Can you see the resemblance?

Mother Nature Farms-

Or something like that. I just thought I'd post a fun place we just discovered. It isn't new or hidden or anything so maybe my friends have been there before and I just didn't know about it. It was a pretty fun place, right on Baseline and Harris. We baked in the heat of the day, but now that we know about it we'll plan to go in the evening next year. It is $7 per kid and $3 per adult to get in. They have a hay bale maze, a jumper, a tractor/hay ride, some animals to see (cow, goats, sheep, chicks), the kids get a pumpkin and there is a place to decorate it, concessions (including snow cones which were SUCH a relief to have on that HOT day), and I guess that's about it. And a big pumpkin patch if you want to buy more pumpkins.
We also did the state fair on Wednesday. It was DH idea last minute. It is dollar-ride day on Wed. so it worked out pretty well. It was such a blast. Every single one of us loved it!!! We haven't been to the fair since the year 2000. Note to self: next time take the camera. I'm not sorry I didn't take it to the fair, cuz it was kind of crazy there. But the pumpkin patch farm place is chock full of photo ops. Well, live and learn!

I've been TAGGED!! WooHoo!

Yay! I've been tagged to share 7 random facts about myself. This should be fun...
OK, here we go~

1. I love school. I've always loved school, even in Jr. High when I hated everything about those 3 years except for the classroom part. I thought elementary was great. Then Jr. High was ok--well, everything about it stunk except the in-class part like I said earlier. Then High School was awesome! And college was even better. I want to go to school forever!

2. The only poster I ever hung in my room was of Ralph Macchio (the Karate Kid, remember him?). I thought he was da bomb. I wasn't much of a poster person, thought they were tacky. OK, still do.

3. I love painting the inside of my house. I've redone it 3 times so far. DH says he doesn't mind as long as I don't reduce the square footage of our house with so much paint on the walls.

4. I love hearing about history, but can't remember dates to save my life.

5. I love sign language. I used to be very good at it. I remember quite a bit but it takes me a while to figure out what other people are saying. I'm very out of practice but I walk around finger spelling ALL the time. It's a habit, I just finger spell words from signs I see or from my thoughts. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it.

6. I really want to try coloring my hair brown or auburn but I am a chicken. One of these days, I'm gonna do it!

7. I love children's stories, and am especially fond of Beatrix Potter. If anyone reading this hasn't seen the movie "Miss Potter", you MUST see it. It's a keeper!

There! I did it! 7 Random things about me. I was tagged by HotMama.
Thanks for the tag-it was fun!

Spooky Supper

We were invited to one of my best friend's house (well, her mom's) for their annual Spooky Supper. We have been very kindly adopted in by her family and go every year that we possibly can make it. It is such a fun tradition! We get together in costume and bring a potluck item that either looks gross in some way, has been renamed a spooky or disgusting name, or both (preferably). This year we had bloody fingers (bbq smokies), loose stool (bean soup), bones and fungus with mucous on the side (carrot sticks and broccoli with ranch), witches fingers and eyeballs (carrots with almond fingernails and radish & green olive "eyes"), bat wings (blue potato chips), worms in a cocoon (hot dog and taco meat in a tortilla), and kitty litter for dessert (a crumbly cake served in a pan with an actual kitty litter scooper for the serving tool. Oh-and melted stretched out tootsie rolls on top). It is GREAT fun!!! The kids love it.
Then my friend's mom planned out games for us. We did a scavenger hunt along with a couple other games and the annual favorite-epitaph writing. We each draw a name and have to write a short headstone for that person. Then we go around the room and read them all. She also made goodie bags for the kids that were junk free! It was awesome! It's so great to be adoptees into such a fun group of people. We love it! (and them)

Wed. October 17

Fall Break has been such a nice little vacation for us. Our kids have had 2 weeks off, and at their teacher's encouragement we have limited computer and TV time in exchange for some planned fun days. We have gone to the Science Center, the Zoo, played outside like crazy and gone to the park, had mommy-daughter dates, eaten out probably too much, and are going to Walmart today. OK-so Walmart wasn't my idea. But my kids have gift cards from Christmas and they are super excited to go to Walmart to buy something. We have also been sure to add chores into the mix of fun-like cleaning the fish tank, bedrooms, laundry, etc. Oh yeah, and we have celebrated a first birthday and hosted a family dinner. All in all, I think it's been a lovely fall.

ABC Me

A is for age: 32 and going strong

B is for beverage of choice: Good old water. I love it! I also love it as crunchy ice. yum!

C is for career right now: Mom

D is for your dog's name: taken back to the pound where we got him

E is for essential item you use everyday: My dishwasher. Couldn't LIVE without it.

F is for favorite TV show at the moment: I love HGTV, hard to pick a fav show, but I'll say Freestyle. I love makeovers, especially when they don't spend any money.

G is for favorite game: I like lots of games. I'll say Pictionary, Taboo, and Oh Heck are a couple favorites.

