It's Official!

I have officially decided to do a preschool next fall from my home. I am so excited! It will be a lot of work, but I think the joy I will get out of it will outweigh the hard work. A while ago I went and observed this ladies preschool's afternoon session. I met her at this church meeting I went to. She mentioned she was thinking about retiring. Otherwise I would have never thought of it on my own. It's funny how some things happen in life. Huh? Anyway I learned a lot just from that one class observation.
I am starting to plan out a lot of ideas I have for the room, my lesson plans, etc. I think I will start out teaching in the mornings four days a week. We will see how things go. In the meantime I've got a lot of work to do. I have to get a fire inspection, business license, liability insurance, and a few things to get started.
I will teach Ethan and Lilly. Byron will be in 1st grade. It will be nice to be able to work from home and do something that I love, work with kids.
The pictures I displayed are of the room I will use for the teaching part and then part of our other room will be used for "play time".
The guy that built our house is going to build this little invention I came up with. They are these tables attached to the wall that will fold down against the wall so when we are not doing craft time or snack we will have that extra space for other things. Does anyone know of a place I can buy kids chairs (like they have in the nursery) for a good price?

Home to visit the Parents

Last weekend we ventured up to visit Wes's parents on the Farm. We had such a great time! It was nice just to relax and socialize. The kids played and played with all Grandma and Grandpas toys. We went to this old Volcano, went to these little shops by these ice caves, etc. They are building a new house and we took some pics.
It's so funny how our kids progress each time we go out of town. I think it just teaches them about new skills they never knew they had. :)

Homemade Mint Oreo Cookies

This is my sissy's recipe. Yummy!

Cookie:
2 18 oz packages of devils food cake mix
2/3 cup oil
4 eggs

frosting:
1/2 cup butter
4 oz cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp mint flavoring
a few drops of green food coloring

Mix together cookie mixture in a bowl. Make small balls and place on a cookie sheet. Cook for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool. Put frosting on one cookie and add another to make a sandwich. Enjoy!

My Lasagna Recipe

For lunch today we had lasagna. Wes doesn't really like cottage cheese so I have usually improvised. But, today we didn't have cottage cheese anyway.

Becky's Lasagna

sauce:
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 medium onion chopped
1-2 garlic cloves grated
3/4 C. zucchini chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
1/2 green bell pepper
1 large carrot chopped
2 small cans tomato sauce
1 C. water

1/2 pkg. "oven ready" lasagna noodles

2 C. grated cheese

Preheat oven to 425. Brown ground hamburger in pan. Add vegetables and cook for about 10 minutes. Add tomato sauce and water and cook for another 5 minutes. In a 9x13 inch pan put about 1/2 cup prepared sauce. Place down 3 oven ready noodles. Then put grated cheese on top. Layer the sauce,noodles, and then the cheese a few more times. End with sauce and a little cheese on top. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning. (dried herbs)
Cover with tin foil and cook for an hour. The secret to the oven ready noodles is: Make sure to cover with tin foil and a lot of sauce. Otherwise they will be hard.
I like to have these oven ready lasagna noodles on hand for whenever I want to make lasagna. I basically already have all the other ingredients.
Enjoy.
Becky

Yummy Recipe

FRIED ICE CREAM

1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter
2 1/2 c. corn flakes, crushed
1/2 c. chopped nuts (peanuts, walnuts or pecans)
1/2 c. flaked coconut
1 qt. vanilla ice cream, softened

Heat sugar and butter in saucepan until melted. Add rest of ingredients except ice cream, stir well. Press half of mixture in 12x13 inch pan. Spread with ice cream. Top with rest of mixture. Freeze.

The nuts are optional.
Enjoy.

Smartsy Artsy

In our family we love art. Byron has been bringing things home from school to do. Ethan is starting to get better as he gets older as well. Here are some pictures of their art work.

Musical Children

Every family home evening the kids always want to sing "I am a child of God". They have practiced many years.

Eating Lessons

We go out to eat to a sit down place about once every two months. I think it is important to teach our kids that there is a proper way to act while eating at a nice place. Our boys still climb under the table toward the end, but they are getting better. Last weekend we ate at this cute little steak house that my walking partner works at. Our kids did pretty good.
We went to this fun little local park after ward. Our kids love playing on new toys!

