the best cabbage pitas you'll ever taste.

growing up, i was a bring-my-own-lunch-to-school kind of girl. i usually detested what the school was serving (country fried steak being the all-time grossest thing known to my elementary school mind!) and i think i only ate school lunch when it was breakfast for lunch (except i wouldn't touch the sausage). i sound kind of snobbish writing that, but i guess i am. ha! my mom taught me to love real food and school lunch is usually farrr from that.

anyways! let's not get me started.

where i was originally going with that little tangent was this: i still remember whenever my mom packed cabbage pitas in my school lunch, she would pack extras for my bff (love you jenny!) and it would make her day (and mine!) probably because of that, and just because they are so yummy, i have very fond memories of cabbage pitas.

i don't post recipes very often, but here is one that you won't want to pass by. this is my mom's tried & true cabbage pita recipe and is so incredibly delicious you'll be stuffing your kids (or yourself!) full of cabbage in no time :) 

Step One: Chop up some cabbage 

(green or red work equally as well, though traditionally we stuck with green most of the time).

// love cabbage!! //

Step Two: Mix two parts plain yoghurt to one parts mayonnaise. (Does that make sense?) Depending on how much cabbage you have, try two heaping spoonfuls of yoghurt and one heaping spoonful of mayo. Adjust accordingly. You'll want all of the cabbage to be evenly coated.

Like so:

Step Three: Mix in 1 C. (give or take) sunflower seeds. The more the merrier! 

Step Four: Add a pinch of cayenne pepper. Start out with a little (1/4 tsp...or less!) and add more depending on how much heat you can handle. It gets spicy fast! 

Step Five: Fill deliciousness into a pita and dig in. (If you don't have to worry about gluten, I prefer the whole wheat pocket pitas, but this is all I could find at the store that day.) Ps. This is also really yummy eaten plain (if you have to eat gf like me!)

You can thank me later. :)

(My little helper in the kitchen caught a few "selfies" in the camera as well as some artsy pics :) Love her!!)

 

If you end up making these (you should!) let me know what you think!

the hogle zoo

when i went to the oklahoma zoo back in may, i told my kids all about it once i got home and they instantly wanted to go see "the baby monkey with one arm and the elephants."

sadly, i couldn't grant their wish exactly but i was finally able to take them to the hogle zoo a few weeks ago and they loved it! grandma debbie and cousin milo joined us and we had a fun, hot, and sweaty time:

we were so impressed with the new polar bear exhibit (and that entire new area of the zoo!) sadly, we never got to see the polar bear in the water, but he was moving all over the place on land!

for lunch, we sat in on what we thought was going to be a seal show (they were some of my favorites!) but to our disappointment, we only saw an african centipede (gross!), a turtle (who went to the bathroom during his debut), and a snake...oh well! it was shady and somewhat cooler :)

// max loves milo //

i didn't get a picture in time, but that brown bear below walked right up to max. if the glass wasn't there, he would have been touching his nose!! max thought it was the coolest thing ever.

// the lego exhibits all over the zoo were incredible! //

// we saw the elephant show which was 100x better than the previous show. elephants are amazing! //

and since the zoo is under going more major construction, we got a little lost looking for the lions (we never found them!) and ended up walking up to the very top of the zoo. lucky for us, that is where the lion drinking fountain was hiding! (almost as cool as a real lion, right?!) of course, we had to get some photos. 

// max was such a trooper to walk almost the entire time. the last 20 minutes, ave was kind enough to push him :) //

and last, but not least, the kids checked out the hands-on lego exhibit that they had set up. they didn't want to leave, but five minutes after we got in the car...they were out!

ps. i promise grandma debbie and i were both there! we just forgot to document it. next time...

family history part 2

remember, wayyy back in the day when i wrote a blog post on family history?? 

well, even though it's been almost a year, i still feel just as passionate about family history work.

last month, i decided to jump on familysearch.org and almost instantly saw that some of danny's relatives were in need of temple work. not just any relatives: jessie mckinley (and her siblings) to be exact! (below is a screen shot of my facebook post the night i found their names)

 it was a pretty neat feeling to print off those names and i wanted to get to the temple as soon as possible. we made it a reality a week later, and words can't describe how incredible it was. i have never done family names before; i would highly suggest it!!

afterwards, we treated ourselves to my favorite restaurant: blue lemon! so so good. quite the perfect date if you ask me!

