Recipe

Simply take three of these:

(Keep in mind that they may not be readily available in your area. You may have to special order them. Contact your grocer, OB-GYN, or adoption agency for details.)

Add this:

By following this recipe from Betty Crocker (my new favorite recipe site).

Make sure to use your special rolling pin and rolling helper:

And don't forget to make sure the cheese is evenly spread.

And you too can have a tasty meal on the table in under thirty minutes, even with helpers.

And, of course, my camera decided to randomly change settings WHILE I was trying to take photos. Without my permission. Oh well, it tasted much better than it looks, I promise.

It was actually a very easy recipe, and very kid friendly. They helped from beginning to end. And no one was hurt by Madison's fascination with the giant rolling pin. And they ate their dinner. A successful evening, I think.

Thankful Thursday

This week, I'm thankful for...


... buttons that work on my computer. I cannot figure out for the life of me why my arrow buttons and quote/apostrophe key have gone on strike. But it makes me quite grateful for the others that work.


... spellchecker on my computer that fixes the apostrophe-less words I now write.


... coffee. Nuff said!


... snuggling with my girls.


... quiet time watching fun TV shows with my hubby after the girls go to bed.


... laughing at nothing and everything with good friends.


... a date tomorrow!


... jobs. That we have jobs. That we can pay our bills. That God provides creative financing. That He always comes through.


... antibiotics for a baby girl with a nasty ear infection.


... Tylenol for a big girl with a sinus headache.


... a first grade teacher who understands our daughter, who encourages her, who nurtures her, who forgives her for talking :), who shows her that extra love when she hurts.


... a wonderful nanny who loves my little girls like her own.


... two kitties who love us unconditionally, who know when we don't feel good and try to snuggle that much harder, who love our girls so much that they get stuck in their rooms at night, who make sure to tell us all the neighborhood gossip while we are getting ready in the morning.


... snow. Yeah, I know we've gotten more than our fair share this month, but I do really love snow.


... quilts made by my grandmother that keep my family warm.


... my grandmother just celebrated her 95th birthday.


... our cozy home.


... our wonderful life.

Wednesday Fun

I got introduced to this woman by my co-worker. Jeanne Robertson is a very funny, talented lady. Enjoy!

Only My Children ... Sports Edition

Because only my children ...


... walk around with an issue of Sp*rts Illustr*ted for a week like it's a security blanket.


... can correctly identify Brett Favre on the cover of above-mentioned magazine.


... proudly proclaim "The Raiders are stinky cheese!" every time they see our youth pastor's daughter, an avid Raiders fan.


... ask, "When is football season over? I want to watch baseball!"


... can correctly identify the Rockies, Avalance, Nuggets, and Broncos logos.


... have chosen their favorite teams at the ages of 6, 3, and 2.


... pick the Rockies beanie over the princess beanie.


... cry when it's Sunday and the Broncos outfit is dirty, so we can't wear it to church.


... are positively giddy because the Olympics are coming soon!


... can sit through an entire 2 1/2 hour baseball game at the stadium, and be mesmerized by the experience.


... choose ESPN for bathroom reading.


... will sit with Daddy and watch ESPN. For longer than 2 minutes.


... love looking at baseball/football/hockey/basketball cards.


... will tell me, "That man is wearing a Raiders/Lakers/Yankees/etc. logo. We don't like that team". Makes going out in public very interesting...


... fight over who gets to wear Daddy's baseball hats.


... ask if they get to watch basketball when Katie, the Duke-crazy babysitter, comes over.


... can sleep through playoff football/baseball/hockey/basketball games in our home.


Like I said, only my kids...

Good Ol Cow Hand

I took these pictures from my camera phone before Christmas, and just now remembered that I had them. How sad is that?



When my brother, sister-in-law, nephews, and niece came to visit us, we also spent some quality time with the livestock. Actually, two of the steers needed to go visit the neighbors farm (read: butcher) and the rest needed food. My nephew Hayden asked to go along because, well, he likes to be outside, and he likes to be with Grandpa. Madison asked to go because she adores Grandpa, Hayden, and her Uncle Kevin. So that meant I went too.



Madi loves to visit her cows. Yes, in her world, they are all her cows. They are just temporarily on loan to Grandpa.



She helped sort all the cows (read: stand behind the fence with Mommy and moo at them). Then we helped feed the cows.



Here are Hayden and Madison getting ready to throw hay into the stalls.

Had we let Madi do all the feeding, we would have been there all day. Granted, she cannot grab an entire bale of hay by herself. Not even a half a bale. Or a quarter. But she can grab a few morsels. And she did.

Come here baby cow! Come eat the hay!

After feeding, we had to stack hay to get ready for the next week. Madi supervised.

She makes a great supervisor, by the way.

Snow Sick of Snow!

