Photo Shoot....or shoot me please!

Don't you love beautiful pictures of your children? I do! Last week I had the opportunity to spend the week with my good friend Amelia and her family. It was quite the crew, 6 kids and 2 moms. We decided to take the kids to Portrait Innovations and get their pictures taken. Great idea, huh? Holy smokes it was exciting. Her children performed beautifully and had some fantastic pictures taken. Mine...yah, not so much. Our children get along great and love to run and go beserk with each other. So here are a few of our pictures. Okay, truthfully I couldn't just show you a few so here are a whole TON of pictures.


Harmon is at that age where he doesn't know how to smile naturally. *sigh*


This dress is the real reason that I wanted pictures taken. I ordered it from France (How decadent!) via ebay. I fell in love with it. It is called "Dipped in Chocolate." And it is so yummy, I just had to Ella's picture taken in it.


Once, again these are some goofy faces.



Look at those yummy baby arms. I just want to squeeze em!
This is Porter's attempt at a smile.

Do you think he's had enough??



This one is hilarious. I love it!



Ella was afraid of the boas. Liesl thought they were great.




This is the BEST picture of them all!! Don't we all look great! This was a fun picture. Amelia and I have been friends for 14 years, long before husbands or children.

And a few more...pretty funny!

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward .....

My SIL Bobbi inspired me to do this...soooo let the race begin! You all know you want something...right?

So, here's how it works: the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year (probably within the month otherwise I'll forget! :)), a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Please submit in the comment, your address, if I don't have it already. Remember that only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

Have fun!

Great Neighbors

I don't think I have posted about my neighbors yet. We have GREAT neighbors here. Two families moved in within a few days/weeks of us moving here. We felt very blessed to have these super nice people living next to us. We have children of similar ages and have really enjoyed getting to know these nice people. When we move to our new houses we would like to have the same neighbors! That would be the best.

I have the pleasure of giving piano lessons to one of the neighbor's daughter. Before Christmas we had a little recital with my other student and another family. My neighbor took pictures of the "girls." These babies were born within 7 months of each other. Here are a couple of cute pictures.
Ella "singing."

How about that hair? Isn't she just the cutest little girl? She is a few months older than Ella but has about 10 inches of hair. And her eye lashes are about 2 inches long. She looks like a little doll.


The three girls. I think Ella wins the "cheeks" award.


Little Miss Blue Eyes. Amelia has the prettiest blue eyes and long eye lashes. She is such a cutie. I am such a sucker for blue eyes.
And the last one....Sophie kindly sharing with Ella.

A Little Something Extra

Each week i get out my pen, paper, and cookbooks. I sit down at the table, puruse the cookbooks and make a list of tasty dishes. Usually I try to ask my husband's input. He asks for the same thing each week. You'd think I would learn not to ask. At least he doesn't ask for steak anymore..GAG!

Anyway, on this week's menu was a new favorite. Chicken and Dumplings done in a light and healthy manner. I was excited because this is a big favorite at our house. It is easy, warm, satisfying and quite delicious. Tuesday is my piano lesson day so I try to pick something easy to make that can be partially done ahead of time. I was off my game and didn't make any preparations before my piano students came. When it came time to cook dinner I was busy trying to throw it all together. It turned out great and we sat down to eat. Delicious as usual. After dinner Micah helped clear off the table and was putting the leftover soup into a container. He made a rather startling discovery. I had put a little something extra in the soup. Actually, his question was this, "Are you trying to kill me or something?" When I had put the can of green beans in the soup I threw in the sharp lid as well. Whoops! Who doesn't like a little steel with their dinner??

Here's the recipe:

3/4 pound boneless skinless chicken breast (I just use a whole package) cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided
1 cup water
2 cups frozen french-cut green beans (I use canned green beans)
1 1/2 cups sliced onins
1 cup coarsely shredded carrots (I cut up baby carrots)
1/4 tsp marjoram
2/3 cup reduced-fat bisquick
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup skim milk

Spinkle chicken with salt and pepper. In a nonstick skillet, saute chicken in oil until browned and juices run clear.

In a large saucepan, combine flour and 1/2 cup broth until smooth. Stir in water and remaining broth. Add the beans, onions, carrots, marjoram and chicken. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the biscuit mix, cornmeal and cheese. Stir in milk just until moistened. Drop batter in 12 mounds onto simmering soup. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a dumpling comes out clean (do not lift the cover while simmering).

Serves 4. 1 1/4 cup of soup with 3 dumplings is 353 calories and 8 gm of fat.

January Happenings

Sooooo.....it's been a while since I blogged. Here is a photo montage of our month.


Porter thought they eighties were back...just kidding. He thought he needed to put some eye shadow on. He has done this once before and drew dark brown across his eyebrows. Silly kid. He'll hate this picture when he's an adult!




December had record snow fall in Minot. We are still living with several feet of snow in our yard. It hardly ever gets above zero these days, much less in the thirties. We ought to have a heck of a melt off. North Dakota weather has been interesting!


Harmon and I did a snow angel together.



The neighbors built a sweet hill, almost like a luge. The kids have a lot of fun playing over there. Well, I should say, Harmon enjoys it. Porter, yah...not so much.





Porter was eating snow off of the van with his little buddy, Lane.




This is my neighbor, Keri, wrapping up her son with her scarf. I love this picture. It is so sweet.



Ella after her bath. So sweet.

Love the baby Mowhawk.



I surprised Micah and the boys with these t-shirts for Christmas. Micah thought it was awesome. It is a graphic of the helicopter that he flies.




This next set of pictures is HILARIOUS!! It makes me laugh just to look at them. We watched Home Alone with the boys for the first time this year. Harmon was at the perfect age for it. He thought it was a little scary at first, but when it got to the part in the movie where the robbers break into the house he started cracking up. He was laughing so hard he could hardly breathe. It was hysterical to watch him. Porter didn't think it was very funny. He thought it all seemed a little scary.




When "Kevin" rode the zip line into the tree house Harmon was right there with him. At one point even his feet were moving as Kevin ran across the street. We watched the robber sequence 3 times and laughed and laughed.


This was their reaction when the robbers actually catch Kevin. Priceless!




Ya gotta love baby food pictures. Here are a few of Ella. Man she is messy. She must take after her father! (wink wink)





So that is it. Other than are just making it one day at a time. Now that I feel like my blog is caught up maybe I'll actually post a few good stories.