Quick Recipe Share

I don't have any family news to share and this will be short but I've tried a few recipes that were so good and I just had to share them.  And I'm proud to say a lot of these are things I pinned.  I'm a doer, not just a pinner!  However, I'm not a good food photographer so all the photos below are from the recipe source.

Sunday Night Stew from The Pioneer Woman.  No comments to add, no changes- just deliciousness.



Southwestern Chopped Chicken Salad from Greens and Chocolate- I added a little milk to the dressing because it had more of a dip consistency as the recipe is written.  I ate it for the lunch the next few days after I originally made it because I couldn't get enough.

Apple Brownies from Allrecipes- I would say this is a cake and not brownies so be prepared for that.  I followed some of the comments from others and added nutmeg, chopped the apples rather than sliced them and added a little cinnamon-sugar mix to the top as soon as I took it out of the oven.  Some people added a streusel-type topping which sounded delicious but I figured it was bad enough for me as is, no need to cover it with that too.

Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes from Allrecipes- I added some ham in between the layers of potatoes to make a main dish out of it and it came out great.  I have a few comments on the recipe.  First, use a sharp cheese and it will taste much better.  Don't use the bagged cheese; make sure you grate your own.  Finally, the recipe starts by making a roux with the butter and flour and it says you only need to whisk them together for one minute.  No way.  I whisked for about 5 minutes before I added the next ingredient and it came out great.  If you only whisked for a minute, it would still have that raw flour taste and probably be pretty grainy.

Massaged Kale Salad from Food Network- I had a kale salad while visiting friends in Portland last year and I thought it was great.  I'd been thinking about it a lot lately and decided to try this recipe.  I loved this but I was the only one.  Rob said, "If I had to eat grass, this is what I would want it to taste like."  It kind of sounds like a compliment, but it totally wasn't.  The boys wouldn't eat it if you offered to buy out a Toys R Us for them.  But if you have a little more open mind than three of them (which wouldn't take much), you will probably like this too.  I had no luck getting a picture of it so you will just have to follow the link to see a picture if you are interested- sorry!

Homemade Applesauce from Cooks.com- No picture this time either but we all know what applesauce looks like, right?  I wouldn't change anything on the recipe, just add that I took a potato masher and smashed them all up when it was done cooking.  I like it with some chunks of apple in it and I don't have a food mill to make it all smooth anyhow so that's what worked for me.  It made a lot and I thought I would need to freeze some of it but I didn't need to after all.  Because we ate it ALL.  In just a few days.  It was so good.

Visit to the Apple Orchard/Pumpkin Patch and A Missing Tooth!

It's been exciting around here the last two weeks, especially while Rob was gone to California.  He missed a lot of cool stuff.  There is a really awesome apple orchard/pumpkin patch in the area that I've been wanting to go to.  Rex went with his preschool class last year.  It is kind of expensive and more so on the weekends so I decided to take Wyatt one day while Rex was at school.  This is a balancing of the scales, as Rex got to go last year while Wyatt and I stayed home.  At least, that's what I tell myself so I don't feel bad that Rex missed out.

I couldn't believe how much there was to do there- I allowed about 3 hours for the driving and time there and that wasn't really enough.  We could've used another hour.  Here are some pictures of our time there.

At the sign by the entrance:

Running around the farm:

Bouncing on the jumping pillow:

They set up a bunch of hay bales in a ring and dumped corn kernels in so you could jump and play and make corn angels (the autumn version of snow angels):

Pumping water to make the little rubber duckies float down the "river" at the duck races:

Finally, the reason we could've used another hour- the hay ride:

The hayride takes 20-30 minutes and we were running out of time.  I thought it was just a quick little cruise but it turns out you buy a bag to take with you so you can pick your own apples and they also stop to pick your own pumpkin.  All that picking takes a while and I hadn't purchased a bag for the apple picking so it was best to just skip it that time.  So we got back down off the hayride and grabbed an already-picked pumpkin.  We also grabbed some fresh apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, a caramel apple and then a jar each of apple butter and pumpkin butter.  I'm a sucker for those little farm stores, what can I say.  By the way, we took all that home- all we ate there was one doughnut each.  We had such a great time and honestly, I think if I was to ever run my own business, I would want to have a farm like this.  Wyatt was ready to move in too.

I took a picture of the boys with our pumpkin the next day, mainly to capture Rex's big news- he lost his first tooth!

The tooth came out at school and was, unfortunately, lost on the playground during recess.  Rex said it came loose and he was afraid he would choke on it so he just spit it out on the ground.  In my mind, I see it all happening where he just spits it out and keeps on playing and he never even thinks about picking it up or that he should save it.  We drew a little picture and wrote the tooth fairy a letter explaining what happened and where she could find the tooth.  Luckily, she was very understanding and left Rex some money and a letter for him.  It was all very exciting!

And if you noticed how stylish my youngest son is in that picture above, here is a full body shot so you can see just how good the guy looks.

