Guacamole

This is an awesome recipe for guacamole. We love it our house, especially Luke. He sits and eats tons of it at a time. Anyway, here you go and hope you enjoy it :)

3 avocados
1/2 onion
bunch of cilantro
clove of garlic
1-2 t. kosher salt (more if needed)
2 roma tomatoes, roasted
2 jalapenos, roasted

First roast your tomatoes and jalapenos. (cut them in half and put in a 450 degree oven for about 15-20 min., watch them carefully) Put your onion, cilantro and garlic in a food processor and mince. Then add the salt, avocados, tomatoes (make sure you take the skin off) and jalapenos (remember every jalapeno is different spiciness so may be only add one at a time to make sure it isn't too hot or you might have to add more). Taste and make sure it doesn't need more salt or something else. Then serve.

Anniversary

Yep that's us 9 years ago and here is us now :)

Wow 9 years!! What a great ride it has been. I have the most fabulous husband and I thank God every day that he is in my life. He is such a wonderful husband and father. Time flies. I remember being so young and wondering what life was going to be like to be a "married woman". And here I am 9 years, 4 kids and 1 awesome husband later. Thanks honey for being who you are and for letting me be who I am. Thanks for helping me be better, for trying to make me laugh all the time, for working hard for us and for being so close to God. I love you (and I really hope you read this)!! Thanks for so many great years and so many more to come. XOXOXO...

Blue Angels

Wow!!!!! Tomorrow the Blue Angels are performing here and we are too cheap to go ($15 a person) but they had a practice session today and we went and saw the most amazing things. How cool to watch the stunts and maneuvers they can do, especially flying so close together.

This one here below really surprised us. We were watching and looking all around us waiting for them to come back through and do another trick when all of sudden there was this plane right above us (and I mean right above us) and then the sound hit us. It scarred us pretty good, especially Luke. He really enjoyed watching them up until this point and would just point at them in the sky and smile, but after this anytime there was sound he would get scarred and cry. The girls didn't last long either and were begging to go home but it was so amazing to watch these guys in action and Sam, Seth and I sure had great fun.

This is all them in formation. It seriously looks like their wings are almost touching. I can't believe they can fly so close together.

A very funny one

I found this on my sister's friend blog and I thought it was hilarious!!

1. My Rockstar Name (first pet, current car):"Lady Odyssey"

2. My Gangsta Name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite shoe):"Phish Food Flip Flops"

3. My Native American Name (favorite color, favorite animal):"Pink Koala"

4. My Soap Opera Name (middle name, city where you were born):"Catherine Nampa"

5. My Star Wars Name (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 of your first):"Beuju" (what is that?)

6. My Super Hero Name (second favorite color, favorite drink):"Purple Diet Coke" (just doesn't have a ring to it)

7. My nascar Name (first names of your grandfathers):"Garth Frank"

8. My Stripper Name (favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy):"Happy Twix" (WELL!!)

9. My TV weather anchor name (5th grade teacher, city that begins with same letter):"Dudley Des Moines"

10. My Spy Name (favorite season/holiday, favorite flower):"Christmas Daisy"

11. My cartoon name (favorite fruit, article of clothing you are wearing now):"Strawberry T-shirt"

12. My Hippie Name (what you ate for breakfast, favorite tree):"Muffin Willow"

luke and mud

This is what I found when I was watering the garden. Luke loves anything that makes a mess. I had just finished watering the tomatoes (hallelujah they are finally turning red!!) and was watering the cucumbers when I turned around and found him sitting smack dab in the middle of the only mud hole in garden. He was having a wonderful time and thought that it was absolutely great.



Luke is our busy little boy. This is new to me because my other kids were not like this. He loves to go from one thing to another and hates to stop. For example: he got a new bag of mini marshmellows out and dumped them all over the floor and was mashing them into the carpet, then he turned all the faucets on in the bathroom, then dumped all the movies onto the floor, then was trying to flush the hair brush down the toilet, then he went to emptying all the drawers in the kitchen, and so it goes. Of course he is always starting the next one when I am trying to clean up the last one. Good thing we like him!!!!
He also loves to help me in the garden, which is a lot of fun. This last week we ate peppers, zuchinni, potatoes and beets from our garden. They were so yummy. I also canned 15 pints of beets. When I went out to pick them, I found this monster:

(I put the pen next to it to try and give you some idea of how big it was :)

a new recipe

I keep meaning to put some of my new favorite recipes on here and just don't get around to it lately, but I'm trying to change that. We have tried some fun stuff this summer, so here is one that we absolutely love. It's worth the work!

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies
1 pound butter
1 pound + 12 oz. semi-sweet choc. chips
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 extra large eggs
2 T. vanilla
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. flour, divided
1 T. baking powder
1 t. kosher salt
3/4 c. creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour 2 9x13 pans. In glass bowl, over simmering water, melt butter, 1 pound choc. chips and unsweetened choc. Stir until completely melted. Cool slightly. In large bowl, stir eggs, vanilla and sugar together. Stir into chocolate mixture and allow to come to room temperature. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together and add to chocolate mixture. Toss remaining choc. chips with 1/4 c. flour and add to mixture. Pour evenly into both pans. Blob peanut butter onto mixture by teaspoonfuls. Run knife through them to make it look marble/swirl like. Bake 20 min. Remove from oven and drop several times on your countertop. Put back in oven and cook 10-15 min. more. Watch carefully and don't overcook.
These are so yummy. Enjoy!!!

