Knight Riders

So Kipper and the neighborhood boys have found a new and exciting way of entertainment and they are HOOKED!!! They have recently been going on a ton of night rides lately. Strangely they seem to enjoy it way more than riding in the actual day time. It is so funny because at like 11:00pm Kip's cell phone will ring and it will be Clint on the other line. I hear Kip answer and then his voice changes to a tone of giddy excitement. He quickly hangs up the phone and looks at me with this "Mommy can I please" look on his face and asks sweetly "Can I have a boys night tonight? Can I go on a night ride with Clint and Matt??? Please??" He does not even have to say the please to me because I do not mind it at all. I think it is very good for girls to have their girls nights where they do estrogen building activities and same goes for the boys and their testosterone building activities! It is good for us! So I love it when he goes, he is such a happy boy when he gets home, which in turn makes me an even happier girl! I also just LOVE the fact that I really believe we will never grow up and get boring.
So I decide to take some pictures of them after their ride the other night. I told them that they will be Blogged. They pretend to think I am silly with the whole blogging thing (the testosterone kicking in) but as I Finnish my shots and turn to go back inside I hear "Can you title it Night Riders but spell it Knight?" Sure they don't care at all :)

Festival of Dance

The youth of the church in our area had the wonderful opportunity of doing what is called a Dance Festival. I had never heard of it before because we never did it in San Diego when I was a young. I did find out that both my mother and father had participated in one years ago at the Rose Bowl, the things you learn about your parents years and years later right? How come I never heard about this? I want to see pictures, that would be classic!

Anyway, the youth practiced all summer long for this big performance, at the end of the week they were practicing up to twice a week. A ton of time and effort was put into this event and pretty much all of the services were volunteer.

The night arrived and my friend Megan and I were asked to go down and help out with the youth. We got there early and did what we could to help out, I got some shots while everyone was hanging out before and then we headed out into the stands. I am SO GLAD that we got to watch it!!! The kids did an amazing job and it was just so cool to see so many kids come together having so much fun and pulling off this great evening. Here are some of the shots I got from my seat up in the stands. I was far away and do not have much of a zoom lens so the pics are not amazing but I am glad that I was able to get what I got. This is for sure an evening I am going to remember. I can just imagine what the experience would have been like for me if I had a kid out there performing. My young women and Kipper's young men from our old ward were involved so it was cool knowing some of the kids out on the field! I hope that someday when I have kids at that age I am able to watch them do something like this. What a cool experience it was! Great Job to all that were involved, it really came together nicely!

This is all of the kids from our Stake
Some of the kids from my ward
More kids from my ward.(The one in the middle looks like he could be Kipper's little brother it kinda freaks me out how much he looks like Kip and Rick.)
My Mia Maids that are now Laurels that I miss SO MUCH! I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, their dance and I have to give a shout out to Lina the Tomboy on the far right who got in a Princess dress and danced with a Young Gentleman like a Princess, SO CUTE!!!
The stands were PACKED!!! Both nights they performed more than 7,000 came from both nights!
Me looking way, way stoked to be there and Megan pretending not to be as excited as she really was. Sorry Megan for posting this pic, it is funny!
Opening number, Priests and Laurels

Beehives, the group in the front are kids from our ward.
Deacons, Looking good.

And the balls start flying, it was Cute!

The Prince and Princess dance, it was WAY COOL!
One, Two, Cha, Cha, Cha...!
All the kids made an American Flag at the end, it was so cool! There were fireworks and a tribute to all the solders.

Cafe Rio Salads

So here is your recipe:

(there are different ways to make the meat and I do not have the chicken recipe, but I do have the pork one)

~Meat??? We got the Polo Asada at Costco that is pre-marinaded. It is in the meat section that has small little isles in front of the fresh cut meat. If that makes since? Costco also has a Carne Asada that is pre-marinaded in the same area that is way yummy too! If you want Pork than you need a Crock Pot. For every pound of Pork put 1 cup of Salsa and 1 cup of Brown sugar in the Pot. Cook for like 8 hours and then shred, you got AMAZING PORK!!!
~2 cans or 1 Big can Black Beans
~I would get 2 boxes of Rice a Roni Spanish Rice mix. Where it calls for 1 can of Tomato Sauce I use 1 cup of Salsa per box.
~Tortillas from Costco, in the refrigerated section (I am pretty sure)
~Shredded Cheeses
~Tortilla Strips
~Limes
~Cilantro
~Romain Lettuce- it comes in a bag with like 3 heads of lettuce, I think they call it Romain Hearts but it comes in a bag of 3 heads. I cut up all three heads
~Guacamole (we will bring that) OK now for the dressing:
~2 Tortillas-they look like little green tomato's but they have these strange looking husk things around them. Peel the husks off, wash the tomato, cut it up and throw into a magic bullet.
~1 Jalapeno- Cut it up but make sure no seeds get in there that makes it HOT! Throw in the magic bullet.
~1 Bunch of Cilantro- cut the stem's off, save some little leafs to top your salads with, and put the rest in the magic bullet.
(At this point your magic bullet will be pretty dang full, put as much ranch as you can in there without it overflowing and Blend- Take off blender and shake it up, Put more ranch in and blend- shake it up and put as much ranch as you can in there without it overflowing and you should have your dressing all yummy and perfectly measured out) when done chill for a while.We decided that using the Gregg's Ranch that you buy at Costco is the BEST COMBO! That ranch is SO GOOD, it tastes like Restaurant Ranch! But it works with any ranch. Then ENJOY YOUR SALADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOOooooo..... Close!!!!

