Just for fun!!

Whoa... All those words & no pics on that recipe post look kinda boring - so i just had to put a picture of Scooter on! We went for a bike ride a couple of weeks ago in the evening, and it was kind of cool outside. I forgot Scooter's jacket, so he borrowed one of Mykes old shirts! Does he look cute or what?!

So good I just had to share!

I have always really liked baking! And just recently I have discovered that I really like cooking as well! I know it is kind of silly, but I look forward to the begining of the month so we can plan out our menu & I get to try some new recipes! Yum! Here are 2 new ones that we tried recently, and I really, really liked them! The first is a turkey burger recipe from the Bon Appetit magazine. The recipe is from Amy Finley - the Next Food Network Star winner last year. The 2nd recipe is a delicious brownie recipe from the Food Network show Barefoot Contessa. These brownies are seriously so dang good - you don't even care that you have to run a marathon after you somehow ate the whole pan!! I'm not even kidding - they're that good. The recipe is kind of big, so we just halfed it & baked it in a 9x13 pan. Yum, yum, yum....

Turkey Burgers:
Ingredients: 1 lb. ground turkey, 2/3 cup finely chopped red onion, 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese, 1 1/2 tsp. olive oil + additional for brushing, 1 small garlic clove, pressed, 1/2 tsp. fresh rosemary (I used dried because we didn't have fresh), 1/2 tsp (generous) coarse kosher salt (um... or just salt!) 1/2 teaspoon (generous) black pepper, 4 crusty rolls (crusty rolls! haha - I don't know why, but that just struck my funny bone!! ok - maybe I'm tired!! But i'm just picturing these ornery looking rolls in my head... oh boy!) - oh & the rolls are cut in half.
Directions: Prepare BBQ (or you can cook it in a pan inside - that's what we did). Gently mix turkey, onion, 1/3 cup feta, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt & pepper in med. bowl. Form into 4 patties - each about 1 inch thick. Brush with oil & sprinkle with salt & pepper. Grill until cooked through- about 5 min. per side. Grill cut side of rolls until toasted, about 2 min. When you "assemble" the burgers you can put more feta on if you want. They are really yummy!!

Outrageous Brownies
Ingredients: 1 pound unsalted butter, 1 pound plus 12 ounces semi sweet choc. chips- divided, 6 ounces unsweeted chocolate, 6 extra large eggs, 2 T vanilla, 2 1/4 cups sugar, 1 1/4 cups flour - divided (1 cup for batter, 1/4 cup in the choc. chips & nuts), 1 T baking powder, 1 tsp kosher salt, 3 cups diced walnut pieces (I just put these on top on part of the brownies, since Ry doesn't like them!) - You can see why we halfed the recipe, huh?!
Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Grease & flour a 13 x 18 x 1 1/2 inch sheet pan. Melt together butter, 1 pound choc. chips & unsweetened chocolate on top of a double broiler. Cool slightly. Stir together eggs, vanilla & sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate & cool to room temp. Stir together 1 cup flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss walnuts & 12 oz. of choc. chips with 1/4 cup flour to coat ( I just learned this makes the choc. chips not sink to the bottom of the brownies. cool, eh?), then add to chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan. Bake about 30 min - or until tester (toothpick?!?) comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan & the brownie dough. Do not over bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well & cut into squares. (It should seriously say: then go run a marathon! ha ha!)

P.S. Don't ya love how I like "sited" where I got the recipes from?! Hopefully no one will sue me now for posting their recipes on my blog - since I gave them credit, ha ha! If I do end up in "copyright violaters prison," though, bring me some brownies, K?!

Happy meal & happy kids!

Aubs is babysitting for a few days, and she called us this morning and asked if we wanted to go to McDonalds & then play on the playground! Of course we said yes. It was so much fun. And Scooter just sat right by me on the bench, without a high chair or anything! What a cute kid! Oh, he makes me so, so happy!

Here is Derek eating his chicken & fries. Playing on the playground - he was telling me he was "all done," in this picture!
Derek & Dillon. Derek loves to play with other little kids!

After lunch & playing, we played some more at the park! Here is Aubs, Derk & Dillon. Tonight Scooter went to play with Aubs & Dillon again. She watched him for us so we could go to the Temple. It was so great! I just love the feeling that I have in the temple. It made me think that I'm just so grateful for all of the things that Heavenly Father has given us that help us keep an eternal perspective & remember what is really important! What a happy day! :)

Only in my dreams...

