One tough cookie

This post is dedicated to my Grandma Stringer. For those of you who have ever had the pleasure of meeting her, I doubt you would soon forget the encounter. She can make you laugh and she can make you cry. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever known. I guess you would have to be when you grew up on a ranch in the middle of wyoming taking care of your whole family because your mother had passed away and your father was away half of the year in california shearing sheep to earn some money.

She is 91 and healthy, physically, as a horse. She has been in an assisted living home in evanston for a couple of years. She is an onery old cuss and for the first little while she wasn't too happy to be there. This last week she has been in the hospital with pnuenomia. They didn't know what type she had and both of her lungs were full of liquid. They didn't know if she would make it through the first night, but we had a suspicion that if she really didn't want to go yet, she wouldn't and she didn't. She is getting better everyday and is a hoot to be around. She is going to relocate to Logan to have some better care. I will miss not getting to see her as much and it makes me sad she won't ever really know my baby like she knows me.

I am going to miss you Grandma when you go to Logan and when you go to your Heavenly Father. You have made my life more memorable and provided me with some awesome times. You made the best homemade chicken and noodles and creamed peas and potatoes. You raised a great mom for me and had a hand in shaping me into who I am today. I love you!



This last weekend we had Eliza's pictures taken and here are some of those and also some random pitures of her.










I love my big baby blues




Best Friends

Heart anyone?

I am sure you have heard of a broken heart, maybe an aching heart or a full heart? Well, how about a roasted heart? Yes, my friends that was what was on the Roitz family dinner menu last night. Roast beef heart.

For any of you who know Josh, you know he and his family have a cow ranch. When they butcher cows, they save everything. Heart, kidney, liver, stomach etc... Josh made some kidney for our friends the other night, and they are not too bad. Josh was always talking about how his grandma used to make stuffed roast heart, so I decided to give it a try. I tried to look online for some recipes and pointers, but suprisingly there weren't too many to find.

We had the heart in our freezer for a couple of weeks and I finally willed myself to take on the tast.

Before we begin, I want you to know that the cows on the Roitz ranch must be kind of lazy. They evidently don't like to walk very far or long because this cow had some serious fat buildup on his heart. That was by far the most time consuming part was cutting off all of the fat.

Observe





So after the fat is all trimmed off you have to cut it open and remove all the little arteries and membranes. It brought back flashes of A&P from college.



The next step is to prepare a stuffing, stuff the heart and roll it back up and secure. I then seared it in a pan. I do have to say it looked like a pretty piece of meat then.



Then you throw it in the crocker for the rest of the afternoon with some veggies and onion soup mix. And you come out with a little roast of heart. Sorry to dissapoint, but everyone (Josh and his dad) were soo excited to eat it I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. It really just looked like a little beef roast.

I made some mashed potatoes and gravy and we had some corn and peas. It was a nice country dinner.

*Okay, I had some of the heart, and it was good... It tasted like a roast beef, but the texture was a little denser and chewier(sp). I personally would rather just have a regular old roast, but it was a lot better than I expected. I will be making it again, because Josh loves it.*

Maybe some day ya'll could give it a try!

Pillow Scream

Pillow scream. Have you ever done it? Until today, I had not. I've heard of women being stressed and needing somewhere to go to release the tension. I think the man version is pounding nails into a stump. Well today I did a mighty strong pillow scream, and to tell you the truth, it actually felt good and helped.

After an afternoon of being on the phone with doctors and electricians and fridge repair men and crack-in-your-wall fixers oh and estimates to fix windows who some little window breakers broke....whoa.... I needed a good scream.

Oh and my little child likes to sit up and play with her toys until she sees me, then she will fall over on her boppy on purpose and says whimper whimper until I pick her up. Ya its funny the first 15 times, then it gets a little less hilarious. So after I hung up the phone and kissed my baby, I had a pillow scream. aaaahhhhh. Then we were able to sing songs, and give hugs and mom felt much better.

Thanks pillow for being multifunctional.

She's snot feeling well

So Eliza has been a little under the weather and full of mucous and I managed to catch it on camera. This is not for the faint of heart.

Christmas time

So Josh and I and Eliza had a wonderful Christmas. We started early by going to Salt Lake for a little fun. We mostly just ate out and hung out in our hotel. We wanted to take Eliza swimming, but the water was freezing and we dipped her in and she was shivering.

