La Michoacana - Aqui Esta!

I have a very happy update on La Michoacana! Look what my friend found in Midvale as she was driving her kids home from a soccer game! And she even pulled over to take a picture of it for me - (Jana, you rock!)


Glad that she stalks this blog sometimes and glad I threw it out there. I should have guess to look in Midvale, if they're gonna be anywhere here in the Salt Lake Valley, they'd be in Midvale. Here I come Costa Chica Market at 654 W. Center Street, Midvale, Utah!


...Later that evening...

Joseph had a scout thing tonight that was for 12 years olds, and 11 year olds could go if their dad went with them, so Date night got postponed again. Or so I thought. Corey got back early at 9:00 cause he couldn't sleep over cause he's got a defensive driving class tomorrow morning - trying to keep that speeding ticket off his record. But Joe was able to stay up for the campout. Anyway, since Corey was home, we decided to run out for a quick date, Mel was our babysitter. Too late for me to want to go out to eat a meal, so Corey thought an Italian ice cream place would work. No, keep going to State Street, we're gonna go see if we can find some Paletas de coco. We kept our eyes open, there it is! Costa Chica Market, and I cheer "It's open!" as I see their fluorescent green OPEN sign. With the windows and doors all barred it looked like a closed American store, but we're in little Mexico, and that's how stores look here when they're open. Right as you walk in their barred glass door on the left was a freezer full of La Michoacana Ice Cream Paletas! COCO! Corey wanted mango, but no mango. Got some strawberry for him, and bought some new flavors to try - Lime, Guava, Walnut, mmm. We bought 13.


We enjoyed our ice cream on the way home - SOOOO much better than the Helados Mexico ones, seriously, these strawberry ones compared to those - such a difference, I'm having a strawberry tomorrow for breakfast. I'll have a taste test party, let me know what days work for you all. I think I might open business for them in our neighborhood and sell these from our garage. My memory hadn't deceived me, they are a good as I remember, actually maybe better than I remember after having a recent memory of the Helados Mexico kind. Okay, so I'm very happy, and we'll be making friends with the owners of that store soon cause I'm going there once a week and after buying all their paletas we will be sure to put in a request for Mango. Maybe take my kids there for a one on one date and let them buy the cookies and cream or bubble gum ones. :) Yummy yummy!

Update 2 - Another delightful discovery: Harmons on 7oo East and 7800-ish south sells Michoacana by the box - 6 in a box, in Coco, Fresa, y Mango!!! Heaven!

Homemaking - The Dinner Table

So, we spent the first few weeks eating around on a fold up banquet table. There was a counter-top black dining table like this in the basement that the owners are storing down there, so I thought I'd bring it up to try it out, see if we liked it and wanted to buy it from them.


We've looked at tables like this over the years but never made the purchase. Glad we were able to try it out first, cause my opinion: since it is so high it is hard for me to wipe it off (I don't think it's just cause I've got a large pregnant belly right now) plus this one had little design grooves in the table caught lot's of food and crumbs, extra work to wipe those out to get clean. Lots of places for sticky hands to do their grimy work on the backs of the chairs and arm rest of the bench - so I started thinking that the set up with a table and benches that we had in our other house was pretty functional for our family, not as stylish, but I'll work on the style after the functional is taken care of. I found a table on KSL classifieds exactly like the one we sold as we prepared to leave to Costa Rica - I sold it for a steal at $60 and was able to buy this one for $60! Sweet! So I moved the stylish black counter top table and chairs back downstairs this morning with Joe's help, and we set up the new table like our old table. Here's our family dinner table now-


I like how our benches fit the length of the table perfectly, and benches are easy to wipe off and sweep under, plus they make the room seem more spacious since they don't have any backs. Added bonus: each bench could easily fit 5-7 kids on if needed. These are two benches that my parents had for me and my 6 siblings growing up - still constructionally sound (is that a proper word/phrase), but could use a good sanding. I'll tackle that project soon (although I said that last time I had 3 years to do it.)

As for decorating the rest of the home, I read this today and liked this idea of creating child friendly spaces throughout your home - the kids go in every room anyway, I think that's a good idea to let them know they're welcome in each room. We'll see what we come up with :)

Little Monarch Caterpillars

Once upon a time there was a little egg on a leaf. Then one day it hatched!


