A new "toy" and some digi scrappin'

Last Friday, we received our income tax return. We had planned on using it for living expenses...or at least that's what I thought we were planning on.

We have been looking at laptops for awhile now. 1) Brenna starts middle school next year and will be having to use the computer a lot more for homework. 2) I have started Digital Scrapbooking and having a laptop would make that easier on days when I meet up with the girls for some scrappin' time.

I was pleasantly surprised on Saturday while we were at Best Buy looking at the new inventory...previously, the Best Buy guys had encouraged us to wait on a purchase until the new inventory had arrived. Fine with us because we weren't purchasing then. So, while we were there Saturday, Jason told me that we could go ahead and use some of our tax return for a lap top. We had been researching brands and prices, along with all the important specs, so we knew what we would purchase when the time came.

Once we got the kiddos to bed on Saturday night, I worked on getting all of my digital scrappin' stuff loaded.

So, now, here are just some of the pages that I have completed. It is so nice to be able to sit on the couch with my wonderful husband every night, watching tv, and scrappin'.

Hope you enjoy the pages...






Next purchase...modem for wireless internet but for now, we will wait on that. The girls are excited for the laptop to have internet here at home so they can play on WebKinz together.

So girls...I'm ready for another scrappin' day!

Never before...

...have we ever barbecued this early in the year.
It was such a beautiful day and as I was going through the freezer trying to decide what to pull out for dinner, I came across a bag of chicken legs and thighs. The thought of barbecuing came to mind and the decision was made.

My family was thrilled when they heard we were barbecuing. I really didn't know how it would go over with Jason because even with the sun out...IT WAS COLD! Thankfully, Jason was more than willing to stand outside over the warm barbecue to cook us dinner. What a guy!

A little catching up...

It's hard to believe that the month of February is over. I really have been meaning to sit down and blog but obviously, time has gotten away from me.

It's been a busy month with lots of activities and babysitting. Sometimes I think that I will get caught up on blogging while all of the boys are napping (there's usually 4 extras plus Ethan) but I can't seem to get them all down at the same time. Oh well!

I spent Valentine's Day, or at least the afternoon, with Alyssa's class helping with a little party. The kids were so cute reading their valentines from each of their classmates and getting excited about all of the candy they were finding in their "Valentine pockets." I made Rice Krispy treats for the snack and they seemed to be a big hit.
Sadly, I have no other pictures, than of the party, for Valentine's Day. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of our family night. We celebrate Valentine's Day as a family. We have a tradition of doing "backwards night" for dinner/dessert. We start out with ice cream for dinner and while we are eating that, we have a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's in the oven for dessert. The kids really look forward to this.

We also had Parent/Student breakfast at school this month. The girls had finished their breakfast and Brenna had left the table with one of her friends and this is where I found her...up on stage singing with friend and music teacher. Thankfully, a dear friend/teacher has her classroom just across the hall from the cafeteria so we were able to quickly get her camera. Who would have thought that I would have needed my camera for breakfast?
We've spent some time with my niece during the past couple of weeks. It's hard to believe that she turned 1 this month. She is such a fun little girl to be around and is so close to walking. She got to spend time at our house the other night and she had a blast playing with my 10-key. I figured she couldn't hurt it and she thought she was "hot stuff" with it.
Sunday, February 28th was a very special day!! Our church had a baptismal service and Brenna had decided that she wanted to be a part of it and be baptized! We are so proud of her and her decision to follow Christ in Believer's Baptism. And, to make the day a little more special, she asked Jason if he would be the one to baptize her. Of course, he jumped at the chance. It was a very special moment for the two of them.
There were 13 people who were baptized on Sunday...two of which were my brother and sister-in-law. That made the day even more special!!

