What a weekend!

We had such a fun 3 day weekend! We were able to see my parents and Aaron's family and even squeeze some time with friends in there. Aaron, Loralye, and I all had a fabulous time! I have oodles of pictures too, so brace yourself...

My parents drove in on Thursday night and kept Loralye with them at the apartment on Friday. Allen let me leave work a couple hours early and we went shopping at the Venetian and the Fashion Show Mall for a while and then came home, went swimming, watched Hatari!, and went to bed.

Papa, Loli, and I freezing to death (but still having fun!) in the apartment pool. It was 100+ during the day, but the pool temperature drops like crazy as soon as the sun isn't touching it.

Trying to get Papa to take her out of the cold pool.

Once out of the pool, all she wanted to do was play along the edge of it.
Peek-a-Boo!

She's becoming such a little lady :)

Back in the pool and ordering Papa around.

Out again and ready to go back to the apartment for a bath and bedtime!

Bye bye!

On Saturday we lounged around a bit in the morning, went shopping again (the girls went to the outlet mall and the boys went to Fry's), went to dinner at Famous Dave's, and went to a Las Vegas 51's baseball game (mainly for the fireworks show at the end). Thankfully Loralye slept in 2 hours later than normal that morning because she didn't get to bed until about 11 o'clock that night!

Feeding Molly some "breakfast". She loves Molly, which I love because I've had her since I was 13 months old.

Riding on daddy's shoulders into the ball game.

Sitting on Papa's lap watching the game.

Sharing a Cherry Garcia ice cream bar with daddy.

I thought my parents were staying here until Monday, but they changed their plans so they wouldn't be stuck in too much traffic and headed back home on Sunday as Aaron and I headed off to church. We had some good friends over for dinner and dessert that night instead. We love the Jensens and are so glad that they live right across the street :)

On Monday we went to Aaron's parent's house for a BBQ and swimming. Aaron's sister Cynthia and her hubby were in town, so we had almost his whole family there (minus a little sister who is at girl's camp).

Getting into the pool with Grandpa.

After the first couple minutes out there she mostly wanted me to hold her, so I don't have any pictures of her playing in the pool. But I do have a couple cute ones from after she was done...

Touchdown!!

Applauding herself.

My sweet pretty girl.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our weekend an incredible one!

We love you all!!

Hope.

As I am sitting in the office feeling sorry for myself, as I do most days, that I am here and not at home caring for my daughter and my home as so many of my mom friends are, I decided to seek out a little help. I quickly found that help on LDS.org and thought that I should share it with all of you in case there is someone else out there who, like me, needs to be reminded that there are good things to come.

That there are always good things to come.

Good-Things-to-Come

I do belong at home. A mother's role is in the home. But sometimes life doesn't happen just as it should. I am blessed beyond measure to have a job that not only keeps us from drowning in our debt, but that allows me to have my daughter with me always. Some days are harder than others. Some days I sit here and cry because I don't think I can handle being here for one more second. But I know that through the Lord's help, I can handle it. There is hope. This time in my life is just a second compared to all that lies ahead. I have so many good things in my life now and there are still so many good things to come.

Santa's Gift Shoppe Giveaway!

One of my dear Sunday School teachers has a fabulous gift shoppe blog! She is so talented and she is having a giveaway right now for tiles with vinyl lettering on them. Love it! Check her out!!!

http://santasgiftshoppe.blogspot.com

Lasagna Recipe

I've had a request for the lasagna I mentioned in my previous post, so this is for Dyanna and anyone else who is interested :) I found this on one of my favorite blogs (For the Love of Cooking) and modified it a bit. FYI.. This makes a big ol' 9x13 size lasagna and mine overflowed a bit. I loved everything in here, so I wouldn't want to take anything out, but I would suggest using a deep dish.

Roasted Turkey and Bell Pepper Lasagna

Roasted Garlic and Basil Marinara

12 roma tomatoes, quartered

1 sweet yellow onion, in large chunks

1 head of garlic, broken up with skins on

1 Tbsp olive oil

dried basil, dried oregano, salt, and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Spread the tomatoes, onion, and garlic over sheet. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle basil, oregano, salt, and pepper on top. Toss vegetables to coat in oil and herbs. Roast 30-40 minutes until veggies are soft. Peel skin off garlic. Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Place in a pot and simmer 1-2 hours.

*This can be replaced with a jar of your favorite marinara sauce if you don't want to make your own.

Turkey Mixture

2 cups roasted turkey, shredded (I used a little Jennie-O oven roasted turkey breast)

2 bulbs of roasted garlic (Place bulbs with skins on on a square of foil, drizzle with olive oil, and fold edges of foil up to make a completely sealed bundle. Put in oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes and then remove skins.)

1/4 sweet yellow onion, finely diced

3 bell peppers, finely chopped

dried basil, dried oregano, salt, and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Ricotta Mixture

1-32oz container of ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

dash of nutmeg

dried basil, dried oregano, salt, and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Bringing it all together...

9 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked per instructions on box and drained.