So after seeing how obsessed I am with Cafe Rio' I got quite a few people commenting to me telling me that I can have this blessed meal in the comforts of my own home!!! Are you kidding me???? I have been going for HOW LONG??? Without my wonderful Cafe Rio Salads??? And I could have had them here, in my own home???
Well thank you to all of my wonderful friends that shared their recipes!!! I would have to say the recipes are soooo.... close to the real thing, I think it can keep me from driving back up to Vegas for a salad. I now have All of my family and All my in-laws family hooked on Cafe Rio Salads.
Kip and I have now had the salads 3 times in our own home and are already planning our next Cafe Rio meal! I AM SO SO SO HAPPY!!! Can you tell??
I know how sad it is that someone can be this excited over food, I know, I have problems, but have you tasted these salads??? You might, just might be as bad as me?

No Bueno :o{

So I had a bad day today!
You wanna hear about it? Well here goes.
I wake up late,
start making dinner in the morning by throwing it in the crock pot and in the process cut my pointer finger with scissors,
start feeling sick at work (stuffy like a cold),
grab a lemon to put on the rim of a glass and lemon juice right into the cut OUCH!!!,
go home and get a frustrating e-mail,
write back in anger,
fix the problem,
call a friend who is having a bad day as well.... complain about our bad days... she got in a heated family discussion and got a ticket today....I invite her over to dinner so we can just enjoy a night of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE together to forget about our bad days,
she comes,
I decide to go to the grocery store to get a few more items for dinner,
she offers to drive,
I decline,
I am backing out of my driveway and HIT right into the end of her BRAND NEW MERCEDES BENZ who's back of the car is hanging slightly over the driveway,
Ooooopppppssss....glad I did not just run over a kid,
go to the store anyway laughing the whole way there,
grab parsley instead of cilantro and do not know it,
get in the line with the coupon lady as the whole grocery store empties out with customers flying through the other lines while I am STUCK,
get home,
go to grab the big knife to cut up the lettuce for dinner,
slice my other finger, same hand,
throw what I think is cilantro all over my salad I am so so so excited to eat,
take a bite and almost puke, it is parsley,
loose my appetite,
friend leaves with a banged up brand new BENZ!
Going to sleep so I can wake up and call the insurance company in the morning so my rates can be raised.
O and PS: I just e-mailed my car insurance company today requesting a "good driver" discount stating that I have not had any accidents or tickets. Boy am I going to feel dumb!
Hope tomorrow is better.
Sorry such a downer, we all have days like this every once in a while, I am just glad it is bedtime and my day is over!!!
Tomorrow will be FANTASTIC!!!

Thank goodness for Band Aids
My car,
Her Car!
Stinkin Parsley

New Tag...

I have seen this one going around before but I think this is the first time I have been tagged by it so here goes.

How long have you and your significant other been together?
~Together for 4 years, married for 2 in September so SOON!!!


Who eats more?
~I think Kipper eats more often and "needs" food more, I can live without it for longer but when we sit down for a meal we sadly can eat the same amount. I can pile drive the food. I think it is from growing up with a big family, you had to eat fast a to get seconds and mom was a good cook so you wanted those seconds.

Who said “I love you” first?
~I think it was Kipper, yeah it was Kipper it was like 2 days after we were officially dating, so like 5 days that we had spent together. We both knew right away, both said it the same night, it was so cool!!!!

Who is taller?
~Kipper. If you are not taller than me and you are a boy that is sad, sad news! It's not too hard to do!

Who sings better?
~Me, Kipper hardly ever sings, but everyone at my work thinks I stink at singing because I try really hard to sound horrible there. It is so fun to sound SO BAD!!!


Who is smarter?
~????? Good question, Kip would say me but he does not give himself as much credit as he deserves, he is pretty dang smart. I say we are the same! We both need to go back to school though!


Who does the laundry?
~Mostly me but he helps out every once in a while!

Who does the dishes?
~Me


Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
~When you look at it it is me on the right but when you lay down it is him on the right so that we are both "always right", get it???

