Amazing Lime Rickeys

So I love the new Limeade drink from Taco Bell. Its super fizzy and tart and sooo tasty. Except its like almost $3.00 for a large (which is like 16 oz in this case). Booooo! So I took a Raspberry Lime Rickey recipe I have used here, from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and adapted it to be all lime. Delish.

Amazing Lime Rickeys

1 cup fresh lime juice (from about 8 limes) 
Lime Zest (from 2 of them)
1 cup water 
2 Cups Sugar 
Club Soda (Chilled)
Ice


In a medium sized saucepan, combine and heat water, sugar, lime juice and zest. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer, stirring occasionally. Simmer, stirring every so often about 5 min, making sure sugar is all dissolved. Remove from heat and pour through a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl to remove the zest from the lime syrup. Refrigerate syrup until cooled. 


To serve, pour 1 1/2 cups club soda into a large ice filled glass. Add 5 tablespoons syrup and stir. Enjoy! 


(Side Note:You can always add more or less syrup depending on your personal preferences)

Summer 2011

We have had an awesome and busy summer over here. We have seen lots of family, spent lots of time in the sun, and had lots of fun! We bought a zoo membership at the beginning of summer and have made lots of visits, including taking Benji's cousins a few times, we took Hakeai in between wedding activites once, and spent an evening with Maddy, Caden, and Jackson there too. We also went camping, boating, had lots of bbqs, and two weeks ago we took a trip up to visit Great Nana and Papa Overton in Idaho. We all had a blast spending time with Nana and Papa.

We got in late Friday night, then Saturday morning we went to the Idaho Fair. We sweated like crazy and visited a petting zoo there, had lemonades, burgers, corndogs and funnel cakes, then we came home and took naps, and I mean ALL of us. Then in the evening we visited a park and Mitch did some pond fishing...sort of. He got one nibble but did not catch a single fish.
The next morning we went to Zoo Boise then had a picnic lunch in the park. Grandpa and Mitch talked about ice cream all morning, so on the way back to the house for our naps, we stopped and got some shakes and a little ice cream shop in the city. That evening we went and visited with  my uncle David and aunt Kristi and my cousins.
My grandparents have two little toy poodles, and I wish I had taken a picture of Benji with them, but sadly, I did not. Benji was afraid of them for the first day, then after that he was chasing them around laughing. It was super cute. He had an awesome time and talked about it for days after we got home. We packed a lot into one weekend but man was it worth it! Here are some pics of our time spent in Idaho.

Drumming with corn dog sticks 

Comparing their goatees

Enjoying some powdered sugar covered Funnel Cake! mmmm

Off to see more animals with or without us..

Benji's dream plaything, his favorite animal and a huge slide in one!

We could not get him off this thing!

Back to blogging: Newborn Benji

So Mitch's aunt Amy asked me if I've given up blogging...and even though I don't think I have, I haven't been posting anything, at all. So I am going to make an effort to share more of our lives on our blog! Here are some pics of Benji, 1-4 days old. Its amazing how much of a normal little baby he looked already. He didn't have that wierd alien look lots of newborns get, maybe due to the fact that his head DID NOT mold AT ALL! 

As our pregnancy with this new little guy gets closer to its end, I have been thinking about what this delivery will be like, and what the recovery will be like, will it be a completely new experience? Or by some awful coincidence will this baby end up stuck in the NICU too? I want to try to make nursing work with him but I also know that I will not try to push it if things are too hectic. Breastmilk is the absolute best thing out there for a baby, but formula does not harm them. I was afraid to give my baby formula last time around because I thought I would be hurting him somehow, I now know from experience that those thoughts were full of bull. I have one perfectly healthy, happy, and very energized little boy to prove it. 

Today my world is changing...(A post started on Feb. 25th)

(I started this post on the day my daddy died. I used it in my talk about him at the services. As I was thinking about him and missing him today, I decided to come in and post it for others to see and spend a minute thinking of him with me.)

My dad, who is one of the most wonderful selfless men I know, is leaving us to go be with our Father in Heaven. My dad has been there for everyone, friends, family, strangers, you name it. When Mitch and I were both going to school and dirt poor, my dad came up with a solution for high rents and crappy apartments, he decided he would build me a house to rent. Sounds crazy right? Well, thats just what he did. From drawing the plans, to carpeting and tiling the floors and painting the walls, he did it all. ALL of it. Minus one or two things we finally convinced him to pay someone to help him with. Just as he did when building the home my mother and him shared with us kids and his parents, he worked tirelessly all day at his job at Workers Comp, and then came home and put in all the hours until dark he could fit on the house. His entire Saturdays were devoted to what big project he could finish on the house. For as long as I can remember, he was always like this. He fixed every car every time we had a problem, which was a lot, because he loved buying quick fix cars!



I think tomorrow I may post my entire talk I gave at his funeral for anyone who'd like to read it again. It's hard to believe he's been gone from this earthly life now for about a month and a half. I love that Benji still will point out "Papa" in a picture. It will break my heart when he forgets. We're getting ready to sell his boat soon. It hurts us all to do it, but we have no way to pull it and with all these little ones in our lives now, the boat isn't really something we can use too much right now.
I'm 10 weeks pregnant this week, and I constantly think about my dad watching over both my little ones. I know that he is and that he loves them so much. In life, he was extremely dedicated to his grandbabies. Maddy, Caden, and Benjamin were his best friends in the World next to my momma, of course. Lucas showed up a month before daddy left us and though my dad was very weak, the first time he held him you could see the love in his eyes as he stared down at that little newborn.

I love you and miss you dad.