Things on my Mind

I am sooooo unprepared. This year my one true goal is to build up my food storage and my first baby steps for this month include information...72 hour kits... and water (i have 2-55 gallon drums yet to be filled).

I was surfing around looking for information and found http://www.ready.gov/ i liked the download for family readiness and I am printing pages 13-15 to put in each of our 72 hour kits. I also found that the website http://beprepared.com/. I am especially interested in the freeze dried meat..i have a lot of flour and potatoes but not much protein..if anyone has ideas let me know!

The other thing i aim to accomplish is the project 52 at http://thecreativelife.typepad.com/blog/project-52/ I am going to enter every week and hopefully build up a nice little scrapbook. Here is my first post.

Christmas Season

Christmas has flown by once again..We stayed home and enjoyed Christmas day and all the presents. On the 26th we went to my mom's house for our sleepover and as always it was a party!

There was a lot of Harry Potter Clue..PS3...WII..and Pink Panther movies..

no one can truly appreciate the genius of the Pink Panther movies without watching it Phillips style..ie..laughing til you cry and then everyone around you is crying and we all blame it on my dad.

alas there was no batman this year (the kids wandered around looking for him but he nver showed).Ashley was the only one who really hated this year...the pink patch fairy found his beloved "pants" and patched them..isn't he lucky. Thank goodness we have a year to recover.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Well, here we are the night (or day) before Christmas. Let the cooking begin! It seems i always find myself caught between a grumble and excitment when i think about the amounts of money spent on the food, time spent preparing the food, and the actual time spent consuming the food (which does not equal the money or effort). But I will peresevere.

This year's theme is Everything About Spain..We are going to have paella, spanish tortilla (made with potatoes, ham and cheese croquettes, and churros and chocolate... This is how i translate my love for Spain...and try to teach my children that love also.

I will let you know how it goes! But i did find a great recipe this year for Pecan Pie Cheesecake which will be posted here. Don't be afraid to try it...it will be the hit of your party!

Ingredients
Topping:
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon rum extract
Pie:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 un-baked deep-dish (9-inch) pie shell
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine all topping ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, salt, vanilla, and egg until combined. Pour into pie shell. Top with chopped pecans. Pour topping over pecans. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. If the top of the pie has not cracked..leave in oven. Turn the heat to 250* and let cook another 30 minute. This is a cheesecake so look for the top to crack before taking out of the oven.

Buffalo RoundUp

One of our favorite weekends of the year just happened...the Buffalo Roundup @Antelope Island. Antelope Island is an Island that sits in the middle of the Great Salt Lake and we are lucky enough to live within 2 blocks of the lake. Each year the buffalo are rounded up, counted, vaccinated, and sorted and the public is welcome to visit.
We get to volunteer to work and the kids LOVE it. This year the weather was perfect (75*) and we had a great time. Enjoy the video!

GreatGrandma's Halloween Party

Great Grandma invited us over to her Retirement home for a rockin' Halloween party. The kids got to go door to door and get candy from all of the residents who live there.

After hitting every apartment with the Trick or Treat bags, we got cookies and apple juice in the dining room...some of us were waylaid by the very spunky activies director.

There was a lot of Chicken Dancing, Macarena, YMCA, and Hustling going on...Grandma loves living there and it was fun to visit..