Zoos

One of our families' favorite thing to do at home is sit in "Mommy's rocking chair" and watch all the pictures come up randomly on our computer screen. It seems that we do it a few times during the day and usually just before bed. The kids even know that when the pictures are over, if you wiggle the mouse 20 more minutes of pictures will come up. Hence the need for "when the pictures are over it is time to go to bed".

Anyways, this picture popped up for the first time that I had seen it and I had forgotten about it! We don't have many pictures of all 4 of us... and of those... usually at least one person is not looking (and it is not the parents!) This was taken at a zoo in Oregon at a wildlife park. Cameron & Carolyn love animals and love seeing wildlife... we do too- we live with wildlife!

An Easter Hug

Cameron & Carolyn had a great time hunting for Easter eggs this past April. We are trying to teach them to continue bonding as brother and sister so they will be friends and supportive of each other throughout thier lives and into adulthood. They are off to a good start.

Bows and Arrows

On our Utah trip last week... our nephew Jake let us try out his bow and arrow that he made himself. Brett went first....he hit the ground in front of the target (the burlap sack) and buried the arrow in the grass.

Betsy went second...

And of course...


she nailed it.

So now Brett had to go again to show he could hit the target just like Betsy.

Oops! I guess Jacob will have to fix that new hole in that white vinyl fence. Sorry Jake.

Recipe for Steph

This is one of my favorite meals and I usually make it in bulk and freeze a few dinners. My niece Stephanie (I know, crazy, my niece is only 5 years younger than me! :)) asked for this recipe because she is expecting her first baby (yea!) and wants to be prepared with a few meals.

I even made this last year in a dutch oven when we were camping in the Sequoia's! I had the meat pre-cooked and lined the dutch oven with tinfoil (I am all about EASY clean-up!) and cooked rice on the side. Yum, yum. Enjoy!


Tortilla Layer Bake

Ingredients:
1 lb. 93% lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 can black beans - undrained
1 can Mexicorn - undrained
1 package taco seasoning
5 flour tortillas (soft taco size)
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 cup shredded cheese (I use colby-jack every time)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F Brown the beef over medium heat, draining any excess fat. When the beef is brown, reduce the heat to low and add the seasoning packet. Mix the meat and seasoning well. Add the black beans and the Mexicorn. Mix well. Pour some enchilada sauce into the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish. Place one flour tortilla on top of the enchilada sauce. Layer with some of the beef combination, a bit of cheese, and then drizzle additional enchilada sauce on top of the meat. Place another tortilla in the pan. Continue layering each tortilla with meat, cheese, and enchilada sauce until the last tortilla is placed on top. On the last tortilla, do not add any meat. Simply drizzle with enchilada sauce and cover with the remaining shredded cheese. Place casserole into the oven and bake 12-15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven. Allow to cool for 7-10 minutes and then serve. Serve over rice.

Smoothies

So when it is 104 degrees out and you don't feel like cooking dinner... what do you eat?! My friend had a great idea and we did it too - smoothies!!! (Last night it was 94 degrees still at 7:30pm - welcome to summers in Paso Robles!) I put some frozen berries, banana, yogurt, milk, and the last three chunks of pineapple from the 20 oz. can my kids had for a snack - they drank all the juice too - in a blender and it was awesome! With a piece of sour dough toast with butter... we were in business!

The little cups with lids from the restaurants came in handy! I'll have to invest in more straws as this is going to be a long hot summer! :)

Finally did it!

So I've been saying I was going to start a blog for some time now -- and I finally did it! Thanks to Sarah & Kristin who keep encouraging me and thanks to "Finding Nemo" that I actually have hands free to do it! (Well, except for the time of the barracudas & the "spaghetti" - which is that thing in the way deep that has a cute glowy thing from it's head! - At those points in the movie, Carolyn needs me to hold her hand! - I don't mind!)

My kids and I LOVE to look at everyones blogs and listen to music and see pictures! I hope to reciprocate!