New Favorite Recipe

So Steve and I always try new recipes when the Sister Missionaries come for dinner. Normally, we can look at a recipe and decide if we think it will be good, so we try new things. Well last night, we tried a recipe that we thought was going to be good and it turned out to be GREAT!! Here it is. It takes a bit of time, but I pre-cut/shredded/peeled everything in advance and it took next to no time after that. Bon appetit!

Pesto Cream Sauce with Linguine and Shrimp

o Cream Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package linguine pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 8 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch pepper
• 1 1/2 cups grated Romano cheese
• 1 cup prepared basil pesto
• 1 pound cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 20 mushrooms, chopped
• 3 roma (plum) tomato, diced

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until tender and translucent. Stir in garlic and butter, and saute until garlic is soft and fragrant, about 1 minute. Dissolve flour in milk, then stir in. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add cheese, and stir until melted. Stir in pesto. Add shrimp, mushrooms and tomatoes. Cook 4 minutes, or until heated through. Toss with pasta until evenly coated.

1st Day of School

This is a picture I forgot to post earlier, but I think it's darling.

Go Cougars

"My parents put me in the wrong shirt!"

"Mmm...much better."

Go Cougars.

"Labor"ing Without Power

This last weekend, the Nufers came to visit for the 3-day holiday. They arrived Saturday afternoon in high hopes of watching the BYU vs Ole Miss football game. As luck would have it, some pansy little storm knocked our power out for about two hours, causing us to miss the first quarter. Luckily, neither team actually scored in that quarter. During the game, we were able to make dinner and then celebrate as we won 14-13! Go Cougars!

Later that evening, after the kids were in bed, the Nufers turned on "Prince of Persia" (which they had never seen) only to be rewarded with losing the power at the very climax of the movie (I was actually in the shower and it is VERY hard to finish showering when it is so dark!) By candlelight, we all prepared for and got to bed. The power came back on after most were asleep. The entertaining story of the night is that Josh's noisemaker came back on to a different setting (birds instead of rain) and it seriously freaked the poor kid out! He was huddled next to his door trying to groggily get away from the scary birds. My poor boy.

Sunday was a very exciting day for me! I got to interpret in sign language for Holly: a deaf sister in our ward. I knew mom had interpreted before, so when I saw Holly come in, I asked mom if she wanted to do it. I think she was a bit nervous, but she said she would do her best and I introduced Holly to my mom. Mom ended up interpreting for RS and Sunday School (I had to teach SS, so I missed her there) and started out in Sacrament Meeting. As I watched my mom, I was able to get the courage to switch her and I interpreted for several testimonies and the closing prayer. It was so EXCITING!! Now that Holly has seen me interpret, I asked her if she wanted me to try and interpret for all the meetings (even though I really am not that great!) and she very excitedly said that she would really like that. So it looks like I'm going to be signing at church now!

While the rest of the Nufers (and the Monson babies) took naps, Steve, dad and I took Eric to some choice locations to get his Senior pictures done. Emily and Shawn Tate were nice enough to let me borrow their really good camera and I took pictures along with dad. It was fun to experiment. I only included my favorite picture of him, so if you want to see more, you'll have to ask Eric.

This spot is a very popular location for brides and grooms to get great pictures with the Chicago skyline in the background. In the 20-30 minutes we were there, I counted 7 brides, though I'm sure there were more. I started taking pictures of them all, just to keep track. There are three in this picture: can you find them all?

On Monday, Steve was really sick: enough so that I took him to Urgent Care while the Nufers kept track of Josh and Kelsey. Once again, we were without power for a couple of hours. It was SO nice for them to keep our babies. (By the way, Steve is fine now. The wait at Urgent Care was long enough that we went home to wait and we never went back because he was feeling so much better.) Here they are downtown at the same spot we took Eric. I forgot to get a jacket for Josh, but apparently it got cold very fast. I'm guessing that Chicago won't be in the family picture this year.

After experiencing downtown in the cold, they decided to do something indoors. I pointed out that the Garfield Park Conservatory was nice and they went over there. Sadly, many of my favorite rooms are closed off right now because some hail destroyed a bunch of glass panes from the roof.

With the nice camera, I couldn't help but take a bunch of pictures of my kiddos.

I LOVE Kelsey's face in this picture. She is just so curious about everything!

We loved having everyone here and Josh has been saying all of their names in his prayers. It's really sweet. I loved the talk-time with my mommy and loved cheering on those Cougars with the Nufer enthusiasm! We love you!

A "Plethora" of Visitors

These pictures are all kind of mixed together, but we were able to host Laura Coons' family Aug 15-18 and then Becky Wilson's family (both are Steve's sisters) Aug 19-21. We had a great time!

We went for a walk and turned Kelsey around for the first time. She LOVED looking around!

With Laura, we went to the zoo, had great pizza and hung out a bit. On the way back from the zoo, Josh fell asleep while reading.

Last week, Kelsey started sucking her thumb to soothe herself. It is really adorable.

Rachel and Elizabeth Coons entertaining Kelsey

On our lazy day, I walked into the room to find both Ben (age 6) and Joshua (age 2) sitting inside the Pak'n'play playing together.

Josh hasn't figured out how to eat the hot dogs yet.

This is Kels after some floor time. She pulled herself over to the couch and was playing with the 'couch skirt'.

Josh is smart: he figured out that if he wedged the exercise ball between the computer and the treadmill, he could play on it without the ball bouncing away.

That Friday, Jon and Becky and fam came to visit. This was us downtown: Jon became Josh's best friend. So much so that he even included Jon in his prayer all on his own.

Family picture! We love Chicago!

Cousins: Tyler, Marcus and Kelsey, Cynthia, Joshua and Lillian

This little girl is all smiles!

Joshua's new thing is to do a somersault and then say "Mom! I stuck uh-side-down!"

Josh is finally letting us read full books to him!

Indianapolis Adventure

This last week, we took a little excursion down to Indianapolis where Steve did 2 days of HACCP training. (Don't ask me what it is 'cause I'm not entirely sure...)

Because his work was already getting him a hotel room for 3 nights, I came down with him (he drove the rental care the entire time) and stayed at the hotel during the day and then we all went out and played after he was done for the day.

Here is Josh's first black eye. I failed to mention that this happened over a week ago when he tripped on the playground and hit his cheek against a stair. It was really sad to look at during the week!

In downtown Indianapolis, they have a canal coming off of the White River which is an absolutely beautiful walk. Josh really loved the ducks and being outside! I had tried to go for walks during the day, but there was really nowhere to go!

He loved looking at the water going underneath him on these little bridges.

Kelsey is working on her stomach muscles and you will often look in her seat and she is pulling her head forward as much as she can. I think she really loves seeing out of her carseat. Well, I thought it was adorable when I saw that she had fallen asleep like that.

I loved this apartment building just along the canal!

The Capitol building

We got back in the evenings in time to get Josh and Kelsey to bed. We each took one and had simultaneous diaper changes--Josh thought it was awesome! He is such a great big brother and he is so gentle with his sister!

She is getting so tall! Her legs already hang over the side of her car seat when she stretches out! She has also figured out that her toes are always in reach and that she loves to be held!

Josh and I had some cuddle time in the evenings. He was so great at laying down and sleeping when we asked him to and took good naps during the day. His favorite part about this trip, I would think, is that I let him stack the bed pillows on the floor and jump from the coffee table onto the pillows. He is SUCH a boy and I sure love him!