BBQ Chicken

I need bbq chicken recipes--asap, please.

Our House=Cinderella's Castle

Every time the Magic Kingdom Castle comes up at the beginning of a Disney movie Porter says "House!"  I wish.  I dream of it every time he says it.  It's $8,000 a night to rent the suite in Cinderella's Castle, which would be $2,920,000 a year to live there.  They say that rent should be ~1/4 of your income, so we'd have to make $11,680,000 a year to live in Cinderella's Castle.  Junk Change.  The day Jordan files the tax returns and it says we've made that much the following year, I'm moving in that day.  What a DREAM.

Click here for pictures inside my future house.

Words & Matching

I get weekly emails from babycenter.com, and this week it said 22 month olds are supposed to have an average of a 20 word vocabulary, and I was trying to think how many words Port was saying, so I made a list and the words I can think of that he knows is 97!  Here is the list:
thank you
please
eggnog (i know, right? there's a 500 lb kid in the making...)
milk
chocolate milk
hot chocolate
car
truck
goose
sock
duck
shoes
horse
snow
ball
hello
hi
baby
Dad
Mom
Grandma
Grandpa
Garrett
movie
tv
elephant
popcorn
Christmas
Will
head
shoulders
knees
toes
eyes
ears
mouth
nose
belly button
back
up
toilet
pee
poo
tree
muddy
yuck
hot
hat
mouse
house
home
book
airplane
block
computer
phone
Porter
cold
warm
wash
blanket
nap
bed
uh oh
no
yep
yeah
moose
bang
deer
bird
cow
chicken
cok-a-doodle-do
star
moon
Jesus
Monson
Eyring
Uchtdorf
water
ice
juice
bike
ride
Bryce
Zippy
rice
more
red
blue
black
white
green
yellow
purple
sun
bubble
boots

I can't believe how many it is!  

I also notice the other day that with these kinds of puzzles where the image in is in the background that he can put them in the right place which means he notices when two things are the same, so I made a Thanksgiving matching game where he picks a picture and can find the other one!  It's so fun to do!

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Porter Picture Update

I'm not writing descriptions for all of these--you can just enjoy them.  

P.S. He's drinking eggnog out of the carton and I was NOT the one to teach him that.

Fact: There is an outhouse in the back.  We DO have indoor plumbing (thank heavens...), but just in case we needed to use it, it's there.  It's a little fallen, but wouldn't be impossible to use.

There IS a paved road in front of our house, but our driveway is NOT paved--it is a dirt road, just like the WWW.  Porter thinks this is wonderful.  He could play in the dirt for the rest of his life.  We sit, pick up handfuls of dirt, and pour them on each others arms & legs...for hours (not really, but 45 minutes at LEAST).  He loves it.  I think it has something to do with erosion, but for some reason the dirt in our driveway has the consistency of powdered sugar, so it's very fun to draw pictures and make shoe imprints in.

We have a beautiful view from our house.  We have a HUGE window in our living room which spends the whole day open (we don't have to worry about people seeing us dancing to our record player because there aren't very many people (and by not very many, I mean 112) in the valley.  Something that's nice about where we live is how open and beautiful it is (I might not feel this way in a couple days when there are 3 feet of snow in our lawn).  In Newsies, Jack Kelly said the sky is bigger in the west, which the girl (Jess?  Sarah?  What is her name?) didn't understand--she said it was the same sky as NYC, but it certainly is not.  This isn't a nostalgic thing, it's because there aren't as many trees or buildings, so the sky isn't blocked by those things.  It's like being on top of a mountain at all times.  Actually, that's a pretty good description because the altitude of our town is a whole 1,000 feet higher than the tallest mountain in NY.  So, we live on top of a gynormous mountain, I guess.

I'm a little short on pictures lately, and I haven't taken ANY since it's snowed.  I just got the Halloween pictures back from our friends so I'll scan those hopefully today and have them up soon.  I'll make sure to take pictures of the snow, too.  It's pretty crazy.

WWW Wood Stove

We have a wood stove, and it isn't for decoration or only on holidays. We use it everyday, just like in the WWW. It's a great stove and it keeps the house SUPER warm (it doesn't hurt that the house is a log cabin that's had siding put on it...a foot of solid wood is great insulation). Porter's really careful about it--we've given him warning about how super hot it is, and from being around bonfires he understands fire is SUPER hot. While he's careful, he also loves to start the fire with Dad. He'll sit and blow on the fire until the very last second that you close the doors.

