video to go with last post

I had video I took this morning at swimming but didn't know how to get it from Nick's Mac to my blog...I know...I'm a dork. Anyhow, here it is....Enjoy!

My little dolphin

My sweet little girl has been doing awesome in her swim class.
Today it was just Karli & Lucy so she got some serious attention.
This girl has NO fear anymore when it comes to water - it is too cute!! Above - Lucy & Karli hanging out waiting for class to start.

Lucy "swimming" on her back with Mr. Ralph her teacher

Kick, kick, kick

On the platform listening to teacher.

Women's Conference

Oh goodness - I love this time of year!

As a church we have our semi-annual General Conference. There is one segment that is specifically for women. This meeting is held in Salt Lake City and is broadcast worldwide in 59 languages. Regardless of whether or not you are a member of our church you can be strengthened and empowered by the words. My favorite was a talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. You can watch the video's here. One quote from him I really liked was:

"In the end the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness,
but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance.
Let us open our eyes."

May we each open our eyes a little bit more.
Enjoy the rest of Conference which is on Saturday & Sunday.
Love you all!!!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchilada's

I follow a couple different cooking blogs out there on my google reader. Reminds me to cook dinner :) If you don't use Google Reader I highly recommend it! It makes it too easy to stalk all of your favorite "friends"!! Anyhow check it out. Go to Google.com and type in "reader" it'll come right up. I'd add a link but since I'm logged into google for my blog it won't let me do it right.

So, getting back to the Enchilada's...they are pretty stinkin' good. Not a new favorite, but definitely worth it. They are so different from other enchilada's I've had before. I don't have a picture, but I'm sure you can imagine it...they look like enchilada's. Enjoy!! Oh, I have another recipe I'll be trying soon...I'll let you know how it goes!

HONEY LIME CHICKEN ENCHILADA'S

6 tablespoons honey
5 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder ( or 3 cloves fresh garlic, crushed)
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded (I used 3 large chicken breasts)
8-10 flour tortillas
1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded (I used colby-jack)
16 ounces green or red enchilada sauce
1 cup heavy cream

Mix the honey, lime juice, chili powder and garlic together and toss with the shredded chicken. Let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour (or toss together in a ziploc bag and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours).

Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

"Mom, I love me"

What can make you smile more then hearing your daughter say such a simple phrase?

"Mom, I love me."

YUMMM....

I made this for dessert tonight - it was SO easy and super yummy! I found the recipe here I'm not sure if any of you have heard about the LDS couple in AZ who were in a private plane crash...but I've been following their story. This is her sisters blog, who is posting recovery updates. They have 4 little kids, and both parents have been in critical condition since the crash. Anyhow, her sister posted this recipe and I thought I'd share...Enjoy!

CROCKPOT CHOCOLATE CAKE
1 package chocolate cake mix
1 container of sour cream (8 oz)
1 cup chocolate morsels
1 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix

Spray crock pot with nonstick cooking spray. Mix cake mix, sour cream, chocolate morsels, water, egss, oil and pudding mix in a bowl by hand. Pour into crock pot. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. Makes about 12 servings. Cover with whip cream, the real stuff, not Cool Whip :)

My (near) perfect daughter

This morning we had a great time in our swimming class - night and day from last week! She did a great job and had a lot of fun. She didn't cry or even get upset so I stayed and watched from the side of the pool. She wore her goggles the whole time too!

We came home and the kids I tend came over. I was cleaning the kitchen and they were playing in the living room. Lucy came to me and said...

lucy "Mom, I hit Karli"
me "Why did you do that?"
lucy "Because I want the blue dress for my doll"
me "Okay, well we need to go sit in timeout for 2 minutes"
lucy "Okay"
So I grabbed the timer and she sat down for 2 minutes and then we said sorry to Karli and talked about why we don't hit. How it makes us feel bad inside and hurts feelings of others. She is such an angel! I mean, really, does it get better then this???

MY FABULOUS WEEK. . .

Okay so Monday was a stinker, but Tuesday through Friday was fabulous!! My birthday was Tuesday and my (birth) Mom came down for a couple days to celebrate and hang out with me, Nick & her beautiful granddaughter Lucy. Oh, I have to tell you what Nick got me for my birthday – I love it!! He gave me a gift card to the spa “downtown”…I am so excited to go use it!! I think I decided on a facial and a massage. I’ve only had one facial ever from my good friend Candy when she owned her spa in CDA. If I ever get to SLC she said I could get one at the school she opened – (she’s amazing!) I also got shopping money from my Mom & Sister…Yeah!!

Tuesday morning Lucy had her very first swim lesson without Nick or I in the water with her. She’s had two sessions of swimming before, but we’ve always been in the water with her. We have been trying to prep her for this for at least two weeks. She knew that we would NOT be getting in the water with her, but I don’t think she really, really got it until we walking out of the dressing room and she was the only one in her swimsuit. I had told her teacher that if she had a hard time (I was anticipating it) that we would leave the room so she could learn that she can do this without us. I babysit for the director of the Aquatic Center and we have semi-private lessons with just Lucy and her 2 friends that I tend to. We also got the best of the best when it comes to swim instructors so I felt very good about doing this. So I plopped her in the water to her instructor and rushed out to the foyer. I could still see her and hear her screams of terror. She actually started to relax as the lesson went on which was nice to see. By “relax” I mean she stopped screaming, but still held onto the side bar for life. The instructor would do laps with one child at a time and each time it was Lucy’s turn to do a lap she’s freak out for a second and then get over it. She did very well kicking, floating, and going under water did not even phase her. Later in the day I asked her:

“Did you have fun in swim class this morning?”
“yeah!”
“What did you do?”
“I held onto the bar and I cry”

We started laughing SO hard!! Poor girl! Since then we’ve talked about it a lot more prepping her for next Tuesday. I know each week will get easier.

