a very Merry Christmas

This Christmas we stayed at home and celebrated with our little family. It was nice, laid back, and with very little structure (a nice breather for someone like me!). We decided to tote the kiddies to Temple square to see the lights on Christmas eve, and had Treson hand out clementines to those in want of citrus fruit.


we came back home, opened our Christmas eve presents (aka jammies), gave Treson the milk and cookies to set out for Santa, and sent him off to bed. The next morning, I put cinnamon rolls in the oven, AJ woke the Treson-boy, and I got the video camera posed and ready to capture the magic.


Christmas is so much more fun when you have little ones to open up gifts on Christmas day. Treson was particularity joyous to see that the milk and cookies had been enjoyed by Santa, his bulging stocking, and wooden sled from G&G Wakamatsu.

I for one was spoiled this year by a wonderful husband and my parents. I couldn't have asked for more than the smiles of my children on Christmas morning, and that's exactly what I got- a loving husband who loves our children, and a shiny new camera to take those priceless moments :D



(shoes- a perfect mobile for this Ellie-girl!)


I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!
stay tuned for our Christmas letter and vlog posts of recent events :D

so in love!

when we found out we were having another child, I was secretly wanting a boy. I could remain the "queen" of my castle so to speak, and we could easily use all of our boy stuff again!(talk about economical!) I wasn't disappointed when I had a girl though, exactly the opposite in fact. We named her Krishelle, after my middle name my mom came up with, and I get to dress her up in all sorts of cute clothes! She's so affectionate and happy with brief episodes of feminine hysteria. I just can't get enough of her- she just makes me want to spoil her rotten- I literally have no choice!

failure and success

Never count a discouraging result as a failure- rather it's a chance to reconsider and reformulate your plan to produce desired effects. (didn't some famous dead guy say something about the definition of insanity- expecting a different result by repeating the same actions?)


Well I've hit a wall with Treson's potty training. he was doing really REALLY well.... until he told me (after me suggesting the potty) "nnnnoo! I go in dyper." there was a short spurt of regular potty-going when I bribed him with new toys- but that died down all too soon. I'm now trying to put him in big boy underwear (I call them big boy panties) with a diaper over top. I'm figuring- this way he'll feel the consequences of not going in the potty and there will be very little cleanup on my part! Friends have told me it's nothing to push- and he'll go when his ready.... and I'm being careful not to- but I just hope this little trick will act as a catalyst.

and now for the success!
ok so maybe there are a couple...
Ellie is sitting up now- all-by-herself! It'll last 3 minutes tops (enough time for me to snap a couple shots). she absolutely loves it. She loves to view, and toy accessibility, and most of all our reaction to it all!






Treson wrote his first "T" the other day!!! by the time I got the camera there was some additions- including the dirt.... but you can kinda see it in the middle of the picture


and last- (and probably least)... I made a perfect fortune cookie- first time ever!



I'll throw this picture in for good measure. I love you AJ :D

two things

Completely unrelated- but just bare with me.

Baby hair. You know those little wisps that babies start to grow? Being a mother of two, both of which had little to no hair when they were born, I know we treasure every little bit of hair on our baby's head.- maybe even to the point of desperation. I was so desperate for Treson's hair to grow in, that he ended up with some funky side wispies (see photos of last years lagoon trip!) I eventually did buckled down and took a razor to his head.
Well when does this kind of desperation become too much? I'll tell you when! When your baby starts to resemble a contestant of "the ugliest dog contest"!
I think it's more embarrassing for a little girl to have straggly wispies than to have short hair. point made.

Pizza sauce. I'm never buying another jar of pizza sauce from the store again! I've always dreaded making homemade pizza because the sauce they sold at the store tasted so bad. So we had friends over last night for dinner, and I wasn't sure if they would be down with our usual ranch dressing/white sauce pizzas, so I decided to do something different. Come to find out Tyler Florance has an AMAZING recipe for pizza sauce that's simplistic and incredibly delicious! I'm so excited for my tomatoes to ripen now! AJ won't touch a tomato with a ten foot poll- but he sure love this pizza sauce! I'm defiantly making a stock pot full when my tomatoes come in! (and reserve some for a little sundried action for myself)

a lot of catching up to do.....

The fact that a post from last year shares the same page as this says a lot- so here are some updates: The condensed version for your liking.

Got pregnant

bought a house

Paint and decorated said house

AJ got a better paying job within the same company

Did a P&G commercial (ok... fine... so I was just an extra- but I got $200! maybe I'll get the next gig I audition for....)

We fixed up our yard and stained our deck and pergola

delivered a beautiful baby girl - natural. no meds. not even Tylenol.

turned 25

and potty training the Treson boy

I think that sums it up

AJ's new favorite dinner dish

I came across a lovely recipe from Annie's eats for homemade pita bread -and after a girls night of making pita-pizzas (and watching the finale of Bachelorette), I'm officially obsessed! I make these puffy addictions at least three times a month now.
I had a fantastic chicken salad recipe tucked away somewhere- so I thought I'd pair two bits of heaven to create this:


The result: "Sweet Meat" (AJ's FAVORITE dinner dish) was officially unseated by Chicken pita pockets.
I'm not going to lie- making pita pockets does take time- but it's time well rewarded- (and what else am I suppose to do all day!?!?)

