Bountiful Baskets

www.bountifulbaskets.org

Bountiful Baskets is a food Co-op that provides a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables for great prices. You don't choose what you want, you get what you get, and I like that cause it forces me to introduce new stuff to my kids, and learn how to incorporate it into my meals. Pictured below is what I got from my basket purchase on Saturday, it ended up being 33 lbs which equals 50 cents a lb. (16.50$Flat rate every week) What a Deal! The contents are as follows: yams, brown asian pears, squash, grape tomatoes, cameo apples, brocolli, Romaine lettuce, celery, bananas, blood oranges, pummellos (sweet grapefruit like fruit), baby peeled carrots. This will last our family 2 weeks. I might need to pick up some more bananas. Oh, and every time the baskets are different.

Why is Snack J making applesauce in February? Well, by the end of the day, I was starting to question it myself! However I was not able to put up enough applesauce in the fall due to time limits, with the starting of school...ect...ect and every time I had to buy applesauce at full price at the grocery store, I got upset, therefore when Bountiful Baskets offered a box of Granny Smith's at .46c/lb. I had to jump. I wasn't even able to sign up in my city, because I signed up too late, but drove my 3 kids at 7:30 in the morning to Uintah to pick it up, determined as I was to stop paying full price for applesauce, and homemade is so much better!

I ended up making 7 jars and decided to dry the rest, utilizing my pampered chef apple peeler corer slicer and newish dehydrator they are soooo good!

I took a gamble and tried out the Bountiful Baskets 9 grain bread. The reviews were great, and I am so glad I did. It comes in a set of 5 loaves, for 10$. The bread has a sweet honey taste and is slightly chewy, not dry! (Which is what most store wheat breads tend to be, IMHO)

I was hoping a closeup would help you see how moist the bread is, but I'm afraid you'll just have to believe me, or come over for a slice!

Week in Review

Nate took Snack J and Sister Sue on a hunt: for Gator the Crocodile, Mark's new pet. Mark, Nate's brother has been telling Snack J and Sister Sue all about his new crocodile he found at his house he just bought and is remodeling. So after lunch on Saturday, we loaded the kids up and drove over there to introduce the kids to Gator, who's name kept bothering Snack J:"Gator is an aligator, not a crocodile!" Nate had the kids look all around the yard, look in the bushes while calling out for Gator. He showed them the tub in the front yard that Gator had taken a bite out, then he told them that Gator must be sunbathing in the front yard and there he was. A stuffed Crocodile that Mark had found in the house he was gutting out, and is currently employed as Marks guard dog.

Baby C cheezes every time he sees a camera.

Nate lets Sister Sue have a hand at the hair cut while he waits for me to finish bathing the boys after their hair cut. (she's using the buzzer combs that are too large to cut)

Baby C insists on helping Nate with all jobs which involve farm equipment and animals.

Baby C and Ruby(Elisa Hardy's baby) play together at my exercise group. She has been leading boot camp style workouts and we've been loving and hating it! More on that later.

Snack J's Haircut...

Nate decided Snack J needed either a haircut or a dog tag. So he took matters into his own hands and solved the problem himself. I wanted you to see how good Nate is with the kids, he's a natural at the art of distraction. If you checked out the Hardware Ranch Post you'll see what Nate is having Snack J talk about.

Hardware Ranch: Valentine's Day Weekend Trip

Last week while riding around the backyard on the horses, Snack J said:"Dad I don't want to ride in the backyard, I want to go see the elk!" Of course nate and I smiled big, as Snack J always amazes us with how much he takes in at such a young age and Nate said, "Well, I don't know about taking the horses, but we can take you to go see the elk" And as I type this, I realize that is how we ended up at Dinosaur Park last month: Snack J's idea. This kid's got an amazing power of suggestion. I need to tell him more about Hawaii! :o)

We just bought a Dogde Intrepid 2000 which i'm so excited about not having a car payment,getting better gas mileage and fitting all 3 car seats in without slamming the doors closed.

So anyway: last Sunday we drove the Trapper's Loop, North Ogden Canyon Loop to try it out. We saw 2 moose up by Snow basin and on this trip we saw a bald eagle and 3 white tail deer on the drive, and the lodge where you buy the tickets for the elk wagon ride had a small museum....another museum and my kids loved it! I've got several animal encyclopedia styled books for the kids and they pour over them everyday, so the kids were very excited to get up close and personal with the pictures they look at daily.

Baby C needs to be signed on by Baby Gap Modeling agency, IMHO, but I'm just the mom.


I love the sign below this bobcat: Please do not touch, I BITE!

I was so excited I caught these facial expressions on the kids as they trepidiciously (is that a word?) came face to face with the skins of animals they talk about (and smell) all the time.

When we saw the moose at Snowbasin last week, Snack J couldn't quite see them at his angle in the car, despite Nate turning around the car trying several times to try and help him, so desperately he wanted to see them, so we made a big deal about Snack J being able to get face to face with this moose.

Look Mom, There's Elk Poop!!!!

Gotta love 3 year old enthusiasm.

And gotta love 3 year old obstinance: "No I don't want to look at the camera!"

Well I thought I cropped clipped and zoomed, but apparently it didn't work. Here are the 3 deer we saw on the way home. What, you can't see them? Come on...Look harder!

On the way home Nate asked if we wanted to go out to dinner in Logan, Of Course! So on the Friday before Valentine's we walked right into Copper Mill right before 5 pm with all 3 kids. We lucked out with our waiter who looked about our age, he let us order off the lunch menu and he brought out the kids meals FAST. The kids were so well behaved, we actually were able to enjoy ourselves. We ate at the copper mill for 25 Dollars for the whole family! We can hardly do that at Arby's anymore, well, since they introduced their dollar menu it' s a little easier... And as we walked out the line had begun to form to get into the restaurant. Good timing.

