Surgery and Sweets

 Jaron recently had knee surgery to replace his ACL.  Here he is before hand all smiles.  It's been over a week and he is healing very nicely.  I have enjoyed being 'needed' by him again.  They are so independent at his age (which is a good thing) so it is nice to feel needed.  I must admit though that the first 48 hours after surgery I seriously felt like I had a newborn again.  Newborns just require so much attention and need you to do every little thing for them.  At the end of the day you felt like you hadn't gotten a thing done. I even found myself trying to find 15 minutes just to jump in the shower and get ready for the day.  Lucky for me that didn't last too long.  

His friends and family have been so good to him.  They all must know how much he likes to eat.  He has received 3 bags of beef jerky, gummy bears, brownies, 2 plates of cookies, jamba juice and even his very own pan of cinnamon rolls from my mom.  Jaron LOVES cinnamon rolls, always has.  Especially my moms, which leads me into the next part of this post.  

I enjoy cooking.  Love to bake as well.  However, for some reason anything that involves yeast usually ends disastrous for me.  I have attempted bread making maybe 3 times in my life and cinnamon rolls only once before.  I don't know what I do wrong but it never turns out.  So earlier today I was browsing through my 'yummy stuff'" file on Pinterest and I came across this cinnamon roll recipe that I had saved to try out.  Printed it out and headed into the kitchen.  Two and a half hours later I had a finished product.  They were ok, not great like my Mom's but at least they weren't disastrous.  Jaron ate 3 so that was a good sign.

I should probably mention that my yeast had expired in 2005.  I even noticed this at the start of this 2 1/2 hr project which should have been my first clue to stop but I was determined.  I'm just happy they were edible this time.  I'd call that progress.

Love this boy!

I love this boy!  He makes me laugh and he is kind.  He loves his momma and he is helpful and just plain fun!!!  He was Napolean Dynomite for Halloween and he really got into his character.  Cracked me up.  He went trick or treating with his friend Ammon and they had a blast!

 and here he is at his very first dance.  A friend of mine who was there snapped this picture for me and sent it to me.  This dance was for Beehives and Deacons who are either 12 or 13 years old.  She is a cutie but.... does she look like a Beehive to you?  Oh poor Camdon.  He called me after a few dances and begged me to come and save him or he would surely die an early death.  No joke, those were his words.  We made him stick it out and I am happy to report that he did survive it. 

I love that boy!!!

Arizona sunrise

Not much compares to a beautiful Arizona sunrise except maybe an Arizona sunset. 

BirThdAy PaRtY

Camdon turned 12 and had 10 friends over for a mystery dinner.  It was so much fun coming up with the menu.  It was even a surprise for Camdon.  Every single item on the menu started with the letter C becuase.... C is for Camdon. 

 After dinner they all wanted to play video games.  Imagine that.  I insisted that they play Just Dance so they would atleast be moving around and interacting.  They LOVED it!  They rotated in and out and really had fun.  We extended the party time by 30 minutes because they didn't want to stop playing.

 It was a special birthday for Cam as he turned 12 and was able to receive the Priesthood.  Here is the group that was able to make it that day.

Double Date

Jaron & his best friend Ryan recently went on a double date.  They asked out 2 cute girls Sydney and Olivia.  They went to Goodwill to do some shopping for the 'Perfect' outfit to wear out to dinner.  Each couple got to pick out the other couples outfits and they had to wear them for the remainder of the evening.  Let me tell you, they really went all out.

 Olivia and Jaron sporting their fine ensembles.  Jaron, I had no idea that roses were such a good look for you.  (wink-wink)

 Ryan & Sydney with their smashing attire.  Wow Ryan, gold is a great color for you.  You really should wear it more often.

 This picture is the funniest one to me.  This was hours later after wearing this good looking outfit all evening and Jaron had even been home for a bit.  He came in to lay on my bed and tell me all about the evening and he was STILL wearing this outfit.  He said it was actually quite comfy.  Afterall, what's not to love about purple pajama pants covered in adorable penguins.  Hah, love that boy!

Out and about

Went to breakfast recently at Joe's Farm Grill.  Had to get my picture taken with this Awesome jeep.  It's not every day that you come across something like this.  Happy Day to YOU!!!

Donny Osmond

I recently attended the Donny Osmond concert with my Mom.  I'm not a huge Donny fan but my Mom sure is.  She was given tickets by my Aunt Alice and they were to attend together but at the last minute when Aunt Alice could not attend I was given the opportunity.  It was a GREAT concert!  He is certainly entertained and I enjoyed his performance so much.

Here we are about to go in.

 Cindy Standage, a local performer who I happen to know and is in my Stake was one of the opening acts as well as Firefly.

and here he is, Mr. Donny Osmond himself. 

 He was very personable and included the audience in his show.  Lots of great music.

