Beef Jerky

One of the things that Jason enjoys making is Beef Jerky. He gets the itch every year around the time of our Family Coral Pink trip. He has tried lots of different styles and techniques but this year he finally found his favorite. For Christmas one of the gifts he bought himself was a Jerky Baster and now each piece of jerky is exactly the same as the next. If you know Jason at all you will know how happy that kind of thing makes him. He went to work doing his thing and made 13 pounds of Jerky. (If you want his recipe you will have to talk to him. I am not sure exactly what he does. I do know that he likes to use London broil and has the butcher grind it up for him. The whole process grosses me out but it does end up tasting really yummy!)

Coral Pink

Another year has come and gone. I have lost track of the years that the Mohler family had been going to Coral Pink. I think it is getting pretty close to 30 years. It is another one of our families spring traditions. We have a lot of those!!! This year the weather was not very cooperative the first few days it rained, it hailed, it snowed and the wind blew hard. It was cold! But the kids sure didn’t skip a beat. They played like the sun was shining. That is what I love about this trip. It is a lot of work to pack and prepare for and an even bigger job to clean up after. I find red sand in my car and laundry room for many months after. But it is a chance for my kids to be kids for a whole week. They play till the sun goes down every day with their cousins and love every minute of it. They dig in the sand, ride bikes, make forts, explore, catch bugs, climb trees and eat sticky gooey candy that only grandma would buy them. And they learn a little too. This year our boys slept in a tent by themselves and Jason taught them how to set up their tent. This year Jaden also learned how to ride my 4-wheeler. It is one with a clutch to shift gears that was (still is) difficult for me to ride. Jason was so excited that he caught on so well and that he has more of his riding skills than mine. It was a cold trip but a great one!

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Jaden's Piano Recital

Jaden started learning how to play the piano from his wonderful piano teacher Mrs. Barlow about 8 months ago. I have been very impressed with how quickly he has caught on. Jason and I have no musical talent and so we have been thrilled to have to sound of piano music being played in our home. Recently Jaden had his very first piano recital and he did an amazing job.

We are so proud of you Jaden!!!

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Lemon CupCakes

and just a little spring recipe that I will end with...

Lemon Cake/Cupcakes

1 lemon cake mix
1 pkg. lemon pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds, then beat on higher speed for 2 minutes. Spray a bunt pan with cooking spray, then coat with granulated sugar. Pour cake batter into pan and bake at 375 50-55 minutes. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before flipping onto plate. Drizzle with lemon butter cream frosting that you have microwave for about 30 seconds.

Serve with fresh raspberries.
If making cup cakes bake for 15-17 minutes.
I don’t melt the frosting when I make cupcakes.

Lemon Butter cream Frosting

1 cube butter, at room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt
3 T fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter. Add salt, lemon juice and extract. Add in powdered sugar, half a cup at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.

Wyoming

About a week ago Jason and I took a trip to Wyoming to visit one of Jason’s old missionary companions Rob Heiner. He and his wife have been to Vegas to visit a few times over the years but we have never gone there. I remember Jason writing me while he was on his mission about wanting to go ride snowmobiles in Jackson Hole with Rob. I did not think it would take 14 years for him to finally get there but I am glad that he can now check that off his list. I am sure this wasn’t his last trip either.

We had a wonderful time and the Heiner’s treated us so well. One of the days we did a normal persons snowmobile ride up to some natural hot springs. It was pretty crazy to be surrounded by so much snow and be sitting in the middle of it in hot water that was coming out of the same mountain that was covered in snow. On our ride back we pulled over made a fire and roasted hot dogs. That was fun too!

Another day Jason went with Rob for the ride that he had been looking forward to. He came back saying that it was just amazing. I do not think that being scared to death qualifies for being amazing but to him it does. Jason does not scare easily and so I was surprised to hear him say there was a point that HE was scared. These boys were literally going STRAIGHT UP enormous mountains on some crazy fast snowmobiles. I am just glad they made it back safe.

My boy can JUMP!

Just about EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Jason and Jaden can be found on the trampoline playing some version of basketball. The other day I came out to watch and this is what they were doing. I am a little scared that one day Jaden might fly out of the net.

Ballerina Babe

Dance has been officially back in full swing for Cloey and she loves every minute of it. She gets so excited when I remind her that tomorrow is dance day. She Loves to dance, Loves Mrs. Lori, Loves having her cousin Courtnie in her class, and still Loves to sleep in her leotard and wear it under her clothes to school on dance day.

Banana Bars

Sometimes we like to switch things up and make Banana Bars instead of Banana Bread. This is a yummy recipe if you are in the mood for something a little sweeter.

Banana Bars

2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
4-6 mashed bananas
(I like to put the bananas and milk together in the blender to mash the bananas)
1 cup milk
3 cup flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter, eggs, and sugar until fluffy. Stir in bananas and milk. Combine dry ingredients and stir into the creamed mixture. Pour into greased cookie sheet ( and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Frosting

1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup hot milk
3 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Melt butter in sauce pan and add brown sugar. Bring to a boil for 1 minute over medium heat. Cool for 15 minutes and add milk. Whip until smooth. Then add powered sugar. Spread over cool bars.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

I was feeling some extra energy today and decided to surprise my kids and celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday with them. I found some printable games like connect the dots and a word search that were of Dr. Seuss characters. I also found a Grinch quiz that was fun to do around the dinner table along with some interesting facts about Dr. Seuss.

You can't celebrate Dr. Seuss without having green eggs and ham and so I decided to make our favorite breakfast casserole for dinner and add green food coloring to the ham and eggs. It made for a fun night! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss.

