Healthy Meal for Seafood LOVERS

Need healthy dinner selections?! I have a great receipe that i tried out tonight that was delicious. My cute husband doesn't like seafood at all and he even appreciated this yummy dinner. Being that UTAH was rated number 44 out of 50 states for the healthest people we must do all we can to maintain good health and be fit!!! (that comment is coming from somebody who loves sweets and should take her own advice in being more FIT, buy hey I am trying!) If you have any questions about this receipe let me know!

Shrimp Scampi:
Ingredients
(servings 2- most of you are cooking for more than two so just double the amounts or triple!)

2 portions whole-wheat pasta (4 oz. uncooked)
1 T. olive oil
3 gloves garlic, minced (fresh is the best)
½ lb of raw shrimp (I get mine from Sam’s Club in the frozen section)
3 T. butter buds
3 T. chicken broth
½ t. ground pepper
1 lemon, halved
Reduced Fat Parmesan cheese, grated
2 T. fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

1. Prepare penne pasta
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat olive oil and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat
3. Add shrimp to skilley and cook, stirring frequently; until pink. (about 2 min.)
4. Add 1 Tbsp of Butter Buds and broth to shrimp; sauté about 2 more minutes.
5. Place cooked pasta in a large mixing bowl and combine I with remainder of the butter buds and black pepper; mix.
6. Add cooked shrimp to pasta and gently mix it all together.
7. Top with cheese and fresh parsley. ENJOY!

Okay, So I am Obsessed

I dawned on me the other day when Phil asked, "Why do we have more pictures of our nieces and nephews on our blog than of us?" I told him that kids are the most interesting things to blog about because they are so dang cute, not to cut Phil short..I think he is so dang cute as well! This was Kiley's first day of Kindergarton, my mom and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. We were there when the boys started Kinder and we will be there for Addie! It was so fun to watch the excitement in Kiley. We even tryed offering her "shopping and lunch" with the girls instead of School. Any normal kid would have said "YES" but not Kiley she was only focused on school! It was bittersweet for me to see her join her other classmates so eagerly. She is my little BEST FRIEND and I hate to see her grow up! We have so much fun on our girl outings, I guess they will only get better as she gets older and can shop for hours on end...which she is already very close to accomplishing at age 5! Congrats to Kiley on being such a BIG girl on her first day of Kindergarton!

Holland Updates

Well it's been forever since I have posted anything. There just hasn't been too many EXCITING things going on! Phil is still working hard and is very busy with the new development business. We are so grateful for the opportunity he is having to be self employed and doing so well. I am still working and very happy at my current job. I soon will be making the transition to work from home part-time and eventually probably full-time. It might be a challenge working from home with Phil...we will always just want to play!!!! The house is coming along great. We LOVE LOVE LOVE our new neighborhoood and our great ward family. Not to mention that we live so close to my mom and we LOVE it! We have some great trips planned in the next few months so hopefully I will have a lot of blogging to do!

Here are so updates on our landscaping! Our backyard water feature is coming along great...the concrete was just poured yesterday! YIPPY!

Eventful Weekend

This last weekend was a blast. We got to baby-sit our nieces and nephews all weekend long! Yes, we jumped from having zero kids to four of them. On Friday we took the boys to see Daddy Day Camp. They loved it of course. I was a little bored but it was fun to see them get excited. After the movie we took them to Swan Lakes Golf course and hit some balls at the driving range. They did so good…they had never even held a golf club before and they were like natural pros. Zac didn’t really like to hear what Phil had to say to try and improve his swing; he just wanted to keep hitting them as hard as possible! After hitting golf balls we moved over to the batting cages! This was hilarious! Phil, the sweet heart he is, decides that he will go and hit with the boys. I mean, how hard could it be! He set the boys up in the “slow softball” cages and he proceeded to the “fast baseball” cage. He takes his stance and that ball came flying out so fast that he couldn’t even swing fast enough to hit it! Keep in mind Phil has not played baseball since his T-Ball years. I was laughing so hard…and so was he so it was okay! Afer trying to hit 25 baseballs he moved over to the slow pitching cages with the boys! We had a great time.