Baseball

It is baseball season. We spend every Monday and Wednesday and some Fridays at the baseball park. Luke loves it because he gets to be outside so much. This is at Seth's game and where he loves to sit and play.

Seth waiting for his turn to bat. Kathryn actually took this picture.

Playing third base.

Hitting the ball.

Luke watching the game.

Sam was sitting here watching Luke play when Luke just came over and plopped down beside him. I thought it was so cute.

Seth's 8th Birthday

Our little boy isn't so little anymore. He's 8!!! Can you believe it? I am having a hard time believing I am old enough to have an eight year old and that time has passed so quickly. He use to be my baby and now he's so grown up. We love you Seth and are so proud of you.

With his Oreo Cake and opening his presents, with lots of "help" from Sarah, Kathryn and Luke.

Every other year we do a friend party. This year, Seth wanted a pirate theme. This is him with 3 of his friends, all dressed like pirates. There is L to R, Seth, Kyron, Joel and Logan.

Seth's favorite things this year:
Color: dark blue and black
Movie: Transformers (the old and new cartoon ones)
Thing To Do: Read
Book: Eragon and Harry Potter Series
Treat: Oreo Cake and Strawberry Shortcake
Some interesting things about Seth: He has a great memory. Ever since he was a little boy he can remember almost anything he reads and things that we say (not so good sometimes:). He loves to build. Give him Legos, Kinex, magnetix, bionicle or blocks and he is happy for hours. He also loves to read. He reads the books that we read, scary! I have to preview them before he reads them because he is really getting into the young adult books. Never know what's in them!! The greatest punishment we can give him is taking away one of his books. I guess that's not such a bad thing.

4th of July

We went to my parents for the holiday weekend and for Bridon's (that is my brother's new baby boy) Blessing. We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed our time spent with family. Friday morning we went to a parade (which I forgot my camera). Then had a great BBQ with the family and lit off tons of fireworks that night. Saturday afternoon we hiked to Jump Creek, ate a picnic lunch and swam in the little lake made by the waterfall. The picture below is of Sam, Seth, Natalie and Maria that hiked to the top of big rock.

This my sister Natalie with Sarah and Kathryn and Sam hanging out with Luke.

They had a little cave by the lake and it was such a nice shady spot that most of hung out there the whole time. This is Kathryn hanging out with Uncle Ben, Bentley and Bridon.

My mom with Bentley. Bentley is attached to my mom like nothin' I have ever seen. It is hilarious. He calls her "pomma" and has to be with her all the time.

Friday afternoon we also played on the slip-n-slide. The girls loved it and so did Luke as long as he didn't get wet.

Seth wouldn't touch the water. He just wanted to stand on this rock and watch. Funny boy! Everybody when they were done slipping and sliding :)

One of Luke's favorite things to do was get into every drawer possible in my mom's kitchen, which is quite a few more than at our house. He loved taking everything out and then trying to put it back in.

Satuday evening we played a very fun game of softball with my sister-in-laws family. Seth and Sarah even played and hit the ball on their own. Sunday we went to the blessing and had a family dinner after, which happened to be Seth's birthday. Seth thought it was awesome because Maria made Hawaiin Haystacks (which is Seth's favorite meal) and had a oreo cake.

Dierkes Lake

There is a fabulous place here that we love to go to in the summer. It has a great kiddie area that is fenced off and lots of sand to play in, tons of shade and is only$3. We went there last week and stayed for 4 1/2 hours. The kids just played and played and played.

Sarah and Kathryn loved laying in this little "hot tub" they made. They said it felt so warm. Boy did they come home dirty :)

Luke loved this most of all, I think. He hates me holding on to him at the swimming pool so this way he just got to wander all over, especially because the kiddie area is not deeper than 2 ft. I could just watch him have such a great time.

The boys made their own hot tub, all by themselves thank you! When they weren't chasing the girls they were building this. It kept them quite occupied which was awesome. Anybody want to join us?

Watermelon = Summer

We love the warmer weather of summer (okay so long as it stays lower than 90), but what we love most is the watermelon. A couple weeks ago we watched our friends kids and we brought out the watermelon and the kids had a great time!

This is Seth with Tessa. They have both lost their two front teeth. Seth actually lost another tooth on top at my parents house. He was helping my mom make homemade ice cream and leaned forward and hit his tooth on the ice cream maker. The tooth just popped out and he became $1 richer :).

I just had to throw this one in. The other day Luke wanted to go outside so I sent him out the back door and he promptly went and sat right here. He sat there for probably 15 minutes just watching the sprinkler that was going and playing in the grass. It was so cute.