Friday, May 29, 2009

Canning

Sometimes I get on these kicks and right now it is all about food storage and canning. I have been prepared for awhile with a two year amount of food storage (yep, that is what I brought to the marriage) but it was only the basics. We also have our backpacks ready with our 72 hour kits (Doug calls them our week long kits because I added so much more). I am going to have a hard time seeing other people suffer so I really want to be prepared. Lately because of some amazing women in our ward I have been learning how to cook with food storage. You can check out our enrichment blog to see recipes here. Not just getting the basics to survive but enjoying eating with it. The recipes they have taught me have been amazing and all the fun gadgets they have. My In-Laws gave us a wheat grinder for Christmas and it has been great making wheat bread with freezer jam. I have been canning the important stuff like chocolate and cake batters;) Last week I learned how to can meat, I never knew that one could can meat but you can. Other people may think that this is gross but when we really need to use it and everyone else is eating rice....again, we will be eating steak and chicken!! Yes, this does have something to do with all the earthquakes that have been happening.

Mothers Day with Mom

I know that Mother's Day was a couple weeks ago but it is never to late to do a shout out to our dear mothers!! This year I spent Mother's Day in Escondido with my brother Robert's family because my parents were there visiting. It was great to spend some time with my mom, I never realize how much I miss her until I have to leave her. We had a great weekend shopping, grilling out, and talking.....what us Finck's do best. On Sunday my dad was so sweet and bought me a bouquet of flowers, he says that in my heart I am a mother (love you dad). I was also able to spend some time with the kids and you can never beat that!! I love you mom and I am so glad that we were able to spend some time together. I so hope by next year I will be a mother for real:)

I also wanted to tell my mother-in-law how much we love and appreciate her as well. I lucked out when it comes to mother-in-laws. It has been a complete joy living closer to my in laws and getting to know them more. Doug was able to go spend the day with his mother and it makes me happy that he cares for her so much. We love you Katie!!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Crafty

I have become good friends with a co-worker named Katrina and she is expecting her first child. For her shower I offered to help with the food and she ended up hiring me to make some cupcakes and I added my own surprises. She asked me to do this because I have started to be quite the baker lately and I use my fellow employees at work as my testers because Doug thinks that everything I make is delicious (good man!!). I made the ever so good chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling, top with cream cheese frosting. My friend Heather came over and thought me how to use fonded so we added beautiful flowers on top. While I was at the gym with Melissa, she had mentioned seeing cupcakes that look like baby rattles and they were just adorable so we went with that. Then I once again wanted to try the mini cupcakes from bakerella so I made those with pink colored chocolate this time, they turned out so cute. Here are some photos to give you an idea:



On the shower invite it asked everyone to bring the new mother diapers but I wanted to get creative so I again asked for help from Melissa. She helped me make a diaper cake that turned out cuter then I could have ever imagined. First, we went to Joanne's to get fabric, ribbons, and bows. She then taught me how to make burp rags and wash clothes. We added the burp rags to the top of the cake then added the burp rags around the cake with the diapers and wait for it.....made suckers out of the wash clothes....so cute. Melissa is so talented, you should check out her own little business, she is amazing. Here are some more pictures to give you a better idea:


Thanks to all my friends and all their talents, I am learning so much from you:)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Happy Birthday Jenny

True to fashion lately, I am a little late at writing this post but I wanted to say Happy Birthday Jenny!!

The girls celebrated by going to a movie:



We saw 17 Again. Honestly I was not impressed with the movie but it was a fun evening with the gals.

The next day we enjoyed a BBQ with the gang and did our best at singing Happy Birthday.