Peach Cobbler {and Tillamook Ice Cream}

Did you know that July is National Ice Cream Month?  It makes sense.  July… it’s HOT! 

But I didn’t know there was a whole month devoted to the tasty, frozen treat.  I first learned when I reviewed this book.  After all, it was Ronald Reagan that declared July as National Ice Cream Month.  What a great man!  ;)

And now you know… if you didn’t already.

Did you also know that Tillamook makes just about the best ice cream out there?  It’s totally true!  {Yes, they sent me coupons for free ice cream but only asked for honesty.  The opinions made in this post are 100% mine.}  I was first introduced to Tillamook when they asked me to help them out with a Back to School Healthy Eating Campaign (see my post here).  They sent me a bunch of coupons for Tillamook products.  Of course I had seen them before in the store but always passed on them for the less expensive brands. 

All the products were great but once I got a taste of their ice cream…… OH BOY!  I had a hard time going back to the store brand (which always seems to be on sale).  So I was elated when they contacted me again to do a review of the ice cream.  Our absolute favorite is the Marionberry Pie Ice Cream.  WOW!  Chocolate Peanut Butter is a close second.  The kids and my father-in-law really like the Banana Split flavor.  That one just didn’t do it for me but to each his own. 

And then there’s the classic…. Vanilla.  Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate that some folks prefer the old classic.  Miss K, C, and B are some of them.  But if I’m going to do plain ol’ plain… I prefer Vanilla Bean to regular Vanilla.

 

But there’s got to be something to go with it.  So Sunday night we decided to pull out the dutch oven and make a cobbler. 

We were all in heaven!!  It’s just what we needed after a dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches because mom (that would be me) forgot to put the roast in before church.  Whoops! 

This is the simplest recipe you’ll ever find.  Our good friend Kevin taught us the butter thing.  Before that we had always used a can of Sprite.  Never again, my friends.

• 1 yellow cake mix
• 1 large and one medium can of peaches
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
• Vanilla ice cream (Tillamook Vanilla Bean is best! ;))

Heat briquettes ahead of time.  You’ll need 24 total.

Spray your dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray.  Pour peaches into oven.  We poured all the juice from the large can but drained the medium can. 

Sprinkle cake mix evenly over the peaches. 

Melt butter and pour slowly and evenly over cake mix trying to cover the entire thing.  (It can be tricky.)

Place lid on oven.  Cook outside with 10 briquettes underneath and 14 on top.  That’s about the equivalent of a 350* oven.  Cook for about 40 minutes. 

Serve with ice cream and enjoy! 

Our Pathetic Garden

Gardening has never come naturally to me.  Growing up my mom and dad grew tomatoes.  Maybe they grew other things as well… I remember tomatoes.  I was never really part of the process.  Plants grew, it was brought inside (from either the garden or maybe the grocery store?), food was prepared, and I ate it.  That’s what I know. 

Anthony grew up with the master gardener himself… his dad.  He grew everything.  Anthony remembers rows and rows and rows of corn, lots of potatoes, tomatoes, squash, peppers and much more.  He helped to till the dirt many times over the years.  However, he doesn’t seem to have picked up the green thumb gene.  It must skip a generation.  It’s the only logical explanation. 

I personally have only heard stories up until now about this infamous garden my FIL grew each year.  My in laws moved from their home around the same time Anthony and I got married.  They had lived in rentals until a couple years ago.  This is the first year since then that they’ve had a garden to speak of.  I’m jealous!

Since moving into our home over 7 years ago we have tried to grow a garden 5 times.  Each time we got nothing!  Actually that’s not exactly true…

Garden #1 – The plants grew and actually produced but we weren’t diligent enough to keep up with the weeds.  Then we kind of forgot about the vegetables.  Yep, we’re awesome!

Garden #2 – Tried a new thing (supposedly weedless) … Square Foot Gardening.  We followed directions to a T!  Went to the nursery for transplants, planted, things were growing well for a couple of weeks then we had a late freeze which stunted the growth of the plants.  They all lived the duration of the respective plant’s life span and even got a few flowers but never produced anything.  The plants were too small. 

Garden #3 – SFG again… nothing grew.  All were transplants again but didn’t grow.

Garden #4 – (last year) – same as the year before.

Garden #5 – (this year) – Tried a traditional garden again.

