Utah Trip/Moms Surgery

About 2 weeks ago I got back from an 11 day trip to Utah to see my mom and help her recover after her surgery.   A couple of months ago she was having some discomfort in her throat and a cough.  She went to the doctor and she prescribed her some allergy medicine and sent her on her way.  My mom knew that it wasn't allergies so she took herself to an ears, nose and throat specialist.  They did a sonogram and found that she her thyroid was inflamed and they found cancer on it.  They scheduled the surgery right away to get in removed.  When she told me I was really scared but then she continued to explain that they had confirmed that it hadn't spread and that it was one of the best kind of cancers to get because it is easy to removed.   So my sister and I made arrangements to go to Utah to be there for her while she had surgery.  It was pretty stressful making sure she was okay between the both of us with taking care of the babies, but I am so glad that we were there to help her through it, especially since my dad isn't there anymore to help her with things like that.  It was weird to see my mom come out of surgery all hooked up to a bunch of stuff, but I was so happy that she was recovering and getting through it.  She is such a strong and amazing person.  She has so much faith about her life and just doesn't fear things like I do.  I am happy to report that is almost fully recovered.  She has gone back to work almost full time and is trying her best to keep up with all that snow in Utah!

Terrill's New Job

We have been very blessed lately to have Terrill home with us for a few weeks.  He will be starting a new job at Stanford Medical on Monday (2/11).  He is very excited for what the future holds for him there! Recently we went out to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate this new adventure.  

This is a picture taken from a training he went to for his new job in Wisconsin.

Canning Applesauce

Sprouts is my favorite place to get produce because they have the best deals on Produce! Especially on Wednesdays when they honor both last week and this weeks sales.  Recently they were having a sale on all their apples (Braeburn, fuji, granny smith  gala etc) for 49 cents a lb.  I called my sister to tell her and we decided to can some applesauce since the apples were so cheap!! I walked out of Sprouts later that week with 60 lbs of apples! I also wanted to write down the steps we took in Canning so I could use it as a reference for future projects so here it is.

*We didn't add any sugar to our applesauce to make it more healthy but many recipes will have you do that.

What you will need: 

-Jars for Canning
-Apples
-Huge pots to sanitize jars and Can your applesauce (see pictures below)
-Food processor
-Apple peeler or potato peeler

Directions:

1. Sanitize your jars and lids for 10 minutes in boiling water.  They have to be jars that have never been canned before otherwise they won't work.
2. Peel and cut your apples.  We peeled each apple and then cut it into slices like we were going to eat it.
3.  Put cut apples into some boiling water and cook until tender.  About 15 minutes.
4.  Put cooked apples in a food processor with a little bit of the water from the pot.  Blend until pureed. Put the applesauce in sanitized jars.  Fill the jar with applesauce until it is just below the lid line  ***Very important*** Make sure you wipe off any applesauce that may have spilled around the lid area.  This needs to be clean when you can.
5.  Put the lids on the jars full of applesauce and completely submerse in boiling water (standing up) for 20 minutes.
6.  Remove jars and let cool.  Mark on the jar the date so you know how long they will be good for.

DIY Stencil Cabinet

It's been a while since I have blogged.  January was filled with a lot of fun projects, a trip to Utah and the beginning of some warm weather!! Earlier this month I found an idea on http://www.thesassypepper.blogspot.com/2012/10/diy-furniture-stenciling.html to redo a new TV stand.  I found a cabinet on craigslist for $30 and started to get to work.  

Before

After

Here are some of the steps I did.

1. Painted the whole thing white.  1 coat of primer and 2 coats of white paint.

2.  Stenciled the doors.  I used a martha stewart stencil from Amazon.  As you can see the one that I took a picture of didn't work and I ended up using a different color and stencil.

3. Then I did 2 coats of varnish on the whole thing.

3.  The finished product with the TV on it! The color I ended up using is the color of our walls so it worked out well!

Bay Area Discovery Museum

When my mom was in town we decided to go to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito.  It was AMAZING! We went my sister and her family as well and all the kids were entertained the whole time.  There was tons to do and the kids could have stayed all day.  The other great think is that through our libraries website you can get free museum passes to a bunch of places in the bay area so we all got in for free! yippee!

Also, can I just say these pics are horrible?? It is so hard to take pictures of moving children!!

asleep before we left the parking lot

Christmas Dinner at our House

This year we were excited to host Christmas dinner at our house for my side of the family.  There were 24 of us all together and it was so much fun to plan and put together!! I borrowed all of the plates and linens from my aunt.  I made the centerpieces from ideas on Pinterest of course.  Terrill and I did the drinks and meat and everyone brought everything else.  It was a grand feast and everyone had a great time! I would totally do it again.   After dinner my uncle brought over some old movie footage from when my mom and her sisters were born.  They also had footage of the 1961 Olympics.  It was really fun to watch. It only took Terrill and I about an hour to clean up which I would say isn't bad at all!!

matching cousins!

 dessert bar

food coma

Sleep over with Tessa - 11/19

Before Thanksgiving (yes I am that behind!) Tessa came over for a sleep over.  She is at such a fun age and I just love hanging out with this girl!! We did our makeup, had a photo shoot, watched a movie and had popcorn! Mason also adores her.  The missionaries stopped by the night Tessa was here and stayed quiet a while, which normally is fine, but tonight I wanted to spend time with Tessa! It was so funny because she played nice and quietly for a while and then whispered really loud in my ear..."when are the missionaries going to leave!!".  It was hilarious.  I was thinking the same thing.  We really do love the missionaries I promise!