New Shoes

Summer has officially arrived here in the Rockies and looking forward to our upcoming camping adventure, we took a trip downtown to look for some summer, river, playing outside in the dirt shoes. We found some for Neenas and ended up paying $30! Which was a little steep but figured they needed something really good and durable. We walked across the street and found the exact same shoes, last pair, in Diddle's size on sale for $15! So we figured it at $20 bucks each, name brand and new, not so bad.

This is literally what they have looked like since we got them home. As the snow melts, any open dirt creates heavenly mud holes for these two little boys. It's like a tractor beam. They love their new shoes and love even more, getting them dirty. I feel like the "Cat In the Hat Came Back" at bath time. I've scrubbed it twice this week and it's only Tuesday! I have come to the realization that the effectiveness of one bath every week and a half is melting away with the snow.

We wandered this evening for close to a mile through open sage brush, thistle, mulch piles, rocks, mud holes, prairie dog towns and Neenas walked the whole way saying "We're goin' on a hike. This is a hike, Mama. And we're gonna camp out here. I'm a good hiker. This is a hike."

The last week has been a good break in week for those shoes. We're glad to have the warmth again finally but along with it comes the mud and dusty bodiesnwhich I had forgotten about over our winter hibernation. Any bets on those shoes lasting through the summer?!?!

Easter Crafts

For the Mommas of my Babies:

eighteen25

I found this website which has a plethora of excellent ideas of Easter crafting to do with the kiddies. I have no clue how they are regarding appropriate age - i don't know those kind of things. But after Merritts post I just thought I'd share this awesome site!

Chandelier

Ladies,

I would like to upgrade some of our boring ol light fixtures to chandeliers (or something sort of fun and colorful or sparkley or at least quasi-creative). Only, I don't want to spend a bazillion dollars.

This chandelier looks neat, only i don't have any plastic bottles. 

Any ideas?

Easter ideas?

hey ladies.
does anyone have any easy and cheap ideas for easter crafts for the kids? you all are much craftier than I so I'ld appreciate any input!

A peek at life in the dorm

Justin and I try to talk about life in general on a regular basis to make sure we are both on the same page as far as what we are doing and feeling. We share our dreams, desires and parenting goals and naturally life's frustrations. It forces us to remember that we are a team. It's hard to keep real and honest, avoiding the curt answer of "Fine." When asked "How's life?"

Sometimes it's heavy and sometimes not so much. One of our latest things that we agreed we wished we could do was to get out to hear some live music on occasion. It's just tough, not to mention expensive with babysitters and planning as many of you well know in this season of rearing these young families.

Well, last night it was like manna from heaven. When you can't go out to a bar because your kids are in bed, well, just invite band right to your living room! These guys are a couple of our students here at the college and when they showed up to our bi-weekly dessert night with their instrument cases in hand, I asked if they might play a couple of songs for us and they followed with a half hour set right here at our place!

They are a very talented duo and are trying to get out to do some gigs in town and are known as "Hearts on a Wire." Keep your eyes out. They plan to put out a CD this summer of some of their work and if you find their group page on Facebook, then you can hear some more of their stuff. "Opus" is extremely good and one of the many they played for us last night. Thank you Tim and Gabe! I hope that y'all enjoy it even half as much as I did.

Check out the video and get a taste of the perks of living on a college campus!

(BTW, remarkably, the kids managed to sleep through the entire concert and a rocking Origami and dessert night! Too bad they missed it.)

Photo Tag

I'm so glad this is my 10th picture, what's not to love about it? I love all these kids so much. By the next time we are all together we will have at least two more and hopefully Hannah and Haley will have added to our ever growing family.

Latest Creation

In light of sharing ideas and our latest creations... below you'll find our new centerpiece for our dining room table! It's not 100% complete. I have to go back to Hobby Lobby and get some more flowers (they will have them 50% off at some point, wait for the sale). But it's a start and you get the idea.

For those interested... I started w/the green floral foam in my container. I read some online and everything I read said to start with the tall flowers and then work down to the coverage. So you start and put in your tall flowers that will be your outline/shape. Then do the next layer in (or shorter). Then keep working down until you fill in with the coverage flowers (or whatever you choose to use to cover the green foam).

It really wasn't difficult or hard to figure out. And was a nice Monday night project! I'll post the final product once I'm done.