Well, it kind of worked.  This time we did it all from seed.  We started them inside where they all took off like champs! 

But I knew better than to get my hopes up.  All we knew was that we were desperate for something… ANYTHING… to grow.  Which is why we grew radishes.  (Yuck!)

HECK!  We would have planted SPAM seeds if we thought they might grow!!!  Seriously.

Anyway, I was right in not expecting much of my seedlings.  Once I got them outside they all shriveled up and died.  All but one…

BIG MAX!  He’s so big I can’t even get him all in the picture.  {That’s a lie… I just don’t want to step back far enough for you to see that we never got our grass put in.  Shh!}

He is the winner!  A pumpkin plant.  The bees like him, too.  

So, we may not get anything to actually eat from our garden but by golly, we’ll definitely have something to carve this Halloween!

But I did plant seeds again.  This time I just planted directly into the ground.  Most of it didn’t grow.  They didn’t like my black thumb.  But we did get a few things. 

Corn…

(What is this?  Is it flowering already and we won’t get corn?  Anthony says it’s normal… I’m skeptical.)

Lettuce… (Italian Blend.  Way too strong tasting for us.)  See all that extra space around the lettuces?  That’s where other plants were planted but didn’t grow. 

Radishes… (no pics because they’ve already been harvested.  We got a total of 4!  I think I planted at least 15. :))

Another variety of pumpkin… (Little Max)

These ones are in the SFG box.  Growing slowly and slightly yellow.

Garden Beans… (no beans yet)

Oh, and look what Big Max is doing!  Hooray!

But look what else he’s doing… Boo!  :(  Maybe it’s normal?  {Please tell me it’s normal!}

**Things that were planted but never grew… tomatoes, carrots, peppers, spinach.  Cucumber and Cantaloupe were also planted and actually started growing but didn’t stand a chance against whatever pest decided to come and eat them while they were still too young and innocent to defend themselves.  Stupid bugs!**

Did you plant a garden this year? 

 

Training Wheels and Two Wheelers {and potty training}

B was a beast to potty train!  We started trying several months ago but he just wasn’t going for it. 

He absolutely could, but he absolutely would not!

It was extremely frustrating.  He would be wearing big boy underwear, wet in them without telling anyone, then go change his pants.  We were constantly walking in random puddles on the floor and his bedroom smelled like a urinal. 

It was bad!

So… back in diapers he went! 

And then one day a couple weeks ago he just decided, on his own terms, that he was going to be a big boy and start using the potty.  He had a few accidents here and there but nothing like before.  We promised him that if he didn’t have any accidents at all for a week we would buy him a new bike.  He has admired C’s since Christmas. 

Long story short… he did it!! 

And now he has a new bike.  It’s not the Lightning McQueen bike he preferred… we may have steered his little eyes in another direction when we saw the price difference.  ;)

And of course he needed a new helmet to go with it.  What a stud!  These pics were taken Sunday evening in the parking lot of the church.  On the way home he said, “I like my new bike.  I love it!  It’s my favorite toy.”  And he was so proud of himself when he fell and just brushed it off and hopped right back on the bike. 

One more important thing to note is that Mr. C is now riding a two wheeler!  He didn’t do the training wheels very long at all.  About a month and a half ago we were at the church riding bikes when one of his training wheels fell off.  He seemed to do just fine without it so Anthony took the other one off and that was that!  It was pretty incredible.  C never even needed anyone to hold the back of the seat. 

It’s amazing how quickly these little boys are growing.  I love them so much! 

The PERFECT Burger!

I don’t know about your neck of the woods but here in mine… IT HAS BEEN HOT! 

I’ve always said that I much prefer the cold to the heat.  I’m pretty much a bear in reverse.  Hibernation happens during the summer months for me.  Otherwise I turn into the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Seriously…

Don’t ask Anthony about the Lagoon incident.  It was reeeaaaally hot that day.  The end.

So anyway, the nights have been nice lately.  A little thunderstorm rolls in, cools things off a bit, don’t have to worry about watering the lawn or the pathetic garden.  And then it’s hot again. 

But I really didn’t mean for this post to be about the weather.  Let’s talk burgers!

Anthony has perfected the art of burger grilling.  He is the burger master!  The king!  It all started when we kept seeing pins on Pinterest with these delectable burgers.  We’d look at the recipe and think… hmmm, we should try that someday. 

