Another recipe....

I have to share another recipe with you all. My mom shared this with me the other day and I thought it sounded great. It came from the Pioneer Woman blog. I haven't read much of her blog but I know many people that do and she has some great recipes on her site. What I tried last night was Creamy Chicken Spaghetti Casserole. My kids liked it and Ben LOVED it. I changed a couple of things. I had cooked chicken already so I just boiled the noodles in water and added the chicken that I already had, I also didn't have any olives so I just totally left those out (thought they were a bit of a strange ingredient anyway) and when I cut up the mushroom I chopped them pretty small so my family would eat them. It turned out so good and I will definitely be making this one again.

I am thinking that I may start doing a weekly "new recipe" blog post. I need to do a bit a research to see how I want to do it but like I said the other day I am going to be trying some new things that might be worthy of sharing.

We have sure been battling some sickness in our family that last 3 weeks. Jacob has missed 2 days this week and 1 a coupld of weeks ago, I'm hoping that he will be well enough to go back tomorrow. I know that I've been promising some more pictures but things have been so crazy around here I just haven't been able to get around to it. I will soon...I promise!!

Uh-Oh, it's already beginning.....

Sarah is already riding around in "cars" with the neighbor boys. The little boy that lives next door is 20 days younger then Sarah and he got this super cool Jeep for Christmas and is kind enough to drive Sarah around. She must feel a bit nervous - notice the helmet?

Sorry it's been a little while since I've posted a new blog. We've been pretty busy with traveling, skiing, fighting sickness (and losing), little league meetings for Ben, wrestling practice, and on and on and on. I am about to try a few new recipes too, I'll let you know how they are when I try them. I also have some wrestling pictures to post as well. For now, this is all I've got for you but it's something right? :)

Jacob's face vs. Baseball bat

This was day one....it swelled up the day after this was taken and turned black and blue. Now it is yellowing and healing but it looked pretty ugly for awhile. He survived....

Dinner tonight....

I've been sitting at my computer for a while now trying to figure out what to blog about. It's been a week since my last post and I really don't want to "fall off the wagon" again so I decided I would just share what I made for dinner tonight. My mom has been telling me about the daily email that she gets from http://www.myrecipes.com/ called Dinner Tonight. I finally decided to sign up for it. I've only gotten two emails but I tried one tonight and it was so good! It was a black bean burrito bake and I made it with Lime Cilantro Rice. It was a little spicy for the kids (not Luke but the others) so next time I won't add the whole chili but or maybe I will make half with no chilies. Here is the link to the recipe.

Sorry if this is a boring post but I wanted you all to know that I am still here and thinking about my faithful readers and I felt like this was a good thing to share.

Jacob's music program...

I realized today that I have done a blog post on all of the kids in the last couple of weeks except for Jacob. So I decided to fix that. As I was looking back at some pictures from last year I found these from December when Jacob has his 3rd grade music program. All of the 3rd grade kids performed for family and friends. Some even got to play instruments....including Jacob!! I think he was most excited to wear his tie :)

Here he is getting ready to play the bar instrument. He did a fantastic job!!

At the end of the night he wanted to take a picture with his teacher. He is having a great year so far and this program was right up his ally....he loves to perform!

Zac's new pets....

Well here they are, that new addition to our family. If you didn't see this post about the ant farm, you should go there and then come back to finish reading about them. They came in the mail on Friday. All squeezed into a little tube. I have to admit, I was very afraid that they would die in the first day but here we are at day 3 and they are still alive and working hard. Ben and I are having as much watching them as Zac is. They are constantly working, moving sand, digging tunnels. It's pretty awesome!!
This was taken just a couple of minutes after Ben put them in.....

These were taken after 2 days (sorry about the glare)....

I thought Zac would enjoy telling you about his ants so here's a video.....

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Domino Fun!

