My Sick Buddy

Some stinky cold hit Elyette and I really hard and fast yesterday afternoon. Last night I woke up around 1:30am and couldn't get back to sleep till 4:00am and I could tell that it was plaguing Elyette as well, so I went in to give her some motrin and she was such a sweetie. Our dialouge went something like this.

Mom walks in with a dose of children's motrin.

Elyette: MEDICINE!?!
Mom: Yep.
Elyette: Thank you
Mom: You ok?
Elyette: yeah..(in a achy voice)
Mom: does it hurt? Where?
Elyette:(pointing inside her mouth) throat.
Mom: Oh, mommy too.
Elyette: Mommy sick too?
Mom: Yeah.
Elyette: Mommy medicine?
Mom: Yep. I love you.
Elyette: Love you. Nuh night.
Mom: Good night sweetheart.

Her sweet concern for me made me feel tons better. She's my buddy! We both have been camping out on the couch munching on apple slices, sipping juice, watching movies (Beauty and the Beast twice) and letting Jack climb all over us and try stealing our food. She even helped me out when I was getting some lunch for us. Jack was whining for me and without me asking her, Elyette went over and started playing peek-a-boo with him and hiding him under her blanket with her. He was giggling like crazy, it was very cute. I love that little girl, she's one of my best friends!

Visit from Gramma and Grampa Smith

My parents were able to come for 2 days to visit from Washington this weekend on there way to Utah. I was really excited since it was the first time someone from my family has been able to come see where we are living now, plus I happen to love my parents a ton, and I got to show off Jack and Elyette.

Jack, of course, loved all the attention and hammed things up on many occasions and Elyette wanted to make sure she knew where gramma and grampa were at all times. Jack liked head bonking with grampa and after gramma created some beautiful towers from blocks, Elyette took ever opportunity to get gramma to "build a house". And I certainly appreciated the extra help with dishes. Thanks Mom!

While they were here we went up to San Francisco and walked around on Pier 39 and ate lunch at Swiss Louis. Jack was very fun and lively during lunch and since gramma gave him some tastes of her food he begged her non stop for more. Then we drove by 2000 Post, where we lived for a bit, and drove through Golden Gate Park. That night we ate pizza and watched "Chronicles of Narnia" where Elyette pointed out the "scary cow" to us (it was some creature that was with the Witch). We had a lot of fun and wished they could have stayed longer, but I have to share them with the rest of the fam. :P

Under Construction

So, I'm learning some html so I can design my own template for my blog, so bare with me if you see some odd things going on while taking a look...

Oh and I want the color box that my text is on to be opaque so you can see the background pic, but it makes the pictures that I have on my posts opaqued as well, which I don't want. If anyone knows how to fix this PLEASE let me know.

Cafe Rio's Pork Barbacoa

I do like variety when I eat out, but when I find something I really love I can't help but get it every time I go. Thats what happened when I had Cafe Rio's Pork Barbacoa Burrito (enchilada style) . Its all I ordered there and I started to crave it when not there. I've tried other places, but what ever Cafe Rio did for their barbacoa it hooked me. I poked around for copy cat recipes, but never tried making my own. Now with miles between us, I got serious, did my research and the results were AWESOME! Seriously tasty!!! Now Boz and I will have to master Brick Oven Root Beer and we'll be set. So, here's what we did for the pork (a combination from online sources I found, and my own tweaking)

Pork Barbacoa

2 lbs pork (we used pork loin)
1 cup Dr. Pepper
1/4 cup water
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Let cook on low for about 8 hours, then shred pork. (You may also want to drain some of the liquid, depending on how runny you want it). Then add the following to the cooked pork:

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 (4 oz) can mild diced green chilis
2/3 c salsa verde (green chili sauce) - we used La Victoria's Chunky Medium Salsa Verde
garlic powder and salt to taste

That's for the pork. Now, these measurements are guesstimates :). I originally put 1 cup of brown sugar in, but then I'm thinking the recipe I read maybe didn't intend for people to assume that brown sugar should be packed cause it recommended 2 cups. So I had to adjust for that, but the above is about right proportionately.

To fill the burrito:

Black Beans (or whatever kind you like)- we cooked our beans with some sugar, salt, and onion powder (more due to lack of dehydrated onions on hand). Measure about 1 cup of beans before cooking or use 2 cans of black beans for that much pork.

Rice - We threw some chicken bouillon, lemon juice, and fresh cilantro in with the rice in the rice cooker before cooking.

Monterey Jack Cheese and more of the Salsa Verde

First, preheat oven to 350, lightly grease a 9x13 pan and put a thin layer of salsa verde on the bottom of the pan. Fill tortillas (we used the partially cooked ones from Costco) with pork, rice, beans, cheese, and a little bit of salsa verde (or whatever sauce you want). Close and put seam side down into the pan. When finished, top burritos with salsa verde and cheese for enchilada style...mmm.

We used a little over a third of the pork and made 4 good sized burritos, so I imagine you could make 10-12 burritos with 2 lbs of pork.

Serve with:

Lettuce
Fresh Salsa - Tomato, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lemon/lime juice, salt, and garlic powder

To garnish:

Orange Slices - of which Elyette ate almost all 4 oranges worth. If there's gonna be a garnish it better be tasty!