Who pays the bills?
~We both come up with the money but I pay them!

Who mows the lawn?
~Kipper and HE LOVES HIS YARD WORK!!! He takes so much pride in his yard like Hank Hill from King of the Hill would. It is so stinkin cute!

Who cooks dinner?
~Used to be him more but now I am cooking more than I ever have. I would say we are about the same, we most of the time just cook together as a team! I know, it is so stinkin cute!!! What can I say, I got me a good man! Or he got him a lamo wife? Either way, it works well for us!

Who drives when you are together?
~Who ever's car we are driving, that is who drives. It is mostly him though!

Who is more stubborn?
~The same??? Depends on what it is about, we are both good at working together and compromising. But we both can be perdy stubborn at times!

Who is the first to admit when they’re wrong?
~I know, I am boring but I think we are the same here. He will for sure admit when he is wrong, no problem, so will I. Usually it is whoever really is wrong, otherwise we just talk about it and sometimes just agree to disagree. What can you do???


Whose parents do you see the most?
~He see's his more because he works with them. I probably see both sets equally?? We need to do better at seeing them all more though!


Who kissed who first?
~So stinkin cute how it happened but he FINALLY kissed me first! I was asking for it though!

Who proposed?
~Kipper, he tried to do it while horseback riding, he had this picnic all planned out and stuff, so cute!!! The horses were not working with him on it so we ended up re-living our first date here in California which was really our 2'nd date ever! It was so cute, he asked me at the Beach on Lifeguard stand #13 his favorite #!!! It was perfect and so meaningful!

Who is more sensitive?
~Me for sure!


Who has more friends?
~We are both perdy cool and have the same amount of friends I perceive!

Who has more siblings?
~Me fo shizzle!

Hope you now know and love Kip and I more!

Hmmmm....I tag, Amanda, Laurie, Effie, & whoever else really thinks this would be a blasty for you to do!

Im a Princess!!!

I would have to say, I was a little shocked at first, but it is pretty dang right on once you read about it!!!

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

EARitating Process

Well it has been quite some time since Mr. Echo has had some air time and I would have to say, I am feeling quite bad about it since he is my little baby boy and all. So I thought I would catch you up on the growth and progress of our little 6.5 month old!
I would love to walk you through the process of Mr. Echo's high maintinance life. Most of it is caused by us, and I would not take anything that we have done back, but man is he high maintinence.
When we got little Echo his ears were floppy and his tail was not docked right. We decided to get his ears cropped to stand up like the traditional Doberman Pinscher and get his tail re-docked to look the normal length.















Once we got rid of the cone in between his ears we had to individually tape the ears to look kinda like antlers and then attach them so they stand up straight at the bottom. I thought he looked quite cute but I know he really looked quite silly. I loved him still the same. (the reason for taping his ears the way they are is to train them to stand up on their own) We would have the tape on for 6 days and off for 1, then back on for 6 and off for 1 until the would eventually stand on their own. We were told this process could take up to 6 months.



So all is going well, progress is being made, life is wonderful! And then... dun, dun, dun... we run out of the tape that the Vet had given to us to use. No biggy, it is just athletic tape, no problem, I went and bought a few rolls and back on went the tape for another 6 days.
Well this time, mid way through the week suddenly his ears start smelling kinda bad. Hmmmm... wierd but he is a dog and dog's smell, right??? Keep the tape on....., smell worsens, and then worsens, till we HAD to take off the tape to survive the smell. Well when the tape is taken off all of this green puss, blood, and other ooze comes out of his ears. Kip almost puked, I was not here thank goodness! A bunch of open wounds had somehow grown and his ears looked REALLY BAD! (sorry no pics of that) So we decide to leave the tape off for 7 days, to let the ears heal, I put hydrogen peroxcide on them (what a jerk, I know, but it helped), and we tried to figure out the problem? So I call the vet and they tell me that you have to get athletic tape that breeths really well and that this problem tends to happen quite often. (By the way, good thing they told us this NOW not when we picked him up from the vet right after the surgery). Whatever! So I go and get some really, really breathable tape that Kip and I both test out by breathing through it to feel how much air gets through. Looks good! Re-tape...keep doing the smell check....3 days pass and nasty smell again! Tape off and wounds opened again and stinky, wet looking ears. NO GOOD! So now I have to take him to the "ear" vet who is 40 minutes away, might I add, because not many vets these days crop ears anymore. They conclude that he is alergic to any tape other than somehow the tape that they use there at the vet's office. SO I buy a bunch of their tape, make like 3 visit's back to the vet to make sure progress is being made. Get a ton of medication and junk for him. And back to the taping process 6 days on 1 day off. They tell us that they should still stand some day at this point.



