When Grandma & Grandpa come to visit...

Sandra forgets to take pictures until the last day!!!! I am so bad at taking pictures which are important! We had so much fun having my Mom and Dad here with us over Christmas. The kids loved it and Eli would ask every day if Grandma and Grandpa were going to stay, eat, play or sleep at our house. Then when the answer was yes he would get so excited! Yet as the days passed by I missed picture opportunities of Eli and Grandma playing puzzles together, and Grandpa playing airplanes with him. I missed Grandma dressing up dolls with Mckenna and Grandpa making silly faces at her to make her smile. I did get a few the day they were leaving so I am happy about that. However, Eli wouldn't take any pictures with them, so the only ones I have are of Mckenna and her Grandparents.

Mckenna just woke up and so she got to sit with Grandpa.

Grandma and Mckenna playing peek-a-boo with Grandma's blocks.

Watching their Grandparents leave made Eli really sad and me too, but we were really happy that they were able to come and visit.

Christmas Fun!

We had a great Christmas and we all were very spoiled! What was really great was having my parents here with us to share in the fun. The kids had a great day and it was really hard not to show all of you every picture I took. So here are a few of us opening gifts.

Eli and Mckenna waking up and seeing the Christmas tree and all the presents.

Mom and Dad got a puzzle from Joanna's family.

I got a Kitchen Aid thanks to all the family on Keith's side!!!

Keith got some really great stuff but he needed a new pair of pants that he got from both his Grandma Wharton and his Mom.

If only I had recorded Eli yelling out, "LEGO'S!" when he opened his gift from Heather.

Mckenna got some shoes from Grandma Metcalfe...

and from Heather.

She also got a dress from Grandma Metcalfe that she had to put on right away. So over her pj's it went along with her shoes.

Mom got scriptures from my Dad.


It's just not Christmas unless Dad gets socks!

Mom and Dad got new slippers from Heather.

I got a scarf from Heather and a nice picture frame from Joanna.

Keith looks great in his new shirt!


Mckenna with her new doll and stroller.
Eli loving his new car from his friend Savana!

We got so much more from all of our family that I didn't get pictures of in here. When we went over to Grandpa Allen's we didn't take our camera and the kids made out like bandits there with books, clothes and more Lego's. Then when Grandma Judy came by did I get my camera out...no! So once again they got so much form her as well with handmade clothes, dolls, race tracks and a pop up tent just for them. I do have pictures of the kids in the tent but that will have to be for another day. Thanks to everyone for all the great gifts! We love you and hope you had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Random Funny Pictures

There are many times I get some really funny pictures of the kids and I end up not posting them. I don't know why I don't post them because to me they are so cute. So now I'm going to show you them all because I like them and want to share with you what my days are like with lots of laughs and craziness!

These are pictures of the kids over the summer with some of the vegetables from our garden. They of course loved to go out and help Mom pull all kinds of plants. The kids in the first three pictures are holding radishes. At first they were looking at them with funny expressions not really knowing what they were holding but after I told them they were radishes they started singing "Radishes oh Radishes!" In the last picture you can really see Eli singing and Mckenna just loving his song so much that she started dancing.

More pictures of kids and vegetables. These carrots were twisted together and we named them our love carrots. I appropriately grated them into Keith's birthday carrot cake! I think it made all the difference. (:

Savana and Eli holding zucchini and once again giving that look of not really knowing what I have asked them to hold but I thought their faces where so funny that I had to put it on here.

This is a very common thing around our house that Mckenna wants to be with Eli at all times. She always wants to sit with him or to lay down next to him and luckily Eli is such a mellow child and will let her. Even though most of the time Mckenna will craw all over him or be very wiggly. It's great that they have so much fun together.

Mckenna with Mom's church shoes on! She loves shoes!

Eli loves to build airplanes and this was one I had to get a picture of to show how creative he is getting.

Mckenna falling asleep while eating her food.

CARS CARS AND MORE CARS

Some of you may know all about our recent car trouble, but for those of you who don't, our oldie but goody 1990 Pontiac was literally ran over by a lifted truck while it was parked. No one was inside thank goodness so we were not hurt. When the kids and I came out of the park and I didn't see the car where I had parked it, I thought, "who would want to steal that old thing!?!" As I kept walking, I finally saw the car and the picture below shows where it ended up. I took the picture at the spot where I had parked it and this is where the car ended up rolling.

Anyway, the lady that hit me was in a big lifted truck and I was the unlucky car parked behind her. She didn't even see the car and just backed right over the top of it. The bottom two pictures are of the top of the car and the side. I know, I know we didn't have much paint to begin with so the big scrape mark is kind of hard to see. All the damage she did is on the left side of the hood and the light and then on the side of the car as well.

