Baby Merrill coming Feb. 2013/San Diego

When I take a prego photo I'll post it.  I am 14wks, and kinda embarrassed to say all the weight I have gained makes me look fat... not pregnant.  I can't wait till I actually look prego and not just fat.  Maybe by 16wks...

San Diego!

chillin' like interns

This past weekend Will and I went to San Diego to visit his dad.  His dad works there mon-thurs then flies home, so we asked him to stay the weekend and we were able to stay with him.  We had a BLAST!  We got there late Thurs night.  Fri morning we went around as "interns" touring the multiple job sites Dad works on.  All of the sights were different boarder patrol facilities such as training shooting range, prison, offices, ect. and his job is to make sure everything building wise is safe and getting done.  It was so cool to see it all!  Fri. lunch we went to Phil's BBQ, which was SO GOOD!!! Much better then Rudy's I have to say, more food for a better price :)  Fri. afternoon we explored a dog beach, and was there for a bit.

Boarder fence leading into the ocean

Beach Break:  ABC burrito and
Banana Crunch French Toast

Sat. morning we woke up and drove to Ocean Side.  This is where his family goes each 4th of July for vacation.  We ate breakfast at this amazing place called Beach Break.  YUM!  Banana Crunch French toast is one of his families favorite, and I have to agree with them.  We stayed at that beach and played in the water... then it got really cold and the clouds started misting on us, so we drove back to San Diego.  Within an hour of getting back to the hotel, it was sunny.  so, we packed up and headed back to the "Dog Beach".  Now, I know we don't have a dog, but it was so funny people/dog watching.  I defiantly have to say, dogs really do match their owners.  Also, just an FYI, don't open up jerky at the beach, before we even had a bit in our mouth, our blanket was swarming with HUGE WET DOGS!!! Gross!!!  The whole next 2 hrs we were there, the same dogs would come over and sniff our blanket saying "I know you have something in there..."  After the beach Will and I went for a refreshing jog... I even ran up a hill!  It was GREAT!  Oh how I miss running those Nebraska hills.  Don't worry, I only ran about 1 1/2 miles, and it took me forever!









Sat. morning we went to sacrament meeting then headed home.  About an hour outside Yuma we stopped at a Rest stop, cuz you know us prego people, we got to go pee A LOT!  Anyway, I walk out of the bathroom and Will asks "Did you fee it?"  Feel what?  "The Earthquake".  Apparently Will got a little "tipsy" using the bathroom and come to find out, 2 miles from where we were staying there was a 5.5 earthquake!  The worst thing was, I didn't even realize it.  lol.  I remember slightly losing my balance walking over to the bathroom (the girls was way far away), but I just thought it was cuz I was Prego and sat in a car for too long.  After surviving the "terrible" quake, we safely made it home to our comfy beds in AZ.  Wishing we didn't have to go back to work.  Needless to say, We will defiantly be visiting Cali again!

Food Storage...

#10 cans stored in guest room. 
I am thinking of getting another shelf to
hold them in

For the past 2 years I have been married, I have been working on collecting a 4month supply of food storage.  I got this article from EverythingUnderTheSun.blogspot.com and how she organized everything.  It seemed to make sense!  Finally!  Food storage that seemed easy enough I could do. 

Since then, I have found recipes, thought about how to cook, store, and organize everything, tried to find where it's most convenient and cheap to buy the bulk items, and store them reasonably.  I can't say I am officially finished with the 4th month supply, b/c I need to go to the "family Canning" night at the cannery to package powdered milk, and find one more can of powdered eggs, and stock up on propane, till I am finished!  Wahoo! 

3L bottles you can get on sale
in the summer at Fry's fro 49cents.
We have a big barrel in the garage
but it's always nice to have 
smaller sizes.

The thing I am most excited about is that I typed up and included lots of charts on what I did, how to store it, organize and rotate it.  I have been working on using more wheat, powdered milk, and potato flakes in my cooking.  I have experienced with multiple diff. bread recipes trying to find one that was simple enough for me to make, but I didn't have to buy yeast for.  So, I have since learned to make sour dough bread, and even started, and killed a sourdough starter.  It's been quite the trip trying to figure everything out.  Now that I am nearing the end of this 4mo supply, I am having fun trying out new recipes for the next 4 months. 

GREAT rotating can system
you can get at Costco online
for $300.  Worth it!  They also
have the size for #10 cans
which holds 112 cans.

If any of you are interested in what I did, I can e-mail you the file.  What it has is 7 breakfast, 7 dinner, 3 desert, and bread recipe.  The bread I included for making 3x week for lunches.  Everything is added to make a serving for 4 people.  I have planned it for worst case scenario which means no electricity, stuff to keep things cold, and no source for water.  I made a grocery list for all the food items for ALL meals, and how much you need to buy of each.  I am so excited about this, I felt like I was never going to finish.  But although food storage does cost money, and take up space, I believe it is completely worth it and I feel blessed already with following the prophets counsel on self preparedness.  I think the biggest thing I have learned is that I have to be patient... I can't buy everything at one time and it might take 1-2 years to just build up a small storage, but I now know that I have 4 mo supply of food I know how to cook, use, and will eat in case of any emergency. 

