Its that time of year again!!STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL!

The Strawberry Festival was so fun again this year. The best part of all was this was the first year Cr was off work and so he got to go enjoy it with us.Grandpa was also able to come which was also a special treat. Then we figured since everyone else was going why not invite Oma to come too. Anyway they had lots of fun things for us to play, ride and build. Oh and of course don't forget the chocolate covered strawberries. Yum.

This was Buddy a sheriff's department talking boat. He talked to Shaylyn about water safety and wearing a Lifejacket.



Our " Murphy " girl was a big hit with all the kids and she behaved like an angel. Here she is chillin in the shade.



The Home Depot Builder. This was a big hit with the kids last year too. They get to build something at the Home Depot spot and then they get to take it home with them.



Shaylyn chose to build a Treasure box.



She had fun putting the stickers on.



She had to go show Grandpa her cool treasure box.



Grandpa making a race car track with Chace.



Makai and Daddy had a good time making a tool box together. Gotta love the fact that Daddy was there=)






Shaylyn getting on the bouncy house.



Shaylyn got to meet the Chick Fil a cow! ( I LOVE Chick Fil A)



Shaylyn LOVED the Pony ride. Smiles!





Playing the Pop the Balloon game...one of many neat little games for the kids.





Makai and the Rock Climb. He went all the way up and rang the bell.



Shaylyn and a chocolate covered strawberry. Yummy!



After we left the festival we decided we had not had enough fun so we decided to go to the Zoo. We wanted to check out their new water play area. Talk about awesome. We loved it. There was enough water to get very wet but not enough to be concerned with Shaylyn drowning. They did also have a few lifegaurds in and around the water too.
The kids did not have time to walk around the rest of the area before they closed but I walked around to see what else was there.
They still had a dry playzone to climb through and they had a beachy area you could dig and build sand stuff. They also have the petting zoo area which from what I could see they have added a few animals from last time we had gone. They also still have the junior detective area where they get to prtend to be veterinarians and play with all kinds of different props etc. and they have a sand dig in there too. They also have cages with reptiles and other small animals. All I can say is it is worth the 100 bucks for a family year pass. Love it=)












Some VERY POOPED KIDS AND PUPS!!!!!!

More Recipes and such

so I had a chance to try that Granola bar recipe I said I was going to try in the last post. WOW. They are very yummy. The first batch I made had everything the recipe called for including the dry fruit.I did add about 1/2 to 3/4 of cup of almonds though. I found when they were done that the sunflower seeds were a little overpowering so I decided the next batch I would reduce the amount of sunflower seeds I put in. I am also not a dry fruit lover ( Cr likes dry fruit so I made those for him) and so I decided I would try the recipe again doing things slightly different and making them in a way I would like. So I reduced the amount of sunflower seeds and instead of putting in almonds I put in Macadamia nuts and baked those along with the other nuts. I also put into the mixing bowl with the oats a cup of White chocolate chips. Needless to say...YUMMO! ( I stole that from Rachael Ray)I am going to try another batch and put the almonds back in and just use semi sweet chocolate chips and see how that one comes out. Oh and you should know by now that Ilike to know if I am saving money by doing this. I already know they are healthier but with my budget if they aren't cheaper we will stick to the unhealthy stuff=)Anyway when I compared..WE like the Nature Valley chewy bars..they are 6 in a box for 3 something and you get a total of 7.4 oz. A batch of homemade weighed in at about 24 oz. When I took the ingredients I used and broke it down into individual serving costs I was at about 23 cents a granola bar. The store brand in roughly 60 cents per bar. So Now I know they are healthier and cheaper. You should keep in mind that to purchase all the ingredients to begin with can get pricey..around 20 dollars to begin with, however with the ingredients I can make 3 to 4 batches before having to purchase more nuts etc.Happy Granola Bar Making. ( here is the recipe again for those who need it) Here are the pictures of the finished product.

This is the White Chocolate Macadamia nut ones..



These are the dried fruit ones. They still taste good to me, I just pick out the fruit.



