Father's Day 2012

A fun and easy Father's Day for the Waith-Mairs

For Father's day this year we decided to make something for daddy rather then buy a gift. The girls and I went out to the store and went shopping for chocolate bars, chewing gum and candy bars! I had found a fantastic idea thanks to another wonderful blog that I love!

We made a fun card out of candy! I knew Travis was on a diet so I did feel really guilty for doing this at first, but knew how much he loved a fun and cheesy gift, so I couldn't resist! The girls and I got to work. It took us a good while to set everything out right, but here is the result...

Instead of a large piece of card ( like the original) I had found an old UPS package that looked like a big card, so as an added bonus this one could fold up! The girls drew an awesome picture and attached it to the front and then all we needed was the candy, a marker and some double sided tape.

(As you can see we couldn't find a "now and later" so replaced it with his fav candy bar "Reeses" and just wrote now and later on it LOL).

The kids rushed down the morning of Father's day and gave him his home made gift! Both Travis and the kids where excited to open it! .... and when he did boy was he surprised!!! (YAY SUCCESS!!!) The girls and him read along with him and giggled throughout!

Travis then got his second gift (which I don't have a picture of so here is a substitute from another blog) it reads ..."World's Best POP" and inside was some root beer (Soda pop), Pop tarts, pop corn and some lollie pops.

The third gift was from me and was also edible (or drinkable) which was a mountain dew saying "Thank you for everything you dew"

(this is another bloggers work because i forgot to take a picture again!)

Travis loved his homemade gifts and was not expecting anything (since he had already gotten his "Father's day" gift a week before). He was one happy daddy to get all three!

LATER ON THAT SAME DAY...

Travis got his fav snack.... homemade salsa and chips!

And for dinner he requested I make him my "mini burgers"....

and of course we couldn't end a celebration without having a Cold Stone ice cream cake!...

...and that was our HAPPY FATHERS DAY (June 17th 2012)

Our Ever Changing Kitchen

Our Ever Changing Kitchen

...an adventure in finding a cheaper designer kitchen (D.I.Y. Style!).

This is the kitchen we started out with. It is an average kitchen for our neighborhood and the era the home was built in. For me though It wasn't well....me! However having just brought the place we didn't have a ton of left over cash so it stayed this way for a good six months.....

Before

...and then I had an idea! I had seen it on HGTV... why not paint the cabinets white? ... and while i am at it distress the edges! So off i went to Lowes with my husband (who was half dragged) to find some nice white paint! While in the hardware store ideas started to flow like crazy and I found a faucet, white paint (and all the gear that goes with it) sanding paper and some fantastic hardware for the cabinets (just like the ones i saw in a model home i had recently seen and admired) and of course tons of other fun ideas and projects collecting in my mind (Lowe's is officially my new candy store and my husband's nightmare).

I happily (and practically) skipped home eager to do the project (note: husband's still trying to figure out what we are doing at this point) and got to work. I was so excited about the Project I started taking down cabinet doors like there was no tomorrow! While my husband watched in shock (and possibly panicking on the inside?) I started sanding the varnish off each of the doors (I did it all by hand too! ... no sander!...bit eager ummmm...YUP!). All the sanding was done that night! I finally past out in bed still holding one of the doors. 

Early the next morning i was up and breaking open one of the paint cans to get the first coat on (the primer). and by the time the kids where up i had moved to the kitchen to sand and prime the base of the cabinets. At this point my hands where getting sore so i let my husband finish the base of the cabinets (which meant me watching him like a hawk and squealing every time he went out of the lines).

I literally watched paint dry that day! I counted down the recommended hours in pure agony waiting till i could apply the next coat! ....

Finally the time came and I was off! Travis and i painted till the middle of the night and boy did they look great! ...(not to gloat of course) In the morning i was somewhat happy to be pulled away to go to church with the family (it gave us a much needed rest!). That night I lightly sanded the edges to give them the designer look i was going for and finally let my husband put the doors back on to see how they looked...

FANTASTIC!!!...

However six months later the paint was pealing and i had decided that i no longer liked the "Custom Designer Look" with the distressed edges any longer.... so back to Lowe's we went (Yay for me!... not for Travis).

Same "ultra white" paint and we where sanding down the cabinets and starting over again! This time however we put a nice thick layer of lacquer over the top to seal it all and keep it from chipping. which also helped to make it an easy to clean surface (important for those of us with messy cooks and four kids). And as an added bonus a new microwave! 

We also decided to try our hand at making the Island look better by framing it with bead board which was also cut for free at the local lowes!