We're going to be reading "The Hungry Caterpillar" a few times during the upcoming days, I'm sure. Here's one of the other caterpillars that was already hatched. So cute!


Why is it that we love and are awed by some creatures, and others we deem worthy of death. This morning as we were oo-ing and aw-ing over our cute baby caterpillars, I saw an earwig scurrying away on the floor next to us and Abi promptly got a tissue and squished it.

Butterly Parable

This afternoon our neighbor Mary brought by some milkweed plants for us with 5 monarch caterpillars and one egg that still hadn't hatched. We've been watching the tiny creations with amazement all evening. The little egg hatched around 7:00, we felt so lucky that we saw it! So small, simply amazing. Anyway, I'll post pictures on that soon. First, I need to tell you about our first poor attempt at raising a butterfly.

During the last week of school Hyrum returned home with a little plastic cup with lid on it that had a caterpillar. It turned into a chrysalis soon thereafter. Mostly the little cup just sat in Hyrum's window. Abi got a hold of it once and tipped it on it's side, but there seemed to be no ill-effects to the cocoon. On June 21st the kids came running down stairs shouting with excitement that the butterfly had come out. Ethan was holding it on his finger. I can't remember what Corey and I were doing, but we were both otherwise occupied and just told the kids to be careful, it would probably be best to just leave it alone, no, we don't know what to feed it, just leave it alone guys, it's really fragile. The kids continued to play with their new pet and made it a home and had fun, asking me again if I could look up on the internet what to feed it. I told them that butterflies survive on their own in the outside world without any help from us humans, so just leave it alone, don't worry, it will know what to do. Well, I got around to looking at the little thing later that evening - upstairs I go to see their pet. The kids tell me it's not ready to go outside, it's wings still need to get straight. Hmm. I finally go to the computer and try to learn about these things. I google "How long butterfly wings to dry" and it says 1-3 hours - that little butterfly has been out all day, I think his wings are already dry, oh dear.


I search some more and learned that you are not supposed to touch a butterfly after it comes out of it's cocoon for 1-3 hours (and I start chastising the kids in my head - you stinkers! you messed it up! We said leave it alone!) because it needs to pump it's little wings and get the blood flowing in them to get them to straighten out - if you touch them, they'll get distracted and not pump their wings enough times and their wings will still be curled when they dry. Well, that's what happened to our poor little butterfly.


I told the kids the bad news... the butterfly can't fly (which we all could tell cause it tried and would just flap around like a busted moth) and the butterfly won't be able to fly because it's wings are already dry and you're not supposed to touch a butterfly after it comes out of it's cocoon yada yada I go on a rant telling them why can't they just relax and watch, why do you gotta touch everything, you messed it up. Ethan is very tender with animals as shown in this story, and I think he felt the most sorry about it, I tried to tell them that I know they didn't know not to touch it, sorry I never researched it for them, they didn't try to hurt it, they're just kids and are excited about stuff.

So what to do with this butterfly now?


Abi wouldn't leave it alone and it was starting to stress me out a little that I had another creature in my house to think about protecting and not letting it get killed. The kids expanded it's little house, we tried to feed it some lemonade, and I just felt bad for the little guy. We had a little lesson about how important it is for them, while they are young and fragile like little butterflies, to make sure that they made good choices and have good friends that will be good influences on them and won't (on purpose or unintentionally) mess them up and possibly ruin their lives. (Ethan, my clever teenager in a 9 year old's body, pipes up and says "You're saying that we're the bad friends!?") Nice analogy for young and impressionable minds, right? Not trying to scare them, but letting them know that they will know what to do in life if they look to that little light inside of themselves - they know what's right and what's true, just like the little butterfly knew it was supposed to pump it's wings. Be careful of outside influences so that they don't distract you and mess you up!

So that was the life lesson learned from our first butterfly.


The next day, even though we'd messed nature up, we decided to let nature take it's course and put the butterfly outside on a flower. The kids went to check on it later and couldn't find it, so it's either bird food or flapped under the flowers where they couldn't see it. We're all sure it's dead now and it's little spirit is flying with straightened wings in heaven. Now we have a chance to redeem ourselves with these new little caterpillars, and I'm keeping the kids away - this is not a hands on display! Do not touch! Got it?!

