Miss Lexis 2nd birthday

2 years old!
1 years old!
just a few hours old:)

Happy Birthday Lexi! We love you like crazy!

My two favorite dinners (not including eating out)

I have really tried to not stick to the same old cooking stuff lately, and I have wanted to try some new things, so in the past few months, we keep coming back to these two recipes, which have quickly become some of our favorite family dinners, so I thought I would share the recipes.

First off is Taco Soup. Justin's sister gave me this recipe like a year ago, but it really didn't sound that good, so i never made it, but I was wrong, it's my favorite dinner! (pictured above, it tastes better than it looks:)

Ingredients:
1/2 lb-1lb ground beef or ground turkey (I use a whole pound, but the original recipe calls for 1/2 lb)
1/4 cup onions(optional) or 1 Tablespoon onion flakes
1 can light red kidney beans with liquid
1 can corn with liquid
1 can petite diced tomatoes with liquid (14.5 oz)
1 can tomato sauce plus 1 can of water
1 packet of taco seasoning
Toppings: Sour cream, cheese, Juanita tortilla chips (the best you will never go back! Available at Albertsons and Winco)

Use a large sauce pan (spray with non stick spray beforehand) to brown ground beef with onions, drain fat. Add the rest of the ingredients except for toppings. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes, then top with toppings.

Second is called crock pot fiesta chicken, I love this one it is so easy!

Ingredients:
8 chicken tenders
1 can black beans drained
1 can corn drained
1 jar of salsa
Toppings (Cheese, juanita chips again, and sour cream)
cooked rice

Throw all the ingredients in the crock pot except for the toppings and rice, cook until chicken falls apart, then shred chicken, mix all crock pot ingredients together and serve over rice, then top with toppings. Easy and cheap if you are feeding a group.

In other news Miss Lexi will be 2 on Saturday. Justin will be at a gymnastics competition, so we will celebrate on Sunday with some family. Lexi is a busy body, but she is so much fun, and so cute. I put her hair in curlers the other day, and she loved it, I also painted her toe nails and finger nails, and she sat still for both. Im not a prissy girl, i can't remember the last time I painted my finger nails, maybe 5th grade? But she loves that kind of thing. Also her favorite color is pink (naturally) we didn't even teach her that color, but somehow she knows that color, and never fails to point out something pink. We tried a trial run of potty training the other day, but its a no go, Justin thought she was ready so we gave it a shot, but three poopy underwears later, I was done...maybe in a few months will go at it again. Its just not going to happen when she clearly doesn't mind sitting in her own feces. Lexi loves to sing and dance, read books, play with barbies, and her one ken, and watch movies "starring" Barbie:) I love her tons. It is hard for me to be patient with her sometimes, but obviously it's something I need to learn. Here are some cute pictures of the past few weeks:)
































Lexi in her valentines present
curlers!

Warning: BORING post...read only if you are bored

Yea the inevitable Christmas/New Years post, because I'm sure everyone was wondering what I did for the Holiday season right? Well you are in luck, because here is a nice long post for you...oh and I even included pictures as an added bonus. You know how some peoples blogs you are just dying to read because it seems like every post is interesting/funny/exciting? Im sorry Im not one of those bloggers, but here goes:
This was the first year in our marriage that Christmas day was not spent on a plane, or a long drive in the car. Our first 4 Christmases we had been traveling on Christmas day to make it to both of our families house for Christmas, and as nice as it was to see all our family on Christmas, we learned last year that its just too crazy. Last year I went to Portland a week before Christmas to have some extra time with my family, and Justin was going to fly in a few days after me. Turns out he never made it, (since Oregon doesn't know what to do when it snows) and spent Christmas eve day traveling back to Utah to be with his family, and i stayed in Oregon. Anyway, he missed Lexi's first Christmas, and it was just sad. So this year we decided to have Christmas eve at our house and invited my brother and his family over, we ate delicious food and played games. Lexi, Dom, and Gabe watched the Grinch, we had a great time. We woke up early on Christmas morning, and opened presents together as a family, Lexi really loved her presents, and it was so fun this year to see her actually get excited about the present, and not just the paper. When we finished opening our gifts we headed over to Justin's parents house to have more Christmas, AND to talk to Justin's brother who is on a mission, which was wonderful. We also ate a lovely Christmas dinner of Turkey! YUM. We spent the rest of the day lounging and enjoying not traveling. On the 26th we headed to Boise then flew to Portland to see my family. We arrived around seven to more great food, and presents. We had such a relaxing week in Oregon, and we even brought the snow with us! It snowed for about 6 hours, heavy snow, which isn't typical of Oregon. They don't even plow the roads there because they never get enough. It took my dad 2.5 hours to get home from work when it usually take 1/2 hour. People do not know how to drive in snow, some even left their cars and walked home, or had a 4 wheel drive vehicle pick them up, it was hilarious! Justin went skiing with our brother in law Jeff, and I did some shopping, but mostly we just enjoyed being far away from work, and life, sometimes its just nice to have a break. I also had the opportunity to meet up with some old friends for lunch which is always fun.
In anticipation for a new nephew in February my sister was going to throw a shower for our sister in law, but no one could make it because of the bad weather, but we still opened gifts for the baby (Lexi opened most of them) and baby boy Taylor has some fun stuff waiting for him. For New years Eve we went to my sisters house and ate of course, and played games, and talked with my sister and her family, and my other brother and his family. All in all we had a great holiday, Im sad that it's over, I miss my family, but Im just glad that we had such a great couple of weeks.

