Happy Birthday Sedona!

Natalie was invited to a skating party today for her friend/neighbor Sedona's birthday. I decided to leave the boys with my friend Anne as I knew it would take all my attention to help Natalie learn to skate. It was her first time rollerskating and she did great. I was so proud of her.

As I was putting on her rollerskates she was taking deep "cleansing" breaths and saying to herself "you can do this, you can do this," over and over. It was so cute. (I've never heard her say this before). She was a little nervous, but I was so proud of her for being so willing to give it a try. She was pretty excited and little by little she made progress. It was also nice to have her good friend Sarah there to hang on to the wall and learn right along with her. At first she hung on to the wall pretty good, but as her confidence grew she let go and by the end of the party she was asking me to skate with her in the middle. It was fun for me to skate too as it has been lightyears ago since I had been to Skateworld...our 6th grade graduation party was there and that is the last time, I think. The place looks just the same...same scarry 70's decor! Same ugly red carpet everywhere. It was a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Monkey Business
Zander Natalie and Hayden were invited to Isaac's 2nd birthday. It was a Curious George party. All the kids colored George masks and then went on a banana hunt. Later the "Man in the Yellow Hat" (our friend Angel) read all the kids a story.

The three photos next to Curious George were added today (Monday) when the kids were over playing with Isaac.

I made a little Curious George pillow and framed the cutest photo of Isaac playing on our John Deere tractor trike with Hayden riding in the back.

Picture of the Day 2-17

Me Wuv Chocolate Birthday Cake...
While the adults were in the other room talking, Hayden discovered the cake left at the kid's table.

Happy Birthday Chucky!

Today to celebrate my brother-in-law Chucky's 27th birthday, we all went bowling. Our kids had never gone before and so they had fun learning to bowl. The older kids all got to wear bowling shoes. They even had their own lane with the bumpers out, blocking the gutters. Natalie even got a strike! In fact, she beat me on the first game. Must admit I don't bowl much. I think the last time was with our Newlywed group at church...at least 9 or 10 years ago.
Hayden had fun running all over the place. We had to grab him from running down the lane a couple times. Can you imagine what could happen if he went all the way down...just like a cartoon, he would come shooting up the ball return!


Afterwards everyone came over and we made turkey burgers and had cake. My parents stayed home because my dad has been feeling ill due to 3 weeks of radiation. He is more than half way done though! Please continue praying for him.

My very pregnant sister, Andrea and her husband John joined us after they got back from church tonight.

Fabulous Food Friday

Pizza Casserole
This is basically like making pizza without the crust.

Brown 1 pound ground beef (I used ground chicken)
Add oregano and garlic salt to taste. Stir in about a half jar of spaghetti sauce (I used Classico sausage and onion/green pepper) This makes it really taste like pizza!
This meaty saucy layer is then spread onto the bottom of the dish. Next layer shredded mozzarella cheese, cheddar and pepperoni however you like it on the top. Sprinkle oregano on top.
Broil casserole in a 400 degree oven for about 5-10 minutes until cheese on top is melted.


Miracle Fluff
I don't like to use artificial sweetener very much, but I really wanted to make a dessert I could enjoy on Valentine's day and this hit the spot.

1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
1 sm. box sugar free strawberry Jell-O (or whatever flavor you like)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, WHIPPED and chilled
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese....softened
2 teaspoons vanilla

Whip the cream, and chill. Dissolve Jell-O in the boiling water. Add the 1/2 cup cold water and stir until the Jell-O is dissolved. Beat the cream cheese and vanilla together in a bowl.
Add the Jell-O mixture, and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the chilled WHIPPED cream, and gently mix together until fluffy and well mixed. Pour into individual serving dishes, or an 8" square pan. Chill until set.

Picture of the Day 2-16-07

Last weekend I posted a photo of "dirt" with leaves coming up and now, just a week later, look how things have progressed. Hooray for spring!

Computer Bug

So are you grossed out yet? My skin is still crawling. Okay, here's the deal. I'm sure most of you have already read the previous post where I blogged about our ant problem. When I mentioned I have seen them crawling across my desk I had NO IDEA they were building a nest inside my airport base station (wireless internet hub). Neither did our computer guru, Adam...


