Project of the month....

Well, here's to one more Pinterest project being done! I thought this puzzle idea was so perfect for the kids. Jackson isn't quite old enough yet to do them....but at least when he is, I'll actually be ready! :) This is so perfect for the little ones at church, a nice quite activity that will still remind them about the purposes of church. A friend of mine gave me the sticks awhile back and I've been trying to find something fun to do with them, and this was perfect for them! All you have to do is Mod Podge the picture to the stick and then coat the picture and stick with the Mod Podge. The different pictures you can make with these are endless....if you have a kid that's obsessed with super heroes you could find a picture of Batman, or Captain America, etc...they would love it!

Well I have a lot of fun ideas coming up for my blog....including a "Washington's Children part 3" so stay tuned! :)

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole...

This is another recipe I got from Pinterest.  I had high expectations for this recipe, I thought it sounded good and looked easy.  However, this probably wont be a recipe we have around this home! :) But if you think it sounds good, you should give it a shot and see what you think for yourselves, you can find the recipe here.

 Well shoot, now I feel bad cause I'm posting a yucky recipe.  So to make up for it, I'll post a recipe that I love! :)  I got this recipe from somebody at church, it is delicious!! Enjoy!

Fruit Chip Dip

2 peaches

1 mango

3 green onions

2 jalapeno peppers (finely shopped)

1/2 of a red pepper
cilantro (1/2" in diameter - finely chopped)

juice of 1 lime

8 oz. can pineapple tidbits (drained)

2 kiwis 

6-8 strawberries

Berry Berry delicious....

Don and I love this time of year here in WA. They have blackberries and blueberries growing wild all over the place!  Don has been asking me to make blackberry jam all year, so I decided to make him the happiest guy in the world! :) We have been able to pick so much! We've been taking the kids for a walk about everyday so that we can pick more berries. The options are endless with what you can do with them....below are some of the things we did!

We did Strawberry shortcake with the blackberries....yummy!!!

 Blackberry ice cream topping...the picture doesn't do it justice. Don says its his new favorite ice cream flavor. And it's super easy to make!

 We've decided to freeze some for winter use...

  We have a special spot we pick blackberries...the berries there are so big and so juicy. Those berries were used for our blackberry jam! The jam turned out really well.

 And of course, as we pick Jackson fills himself to the brim with all the berries! :)

New recipe...

One more thing down on my Pinterest goal! :) The only problem is I've accumulated like 5 more...haha.  Anyways, these bread sticks were amazing!! They were a huge hit at our house.  My boys love spaghetti, but Don said while we were eating dinner "I wish we didn't have spaghetti so I could just eat the bread sticks!" I've made them again since because we are a little addicted! They are so good...I think everyone should try them! You can find the recipe here.

 Once we gave Jackson a slice....he couldn't stop eating it, he just shoved it in his face as fast as he possibly could. And believe it or not, he gave up on the spaghetti!!!!

 Lincoln...so sweet!  Just hanging out while we eat! Love that boy and all his smiles!

Our Vacation

So this last week we all packed up to go see our families. Don and I both had family reunions this last week.  It was fun seeing our families again, but I'm not going to lie I think we were both very ready to come back home and be in our own beds! :)  We had a lot of unexpected things happen while we were gone...

1. Lincoln got hand, foot and mouth disease.  I felt so bad for him, the blisters/sores looked so painful! It really didn't seem to bother him though, apart from the one night when we were up with him all night because he had a fever.

 He really didn't get that many on his hands and mouth. He isn't contagious or anything because the rash has already gone away.

2. Don came down with the flu.  Poor Don, I  felt so bad for him...it is NOT fun being in someone else's home when you don't feel well.

3. My grandpa passed away unexpectedly. I love my Grandpa! Don and I felt so blessed that we were visiting and could be a part of the funeral.  My Grandpa served in WW2, and because of his service to our country they did a 21 gun salute.  I have never been to a funeral of someone who served in the army. It was amazing! It was already emotional, but being there for something like that was so special...I felt so blessed.

4. Elder Perry, a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints, came to my old home ward. The name of our ward is the 'Perry Ward', his family was some of the first settlers to the Ririe, ID area. I've met him before and I think he is such a neat man.  I love so many of his talks.  One of my favorite quotes from him is...
"If we will build righteous traditions in our families, the light of the gospel can grow ever brighter in the lives of our children from generation to generation. We can look forward to that glorious day when we will all be united together as eternal family units to reap the everlasting joy promised by our Eternal Father for His righteous children.” 

Alright....now for everything else we did!

I rode on a jet ski for my very first time!! It was so fun, I told Don that in the future...we will have to own some! :) We took Jackson for a ride on one, he seemed to enjoy it!

Later Don and I went out on the jet ski's ourselves. Don says I'm crazy...he thinks I'm an adrenaline junky.  Maybe he's right because things got a little crazy.  I was going as fast I could, we were hitting a bunch of good wakes and I was laughing hysterically...but before we knew it, we were both thrown of. Haha, it was so fun. And believe it or not, Don still went out on the lake with me again! :) I wish we could have gotten our wreck on camera!

Jackson had so much fun playing with his cousins.

 I don't think Jackson truly appreciated the floating trampoline....crazy kid!

 Lincoln fell asleep in the swing while Don and I played on the water! :)

After we visited Don's family, we went and visited mine. He got spoiled with a lot of good food. I don't makes sweets very often, so Jackson thinks it's pretty special when he gets them. I thought these pictures were priceless! Messy, messy, messy!!

 haha...can't get enough!

 Um, dad, I'm all out....get me some more!!!!

No? Fine, I'll just pick it off my plate.

 There's some I can't get off...I guess I'll have to lick it.   In case you were wondering, the plate looked like it had never been used when he finished! :)

So after seeing him eat his chocolate cake we changed our minds about him looking like Slughorn in the future. We now believe he will look like Bruce off of Matilda... (see below the resemblance.)

My sweet sister Rachelle, used her birthday money to buy fireworks for the reunion...all the kids but Jackson seemed to love them...he is still terrified of the fire! Thanks Chelle...it was so fun!

If Jackson was nowhere to be found, all we had to do was look in the garage on the lawn mower....that's where he spent his spare time! :)

He also loved to swing with his teddy bear.  Sweet boy! :)

On our way home we stopped at a rest area and found this birds nest, with a bunch of babies in it! I thought it was pretty neat....I'm not going to lie though, they were pretty ugly! :)

We had a good time, it was so nice to see our families again. We miss them so much here in WA.