Resolutions

I know I am double posting but I have time and I didn't get to cover New Years....

Our kids are big enought to get in on the action of resolutions so this year Dusty and I cooked a "fancy" dinner...

You know one that doesn't get cooked often...

So the menu for the first dinner of the new year was:

Steak 

Baked potatoes with homemade sour cream

Tossed salad

Sour dough bread

Spinach artichoke dip

And sparkling apple juice.

We went around and talked about our plans for the new year. This year:

Ellie- wants to write in her journal everyday

Penny-wants to speak kinder to her sisters

Dusty- wants to ride his horse more

Kristin- wants to find better balance in life

Andy- wants to be potty trained (he is just in denial about this right now)

Lucy-wants to read her scriptures before bed every night.

I am excited to see what the new year brings for us. We had an up and down sort of year last year so hopefully this year is less hilly for us!

Christmas and New Years

We had such a great Christmas! It turned out a little unconventional due to some illness and spur of the moment decisions but it was Christmas even with the minor alterations....

Christmas Eve was spent with Dusty's cousins. I forgot my camera so no pics but it was fun to get together. It almost didn't happen and it made it more meaningful that it actually got pulled together. Sara managed to pull off an amazing roast beef dinner and we visited with everyone. It had snowed the night before and was drifting everywhere. It felt very festive.

Christmas morning came and my mom and dad came over in the morning.

We opened gift and had pancakes and sausages and bacon and eggs for breakfast. Uncle Blair came and ate with us and then we packed up and went to Church. Andy was absolutely opposed when we went to leave and he didn't get to go to nursery!

We got home and finished presents and my parents left after to get the turkey. That's when it started to unravel a bit. Mom ended up sick and couldn't come. All our waterers froze up so we couldn't get the turkey. And my sister Bri ended up trying to surprise everyone by coming down that night only to find that Christmas got a little untraditional. 

We had left overs and woke up the next day to go to Dusty's parents place.  It was its usual party and the kids enjoyed seeing their cousins and playing.

We spent between Christmas and New Years just hanging out. We went to a 4-H hockey activity and got Christmas packed up and put away and just got things ready for our annual New Years eave party.

Perspective

I didn't really understand what busy was until I was actually busy. I am sure there are people who are busier than me. I know it. I am not sure how they keep it together. Most days I wish I was on some sort of medication to just coast me through.

This is a rant for another day. There are glimpses of my life that I occasionally catch. And one today was this dude....

He LOVES play dough. I HATE play dough. I am not a good compromiser. He was driving me and his sisters bananas this afternoon and I had to make buns for a community dinner so I left him to his own devices with a chunk of dough that would be his dinner (pizza).

He did great. Who knew he was an OCD pizza maker?!? 

He rolled it out all by himself.

(That's my grammas rolling pin. I have her measuring cup too. I love the little things I get to use of hers almost daily)

And then he put his own sauce on it and pineapples and cheese. He watched it bake. And then he ate it.

All 8 pieces.

He was pretty impressed with himself. 

I was pretty impressed.

Jambalaya

I haven't posted a recipe in a long time....

Truth be told....

I haven't really cooked in a long time. We mostly live off of the same rotation of slow cooker meals that just get dumped into the crockpot.

And tonight's recipe is also made in a slowcooker...

But it was good.

Really good.

That's how good....

So I wasn't really home long enough today to get it all dumped in at once.

So I got my slowcooker out and turned it in high. I chopped up 10 mild Italian sausages and a big sweet onion (in rustic chunks).

And then I was late.

When I came home I added celery (probably around 2 to 3 cups) and a big can of diced tomatoes and 2 cups of chicken broth and I sprinkled oregano and cayanne pepper and paprika on the top. I sprinkled seasoning salt on top of that and I threw in a half a bag of coleslaw and stirred it all up. Oh and a green pepper (diced pretty fine since none of my kids like peppers-cooked).

Then I was late again. 4 hours later when I got home (like 330) I dumped 2 cups of basmati rice in and stirred it up. Then I was late again. When I got home at 5 it was totally cooked and starting to get stuck on my crock pot. Fluffed and ate. So good. The only complainer was Penny but she complains about anything other than potato soup or hot dogs.... So a win!