Saturday we took the kids back to Payson for Austin’s piano recital. It was very short and sweet. After, we packed up the girls and headed back to Kaysville. (P.S. Payson is out in the middle of nowhere for those of you who were wondering!) Saturday was a big day because my parents were coming home from their three week cruise to Europe. The kids did side walk chalk all over their driveway to welcome them home! I was in charge of picking them up from the airport. I took all the kids and had them holding a sign that said, “Welcome home Nana & Papa..We love you!” It was so fun to see how excited they were that the kids were there to greet them.

Sunday we took all four kids with us to church. I didn’t realize how difficult it is to get up in the morning, feed all the kids, get them all ready, get yourself ready, pack treats and toys, and be out the door on time! Wow, it was an eye opener for us but we did it! We are the so lucky to have great nieces and nephews and can’t wait to have many more memories with them!

Update on Landscape

Well my last post regarding Landscaping was not so positive! Last Thursday we finally put sod in our front yard! Phil had about 4 Mexican guys over and boy are they workers! They didn't even want to stop for a drink of water. I was dying of heat and taking any opportunity I could get to STOP and DRINK! It looks so great and Phil and I both love to sit outside and watch the sprinklers! Crazy phenomenon really. In our last few homes we had to move a sprinkler around the yard and battled with lots of dry spots. So you can imagine that we love our automatic sprinklers!





The backyard is a different story! In the end it will be the best part of the house, but right now it is a complete disaster! We are having a water feature/Jacuzzi installed by our Landscape Architect, Jeff. Right now we have a 7 foot hole dug in our backyard with the excess dirt in piles around the yard. He had to dig a GIANT trench for a gas line...my thought was to make it a lazy river!! He is the nicest guy and will do a GREAT job. We can't wait to see the finished product. I will post pictures and keep you updated on the progress.

Spontaneous Travel

Warning...this may be a lot of information for the casual blog reader! I am using this as my journal so if you get bored STOP reading!!!

Phil and I are so into traveling. We are so random and I love it! A few weeks ago we were itching to get away, somewhere, anywhere! I received an email from Delta with weekend deals on flights to San Francisco! I called Phil up and asked if he wanted to go there over the weekend! Of course his answer was YES, so we packed up and headed to San Francisco! (not to mention I was just there 2 weeks prior for my sisters SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PRESENT!) Oh well, I figured I was one step ahead because I knew all the great sites! Our first night we went to a Giants baseball game. We went to the stadium and scalped tickets outside. Our biggest worry was that the tickets weren't going to be any good. But we were confident in our seller so we paid him $120 and headed for our seats....NOT! When we got to the gates they rang our tickets in and they said our tickets were not valid. I was so mad so I starting running back to the corner that we bought the tickets on! Needless to say we found our guy and he gave us different tickets....these ones were valid!

We also spent time in China Town, Union Square, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park, the Wharf, and of course NORDSTROM! We went to the Nordstrom Spa and had treatments that were AMAZING, well worth it! We ate like KING and QUEENS, I think I gained 10 lbs. over the weekend! We had a great time...can't wait to go back!

Any fun places that you and your family enjoy traveling to?

Pioneer Day

We had a GREAT 24th of July celebration. My family and my in-laws went to the park and had a great breakfast and played some games. It is always so fun to be with family on holidays! We are so grateful for our wonderful families. We really couldn't ask for anything BETTER! This family picture (minus my brother) was taken by setting the timer on my sisters camera! Turned out ok for not knowing what the camera was seeing!!



I had to post these adorable pictures of my nieces and nephews! The three older ones look like they could be triplets. Austin and Zac are twins and will be turning 8 this year! I can't believe it, they will be getting baptized in September! Kiley is 5 and starting kindergarton this year!! She is a GIRLIE GIRL to the max....I LOVE IT!



And here is the picture that puts the biggest smile on my face! Addison was a HOLY TERROR this day. My sister said that only her mother could really LOVE this child!!! haha. She is the most adorable thing but if you can't already imagine, she is SPOILED to death by her brother's and sister! I am sure you mom's out there don't really think this picture is all that funny because you probably live this often! For me, I get to send them home when they have their "melt downs!" I love you ADDIE!