Crazy Quique? Or Crazy Mommy and Daddy?

I would have to say that Quique's favorite day of the week is Saturday. I think that this is mainly because she gets to spend the day with her mom and dad and it usually involves a trip to the park. To emphasize the fact that she likes to be with her mom AND her dad... about a week and a half or so ago, I woke up at like 2am and couldn't sleep. After 30 minutes of staring at the wall and trying to finagle around my sweet puppy who was virtually taking up my half of the bed, I decided that I needed a change of venue and maybe then I could sleep. I grabbed my pillows and some blankets and headed off to the couch. Not longer after I got settled, Quique came in wagging her whip of a tail to come give me some loves. After a little bit, she then proceeded to go back to bed. As she was walking toward the hallway she turned back and started whining. Then she came over to me and started whining. I told her to go back to bed and she whined the whole way down the hallway. I heard her jump on the bed and continue to whine. Apparently she wants her mommy and daddy sleeping together in the same bed.

Anyway, she loves Saturday mornings when we slowly make our way out bed. Once we're up, it usually means that she gets to go somewhere with us. She always waits for a some sort of cue whether it's Dustin asking her if she wants to go (the magic word in our house) or watching us put on tennis shoes. This morning we took her to Tanner Park. It's pretty much like Disneyland for Dogs. She gets to see and play with tons of dogs, sniff all of their smells and even take a swim in the streams. You would think that when it's 30 degrees outside and the water is freezing she wouldn't want to swim. But even though you can see her breath and the water is freezing cold (it's even cold in the summer) she always has to go for a swim. She's crazy, but we find so much joy in watching her so happy, plus it's a good little hike for us too!

So on the way home from the park, we decided to stop at Ma and Paw's Bakery. Yes it is a bakery for dogs. Dustin went in for one thing in particular... a bully stick. Have you heard of it? Well, it comes from the anatomy of a bull. Stick may help you determine which anatomy I'm speaking of. Got it? For those of you who are totally clueless to my clues, it's pretty much made from a bull's penis and dried. Gross? Definitely. But the dogs love it! We decided to see if Quique would like it. So after getting that and a freshly baked Chicken Taquito for her, we headed home.

I think at first Quique wasn't sure about the bully stick, but before we knew it, she was going to town on it and before we knew it, she had eaten the whole thing. Dustin and I were sitting on the couch reading and I was like "what is that smell?". Apparently when purchasing the bully stick they had regular or deodorized. Dustin asked if the smell was bad and they told him that it is strong for some, but fine for others. I'm definitely going with the deodorized bully stick next time. Should there be a next time? Am I crazy for giving this to my dog? A smelly bully stick? All I can say was that once she got going on it, she certainly seemed to like it.

Comfort Food

On Thursday night we had our monthly Dinner Club. This month Liz was in charge and the theme was Comfort Food. Comfort food was exactly what I needed this week so I was very excited. We had lasagna, Creamy White Chili, Cream Cheese Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, and Chocolate Caramel Oatmeal Bars. I definitely don't want to think about the amount of calories I had, but it was sooo good and sooo worth it!

For some reason I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to bring. There are plenty of foods that I find comfort in, but I just couldn't figure it out. Since I was in need of comfort food on that evening, I tried to think of a food that would bring me some comfort. I finally decided on Stuffed Mushrooms. At first, I wasn't exactly sure why I picked it. Cream Cheese, Sausage and mushrooms certainly are some ingredients in any comfort food. But I think that sometimes comfort food means more than just the actual food, but sometimes that memories that go along with it. I remember the first time I had these stuffed mushrooms. My Uncle Jay made them for Christmas Eve and I fell in love with them. I begged him to show me how me made them. My uncle always looks for a way to torture me and he had fun with this. Finally he taught me how to make them. I remember hanging out in my Grandma's kitchen. My uncle was of course harassing me and my Grandma was harassing my uncle in defense of me. It was so much fun learning how to make these mushrooms. I was flooded with memories of my uncle and my sweet Grandma who passed away 5 1/2 years ago. I am so grateful that I was able to move out here and spend so much time with her before she passed away. She continues to live on within me and I am blessed so often with the memories that I have of her.

