It's Almost Christmas!

Hello everyone, 

I hope each one of you have enjoyed the holiday season so far. I can't believe Christmas is THIS SUNDAY!! I can't wait! 

We've been busy preparing and celebrating in different ways - 

We decorated the house a few weeks ago. Check it out!  

Decorating the tree and setting up our village! 

A low quality video of our tree... :D 

All the lights! 

Our house has also been full of baking, baking, baking! My mom made peanut butter bonbons, pumpkin rolls, raisin-filled cookies, sugar cookies and cranberry bars. Mmmmm.


Pumpkin rolls! The best...

We all tried to help as much as we could! She's so sweet to make these every year. 

We have also received so many delicious goods from our family and friends! Too many to post...  

One of my favorites was what my Aunt Jamie brought us - homemade fudge and beautiful cookies! Look at that craftsmanship.

Yes, please. 

My sister Erin was also here for a little while before leaving to spend time with Andrea and her family in Hawaii! Not a bad place to be, especially for Christmas! Build a sand-man for me! :P 

*I know she took some photos, I'll have to get them from her or find them!*

It has been great having my other sisters out of school too. Ashley still works, but Hailey plays games with me while she chats with our cousin, Paige.

Here's a snapshot from our walk yesterday. I wasn't in the mood for the video I guess! :P Sorry, Ash. x) 

So, what are you wishing for this Christmas? I'm excited to spend time with family and to get new video games for my Xbox One I got last year! 

And lastly, for giggles, here's me trying to eat my brace yesterday... >:) 

I'll post more of our festivities - Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, prepping for 2017 - very soon! 

Until then,

Merry Christmas!

Love, 

Erik 

Veterans Day

Happy Friday and Veterans Day!

Thanks to all who have served and continue to serve for my freedom. I'm also grateful for the time I get to spend with my family today.

Here's what we've done so far:

First we enjoyed the cooler weather and shade in our backyard. I listened to music (per usual my first request was Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson) while Hailey read and Ashley did some stretches. Lola interrupted her multiple times by jumping on her stomach or laying down by her head. Rusty and Twiggy stopped by every so often to see what we were up to.

Meanwhile my sweet mom was making Grandma Rigby's apple bars and Aunt LaRue's pumpkin bars. She's baking for Albert Mueller's 100th birthday! What a fun and incredible celebration.

Grandma Rigby would make these and cut them into little squares then freeze them. She'd get them out to thaw a little and it would be the perfect cool, delicious treat. I don't think anything will ever top the apple dumplings, but these are so yummy!

Mmmm...Spice, cloves, cinnamon...Anyone want the recipe?

Along with Kelly Clarkson, I am on a Christmas music rampage! The minute it became available on Music Choice, I have asked to tune in. Do you think it's too early to listen Christmas music? I feel like Christmas will come quickly so it's fun to indulge!

On almost 24/7...(much to my family's dismay at times, ha!)

We also made nachos for a little snack! It's the easiest thing to make, but here's how we did it. :P

Step 1.) Lay all chips nicely on a plate. You want each chip with significant surface area exposed so that every chip can get great cheese coverage. 

We used Food Should Taste Good Inc multigrain tortilla chips with flax seed, sesame seed, and quinoa. Then we destroyed any healthy aspect of the chip by layering and layering cheese!  

Step 2.) Put away the chip bag before you fill up on the undecorated chips...

Like our bird snack clip? 

Step 3.) Grate ALL the cheese and layer it evenly on the chips. 

Step 4.) Blast your nachos with radioactive goodness AKA microwave in 10 second periods until the cheese is to your melty preference.  

Step 5.) Either layer on your favorite toppings or put them in dipping bowls. We seasoned black beans and poured some salsa (we'd usually make our own, but we kept this very simple). 

Step 6.) Enjoy! 

It's a very healthy day because we also just ordered a buy one get one free deal through Papa John's...We did have salad this morning though, so don't judge too harshly. :P

Thanks for reading!

Erik

Post-Summer Adventures & Oven-Baked Chicken Tenders

Hello everyone,

Whoops, I haven't updated my blog since my family's trip! Sorry about that! It has been busy since my sisters have returned to school and I recently had surgery. 

I got surgery to replace a pump in my body that releases baclofen to help my muscles relax. It was over within a day, but I stayed at the hospital for one night, just in case. Erin flew from Utah to Arizona to stay with me! 

 

She's so sweet! 

That was back in September. Just last weekend I went to the doctor's office to get the pump refilled. Ashley drove us to Phoenix where I have my appointments! 

Vroom vroom! P.S.: The Dr. Pepper is NOT hers. Dad left that in the van (and should stop drinking them please!) 

In the waiting room! Couldn't wait to say hi to my doctor! 

The appointment went quickly. We got a different, larger room than last time since I had my 'fan club' with me (Mom, Ashley, and Hailey). :P 

We stopped by Nekter for a healthy acai bowl to treat ourselves...(However, that didn't stop me from asking for a strawberry milkshake when we got home, haha!) 

We also decorated our house for Halloween!

There's 'George' hanging from the ceiling of our entry way! Spooooky, right? 