H is for Home town: Somewhere in sunny AZ

I is for instruments you play: flute (piccolo) and piano

J is for favorite juice: Jamba :) (anything except the mango)

K is for who you would like to kiss!: my favorite husband and children (and all babies)

L is for last place you ate: Amazing Jakes on a mommy-daughter date with Blondie

M is for marriage: 13 loverly years

N is for your name: Salsa Mama on this blog. It's from a nickname DH gave me...

O is for overnight hospital stays: When I was little with adenoid removal, with my babies, and I think another time or two but I can't remember.

P is for people you were with today: All my kiddos, my mom, DH, and my alley buddy (friend from across the alley). Also a couple of neighbor kids that live here part-time. :)

Q is for favorite quote: "I like his hair so much" from The Importance of Being Earnest, but we are quote-a-holics, so whatever pops out of my mouth in the moment. My favorite movies to quote are The Importance of Being Earnest and the Princess Bride.

R is for Biggest Regret: Not being nice enough at times to my Nana who adored me. I was a brat sometimes!

S is for status: Still a nerd after all these years. But it's not uncool anymore.

T is for time u woke up today?: Well, let's see. Up with Dr. Destructo at 2 something, at 3:30 and then again at 5:15. Up one other time with Little Miss, then I finally got up at 5:45 to go work out.

U is for underwear you have on now: Underwear?

V is for vegetable you love: Spinach in my spinach salad. Yum. I also really like sugar snap peas.

W is for worst habit: Being lazy.

X is for x-rays you've had: lots

Y is for yummy food you ate today: Pasta, salad, pizza and dessert at Amazing Jakes. It was all good!

Z is for the zodiac sign: Taurus

Good Times

We had a funny occurence this last Saturday. DH and I went to the Temple on Saturday morning and left the kids in charge of each other. (I love being able to do that now! We have such great babysitters.) Anyway, DH changed Dr. Destructo's diaper before we left, so I didn't see that it was the last diaper in the drawer. Now if I had seen that, I would have put a couple more in that I had found in other parts of the house. Well we had been gone for some time when Teeny bopper noticed Dr. Destructo had had a major diaper blowout. So she gave him a bath and got things all cleaned up. Then she went to put a new diaper on him...but there were none. She didn't know what else to do, then she had an idea. So we get home and our little man comes walking up to us in...Little Miss' panties! Yep, little pink and yellow Dora the Explorer panties. I BUSTED up laughing. I couldn't even pick him up I was laughing so hard. The panties did the trick as far as modesty, but they were lucky he didn't pee because they wouldn't have held anything in. I had to give Teeny bopper points for creativity. I would post a picture, but DH forbade me taking any of that situation...

We have a birthday!!!

Today is Dr. Destructo's first birthday!!! I can hardly believe he has been with us for a whole year. But then at the same time, it's like he's always been part of our family. We are just doing cake and ice cream and of course, we HAD to buy him some boyish toys. He is walking all over the place, jabbering and laughing like a mad man, and just as cute as can be. He could use a haircut, though. :) He now reaches up to door knobs and wiggles them. I have a feeling we are going to need some high locks real soon! Being the climber that he is...
Well, I just had to post this milestone in our lives. My baby is growing up.

A YUMMY recipe!

I actually got this recipe out of Creating Keepsakes magazine. It is in an article on mini-albums. Becky Higgins created a little "Family Favorites" mini album and this recipe is in it. Every single one of my kids liked it, which is a near impossible thing to accomplish. Here it is:

Peanut Butter Stir-fry
2 chicken breasts, cut in bite-size pieces
1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter
2 1/2 c. sugar snap peas
2 c. broccoli
1 1/2 c. carrots, sliced
1 1/2 c. mushrooms, sliced
1 c. green onions, sliced
1/2 c. yellow bell pepper
1/2 tsp. crushed garlic
stir-fry sauce

Cook chicken in wok with a little olive oil until fully cooked. Set aside and mix with peanut butter. Combine all vegetables in the wok (starting with the ones that need longer to cook, such as carrots) and add a little water on occasion, as needed. Add garlic. When vegetables are done, add chicken to the vegetables (still in the wok) and add half a bottle of stir-fry sauce. Serve over rice. Makes about 4 servings.

OK, here we come, blog world!!

Due to the encouragement of some friends, and because I have enjoyed visiting many wonderful blogs, I have decided to make the leap and create one for my family. I hope this becomes a way to keep in touch with family and old friends and make some new ones. I have decided to give our family code names because of my concern with publishing personal info on the great wide web. So I will write in first person, and then I will refer to our family members as DH, Teeny Bopper, Sweet G, Blondie, Little Miss, and Dr. Destructo. Those names pretty much sum us all up anyway. :)
So, to conclude my first post I hope that those of you who have kind things to say will post here and that we will have a good time getting to know each other better!