A day on Time Square

After a very long day of walking on Time Square

this nice bicycle taxi was well worth the money!

He is looking a little tired after taking us clear

across Time Square back to Grand Central Station.

Happy to be riding on the TAXI

A little kid dancing in the street for money

His brother (they did a fun program)

Did I mention that people are really WEIRD there?

Yes, this is a grandma dressed like Wonder Woman

with a guitar. I can't say I have ever seen anything

like this before.

Half way through the day it got really crowded!

This pic does not do it justice, but I was starting to

have major anxiety trying to walk through the crowds.

The noise, the smells, not seeing the sky, no green anywhere,

etc. would be really hard to handle every day. Oh, and by the

way, I had this idea that eating a hot dog from a street vendor would

be this wonderful idea because I've heard about it my whole life. Well,

I'm here to tell you...its NOT! However, the nuts that you can buy from

the street vendors were YUMMY!

I am so annoyed by this new photoshop program I

have on my computer. I turn the picture the right

way, but it won't stay and there isn't a "save" button.

This is inside the Toys R Us store. Yes, its a huge

ferris wheel. And people were riding on it. There was

a huge dinosaur that moved, The Statue of Liberty and

Empire State Building built out of legos, a huge Barbie

house and lots more! What a fun store, we could have

stayed there all day.

Ok, another picture that won't turn the right way...

The girls and I went to a Broadway show called

In the Heights. The star was Corbin Bleu from

High School Musical.

Inside the Mac makeup store on Fifth Avenue. I'm

not sure this job would be too exciting, but this girl

played the part well. (She's not a statue)

There were Sesame Street characters all over and

of course, if you get your picture taken with them

they want you to put money in their bag!

Oh my goodness! People are SOOOOO weird in

New York! This is an old man doing some kind of

peace dance.

Its really sad when you get off the train and you see

this HUGE line to the bathroom!! This line went

all the way down the hall!

Christa got a good laugh at this. The sign says

no sitting on the stairway and there were people

sitting on the steps. Of course, when we tried to

sit there the policeman came and told us we were

not allowed to sit there!

A day with Christa and her "kiddos"

We had a super busy day with the kids. I'm sure

they slept well after that! I don't think we stopped all

day! After we picked up Jacob from the bus we went

for a walk up the street.

Everyone is walking on the curb and trying to stay

balanced...Even Maria is copying them from her

wagon.

Can you see how beautiful it is? Its pretty hard

to get a picture that would do it justice. Their house

is surrounded by forest (well, actually the whole town

of Sandy Hook is surrounded by forest)

What a pretty duck

Maria got pretty attached to Breeann and wanted to

show her the pretty little waterfall.

The kids call these ducks "Senia's ducks" because

their last nanny before Christa really doesn't like

animals but she showed Christa where this little park

is. We took Maria to feed the ducks.

Christa also takes Maria to her Tumble Jungle on

Fridays, so we watched her play.

We went to Jacob's Catholic Mass to listen to his

program. He had a reading and did a great job.

Breeann and I went to visit Christa in Connecticut for a few

days. Friday, she had to work so we hung out with her

doing some of the things she normally does with the kids.

She takes Alex to the bus stop (about a 15-20 min drive and

listens to him read while they wait for the bus).

Then we went to a park that was really fun. This

is Mr. McGregor's garden (you know from the story

Peter Rabbit?) Its a real garden!

Maria is inside of the little Rabbit house. She played

with the pretend vegetables and swept the floor.

Going into the little house...

At the park there are statues all around. This is

Maria's favorite part. She says this person holding

the dog's leashes is her nanny and each of these dogs

are named after someone in her family.

YUMMY! Carmelized Onion & Proscuitto Pizza

Putting the pizza in the oven. MMMM, its smelling so good!

Oops! I was going to take a picture of it when it came out

of the oven, but we got so excited to eat it that we forgot!

It tasted as good as it looked. The only thing I did

differently from her recipe was, I added some fresh

tomatoes.

Thanks to http://thepioneerwoman.com

Caramelized Onion & Prosciutto Pizza

3"x5" Cards | 4"x6" Cards | Full Page | Print

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 whole Pizza Crust
• Olive Oil, For Drizzling
• 1 whole Large Red Onion, Halved And Thinly Sliced
• ¼ cups Brown Sugar
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• Parmesan Cheese, Grated
• 10 ounces, weight Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, Thinly Sliced
• 8 slices Prosciutto (more To Taste)

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions and brown sugar and toss/stir for several minutes, or until onions are brown and cooked. Set aside.

Roll out pizza dough to a rectangular shape. Drizzle on olive oil, sprinkle on a little salt, followed by a little Parmesan.

Lay slices of mozzarella evenly over the top of the crust. Arrange caramelized onions over the top of the mozzarella. Randomly lay slices of prosciutto over the onions.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the lower half of the oven, or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and cut into squares. Serve immediately.

Basic Pizza Crust

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Prep Time: 5 Minutes

Cook Time:

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon Instant Or Active Dry Yeast
• 1-½ cup Warm Water
• 4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• ⅓ cups Olive Oil

Preparation Instructions

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water. Let stand for a few minutes.

