Sunday Family Dinner

Last weekend we went up to Vancouver to spend time with the whole (Lindquist) family. This past Sunday was Easter and traditionally I think we would all get together at my parent's house then, but Karter and Melanie headed back to Idaho for school. 

It was great to see everyone. I am continually amazed at how great each of my brothers are and how they are lucky to have all found someone special. Our boys had a blast playing with all their aunt and uncles. 

Family fun out in the back yard.

 A semi-competitive game of badminton, a little friendly game of basketball, lots of good food and great conversations. 

Since my parent's agreed to take care of dinner for everyone I volunteered to make dessert. We had a sibling vote and the winner choice was a No Bake Samoa Cheesecake. 

I'm not gonna lie, it was relatively easy to make and REALLLLY delicious! 

I added whip cream and it was the perfect addition. 

OH SO GOOD! 

Back on the Wagon...

Yes. I am back to making actual meals again. It's rather nice when I plan things out for the month, because thinking about WHAT to make seems to be half the battle. Once I've decided and prepared ahead of time by shopping for two weeks in advance than whipping up the actual meal isn't too difficult. And it's refreshing to be able to mix up the different types of dinners....

(Mexican) 

Enchiladas over sliced up lettuce and brown rice.

(Italian) 

Fettecini chicken alfredo with asparagus.

 (American)

I didn't cheat, we went out to eat on Saturday to the one and only five guys. I have to say it may be a little on the spendy side for a burger and fries, but I believe the taste and quality are worth the extra bucks. Plus we only splurge for this once in a while. Gotta love the heaping pile of peanut fried french fries. Yum!

 (Italian)

Spaghetti with crusted Parmesan chicken and a tomato basil sauce with french bread.

(American)

BBQ pulled pork with tomato slices on hoggie roll sandwhiches with a side of sassy BBQ chips.

Although it may take a little prepration in advance, it's really nice to go through a week and not have to think once, "Oh crap dinner's coming up, what am I going to make?" Now I simply glance at our calender. And another plus is we usually spend less money through the month on impulse grocery buys.

What's your favorite dinner dish??? 

Everyday life.

My boys think they are pretty funny. They decided that while I was getting the house cleaned up (I always try to pick up the house before Tyler gets home, because who want come home to a big mess after a stressful day at work?) they would get cozy in MY bed. They were laughing and thought they had fooled me into thinking they were somewhere else.

 B thought me telling him to get off my bed was hilarious and gave me this face:

 It's happened again. I'm in a cooking dinner slump. One particular night I decided to get creative and we had fried potatoes, scrambled eggs with green onions, parmesean cheese, and sweet italian sausage, with a side of kiwis and frsh blueberries. As far as last minute dinners go it was pretty yummy.

 My homeboys.... :)

Sweet indulgences

There are just some things that are too sweet to pass up.

 I love me a good cinnabon and so when Quincy requested one last week after doing some last minute holiday shopping (Tyler) I couldn't resist. It was delicious and we split two of them between the four of us. They were divine.

 I also let our boys indulge in a little bit of frozen yogurt and fresh raspberries. It was SO yummy.



Something yummy for your tummy....

Despite being sick I found the time to make us some delicious food.

[In fact, I even planned out our dinners for the past two weeks]

Last night I decided to make some Mediterranean Chicken, White Rice with a homemade Balsamic glaze, and a Veggie Salad.

It was quite scrumptuous!

(Even if Tyler said my rice looked like choclate rice krispie treats...)

In the mood for baking.

It seems like for the longest time I couldn't eat anything, and following that I found that so many of my favorite foods gave me heartburn. Finally I have reached a comfortable stage in eating and so began the baking frenzy. Up until that point I had mostly been eating healthy or bland foods.

Well that all changed the week prior to Thanksgiving, where I craved like 5 different desserts: mini cheescakes, pumpkin cobbler, reeses peanut butter bars, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and fudge.

 I didn't end up making all those in one week, don't worry, but I did make two of them prior to Turkey Day.

 Mini cheescakes... so easy to make from scratch and quite delicious. Ignore the ugly cookie sheet they are on. It's the one we've had since we got married. It seen better days. I actually have another one.

 Quincy liked helping me make these... though most of his "helping" consisted of eating.

 So GOOOOD!

 The Pumpkin cobbler. This was a new recipe that I wasn't quite sure how it'd turn out, surprisingly it was rather tasty.

Although I don't have pictures to show... I did end up making the reeses peanut butter bars, they taste just like the little cups. YUM-O. And I broke down after we got home from my parent's house for Thanksgiving and mdad the choclate chip oatmeal cookies. Fudge, might just have to wait until Christmas. :) I love to bake. As you can see.

 It was even more fun being in the kitchen with my mom and sister over the holiday break!

America's Funniest Home Videos

Remember watching America's Funniest Home Videos and laughing at clips of little kids falling asleep sitting on the toilet or falling asleep while eating their food? It always made me laugh, but I couldn't help but think at the same time.... 'what kid really does that?'

