Christmas with the Hutchings

Christmas Eve was great. This is actually the first Christmas I have spent with my parents since I have been married. Most Utahans gasp at the thought, but my families big holiday is New Years. So we could care less if we saw each other on Christmas as long as we are together on New Years, which we have been for years and years. I consider Christmas Eve and Christmas morning a time to start and have traditions with my own little family, which right now consists of Ryan, little Jayna, and myself. So even though my parents were in-town we did the usual Hutchings family traditions. They are nothing special just a nice prime-rib dinner on Christmas Eve and a Christmas brunch. With two extra adults this year it kinda grossed me out how much food I make every Christmas just for the three of us. In years past we have always managed to find someone to join us for at least Christmas brunch though.

Dinner was wonderful. Ryan cooked the prime-rib perfect as usual. We made chipotle smashed potatoes, green beans, and a double batch of our favorite salad ( Salad De Maison ). After dinner everyone opened their Christmas Pajamas. That is everyone, but me. After I bought mine I had the shopping bag hanging on a door knob with the Pajamas in it, and a little certain someone with a cold blew her nose on my new pajamas. So mine were sadly already washed and put in my dresser.

Then we sang some Christmas songs with Jayna while she sat by the tree and jingled a chain of bells. It was fun to put her to bed knowing she had no clue about all the excitement that would take place when she would wake up.

Us adults played games the rest of the night and had homemade apple pie.

Christmas morning Ryan and I got a fire going down stairs, turned on the tree, got music playing and the video camera all setup and then woke everyone up to come open presents. Jayna actually slept in on Christmas morning, so we had to go wake her up too. Red on the other hand was already to go. Every year she somehow knows when it is Christmas morning. The presents can sit under the tree for weeks untouched by her, but when it is Christmas morning she hunts under the tree for her presents drags them out and goes to town opening them. She gets the present opening concept better than Jayna does. Jayna loved seeing the new toys and games she got, but didn't really get to into ripping the paper off to find them.

Ryan got me a much needed upgraded paper trimmer. So now if you receive an invitation to one of my parties you can admire the sharper crisper paper edges. I really am excited to use it. Heck, I cried a couple Christmases ago when I got a labeler. He also got me this super cute knit headband. I love it and can't wait to see how it looks after I get a haircut, since it even looks cute with my scraggly hair right now. I really need to pick up crocheting and knitting so I can make these for myself in every color.

I got Ryan two new tools for the kitchen. A mandolin and a chopper. So now he is looking for any excuse to slice and dice things. He also got a terabyte external hard-drive for the computer for christmas so we can store more movies with out taking up all the memory on our computer. So what does that mean for all of us? Movie nights!!!

We all got such wonderful fun gifts from family and friends too. So thank you everyone.

Our Christmas brunch was wonderful as always. We had a new addition of freshly juiced orange juice to the spread thanks to the millions oranges we received as a gift from our neighbor, and the kitchen aid juicer attachment I just had to run out and buy.

Jayna loved her playroom! We took video of her seeing it for the first time so I will try to post some of it if I can. She was so excited to see everything in it and even did a little dance. She was so excited to play with all the toys even though they were ones she has always had and played with. The new room made them all new to her again. She loves the playhouse, it was the hit of the room. She loves running in and out of it and saying hello to us through the windows. Ryan said she is just like me, because one of the first things she did while in her new playroom was pick up the little stools around the table in the middle of the room and take them into her playhouse and arrange them. He said we just can't have a house with out furniture, or go into a room and not rearrange it. It was really funny.

So Christmas was great. A fun lazy day just hanging out with family. Now I can stop cooking and baking until Thursday that is. Then it will all start up again with New Years and the great Lund fondue tradition.

Christmas Grocery Shopping Challenge

Christmas grocery shopping should be an olympic event. It takes just about as much preparation and physical exertion, I swear. Thank goodness I was kind to myself and had made and saved a master Christmas Eve and Christmas morning shopping list from last year. So all I had to do was make a few minor additions and hit print.

