Friday, July 24, 2009


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

BBQ Chicken Salad!

Warning!  This salad is highly addictive!  (This is the salad I referred to in my previous post!)


Here are the ingredients!
Lettuce of course
tomato
avocado
hard boiled eggs
yellow or orange bell pepper
pickled beets
green peas (best fresh from the garden)
cucumber
grilled chicken (baste with olive oil/salt and pepper)
top with homemade ranch dressing and bbq sauce of your choice!

YUMMO!!  This is seriously the best salad!  

Canning Beets and Cutting Hair!

Yeah to first hair cuts!!  and good bye to mullets!!  I'm not sure what it is about my kids and mullets but Sarah gave herself one last Christmas that has finally grown out and Ian has been sporting one for a few months!!  They can so get away with it though...
My friend Kjirsta's sister gave us all haircuts while we were canning beets!  I was seriously surprised that Ian sat so still the whole time.
I think he was afraid to move!  Here is the finished product!  A handsome little guy that looks a lot older now.  boo hoo!
About the beets... I love beets!  My girlfriend and I have been making this BBQ chicken salad ever since we met!  It is a tradition when we get together!  One of the yummy ingredients are her mom's pickled beets!  Needless to say over the years we have eaten all of her mom's supply.  So this past week her mom made some more and let us be part of the process!  It was fun to learn how to make them and I am excited to make more!  Her mom recommended we wait about 2 months but I could not wait!  I ate a jar already and they were fabulous!!  2 jars are left so I better start making some more...

2 of my favorite guys!

Britten loves going with Jeff to get his hair cut!  They both came home with the same do.
um could they be any cuter??
I LOVE my boys!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

3 Friends from long ago = 11 kids playing at the park!

Jacob R., Spencer K., Britten, Ian, Sarah B., Sydney K., Shayla K., Claire R., Kate R., Saryn K., Luke R!  I got them all!  Don't know if I spelled them all right!  Here are the girls below!
The newest additions!  Aren't they cute!
Stacy, Melissa and I!  So I met Melissa through a mutual friend in high school and met Stacy through Melissa!  These girls are amazing and were such good friends to me in high school!  They were such great examples of Christ!  They will be friends for life I'm sure!  It was so fun to get together and see all of our kids playing!  Man time flies by when you are not looking!
Check out the playground at this school!  sweet!
Ian had fun hanging out!
Sydney and Britten go way back!  We did a preschool playgroup together when they were 3!  I'll never forget the wrestling match they had back in the day.  (Stacy and I laughed so hard watching that one!)  I think Britten might have a little crush on Syd too!
Thank you Stacy and Melis for the fun day at the park!  We love you guys!


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Fun day at the SPLASH park!

This was a hot day!!!  But the kids had a blast running through the chilly water!  Ian also loved eating some watermelon!  Thanks Michelle for sharing your watermelon with us!
We spent a few hours at the splash park with my girlfriend Michelle and her kids and her sister's kids!  They had a blast!  Here are the girls...
And here are the boys... pretty handsome if you ask me.
Britten loves hanging out with Jake!

Good bye Oreck. Hello Dyson!

Here they are... out with the old, in with the new!  I must say the Oreck has been good to us over the years but along the way it stopped sucking up the dirt and just made lines on the carpet!  I had been looking at the Dyson at Costco for a few months when we finally decided to buy it!  It seems like Jeff and all of my kids suffer from allergies so we thought it would be a good investment.
This is the dirt and dust that we vacuumed up just from the living room carpet area.  The container was half full and I was totally sick by the dirt on and in the carpet.  I kept thinking Ian has been crawling all over that... GROSS!
Now I love to vacuum!  Thank you Jeff for the Dyson!