We're always laughing with this one!

Unfortunately I was on the phone while Crew was doing this and I started taping after he'd been doing it for awhile, so I didn't get how funny it really was, but this is still so cute. He LOVES music and starts bobbing his head anytime he hears a beat. This child has brought so much love and laughter to our home. 

Time for School!

Another school year has started! This year Delaney is in the 3rd grade! Her teacher is Mrs. Steele and she is wonderful! Delaney was so excited to find out that Elizabeth and Aubrey were in her class.

 Kai is in KINDERGARTEN now! I can't even believe it. We were so excited when we found out he got Mrs. Hellbusch for a teacher!!!

 Ready for the big day!

 At the bus stop:

 I love how Delaney is talking to Kai in this picture:    She is SUCH a great big sister!

 Getting off the bus at the school:

With the two of them away at school all day, I get to stay home with just CREW! It has been so great to have that one-on-one time with him. I feel blessed with the spacing of my kids to have gotten that one-on-one with EACH of them. They are such great kids. I'm a lucky mommy!!

Recovering my chairs

 The chairs to my kitchen table have fabric covered seats which can be fun because I get to recover them as often as I want! My newest choice was actually a table cloth that I loved and cut to fit my chairs.   I knew the minute I picked it out that these were going to stain easily because I have kids and there is a lot of WHITE on the print. My solution to the problem felt a little ghetto, but I couldn't think of a better option. I put a clear vinyl over them so they could easily be wiped off.

Now I'm realizing that was pure genius.

You would never know that Delaney spilled spaghetti sauce ALL OVER this chair 2 weeks ago or that Crew climbed up on this chair with chocolate pudding hands.

Call it ghetto, call it genius, call it what you want, but it is working and I LOVE it!

Love is really spelled t-i-m-e

With Trent being called as the Bishop of our ward, we have been forced to become very organized. That is a good thing. We've tried really hard to place high priority on our family. I was reminded of a talk recently by President Uchtdorf where he said that "love is really spelled t-i-m-e." I have found that the more time we spend together as a family, the more harmony we have in our home. By working together, playing together, reading scriptures together, praying together and eating meals together, we have really strengthened our relationships with our children.

I feel so blessed to be a mother. I'm not gonna lie... this summer was really hard for me. During the in-between times when family weren't in town or we weren't on vacation- the kids were at each other's throats. I was so sick of the fighting and was counting down the days until they would start back at school. Now that I have a moment of peace, I can say that even though being a mother is extremely hard, it is extremely rewarding. 

4th of JULY

We had a great Fourth of July this year! We started the day with Belgian Waffles then went to the parade.

                    Of course you have to go to the pool on the 4th!! We LOVE the Riverside Pool!

 And then went to the neighborhood BBQ that night and watched the fireworks. I was shocked at how chill Crew was during all that racket! I'm sure he was probably just spent from the fun day we had.

Anniversary Weekend!

I'm playing catch up here, so we'll start with our anniversary weekend!! Trent and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary in May. My parents were wonderful and took our kids for the whole weekend. We had discussed going out of town, staying in a hotel and discovering a new city, but after spending a whopping $1600 to fix our PIECE of a car the month before, we opted for a STAY-CATION. We figured we could spend a ton of the money we saved up for this weekend on STUFF instead of gas money and a hotel room. I am so glad we did.
IT
            WAS
                                 A
                                                   BLAST!
On Friday we headed to the LEGENDS outdoor mall and went to the best furniture store EVER: Nebraska Furniture Mart. We found the craziest deal on a 50" plasma t.v which is now nicely mounted on our living room wall.  We had so much fun walking around the shops, eating at a steakhouse, and going to the T-Bones Baseball game.

Someone forgot to give us the memo however, that it was Star Wars night at the game:

Had I known, I just might have tried to squeeze in this little number:

The game was a blast and at 10pm when it was over, we decided to go to a late movie because how often do we get to stay out ALL NIGHT?











Saturday we went to the gym then spent the ENTIRE day shopping. Usually this is no fun for my husband, but we worked hard saving up money for this so we were able to do something we almost NEVER do: SHOP FOR OURSELVES!! I felt like I was in the movie "Pretty Woman."  The two of us had so much fun.

We had dinner reservations that night at Garozzo's- a restaurant downtown that we'd never been to before but had been highly recommended by some co-workers. It is now on my top 5 list.  The appetizers, the salads, and the entrees were all to die for!

We ended the night with another movie and made brunch the next morning before we picked up the kids.

I feel so blessed to be married to my very best friend! We could just talk and talk for hours on end and this weekend actually allowed us to do just that! Thank you mom and dad for taking such good care of our three little pigs!

CAMPING!!

To kick off the summer we decided to go camping with some of our neighbors at Smithville Lake. We had the coolest campsite all to ourselves with a pavillion, firepit, bathroooms, tons and tons of space to set up tents and run and play, and lake access. 

After the kids went to bed, we got to stay and talk around the fire until 2 am. It was a great weekend!

Cooking with Mwah!

I started sharing some of my recipes on my last blog, but I didn't get too far with that... I'm going to try to do it more often on this blog!!

For those who don't know, I work at an Italian restaurant 2 nights a week. Seeing everyone eating pasta always makes me crave it. I just tried out a new pasta recipe that I tweaked from the original and thought I'd share:

   PASTA WITH ARTICHOKES

2 c. uncooked rigatoni pasta
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2-4  cloves garlic, finely chopped
3/4 c. chicken broth (can do vegetable broth if vegetarian)
2 Tbsp. finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes or 1/4 c. diced canned tomatoes, drained
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 14-oz. can artichoke hearts, drained
dash of crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cooked and sliced thin
Parmesan Cheese

To cook the chicken, heat up olive in a pan to med-high heat. Salt and pepper both sides of chicken and cook in pan for about 8 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Set aside and let rest before slicing. Cook pasta according to package directions. In the mean time, heat oil in skillet over med-high heat. (I JUST USED THE SAME PAN FROM COOKING THE CHICKEN. IT HAD THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF OLIVE OIL ONLY IT WAS SEASONED AND WAS EVEN BETTER!) Cook garlic in oil, stirring frequently until golden. Whisk together broth, tomatoes, cornstarch, salt, red pepper, and pepper in a bowl. Gradually stir into garlic and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in artichokes. Toss with pasta and sliced chiken and heat through. Garnish with fresh parsley and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

ENJOY!

Bye Bye Blog!!

About a month ago I tried to get on my blog only to see the words "Sorry this blog has been removed." I assumed that blogger was down and went on with my day. A week later I tried again and realized something more was going on. Apparently my blog was DELETED by my sweet husband. It was a total accident though, so I have forgiven him. I sent several blog recovery emails only to get automated responses saying "sorry, we can not restore this blog without more information." Problem is, I've given them all the information I can give... I tried to call Blogger and GMail and neither have LIVE people you can talk to at this time.  I can not tell you how sad I was to lose 3 years worth of journaling. I never made my blog books like I planned, so it is GONE. Well... Here's to a NEW start!

WELCOME to our new blog! With the kids in school I am determined to do a much better job than I ever did on that old blog anyway.