2012 Reading List

Best Books for Little Sis:

David Shannon Books

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Conner

Fancy Nancy Books by the way there are some fun Free Fancy Nancy Activities for little girls!

Jamie Lee Curtis Books such as Today I Feel Silly and I Am Going to Like Me.

Meg Cobot's Allie Finkle Series

Big Sister's Fave Books:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My Thoughts: I bought this hardback series in March 2011 from Costco.  They sat on my shelf for months collecting dust.  Big sister finally got around to reading them during the summer and begged me to read them too. She absolutely loved the series! In fact, she liked The Hunger Games series more than Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga.  She was dying to share her thoughts with me, but could not without spoiling the story for me.  When I finally got around to reading them this fall, I was hooked!  I read all three of them in a couple days!  What an incredible thriller book series filled with action, friendship, love, fashion, and survival. I loved the characters especially Katniss and Peeta!  Even my husband read the Hunger Games in one day but did not get the chance to read the two following books.  The last book Mocking Jay lost my interest a little bit in the beginning of the book but it got better in the middle and I was satisfied with the ending. I am looking forward to seeing Hunger Games  film in a couple weeks with my oldest daughter!

My Future Reading Picks:
I cannot wait to read the following books!  I bought them a couple months ago and they are on my list to read this year!  I will write a book review later!

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks 

Matched by Ally Condle

Valentine's Day Surprises

I love Valentine's Day surprises!  We sure had a marvlous day!  The girls were dressed in pink...  We made a simple heart and foil Valentine's Day box for little sis and big sister received many Valentine's from her friends at school.  No worries nothing shown here were from boys!  She does not have a boyfriend or secret admirer...  Obviously, big sis has a lot of friends!

I made special Valentine's Day school lunches for my girls the night before.  They included the following: heart shaped ham and cheese sandwich, a clementine, Capri Sun, strawberry fruit roll up, a pink Loft House cookie, and Chicken in a Biskit crackers.  Then I enclosed a Happy Valentine from Mom too.

Later in the evening John surprised the girls with a puppy!  One of the biggest pros of living in our new place is the owners allow small pets with an extra deposit.  So we looked for the perfect puppy for our needs:
 non shedding
 hypoallergenic
 small breed
 intelligent
 easy to train
and happy
I did some research on several breeds and the winner is a bishon frise/poodle mix.  We named him Jagger! Isn't he the cutest puppy ever?  He already knows how to play fetch, sleeps in his kennel at night, and sometimes walks on his two front legs.  He loves to entertain us.  I can already see that he will have fun learning new tricks!  As for potty training that is another story.  In due time, he will get the hang of that.  We absolutely adore him!

The Help Book and Movie Review

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My thoughts: The Help is an incredible book definitively one of my favorite books in my top ten book list! There were a couple times when I laughed out loud while reading this story! It broke my heart how cruel some white people in the South treated the African American people in the early 1960s!  If you are a fan of the classic novel To Kill of a Mockingbird then you would enjoy The Help!  It is a witty, humorous, and well written book.  I loved all the characters in the book especially Skeeter's courage to write a book about African American experiences working as maids for white families in the South, Aibileen's precious relationship with a white child Mae Mobley, and Minny's fearless spunky personality! You would never regret reading this book!

As for The Help movie, I finally bought the DVD in December. Surprisingly, the movie measured up to the book in every way!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film and even my hubby liked it. If I watched it in a movie theater, I would have stood up and applauded once it started rolling the credits!  It was one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time!  I love the message from it, which we all can appreciate.

Chicken Wonton Salad

Chicken Wonton Salad 

Salad

1 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped

1/2 package of Wontons

1 head of iceberg, chopped

Grilled boneless chicken breasts, cubed

Green onion, chopped

celery, chopped

2 cans of mandarin oranges
Dressing

1/4 c. Rice Vinegar
1/4 c. Sesame Oil
1/2 Canola Oil
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. soy sauce
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. ginger
Mason Jar with lid
Directions
Make the dressing first. Add the dressing ingredients in a mason jar and shake well.  Put the dressing in the refrigerator to chill while preparing the rest of the salad.  Cut the wontons into thin strips.  In a large pot, add some cooking oil and heat it on medium. Make sure the oil is hot and ready to go.  You could test it by dropping in one wonton to see how it cooks.  I recommend the wontons a light golden brown color not fried crispy dark brown or black!  Allow the wontons to drain and cool off on a paper towel.  Next, grill the chicken on medium heat with some olive oil and cube it into bit size pieces (you may season the chicken how you like it I did salt and pepper).  Chop the lettuce then add chopped green onion and celery, set aside. In two separate small frying pans, toast the silvered almonds and sesame seeds with a little butter.  When they are brown remove from heat and add them the salad.   Next, add the dressing and mix well. Lastly, fold the  mandarin oranges gently in the salad!  Enjoy the GOODNESS!!!