My mom and Jayna and I braved our way to the grocery store the day before Christmas Eve to get everything. It was crowded like I had expected, but was not too crazy, thanks to the fact that we did not go to Walmart. Jayna did really good considering how long it took us to find and get everything. We first went to the produce section and let Jayna help pick the produce and put the fruits and vegetables in bags for us. Tricks like that only entertained her so long though. So by the end of the trip we were just letting her do whatever made her happy. She ended up dragging one of the wet floor caution cones around with her all through the store. Then she started trying to crawl in it like it was a tent. By that point I could care less and just stood and took pictures of her. I mean really! The grocery trip was long for me so how could I expect her to just sit there in a cart contently that long. So I may have the kid dragging the cones around the store and getting dirty on the floor, but I for-sure do not have the kid screaming in the cart. Happy baby, Happy mom.

-4 Degree Overnighter

Ryan's company had their Christmas party this last week up in Park City (well actually Midway) at the Zermatt resort. It is a beautiful swiss style resort that is tucked back in a cute little neighborhood were the houses have a similar exterior style. We got a room and spent the night at the resort which was fun.

The room also had signature swiss style paintings and art. Most of my ancestors are from Sweden in-fact my maiden name of Lund is swedish and there is a town by that name in sweden, but it is pronounced differently there then we pronounce it here. I have often joked about how strong my swedish and dutch roots and heritage must be for me so many generations removed to be so addicted and attracted to things like Ikea. So my attraction to the look and feel of the resort was no surprise to Ryan or I.

Outside they had these cool ice sculptures which I guess they are making and creating for an ice castle they are going to have there. It looks like it will be really cool when they are finished.

Before the party we got to take Jayna on a horse drawn sleigh ride in the snow. We bundled her all up in her new snow suit and prepared to freeze. It was about 4 below when we went out for the ride. You could hardly even see her because we had her scarf over her nose and her coat hood pulled down. She loved it though and for the first half yelled "Weeeeee" and raised her arms up in the air over her head as if on a roller-coaster. She was pretty awestruck by the big white horses pulling us and she didn't seem to mind the cold like the rest of us. It was about a 30 minute ride around an open field and trail. It was picture perfect and had an old-fashion christmas feel to it.

The Christmas party was a very typical company party. It was very nice though and had great food catered by the resort. They had gifts they gave away with a drawing and lucky me Ryan won a message at a Park City Spa. So I will be headed back up in the near future. Jayna was well behaved at the dinner, at least as well behaved as a little girl that age could be. When she would get too many wiggles towards the end of the night we would get her a piece of cheesecake or chocolate cake, and that would keep her quiet for awhile. I think she ate about two whole slices all by herself. Heck it was a party, so we let her go wild with the sweets. Then before we left for the night we let her dance to the live music which she was very interested in. I am sure the party went on for hours after we left, but it had been a party enough for this little family.

The next morning we packed up the car in the 11 below weather and headed back down the canyon. We stopped for breakfast and did some additional Christmas shopping and called it a great time had by all.

It's Never too Late to Be Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation to California. We had not been out to California for 3 or 4 years so it was fun and exciting to see what had changed and what had stayed the same. We did a night drive out in hopes that Jayna would sleep through the long drive. She did fairly well despite the fact that she would wake up in random casinos and gas stations along the way. She probably thought she was having some crazy dreams or something. We pulled into Ryan's parents house early in the morning and the fun began. That is after we took a long nap.

Jayna loved playing with her Grandma Hutchings, playing on the stairs, washing dishes, and playing the piano. Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to babysit a couple of nights and one afternoon so that Ryan and I could relive our courtship days back in our old stomping grounds, go to the temple, do some Christmas shopping, and go to a movie. I think it was the most we had ever left Jayna in a single week. Before this trip we have only had maybe two date nights in the last 2 years. She does great though and never minds one or both of us being gone. She did start to catch on a little and was always asking where we were by the end of the week.

My favorite thing we did with Jayna on this trip was take her to Apple Hill. It was so fun to be able to take her someplace that I remember having such much fun at as a kid. It was one of those full circle moments in life. It was beautiful up in the hills and we bought our apples for our Thanksgiving apple pie there.

