Trick or Treat

Coupon Play

Buy one get one on shaving cream.

Ready for some Eats

Check out those toes :)

Welcome

We want to welcome to our little family, Chuck and Lola.

Chuck is the fish that is bigger and has fewer markings while Lola struts her stuff with more markings and a slimmer build.

Lola is the fish on the right and Chuck is obviously on the left.

Just a Little Happy

And who doesn't love bacon?

My Sad Little Day

Before we were married, Jimmy used to bring me flowers an awful lot, for occasions and sometimes just to remind me that he loved me. My roommate loved it too because there were always fresh flowers in our dorm room. :) As a newly wed my husband still brought me flowers on all occasions and sometimes just for fun, not as often but that's to be expected with a baby and wife to support. But now with the economy the way it is, no flowers :( I am not blaming him or saying that he loves me less. Really he loves me more and is saving our monies to do things like fly me to WY to see my parents and I love him for it. :) But I did miss getting flowers so I decided to grow my own on my window sill so that I would always have fresh flowers and feel loved :) They were growing well, no flowers yet but there was some green and when I got overwhelmed with the kids or life in general I could look at them and be reminded that someone loves me :)
But today, Claire, the love of my life did this :

*Sigh

It is a sad day for my little love flowers

Good thing my husband also gave me these two to make up for the sad days in life:

Another Calvin Moment

Butternut Squash Soup

We made soup, we have been talking and thinking about it for about a month and today we finally made it.. and we are willing to share the recipe with all of you (really there are only like 2 of you that read this)
First get a butternut squash
Then, they say we need to cook with love so we loved our squash, you can hug it or play with it; we did both. (we also took it for a walk in the stroller around the block)(I don't think that is necessary)

Then cut your squash lengthwise and scoop out it's insides

Place it cut side down on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 35-40 Min till it is soft

While it roasts look at it in the oven 'because you can',
then chop one small onion, or half of a large onion and dump it in your sink, pick it out thanking your lucky stars that your sink was clean (chances are usually slim that it is)

saute those onions with a tablespoon of butter, a pinch of nutmeg and some ginger till the onions are transparent

Add those onions to about 3 1/2 cups of chicken or veg. stock and simmer for about 10 min.
Once your squash is out, let it cool, then scoop the squash into a blender or food processor, half the squash with half the broth then the other half.

Add more stock or water to achieve the correct consistency.
Enjoy (we enjoyed so much that there are no pictures of our great soup in the bowl)

We are also stocking soups this fall for this winter. We saw Martha Stewart freezes her soups flat in ziploc bags and stands them up in a container in her freezer. I don't have a container but my new freezer is just the right size, I now have some chili, some from scratch apple pie filling and butternut squash soup. Sometimes when I'm having a bad day I open my freezer and look at them and it makes me happy :)

Is there a Dr. in the House?

I love her face in the last one.. does your dr. make that face of satisfaction when he gives you a shot Claire?
Another day, and the sun is shining.

Abi today

feels awkward in her own skin. Unsure of myself and just plain crappy today, wishing life hadn't turned out this way, missing simpler and happier, more carefree days. Just in the middle of the biggest pity party of the century :( This too shall pass but it feels really crappy to be in it now.

two and three quarters....

Lack of time has forced me to put my vacation on hold. really I just needed to make my house presentable so I could save my marriage. :/ BUT there was some action going on here today, at 8:36am I became the proud owner of a new FRIDGE! yay! I have no food in it and it lives in my dining room... but it's mine :) and it's shiney! :) but not magnetic. :(
I also wanna put it out there that since my computer (Steve) fixes all my spelling mistakes I have grown lazy, this computer (Jim's) doesnt fix any of them so you get the full brunt of my 'hosspitality' (Hoss's is...)
Love you all who read, thanks for giving me a place to cronicle my little life :)

Day two

So on day two your mother will insist on showing you the sights, and since you are in WY the best way to see the sights is to drive.. great for grown-ups, not so great for toddlers and infants. Oh well. We haven't let them slow us down yet and I think they are better for it. :)
So we went to Yellowstone, by way of the Bear tooth pass and Red Lodge.
In Red Lodge we stopped at the Red Lodge Cafe

See the dancing Indians around the bottom?

which is famous for either it's ribs or sea food... We read so many descriptions of choices of places to eat we couldn't remember what we were supposed to try. The food was all good. Then we went to a great place,

Yes the Montana Candy Emporium

and it is a great as it sounds, to start the walls are covered in that old neat stuff that is always fun to look at and then when you look down they have EVERYTHING! like every candy you remember from childhood and every candy your mom and dad can remember from their childhood. Basically every candy ever made. They had all the stuff we used to get at the corner store, like candy lipstick, button candy, flying saucers, every swizzle stick flavor, they even had candy cigarettes, which we all assumed were illegal but really as the owner informed us; they are not illegal yet in the US. So we had packed lots of food for the trip and we were going to be cooped up so like the awful parents we are we allowed Claire to pick only one piece of candy... wanna guess what she picked? one sugar free candy button, 'because it was green.' And as fate would have it, as we walked back to the car, her one sugar free green candy buttonfell out of her mouth and onto the ground. :( Good thing Pappy had bought some fudge and was willing to share. :) It's good to have grandparents as good as my kids got.
OK
So then we were off to the bear tooth pass (this is getting long sorry it was getting long for us at this point too) The bear tooth pass is what almost killed my mother. My husband was driving and I have mastered the distraction technique of driving with him so you aren't a nervous wreak but my mom just hadn't had enough practice.. couple that with the fact that you are driving on the side of a mountain and well she almost died.

Notice the curve of the road and the signage

It was beautiful! more dirt, more mountains, a little snow, lots of trees... what more does it take? We made it to the observation point all in one piece. have a look:

Are you done? So were we, but we had decided to get to Yellowstone before nightfall so on we went, and on you will go cause Buffalo are just that interesting.
More driving, more babies crying but OH so pretty. Then we arrived!

Yellowstone is truly amazing, we went in the North entrance which is apparently the best place to see the animals, and our little animals were keen to see something that was of interest to them.

Like buffalo

GB on the other hand was looking for only one thing ELK.

After seeing these elk at just the right time, we took it as a sign from God to just keep moving. We decided to do the hot springs that evening (can you believe there was still day left?)

We were chomping at the bit to get out of the car

They were worth it. So cool.

After a long day, we were off toward home...

...oh no wait we got a hotel room and we will do more Yellowstone tomorrow. :)

Day one

We went to WY recently and ever since our lives have seemed boring, so for this week we will be reliving our experiences, this will also allow me to catch up on my blogging.

So the first day you are in WY you take a lot of pictures: Most of them look like this:

A pile of dirt Another pile of dirt

a COW!! as if we have never seen one before

But some capture a little of the majesty that makes you take all those dirt pile pictures.

Yup my mommy lives there, amazing huh?