I also wanted to share the news about the Wheat Grinder I got. I used it the other day and showed the flour to our Food Storage and Baking Guru at church. She said that it was a medium fine flour and that my bread may come out slightly course. She said to try putting it through the grinder one more time. So it will be more time consuming but I think overall it is still going to work just fine for us and considering we couldn't afford the 200 dollar ones..this one will do just fine. This is the picture of the Grinder and of the Wheat after going through the grinder once.





I wanted to share this because I thought it might be something others may be interested in. my friend Raquel found these products on Amazon.com from a place called Barry Farms. She said I should check it out and I ended up buying several things from them. I got 3 one pound bags of Cheese powder at only 3.99 a piece, a one pound bag of sour cream powder for 6.79, a bag of Wheat Gluten( for bread making) for 3 something and 2 bags of 5 oz citric acid( used to treat fruits before you dry them)for 1 dollar a piece. My whole order with shipping was $25.26. The pictures are slightly decieving online because the bags look very big but in reality a one pound bag of cheese powder is only about the size of a can of pam spray. However it will still make a lot of servings of food because you only use small amounts at a time. We have already used some on popcorn last night to make cheese popcorn. Yummy. Anyway I just wanted to share the info in case anyone else wanted to buy some but maybe wasn't sure where to get it or what they would get if they did. Some other websites I found cheese powder on wanted 16 dollars for a pound so that is another reason I am sharing this info so you can get it for cheaper. Good Luck hope the info helps.

Our Garden

Well it is moving right along. Cr has been working on getting the fencing around it done. We want to keep out the critters and birds especially. Our neighbor planted tomatoes and the birds attacked them before he even had a chance to pick them. anyway this is what it looks like so far. Roughly halfway done. We also planted a large cabbage plant that Chace got from school. it is a contest to see whose can grow the largest. We are going to see what happens. We are using it as a test grow to see if we need to put more plant soil or other stuff out there. Anyway..enjoy the pics and hopefully in a few weeks we will be able to plant.

This is Chace's cute little cabbage plant.It is suppossed to be 30 to 50 pounds when it is finished growing. We will see.

Primary Temple Trip

On Saturday the Primary took a field trip to the temple. We met at the Chapel building across the street from the temple and had doughnuts and muffins. They were Krispy Kreme!! Yummy!







Then we went over to the temple and met with the temple president. He took the kids around to the side and sat them down on the stairs. He talked to them about the temple and the things that are special about it. He talked to them about some of the things we do in the temple. It was so sweet to see all the kids there listening to the president speak.





Then the kids all went over to the side and we took pictures of the kids and their families because the primary presidency was going to print them and put them in frames for the kids. These are some pictures I took while we waited for our turn.

This is Shaylyn and her little friend Jordan.



Shaylyn decided she was tired and so she plopped herself down on the Temple grass.



Shaylyn and her cute self



After we had walked around the temple I asked the kids if they wanted to take some pictures in front of the house of the Lord. They said yes and these are the pictures I took.

Makai has such a great personality and he wanted to look like a Missionary in front of the Temple. I think he looks like a very confident little missionary.









I have a very cute little story from our Temple trip. I talked to the kids before we got there to remind them that it is the House of the Lord and that we needed to be reverent even outside. I wanted to make sure they understood how they were to behave. When we got to the Temple Shaylyn had to use the restroom, so we went into the Lobby.I watched her looking around and I wondered what she was thinking. A few moments later she asked me " Mom, Where is Jesus?" I said he is upstairs and you have to be a big girl to go upstairs. She processed that for a moment and then said that she was a big girl and she wanted to go upstairs and see him. When I explained again about not being quite big enough she seemed to be ok with that. A while later after the President was done speaking to the children she said, " Mom, I need to ask Jesus something, can I just go upstairs for a second? Please Mom."I thought about what I was going to say and after trying to explain eventually she realized that it was not possible for her to go upstairs and she stopped asking but it was just so great for her to have such faith to know that when I said he was upstairs she knew he was. I am grateful i went to the Temple with my kids that day because it reminded me to have the faith that Jesus really is there and that I need to go more often to be able to be with him.

Boys and Boxes

So the last few weeks we have been receiving boxes of items and the boys asked if they could have them. This is the fun that followed. I love to see the creativity of the boys when they play.