When you live in Colorado, you expect snow. You know that you will probably get a few big storms. So, when we got a couple of big storms in December, I think everyone figured that the large snowfalls were done for the season.

Yeah, right.

This week we experienced the trifecta of snow storms. The first two storms weren't too bad, just about 6 or 8 inches each. Some states (*ahem* New Mexico) panic over that size of a storm and close all non-emergency functions. But not Colorado. We are tough. That's just a skiff in our world. So, although the commute into town was a bit slower, it was business as usual.

And then the big one came.

Remember the storm that, earlier in the week, caused mudslides and flooding in California. The one everyone panicked about? Yeah, that one came west. To Durango. It started snowing early Thursday morning, and didn't stop until early Saturday morning. We had almost 3 feet of snow at our house. Thanks for sharing, California.

So, before work on Thursday, we shoveled. Then we went to work. And shoveled. And then, because it was still snowing REALLY HARD, we went home early. When we got home, we shoveled. Then we ate dinner. After the girls went to bed, we shoveled some more. And then, just for fun, we got up on the roof and shoveled the carport. Then we collapsed in bed.

Both of our bosses cancelled work on Friday (thanks Dad), so when we got up that morning, we got to shovel. Because all the snow on the roof had fallen off onto our decks. We opened our doors to find burms (yes, burm is the technical term for a giant pile of snow) that were above our waists. And so, in order to find our decks, we shoveled.

Violet has not been well for weeks now. We had taken her to the doctor right before New Years because she was running a really high fever, throwing up, congested, the whole nine yards. At that time, we were told that it was a virus, nothing they could do, etc. And that she should start to perk up soon.

Well, the high fever and the throwing up stopped, but she hasn't been herself. Running a low fever in the evenings, waking up 3 or 4 times a night, crying in pain. She has been sleeping a lot, acting crabby, just not feeling well. Well, after being up with her most of Thursday night after shoveling as much as we did, I had had enough.

After we found our driveway, we took Violet to the doctor. Turns out she had a really nasty ear infection. Nasty enough that it caused a hole in her ear drum, which caused puss to leak out her ear. Lovely. But understandable. So we left the doctors office armed with a prescription for antibiotics and hope.

We took the girls to a healthy, preservative-free lunch. No, not really. We went to McDonalds. And there is no way to make cheeseburgers and french fries healthy. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself.

After lunch, Jerome had a closing with some great friends (yippee Mike & Steph), so we dropped him off at the title company and headed to the grocery store. Usually, I shop during my lunch hour. By myself. Or maybe with Jerome. Friday, I had myself, Katrina, Madison, Violet, and Celine. It was fun. Really. It was.

*twitch*

The roads into town were snow-packed, but not too bad. On the way home, we ran into a white-out. Makes driving interesting, to say the least!

Once we got home, the girls went down for naps. And we shoveled. Then we shoveled some more. Then Jerome fired up the snowblower while I chipped ice. Then, just for fun, we shoveled snow off the carport again. This time, we had snow above our waists. Interesting. But see how good we did?

Here are the burms in front of our house. Now, I must make a confession. We did not make these. I am not that good.

An awesome man who works for Jerome's dad lives nearby. He borrows J-P's plow truck to plow his house. And then he comes and plows our driveway. But, on Friday, when Randy broke the plow truck, we called our backup. Also known as my dad. He came Friday evening, just as the last round was rolling in, and cleared our driveway.

Ever wonder what you're not supposed to do with all the snow that you shovel off of your carport? Yeah, this....

That's our doghouse and walkway to the back porch. Now, it is Mt. SnowPile. I think we may just tromp it down. I don't feel like throwing any more snow.

This is the girls playhouse. Covered in snow. Convenient snow fort, don't you think? Now we just need to snow blow a path to it, and they are set!

Before this storm, I knew that my patio furniture was there. Now, I'm not so sure.

Maybe we will be able to use it in June!

Family Day

Since Thursday & Friday were spent digging our home out from the snow (more on those adventures later), we decided to make today a fun family day. We headed to Farmington for some needed shopping.


Celine has been staying with us since Mama & Papa are in France. We had gotten her a gift card to Target for Christmas, but it is hard for Celine to get to Farmington to use it. We took the whole herd. Celine was a great shopper, finding some great clothes & movies for herself. She is really fun to shop with. And it was good for us to get some sister bonding time. We don't get much of that with munchkins in tow most of the time.


After Target, we headed to Fuddruckers in the mall for lunch. We thoroughly enjoy each time we get to go to Fudds. Everyone was is such a great mood, I decided to get out my phone on my camera and snap away. I love the antique and black-and-white settings on my camera - it totally changes the mood of the photograph. Here's a few of the big girls:

And some of my favorite baby model.

Aren't the ones of Violet & Daddy just precious? I love capturing their relationship - it is so different than his relationship with the other girls. Could it be that she knows she is the baby? Just a thought...