As Requested . . . a new yummy & easy meal

My SIL was asking me the other day when I would be posting some new, easy dinner ideas.

I have a few good recipes to share, but rather than trying to take pictures of the cooking process myself I decided I would just share the link to the recipe with you. Just click on the name of the recipe below.

Teriyaki Chicken Pita pockets:
(Photos and recipe from Controlling my Chaos Blog)



There are detailed instructions, with lots of pictures, but don't let that confuse you into thinking that it's not a super simple recipe-because it totally is. And boy is it worth it!! Yum.eee. We all loved it!

As a bonus, the author of the blog includes a really cute little recipe card that you can print out at the end. So go, try it. You'll love it.

P.S. Next time I make this I will definitely use at least 4 chicken breasts, just so that we can have leftovers.

Don't look behind the couch ;-)

Shortly after I took down all the Christmas decor I decided that my house needed a deep cleaning. I got a wild hair and decided to actually move the couches and vacuum behind them.

Here are the 'treasures' that I found:


Thanks to a certain child (ahem, Sophee) and a certain husband (who shall remain nameless) I ended up with almost a full Wal-Mart bag of fruit snack wrappers! I know, it's embarassing, but I'm just keeping it real. It had probably been at least 3 or 4 months since I last moved the couches. For the record, I do tell my family-many times daily-to throw their garbage in the trash can. It just doesn't seem to be sinking in. It's just easier for them to wait until I'm not looking and then throw their wrappers over the back of the couch, or stuff them in the cushions.

I also decided to remove the cushions and vacuum out all the crumbs. I know, crazy huh? I don't know what got into me.

Once I started though, Audree decided it looked like fun and decided to help out:

Sophee, on the other hand, decided that this looked like more fun:
(Notice Audree still working hard-yep, that's my girl . . .)

"Mom, watch what I can do!! Take a picture".

In the end, Audree pointed out to Sophee that since the majority of the mess was hers she should have to help. So, here she is, doing her part:

Of course, I didn't get any pictures of Sophee using the hose to suck up her shirt, and her skin.

It's just all fun and games for that kid.

Merry Christmas to you . . .

. . . from the Burgess family!

I thought we'd share a bunch of photos from our Christmas card 'photo shoot'. Enjoy!!

Kory doing what he does best, just goofing off:

A little bit of randomness:

Cousins:

Let's see if this will work. Hmmm . . . not quite:

Slowly getting through:

Well. I think that's as far as Josh will get:

Halloween 2010

Wahoo! I'm actually posting about Halloween before Thanksgiving. That's pretty good for me.

This year Sophee was a little devil (how fitting-and yes, she picked that out all on her own) and Audree was a 50's girl:

Josh was the 'Karate Kid':

And Kaylee was MIA because she had gone over to her cousins house to get ready.

Since Halloween was on a Sunday we just went to our church's Trunk-or-Treat carnival this year on Saturday night.

My SIL was in charge of a few games and decided that we needed a petting zoo. So she came up with a "Shih Tzu Zoo", and gathered up 6 Shih Tzu's, include ours-and gated off the 'mothers lounge' and we lifted the little kids over the gate to go see the dogs. This was actually a huge hit!! Coal is the black one with the red bandana:

Here are the girls searching for treasures:

And playing miniature golf:

The purpose of this game is to 'catapult' fake spiders onto a giant spider web:

I had planned to get pictures of Kaylee but I didn't see her and her cousin too much. You know, she's at that stage were she is too cool to hang with the fam.

When we first walked into the carnival Josh spotted the booth were someone was making balloon animals and headed straight for it. Of course that had the longest line and he stood there, patiently, for at least half an hour to get himself a spiderman balloon-which I didn't get a picture of-darn it.

Afterwards, we came home and the 'bargaining' began. Oh look, there's Kaylee. She was a 'punk ballerina'. She had some black gauze all wrapped around the top of her but had taken it off before I got a picture.

Making the trade:

The kids had a really great time at the carnival and didn't seem to mind too much that we didn't trick-or-treat on Sunday. Infact they had forgotten all about it until some kids came over that night and rang the doorbell while we were having dinner (we forgot to turn off our outside lights). Then Sophee realized she was missing out on it and cried for a little while. Poor Girl.

