Stuffed Rolls!

                     This is one of my family's favorite meals.

Stuffed Rolls!

Start by making your favorite roll recipe! 

I use my roll mix!

While the dough rises I make the stuffing.  I usually make a couple different  stuffing's at a time. 

This is just pepperoni cut up. A small amount of my own canned pizza sauce, and a small amount of  mozzarella cheese.
You don't want to add to much sauce or cheese because it tends to leak out if you do.

This one is a qrt of my canned chicken, half a cube of cream cheese, about half a cup of sour cream, dryed basil (I would use fresh if I had it) diced up garlic (I like a lot) about a cup of mozzarella cheese, pepper and a pinch of salt. 

This is a new one. It is about a half qrt of canned chicken, a pint of my canned pineapple (drained) and about a half cup of our favorite bbq sauce and some diced garlic. I did cook this one to get some of the juices out from the pineapple. After it cooled down I added about 3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Now I know this may seem like a lot of work or prep, but all the ingredients are already prepared. It is a matter of opening jars and pouring. The dough is all ready except for the wet ingredients. I do not own a mixer, so I make mine by hand.

I take a glob of dough and roll it out, then cut it with my pizza cutter. You can do these any size you want. I have done them small enough that they are just bite size and big enough that one could be an entire meal.

I put a little cheese on the bottom, add a spoon full of stuffing, then a little more cheese.  Then you are going to pick up one end and roll and tuck. Roll forward and tuck in the sides as you go. You want to get the best seal possible so all your yummy stuff stays inside. 

Here is a pan ready to go in the oven. I have them arranged on the pan in different sizes and shapes so I know which ones are which, and so I have a variety for my kids to choose from. 

I bake them on 350 for 20 minutes. I did butter the tops this time around. I usually don't and it did not make a difference to me. Like I said you can take as much time as you want to make them pretty, or just throw it all together. I am not so much into making my food pretty and perfect before it disappears into mouths. I am into the fastest prep, and my husband and kids love these.

So I told you just to add a small amount of pizza sauce to the pepperoni stuffing! I dump a Qrt jar of sauce into a pan, put what I need in the pepperoni stuffing and heat the rest up, then you have a dipping sauce for those who like it extra saucy.  

Add a salad and or fruit for the perfect meal!

Candy hair clips!

Result...tons of cute hair clips!

             I promised the twins something fun when they got home from school today  . A friend of mine gave me the idea except she had seen them as pins.  We went to Family Dollar and got a bag of gum balls, and a bag of assorted hard candies. Then we went to Sally's and picked up a box of metal hair clips. (I will just mention for anyone who has girls with hair, Sally's has the best clear small rubber bands and they are the cheapest too)

1. cut small strips of ribbon to put in between the clip so you don't glue the clip shut.
2. glue on your gum or what ever hard candy you choose. (I painted some flowers on the plain hard candies with just cheap craft paint)
3. take outside and spray with clear glaze. This gives it the glass like finish (and hopefully will keep the      kids from eating there clips for a snack.
4. I did find that if you turn the clip upside-down the flat candies look better.
5. I also hot glued a few of the candies to some bobby pins.

All in all the kids had fun, and you can say Ooh that's so cute, or you can say "Hun you have a piece of candy stuck in your hair!"

Moms memories for mothers day!

             These are some of my kids funny moments...


Avri...(she was about 4)I use to do all my shopping at Albertson's.  Avri was my little side kick. I was having a bad day and had been venting to my dad earlier (avri must have been on the defense).  So Avri and I go to Albertsons. I get my groceries and at the check out the lady says "do you have your albertsons card?" I hand her my keys (the card is on my key ring)  Avri says... to the cashier All puffed up hands on the hips "I just don't understand why you think you can keep charging my mom for her own key's over and over every time we come in here!" 


Hattie...(she was 3) She use to love the book "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" She was sitting on the couch reading it one day.. "There was an ol lady who swallowed a sly, I don't know why she swallowed the sly, she swallowed a spider, a cat,a dog, a goat, a cow... (she looks up so confused hands in the air) mom how she do that?" 


Belle...(she was 7)She came home from school and said she was starving because she threw her hamburger in the garbage at lunch time. Me "why?" Belle..."ummm... because they said they made the Patti out of a cow." ME.."where did you think hamburger came from? "  Belle "the store" 


Abby... (she was 7) We are driving up and over a canyon pass. The elevation was at about 10,000 feet. Abby says she is to scared to look up because we are so high.  We stopped to take a picture and Abby asked me how much higher we had to go.  I say "we are at the top" She looks up at the sky and says "Wow the sky is much higher than I thought it was" 


Kyle...(he was 7) we are remodeling our kitchen and Kyle is sitting at the table eating lunch out of the blue he says "Dad don't you wish you had a Canadian?"  Matt laughs and says "what does that mean?"  Kyle " they work for free so you don't have to, heard it on the TV"


Tallon...(he was 4) Me "tell me 3 reasons why you love me" Tallon " Because Jesus says to love every one " Me that's 1 Tallon " because you said its not nice to tell people I don't like them" me k that's 2  Tallon " because you are my mom" 

Get ready, Get set GARDEN!