Out with the old and in with the new!

I just wanted to post a few things that we have been working on lately. As if our lives aren't hectic enough with a toddler, and the gym, we are constantly working on and remodeling our house that was built in the 1950s. We bought our house in may, and moved in in August of this year. There were a few things that needed to be done right away, that I just couldn't live with. Our house is 5 bedrooms, 2 baths. 3 beds up, 2 beds down, 1 bath up, and 1 bath down, and a little over 1000 sq feet on each level, on a quarter acre. The first time we looked at our house, I was like no way, not doing it, too much work, no. After looking for a few more days, our realtor suggested our house again. So we went and looked at it again, and I warmed up a little, but still wasn't really sure. This was Friday, and on Saturday night, I turned to Justin and I was like we need to make an offer on that park st house. He was like really? So we talked about it for a while, and decided why not? Lets just see what happens. So Monday rolled around, we made an offer, and it turns out there was already 2 other offers on it as well. After a few counters, and waiting we got the house, and we love it! Im so glad that everything worked out with it. The house was just so old, and hadn't been remodeled in so long, that I couldn't see the potential. Lucky for me, someone else had better insight and helped me to realize that it was perfect for our family. Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures of what we have been working on We took pictures of the house during the inspection last april, and then have been taking them as we remodel. We have done all of the remodeling by ourselves because Justin is so talented. The only thing we hired out was new carpet downstairs. The first two pictures are the stair well going downstairs. Before it had some hideous wood walls, so justin tore it all off, sheetrocked, and repainted. It turned out nice. There was also a wood stove surrounded by bricks at the bottom of the stairs, so we tore that out, because it was dangerous, and so ugly. The next two pictures are of the downstairs family room. Again more wood paneling, ugly light fixtures, etc. We aren't finished with the family room yet, we need to cut in a window, cover up a funky light fixyture, and replace doors, but it has come along way. The last two pictures is of the upstairs living room before and after. The living room is my favorite. We went to put in pergo, and new carpet throughout the upstairs right after we moved in, and discovered beautiful wood floors in every room but the kitchen and bathroom. The floors were in excellent condition, but looked like a basketball gym floor, so we sanded, and restained the floors, and decided to keep the wood floor throughout the upstairs, which we love! Anyway, the living room is the only room in the house that is completely finished, and we love it. We have been so blessed with a great house in this cold Rexburg weather (-5 degrees right now) and we are so grateful.

Oh another post

I just want to say how grateful I am for my little Lexi, she is such a joy in our lives. In ten days she will be 21 months. The other morning I was doing dishes, and she was in the bath, and all of a sudden she was singing as loud as she could "Ya ya go....moo moo moo." Over and over again. (Old MacDonald) I got most of it on video until she looked up, and was suddenly embarrassed. Much to the joy of her daddy, she is quickly picking up some gymnastics skills, she can walk half way across the low beam by her self, and she jumps off and says ta-da. She can also perform, a straddle, tuck, and pike on demand. She is working on her forward roll, but needs a little push at the end. She copies a lot of what we say, and then we are so excited that she has learned something new, we ask her to repeat it, and then she acts like she doesn't know how to say it, and says "dat" which is her word that she says when she doesn't know how to say something.
My mom came into town this past week to visit her new grand baby Soleil, and she stayed with us. It was so nice to have her around, but it makes me lazy because she does all of my dirty work. (Thanks Mom:) My nephew Jake was blessed on Sunday. Of course he was an angel the whole day. Justin and I are slowly but surely buying some Christmas presents and we hope to be done by December 10th? I can't wait to do some secret santa stuff this year, we already have two families in mind. There is no better way to get into the Christmas spirit then to buy for a family in need! Anyway, looking forward to hearing all of your christmas ideas and fun activities.