My sister and I wanted to go to the mall that saturday before Christmas just to do some shopping for us. We were all done with our Christmas shopping and underestimated the crowds. We went to Fashion Place and it took us like 1 1/2 hours to get there from down town. The traffic was horrible and the parking lot was even worse. I dropped my sister off and tried to park. I seriously almost had a panic attack. Or maybe I did. I was trying to park and hadn't moved for like 20 minutes surrounded by cars and all sides. I started freakin out, and the mall inside was even worse. I totally would not make it in the after Thanksgiving sales. I would sit down and cry as everyone was trampling me.

Here are a couple pictures in our hotel room.





Christmas was so awesome, we love spending time with all of our family. We always have Christmas eve at Josh's family's house and Christmas day at mine. Eliza was pretty tired of running around all the time. She got a lot of books and clothes from our family. Josh's big gifts were a GPS from his family a PS3 from me and a book from my parents. My big gifts were a bread maker from my parents, snowboard bindings from Josh, and a Cricut expression from my mother and father in law. I was soo excited for everything I got. (I have wanted a cricut for forever, but couldn't justify getting one!)

Eliza's favorite part of Christmas was watching everyone and eating the bows.











Here is Eliza and her cousin Jersey who is about 4 months younger than her, and Eliza bundled up to play outside. That girl is all cheeks!

I've got you babe.

Since not a lot has been happening I thought I would do a tag about my husband Josh.

Thanks for the great idea Skip.

1. Where did you first meet your husband?
Oh dear. I think we first met at church when we were both in high school. I remember thinking he was a pretty cute guy with a sexy smile:) I think we met officially at a ym yw activity when his friends I already knew introduced us.

2. How long did you date before you were married
We dated about a year on and off and then the last 6 months we dated seriously before we were married.

3. How long have you been married?
Josh and I have been married for 3 1/2 years! Every year has gotten better and better.

4. What does he do that suprises you?
I guess this shouldn't suprise me, but he is the most awesome dad! He does everything so well and I think Eliza Jae likes him better than me. He comes in the door from work and heads straight for her, and I have to remind him to give me a kiss too-although I don't mind. I guess what suprises me is how naturally it came.

5. What is his best feature?
His smile, I really love it.

6. What is his best quality?
I think his best quality is that he is a missionary at heart. He loved loved his mission and sometimes he thinks he is on one still, which is a good thing. He will invite everyone to church and he surely doesn't have a comfort zone he won't leave.
He makes me try harder.

7. Does he have a nickname for you?
No.

8. What is his favorite food?
Well, Josh is a major meat and potatoes kinda guy. He really loves anything you put in front of him. By anything I mean Josh eats everything you can think of, ie: Kidney, liver, tripe, heart, bone marrow, ugh. No pickiness here.

9.What is his favorite sport?
College football, if by favorite you mean that it consumes his life for 3 months.

10.When and where was your first kiss.
Our first kiss was when we were dating. It didn't happen for a while and I was starting to think I was gonna have to make a move. Josh later told me he was really nervous for some reason and he thought I thought he was a dork. Anyway we were at my house after a date and he was trying to say goodbye. I hope he won't get embarrassed by this story. He kept leaning in to me but then he would be like, "well i gotta go," and he would stand up straight, then he would lean down again... Well this happened like five times until he finally came in for the kill. Never forget it.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple.
We really love to go hunting and camping together. It is so much fun when it is just you two out in the wilderness fending for yourselves. We also love to ride around his ranch in the fall and summer, mmmmmm so peaceful.

12. Do you have any children?
Yes, we have one beautiful girl.

13. Does he have any hidden talents?
Yes he has many. Most people know Josh is a welder by profession, but what most people don't know is that he is a really good welder. Josh welds pipelines, and learning to weld and doing it well is really hard. There are many older welders who have been welding for years who Josh outwelds. He is constantly offered jobs all over the country to come and get their pipeline going, but he stays here with us. Good job honey!

14. How old is he?
25.

15. Who said I love you first?
Josh did. He would always say, "I am really happy to be with you," for the longest time...

16. What is his favorite music?
Anything by the Beach Boys.

17. What do you admire most about him.
His ability to rise above. He is surrounded by crazy oil field guys all day and yet he never swears, he reads his scriptures everyday around them, and they know who he is and what he stands for.

18. What is his favorite color?
Hmmm, brown and gold?

19. Will he read this?
I will tell him to.

I love you!

I peeked!