Lilly is growing up

It's crazy that Lilly is almost a year. It has been a challenging year. My back still hurts from the guy that messed up on my epidural, but it's not as bad as it was at first. Some days the burning in my back got so bad that I didn't know anything other to do than cry. I know that Heavenly Father has been there for me though. He has helped me through the pain. What has made it worse is when Lilly was screaming and I was trying to make dinner and my back was burning. Ohhhh.That was hard. But, it's getting better. Hopefully eventually it will heal. I just have to have faith. Right? Without faith where would any of us be.
We just love Lilly she is such a sweetie. She brings such great joy to our lives. I can't imagine life without her.
The other day in church Lilly saw the chorister conducting and she started conducting with her during each song. Now she does it each time we sing. It's so cute!

Whoopie Pies

I couldn't decide what to make for our ward picnic at the park. I decided the best thing would be to make something that was easy to pick up and just eat with your hands. I decided on whoopie pies. My sister Liz has made them before and hers tasted better than mine. But, what I did was just make chocolate cake mix, spoon it onto a pan and cook them like cookies, then (to make them more uniformly shaped) I cut them each with a biscuit cutter. I got two together and filled them with powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla. Yum. My sister has also filled them with mint filling. They are good, but rich.
Our kids loved licking the beaters and the bowl.

Anual Ward Party

Last night we had our ward party at the local park. It was fun. I feel like we are getting better friends with everyone as the years go on. The experiences I have had in life so far have helped me feel more comfortable socializing with all ages. The people in are ward are awesome! We ate dinner that consisted of sloppy Joes, salads, & dessert. Then we played Family Fued with the adults and the kids did other fun games. I was one of the ones at the end that had to answer the times question thing. It was fun! I love getting challenged like that. I think that's what I miss the most about school is the tests. Call me crazy?

Biggest Loser

My show is the Biggest Loser. I don't watch TV that much. But, when I do I make it count. It has to be something really good on. I love Biggest Loser. It motivates me to stay in shape, I love watching the different challenges and tips, and don't forget the drama of reality TV.
It started last night and it was a 2 hour special. If any of you want to get a hold of me on Tuesday nights you know where I will be. (Wes and the kids like to watch it too). But, when the kids do sit there we have to keep saying, "We don't say that....that's a bad word." Ha Ha. I'm just like my mom. It's one of the cleaner reality shows though. I like it.

Yummy Peach Recipe

I went to this meeting the other day and the lady served this delicious dessert. I don't even know what it is called. So, lets call it....

Peach Delite

Make bottom crust out of 1 box of vanilla wafers crushed
(Can crush in food processor or blender)
Spray 9x13 pan with Pam
Spread 1/2 of crumbs on the bottom
Cream 1 cube soft butter and 1 lb. powdered sugar, & beat in 2 eggs
Blob onto crust and carefully spread
Layer fresh cut peaches (about 6-8)
Spread about 12 oz. of whip cream or cool whip on top
Sprinkle rest of cookie crumbs on top

Refrigerate for 5 hours or over night

Shirley Olsen

I think that you could even improvise and instead of the butter, powdered sugar & eggs maybe just put pudding in it. You could probably use different fruit as well. Maybe berries. Yum.

My cute Niece

My sister Sarah and I went through a few miscarriages before we got our girls. It was weird how we had a similar situation. But, it was so worth the wait for both of us. They are both such sweet hearts. I think my sister and I are stronger because of having to go through such tough times. I believe each trial teaches us something.
I stole this pic off my sisters blog.

New knowledge

Our kids are growing up so fast. They learn new things daily. Here are some cute little movies I took today. Byron has to review a nursery rhyme every day. Last weeks was Humpty Dumpty and this weeks is Little boy blue.

Peaches Galore!

In the local city by us they have this thing called, "Peach Days". They have a famous fruit way. I went and bought some produce with my mom the other weekend. I love fresh produce. This last weekend when we went down to visit my sisters we bought some corn and a huge box of peaches. They are the yellow ones that are so soft and sweet. Oh they are so good! So, we have a lot. I have caramelized, frozen, dried, put in milk shakes, had them as a snack, put them on top of pudding, etc. They are so yummy.