Happy Birthday Lindsey !!!!

We hope you have a wonderful day and that you get to do something fun !!!

Merry Christmas to all....

Just wanted to stop and wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas. We are busy today making all kinds of goodies. Everyone had something that they wanted to make today so we are trying to get them all done. We've got the fudge and the peanut brittle done. Cookie dough is ready to be cut into shapes and Alexis is patiently waiting for her Puppy Chow to get made.

We are anxiously waiting for Christina to get here -she's on her way. Our first Christmas with Kaden, we are so exicted.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and an even better New Year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLII...

We hope you have a great day.

The Christmas Spirit....

Here are a few sights around the house that proves we are somewhat in the Christmas spirit: Of course we decorated a couple weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to sharing it.






Isn't this what Christmas is all about?









Frosty always checks things out from on top of the cabinets.









My small collection of Santa's.

Of course, there is always the tree -
I put the kids in charge this year
I will try to post a picture of the finished product.











At last but not least...What do you do with
all those outdoor lights that never get put up?
You bring them inside and put them in a vase.

Snow Day

This is what we woke up to today. It actually started in yesterday - because we usually don't get alot of snow, the city doesn't have snowplows which means the roads are usually a mess. That makes the kids happy because that meant NO school today. However, they will have to make it up - then they will complain when that time comes.

Appetizer Time

It's appetizer time over at Pam's Place. I thought I would share one that we really like:

Spinach Dip

Ingredients:

1 tub (8 oz.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese Spread
1 cup sour Cream
1 env. Ranch Salad Dressing mix
1 pkg. (10 oz.) Frozen Chopped Spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed
1 can ( 8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped
½ cup chopped red bell pepper

Mix cream cheese, sour cream and dressing mix in a medium bowl
Stir in the spinach, water chestnuts and red bell pepper
Refrigerate for several hours or overnight
Serve with veggie sticks, chips or French Bread broken into pieces.

Shortcut-If the spinach is still frozen you may thaw it for about half of the cooking time given on the package for microwave preparation and proceed as directed above.

Bet ya didn't know....

Here are a few Christmas tidbits that you may not know about me:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper

2. Real tree or Artificial? prefer real but have an artificial

3. When do you put up the tree? By the 5th of December - we were a little late this year - but it's up

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years day

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Baby That a Way

7. Hardest person to buy for? In laws

8. Easiest person to buy for? my dad

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? polyester outfit with clearance tags still on them


12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Too many to list

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge

16. Color of lights on the tree? Multi colored

17. Favorite Christmas song? When Christmas comes to town (Polar Express)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? usually at home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? that the stores puts decorations out before Halloween

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? country themed & the ones my kids have made

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? ham and cheesy potatoes

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? health for my family


Feel free to play along, I would love to see your answers

A little something to kick off the holiday season...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope everyone has a great day. Here's a poem I found that pretty much sums everything up.


Thanksgiving

The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway~
Thanksgiving comes again!

-Old Rhyme-

Gone Purple

We went to the doctor on Wednesday and he took off Sierra's bandages and put on a cast. He let her pick what color she wanted and she chose purple. Also here is a picture of his autograph that he put on her knee the day of the surgery.

Secret Recipe

Over at my cousin Pam's place, she is asking us to share our "secret" recipes. This weeks topic is Soups and Stews. I don't really consider this a secret since it was given to me by a generous neighbor - but it is one of our favorites and tastes great on a cold winter night.

Vegetable Chowder

3 cups potatoes, cubed
1 lg onion, diced
1 stalk broccoli, chopped
1 to 2 carrots, grated
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 cups water
1 Tbsp. Chicken Bouillon-granules
1 cup grated cheese
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

White Sauce:

3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup flour
1 qt. milk (4 cups)

Put vegetables, water and bouillon in large soup kettle. Simmer until potatoes are just tender. Make white sauce by melting margaine in pan and with a wire whisk, stir in flour. Cook until mixture bubbles, about 2 minutes. Add milk slowly while stirring constantly Continue cooking, stirring every few minutes until mixture thickens. Add to vegetables. Simmer soup for 10 minutes longer, Add cheese, salt and pepper. Stir until cheese is melted. Can also add cubed, cooked chicken if desired. This is excellent served in bread bowls.

Enjoy.

