Dinner Tonight!

We tried out a new Italian recipe for dinner last night and it was a huge winner for our family!!  It was really fast to make.  From start to finish it took me maybe 20 minutes.   I wish I'd thought to take a photo of it, but it disappeared to fast.  Go to the store and get the ingredients today...you won't be sorry!!

Tagliolini with Asparagus

1 lb. fresh asparagus
12 oz fresh tagliolini or other egg noodles (i couldn't find tagliolini so i used dried egg noodles)
1/4 cup butter
3 scallions, finely chopped ( i used green onions)
3-4 leaves fresh mint or basil, finely chopped (i used basil)
2/3 cup heavy cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (i didn't have fresh parm on hand so i used grated parm and then some freshly grated monterey jack...it was good!)

serves 4-6

1. Peel the little leaves off the asparagus stalks (you don't have to do this, but it makes the stalks taste better).  Drop them into a large pan of rapidly boiling water, and boil until just tender 4-6 minutes.
2. Remove asparagus from the water, reserving the cooking water.  Cut the stalks into 1 1/2-inch pieces, set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a large pan.  Add the scallions and herbs, and cook for 3-4 minutes.  Stir in the cream and asparagus, and heat gently, but do not boil.  Season to taste.
4. Bring the asparagus cooking water back to the boil.  Add salt.  Drop the noodles in all at once.  Cook until just tender (should be about 3-4 minutes, just follow package directions).  Drain.
5. Turn the pasta into the pan with the sauce, raise the heat slightly and mix well.  Stir in the Parmesan or Romano.  Serve at once.

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby

Luke attended his first pinewood derby as a wolf scout!!  

 I'm not sure who had more fun designing and making the derby car...Luke or Trent!!

Our ward also held a no rules, regulations...anything goes pinewood derby for the elder's quorum.  Trent made an RV with our family in it!  It was a huge hit and it wasted the competition!

Family Funnies

Last night for dinner we had a potato bar. Trent told the kids that the skins of the potatoes are the healthiest part b/c that's where all the nutrients are kept.   Emry asked what nutrients were and Trent went on to name a few: potassium, iron....etc. when he said iron, Luke piped up, "Do we have to iron potatoes?"

BIG SMOKE TROUBLE!!!

Growing up, my dad handled most of the discipline in our house. When you were in Big Smoke Trouble....you had to watch out b/c it meant you were in the worst kind of trouble you could imagine. Big Smoke Trouble is a tradition that I have carried over into my own household and today, Carley is in BIG SMOKE TROUBLE!!!

We have a tv/dvd player that lives in Luke's room so the kids can all congregate there and watch movies and the adults can be undisturbed in the living room. She's been getting into Luke's things and destroying his legos lately so she was already on thin ice...I was too for letting her in there when he was at school. I had to work a 2 hr shift and she'd gotten up early from her nap so I stuck her in there to watch a movie so I could finish up my work. Well, this is what she did.

She took all the little color parts out of the markers and put them in a pile on Luke's bed sheets, which off course bled onto them, they are ruined...permanent stain. Also, unlike the other day when she colored on herself with WASHABLE markers...this time we weren't so lucky. After much vigorous washing, her lips, teeth, tongue and hands are still black!

So she was back on TIME OUT! Luke was very forgiving of us and even offered to play with her on the trampoline after she apologized to him. However, she has since been banished from his room. We even put a baby lock on his doorknob so she can't get in. Now all I have to do is find every stray marker in the house and banish them to the highest shelf in the deepest darkest cupboard!!!

We got Orders!

Trent finally got his military orders, so I can officially announce what's up with our immediate future plans. We've known this information since January, but it's never official until you have the physical orders in hand so we didn't announce it publicly.

He's going to be leaving on August 10th for a 12 month unaccompanied deployment to Diego Garcia. A tropical atoll island in the middle of the Indian Ocean...looks rough doesn't it!!
He'll be the SMO aboard the USS Emory S Land.

In layman's terms this means he's going to be the senior medical officer (a promotion) on board a subtender. He's going to be in charge of all the medical needs (partly administrative) of all those on his ship, the subs his ship works with, and a few other ships also stationed at Diego Garcia. Families aren't allowed on the Island, so that part really stinks. Hopefully his ship will port in cool places like Singapore or Australia! Time will tell!


It's going to be a tough year, but their is a payback. Since he's going to do an unaccompanied year, they allowed us to choose our next duty station. We chose Naples, Italy and will be going there in August 2011 for 3 years! We are very excited about this opportunity for our family. The deployment won't be easy, but it could be a lot worse so we're happy about how everything has come together. We'll keep you all updated on any changes...it is the military after all!

Time Out!

Apparently when I was working today...
Carley was too!!

Blog Maintenance

I know my blog has seriously been neglected since 2010 started. We've had some crazy busy times since January. Some funny, some tedious, some exciting, some serious and some just plain stressful. Today and tomorrow I'm planning on getting all caught up though. I've been keeping notes on my calendars and I'm ready to get up to date here! So, if you still want to be my friend or maybe you're just wondering if I fell off the face of the planet...I'm still here and I'm letting you know I'm back in business! If you care to see some of the things we've been up to scroll down or go back in my history starting in January.


ps...happy birthday Trent!!!