Bell Canyon Hike

There's a beautiful glacial canyon very close to our home called Bell Canyon. It's just a half of a mile walk to the trail head, and Mel and I took a hike last month with a group of people from our church ward. It was just gorgeous. I love the mountains! We hiked on a shoot off of the regular trail, a side that I hadn't been on before. It led us to Pride Rock from Lion King, pretty cool huh! Mel's on the top left there in the photo above. Mel and I loved looking at the flowers - like this one and it's heart petals:

It's a beautiful world.

La Michoacana! Donde Esta?

Can you believe it, after all my wishing for Costco while we were in Costa Rica & Chile and I still haven't gone there since we've been back. Corey's made a few runs for me, so I'm enjoying the bounty Costco offers, but I haven't been for 10 months. BUT, I have solved a mystery... I had Nancy pick me up some Mexican Ice Cream bars from Costco, and they aren't the same ones! I had packed some small glass memorabilia in the ice cream box of the kind that I love and the ones that Costco sells now are not the same, so now I am on a mission to find a store or place that sells the Michoacana Ice Cream Paletas - I need these Coconut Paletas! Must have! I'm on a hunt, cause the ones at Costco now are okay, but I need to try these again and see if the memory I have was just a dream how delicious they were or if it was real, and if it's real, I will keep these forever stocked in my freezer as my daily PI - Planned Indulgence (only 3 times a week when I'm being good to follow my diet after baby is born). I might take a trip up to Ogden to see if this place has the real deal, or maybe in Provo or Park City. Walmart sells coconut Paletas, the same "Helados Mexico" brand that Costco now has, but they just aren't the same. Join the hunt with me, keep you eyes open and let's find these delicacies! You will enjoy, I promise!

Kid's Chore Boards

Before we left for Costa Rica, I had started making some Chore boards for the kids. These were inspired by the boards in the Accountable Kids program. (Here is a pdf download of their book, the link is below the two videos) The box that my unfinished boards were in was the last box I needed to unpack. I opened it on Thursday and decided to finish these up and see how it goes.


I had already painted them and put nails in them and had ribbon for them. I also had already made the little paper design things with the letter of their name, I just had to glue them on and make the chore cards. Joe and Mel helped me cut cards out of cardstock and I spent an hour writing different jobs and organized them all into a little plastic bin I had on hand.


We've only done it one day (last Friday) but it worked good that day! We'll see how it goes this week, minus the holiday today. I have them hanging on the wall on the stairs, a very visible place, so that's good cause it helps remind them what to do, and I think they are fun to look at - the rainbow of colors, so they make me happy when I see them too.

I have my little bin of cards at the bottom of the stairs which is also on top of the coat closet.


Even though Lily isn't doing any chores yet, hers was my favorite to look at (I love red) so I put her's up on the wall too, just for fun. (Like her chore card? "Be Cute")


Maybe I'll even make one for the new baby too. I'll let you know how it goes with actually helping keep order and cleanliness around here so you can decide if it's worth your time to try.


Here is an Update on our progress and slight modifications after one month.chHore charts for kids chore chart ideas job household chore list for kids teach kids work how to
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Young Women Values Sign

Hear Me Roar's Be Sign inspired this idea for Melodie's room.

Usually I don't like to decorate with themes or things unless they have meaning for me or the kids. So even though Melodie isn't in Young Women's yet, she will be soon so I thought we'd make her a Young Women's Values Sign. First I made a printable on Picnik to get the basic idea of the fonts, spacing, and look I wanted.


I had a frame from the DI so I got it out and had fun painting. I did this rough draft on the foam boarded print picture that was already in the frame. The wet paint made the paper warp in a few places, but that was okay cause this was just a rough draft to see how I liked it anyway. I free handed the words with pencil, then painted it. Here's the end product, hanging on Mel's wall.