P.S. Nate got me a gift card to Deseret Book and a beautiful bouqet of flowers on Sunday. Okay, so maybe I did give him a suggestion, but I'm so excited to go pick out whatever I want. Many a pleasant thought this past week has been spent deciding what I should get with my gift card. I got Nate another remote for the Wii. So we can now play Wii tennis together, on the same team of course, we don't want to be throwing the remotes at each other :o)

Dinosaur Park

On an No School Day, in January, when the day was a Balmy 45 degrees I decided to give in to Snack J's endless requests to go to Dinosaur Park. I justified that since I was saving money not going up to visit my family in Idaho, for a reason I can't remember anymore,,,really, that I could spend a fraction of that and do a spontaneous trip to the park. I had free tickets somewhere, but have been so disorganized that I knew I would spend half the day trying to find them and miss the opportunity to seize the day. So I just paid full price. Which you have to know is NOT easy for me to do, enough for me to make a big point of telling everyone on my blog! P.S. I finally found the free tickets like a week later, luckily for Snack J who is already back to demanding we go back, at least 3 times a week.
I even splurged and rented the wagon, which was so great to take in the whole park, my double stroller was underneath snow somewhere in the back yard. I love this shot, it reminds me of 3 ducks in a row, waddle, waddle, quack quack.:o)

uh, mom, why am I sitting on this thing?

We were the only ones in the park, I guess not too many people think Dinosaur Park in January, but really, i'd rather stomp around in the snow than be beat down by the summer heat. I think 45 degrees is a perfect temperature.

Now Sister Sue has never seen Karate Kid, but she sure knows how to strike a pose! We had a great time, and my children made me proud as I took them through the inside museum. They looked at each display with awe and asked a ton of questions. I'm glad to be raising museum loving children. I think that respecting and learning about history is vital to our freedom and museums help bring history to life.

Winter adventures

Well no one can accuse the davis family of wasting precious winter days,,, at least not very often. And cheering as a family for the Olympics definately counts as bonding time, except when we're hollering at Baby C for turning off the t.v. and running. The rain we've had this week has made me wistful for more winter fun, so I decided I better record some of the adventures we've enjoyed together this winter...

The Garling grandkids got together for New Year's weekend and we were so glad for 4wd GMC Yukon to get us up the Garling driveway in Ammon, ID. The kids and adults enjoyed a spontaneous sledding party down the driveway,(most things with the Garlings are spontaneous!)

We brought up our dogs for the trip, Gracie and Brownie, and the cousins enjoyed them thoroughly....

The cousins enjoyed facefulls of snow....

Even grandma and grandpa came out to join in the fun! Sorry Baby C for the pink hat...did I mention this was a spontaneous sledding party???

And finally to embrace all that snow Nate took Jack and some cousins out the next morning to build a Cool Tall Tall Tall Snowman. He made it to face the house so we all got to enjoy it from the big windows of the garling house.

So now back to West Haven, where we had a cold snap in December/January that Nate decided to take full advantage. A man with a dream sets out to make....an ice skating rink in our front yard. Now this is not an easy undertaking, it takes tenacity and questionable sanity spending HOURS out in sub freezing conditions into the late hours of the night grooming and spraying fine misted spray over and over which inevitably ends up on Nate, freezing his coveralls solid... but here are the results, many dear memories made and Nate gets to pass on his childhood passions along to his children.

I have to put stacking hay as a fond winter activity this year, the boys sure loved helping their dad every step of the way, even when the sun went down, they played in the back of the Yukon and eventually Baby C submitted to the sleep gods...

Time Out for Women 2010!

I got to go to Time Out For Women in Ogden this year with Kim Keeler and Aimee Morrison.

I had such a great time. My oil lamp feels like it got filled to the brim. Now I just need to keep it filled! We got to hear from John Bytheway,Chieko Okazaki! "You never run out of smiles, greetings, prayer", Amanda Dickson (KSL Radio)"Is dissapointment really that bad? Don't be so scared of it! God knew we were going to mess up and provided a way to make it all better, so get out of your comfort box and hope for high things, During tough times we long for people to tell us 'everything is going to be O.K.' because we know deep in our heart that these words are true and we like to be reminded of this truth." Emily Freeman"When you don't have enough faith there is always Hope", Mariama (African Holocaust survivor)"I watched my parents be shot to death, my brother's arms were cut off and he died, I was forced to watch my sister be raped and her legs cut off and she died. I was all alone, but God had a plan for me. I found the church, we were given a humanitarian kit which I shared with over 25 women, when I was called to serve a mission at temple square we toured the Humanitarian Center where I saw where the kits came from and I just sobbed. Your little efforts in providing these kits gave me hope that there was good left in the world." Mercy River, a women trio performed amazing music and so did Jenny Oaks Baker who was awe-inspiring on her violin, she held me in rapture listening to her intensity and interpretation of music.

On Saturday we sat 2 rows behind a favorite musical artist of mine: Hilary Weeks. I started to freak out when I realized it was her and Kim took me up to meet her, get her autograph and give her a hug. It was awesome, except that I blubbered like a baby. It was really embarresing. Her music helped me through some of the darkest moments of my life and helped me celebrate some of the happiest moments too. So thinking about how much her music has been a part of my life for the past 10 years just made me so emotional, plus I was at TOFW where we were already experiencing eye leaks as it was....!

Here are a couple of links to a couple of articles written about the event. They share the stories much better than I just did, and give them justice.
http://www.mormontimes.com/people_news/people_church/?linkTrack=mtEmail&id=13208

http://www.mormontimes.com/people_news/people_church/?linkTrack=mtEmail&id=13218