.... and this is what it all turned out like....

After

We are in no way finished with this project and are even today still making changes.... So look out for an even updated kitchen in a few weeks!

....I for one can't wait!!!

My Diet One Month Later.

My new diet One month later! 

I cannot believe i have lasted this long! This is truly epic for me! I have lasted a whole month on this diet! WOO HOO for me ahe!!!

I have to be honest with you i was expecting to be one of those people that would lose a full 30 pounds every month and only need to be on this diet for a little while but unfortunately i am not :(

However i am happy to announce that i have lost a full 15lbs this month just through dieting and without a single bit of exercise! My husband on the other hand has lost a whole 20lbs!!! which is sooo awesome! ...I am so jealous of him though!

So to report how my journey has gone this far i thought i will walk you through our weekly highs and lows.

WEEK ONE: The first week was nothing but highs! The first thing we noticed was that the seemingly yummy flavour of mint chocolate was HORRIBLE! so to remedy this we took it with juice (which unfortunately has calories in it too but made the task much easier) i was determined to stick to the diet in every possible way. I would not even eat a chip over my 500 calorie limit! My husband however struggled with this, it was a shock to suddenly be eating at least 50% less then he was used to but the thing that kept us most motivated was the weight loss! I lost 5lbs in the first week and Travis lost 8lbs!

Mothers day brunch "the blueberry divine"

WEEK TWO: The second week was also good until mothers day! by mothers day i had lost a full 10lbs but ruined it all at the mothers day brunch at my brother in laws house. My husband however had lost 15lbs and was still going strong!

Flavored water from Sams club

WEEK THREE: By week three everything had stopped for me! i thought nothing had changed until i measured myself only to find i had lost 2-3 inches! this totally didn't make any sense though, how could i lose inches but not weight? My husband was starting to slow down at this point too. i also experienced a whole day of fatigue, i felt like all my energy was gone. this is when i decided to go and get some vitamins and within a day or two my body felt normal again! on week three we also discovered some flavoured water with 0 calories in it which made taking the HCG so much easier plus we were no longer adding calories by taking it with juice!

Chillis grilled chicken salad and nutrition print out

WEEK FOUR: Week four i finally lost another 5lbs bringing my total for the month to 15lbs! my husbands total was 20lbs (butt head!) during this week we also became brave enough to eat out again too. until now we where too scared of the amount of calories in everything. we went to chillis our families fav restaurant and both chose something from the lighter menu and luckily kept within our calorie limit! (the calories are not listed on the menu you have to ask your waiter for a print out, which he was happy to get) i even had left overs (the plate it came on was huge). I have found while being on this diet that i don't need to eat as much anymore and i stay fuller for longer too.

me 15 lbs lighter (so far )

Now we are moving into the second month. i think i want to help along the dieting with a bit more exercise (you know compared to none!). It is now the summer break for the kids and Travis is usually home by 5pm so now to get the body moving.

Who visited Joseph Smith?

I have a love for the Prophet Joseph Smith. Recently, in institute, we learned and discussed the first vision.

It was such a beautiful spiritual lesson. I love going to institute its where i feel the spirit a lot and the more I feel it the more I want it. My testimony has grown from going.

As Joseph knelt to pray in the grove to pray out loud as he wanted to know which church to join the first thing we learn is the Devil is real a terrible feeling of darkness surrounded him. It was so strong that he thought it was going to destroy him!

then we learn as the holy Ghost led our Father and Jesus he cleansed the area of all evil to prepare there coming (this teaches us that good will always triumph over evil
they called him by Name, "Joseph" imagine them calling you because this is for us all 
Heavenly Father said “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
Joseph had many Heavenly visitors and i found this very uplifting the hear of who he was visited by

Moroni visited him to show him where the plates were
John the Baptist came to restore to Joseph and Oliver the Aaronic priesthood
then Later Peter, James and John conferred upon them the keys to the Melchizedek priesthood

 Heavenly messengers that visited him include:

1.God, the Father.
2.His Son, Jesus Christ.
3.Moroni, an ancient American prophet, now resurrected.
4.John the Baptist
5.Peter, James & John from the New Testament.
6.Moses
7.Elijah
8.Elias
9.Apparently Adam & Noah also came at some point, and perhaps more than once.

as this lesson in institute has helped me i hope i can share and help you and you too can feel the spirit of the truthfulness of the gospel today. we receive modern day revelation something others don't. I am grateful to be raised in the true church and i know this is true and beautiful 
in the name of Jesus Christ amen

Lemon Pepper Chicken Salad

Lemon Pepper Chicken Salad (A Healthy Summer Meal)

To go with my current diet I have been trying to make all of my meals more healthy but didn't want them to be to boring either so this is the first recipe I put together for a summer family dinner that everyone could enjoy and I wouldn't feel guilty about either.