Surgery

So this week has been quite hectic and it's only Wednesday. It all started about a month ago when we took Sierra into the foot doctor because her foot has been bothering her - that was on the 9th of Oct. We've been a couple times since and last Thursday was informed that she was scheduled for surgery the following Tuesday (yesterday). So it has been a whirlwind. She had to have part of her bone cut away and a couple screws put in place. Here is a before and after picture - sorry not to cute to look at:

Before:


After:

Not so spooky spooks

This is how Jake and Alexis decided to go trick or treating. Pretty original huh? Jake wanted to go as GI Joe and Alexis decided she would wear the skirt that she made earlier this year.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Anyone who is a scrapbooker may know who Becky Higgins is. She is one of the my favorite scrapbookers of all time. One day while checking out her website I noticed that she had a recipe section. Of course I had to look. I decided to try her Chicken Noodle Soup recipe and it was a big hit with my family. Here is the recipe - one batch fed my family of five with very little left over.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

2 chicken bouillon cubes (or 2 tsp. granules)
2 cans chicken broth
1 c. chopped carrots
2 c. chopped celery
1/4 c. chopped onion
1/2 (half) can cream of chicken soup
1/4 c. milk
1/2 cube (4 Tbsp.) butter
1/4 c. flour
2 c. chopped cooked chicken (2 pieces)
4-6 oz. egg noodles

Boil chicken until fully cooked. Cook egg noodles. Dissolve 2 bouillon cubes in 1 cup boiling water. Add chicken broth and vegetables to the liquid until tender. In separate bowl, whisk a half a can of cream of chicken soup and milk until smooth. Whisk soup and milk mixture into broth and vegetables. Melt butter then stir into flour. Add to soup mixture. Add chicken and noodles. Optional: Season to taste with salt & pepper or Schillings garlic & herb seasoning.

Happy Birthday to Aaron & Brittany !!!!

Have a great day.

Congratulations to Aaron...

Who will be spending the next two years in Spain.

We are excited for you !!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE !!!!

Have a great day.

The Balloons are in the Air....

This past week has been the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. This is the big event of the year. It's always fun to see the balloons in the air, especially the shape one. Here are a few pictures that I was able to take from the parking lot at work:















Can you find Darth Vader in the upper right hand corner picture? Look close!!

Apples, Apples, & more Apples...

About 45 minutes from us, is a great little apple orchard. Their apples went on sale a little over week ago. The only problem is that you have to wait forever to get some. Carl was a good sport about it. He went to pick some up for me so that I could make some applesauce and ended up being there for about 3 hours- that includes the time spent in the car and finally giving up and walking down the road to where they were actually selling them.

But the time and patience paid off. I was able to get 16 quarts and 1 pint. Plus a little left over to eat right away.

It's Autumn...

Fall has arrived at our house. Here are a few pictures of the evidence:

Time to move on to the backyard....

Well, the work has begun in the back yard. We got a chance to pick up some pavers for a REALLY good price so we jumped on it. Here are some before and after pictures so far:

My Autumn Favorites....

Melissa over at The Inspired Room has her list of "20 Little Things to Treasure in Autumn" and I decided to join in. Here is my list in no particular order:

1. Drives up the canyon


2. Holiday baking


3. Pumpkin patches


4. Trees changing colors


5. Making and bottling applesauce


6. Pumpkin scented candles


7. Sound of dried leaves crunching beneath my feet


8. Fires in the fireplace


9. Fall decorations


10. Soups and stews


11. Making Halloween costumes


12. Cool crisp mornings


13. Bath and Body Works Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin lotion


14. Long sleeve tops


15. Pumpkin Pie


16. Sweet Potatoe Pie


17. The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta


18. The color Orange - (any other time I'm not a big fan)


19. Thanksgiving with family


20. Digging out the sweaters & jackets
    
    
    
    

Fast and Easy

Skillet Tostadas


8 oz ground beef
1/3 cup bottled salsa
½ cup chopped onions
1 15oz can light kidney beans
1 11oz can nacho cheese soup
shredded cheese
chopped tomatoes
shredded lettuce
tostada shells

In a 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain fat; discard. Stir beans, soup and salsa in beef mixture. Heat through.
Divided beef-bean mixture among tostada shells. Top with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. If desired, serve with sour cream or guacamole.