Family Visit - Gpa & Gma Price

Merlin and Joy came for Luke's baptism and their extended travel plans fell through, so they stayed 3 more days! The sad part was that I had to work, but we're so glad they were able to spend so much time with us, such a treat! They babysat our kids so Trent and I could go out to dinner and attend the temple. We took them to the beach, to see the new Mormon Battalion Center, and they took Carley to the Flower Fields one afternoon while I was working. I was really lame and didn't take ANY pictures while they were here of them and the kids. I'm so sad about it. I'll have to take extra ones in June!!

Thanks for visiting and all you do to support us!

Luke's Baptism

Luke was baptized today! He was so nervous and excited this morning when he woke up. Trent's parents were able to come down as well as Taylor & Jen. Everything went so smoothly. The kids that were in attendance were reverent and the baptism was very wonderful! The spirit was so strong during the baptism and confirmation, and I hope Luke doesn't ever forget how he felt!

A bunch of the boy from Luke's primary class came to support Luke today, what great friends he has (Jase McDonald, Matthew Arnold, Benjamin Clark, Mitchell Baliff, Dillon Matthews)! Luke's primary teacher Brother Berry gave the talk on baptism and Grandpa Merlin gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Luke was very excited b/c grandpa Merlin gave him a blanket to help him remember the Holy Ghost is a comforter...Luke has been carrying it all around! Thanks everyone who came or called to lend support to Luke!

Palomar Mountain

Trent's been dying to get to the top of a Palomar Mountain to check out the fishing.
Today was the day, we packed the kids up and off we went.

On our way up the mountain we had to stop and take a picture of this sign...too funny!

The fishing turned out to be not as good as he hoped,
but he and Luke got to throw their hooks in for a while. The girls and I amused ourselves by
going for a little nature walk, checking out the cattails, throwing stones in a little creek and then we raced leaves by floating them under a bridge to see whose came out the other side first.

Visitors -Travis, Angela & Co.

Travis, Angela, Kendrick & Cohen came for a visit! It's always nice to have family come to stay. The kids had a blast and played so good together.

Thursday:
Travis really, really wanted to go fishing so he offered to watch the troops so Angela and I could have a day to ourselves. We took him up on his offer. We got the kids breakfast and then headed off to do a session at the temple. Afterwards we went down to Ocean Beach to a famous burger joint that I've been dying to try called Hodad's. The burgers, onion rings and malts were to die for, sooooo yummy! I can't wait to go back with Trent. We had to wait about 25 minutes to get in, but it was worth it. After that we window shopped a bit and walked down the pier on the ocean.

When we got home we had to get ready to go out b/c we had a babysitter coming for the night! When Trent got home from work, us adults headed out for the night. First we went to the beach to catch the sunset. It was very cold, so we didn't last too long but we did find a huge male sea lion trying to soak up the last few rays of sunlight. Then we went to the Oceanside Pier for a walk. We had hot chocolate and appetizers at Ruby's diner while we watched the sunset. Next we headed up the street to the late night farmers market. It's a happening street party that Oceanside has every Thursday night with live music. People bring their goods to sell, everything from pottery, flowers, produce, baked goods, ethnic foods, clothing, jewelry, metal works, you name it. It's such a fun atmosphere. We browsed for a while and then wondered over to Trent's favorite sushi joint for dinner. Finally we made our way back to our beds and slept!


Friday:
We were up early to pack the cars and get lunches ready. We headed off to Sea World to spend the day with the animals! The kids loved it and had a good time. We rode the sky tram which was cool, we'd never done that before.

Saturday:
Trent & Travis got up early to rent a boat and go fishing in the San Diego Bay. They had a good time. They didn't catch another record breaking halibut, but still managed to have a good time. the guys got back with just enough time to shower and head out to Priesthood meeting. Travis sent this photo from his phone!


Meanwhile, Angela and I slept in. The kids watched cartoons and when we were all up we piled the kids into the car to go to breakfast. We went down to the Oside pier and let the kids run between fishermen to see what they were using for bait and if they'd caught any fish. We had pancakes at Ruby's, watched the surfers, looked at boats and saw pelicans!! After breakfast we let the kids play in the sand for a while before we headed home for quiet time.

A man caught this bat ray and was nice enought to show it to the kids.
They were very facinated by it. They got to touch it and look at it up close, pretty awesome!

We decorated easter eggs, well Angela's boys did most of them. Luke & Emry were in the dog house b/c they had gotten dye all over their entire hands...I was NOT ammused.

Sunday:
We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. They loved it. Afterwards we watched conference and then headed to the beach since it was Travis & Angela's last day with us. We had tinfoil dinners and the kids played the afternoon away....until the EARTHQUAKE!!! We felt it so much! In a weird way, it was really cool. I'm glad not many people were hurt in Mexicali. It ended up registering as a 7.2 quake! We were feeling after shocks the whole time we were at the beach.

Carley had no idea what was going on.
She would only pick up eggs if they were pink.

Kendrick was so nice,
he knew that Carley didn't have many eggs in her basket so he started helping her.

Poor Luke, we had to get after him a few times to slow down b/c he was getting everything.

It wouldn't be a real trip to the beach for my kids if Dad didn't bury them in the sand.
This time was way cooler though b/c Travis, Kendrick & Cohen joined the fun!

Thanks for coming! See you in June!