worth it just about the time i heard my loving husband yell from the other room "I can't possibly see how this could be worth all that work."
The tomato prep was definitely the roughest for me but never the less not too much work. The next morning i got up with a excitement to start my canning journey. I chopped peppers after peppers and it was going fairly quickly until i hit the onion in the road, holy cow, after about 10 min of crying and wiping my eyes from the onion fumes i decided to take my sisters previous advice and put them into a sink full of water and i ended up cutting them up there too, so much easier. So everything was chopped and put in the food processor and ready to cook. It was going great and i was so excited to get them in the jars and into the water bath(another term that i heard for the first time last week). I got my jars in and out of the boiling pot of water and set them out on the towel to marvel over their beauty....but wait the buttons, oh no the buttons, they were not staying down. Any good caner knows the importance of the concave button and mine were not cooperating. I frantically texted my sister and looked on-line and i really though all hope was lost until.... POP, POP, and with some assistance from me 16 pushed down buttons later and none that popped back up i had finished my first batch of salsa ever! Later in the evening at dinner i did make a speech to thank all that had helped in the making of said salsa and even the dogs got thanked for licking the tomato juice off the cupboards. The salsa is great and even Jake can't get enough of it. It will be a great winter of Jaime's homemade salsa and yes i think i will be going through this wonderfully fun process again next fall, hopefully with a tad less drama though:)

Ready to snack

Verdict...delicious!

A night at the K

Last night we spend the evening at Kauffmen Stadium. It was season ticket holder appreciation party night and a guy that Robert works with gave us tickets. There was no game but Cody had no idea because there is so much at that stadium for the kids to do. They had the baseball game playing on the jumbotran because they were away. They had free food and free games for all the kids. It was just fun to hang out at the stadium without a million people there. Cody had a blast as always and Jake loved riding the carousel a couple of times. Here are a few pic that we took....

Batting at the little K

Our dinner seats, the boys loved the fountains.

Mini golf anyone..

Family pic at the K

A giveaway, it's actually a backpack but we were being silly.

9/11 changed my life forever....

10 Years Ago.........

Ten years ago today I married my best friend in Lehi, Utah. I can't believe that it's been ten years already. It really seems like just yesterday that we were getting our first apartment together and starting our life. Ten years, four homes, two boys, two dogs and two states later here we are. I really can't think of anyone else that I would have rather spent the last ten years with. We have really been blessed in our life and i am looking forward to what the future holds. I love you honey, Happy Anniversary!

More Utah Pictures

Here are those pictures from Utah that I couldn't find earlier. It is a trip to the river when they were staying in Heber. Such cute pictures of all my boys!

This one is my favorite!! Such handsome guys I have!

Utah trip - Aug '09

Well I have finally gotten around to blogging about our Utah trip we took a few weeks ago. Robert and Cody took the dogs out for a run and Jake is still napping so no more excuses, here it goes. First off this post is pretty picture heavy but there were so many cute pictures from the trip that I just had to post them, believe me there are plenty more, especially from our Lagoon trip, I am pretty sure that we got a picture of Cody on every ride he rode, some maybe even twice but oh well he had fun. We started off the trip in Price at Robert's parents house and had a nice stay there and even got to get to the cabin to explore with the boys and ride the four wheelers, one of my favorite outdoor activities. It was so nice to be in the fresh mountain air and really take in the scenery around us, it's funny how you don't appreciate how pretty those Utah mountains are until you have no mountains at all to see when you look out your window. We really enjoyed riding around the mountain and just wished we had more time to spend at the cabin. Every time we come to Utah it doesn't truly feel like a vacation, we are always rushing here and there trying to divide our time equally between families and trying to fit friends in there somewhere too. I enjoyed this trip I think a little more than Robert but I know we all had a great time and realize that we do miss Utah and hope to return someday!

This picture is a flash forward into the life of Jake as a crazy teen driving his truck, yikes!

On the wheelers at the Cabin

On our ride

Snuggles with Grandma Davis, this was a first for Jake, he's a bit of a mama's boy.

Cody right in his element.

Watching the birds

After we left Price we went to my mom and dad's house. They were so excited to see us and the boys and we enjoyed hanging out on the back deck and staring at the mountains. The favorite firetruck pool got pulled out and blown up and the boys loved it.

Snuggles with Aunt Dayna, she was loving it trust me!

During the few days that we stayed at my mom and dads we drove to Ogden to have a party with my girlfriends from high school and there families. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends and that we all still stay in touch, I don't know what I would do without them, even though I live so far away I am grateful everyday for each of them and hope that we always stay in touch. The boys had a blast at the party, Jake was in heaven because we were outside all night, his favorite place to be. They kids bounced in the bounce house, we ate dinner and we had a campfire and roasted smores, yummy!

Look at all those kids, I still can't believe how grown up we all are. Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that we were all giggling in my basement? We are a fab looking bunch with the cutest kids ever!!

Hot MaMa's

Ok now on to the Lagoon trip. It was a very long day according to the men, Robert and my best friends hubby Jamie. They made sure that we always knew how much fun they were having in kiddie ride land. Don't let them fool you though, you'll see a picture of the two of them on Puff the magic dragon and they look like they are having a ball to me. I don't even know if the kids were with them on that ride, ha, ha. It took Cody a few rides to warm up but once he did he was having a blast. We didn't get a ride pass for Jake because knowing him he would try to climb out mid ride so we didn't think that would be a good idea. We really just had a great time spending time with the Farrell's, we have really missed having good friends to get together with and all getting along so well. I still hold out hope that Cody and Brooke will marry someday and while we are at it we might as well pair Jake and Sophie too!

Cody loved the games, he is pretty good at our carnival Wii game and thought he would be just as good at them in real life, sorry Cody, you tried your hardest though!

The favorite ride of the day, the airplanes.

Future couple - Brook and Cody Davis:)

See I told you, here are the guys on puff, I don't see any kids with them.

Cody loved the bumper cars too. He got this evil laugh thing going whenever he would crash into someone, pretty funny.

The day after Lagoon I headed to Salt Lake City to spend the rest of the vacation at the Scentsy convention and the boys headed up to Heber to hang at Robert's brothers house. They had fun in Heber and Robert's mom got some really cute pictures of all my boys while out fishing one day but I have misplace the CD with them on it so I will have to post those later. While in S.L.C. I got to meet up with my friend Hiloree and we had a afternoon at the Spa, we got massages and pedicures, i sure needed that afternoon of pampering and it was so fun to have a great friend there to catch up with. The spa is also where I learned of my new favorite water treat. They served us cucumber water, which was so refreshing, just drop a slice of cucumber in the bottom of your water glass, it is a little easier to drink my water now! I had a great time at convention and really learned a lot. There were a few too many people there, I'm not a big crowd person, but the main thing convention does for you is give you motivation to keep working your business and further your goals. Scentsy is such a wonderful company and I am not just saying that because I work for them. They really care about each consultant and take time to let you know. This last picture is of me and Robert at the awards ceremony. No awards for me but maybe one day. He kept seeing all the money that some of the people make with Scentsy and asking me, why don't you make that much? Sorry honey, I would love to, I better get my butt in gear and start working the Scentsy biz huh?!
Wow that was a long post but I use this blog as a family journal too so I had to write down all the fun that was had while in Utah. I think we have decided that we are coming for Christmas so we are looking forward to that already!