Lemon Pepper chicken salad ingredients:

General Conference (how we survived with 4 kids!)

General Conference (how we survived it with 4 kids!)

General conference is usually quite the hassle for us. With the noise that the kids create it makes it virtually impossible to hear anything let alone learn anything from it or feel the spirit. So having said that the general conference in April with our four kids was actually enjoyable and fun! It is so weird that our experience has made a complete 180 turn around from the last time we tried to listen to it with the kids. so I thought I would share with you what we did to make it more fun for the whole family.

First of all we put together some fun and appropriate packs for the kids to fill in during the conference talks, all of which where age appropriate to the child. (we had a separate pack for the 7 & 9 year old and another for the 3 & 5 year old).

I found some fantastic links for coloring pages, games and activities on pinterest.com during my weekly scroll through the site.

These are just a few of the helpful sites I found:

The Jelly Tip Hot Coco Comfort

The Jelly Tip Hot Coco Comfort (NZ/Aussie recipe)

Just a little thought for the cold nights in New Zealand. While we lived in New Zealand one of our favourite Late night snacks to keep warm and snuggley was to have raspberry hot coco or Milo. After making your regular hot chocolate or Milo and before putting in your milk try adding some Tip Top Jelly Tip ice cream. It is so yummy! We also loved pairing this with some black forest Tim tams making it one heck of a divine treat!  …..mmmmm berry-licious Enjoy!

picture from: (http://posted-stuff.blogspot.com/2011/02/black-forest-tim-tams.html)

The Blueberry Pastry Divine

The Blueberry Pastry Divine

OK I have to tell you about this really scrumptious breakfast I recently made for my families mothers day brunch at my brother in laws house this year! I initially got the idea from my sister In law almost two years ago (hers had cream cheese in the middle with sauce over the top) so I tweaked it a little to make it to my taste which you can probably do yourself too!

This is also a good recipe for valentines day, Christmas, mothers day or any other occasions!
I call this "The Blueberry Pastry Divine"

You will need these ingredients…

Puff pastry sheets
Cream cheese
Melted butter
Blueberries (or strawberries or raspberries)

For the sauce …

Blueberries ( or strawberries or raspberries)
1 cup Water
2 tablespoons Corn starch
1 cup Sugar

STEP ONE: defrost your puff pastry sheets till they are almost completely thawed. I find that if they are completely thawed they are too sticky to work with easily. butter the cookie sheet or dish.

STEP TWO: Once the puff pastry sheets have almost completely thawed but are now bendable (but still some what firm) carefully with a butter knife (if needed) slowly open the sheets up with out tearing the joints. (note if they do break they can be repaired by pressing back together with a little bit of warm water) place open pastry in dish or sheet so that the sides can be closed back down after filling is added. Butter in cream cheese to your desired amount and then add the blueberries over the top (if using strawberries wash and slice first).

STEP THREE: Put a cup of water in a saucepan set aside, In a separate bowl mix together the corn starch and sugar thoroughly.  Mix the dry ingredients into the water (in the saucepan) then put the saucepan on a medium heat.  Stir constantly for about 3 minutes or until the mixture thickens.  Add the desired amount of berries directly into the mixture and stir for about 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes a beautiful purple colour.

STEP FOUR: using your warm blueberry syrup pour some over the top of the berries then fold the sides of the pastry down over the top of the filling making a type of envelope. Brush over some melted butter and then cut small slices to portion the pastry into five or six pieces. Place in the oven at 180°C (350°F) for 15-30 mins or until the pastry starts to puff up and brown.

STEP FIVE: remove from oven and cut into sections. Pour the remaining blueberry syrup over the top of the pastry either before or after plating it.

Serve warm! ENJOY!!!

PS: YOUR WELCOME!!!

I Need To Do This For Myself!

I Need to do this for myself! (my journey to lose the extra lbs)

i am on a mission at the moment to lose the extra weight i have gained over the last nine years!!! there is so many excuses for the weight.... getting married, having five kids, being sick etc... but honestly there are so many people out there who have the same reasons to be overweight but aren't! why can't i get my act together and lose the weight? my youngest child is now three i have no more excuses! its time!

well the first thing i needed to really do for my self is lose the excuses! and honestly i am sick of them, so i say

is this me