Sweet Savannah Banana's 1st Birthday!

Here is Savannah the day after her 1st birthday enjoying leftover cake! I had to get a shot of it because she did such a wonderful job of icing herself.


Savannah's favorite birthday items: her new little bike and her personalized backpack!



Opening her toothbrush. I know it is an exciting present but she really wanted one.

The aftermath of letting Savannah have her entire cake on her highchair tray for 10 minutes.

She was loving it!

Savannah shared her cake with everyone!

Ryanne showing Savannah what she wants off the cake- an eye!

Savannah complying with the demand

The first thing that Savannah went for was the m&m eye

Jonah quickly appeared to be fed the m&m

The panda paw print cupcakes!

Savannah's snow day

The cake before it was utterly destroyed!

Savannah is one! She had such a great birthday and really loved her cake and presents. It snowed just for her too! I was totally surprised what a great job Savannah did sharing her cake with everyone. She gave Jonah the first taste and really enjoyed eating it and getting all messy.

This year has gone by so fast. Jonah asked me if Savannah would be able to talk once she had her birthday and I think he was disappointed to find out that her skills wouldn't magically improve overnight. Savannah had a great day and so did we. We made homemade mac and cheese with chicken and broccoli and also strawberry sorbet. The only thing that could have made it better would have been all our family and friends in attendance! We missed ya'll!

Green Tomato Bread and Global Warming

My dad loves to garden and he loves tomatoes. To say that he planted alot of them this past year would be an understatement. Due to the unusually warm weather (maybe you are thinking this is where the global warming comes in... but not yet), he just recently went out and cut down all his tomato plants and of course, harvested all the green tomatoes. We were thinking of something to do with all these green things besides waiting for them to ripen and possibly having a bunch of rotten tomatoes. I found a recipe for Green Tomato Bread and we decided to try it out. It was from Southern Living, so we figured it had to be good, right? The unexpected thing is that it is actually a sweet, quick bread with pecans. It looked scary before baking but then turned into this delicious treat. My dad said " This is better than zucchini bread!" Who knew?

The other day Jonah and I were sitting on the couch, early in the morning, looking out the window and he said " Mom, what is global warming?" I was a little shocked because I have no idea where he heard about it. I thought for a minute about how to best explain it without scaring him to death (he is terrified of fire), and completely flubbed it up, because a couple of days later he asked me the same question. I started talking about the atmosphere, temperatures rising, things melting and everything else. The next day he said " Why can't I marry my sister?" Lets just say I told him all about DNA and chromosomes and well, maybe it made sense, who knows?

Turkey Trot

This morning, the 3 wards that are in my neighborhood decided to have a "female only" 5k. They said you could walk, run or waddle. It sounded like fun but since Matt has to work every Saturday I originally thought that maybe I would walk with my mom and just have fun. Then a few days ago, Savannah started throwing up and was sick. My mom called this morning to ask me if I was going to participate and I really thought, not today. But 15 minutes before it was going to start I decided we could all use a little fresh air so we walked to the church, 2 blocks away. Jonah was on his bike and I had the girls in the (non-jogging) double stroller. There were about 50 women there and only 3 other kids. We started out just walking but then I noticed that Jonah was really taking off. The route was marked with little orange flags but all the intersections and roads were still open and I started to worry about Jonahs safety. So I started to run, while pushing the stroller, so I could catch up with him and warn him to watch out and be really careful. When I got to him and told him to slow down, he said " but mom, I want to win! I was the first one!" So I let him take off and decided I had to keep him in sight so I ran with the double stroller the whole time. I have to admit that I am really competitive and I really didn't want anyone to pass me. It was fun and the best part was the look on peoples faces when I crossed the finish line in 5th place pushing the stroller. Jonah was happy because he was 3rd ( although they didn't really count him). It was also fun watching Grandma run the last little bit with Ryanne and Jonah cheering her on to the finish line! Makes for a fun Saturday morning.

Thanksgiving Recipes

I am really excited about Thanksgiving because it gives me a chance to make yummy food and that is one thing that I really enjoy. This is my first Thanksgiving in Utah since 1998 and Matt's first Utah Thanksgiving. For those of you who have never enjoyed a Southern Thanksgiving, the food is a little bit different. We will see how Matt does without all of his favorites and the first time without his dad's deep fried turkey. Yes, deep fried. It really makes for a moist bird. This year I am going to attempt to make Southern cornbread dressing. I am going to use the recipe from the Blue Willow Inn and I am hoping that will mean it will turn out moist and delicious! I am going to make a double chocolate pumpkin cheesecake that I have made once before. If anyone is interested in any of the recipes I listed, let me know and I can hook up the link or type it up!

Ryanne

It is really nice living a couple of blocks away from grandma and grandpa. We can visit whenever we want and the kids can play outside, on the trampoline, with the dogs, etc. The other day we were at grandmas and I couldn' t find Ryanne. Then I went out in the backyard and saw her eating a doggie bone. She looked pretty happy about it so I thought that maybe the taste wasn't that bad. Or maybe she was just really happy that she could be a dog. The funny thing about Ry is that she will pretty much eat anything. Right now she is really into pretending to be animals. This activity combined both of those things. I think this is one of the reasons that Grandpa usually keeps the garage locked. To keep Ryanne from eating anything and/or everything she can find!

