Meet Rose

Meet Rose.  Maren made her in Preschool, and I think she is one cute girl.  However, every show I've seen her star in, she leads some sad story where her entire family dies.  I guess my girl loves herself some drama.

 Everett has a hand puppet, too.  See?

 And, my kids.  They are so stinkin' cute.

 You're diggin' Lou Lou's hair, huh?  She pulls out all the rubber bands, little stink.  All shoes and socks must come off as well.  At least she hasn't figured out the clothes bit yet.

 You're killing me, girl.  Those eyes.  That smile.  It kills me.

 Excuse me a moment, I need to go find that face and smooch upon it.

There.  I'm proud of the progress my little musician is making at the piano:

 These girls.  They are either the best of friends, or the worst of enemies.  It keeps our house hopping.

Life is grand.  I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Thanksgiving (and the rest of our weekend)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

 The kids 'helped' dad make pie:

 I like this photo because my baby boy looks like a Cabbage Patch doll, and he has really awesome hair:

 We had our Thanksgiving feast with Nick's family, and it was a very enjoyable evening, not to mention really delicious food (that goes without saying, right?).

The next day, we had to pull out the tree and the Christmas decorations (Notice the Halloween decor in the background.  Ha!):

 That day, we were also joined by my nephew, who we got to keep for the long weekend.  He's been a pleasure to have around.

Saturday morning, I took the 'big' kids to see Wreck-It Ralph, which we all enjoyed.  That evening we made pizzas:

 Everett admiring his cousin (I admire him too!  He ate his entire pizza in one sitting!):

We had a second Thanksgiving feast with my brother's family Sunday night, and besides the turkey being a little undercooked (whoops!), it was just as delicious as the first time.  We look forward to our turkey sandwiches (fully cooked, that is) this week.

And this morning, it's back to real life.  Ellie's back in school and I was back to the get up and make lunches and feed the kids routine. 

 Look who thinks she's a big girl:

 And here's a bonus phone dump for you:



What's For Dinner

Monday - Sweet and Sour Chicken, Fried Rice (I didn't actually use this recipe, but one similar to it - we like both versions), green salad
Tuesday - Breakfast burritos with sausage, roasted potatoes (This was actually a great way to do 'hash browns':  I chopped the potatoes small, tossed with olive oil, onion powder, salt and pepper and roasted in a hot oven until all brown, crunchy and delicious.), scrambled egg, and salsa
Wednesday - Costco pizza (hello, it's $10 and huge!  Not to mention one of our favorites...), green salad
Thursday - Apple and Onion Stuffed Pork Chops (I really like this recipe, the kids, not so much, unfortunately.  I do a lazy version and instead of stuffing the pork chops, I half the pork chops and put the yummy stuff on top before baking it.), green salad, bread with butter and jam, roasted acorn squash
Friday - Date night!  Wahoo!
Saturday - Fend for yourself night.
Sunday - Another fend for yourself night.  However, our lunch was definitely worth mentioning:  Reuben sandwiches for Nick and I with salt and vinegar chips.  Yummy, yummy, yum, yum. 

We're Thankful

 Just life going on around here. 

 Maren has been drawing a lot of art that looks like this lately:

 It makes me sad every single time.  I don't think there are any deep-seated psychological issues here.  Maybe she has some serious middle child syndrome that I'm not addressing or something.  Thankfully, she also draws beautiful, happy pictures like this:

 That's me and her and we both look happy, thank goodness.

 For Family Home Evening we put together Tom, our Thankful Turkey.  We've been adding to him as the days go by.

 We certainly have a lot to be thankful for.

And here's the week in phone photos:



What's For Dinner

Sunday - Spaghetti, green salad, homemade sourdough bread (Nick was in charge)

Monday - Steak burritoes.  Whenever we cook up steak, we take any leftovers and slice it up and freeze it.  Makes for a really easy heat-up meal!  We also had some red rice, black beans, green salad, guacamole and chips.

Tuesday - Bacon and Brussels Sprout Hash (this is one of my favorite ways to eat brussels sprouts, by the way), egg, whole wheat toast, blackberries, sliced cucumber and carrot

Wednesday - Broccoli Cheese Soup (or a variation thereof), toasted sourdough bread, pomegranate and/or canned pears

Thursday - Crispy Baked Chicken (we all love this, and bonus - it's baked, not fried!  see recipe below), mashed potatoes, gravy from a mix, delicata squash, green salad.  By the way, I'm sure many of you have discovered this, but squash is very easily cooked in the microwave.  We peel, cut in bite-sized pieces and then put it in an 8x8 pyrex with a little butter, salt, pepper, and sometimes some brown sugar (if we are feeling extra naughty) then cover and microwave for maybe 7-8 minutes until tender.

Friday - Leftover Parfait.

Crispy Baked Chicken
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp pepper
1 broiler/fryer chicken (3-3 1/2 pounds), cut up (we buy the drumstick and thigh packages from Costco and use one of each for this recipe)
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
Combine first six ingredients.  Dip chicken in milk, then roll in the cornmeal mixture.  Place in greased 9x13 pan.  Drizzle with butter.  Bake, uncovered at 375* for 50-55 minutes or until juices run clear.

Snow

Mother Nature has blessed us with a few inches of snow today.  My kids have been waiting for this day for a long time.  Maren has been out in it three times already. 

 Cutest little Snow Bunny I ever did see.

Before this storm rolled in, we enjoyed some really nice Fall days.  I took the littles to feed the ducks:

I love the dirty butt.  ;)

Phone Dump

Just sharing this last week's joys, according to my phone:

What's For Dinner?

Monday - Bean burritos, I had Huevos Rancheros (corn tortilla, beans, egg, salsa)
Tuesday - Stir-fried veggies, brown rice
Wednesday - Crockpot Beef Stew, bread and butter
Thursday - Left-over brisket, smashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, green salad
Friday - Left-over beef stew for Nick and I, frozen pizza for the kids

Halloween!

Halloween was a good time.  We were all feeling healthy again (Nick was the only one who didn't get the tummy bug which graced our home for a week and a half, lucky guy - I don't know how, because he certainly did his fair share of clean-up) and just in time for Halloween!  Hurray!

Here are my cute kiddos, all dressed up for the fun festivities of the day.

First, Snow White:

 Um, she is four right?  Just checking...

Raggedy Ann (Lainey Lou's first costume of the day):

 And as a tiger (Lainey's second costume of the day.  The first one got really dirty when I let her crawl around outside.  Go figure.):

 Our Witch:

 And last, but certainly not least, our Farm Boy (who had just woken up from a nap):

 Cool, huh?  Nick did it.  I told you he's a pretty handy guy.

The hat is a totally genuine farmer hat too.  He got it from his Grandpa, Farmer Brown. (Thanks, Dad!)

 Babies raiding the candy bowl:

What a fun day.  And now, we have a lot of chocolate around here.  This is trouble, friends.  Could someone come lock it up for me?