Tallons hands were freezing because he got into the water hose.  Then he discovered the compost was nice and warm. 

I told him it was poop! He seemed to enjoy it even more!

I am determined to have an awesome garden this year. Last summer I spent 6 weeks in Texas with my in laws, so this year I am refreshed and ready to go.  I have been told that the green waste plant in Lindon has the best compost you can get. I have seen the garden vegetables it produces....but I am so grossed out by the thought of sticking my hands in it. I hate wearing gloves!!! I decided this year I was going for the best. Just look at that dark color!  The compost is made up of green waste and treated sewage...It smells to high heaven. You can see by the color that it is very rich( no rocks).  It is also very warm.   If you are interested in getting compost, you buy this stuff by the yard. It is $20.00 a yard. It is pretty close to the Lindon dump. If you get off the  first Lindon exit (coming from the north side) and head west you will see signs.  

Other things I have done to improve my garden this year. I have been turning the dirt and picking out all the rocks. YES very tedious... I live in Lehi and I don't know if it is just this area but I live on a rocky sand pit.  Just useless info...but I have picked at least 2 , 5 gallon buckets full of rocks out of my garden beds. I have several boxed in beds that I have put gravel and rocks around to keep the weeds out so I just add to those piles.

This is not the best picture but you get the idea of the box and gravel around it. You can see a few weeds around in the rocks, but since the rock is so deep the weeds just come right out. Yes that is my rain gutter in the back ground. It fell off!

I am also expanding my growing areas. I have a very large family and a large number of canning jars to fill each year, so i find myself over planting and expecting more vegetables. I think I end up with the opposite result.  So I dung up another area. I had all these bricks so I used them as a border to keep the grass out. I dug over 3000 pounds of sod out of this area ...Yes all by myself. NO I am not in as good of shape as that sounds. I put about a 1-2 inch border of rocks in front of the bricks to also aid in the grass protrusion. I used rocks that I picked out of the sand under the sod. So this project so far has only cost me money in compost to till into the sand I uncovered.

This area get full sun. All I need to do now is mix in the compost.



As if that was not enough. I asked my hubby to build me another raised garden on the other side of the yard as well. This area also gets full sun all day long. He wanted to take down our patio so he could build a fully enclosed one. The wind rips through here so hard some times that the one he had was just Boeing outward. So he used the timbers from that for supports for my grapes and black berries. 

The timbers in the center of this are all cemented in the ground. I have two big black berry plants on one end and two grape vines on the other.  The timbers will support the upward growth of those bushes. I also have 16 inches around the front,back and sides so I can plant a from all angles.

My wonderful and supportive husband dug out all the surrounding grass. He found these nice landscape timpers  at Lowes for $3.00 a piece. He is going to build the box 4 timbers high. I am excited. 

A Shine Of Rainbows!

            I recently rented this movie called A Shine Of Rainbows for my kids to watch.  The girls picked it out. It was rated PG so I got it. I never read what it was about.  The evening did not go as planned and it ended up just being Kyle and Belle as far as kids being home.  So around 9:00pm I told them to go lay in my bed and watch the movie so Matt and I could watch our shows.
          
            I am going to go back to September 11th 2006. I was sitting on my couch and my phone rang. I remember this because I felt like crap. I had just been put on metformin and it was making me so dizzy and nauseated.  It was a case worker from the state.  She had just picked up a little boy who needed a place to stay. I had worked with the State in teaching parenting skills to mothers who had none.  The state worker explained that she thought I would be the best placement for Kyle because I knew how manipulative his mother could be. O...and I did. She was a major drug addict, she was a thief and she would do anything for her next fix or peace and quiet while she got her next fix...Including giving her little one snuff. It calmed him but it was also very entertaining to her and her friends to watch him roll around high.
             I told the case worker I would take him.  She explained that he had no belongings except for the clothes on his back, his current diaper and his blanket.  The next few hours was a mad rush to get his room ready and buy the things a 2 and a half year old boy would need.  I remember thinking to myself all through the day. September 11th ...This is a date to never forget.  Part of me was scared thinking of the horrible events that had happened a few years back that were still so fresh in my mind.  "this is a bad sign, I feel horrible, the date, I have a messed up kid coming to live with me, what am I thinking"?  A few months ago I had told my husband I was done with foster care. My oldest daughter had spent 2 months in the hospital. The last placement we had was very stressful and I needed to focus on my kids.  My husband said he felt very strongly that we stick with it. To be honest I was irate. I felt like I was at the end of my rope and I had nothing left to give.
             I had this dream a few times that I was in a black void and I was reaching to this little boy and he was reaching for me. I could feel the eminence love we had for each other.  I always woke before I could touch him and it would leave me feeling a need or a longing for him.  I had the dream maybe 3 times always the exact thing with the exact feelings.  So there was a part of me that wondered if it was a sign that I had a son out there some where. (after the twins I could not have any more, so I knew it was not a birth child) I also wondered if the reason I could never get to him no matter how bad I wanted to was because I had my tubes tied and gave up the chance for more.