since that date, family history work has been at the front of my mind. so when my mom mentioned that she was attending byu's family history conference, i was all ears! however, the $180 price tag for admission left me a little discouraged. i asked danny what he thought i should do and this was his classic response: "maybe our ancestors will round up some money for you somehow!" :)

i did a little research and noticed on their website that financial aid was available. of course, by the time i looked it up, the submission date had passed. however, i gave them a call and the receptionist told me i could still turn in my application, but she wasn't sure how much they could guarantee, since most of the money had already been given out.

i printed off the application, filled it all out, and my mom helped me write a killer one page paper, explaining why it would be so beneficial for me to attend the conference. 

i dropped it off later that day, and expected to hear from them a few days later.

...

an hour after i dropped it off, i got a call! byu awarded me $150 towards the family history conference. i seriously could not wipe the smile off of my face. our ancestors came through!

the family history conference is this week and though i have absolutely no idea what to expect, i feel so very blessed to be able to attend and honestly believe that this is such an important work to be doing!

hopefully i'll have lots of info to share next week, but until then...how is YOUR family history coming?!? (have you logged into family search?) i am by no means an expert, but would love to help in any way i can. if you have any specific questions, send them my way and maybe i'll find an answer at my conference!

the church is true!

we heart boating.

just because the fourth of july festivities were over, didn't mean we had to stop partying!

the party continued the next day, july 5th, at pineview reservoir where we played in the water, sand, and boated the day away (until it got too cloudy/rainy!) 

// max is getting pretty confident on a boat... //

// ...but cautious papa is always on the look-out :) //

danny stole aaron's much bigger tank top...and thought he was so cool ;)

// all tuckered out after boating //

danny's grandma, aunt & uncle, and cousins were all in town too so we stayed up for the weekend and had a wonderful time. that night, greg & natalie came over with the kids and brought some of their fun toys with them.

america the beautiful

my how i love the fourth of july in provo!! can anything compare?? 

this year was incredible, as always. 

we woke up eager to see the hot air balloons, but that was the only misfortune we had the entire day. due to weather conditions, the balloons didn't even fill up, let alone take off. we were all majorly disappointed (since we had to wake up with the sun!) but i think i redeemed myself by buying everyone fresh, festive doughnuts :)

we went back to my parents, rested, and ate breakfast, and by 8:45 we were out the door, ready for the parade in our red, white, and blue! my aunt's family owns a house on university, so it's tradition to watch it there every year. my cousin and her friends slept out to reserve the spot (thanks sarah!) and overall i think it was the best parade year we've ever had! it was cloudy for the first half and the kids had a blast watching the parade and getting free food from the neighbors!

// once it got hot (and it did...fast!) my mom rescued us all with her spray bottles! ave definitely took advantage of them the most aka: hogged them //

//love these two//

besides the warm weather, the parades, fireworks, etc...that comes with the fourth, i love the food. my mom's potato salad is amazing!!! we also made pinterest-inspired watermelon pops, which were a hit!

after lunch, we took a break from traditional festivities, and went to the movie theater to see "monsters university"! max fell asleep on the way there and would not wake up (even though he was so so excited to see the movie)...and didn't wake up until the last 20 minutes! oh well. i thought it was so well done and even though i loved the first one, thought this one was better!

when we got back, it was initiation time for my parent's fire pit! they installed it last year, but haven't ever used it, so bri and danny were happy to get it going. we put together veggies, salmon (and steak for the non-fish eaters...ahem...danny!!), and chili-lime corn on the cob. everything tasted incredibly good. food on the fourth is the best!!

// so hard core //

// i spy a cute ave in the corner! //

you can't have a fire without making smores! i cheated and ate some gluten, but i couldn't help myself! it was the fourth after all...

after a few rounds of badminton (my favorite!!) we cleaned up and got ready to go watch the fireworks from the stadium of fire. before we could leave, we discovered avery has a fear of fireworks! (just like my sister alli!!) we hoped that my mom's noise canceling headphones would do the trick, but all she could think about was going to bed, far away from the fireworks. danny was a good sport and stayed home with her, while max was more than happy to come with us! 

the firework show was beautiful, and max had a great time...even though he was much more interested in playing with glow sticks!

and when we got home, we had one final thing to check off our list: sparklers!! we caught some pretty fun shots:

happy birthday america!!