Pesto Pizza

I am obviously having trouble with the pictures because I can't figure out how to turn this around or get one of the pictures off!! Andrew wanted me to post it anyway!

My little brother made this delicious pizza the other night. The recipe didn't originally call for zucchini but we had some so we improvised and it was so good. My kids gobbled it up! The pizza crust is so easy too because you can just mix it and bake. I love the Italian seasoning that you can grind freshly on top. It is so aromatic and delicious.

Pesto Pizza
1 pound chicken breast tenders, cut into bite size pieces
1 medium or 2 small zucchini, sliced lengthwise, then in very thin half moon slices
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
3 Tbsp. pesto
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Pizza dough: 3 and a half cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast
2 Tbsp. honey
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp of salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray round or 12 by 8 pan. Mix pizza dough ingredients. Put pizza dough on pan. Bake for 9 minutes on 450 degrees. Sprinkle chicken with Italian seasoning. Saute chicken on med-high 3-4 minutes Add zucchini and saute 3-4 minutes more and add a little more italian seasoning. Spread pesto evenly over pizza crust. Top with chicken-zucchini mixture. Put cheese on top. Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

GEORGIA G?

Maybe you are wondering how we got such an up close and personal picture of Uga since we live in Utah. Or maybe you are wondering why that shirt with a Georgia G says Cowboy Football. I will unfold the mystery. Matt is the athletic trainer for Granstville High School. They are the Cowboys and their school colors are Red and Black. They also use the Georgia G in all their athletic and and band attire. It is funny because I was at Walmart and I saw someone with a coat that had a G on it and it said something about a band. My first thought was that they were fans of the Georgia Redcoat Band. I thought to myself that it was a little strange to see an old man in Walmart in a little Utah town supporting the Dawgs but later Matt explained it to me. I went to one of the Granstville football games and ran into my high school science teacher who is now a principal at Grantsville and poked a joke about how they stole the Georgia G. I pointed to her shirt and the whole mood of the conversation changed. She got really defensive and insisted that the Grantsville G was different because it was wider on one end or something. And that they couldn't use the Georgia G because it was trademarked. I am telling you it is the same G. I had to hold back my laughter because I knew that she was just trying to covering something up. Matt even wears his Georgia attire and it passes for Grantsville attire. I find all of this humorous because our license plates have a G on them and everyone must think we are just die hard Grantsville fans. Matt encountered the bulldog at a football game and had to take a pic. He talked to the owners and they bought the bulldogs clothes from a Georgia store online. Funny how these worlds have collided! GO DAWGS!

Milledgeville

Most people probably haven't heard of Milledgeville, Georgia. Even though it is the Antebellum capitol of Georgia. It is the town where we spent 3 and 1/2 years of our lives and where our 2 daughters were born. We moved 6 months ago from Milledgeville and there are a few things that we really miss. Chick-fila is one of those things. Why are they only found in malls out here? Sad. The thing that we miss the most is not a thing. It is a wonderful family who took us in as their own. The Jennings family. We miss their Sunday dinners, candid conversations, accepting attitudes and just everything about them. Their son Clay was Matts best friend ( even though when we moved there he was 18 and a senior in high school). And boy can Miss Betsy make some mean Chicken n Dumplings. I mean the real southern kind.

Luckily for us the Jennings have a son and daughter-in law in Provo and that means we still have to chance to see them. Miss Betsy was in town this week and she came down to visit us! There are people that no matter how long it has been since you have seen them, everything is still the same. The Jennings made Milledgeville a great experience with many memories. It was wonderful to be able to see Betsy again and to hear the updates on everyone and just enjoy her company. We miss not being able to visit with Tom too, but hey maybe next time. And just remember as he would always say (to remind us not to be too hard on people) " They're doing the best they can with what they've got!"

Random Thoughts

So I have to admit that I am pretty excited about this and I wanted to share a couple of thoughts and photos from the past little while.

First of all, I have to wonder to myself, why does Ryanne already look like she is 16? Second, I wanted to share my favorite craft that we did for Halloween. I let the kids pick out their own butternut squashes and we painted them white and made them look like ghosts. Third, Ryanne was in love with the unicorn pinata that we got her for her birthday. She wanted to play with it all day and would not leave it alone. She even was determined to give the poor thing a haircut. It was almost tragic to break the poor thing open but when we told her about all the candy she decided it would work out alright. The pinata was very tough and refused to break. It was fun for the kids at first to whack it a little bit but Matt really had to beat the unicorn to get the thing to break. We were starting to wonder if it was made of cement! Fourth, Savannah is now walking and she has a couple of favorite things. She loves to wear tiaras and princess crowns and she loves to sit in the newspaper holder at grandmas. Although she gets very frustrated when she cannot remove herself from the iron bars.

My First Blog

Welcome to my world! This is what happened yesterday afternoon when I gave Jonah the assignment to lay down with me on my bed and take a nap. We ended up taking pictures with my cell phone and just goofing around. I really wanted some rest but what can you do? I have entered the world of blogging so that who ever is interested can see and hear about the everyday happenings of my familys life. Enjoy!