Happy Birthday Riley Mae!

Yesterday was Riley's 2nd Birthday. We celebrated with a bunch family over for lunch and a party. We had pulled pork sandwiches (yes, another crock pot recipe) jello salad, chips and veggies and dip. Complete with chocolate cake with a Bavarian cream filling with huckleberry ice cream. Yum! Although we gave her our present a couple of weeks ago, she got all kinds of fun gifts from her cousins. One thing I've learned is that when you give a child candy as part of a gift, they suddenly don't care about the rest of the gifts. Uncle Spencer gave her a bunch of gummy worms and that was all she cared about the rest of the day. We got out the cake to sing to her and all she did was chew those darn gummy worms--which made it very difficult to blow out the candle. But once the cake was cut and being served she was first in line for her share. She is getting so big and is such a good girl. Despite the occasional tantrum and keeping mom on her toes, she is such joy to have in our home.

 

Tater-Tot Casserole

Okay Camille, here it is. As you may know I've been on this crock-pot kick and have been trying all sorts of new recipes. Most of which have all been really good. Well last night I made tater-tot casserole. Now I've baked that many times in the oven and used to get great reviews, but it's sorta one of those things where I made it so often everyone was sick of it. But last night I baked it in the crock-pot, which was a slightly different recipe this time and my kids loved it. We had a couple of the kid's friends stay over for dinner and everyone slicked their plates! Sometimes 3 times! I mean, I thought it was good, but my kids and their friends thought it was great! So here it is:

Tater-Tot Casserole

1 bag (32 ounces) frozen tater tots
1 can (8 ounces) chicken, drained
1/2 tesp. salt
1/4 tesp. pepper
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) green beans, drained
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cream of mushroom soup, condensed
1 tabls. dried onion
1/2 milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Pour bag of frozen tater tots on bottom of greased 4 1/2 to 6-quart slow cooker. In seperate bowl, combine remaining ingredients except cheese and pour over potatoes. Cover and cook on high heat 3 hours or on low heat 4 1/2 - 5 hours. Half an hour before serving, sprinkle cheese over the top. (I cooked on low for only 4 hours and that was plenty of time.)

Things I Let the Kids Talk Me In To

So for awhile now Katelyn and her friend Kylie have been telling me that they want to go in on a hamster. And for anyone that knows me pretty well, knows that I am deathly afraid of rodents. Any rodents! Yes, even hamsters. Which is very odd seeing as how I had a hamster when I was Katelyn's age, I can't explain it. Anyway, I thought this hamster thing would go away and they would forget about it and move on. Well, it didn't, and they approached me on Friday and said they called Petco and found out that between the hamster, a cage, food, and everything else it was going to run them about $50. I then realized this hamster thing was not going away and they were dead serious. After much begging and pleading, I agreed and said only if it stays at Kylie's house. That satisfied them and they were very excited. They had most of the money saved already but were a little short, so they had a lemonade stand and made $13.00. (Not bad.) Between a few chores around the house and some promised future babysitting they had their $50. So I took them to the Petco that night and let me tell you, this was a real labor of love. Just looking at all the bags of hamster food with all the pictures of all the little rodents on the packages made me almost have an anxiety attack. The girls then went and picked out their hamster, which I advised them to do very quickly, and they soon were carrying it around in a little box. Ugh!! We went to pay for it all at the register which was quite an ordeal seeing as how over $20 was in coins! I really felt bad for the people behind us. The ride home was painful as I could hear the hamster scratching at the box the entire ride home. We made it home and set up the cage with all of it's food and water and the girls could not be more excited. They named him Mobey. It was almost time to take him to Kylie's house--his new home, when I was starting to feel a little bad for Katelyn. Katelyn had earned half the money and was willing to take care of it and yet it was going to stay at Kylie's all the time. She hadn't once complained about the living arrangements, I think she was just grateful I had agreed to any of this. I talked with Josh and we told Katelyn that she could keep the hamster at our house half of the time. She was so thrilled! I know...I'm crazy! So it looks like we'll be having a hamster at our house every other week. I don't know how this back and forth stuff is going to work and I really don't know how I'm going to handle this, but we'll see how it goes.

