In the kitchen: Chicken Salad: My way

So I think there are some recipes that every one has the one they think is best. Like lemon bars. Or chocolate chip cookies. And chicken salad.

This is the way I love to make it.
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa and Eat Shrink and be Merry. I combined them both to get just what I like)

A full chicken in my crockpot. (i loooove my crockpot!) The meat with the bone makes the meat so much more tender. If you don't have a full chicken you can do any of the meat with the bone in. So much better than just dried out chicken breasts with some mayo!

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and cover generously with salt and pepper.


Cook just until done. As in this one was completely thawed out and it cooked on low for 4 hours in the crock pot. You can totally roast it in the oven too. Let it cool and then take all the meat off. Save 4 cups for this recipe and put the rest in the fridge for another meal. (like enchiladas or Hawaiian Haystacks)


Get all your ingredients together.


For the dressing:
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp Honey mustard (or 1/2 Tbsp of each mustard and honey)
1/4 tsp salt and pepper
Dash of Worcestershire Sauce
Whisk it all together. And set aside.


Add in:
1 cup diced celery
1 large apple chopped and seeded (i love Gala)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup chopped red onion (green onion tastes good too)
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsely (or some dried if you don't have it)


Add the 4 cups of chicken


And mix it up!


The best is to eat it on toasted homemade bread.

mmmmmmmm! My Favorite!!!

And for dessert.....
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Photo Talk: Lately

I've been up to...editing. Lots of editing!!

No crafting time. (well actually I did get one project half done today - but it still needs a handle so it's not done). I have lots on my editing plate right now.
SOOO close to being done M&J's wedding.


Started a bit on N&M's wedding




Still have to a maternity shoot


A little girl


And my brother and SIL


And then all the ones of my own kids too.

(Alden at volleyball camp over Easter break)

I've been shooting A LOT lately. It'd be interesting to know how many shots I've already taking with my camera since I got it! So crafts gotta take a back burner while I edit!

Hair cuts

I grew up watching my mother cut my brother's hair. She cut everybody's hair in our family. With 5 boys and a dad with ridiculously quick growing hair equals a lot of hair cuts! I have no idea if she just started cutting hair, but knowing my mother it was the case. That she just figured out how to and then did it.

Well I had given a few haircuts before we were married. Mostly to missionaries funny enough, they'd ask if I knew how and I said not really but I could try. And somehow that was enough for some of them. Not sure how THAT worked out, but anyways.

I gave Regan a hair cut when we were dating. And I did a T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E job! Like we ended up having to mostly shave his head from the bald spot I gave him when the clippers got a little feisty. (in my defense I had never used clippers before (always just scissors) and they were NOT a good pair. They would cut and then not cut and then all of a sudden start cutting again.)

Well over the almost 10 years we've been married my hair cutting skills have gotten better. It's nothing amazing, but it works. And we don't have to pay anyone to do it.

Well when Alden got older I thought, hey I cut Reg's hair why not Alden's. Well I have given him some bad hair cuts too. And I am lucky enough to live close to someone now who is a hair dresser. And we fixed up a trade. One that works for the both of us. She cuts our hair. And I took their family pictures.

Sometimes it's good to say, hey I can't do this. Alden sits politely there for her (which he never did for me) and she actually knows what she is doing.
Sounds like a good trade to me! :)

Eli

First off thanks for all the input!!! I am going to go with #3 since it was EASILY the winner!!!!!


As for this little man....

Last Tuesday he decided it was time to talk.
Up until now it has been a word here and there but he mostly was just doing sign language. But Tuesday morning when I got him up the first thing he said was "breakfast". He'd never said that before.

Then after breakfast he said "I peed." And pulled on his diaper. I said do you want a new one. He said "yes".

So I gave him a new one. And then he just would say things all day here and there. We went to Utah and then since we've been back he's been talking more and more. His new one is "I poop." So I'll put him on the toilet.
And yes a couple of times he's done it right then. (actually the first time he did it, he looked in the toilet and said "GREAT JOB!" to himself. :)

So I guess next up is potty training.
Which I do not know how to do since my other kids were OLD when I did it.
They never showed signs like this at his age.
In fact Alden never really showed any signs ever.
He just finally consented to do it!


