The Stevenson Story

I don't really know why I am posting this, I just started writing this last month and thought I would share it with all of you. You need to cut back on your food budget? Here are some tips I found living crazy cheaply in Massachusetts. Now I’m not suggesting you all do these things, I’m not even suggesting you read this, these are just things I have found for us and our family and if it helps some of you guys- go for it. Juice. Not necessary at all. Cut back to drinking milk and water and that’s it. The nutrients in just straight up fruit is better, and juice is so expensive. My kids rarely get juice. Or go to koolaid. Doctors say that apple juice is just what koolaid is anyway- sugar and water mixed up- so drink that for pennies if you kids are dying for juice. Beans. Dry beans. Super cheap, super healthful, and fabulous in so many foods especially to add protein to your diet. Now- the biggest hit to their food budget when I talk...

We finally got higher speed internet that allows me to actually upload pictures. Hooray! That means more posts, and some catching up to do. Starting with my birthday! This year Eric wanted to take me to Italy for my birthday. Since that was a "little" out of our budget, he planned and successfully executed a trip around the world instead. He gave me a passport that I took to all my destinations and had people sign write little messages to me. It's fun to flip through even now. We started the morning in HAWAII with a hula workout video. Ummm. I don't know how those Hawaiian dancers stay so little, because I don't think my heart even jumped once while trying to do it just like it said, but I kind of modified the workout after a few minutes and started feeling more of a cardio workout. Anyway after a quick shower and bringing the kids to my parent's house we we were off to our next destination: FRANCE! We went to the Dalton's house for some crepes. B...

So I know the rest of the world does their resolutions at the beginning of January, but I kind of like to announce mine at the end of the month. Then, when people are throwing their resolutions by the wayside, I feel like I am just starting mine, so they don't seem old and stale. And my birthday is at the end of the month, so it's kind of like my last ditch effort to finish and start other resolutions before I start another year of age. (I had an awesome birthday by the way, when I get my pictures from the day I will let you know what we did and I know you'll all be jealous you aren't married to the most amazing husband and have the best friends and family ever. Best birthday ever, seriously.) Here are the goals we had last year: 1. Go to a museum every month 2. Read books together (one a quarter) 3. Brooke- be successful and feel confident in breadmaking abilities. 4. Eric- cut refined sugar out of diet for 3 months. 5. Make the mo...

Brooke & Eric est. 2005 6 years of marriage 2 perfect little redheads 3 college degrees 5 moves 3 cars, 1 scooter From super poor to a short time of somewhat rich to super poor again. (2 full time incomes and not being in school is super rich for us. That time was 6 months of our whole marriage. :) Thousands of miles traveled together from coast to coast across the entire USA. Millions of amazing lessons learned and memories created. I can't wait for the decades more to come.

Yesterday I decided to do a little test. My parents have had a couple dozens of containers of wheat in their storage for at least 25 years (no exaggeration, I remember when my parents bought this house house when I was 12, my brothers and I were in charge of carrying all the wheat to our basement storage...the wheat was old then). I have always wondered if the wheat is still good; so yesterday I decided to open one of the containers to see if it had turned into an ancient mummy or something or to see if it was still usable. We were all a little bit apprehensive about opening a twenty-plus year container of anything so we moved forward with caution. Funny thing, my parents were EXPECTING it to not good any more (which is a conversation in and of itself). My mom told me that if it was bad I would be in charge of disposing all the wheat. I was desperately hoping it would still be good. Wheat is simply amazing. It's nutritious, you can use it in a LOT of recipes, and man does it store....

Eric turned the big 3-0 this year. With moving and Christmas and my brother's wedding I wasn't able to do as much as I was hoping for this big life event, but family and friends both pulled through (even in the huge snowstorm this week!) and we had a rocking party for him on Wednesday. The theme of the party was hats. Here's Kristen making the amazing hat cake (Those are playing cards on the front that read 3 and 0 for 30) The food was soooo good. Everyone brought an appetizer since that's Eric's favorite kind of food. That's our friend Dave making the crazy face. They braved the snow all the way from Orem! Joe and Everly in their hats. The fam also showing off their crazy hats. Eric's only request for his birthday this year was that there be 30 candles on it for him to blow out. He didn't quite get them out on his first blow, but I'll still let him turn 30. My mom cutting the cake. It was so yummy. RC Helicopte...