'Twas The Night Before Christmas . . .

Leavenworth at Christmas Time

Finding Joy in the Journey

One of my favorite talks from the October 2008 General Conference was given by President Thomas S. Monson during the Sunday Morning Session. One quote from that talk says:
"This is our one and only chance at mortal life - here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey - now." I hope you take time to read the entire talk as well as all the talks and find your favorite.

Quesadilla Pie

Dad and I really liked this Quesadilla Pie. The original recipe calls for flour tortillas, but we tried it with corn tortillas and it was Yumm!

Quesadilla Pie

1 can (4.5 oz.) Old El Paso chopped green chiles
1 can (15 oz.) Progresso black beans, drained, rinsed
5 medium green onions, chopped (about 1/3 cup)
1 medium plum (Roma) tomato, chopped
1 can (10 oz.) Old El Paso green enchilada sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese (6 oz.)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (6 oz.)
4 Flour Tortillas (8 inch size)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 9-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray. In medium bowl, mix chiles, beans, onions, tomato, 1/2 can of the enchilada sauce, the Pepper Jack cheese, 1/4 cup of the cilantro and 1/2 cup of the Cheddar cheese; set aside.

Spoon remaining 1/2 can enchilada sauce into the pie plate. Top with 1 tortilla and 1/3 of the bean mixture. Repeat twice to make 3 layers. Top with remaining tortilla. Cover loosely with foil.

Bake 30 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining Cheddar cheese. Bake 5 to 7 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cilantro. Serve with sour cream or salsa or guacamole or all three.

Decorating Cookies

This One is for Marissa

Birthday Weekend in Vegas

Birthday Fun !!!

Playing with Dad

Loves His Mom

Birthday Boy and his Birthday Suit.

More time with Grandkids!

Tyson and Stephanie came over again this past weekend on their way to Seattle, and of course, we got to play with our Spokane grandkids. It's always fun to spend time with our kids and grandkids. Rick and I are still not quite sure what to do with ourselves now that we are officially "emply nesters". We are kind of feeling our way along and filling in with a few things here and there. We are still pretty much tied down here with the farm, but get an occasional trip here and there. We are looking forward to going down to Las Vegas this next weekend for Ethan's birthday and spending time with Riley and Allison. Rick has a couple of horse trips coming up as well, and I'm taking off for Mother's Weekend at BYU-I the first part of October. We are missing having Marissa around, but we think she is in a great place for now. Check out her blogspot. boothm08.blogspot.com

Fun Week!

I was going to put a few more pictures on of the grandkids from last week's visit, but for some reason our internet is verrrry slowww tonight. I'll give it a try again tomorrow. Check out Jenny's blog as she posted most of them anyway. We had a great week last week with Jenny & Jason and kids and Stephanie & Tyson and kids. We feel so lucky to have the chance to spend so much time with our children and grandchildren this year. I fear with our growing numbers our visits will decrease. We had a fun time and are already looking forward to Thanksgiving. The end of next week, we will be flying down to Las Vegas for Ethan's first birthday. It is hard to believe he will already be one year old. Where does all the time go? Apple harvest is going great so far this year. We have two or three more days of picking Galas and then a little break before we pick the Ambrosia Apples. Thanks Jason for all your help last week.

Just goofing around.

We were just goofing around before Marissa took off with Dan Bair to go see a Jack Johnson Concert at the Gorge. Rick and I went to an Emerson Drive Concert in Waterville, a little hick town out in the middle of nowhere.

Beautiful Rainbow!

One evening, this past week, I looked out the kitchen window and caught a glimpse of this beautiful rainbow. This picture just didn't quite capture how vivid the colors were, so you'll just have to believe me. It was gorgious. We do believe we live in an area where there is a pot of gold. We have fruits and vegetables of all kinds overflowing all around us; especially this time of year. How lucky we are!

Hogle Zoo

Utah Trip in July/Aug.

This is a little late, but we had a great time in Utah a few weeks ago. We spent a week playing with Tayler, Brandon and Ethan. It was hot, so we especially enjoyed Jenny & Jason's backyard pool. We never seem to get enough of our grandkids, no matter howmany times we have been able to get together this year. They bring us such joy and it is always hard to part when it's time to go home. We count our children and grandchildren as our greatest blessings and have been so grateful for the times we do have to be together. We think we have the smartest grandkids on the earth! . . . and the most fun ones too!

One of these days I'll figure out how to turn these pictures, but until then . . . oh well!