We watched Scout and Enigk this weekend and I found the kids playing "zoo" in Sydney's crib

Anya, Scout, Sydney and Ada in the pioneer dresses Grandma Grow made them.

Sydney and Scout in their pioneer dresses on the 24th of July

Xander had a WallE birthday at the Theatre and we had cupcakes afterwards....We saw on Chad and Becky Ogden's blog that they did the same party for Cy's birthday. Well, great minds think alike.

Look at this funny old picture I found.

Sydney loves to help me with the dishes now. It is all because of the cute little pink ball inside of the electrosol tablet. What a girlie-girl.

Isn't this cute? On the far right is a peice of poo "stuffed animal".

Dylan and Sydney helping Xander open his presents.

Xander's 7th Birthday

Xander's breakfast in bed.

Delicious recipes:
Shrimp Tacos

Salsa
2 tbsp. Cilantro diced
1 med. Avacado diced
1 can (1/2 cup) Salsa Verde
1/3 cup sliced Olives
2 Plum Tomatoes (seeded and diced)
1 pressed Garlic clove (I am lazy and use the pre-chopped garlic)
Mix this all together and set it aside.

1 lb. medium uncooked Shrimp (remove tails)
1 tsp. Chili Powder
Add a little oil to a frying pan and cook these shrimp with the Chili powder for 2-3 minutes until cooked through.

Serve with angel hair cole slaw cabbage mix or shredded lettuce, grated colby and Jack cheese and warm corn tortillas. 170 calories


Jerk Chicken Salad

Marinate 1lb. Chicken tenders in 1 tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. Jamaican Jerk rub.

Cut pineapple in half (use only 1/2 of the pineapple) and remove the core. Slice crosswise into 1/4" slices.

Grill chicken 3-5 minutes on each side (turning once), then cut into bite size peices. Add pineapple to the pan and cook 1 min. each side (turning once).

Thinly slice 1 red bell pepper and 3 green onions (white and light green parts only). Chop 2 heads of romaine lettuce. Rinse and drain 1 can (15 oz.) black beans. Layer lettuce, beans, bell pepper, chicken, pineapple, bacon (6 sliced cooked, crumbled bacon) and green onions. Drizzle dressingover the salad. 320 calories

Dressing
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 2 limes
2 tbsp. Pineapple Preserves
1/3 cup reduced fat Mayo

I went to costco today with my dad to get some shelves for his garage. The kids love to go crackerdog at costco for some reason. Mabey it's the high ceilings and all of the room so it feels like a zoo. At one point my dad asked if I had any rope and duct tape...haha.

Kicking back in the Hammock at Meadow and Geoff's 3rd of July Party

Sydney thinks the Mrs. Potato Head glasses fit just fine.

The kids kept trying to lure me into Sydney's room telling me they had a "present" for me... Surprise!

We feed the ducks goldfish crackers but the seagulls were very pesky and frightened the kids with their lack of personal space.

For the fourth of July Dylan was sick and on steroids and breathing treatments for croup and asthma so Dylan and I stayed home. He slept while I watched the rocketeer. This made for a really boring fourth of July. Brian took Sydney and Xander to Seven Peaks and then to the Grows house to watch fireworks. When they came home we did some fireworks in our backyard. We thought about making Dylan watch them from inside since the air quality is so poor on the fourth with all of the fireworks blazing. We decided against giving him another traumatic childhood experience for therapy so we let him do the fire works with us. It is fun to blow stuff up!

Yesterday Xander went to the awards reception for the Freedom Festival's childrens art contest. He won a "great artist award" and was very proud. He also won a $10 gift certificate to Magelby's in a raffle that he was almost too embarrassed to go up and get. Grandma Grow had to walk him up to the presenter. Dylan fell asleep on the way to the reception so I put him in the back of the double stroller and layed it back so he could continue to sleep. When I was getting Sydney out of the van I heard a loud Thwack sound. I saw a sleeping Dylan fall over and hit the pavement with his head as the unbalanced stroller fell backwards. He now has a big bruise on the left side of his head.

Today I had a RS presidency meeting at our house. I have been hit with the sickness Dylan had last week. I was sniffling, coughing and sneezing through the whole meeting. I was going over this Sunday's attendance roll with the other secretary when my nose actually dripped snot onto the paper. I think I mumbled something like "gross" and had to get a tissue to clean it up. That was super humiliating. I had also been getting lots of phone calls during the meeting, so I decided not to pick up the phone when another call came in. My answering machine picked up and said "You have a collect call originating from a correctional institution" ...Today rocks.