I don't know if they did this in the WWW, but before we could use our wood stove, we had to sweep the chimney. Yep--like Mary Poppins. Chim chimenee, chim chimenee, chim chim cheree, a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be! It was REALLY cool. Kinda scary, but very cool. We (and by we, I mean Jordan) put a ladder up to the house, tied a rope around a tree on the other side of the house, and threw it over the house so I could use it to pull myself up to the top of the roof. I then used a...I don't know what it's called--whatever you use to clean the chimney, it's a huge wire brush, shoved it down the chimney until I thought I had gotten to the bottom, Jordan checked to make sure it was all the way down, and then brought it back up. That was done a few times until we felt it was enough to get most of the gunk out. We didn't need to cover our furniture like in Mary Poppins (which when I asked Jordan the question he thought was hilarious, because there are doors on our furnace, and not an open fireplace like in the movies.


We also have a great view. I used Autostitch (google it) to put it together. It isn't as perfect as doing it yourself on photoshop, but it also only takes like, 13 seconds to get done, so I feel like it's worth the lower quality.

We Finally Have Internet & More WWW

We have been waiting and waiting and WAITING for internet and we finally have it!  So, if you want to gchat or Skype--we CAN!

Update:  Jordan officially has a job working at the courthouse in Soda Springs.  His title is "facilities management" which means he's in charge of the courthouse and everything that goes with it.  He is in charge of security, maintenance, remodeling, & his boss says there are some things coming up at the beginning of the year that are the main reason they hired him.  He's excited to really modernize the building, because it seems like no one's cared about it for a long time.  He's going to install a keypad instead of having keys and they're doing a $250,000 remodel starting later this month (or the beginning of the year....I don't actually know if they know, either).  He starts tomorrow and is pretty excited about it!

WWW (Wild Wild West):

In the Wild Wild West, they didn't have hot water, and sometimes no water at all.  This is NOT us now, but for the first two weeks this WAS us.  We did NOT have hot water, and it was tough.  I'm thankful to not be a homesteader's wife because I would have showered even less than I do now.  Cold water, no, not cold; fridged.  32 degree Fahrenheit water that is not ice soley because it hasn't gone through the phase change, but is still an undoubtably 32 degrees is COLD COLD COLD, which brings us to cold water showers--they are horrible.  They suck the breathe out of your body, and you get done still not really feeling clean because your pores didn't have the warmth to open them up.  I only took one cold water shower, and then went to Jordan's Grandma's house to shower after that until we got hot water, but I've gotta tell ya--that one I took sure made an impression in my mind how thankful I am for hot water.  Jordan took two cold water showers, and you could hear him making noises that you were sure he was dying in the bathroom--his body probably thought he was.  Anyway, it was just one more WWW adventure that I'm thankful is over.

Something else they didn't have in the WWW was refridgeration.  Again, we do now, but at the beginning we did NOT.  We thought our fridge was working, but what we actually had was a fridge that kept the stuff inside at a regular consistent temperature, but it was not even close to refridgerated.  After a few days of not keeping anything cool (not unsafe stuff like milk, but stuff like soda),  our landlord brought a spare fridge out from his garage.  It was very much appreciated.

I'm going to post pictures, but we've moved the rooms around and put pictures up, so it doesn't actually look like this anymore, but it's a general idea of what the home looks like.  It's a really old home, and you can tell, but we're happy to be in it.

We live in the Wild Wild West

 

I think I'm going to have a series of posts showing how we live in the Wild Wild West--because we do.  It's a different kind of life--a lot more basic, but really cool.  Our house is pretty small, but with plenty of room for our little family.  The first picture is the view from our driveway.  Our friends let us borrow their playplace and Porter lives most of his days climbing on it or going down the slide.  In the second picture, that's the back of the house and why yes, that is a clothes line--and it is awesome.  We have a dryer downstairs in the basement, but we've only used it one time because I just loooooove to hang clothes up on the line.  I don't think we'll be able to do it as soon as it starts to snow so I'm living it up and hanging the line as much as I can.

We have a thermostat, but we don't want to use it very often because propane costs and wood we get for free, so that's the wood we have so far, but we'll have to get three times as much to make it through the winter.

Bring on our Wild West Adventure!

We're Here to Stay! EDITED

We have decided to stay in Idaho...in Wayan, ID even.  Jordan got a job (yayayayay!), and we''re moving into a little house today.  We're excited about it and glad we finally made a decision!  If you live close and want to visit, there aren't a whole lot of people here (I think the population here is 54...not an exaggeration...), so email me or we'll have cell reception in a couple weeks so give us a call!

EDIT:  We did NOT buy a house--we're just renting one, and a very small one at that.  Just wanted to clarify.  I'll put pictures on here soon (hopefully before this weekend) when I get pictures on the walls and it looks more like our own. 

Here is where we're living:
View Larger Map

I don't even know what our address is--I just know it's some number on Wayan Loop, Wayan, ID 83285.

We're still in Idaho!

We've been in Idaho since the end of July--and been having a blast! 

We've been enjoying very much the outdoors by going on fourwheeler rides everyday and having bonfires as often as possible! 






