1st Annual Mushroom Extravaganza

Dear Love and Children,

     When Trey Daug and I were hiking back to the car after our six day adventure we saw lots of people hunting for mushrooms.  When we inquired about it they said it was mushroom season (that would explain the 2,562 mushrooms) and that they were specifically searching for Porcini mushrooms.  Oh my yum!  Porcini's are a gourmet mushroom with a nutty flavor and because they're extremely difficult to grow, fresh ones are very expensive.  

We had to wait a full week after our hike to venture out because life is just too darn busy, but one fateful Sunday we came home from church, changed into our mushroom harvesting gear, and drove to the mountains. 

Because we had seen so many people collecting the previous week and we saw lots of people that Sunday with overflowing bags of Porcini, we were worried the mountain would be wiped clean.  We only had to look for a short time before I found the first mushrooms!  We were pumped.

What a fun scavenger hunt, searching for those tasty treats.  The kids were in heaven and so were Trey and I.  We stopped to have a little snack we had packed and discussed what we should make with our harvest.  So many possibilities!  

Jonas found the biggest one of the day and he thought he was a rockstar, which pretty much, he was.

Before we went on our little adventure Trey had done some research into mushrooms so we would be sure to get the edible variety.  He sent me a link to an article about an author who was out harvesting mushrooms, which he had done hundreds of times before, accidentally took home some poisonous ones that he then cooked and fed to his family.  They had to go to the Emergency Room and horrible lifelong consequences resulted. 

Needless to say, I was a bit worried about our amateur mushroom hunting so once we got our harvest home we triple checked all of them and threw out any questionable ones.  The resulting bounty:

That night Trey made delicious Chicken Marsala with Porcini Mushrooms.

The following night he made Porcini Mushroom Ravioli completely from scratch.

He then topped it with fresh garden tomatoes and basil.  The most delicious meal ever!!!!!  He made so much that we ate it two nights in a row, froze the rest, and then had the Miller family over for a feast and we still had leftovers. 

He gets a little zealous with his cooking sometimes. 

One time he made homemade chicken noodle soup from scratch and we ate it every night for an entire week!  Haha, I love that man.

We still had quite a bit of mushrooms so I dried five trays full in the dehydrator.  The bounty that keeps on giving. We all enjoyed the mushroom process so much that we plan on making it a tradition. 

See you next year my loves, Me 





A visit from Santa

December 22, 2012

Dear Family,
     We went to Farmington the weekend before Christmas this year.  The always generous Foutz Family got rooms at a Hotel for all of us since they no longer have a house in Farmington.  It was a lot of fun.

The annual Foutz party was at the Hotel in their suite.  We were sitting in the room, stuffing our faces with yummy food when one of the kids started to throw a fit.  Some people started singing, "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" to you know, straighten out the child and scare them into being good when Santa burst into the room ringing his bells!  It's a tradition that the "real" Santa makes an appearance at every Foutz Christmas party and he brings a huge sack of gifts for everyone.  Jonas got to be Santa's helper and reach into his bag to get the gifts.

Atticus got a toy hunting rifle.

Clara got a fishing pole.

Sonora got a Bitty Baby doll that she named Laylah.

Jonas got a Star Wars Lego set.

When Santa comes to town everyone gets a chance to sit on his lap.

Trey got a wallet/ IPhone case.  He was super excited to see Santa this year.

I got an IPhone case too.

 Ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas!
Love, Me

Conference Time!

April 3, 2011

Dear Children,
    As always, conference was wonderful.  Because our last Conference Celebration was such a success we did it again this year.  I made you each your own Conference Booklet and presented it to you along with a new pack of Conference Crayons.  You were so excited!
  
I'm trying to come up the ultimate "C" conference foods to make our Conference Celebration complete.  I think I'm almost there...

Breakfast:  Chocolate Chip Pancakes (note to self: serve with whipped cream next year), Crispy bacon (we only have bacon for special occasions), and Cold orange juice (cold milk would be better).

Lunch:  Chicken Salad with Crackers.

Snack for Conference watching:  Make Carmel Corn next year (Maridyn's recipe...mmm)

Dinner:  sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna with  Creamy sun-dried tomato, asparagus and mushroom pasta. (These C's are obviously stretching it.  Dinner needs some tweakage... Couscous and ??)

Dessert:  Cheesecake pops.

We set the table with our best dinnerware and the whole day was meant to feel special.  The mood in our home was very lovely indeed.

I'm still debating as to wether or not we should wear our Sunday best for Conference.  Every other Sunday you usually keep your church clothes on all day so going around in PJ's actually made this day feel different.  It was a casual luxury.  Is that even possible?

Thanks for the great day.

Love, Mama

NOTE:  After talking to Papa I realized part of the reason today was so relaxing and enjoyable was because I didn't have to get myself and four kids ready while my husband was at church meetings.  Sunday best is definitely OUT.

