Snow Much Fun!

We just can't get enough of the snow. On Christmas Day Night (is that right?), my sister and I took the girls out to sled and play in the snow... and we had a blast! It was lightly snowing which made the pictures look so cool. e is going to be so upset when we get to our new house and there won't be several inches of snow to play in. I guess we will always have Minnesota.

e and my niece attacking my sister.

KK and me.

The Snow Princess .

One cute pink bean.

The smiles say it all.

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas, white or not.

Driving in a Winter Wonderland

We left Central MN this morning to drive down to Southern MN to visit our great college friends. We decided it was a good idea even after reading the news story about the huge storm pounding the Central US (see post below).

Here is how the drive started out.

A little blowing snow is nothing for native Minnesotans... who cares if we haven't lived here for years?

We weren't the only crazy ones on the road.

Ahhh... why is traffic stopped?

Ohhh... now we see.


Get us off this road.

Luckily, when it got really bad, we happened to be 2 exits away from my sisters' house. Sorry, college friends, we'll have to catch you later.

Wish Us Luck!

Yahoo! is my homepage on my browser and this is the top story in news...

Storm blasts Central US, at least five die

What the heck are we doing here???

Snow Princess

Our sun dress and flip-flop wearing girl has discovered snow and has fallen in love. The first time she saw snow, she was 2 and doesn't really have a clear memory of it. She was so excited when we drove through the mountains and saw the snow... 'It's beautiful! I think God put it there so we could be happy.' She could not wait to touch the snow and was beside herself when she got to throw her first snowball.

Look at the smile on that girls face... she plopped herself down to make her first snow angel. She spent a good 2+ hours playing in the snow the first day we got to Denver.

Her very first snowman, complete with 'snowing' effect.

Bannie bought her a shovel and they shoveled so much that she broke it.

Who cares if you don't have a sled?

Today, we got her on skis for the very first time and she had so much fun and did a great job.

Daddy helping to put on the skis. KK wanted to go too... she was in tears when we left... soon enough Bean.

Mom and e ready to go.

On the chairlift, or as KK calls it, the 'chairelator'.

Daddy and e heading down the hill.

The three of us at the bottom of the hill.


We have had a wonderful time here in Colorado and are looking forward to enjoying more snow time in the next couple of weeks.

Congratulations Graduate!

As most of you know, E has spent the last year and a half at the Naval Postgraduate School working towards his MBA in Financial Management. Not only did he reach that goal, but did very well along the way. We are very proud of him! He graduated this past Friday. His parents and the girls and I were there to share in the moment and capture some great pictures to share with you all.

As you can see, I have become quite the photographer. I have mastered the art of the special effect picture so that you not only see him shaking the hand of the keynote speaker, but you can also see the smile on his face as he walks away. I know, amazing. Just wait... I have more.

E has made some good friends here and they have some special talents.

That, was Trevor. He is so stinking speedy, you can hardly tell that he is there. Very Superhero-like.

Bet you didn't see Trailer there. AKA, the Invisible Man.

Ahhh, Ricky Bobby, you clean up nice... and With Distinction. Who knew?

I see you hiding in there Tec. It's the curse of being tall.

That's one proud and happy family.

Congratulations to all of you. We are going to miss you!

All Our Bags are Packed...

The movers came today and packed the entire house.  Of all of our moves we've done, this has seemed to go the smoothest.  Except for the part when one of the movers actually packed the cat litter box.  Are you kidding me?  E just told me that the guy at least emptied it out first.  Whew!  

Now, if we could just find the cat, we'd be in business.  We caught a glimpse of him running toward the door earlier today and haven't seen him since.  Hoping that he hasn't run away.  Not sure how to explain that to the little ones.  Now if the hamster decided to run away, that might be OK.  Although I'm sure that e would have a bigger problem if 'snow princess' went missing.  All of my attempts to get her to donate it to her class have failed.

The movers will be picking everything up tomorrow and then we will finish cleaning.  I use the term 'we' loosely.  My mother-in-law has practically cleaned our entire house already.  Got to love that.  It has been so nice to have them here to help us.  I will be enlisting help from any willing relative for all future moves.  I am hooked.

Alright, snoring KK is making me sleepy.  More adventures in moving to come.

My Favorite Knife...

Is a Five Star Santuko knife from Zwilling J.A. Henckels. We have a whole block of Henckel Knives but this is the one that I always use and it my favorite.

But, it, hates me. Last March, while I was cutting green peppers for a really good omlette that I was going to make, it sliced through my ring finger. After frantic calls to my neighbor and friend, I headed to the ER and spent 3+ hours there and got steri-stripped on up. The finger is finally looking semi-normal, although the nail grows rather funky.

Wait! What is Princess Jasmine doing there? Oh yeah, last night I was cutting green peppers with my favorite knife... you know how the story goes. Just no trip to the ER this time. I am a dummy.

Christmas is Coming!

I have completed our Christmas letter and will be sending them out today but I have a request for you all.

If you have moved and you think that we don't have your address, please email it to me.  If you are in the process of moving and have a different address that you would like it sent to, please email to me.  If you have never given me your address and are in desperate want of a letter, please email me your address.

Thank you in advance!

Mmmmminestrone!

We have been in the depths of pre-move organization yuck, so I haven't been too good about posting. And then I thought, 'you guys must be starving! I'll post the soup.' Now this recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law and we, of course, made some revisions. And this soup can feed your family for an entire week, or you can bring it as a get well gift, or new baby meal, the possibilities are endless. When e was born, we lived off this soup. We would make a batch and eat it for every meal. We made it so often that the ingredients were permanently listed on my shopping spreadsheet (yep, I have one of those, organized by aisle of course). Anyway, let's make Minestrone.