 This was a little girl who was a big fan.  He brought her down on stage and sang her favorite song to her.  Soooo cute.

Thanks Mom for taking me and thank you to Aunt Alice for getting us the tickets. 

Round Up

 We recently had our Mother & Son Round Up at a Relief Society activity.  We had so much FuN!!!  We had a BBQ dinner, cowboy themed games, guessing jars and we took pics of all the moms and their sons or grandsons.  Some dressed up in their cowboy attire and it was a great evening.

 Using a few of the props and being a little silly.

 Richard and his mother.

 I thought this was the best pic of the whole night.  It made me chuckle.  This mom brought her grandson and they had a delightful time together as did all who attended.



Homecoming for Jaron

Jaron went to Homecoming this last weekend.  There were 11 couples in his group.  (1 couple missing who couldn't make it for pics).  I am so glad that he has such a great group of friends.

 One of their 'strike a pose' pics

 His date was Ashley and she looked so beautiful.  Loved the colors they chose.  So bright and fun.

Pinterest Projects

Ok so I don't know if you have discovered Pinterest or not but beware it is a time killer.  However, it depends on what you do with it.  I like to think that it has inspired me.  Pinterest is an app that you can download to your phone or you can view it through your computer online.  You do have to sign up but it is a place where ideas, recipes & much more is shared.  I love it and am filled with inspiration to get going when I visit it.  So, here are a few of my pinterest projects that I've been working on.

First, I found this picture in decorating ideas and I just fell in love with the colors.  I had desperately been needing to clean out my pantry.  It is my catch all room (I hope I'm not the only one with one of those rooms) and it had caught more than it could hold.  So with a little extra time on my hands I decided the time had come to tackle it, clean it, and give it a fresh new look.

First, I had to empty it. Everything came out, even this old white tile.  Richard thought this would also be a great time to do the tile, re-texture and paint the room.  We even pulled out the cupboards that were in there and relocated them to a new wall.  It was quite the undertaking.  Where did I put it all in the mean time you ask? 

Yes, I am really airing it all here.  I set up 3 table in my kitchen/dining area thinking that would be enough space to allow me to sift through and decide what I would keep and get rid of.  Apparently that little pantry held much more than I had originally thought.

It was everywhere.  Richard, came home from work after I had pulled it all out and made the comment that he felt like he had walked into an edition of the tv show "Hoarders".  Yes, I laughed.  It took me about a week to go through it all and I have to say it was making me CraZy.  I don't know how people live like that with 'stuff' all over the place. 

I even had to take down my seasonal decoration area to make room for more pantry stuff. 

and it spilled over into my family room.  Yikes!  I have too much stuff!

So the pantry got a fresh coat of sunny yellow paint and new tile to match the rest of the house.  Here are the shelves beginning to go back in so I could organize this mess.  I love the yellow!  It is bright, cheery and happy.  Richard was worried it would be too much but I assured him once everything was back in and mixed with the other colors I was planning that it would be lovely.

So here are the cupboards with the lovely aqua blue colors and I used baskets and buckets that I already had and spray painted them in colors that I wanted and used them to organize some of this stuff.

Some of the shelves painted to match the cabinets and again with the baskets to match the color scheme I had chosen.

I don't know how old this picture is but it hung in my grandma Ries' house many years ago and she passed it on to me.  I changed the color of the matte as well as added a little red to the flowers and I think it is just perfect for the room.  It is hard to see but there are even some light blue flowers scattered in there.  So that's pretty much it.  Everything is cleaned up and my house no longer resembles an edition of "Hoarders".  Whew.  I have a few decorative touches to add to the room still but you get the idea.  It looks much better in person of course, hard to capture in pictures.

We had some beautiful fall weather over the weekend and even some rain and it put me in the mood to try out 2 new recipes from Pinterest.  The first are pumpkin cheescake muffins.  They are a low cal muffin and don't have much sugar in them and I kind of have a sweet tooth so I wasn't sure if I really liked them but.... my kids ate them up as well as the committee members I serve with in my church calling.  I guess I will make them again.  Speaking of my calling, I am the RS Meeting leader (Homemaking or Enrichment leader is how most people know it) and we have a craft night coming up in October and most of the projects we are doing came from Pinterest.  I told you it was a cool site.  You should check it out.

and for dinner tonight I made this soup called Skinny Potato Soup (in hopes that it would make me skinny)  haha.  It was a Weight Watcher recipe and I did find it on Pinterest.  It has only 2 actual potatoes in it and then an entire head of cauliflower that I pureed and you can't even tell in my opinion.  My kids ate it up like crazy and wanted to know what that delicious smell was when they came in from school.  As a matter of fact Trevon just got home from club volleyball and he is sitting here next to me at the table and is eating his 3rd bowl.  If only they knew how healthy it was.  Haha, I love it.

 
So, have you discovered Pinterest yet?  Has it inspired you to do or make any fun projects?