All of the food on Thursday was so good, but I think I felt the most comfort in the memories of my family.


Stuffed Mushrooms

2 (8 oz) pkg Cream Cheese, softened
1 (16 oz) pkg Jimmy Dean Sausage
35-40 good sized Mushrooms
Milk
Garlic Powder to taste
Dried Parsley

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat skillet to medium-high heat and cook sausage. Once sausage is fully cooked, allow to cool and absorb excess grease on paper towel.
2. De stem mushrooms and place mushrooms on a aluminum foil lined baking sheet.
3. Drizzle olive oil over mushrooms and bake at 325 degrees for about 5-8 minutes (mushrooms will start to brown).
4. Meanwhile, stir cream cheese with a little bit of milk until smooth. Add Garlic Powder to taste. Finely chop sausage and then combine into cream cheese mixture.
5. Generously feel each mushroom with cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle a little bit of dried parsley on each mushroom (for color).
6. Bake mushrooms at 350 for about 10-15 minutes (until heated through). Serve immediately. Enjoy!

It's A Girl!!!

So we got the official announcement today, we’re finally getting a niece! After 3 nephews, I was very excited to hear that Steve and Savanna are having a girl. Not that I don’t love and absolutely adore my nephews, but we need some more estrogen in the cousin pool to help keep those boys in line! So now it’s time to do some shopping and buy some girly stuff! I can hardly wait!

Speaking of nephews and Steve and Savanna, I thought I’d share a cute Bo story. At least it’s cute to me. A week or two ago Bo had one of his cousins (from Savanna’s side of the fam) over . He is still doing the words along with some jibberish. So he was asking talking to his cousin Owen who is a few months younger than him and not talking yet.

“ah blah ja la ble wanna play?” and then he continues on “go to Duddies and Jamie’s?”

How cute is that! He was asking his cousin if he wanted to come play at our house! Too cute and way too much personality! I think that when kids are starting to talk it is so much fun to watch them in action. When Bo was at our house a couple weeks back, I was holding up letters from an ABC puzzle and he was telling me what most of the letters were. Steve and Savanna had no idea that he knew any of his letters except for O. Those cute kids are always full of surprises! I can’t wait until July when there will be another one!

Beans and Brews

So as you can tell from my lack of posting, that there have been some other things preoccupying my time. However I did want to give a little plug (for the 5 of you that read this blog).

My friend Natalie just opened a Beans and Brews in downtown Salt Lake. So for those of you living in Utah, the address is 268 S. State Street. It just opened today and it is a great location downtown. If you're ever in the mood for a coffee, mocha, hot chocolate, whatever, you've got to check it out!

Congratulations Natalie! Here's to a friend that had a dream and now she is living her dream. I have so much adoration for people that are able to do it. She has wanted to do this for a long time and she finally took the plunge. I know that she has great things in store for her!

Portrait

I think Dustin mentioned in a previous post that his friend Zachary Proctor was going to do a football portrait of Steve to test. Well, it is finally done and it is amazing! Dustin and Zack are friends from high school and he does amazing work. He mentioned to Dustin that he would like to do one of Steve to test out his skills in the sports arena. Well, he proved that how extremely talented he is. Dustin decided to do this as a gift to Steve for Christmas and Birthday and he couldn’t be more pleased. It’s quite large. The height is about 3 ½ feet, just to give you some perspective, but here it is.

Isn’t it amazing how well he captures the eyes? Not only does it look like you are looking at a photograph (not a drawing), but it feels like you’re looking right into Steve’s eyes. Steve was truly amazed by every detail that was included. So impressive!

While Zack was in the midst of working on this project, one of Zack’s friends and his son stopped by. While they were away from the painting they came back to find the friend’s son as shown in the picture below:

We were all so impressed by this picture. It’s almost like a young boy looking up at his dreams. Truly a beautiful photograph and quite touching! If you haven’t taken a look, click here to see some of the amazing work that Zachary has done. He is an artistic genius!