Rainy Days and "Mud"days Don't Get Us Down

So Andy was gone on his trip before Easter. It had been rainy for a few days. The kids were getting antsy to go outside. I decided, hey, why not? Just let them get muddy. That's what they make bathtubs for, right? Kids will be kids and this is one of the best parts about being a kid...just getting filthy dirty and lovin' every minute of it!!!!

The three of them in the garden, aka: the mud hole (literally, mud hole. Before all the rain, the boys had been digging for dinosaur bones in the garden and made a huge hole which, of course, filled with water!)

There really are toes under all that mud

And hands to match. Nice, Jonny!

Jake's showing me his car. Looks like a big blob of mud.

Yup, she's a walkin'!!! You can see, she was just as happy to get dirty as the boys :-)

Oh my goodness!
Can you believe my fabulous washing machine got all this dirt out?

Christmas Tree #4

Andy worked hard digging the hole for our fourth live Christmas tree to be planted. It's been hanging out in the garage all winter. Now that the weather is nicer, time to put it in the ground (this was a couple weekends ago). As per tradition, the kids sit in the hole for a picture before the tree goes in. The hole seems a little smaller with three kids in it :-)
While the boys were digging, Lizzie decided she was going to try to climb the rock wall. Monkey see, monkey do...

Jake and Jon dug out the compost to put in the tree hole

Good teamwork, guys!

Dumping all the compost into the hole

Daddy put the tree into the hole and the boys enjoyed using the hose to water it.

Our fourth Christmas tree is successfully in the ground.

Microwave White Chicken Chili

A few months ago, I discovered a recipe for green chili chicken enchiladas that we absolutely LOVE! The only problem is, it's very time-consuming. You broil tomatillas, chop a bunch of stuff, including fresh cilantro, process the sauce, etc. Just a lot of steps, but so yummy. Anyway, Andy's on a trip right now and I was looking for something quick to make for dinner for me and the kids and found this recipe in one of those little Pampered Chef $1 cookbooks. IT WAS SO GOOD! And really easy. It totally has the same flavor as the time consuming recipe, but with a lot less prep. I'm not usually a microwave cooker, but this was great! I made a few changes to the original recipe, so I'll just type what I did. Hope you try it and enjoy it as much as we did!

Microwave White Chicken Chili

3 whole heads garlic, unpeeled (this sounds like a lot, but it's not spicy at all! Lizzie loved it!)

1/4 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp olive oil, divided (probably could use less)

1/2 green pepper

1 med. onion

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2)

2 Tbsp. taco seasoning

2 cans great northern beans, drained

1-16 oz. jar salsa verde (mine was medium)

Slice about 1/4 in off pointed top of garlic heads to expose cloves. Place garlic cut side up in classic batter bowl. Sprinkle garlic with salt and drizzle with 2 Tbsp oil. Cover bowl with lid (note: any glass bowl with a lid or plastic would work). Microwave on high 3 minutes or until garlic is soft. Set aside to cool (remove cover). Meanwhile, finely dice peppers and onion (I used food processor). Put in deep covered baker or other larger microwave-safe bowl (I used my 9x13 stone with plastic wrap to cover). Trim fat from and cut chicken into small cubes. Add chicken, seasoning, and 1 Tbsp oil to baker. Mix well and microwave, covered on high 4 min. Stir to separate chicken. Cover again and microwave another 4-6 min or until chicken is cooked through. Meanwhile, gently squeeze cooled garlic from heads into batter bowl. Mash using fork (or put into food processor). Add beans and salsa. Stir. Add to chicken mixture in baker. Mix well. Microwave, covered, on high 5-7 min or until chili is heated through. We sprinkled a little shredded mexican blend cheese and crumpled tortilla chips on top. YUM!

Yield: 8 cups

Lizzie's Party

Happy 1st Birthday, Lizzie!!!!

"Good Things Come in Small Packages"

I told my mom about my idea of "good things come in small packages" for Lizzie's party theme. The idea came from the shirt Lizzie is wearing. I made "gift" invitations with a picture of her wearing the shirt and my mom got busy thinking of ideas for a cake. We ended up finding this on the Wilton (the cake decorating company) website. I think it turned out cute. Thanks, Krista for letting me borrow the #1 pan!
I'm so thankful to be close to family now. My nephew Darnel and my sister Jenn came down for Lizzie's party. Darnel turned 14 the day after Lizzie's birthday! He was actually disappointed that she wasn't born on his birthday. He wanted to share it with her.

My friend, Yolanda and her son, Jacob

Here's my sister, Jenn! Thanks for making the drive! I really appreciate you being there!

Popsy, "Muncle" Don, and Aunt Kimmy (and Mommom who was busy feeding Lizzie her dinner) also made the trek. Jon kept bringing these guy apples, oranges, and veggies and eating all the strawberries himself :-)

My friend, Marie and her daughter, Brooklyn

My friend, Andrea

The Pachecos

Gage and Evelyn enjoying the meatballs and ziti

Matt and Hunter

Krista

Tristan giving me his tough guy face

Jake, Andy, Kevin (who won the "guess how many Cheerios are in the jar" contest) and Caden

Meredith, Lila (isn't she the cutest?), Amy, and Kyle...their hubbies/daddies work with Andy in his new squadron

The "One-derful" cake again

Lizzie's special #1 cake

Okay, the candle looks much closer to her hand in this picture than it actually was!!! She was very eager to eat her cake, can you tell????