And then one day we did.  There was no looking back from there. 

So, although I couldn’t even begin to tell you which one was ‘the one’ that we actually went for (they were all so similar), I can tell you that Anthony has got this down to a science.  No true measurements or anything just one of those “to taste” recipes, really.  And of course his secret ingredient… BACON! 

And so, for your viewing (and tasting) pleasure, I present to you…. THE PERFECT BURGER!!

And some Sun Chips but really, you could switch that out for whatever… totally optional. ;)

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Ground Beef (he likes to use 85/15)
• Mozzarella and/or Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
• Seasoning salt
• BBQ Sauce (Anthony swears it has to be Jack Daniels Original No. 7)
• Bacon, cooked 3/4 of the way and chopped
• Bacon Grease

Make sure the grill isn’t too hot.  These need to cook fairly slow so that the inside is done at the same time as the outside.  You don’t want these babies to burn!  Nothing worse than having the outside charcoaled and the inside still red. 

Cook bacon about 3/4 of the way.  Not to the point of crispy.  Chop into small pieces.  OH and save the GREASE!  Anthony swears by this!

For every pound of ground beef you’ll add approximately 1/4 to 1/2 lb. bacon, 4-8 oz. cheese (whichever kind you prefer), 1 or 2 Tablespoons Seasoning Salt, and 1/2 to 3/4 of a bottle of BBQ sauce.  Then get your hands in there and just mix it all up!  It’s a messy process. 

Form into patties.  One pound makes exactly 7 burgers for us.  This is just the right amount for my family.  The burgers are thick!  Form a deep well in the middle, this is important! 

Once burgers are on the grill pour bacon grease into the well. 

Flip when that side is done (after a few minutes) and continue cooking on the other side.  Obviously, right?  (You never know… there are people that sue McDonald’s for having hot coffee… don’t most people prefer it that way?  Just sayin’.)

These burgers are so tender they literally fall apart in your mouth!  I think it’s the slow cooking that does it.  OH MAN!  They are GOOOOOD! 

Seriously, go make them.  Enjoy!

A Catch Up Post

K and A had a dance recital at the end of May.  They both did great! 

And in order to get her hair looking Annie-ish A had to wear her hair like so… (She hated it!)

K in her clogging performance.

And her ballet dance.

K was thrilled to start a new dancing adventure… on POINTE SHOES!  Classes started this summer and she couldn’t be happier about it.

This was a quick pic taken right before she was leaving for a Super Hero party. 

… THIS Super Hero Party to be exact.  They all left as ordinary people leading ordinary lives but they came back all hero-ed up!

My little Sasser turned 8 in June. 

She had a fun little party with some friends.

She also got baptized just this past Saturday.  Her sisters gave the opening and closing prayers, Grandma H. gave a great talk on Baptism, and Aunt Wendi gave another great talk on the Holy Ghost. 

The three of us on her baptism day.  Probably can’t tell but I’m sporting braces these days.  I hate them… the end!

The girls outside our church on the 4th of July.  Our ward has a breakfast every year.  This year, A got to sing the National Anthem and she did great! 

C is throwing a fit in this one.  I couldn’t get the boys to stand with the girls for a pic. 

This was back in April (or May?)… Anthony and his sister did a triathlon.  Yeah, it pretty much kicked their butts!  ;)  Neither of them were very confident with the swimming portion.

And then they ran the Ragnar with our good friend, Kevin just a couple weeks later. 

The one in the middle is Kevin and Tiffany’s son.  All three of them are being The Hulk… hence, no shirts.

And this little guy is growing up way too fast! 

The Remarkable Ronald Reagan–Book Review

TLC Book Tours gave my family the opportunity to review this book. 

Ronald Reagan just so happens to be one of my favorite presidents so I was happy to do it!  ;)  I learned several things about him that I didn’t already know.  For one, I had no idea that was married to someone else before Nancy. 

It was fun for the kids to learn about him as well.  They loved that he had so many different jobs (including acting) before he was the President. 

I knew that he was an actor but do you know how many different movies he was in?  I was shocked when I found out!  Nope, not gonna tell, you’ll have to read the book to find out.  But it’s way more than the 2 or 3 I thought it was…..

President Reagan had a great sense of humor and great insight for our country.  We could definitely use a few more leaders like him. 

