What a journey we have been on. We are back in Arizona and loving the beautiful weather. The time change has been tricky, we are still going to bed early getting up earlier than usual. In NC, we would get up around 8:30 or 9, it was so dark and cold. But here we are up by 7 and can't seem to stay indoors. That has been so fun for the kids. My parents have been overwhelmingly gracious to us. We have enjoyed our stay here so much. We are looking forward to Daniel's arrival. He has been packing, cleaning the rental and now driving across the country. Hopefully he will be home at the end of the week.
Taking care of the horses is and being outdoors is therapeutic for me. It has been good for my body and soul to have this each morning. I do so much better outdoors than in. I'm not riding but I'm looking forward to it after the baby comes. Graham is riding Gunny and the boys are cleaning stalls everyday and fixing their fort, they had to leave behind. They panned for gold in the wash this morning and were convinced they had struck it rich. Braxtyn is enjoying her job of taking care of the dogs, they greet each morning and evening and she loves their attention. cozy is appreciating all the extra attention from grandparents and loving wandering outside and getting into lots of trouble:). She calls my mom and dad bopbop or just ba. Its too funny, we try to correct her to saying grandma, but she has refused to change it. Mom's not to pleased with the name, but answers to it all the same. We are sharing one room and working on remodeling the other bedroom. We will have two rooms and a bathroom to ourselves, this will be a nice re-treat especially with the big property to play on.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Recipes I stole by blog stalking..I'm not ashamed
I am a blog stalker, when I find a fun blog filled with great ideas. I watch it, read it, and copy it! www.joyshope.com is one of those blogs. She is my kinda girl. I am inspired by her blogging, baking, sewing and sweet heart. And I don't even know her. She certainly doesn't know me. But her husband is the drummer for the Supertones and that is a CD we own, so see, we have things in common. Anyways, she likes to make good things to eat and she makes them easy! Here are a couple of great recipes she has posted and I am going to try them this week. You should too!
Toffee Crack
Don't hate the name, love the idea. Yes, its addicting. That's the point
Ingredients:
Saltines, one stick butter, One cup brown sugar, One bag chocolate chips
Line the cookie sheet with saltines, melt butter in a pan, add brown sugar, stir until slightly caramelized, pour over saltines and spread even,y. Cook at 350 for 5 minutes. Take out of oven, pour chocolate chips on top. AS they melt spread over the toffee. Stick in fridge to set. Break into pieces and enjoy!
Santa Fe Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef/ turkey/ whatevs/ browned and drained
1 can kidney beans
2 cans Ro-tel
1 can stewed Mexican style tomatoes
1 can corn (drained)
2 Tbs. taco seasoning
16 0z. Velveeta cubed
Don't give me that
"ewwww.... Velveeta is creepy!" face.
Yes. Velveeta is creepy.
Super creepy.
But sometimes creepy things are really awesome things in disguise. Plus, it doesn't work with regular cheese. I've tried. Talk about creepy.
So get over it.
I promise you won't regret it.
Dump everything in your handy dandy crock pot.
Stir.
Cook on high for three hours.
Stir once halfway.
Done.
I heart this meal.
But want to make it
the. best. meal. ever?
Make this.
I am pretty much 99.9% sure it is why God created corn.
Just saying.
Read more: http://www.joyshope.com/2009/12/my-favorite-meal.html#ixzz1B7LBfGMq
Monday, January 10, 2011
Life undone...
Yep, back to the life posts.
Things are changing again (ahhh!) After much deliberation and exhausting everything to make things work here we are moving back. To make a long story short, the guy that was working on a GE job for Daniel, got another job and moved away before he could follow up with us. This was supposed to be, close to sure thing, in this market anyways. Daniel has done many other jobs and applied around the clock but it seems this was not the place. However, this was the place for us to rest, re-group, and although we stressed quite a bit, enjoy some very quality family time. I'm excited in many ways, I have missed everyone sooo much! But I was just settling in and starting to really meet people and form some special relationships. It will also be the first time for us to move and not have a house of our own to move into. My parents and Daniel's parents have offered their homes but due to Grammy and Michelle having surgeries in the last week they are living with them. Daniel's parent's home is a little full. My parent's are amazing and have offered to basically give us their whole house as they live in short spurts at each job site, as they are out of town and it will cut down on their drive time. This will be a great place to stay for a while, the kids will have lots of super great weather and outdoor space and it is a comfortable environment for them. We will work on getting our own place when we know exactly how things are going to work out. Thankfully the Lord has taken care of us and provided in amazing ways and is still continuing to do so. I am certain that this journey will continue to teach us and grow us.
Moving stinks, and I'm so tired of it. We have amazing friends and family who are helping us and even flying out to get us back. We certainly feel the love! And although it feels very much like we are going home to stay, who knows what the next adventure is and we are staying open to whatever comes next!
Everyone is healthy, we are enjoying the remaining bits of the 7 inches of snow from Monday... and just trying to pack everything up AGAIN. Trying to get some beach time and some Robert's family time as much as we can before we head out.
And yeah! we will make the wedding easily. I keep dreaming that we will miss it and I wake up in a panic. That will be the highlight for this year, to see little Jaime, who is now grown up, beautiful Jaime, become wonderful Shane's wife! We love them both so very much and cannot wait to see them begin their life together.