The rest of the kids were fine with it.

I'm so glad it's over though! Now onto the Thanksgiving!

Family Home Evening with our cousins . . .

. . . carving pumpkins!!

I love the above pic. It just captures the craziness that is when we get the youngins' together. Add a sticky, gooey mess of pumpkin guts, somewhat sharp objects and hey, now we're having a good time!!

I had pretty much decided that I wasn't going to do our traditional 'carving of the pumpkins' this year. Then my super fun SIL called and invited us to come over to Grandma's with them and have a BBQ and carve up some pumpkins for FHE. Oh the guilt!!
I caved. Mainly because I'm trying to be better about having FHE every week. That, and the fact the I didn't have to actually plan a lesson or make dinner? I was so there!!

Here's Dad, Audree, Sophee, and Josh (Kaylee was on her way from soccer practise):

I usually only buy 2 pumpkins every year, then we split into teams-one team with me, and one with Kory-that way it's not so chaotic with just 2 adults trying to simultaneously trying to help carve 4 pumpkins. The kids don't seem to mind at all, it's cheaper, and I think they like having a little 'competion' with the other group.

Sophee and Josh with their pumpkin:

Kory, Audree, and Kaylee's pumpkin is on the right:

The whole gang showing off their creations:

It was fun to get together with family for FHE. These are memories in the making!!

Us girls love our shoes . . .

Especially when they're super cheap!!

I had to run and get a couple of things at K-mart the other day. The kids and I happened upon a huge shoe sale. They were clearing out a bunch of summer shoes for over 75% off. Wahoo!!

Here's Sophee's $2.50 sandles. They have a little heel to them, which she absolutely loves. Check out these gingham checked shoes. I totally love them. Haven't worn them yet though.
They were $3.50. Even Kaylee likes them. That's a good sign when your teenager approves. I think it means I'm cool.

Audree opted for some simple white flats. $2. Thank-you-very-much.

I also happened to get these brown heels (which is actually something I needed):

A side view of the cute buckle:

And the best part? They were only $2. I'm such a bargain shopper.

Kaylee also got some shoes, but was not home when I decided to snap some pics.

Poor Josh. We tried really hard to find him something, but there wasn't a very big selection of men's shoes on clearance.

I just love me a good clearance sale.

Josh-isms

Today I was in a mood to get my disgusting floors cleaned. I realized a long time ago that when a 'cleaning mood' strikes, you better go with it right then and there or that mood might not be back for awhile. Although, I really prefer to mop when the kids are either in bed or at school (since our kitchen is the 'hub' of the home, mopping while 8 little feet are running around underneath me really isn't a great idea). But, alas, the mood was here and I had to take advantage of it. So, after vacuuming all the carpet downstairs, removing all the little rugs to be washed, moving all the chairs onto the carpet, sweeping the tile, and finally starting to mop I guess Josh noticed that I was working a little harder than I normally do on a Saturday.

He then came up to me, just before I was finished and said, "Mom, if you clean this whooooole house you can have a dollar!" Me: "Really bud? I can have a dollar?"
Josh: "Not until you're all done."
Me: "Thanks bud."

I'm still waiting for my dollar. I guess maybe I didn't do a good enough job.
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This next picture is a little blurry because it's a picture of a picture. But, I need you to see it so you'll understand the next story:

That's Audree's face in the picture. Our stake primary presidency came down and did an activity with our primary kids at the beginning of the year. While here they took pictures of all the kids. Then, some super creative lady photoshopped the kids' faces into this picture with Jesus. When Mother's day rolled around this was the little gift that the kids gave their Mom's. It was such a precious idea! I got one from Kaylee (who was in the primary at the time), Audree, and Sophee. Poor Josh missed out because he's not in Primary anymore.

So after church that day, as we were heading home I was admiring my new gifts from the girls. Josh wanted to see what they were. He grabbed Audree's picture, took a lengthy look at it, and said, "Heeeeey! When was Jesus here?"

Poor kid, no matter how many times I tried to explain how you can 'photoshop' things he just wasn't getting it. He still feels like he got jipped out of seeing Jesus.