BYU Game

Yesterday Josh took the kids to the BYU game down in Provo. They went down with a friend and his son and they all had a blast. I was a little worried the kids would get bored and cold. But the weather turned out to be great and the kids had so much fun. It helped that BYU won 44-0. BYU is undefeated so far this season, they are 4-0. So so far we've got a happy household! But I'm glad the kids got to go down with Josh yesterday. I spent the day at scout training for a good part it, and went to lunch with my sister Holly. The rest of the day I just lounged around the house with Riley and we both got in a good nap. So it was a good day for all of us. (I took a picture of them before they left because I didn't think they'd actually take any pictures while they were at the game. And they actually took quite a few.)

Case of the Terrible Two's

So the terrible two's came early this year for Riley. Her 2nd Birthday isn't until the end of the month, but for the past week Riley has been getting an early start on that terrible two stage!! It's as if she knows she has a birthday coming up and she's playing the part. Lately, she's been nothing but tantrums, disobeying and saying "No." I honestly don't remember the other kids being this bad. (Or maybe I've just blocked it out.) She walks around like she owns the place and she's in charge. But then again she can be my little snuggly Rye-Pie with big hugs and kisses.
So with her birthday coming up we've known for a long time exactly what we're going to get her. I've had it for a week sitting in a box in my garage just waiting and waiting for the 27th to roll around. We got her one of those little cars that you can push around like a stroller. She's seen a couple kids in the neighborhood with them and LOVES them. So it was the natural choice seeing as how she's loves to go on walks with mom and dad almost every night. But I know that warm walking weather is limited. And we decided that it's better to give it to her now so she can get more use out of it before snow falls. So we couldn't take it anymore and decided to give it to her today. So Josh got it out of the box, put it all together and the time had come for Riley to come outside to see her new present. The whole family was calling Riley outside, so and I walked her out with my camera, so excited to see her reaction. Finally, she was going to get her very own. She took one look at it and this is what she did...

She threw a tantrum right there in the driveway. She wouldn't even sit in it. We tried to lure her towards it by showing her all the features including the honking horn, but she wasn't having any of it. We pushed it back into the garage thinking she'd get up and run toward it and have a change of heart, but this is all she did...

She just laid there. She didn't care. Perhaps we caught her at bad time, she was having a bad day, or she just wasn't in the mood. Or perhaps this is what's in store for me for the next year. A couple hours later we attempted again and this time...

She loved it! I knew she would. She didn't want to get out. She honked her horn the entire lap around the neighborhood with a huge smile on her face. I'm glad we gave it to her early so she can get some use out of it before it gets too cold. It's a good thing she's so cute, otherwise I don't know what I'd do with her!

School Carnival

Last night was the kids School Carnival. In years past, it's always been a Halloween Carnival in October, where you roam the crowded hallways in costumes and play games winning candy and toys. And honestly, do the kids really need an additional event that month where they are collecting more candy? This year they did it in September and held it outside. I thought it was great! Let's spread the candy consumption out a little. There was so much more room to move, the games were great and the weather was actually pleasant. The kids went from game to game and Katelyn even actually did a pie eating contest, which unfortunatly I didn't get a picture of. The kids came home high on cotton candy, pop and pixie sticks. I really liked having it earlier in the year and I hope this becomes a new tradition for the school.

Katelyn and her friend Kylie decked out for the Hillcrest Football Game that night. Go Knights!

New Favorite Cookbook

I just bought this cookbook at Deseret Book last week while my mom was up visiting. As we were walking around the store we came across the cookbook section and found many different crock pot cookbooks. We both ended up buying different cookbooks, and I KNOW that I bought the better one. Hers is a bit more complicated with ingredients I don't normally buy or have on hand. This one is filled with recipes with things I am comfortable using which means I'm more likely to use it. I love cooking in the crock pot especially in the fall and winter. And everytime I get it out I wonder why I don't use it more often. So since last week I've become a crock pot cookin' fool! I've tried the Chicken Enchiladas, Ham and Potatoes, Cherry Cobbler and my sister made the Orange Chicken and said it was great. Tonight I'm trying the Chicken Teriyaki which I know I maybe shouldn't be trying something new tonight seeing as how the missionaries are coming over for dinner. And just since I've been typing this post, I got a call from the missionaries asking if they can come tonight at 5:00 instead of 6:00 p.m. Well, I told them my only concern is that dinner may not be ready, so I went and checked on my dinner to see if maybe it looks like it might be done sooner. To my dismay, as I have them on the phone and looking into my crock pot, I realize IT'S NOT ON!! I casually try to sound cool and find myself saying, "Sure that would be great." So... now I'm onto Plan B. Dumping it into a pan and baking it in the oven. Am the only one things like this happen to? Hopefully it turns out.