I'm obviously very excited about Halloween! And the dogs were hoping for a walk since we were at the front door... 

Fun pumpkin lights. Now to get a real pumpkin to decorate...

I need to brainstorm a new costume for this Halloween! Last year I was a school bus...but the possibilities are endless. Any ideas? 

Anyways, those are some updates! 

Now onto our latest recipe that we tried earlier this week: Baked Chicken Tenders! 

We modified this recipe from Trisha Yearwood of Food Network. Instead of cheese crackers, we used crushed Townhouse crackers and Panko bread crumbs.

It was a fun, messy process! We dipped the chicken tenders in the mayo-mixture, then caked on as much of the cracker mixture as possible before laying it on the pan. Once we had enough on the pan, we stuck it in the oven. 

While the chicken baked, we cooked brocolli and cut up some healthy sides.

 

Once it was done, we double checked the temperature of each one and proceeded to feast! They were delicious! 

Yum! 

Thanks for catching up with me! Stay tuned for more fun and recipes! 

- Erik 

The Rest of Our Family Vacation - Island Park, Yellowstone, Rigby Family Reunion & Departing from Sandy!

Wow, can't believe it has been days and days since I last posted - yikes! Let me fill you in!

Island Park 

After family fun in Rexburg, we made our way up to beautiful Island Park where our cabin rental stood. This place is filled with family memories since we've had reunions here in the past! It's also only 20 minutes from Yellowstone as well. It was a relaxing, vibrant home base to our everyday activities. The kids played and played and played. Vivienne loved to find squirrels up in the trees and was delighted when she heard them calling to each other from various branches.

We had family dinners as most of Michelle and Scott's family was able to stay nearby (nearby meaning our cabin's couch in Krista's case ;) ). Lynn and Cynthia also came up one evening for dinner and playing by Henry's Fork. Spending more time together over delicious meals and gorgeous outdoor scenes was perfect.

Here's a few snap shots of our fun:

Wheelchair-friendly pathways - yes! 

Picnic before kayaking! 

Yellowstone National Park

Wow, wow, WOW. What a magical place. Photos do not do it any justice, but we tried to capture it. We had three cars (Knudsen, Schvaneveldt, Rigby) winding throughout the park, meeting up at various spots. Devin even downloaded a GPS-based audio tour guide (dubbed 'Gary' from one of the app's reviews, haha!). It was fun learning about the park as well as having someone to tell us the must-see spots along the way (with two sharp dings as we got closer to the destination).

Although we didn't see any moose or bears, we did see elk and bison!

The springs and geysers were breathtaking! They are quite dangerous too, so we kept the younger kids very close.

A few more snapshots from the day:

 

Yep, that's me in the far corner, my mom is walking me across this beautiful landscape. 

We also enjoyed ice cream at the Old Faithful Inn and concluded the evening with pizza at Gushers! Mmm mmm!

Last Days in Rexburg and the Rigby Family Reunion

Leaving Island Park for Rexburg was emotional. Not because we were saying goodbye to our cabin, we were officially saying goodbye to Andrea, Devin and the kids...It was hard...

Tears were shed, but overall we are so excited for their adventurous move to Hawaii! They have had a crazy past few weeks living with friends and making this trip happen so we could all be together. We're so thankful that they did! Hopefully we will be able to visit soon. I've only flown once to Oregon when I was much younger, so it'll be an interesting ride! Eek!

We returned to Rexburg for two more days with my awesome aunt, uncle, and cousins. They were so kind to have us again! More games, dinners and good times ensued.

We also went for walks! The cows would come say hello! 

One of those days we went to the BYU-Idaho area to see check out some of my parents' history.

Here is the house my mother lived in while attending Rick's College. She lived in the basement apartment and was literally right across the street from her university!

The best fact about this brick house is that my mom and dad shared their first kiss in the doorway. We made them re-enact it and it was adorable.

 

Awwwww. 

Erin also had to work so we went to the Cocoa Bean so the girls could access wi-fi and get things done. A purchase was necessary to use the connection, therefore we ordered a dozen cupcakes. Go big or go home. :P

Saturday the 30th we said our thank you's and goodbyes to our amazing Rigby relatives. Not only to my mother's brothers' families, but to the entire Rigby family! Everyone drove to Rigby, Idaho for our family reunion. Each family brought delicious food and desserts to share! We haven't seen many of these outstanding people in years, so it was great to catch up with everyone.

Love you all!

Visiting the Price Family in Sandy

From Rigby, we drove straight down to Sandy to drop off Erin and Ashley as well as stay with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rick for one evening! They are hilarious and so fun! We played games and I even got to see my Aunt Lisa, Aunt Julie, cousin Paige and cousin Jessica again! I don't think we took any photos, unfortunately, but it was a great time.

Well, I am sadly back in hot hot HOT Arizona.  I made a lot of great family memories and am very grateful for all of my family members who made the trip as spectacular as it was.

Hopefully I can return the hospitality one day, but I don't think anyone will be wanting to roast in Arizona any time soon... :P

Here are a few more photos I want to fit in:

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next blog post!

- Erik