Aww, Utah...I've missed you.

I had so much fun in Utah with my family. Are you ready for lots of pictures? I don't scrapbook, so this is my photo album. I love my family! My cousin Jennifer and I. My aunts and uncles came to visit. It was fun seeing them. This is my Aunt Marba holding Chase. Aunt Danielle and Chase. The girls are in the house. Dana, Uncle Devin, Larry and Chase. Dayne's birthday surprise. He is 16! Rachel, my brother's fiance, and I at the park. I really enjoyed spending time with her. We have a lot in common. Welcome to the family! Chase was 3 months old yesterday. The picture just above Chase's picture is a picture of my Uncle Brent was he was Chase's age. My Aunt Ranone and mom think Chase looks just like him. I see a lot of similarities. Dayne's birthday dinner. My neighbor of almost 26 years, made us lunch. It was so good to see them. I went to Hale Center on Thursday night with my dad to see one of my favorite musicals, Fiddler on The Roof. Steve picked me up from the airport in a tux. Maybe someday he will be a professional chauffeur. I had to chuckle; he looked so cute.

Chase's Blessing

Sunday was a special day for us. Chase was given a blessing by his dad. It was a beautiful blessing. I was able to write it down and then transfer it to his journal; that way he will be able to read it in the future. I'm so grateful for the priesthood, and that my husband is able to bless our lives with it.

Food Storage Fun

One thing I love about blogs is that aside from sharing photos--which is my favorite part--we can share anything we want. I know a lot of my friends are working on getting their food storage together. Steve and I are also trying to get ours together and have found some very helpful resources. If you have any ideas you'd like to share with us, we'd love for you to have them. => We are still new at this.

I've been trying to get our food storage together for the last little while. My mom gave us a great book called Practical Preparedness by Tina Monson. It makes the process easier by breaking food storage down into weekly and monthly goals. She has a chapter in the book on how to build a year's supply of food for $10 a week for two people. She has a food storage inventory checklist that you can use to check off what you have, what you need, and when to rotate your food. I highly recommend this book.

We use our food storage so that we save money and so the food doesn't just sit there. We feel this is important because we are storing it in unsealed containers in a 70 degree apt (which is fine, it just won't last as long as it would if the storing temperature were cooler). This website, talks about the storage life of dry foods. I was having a hard time finding recipes that we could use our food storage food with until I stumbled upon this website. I'm excited to try some of these recipes.

Steve's dad has done extensive research on camping gear and we bought one of his recommendations for a water filter. It is a Sawyer water treatment system that is guaranteed to filter one-million gallons. We figure this is a lot easier than storing 55 gallon drums in our tiny apartment. If you would like me to forward you the e-mail that Steve's dad sent me about different filter recommendations, I would be happy to.

Another thing that has made it easier to get our food storage together is to devote the first Family Night in the month to getting it ready. For example, last month we focused on water, this month we are focusing on sanitation, and next month, we will be focusing on heat and light sources.

Ezra Taft Benson and Socialism/Communism

Someone from my ward sent me this. I think it is something that is worth watching. Just click on the title.

Chase's two month stats

Weight: 12 pounds 3.4 ounces (64th percentile) Height: 23 3/4" (79th percentile) Head circumference(if you care): 16 (69th percentile)

8 weeks old

and happy (but not too happy about) it.