Katie's Favorite Things

I have found the greatest websites, both recently and previously that I absolutely love and I can't wait to share them with you.


Pandora.com
It's a personal, online free radio. You just type in a favorite song, or band and they instantly put together a play list for you including songs that relate to what you entered.


ldsjournal.com
It's new this year and it's a free. It's my new favorite way to journal, and the best thing is you can have it compiled into a book after a while. It makes keeping my personal history much easier. This site was suggested to me by my sister-in-law, Megan, and I love it! They even send you reminder emails if it's been a few days since you've added an entry.



sugardoodle.net
I love this to help with anything for church. I'm the primary music director and it's going to be a great help for music times.

I hope you enjoy checking out these fun websites!

More Pictures of Our New House!

I've been promising for a while now that I would get some pictures of our new house on my blog. Well the long awaited day has finally arrived. This is our new home. We love living here with all the space and beautiful scenery. The neighbors are really great and I've already been to 2 parties at our neighbors homes. They're all really welcoming and friendly.

This is a picture of our home from the road.

This is our family room. We enjoyed having our first "real" fireplace this Christmas so Santa could come down the chimney and see that our "stocking were hung by the chimney with care." No one received any coal in their stockings, though many threats were made.

This is my new kitchen. I love the color that Andy painted it. He spent so much time painting the whole main floor and did a beautiful job! In my new kitchen, the gas stove is on the island and the double wall oven (which I've always dreamed of) is on the wall next to where I was standing when I took this picture. These bar stools are great for when the kids grab a snack or a quick bowl of cereal in the morning. We have 4 stools so that each one of them has their own spot (we can't let Ben and Joseph sit next to each other on them because Ben fell off his stool yesturday under suspicious circumstances while Joseph was next to him.)




This is our bedroom. Can you believe it? There's a gas fireplace?! I love it! One of our favorite features is the laundry shoot that runs from my bedroom to the laundry room on the main floor. It doubles as a quick "toy elevator" and also works very well to yell for mom when she's in her bedroom. The intercom system has also become the kids own built-in walkee talkees. It just a big playhouse!

This is the view from the balcony in our bedroom. Isn't it spectacular? We own about 6 acres of the trees that you can see, which the children have great plans for. Tree houses, camping spots, hiking trails, secret forts...it's exactly why we fell in love with this home.

More will come as we complete more rooms. Soon you'll get to see the den (how exciting!)

House Pictures

I finally have a few pictures of the inside of the house that I can share with you.

Here is the Living Room and Dining Room.

I'll take some more pictures and post them soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Animal Science "Joseph Style"

I officially have the funniest kids in the world living in my house. I was cleaning the kitchen the other day while Joseph was playing with a truck in the family room. Out of the blue and for no reason at all he says, "Mommy, are snakes tails with faces."
I guess snakes do kind of look like tails with faces on them and I hadn't thought about it before. He'll probably grow up to be a famous snake scientist:-)

Ben's First Attempt At Cooking

I have a very independent, mini Emeril Lagasse on my hands. On Monday evening, an hour before Andy was expected home from work, Ben came to me with a box of Macaroni and Cheese and asked if I'd make it for him. I told him we'd have it for dinner (thank goodness I finally got the handyman to get our stove up and running just that afternoon). He seemed OK with waiting because he walked away and I didn't hear from him again. That is until I heard the microwave oven running. I quickly ran over to the kitchen and asked Ben, who was standing on a chair with his hand near the microwave buttons (caught red-handed). He said, "Me making Macaroni and Cheese!" with a huge, adorable smile on his face. I quickly opened the microwave door and took out the bowl of Ben's attempt to make his own dinner. He'd pushed a kitchen chair over to the counter, climbed up and took a small cereal bowl out of the cabinet. He then used the counter to open the box of Mac & Cheese, put about a dozen raw macaroni noodles in the bowl, then opened the packet of cheese and spilled most of it on the floor, and sprinkled the rest on top of the macaroni noodles in the bowl. He then pushed his chair across the kitchen, opened the microwave and put the bowl in. What I took out was burned, raw macaroni noodles sprinkled with orange cheese powder. Not very appetizing, but then again, it was his first attempt. All I could do was laugh and take a picture, then I immediately started a pot of water to boil for another box of Mac & Cheese. The positive side to his first cooking project? It can only get better from here.

I Have Become the Little Mermaid

No, I have not sprouted fins or started wearing a shirt souly comprised of sea shells. Nor have I dyed my hair a very bright shade of red. But after trying to organize my kitchen, I can confidently say "I have gadgets and gizmos aplenty. I have whozits and whatzits galore. You want thingamabobs? I've got 20!"

Why is it that each and every kitchen chore has it's very own tool. I have succumbed to the pressure to be a Pampered Chef. Well, I am calling for a kitchen gadget revolution. After living for the last several months without these said gadgets and gizmos while we've been in the moving process, I have learned how to chop onions without the help of the Pampered Chef Food Chopper. I have learned to separate egg whites and yolks the good old fashion way like my Grandmother does it, without the help of an egg separator. I have become accustomed to washing spatulas and cooking spoons when they become dirty, instead of using 5 during the course of one baking session. I have used towels as hot pads & pot holders and forks as whisks. I have peeled and sliced my own apples without the help of the Pampered Chef Apple-Corer-Peeler-Slicer and sliced my own tomatoes without a Mandolin. I have come to the conclusion that we can successfully run our kitchen with 1 dish towel, 1 wooden spoon, 1 fork, 1 spatula, a very sharp knife and a can opener.

Housewives of the 21st Century, I say we throw down the shackles of gadgets that bind us!

(as soon as Christmas baking season is over:-)

Settling In

We live in the most beautiful place in the world. I woke up this morning to Emily pulling on my arm saying "Look Mommy, the sunrise!" Right out my bedroom window, over the Blue Ridge Mountains was the most beautiful sunrise I'd ever seen. The sunsets are spectacular as well. When there are wispy clouds in the sky, they'll turn bright pink and cover the whole sky. I love looking out my window and seeing mountains and trees. This is a great place to live.

We went to our new ward yesterday, and everyone was so welcoming. It seemed like everyone there came up to me at some point and introduced themselves. One wonderful woman offered to bring us dinner that evening (it was delicious!), and another family invited us over for dinner tonight. The women all organized themselves into an army and came over this morning and helped me get my home in order. The kitchen is set-up, the kid's rooms are getting more organized and even the Christmas Tree was put together. It's so nice to feel so welcomed and loved. I love this church-no matter where you move, you have friends.