Things are changing again (ahhh!) After much deliberation and exhausting everything to make things work here we are moving back. To make a long story short, the guy that was working on a GE job for Daniel, got another job and moved away before he could follow up with us. This was supposed to be, close to sure thing, in this market anyways. Daniel has done many other jobs and applied around the clock but it seems this was not the place. However, this was the place for us to rest, re-group, and although we stressed quite a bit, enjoy some very quality family time. I'm excited in many ways, I have missed everyone sooo much! But I was just settling in and starting to really meet people and form some special relationships. It will also be the first time for us to move and not have a house of our own to move into. My parents and Daniel's parents have offered their homes but due to Grammy and Michelle having surgeries in the last week they are living with them. Daniel's parent's home is a little full. My parent's are amazing and have offered to basically give us their whole house as they live in short spurts at each job site, as they are out of town and it will cut down on their drive time. This will be a great place to stay for a while, the kids will have lots of super great weather and outdoor space and it is a comfortable environment for them. We will work on getting our own place when we know exactly how things are going to work out. Thankfully the Lord has taken care of us and provided in amazing ways and is still continuing to do so. I am certain that this journey will continue to teach us and grow us.
Moving stinks, and I'm so tired of it. We have amazing friends and family who are helping us and even flying out to get us back. We certainly feel the love! And although it feels very much like we are going home to stay, who knows what the next adventure is and we are staying open to whatever comes next!
Everyone is healthy, we are enjoying the remaining bits of the 7 inches of snow from Monday... and just trying to pack everything up AGAIN. Trying to get some beach time and some Robert's family time as much as we can before we head out.
And yeah! we will make the wedding easily. I keep dreaming that we will miss it and I wake up in a panic. That will be the highlight for this year, to see little Jaime, who is now grown up, beautiful Jaime, become wonderful Shane's wife! We love them both so very much and cannot wait to see them begin their life together.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Random pics
Just a few random pictures from this month..
The girls in front of the fish tank
Graham being silly :)
The Ta Da moment after one of Braxtyn's shows
Just before bed movie time
The purses I made for my nieces for Christmas
My new glasses, she looks better in them
At the aquarium with uncle Josh
And aunt Brittany
And just to end my randomness today, a verse that sums up the year and gives me hope
Noah and Graham at the aquarium when Uncle Josh & Aunt Britt where here
The girls in front of the fish tank
Graham being silly :)
The Ta Da moment after one of Braxtyn's shows
Just before bed movie time
The purses I made for my nieces for Christmas
My new glasses, she looks better in them
At the aquarium with uncle Josh
And aunt Brittany
And just to end my randomness today, a verse that sums up the year and gives me hope
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Real life returns...
Ok, I'm running out of "life" headers, but I thought it was fun anyways.
Ugh..it is hard to come down from the holidays and get back to work. We started school Monday and it was a rough transition for all of us. I think they forgot everything they learned after a 2 1/2 week break. Amazing what daily repetition does for our brains and what happens when we stop learning. Graham forgot the number 9, just totally forgot that it existed and what it looked like. Noah forgot how to add, his drills were awful. Thankfully Braxtyn doesn't have to remember anything yet, she just happily sits through story time, does her craft, computer time and write her name. Thankfully they all remembered how to write their names! Cozy is not appreciating her play pen time, I have to cage her for at least 1/2 an hour so I can teach a math lesson and some writing. She then freely roams the house playing with whichever sibling is taking a break at the time. Mostly she wants a snack or finds herself sitting in the sink with the water on or dunking babies in the toilet. I am working out a schedule with her, its tough, she is into everything.
Daniel and the boys have spent the last two days raking and burning leaves. Our yard was up to our ankles in them so it will be another day at least before they are gone. This process leaves my boys smelling like a campfire and their nails and faces black with smoke. Nightly showers are required! I will post pictures of the process.
Off to put baby to bed and feed the crew a much anticipated ice cream sandwich!
Ugh..it is hard to come down from the holidays and get back to work. We started school Monday and it was a rough transition for all of us. I think they forgot everything they learned after a 2 1/2 week break. Amazing what daily repetition does for our brains and what happens when we stop learning. Graham forgot the number 9, just totally forgot that it existed and what it looked like. Noah forgot how to add, his drills were awful. Thankfully Braxtyn doesn't have to remember anything yet, she just happily sits through story time, does her craft, computer time and write her name. Thankfully they all remembered how to write their names! Cozy is not appreciating her play pen time, I have to cage her for at least 1/2 an hour so I can teach a math lesson and some writing. She then freely roams the house playing with whichever sibling is taking a break at the time. Mostly she wants a snack or finds herself sitting in the sink with the water on or dunking babies in the toilet. I am working out a schedule with her, its tough, she is into everything.
Daniel and the boys have spent the last two days raking and burning leaves. Our yard was up to our ankles in them so it will be another day at least before they are gone. This process leaves my boys smelling like a campfire and their nails and faces black with smoke. Nightly showers are required! I will post pictures of the process.
Off to put baby to bed and feed the crew a much anticipated ice cream sandwich!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Life Rearanged
Welcoming 2011 this year brings many questions and many possibilities. But mainly it brings an edge of excitement and expectations. Our life in 2010 has been full of change and rearrange...
I have had a year full of grief and loss and joy and triumph. All of these things I am learning to be thankful for and have become a part of me. Here is a short list of the things that made this year memorable.
To begin with 2010 was welcomed with my mom and Cozette in Pasadena at the Tournament of Roses Parade and surprised by Daniel and the kids as we welcomed it together and drove home January 1, 2010.
Celebrating 14years with my amazing husband and expecting our fifth child
Spending time with friends and family
My little brother getting married
Moving across the country to North Carolina
Spending every day with my best buddies in the whole world, who make my world an amazing, funny, and loving place!
Goodbye 2010. Hello 2011 and a new life fully rearranged.
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