Deliciousness

Shish Kabobs

We had the most fabulous dinner the other night, I wish you all could have partaken of it's deliciousness! I decided there is nothing better than tasty & tender meat, grilled with healthy & flavorful fruit & veggies on a plate together paired with some good rice. I inherited this recipe from my good friend Ashley's mom & boy, would I love to cook & bake as well as her someday- You really won't be dissapointed with this meal & it will be sure to impress. The meat is kind of salty & sweet, but is toned down with the rice & extras. So act now while a lot of the meat is on sale with the big football game coming up!

Kabobs on the Grill

Marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 TBSP Honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup water

For Kabobs: (Note - I added some of the things we used)
1 lb. meat - shrimp, beef, chicken, pork
1/2 lb. mushrooms (yuck, sorry, didn't use that)
1 bell pepper
1 zucchini, sliced
1/2 pineapple, chopped & cubed
Cherry tomatoes

Mix all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Cut all meat & vegetables into chunks and then place into marinade (not the pineapple or tomatoes, just add these when you are ready to skewer). Allow to sit at least 2-3 hours (all day if possible). Then skewer with kabob sticks, that have been soaked in water, and place on the grill until meat is thoroughly cooked, about 12-20 minutes. Serve with rice or noodles. The amounts can be varied according to the number of people to be fed.

So I doubled this recipe because my philosophy is "you love this meal, you already have the ingredients & are doing all the work, why not make a lot so you can enjoy again later?!" I bought about 1 big steak & 1 lb. of boneless pork loin chops, doubled the amount of vegetables I bought & doubled the marinade. 1 pineapple was plenty for all that I did, I still only used half of it. I don't know what it is but pineapple is AMAZING grilled. It has this toasty yet sugary taste to it and it was so good with the pork. You could omit or add any other veggies you would like. Just know the cherry tomatoes turn pretty soft but they are good if you like cooked tomatoes. Just be careful when you are taking this off the skewer because they will squirt you:) Hope you enjoy it!

Christmas Vacation

So I am quite a bit late, writing about Christmas and all but I had to post just some of the pictures to show that we had a lot of fun with all our family in AZ. Last year I was prego and we decided that it would be best to stay home since I didn't know when the little girlie was coming. Even though it was memorable and good, it was just SO much fun being home this year & I think I appreciated it that much more. We really have such a blast with both sides of our families and we remembered quickly how busy life gets, even on vacation, with so many parties and fun festivities!

Our Udall party - We celebrated a couple days early for Doug & Sarah since they were leaving to go see her family in Utah. I am so glad they got to go but we sure missed them over the break!!

Sarah & cutie Lincoln - I just love that hat her sister made for him!

Auntie Em with Ruthie @ the Millett Party

Ruthie's first hayride at the Millett party! So excited she got to take part on such a fun tradition.

"The cousin train"

This year for Christmas Eve, we started a new tradition (in addition to our fun other ones) of making sugar cookies BUT with a twist! You draw each others names and then you have to decorate that cookie like the person's name you drew. It was so much fun & made for some good laughs! We did this last year with some of our cousins in Cali and I thought we could start it back home too. Everyone was concentrating very hard.

We asked Grandma Freeman to be the judge & my favorite comment of hers for the night was, "Who's is this mess of a cookie?", referring to the cookie Jeff made! haha Oh I love her.

His cookie really was a mess...

Me, made by Craig: Notice the little red personage is Ruthie, my "RD" badge & I'm covered in fruits. ha Loved it!

Craig, made by Jen: What he was wearing that night, but it got a little smudged thanks to Ruthie.

Fun times playing Rock Band

Ruthie, ready to open gifts! Isn't she cute!? Like a little present at the bottom of the tree...

Merry Christmas! Early in the morning!

Ruthie's fun present from Grandma U.

Petting Mules @ the Freeman's

My mom got a hunting jacket for Christmas from my Dad....I thought it was a joke...but she was honestly excited. SO funny:) I guess she wanted one for when the ride the Rhino, makes sense but still funny.

Ruthie got a fun car from Grammie!! She loves to push and ride it -

Grandpa helping with more fun presents

Last but not least, the newly weds, back just in time to celebrate Christmas with us all! We sure love them & the addition of Jared to the fam:) Did I mention that they moved into our old house by the temple? So fun! I hope they have as many fond memories in that old house as we do:)

Card Table Fort

So this was quite the project over my Christmas break! Let's just say that I was sewing like mad before we left and then the whole week before Christmas. Luckily it all came together thanks to my dear mother who always seems to save me when I take on too much:) What a wonderful mom I have.

So I decided that it would be so much fun to make a card table fort for my 2 nieces after we found out that we had Andrew & Amanda this year for Christmas. It is basically a sewn house that you can throw over your card table any time and it is 0 hassle! No more throwing blankets over the table, you have a ready to go house! Cute idea huh?! I wanted to make it because I always try and make something that I would want in hopes that the other person would really like it...I don't know if that makes sense but the other person usually likes it!? I got my ideas to make this from these blogs:
Corduroys Closet
Homemade by Jill
Make it & Love it

Of course I didn't make this up on my own! Those blogs are all some of my favorite crafty blogs to go to:) Mine isn't as extensive as some of them but thought it still turned out to be a fun house!

The mail box opens and closes, the door just hangs down and there are also "blinds" that can be rolled up or let down. That's Lilly taking a peek outside!

This is one of my favorite sides - the apple tree! All the apples can be plucked off and put back on! If I had more time I would have made a bucket to fill - next time perhaps.

All the flowers you see can be "plucked" out as well! They are all bendy because I put pipe cleaner in them, I just love those little flowers. I am sure they are scattered all over Amanda's house by now. Not seen is the 3rd side, there is one more window and I put a flower bed beneath it full of, yep, more flowers! I just left the back side blank but the other blogs had such darling ideas for a garden! The only change I would make for next time is that I would make it all out of felt. I made the house walls out of regular cotton material and it just made it more time consuming to work with.

Overall I loved how it turned out though! I hope it is providing lots of fun for the girls and lots of free time for Andrew & Amanda:)

Picture Perfect Wedding

Jen's Wedding: December 18, 2010
We made it down to Mesa late Friday night just in time to say good night to Jen & to wake up the next day to a busy yet fun wedding day on Saturday! It was so fun to see Jen & Jared married in the temple Saturday morning - I have seen many beautiful weddings but this one was one of my favorites. The spirit was so sweet, the message that was shared was just perfect & profound by President Fulkerson & it was so neat being there with ALL my siblings in the temple. There is nothing more perfect than a temple wedding. And nothing more wonderful than being there with all your family. I must say it was a little hard for me seeing my baby sister so grown up but I still enjoyed it all. The luncheon was a blast - Emily & I sang our traditional funny song about Jen & Jared to "Can you feel the love tonight". It was by far our best out of all the weddings we have performed at (A whole 2:) That was followed by the most gorgeous receptions held at the stake center. I thought it was the prettiest church reception I have seen so far too! Maybe I am just biased but her wedding had a lot of my favorites?? The pictures don't really give it justice once it was all lit up and the lights dimmed but maybe you'll get the picture:) She kept telling me the theme was "classic vintage" and I think it was just perfect!
We sure love you Jen & Jared!!

Can I just say that Jen's dress was AMAZING! I will have to find a better pic. Of course she has the perfect body for any dress though-

Loved the food tables!

The "sisters" shot - Oh how I love these ladies!! I'm so grateful that we are all best friends.

What a handsome boy!! What a beautiful girl!!

All the my little cousins & Ruthie

The last dance with cousin CJ - too bad their related! And never mind the ripped tights in the picture....we partied hard!