Squirrels!

Since we have lived in our house, we would occasionally see this squirrel.  He lives between our neighbors shed, and the brick wall.  We always see him on the brick wall, and as soon as the back door thinks about opening, he would dash off.  I named him Mr. Squirrel.

Here He is enjoying the sunshine

Last Sat. morning, as I peek out the window after breakfast to check on Mr. Squirrel, to my surprise I saw this...

Do you see them?  The white shed helps them stand out.  Sorry I couldn't zoom in on them better... my camera isn't Pro.

two smaller squirrels!  At first I thought I was going crazy... but soon I saw that Mr. Squirrel.... who I have now named to Mrs. Squirrel had twins!  We decide they are girls and enjoy throwing out old bread or muffins to them each evening. 

The Babies watching Mama

LOVE this pic!

 Well, during the week we would see 1, 2, or 3 of them out and about, until Thursday, we found this.....

I love how the parents are always just laying around in the sun

 4 of them!  1 Large, 1 med, and 2 small ones..  We decided Mr. Squirrel joined them!  (He's the medium sized one)

We have been pretty excited telling everyone that Mr. Squirrel is a girl, that had twins, and now the dad shows up!  Once we thought our little squirrel family couln't get any larger... today I woke up to look at the window to find this....

Dad, Mom, It's hard to see, but there are 2 babies wrestling in the middle, and Baby

 5 of them!  So, the large is the mom, medium is the dad, then there are 2 "Twins", and a little runt of the family.  I don't know how I am going to come up with so many names!

I don't know if you have seen the moving "Up", but it's really cute and those crazy dogs always go crazy when you say "Squirrel".  Now, my husband and I love texting, or randomly saying "Squirrel" just cuz it's fun, and we go look out the window to see them.

Windows and stuff

 So, I haven't posted in a while... but I have been meaning to put these up forever!  We finally were able to put new windows in our house!  So we got all new, double pained windows, and new trim.  Our big front window, we sized it smaller because it was so BIG, and we didn't want to pay the extra for tempered glass.  It's all finished except fixing the inside wall from where we made the window smaller... we need to texture and paint.  Other then that, blinds, and curtains here we come!

When we bought the house

This is how much we re-sized the window

Finished!

 

 Over the 4th of July we had a family reunion, my parents, siblings, and their kids.  We went up to our cabin and put up a new roof, built a new back porch, and dug/moved a new outhouse.  It was really fun seeing all the boys work together, and all the grand kids get dirty.  During our trip Will and I went out looking for a place to go rock climbing... failed... but I did learn how to change a flat tire :)  If you want to read in more detail about the reunion, my sister posted other pictures and info found here.

On top of the rim right before we found our flat tire... it was beautiful up there!

4th Year Hike

This year Will and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a 4th year backpacking trip with 48 YW... 10 were from our ward.  It was great!  Tuesday morning we were up early, drove the truck with 3 girls and were VERY grateful they slept the whole way!  We hiked up Horton Springs, it's about 15miles outside of Payson (by the Tonto National Fish Hatchery).  On the way up, we took a wrong turn, went down a windy road and almost hit a cow… it was really funny… (side note: you know how rabbits always seem to jump in the road RIGHT when you drive by, then run alongside you before realizing they need to get out… just like that)  needless to say, we did not have beef for dinner and made it to the right place for the hike to start.  

The hike up was beautiful with it being mostly in the shade, and some sunny spots, and following the creek.  There were a lot of small pretty waterfalls.  We stuck back with some girls, and enjoyed the relaxing hike with lots of rest breaks… At last, we made it to the top.  It was really nice to take my pack off… but I wasn’t dying… Defiantly not a bad hike to backpack in to.  

I LOVE the headband they
made for us!

Will and I set up camp up a steep hill about 100feet from the girls.  At first I thought I was going to have to hurt him by the end of the trip for making me hike up this KILLER hill so many times throughout the trip, but was very grateful for it seeing how nice and quiet it was with about 4 of us couple leaders up there, and 2 small tents of girls who were pretty quiet.  We left all the noise down at the bottom of the hill…amazing…  The rest of the afternoon we spent setting up camp, playing games with the girls, some certification, and a short night hike for their astronomy class.  After that, we were all grateful to head off to our nice soft sleeping bags to get some much needed rest… for most of us.

