Happy birthday Connor!!

Connor was very difficult to choose a present for. We ran lots of ideas by him, birthday parties, air soft guns, games, paintball guns, bows. He would grunt at everything, he's gotten very good at the man grunt. So finally we narrowed it down to our 2 favorite, pulled them both up online and he went and studied both of them. He read reviews, looked at ideas and finally decided on the compound bow. Apparently sometime in the past he asked for one... So he went with Kirk to pick it out and have it weighted to his size and strength. At least twice Kirk commented on something being too big for Connor because it was Kirks size and Connor had to remind him that, well he's taller. We have a target in the backyard and he shoots it all day. I assume he's going to get amazing arm muscles, to go with his already amazing rowing arm muscles. His grandma Johnston bought him a birthday card with Edward Cullen on the outside, somehow she thought it was for a boy. It says 'you don't look a day over 17" yah I don't get why that would be a boy card either! Sunday he was ordained a teacher and looked very handsome in his suit. The Bishop likes to have everyone bear their testimony when he brings them to the stand so we practiced all morning since Connor isn't naturally a public speaker. He was mostly understandable, taller than our Bishop and had the Connor smirk type smile on the whole time. His Dad gave him a marvelous blessing, it was really sweet. His first dance was Saturday night but neither he or Matt would go. I don't know if I should have made him, but he doesn't really have a great friend who goes, so why push it?

Bird update

Our baby birds are looking like birds! They are around 5 weeks and not weaned yet but getting close!! They still sqawk like babys , no whistling yet. But the boys are trying hard to teach them some tunes. Both have flown around the house when we took them out to hold and did fairly well but not good enough to not give me a heart attack! We should really think about selling them or finding them new homes, but gosh they are just so cute!

Happy birthday Elle

Elle had a wonderful 9th birthday yesterday! Hard to believe my baby has only one more year till she's in the double digits! What a gift and blessing she is in our family! She wrote a list of things she wanted for her birthday which made it so easy to run by target before work walk down the aisle and look for her requests! She thought it was Christmas with that stack of presents! She mostly wanted Pet Shop bobble heads and their new creation little tiny bobbles, some scrapbook stuff and these pencil topper things I can't even remember the name of but end with achoo in the name. Her Parnell Grandparents got her 2 pairs of shoes for school and some Fancy Nancy books she couldn't wait to read! Johnston Grandparents gave her some cash and some school clothes that she had a great time picking out. It looked like my 7th grade closet recreated! When did the big shoulders and stripes come back?? She was really excited to have her favorite cake which is red velvet. All in all a good day for my baby girl!

Now if only Connor would make it easy for me on Friday. But it's not looking like that, he can't tell me a single thing he wants, what kind of cake he wants and what he wants for breakfast! All he makes are noncommittal grunts!! AAHHH

Chicken-Andouille Gumbo

I know there are easy ways to cheat at this, like use chicken bouillon and rotisserie chicken, but I really love the whole process when I'm in the mood for it. It's not really hard but can be time consuming. 

makes 4 qts prep time 45 min, cook 3hr,50 min
 1 (4lb) whole chicken cut up
 5 bay leaves
 5 parsley sprigs
 3 garlic cloves
 3 tsp salt, divided
 1 lb andouille or smoked sausage, I find the really spicy kind
 1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
 2 medium onions, chopped
 1 large green pepper, although I use red since I like them better and I like the red in the gumbo
 3 Tbsp minced garlic
 1/2 tsp ground red pepper
 1 tsp black pepper
 Hot cooked rice
 1. Bring first 4 ingredients, 1 tsp salt and 1 gal water to a boil in a large stockpot over medium high heat; cover, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour. remove chicken, reserving broth. Skin, bone and coarsely chop chicken. Pour broth through a wire -mesh strainer into a large bowl discarding the solids. return broth to the stockpot. Skim fat from broth if desired.
 2. Cook sausage in a large heavy skillet over medim-gigh heat, stirring 8-10 minutes or until brown. Remove from skillet.
 3. Wipe skillet clean. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat; gradually whisk in flour, and cook, whisking constantly, 18-20 minutes or until the flour is a dark carmel color. (mine never gets super dark)
4. Stir onions and next 3 ingredients into flour mixture, and cook, stirring often, 10-15 mins or until vegetables are tender.
 5. Gradually stir 3 cups chicken broth into vegetable mixture. Stir vegetavle mixture into remaining chicken broth in stockpot. Stir in sausage, chicken, red and black pepper, adn remaining 2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer stirring occasionally, 2 hours.
 6. Serve over hot rice with hot sauce if desired.
 * last time I stirred in a bag of frozen white and yellow corn and I loved it! I think I will do that every time. Once I put in a bag of frozen shrimp in the last few minutes and everyone who likes seafood loved it, but some of my kids don't so I don't add that often. This reheats and freezes really well! I've served this to a group of 18 family members, adults and kids and still had a little left over for lunch the next day ;). I got this from Southern Living magazine 2007

I am not a fan of pain, I'm not a fan of pain that won't go away with the use of reasonable measures. My back completely gave out Monday night while I was helping my now ex-sister in law pack her stuff to move. It completely dropped me to the floor and left me there for a day or so. I'm now seeing a chiropracter, wearing a brace and waiting for physical therapy, AND I can't do my runs for 2 weeks right when I'm in the middle of training. Not putting me in a good mood. My family not cleaning up after themselves while I can't walk or bend well.... is seriously fouling my mood.
On the nice side, both baby birds are growing well, and thankfully still alive. My name of falcor has been rejected, but not Pip. Now I've renamed him Scre, short for screamer. Because he is very loud when he's hungry.

Our collection

Is there anyone else that has to deal with a corner like this? I can't figure out what to do with it. If I put the guns in their rooms, they simply come back out because they are played with constantly. It's almost like the male members of my family cannot walk around our house without a weapon in their hand. My ears are going deaf from the sound of blanks being shot. And if one gun breaks, I don't get to throw it away because Connor takes it apart and simply makes his own design! He really should have been born in the "sons of guns" family. Do I need a giant gun case so at least they would be contained?? this doesn't even include the giant purple bin I have that is full of ammo, sights, clips, mags, batteries etc... And this isn't even all of them in the picture, there are more hand size guns and Nerf guns in closets and the basement!

My family photo

I don't think I ask for a lot. I had one opportunity to go to Nauvoo, and I let my whole family know, the MOST important thing for me was to get a nice family photo in front of the temple. You will notice that Kirk got a nice picture in front of the temple.... So this is my picture to always remember this wonderful spiritual family vacation! I guess it's funny.