Truly, this book was a great read.  Story format instead of poetry this time.  The kids missed spotting the hidden object as in past books I’ve reviewed but this is a different author than the others.  We really did enjoy it.  And there are a lot of extra goodies at the end.  Kind of like Bonus Features!  ;)  I would be ok with a book like this about every president!

**I was given this book at no charge in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions expressed herein are my own.  I was not required to give a positive review. 

Baby J. Co–Playmat Review

Look at my sweet little guy.

Notice the beautiful blanket he’s sitting on. 

Actually it’s not a blanket… it’s a playmat.  Made and designed by Baby J Co. 

I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to review this product for my baby.  He is six months old now but still not mobile.  He’s a lump.  You set him down and he stays there…. like a good little boy.  :)

I don’t know about you but I never pack more than one blanket with me.  And especially during the hot months, I forget altogether sometimes.  That’s always a bummer because then I have nothing to cover myself with when I nurse.  Not a good situation.  I’m not a very discreet nurser despite all the practice I’ve had.  ;)  Plus I have nowhere to set the baby down when we are away from home.  And I don’t like using the same blanket to nurse with that I use on the ground at various places. 

Well, now I don’t have to.  This playmat stays in my bag at all times so I can pull it out when I need somewhere to set the baby down to play with his toys.  I always know which side goes down, too.  My little Munch likes to try and grab the textured dots. 

Don’t you love the texture?  I love it!!  Check out all the chic and beautiful fabrics there are to choose from. 

Homeschool Through the Summer (Even if you don’t homeschool!)

{{In case you are wondering… YES!  They are all this excited about summer school!  ;)}}

As a kid I remember always looking forward to Summer because it meant no more homework and no more teachers!  It meant playing all day long with friends from sun up to sun down, ice cream trucks and popsicles, mud pies and bike rides.

By the time school would start again in the fall I had forgotten so much!  I distinctly remember one particular incident where I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to do a subtraction problem where the top number was smaller than the bottom number.  If I remember correctly, it was the beginning of second grade.  We had learned, the year before, how to borrow from the neighbor to the left but… I hadn’t borrowed from a neighbor for nearly 3 months! 

I sat on the couch with my first homework assignment of the year (math) and I remember laughing out loud when the question was 35 – 8 = …

Because 5 – 8 = 0… THREE TIMES!! 

How was that even possible?  I laughed as I walked my homework over to my mom who reminded me to ‘borrow’. 

Good times, good times.

My kids aren’t so lucky.  They don’t take an entire 3 month hiatus.  We school year round because we take breaks whenever we feel a burn out coming on.  Sometimes one kid is breaking while the others are still chugging along.  Or we break on some subjects but not others.  That’s the beauty of homeschooling!

This summer is going to be so much fun!  I had a friend in my ward call up and ask if we would be interested in forming a small group of kids for a book club. 

HECK YEAH!! 

Three of us and our kids met up to discuss the details and set it all up.  We decided ages 8-12 would be perfect!  However, there is another mom that has a 6 year old that wanted to do it as well, and one of the moms at the meeting also has a 6 year old so it was decided that we could do two separate book clubs.  The two little ones along with H because even though H will be eight next month, she is still not quite ready for the bigger books on the docket for the older kids. 

A schedule was made with a list of all activities planned.  Two moms are in charge of the activities each Thursday throughout the summer (the moms that don’t have little ones at home) while myself and another mom are in charge of the book clubs on Tuesdays each week.  We will rotate having the little ones and the older ones. 

My kids are excited to be doing this with some of their friends and I am excited that we have a plan!  Mind you, these other families do not homeschool.  They do, however, have a vested interest in their children’s educations.  I look at all of these families and think, they would make AWESOME homeschoolers!  But I realize that it’s not for everyone.  And in their own way, they ARE homeschooling!  I love that they have a plan for summer as well! 

In case you are interested here is a list of the activities planned. 

• June 13 – Make bread
• June 20 – Picnic at the lake
• June 27 – Learn about and make kites
• July 4 – No activity planned
• July 11 – Fly kites at The Great Salt Lake
• July 18 – Learn about indexing
• July 25 – take Trax downtown
• August 1 – Make baby burritos (not sure what that is)
• August 8 – Family History Class
• August 15 – Go on a hike 

 

As for the book club, here is a list of the books we plan to read and discuss over the summer for the big kids.  