Luke had his friend Sam over after school on Friday afternoon and one of the things they did, after playing football, scooters, Wii and snacks, was dig out the dominoes. It was little iffy for awhile because, as you know, Luke has two younger siblings that like to bug him when he has friends over. They finally got a long line made so I thought I would take a few pictures. I'm not sure why I didn't take a video (just now thought of that) and the pictures are a bit blurry but it was sure fun!!

I've got another post that I will save for tomorrow or Monday.....Zac's ants came!!! They are so cool but I need to take some more pictures to show all the work that they've done.

Have a wonderful Sunday friends!!

Lukey turns 7!!

I know that I say this every year but seriously?!?! He's really 7 this year?! I don't know why I can't understand that my life is screaming by way too fast and there's nothing I can do about it so I might as well just get used to it.
The day after Christmas (Luke's big day) started off with Uncle Chad and Aunt Crystal coming over to the house around 7:30 and giving Luke birthday card telling him that Uncle Chad was going to take him to the ski hill and teach him how to snowboard. Luke was so excited - not only did he get to spend the whole day with his Uncle but he was also going to learn how to ride a board.

When they got home he had just enough time to take a shower and get cleaned up and head to the bowling ally, because that's the tradition. Luke ALWAYS goes bowling with his cousins, aunts and uncles, brothers, sister and grandparents. He looks forward to it every year and even though he was tired from the day at the hill he still bowled better then me!!

Don't know if this was after his strike or one of his spares but it must have been great!!

After bowling we went to pizza then up to Mamaw and Papa's for presents......

....and ice cream cake!!!

It was a wonderful day filled with all kinds of fun and family!!!

He also got to have a friend party this year a couple of weeks after his real birthday. I will have to do another blog post about that a different day.

Today Sarah learned....

...that when you don't feel like fixing your hair you put a hat on!!

"Mommy, take one of me making a mad face"

"Now a sad face"

Even making a mad and sad face she's pretty cute wouldn't you say? I realized that I should have taken a picture of us together because I was also wearing a hat today, like many other days in my past. Now, I wonder how often she will want to wear hats or if she will start to comment about me wearing hats so much. Ah well, at least they make hats stylish and fashionable these days huh?

The ant farm

I'm not sure if you know this or not but Zachary is my "bug" guy. In the summer time he is always outside looking for ants, caterpillars, rolly polly bugs and whatever else he can fine that crawls. Last year for his birthday we got him a bug carnival thing and he had so much fun finding different things to put in it and watch them crawl around. Well, for Christmas he got an ant farm from Grandma and Grandpa. Once we got home daddy helped him get it all put together. We had to send away for the ants and Zac is still patiently waiting for them to arrive. I hope that they come soon. He has the empty ant farm all set up and ready for the ants to arrive. Here a just a couple of pictures that I took while Daddy was helping him get it all ready.

I will post pictures when they actually come. Maybe I will even take a video of Zac puting them in the new home...if I remember!

I know that I haven't done any of the blog that I said were up and coming but I will. They are going to be just a bit bigger so they will take me a bit longer to put together.

Have a great Monday!

"Curly Sarah"

When I was a little girl I remember my mom using little pink foam curlers in my hair. I am not sure if she ever put them in all of my hair or just in my little pigtails to make ringlets but I do remember them well. I thought about them a few months ago and decided that I should find some for Sarah and see how her hair curled. I found some a Walmart for pretty cheap and they have been so fun. Her hair curls so well for being so fine. I have to put them in right after she gets out of the bath and I put some mousse in it before I start curling but wait 'til you see the end result....the curls last all day long too!!

I know you can't see the curls really in this first picture but I had to post it just so you could see her posing for the camera. Look at that stance!!

Pretty cute huh? I know that I'm a bit biased but I have to say that she is one cute little girl!!

Today is Friday and we have a HUGE weekend so I'm not sure I'll get back to the blog again before the weekend is over but you never know...

Happy Friday Everyone!!