December 2011 Highlights

December was a super busy month for us, which is typical during this time of the year with Christmas shopping, holiday traffic, choir concerts, several parties, visiting Santa Claus, etc.  Among all the holiday craziness, we found out on December 14 that John has type two diabetes and the following day we had to move out of our rental home because our landlord sold his home (a 15 day notice).  So we were extremely busy packing and looking for a new place during the holiday break.  To be honest, I lost the holiday spirit due to the stress. Since I boxed up all my Christmas stuff, we spent Christmas in southern Utah with my husband's parents.  We enjoyed the peace and quiet bliss at Granny's house (a simple and small country town)!  Granny spoiled us with incredible tasty food!  On Christmas Eve, we drove a couple hours to see Aunt Rhea.  We had a lovely time visiting with her, Vickie, and Carmen.  Granny read a wonderful Christmas story to my girls that night and we enjoyed the glow of candle light dinners.  We went to church for one hour the next day and opened presents after church. We were so happy we spent some time with Granny and Grandpa Free!  A week later, we moved on New Years Eve with help from our awesome family, neighbors, and ward members!  Luckily, the weather was great (no snow) on moving day.  Later that day, one of our old ward members dropped off some pizza, bread sticks, and soda while we unpacked at our new place then we went to a friend's house for a New Years Eve party (we were invited to three parties that night).  We will miss our Grovecreek ward!  We found a wonderful place on the west side of town. It is a lot bigger than our last home with tons of storage space, yard, storage shed, tool shed, greenhouse, potato cellar, etc. Pictures will come later once we are all set up... I have a lot of empty spaces.  Hopefully we can purchase our own home in the future.  In the meantime, we are blessed we found a great place during this cold and chaotic time of the year.  We hope to get to know our neighbors and make new friends in our new ward in the next couple weeks. 

DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

Junior High Choir Concert

Big Sister with her friend at their choir concert

A Fabulous Birthday Haircut (thanks Jenny)! 

A Gorgeous Hair Style from David Douglas Salon

  Checking out the Christmas lights at the River Bottoms Mall 

Never Too Old for Santa Claus 

A Peaceful Christmas in Southern Utah and My girls with Aunt Rhea!

Wearing Red on Christmas Day!

 Making Memories with Granny and Grandpa Free

 Playing Barbies in the Snow! Priceless!

Teddy Bear Table Manners

For Activity day on November 30, 2011, I had the girls each bring a teddy bear.  They cuddled with their stuffed animal or doll while we discussed manners, table setting, and proper etiquette during sacrament meeting.

Sugar Doodle had some amazing ideas that I printed out (Manners and Etiquette Questions).   Martha Stewart came up with a cool way for kids to practice table setting, she included a template for download that could be printed out on paper-stock for the kiddos to cut out and practice. 

The Template by Martha Stewart 

We played a game using real paper plates, plastic cups, plastic utensils, and napkins. I had to girls practice a couple rounds then they started racing each other to see who could correctly set the table the quickest.   We ate Honey Teddy Grahams and Chocolate Chip Honey Grahams for a snack.

Next time I plan this activity I would love to do a small a tea party with some tiny cakes or pastries, sandwiches, veggies, and lemonade would be darling.  I didn't have much time to plan this activity due to my trip and school.  Hopefully they learned something new and had fun!

Fall Family Photographs

On November 4,2011, our sweet talented friend Mindi Youngblood took our family photos in Lehi, Utah.  Even though it was cloudy and cold, we had a lot of fun doing our photo shoot! I decided to do a navy blue and mustard yellow theme! We are stepping out of our comfort zones by wearing the color mustard but it was sure fun shopping for our clothes and accessories!  For our photo shoot backgrounds, Mindi picked an industrial area that offered many textured backgrounds such as an old red brick building, rusty metal warehouse, a red wooden building, tall yellow grass, cobblestone wall, fall leaves, and railroad tracks.  It was a perfect place to snap photographs!  In fact, there were a few other photographers shooting pictures at the same area.