The yellow "good works" doesn't show up very well - the flash from the camera made it show better for this photo, but in real life it's a little hard to see. Still, we decided we like it, so this rough draft version will stay on her wall for now until I finish other projects that I'm doing (too many fun things to do!) and sometime in the next year we'll start to make the final versions. I think when I do it again for Mel's room I'll try it on plywood like Roar's Be sign, cause the frame is a little too big for her room I think, but we'll see what Mel wants.

It's fun to decorate! I have an idea for other things to put around this sign, but for now we just stapled Mormonad Posters to the wall around it. But I'm thinking we'll make cute little signs designed with our own symbol for each value -

Faith = Sun
Divine Nature = A crown
Individual Worth = heart
Knowledge = book
Choice and accountability = key (or a purse)
Good Works = cupcake
Integrity = flower
Virtue = diamond ring

So that's another project in my head. fun fun

(Side note update: Oh great! I was just looking through the Mormonad Poster gallery and saw this - see that poster on the top left, "Virtue, the GOLD Standard"? Virtue's color is gold, not pink! Blah, what do I know. But I don't think gold paint will work very well with the over all look... maybe I'll do a golden tan color, unless I find metallic/shiny acrylic paint for all the colors, otherwise a shiny gold would look out of place. Hmm...)

How To Get Soft Feet and Heels

As I was prepping my feet this morning, I thought I'd blog my secret to soft heels! In my figure-it-out-myself quest years ago, I filed and sanded away at my feet and tried different lotions. Then in 2008 my search for a cure to my very calloused heels ended with this daily ritual:

1) Put Burt's Bees Milk and Honey Body Lotion on my feet first thing in the morning
2) Put on socks and shoes on
3) Let your feet bask in this little cocoon all day
4) Repeat the next day

Follow the above steps right after showering or, if you're like me today and haven't showered cause I want to try to exercise first but am thinking that's not gonna happen for atleast a few more hours, just lotion up and put on your socks and shoes, and do it again later after you do bathe later. If I get up and exercise first thing, then I wait to lotion up til after the bath.

My 2 cents - wearing flip flops and sandals dries out your feet. I do wear them occassionally, but I know my feet will be looking dry and cracked if I do it for too long. If I do wear them, I usually don't lotion my feet cause then I just end up slipping out of them as I walk, not good for the ankles.

In 2007 when I started this, the lotion was much thinner and came in a bottle like this:
After we returned from our trips to Costa Rica and Chile, I found it again but it was different design and formula that you can find at Walmart or probably anywhere and looks like the first picture on this post - it's in a different squeeze tube now and has a thicker texture that doesn't seem to absorb as fast, but I've be using it and it's still is working well on my feet, so I'll keep with it. :)

Give it a try, smooth and soft feet are on the way!

I Heart Motherhood Moment

I was upstairs cleaning, walking by with a basketful of laundry, and saw this precious sight as I glanced into the girl's room:


Hyrum on the ground reading a book, and Lily sitting on his back reading a book. Warmed my heart, I love it.

What To Do With This Room?

Okay Nicole - Here's the room - this is looking at it from the kitchen:


These pictures are from within the room, looking NORTH in the pic below, with the doorway that leads to the garage, basement, and a bathroom


looking EAST with the fireplace and door to Corey's office on the left


Looking SOUTH to the backyard

Looking WEST into the kitchen

Blogland - Hear Me Roar

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time in blogland mostly thanks to this site that I came across - I am Momma Hear Me Roar. As we traveled the last year I'd look at blogs about home decor or fun ideas for decorating kids rooms or sewing and just sigh - someday. Well now is someday! I've got a house just waiting to showcase something. I've been thinking a lot about decorating and what to do for these open walls, and have some projects already finished (I painted a red metal bunkbed white!) others begun (going to have a bug/garden theme in the kids bathroom upstairs) and others waiting to do and should do them before I buy more and make more stuff to do. But there are so many cute ideas here, I love the printables and joined Picnik yesterday, excited to put photos with quotes on the wall. I also loved her Be sign.


I need that in my house to remind me to be grateful. (I've been a little overly mopey this week with Corey gone... he'll be back tomorrow! Yay!)

So if you're looking to get lost in time online, have fun getting lost on her blog or on her list of blogs that she loves. President Hinckley's six 6 Be's wall decor sign