Gretchen - WHAT?!?

At breakfast this morning, Gretchen says, "I had a dream last night that me and Porter were sleeping together." Cough, cough! "What?!" I say. (Porter is one of her friends from school and church that, yes, is a boy - not one of those unisex named girls.) So as I am pondering this remark, and thinking, "Oh great. I've let her over hear too much Grey's Anatomy," or, "Kete was right. All of those teeny-bopper Disney shows have made her boy crazy!" I mean come on, I am already stressed that she wants to play with Porter instead of the girls in the neighborhood, and that she insists on being Batman and spiderman instead of princesses! And then she continues on to say, "We were on bunk beds, and Sydney was there, and she was having a sleepover on a bunkbed with Lizzy and . . . ." Phew! And phew again! Glad I took a second to listen instead of lecturing my 5 year old on fornication and how she can't play with boys anymore!

A couple days a go, she was standing in front of the mirror with her hands in her pockets, and she said, "Look at my hands according to my pockets!" Yep, she said according! I think she was telling me about how her hands looked smaller while in her pockets, but honestly most the time I'm not listening.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome to Kete's Home Cookin'! We were pleasured enough to have my brother in law, Kete, prepare our Thanksgiving meal! You would not believe the preparation that he put into it. I had no idea there were so many steps! I did make the mashed potatoes, kinda my specialty, and Chris made some fabulous rolls, and then Kete made more items, some of the in laws brought other items, and we had quite the feast!
Gretchen LOVES to watch cooking shows on tv - and now she had her own personal show! Kete explained his technique fabulously! There was quite the thawing and brining and triming and basting and flavoring and resting and slicing and eating! Phew! I'm worn out just thinkin' about it!



Gotta look your thanksgiving best! Luckily Aunt Lindsay has a way with hair (unlike Gretchen's mother who just chops hair off! Uh, what's a comb?)! A side note - Kete was wearing some longish shorts (or shants as some would call them) and Gretchen walked past him and said, "hey, I have capris just like that." Gotta love kids!



Ahhhh. The finished masterpiece!
So as I was taking pictures, Thatcher kept saying "me!" and requesting that I take some of him. Well, this is his posing smile! Ha ha!







This was my first Thanksgiving away from home. It was kinda sad, and it rained on top of it! But we had some fun family togetherness, and especially some great rock band and settlers matches. I bet none of you can say you have heard your father-in-law singing to rock band! But I do miss my Utah family! I hope all of your Thanksgivings were great - we are thankful for you!

Warm weather!

We've certainly been enjoying this fall/winter weather! Gretchen's class had a Thanksgiving feast at the park next to her school, which me and Thatcher and Macy went to with her. It was fun! It actually had been raining that day, but it stopped for a bit and they were able to do it anyway!




A future rock climber? Thatcher was tearin' it up on the local climbing wall!

Go Wildcats!

So in the beginning of High School Musical (#1) it shows the front of East High where there is this engraving - which Chris actually made! So Gretchen kept asking to go see it, and finally we did! Nice work, Chris. This is Gretchen and my niece, Sydney.

GO UTES!!

GO UTES!! Yours truly had the chance to go to the BYU - Utah football game! Thanks to Susie and Jeff who happened to be in Israel! It was great fun, and also cold! I bundled, but my body has certainly adjusted to the climate in Arizona! It was great fun, especially cause we won! And the guy in front of us had the best high fives ever!


Me and my nephew, Spencer.
Me and my nephew, Clayson, who pitched a fit upon realizing that he would have to go and sit by me. Ahh, teenagers. I don't know how my camera got his eyes like that - it's creepy.

Pants Down! Time for Flu Shots!

Can you tell which kid knows what's coming?


This picture may capture my children's personalities more than anything. Gretchen started crying an hour and a half before the flu shot, and then 10 minutes after. Thatcher cried about 10 seconds total.

Chicken Taco Soup

So I thought I'd share a recipe I kinda made up last week. I wanted a taco soup but with chicken, so I combined a few reicpes. It was pretty tasty!

Combine the following in a stockpot:
1 Tbl onion pwder
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained (I used 2 cans diced tomatoes and ½ can diced green chilies)
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast, diced

Top with shredded cheddar cheese, dollop of sour cream or cream cheese, and crushed tortilla chips.

This was also great leftover. You could also do it in a crockpot, but I often don't plan that far ahead! Have a good day -