Fully Clothed

BARBIES!
My job tonight was the official clothing designer or rather clothes picker-outer. How is it possible to always have naked Barbies? They always seem to either just have a shirt or bottom on, never both. Shoes, they don't stay on, so I find them in the most random places. Lauryn's mouth cannot be one of them so they have met their demise in the garbage. As of now, today, all Barbies are fully-clothed and barefoot. Thank goodness they're not barefoot and pregnant, we would have a major problem. See that 1 Ken doll? The girls told me tonight he was the brother to all of the girl Barbie's (poor guy), the dad died and the mom barbie is the one in the wedding dress. All Mom's wear wedding dresses their whole life, right? At least it would keep your weight in check. Hmmm, something to ponder.

Favorite Thing

We discovered these a couple months ago and they are the BOMB! We have a recipe for veggie burgers that is really tasty or regular deli meats are good as well. For 2 slices of the thins it's 100 calories, 5 grams of fiber and 1 gram of fat. The website also has some great recipes. Check it out here.

Al's Masterpiece

I am proud to say I married a darn good cook and one that likes to experiment. Last night for dinner he made these stuffed chicken breasts.

Al's Cranberry Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken

(This is to make 1)
1-chicken breast tenderized (pounded flat)
1- 1/4 inch slice of cream cheese
Sprinkle feta cheese
little less than a 1/4 cup of dried cranberries
1 slice bacon or turkey bacon (optional)

Breading-
melt 1/4 stick of butter
2 scrambled eggs
mix together

Dip the stuffed chicken in flour, roll in egg mixture and then roll in crushed saltine crackers.

Bake for 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

The chicken really came out nice. Al used the bacon but we both thought it would have been good with or without.

New Park in Town

A park that I do not take the kids to but one that Al loves. It's the Shooting Park. It opened about a month ago and Al has been there a few times. Check it out here. Al went this morning while I took all 3 girls to church. That is a major accomplishment!

Craft, Fun, Inspirational Blogs I Follow

I have changed my blog around a bit and added a profile with picture. If any of you miss the crafty blogs and others I followed you can now click on my picture to get to my profile. The blogs I follow will be at the bottom. I have added some new ones and still have the old ones.

I strongly suggest any and all of you to start blogs. It really has been fun and is really not that time consuming. I look at things now and think "I need to blog about that". It's not just to share with you all but also a way for me to remember all the good times and bad, even if it seems meaningless like a simple recipe or craft I will remember the time or my own frame of mind.

Lesson Learned & Resolution #3

This will be a picture less post. I know how boring! I have had quite a week. Last Thursday I had an incident with the washing machine and LOST all of my Quickbooks for the office since July 2008. Being that it's time for quarterlies, W2's and year end I freaked out! So since last Thursday I have been entering info like mad. I have barely been away from the computer. Thank goodness Al went ice fishing all last weekend. Landree and Lily spent the night with my parents Friday night and with a neighbor Saturday night. So I had the extra time to spend working. I am HAPPY to say it is all complete, well except for a couple entries for this month, but close enough.

So my lesson learned is I need to be more ORGANIZED! So in this new year I will be organizing my life in every little way possible. So all of you I neglected this week with emails and phone calls. I'm sorry- I am (almost) back to normal!

What I deal with...

So can you tell where my girl is?

yep, sitting on the kitchen table. It is now a constant act of climbing up on the chairs then onto the table to sit and mess with whatever is up there. Frustrating but cute. How did we get 3 girls that love to climb? We'll see how long it takes her to manuever out of her crib.


I had to throw this picture in. This is her "hot" face. We say "Is it hot Lauryn" and she makes this face. It's very cute.

Brown Rice Pudding

I killed 2 birds with 1 stone. Those 2 birds being 2 of the many new years resolutions, 1- eat healthier and 2- cook more. So I made Lasagna Roll-ups inspired by Southern Hospitality. I then made Brown Rice Pudding.


The kids and Al gave it thumbs-up so here is the recipe. Check out Southern Hospitality for the roll-up recipe. They also turned out beautifully. Lily and Lauryn both liked it. Thank goodness Miss Picky had dinner at Grandma's already or she would have turned up her nose for sure!



Brown Rice Pudding

4 cups skim milk
A little less than 1/2 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown rice, instant or quick cooking
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup plain light or non-fat yogurt

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla and salt in a large pot. Bring to a simmer over medium/high heat. Stir in the rice and reduce heat to low/medium. Simmer, uncovered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the raisins and simmer until the rice is tender and the pudding begins to thicken, about 15 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the yogurt. Serve warm.

Since it takes a little over 1 hour to cook it works nice to start it right before dinner is served. After dinner, clean-up and short rest the dessert is ready to be devoured. Enjoy!

Springs Preserve

My sister got us a family pass to the Springs Preserve for Christmas. We managed to go through about half of it while Al's Mom was here. What a cool place! We all really enjoyed it.

