An Overnighter in Lehi

A few weekends ago, my mom and my girls and I ventured out to Lehi to watch Joe and Missy's kids for the night while they went on an anniversary getaway. 

We had a lot of fun watching the kids. We also got together for a dinner at Micah's house and got to see more family and play. Steve's parents even came by and joined us so that we could visit for a time with them since this trip would be such a short one . We only got to stay one night, but we made a lot of great memories. I sure love all my nieces and nephews and all my siblings and their spouses and all my family! 

Here are some photos from all the fun times we had.

Amara's Poetry Recitation

Amara has been memorizing poems every few weeks. Today she did a recitation reviewing all she's learned. I'm happy that she has been retaining the poems and I love seeing her little actions she does to animate them.

Click here to watch a video of her.

Teach Your Kids Poetry!

I would encourage all parents out there to teach their little ones some poetry.  Then record them reciting it.  You will not regret it.  When they grow up, then you will look back and find the recording, and watch it over and over.  Your eyes will twinkle with joy and amazement.  All the problems in the world will be solved!  

The video below is of Amara at age 3 reciting a poem she learned from her daddy called, A Peanut Sat On A Railroad Track.  So. Dang. Cute!

Create your own free digital greeting

Presidents Day With Dad

Steve had President's Day off from work, so we played!  First we went to the park at Kings Peak Elementary School, and then we went out to eat at Pelican Cafe, Steve's favorite.  They give HUGE portions and have the best and biggest cinnamon roll you've ever seen!

Fancy Faces

Have you ever heard of watercolor pencils?  Tonight Steve and I had fun with some and painted the girls faces.

Steve painted Amara's is face. I painted Lily's face. We had so much fun and the girls couldn't wait to see their faces in the mirror.

At first it was complete shock! Then it was rolling laughter for us all!

I even got in on the fun and let Amara paint my face. Want to see the cute unicorn and butterfly?

The butterfly on my forehead has rubbed off a little so you can't see it very well but you can see the Unicorn. She used my beauty mark as an eye for the Unicorn! How creative! I knew there was a reason God blessed me with all those moles on my face.

Try A Lemon Devon!

Last time April came for a visit with Devon (months ago), we went out to eat at Canton City Chinese Buffet.  I found this video of Devon trying a lemon and I just love his reaction!

No Fat Options For Salad Dressing Lovers

Notice that creamy dressing on my salad yesterday?  I made that!  And it's healthy at 0 fat grams per serving and the best part is it's not gross!  So many no fat creamy dressings are loaded with chemicals and additives you and I can't pronounce and they usually taste awful. That's why I don't buy them.
That said, I am a salad dressing diva. Salads are mere vehicles for the tasty dressing in my mind, but dressings are often high in fat... shed a tear for me. Okay, enough crying. I'm not giving up dressing and I'm not going to have oil and vinegar every night either because that gets boring.  So, necessity is the mother of invention, and it is what drove me to create... Drumroll please...
Creamy Maple Mustard Dressing

• 1/2 tsp yellow mustard
• 1/2 tsp organic real maple syrup
• 1 tsp nonfat Greek yogurt
• Pinch of salt and grind of pepper
• Tiny pinch of chili powder

Whisk it up and you have a single serving of creamy, flavorful, nonfat salad dressing. My daughter liked it so much she used it to dip her roasted potato wedges in, so apparently it's a good substitute for fry sauce too.
(Disclaimer: measurements are a close-ish guesstimation since I just whipped it up)

Speaking of salad dressings, we had a delicious dinner salad last night inspired by this one-

Here's a link to that mouthwatering recipe

I made my own yummy dressing to drench this beauty in. It's also a low fat wonder, actually it's a no fat mind- blower!  I'm on a roll!  Try this simple dressing on your next Thai-inspired salad and see what I mean. Here is the method: pour some Thai sweet chili sauce in a bowl. Thin it out with equal parts rice wine vinegar and water until you can pour it like a salad dressing. That's it!

In case you're not familiar with the chili sauce, it looks like this-

Or dinner was yummy!

My sister even got on the Thai noodle salad bandwagon and sent me this picture of her dinner last night that she whipped up with what she had on hand. Looks yummy sis!

One more no fat salad dressing for you- equal parts of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar with a grind of pepper. It's the best on thinly sliced cucumbers!

Okay I'm done.