Pears . . . Yummy Pears

Yummy Pears

My grandma is such an AMAZING woman. She can do it all, she sews, gardens, and best of all she bakes! She is probably the best baker I have known. She had a pear tree that was ready to be picked and offered me some. I was super excited and ready to get started. My plan: to dehydrate pears - yummy!

Dried Pears - My favorite!

There were so many pears and my dehydrator could only do so many so I looked online and in my recipe books to see what I could make with the rest of the prepared pears. I didn't want to have to run to the store so i decided to use the remaining pears and make a Pear pie. Can't say I have ever enjoyed a Pear pie, but it was super yummy. It actually tasted like an apple pie - only difference was the texture was much softer. Rob loved it because it was sweet and not near as tart as some apple pies can be.

Pear Pie? Pretty good.

Grandma  - Thank you, Thank you!!!

Wanna come over and play?

Karlee is such a sweet girl. She didn't have anyone to play with so she hauled all her toys downstairs, set them all up and invited me to join them all in a super fun tea party. I would have to say it was one of the best tea parties I've had and with the most special company ever.

Karlee is the hostest with the mostest.

Education Week (day) with my mom!

Me and my beautiful mom on BYU campus.

On the Monday after moving in to our rental Karlee and I took a day off and headed to Utah County.  Karlee got to play with some of her cousins while I got the treat of attending BYU's Education Week (just the Monday classes) with my beautiful mom!. It was so much fun. My mom has been attending Education Week for as long as I can remember. Can't remember but I think its around 26-28 years.

 

We went to some amazing classes on the sacrament, scripture study, creating a memorable childhood, and more. It really was so much fun. I can see why mom looks so forward to this week, and enjoys every minute. I am really grateful to my sister-in-law Segi for watching Karlee and letting her come and play.

 

My grandparents come down for the week as well, and so it was fun to meet up with them. My grandma Carole had a birthday in the middle of the week, so we went together and enjoyed a yummy dinner. 

Grandpa and Grandma Jenkins and me!

Going to the Monday classes for BYU's Education Week was so much fun, that I think it would be so much fun to do again next year. Hope things work out!

We lived like this for how long? INSANE!!!

I have debated on doing a post on our living arrangements while living with Rob's parents and I thought what the heck.  We lived there for 14 months - Seriously! It will be something to look back years and years from now and see these pictures. We (Karlee, Rob and I) all shared this one bedroom (if you can actually call it one). So here are some pictures for journaling purposes:

1. Rob's make-shift closet, our elliptical, and office center.

2. Our bed

3. Our Entertainment corner: Karlee's toy bookshelf, our shoe buckets, and our television.

4. Our dressers and my closet. (this was our only way to make some sort of privacy from the rest of the basement.)

5. Karlee's bed - Yep poor girl slept on this red couch every night. We would take the back cushions off and lay them on the floor so there was more room for her to sleep. 

This seems so unreal looking at these pictures now. During the winter months we had two space heaters going at two different ends of the room to keep us warm. Our brother-in-law Matt came over and with Rob's help they put electricity to the our room. That was such a major improvement and such a luxury. haha.

How did we celebrate our 12th Wedding Anniversary?

We moved!!!!

For the past 15 months we have been ''blessed" to live with Rob's parents who have been gracious enough to take us in - which was suppose to be just for a few months. We were able to house hunt and pay off some major debt (yay!). We were only weeks from closing on a house, when the bank decided to take the house off of a 'short-sale' status and turn it into a 'foreclosure'. The bank took the house off the market completely, which meant our house search started completely over. With not much out there on the market in our price range we decided that it was just time for us to rent again. Rob's parents house had got to be stuffed full of people (Rob's sister Holly and her kids moved in after she got divorced). And with 12 people in one house - um not the most ideal. We were able to find a cute little townhouse that was coming available within weeks so we jumped at the chance. So yes for our 12 wedding anniversary we moved into the town-home, and its been wonderful to have our own space again. Karlee thinks its Christmas - with all her possessions have been taken out of storage. 

Worthen Family Pictures 2012

(June 2012)

 One thing this summer that was a must, while my sister Kaye and her family were here, was to get a Worthen family photo. Crazy to think that the last time we had a full family picture was when my sister Kaye got married (2005). Our family has grown tremendously from then adding 10 more amazing children to our family (total now 16 grandchildren).

