1 Year Old.

Dear Athen Bitner,

My sweet little boy, today you turn 1 year old! How the time has gone so fast. It feels like yesterday that I held you for the first time. You have grown so big and have made your mom so very happy! Your fun smile and cute giggles bring the sunshine into our home. Your little body with all its energy has brought excitement to our lives. I love you. You are a special boy and I am blessed to be your mother.

Happy Birthday!

Love Mommy

A Family Valentines..

I don't know if I mentioned that while in Tacoma on Valentines, I had a friend from high school take some family portraits. It was a lot of fun. He took us to down town Tacoma into some ally ways that had cool buildings for backgrounds. Here are a few of my favorites...

You know you want it

At first I said "no way do I have time for this" but then I thought "oh this will be fun, I have so many things I've been wanting to make." So I've given into this new blogging craze. Because...

You know you want it...
The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

I know, I know quiet your girlish screams, please.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be made with you in mind.

3- It'll be done this year (glad it just started)

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

An exciting week....

This last week we took off and headed to Portland & Tacoma. Monday thru Thursday we spent time with Tim's parents and siblings. Athen had a blast tearing apart Grandma's house and playing will his cousins, Grace, Jane, Grant, Ella, & Lane. (Sorry we didn't get pictures of that)

Then Friday we headed up to Tacoma and spent the weekend with the Dorman's. My oldest brother Brandon & his wife Emily hosted a February family birthday party. Due to the fact that Em is a photographer we got pictures! Also since we were at Grandma's house for Valentines, we got a free babysitter. Tim found a cute little cafe and took me out to an all you can eat chocolate, cake, & pastry buffet. It had the cutest atmosphere and the best cheesecake. Also celebrated, but not pictured was Athen's great Grandma Dorman who passed away in 2006.

The whole trip was great! We had a little excitement when Athen threw up in the car randomly right before our turn off to Yakima, but we are happy to announce that when we returned there was no more hole in our kitchen or our laundry room.

Cafe Rio style

Our ward had an Enrichment activity last night at which they served dinner, Cafe Rio style salad. They were AMAZING! So I wanted to share with those readers of my blog who were not there the great recipes. Aside from these 4 recipes we added to the salads torillas, chips, tomatos, chesse, and sour cream.

Cafe Rio Pork

2 1/2 lbs Pork

1/3 C. water

1 C. green chili enchilada sauce

1 C. brown sugar

salt, pepper, & crushed garlic cloves to taste

Mix enchilada sauce, brown sugar, & garlic to form a sauce. Place in the bottom of crockpot placing meat on top of sauce and season with salt and peper. Allow to cook for at least 6 hours. Take out meat and shred then return to crockpot for another hour.

Cafe Rio Rice

3 C. rice

6 C. water

4 tsp. chicken bouillon

4 tsp. minced fresh garlic

1/2 bunch cilantro

3 tsp. salt

1 can green chilies

1 Tbs butter

1/2 onion chopped

Add all ingredients to rice cooker and cook until rice is done. Stir to complete.

Cafe Rio Beans

1 can black beans, drained & rinsed

1 1/3 C. tomato juice

2 garlic cloves minced

1 tsp. cumin

2 Tbs. olice oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbs chopped cilantro

Cook garlic & cumin in olive oil until fragrant. Add beans, juice, & salt. Cook until heated through. Just before serving add cilantro.

Cafe Rio Dressing

1 pkg. Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Mix (make as directed)

2 tomatillos

1/2 bunch cilantro

1 garlic clove

1 lime

dash green tobasco sauce

After making dressing packet place in blender adding in all other ingredients and mix. Chill before serving.

Yes this could be a lot of work, but they were very Yummy! So give it a try!

Splish Slash...

Athen loves his bath time and shower time. It is his happiest time of day. We love it too since it contains him and slows him down from tearing apart more of the house! Ü Don't we just love our funny busy babies!

Is this what your kitchen looks like?...

I was on the phone with a friend yesterday and making dinner around 4:00 when I turned around to find a huge bubble in our ceiling that had water dripping from it. Being the completely dramatic person I am I started freaking out right away. Tim was at work and not reachable, so I called the builder. The main head honcho was out of town, and the plumber that did the plumbing for our house had gotten in a car accident earlier in the day. For about an hour I could not find anyone to come and help and had absolutely no idea why our kitchen ceiling was filling with water. About 2 hours later, we had a contractor and plumber at the house cutting the ceiling open. The water was coming from a leak in the laundry room. So in addition to the kitchen there is a chunk of wall cut out in the laundry room as well. I'm sad that our 3 month old has already has to have repairs... But... this is the story of my life.