Originally Adam came over to fix a booboo I did the other day while "cleaning" up my computer desktop. I moved some things into a new folder I created called "technical stuff," (all the stuff that runs the computer, like the applications etc.) Long story short, I confused the computer so it could no longer find anything and thus nothing worked. We called Adam to reverse the damage caused by yours truly and when he picked up the airport he got a shocker. We both jumped out of our skin as ants went crawling everywhere. You see him in the photo checking to see if the ants got into his bag. They did. They got everywhere. Hundreds of them...all over my desk. See Dan. See Dan vacuum up ants. (FYI Adam, It's now 8:50 pm and I am still on ant patrol with the vacuum on standby while I blog).

Valentine's Goodies

Treats for the kids:


Natalie helped me make the heart sandwiches with raspberry cream cheese and raspberry jelly. They also had cottage cheese sundaes with a gummy heart on top. The last photo is a marshmallow "lollypop" Zander got from his teacher. It was so cute I had to share. You may not be able to tell, but she dipped them in white chololate then in Valentine sprinkles, added a stick and presto, easy!

Treats for Grown-Ups:

We couldn't get a sitter, so I made dinner. I also surprised Dan by cleaning all my scrapbooking stuff off the dining room table so we could enjoy eating in the dining room. After the kids were in bed, Dan and I had a nice salad with currants, Hungarian mushroom soup, and ham and cheese stuffed chicken...and some white Zinfandel to celebrate our dinner for 2.

Valentine Parties at School

I was lucky enough to spend time with Natalie at her Valentines party today. She had so much fun opening up all her valentines.





Natalie smothers her friends with hugs and kisses.


After Natalie got out of school, we rushed over Zander's party. Here he is...my funny Valentine. What a little goof ball puckering up for a valentine kiss.

...you may have a problem with ants!

We have been dealing with these little creatures ever since we moved here in May. I thought they would die off in the winter, but so far they are going strong. This post is a long time coming, so today I am going to blog my plight with the ants... Jeff Foxworthy style:

If you have to kill 20-30 ants before preparing any given meal, regardless of how clean your kitchen counters are...you may have a problem with ants.

If you find ants crawling up your refrigerator to the lollypop stash...you may have a problem with ants.

If you find ants inside the cellophane wrapper of aforementioned lollypops...you may have a problem with ants.

If you find ants crawling up the door seal in your freezer...you may have a problem with ants.

If you have ants crawling across your desk while you are trying to blog...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are doing your daughter's hair and see an ant crawl across her headband...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are taking a shower and there are ants running around your shower head...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are watching a movie on your couch and an ant crawls across your arm...you may have a problem with ants.

If you go to pour your son a bowl of Cheerios, but when the cereal hits the bowl, ants crawl up onto the bowl...you may have a problem with ants.

If your baby is teething and you go to give him some liquid Tylenol, but there are ants hanging out along the inside rim of the dropper lid...you may have a problem with ants.

If you wash your hands in the bathroom sink and notice ants coming up from the hole in the sink...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are sick and want to make some honey lemon tea, but there are ants swimming in your jar of honey...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are sleeping and are woken by an ant crawling on your forehead...you may have a problem with ants.

If you go to fill the cat dish with kitty food and notice there are ants in her dish...you may have a problem with ants.

So, do you think we have a problem here?

Picture of the Day 02-10

Fresh from his bath, our young superhero is a lean, clean fighting machine. Baby Jack-Jack is preparing for sleep and soon will be dreaming about his next mission.

I have a sickness...

They say that the first step in recovery is recognizing you have a problem. Well, my friends, it's time I come clean... I am obsessive compulsive for sure. I am addicted to buying cute party supplies (napkins in particular) and will make up a reason to have a party just so I can get all the fun "stuff." It's a terrible sickness, but I don't know if I really want to be cured.

As I was cleaning up in the garage, it became very apparent to me that my obsession/compulsion to buy party stuff was a bit of a problem. You see, not only do I like to buy this stuff, but I also like to hoard it. I have enough super cute napkins to hold a party every month for the next three years. Lucky for me, I am good at organizing all this stuff, so I know where to find it when I need it, but heaven forbid I should actually use up an entire package of anything!

Here is what I have been working on. I can't wait to see the look on my father-in-law's face when he sees what I have done to his former manly garage!

All my bows and paper shreds for wrapping gifts. I like to recycle our packaging, so chances are, if you've given us a pretty bow or fancy tissue paper, I have it and will reuse it again.
I like to blame the amount of fancy tissue in this drawer on my job at Menlo Park Pharmacy (with a Hallmark) where I worked for 6 years, but most of it is from birthday gifts we've received.
This photo doesn't do a good job of showing just how much disposable party ware I have collected, but let me assure you, these are deep shelves.