 

 

My two Amazing sister-in-laws (Hayley & Segi) worked their magic and got us lined up with photographers and everyone got on board for an hour of photos. This post is full of pictures because I want to add all the pictures of my parents, brothers and sisters and their families.

 

My mom and dad!

 

Monica's family

 

 Tom's family 

 

Kaye's family 

 Troy's family

 

Here are more pictures of all of us together, and all the kids.

(Mom, Dad, Children and Spouses)



(Mom, Dad, Brothers and Sisters)

 

(Papa, Grandma and their 16 grandchildren) 

Love Love this picture. Segi and Kaye came up with the idea for this picture. Each child is holding the box with their order of coming into our family.



(Sydney, Paige, Abbey, Taylor, Malia, Jordyn, Alyia, Karlee, and Sadie)

We are so lucky to have such amazingly beautiful girlies.

 

(Austin, Trenton, and Teni)

This picture wasn't planned, these boys just went up to the light post and the photographer caught this darling picture. These boys have such cute personalities.




(Brayden, Colton, and Lincoln)

Seriously whats not to Love! Here are the babies of the family.

 

 

Here is the photographer info: sweetlilacphotography.blogspot.com

She did a really good job!!!!

Our House Sitting Adventures

For the past week and half we have been 'house sitting' over at my sister Monica's house while they were on their California vacation. It was so so nice to have a quiet place to spend the day and rest our tired heads at night. It honestly felt amazing to be able to go and do without people asking where you were going or when you would be back. Karlee and I made the most of it during the day and when Rob got home from work it was nice to have it just be us.

Karlee loved feeding their fish

When we got to my sister's house I asked Karlee what bed she wanted to sleep in. She said that she wanted to sleep in Sadie's bed with Sadie. I told her that Sadie went on vacation to California with her family. She then said okay well I want to sleep with Paige in her bed. I said Paige isn't here she went with Saide. Karlee in disgust she said "You mean they took everybody?". Karlee was a little sad that her cousins were not going to be at the house to play with while we were house sitting. haha haha.

We spent the days playing at the park, taking a couple walks around the neighborhood, working on little projects (totally miss that) and playing with all the super fun toys that are found inside and outside at my sisters house. Karlee was in heaven: she played on the swing set, jumped on their trampoline, built "castles" out of spare pieces of wood and i think enjoyed every minute.

Castle made of blocks (spare wood pieces).

As part of our house sitting duties we took care of their 3 chickens. We made sure they had fresh water and food every day. We gathered up their eggs and each time Karlee was so cute. She would ask the chickens if they had layed their egg for the day and then would thank them for such a beautiful egg. haha.

We watered my sister's potted plants - Karlee loved this part and almost daily would ask if we could go and water the plants again. I would tell her that they only needed water once a day and she would say "okay well I can't wait for tomorrow to do it all over again".  so cute!

We took care of their garden - enjoying the fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans - YUM. Karlee loves loves tomatoes. So she thought it was amazing that we didn't have to go to the store to buy tomatoes all we had to do was go outside to the garden and pick them.

The Olympic started while we were house sitting so we would enjoy the evenings watching them. The Summer Olympics are both Rob and my favorite Olympics to watch! We enjoyed cheering on the USA athletes in their sports. Karlee loved watching the Gymnast and would try and copy their tumbling.

We only had one mishap while house sitting - On Saturday the water function their fridge stopped working. I thought nothing of it since their ice machine wasn't working and so I figured that was the next thing to stop working. Rob pressed the water button and a few others to see if the fridge had gotten locked - still nothing. Sunday I went to get breakfast made for Karlee and realized that the fridge wasn't cold and the freezer wasn't either. I called my sister to let her know and to try and troubleshoot. The lights were on but nothing seemed to be working so I went to work to unloaded the fridge and took everything to their fridge in their garage. At least nothing got spoiled. When my sister and her family got home, her husband Matt (while troubleshooting more on his own) had figured out that Rob "miraculously" hit the buttons on the outside front of the fridge (that control the fridge and freezer settings) in the 'perfect' combination that put the fridge into DEMO mode. So the lights inside the fridge were on but it no longer was keeping the inside cold. Seriously what would be the odds on that. haha. Matt was able to reset the fridge and it is working now, at least they didn't have to go out and buy a new fridge.