Congratulations Riley and Kashia Palmer!

We were able to go to a beautiful wedding this last saturday at the Newport Beach Temple!  The ceremony was wonderful and the bride and groom were so happy!  Yeah for Riley and Kashia!!

Kashia and I have been friends since high school.  We grew up in the same stake.  Some of my favorite memories with her are: 1)Lunchtime at Mission - either going out with Lisa and getting Weinerschitzel or other lunches 2) Mormon dances, girls camp, stake activities 3) Taylor and her dressing up as old people and scaring me at my front door 4)Playing sardines at the church 5)She did my hair for my wedding...and just so many other fun times!  And now she is all grown up and getting married - I am truly sooo happy for her!!  I hope she is laughing at this if she reads this.  Our intials were KB and we both married Rileys with the last names that started with P -- so we were both KBs that became KPs - we are so cool :-)

Knees!!!

Julia loves being on her knees now...I guess that's the next step vertically to walking.  She is climbing all over everything.  She still doesn't get the concept that holding on is a requirement for standing on furniture, but hopefully she will get that soon.  It is so fun to see all these "baby" steps.  She is also modeling her new 12 month pajamas we just got her at Kohls - they are my favorite on her!

CRAWLING

TOO CUTE!

So excited for Baby Taylor!!!

My sister Debbie and her husband Russ Taylor are expecting a baby boy this August!  We are so excited and she took some lovely 36 weeks maternity photos I would love to share.  She is so beautiful!  They are going to be such awesome fun parents to this boy!  And I absolutely love getting them little boy things--so exciting!  It's the final countdown....dah dah dah!

Blue Eyes

Wheat Bread

Julia eating homemade wheat bread for the first time last week.  She absolutely loved it!!

INFAMOUS Recipe: Dutch Baby

 

Yes, we make these at least once a week in our household, usually Sunday morning breakfast.  They are so easy to make and are so good!!  I learned how to make these in like 8th grade home ec class and Riley loved when I made it for him when we were dating (might be one of the reasons he married me).  

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of Flour

1/2 Cup of Milk

2 Eggs

2 Tbsp of Sugar

1/4 Tsp of Salt

1/4 Tsp of Vanilla (Optional)

1-2 Tbsp of Butter

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

2) In a medium bowl combine all ingredients EXCEPT butter.  Beat with a whisk until smooth.

3) Place butter in a 9inch pie pan; melt in 425 degrees oven just until butter sizzles (2-4minutes).

4) Remove pan from oven; tilt to coat bottom with melted butter

5) Pour mixture into hot pie pan and then return pan to oven (butter should come up on the sides forming a thin circle around the mixture)

6) Bake at 425 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.  (some butter may rise to the surface of pancake during baking.

Topping suggestions:
strawberries, bananas, powdered sugar, syrup, cream cheese, ice cream, cinnamon apples, etc etc 

I wanna be a cowboy baby.....

She kept taking her shoes off

Recipe: Hawaiin Haystacks

I just had to put this up here because it was just so good :-)

This is how I prepared it for a family in the ward.

Recipe:
1 Whole Chicken (or four chicken breasts)
2 Tablespoons of Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Lime Juice
2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Melted Butter
2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Cup of Chicken Broth
Rice
Optional Toppings (that I use in my recipe): Pineapple, Green Peas, Green Bell Pepper, Chow Mien Noodles
Optional Additional Toppings (not what I use): Coconut, Chopped Celery, Cheese

Instructions:
1) Cook Chicken.  Cut Chicken into chunks. 
2) Add 2 Cans of Cream of Chicken Soup, 1 Cup of Chicken Broth, 1/2 Cup Melted Butter, 2 Tbsp of Soy Sauce, 2 Tbsp of Lime Juice, and 2 Tbsp of Sugar to the chicken and let simmer for 3-5 minutes.
3) Meanwhile, cook green peas (about 1 Cup) separately and chop up green bell pepper (I usually do half of one)
4) Add peas and green bell pepper to chicken mixture.
5) Serve over rice.  Add pineapple and chow mien noodles to top of chicken mixture over rice.

