One very busy day.

March 10th was a action packed day for our household. 
1st and foremost it was Ryan's 37th b-day.  I had teased him all day that I was doing something embarrassing to him at work.  His boss was in town and he had his big Review.  It worked out perfect for this teasing.  :).
He was pretty relieved when his edible arrangement arrived and he saw that's all I had planned.  I could never pull off something embarrassing I'de feel to bad but it was super fun teasing him about it.

Then Gavin and Josh both had their school programs at the same time.
I decided to just go to Gavin's practice performance and then we could all go to Joshua's real performance. Gavin really didn't want to sing and he wanted to see Josh so it was the best solution. 

Ryan got home at 5:00 I cooked him one of his Favorite dinners. Chicken Satay with peanut sauce. We scarfed it down opened presents and then dashed to Josh's performance.


Ryan got to share about his job for career day. He talked at Trevor's to so it was fun that he got to share that at Joshua as well.



After the performance we came home and had Ryan's birthday Cheese cake.  It takes forever to make and is so tricky to cook. (at least this recipe I have for it) And with my crazy day I was so afraid it wouldn't turn out. But it was great. At least Ryan really enjoyed it so that's all that matters.

Grilling up the chicken

Ryan's presents. The boys did a good job helping me wrap them.  (or stuff them in bags :) )

The cheese cake

All covered in yummy hot fudge sauce. 



 

Gavin waiting very patiently for everyone to come to dinner.  He was dieing to eat the strawberries from his dad's edible arrangement. 





 Finally everyone is ready :)..

Can you find Josh?

Joshua's performance

Ryan's Career day speech

Opening presents

Gavin's pre-school practice program.

We all crashed that night hard.  Good thing because the next day both boys had their wellness walk.  (Josh's class won YEA) I was so sad at the lack of parent participation for the 5th graders.  I got emotional knowing it was Trevor's last wellness walk.  Unfortunately I was the only parent from his class that came to help out so we didn't win!!!   Trevor also had his "maturation" program.  They had a very tame one in 4th grade and this one was the real deal.  I felt so bad for the teacher.  We only have one male teacher at CRE he's the Tech guy and a very quiet man at that.  He had to teach the boys.  Luckily we had gone over everything with Trevor before hand so nothing was too new to him.  I will say it's much easier being a boy at this stage then a girl.  It's so not fair.

Now to gear up for Spring break. 

My accident prone child and green chicken.

Can you believe it.  Trevor broke his right elbow AGAIN.  This is the 4th injury on the same stinking arm.  Two breaks and stitches twice.  The Dr. said he will be prone to breaks on this arm because of his 1st break which was snapping his funny bone in 1/2.  Luckily this time is was just a hair line fracture on the same bone and he only needs the cast for 3 weeks.  Yes 3 very LONG weeks.  A cast is such a pain!!!  And our plans for spring break are out the window.  Poor kid.  But he's LOVING all the attention he is getting.  Kids were lined up to sign his cast when I went to pick him up from school. And they made it super fun for him to get the cast at the Dr. I sure hope this is the last break.  I always thought Josh was my accident prone child.  He gets hurt on a daily basis but it looks like Trevor's accidents are more destructive.

The sad part is he broke it playing Basketball at recess.  He made a basket and got tackled to the ground after he shot it.  The boys are so aggressive here. The Dr. told him even when he's out of his cast he can't do any contact sports for 6 months.  I thought Basketball would be OK but apparently not the way the play it in 5th grade in TX.

On a happier note tonight I made the BEST dinner.  It was a bit time consuming but so worth it.  Ryan and I were licking our plates. Oh and the boys.  Well they all 3 complained because it was green chicken.  The little stinkers.  It's a good thing I cooked some plain chicken knowing they wouldn't go for the "grown up taste of pesto."  Maybe someday I'll be able to just cook one meal for dinner.

Pesto stuffed chicken breast with a Dijon mustard glaze wrapped in Prosciutto and  topped with a cream sauce.  All laid out on guess what . QUNIOA.  I now love the stuff.  I finally figured out how to get it to not taste and smell like stinky feet.  YEA.  And even Ryan will eat it.  Which is HUGE. 

The Red Hat.

Getting this kid to hold still long enough to snap a picture is so impossible.  He's a very busy boy.

Gavin is obsessed with the color Red.  He wants anything that's red.  He also loves Avatars and creating them on the x-box. He always puts them in Red hats.  The other day when we were at Academy he saw this red hat and went crazy for it.  I love my little boys in Hats and the other two wont have anything to do with them so I was happy to get this for Gavin.  He  has wore it everyday since then.  He's was so sad when he couldn't wear it to Church or school.  But yesterday was the Cat in the Hat's b-day party and he could wear his Hat.  He was super happy. I love these little things that makes him so happy.  He's so stinking cute.

