Springtime!

The weather has been teasing us the last few weeks. It will be sunny and Spring-like and get me all excited and then it will have an identity crisis and rain with snow mixed in and decide to be freezing! I decided I needed to help Spring truly find itself by making this banner to hang on our fireplace. Maybe it will inspire spring to come out once and for all! :) It looks like spring might make a true appearance this week. We will see...

Since it has been somewhat "nice" outside, we have been going on more and more walks. Merrilee loves walks and it is good for me to get out of the house and get some kind of exercise.

Ben and I went to a BYU baseball game this past Saturday.  Ben got free vouchers somewhere and it was a lot of fun! Merrilee loved it. They would play music between innings, or if they were switching out the pitcher and Merrilee would dance and laugh.  Just watching baseball and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" got me so excited for summer to come! BYU won the game.

Before the game on Saturday, Ben said if we got all our chores done, he would take me to IKEA! That was kind of an unexpected surprise! We got most (not all) of our chores done, but we went anyways! It was fun to dream of having our own house and talk about the kinds of furniture and rooms we will have one day.  Hopefully it is in the near future! We ended up buying just a few items that we needed, like a new dish rack, Tupperware, and a $5 lamp for Merrilee's room.  The lamp came just white and boring, but I spruced it up a little bit with ribbons and hot glue to match Merrilee's girly pink room.

Last night I made a crock-pot dinner and Ben was in love with it! I decided I'd share the love in case any of you have husbands like mine who salivate just thinking about meat! :) Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches

(Prep time: 10 minutes, cooking time 8-10 hours on low, 4-5 hours on high)

2-3 pound beef bottom round or eye of round roast

1 (32 ounce) box of beef broth

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 (.70 ounce) package Italian salad dressing mix

Place beef roast in a slow cooker, fat side up. Pour broth into a medium saucepan and add all other ingredients. Stir well and bring to a boil. Pour broth mixture over the roast. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours, high 4-5 hours. If possible, turn roast over after 5-6 hours. Prior to serving, flip roast over again and scrap off any visible fat. Remove the roast from the slow cooker and using two forks “shred” the roast. (Or just buy a pre-sliced roast like I did and use the slices instead of "shreds"...so much easier than having to shred meat.) Return the beef back to the broth in the slow cooker. Serve on Italian rolls with sautéed green peppers if desired. 

Serves 6-8

(We melted mozzarella cheese on top of the meat and then put on the green peppers and a spoon-full of broth. YUM!) 

Serve with sliced apples and oranges and watch your husband melt! :)