After church, we headed over to my Uncle Deryl and Aunt Shari's for lunch. Aunt Shari had prepared Sloppy Joes for all of us with a jello salad and a "glorified rice" salad (that's what she called it and it was good!), along with chips and a veggie tray. She was an amazing host. I felt bad that she didn't want us to bring anything...she had a lot of mouths to feed.
Uncle Deryl was right there with the kids. It's so fun to watch him interact with them and they love every minute of it.
After lunch, Uncle Deryl started "messing" with Ethan and it ended up in a big game. Ethan kept saying to Uncle Deryl "you can't get me...you can't tickle me." And, of course, Uncle Deryl would eventually take him down and tickle him. It was a lot of fun to watch! And, even though they weren't brothers, Uncle Deryl reminds me a lot of how my dad was with kids and I love it! I love that he and Aunt Shari take so much interest in our kids and really care to take the time to just interact with them. Ethan couldn't stop talking about Uncle Deryl and Aunt Shari the rest of the day.
That gets us to today...Monday, March 1st. It's hard to believe that the month of February is over and that Spring will officially be here in just a few short weeks. I spent my day today with 5 little boys. It was a long day but the boys all did pretty good and we made it through. It's always fun for Ethan to have his cousins here to play with.

The rest of the week will be filled with volunteering at school, working a couple of afternoons, A MASSAGE!, and maybe, just maybe, a date with my husband at the end of the week.

Hopefully, I will be better about blogging during the month of March. I'm not going to make any promises though because I will just be setting myself up to fail. Thanks to those of you who are still sticking with me and checking for updates.

Never thought this would happen...

the first weekend of February.
Last year at this time, we were finally able to get the Christmas lights down because of all the snow and ice we had. This year...it's beginning to look like Spring.

The tulips are popping up,
The Dogwood tree is getting ready to bloom,The Hydrangeas are beginning to turn green,
And the Lilac Tree is turning green!!I love all of this but I'm starting to worry that we might get some sort of winter storm and it will all be ruined. And, with no winter...I can only imagine what the bugs are going to be like this year. I'm dreading the mosquitoes because they seem to really like me.

It's things like this...

that make me smile!

Jason had decided that he wanted to make cookies and it looks like he found a helper. It warmed my heart to walk into the kitchen to find this. LOVE IT!

Dinner made easy!

This last weekend, we headed out as a family to Costco to get some much needed groceries. There were just a few more freezer meals left and it was getting very hard to come up with lunches for the girls...thankfully they like to take hot lunch most days.

Anyway, on Monday, Ethan and I headed to Safeway to get a few more things and then came home to start the meal making marathon. This is what my counter top started out looking like...everything I needed to make 9 meals!
Now, normally I could put these meals together in about 15 minutes. But this time, it took me an hour. I had to cut round steak into strips and I tried to cut away as much of the fat as possible. And, for those of you looking for some money saving tips, I cut my pork chops in half. The pork chops from Costco are so thick and our kids just don't eat that much meat at one time. So, I decided to cut them in half and then cut away all of the fat. So, this step also took a little extra time but one package of the pork chops gave me 3 meals and there were 6 pork chops in each meal.

Once all of the meat was prepped, I was throwing meals together and done in a matter of 30 minutes. Interruptions from Ethan and the phone were not helping. But hey...an hour total isn't bad and this is what went into the freezer!So, for those of you wondering what we do at my Homemade Gourmet Supper Clubs...this is it! And other than my cutting board being dirty from cutting up the meat...there really wasn't much of a mess. We are set with meals and I'm looking forward to just pulling them out and dumping them in the crock pot! Dinner made easy!!

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it is 2010? Wow...where did the last year go?

We are excited to see what God has in store for our family this year. We are looking forward to the changes that may be coming our way and seeing where those changes lead us.

Many of you have been wondering what is going on with our application to FamilyLife and currently, our application time has expired. Our original application only had a 2-year time frame to get approved and because we were unable to sell our home and get the budget that they were looking for in place, it slowed everything way down. We don't feel at all that this door is closed but that this opportunity is only put on hold for now. We will more than likely re-apply with FamilyLife but will wait until we can get our house sold. We will also be open to any other opportunities that God may bring to us.

We would love to have you join us in praying that our house will sell soon and quickly. We realize that currently this housing market is not favorable and even more so with us having the house "For Sale By Owner." Selling on our own is ultimately the best solution for us financially.

We hope that 2010 is a great year for you and your family. May God bless you abundantly in ways you never expected!