I'm a Chef

Here is a recipe I made up. It was really good. I call it...

Shrimp Utopia

5 cups bowtie pasta
1 jar ragu alfredo sauce
2 tbs Olive Oil
1 clove garlic
30 pieces small shrimp
10 leaves spinach
1 romano tomatoe
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp lemon juice
5 or 6 croutons (optional)

Boil the pasta in water. In frying pan add Olive oil and finely chopped garlic. Saute until the garlic is golden brown. Add peeled shrimp, chopped spinach, chopped tomatoe, basil, oregano, and lemon juice. Saute on medium heat, stiring frequently, until it makes a thick sauce. Drain pasta and stir in alfredo sauce. My kids don't like vegetables so I dish them out the noodles and pasta. Then, I fill the adults bowls with alfredo pasta and stir half the shrimp sauce into each of those bowls. Add crushed croutons on top. Yummy!

Shrimp sauce makes 2 servings but I can feed my kids too with the pasta.

Halloween 2008

Denton had fun helping Brandon carve a pumpkin. I did Julia's for her but I'm the camera holder so you'll just have to imagine it :-)

It was so warm that I didn't make the kids put shoes on until we were headed out the door to go trick-or-treating.

This is our decorated trunk at the ward trunk-or-treat. We went for a half hour and there were just swarms of kids. So, we went home and found swarms of kids on our street so we just sat on the drive way instead of answering the door a hundred times. Someone came to our door while we were at the trunk-or-treat and left a fart bomb on our door step. It was nasty, but kind of funny that kids actually tricked us for not giving them candy.

Our Fantastic Trip to San Diego

We had such a fun trip to San Diego! I was surprised at how well the kids did and how much they enjoyed all the activites we did. We came home exausted but completely glad we went.

We went to Sea World the 1st and 4th days we were there. That park is so big we were glad to have two days to see it all. I loved "Believe," the killer whale show with Shamu. Brandon loved the dolphins, and the kids really loved the sea lions and the play land with Elmo and other Sesame Street characters. I thought it was really cool to pet the sting rays and the star fish.

The Second Day in San Diego we went to the zoo. We walked our legs off looking at all the animals. We also rode the bus and the little gondola ride the goes across the park. The great thing about going in the fall is there weren't a ton of people. I guess in the summer time you have to stand in line to look at the animals. We just zipped through and saw everything.

The third day we found this cool museum named Maritime. You get to walk through all these boats that are in San Diego Bay. We went on a ferry from the 1800's, a Russian submarine used against us during the cold war, the ship used on the movie "Master and Commander," and a full-scale-still-in-use ship called the Star of India. We also went on a smaller boat to take a short tour of the Sandiego Bay. There is a huge US naval base right there, so we could see a bunch of war ships and carriers.

From the museum, we went straight to mission beach. Brandon bought a cheapy boogie board and we played for two hours. We went back to our motel and showered and got ready again, then we went to a cute little shopping area called seaport village. We ate clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl and walked around looking at all the shops.

Brandon and his dad went on a 3 day ATV/camping trip on the Piute Trail in central Utah. From what he told me, they got lost quite a bit and he was saddle sore, but completely loved it.

Julia turns 2!

Julia had a very fun birthday at the park. She loved the gifts and cousins and eating suckers and cupcakes! Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us! I can't believe my litte girl is getting so grown up!

Denton's Blog

Hey y'all,
I just wanted you to get a look at what Denton's doing in preschool. He's having so much fun. Look on my side-bar at the buddy blogs and you will see the one that says, "Denton's preschool." It sends you to the blog for his preschool! It's so cute!

First Day of Pre-school

Today was Denton's first day of preschool. I decided to put him in at the last minute because he kept begging to go to school like the big kids. He's very social too so he needs friends. When we got to his teachers house he said, "ok. I can go by myself." Off he went, with his backpack on his back and a big smile on his face. When we started to drive off, Julia was in the backseat saying, "Denton, Denton." We told her he had to stay with his teacher. She said, "NO." After we got home, she decided she liked being an only child for a couple of hours.

This is Denton with his teacher Ms. Stephanie. Stephanie is going to start a blog all about the 8 kids in her preschool and what they're learning. I can't wait!