Ingredients

½ lb Italian sweet sausage (Jimmy Dean in the tube)
½ lb Italian hot sausage (Jimmy Dean in the tube)
3 T. Olive Oil
3 large onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 bunch carrots, diced
2 t. basil
2-3 zucchini, diced
1 can (28 oz) Italian-style tomatoes, including liquid
2 cans (10 oz each) beef stock (we usually use about 5)
1 small head cabbage, finely shredded
1 can (16 oz) white kidney beans, including liquid
1 can (16 oz) red kidney beans, including liquid
½ cup rice
Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Fresh parsley, chopped

In a large stockpot, brown and scramble sausage in olive oil. Add onions, garlic, carrots, and basil; cook 5 minutes. Add zucchini, tomatoes (with liquid), stock, cabbage, salt and pepper. Bring to boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour. Add beans (with liquid) and rice. Cook 20 minutes. For a thinner broth, add more stock. Serve, topped with Parmesan cheese and parsley (red pepper flakes optional). Fresh bread is always a great accompaniment The soup may be made ahead and reheated. It may also be frozen, but the texture changes a bit. Serves 8 to 10.

I'm Turning Japanese

I really think so.

Have you ever seen young Japanese girls? The really do have a unique sense of style.

KK has started wanting to pick her own clothes and we are letting her. She comes up with some interesting combinations. I love it!

How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Shower

1.  Send husband off to present his thesis at the Pentagon (see post below).

2.  Get two-year old out of bed.

3.  Turn on TV and hope that said two-year old would watch something (even though she never has).

4.  Hop in the shower.

5.  Entertain two-year old by poking head out of shower every now and then to make sure that the Neosporin is not being used as toothpaste.

6.  Just as you are about to finish, have two-year old remove PJ's and diaper on their own, yell 'I naked Mama', and climb into shower with you.

7.  Oh yeah, make sure that the diaper has been soiled so that when two-year old climbs in with you they are sure to smear feces on the edge of the tub and bring a friend with them.

Ahh... it's going to be a long couple of days.

Green is Good!

E got his 'green card' today which means that he has officially completed his Master's Thesis. Woohoo!! Somebody give that man a Bud. Wait, he already has one.

He flies out tomorrow to present it at the Pentagon. We will keep our fingers crossed here and hope that all goes well.

Congratulations and Good Luck!

Girls Day Out

Our long time Navy friends, R, JC and baby C came to visit us for Thanksgiving and we have been having a wonderful time.

R and E headed up to Palo Alto for the Notre Dame/Stanford game this morning, so we had a girls day out. Today was a gorgeous day here on the bay and we decided to go down to Fisherman's Wharf to bark at the seals... and they barked back.

Here are a bunch of seals warming themselves in the sun. This technique still amazes me.

Here's our model-to-be.

And her 'monarch'... 'I know it's a monarch Mommy because of the orange and black and white'.

We headed over to the Coast Guard Pier to find more seals... and did we ever. I have never seen them this close up... we could have pet them (probably not advised, so we didn't). I think they were actually posing for the camera.

I could have shot pictures all day.

Here are JC and cute baby C... and lots more seals.

'Come by and see me real soon.'

You Didn't!?!

I did! I took two 2 year olds to the grocery store today. Why in the heck would one do that you ask? Here's why:

See, today I was watching one of the members of the'A' Team so that my great friend S could pick her parents up at the airport without having to confine the bug for too long in the car.

And this was the conversation between E and I this morning:

E: 'Are you going to the grocery store this morning?'

Me: 'Umm... probably not until this afternoon, I have L this morning.'

E: 'You don't need to get that much stuff, right?'

Me: 'No, not really. I guess maybe two in a car cart is better than one.'

And then my warped brain started thinking. You see, he threw down the gauntlet. You want to throw any sort of crazy challenge at me, I'll take you up on it because that's the way I roll. I was feeling Wonder Womanish this morning and I figured, I can do that no problem. Others wouldn't do it, but me, I can do it... and just watch, I'll prove it.

And $90 and two cookies later, we were out the door with my last minute Thanksgiving purchases. Whew! One more thing I can cross off my list.

Yep, KK, you're not the only one that feels that way. (By the way, did you notice the filth on the car? No wonder the kids are always sick.  Sorry, S, I should have sprayed her down with Lysol before giving her back.).

More of Batgirl's Party

Here are the rest of the pictures from e's party. If you missed the first post, click here.

It was so much fun to see all the kids in their costumes. Here we have Spiderman, a witch and a Power Ranger.

The Wicked Witch brought her date from the Geek Squad. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everyone costumes... but they were great. Thanks for dressing up.

Even the neighbors dog came in costume.

Batgirl was so happy. There really is nothing like the look on their faces when it's birthday time.

Captain America and Super KK in the jumper/slide. Way too much fun.

e was very concerned that the big people were in the jumper... with good reason. Ricky Bobby took out Spiderman on the way down the slide. Oops.

Sooo many presents. Lots of art supplies and crafty things... perfect for the girl who is always stealing the printer paper.

We forgot that we had a pinata... the few kids remaining got to take a whack at it.

Of course, no party is complete without a game of Wii. Look at the hook on Ricky Bobby. He's not afraid of a little kid.

Ahhh... and the mess. Pictures really cannot capture it all. Not so much fun to wake up to in the morning. Oh well. A great time was had by all and it was worth it.