Breakfast Casserole

Breakfast Casserole

Tater tots
½ cup butter
1 cup cubed precooked ham, bacon or sausage
shredded cheese
8 eggs
2 cups milk

Place tater tots on the bottom of a 9x 13 pan (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan). Pour melted butter evenly over the tater tots. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle tater tots with ham and cheese. In a bowl beat eggs and milk together. Pour mixture over cheese and ham. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Respectful Cloey

Cloey earned a citizenship award at school this week for being "Respectful". She was very excited to go up and receive her award during a school assembly. That same day I earned the “awful mother” award for not remembering the assembly until an hour after it was over.

Jaden earned his Weblos badge

Thanks to Jaden’s AWESOME cub scout leaders Jaden earned his Weblos badge this month. We are very proud of him. Cub Scouts has seemed to fly by and he is excited to join Boy Scouts in the fall.

Girls Retreat (no kids allowed)

Last weekend my grandma and aunt drove down from Salt Lake to join my mom, sisters and me in a Girls Weekend. Our idea of a weekend was Thursday afternoon until Sunday evening. Our retreat was at my mom’s house with no kids or husbands allowed (Jason and my kids stopped by for a minutes one morning to bring us doughnuts which we decided was allowed and very sweet of them.). We stayed up until 4 am most nights and slept in till 10. We crafted and scrapbooked. Ate out and made yummy treats. Laughed and cried and just enjoyed being together. I LOVE my family and especially these guys.


I worked on making these 2 easter baskets for my kids. I still need to make 2 more.

Chuck E. Cheese

Our kid’s school had a fundraiser night at Chuck E. Cheese. We didn’t have anything going on that evening and so we went. We all had fun trying out their new games and the kids thought it was fun to see some of their school friends and teachers there also. Jason and Jaden of course figured out which game would give them the best return on their token and the little tricks on how to play it. I was very amazed with the 1745 tickets they won. Although I am beginning to just expect to be amazed by those two.

Taco Soup

We brought this soup for dinner on our campout, we LOVE it camping but also at home. It is one of those meals that our entire family LOVES. My wonderful friend Noel made it for us on a trip we went on together. Since, we have thrown out our Taco Soup recipe and converted solely to hers. It is THE.BEST.

Noel’s Taco Soup

1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
8 oz. tomato sauce
4 oz. chopped green chilies
1 can corn
1 can small red beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
½ bunch cilantro, chopped
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 lb. shredded chicken

In a skillet, sauté the onions and garlic.

In a large pot combine the rest of the ingredients. Add the onions and garlic once sautéed. Heat thoroughly.

Serve topped with Fritos, sour cream and shredded cheese.

Overnight Camp-out

The weather has just been gorgeous lately and I have had the itch to go camping. Of course Jason and the kids jumped right on it since it was "mom" who actually was the one wanting to go. We decided on an overnighter to Valley of Fire. We left Sunday after church set up camp, climbed all over the rocks and enjoyed dinner and s'mores around the campfire and of course a lot of singing. That night the kids fell asleep to me and Jason taking turns telling them stories about us when we were their age. We had a lot of laughs and a few sad memories.

The next day we woke up cooked breakfast and did more climbing on the rocks, I think we must have covered quite a few miles on those rocks. We also played catch, frisbee, track ball and had chicken fights on the cement curbing. We also did the Mouse Tank hike. It is a short hike to a natural basin in the rock where water collects after rainfall. It was a hideout in the 1890’s for the Indians. We saw numerous petroglyphs along the way and some foot tracks of a mountain lion and some teeny teeny tiny tracks that must have been from a mouse.

We were only gone 24 hours but we had a GREAT time. I just love the weather this time of year and realize that it doesn’t last long. I am so glad we went!

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Creative Girls

I love that my girls are creative and love to do arts and craft projects. I don’t always like the messes that they make while doing there projects but love that they have great imaginations. Jason and his brother took all the kids to the school the other day to play track ball and ride bikes. While the boys were playing ball the girls created this little girl and her puppy out of trash that they found on the school field. The girl is made of soda cans, pinecones, paper, a gift bag, yarn and rocks. They even found a sucker for her hand and a hair bow and flower for her hair and a broken pair of glasses for her eyes. The puppy is made from a coffee bag, pencils, and pinecones. The leash is made from a plastic strip used to tie bundles of newspaper. I thought it was so dang cute and I was very impressed with their creativity.

The pictures are from Jason’s cell phone and are not very great quality. He also took a video that is super cute but we can’t get it off the phone.

Science Fair

For Jaden’s Science Fair Project this year he posed the question “What percentage of an orange is liquid?” It was a very simple and easy project. We weighed an orange, cut it into slices, dehydrated it, weighed it again, and then calculated the percentage of liquid lost. The result was that the orange was made up of 71% liquid.

Silhouettes

A friend of mine has inspired me to get going on some fun projects that I have wanted to do. One of the first things on my list was learning how to make these silhouettes. They are surprisingly easy. My mom gave me these ones for Christmas and I just LOVE them. I think they are so cool and I just wanted to share the idea. Stay tune for some more fun projects...

Private Pilot

A little while ago Jason got to be the pilot for Robert Downey Jr. (you know “Iron man”). He thought Mr. Downey was a really cool guy. He chatted away with Jason and gave him headsets to listen in on the movie that they were filming. Jason said he felt like Hugh Grant in the movie “Notting Hill” where he is sitting on set listening to Julia Roberts film a movie. He thought it was a pretty cool “work” day!