Elyette-isms

I love it when kids give you the occasional window into their cute little minds through the silly things they says and do. I decided I better document some of Elyette's from the last couple of days.

-While on the way to the grocery store today, she pointed out to me that her new polka dot shoes have "bubbles" on them.

- We got a Jamba Juice to share at Safeway today and she got it on her pants. Once she saw that I wasn't mad, she went "opps, silly Eh-y-ette".

-Yesterday, she put me in time out. She came to check to see if I was ready to be nice after a minute or too, but then decided I wasn't ready to come out yet and left me again for a little while. Finally she felt I was ready to come out if I was nice. (mind you, all I was doing was brushing my teeth at the time).

-Lately when we cross the street she gets very anxious, wide eyed and speeds up "huwee... huwee, cows a' tumming" (i.e. "hurry, hurry, cars are coming"). Probably because she got busted for running into the street without me the other day.

-When I was gone Wednesday night, Boz told Elyette I was at a baby shower. Later she told him I was gone at the baby bath.

-Last Friday we went to Half Moon Bay for a picnic dinner on the beach (I'll blog on that when I get a chance). On the way home she was munching on a cookie in the car and we had just gotten past the winding roads when she told us "cookie hurts". She gets car sick easily so I figured I knew what that meant but we didn't pull over till it was too late. She called it "choking" when she threw up, which is a pretty good description I thought... poor kid.

- Jack is very obvious now when he poops and it worries Elyette. She yells for me and tells me, "Dack's poo'd da floor" or couch or where ever he is and turns to Jack and says "buddy, no, no...no poo'd da floor, li'l dude" in very concerned sort of way.

Well, I could go on and on, but I think this post is pretty long already. I'm sure this won't be the last post of its kind though.

General Conference

In all honesty, I've had all sorts of feelings about conference. I often dreaded it as a kid since it was like a super long sacrament meeting without the coming reward of primary. As my own testimony sprouted more and I realized what it actually means to have a prophet to guide us (I admit I still am discovering what that means) I started to enjoy conference more. It was in High School when my parents said that they wanted us to listen to every session on both days that I started really loving and looking forward to conference.

I remember thinking it would be torture, but the opposite became true. By the time I was a freshman at BYU and didn't have my parents initiating conference anymore, I realized I was really looking forward to conference. Since then I truly have had that excitement when conference is coming and been able to watch every session. I love it! I was particularly excited for the Solemn Assembly this morning and am very grateful for having been able to participate and sustain our new prophet Pres. Thomas S. Monson and all of our general authorities and leaders. I hope you all feel uplifted and sense the optimism that I think is always exuded during conference!

Also, my sister passed along this packet for kids. I looked through it, it looks really good and has a lot for all ages... even if you have a 2 year old like mine who can just look at the pictures and color on them. (depending on your internet connection you can listen to conference here)

Getting Crafty

Since I've graduated, settled in our new place, and have become more adjusted to having 2 little ones, I find I have a some time for... what do you call it... oh, HOBBIES! Its been a while... I'm not a very crafty person, but I have a whole lot of ideas rolling around in my head. Unfortunately, I don't yet have many of the skills necessary to create all that I'd like to. Out of laziness I skip the pattern and come up with my own way of making something, which isn't always a bad thing, but it's robbed me of learning some basics that can get me so much further. I often get ahead of myself and become overwhelmed and end up with a rather pathetic end result that is far from what I intended (if I finish it at all). So here's my goal: slow down and learn what I should already know! (Any and all help is more than welcome). I've been inspired by many of you to start posting some of the things I've made (if I'm not too embarrassed), in order to encourage myself to keep it up.

Thanks to my extremely talented seamstress mother, I'm not totally starting from scratch. I really wish I had picked her brain and used her experience to my advantage a whole lot more when I was younger and living at home (like my now very skilled little sister Marissa). I, instead limited myself to making pajama pants and scrunchies. I've tried a lot more since and here are some things I've sewn in the last couple of weeks (keep in mind I'm no photographer):

#1- Outfit for me. I decide I too could use a little something for Easter. Since I don't have a ton of patterns, I made both the top and skirt myself. The skirt, you can tell! Its pretty bad, but I had limited fabric since it was a free sample. I'm pretty proud of the top though. Like all things, I'd make several improvements, but it worked out well. Best part of this outfit is that is cost about $3. No really, free sample for the skirt and the top was $1 a yard fabric at Wal-Mart.. and I'll give a buck to thread, bias tape, and buttons used.

#2- Shirt for Elyette. I got this fabric and rick rack last summer for Elyette, cause I love her in yellow. Still needs buttons, its a bit on the big side, and I think the sleeves are too "fluffy", so after a little more work, it'll be cute on her... everything is :)...it probably could use some ironing.
#3- Nightgown for Elyette. Pajamas are the best since they can really be less than perfect and still be usable. She loves her green "Fiona" nightgown I made her for Christmas so much that I thought she like another. This one she calls her "Belle" dress. Yes, more yellow. I love yellow and this fabric I got for cheap before she was even born. If it looks like she could fly away in those sleeves, its because she could. Next time I do this pattern, I won't be gathering the fabric as much as suggested.
So there you have it!