Chillin' on his "chair"

Will and I ended up getting food poisoning from the MRE’s we had for dinner so I was throwing up all night, and Will needed too.  As soon as there was light enough outside, we packed up and told the other leaders we were hitting the trail early, for fear that we wouldn’t make it out.  Lol.  It took Will and I 2 ½ to 3 hrs to hike out of there… I wish we had a video camera with how pathetic we looked.  J I swear every 100 yards Will or I had to stop and breathe.  I don’t think I have EVER taken so many rest periods on a hike ever, or total in my life!  I am very grateful we left early because it was a lot cooler hiking out which helped, and we made it to the car about 40min before the rest of the girls showed up, so we were able to take a quick nap which helped a lot.  I am sad to say, it took ALL the girls no more then 1 ½ hrs to pack out… I am very glad we left early so they weren’t stuck waiting for us.

The rest of the day seemed to go better.  Will and I got more energy, but never feeling a 100% and sitting down whenever we could.  We took the girls over to R bar C Ranch where they went repelling and swimming.  Will and his brother in law took over long repel, and I was the only girl so I had the fun task of donn/doffing all the girls harnesses.  It was fun to see how they were all different.  Some were scared to go down…sat and watched for a long time…. Then finally went down, took off the harness and got as quick as they can off the cliff.  They others who really liked it went up to the long repel and had more fun cuz they weren’t scared.  

After that we drove the girls up to Taylor Ranch and headed home ourselves for some much needed sleep.  After 10 hrs of sleep we were feeling much better the next day and were starting to get our appetites back.   Besides the food poisoning, it was a really fun trip!  I would defiantly recommend the hike.  Even for a nice day hike it’s about 3 ½ miles in, and very quick hiking out.  So pretty!  I know AZ can be really hot at times and we don’t see a lot of green where we live, so it was fun to go up among all the green.  It kind of reminded me of NE following along the creek and green foliage.  Only, in NE there aren’t rocks on the trail :) 

Granola

So, I made granola this weekend, and kinda played around with ingredients from two different recipes.  Combining the two, this is what I used and I love it!  Using the apple sauce makes me feel a little bit healthier, and it seems to be a softer flavor without being so plain tasting.

5c Oats
1 c Wheat germ
1 1/2 c chopped nuts
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c brown sugar
1 c apple sauce
2 Tbsp oil
1/4 c honey

Add all ingredients in to crock pot and mix well.  cover and Cook on low for 4hrs.  Place a toothpick under the lid to let it vent.
Tips:
*I like to add white chips and dried cranberries while cooking to add more sweets
*If you like it chewy don't cook it as long, if you want it crunchy cook longer
*I spray my crock pot to just to make sure it doesn't stick to edges. 
*I sometimes add extra honey to give it more clumps

My Random Weekend...

This week work has been really slow, so I've been trying to find things to keep me busy.  My sewing machine is broken...so by the time the weekend came I was bored with reading, practicing the piano, scrap-booking...ect.  So, this is was my fun and exciting weekend...

Blueberries!

First, Friday I borrowed a dehydrator from my sister.  Then, I dehydrated strawberries and blue berries.  Sat. morning the strawberries were finished nice and crisp, and the blueberries were finished in the afternoon.  I am excited to take them on our backpacking hike this week!  Yum!

Kinda bummed that it didn't make much... 

oh well, more time to make more!

Cleaning up.  Laina, Annie, Brisa

Then Saturday, I invited my nieces over to play.  We had fun playing with finger paint, play dough, blocks, puzzles, and eating Popsicle (which is a must for an AZ summer). 

washing

Finally, as if my nieces didn't wear me out enough :) I was bored Sat. afternoon.  I remember my mom making fruit roll-ups (fruit leather) when I was young and LOVED it!  So, dragging my husband along, we went over to his dads and picked tons of yummy extra ripe peaches.  I went home, chopped, ninja-ed, blended, and cooked my fruit leather.  I used my recipe from this website..only I cooked it between 170-200 degrees. So, after cooking about 5hrs sat. night, and 3 hours Sunday morning, it turned out!  One of them cooked a little too long, so we broke that up to go with the dehydrated fruit.  The 2nd one turned out great!  I turned it into 4 nice chunky fruit roll-ups for a perfect snack!  I am so going to make more!

blending

Tips:  Spray the pan with cooking spray before laying down the plastic wrap.  Then, pour the mixture of stuff on top.  

I was able to wash, cut, blend, and have these 2 pans in the oven within a half hour.  So this is really quick an easy to get ready, then all you have to do is wait.....

in the oven

all done!

While I am kinda on the topic of making dehydrated stuff... and you might not know how much I LOVE food storage and I have been working on it... I have also been making lots of granola with my crock-pot and vacuum sealing it into quart size jars for one of my breakfast items for food storage.  I found my recipe from here.  When making it from here, it ends up kinda dry and plain.  So, I liked to add about 1/4c brown sugar to make it more sweet; I also add dried cranberries and extra honey so I can get more clumps out of it.  Oh!  And while comparing this recipe with others, one added chocolate chips, so I did that one time,  GREAT!!!  Chocolate chips is defiantly a must when I make my granola now.  I mean, how doesn't have a sweat tooth?