October

October this year...

1) The men are hunting
                       2)I have to teach a mini-class at homemaking night on cooking on a budget, my track record on this isn't good.  Why? Well paybacks for one (I rarely, if ever go to this) so when I have to teach anything in Relief Society (yes, I still call it that, ok) the turn-out is horrible, hence the "paybacks"  and I usually spend a ton of time preparing for 0-5 people to show up.

3) October is a time to hang-out with my sisters. Fun-times
             4) Boo-hoo, Jordyn has to have surgery.  I'm so nervous about this. I've never had any of my kids "go under the knife", except for their wisdom teeth.  I hope I'm just worrying for nothing...I do a lot of that.
5)It would be nice if the rest of the month, is just baking and playing and enjoying family.  I love OCTOBER...it's my favorite month.

I love cookies

My friend Monica is a great cook and gave me this recipe, which by-the-way is the best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Recipe that I've ever used.  Go to my other blog http://www.themcentirewilsonfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/ to get the recipe. YUMMMY

SALSA

I love canning (when it turns out). I've had plenty of things not turn out just right.  But, we found a great salsa recipe, that has lots of garlic and cilantro in it. This is about 10 batches of salsa (88 jars, some quarts, mostly pints).  Hopefully, this will last us until next summer. If you want this delicious recipe...you can go to my other blog http://www.themcentirewilsonfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/

Lagoon

We bought season tickets to Lagoon this summer for our kids as a way to kind of make up for the cruddy summer we had last year. 

Kylie hasn't been since she was three, but she has a great memory and she remembers it well.

 I loved watching her ride on all of the kiddie rides, while Mike and the big girls went on all of the big rides. Then the kiddie rides weren't enough for this dare devil girl and she wanted to try the big rides.  So Mike took her on WICKED (even I wouldn't go on that one) She came off of it with a big smile on her face.  Then we (me included) went on the spider. Halfway through the ride, I was wondering what I was doing on it, but Miss Kylie kept on saying "this is cool." I don't know that I'm going to get her back to kiddie land. I hope so, I don't want my smallest one growing up too fast.

Tyler and Paige

Paige's Corsage

Aren't they a cute couple??  They're BFF's, they always hang out together.

I love High School Dance's.  Tyler has been lucky enough to go to every one of them, since he turned 16.  I think he's been with a different girl everytime.

Ahhh, so cute!!!

Big Berries

Check out these strawberries that we got at Costco the other day...

They're E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S. They were as big as the apples we had.

Mom's house

We went to St. George over Easter Weekend on a mission to help my parents with something. I told my mom to make a list of things that she wanted done. When we got there she was working on a planter box for her vegetables.

I have a very handy husband and he went right to work on this beautiful planter box with hangers.  Notice the dark brown wood at the bottom. These are two closet doors that he found disgarded on the side of the road.

I think its beautiful, I love the hangers on the top for the tomatos. Mike even ran a dripper system to their sprinklers so that it can water itself. Besides the planter box, the kids got busy and raked up all her leaves, trimmed bushes and mowed the lawn. We had a lot of fun watching conference in between working. We went on some nice walks and of course Mom stuffed us with yummy food. Oh, and the weather was awesome!

Whole Grains - that is the key

Since the 2nd week in February our family has gone mostly whole grain. I found the miracle grain that has changed our lives.  It's white whole wheat. 

I've been trying to make whole wheat bread for years, trying lots of different recipes. Each loaf of bread would come out worse then the last, it seemed. They were all like a doorstop. 

Then it all came together one day for me...my sister Loni told me that our local grocery store had 50# of wheat for $9, so trying to keep up with the church's recommendations on food storage,  we went and bought 200# of it.  Then a couple of weeks later my friend finally gave me her recipe for wheat bread (that I'd been bugging her for). Her wheat bread was always so good.  So when I got her recipe I noticed that it called for "white wheat" so I ground up some of my new wheat and 'voila' a loaf of bread masterpiece.  I was so excited!!

Just out of curiosity I tried the same recipe with my old standby "red wheat" and sure enough it was a doorstop.  That red wheat needs white flour mixed and gluten additives to work out (for me anyway)

Anyway, we're making whole grain everything and I swear you can't even tell.  I put it in cookies, cakes, pizza dough and waffles. I haven't bought a loaf of bread since then and I'm happy to do it for my family.  My husband has lost about 34-40 lbs and is looking awesome.  We're also eating lots of fruits and veggies and real yogurt.  We're also making frozen yogurt and fruit shakes. And we're walking 3-5 miles everyday.  It feels so good to eat right.  If you want these recipes go to my other blog http://www.themcentirewilsonfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/