To be honest I don't know much about cars so I thought that I would be able to drive the car home at least. Well I was very wrong because as soon as I got in and started it up something didn't sound quite right. The worst part was when I put it in drive and tried the gas and the car didn't go any where. As soon as I took my foot off the gas I started to put it in park and every gear sounded AWFUL! Each gear made a grinding sound like one I have never heard before. The cars transmission was broken and since the car is only worth about $500 and a new transmission is worth a lot more the car was pronounced TOTALED!

Long story short the great part to this story is her insurance company checked the car out and instead of just giving us $500 for the car they gave us just over $1,000 since you can't really put a price on a good car that we didn't owe a thing on and were planing to drive and drive and drive until we just couldn't any more. So that leads me to my great news. Keith looked and looked all over for a new car for quite some time. If any of you know Keith you can just picture him spending a lot of time working on each and every last detail. I'm not saying that is a bad thing because now we are the proud owners of a really great 2008 Hyundai Sonata. So here are some pictures of the new car.

OVER LOAD

So I don't mean to over load everyone with all that we have been doing but I'm going to! We have been busy and I haven't had much time for blogging until today. I wanted to show some fun pictures that I took of the kids to show some of what we have been doing. So here is a warning to you all that there are lots of pictures!

Eli's Preschool

I had heard last year about a few ladies from my ward and other wards that were getting together twice a week to do preschool for their kids. When I heard about what they did and could see that some of the kids were really loving it I knew it was something I wanted Eli to do. So of course when I was told that some of the ladies were doing it again I jumped at the chance to join in. I was a little worried at first because he is the only one that is 3 the rest are 4 and 5 years old. But so far so good! We have had preschool every week on Tuesday and Thursday and the ladies and I just rotate who teaches. What is really great is Eli will ask me every day if it is time for school. He absolutely loves it! So here are a few pictures of some of the fun things that he has been learning about.

He learned about families and made marshmallow people for how many were in his family. The best part though was when he came home I asked him who each marshmallow was and the two in the middle are him and Mckenna. The other two though are a guy with one shoe, he is on the left and the one with a toothpick in his head is a, "shooter guy." I don't know where he got it but it sure did make me laugh!


On another day they learned about houses. This is an igloo that he made with sugar cubes and frosting. When I walked in the door to pick him up from school I saw some of the other kids igloos and they of course looked like square houses and all the kids did a great job. So I kept looking for Eli's and then his teacher brought it out and I just couldn't help but smile! He told me that it was a tower igloo and I love it!


Just a few weeks ago this is some of the stuff he did. They made a Halloween house and a fall crown. He is holding a pig in his had but you really can't see it very well. It is a apple pig. It has cinnamon for eyes and gum drops for legs and a nose.


This picture is a when I had school here at my house. I drew around the kids and then we talked about our bones and some of their organs. I had the kids paste the bones and organs on themselves.

There is so much more that he has done. The first day of school they made pretzels in the letter of their first and last initials. On another day they learned about dinosaurs and then they made their very own dinosaur landscape from a shoe box. He colored the background and then his teacher gave them some fake grass and rocks to put inside. She also gave Eli a little triceratops that he plays with all the time. So all in all this has been a great experience for both Eli and I.

Snow Day

Since I have lived in Wyoming for most of my life you would think by now I would be used to the weather! I'm NOT! At the end of September this is what we got...

My poor flowers!

The next day it was still snowing and the kids wanted to go out and play.

Mckenna looks like a purple umpa lumpa!

What's for Dinner!

This is...

Doesn't this look great! Really all I can take credit for though is the potatoes. Keith grilled this beauty of a pork chop. I highly recommend this recipe if you ever are going to grill pork chops. Its not to hard to do but turns out really good!

Rub

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp light brown sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp granulated garlic

1/2 tsp granulated onion

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp ground cloves

Pinch ground cayenne pepper

Lightly coat the pork on both sides with oil. Season with the rub , pressing the spices into the meat. Let the pork sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before grilling. Serve with favorite barbecue sauce.

Sour Cream Scalloped potatoes

8-10 potatoes, peeled, diced into cubes, and cooked until soft

2 cups sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 cup French-fried onions

In a bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. Pour into an ungreased 9x13 inch baking dish. Bake uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Sprinkle with French-fried onions and return to the over for 10 minutes more.

NEXT...

I love, love, love RANCH! I eat it with my salad, my french fries, and now on my burger. When I saw that this burger had ranch in it I had to try it and if you love ranch as much as I do then you should try it too!

Ranch Burgers

2 pounds lean ground beef

2 (1 oz) packages ranch dressing mix

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup crushed saltine crackers

1 very small onion or 1/2 of a big onion, chopped

cooked bacon

In a bowl, mix together the ground beef, ranch dressing mix, egg, crushed crackers and onion. Form into hamburger patties. Grill just the way you like it!



Pasta courtesy of my sister Jaime.

Jaime's Pasta Salad

1 bag curly colored pasta, cooked

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 cup green olives, cut in half

1 small bottle of Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette

sprinkle ground oregano, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste

Mix all ingredients together and ENJOY!