September 11, 2009

Dusty's recruiter asked us to attend the 9/11 Memorial service held at the Library in downtown Queen Creek. The ceremony was very nice and the speakers were great. Niran enjoyed himself and clapped for all the speakers (he thought everyone was clapping for him). He even did very well during the 21 gun salute. He didn't want me covering his ears, but once the first rounds went off he sat very still. It was a very good morning.

Niran proudly waving his flag

Our recruiters raising the flag

The fire bell

Our flag in the yard

Play Area at the Mall

Niran and I were at the mall the other week and I decided to take him by the play area. He had a lot of fun. He mostly played by himself and chased older kids around, keeping me on my toes since he would climb anything they did or stand below them when they went to jump off something. At one point he had three little girls playing with him, but he didn't care for it and chased after a boy that ran by. He was done when he lost sight of me.

Just doing my thing

We got Niran a foam play mat for the front room. It has removable letters in each square that he loves to pull out and put in a box we made out of the foam. He does know that if you put something in a hole you can pull it back out the same hole. His arms aren't quite long enough to reach the bottom of the box and he usually just breaks the box apart, but this time I think he actually tried to climb into the box to get his letters out. What do you think?

Future Soldier Work

September 3 Dusty had to go into the Recruiting Station to check-in with his Recruiter. When we got there they said they would be at Queen Creek High School for the football game which was going to be aired on tv. We were asked to go and of course we up for it. When we got the recruiters were giving items to kids as long as they did pushups. There were some kids that came up and asked to be given push ups for the items!

After hanging out a bit, Dusty had to help throw t-shirts into the crowd at half-time.

Dusty with another recruit

While the guys were off throwing t-shirts at half-time, another girl and myself were watching over the table and made sure everyone did pushups that wanted their free items. These were a couple of boys who had to drop and give me 20.

After half-time it started to rain and we were sent home, since we had Niran. The recruiters threw a t-shirt over him and we walked about a half mile to the car in the pouring rain. When we got to the car all three of were soaked, but it was still worth it.

Cousin Brady's Birthday Party

September 2nd we went to Cousin Brady's Birthday Party at Peter Piper's Pizza. This was Niran's first birthday party that he was old enough to have fun at. And that's exactly what he did!

Enjoying pizza with Great Grandpa.


3 out of the 4 cousins. The 4th was constantly playing!


I don't think the Birthday Boy would have been able to hold it in much longer!


Look at all his tickets. Dad let him play games that only required pushing a button once!

Niran's First Camping and Fishing Trip

The Wanders go camping in the fall for Jeremy's birthday. The last three years we have been invited. Last year we couldn't make it because they went the weekend before Niran was born and granted there was a paramedic there, I didn't see the need for Niran to be born while camping. This was our second year and we enjoy our time with the Wanders, Bolingers, and Ryan Winslett and his girlfriend Jenn. This year was a little more special since it was Niran first camping and fishing trip.

It was difficult with Niran wanting to get down and crawl around after Aiden, but we wanted to cut back on the dirt, scrapes and cuts he could get. Okay, it was the getting hurt, it was the excess amount of dirt we didn't want to deal with. We knew he'd get dirty enough as it was. We did take his play yard, which he luckily enjoys playing in. We enjoy a lot of lazy time with everyone and stories by the campfire both nights.

The first night, Niran slept on and off for three hours and then was wide awake from 3am to 8pm. Mom and Dad had a very long morning and about 4, Mom put the boy in his stroller and took off for a walk hoping Niran would finally sleep, he didn't. The second night we tracked down some extra blankets and covered his bed. He slept until about 6, with little squeaks here and there! It was wonderful!

Saturday we hung for most of the day and then had an afternoon of fishing. Dad caught a fish, which of course was shown to Niran who wanted to touch it. Mom didn't get to do much fishing since Niran was pretty squirmy. I think most everyone caught a fish or at least got a nibble. I did get a nibble before calling it quits pretty early.

Sunday we ate breakfast and talked around the campfire some more before packing up and heading back into town. Camping with the Wanders is about time together and we're always glad to be a part of their lives.

Now for some photos and a video:

On the way up I saw this mountain which reminded me of Peavine back in Reno. Much bigger, but it still has the same look about it.

The family around the campfire.

This is part of peek-a-boo. Niran will pop his head above the bar and squeal then drag his facce down and squeal below the bar. It's quite entertaining!

Niran got excited when Uncle Ry-Ry caught his fish. I don't remember his reaction with Dad, but I'm certain if we were cheering so was Niran.

I love this picture. I have other angles, but I like this one the best.

Aiden kept wanting to come in our tent to play with Niran when he had free range of the tent, but there wasn't enough room with the play yard taking up half of the tent, so he played with him the best he could. Sorry about this video being sideways. I either need to figure out how to rotate it or I need to remember not to hold the camera sideways.

Pasta & Sausage

Sorry about the formatting on this post. I can't seem to get it to do what I want. I'll try again later.

I've been wanting to post recipes that are quick, easy and/or cheap. I love finding a new recipe or getting one from someone to try. I've been cooking and baking since 3rd grade and I don't mean making mac & cheese out of the box. I'm talk lasagna and chicken cooking! And I really enjoy cooking at home and would rather do that over eating out most of the time. With Dusty taking culinary classes we now make dishes pretty much how we want. We'll look at recipe and follow the idea, but generally we kind of do our own thing with it. I had a hard time with that at first and would get irritated watching Dusty cook without looking at a recipe, but now I will watch the Food Network, like something and then make based on what I saw in the show, but without the recipe. I think we both have come up with some very yummy dishes! I'll post them on here as we come up with them, but you do have to forgive us, all measurements will be approx. We do most things to taste.

I'll start with a dish I made Tuesday night. I actually decided to make homemade ravioli last week with a tomato cream sauce. I got the ravioli recipe online, but I wasn't able to make them thin enough, maybe I'll try again one day, but the cream sauce I did like and I'll keep it. I found how to make the basic tomato cream sauce online and Dusty seemed to like it so I decided to add to it for this dish. I thought it was yummy, better than one of my favorite hamburger helpers

Pasta & Sausage
(measurements are approx and should be adjusted for how much sauce and pasta you will need)


Pasta of choice (I used shells so Niran could pick them up)
1 cupMarinara Sauce
1/2 cup Cream
1lb Italian Sausage
1/2 cup Frozen Spinach
Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Cook pasta according to directions.

Cook sausage thoroughly

Combine Marinara Sauce, Cream, Spinach and sausage. Heat to gentle boil and cook until desired thickness (I cooked mine for about 15 minutes). Add salt to taste. I added some parmesan cheese as well. Mix with pasta and top with cheese.

I was planning on taking a picture of the dish, but Niran didn't want to wait any longer for dinner, so here's the end result!

Enjoy!