Happiness is a Choice

I recently added a Free Printables page-

have you noticed it above already?!

I love playing with fonts and turning quotes into something artsy

that I can share here!

This little adage, "Happiness is a Choice,"

has been a favorite of mine lately...

Click the image above, then right click and save to print an 8x10.

Or, check out the new page for this one and others!

And a few simple things that have brought me happiness lately...

Designing and cutting our name and address for our new mailbox in SCAL! Hooray that we have a mailbox now! Love how this turned out- I'll be adding a few variations to my Etsy shop before long! (Not of our address- of whoever might want one :-p)

And slapping stickers all over Coop's arms as he watches Curious George and wanders around the house in undies only  :)

Check out Places I Link to see where I'll be sharing this post!

And Choose a Happy day today....

SEVEN years and more...

SEVEN years ago yesterday, I wore a cascading, perfect white dress.

There were purple flowers and ribbon and vests and ties.

There was a continual stream of  supportive people that meant a lot to us.

There was an elk across the back mountain that captivated the groomsmen.

There were two adorable little boys chasing each other around the grass.

July 10 marks our anniversary! (of course) :)

This year my parents offered to have Ry and Coop at their house for Friday night and Saturday while we celebrated! It was Ryder's first time with them alone overnight and I was so relieved he did great. We spent the day at an archery shoot above Ririe and had a great time! We totally enjoyed being in the mountains and just being together.

Thanks Stephen for making my life begin seven years ago and being my very favorite person to be with!

 I love you!

In other news today...
I am kicking off a fun week of giveaways for my blogging friend Ginger over at Ginger Snap Crafts!

While Ginger is on vacation with her family, she's scheduled two giveaways each day this week! You can find a simple mix of handmade goodies from me up for grabs this morning! 

Stuffed, Grilled & Smoked

Recently we tried stuffing a couple of

green bell peppers with cream cheese

and smoking them on our grill!

We could hardly wait to try them

and WOW were they yummy!

We cut a circle around the stem and the

cleaned the inside through the hole it made.

I used a butter knife to spread about a third to half

of a brick of cream cheese around the inner wall of each pepper,

then we placed them on our grill just like that!

Stephen uses apple wood chips down inside the bottom of the grill

on a lowish setting to get a great smoky flavor!

I'd say these cooked for about 20-25 minutes or so.

Then to eat them easier we cut slices (like a loaf of bread).
I know this doesn't look particularly pretty, but taste makes up for it!
The pepper was slightly soft but still crisp enough
to not be icky on the texture side of things.
Other variations we thought of and want to try:

• crisp cooked bacon crumbled and whipped into the cream cheese
• a few tablespoons of salsa whipped with the cream cheese
• sharp cheddar grated and combined with the cream cheese

What else do you think would be good?

Whatever it may be, hopefully you'll try these out

the next time you've got the grill fired up-

you won't be disappointed!

Momentous Occasions

I have been wanting to take Cooper to the library for

the. longest. time.

And finally we live in a place that we are actually in the library district. Both the boys were so happy walking in with their backpacks, enthralled by everything they saw! It was really fun picking out books about amphibians, motorbikes and more. Absolutely a weekly activity for us from now on! Afterward we went to a fun little spot called Downtown Bread for $1 ice cream cones :)

Another new hot spot for us is Jensen's Grove- a fun little part of the Snake River right next to interstate in town. The water drops of really slowly and is very temperate. There's also great sand and grass. Cooper happily announced while he played, "It's fun here!" He calls his water wings his "swim puffers!" 

Coop's had a bit of a tough time adjusting to a new sunbeam class and to not having Lynn for a neighbor and a few other random things that make him say he "wants to just go back to Eden,"

so I'm grateful for things that make him, and Ryder both, love it here too.

A Full Fourth!

What a full, fun day our Fourth end up being this year! We went to the parade in Pocatello then came back home to spend the rest of the day here. Taron had been with us all weekend and Keaton came to spend the day. We had this awesome watermelon with dinner- doesn't the pic even look good enough to eat! :)

While Stephen took the older boys to the archery range to shoot, I stayed home and made these fun toilet paper tube firecrackers while Ry napped! They were simple and turned out cute- Coop passed them out to his cousins while we waited for fireworks.

We stopped by Jensen's Grove before heading back to Pocatello for fireworks and let the kids swim around. Already this is a spot that we really love!

We went to a really great spot above Pocatello to watch the fireworks show. Stephen's dad was in town from Missouri with his three half brothers, Mike, Chris and Andy. Trying to take pictures of this group of course didn't stay serious for long at all!

They all got my sisters in law and I laughing trying to take pics for sure!

We loved being surrounded by family for the fireworks. For the past several years it's been just us sitting around CSI in Twin Falls and this felt much better!