              Kyle came in to my home late afternoon on September 11th 2006. He was a  Broken 2 year old. He had diaper rash clear down to his ankles.  He was dirty and smelled of a life time of cigarette smoke had been soaked into him. He was very scared and shy.  I was a little taken back when he called me mom that very night when asking for a drink. A part of me thought "o..wow he has taken a liking to me" NOPE...I soon found out that he called everyone mom any time he wanted some thing. Kyle's definition of "MOM"   A Mom is name you call someone when you want them to get you something. This person can be male or female...they just have to be taller than you. It can also be a complete stranger as long as you are brave enough to ask them.  


             This entire chapter of my life could take days to write. So I am going to skip to the point here.


             I struggled with Kyle. He was in survival mode for a really long time. He also had visits with his bio mom for a year after we got him. This was very hard on him and me. There were days that I thought he would do better in someone Else's home. I thought maybe he needed some one softer with more time to focus just on him. In the beginning when he would get in trouble for some thing he would ask me "are you going to throw me away too"?  I came to the conclusion that this is how he felt when he got put in my home. I thought maybe without other siblings to beat on he would get in less trouble. I knew they were going to be asking me to adopt him soon as the state only gives a bio mom 12 to 18 months to prove themselves fit and get their kids back.  So if I was going to send him to a better home I needed to do it NOW.  My reaction frustration " KYLE...Leave your shoes on!...What are you doing"?  His voice more soft and tender than I remember it ever being "Mom...I am giving my socks to Belle so her feet won't be so cold" I don't know why it took me so long to see or feel it, but this was him! He was the boy in my dream. We finally touched! 
            We ended up adopting Kyle and had him sealed to our family. I am not going to lie. He was hard. He still can be. I have had to stay very firm and consistent with him.  I still have days that I question my ability to be his mother, but I guess I do that with my other kids also.  My husband and I allowed visits with his bio mom for a couple years as we knew how much Kyle missed and loved her. Although he never called her mom, I always felt like I would never truly be what she was to him. I would raise him and take care of him and I would be mom but Georgia (her name) would be the rest of the worlds definition of mom to him.  He has not seen his Georgia in almost 2 years now and seems to have forgotten about her in his mind. He will ask me about being in my tummy or about when he was a baby. I still had the thoughts that his heart was with Georgia. I would think I wish I had that bond that a mother gets when she gives birth to a baby. It binds you forever and no matter what the kids does you never question why you gave birth to them.

Adoption day

          K...My point! The movie.  About 10:30 Belle and Kyle come back down stairs. Belle says "mom that was so weird, Kyle was so quiet just watching the movie and all the sudden he started to cry...Well not cry like out loud, but I looked over at him and water was coming down his cheeks out of his eye" So I look to Kyle. He is looking at me with this deep sadness and longing. His bottom lip is quivering. His eyes are all red from crying. I ask him if he was crying. At first he says NO...Then he starts to cry again. I ask him what is wrong. He is just looking at me, so I lift him unto my lap and look him in the face and ask again.  He is so upset that he can barely get the words out..."mom...I just don't want you to ever die... I would not want to live my life without you" SOB, SOB...  I say "I don't know where that came from but I am not going anywhere"   He says  " even when I am old...I will still need you!"  Then He says "the movie was about a boy who had one mom who went away and then he got a new one and she was the best thing in his life to him and then she died"  Kyle was mentally born to me right then!  That feeling of unconditional love that I could never seem to feel, even though I knew he was where he belonged.   Funny that I needed his heart just as much as he needed mine!




             I read the back of the movie and this is what it said  "A lonely orphan's life is transformed by an extraordinary woman who teaches him to conquer grief and discover the magic in nature and himself.  "  I would not call myself by any definition extraordinary.  It humbles me to step away from my self and see what Kyle See's in me that I can not. 