I had a list of places that we had to go to while on this trip. The most crucial being my two favorite sandwich shops. Beach House for the surf'n bird, yum yum, and La Bou for a turkey sandwich and dill dip with a sliced baguette. Huh, I can hardly type this without drooling. We also drove past all the houses I used to live in. The one in Granitebay and the one in Rosevile. Everything looked so different to me and it took me awhile to figure out what it was. It was the trees. They had grown so big and tall and shaded and lined all the streets so beautifully. When I lived in Granitebay it was a newer town with freshly built subdivisions with new landscaping and young seedlings supported by poles lining the streets. My Rosevile neighborhood looked the same as I remembered, in-fact I was surprised at just how well maintained all the yards and houses were. There were tons of kids playing in the court across from my old house. It was nice to think that the neighborhood had gone through a whole cycle and once again had young kids playing and running around. Our old house looked like it may have had no-one living in it or was a rental, because it actually was the least maintained out of all the house on the street.

I also had a blast shopping at the mall that I worked at for years. They had practically doubled the size of it and it had about ever brand name store imaginable in it. More than half the stores were ones we do not have and will probably never have in Utah. It is a good thing that mall was not that big when I worked there, I for-sure would have spent every penny I earned there. Even though I practically did anyway back in the day. Ryan asks me about once a year what happen to all the money I was making before we got married. I just ask him back if he thought I looked hot and dressed cute.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Ryan's aunt Gayla's house up in Pollock Pine. I have to say it was the best Thanksgiving dinner I have ever had. Everything was amazing! Her stuffing was the best, I will share the recipe on my other blog when I get it.

The other thing that I enjoyed about our vacation was getting a new perspective on snacks and meals watching Ryan's mom. Sometimes it is so easy to get stuck in a rut making the same old things that you always buy or are familiar with. Debbie had lots of nuts and raisins and fun little bowls of goodies she would put out during the day. We also made homemade sushi which turned out great and when we would have oatmeal she would have so many fun toppings out for us. So I made a little list of things I wanted to work into our food routine once I got back home. I am happy to say I have lots of new fun snacks in my pantry right now, and put more than brown sugar on my oatmeal in the mornings. Thanks Debbie!

Our time went by way to fast and before we knew it it was time to head back home. We will make it a point not to wait another 4 years before we head back out to California. We are thankful for such great family that is willing to have us come stay with them. Thanks again!

What We Have Been Up-To Lately...

Here is just a summary of what the Hutchings have been up-to lately.

Our huge tree out front is dropping its leaves and it is amazing. Our whole yard is just covered in golden leaves, and the tree still has a ton more leaves to shed. Jayna loves playing in the leaves and using her rack.

I think Jayna had an adverse reaction to her last vaccination, because it turned her into a wild girl. She actually did great at her doctors visit, and did not even shed one tear when she got poked with the needle.

Ryan and I did some wonderful planning and ended up having the Activity Day girls over to our house at the same time as the Teachers and Priests. It was a crazy night, but it went well. It made me happy and anxious at the same time to have all those kids running around the house.

I Pronounce this House Clean...

Ever since we moved into our new home the dishwasher has been my demise. The previous owners that foreclosed on the home took all the appliances and then some when they bitterly left the home. So the bank had just put in cheap appliances. We were okay with it knowing that the appliances were new and that we would slowly over the next couple of years upgrade them. The dishwasher however was anything, but a dish washer. It would leave food particles all over the dishes and everything had horrible caked on spots that I could hardly get off scrubbing it. My silverware was looking sad and dingy, and I just felt like the poor washings were taking there toll on all my kitchenware. I now finally lived in a house capable of entertaining lots of people and all my entertaining-ware looked like poo. Not except-able!

