Family Yearbook 2013

Just like last year, I made a family yearbook. I surprised myself when I had it completed only a few days afte the new year. Unfortunately though, not quite in time for the fabulous discounts! I've waited, very anxiously, until now, to order it at a discount. I simply couldn't wait to see the final result! I'm excited to get it in the mail next week!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

My next project is going to be to make a Christmas book. We had so much fun and did so many things that I had a hard time picking only a handful of pictures for the yearbook. This way I'll be able to display all the the wonderful photos we took!

The Perfect Baked Potato

I'm not much of a potato fan, but it has been appearing on the dinner table fairly frequently the last few months. Potatoes are awesome when you're on a budget so I'm learning to love them. JP on the other hand - I'm not sure if he hates chicken or potatoes more? I managed to get through many childhood meals, where mashed potatoes were served on the side, by slathering them with butter. I can actually still picture the crater in my potatoes filled with melted butter. Yum... But as a child, if I had to have potatoes, I would rather have baked potatoes over mashed. Anyways...

It seems as though each time we are served a home-cooked meal by Perry's mom, twice-baked potatoes are always on the menu. They are super delicious, but I can't seem to recreate them for Perry, as they are one of his favorite sides. For now anyways, twice baked potatoes will be a nice treat at the cabin. In the meantime I have mastered the "standard" baked potato.

There's a few different ways you can bake potatoes. Growing up, I had learned to wrap them in foil. Wrapping potatoes in foil makes the peel soft when you cook them. Although they can be quite tasty this way, my new favorite method is so much easier for me. I hate foil... Plus the crispy outside has ME wanting seconds, which is pretty rare!

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Wash the potatoes under running water and pat dry.

3. Place potatoes in a small bowl. Add enough olive oil to coat all the potatoes. Add Alpine Touch (my favorite seasoning), a little bit of garlic salt, and a hint of dill to the bowl. Using your hands, mix all the ingredients to evenly coat all of the spuds.

4. Pierce each potato multiple times with a fork to allow the steam to escape.

5. Bake the potatoes in the oven for about an hour. You can place them directly on the rack, like I do, or use a baking sheet to place them on. Turn potatoes every 15 minutes for even crispiness.

Delicious! What's your favorite way to eat a potato?

The Story Behind Monkey Shiner

I've been asked quite a few times what exactly a 'monkey shiner' is. To be honest, I didn't even know for the majority of my life. Who would? I don't know of anyone outside of my family who has even hear the term 'monkey shiner' before.

So what exactly is a monkey shiner? Hunter and JP are prime examples if that doesn't give you a hint! But according to my Grandma Carol, my sisters and I were monkey shiners too! "OH you little monkey shiners!" The apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess...(Watch out Casey! Your mom is crazy too!) After wondering for a long time, and discussing it with my sisters, I thought I would do a little digging to see if I couldn't come up with a definition of what my grandma used to always call us.

There is no definition for monkey shiner, but there is one for monkey shine. It is defined as "mischievous doings, or shenanigans" as well as, "the activities of folk when the boss isn't looking." In that context it's used a a verb. To be called a monkey shiner, you would be the person, hence a noun, doing all the monkey shine business, which nails Hunter and JP right on the head, because how many "naughty" things have these boys done when the boss, ie mom, isn't watching? Too many. 

Shall I list some of the shenanigans of my children? For example, while at the farm last year, the mud pit bath started with them playing in a little puddle. Since they were already covered in mud, I just helped to make the puddle bigger. You win some, you lose some.  And how can you forget the time Hunter found Uncle Chris's razor and did this? I would also go as far to say that the land mine Hunter planted in backyard counts too! Do I even have to mention what happens in their rooms? 

There's no doubt about it, I've got two little monkey shiners on my hands! Hence the name for my "things kids say" posts, Monkey Shiner Babblings.

Child Care Rant: The Sequel

There are days (a lot of them) when I really would rather not move. Not that we are right now anyways. But it's in the back of my mind that some day, probably sooner rather than later, we'll be moving. It makes me sad to think that Missoula will no longer be what we consider home, but that's life. Got to go where the money is I guess...

That brings me to the ONE reason I would move in a heartbeat. Two years ago, almost exactly, I had posted this child care rant. I hate child care. Not quite as much as I did then, but I still hate it. Lucky for Perry, he has his VERY reliable wife to watch his kids when he's at work, so we're not stressing about finding a reliable babysitter anymore.  After the doosey we had with one of our sitters, I'm so thankful I don't have to go through finding a daycare/sitter again.

If you went back and read through my little rant, you would know that the last sitter we had, in a sense, left us high and dry. And still hasn't paid us back, about $500 give or take. Like I said, it's been two years since and I'm trying really hard to forget about the whole thing. But seriously?! That's a lot of money to not pay back to someone! Honestly, it would probably be long forgotten if I would stop running into her at random places! Missoula is fairly big, but we still manage to be at the same place at the same time. Every time, I'm not kidding you, I want to punch her in the face. I'm not an aggressive person but the way she treated the whole situation just really makes me mad.

