The Joys of Life

Calling Gramma The phone rang early one Sunday morning, and all I could hear was a baby cooing in the background . . . then a beep, beep, beeeep, beep - and I knew Ashton had found his mother's cell phone and had hit our speed dial number.

Then a couple of days after that, the phone rang about 8:00 a.m. I said, "Hello," and this little voice said, "Hi, Gwamma, How are you? . . . then yelling and I presume running, he said, "I've got Gwamma on the line, I've got Gwamma!" It was James, who is not quite two years old yet, but he can talk a blue streak and quote pages from his favorite books! His Mom reads to him a lot.
Charlie calls me occasionally to tell me about his day at school or to see when he come and stay at Grandma and Grandpa Ray's house. And our Sunday is always made perfect when we get to Skype with our Illinois bunch. Grace will sing us her favorite songs and Grant is patient for a few minutes and will run off to play, but we can occasionally see him in the background. And Jacob and Sydni just called us tonight to tell us that they can come to St. George with us this week-end to help celebrate Aunt Tiffany's birthday.

I love being a Grandmother!

Angela Schwindt said, "While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."
And grandchildren just add to the joy and education of life.

Freezer Meals

Brittany, Danielle, Arianne, and I (and Tiffany who was in and out all day) got together almost two weeks ago to do freezer meals again. This time we did: Honey Lime Chicken, Bird's Nest Pie, Beef Stroganoff, Lasagna Casserole, Chicken Tortilla Fingers, Hawaiian Teriyaki Burgers, Tuna Noodle Casserole and Chicken Broccoli. Brittany also suggested that we each bring enough soup for everyone to take home a quart or so . . . So we ended up with eight meals plus four different soups: Broccoli Cheese Chowder, Cream of Potato, Kids Favorite Vegetable Round-Up, and a Tortellini soup.

Arianne brought this recipe for Hawaiian Teriyaki Burgers, Ray and I have tried them already and they were scrumptious! I am ready to make a huge batch to have on hand in the freezer. Here is the recipe:

Hawaiian Teriyaki Burgers
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped red or green bell pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger root
1 can (8 ounces) pineapple slices, reserving 1/4 cup juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 Tablespoons teriyaki sauce
4 hamburger buns
Combine ground turkey, bread crumbs, bell pepper, green onion, ginger root, 1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice and salt; mix gently but thoroughly. Form meat mixture into four 1/2-inch-thick patties. Label and freeze

When ready to serve: Grill over medium coals 10-12 minutes or until meat is no longer pink and internal temperature reaches 165°F. Use Barbecue Turner to turn burgers once during cooking. Baste with teriyaki sauce using Barbecue Basting Brush during last 2 minutes of grilling. Grill pineapple slices 5 minutes, basting with teriyaki sauce. Grill buns to warm; remove using Barbecue Tongs. Serve burgers on buns; top with pineapple slice.

The guys kindly took care of the children so we could work a little faster, with a few less interruptions. They took the children to the park that afternoon and they all had a wonderful time.


Apparently, according to Papa Ray, the day had its "ups and downs." As demonstrated here by Brett, James and Jacob.



Ally, who is nearly always good natured, enjoyed the swings and the sunshine.

Sitting down on the job, eh? Do you guys work for the government or what??? Ray, Cory and Hunter

Damien, a great dad, by the way, is out mixing it up with all the kids.

Charlie and Jacob playing soccer against Ashton, Kourtni and Demo.




We're just checking out the summer fishing . . . Ashton and Brett

Then, later that evening we celebrated Brittany's BIG 30th with taco soup, salad . . . and she needed a little help blowing out all those candles!

My Latest Project

We so enjoyed our two trips to Michigan and the Great Lakes; therefore I decided I wanted to design a room in our home with a nautical theme . . . so we are currently painting the downstairs bedroom, hallway and bathroom (well, at least we have the walls all primed - the painting still needs to be done . . .)

So meanwhile, I designed (with the help of some coloring book pages) some applique pillows for the bed, inspired by some light houses and sailboats that we saw on our trip . . . and I just finished the lighthouse one today. I did the sailboats last week.

I will post the finished room, once it is painted and we can put it all together.
But these pillows were lots of fun!