Rudy Family Rukus~Parenting tips and humor meet in one big "rukus"

When it snows huge flakes it is so silent outside.  Not in a creepy way.  In a beautiful close to heaven sort of way.  That's how it was here last night.  Sometimes silence is good. Joining up with Wordless Wednesday' s everywhere and Wordful Wednesday .

I was inspired by my lovely friend Emily yesterday when she posted on Instagram about a delicious chicken pot pie her daughter made from a Progresso Recipe Starter .  This triggered my memory of the Progresso Recipe Starters I bought a month ago.  (Still working on inventory of my pantry....) So I got started.  I'm kind of a make it up as I go gal.  I follow recipes but I like to add my own touches so I can post them on my blog and claim them....ahem I mean so that my food is deliciously my own. This is what I ended up with For the chicken you need Approx 2 lbs chicken breasts (I cut them into smaller pieces for my kids) 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used Walmart brand) 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese 1/2 cube butter 1 clove of garlic minced 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese 1 can Progresso Recipe Staters Fire Roasted Tomato Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Rinse the chicken and cut it up (if you want it also cooks faster this way). Melt the butter and add ...

This is the yummiest easiest treat I know how to make.  The problem is I have been looking for these corn puffs for years.  Finally Walmart started carrying them and I couldn't wait to make this treat for my family. You start with these bad boys   You can use the whole bag or adjust to a serving size you are comfortable with and then I use this recipe from AllRecipes.Com because it is easy and my favorite.  And my kids LOVE it.  You put the corn puffs in a bowl dump the carmel over it and stir until covered.  Advantage of this over popcorn no hulls or kernels to break your teeth on.  Trust me it is delicious! And if you don't believe me believe them... it disappeared really FAST!  It will make a great SuperBowl snack! And who doesn't love that?

One lovely afternoon in the Fall we ventured over to our local Scheels .  We were mesmerized; it was AMAZING.  They have EVERYTHING that any sporting individual could want.  I fell in love with the workout area and my kids fell in love with the shooting range and all the photo op spots.  Here's what we came up with. Cougars are scary when your a Ute!  Except that is probably a mountain lion.....ahem. The girls didn't get the memo to be scared of the Bear..... This is my favorite. I love that they do what I tell them!  Overall we had a blast.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria and we wanted to ride the ferris wheel but the line was too long.  Can't wait to go back for a fun filled afternoon!! Joined up with Lolli at Better in Bulk and Angie at Seven Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday and Alicia at Project Alicia .  

Almost every year we get a nice little family day on MLK Jr. day.  Here in Utah the Auto Show is this weekend and who doesn't LOVE to see nice new expensive cars.  And of course dream a little.  We spent the entire day wandering around the South Towne Expo center and dreaming.... I look good in a Cadillac right? I can also see myself in this baby during the summer! I think my girls look pretty good behind the news desk too.  KSL had a small booth set up with a real camera and camera man with prompter and all.  So much fun!!  Here Peyton is reporting of an alien attack in Salt Lake City! We ended our day with dinner at Famous Daves also a family favorite.  Don't mind the frightened looks they were anticipating the very bright flash in the dimly lit restaurant.  So I may not have worked on my organization today but I can catch up on laundry and cleaning later.  These memories were totally worth making!

You know the one I'm talking about.... the Birds and the Bee's, the "we don't have sex before we are married", the "no drugs and alcohol" talk.  The one that embarrasses the 10 year old and makes the 5 year old scratch her head and say things like what is sex?  I'm of the opinion that if I talk about these things like it doesn't bother me my children will feel more comfortable coming to me with questions about the aforementioned topics.   Today I brought this up while driving with all three children in the car.  I totally embarrassed my son and my daughters acted like I was CRAZY.  We had the discussion anyway.  I persevered. I yammered on feeling confident in my parenting role.   Then I went on a date with my husband and inhaled this. Overall, I think, after today I'm pretty much winning.  

So I mentioned the other day how I love to work out.  I thought I better put my pictures where my mouth is so you don't think I'm just making it up.... This was taken at the CBC Conference in May of 2010.  I didn't take off my jacket because I was embarrassed of my chub.  I was happy clearly but not the best version of me. Not the best shot but the only other pictures I have are in my sports bra and workout pants and I am not quite ready to put that all out there just yet.   I have been working out with a great group of women for the past year. We encourage each other we laugh together and we get strong together.  We share recipes, workout tips, and our lives.  We call ourselves Super Mom's.  We have our own support group ahem I mean Facebook group . Then in October a cute facebook friend Jill invited me to a LeanMoms event.  At the time I wasn't sure what that was exactly but it sounded fun it involved healthy snacks and a Saturday work...

So as I promised here are pictures of the pantry project.  It turned into a little more than I expected.  To be honest I want to rip all the wire shelving out and start completely over but that is a DIY project for another day.   For now I used some baskets from Walmart and did my best with what I have.   I even dug out my old label maker and started labeling away until I ran out of tape. Oops! If you think it still looks bad this is what I threw away.... I know totally embarrassing.  It is a work in progress.  I plan to inventory everything in there tomorrow because I had 4 bottles of worcestershire sauce really that may last until well past the expiration date lets just say.  I also have enough seasonings to flavor an entire third world country.  That's a lot in case you don't get my sarcasm.  Anyway I like the baskets with the handles so I can just pull them out and see what's inside.  I'm pretty short so...

I don't understand why her shirt is on her head all I know is she loves to pose.  And I still haven't learned to move straws out of the photo frame.... Can you say cheese? I gave birth to clowns.  Oh well I can't say we don't have fun wherever we go! We are at one of our favorite restaurants Costa Vida .  Thanks for providing a back drop for our fun!! I was not compensated for this post we really just love Costa Vida. Linking up with Lolli at Better in Bulk for Wordless Wednesday and Angie at Seven Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday.  And wordless Wednesdays all over.