*baker's side note- because I'm using "active dry yeast" I soften it in the warm water instead of mixing it into the flour. and because of the high altitude (SLC,UT) I only use 2 tsp of yeast.

Holiday Chicken Salad

4 cups cooked chopped chicken
1 cup chopped celery
2 green onions (or 2tbs of chives)
1 cup craisins
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1 cup mayo
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt

Mix first five ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix mayo, paprika, and salt. Fold into chicken mix.

12 servings.

you're welcome and enjoy!

Frugalista

I'm pretty proud of how frugal I've become over the past couple years. I think it all started in college when my parents cut the funding line and tossed me out to sea so I could keep afloat myself. (my dad was bishop at the time and was getting frustrated when he had to deal with grown adults- his age- still being financially dependent on their parents). I must say, I was spoiled rotten the first couple years of college- all expenses paid for college in Hawaii my first semester, outdoor adventure college classes when I was off track, room/board, books, food($50/week!!!- yeah just for one person!) and a study abroad tour to Central America!
The semesters following- I sold my car, took out a student loan, and *gasp* actually had to find a job!!!! (jk- I actually have really good work ethic and was notorious for juggling 3-4 jobs during the summer months- but I never had to work and go to school.) I was completely completely on my own!
it was awesome!
yeah it would have been nice to be coddled all through college, but I really learned a lot from it! what a great asset to bring to a marriage and family!

I still have a $50 weekly food budget- but now it's for 3 people. I have found a lot of local resources that have helped me save money, and I've learn quite a few tricks I would like to pass on to you now:

Freecycle!- it's a yahoo group you can join for free where you get email notifications of what people are giving away for free in your area! or if you need something specific you can post a "wanted" note, or you can get rid of items that you don't want any more. ( I recommend getting a separate yahoo email account just for this because of it's popularity)

Robin Miller!(foodnetwork.com)- I love her dinner ideas! she'll take leftovers from one delicious meal and turn it into another the next night! an example I love using- taking the leftover beef from a yummy roast(see recipe below) -shred it, add it to wilted coleslaw bag mix (shredded cabbage and carrots!) in a skillet and pour hoisin sauce on top! serve with rice and lettuce for Chinese lettuce wraps!

DI!- Deseret industries is a great place to find barley used shoes for little kids- esp church shoes! ones you would pay $35+ for are $3 bucks tops! I must agree that you do take a chance when it comes to second hand stores, but I've scored really big finding name brand clothes in premo condition for $2-$3!

CDC!- a local favorite. the Community Development Corporation. (if you don't live in SLC UT, there are other places like this- like Habitat for humanity restore, or other home improvement warehouses where donated items from contractors are sold) we got our paint for $1 a gallon, and chair-rail trim $5 for 8 feet! they have tons of doors (indoor and outdoor), toilets, door pulls, blinds, and counter tops. we even got a gorgeous bathroom vanity for $150- that's half the store price! this too can be a hit or miss- because they don't have a regular inventory.

Ice cream!- !?!?!? wha? yeah I know- it sounds weird but AJ and I love our ice cream- we value it so much we treat it like money. when we're trying to decide whether or no to buy something- we give it it's ice cream value. for example- if movie tickets were up on the block (approx $16 total)it's equivalency in ice cream would be 5 cartons plus a buck left over. Take that same buck and wait a couple weeks and see the movie at home with Redbox! we would rather have 5 whole cartons and a redbox movie than to watch it in the theaters.

shop the grocery circular!: I make my grocery list and weekly menu from what's on sale that week, and with my list in hand, it makes it easier for me to avoid impulse buying. I learned not to buy canned food at Costco cuz you can get way better deals from the local grocery store when they have sales!(plus they have more variety than Costco!) I also love the freezer- if I buy a super value pack of meat, I'll potion them out and freeze the ones I don't use that week. nuts do very well in the freezer, as well as extra sauces. I hate only using half a thing of marinara sauce, forgetting about it, and finding it later all fuzzy in the back of the fridge.



and last but not least

paying off debt! it's interesting how we all go into a loan and not really look at the interest paid each month. we'd rather pay the little extra plus the principal blindly than to actually sit down and figure the figures out. we've had our new car for a little less than a year now- and have almost paid 1,000 bucks in interest! yeah- we still have 11,000 more of our principal to go. It would be nice to apply our tax refund and extra money to updating our house and renovating the kitchen, but believe it or not our outdated house isn't charging us interest for not getting new quartz counter tops or painting the house. The absence of toys and luxury doesn't charge us! Paying the principal faster than scheduled out will actually save us quite a bit in the future- that plus the added amount you payed monthly for the loan! yes our house color is ugly and so are our counter tops, but they are just cosmetic and still do their job. I'll have to grin and bare for a while longer. :)

If you have frugalista ideas- please share!