Free Family Established 1997

John wore Faded Glory jeans, Old Navy mustard yellow and navy blue stripped long sleeved shirt, and Dr Martens shoes.

 I wore David Kahn jeans (thrift), Old Navy mustard yellow tank top, Old Navy ruffled navy blue blouse, jewelry set by Chaps from Kohls, and mustard yellow Soda shoes from Forever Young.

My oldest daughter wore skinny jeans from American Eagle, Old Navy ruffled mustard yellow camisole, Old Navy long sleeved navy blue tee shirt, feather drop earrings (SO), and Navy blue Toms.

 My youngest daughter wore Old Navy skinny jeans, Mudd mustard yellow shirt, Old Navy blue and white stripped long sleeved shirt, Sketchers twinkle toes shoes, and navy blue flower hair accessory by Claire's.

 Thank you very much, Mindi!!!  We absolutely love them!!!

Thanksgiving in Mesa

This year we decided to make a road trip to SUNNY Mesa Arizona to celebrate Thanksgiving with many extended family members!  We left on Tuesday night November 22, 2011 around 8:00 PM.  We made a pit stop to southern Utah to rest for a couple hours.  Then we were back on the road at 5:00 AM on Wednesday morning. We took the Las Vegas and Hoover Dam route down to Arizona!  We sure enjoyed seeing the desert, cactus plants, and flowers along the way!  Here are the many wonderful family members, which we spent the long FUN holiday weekend with! 

The five Free siblings (John, Elizabeth, Matt, Dave, and Joe) out of eight total with their spouses were in Mesa this year.   Oh how fun it would be to have EVERYONE gathered in once place!!! Below are the many grandchildren.

TURKEY DAY NOVEMBER 23, 2011

We spent Thanksgiving with Dave/Kristin, Joe/Dave, Elizabeth/Ben, Grandpa/Grandma Free, Matt/Chiaki, and many nieces, nephews, and a couple furry friends (Bella and Nutmeg).  We had around 45 people at Thanksgiving dinner.

After stuffing our faces, we gathered in a large living area and sang a couple hymns and Christmas songs with the family.  Anna put hair wraps in the girl's hair.  We are so grateful for our wonderful loving family!  

WHITE FRIDAY AND IRON CHEF FAMILY COOK OFF

Instead of "Black Friday"shopping, several family members got up early and went to the Mesa Temple.  The youth did baptisms while the adults did endowments and sealings.  By the way, it was big sister's first time doing baptisms for the dead.  It was a beautiful experience for me because I brought down some names of my ancestors.  I felt like we accomplished a lot of temple work because of the effort of many family members!

As for our Iron Chef Family Cook off, we divided into three groups. The secret ingredients were the following: bell peppers, mango, Italian sausage, butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, and chocolate chips.  We had to use all the ingredients by making an appetizer, entree, and dessert.

John and I were on Team Smith.  We met at Jeff and Melinda Smiths (our niece and nephew).  

We made the following:  Bow-tie vegetable sausage with alfredo sauce, butternut squash/ sausage potatoes, mango salsa, and strawberry cheese cake crepes with melted chocolate. 

 
My niece Aisling made a YouTube of all our delicious food!!!

BABY SHOWER AND DESERT FUN

On Saturday November 26, 2011, we went to a baby shower at Brett and Aisling's house for Keli Silva who is having a boy in February.  We played some games, ate some finger foods, and awwwwwed over her new baby things!

While the girls were at the baby shower, the men and boys had a blast in the desert shooting guns and riding mini bikes.

SUSHI YUM

On Saturday night, we went to Sekai Sushi with Matt, Chiaki, Dave, Kristin, Joe, Diana, Elizabeth, and Ben. Since Matt and Chiaki are sushi experts, they ordered for us!  The sushi was AMAZING!  I tried octopus for the first time! We had a fun time talking with each other and trying out sushi.  The eel was my favorite!  After dinner, we got some  Mesa Frozen Yogurt for dessert!  We shared a lot of stories, smiles, and laughter!  What a fabulous group date!

A LONG ROAD TRIP HOME

We went to sacrament meeting with Dave's family, changed our clothes, packed the car, and went home.  We took the Flagstaff route home.  It was a long 12 hour drive home due to slow traffic near car accidents and many potty breaks!  We were so happy to be able to spend Thanksgiving with the Arizona Free families!  We cannot wait to visit them again in the future!