So I had a serious Pinterest fail today.  I know don't judge me just yet.  I love Pinterest.  There are some pretty great things on there, but what happens when you add a recipe from Pinterest to your carefully planned menu for the month and then you can't get the recipe link to connect?  Any of them; there were about 30 recipes for lasagna rolls NONE of them linked to a single recipe. Well if you are resourceful you just make up your own recipe and hope for the best.  Lucky for me (and you) it worked out great and I am going to share!  And it is really EASY to make. Lasagna Rolls 1 pound lean ground Turkey (can use sausage or ground beef) 10 cooked lasagna noodles 2 cups  raw spinach chopped 15 oz container Ricotta Cheese 1 egg 1 can or bottle Spaghetti Sauce 1 cup mozzarella cheese  Cook Lasagna noodles per instructions on box then drain and dry completely.  Brown ground turkey drain and mix with Ricotta Cheese, eg...

As a parent I have learned that you can't get everything done at once.  Some days I can't even get ONE thing done.  Although that has significantly improved as my children have gotten older.  Thank goodness!  I can actually brag that I am able to shower each and everyday without worrying about any run aways or major home destruction.  As I try to get more organized I have decided to set weekly goals so I don't get overwhelmed.  Last week my goals were stay on top of the laundry and stick to my menu plan.  I was sick at looking at this mess.... That's right those are clean folded clothes running over. And this is not the normal it was usually a basket full of clean, unfolded, wrinkled clothes. I was seriously sick of seeing this.   The washing I don't mind even the folding is not THAT bad but I hate to put clothes away.  Don't ask why because I don't know why... But I made a goal this past week that I would wash, dry, fold, put away....

I LOVE to workout.  That's an understatement.  And if you know me you know that to be true.  Last year I started working out HARD.  I started lifting weights and doing HIIT.  I ran two half marathons and did the Wasatch Back Ragnar .  I tried things I never thought possible and I accomplished them.  I have learned to love Burpees they work every part of your body some you didn't even know you had.  If you don't know about the torture that is a burpee here's a demo. Best part of a workout for me though is the music.  It is imperative that I have good music you know the kind that makes you want to get up and shake your booty.  And sometimes the kind of music that I like to call "angry" music.  So I decided to put together a list of my favorite workout songs and also ask for some suggestions. My top ten workout songs..... Drumroll please. 10.  Rosa Parks....OutKast 9.  We Are Never Ever Getting Back Togeth...

I set another goal for the new year.  I want to spend more meaningful time with my children.  I make an effort to spend one on one time with my Husband but I realized I am not as vigilant doing this with my kiddos so we have had several game nights this week and last night we set goals as a family.   My children attend Primary at church and they were all given journals to write in weekly so I had them write the goals in their journals.  It was fun.  They had great ideas and were excited to set goals for themselves.   That is some serious UNO concentration Posing for the camera of course. Kayton and I finished early so I worked on my photography and she worked on her silly expressions. I'm linking up with Lolli and Cecily for Photo Story Friday. Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Am I the only one who is completely fascinated with these wonders of nature?  I hope not, but even if I am I have really been enjoying looking at these the past few days in this frozen tundra. So photographing them in the dark isn't very easy but they show up so much nicer than they do during the day. Also did I mention that I am unorganized and I do dumb things like forget to cover my gas grill ugh.... I hope it isn't ruined.  Honestly I need to live in a much warmer climate.  This item is now on my seasonal maintenance list to be checked and COVERED for the winter.  Lesson learned. I am a checklist kinda girl too bad I got the checklist started AFTER the freezing started.   I'm linking up with Lolli over at Better In Bulk and at Project Alicia and Seven Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday since I can't seem to keep it wordless....

In my effort to be more organized I employed my children for some inspiration.  In fact I turned it into a fun little FHE (family home evening) project.  FHE is LDS (or mormon) for family time. You can read more about that here . We have a lesson, read a scripture or two, spend time together and try to bond as a family. We discussed how to be more organized at our home.  And then we did a one month menu plan I figure if I get children input they will eat it right? I am excited to put it to work and we chose healthy easy meals because in my world organization and easy are basically the same thing...... We played a fun game tonight to help us learn our scriptures a little better.  There is going to be a learning curve it isn't very easy but fun and we bonded right. We played UNO attack last night and that was one crazy game.  I laughed and laughed until I cried.  Can't beat that for family fun.   As my kids get older we try to have as...

This is what we did all day Saturday.  Watched Jr. Jazz games starting at 8 am.  What ever happened to sleeping in on Saturdays... or any day of the week for that matter?  Maybe having toddlers wasn't really that bad! In other news in an effort to get more organized I found this great little shop on Etsy with all sorts of organizing printables and so far I'm off to a great start!! You should check out CleanMama and see if they can help you get more organized too. I bought and paid for my printables and I was not compensated in any way for this post I just like what I found and wanted to share.

Are you sick of my snow pictures yet?  I hope not. This week was filled with some family time, more snow time and a full return to our crazy routine.  Much sooner than I wanted.  I truly enjoyed the Christmas Break this year mostly because my husband was here the entire time.  Bitter sweet since we didn't make it to a Bowl Game this year but oh so nice to have him here uninterrupted such a luxury for me this time of year.  Anyway enough blah, blah, blah here's the pictures Yes that is my watering can and a chair notice my previous post get more organized I realize I have a problem! It was around 10 degrees out but they wanted to play outside so bad I couldn't say no.  They had so much fun I'm glad I allowed it. Back to school and bundled for the bus.  The day after New Years seemed too soon to return to the crazed life but they were excited.  The house was so quiet after everyone left I had to leave too I couldn'...