Friday, January 30, 2009

Happy Birthday!

Just a little shout out to Grandma Lori-
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
We love you bunches and bunches! You do so much for our family and life wouldn't be any fun without you! Thanks for all you do! The girls wanted to be creative and make grandma a card... Excuse the naked babies...being creative at our house means clothes off-some of us tend to get a little wild with the creating!Isn't she a great little card maker! I didn't even help her with the happy birthday part (other than the handwriting)-but it looks just like a little greeting card with the buttons and flower! Nice composition Sam!

Sledding

Sledding is one of my favorite winter pasttimes. We logged some good hours a couple weekends ago (before the rain made everything mush). So here are a few pics from our adventure. Man kids have it easy these days...we went with some friends that had snowmobiles and we drug along a 4-wheeler to haul the kids up the mountain! Back in the good ol' days we had to walk! It was much more fun not to drag my old bones up the hill though.
Riding in trusty Old Joe Green-our beat up truck. Jared introduced Sam to the ski goggles a while back and now they are a must anytime she plays in the snow so she can go fast without the wind in her eyes.
She loved to zip down the hill on one of the tubes all by herself. Mom and dad were pretty much forbidden to tag along. We had to literally drag her off the hill when it was time to go.We got the extra large model sled-so we can pretty much fit the whole family in it!Alex had enough after about a 1/2 hour. As evidenced by the alligator tears on her cheeks. She's got a short attention span when it comes to cold and snow-every time she goes outside she is ready to come in after about 5 minutes.Alex testing the goggles out.

Monday, January 12, 2009

One of Those Days

We really had a pretty great day just chummin' at home...cleaning house, playing dress-up, riding bikes in the house (hence the wound by her eye), playing with friends...obviously it was a bit much for this little dumpling. (crummy napping doesn't help the situation either). By dinnertime she was sitting at the counter with her head on her hands, eyes closed, just bawling. She was practically sleeping, sitting up (and crying at the same time). Go figure. I'm sure mom snapping pics of her terrible state really did wonders for her mood too.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Hmm Hmm Good

My darling friend Amber posted this great recipe and I decided to try it out. It is a solid hit at our house. Everyone went for second helpings. So Enjoy. Thanks Amb!

WILD RICE SOUP


Makes 8 servings
3 cups water, or more
3/4 cup uncooked wild rice rinsed
1/2 cup chopped onions
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup flour
4 cups water
4 chicken-flavored bouillon cubes
1 1/2 cups chopped, peeled potatoes (I leave the peel on mine)
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 bay leaf
15 oz. can whole-kernel corn, undrained
2 cups half-and-half
3 cups (1 lb.) cubed ham, fully cubed ham
2 Tbsp. parsley

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine 3 cups water and wild rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 35-40 minutes, or until tender. Check after 20 minutes, and again after 30 minutes, to make sure the rice isn't cooking dry and scorching. Add more water if needed.

2. In a large saucepan, cook onions and garlic in butter until crisp-tender. Stir in flour. Cook one minute, stirring constantly.

3. Gradually stir in 4 cups water and bouillon cubes into onion and garlic. Add potatoes, carrots, thyme, nutmeg, pepper, and bay leaf.

4. Bring vegetable mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15-30 minutes.

5. Add corn to vegetables. Cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

6. Stir in half-and-half, ham, cooked wild rice, and parsley. Cook until heated through.

7. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Our Christmas

Well-belated Merry Christmas everyone! Here are a few snapshots of our great holiday! It was pretty low key. We live so close to our families that we get to enjoy a lot of time with all of them, playing with cousins and loving grandparents. It is truly a blessing! We spent Christmas Eve making cookies for Santa and preparing for the evening at Grandma Diane's. It was great playing games and munching the whole night. Christmas day we spent a little more time at Grandma Diane's. We had a great brunch of crepes with fresh berries (my favorite!), opening gifts, and playing fun games. We spent the afternoon at Grandpa Neil and Grandma Lori's opening gifts and playing with all the fun new toys at their house. We spent Sunday with Grandma and Grandpa Olsen and Donnell and had a great dinner and some one on one time with them. Thanks everyone for the fun, thoughtful gifts, the great food, and the good times. It is quite the run around between houses, but we all love it and enjoy the time with everyone. We were also really excited this year because our entire family got to be together, including our nephew and niece, Chris and Jamie, who live quite a ways away. It was so much fun. We weren't very consistent about taking pictures this year...so we apologize for not have pictures of everyone (despite getting a new digital camera...I'm still figuring that one out). Below are a few highlights...
Making sugar cookies for Santa Christmas Eve
Our 16' Christmas tree...one of our favorite traditions is cutting our own. Jared keeps increasing the height each year...the thing is the only way to get a taller tree next year is to put it in the middle of the room. Yeah right.
Our princesses in their adorable new silky princess nighties that Grandma Diane made. Sam will hardly part with hers to be washed.
I actually surprised Jared this year. I generally either get excited and spill the beans or he figures it out the moment I buy it. This year it worked though! It took a little magic and a lot of help from Sarah & JD...thanks a bunch guys. It was a hit!
Sam on her new 'Pink, Princess Bike'. Her one request from Santa since June.
Playing games at Grandma Diane's Christmas day. I hope the candy game becomes a tradition mom (hint, hint)-we now have our year supply of candy (which will probably last a week at the rate Jared eats junk)!





Sunday, January 4, 2009

Christmas?

Yes, we really did have Christmas-a great one-I have just been lazy and refuse to post-despite having looked at everyone else's blogs from this one about a million times. Eek. Tomorrow the holiday break will officially be over, reality will finally sink in again and I will resolve to be more consistent at updating. Tomorrow.