A New Year

February 7, 2011 

Dear Children,

I finally got around to asking you our yearly questions and these were your answers:

Nora:
How old are you?  4
How much do you weigh?  4 pounds
How tall are you?  3 inches
What's your favorite color?  Purple
What's your favorite food?  Macaroni & Cheese
Who's your best friend?  Brandon.
What's your favorite thing to do?  Play with Play-doh.
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A mom.
What does your papa do all day?   Wrestle.
What does your mama do all day?  Hugs me.
What do you like best about papa?  He hugs me.
What do you like best about mama?  When she lays with me.
What do you like best about Clara?  She lets me play with Molly and Samantha.
What do you like best about Jonas?  He lets me play with him.

What do you like best about Atticus?  He plays with me.

What do you like best about yourself?  I'm funny.
What do you like least about yourself?  When my elbows are on the table.

Atticus:
What's your name?  Hello my name is Atticus.
How old are you?  I'm 2.
What's your favorite color?  Green
What's your favorite food?  Cookies.
Who's your best friend?  Jonas
What's your favorite thing to do?  My toys.

Clara:
How old are you? 6
How much do you weigh?  6 pounds
How tall are you?  6 inches
What's your favorite color?  pink
What's your favorite food?  couscous
Who's your best friend?  Lexin
What's your favorite thing to do?  Arts and crafts
What's your favorite subject in school?  Art
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A veterinarian.
What does your papa do all day?  Studies hard so he can get good grades.
What does your mama do all day?  Preschool.
What do you like best about your Papa?  He's nice to us.
What do you like best about your Mama?  Her Freckles
What do you like most about Nora?  She likes my Molly and Samantha dolls.
What do you like most about Jonas?  Sometimes he lets me play with his toys.
What do you like most about Atticus?  He's cute.
What do you like most about yourself?  My freckle.
What do you like least about yourself?  When I have an ugly attitude.

Jonas:
How old are you?  8
How much do you weigh?  80 pounds
How tall are you?  20 inches
What's your favorite color?  Gold
What's your favorite food?  Lasagna
Who's your best friend?  Kalden
What's your favorite thing to do?  Play video games
What's your favorite subject in school?  Library
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Scientist
What does your papa do all day?  Stays at the school and studies. 
What does your mama do all day?  Stays home and cleans the house.  
What's your favorite thing about papa?  He likes everything I like.
What's your favorite thing about mama?  Sometimes she gives me candy.
What's your favorite thing about Clara?  She always wants to play with me.
What's your favorite thing about Nora?  She likes to play Pokemon.
What's your favorite thing about Atticus?  He likes me.
What do you like most about yourself?  I always pick good games to play.
What do you like least about yourself?  I like everything about myself.


A few points I loved:
Nora, I never realized you were so hard core about your table manners!  
Atticus, It's very humorous to me that when someone asks you your name you reply, "Hello, my name is Atticus".  It's very unexpected coming from a two year old.
Clara, your favorite thing about yourself is your one freckle?  Really?  I was sure you would say you liked your fanciness best.
Jonas,  I think it's wonderful that you couldn't think of something you didn't like about yourself.  


Lots of love, Mama 

Conference Celebration

October 2, 2010

Dear children,

When I was growing up General Conference wasn’t that big of a deal at my house.  I’m embarrassed to admit, but I didn’t even know there was a Saturday session until I went to college.  We were told we had to watch one session on Sunday and that was all.  Just two hours.  I totally could have handled more.  My brothers?  I’m not so sure.

When I was in college I remember being invited to a young couples house in Silver City, NM to watch the Saturday and Sunday session.  They must have thought I was so weird when I said, “What?!  There’s a Saturday session?  Ooh, I’m so excited!  What time does it start?”  I went to their house for the weekend and in between sessions the wife made delicious food and we played games.  I LOVED it!  I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on my whole life!

Fast-forward through ten years of marriage and four kids later and I still love it.  Although I must admit, I haven’t made it as special as I would like.  I fluctuate between watching whole-hearted and just trying to hear one talk with four young ones around.  This year though, this year was different.

The week prior to Conference I made the three oldest Conference booklets that I found from varying sources on the Internet.  They were detailed and my hope was that they would entertain you long enough that I would be able to get something out of conference.  They were also geared toward trying to get you kids to listen to conference and learn something as well.  We had a talk on Friday night about the importance of conference and I presented you with your Conference books and a new pack of Conference crayons.  You guys were pumped!  We watched the Saturday morning session and it was absolutely wonderful to see you all fully engaged with your books and trying hard to stay reverent.

On Sunday morning we had Conference Casserole and chocolate milk for breakfast.  During Conference we pitched a tent with the door to the prophet, but it didn’t last very long because it was decreasing from the reverent atmosphere of yesterday.  You snacked on cookies and Cuties (tangerines) while you watched and worked on your books.

            One of the talks was about addiction and when Clara asked what it meant Jonas told her, “When you can’t get enough of something and you just want more and more so it drives you crazy.”  I thought that was a pretty apt description.

            When conference was over Jonas asked Clara if she wanted to play with him and she responded, “Well, I do want to play with you but I don’t think I should because then I might become addicted to it.”  

For dinner we had Chicken Enchiladas with corn and then cake for dessert.

I really tried to make Conference a time that you look forward to.  Did you notice all the “C” foods we ate for “C”onference?!  Oh yeah, Crazy and Cool.

Love, Mama