• June 11 – Bring your favorite book (novel) to tell the others about. 
• June 18 – The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• June 25 – The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt
• July 2 – Bring your favorite childhood picture book to discuss
• July 9 – Choose a Childhood of Famous Americans book to read and discuss.  Dress as that person.
• July 16 – SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting
• July 23 – The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and Yoko Tanaka
• July 30 – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• August 6 – The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• August 13 – Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan

 

Obviously, this is just a guideline.  We have a total of six kids in the older group.  Some of them are not readers.  They just don’t like it.  This is the case for the mom’s son who approached us about this group idea.  She just wants him to start reading and enjoy it.  And then there are the 8 and 9 year olds in the group.  They aren’t going to read as quickly as K or her friend who are both bookworms and could read Harry Potter within a couple of days. 

If we start to see that things are just going way too quickly for some, we will simply slow it down.  Discuss one book for two weeks if we have to.  That might mean that we aren’t able to get through them all and that’s ok. 

For the younger group we are simply going to read and discuss a picture book each week, one with a message.  Or a short chapter book that moms can read to them during the week without losing their attention. 

What about you?  Do you school your kids during the summer months?  Are your kids in year-round school?  What do you have planned? 

 

 

Here We Go Again

Look at this face…

Yep, he’s a cutie but do you also see the smirk?  He’s three now which means he’s growing horns.  Maybe you remember another little somebody being a troublesome 3-year-old.  (Read some of the older stories found here.) 

Oh three… why must you be soooo long!!  A whole year is just too much!  And yet, I LOVE that age just as much as I loathe it. 

They are so darn cute and say the darndest things. 

His favorite thing to do recently is to pretend to be different people.  Grandpa W. (my grandpa), Papu (my dad), Pops (Anthony’s dad), John (our friend/neighbor), or Dad (Anthony).  And of course each person comes equipped with props. 

Grandpa W. – ‘toy car’ (a little off road car thing that I don’t know the real name of.  He comes and gives the kids rides in it once in a while.)

Papu – Pepsi.  B will grab a cup of water or milk and pretend it’s Pepsi.  Papu always has Pepsi…. always!

Pops – bike.  Anthony’s dad is a bicyclist.  The real deal spandex, bikes that cost more than you knew a bike could, ride from Logan to Jackson Hole (Lotoja) kind of bicyclist. 

John – boat.  John owns a boat and takes us out in it once in a while.  Anthony goes with him often every summer.

Dad – could be anything.  It might be a tool or a flashlight.  Or something completely random.

Goodness sakes!  I sure do know how to get off track. 

The real reason for this post was to tell about something that happened at dance the other day.

So, there we were.  Typical Monday at dance except that more little ones showed up than normal because they were doing pictures right after.  They were all playing in the toy room. 

The toy room that’s connected to the bathroom. 

I went back to check on them only to find 5 little ones in the bathroom with plastic cups dipping them into the toilet and dumping it back in.  EW!! 

I promptly freaked out and told them to throw the cups away.  Then I proceeded to make my boys wash their hands in the sink. 

Pictures got done and we were just about to leave.  Several people had already left.  Then one mom comes into the waiting area frantically trying to get to the other bathroom yelling, “We need a plunger!  The toilet is flooding.  There is water everywhere!”

According to her son, his ‘best friend’ (that would be B) flushed a plastic cup down. 

Not a moment later we see water coming from under the wall into the waiting area.  Myself and another mom ran in to see how bad it was.  This other mom has older kids NOT involved in the incident and yet she was the first one to jump in head first and start taking care of business. 

(She’s the one with the daughter that got her butt slapped by my little C.  When I told him he needed to apologize because that wasn’t appropriate he responded with, “But why?  Daddy does it!”  Nice!!  Anthony got a stern talking to about that one! ;))

I was so grateful that she was willing to get it taken care of.  She threw her shoes off and just started scooping water up with a dustpan and throwing it into the toilet.  I started mopping and ringing out the water every half a second.  There was literally at least an inch of water on the ground. 

The boys and I had a ‘chat’ when we got home.  A chat that stuck with them for all of maybe 10 minutes for C and didn’t even register for B.  He just laughed at me.  I don’t know what to do with that kid!