First I must say that I usually dream & remember my dreams, -it is rare for me not to remember them. That being said, my cousins Natalie & Brandi have run a few 5k races (way to go girls!). I recently told Nat via her blog how awesome I thought they were - and how I would only ever be able to do that in my dreams. Well... it is official - I ran a 5k, and I didn't even leave my house! Ok, I didn't even leave my bed, so I don't really get any running credit. But I really did run a 5k, it was just in my dream last night! Nat was even there with me. She was like a superhero, she was running so fast! I was running so hard trying to keep up with her! I hope I was burning some real life calories because it was quite a work out! So I kept running and running and finally made it to the end! I felt so good. I have no idea how it feels to finish a race in real life, but I felt totally awesome in my dream! Yay! And now, do you want to know the best part?! Somehow, in taking my jeans off to run the race, I missed putting on my running shorts! Don't worry, it wasn't anything scandalous, I had a really, really long shirt on - it came down past my knees (it must have been Ryan's!). I just said to Nat at the end of the race: "Oh, I hope my garments weren't showing!" Tee hee!

We Love Zoe!

Whenever we go to my moms, Derek loves to play with Zoe. He loves dogs and animals of all kinds. We were at my moms the other day and Ryan let Scooter give Zoe a dog treat. He kept saying "more more" and trying to get the treats out of the closet. Derek & Zoe both had a good time!

New Shoes

We recently bought Scooter some new shoes. I took some pictures of his shoes with one of my shoes & one of Ryan's - just for fun!

Here is my shoe & Scooter's shoe And... here is Ryan's shoe next to Scooters.
Krikey! Ryan bought new shoes a while ago, and he had them over at my moms house. Lins saw them and said: "Are these real shoes?" Ry: "Yeah." Lins: "But they're real? You really wear them?" Ry: "Um, yeah." Lins: "But they're So Big!!" It was funny. Lins always cracks us up.

Shoot... that was fun!

We went shooting today and it was such a blast! We have been saying that we needed to go for a while, so it was really fun to actually go! I really like shooting - it is something that I did a lot with my friends in high school. I had never shot a handgun before, though, and that was a blast! I was a little nervous to shoot at all because I haven't done it in such a long time. But it was so much fun!

Here are Lins & Myke shooting the shot guns.
Here are Lins & Ry getting ready to shoot. Lins was cracking us up - like always! She is one of those lucky people that are just naturally funny, without even trying to be!
Ryan - shooting the shot gun.
Erica, Casey, Lins & Myke. Erica & Casey hadn't shot before, so it was fun for them to try it for the first time! Casey totally nailed his very first clay pigeon too! Yay!
Me & Ry. Ryan said we should be holding guns for the picture, but I thought it turned out cute anyway!
Glendon shooting his handgun.

Ryan & Glendon's Dad shooting handguns.

Me trying the handgun for the first time. It was really fun! Erica shooting the .22.

This is the road we had to drive up... Glendon drove his Bronco up, so we figured our Hyundai would make it too. Ha ha, just kidding. We parked at the bottom and walked up!

I remember...

Because today is the anniversary of 9/11 - I couldn't help but remember where I was and what was happening 7 years ago. I still remember, as I'm sure most people do, what I was doing on that Tuesday morning. I was serving my mission & we were at district meeting. One of the elders came in & said they heard something about a bomb on the radio. At first me & my companion were like: what are you doing listening to the radio? (Since we're not supposed to listen to the radio while we're on our mission). Then we saw this lady that we knew and she was just crying, and we were like: what is going on?! It is not the easiest thing to find out what is happening when you are not supposed to watch TV or listen to the radio - so we had to rely on other people to tell us what happened. Everyone that we talked to that day, of course, updated us on what they knew. I remember when we woke up the next morning, Sister Bagwell & I were like: Is the world still standing? We went to our neighbors to find out if they had any new information, and then we went out and did missionary work.
I looked back in my journal to see what I wrote then: "All around there are signs that say things such as "God Bless America" & "United We Stand." There are also American flags waving on every corner and in front of almost every home!! It just makes me think that when disasters such as this strike, we all pull together. Suddenly our little differences don't matter anymore. We are all Americans."
I feel grateful to live in such a great country! I feel so thankful for the freedoms that I get to enjoy - I get to live with my sweet family, I get to worship God, I get to buy food, clothes, and all the other things I need! I get to say the things on my mind without being afraid, and So many other things! I am really grateful for the chance to just remember how wonderful freedom is -I know too often I really take it for granted.

Time for book club!