Homework battles.

I love little learning moments with my children.  We have oh so many.
Today's great one was with the whole not wanting to do homework issue. This is such a lovely time at our house.  NOT it's war a battle where no one wins and we all end up in a shouting match.
I HATE that I yell and that I let my kids get me to the breaking point, so I've been working super hard on this. And going into homework time today when the buttons were being pushed I just kept reminding myself to not let them win, and when I yell they win.
So our conversation went something like this.

Me.  It's home work time.
Boys I HATE homework, I don't want to do it.
Me. I'm very well aware of your frustration with homework and know that you don't like it but it's something that needs to be done so lets get it done so you can play.
Boys.  I HATE homework, I don't want to do it.
Me. I'm very well aware of your frustration with homework and know that you don't like it but it's something that needs to be done so let get it done so you can play.
Boys "repeat above"
Me "repeat above."
This was repeated SEVERAL times.  Until they finally broke.  And said.
"UGH stop saying that.  It's so annoying when you keep repeating the same thing over and over." 
Me. "Exactly."

And they both said they would do their homework if I'd stop repeating myself... 

Now I know this wont always work. Hopefully they will finally realize no matter how many times they tell me they hate homework they still have to do. And it's will save a whole lot of time not arguing about it :).  I know wishful thinking.  With kids these lessons are usually taught SEVERAL times over and over.   But for today I'll be delighted that I finally won the battle of homework. And there was a lot more peace around here.

San Antonio zoo

Holding Gavin up to see the Flamingos.

The animals seemed so close.  These big pits saved you from being attacked but it was still a little creepy.

Ryan takes such good photos.  I'd hate to run it this guy. Check out his claws.

We stood here forever the most entertaining animal.  Can you guess what it was?

The boys loved his hair cut.

This guy is HUGE. 

Another great picture.

This bird place said clearly on the door.  CAUTION I BITE.  But that didn't stop Josh and yup he got bit. But he and everyone else thought it was funny.

This bird attacked your shoe laces.  The boys thought this was so dang funny they could of stood here all day.

Not the best picture but the only one I had on the camera.  We went on a little train ride after.  It was just what our tired feet needed.

We have been stuck in the house for two weeks with a very sick little boy.  Gavin got some horrible sickness and couldn't get rid of it.  Finally Sat. he was feeling better and he and I needed to get out of the house before we went CRAZY.  So we thought the Zoo would be a perfect place.  We've been to the one in Waco and loved it but we love to try new adventures and so we wanted to compare it to the one in San Antonio.  It's was a cloudy drizzly day but living in Seattle so long a little rain doesn't keep us away. And the day turned out perfect.  The rain stopped when we got there and it was in the low 70's.   I LOVE Texas in Spring it's the BEST!!!

While I was at the zoo I kept wondering if they have zoos in Africa and if they do is there animals like sheep, cows, ducks, deer, all our farm/wild animals?  Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Now that's what I call a cookie.

Ryan is in Charge of the young men at church.  That the boys ages 15-19  and nothing motivates these boys more then Treats.  Last time I made them cheesecake bars and I had one chase me down the hall to tell me how good they were.  It was sweet.  Today Ryan has to work with them on something that's not that exciting so he asked if I could make a extra special treat to motivate them.  I came across this recipe for Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies and knew this would be perfect for these boys.  Only a boy that age could really eat a cookie like this and not feel guilty.  Because it's like eating three cookies in one.  I sure hope they like them ;)

You can't tell from this picture just how big these are.  But I can usually fit 24 cookies on my cooling rack with these giant cookies I could only fit 12.

And in this huge 9x13 Tupperware I can usually fit 48 regular cookies this time only 24 and the top ones got a little smashed.

I only kept 3 one for each boy.  No way can I leave these evil treats around my house.  I'll be way to tempted to eat them.

If anyone wants the recipe here's the sight I got it from.  She has some AMAZING cookie's I've tried several.  Beware the sight is a SUGAR fest.  I don't know how this lady stays so thin. http://picky-palate.com/page/3/

Valentines day.

Happy Valentines day.

Valentines dinner.






Trevor's pizza.  4 meat.  His favorite.



Gavin's French toast. Yes that's all this kid eats.  I was going to make him a grilled ham and cheese the only other thing he eats.  But again he refused.  I don't blame him for for liking french toast so much especially when its with cinnamon bread  and homemade buttermilk syrup. ( I could drink that stuff)

Josh's dinner.  All cheese and Canadian bacon pizza.

Trevor's reaction to the dessert

A brownie trifle.  Yummy.  I didn't keep layering it because I felt like they had more then enough sugar.

