Recipes for Julia :)

Sausage Dip (Appetizer - Super Yummy)

1 pound breakfast sausage

2 8oz cream cheese

1 can rotelle tomatoes

Brown Sausage in pan. Add 2 packages of cream cheese until melted. Add can of tomatoes. Serve in Crock Pot with tortilla chips.

Spring Mix Salad

spring mix

craisans

pine nuts

crumbled feta/goat cheese

Dressing:

1/2 cup white sugar

2 tsp minced onion

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Baked Potato Casserole

8 potatoes cooked and cut into pieces (jackets left on)

1 cup mayo

1/2 pound cooked and crumbled bacon

sliced green onion

salt/pepper to taste

1 pound velveeta cut and cubed

Mix all together. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Mormon Beans (Award Winning Chili! thats really not chili!)

1 pound ground beef, browned

1/2 pound bacon, cooked then crumbled/chunked

onion

1 can kidney beans

1 can tomato soup

2 T vinegar

1/2 cup ketchup

3 tsp dry mustard

1/4 cup brown sugar

optional:mushrooms, other beans

Brown the beef and onion together. Cook bacon and cut into pieces or crumble. In a large pot or crock pot add all the ingrediants together. Mix. Bake on 350 for 1 hour or use your crock pot! Serve with rolls, breads etc.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

4-6 carrots chopped

3-4 stalks of celery chopped

1 small onion chopped

2 chicken breasts cubed

Put these in a large pot with 3-4 T of butter and sprinkle with salt. Cook until meat is done and veggies are slightly tender.

Add 2-3 cups of soup stock (1 tsp chicken boullion per 1 cup of water)

2 T dried parsley

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup milk with 2-3 T flour mixed in

1-2 T sour cream

Bring soup to a boil while stirring. Add more milk if you want it runnier or add more milk/flour to thicken.

Add 2 cups of egg noodles

1 cup frozen corn/mixed veggies

Cook until noodles are tender. Serve with dinner rolls.

Here you go Julia! I will post more later! Enjoy!

Holy Moly!

Holy!! I didn't realize how far behind I am. I will for sure update soon. Not tomorrow though....too busy tomorrow. I have started exercising again, and I am also taking a financial class (boo hiss). Lots going on tomorrow......maybe Friday.

Until then......

Yeah for Christmas!

So, Christmas only comes once a year. There so much to enjoy. The lights, music, food, company, movies, snow, candy, cookies, presents, trees, cranberries (mmm cranberries) and so much much more. There are some great traditions. In Bryon's family, Becky gets everyone a new ornament every year. She takes a lot of time and care in picking out the perfect ornament - it always signifies something important that happened that year. She always places a little note in the box - detailing why she picked that ornament. It is quite fun to go back and read the past notes year after year. Another tradition, every Christmas eve we get together, eat and visit. Exchange the ornaments, have a family testimony meeting. Its a nice evening.

Now, in my family, we have our traditions - new Christmas PJ's, traditional food and lots of it!!! There's not a Ball Family gathering without mountainous mounds of food. Aunt Betty makes these to die for chocolates that I haven't had in years. But the one tradition that I remember the most and most fondly is Star Wars. Every Christmas we would go downstairs, curl up on the couch and watch the Star Wars trilogy (hence why I have the Star Wars theme on my Christmas Playlist heheh). Since we have all married, we don't get all together to watch them. And now there are 6 movies - imagine sitting and watching all 6 Star Wars in one day! It would be fun to do - something that I would love to do one day. But it would be a very long day. I would need to get a babysitter - although, Taylor does like Star Wars almost as much as I do. Anyways, this is the one tradition that I - the mother - have passed down to my children. It makes people laugh. All I know, is I am anxiously awaiting my Star Wars movies. If you were to look at my Blockbuster Queue it has the 6 movies at the top.

Yeah for Christmas!

YEAH!!!

Very Rebeckahish

The other day, I was busy feeding Ainsley and doing about 100 other things. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rebeckah run into the other room with markers in her hand. At the time, I didn't think too much about it - I did think to myself.....hmm, what is she up to....maybe I should check on her. Of course, I didn't. I kept on doing the things I was doing. A few minutes later she came running back into the dining room and yelled out.."Look Mommy, I'm a witch!" She was very excited about her coloring. After shaking my head and muttering a few words of frustration, I got up and got the camera. After I snapped a couple still shots, she broke out in song and dance. I hestitated for few moments because Rebeckah is usually quite camera shy and if she is doing something that is very "Rebeckahish" she will stop if the camera is anywhere nearby. Well, she hammed it up for me! She is the funniest child I have ever met. This one will definately be used for black mail, embarrassment and/or wedding fun!

Peace out!

All Hallow's Eve

Oh how scary! A princess, a ghost, an 80's person and a witch.

The girls had a great time this Halloween. They got to go trick-or-treating 2 times this year. Once at church and once with Nana and Papa. Well, Bryon and I discussed the candy situation after the ward trunk or treat. We decided that instead of having a month long battle with candy, we would just let them go crazy! Well, they did just that. Taylor and Rebeckah ate most of their candy in one day! Saturday morning they woke up wanting to eat candy. We laid down the ground rules - they could eat all the candy they wanted today - but after today it was gone. They started shortly after 8 am and didn't stop eating candy until 8 pm that same night. They were so sick to their stomach - Taylor even decided that she wasn't going to eat again until next Halloween. In hein sight I don't know if our decision to do this was such a great idea. They were crazy Saturday as we were trying to grocery shop - Rebeckah was running around in circles in Sam's. The cashier asked if she was ok - I simply relayed our decision and she just laughed.

On our way home from church today, Rebeckah announced that she was hungry. I told her when we got home I would make her some lunch. She started scream and kicking "I don't want food. I don't like food. I want CANDY!!!" What did we get ourselves into?!

My Kids Do the Most Embarrassing Things!

Picture this if you may.......It's a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon. The Bowman's, having recently just bought a new house, have a long list of DIY projects they would like to try to finish today. So, they all load up in the van and head to Home Depot. They walked around for a while, looking at vast array of goodies that stocks the shelves. They make their way to the blinds section, looking to find some blinds to fit their kitchen windows. They find a lady, very fashionably dressed, I may add in the bright Home Depot orange. Mom and Dad Bowman are discussing different options they have. They turned their back on the 2 daughters for just a moment. Taylor then shouts out "Rebeckah's taking off her clothes!" Mom Bowman turns around and see Rebeckah completely naked from the waist down - shaking her "naked butt". They ran quickly to Rebeckah to cover her back up and she sings "Look at my naked butt". Needless to say, this Orange Home Depot lady was probably thinking that the Bowman's were awful parents - what child would strip down in the middle of Home Depot and shake their naked butt for all to see - completely shameless may I add. How embarrassing!! Too bad I didn't have my camera!