Tonight was book club once again! I love book club. I look forward to it every month. This month we read "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer. We all really liked this book. I felt surprised by a lot of things in the book - I felt like I kept saying to myself: Whoa! I didn't see that coming! But I really liked it. The way that she writes makes me want to read more & more. One of my favorite parts about the book were the chapter titles in Jacobs section. There were a lot of other things I liked a lot too, but I won't write specifics just in case... I don't want someone to get mad at me for ruining it for them, hee hee!

Food, glorious food!

Don't you think food is just so good?! I love it! I was trying to think of some eloquent explanation for how I love enjoying food: the cooking, the smells, tasting it & sharing it...Yummmm.... But as it turns out I am just the tiniest bit too full from our delicious dinner to think of anything clever- ironic isn't it? Anywho...I think it is so fun to share all of these yummy foods with Scooter. He's a really good eater, & will usually at least try most things! I thought these pics were really cute!

Here he is enjoying some french toast & powdered sugar! Yay for breakfast!
Pizza is one of Scooters favorites - he really, really likes it!

Ryan, you are the Best!

I just have to say I've got the greatest hubby ever!! A few days ago he came home with the most beautiful flowers for me -- just because! It made my day, and made me feel so good! He is just the best, not just because of these beautiful flowers! He is always so thoughtful & doing things that make me feel so great. He always lets me talk when I need to just "get stuff out" (& that happens quite a bit!), and he laughs with me and is the greatest Daddy to Scooter! He always lets me be myself, and he loves me for that, even when it is the crazy me!! This list could just keep going & going, but I will just say that I love him so much & I feel so blessed to be married to him! I put the roses on the counter in our kitchen, and Scooter kept pointing up to them. He loved for me to lift him up so he could smell them! What a cutie! He's a lucky, lucky kid to have such a great Daddy for an example!

What about a handstand?!

Don't you just love to laugh? There is just something about a good, hard, tears rolling down your cheeks laugh that makes me feel So good!! And when I am with my mom & sisters, this happens a lot! Last night we went with my mom to her enrichment, (except Lins, who coudln't get off work early! We missed you girl!). We were getting ready to leave when I had this most random thought pop into my head. So I asked Erica, Aubs & my mom if they were ever afraid of things they really had no need to be afraid of. They said, like what? So I told them my fear that I really don't have to worry about: getting caught in Afghanistan. But I started laughing when I was telling them, and Erica said: "What about a handstand?" When she said that it just made me laugh harder, but I tried again to tell them: getting caught in Afghanistan. Erica: What?! At this point I don't think they could understand anything that was coming out of my mouth! Erica & I started laughing so hard, and Aubs was like: Lets go! (I think we were about to make a scene, & luckily she got us out of there in time!). So when we were in the car driving home they again asked me what I was talking about, & I said: getting caught in Afghanistan. They said: Oh! And then a minute later, Erica said: I still don't get it! So I explained how whenever I read a book about the Middle East (Kite Runner, 1,000 Splendid Suns, Reading Lolita in Tehran,etc) I always imagine: what if I was there! And it freaks me out! I just think it would be so scary to be there, especially to be a woman there. And then one day I was like: hello! I'm never going to Afghanistan, so I guess I can cross this off the worry list! Erica was like, "Oh, I get it! At first I heard you say afghan, so I thought you were talking about getting caught in an afghan, and I thought, what's the worst that could happen? Couldn't someone just cut you out?!"
Tee hee hee!

Ryans Perfect Peach Pie!

I am so lucky for so many reasons! One of those reasons is that my hubby is a GREAT cook! He always makes the best things! This is a peach pie he made over the weekend - and it was delicious! Doesn't it just look perfect? When we ate it we heated it up in the microwave & then put vanilla ice cream on top! Yum yummy! I wish we could've shared it with everyone - it was so good! Also, my mom & Aubs made it home safely from Virginia, and we are so happy to have them back! My mom is feeling a lot better - she got a kidney stone & kidney infections when she was at Amy's. We all felt so bad for her, and we're glad she's doing better!
A few days before they got home, Ryan picked a Monster zucchini in my moms garden, and he decided to leave it on Aubrey's bed as a surprise for her! (he is always picking on her!!) He wrapped it in a towel & left it on her bed. And when they got home & she went in her room, she was like: "What is that?!?!" I had to take a picture of her with the monster zucchini! It was So big! I thought it could be used as a club!! (Ah-oh Ry, better watch out! Aubs has a weapon now! Tee hee!)