My goofy son!

            I don't know if I would have let him watch it if I would have read the back to begin with, and I felt bad that I was not there to watch it with him, but it changed our hearts forever.  It was an answer to my prayers... that one day I would be what this boy needed and that is... "I already am"  

            I feel like my kids (my family) are my shine of rainbows. Each one of them  shine a different color and add to its beauty.  Each one color just as bright as the one next to it.  We have cloudy moments but when the sun is shining through and we are all together "what a thing of beauty"

The day we were sealed

Boys will be boys and girls will be girls.

            As a mother of 4 older girls ...I am trying to get use to this fact...Boys will be boys and girls will be girls!  I never had a bother myself and my dad has always been a very manly man. I know there have been occasions of laughter and joking but mostly very serious and a very hard worker. I grew up with my mother and 3 sisters.  So you can imagine the shock at having 2 young boys of my own. They act as if they are from another planet.  I have a list from my perspective....


My girls...I would rather die than anyone hear me pass gas and if the chance that I ever pee my pants, they would be changed and the proof in the washer before anyone ever had the chance to know. 
My Boys...This one is 7,  I tell him to get all his bedding to the washer so I can wash it. He has a friend show up while he is in the process.  He says "I am changing my bedding because they smell like pee...DUDE...I pee my pants. See that spot? Yep that's pee! " His friend also a boy... "ya  DUDE...I stopped peeing my pants"  Mine ..."DUDE my mom makes me go pee before bed and it helps"  Friend... "cool dude"


My girls...Come in crying...My friend said they did not want to play with me. I hold them and pat them tell them I am the only friend they need and I love them.
My boys...Some friend of his comes in crying..."Kyle Punched me in the chest" Me..."Kyle come here,  Why did you punch your friend?"  KYLE "because he said he did not want to play with me"


My girls..."mom these shoes make my feet stink, can I throw them away?"
My boys..."I don't care if these shoes make my feet smell like I died and they have holes in them. I don't have to tie them and they are the most comfortable."


My girls...After a couple bites of food "Mom I am full can I be done eating?"
My boys...After 7 eggs, one peanut butter sandwich and a pediasure drink ...that's just my 7 year old. "mom can I have another sandwich?" Where the heck do they put it all?


My girls..."can we all be in gymnastics, so we can learn to do cartwheels and dance around?"
My boys..."can we be in karate so we can learn how to be ultimate fighters?"  Do they ever stop wanting to fight and wrestle?


My girls..."I am going to grow my hair out to my butt. I know I am only 10 but can I wear makeup to school yet?" 
My boys..."will you shave my hair off, so the girls will stop pulling it when they want me to go somewhere?" Me "your hair is like a half inch, I am not shaving it again"  BOY..."and mom, I am glad I am not an Indian because other people hunt them and I would not want to be hunted while I am sleeping" ... ME ..."Really, where did that come from? could you be any more random?"


My girls..."wanna play barbies"?
My boys..."lets play army guys, they can dive off the rim of the toilet into the water and then we can try flushing them and see if they survive" "O.. that guy went down, Lets see if we put a bunch of clothes and some shoes in, then we will shut the lids and flush"  Me later..."uummm, why is the toilet full of your clothes and shoes, and what is stuck in there.  "?  HIM...Shoulders shrugging and arms and hands out, look of total confusion "ummm...I forgot"  Later the next day while taking the toilet out of the floor to fix it" HIM..."mom, can I have my toys back that didn't go down because the bar of soap stopped it from going down all the way"?  






Gotta love Em all, but man o man do the boys know how to push your buttons and the girls know how to melt your heart!  I will post again in 5 years and I am sure the tables will be turned!
  

An afternoon at Antelope Island!

Pals!

Grandma and grandpa came all the way from Texas to spend spring break with the grandkids.  Saturday turned out to be a perfect weather day. We all decided to head to Antelope Island. Of all the years living in Utah this is the first time we have gone to Antelope Island. It is an amazing place to visit.

Grandma and Grandpa

Abby "Gosh ...I wish dad would have brought his gun so he could shoot that and bring it home"
There are around 700 buffalo on the island!

Kyle "Mom can you take a picture of me with my drink, so I never forget what I drank today" 

Hattie and Belle

Abby looking  out  to getting a closer view!

The View!
This water is 28% salt. They say you float like a cork in the water because it is so dense. The ocean is  only 3% salt.

Can I see? He had just jumped up and smacked his head on the view finder.

Grandma Geri, Avri and Hattie

Grandma and Hattie...Love this one!

Grandpa Kent With a few of the grandkids!

Cool looking picture!