This demonstrated the dangers of a flash flood in the desert.

There were many animals to look at including scorpions- yuck!

Smiles from all the girls because we finally went to the playground.


You will be seeing many more pictures from the Preserve- we are really looking forward to returning.

Window Mistreatments

Thanks to some guidance from the Nesting Place I added some treatments finally to our bedroom windows. I used left over fabric from the chair we refinished (the brown) and the fabric underneath I made from pillow shams that had torn. I did hem all of the sides- yeah me for using the sewing machine! I tacked the fabric up with upholstery tacks. The tie backs were found at a garage sale last summer. I knew they would come in handy some day! Cost of the whole project- $.97- I needed more brown thread. The rest of the material we already had. Love the CHEAP project makeovers!


This one is for you Meg. Our paint color is Sherwin Williams Latte-- my favorite! I changed the lamp shades and added a frame and the cross. I am loving the red with the chocolate and really plan to change the colors more seasonally.

Bellagio

Gosh, I feel like my blog is turning into a blog about tourism! We visited the Bellagio over the holidays and I wanted to make sure to include some of the pictures. I think these are the last of my holiday pictures that I'm going to post.

China Inn Won Ton's

The China Inn is a restaurant in Topeka. Our friend Dan received the cookbook for China Inn for Christmas and he was kind enough to send us the recipe and I thought I would share it. They are yummy and easy.


China Inn Won Ton's

1 lb ground pork
1/4 cup water chestnuts- finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
12 sheets of egg roll wrappers

Egg roll skins/wrappers need to be cut into quarters. Mix ground pork, water chestnuts, sugar and salt. Place about a teaspoon size of meat mixture off center on a quarter piece of wrapper and roll until the corner is left showing. Then bend the two ends backward and seal. Use a dab of water if needed for sealing. Place in deep fryer for 4 to 5 minutes. Lard will make them crispier.
Makes approx. 40 pieces

Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup plum sauce (available at Asian Markets)
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 tbsp. pineapple juice (optional)
Kitchen Bougquet for coloring
1 tsp cornstarch

In a bowl, combine the plum sauce and water. Then use a strainer for the plum sauce in order to get a smooth and clear liquid. In a pan, mix the plum sauce liquid, vinegar, sugar and pineapple juice and bring to a boil. Use a wire whisk to mix all the ingredients. Add cornstarch mixture (1 tsp. cornstarch & 3-4 tsp. cold water separately mixed) to thicken, pour into the sauce. Keep refrigerated.
Makes approx. 5 cups.

Ol' Friends

Not OLD friends, friends from way back. Liz and I met almost as soon as we moved into our dorm at Drake in 1994. We have been friends since. She lives with her husband and kids in Minneapolis. She and her husband came to visit over the weekend. On Friday night we all went to Fremont Street.



Thanks for visiting Liz and Steveo!

How we use rain gutters

Al hung rain gutters up by the girls' beds for their books. They required no paint we just cut them to size, attached the ends and hung them up. I found the idea on Raising Olives check it out here.

Pizza, Pizza

We went to a new pizza place. This is the second place winner last year in pizza dough tossing from Japan. He was fun to watch and the pizza was good.


These monkey's really enjoyed the show as well.

Yummo- chocolate!

That's my girl!

Craigslist Find

I only wish I had a before picture. This table was U.G.L.Y! It was scratched and all beaten up. The top had an oak finish and the bottom was yellow. Right before Christmas I thought "I need a coffee table to put decorations on". So in searching Craigslist I found this lovely for $20. I loved the legs and it was the right size. Al sanded the top and put a walnut stain on it. I painted the legs a cream color and brushed the walnut into the cracks and wiped it through the rest. I really like the finished product especially for $20!

My fam

I LOVE this picture. The kids (including Al) decided to get in the hot tub Christmas day. Lauryn loved having the googles on her head and screamed if you tried to take them off. Too cute!

Don't you love Landree's signs- Peace and Love on Christmas day. My heart is full.

New Wheels

The Center of the City

AKA Aria, Crystals, Mandarin...
We ventured with Al's mom to the "city" on Saturday. Landree and Lily went bowling with my parents so we just had Lauryn to contend with. Here is a tiny portion of City Center. There are so many buildings and still construction going on. Aria is the casino portion, Crystals the shopping and Mandarin is the high end condos. Some night Al and I are going to return without kids to really check it out.

This picture is at the main entrance.

Also, at the main entrance. This is a huge waterfall wall.

Inside the shopping area they have these little tubes full of water tornado's.


The pink things are ice. My patient said they call them Popsicles but they are actually called ice totem poles. The black part on the base is water that's like an infinity pool. It was a pretty "cool" display- Ha!

After all that fun we went into the Louis Vuitton store there in the background and bought a purse and wallet for me. Yeah right- in my next lifetime...