Guess Who's Six?

Can't believe it, Happy Birthday Jonah! He's a really great kid and a joy to have around. He keeps us laughing everyday.

Day at the Park

Fun twirly thing. This was a real crowd pleaser, there were always tons of kids on this!

Sam on the rock wall.

Jonah and the whale. You may have noticed the reimergence of the Nemo hat. Jonah LOVES his Nemo hat. It is getting a little bit small, don't know what we will do when he outgrows it.

Bekah and the Gorilla. This park is near the zoo so there is a definite animal theme.

Jonah on the rock wall. They really had fun on this.

Goodbye Green, Hello Red!

Well, it's over. The green van finally died. It has served us well and built up our faith. It went out in a blaze of white smoke on my way home one day two weeks ago. I thought it was on fire and was kind of scared. Sam and I got out fast and ran into the house. It wasn't on fire, but there were serious issues. Here's a few things that are wrong with this car:

• Broken driver's sideview mirror.
• Rearview mirror that has been glued back in place more times than I can count.
• Tape player working only when it wants to.
• No heat for about a year and a half. (The kids and I have good memories of driving to piano lessons in NE piling on blankets and wearing long johns with the promise of hot cocoa when we got home. It was SOOO COLD. We really didn't go out if we didn't have to!)
• No defrost.
• Having to lock side door by hand.
• Back door being locked shut for about 3 weeks.
• Always having to charge the battery.
• cigarette charger not working for plugging in the all important DVD player.
• The fun and excitement of not knowing if the car will start.
• Not to mention the head gasket that finally did it in.

Enter the red van! What do I like about this car? EVERYTHING WORKS!!!

Sopa de Arroz

I've been into cooking lately and trying new things. I get a lot of recipes from the kids cookbooks at the Library. Since I'm in the kids section all the time they are handy. They have a lot of international cookbooks so it's fun to learn about other cultures as well as get the recipes. The recipes are usually really easy since the cookbooks are geared towards kids. We have tried Thai and Mexican and I want to try some Japanese next. This recipe is one of my favorites. It's easy and the ingredients are cheap.

Sopa de Arroz

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup cooked rice
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green chile (use two if you like it spicy)
2-3 tomatoes
4 cups beef or chicken stock
1 cup chopped chicken. cooked(opt.)
salt to taste

Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add rice, garlic, onion, and chili pepper. Fry until brown, stirring often. Add tomatoes, chicken, stock, and salt. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add;

Tortilla chips
Cheese
Sour cream

Too Good!

I just found this recipe for frosting and mixed it up, I haven't even frosted the cake yet and I know this frosting is a wining recipe. And it's easy too!

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
2 cups confectioners' sugar


DIRECTIONS
1. Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.


ENJOY!!!

Stitches

Well it's happened, someone at our house needed stitches. Normal Saturday morning, boys watching tv, goofing off, a little rough play and then THE CRY. It's Sam. Bekah brings him upstairs with blood spilling out of his mouth. Alan and I are getting ready for the day. Alan has to go to work in 5 minutes. He will be late. I ask Alan if it needs stitches and he says yes and pulls out his med kit. Oh yeah, HE can do it. I was amazingly calm through the whole process. I was holding limbs and looking the other way, but I did sneak a peak and didn't feel like fainting. Sam was really good. I expected him to start screaming when Alan gave him the shot in his lip, but he just whimpered a little and stayed still. Two stitches in his lip. The sad thing is through the process of sewing him up I was thinking that I should get a picture for the blog. I will take a picture of the stitches some time today, after my hands stop shaking!

Winter Happenings

I haven't blogged for a while so I thought it was about time to start up again. Here are a few things that have happened this month.

• The back tire blew out on our way home after Christmas. It happened on the highway while Alan was driving. It really happened so fast that I didn't even realize what had happened until we were almost completely pulled over. I am so glad that Alan was there and that he was driving. I tried to entertain three kids and a dog on the side of the road for an hour. There was a big hill the kids enjoyed playing on and it was pretty far from the road. We played red light/green light, tag and Simon says. Needless to say we started off the year putting 4 new tires on our van.

• I finished painting our master bathroom with the SECOND color choice. The first yellow we chose was way too bright on the walls, so we re-painted it. Much better! I even got a little valance sewed for the window and finished staining the cabinets. All I need now are some bathmats and I'm done. We stll want to change the light fixture and other hardware, but that will have to wait for a while.

• Bekah turned 12! I turned 30 something! We went out to Red Robin to celebrate both birthdays. Alan's parents came down too to celebrate Bekah's b-day. We had her favorite dessert, marshmallow brownies.

• The week of my birthday we had three "ice" days where the kids had no school. Great birthday present! They were actually ok, but I was happy to send them back to school on Friday!

• On nice days, Sam and I take a walk. He rides in the stroller and has decided that he always wants to sleep on the walk. He brings his blanket, lays down, and before I know it he's asleep! I just wheel him in the house afterwords and he stays asleep! I wonder how long this will last?

• We were excited to see that a Goodwill was being built near our house! It opened in January and I was there opening day with all the crazy people. It is now the closest retail store to us. I've been three times already.

• Jonah asked if he could stay home the other day because he wanted to eat noodles(Ramen that is) for lunch. I told him I could send noodles with him to school, but he said he wanted to eat them at home. Nice try Jonah, very cute but didn't work. He did eat us out of Ramen the three days he was home though!

• Alan and I are working our way through the DVDs of Scrubs, pretty funny show!

• I just read a good book called Cassandra and Jane, by Jill Pitkeathley, about Jane Austen and her sister and their life together. It is fiction, but I thought it was really good, especially for Jane Austen fans. Even though I'm not a huge fan of her books I like the movies. I may try the books again after reading this book.