We were introduced to GIANT marshmallows, shown in comparison to a regular marshmallow--they're amazing!  You cook the outside, slide the cooked skin off, and then cook it again!  It's like 5 marshmallows in 1!  This is a strawberry one, but it's disgusting--just the white ones are good (to me...).

We've also had some fun huckleberryin'.  We really like it.  Porter sits on a log and just eats the huckleberries off the bush while I pick...it's win-win! 

There is a family with two young girls in our ward who Porter plays with and they just have a blast!  We have a wagon and they just love pulling each other around in it.










They also have a cat that Port loves to carry around like it's a baby.

We'll put an update on our job status later in the week when everything is finalized--we're finally making a decision!

Destructo Boy

Here is our own Destructo Boy.  You also get the treat of hearing a bit of his nerd laugh.  It's a fake laugh and it usually goes on for a full minute, which is hilarious. Enjoy.

I'm sure you thought we were dead...

But we aren't--we just haven't blogged in a REALLY long time. Jordan's grandma asked if it was her computer that wasn't updating--I told her no, it was that we haven't updated. So here's the update. We lived in St. George for two months, then we came to Idaho at Jordan's ranch for a week but Jordan's grandpa died, so we stayed that week, and then stayed another week to visit, and we're thinking that we might (this is NOT set in stone) stay a month or so because of this and that. Anyway, we still don't have a job, but Jordan's brother, Garrett worked on his resume and we think it's going to help a lot. If not, we finally even have a back-up that we'll take advantage of. Port's talking a super lot (super lot to us...). He says apple, please, I'm sorry (kinda), up, down, happy, and says the animal sounds to a camel, whale, snake, gorilla, lion, and his FAVORITE is the cow. He screams MOOOOOO all the time.  I think it's really fun.  Here are some pictures of our gorgeous child, and his cousin, Wyatt.

i never thought this day would come...

i discovered something today...


the internet is not the absolute for information.

blast.


we discovered this when we couldn't find a splash park in ivins, ut online and then drove around (ivins isn't very big) until we found a park--and it had a splash park in it.  we were torn between joy and devastation.  anyway...

i didn't take pictures the first day we went (yesterday...and yes we do plan on going everyday we're here--it's SO hot here, and it hasn't even hit SUMMER yet!), but i did take pictures today with my phone.  we weren't planning on getting wet, but we did anyway--this is why he has regular clothes on.

this was my favorite part of today:  we've been bringing porter's sippy around everywhere so he stays hydrated (he doesn't care--i don't know why we do...).  he brought it into the water park with him.  there's a button the kids push every once in a while to tell the park they're still there to keep the water running.  this button makes a noise...of course it does.  this shows the order of importance to porter.

picture 1: porter sacrificing his body to get soaked so he can push the button

picture 2: porter fleeing before the water near the sippy because while buttons that make noise are worth getting wet, sippies are OBVIOUSLY worth abandoning at the first sign of discomfort.

and just some more:

This Is the Christ

I've been listening to this song almost everyday this week. I've loved it for so long, and I have yet to get tired of hearing it. We sang it in graduation choir when I graduated, and they sang it at last month's General Conference Sunday Morning (Easter...perfect) Session. In the last run-through before our performance at graduation I started to actually listen to the words and let them touch my heart and the line "how many drops of blood were spilled for me" just killed me. I still cry almost every time it gets to that part in the song. Here's the link for the Conference performance, and below are the words. I just like them so much, and I like so much that President Faust wrote the words--I have a big part of my heart especially for that Presidency.

They heard his voice, a voice so mild,
It pierced them through and made their souls to quake.
They saw Him come, a man in white,
The Savior, who had suffered for their sake.
And each could testify:

This is the Christ.
This is the Christ, the Holy Son of God,
Our Savior, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.
This is the Christ, the Healer of our souls,
Who ransomed us with love divine.

I read His words, the words He prayed,
While bearing sorrow in Gethsemane.
I feel His love, the price He paid.
How many drops of blood were spilled for me?
With Saints of old in joyful cry,
I too can testify:

This is the Christ.
This is the Christ, the holy Son of God,
Our Saviour, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.
This is the Christ, the healer of our souls,
Who ransomed us with love divine.

I used to have a solid loyalty to Del Parson's painting of Christ, but since the Christ Ensign issue I have branched out. Here are some of my favorites. (there are, of course, so many more but I can't get the pdf of the Christ Ensign issue to load so I can't find the artist names...)

Artists: Heinrich Hoffman (top left), Del Parson (top right), Minerva Teichert (bottom left), J Kirk Richards (bottom right). I saw the bottom right one in real life--it is at least 10 feet tall and there is gold leaf on Christ's and the angel's halo, and around in different areas. It's so beautiful.