Why Helloo Summer, My Old Friend!

In front of the waterfall in Twin Falls Canyon

This was our very last picture of Summer 2011. And we have been anxiously awaiting the return of our favorite season. Thankfully it looks like we're not going to have to wait til July again for it to warm up. Woot!

Levi's been working SO hard to restore an old canoe that Mom and Dad Campbell let us bring down from the farm to Cache Valley. Apart from living through many Arbon winters and a few random bullet holes, it has also been sawed in half and patched back together at some point in its sad life. But Levi was bound and determined to make it float.

After spending over 30 hours sanding, patching, priming, spraypainting and putting new PVC pipe on the edges, Levi said it was time for a test run. (He also ingeniously sprayed the inside of the canoe with a rubberized undercoating, because no one wants to get fiberglass slivers from sitting in canoe.)

And our finished product:

Hooray, she floats!! Levi's giddy with excitement at the prospect of a whole summer devoted to fishing. I'll have to post a picture of it from the outside later. Well done, love, well done. Ü

Our Hero, Dallas

Our brother Dallas Nutt is a former Marine and served two tours in Iraq before his 21^st birthday. He is a Geology student on the Dean’s list at Utah State University, and was on track to graduate with honors this December. With his girlfriend Laci by his side, he loves spending any free time outdoors, whether it is hiking, dirt biking, snowmobiling, or spending time with their dogs.

On February 24, 2012, Dallas experienced a ruptured brain aneurysm, only three weeks after his 27th birthday. After going into seizures, he was life-flighted from Logan Regional Hospital to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, and spent 3 weeks in the ICU.  

Fifty percent of people do not even make it to the hospital after an aneurysm ruptures (Dallas’s ruptured at least two times), and out of those who do get to the hospital, 25% of that group don’t make it through surgery. After a long fight, he has now finally been released from the ICU and admitted to rehab. Because of the stroke damage, he’s lost pretty much all movement in his left side. As of right now, we don’t how much of his movement will return or how long it will take.

Our family still needs prayers! Dallas still has a long fight ahead of him as he does rehab in the VA hospital in Salt Lake City. For regular updates, you can check the website www.caringbridge.com/visitus/dallasfnutt.

We so appreciate everyone that has come to visit him, donated money, said prayers and fasted, and shown your support of our Marine! We are forever grateful.

Movers and Shakers

After a year of living in our cozy little apartment with the nice carpet, heated floors and walls, drippy bathroom fan, and teensy kitchen cave, we decided it was time to look for a new place. And don't get me wrong, the heavy smell of smoke coming thru the walls from our neighbor, and dogs peeing on our front step, and our cars broken into weren't what made us move. It was  just the people on our roof in the middle of the night, and footprints in the snow outside our bedroom window. !!! Enough of that sketchy neighborhood!


Our neighbors and friends, the Larsens, moved across town to prepare for their expanding family, and so we followed! Life is so much better when you live close to friends :) So, here's a tour of our new townhouse!

Walking in the front door

Our living room. MUCH bigger than the last one!

View from the recliner. We have storage now!
A cute little closet under the stairs for all our camping gear.

Not much of a dining area. But with our little table, it works just fine.

As you can see, we finally have a dishwasher!!!! WOOT!
As you can also see, we have no counter space. We're working on a solution for that one...

Shall we go upstairs?

We finally agreed on a place for the antlers.

2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a LINEN CLOSET! Can you tell how
desperate I was to have some decent storage space?

Still unpacking in the spare bedroom. And now Tierra (and my parents) won't have to sleep on my couch. Ü

Our room is lovely and huge!! You can actually walk around the bed
without banging your knees on the walls, furniture, etc. Who knew such
luxuries existed?

We have a real CLOTHES ONLY closet now too! No wedding dress, luggage bags,
or gun cabinets & ammo. Just clothes and shoes, the way it should be. :D

 So excited!

Onion Soup Please!

K when I first found this recipe on Pinterest I wasn't too sure about it. I've been against onions most of my life, but I'm continuously learning now how much they can change your cooking for the better! Still, this was a big step. But it paid off! Can't really go wrong with a recipe adapted from Olive Garden, can you?

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 lb baby (pearl) onions, fresh (or ½ frozen bag, thawed)
• 1 medium red onion, sliced thin
• 1 medium Vidalia onion (or other sweet onion), sliced thin
• 6 cups (48 fl oz) chicken stock (but a little more isn't a bad thing)
• Salt (to taste)
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 lb angel hair pasta, broken in 2-inch pieces (We like them left long though too. And 3/4 lb of pasta makes it even better.)
• 4 sliced bacon, cooked and chopped into ½" pieces
• 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
• 4 tsp grated Romano (or Parmesan) cheese

Procedures

PLACE oil and all onions in a large sauce pan over low heat and saute, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes, until onions are golden. Add stock and salt to taste. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes and simmer for about 1 hour.

ADD pasta, bacon and parsley and cook until pasta is just al dente.

LADLE into soup bowls. Sprinkle with grated Romano (or parm) cheese 

"SAAAAANNNNTAAA!!!! I know him, I know him!"

Even though we got married a week before Christmas last year, this feels like our first Christmas since we were opening all of our wedding presents and getting our new apartment put together last Christmas. This year we stayed home and opened presents all morning and then went to Lewiston to eat with Levi’s family and talk to Braden, our missionary brother.

Santa sure spoiled us this year!

A few things under the tree included:

New boots for me, in brown. So that my toes won't freeze on Sundays anymore. :)

And another pair of church shoes in black. Levi has EXCELLENT taste!

And he surprised me with an iPod too. Woot!!

I knew Levi really wanted a new coat for Christmas, but wasn’t sure if he wanted black or brown. So… I got one in brown:

<><> <><> <><>

(Mom says it's his race car driver coat. Ü I think it reminds me more of Wolverine though.)

And one in black. Nicer, for church and things.

(Picture soon.)

Levi has also been wishing for a nice frame pack to take hunting & hiking for a long time. Santa found one on Amazon thankfully, where there were lots of reviews and tips to help pick one that he’d like:

As you can tell, he was so excited that he had to try it on right away. Just to make sure it fit. I don't think it really goes with the bathrobe though. ;)

After opening up all the other wonderful gifts from our family and each other, the aftermath sure wasn't pretty...

Luckily my husband's OCD kicked in and the house was clean in minutes so we could enjoy the rest of the day with family and talking to Braden in Mexico! So thankful for the Christmas season. :)

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We also were fortunate enough to go to Island Park with several friends for New Years! It was a GREAT time! The boys rolled and played in the snow, the girls watched movies, everyone cooked and played games. What more could you ask for? Thanks to Colton and Brandie for the invite!! Hopefully soon I’ll be able to get some of the pictures off our camera; today it does not want to cooperate. Happy New Year to all!