So this is where we are at now in the "EARitating Process", he is no longer having alergic reactions, THANK GOODNESS!!! And one of his ears has decided to stand up but not the other. Why can't this just be the simple process we thought it would be??? So now we have resourted to taping just the 1 ear that flopps and keep the other, well behaved ear free! We have decided that by showing the one ear the reward for standing it might want to join the other ear in freedom??? We are hoping it will work. So now he looks REALLY SILLY! I do not even know if I can walk him at this point, he is quite silly looking! Enjoy a good laugh and also look at how big he has gotten. Our little 6.5 month old baby that weighs 65 pounds. We love him anyway even though we are parents that know our little baby is quite ugly right now.








So this is what he should eventually look like. Pray for his ear!!!! (This picture was taken right after we took off his ear tape before the ear fell)


In conclusion, I would have to say that anyone that thinks Doberman Pinschers are automatically mean and aggressive dogs, you my frineds are wrong. Mr. Echo is one of the sweetest doggies I have personally ever owned and we have always had labs so that is quite a breed to be compaired to for tempermant. Echo is so stinkin sweet I sometimes worry if he would even be a guard dog. I am confident he really would and even if he was not mean his looks alone would scare someone away. I am so happy that we ended up getting a Doberman Pinscher and thank my hubby for sticking to his guns on the breed he wanted. I could not be happier with a dog. He does not chew, dig, he is FINALLY potty trained and sleeps at the foot of our bed, he is good with kids (accept for when he gets really excited and just trys to play a little too rough), he has never ever been aggressive with us in ANY way, he lets you grab his face, ears, tail and whatever you want whenever you want even if he is eating. Just an all around good indoor family pup. I highly reccomend a Doberman to anyone that likes bigger dogs that wants an indoor/ outdoor dog as a family pet. They look intimidating so nobody will mess with you but they really are the sweetest things. He is also an AWESOME running buddy and can go on forever and ever. It is great!
Sorry this post is forever long, I had to make up for all the time without him having air time. Thanks for reading!

Forever Young

I have always told myself that I can never ever grow up, and I am so happy to see that I married someone just like myself!!! Growing up is SO over rated!
Clint, one of our neighbors and a member of our ward, recently went with Kipper and purchased the supplies for a Potato Gun.
I personally have never ever seen a potato gun but I have heard many story's about them from my husband who has a lot of experience with them. Especially since he went to Idaho on his mission, LAND OF POTATO'S!
Clint called up Kip yesterday and told him that he was out in his front yard shooting off the potato gun! Kip and I jumped at the opportunity to join in on the fun. As we walked out, we observed that the whole street was involved. Our neighborhood is SO COOL!!! Not one person complained, everyone just wanted to join in on the shooting! I LOVE IT!!! On a safety note, just so you know, we were shooting the gun over our houses into this huge field behind our homes. It was perfect!
Here are pics of the fun process:
Just Posing with their little Toy. (P.S. Do you like Kipper's farmers tan, I DO!)
Stuffing the Potato in there.
Um, yeah??? Don't ask me??? Just being silly boys!
Getting the potato to the bottom.
Spraying the propellant, Axe Body Spray, the women were flocking!
Capping it off with the Axe body spray in there.
Bang, and that seriously is SO LOUD!!! It sounds like a gunshot! SO LOUD, SO COOL!!!!!
It's so cute, Clint and Kip could be brothers, they are so much alike in so many ways. It makes me so happy to see them playing like little boys together. They have a blast riding their dirt bikes, shooting guns, off roding, and making their own fire arms like Potato Gun's together. You can even catch them sometimes walking along the brick wall behind our house to one anothers yard. They seriously look like little 8 year old boys just having the times of their lives together, I LOVE IT!!! I am so happy that Clint is our neighbor!
So if you are ever in the area and see potato's falling from the sky, come on over and join in the fun!

Shoes Required!

A very sad thing happened the other night!
Kip went outside to take the trashcans to the curb and he (thank goodness) found a little UN-friend sitting on the fence! The reason I say thank goodness is he could have been hurt by the UN-friend if he did not see it. Kip is quite upset with his find, because this now changes our feelings on walking outside without shoes. We thought that now that we have a patio we could enjoy camping outside, sleeping under the stars, all sorts of fun night time activities, but now we are freaked out!!!


That's right, my husband caught a Scorpion. Are those supposed to be in Southern California??? Especially my backyard? I thought they belonged in Arizona and Nevada but my backyard??? NO!!!! So we are now freaked out! Those things are so creepy looking and Kip says they are built for battle. He did so many things to kill that scorpion and it was still hanging in there. He finally stomped on it and squished it. But Kip warns, they are really fast!
All of my neighbors out there in Rosetta Canyon and Lake Elsinore Land, WATCH OUT!!! They are around here, and they are danger!
EEEeeekkkkssss!!!!!