Things of the fall

Jake
Jake, just a few hours old

Soleil being cute (I stole these from her mom)
Soleil with her attitude

It's been awhile, I know I'm a slacker. Much has happened around the Packard home the past month, but I haven't been on the computer as much because the computer is in Lexi's room, until we get a wireless card, and the only time I write is when she is asleep. So anyway, great news, I have an adorable new nephew (Jake Gordon Babcock sept 14th 8lbs!) and an adorable new neice (Soleil Mabel-Marie Taylor September 24th 5lbs 10oz) They are both so cute, and it's so fun to be around newborns, Lexi was the last new baby on both sides of the family. Jake is an angel, he only cries when he is hungry, and I think he will be a good balance to his crazy brother, which is a relief for his parents. Soleil is much like Lexi in the attitude department, she is only 2.5 weeks old, but she definately already knows what she wants. She loves to be held all the time by her mom :) As for our little family, we are consistently working on our house. yesterday we painted the whole kitchen this green color, but today we both hate it, so we are going to repaint. It turned out kind of a mint green, and we were going for more of a sage green....such a pain. A couple of weeks ago I was able to take a trip to Oregon, just Lexi and I to see my family for a few days. It was a good time, just relaxing, and I need that. Justin was in Seattle for a gymnastics competition over our 4th anniversary, and I was like Heck I am not sitting at home alone on my anniversary, so thats what we did instead. The flight to Oregon was fine, but the flight back home was terrible. When lexi was about 4 months old, i vowed that I would never fly alone again, but I had obviously forgot how terrible Lexi can be on a flight. I was actually crying, it was so embarassing. Lexi was on this steriod for her cough that made her so psycho and grumpy, and to top it off, all those Oregon Liberals who don't believe in having children until your 40 gave me the dirtiest looks. During the five days at my parents house, I got mistaken for a teenager 3 times from 3 different people! So basically everyone at the airport probably thought I was a seventeen year old single mother who couldn't handle her child im 24...gah! Anyway, thats about as exciting as my life is right now. I've actually been pretty lonely lately, all of our good friends have up and left us here in Rexburg. I keep thinking I will meet someone I click with in the ward or someone, but I just haven't. There are a lot of great people in our ward, just none that I would feel comfertable hanging out with. Luckily we do have family close by that I love, but I can't always bug them, (they both just had new babies, so their pretty busy :) Justin is pretty fantastic at entertaining me, but sometimes you just need to hang out with the girls you know?
Poor me right ? :) anyway, here a few pictures, including one of Jake and Soleil.

17 again....I wish

Pictures from Justin's sister Corinne's wedding. She married Justin Hoskin (yay for 2 Justins in the immediate family) These are a couple cute shots from the wedding last weekend. First of all, as cheesy as it was, and as cocky as Zack Efron is, I have to say that I loved the movie 17 again, it was very entertaining, but that's not the plot of this post. My friend Amber stopped over for a few hours the other day to hang out. Lexi had fallen asleep for a couple hours so we couldn't go anywhere. We ended up chatting about the past, friends, flings, high school, etc. We were trying to figure out what year it was and what time of year she was dating one of her many flings. So I decided to pull out my old journals to try and figure out when this all took place (not so long ago I was faithful in writing in my journal like once a week). Anyway, we ended up reading some old journal entries from high school and early college days and we had all these oh yea, and omi gosh I can't believe I said or did that moments. We had some good laughs over a few things, and that was that. I realized after reading through a few entries that it had been so long since I had actually read my journals. That night I was going through more entries, and reading the worth a laugh ones to Justin, I can't believe how mean I was to some of the guys I dated, or how self centered I was in high school. I wish I could go back and change the way I treated certain people. Wouldn't it be so amazing to go back in time, and know what we know now? Although I didn't necessarily like the person I was in high school, I do miss the care free lifestyle, where the only thing I had to worry about was what color I wanted to dye my hair, I miss crazy girl talk and pranking people, I miss wearing tight jeans, and looking decent in them, I miss someone else cooking for me, and paying for my car insurance, but most of all I miss feeling like life was always going to be so cushy and easy. I have a good life, and Im so blessed, but there are so many responsibilites, so many people depending on me, bills to pay, laundry to fold...etc etc. Thus the plot of this post is me complaining because I am feeling overwhelmed, and tired, and Im wishing I could go back to a time when life was almost always sweet. On a good note, my house is put together, we have working internet, Im eating yummy peanut butter cookies I just made (why cant I fit into my jeans again) and Im blessed with amazing friends and family.