Ryan usually dose the dishes and I am very grateful to have a husband that does so, but he does do them his own special way. Mind you I clean dishes like I am hand washing them before I put them in the dishwasher, but Ryan thinks they just go straight in the dishwasher. So needless to say the dishwasher was causing a rift in our division of labor around the house. Ever time I would unload the dishwasher I would find myself stirring to angry at Ryan for not washing them good enough, and further despising the cheap white crank knob of a dishwasher we had. So finally I had had enough, and started my campaign for a new dishwasher. It took a couple lengthy discussions, but I finally convinced the Man that it would be better for everyone if we just solved this problem.

So I went back to my RC Willey man Lance Kingsford (he is the one that got us our refrigerator). If you have never heard our RC Willey story about our fridge you need to. Lets just say we are RC Willey fans for life, and I never thought I would ever say that. Lance found me a great Bosch Dishwasher in our price range and wrote me up a ticket because he was going out of town. We price compared at some other stores, and realized the Bosch one was our best deal. We went back to RC Willey to buy it, and they told us it was a floor model and that we would have to pick it up ourselves. I thought it was weird that Lance had never told me that it was a floor model, and it kinda threw a wrench into our thinking about buying it. We would no longer have the 14 day return or exchange and things like that. We eventually ended up buying it anyway, and later the next week Ryan picked it up and brought it home and installed it. The next day I got a call from Lance who had just go back into town. He said he did not know why they sold it to me like that, and gave me another $100's off my dishwasher. I had not even called or complained about it. I will find any excuse to buy something from Lance. He totally takes care of his customers.

I love my new dishwasher it is so cool, and does a great job at cleaning my dishes. The luster of my silverware is coming back and there are no-more feuds about dirty dishes.

Happy Birthday To You...

Saturday was Ryan's 29th Birthday, so we did the annual boy's night out. We went to the good old nickel arcade where we blew through nickels like no tomorrow and racked up the tickets playing awesome little kid games.



This time Jayna was able to walk around and explore so it was all new to her again. She loved going in the little rides and liked watching all the lights on the machines. She was a good helper at getting the tickets out when we would win, and I think we successfully avoided catching the swine flu from any of the dirty games.

I made my yearly treat bags for the boys so that they could have snacks while playing their video games, which they appreciated. Then when are thumbs and fingers were to sore to push another button we headed over to the Wing Coop to pick up some hot wings. I myself hate wings, but the husband loves them. After waiting for an entire hour for the two yahoo girls behind the counter to finish our order, after they made the fryer explode and boil over I hated wings even more. The boys thought they were worth the wait though.



Back at the house they zoned out watching UFC, while gnawing on bones. Sick, double sick. They each tried one of the really really hot wings and all about died. That was my favorite part. Then they hung out and played ping pong until two in the morning when I finally gave Ryan "the look". It was really fun! Ryan is lucky to have such good and loyal friends. So see everyone again next year same time, same place.

The Worth of a Daughter? Part II

Part I

My mom did a great job at the funeral. There was a viewing in the morning at a funeral home in Bountiful on main street and then a burial in Franklin Idaho. There was no service because my Mom and her Brother could not speak at it and no-one else would. So the night before my mom had me make up memory cards that people could write their memories of Shari on, and we also printed out life histories so people could take and read them at the viewing. I printed out and cut more than 50 of the memory cards, but only four people had memories to write down and they were really weird. Guess that is what happens when you are an mean old cuss.

My Mom has some of the most loyal supportive friends a girl could have. Karen Duke was one of the first people at the funeral, and she is the friend my Mom sent down to the funeral home Halloween night to check on her Mom for her. Cynthia Clegg and her Husband came up from American Fork to support her and let her have a shoulder to cry on. They are both just great and said the nicest things to me about my Mom.

I think my Mom cried at the viewing just because of the neighbors and church people that helped her so much as a youth. They were the people that lived in the houses thats doors she would run down the street pounding on when she was trying to get help to stop her parents knock out drag out fights. One neighbor didn't say much, but what she did say meant a lot to my Mom. The little white haired lady is blind now and got right up in my Mom's face holding it, and said "I know". It was just the acknowledgment that someone remembered how bad things were too, that touched my Mom. The other thing that really got the tears flowing even for me was when my Mom's mia-maide teacher showed up. She did not even know if my Mom was active and my Mom shared with me that she was a really big reason why she stayed so active during her child-hood. I just had to hug this little lady that made such a big impact for my Mom and our family. So next time you think your church calling is not important you can remember that it was a mia-maide teacher that made the difference in my Mom's life changing the course of her future.