Photo Tag

I'm a few days delayed in posting this! And I kind of changed the rules - I had just posted picture # 10 from my 1st photo album on my blog last week - so I just picked another picture from that same album for this post. Avery was just 2 months old at the time so all of my pictures in that album are of her. I chose this one because she is in a dress that Anna made out of a pillow case! It was precious...I was just sorting thru Avery's old clothes a few weeks ago and it made me really want another girl so that we could wear them all again!!! Boys clothes just don't compare!

Thanks for getting this started, Anna!

I know I recently did this on my blog a few weeks ago, but you know, photo albums are always changing.
This is my favorite place in the world (Colorado Springs - a view of pikes peak from the Garden of the gods, where I first learned to rock climb, and where landon proposed to me).
I miss it. Every. single. day.

And wow, sort of weird, but my picture has a very similar significance to yours hailes05.

Photo tag

Here is my 10th photo in my 10th picture folder. Okay... it's actually the 11th photo because the 10th was blurry. I like this picture. Oafy and Shoks and the mountains. What's not to love? These two people are the tie that bind us all as sisters. How appropriate!

The mountains have long been my favorite vacation spot. I look forward to the mountains every year. As I started to get older, I thought it would be the perfect place to get engaged. Maybe even get married. And I sort-of did get engaged there! At least Joel started the process while we were in the mountains. And without my mentioning anything by the way. He just knew how special the mountains were to me and to our family. I'm glad this was my picture. Three important parts of my life all in one.

Let's get Started!

OK, ladies. Just to prod us all in to writing a little as we get accustomed to blogging, many of us for the first time, Hannah and I came up with a few low key topics I thought we could all contribute to.

How about we do the photo tag others have been doing for a while. Go to the first photo folder and post the 10th photo with a description.

Here goes...

Naturally, two boys under one roof are seriously competitive. Even over things you'd never think would cross their minds. Like for instance, who finishes their food first; who gets under the covers first; who makes it to the car first; who gets to the elevator in time to push the button first. The list goes on and on.

BUT... there are times that these two sweet boys will sit down, wrap their arms around each other and beg for a photo to document just how great a friends they are. And looking back on something like this, can't help but make your day. They seriously couldn't live without each other!

I am so proud to call all of you my sisters and am thrilled we get to journey in this life together!

life changing chicken broth

Anna and Justin instructed me on how to do this. Apparently they have been doing this for quite some time. Maybe you do too. I didn't even know it was possible, was ever conceptualized. If any of you ladies don't do this yet, you should: making your own chicken broth.

Last week I bought a whole chicken. I immediately cut off the breasts; I grilled them that night with some tomatoes and green beans for a delicious dinner.

Then I boiled the crap out of the rest of that chicken in a big monsty pot. Upon Justin and Anna's suggestion, i added some yummies like a cut-up onion, carrots, salt and pepper... I let it boil for a long time (anything else i'm forgetting?).

(photo by Bour3)

Then i strained the liquid into a bowl and let it cool (I covered it and put it outside while we watched a movie).

Then I scraped the condensed fat off the top of it once it had cooled.

My recycling company takes plastic and paper but not glass, so I try not to buy glass, but if i do buy glass, I try to keep every bottle and reuse it. So i have many portion-size (12oz) bottle jars with lids that I poured the chicken broth into (from salsa and jalapenos and spaghetti sauce, etc...). I refrigerated one and put the rest in the freezer (I didn't fill them all the way so they were fine).

Now I have free-range chicken broth stacked in my freezer. Enough to last me the next month or two, and it was a very easy and hands-free process!

I refrigerated the rest of the chicken and just peeled the meat off of the bones a few days later to put in a Chicken Cilantro soup. It was wonderful to get so much use out of one happily-raised chicken.

Hey Loves!!

I'm so happy that we get to have this little corner of the world all to ourselves. Ever since Landon and I became gypsies and started living in multiple temporary residences, I've come to value the world of blogging immensely. I have found that in a world where every person that I dearly love is at least a day's drive away,  the virtual world is the best that I can do when it comes to being "near" to them on a regular basis. I hope that this can be that place for us. I certainly do not attempt to substitute real life for this virtual connection - it doesn't even come close! I just know that I really only see most of you once or twice a year and that it would be wonderful to connect more than that.


I'm excited about the potential for our staying connected and sharing ideas and really sharing life with each other through this beautiful little blog (kudos to the increasingly talented Anna, by the way!).


I hope that none of us will feel any stress or obligation in this, but just feel inspired and encouraged by one another.


I really love you ladies!


 (and I will try not to write all my posts with four paragraphs starting with "I" in the future)