Fathers and Sons Camp Out + GNO = super fun weekend

I Love Fathers and Sons campouts. The boys were sooo excited to go. They went up early with one of Ry's buddies and the kids thought it was great to get to play ALL day long.


The boys did a lot of exploring.

{B} and I of course had to make a girls night out of it. I made these icecream invitiations. The cherry on top is missing on purpose. Inside was a poem about how the cherry on top is the best part of a sundae and if they were missing it wouldn't be as good either.




Everybody brought a topping and we made yummy sundaes.




We stayed up late and did a lot of talking and laughing.




I just love these ladies and was so happy to get to know them better. I feel so blessed to be around such amazing people who inspire me to be better.

Our little airbender

{J} LOVES Aang from Avatar the last airbender. The kids are so excited for the movie to come out.

I thought it was so funny when {J} came out the other day in this cute costume he put together. He has always been one to get all decked out and in character for what ever he is playing. It totally cracks me up.

Lets build a Temple

The kids LOVED the temple open house and it has been on their brians every since.

{K} made this cute temple out of legos. I love it!!!

During sacrament on Sunday {k} drew this picture of a temple. He desined it and said that he is gong to build it someday.

He told me he was going to save his money and start buying the supplies to build the temple. He started a list of all the things he needs to buy. He asked me if Dad could take him to Home Depot on Saturday to start buying the wood. ha ha. It was very sweet. It was also a great opportunity for me to teach him about how when we pay tithing we are helping to build temples. We also talked about the different kinds of construction there is and what he would need to learn to someday be hired by the church to help build the temples. He is such a cute kid.

Temple Open house

We are so excited for the new temples that we are getting. Ry and I were excited for the opportunity to take the kids to the open house. They were excited to actually get to go inside. They were all taken away by its beauty.

We didn't tell the kids we were going. We had them get up friday morning and get ready for school as usual. Then when it was time to go we told them what to pack and that we were going on a little get away. They were ecstatic and I loved watching their excitement.



We went to a yummy Mexican resturaunt. It was soooo yummy!!!



It's so fun that the kids are starting to enjoy trying new places. This place was a hit.





The kids had a lot of fun on the balcony at the hotel.


We specifically got a hotel with a pool. It was our first officaly swim for 2010. The boys are both signed up for swim team and {B} is going to do swim lessons. They all love to be in the water, it's going to be so fun.


{B} loved the water and kept running back and forth between the pool and the hot tub.




after playing in the bubbles from the hot tub {J} came out looking like Santa and {B} got so excited and started calling him Santa. {J} was so cute with her about it. When he asked her about what she wanted for christmas she answered very excitedly PRESENTS!!!!

FHE service lesson

I am very excited about all of the recipes I have gotten for the crock pot. THANK YOU. I've decided to start another blog to put all the recipes on. I am also going to add freezer meals and food storage ideas on it to. Please feel free to share any of your tips, recipes and ideas with me. You can email me at debbmoody@cox.net. The new blog address is easydoesitcooking.blogspot.com. You can also get to it from my side bar.
My sister Kathy sent me the first recipe I tried. It is a whole chicken done in the crock pot. It was soooo easy and juicy and went a long way.

I love that you get a lot of yummy broth out of it too.

I made this chicken and then was able to make some freezer meals with the rest of the chicken. I ended up making 8 for my family, 8 for my cute friend who about to have her 4th baby BOY, they are all under 5. and 8 for my sweet neighbor who is suffering from a bulged disc. I spent the entire day in the kitchen and then that night we had a FHE lesson on service and then delivered all of the food to our friends.

The kids were very excited and it was so fun to do. I LOVE when we are able to find ways to teach our kids hands on.

Both familys were so sweet and appreciative and it made it so fun for us. We talked about how good we felt inside. Kyle said "it was almost as exciting as Christmas". WOW, that made me so happy to hear.

This is how our kitchen looked when we got home. Typically I would have dreaded having to clean up such a mess, but I felt so good about the experiences and memories the kids and I just made that it gave me a natural high and made me more than happy to clean it all up.

Calling all cooks!!!

We were sick last week and I was craving a yummy easy stew so I got online and found this one. It was done in the crock-pot and super easy. The kids all loved it and it was just the comfort food I was looking for.

Well...It got me thinking about how much I LOVE a good easy crock-pot recipe. I want to try and gather more crock-pot recipes especially since it is only going to be getting hotter and HOTTER here and any chance I can cook with out heating up the house sounds really good to me. I thought it would be fun to try and collect some more recipes and post them on the blog. So...if you have a crock-pot recipe that you love send it my way please. I will make it and post the recipes on here as I get them and try them.

Here's the recipe:
Slow-Cooker Beef Stew
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped (of course I left this out!)
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.
Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6-8 hours. (mine was done in about 5, but my crock-pot must get really hot! Just check it every so often and when the veggies are soft, it's done.)

Back among the living

WOW...talk about one looooooooong torturous week. Late last Monday night I got the chills/fever. I didn't sleep much that night and woke up worse on Tuesday. Ry took the day off to keep {B} and let me rest. Wed. I was worse. I couldn't keep anything down, was dizzy and had fevers all day long. Thurs {B} woke up with a fever and was sick all day. Sat Ry came home from a campout with the YM with a bad ear ache and that night had a very high fever. Ry NEVER gets sick. I kept thinking I was feeling better, but then would get up and over do and end up feeling worse. Sunday I thought we were all going to die. The boys were so sweet and just took care of themselves. Cold cereal for all 3 meals. I felt so bad, but we did not have the strength to take care of them. Monday could not get here soon enough. We made appointments for the three of us and went to the doctor. We all had the same viral infections along with our own symptoms. {B} had a double ear infection, and Ry and I have bronchitis. We would never have gotten over this on our own. Next time we definitely will need to go in earlier. We left the doctors office with 5 different prescriptions. We hope to be feeling better real soon. I am sick of being sick.

I knew before all this that I missed my family. I kept thinking if only mom could come and baby me like she does when we're sick, with a nice tray of juice and soup, or wishing Christy could come take the kids for my like she used to. She sure did spoil me. I didn't dare call friends because I didn't want them to get what we had. I got so desperate at one point I just sat in bed and cried. Now after finding my self full of a little more strength I realize how much I do love and miss my family but also how grateful I am for my own sweet little family here. That we are able to lean on each other and support each other. Being away from family is definitely very hard, but I do love how it has brought Ry and I closer to each other. We are a stronger couple because we have learned to turn to each other and not run to mom and dad whenever we need something. It feels very good to know that we are able to depend on each other and are closer by doing so. That this is it, we are all we have. Today I can tell my strength is coming back. I still am dizzy when I get up, but I am just going to try and take it easy. Ry is still not feeling well at all. {B} is still worn out and just vegging on the couch. I am going to try and go Lysol everything and kill all the sick germs that may be hanging around.