The boys enjoying the dessert.  Trevor wouldn't even look up from it. :).



A cute valentine I made for my class. Not a good picture but you get the drift.





I started out the week by making my Primary class a valentine with a red velvet  woopie pie. This one got man handled by my boys and it was the only one left to take a picture of  and the top part is missing.  Oh well it's still preserving the memory even if it doesn't look perfect. The class was so sweet and really enjoyed the MESSY treat.



Even though I think Valentines day is a LAME holiday. (It's just another reason to load kids up with sugar.)


I do enjoy doing fun things for my boys.
We had a heart filled day with chocolate waffles for breakfast, heart sandwiches and woopie pies for lunch and then heart pizzas and apples for dinner.
Then I gave the boys a little valentine to let them know how much I love them.
Ryan and I celebrated with a yummy steak dinner :). It wasn't all that romantic or creative but it got the job done.
Tomorrow we will exchange valentines while on our day date :)
I love my little family. And hope they will always know just how much. Not just on Valentines day.





The BIG slide.

Ryan and I love to do Sunday drives.   In Seattle we would usually end up down town and check out the cool troll bridge, or go out to the Pier, or the locks.  The adventures were endless and fun and usually included something by the ocean.  (I miss the ocean)  But here in Texas we are having all kinds of different adventures.  Our church is now 1:00 BOOO!! So we don't get to do our drives as much but this week we had stake conference at 10:00 and it was such a beautiful day we had to explore.  Saturday we took the kids bowling and while we were leaving we saw a sign with a city named Granger on it and thought we would drive out to explore it.  Ryan was born in Granger UT. so we wanted to see how it compared to that.  Let me tell you there ain't NOTHING in Granger.  The homes don't have fences, most are run down,  everyone has a BBQ pit in their back yard and we saw only one little mom and pop shop.  As we were driving around we came across the school.  I made Ryan stop because of this HUGE slide.   I remember as a kid the only park in our small town had this huge slide.  It seemed like forever to get to the top and once you did it was way to scary to come down.  But you either had to slide down the slide or back down the even worse stairs.  I remember loving that thrill of something that scared me but was also super fun once you over came that fear.  My kids were the same way.  They were FREAKED out going up this slide.  Josh kept saying "I can't believe this is the playground and they actually let kids be on this."  I went up behind Gavin and was panicking all the way.  It's SUPER high if he fell he'd be very hurt.  I couldn't believe this was their elementary playground. Which is so funny because this is alot like my playground that we had when I grew up. (Oh how times have changed since I was in elementry school.)  What was funny was the Elementary, Middle school and High school were all in the same place just different sections of the building. It reminded me of Tropic UT. where my mom grew up.  We had so much fun just conquering the scary slide and walking around the downtown.   I love that Texas has so many little towns like this we can't wait to explore more.

Gavin holding on for dear life.

Look at all the stairs to one tall not to stable slide..

This is what you saw when you got to the top of the curly slide.  By the way it's not ment for "big kids"  I hit my head and got slide rash the whole way down. 

Snow day Feb. 4 2011

It's been COLD COLD COLD here in Texas.  Yes I've become a huge wimp since I moved here. Being from UT and then living in Seattle for 9 years you think I would be used to the snow but now when it's in the 40's I freeze to death.  And it was 19 here with the wind chill it made it -4.  And I don't care where you live that is cold.  They delayed schools because they were having black outs and now today school is canceled because of well a inch if that of snow.  But the kids were beyond excited and out playing in it at 5am.  YES 5am.  They wanted to make sure they got their fill before it melted.

 Josh is so excited for this snow day.  No school hooray.

 Gavin's not to sure about this white stuff.

Let the snowball fight begin.

We are not really equipped for snow so they got cold fast.    I guess since we have gotten more snow in the last two years and it's been super cold it's time to buy a real coat for the winters. 

And the sad news is poor Ryan is STUCK in Dallas.  They are worse off then us. I begged him not to go.  And now I'm pleading him to just stay put.  Only problem is the Super bowl is this weekend and all the hotels are booked.  I'm praying he makes it home safely or finds a  hotel room.  I wish he wouldn't of gone.  I was so mad this morning when I saw the snow.  But what can you do when your business is travel?

Oh and where is Trevor you may ask.  He has been planning this day all night when he saw it snowing last night.  He got up piled on the clothes and ran to his friends house.(leaving the front door open I may add)  He was beyond excited to not have school today and was on a mission to play super hard.

The nebulizer.