Then in the middle of the viewing her brother that she has not seen since she was my age came. Now mind you we have been feed some crazy things about him from my Mom's mom over the years. She has told us he is in mental institutions, running from drug-lords in SLC, you name it.So when he showed up and was a cute little man in a nice suit we were pleasantly surprised. He shacked our hands and said hi, but I could tell he was standoffish and unsure of what to do. So I told him that I remembered him, and he got this shocked look on his face and said "you do?" I told him that as a little girl I remember saying goodbye to him at his dad's funeral. After I said that he just reached out and hugged me. You could tell it really touched him that somebody remembered him. It was sadly obvious too that their mom had successfully isolated them from one-another leaving them all alone to go their separate ways, with no chance of reconciling with each other. We learned that he has been out of a job for awhile and is having a hard time finding employment, that he is living with a couple over in the ward boundaries of our old ward over in Holladay were we lived within a minute from him for three years. Realizing his situation made us even more upset about their mom giving them nothing, because Kenidy could have used the house and the money to finally have a fair shot at life. He too seems like he has done better than where he came from, but possibly has typical problems from being a product of that kind of up-bringing.

My mom asked him why he thinks he was in trouble with their mom and he told the saddest story of why. He said that the only thing he can think of was this story that his mom has guilted and punished him for his whole life:

When he was two years old my Mom and him got the measles and at the same time their dad got sick. So the Mom took both of them up to their aunts house (the cousin who got every-things mom) to stay until they were better. A month or so later when she came to pick them up she called Kenidy to come to her and instead of running to his mom he ran to the aunt and grabbed her leg. His mom has never forgiven him for that and has used that story his whole life to tell him how selfish and ungrateful he is.

My mom herself can remember things she did when she was three that her mother never let her forget. If that is not the saddest story, I do not know what is. I just do not know what these poor kids could have done that was worth abandoning them their whole adult lives, or making them feel miserable about themselves. The fact that their mom too had one last jab to send their way and that someone is willing to carry it out is beyond my comprehension.

I hope that we can get to know Kenidy more and that he can know that he does have family that he can call in times of need. He needs to have a number in his back pocket and it needs to be his sisters. Kenidy left the viewing early. You can tell he is really lost and insecure. He also said that he did not know how to come to the funeral and represent his mother as her son if she never wanted him to be her son in the first place.

After the viewing we made the two hour drive to Franklin to the small old cemetery there. Just about everyone buried there is an ancestor of my Mom's in some way or another. It is a really picture perfect place. The whole town as you drive up on it is flat with farm land and gold colored fields and then to the left of town there is a small thick grove of trees that holds the cemetery in the middle of it. My dad dedicated the grave and a couple people shared odd memories of Shari and then we were done. My Mom mingled awhile and I took pictures of some of the old grave sights for her. We just let Jayna run around the cemetery, and there was another little girl there that she played with too.

Call me weird but since the day I started getting into photography back in high-school my favorite or ideal place I would like to take pictures would be a cemetery. I just think they hold such history and have the most interesting energy in them. I love it. Like I said though I am weird. Ryan hates anything about old people or death.

So everything is done with though, but I think my parents are going to look into contesting the will. In-fact they have not even seen a copy of it yet which is crazy. So If that cousin thinks she is withholding money from two adults that don't need or deserve it she is wrong.

She is withholding it from two poor kids.

One that was a survivor and ran down the street and sought out refuge in others, and one that was a victim and shut himself up in his room writing poems and listening to load music to drown it all out.

The Worth of a Daughter?

I know this is long, but I think it will be worth reading...