It takes a certain personality to rock the Converse lizard shoes, striped beanie and orange sunglasses but it totally works for Wyatt.  It is so much fun to dress him because he can make anything
work and look good.  He just has that attitude.  For instance, this was his pose he did when I asked if I could take his picture- he sat down on the ground and looked up at me just like this.  Rex is pretty stylish too, but he is more of a traditional, preppy type.  He does love to sport the hats when he can- here is his blue Kangol-style cap.

 I love having boys.  They are so much fun.  I'm headed to California on Friday for a long weekend visit with two of my best friends and I can't wait.  I'm really looking forward to it even though I will miss all my dudes here.  Hopefully I won't miss out on any of their big life events while I am gone!

Zoo Time

Wyatt and I recently went to Des Moines (while Rex was in school) and I took him to the zoo.  We had a wonderful day together- we saw goats, otters, penguins and a bunch of other animals.  They even had a play area and a train ride too!  There isn't too much to tell about it but we got a lot of good pictures.  I'll let them tell the story this time.

We went out to lunch afterwards then came back home to pick up Rex from school.  We still haven't told him about our special day- no need to upset him!  He has been to the zoo before, by the way, so he isn't missing out too much.  He is usually the one telling stories about school or fun trips he got to go on so I think it was definitely Wyatt's turn.  It was beautiful weather that day and we just had such a fantastic day!

Blogger Funk

So I have had no desire to blog at all for the last month or more.  Sorry about that.  We have plenty going on to share, I just don't have a lot of time to sit down at the computer and share.  I will try to be better and I'm going to set the goal (once again) of blogging every Monday.  Let's see how I do this time.  I should at least blog as practice for typing because without going to work and typing reports for the last five years, my typing is suffering.  I'm slow.  And I make more than my share of typos.

At least one person in our house has been sick for the last month.  Rex brought us home a cold from his second week of kindergarten and we've been struggling ever since.  First mine turned into the most awful sinus infection I've ever had.  Then Rex had a double ear infection which also gave him a bloody eye- he looked like he went a round with Mike Tyson or something.  It was bad but the eye drops from the doctor cleared that part up in like a day.  Now Wyatt has a cold again and his right ear is infected.  He coughs so much, my poor baby.  He is getting better though too.  Hopefully Rob can stay healthy- he's done good so far!- and the rest of us will all be better soon.  With all the doctor visits we've had lately, the boys and I have gotten our flu shots out of the way so that is one good thing about all this.  Here we all are, happy despite being sick (I think Rex and I were both pretty bad at this point).

Wyatt has two big goals he needs to accomplish and we finally knocked out one of them.  I decided probably six months ago that when his current pacifiers (he had four) were lost or destroyed, that was it.  And don't you know, those last four would not die???  We lost one of them but those last three were indestructible and un-loseable.  I finally just had to tell Wyatt, "It's time for the papas (what he called them) to go.  You are a big boy and those are for babies.  Throw them out and I will take you to buy a new toy."  He took one last hit off of them, and they were gone.

As promised, we headed out to the store where he picked out some new Thomas the Train stuff to expand his train empire.

Now to get him potty-trained.  I wonder how much that is going to cost us in new toys!!  He is so resistant to using the toilet.  Please say your prayers for us- we need them!

Since Wyatt starts preschool next year, I've been giving a lot of thought to what my next move will be.  Going back to work and making money certainly holds a lot of appeal but I have always wanted to go back to school to get my masters in urban and regional planning.  I've been talking to our closest university that has that program to see if we can make it work and it turns out, we can!  So I'm now in the middle of applying to grad school for Fall 2014.  My application isn't due until February 1st but I want to get it done early and turned in asap.  I need to get all my college transcripts and letters of recommendation too which is proving to be difficult.  My two former planning managers that I would like to write letters for me have both retired and moved on and it is taking a little while to get in touch with them.  It's a good thing I have a lot of time to do this!  Although I've met with staff and faculty already, I'm attending an official Open House event next month that I am really looking forward to.

In other career news, I am taking the AICP exam to be a certified planner.  That test is on November 11th.  So if you say a prayer about the potty-training, please add this request in too.  It's not cheap and it's not easy so I would really like to pass on my first try.  Since I don't have a planning degree, I've had to study extra super-duper hard to learn all the material.  I will sooo be ready on the first day of grad school, let me tell you!  IF I can remember all this material by next August ;-)

In a last bit of news, we have lots of trips to California planned- some soon and one (the big family one) that we are still working on.  Rob will be going out later this month to race and I will be going to LA to visit my lovely friends Nanette and Tricia in November.  I have yet to meet the adorable Mimi (Nanette's youngest daughter who will be almost 9 months old when I'm there) and I couldn't pass up the chance to see pregnant Tricia!  I am way excited.  And I get to eat In-N-Out Burger.  And Versailles.  Oh boy, my mouth is watering already.  AND there is lots of estrogen time and shopping and all that girl stuff.  I love all my dudes, but it will be nice to be around girls for a few days!  Finally, we are all planning on coming out next summer.  I am shooting for around the July 4th holiday but we will have to see how that all works out.  I will be sure to keep everyone posted on that.  Thanks for reading and check back next Monday because (hopefully) I will have more for you then!

Here are a few more funny pictures of the boys just because.  Just because they are adorable!!!