And just in case you were wondering, I didn't do a single thing to Eli's eyes in any of these pictures. They were just super blue that day. Cute hey? :)

It's about time I get back to crafting hey? I have a great project idea that I've already started one that I hopefully get time to finish tomorrow and share with you!

Spiritual Sunday

" 22. I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was common among all the sects—all united to persecute me.
23 It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily blabor, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.
24 However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a vision. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.
25 So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation." - JOSEPH SMITH—HISTORY 1: 22-25

A Little Help from Ya'll

First off, thanks for all the offers. :) I am looking to go in a new direction with my photography. And it will be coming soon. And I'll need some help to get there. So I'll let ya'll know when and where (not physically of course) I'm going :) It's more of a lifestyle photography route. Something that I WANT to shoot. Right Brooke ;)

Secondly, I'm making a new logo. So here's some options and tell me which you think it best. In design you should always go in uneven numbers. But I just LIKE the 2 hearts. So that being said, which one do you think suits me best or just looks to nicest.



Thirdly, I've decided ya'll would be pretty swell to start using regularly. Thoughts on it?

Fourthly (is that a word?), my friend Christina and her sister have started a great cooking blog. And they've had some GREAT posts on there. So check it out here at Frankly Entertaining.

Fifthly (definitely NOT a word) a picture I love to share from Matt and Jasmine's wedding that I am madly editing and almost done (wahoo!)

When we got home

we were so happy to see these guys.



And I think they were quite happy to see us!

I am taking an online photo class right now that is 12 weeks long and pretty intense but oh so good so far. Lucy is my constant model. Alden's often at school and Eli's always running away from me as soon as the camera gets out. So it's Lucy loo.


Isn't her new dress I got in her SLC so CUTE???

And I think I can totally sew one like it now that I've looked at it closely!!

My favorite one of the bunch of her....


I am itching to shoot more stuff lately!! I need some more kiddos to let me practice on and some sunshine to shoot in!

AND I am going to participate in this dress sewing project called A Frock By Friday. Such a cute pattern. and it's all free and there is help to learn to sew it. Win-Win-Win! ;)

What are you up to??

Our Utah Trip

was fun. We got a late start as there was some crazy snow storm here the night before we were supposed to leave. Lots of pictures to share with you and not many funny words.... so I'll just get to the pictures ;)

Some random hill in Idaho that looked cool with the light

We stopped in Idaho Falls Wednesday night and stayed there so we had to go see the temple quickly. Trying to make a frame with the branches....


i was a loving these trees on Temple Square!!

Gotta love the huge statue in the visitors center!

Lots of flowers were blooming on temple square and it was beautiful!

I set the camera and told Reg exactly what I wanted and then he took this of me in our hotel bathroom. It just had such nice light :)

Got to see Regan's old mission president Rex Allen and his lovely wife!

Got a bit lost going to visit our friends in a little town called Oakley and found this cool pile of junk :)

One of my favorite things we did was go for a walk after dark one night


Reg finishing his marathon (way to go REG!)

Me and my friend Brooke right after we finished a mentoring session that was so much fun and I learned lots!!

And my favorite shot of the trip....

It was great! Thanks to Lindsay and Bea and my friend Teale for watching my kiddos.

Cousin Fun

So this last week I had my SIL'sLindsay's kids stay with us while they went to Mexico. (we are doing the ol' switcherooni so we can go to Utah this week). And I thought I'd share some of the fun we had around the house :)

Lucy and Alli are 6 days apart in age and good friends.


LOTS of jumping off the couch :)


Before the couch jumping started James was wearing other clothes... but then he said WAIT and ran downstairs and changed into his "game shirt" and shorts. Then he was back into jumping :)





Playing games


And just general goofing around...

James saying "RHONDA take my picture!!! Hi Rhonda!"

And lots of arts and crafts!

It was a good week full of volleyball camp (which I'll have to upload the pictures from that so you can see that soon too!) and lots of cousin time (and not much of Regan being around.)