What is the worth of a daughter? Does it change if you have disagreements? Does it change if you are not as close to them? Does it change if she lives a different life than you would want her to? As little sweet Jayna sits in my lap as I write this post I can not imagine her worth in my eyes changing over anything. She is my world, she is my gift from heaven, she is my little baby girl. I am sure we will have are moments, and I do not know what the future holds for her or us. I know she will have her agency to choose things for herself in life, but I have and work everyday to grow the kind of love with her that will withstand the trials of this life. Some of that love I feel is just instilled in me. It is just something I posses as a woman, I feel I have that love for my children before they even come here. That is why I do not understand the following.

Lots of you are familiar with the circumstances of my mothers up-bringing. She was a poor child most of her life with two alcoholic parents that divorced early on in her child-hood. She has stories to tell of wearing her aunts bath slippers to school, because they were the only shoes she could get. Stories of having to entertain her drunk father on the front lawn in fear that he would brake the house windows again leaving them cold during the winter. Stories of thinking her middle name growing up was s**t head because she heard the phrase so often. Stories of her mother calling my father during their engagement to tell him that she was a slut and that he didn't know who he was marrying. Stories of her mother disowning her over her choices as a youth to join the church and live a better life. Now my mother has always laughed these stories off, and has told them with great humor, but they are insights into the harsh reality that was her life no matter how they are told.

I myself have probably met my Mom's mom a dozen times or so that I can remember. My memories mostly consist of my brother Craig and I sitting on her living room floor playing with old cigaret lighters. That is until my dad would order us to the car snapping us out of our child-minded daze to realize that our Mom was in a heated argument with her mother, of which my Dad was going to have none of it. So needless to say growing up I always thought I only had one grandma which was my Dad's mother. My Mom would contact her mom every couple of years or so, or if there was a death in the family or big news to share. My mom faithfully would send christmas cards to her and pictures of us kids, but we never would receive anything in return. In-fact the only thing I have ever received from her was fifty dollars for my wedding, which was a shock and quit generous considering. My mother also has one sibling, her brother Kennedy whom she has not seen since she was my age at her fathers funeral. She has asked for his information over the years wither it be for weddings or christmas cards, but her mother would never give her the information she requested. So as years past I think my Mom gave up, got over it, and moved on. There are only so many things you can do or say to someone who wants to be as bitter, mean, and lonely as her mom wanted to be. It is sad to waste a life-time, and misery loves company, but my Mom wanted more than that.

Since my Mom has little contact with her mom I have always asked her about the inevitable. "How will you know if your mom dies?" her answer has always sadly been, "I don't know, I think her neighbor will probably call me." Well this last Friday we found out. Friday night before a Halloween party my Mom received a call from a child-hood girlfriends mother asking her where her mom was. My mom had no idea what she was talking about, and the friends mom had no idea of the history between my Mom and her mother. It was embarrassing for her to relay to she is not really in-contact with her mom, and would not know where she is. The friends mom explained that Shari (my moms mom) had been in the hospital for the last two weeks and had been moved, but that no-one knew to where. My mom called me and I called the hospital that she had been at, but they no longer had record of where they had sent her. A few phone calls later my Mom found out where she was and found out that everyone in the family had known of her failing health and was told by her mom not to call her or her brother. Knowing her mom it was a last guilt trip, to see just how long it would take her rotten kids to find out that she was in the hospital. My mom sent a family friend that lives near the rest home down to see her and give them her information since she is next-of-kin. Her friend reported that her mother was unconscious and that the doctors said she had taken a turn for the worse two days earlier. My Mom then decided that she was not going to hurry out to visit her mom since it had been her wishes not to see her. My mom explained to me that she was at peace with not going, because her last conversation with her mom was a decant one, and was when she called her to tell her that Jayna had been born and that she was a great-grandma. Then a few hours later her cousin Toni called her to let her know that her mom had past away. My mom was also told that her mom left everything to Toni and gave her and her brother each a $1. That's right a dollar.