In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined, and the dough comes together in a sticky mass.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set it aside for 1 to 2 hours, or store in the fridge until you need it.

Note: it’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

When you are ready to make the pizza, grab HALF the pizza dough (recipe makes 2 crusts) and squeeze the dough toward the bottom to form a nice, tight, pulled ball. You can roll out the pizza with a rolling pin if you’d like, but sometimes it’s just as easy to throw it around and pull and stretch till it feels right. And when the crust is nice and thin, lay it on an oiled baking sheet or pizza pan. Drizzle a little olive oil on the dough and spread it with your fingers. Very lightly sprinkle some salt on the crust.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Top your crust with your toppings of choice. Then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.

Chesley's baby shower

Greg and I traveled to Utah County today for our nephew

and neice's baby shower. This is Chesley (Blake's wife) who

is expecting a baby girl in about a month. Look at the haul

she came away with! What a fun time!

Grandma Kathy holding sleeping Aubrey (Nathan & Raz's

baby). She screams if anyone but her mom is holding her,

so Grandma was happy to be able to hold her while she slept!

I guess I wasn't a very good photographer today, I thought

I got a picture of Raz holding her, but I failed!! Darnit, well next

time I will get one! Also, Greg went with Nathan & Blake and Robert

to go motorcycling during the shower. They took Nathan and Raz's

little boys also. I wish I had thought to get a photo of them also!

This is Jenay's darling little Rose! I got out the

camera and started talking to her and look what she

did for me!!

Jenay seems to be a very proud mama! Couldn't

keep her eyes off this beautiful little girl! It was

a fun day hanging out with these cute nieces and their

babies! Wish we lived a little closer so we could spoil them!

Triathalon

Today Greg participated in a Triathalon with Michael (who is 8 I think).

Greg did the running and biking parts and Michael did the swimming.

They took 1st place! Michael lives across the street. He is holding

the trophy that they won. I think Michael was pretty happy about

this win!

FINALLY A GOOD SALE!!

I have been hoping and waiting for a good sale again! Since

Albertsons left Utah its been hard to find good sales! Smith's is

doubling coupons through tomorrow, so I headed over there first

thing this morning. I spent $48 for 100 items.

Bounty paper towels, Wacky Mac pasta, Capri Sun, Dole Crushed

Pineapple, Bbq sauce, Land o Lakes Butter, Flipz pretzel snacks, cheetos,

Crest 3-D white toothpaste, toothbrushes, Febreeze spray, Men's and women's

shave gel, carefree pantyliners, chewing gum, gummy candy, Sunny D, Zone

Perfect Bars. Some of the items ended up being free and others just really

cheap!

My New Life

I started reading this lady's blog quite some time ago and found this video recently which talks about her story. She is a young mother who was in a plane wreck with her husband and was severely burned and in a coma for three months. Her blog is very inspiring and I love this video. What an example of someone who has faith and lives each day to the fullest. She is a beautiful woman inside and out! I hope that I can learn to have as much faith as she does.

My New Life

Bryce an upcoming chef!

Bryce came home from school today and started making

a snack. He chopped up onions, mushrooms, carrots and some

turkey and sauteed it in olive oil (with a little garlic). Then he arranged it on

the plate to look nice. This is his afterschool snack!

Health Days Fun Run

Greg ran the 10k today at Health Days.

Then he went back and finished the race with Breeann,

who ran the 5K. This was Breeann's first race which

she trained really hard for until about 3 weeks ago.

Then, she pretty much quit training because she

got so busy with school. But she did it and I'm proud

of her!

Frugal Challenge - April

Well, this month I didn't do too bad! Especially considering we went on vacation for a week and I had to buy some groceries there. Last month I was under by $89 so I figured I could go over by that much this month. My grocery budget does not include eating out, which we have done quite a bit lately. I figure if I save money by couponing we can go out to eat a few times, because we really enjoy that!! So, at the end of April my total grocery expense was $312.09! I am going to have to start stocking up again because my food storage is slimming down. And, I am also trying to eat more whole foods. A lot of times the items that come on sale are processed and I've decided I want to feel better. This week I started a no sugar diet to help eliminate the yeast build up in my body. Have you ever looked at the labels on foods? EVERYTHING has sugar in it! So my challenge now is to stay in budget and eat healthier!

LaCrosse Tournament

I know this doesn't look like a cold day, but if you saw

the parents on the sidelines it would be a better

perspective. It is very, very windy and very, very

cold!

This is a fun tournament that is held in Pocatello, Idaho.

Some of the fun for the kids is staying in a hotel

with some of their LaCrosse buddies!

Bryce and a teammate

Bryce during the "face off". They played three

games during the two days here. The first night,

the game was cancelled after the first 5 minutes due to

a lightning storm. Playing in the lightning with long,

metal sticks is probably not such a good idea! It was

rescheduled for the next morning at 8 am. They lost that

game, but then won their next two. So, overall they

had a really successful tournament and a good time as well!

(And, I didn't freeze to death, even though I felt like I was

going to)