The first time I ran into her, I was with my dad and kids, last winter at Wal-Mart. Because I was with my family I didn't want to make a scene so I just ignored her and kept walking. She sent glares my way. The next time was a few months ago at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Again, I was with my family enjoying dinner but I swear if she was to even glance my way one more stinking time, I was going to lose it. Thankfully Perry was able to calm me down enough to get through the last part of dinner. Then this evening I ran to the store to pick up a couple things, and guess who's there...At least she's intimidated by me. I happened to go down the isle she and a friend were in and as soon as she saw me, she grabbed her friend and darted down the isle and around the corner. I happened to leave the isle at the same end they did and we nearly walked into each other as I overheard her saying, "she's down this isle." You're dumb. And obviously still feeling guilty. But it doesn't change the fact that I still want to punch her....

And yes. She is that ONE reason I would move from this beautiful town. I would be okay with never seeing her again. More so, I hate that she can get me this fired up!

Practicing for the BIG ONE

I've spent the last two days practicing for a wedding cake I'll be making next weekend. I've never made a wedding cake before and am thrilled, and honored to be making one! 

Normally, like many of you know, I work with fondant. This wedding cake has zippo fondant, which is fine with me because sometimes fondant and I can get into a little yelling match. Fondant + yelling + wine = Stay out of the kitchen before I throw my rolling pin at you!  Luckily for Perry, I'll be doing most of the decorating away from home...

Anyways. The bride to be sent me a picture of the cake she wanted and I was relieved to see no fondant would be involved, just some frosting and a pretty burlap flower/bow. The last few cakes I've made, like Hunter's Wreck It Ralph cake, seemed to crumble a bit when I went to serve them. So the other day, I surfed around and found a few recipes to try out. I hit gold on the first one entitled Best White Cake Recipe {Ever}. Delicious - even though I forgot the vanilla, and no crumbles what-so-ever! I also tried my hand at "messy" frosting too! I think it turned out pretty darn good! Especially since this is the first time I've done it!

I'm anxiously awaiting for next week to roll around so I can see the finished product, which will be three tiers!

OH! And Charlotte went from laying on her back to sitting up today!! Proud momma!

Monkey Shiner Babblings

JP - "Hey Mom! Hunter and I are downstairs, and when we're downstairs, I'm asking you to not come down so we can't get in trouble!" Not suspicious at all...They were under Hunter's desk eating the Pez candy mom hid in the laundry room and whispering about mom coming down.

After their bath, I sent Hunter and JP downstairs to get their clothes on. JP told me I had to come with to help him get a shirt down. In the meantime, Hunter came back up because he needed help with his pants. By the time I made it to JP's room to help him, he had his clothes all laid out on the floor, so I asked, "What did you need my help with bud?" "MOM! Get out of my room! I'm trying to get handsome!" By handsome he meant he was going to surprise me by wearing a hat.

On the way home from dropping Hunter off at pre-school, Charlotte started fussing and crying. Super annoyed by this JP declared, "Ugh! Charli is not asking very nicely for a drink of milk! Just ask Charli, stop whining!"

H - Did Nanny buy a new car?
M - No, Grandma did a couple months ago.
H - Oh....Well maybe when Nanny gets old like Grandma, she can buy a new car too!

M - Ooo Jim, how about we wear this green shirt today? It has dinosaurs on it.
J - Gaaah. I don't like dinosaurs!
M - Well these ones are cool. There's a t-rex and a stegosaurus on it.
J - A steakosaurus? Is that where steak comes from?

Bathroom Remodel #3

Oh this cabinet! I thought Perry was going to just rebuild the front so that it looked the same as before, but newer and better. That would have been the easy thing to do, but Perry insisted the cabinet should be a little bit higher and needed more drawers. I thought it was fine...

 Here's what it used to look like. Gah I hate the counter top!

And this is what he built. Check out my paint line on the left. A little bit higher? Let's try 6 inches! That's a lot and the counter isn't even on it yet! Needless to say, we had a little disagreement about it. He planned for it to only be about 2 inches higher, but some how miscalculated...It looks perfect when he stands by it, and then when I do, it looks massive. As a matter of fact, it comes up to the top of my hips! 

I gave him my two cents and left it at that. After a lot of debate with himself, he eventually uninstalled it, and made a few adjustments to lower it. THANK GOODNESS!

I think it's safe to say we're not going to have it finished up this weekend. Or even this week. Or next weekend. For reasons I'm not aware of, Perry had to take out the "floor" of the cabinet and cut out a new one. That on top of adjusting the front of the cabinet to make it shorter took up a bunch of time.

Right now Perry is working on building the drawers. The previous cabinet had a center track and the wheels would constantly come off the track. With the new drawers, he's adding an extra piece of wood to the cabinet frame so the drawers have tracks on both sides. Double tracks? Needless to say, Perry has been in the garage building this and that all weekend. And the boys have been out there "helping" too, or rather just playing in all the sawdust.

At any given moment during this past weekend, this is what our bathroom has looked like...hooray.