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This is the most wonderful time of the year. For some reason I just feel extra excited this year.

Confession: I already opened my two Christmas presents. And... I love them! I got a new camera and I can't stop taking pictures.


I also got a huge desk to do scrapbooking and stuff, it is so nice to have room to put all your crap.


We only have two presents under our tree, my present to Josh and one for Eliza, then 200 million others in the corner for everyone else.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving. This first one is my favorite of Josh and Eliza.












My mom and dad went to utah for Thanksgiving so we were just at Josh's house and didn't do the 2-3 thanksgivings we usually do.




Just had to throw that one in there.

Here is our glorious real tree that doesn't even smell like pine. I love the top branches that are sticking straight out longer than the other ones. The tree looks like it is stretching.





And finally here a couple little Christmas crafts I made.





I hope everyone is feeling the Christmas warmth!

Its time to get excited

I am excited for...

stuffing.family.warm fires.naps.pictures.first thanksgivings.pumpkin pie.pumpkin bars.pumpkin cheesecake.apple pie.food and dessert in general.being reminded of everything I have.grammas and granpas.hugs.kisses.sweaters.scarves.snowflakes.snowmen.hot cocoa.red.green.white.snowmobiling.snowboarding.sledding.shopping.giving.
wrapping.pine.temple square.christmas devotional.frost on the window.warm quilts and cold pillows.big wool socks.new camera.cousins.pajamas.singing.christmas lights.christmas smells.gingerbread.baby jesus.wisemen.mother tell me the story...
santa clause.warm fuzzy.growing.loving.

YAY. I love it.

I am trying to avoid the problem Josh has. He gets bummed before the holidays even begin that they will soon be over.

We are already listening to the Beach Boys Christmas songs. Oh boy.

When Josh was little he thought he was Dennis Wilson reincarnated. For those of you who know the beach boys he was one of the originals.

Oh, my little baby has found her feet. You see why we need a new camera.

Halloween fun

So Eliza was a cute chocolate treat(tootsie roll). We went to the stake trunk or treat and their were sooo many people there. She was amazed, she sat and stared the whole time not making a peep. I guess her costume was sort of unisex because people thought she was a boy as much as they thought she was a girl. Josh went to Wal-mart and bought his concoction. He was the creepiest lookin guy at the church, the little kids were scared of him. Eliza loved him though. I just got a bunch of stuff from the back of the closet and wore Josh's wranglers. It was lots of fun.






We also made some awesome caramel apples. Layers of heavenly and fattening goodness smeared on a healthy apple. Okay ready for this. Apples with caramel then white chocolate then rolled in smashed butterfingers. Oh they are good, for those of you who have been to Rocky Mtn. Choc Fac. Those are my fav.



Okay so Josh drew out area 102 for deer this year. It is a highly coveted draw out area. He was determined to get a monster. The trick to this he tells me is to pass up all of the huge bucks and wait until the last five days of the hunt. Unless you see a record breaker of course, then you shoot no matter the day. So Josh and his brother Shane go hunting for a week and Shane gets a nice 4 point, but Josh wants to wait. They pass up some nice ones and Josh even passed up a huge nontypical because someone else was trying to shoot it, but they kept missing. The guy who kept missing eventually got it and he is now in third place for the Wyo truck big buck contest. He is huge! Anyway Josh is waiting and waiting and the final day of the hunt comes around and he is getting kind of bummed. We decided we wanted some deer meat no matter what, so Josh shot a nice 4x5. He was pretty dissapointed because he had passed up much nicer ones earlier. I told him he has like 80 more years to get a huge buck:) That didn't seem to lift his spirits any.
So here he is.

Oh and about the background.....I just can help it. It is November.

Two new ones!

Eliza has two new cousins! We are so excited, now she will have two more little girls to play with (and fight with as Malona said:)

Here is my brother Mike and Malona Hamblin's little girl.

Her name is Jersey Faye Hamblin.

She is so little, she weighed 5lbs 12 oz. and she has auburn colored hair.

There are also picutres of her big sister Emry holding her and giving us her "mean", but very cute face.





Josh's sister Wyomia and Willy had a little girl.

Her name is Madelyn Marie Shaw.

She weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and I think she looks like her brother Tucker. They live in Texas, so we aren't sure when we will get to see her, but we are excited!

Oh and just to let everyone know. Eliza Jae looks HUGE next to Jersey, I can't believe our baby was once that size(sort of).