Revelation

I decided today that I'm going to change.
You see I've always envisioned myself as a certain kind of mother. Having a home centered on Christ and crafts.
I catch myself time and time again, falling into the trap of my up bringing. Yelling... impatience... criticism...completely opposite of my vision.

Tonight, I feel empowered.

Yesterday I wanted to die. I wanted someone else to take over for me. I wanted to go home to my father in heaven and he told me my work isn't done so I needed to stop throwing fits... in not so many words.

Tonight, I feel so strongly that I need to become that mom I'm meant to be. To raise my daughter's to their full potential... how?

Well I took their picture today... and I saw in a flash, that my babies were growing/grown. Where did the time go? I don't remember growing up that fast. :-(

My time is now. I'm going to serve without expectations. I'm going to compliment my husband, my children and myself daily.

I'll make the effort to do more crafts and fill my home with laughter... to be rid of the distractions the world Has put in our hands like tv, internet, gaming devices, and the like. I'm going to implement service in our home and for our neighbors, and more snuggle time and reading...
I've been seriously considering home schooling Kate as well.

I don't work very often, when I do feature films it takes a lot of time for a short amount of time... I've always had this thought that work is not important enough to me to miss out on my family, even though it's a good break at times.

I have this feeling like Christ is coming sooner then I'd think.... my time in my girls life is limited... so much so that I don't want to take vacations without them. I know why I'm on this earth...I hope the Lord sees fit to allow me to watch my girls become mothers and live long gospel centered lives.

How many meals can you get from a bag of Costco meatballs?!

As part of food budgeting I try to see what can take me farthest, as far as food prep goes and Costco meatballs (running 16$a bag) can get me a few meals, especially on my lazy days....

Tonight I created a meal my picky 2 year old ate... I grabbed what I had and bang!

So first on my meatball list:

Layered Alfredo lasagna macaroni.
        : macaroni noodles, jar Alfredo, half cup cheese (I only had cheddar) half cup cottage cheese, chopped summer squash and zucchini (boiled with the noodles), frozen peas and crushed Ritz in Tb melted butter. Mixed together tossed on oven at 375 for 20 minutes.

SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS

Pot pie

Tatertot casserole

Sweet and sour balls on rice

Meatball stroganoff on egg noodles.

I'm sure there are many other ideas, when I can't get a good deal on ground beef I will just chop meatballs for ground beef and use in tacos....

Feeding family on a tight budget

I feed my family of six on 250$ a month. That's right, now that I've moved to a bigger home I have more obligation to pinch my pennies.

The simple way I do it, though time consuming, I price match.

I don't coupon because I haven't gotten into it and maybe I'd save more... also we have wic which is helpful (you don't have to be dirty poor to qualify either people, you can make 62k a year with a family my size and still qualify)

Anyways I get the ad's and go through them only AFTER I've made my meal list and needs, after I write out my meals I write a list of those ingredients, then going through my ads i put the price from the ad next to the item on my list... I use a different color pen to write a approximate cost next to the items I'm not price matching, I then calculate the total cost of my trip rounded up and then estimated tax (Utah tax for food is 3 percent)

This way I know what I'm going to spend and if I aimed to high and Wal-Mart's prices are lower I get to buy a treat ;-)

See it's easy plan at least 3 hours shopping though. Sometimes I go to winco  for their bulk.

Moving

So, we were given the opportunity to buy my grandpa's house in Alpine. we knew we could not afford it, but it didn't feel good to pass up so we decided to put our faith forward and List our house on the MLS. that very week mike got a raise. that same week we got an offer on our house which we accepted.

next was knowing if we would qualify for financing for her house having faith to move forward has shown rewarding.

It's also been very exhausting.  The steps to moving aren't over yet though, we have the inspector coming Tuesday and then we have the appraiser and then they will get their loan started. It's all scary but I have faith everything will work out as it should.... and just to throw a little kink in the mix, Mike and I were called to the stake president's office, before he couldn't extend a call to Mike we told him we are selling our house. admittedly he looks a bit distraught. a bit torn to say the least. he told us to expect big things that the Lord new us. we are faithful and he was not going to put us on the spot. but for us to let him know if things work out or don't ASAP. so it's been heavy weighed on our minds what the calling was....

none the less I feel our time here in Kerns has come to an end

Birthday GIrl

Mandy had her First birthday and what a great participate! We had 12 cousins come plus two other friends. We did a Lady bug themed party with a "pin the dot on the Lady bug" and Find the lady bug in the pile of leaves (we had 5 piles of leaves around the yard and hid two small bean bag bugs in two different piles. It was fun watching everyone dig through them HA HA.

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson made a surprise visit up it was so good to see them!

At presents time Mandy did such a great job i didn't even have to help her open the gifts she just ripped at them right away. Her favorite was a soft plush baby grandma Anderson gave her...

Then the cake. She shoved that cake in her mouth without hesitation it was so darn cute! I made her lady bug cake it took a good hour to finish since i was also working on cutting out the butterfly and flower sandwiches and jigglers. Everyone had fun and i cannot believe she is the big ONE!

We got her one year pictures today. My little girl just doesn't like to smile for the camera lady. She looks at her like she is the biggest tard! i think its funny ... eventually we got some smiles after i coaxed her a bit!

Holidays

Well we are finally going into the holidays! how exciting! Christmas is my favorite holiday and this Thanks giving will be Mandy's first "real" one.

Mandy is taking steps but she likes to be lazy. She says Momma, Dadda, boo, uh-oh, hi and she loves to scream when you chase her.

Kate she is just growing so tall. She loves to sing and dance and princess is what she likes to be called.

Both Mike and I are still in school and keeping really busy with that. No more updates for now i will post pictures of mandy's birthday as soon as we have it.