Instructions via Slow Cooker:

1) Add Thawed Chicken to slow cooker first to layer the bottom of the slow cooker.  Then add 2 Cans of Cream of Chicken Soup, 1 Cup of Chicken Broth, 1/2 Cup Melted Butter, 2 Tbsp of Soy Sauce, 2 Tbsp of Lime Juice, and 2 Tbsp of Sugar.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
2) 15 minutes before slow cooker is done, cook up rice.
3) 10 minutes before slow cooker is done: cook green peas separately and chop up green bell pepper

4) When slow cooker is done turn to "keep warm", add peas and green bell pepper to chicken mixture.
5) Serve over rice.  Add pineapple and chow mien noodles to top of chicken mixture over rice.

Sunday Princess

Julia wearing her new dress from Great-Grandma Jean - everyone thought she looked like such a cute princess!

After a long walk and pool time on Saturday, Julia and Riley continued their daddy-daughter time with a bath!

Daddy squirting Julia - she does not look pleased

Both eating their bath toys

Julia teaching daddy to eat the bath toy instead of squirt it.

Daddy soaking Julia  with her bath sponge.

DUCK!

It's official - Julia's first word is DUCK!  She said it about 5 times this morning while playing with her stuffed animal duck.  (Riley was there and can vouch for me - I'm not some crazy lunatic mom hearing things)

Lake Powell Trip - July 2011

Sunday, July 10th

The Drive Up - A 12 Hour Adventure!  So Mom, Amanda, Julia, and I left at 6:00am from Placentia.  Julia slept for a total of 2 hours the entire 12 hour trip - which is amazing because usually she sleeps so much in the car.  It was very hot outside, so we had the a/c running most of the trip and we were all drinking lots.  So there was many pee trips, but being a Sunday, a lot of places were closed.  So lets just say we got creative with places we could pee.  We passed so many cool rocks and mountains - it was a beautiful drive!

Julia on the drive up!

Amanda at Chimney Rock

We got to the boat for dinnertime and arrived there the same time Chris and Gina's family got there.  The second we got on the boat all of the little kids swarmed Julia and she loved the attention.  We were able to get a room on the boat for Julia to sleep in her Play and Pack and me on a bed - which was heaven compared to my last trip to Powell three years ago. I usually don't do well not sleeping in a bed by myself or just Riley with me.

Monday, July 11th

Julia slept really well the first night except that at 740am all the little kids woke everyone up - but who's to blame them - they are ready to play at Lake Powell!  For breakfast on monday, Sarah made us some delicious crepes and Dave brought some fresh strawberries to go in them.  We then moved the houseboat, which I wasn't present for last time I was at Powell.  After 20 minutes of moving, we parked it in the middle of the lake and jumped off the houseboat.  I jumped off the the third floor (20ft) side twice - and I was so scared!  Uncle Darren was doing flips off  the third floor and the second floor. They got the JetSkis down so that they wouldn't have to do that later when the boat was parked against the rocks.  We found a great spot.  Some of the adult and kids took off tubing.  Amanda and I hiked around the rocks and took off Jet Skiing while Julia napped.  The Jet Skis were so much fun and we were gone for almost an hour.  There were so many places to explore.  

Amanda and Kristen on Jet Skis

 Later that night we all went skurfing.  I tried to get up four time but couldn't.  Amanda got up and did so well.  Darren could do some crazy tricks on that skurf board, he doesn't even have to start in the water he basically just jumps off the back of the boat.  This was the first time Julia has ever gone on a speed boat and absolutely loved it.  She fell asleep on me for about 40 minutes.  

Amanda on Skurfing!

 Julia was able to go in the water in her yellow floaty and really loved it! We had Mom's spaghetti for dinner that night.  Julia got to play a lot with her cousins and really loved Capri's "angry bird stuffed animal" and Dillan's RVCA hat.