Sleep

He is finally asleep after waking up at 3am Thursday Morning. 

It's been a long few days (mostly for him) and it's shaping up to be a long next few days. We have had three trips to emerg today and some more ahead of us.

He had a root canal done on an infected tooth and it's abscessed. It's pretty nasty and I will spare everyone the direct face picture. (He sorta looks like Quasimoto) 

It's funny for me... Not so much for him...

Stix

As the leaves have turned and my children have run off to school I find that I have a couple minutes during my day to do what I love...

This summer I bought a spinning wheel and so the bags and bags of rovings have found purpose. I spun three bobbins of yarn and needed a project. This is a delightfully sticky yarn and my friend at http://www.lmicheldesigns.com is AMAZING at designing some really awesome patterns. So these first bobbins are yarn are destined to be felted slippers. 

July Ina Nutshell

The first month of summer has blown by at record speed!

We started our summer with some beach days at our favorite local spot. I took the kiddos a few times by myself but it's always a highlight when we can get their dad there!!

Ellie has a goal this summer to read 20 novels! In the first week she read these three and then I told her she had to pick a couple harder reads.

Lucy's goal is to read 1 novel/week so that will put her at 9-10 by the end of summer. First 2 down!

We spent the first week of summer cleaning the basement! I got all the storage rooms done and the girls rooms. Penny got to move out of Ellie's room into her own!

Lots of time spent moving animals around every day- between feed and predators it feels like we are constantly switching things up.

We have had crazy weather this summer!! This kids job is to move in and out the patio cushions! She has her work cut out for her! 

Our friends took us out in their boat and the girls got to try knee boarding! They loved it! 

Penny and Sawyer making it look easy!

We also got our boat out for a few days of family fun! The girls are tubing maniacs right now!

Trail rides. Penny is all over it this year! She has been doing great!

Summer games! The girls did so well! They brought home 18 medals all together! 

Right after summer games we ran away to the lake. Got some much needed down time. We didn't take any of the mechanical toys so we spent a lot of time together just splashing and coloring and hanging out.

Penny is determined to learn to swim.

We made our annual trek to Fort Steele! So awesome! We got caught in a thunderstorm there. It was so nice!

Came home and got hammered with hail. Our vehicles have a few more dents and it broke a window on the house! But it was worth it to see Penny's face out there collecting hail! She has two bags of it saved in our freezer!

More riding- Lucy has started riding Pheonix and they are doing really well together!

Parade day! The girls ride to town to be in our local parade! They were a little tired from the night before when they rode sheep and wild pony races! Such a fun weekend! Parades, rodeos, ghost stories and wagon rides!

Penny started actual swim lessons! She loves it!

And more hay... Everything broke down so Andy's been out trying to keep things moving!

Lucy's last two novels she's read! So far she has read 5 novels in 4 weeks!

Ellie is at 10 novels and is half way to her goal! 

And we bought a new {to us} car! Seats 7 so we can actually all travel together!! It is so great! It looks just like my escape (which I LOVE) and it has 4 wheel drive! So excited!

Show times

Ellie has been working really hard the last few weeks and it paid off big time this weekend. She rode 2 horses and they couldn't be more polar opposite and she did a beautiful job with both.

These were her placings with 38. 

2nd showmanship

1st English pleasure 

1st English Equitation

4th Western Pleasure

4th Western equitation 

She took the highpoint award in their division.

This was the loot with Midnight.

Same order as above.

And also highpoint in the division.

But this show was less about ribbons and more about successes in the small things. Consistent diagonals, correct leads, finesse in showing, etc.

She did a bang up job!

And Penny....

Her and Rocky are two peas in a pod!

9

Lucy is 9.

9!

She went to Montanas for dinner.

She got a hammock and books.

Beginning of a Summer

The girls are feeling the closeness of summer va-ca....

They REALLY wanted to go out to the mountains but we didn't have the time so we took their bikes to town and went to the park....

Happiness is sometimes the simplest things!

Now after looking through the pictures.... I just remebered all the snail shells Penny stuffed into her pockets.... I am going to go scrape those out before either they escape or she remembers....