This is what the rest of the garage looks like. Ugggggh! Hard to believe in the past 2 days I have emptied out about 12 boxes from here and there is still so much more to do. Yuck! Maybe I should have a garage cleaning party...Just kidding!

Picture of the Day 02-09

Spring is just around the corner! There are bulbs pushing their way up all over our yard. I'm even getting the spring cleaning bug and have begun the process of unpacking more boxes we've been "storing" in the garage. I've found lots of goodies in there, some of which I'll share tomorrow.

Fabulous Food Friday

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

2 c sugar
1c shortening
1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Flour

Cream sugar & shortening. Add eggs & beat well. Add milk & vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients w/1 c flour. Stir into creamed mixture. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. (about 6-7 cups) Roll dough to 1/4 in thick (or however thick you would like your cookie, but 1/4 in is a good thickness) & cut. Bake at 375 until set or edges BEGIN to turn a light golden. My oven bakes hot and took about 7 minutes.

Decorator Icing

2 boxes (or 2 lbs) powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups Crisco (either regular or butter flavored. Butter will turn it off white)1/2 cup HOT water
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp vanilla (I use 2)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

Combine powdered sugar & salt in large mixer bowl. Beat on slow with wire whip attachment until smooth (no more clumps) Add crisco 1/4 cup at a time until mixed. Add hot water, beat until almost fluffy. Add vanilla & almond flavoring. Beat on high 5-10 min until volume has increased & frosting has stiffer/fluffy consistency.

Note: This is the frosting the kids used yesterday to decorate their cookies, However I didn't use this frosting for the cookies pictured above. Instead, I used Royal icing from Wilton. It comes in a container similar to white glue. Then to dress it up, I generously sprinkled food grade glitter on top (it was just like doing a craft!)

To see how I packaged these cookies all up, go to my Paper Capers blog.

Valentine Cookie Decorating Party

I was in the mood for a party so I threw together a Valentine's party and invited the neighbor girls and a friend from Natalie's class. I've always thought it would be fun to have a Christmas cookie decorating day and invite lots of friends to come. However with as much as we have going on in December, it probably won't happen any time soon. Since Valentine's day is next week, I decided to jump on it and so we had ourselves a little Valentine party. (click on the photos to enlarge)


While we were waiting for everyone to arrive the kiddos decorated Valentine hearts with lots of stickers. They also had fun with heart shaped magic scratch paper. It starts out black and when you scratch it, rainbow colors show through. It was a big hit.

I made all the cookies ahead of time, so when everyone was ready I gave
each kid their own bowl of frosting (trying to reduce spredding germs).
They also added candy to the top and as you can see they did a great job.

Natlalie and Zander's Valentine Cookies...Yummers

You DON'T have mail!

As soon as I got down to the mailboxes this afternoon, my gut told me something was wrong. Our neighbor's mailbox was left open. This may not seem strange unless you know that theirs can only be opened with a key...or a crow bar. Immediately, I checked our mail box and once I saw there was no mail in ours, I knew it was stolen. Yup! we are now victims of mail theft. Oh boy, now some yahoo has our mail and because we have no idea what was stolen, we have to call our bank, credit card companies and probably utilities tomorrow to give them the heads up. I hope all they got was a big pile of junk mail.

I called the P.O., but they were less than helpful. Then I called the Clackamas County Sheriff's dept and was on hold for 25 minutes...I didn't have all day to wait, so I just hung up. Man, I am starting to miss Multnomah county where the police/sheriff dept actually answer the phone when you call. I finally got on the Clackamas County website and searched around a bit until I found a criminal report form which I will need to fill out and send in tomorrow. I called some more neighbors and found out that they didn't get their mail either, so I'm guessing our whole road got hit. I hope those lame-Os get caught. I'm sure they are looking to steal someone's identity so they can get some sweet moola to make/buy meth with...nice hu!

Picture of the Day 2-03

Even Superheros need their sleep!

Fabulous Food Friday

Homemade Alfredo Sauce
1-2 T butter
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cream
1 cup parmesan

Melt butter in a small saucepan, saute garlic for about 5 minutes. Add cream and simmer for 10 minutes. Add parmesan (I use the grated kind in the shaker container. The fresh parm tends to get gloppy). Cook until cheese is blended. Season with freshly ground pepper and nutmeg. Serve over pasta or vegetables.

Since I am trying my best to practice proper food combining, I don't eat pasta with cheese, so instead I use this sauce over lots of steamed broccoli. It is really good and I don't even miss the pasta.