Tuesday, July 12th

Julia went to sleep early on Monday night, but woke up for about two hours in the middle of the night which was hard for me.  A big group got up to go wakeboarding at 630 and there was no way I was going to get out of bed, but at least that allowed for Julia and I to sleep in.  For breakfast on Tuesday, we had some oatmeal.  They decided to move the houseboat because of all the junk in the water that started to mess up the generator and we moved down the canyon a little bit to a more open spot.  Amanda, Tristan, Kylie, and I did some P90X workouts after breakfast - which was probably a bad idea since it made us so sore the next day.  I got to go JetSkiing again on tuesday even though my legs were so sore from the day before going.  We went down an area called "Forgotten Canyon" and it was absolutely beautiful!!   Later that afternoon I got to try wakeboarding and was able to get up.  Amanda even got to show me her jumps. We also got to see Becca Ackley and Michelle McGill go single skiing - they both were extremely good.  

Kristen

Amanda Jumping

Julia was able to go in the water with her floaty, but it was a lot more cold this second day around and didn't keep her in too long.  We had some delicious tacos made by the McGills for dinner and watched a firework show put on by the boys later.

Wednesday, July 13th

Julia slept for 12 hours - back to her normal pattern - finally on the day we are leaving! For breakfast on wednesday we had yummy cinnamon rolls.  We went wakeboarding in the morning and it felt great!  I also tried to go Jet Skiing but it started to rain on me.  And then there was a crazy flashflood and rivers were forming all over the rocks.  It was pretty insane.  We left the boat around noon and saw such a beautiful waterfall that was at least 100 feet high - the Eadys said that they have never seen anything like it at Lake Powell.  And thus ends the happy part of the trip.

The drive home was horrible.  We almost ran out of gas for awhile, everyone was sick at some point, everyone was sore, and we were driving into the late hours.  But all that was worth the fun trip.  (now its Saturday and I am still extremely sick)

Happy July 4th!

We spent a wonderful July 4th with family and friends.  We started the morning with Riley going to help with the stakes 5K run put on by the boy scouts.  Then Julia and I met up with Riley for a pancake breakfast at the church.  The we had Dad and Mom Barlow come up from San Juan.  Mom and I worked out to P90X - Cardio X and Ab Ripper X.  It was her first P90X experience and she was a trooper.  Meanwhile, Riley and Dad went to a driving range in Yorba Linda and had fun playing putting and driving games with each other.  Amanda met us at our apartment at lunch time as well and we all had In N Out on our patio.  Then we all went in the pool together and laid out for a few hours.  After Amanda, Mom, and Dad left, we had Rubios for dinner and then went to the Yorba Linda fireworks. Surprisingly, we met up with a whole bunch of families from our ward.  The firework show was one of the best I have ever seen.  It was so fun to have Julia watch them.  She just cuddled up to me and barely blinked or budged watching them. We had a terrific 4th! 

Saturday is a Special Day.....

Things we did today (with absolutely no plans, we do a lot on Saturday - no.12 is the best):

1) Riley played basketball in the morning for two hours -- 2 on 2
2) Kristen ran 4 miles around Yorba Linda
3) Riley took a thirty minute nap
4) Made Tuna Fish and Cheese for lunch
5) Played one game of Settlers 
6) Went swimming in the pool - it was at least 90 degrees yesterday.  Julia loves her little pool floaty!
7) Went to Ralph's for groceries
8) Went to the bank to deposit a check
9) Made Spaghetti for dinner (Beef with Mushroom - best recipe!)
10) We all watched 2012 - longest movie EVER!
11) Ate large bowls of cookies and creme ice cream! - perfect for a hot day
12) Julia CRAWLED for the first time -- it was towards Riley's Dynaflex Wrist contraction.  Did we mention that yesterday (friday) was also the first time she pulled herself up on furniture - it was for our In N Out Shakes.
13) Now Riley is washing our two cars since the sun isn't beating down anymore. 

All Smiles!

"Pouty" lips

Julia with her new toy piano

my hat doesn't fit

SUNSCREEN!

clap clap

Julia "I thought I was suppose to be in the floaty - not dada!"