Hi. Remember us? That one family in Vegas? Have you wondered where we disappeared to? Or did you just assume that our house swallowed us? Well, the truth is the summer is just too much fun to spend much time in front of a computer. But seriously, is it really the middle of August?

Let’s see…last you heard we bought a house. Shortly after buying the house we made a quick trip to Provo for my brother’s wedding. I was nervous about packing for a trip while unpacking for the house, but it turned out pretty easy: you just skim off the top layer. That way you only get the stuff you’ve been using anyway. It was a great trip and the wedding was beautiful! Congratulations  Derek and Jessica!

The rest of May was spent enjoying the unusually cool weather (sub 90s!) and working on our house and yard.

Goodbye who-needs-a-real-backdoor-anyway.

Hello I’m-a-real-backdoor!

Goodbye kid hazard and roach breeding ground.

Hello beautiful new and beautiful pool!

Ha ha! A girl can dream! (Currently our pool consists of a 6″ wading pool).

And if you aren’t thoroughly convinced that we’ve been busy, here are some more pictures of my hard working family.

Currently we’ve filled two dumpsters with broken concrete and other various pieces of rubble. We’re debating if we really need to go and get a third. Hmmm…..

We celebrated our hard work by taking our kids to a movie under the stars at The District.

About then June came. Let the camping trips begin! First we caped with our friends up in Mt. Charleston and then Chris did an overnighter with the scouts. (Did we tell you he’s been called as Scout Master?)

Our next camping trip took us to Zion’s National Park. Oh it was beautiful!

As you can see we even got Robert, Jenny and Melissa (Chris’ siblings) to come and relax with us.

I think my favorite part of the trip was hiking up the Narrows. I highly recommend it!

My least favorite part was taking Josh to an emergency clinic to get stitches. Now over the last year we’ve had a couple yeah-possibly-maybe-needs-stitches-but-maybe-it-will-heal-on-its-own. Not this time. Josh was a trooper. He didn’t mind getting the stitches at all; I think he was most upset about being strapped to a papoose board. (The stitches have healed beautifully!)

After Zion’s, Melissa decided to brave the heat and come back to Vegas with us. We had a great time with picnics and parks and shopping. We even made it to the Chocolate Factory and cactus gardens. This sweet girl also convinced us to go on a spontaneous camping trip to Valley of Fire. Wow it was hot! (seriously, sleeping on the ground was like laying on a heater). But it was beautiful! We even got to see the full moon rise over some cool rock formations.

Chris also found the arch that he has spent 100s of hours (and the last two years) looking for. Pretty cool arch, eh?

Somewhere in the midst of this we also found the time to attend a candy making class, speak in church, learn to make cheese (which is delicious, by the way), swim with friends,  and make it to an ultrasound. We’re having a girl! Boy, girl, boy, girl. I’m feeling remarkably balanced right now.

Oh boy do I have a recipe for you! It’s fast AND you probably already have all the ingredients for it in your kitchen right now:

1 lb ground beef (actually, I only used 1/2 lb. and it was great)
1 can tomato soup
1 can salsa
1 can water
2ish c. (handfuls) grated cheese
8 flour tortillas

Start browning the meat; as it’s cooking chop/tear the tortillas in little 1″ pieces. Drain any grease from the meat and dump in the tomato soup. Refill the empty can with salsa, dump it in the skillet. Refill with water and dump it in the skillet. Throw in the cheese and stir over medium heat till it’s heated through. Enjoy!

My dad gave me this recipe awhile ago, but I hadn’t used it because I was rather skeptical…But now that I’ve tried it I have to admit that it is rather tasty!

It took me 10 min to cook the whole thing (life is so much easier now that I realized that Sam’s Club shredded cheese is just as cheap as a regular block of cheese), but I think the best part is the low number of dirty dishes when you’re done! Hooray!

So I have a confession to make, I’m not very good at making cookies. That’s Chris’ area of expertise. Currently our favorites are Oatmeal. Chris figures they’re healthier than granola bars and almost as good as a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Further research is being conducted.

Makes you want some, doesn’t it! Here’s the recipe:

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (Found on the Quaker Oatmeal Box)

• 1 c. butter
• 1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1-1/2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 c. oatmeal, uncooked
• 1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350F. Beat together margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by rounded spoonful on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Mmmmm!

The next recipe I have for you was a lot of fun to do with my kids: Ice Cream in a Bag! My kids loved it!

• 1/2 c. milk or half & half
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• rock salt
• two sizes Ziploc bags

Place the first three ingredients in the smaller bag. Zip it closed and place it, the ice, and some rock salt in the larger bag. Shake! Shake! Shake! The more you squish and shake it, the faster the ice cream freezes. You should have ice cream in minutes!

Now we used 2% milk and it worked just fine, not as creamy, but still thoroughly enjoyable. Also, we didn’t have any rock salt, so we used regular table salt and it worked perfect, if not faster! Just remember to rinse your bag off in cold water to avoid salty ice cream (yuck!). One other thought: we haven’t tried it yet, but I hear you can substitute juice for milk to make a sherbit. Sounds tasty to me!

Another favorite recipe we recently discovered is Watermelon Lemonade. Admit it, you’re drooling just thinking about it. And if you’re not, you should be. It’s that good, and rather easy to make:

• 1 c. fresh lemon juice
• 2 c. watermelon juice
• 3-1/2 c. cold water
• sugar to taste

You might be wondering how you get watermelon juice. It’s kind of like juicing an orange…okay not really. Just blend some up in the blender and strain out the seeds, and there you have it!

Lastly, I have fallen in love with a cake called Blueberry Boy Bait. Appropriately named by a teenage girl who created it for a Pillsbury Bake off.

Instead of giving you the recipe for this one, I’m just going to give you the web address because really, the pictures are just as tasty as the treat. Bon appetite!