1 - 1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

3 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Layer a deep 9x13 pan in this order (I just eyeballed all of this):

• just enough sauce to cover the bottom
• three noodles
• 1/2 of the ricotta mixture
• 1/2 of the turkey mixture
• mozzarella
• sauce
• three noodles
• remainder of ricotta
• remainder of turkey
• mozzarella
• sauce
• 3 noodles
• remaining sauce
• remaining mozzarella
• parmesan
• finish with a little dried basil and/or oregano if you wish

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Lazy Weekend

We had such a fabulous weekend! We cleaned the house a bit, did some laundry, I spent 3 hours making my first lasagna (roasted turkey and bell pepper whole wheat lasagna with homemade roasted garlic and onion marinara... it was to die for! Which is fortunate because after 3 hours of working in the kitchen, I would have had a temper tantrum if it didn't taste amazing.), and I didn't have to leave the house for anything except church. Normally I like to go out on the weekend, but since our weekends for the next two months are all 100% full, I loved having a laid back weekend with my love and our bunny.

Loralye is becoming less of a baby all the time. She just needs to learn to speak English now and we'll have a full blown little girl. She loves to color, "read" books, put together her farm puzzle, talk on the phone (any phone, or anything that looks like a phone) really loudly while laughing and making grand arm gestures with her free hand, take care of her baby dolls and stuffed animals, help me with the laundry (including putting dirty clothes in the dryer if I accidentally leave the laundry room door open), and talk baby nonsense non-stop. We love our little chatter box :)

Calico Basin

This past Saturday evening we went to Calico Basin. It's just west of town before the Red Rock park. Everything in Calico is so green and there is a lovely cool breeze. I actually felt a bit depressed when we had to leave. It was almost like being back home. The air even felt a little less dry. Anyways, I brought along my camera and shot a few pictures of our darling daughter. Note to self (and anyone else planning a trip to Calico): Bring a stroller. Loralye did okay most of the time, but the walkway is made up of unsealed wood and every time she sat down she got a splinter. Anyways, here are my favorite pictures from the evening.

All along the walk way were little resting points with signs about wildlife or plants. Loralye sat down here and wouldn't come with us. We started walking away and said bye bye to her and she just gave me this smile...

Stomping like daddy.

Taking a break for crackers and milk...

It was so green out there! I loved it!

After a diaper and clothes change we headed home for bed. All that walking wiped her out!

17 Months

I have not been in the blogging or picture taking mood lately. I don't know why, but that's the way it is right now. Loralye turned 17 months old yesterday and I managed to get a couple pictures of her before bath time last night. She has been sick the past couple of days so the only way I got pictures was turning on a movie that makes her laugh every time... Monsters, Inc. The very beginning is a little scary: a child going to bed and a monster coming in through his closet. Loralye always gets very serious while watching it. And then the child sits up and screams and the monster screams back and starts tripping and falling on toys. As soon as the monster starts screaming, Loralye starts laughing. Like so:

She does it every time without fail. It cracks Aaron and I up. It is so fun to watch her grow and start to understand more and more about the world around her.

Here's what she's been up to lately:

-She knows where her nose, ears, toes, bee-bo (belly button) and lips are.

-She knows the signs for more, milk, and all done. And uses the last two all the time.
-She throws some pretty convincing temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way.

-She loves bread (and crackers, cookies, etc.) and milk. She would have nothing else if we didn't force her to eat other things.

-She loves to empty out drawers, purses, boxes, cupboards, wallets, etc. and put the contents into piles.

-She is not a fan of the heat. Her cheeks get red and she looks miserable real quick when she's outside. Just like me.

-She still has just 16 teeth. I think. She refuses to let me look at her mouth to see if her back molars have come in. I've been bitten enough to not try anymore.

-She is being weaned off of her binkie. She [usually] only uses it to go to sleep.

-She loves to play with her toys by herself. When we get home from work, she will scream at us if we don't leave her alone to play with her toys for at least a half hour.

-She can be in a room filled with toys and only want the toys other children are playing with.
-She gives kisses and hugs often and knows how to work people over with them to get what she wants.

-She would rather be with Grandpa than anyone else when we're at work. The baby gate in his doorway does not stop her from trying to play with him from across the room.

-She doesn't imitate things we say or sounds she hears much, with the exception of 1. the fireworks that go off at the beginning of Disney movies when they show the castle and the Disney logo and 2. me making an owl "hoo hoo" noise when I'm reading The Very Busy Spider to her.

-She loves to draw. She has tub crayons in the bath and crayons (and mommy's pen, of course) at work.

Our little darling...

All the pictures I've been meaning to post over the last two weeks...
Everyone that came to the Dutson reunion. My whole family minus Elder Call.
My whole family again with Philip being so kind as to block the wind from messing up Nikki's bangs.
Some of Loralye from a couple weeks ago...
Trying to put some Teddy Grahams into her straw sippy cup.My big belly girl walking around the office.She has discovered how to remove the binkie strap from the binkie. We haven't been able to use them since. Trying to take the camera. Playing peek-a-boo under my desk. Getting into trouble at work. As usual.xoxo

Desert Breeze Park

To celebrate Memorial Day we went to Desert Breeze Park on Monday evening. One of our wedding presents was a portable BBQ (thanks Johansons!) that we have not been able to use much since moving to our current apartment 2 years ago due to their very strict anti-BBQ rules. So we packed it in the car along with some burgers and pineapple, camping chairs, stroller, picnic blanket (another wedding gift - thanks Marnee!), and a couple toys. We stayed for a few hours playing catch, blowing bubbles, eating some tasty burgers and grilled pineapple, and teaching Loralye that walking on the grass won't kill her. It was so much fun. This is definitely going to be a new tradition for the Green family until we get our own yard to BBQ in :)