Heres to Cafe Rio!

In honor of Cafe Rio opening on Saturday in Twin Falls, I thought i would make some "mock cafe rio." It turned out SO delicious and if you dont already have this recipe it is a good one to try and pretty simple. It makes a ton, but it was so yummy we ate it for 2 days for every meal! I'm really excited for Cafe Rio to open!






Cafe Rio Dressing:
1pkg Hidden Valley Ranch
1 cup mayo (light mayo or plain low fat yogurt)
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tomatillos, chopped
1/3 - 1/2 cups buttermilk - to the consistency you want

Easier Dressing Recipe:
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch
1 cup mayo
1 cup cilantro, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Shredded Cafe Rio Pork
3lbs pork (or chicken)
16oz. bottle of chunky salsa (use blender so chunks are gone)
1 can coke
2 cups brown sugar

Homemade tortillas
3 C flour
1/2 c vegetable or olive oil
1 1/8 c. luke warm water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
Mix all ingredients and knead. If too hard to knead, add a little water but if too sticky add a little more flour. Let stand for about 10 min. Makes about 12 small balls. Flatter each by rolling them out and then cook them in a frying pan. Have 2 frying pans going at once so they all get cooked faster. (or just by fresh ones at the store)

Cafe Rio Rice
3 cups water
4 tsp chicken bouillon
4 tsp garlic - chopped or minced
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 small can green chilles
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 onion
3 cups rice
Mix in a blender cilantro, green chiles and onion. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients. Cover and simmer for 30 min. **We just put everything in a rice cooker and it turned out great!**

Serve all of this with warm black beans (add a little La Victoria Green Taco Sauce to the beans while warming them) pica de gallo, (just chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro - basically what you'll already be chopping, shredded romaine lettuce and of course top the burritos enchilada style with Las Palmas Green Enchilada Sauce and Montery Jack Cheese.

ENJOY!!

I HEART PLAYGROUP

I have been incredibly blessed to meet such good friends here at our apartment complex! We have so much fun together and so do our babies. We get together every morning at 8 to go running/walking and then again at 11 at the playground for playgroup. We sometimes call it "mom group" because i think its more for the moms sanity some days. We all have had babies that are within a few months of eachother and that has been fun too.

Olivia 9 months, Jace 6 months, Maylie 9 months, Carter 8 months, Finn 6 months, Bryce 9 months (i think these are their ages i might be a little off. sorry if i am!)

Hair cut and a FIRE!

Today my friend from Utah came down to hang out and cut and color my hair. She lives in Provo so we hardly ever see eachother, but when we do get together its always fun. And she is so talented at doing hair. I think it turned out pretty cute! (My eye is all red because i got some color + shampoo in my eye when i was washing it out :( ).


Everything was going great and Chad was feeding Carter while i was getting pampered and Aubrey looked over and said "Chad your on fire!!" I hoped out of my chair screaming because all i saw out of the corner of my eye was this huge flame. i rounded the corner in time to see my dear husband stop, drop, and roll and banging at his shirt that was on fire!! While he was feeding Carter there was a candle nearby that his sleeve got to close to. Below is a picture of his shirt that is now ruined and the tiny little candle that started him on fire. He has a few battle scars (burns) on his arm, but mostly singed hair. It is NOT fun seeing your husband on fire, trust me on this one!!

It's official!!

Well we just signed our contract with our builders (TKO) to get our home started! yippee! If you are thinking "TKO....uh ohhh" let me explain. 2 years ago they had a really bad reputation. They were cutting corners and making lots of big mistakes. The head honcho guy was fired for what he was doing and since then they have been being watched VERY closely. Originally our Realtor told us to steer clear of them, but we looked at some of their newer homes and went to talk to them and our Realtor was really impressed and said he would start sending people their way again. In the end we were promised a good quality home.

We are so excited to start this process! We're builing a 1400 sq. ft. home with 4 bed 2 bath on an almost 9,000 square foot lot. Its going to be a rustic red and cream color. Buliding will start any day now and we will be in our new home by Carter's first birthday in September!! Its a brand new subdivision (our house is the 4th being built in it!!) and there will be a park right across the street at the end of a cudlesac. There will also be a new stake center coming in a year or so.

Meanwhile our evenings are spent at home depot or lowes looking for refrigerators, rain gutters, electrical and sprinkler equipment! Chad is going to do our sprinklers and electrical and our tile. I'm so greatful he knows how to do all this handy stuff and save us some money!
It doesnt look like much now, but heres a picture of our lot!!

Easter with the Hymas Family

We had a great Easter! Chad's parents came down for the whole weekend and we ate SO much food and played pinochle the whole weekend. We did lots of shopping also. I introduced my mother in law to one of my favorite stores "Real Deals" in old town and she loved it! She didn't leave without spending hundreds of dollars - literally! We took them out to Hazelton to show them a lot we wanted to build on (we since have changed out minds AGAIN!) We went to Johnny Carinos Friday night. It was prom night so we drove down the canyon and over to Shoshone Falls to waste a little time until all the prom kids left. It was delicious as usual.
Friday Carter learned to crawl!! I can't believe my little baby is in to EVERYTHING now! He crawled the whole length of the hall as soon as he figured out how to take more then to steps....watch out world...here comes CARTER!! Oh and he can even pull himself up on things now!

Saturday we woke up and saw the Easter bunny had come to visit! Chad helped Carter dig through his basket. Then we took Carter to the apartment complex's Easter egg hunt. He wanted NOTHING to do with the eggs. I thought he would at least try to hold them, but it was his nap time and he was pretty crabby! He wouldn't even LOOK at them! What a stubborn little boy! ( I think he gets it from his dad! :) )

Sunday we went to church and came home to a HUGE dinner. (although i forgot to turn the croc pot on so chad had to come home during church to turn in on for me. Whoops!) But it all worked out! We were glad we could spend the weekend with Clyde and Evelyn!

Birthday Weekend

I woke up Friday morning to a dozen roses and my favorite poem on the table!
Opened a few gifts from Chad later that day and i was allowed to go shopping a week early for some new clothes! thanks hunny! Then we wen to lunch at Shari's
I was able to do a baby shower for a good friend, Tiffany,the night of my birthday and it was so much fun! The girls pitched in and got me some candy and a gift certificate to Old Navy! Thanks girls for making my birthday special!
Flower Favors i made
Tiffany opening gifts
Tiffany with her mom and sisters who made the trip for the party!
All the girls! i think we had 14 girls show up!
The next day i went home for a yummy birthday dinner and my favorite cupcakes which my mom make! FUN CHIP!
Just seconds before chad got a cupcake shoved in his face.
Seconds after he shoved the same cupcake in my face.

girls nite

ME and some friends from highschool got together last night and went to dinner at Stevo's in Burley. It was so fun! Whitney is getting married so we talked about wedding plans and reminisced. It's so crazy to see how many different directions everyones lives are going right now! I'm a mom, Whit is getting married, Trish has been married for 2 years, Jayme is a teacher, and Ash is still with the same guy for 4 years now! WOO HOO! Good luck with all the wedding plans Whit!

Then we went to Trish's moms and had cookies and talked about old memories. It was a great night!