Now my Mom by no means needs the money, but I do not care who you are or what your relationship is with your mother that is a slap in the face. It was just one last way her mom could tell her she was good for nothing. So as I type this my Mom is up at her childhood house that contains all her memories of life, with her cousin and her cousins lawyer going through pictures and things. Having to ask for permission to copy childhood photos, and being told she cannot even have a cast-iron cooking pan. Whether they are good memories or bad memories they are my mothers. They are the rooms that she hid in when her parents fought. They are pans she learned how to cook with as a little girl. They are the pictures she is in with her father and mother. They are the things that only her and her brother are owed or deserved after having to endure half a life-time of sad and less than perfect memories.

I personally think my Mom should just frame the dollar with a little quote underneath it that reads "I survived having Shari Logan as my mother and all I got was this lousy dollar". But my Mom is not handling it with anger like most of us would feel justified in doing. No, she is up there right now being as sweet as can be, helping as much as she can. Why? Because that is how my mother has learned how to survive all her life. She has survived by turing bad into good and negative into positive. She has survived all that has come her way, by showing charity and love to those around her the best she knows how. The other alternative would have been to live an ugly life of bitterness, hate, and loneliness like her mother did.

So Mom I thank you. I thank you for having the buck stop at you. For knowing and wanting a better life for you and your children. For sacrificing relationships with your family to make a happier life for me and my family.

Your mother may only think you are worth giving a dollar to, but your Heavenly Father thinks you are worth giving the world and eternity to. I love you.

So I ask you, what is the worth of a daughter?

And the Winner is...

Ryan! Ryan won the ward chili cook-off. I was really excited for him, but jealous because I did not even place. What's up with that? So he got a bottle of sparkling cider and his name will go up on the plaque in the hall. He said that next year he will not enter so that I have a chance of winning. Thanks. My spider-web cupcakes turned out really good, way better than I expected. They were gone in two seconds, so I did not even get one. Oh, well.



Jayna dressed up in her little pretty witch costume and I did her make-up, but by the time we got there she had smeared it all over her face. Guess mascara and a 19 month old don't mix. What can I say I was a makeup artist for 7 years, you need mascara. She loved putting on the make-up though. I could not believe how well she sat there. She would even close her eyes for me while I put her eyeshadow on. I think I should do her make-up during church that way we would be able to sit the whole time.

Jayna loved running around with all the kids at the party. She thinks she is such a big girl when she is around all the older kids. It's cute.

Chili Wars

The chili war has officially begun! I am laughing my head off right now, because it is 12:00 at night and we are having chili panic at our house.

When we went to our new ward we noticed a plaque in the hall next to the bishops office that was titled Cimarron Ward Chili Cook-off Winners. It has engraved plates with the winner of each year on it. We were excited that our ward was so into their chili cook-off, because Ryan and I both come from families that have ward award winning chili recipes. So when the sign up sheet went around in church to sign up to bring chili to the cook-off / halloween party I signed both of us up. So not only are we in competition with the ward, we are in competition with each other. I don't know what's worse.

Ryan started his chili tonight since the recipe calls for it to sit over night in the refrigerator which is what has triggered the chili panic. Earlier this week I told Ryan that we needed to get another big soup pot so that we could take both the chiles to the party. Then I decided that I wanted to get two cheap pots since ours are new and I have had whole crock-pots broken at church events. So when we went to Walmart the other night I saw some of those kettle looking pots (almost like the ones you do canning in) that are speckled, so I bought two. They are kind of tall and are 12 quarts, but I did not think anything of it.

Well, Ryan has made a single patch of his chili and has waited two hours for it to simmer and then transferred it into one of those pots and it only fills it about 3 inches. Now he is running to the store to buy more ingredients for his chili, because in his words "It looks so stupid". It really does look stupid though. It looks like he made enough chili for two people to eat it. I am having him get more of my ingredients too, so that I can double mine. A single batch of my recipe is a pretty good amount (way bigger than Ryan's single batch), the Lund's always make big serving of food for some reason.

I have a feeling it is going to be a very late night, since he is planning on making another batch and it has to simmer for two hours. Now I hope he wins so that my lack of sleep will have been for something. I already caught him trying to put my dried onion flakes into his chili, so I better keep at least one eye open tonight so that I do not get sabotaged.