This has become a favorite at our house. We tend to have this often on Tuesdays since it is such a busy night for us - two kids going in two different directions

Fall is on it's way

I found these fun pumpkins at http://ourcozynest.blogspot.com/2008/08/pumking-making-tutorial.html and thought they were so cute that I just had to try them. They were lots of fun to make and oh so easy. I can't believe it's that time of year already. Where did summer go???

New Recipes

We've decided to try something new. We like to try new recipes, whether they come from a cookbook, found on the internet or even from someone at church. So we've made a goal to try something new every week (or at least try). So about once a week you will get to see what we are making in our kitchen. Of course, we will always give credit where credit is due.

This weeks recipe:

Almond Poppy Seed Cake (always start with dessert, right?)

1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 (3 3/4 oz) pkg instant French vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 cup butter - melted
1/4 cup poppy seeds

Combine above ingredients and beat on medium for 5 minutes with electric mixer. Pour into well buttered and sugared bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Cool 15 minutes then turn out onto plate and sift with powdered sugar.

If you desire a glaze instead:

Mix enough powdered sugar with milk and 2-3 drop of almond extract to make a glaze and drizzle over cake. (no definite measurements on this - trial and error - don't need a lot though)


I found this recipe on the KSL website by Kellie Harding - yes, even though I haven't lived in Utah for 7 years, I still keep up on the local news there. Sorry there is no picture, we ate it before I got a chance to snap a picture.

Good Luck and enjoy. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

My Favorite Things..

1. My family
2. Vacation on the beach
3. Mexican Food
4. Reading a good book.
5. A beautiful sunset.
6. Spending time in my sewing/craft room with no interruptions


What are some of your favorite things????

A trip to the Zoo

Yesterday we went to the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque - the last requirement that Jake needed to receive his Bear badge in cub scouts. Recently they have been putting quite a bit of money into improving it so I was quite impressed. We had a great time. Here are a few of the sights we saw:

Another Before & After

We decided that this was the summer to put some work into the front yard. Carl was a good sport about all the plants I brought home from work and was really good about getting water to them and getting them planted - we even added a little bit of grass.

Before:

After:

So what do you think???

A little visitor

All last week we were able to have Christina and Kaden visit us for the week. It was lots of fun having them around the house. Of course we all took our turn at trying to spoil Kaden.


As you can see the dog even had to check up on Kaden to make sure that we were being nice to him.

Before & After

This past week Sierra started school. The twins start tomorrow. Sierra decided she was ready for a new haircut to start the new school year off.

Here she is on the first day of school:

And this is what she looked like yesterday after she had been to the salon:

What a difference a couple hours will make, she was pretty excited because I also let her get a few highlights.

Her dad even thought it looked really good.

I've accepted the challenge

A week or so ago, my cousin sent out a challenge. This challenge had to be something we wanted to learn, something we wanted to finish, or something that we have been putting aside to do at a later date. Well, I accepted the challenge.

Earlier this summer I decorated the cover of a composition notebook and had good intentions of making it my journal or gratitude book. Well, as embarrassed as I am to admit it, that is as far as it went. So I was indeed grateful for the challenge and knowing that she will be checking up on me makes me more determined to do it.

I've already filled in a couple pages, so at least I'm off to a good start. Let's just hope that I can keep it that way.

Our week in a nutshell

This week has been kind of quiet. Not too much going on here. Yesterday was the day to take Sierra and Alexis shopping for back to school clothes and shoes. We did so well that we were done and back home by 12:30 p.m. Not too bad.

Later in the evening we decided to take the four wheelers out for a ride:

When we got back from riding, we thought it might be a good idea to check the garden and we found several surprises:

It looks like we are doing something right with the garden.

Garden Update

It seems as though while we were gone our garden grew by leaps and bounds.

Our little row of tomato plants - when we got back, the leaves from half of one of the tomato plants had been eaten completely off. Any suggestions on what to do about that? We have no idea what kind of bug/insect did that.

We've got tomatoes- just not ripe enough yet.

Here is Jake's cabbage plant that he started from seed. There are two heads of cabbage on this plant and I have no idea what I am going to do with them or when they are even ready to be picked. If you have any ideas please send them my way.

Our strawberry plants are doing really good however, I don't think we are going to be getting too many strawberries this year. Maybe next year will be more prosperous.