Tuesday evening we had our Visiting Teaching Dinner. We all went so Nick could watch kids in the nursery, and my Mom came with me to dinner. It went so well! My visiting teaching coordinator and enrichment committee did a fab-u-lous job!! We just had bread bowls that we bought with budget and then we had sisters sign up to bring soup and desserts. We had 16 types of soups there! I made this recipe I altered it just a little bit by adding celery & a can of corn…Yummm! And it was almost too easy to make! Love that!!

Wednesday was just great! We woke up and got dressed and headed up to Spokane (1-1/2 hours away) We went to Target, what a treat!! Went to the mall, and then REI. I got some new jeans at the mall with my birthday money. I found a pair of DNKY or DKNY (whatever!) that fit me great and were a size smaller then I anticipated so that was a very nice birthday surprise!!

Thursday morning was Lucy’s first Dance Class. This went much better then the swim class! It only took her a couple minutes to warm up to the teacher and fall in love with her. She is going to Sears Dance Academy down on Grand and we found out that her dance teacher is LDS too. It is a lot more affordable then I had thought it would be, which is also fabulous. The swim teacher and the dance teacher are brother & sister – love that small town living!!

After dance class we planted all of the bulbs I had bought for the backyard. I had 70 tulip and daffodil bulbs. They are going to be so pretty! I’m so excited for spring! We have a retaining wall that we built flower bed into. I hope we’re still living here so we can see them all come up! Nick finished planting all of the grass in the backyard so all we have to do now is just keep it watered. Our backyard was a disaster when we moved here two years ago and now it is finally a 2 tier thing of beauty! I love it! Once the grass comes in I’ll have to add before and after pictures!

Friday morning is when my Mom was going to head back up to B.C. so we went to breakfast first. Yummm! We went to the European place just down the street. It was so yummy! After that it was time for goodbyes!

THEN…Friday night our friends the Yancey’s called to see if we wanted to go to the fair. It was funny how once again the small town thing amazes me…we’d see someone we know and finish a conversation, turn around and there was someone else we knew! It was so crazy, but so fun! It was fun watching Lucy & Claire have fun. Bekie & I bought the girls tickets for the rides and they rode all of the rides that they could (because of size) which I think was only 4 or 5. So, so cute! I’m so glad we FINALLY took our camera somewhere!This last week has been just fabulous - here is to many more :)

My sweet, sweet sickie-poo little Lucy

Last night Lucy woke us up at about 3am. It’s rare that she wakes up at night anymore, and we should learn our lesson. Generally when she does wake up there is a reason, we take care of it, and she wants back in bed. Last night she wasn’t calling for us, she was kind of moaning really loud. Nick & I still were waking from a deep slumber and neither of us wanted to get out of bed. Eventually Nick got up see what was wrong. When he went in there he asked her what was wrong. She said it was her mouth? So he turned the night light on and started calling for me to come help. I didn’t know what was wrong yet, but grabbed a hand towel and ran in after him. She was throwing up. She had been saving it in her mouth so it didn’t get everywhere. We kept trying to show her how to spit it out into a bowl. She was the sweetest thing in the whole world – you could tell that she was just tired. We’d think it was all over and then it’d start up again. We were up with her until 5:30am when we finally all crashed. She didn’t have a temp, the Hershey squirts, and she wasn’t cranky so we think it was just something she ate.

I had a super, super busy day today with one little girl coming over at 8:45 (that I watch full time), another little girl at 10am, the Enrichment committee was coming over at 11am to finish stuff up for our VT dinner tomorrow, and then at noon I had a friends daughter coming over for a couple hours, and then the little boy I watch comes at noon too. So I really thought at 5:30am that I should call everyone and just cancel everything, but it’s so much to cancel, and if it’s just a sour tummy from too much homemade salsa I didn’t want to over react. So we all woke up at 8am and got ready for our day.

Lucy was in a great mood so we really thought it was all over! Yay!! WRONG! Just after 11am when I had two girls and the committee was showing up (with their kids) Lucy threw up ALL over Nick, herself and a blanket! Oh my gosh! So I threw her in the tub, and my fabulous husband took over. Got her all cleaned up, everyone was playing, Nick was reading books to all the kids and Blah….all over Nick, Lucy & another blanket!!

I thought today was going to be my day to get all my laundry done…instead I’ve done three loads of bedding and clothes from the last 10 hours while my laundry basket sits full still in our room.

Right now Nick & Lucy are asleep on the living room floor. Two kids are in my room, and one is asleep in Lucy’s room (on clean bedding, of coarse).

She still has not had any other symptoms so we’re really hoping it is just a sour tummy. If her temp would raise even just one degree I'd send everyone home - but it's completely normal! Please, please, please let it just be a sour tummy. I did try to tell each parent though what was going on so they were given all the facts. I just really hope no one else gets sick, I would just feel SO bad!

She has been such a trooper and I hope it ends soon –

This is not a picture from today - just a cute picture of her sleeping...