About 9.5 years ago my little six month old baby was struggling breathing.  He has had a really bad cold.  And being a 1st time Mom I watched him like a hawk.  He was in his little bouncy seat and I heard him making this weird noise and when I looked at him I knew something was wrong he was struggling to breath.  I yelled at Ryan as I was strapping him in his car seat and we dashed to the Er.  Ryan was driving like mad seeing how we lived about 30+ Min's from the closest hospital and our little baby's lips were turning blue. I was too busy holding Trevor's hand in a panic to yell at Ryan to slow down.  Of coarse he got pulled over and Ryan yelled to the officer our baby wasn't breathing so he gave us a police escort.  In Heine sight we probably should of called a ambulance.  Once we got to the ER we rushed in and they admitted him right away and hooked him up to all these machines.  Then they neublized him.  The results was the croup.  Croup in kids is HORRIBLE!!!!!  But the Dr. talked us into buying a Nebulizer at the time it was $100 and we didn't have a lot of money so I was hesitant, but we both felt it would be a good purchase. Man has it ever been one of the best things we have purchased for our kids to date.  It has saved us so many er trips.  Unfortunately we still have had a few. Due to croup and RSV. When  Josh got RSV as a baby  he was nebulized 3 to 4 times a day for 3 months.    I was so so grateful for the thing. And Gavin has used it so many times.  This last year Trevor has had swine flu and pneumonia twice and the Dr's all commented on how much worse it would of been for him had we not known to nebulize him. These breathing issues are super scary and almost makes me grateful that I don't have babies anymore.  Nothings more scary then when your new little baby can't breath.  On that same note it's still pretty scary when any age of your kid is having trouble breathing, but at least now they can communicate with me on what's going on.  This little machine has served me well for 9 and 1/2 years and I know it will be used so many more times.  So to the maker of the my little nebulizer thank you for making parenting a little less stressful for me :).  Oh and making the cute dragon masks so my kids think it's actually fun to breath in smoke.

Taco Tuesday

As I'm writing this I'm laughing because well this really isn't a recipe.  In fact it is by far the easiest meal I make.  But my family LOVES it.  So much that one of my boys was ranting and raving about my tacos that his friends mom asked me for a recipe.  When I was telling her she asked if I could write it down to explain what I meant.  So here it is for anyone that loves taco's. .

Once when we went to taco bell  I came across what they call the cheesy gordita crunch.  It's a soft taco wrapped up in a crispy taco with beans and cheese and some sort of sauce with the meat.  I'm a soft taco fan but I HATE soggy soft tacos so putting in the hard shell really helps the soft shell not sog. And I love the crunch too.  So here is my version of the cheesy gordita crunch.

 I put the corn shells in the oven @350 for 5 to 7 mins.  Just until they are good and warm.  I found that putting them on the cooling rack they don't break and keep their shape.

 Then I warm up the re fried beans and grate cheese in it.  Until it's nice and gooey loaded with melted cheese.  We like cheddar but I've done it with mozzarella as well. 

 Warm up the tortillas.  I have to have fresh baked ones it makes it so much better.  Luckily in Texas you can find them fresh in almost any Grocery store.  I have a great recipe for homemade ones that are super good but they take a while to make.  Someday I'll get that tortilla press :).

 See nice and cheesy. 

 Then you spread the beans onto the tortilla.

 Place the corn shell onto the flour tortilla and fold the sides up.

 See SUPER SUPER easy!!!

Then fill with your favorite taco meat.  Everyone likes them different so I usually place all the toppings at the table and let them all get what they want.  I love them with shredded lettuce, guacamole, and my tomitillo dressing.   The tomitillo dressing is spicy and oh so good.  Here is the recipe for it. And the guacamole. 

The guacamole recipe makes a TON and only Ryan and I will eat it so it's pretty easy to 1/2.  Guacamole doesn't last more then a day.  Well I can't eat it when it's brown anyways.

Guacamole
3 very ripe avocados


Red onion, chopped (about 1/4 c.)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped

1 jalapeno, finely chopped (or to taste)

1 large ripe garden tomato (or 2 smaller tomatoes), diced

juice of 1 lime

4-5 shakes green Tabasco sauce

Kosher salt, to taste

Fresh cracked pepper, to taste



Pit avocados and mash in a bowl. If you like your guac kind of chunky (that's how we like it), coarsely chop with the side of a fork instead of using the fork to mash it straight down. Carefully stir in remaining ingredients until well mixed. That's it!


Tomitillo dressing.
1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)


1 c. mayonnaise

1 c. buttermilk

2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced

1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro

1 clove garlic

juice of 1 lime

1 jalapeno (we like it SPICY so we kept the seeds in it, if you like it mild, just remove the seeds)



Mix all ingredients together in the blender. That's it!


So here's to Taco Tuesday.  A super easy yummy meal :).