Our kid does..... but not on the peaceful terms that you would think. The other day Quincy was TICKED that he had to eat the dinner which we were having. I am not a fan of purely catering to my child's pickyness.... so he usually has to eat what we're eating. Though some meals are more successful with him than others are I feel it's a good way to experience new foods for him.

This particular night he was NOT about to eat the food, no matter how much enthusiasm we tried to show or encouragement we gave him. He wouldn't budge. Did I mention that Quincy's the product of two first children? Talk about being stubborn. I was never a picky eater as a kid and for the most part tried lots of things. Tyler, however was probably one of THE pickiest eaters ever. To this day I struggle to get my husband to eat certain foods. Image the life I live in the kitchen!

After having several talks with Quincy trying to convince him that we weren't going to make anything new for him we walked away to leave him and his food in the chair. He proceeded with a long tantrum of screaming at the top of his lungs. This probably went on for half an hour, at which point you would have thought the police were going to show up. Despite his lengthy efforts to get our attention, we managed not to cave. Eventually he ended up crying himself to sleep in his high chair and this is how he ended up:
Now I know some of you are gasping at how mean we are as the parents of this sweet angel. Seriously though, he went to bed hungry and woke up the next morning with the appetite of a full grown man. He ate an adult size portion or oatmeal, followed by 2 eggs, juice, and a cup of milk. He even ate a hearty lunch and dinner. So I think all in all, it helped to kick start our picky eater's appetite. We called his bluff and now he knows for the future what will happen.

Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?

Our little garden is flourishing... especially with all the rain we've had the last few weeks.

(Our garden view from the front yard)
My tomato plants are as tall as Quincy, in fact they have outgrown the bamboo stakes I've been tying them to. I have noticed little green tomatoes popping out here and there which are the size of little walnuts. I have also noted that our pepper plants are growing some tasty peppers on them. They are about 3 inches long now.

(The tomatoes in the right back corner, and the peppers are in front of them)

(The lettuce and herbs are all along the front bottom right hand corner of the garden)
Our onions, and shallots are coming along nicely, as well as our potatoes. We have already harvested 4 heads of lettuce and are eagerly awaiting the next ones to fill out.

I just recently planted some lemon cucumbers and am anxious to eat them. Okay, don't mind the lame burntlooking grass in the above picture... I just wanted to note that we have cleaned out the garden spot under the stairs..... to the right we have planted the lemon cucumbers. I don't know why we didnt' think to plant this area sooner.

(I just wanted to show how much our moss has filled in nicely) I think it looks pretty between the stepping stones.)

I am so happy with how our little garden has filled out and I'm very thankful for all the rain Heavenly Father has sent that is making our garden grow.

Olympic Event

My calling in our ward is Activity Days Leader over the 10-11 year old girls. Last week we had a joint Activity. The theme had to do with the Olympics. Since I was in charge of refreshments I was able to buy some patriotic American Flag plates and napkins to go with these cakes :


What do you think? I think they didn't turn out half bad. My hand was totally cramping up making those dumb Olympic colored rings. I guess it was worth it though.

Becoming the favorites again

#1 thing to do as parents to become the favorites again:

Take your child to the airport. Since Tyler had to pick up an old friend from the airport, Quincy and I decided to ride along. He got so excited looking at all the airplanes. This was the first step to becoming the "favorites".

#2 thing to do as parents to become the favorites:

Take your kid to get a Root Beer Float for dessert.

For anyone who didn't hear, Sonic gave out FREE (absolutely free) Root Beer Floats to their customers from 8-midnight on Wednesday. You better believe that we hit that opportunity up for our dessert that night.

When we pulled into the parking lot of Sonic it was crazy madness. We arrived 10 minutes after 8:00 and it was already chaos. (Note the line formed behind our car) Obviously every teenager had spread the good word via text because their were huge groups of high school kids gathered everywhere in the parking lot. I do have to give Sonic some serious credit because we only waited about 15 minutes for 3 free Floats.

We told Quincy that we were going to get some Root Beer Floats, but he didn't really know what this meant. Despite not knowing was a Float was he was still in a good mood.

Quincy was super excited when he figured out what a Root Beer Float was.

These pictures say it all. Notice in the first picture his facial reaction to the cold ice cream (not really sure what to make of that COLD ice cream). Then in the second picture he's decided he likes it and is chugging it down..... typical Quincy.

Tyler enjoyed his Root Beer Float too.

#3 thing to do as a parent to become the favorite again:

Point out the Fire Trucks as they whiz by. We left Sonic to stop by the Lines family's house to look at a Captains Bed they wanted to give away. On our way there we saw a fire truck... this only enhanced the excitement that Quincy was experiencing from the Float. He was so happy.

All in all, we're taking baby steps to become the favorites... it's difficult to do though as long as Quincy has grandparents. Slow and Steady though...