Tomorrow I will be making my spider web cupcakes for the ward party too. So I will be posting about that on the Bird and the Berry. Cross your fingers that we make it through tonight and do well at the chili cook-off.

Double Trouble

I'm not sure we are headed in the right direction here.

Weekend in Review: Walmart / Leaves

Walmart Experience-

Walmart has to be one of the most frustrating places to shop especially when you have a kids. Saturday we all went to Walmart to pick up our groceries for the upcoming week. I knew it was going to be a great trip when I pulled into the parking-lot and saw a full grown women in a superman shirt and matching cape. We had a long list, but were confident we could bust it out before Jayna would get stir crazy. We cruised through all the isles and the produce department and had one last stop at the deli to pick up some lunch meats and pepperoni for homemade pizza. It took forever! We waited so long that we even had to resort to getting Jayna one of those little cartons of fishy crackers and let her open and eat them before we even bought them. There was only one person in front of me that ordered two things. The problem was that there was only one old lady working the whole deli and she was slow as molasses. I was frustrated, but at the same time felt bad for the poor grandma that she even had to be working at Walmart in the first place, and that they had left her there all alone. It seriously must have taken me at least 20 minutes to get the 3 things I needed from her, and that was after I had already waited 10 minutes for the person before me. I could have gotten through a cutting table line at Joanne Fabrics on a sale night faster. Half way through my deli experience I told Ryan to go get inline at one of the checkout stands, because we all know how fast those go. When I met up with him to my surprise he was close to the front of his line. We got all the stuff up on the belt, and then something strange began to occur. Something that has never ever happened to me at Walmart. The food started flying of the belt and into the little plastic bag carousel with record speed. Ryan and I both immediately noticed the strange phenomenon we were witnessing. Ryan hurried over to grab a bag and upon touching it the bagger said very seriously "I'm not done with that one". Ryan took a step back and was like okay okay I will leave you to your work. Then upon permission we loaded our bags into our cart. Ryan told the checker that he had never seen anyone at Walmart bag that fast, there was a big pause and we thought he didn't hear what Ryan had said, but then he replied "I'm only going half the speed I usually go." We were trying so hard not to just bust out laughing. It was so funny. After we left we thought that we should have given him a tip for doing such a great job. The other thing we noticed was that all our bags were evenly distributed, which again never happens at Walmart. Usually I find every can I bought in the same bag. So if you ever find yourself at the Walmart off Redwood Road I highly recommend getting in my man Kevin's line.




Playing in the Leaves-

Sunday afternoon we all went out front to play on the lawn since the sun was out and shinning. Ryan got Jayna her little rack and he grabbed one for himself and started showing her how to rack up the leaves. Jayna looked so cute all bundled up trying to rack the leaves. Ryan would fill his rack up like a shovel and toss the leaves up in the air so that they would rain down on her. She loved it! It was a real moment for me to see her experience the fall leaves for the first time. She play in them and was curious about how they felt and what she could do with them. She would crinkle them up in her fists, or throw them up in the air like she had seen Ryan do. She would jump in them or bloop herself in the middle of the big pile laughing. It was so cute and beautiful to have my whole family just outside playing with the leaves in the crisp autumn air. I realized that this was what it was all about. I brought Jayna here to this earth so that she could experience wonderful fun things like playing in the leaves that she just wouldn't be able to experience anywhere else. I hope I will remember my fall leaf moment when I get those nervous thoughts about what this world is going to be like for her and her family, because Heavenly Father has given us so many beautiful and wonderful things on this earth, and they are still here and still stand as reminders of his love for us.

Wouldn't We All

I have a little cupcake making play kit that I have Jayna play with while I am making cupcakes in the kitchen. It is really cute. It has eggs, butter and the works, so she has everything mommy has to make cupcakes. This-morning we were doing our cupcake making routine and she was begging for batter while I was scooping it into the cupcake liners. So I poured some into her little cupcake pan and she began licking it out. Wouldn't we all like to fill up a cupcake pan and just like it out? I know sometimes I would like to. Lucky chick!