YUM!!!!! There wasn't a whole lot of checkin' it out...she just got right to putting the whole thing in her mouth and taking a nice big bite!

Didn't take long and she had it almost polished off!

Aunt Kimmy, Jon and Jake

Time for presents! She got some adorable clothes, the cute flower clip she's wearing in her hair, some fun books and a few toys! Thanks everyone!!! Everything was just great! For her thank you notes, the kids designed their own "wrapping paper" with markers, we added a bow and a tag that said "your friendship is a gift."

Lizzie sporting one of her cute new hair clips. I've gotta work on the hairdos!!!

Anna playing the "unwrap the gift" game. Her brother, Evan won.

Cameron. Don't you just love his eyelashes???

Cool, dude!

Getting tickled by Daddy

The birthday girl playing with her new bath toy, Buster the dog. She says "woof" everytime she sees a dog!

Getting some lovin' from Daddy

Happy Birthday Lizzie! We love you baby girl!

And thanks to all our friends and family who came to help Lizzie celebrate her very first birthday. We love you guys and truly cherish your friendship.

Our Baby is ONE!

Sniff, sniff...

Our little baby is a big one year old! Seriously, seems like just a couple months ago I was opening up this adorable "Birthday Girl" dress my friend Marie gave me at the surprise baby shower my friends had for me. It seemed so huge, size 18 months! My little baby will never be that big! Of course, she wasn't even born yet! Yup, fits perfectly now, a year later.

Well, most of you know, we didn't plan on having any more kids. We thought we were just great with the two boys. But, God had a different plan for us and honestly, now we have no idea what we were thinking! We couldn't imagine not having this sweet little girl in our family! She has brought us all so much joy. Just goes to show you, God knows WAY more than we do! What a little blessing she is!

I tried to get her to play with a pretty flower, but she just made wierd faces at it!

She may be all dressed up in a girly girl dress, but she still wanted to play with the cars! That's my girl! Look how happy she is!!!

After a broccoli, chicken and pasta dinner with fresh oranges our neighbors brought home from Florida (Lizzie's favorite) , she got to open her presents. My Aunt Deb and Uncle Chuck in Wisconsin sent her the best "baby-sized" kitchen set! She LOVES it!!!! Thanks guys for the great gift! By far, it's her favorite new toy! We had a hard time getting her to open the rest of her gifts because she didn't want to stop playing with her spatula, salt and pepper shakers, egg/frying pan, etc...

So, she opened the hand-made knitted doll her Great Grandmother Dickson made for her (which I'm sure took hours and hours and hours and is totally adorable!), but Daddy got to pose for the picture since she was right back to that kitchen set! Later, G.G., she did play with the doll, so all your hard work wasn't for nothing! Thanks for the wonderful and thoughtful gift!

Now for the good stuff...

Daddy said that Lizzie told him that she wanted brownies for her birthday :-)

So, off came the adorable dress...

Look at her, she couldn't wait to dive in!

YUMMY!

That's my girl! A true chocoholic, even at age 1!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Lizzie Girl! We love you so much and are so incredibly thankful for you each and every day!

Oh Avocado pits!

I have to share this...
My friend KB posted this on her blog. Jackson was good buds with Jake and Jon when the Burkes lived here. Now they're in CO. Anyway...

This is what came out of Jackson's mouth as we were driving to the park....
"Hey Dad, guess what?"
"Strong men stand up for themselves."
"And stronger men stand up for others."
"I'm a stronger man."

KB says, "Say what? Come again? Where in the world did he learn that??!!Upon further investigation he apparently heard it from the movie "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals".It still sounded pretty good. =)"

And here's what my kid's saying, "Oh avocado pits!"
Yup, so proud.
That's what Jake said when he messed up while playing a Wii game the other day.

The Little Things...

A couple weeks ago, our washer went "kaput" as Toehead would say. So, we bought a fabulous new frontloader. Jake and Lizzie were mesmerized by the clothes tumbling around and around.
Well, she's almost one. She loves holding our fingers and walking all around or pushing this great toy all around and does it all with ease. But, ask her to walk one step without holding on and she sits right down. We started "booing" her and now it's a big joke. She laughs and sits down and says, "boo!" What a little stinker!

Jon and Jake have been big time into the legos again. They constructed all the sea creatures they could think of, then made these C-5s, then made all the landmarks (like the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, etc.), then all the planets. What will they come up with next?

Yup, there's that stinker face! I was trying to get a nice picture of her and she kept crawling toward me trying to grab the camera! Robyn, you have a tough job! (My friend, Robyn is a photographer!)

She loves to reach up and play the piano. Gram will be so happy to hear her piano is so loved and being played so much :-)



So, these are the little things we've been up to...

Next post will probably be LIZZIE'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!!! Yikes! Can you believe my baby is one already?