Pictures of our Home

Welcome to our family blog. Here are the pictures you requested. It's easier to send a link to everyone who's  interested rather than upload the photos into an email over and over again. 

The first few show the exterior, storage shed and hand built landing. 

The following three show the bedroom. The bed, washer & dryer, refrigerator, kitchen table and lawn supplies all come with the price of the house (Everything but the family room furntiure).

We removed the wall paper and painted the bathroom when we moved in. 

The kitchen area has plenty of windows for natural lighting. You get the solid wood table and two chairs. 

The family room has two "window seats" that are perfect for decorating. It can also double as a sneaky storage space if you decorate your storage boxes. 

Save yourself time and money by doing your own laundry at home. 

And for the family...

Claire has been learning to make some fun new faces. This one is actually a week or two before coming to Washington. You can only guess what kind of mischief she's planning with those keys and that look. 

Research and Creative Works Conference and Claire of Course

I'm all ready to play the piano for the conference

This is what Skyler and a team have been working on all semester (Parker and Skyler)

 Our first family picture since Claire's blessing

Cute Claire Pictures:

Happy Birthday Love!

This is what big-boy birthday presents look like:

Starting at top left moving clockwise: Card, A-Team Season 2, two 50 dollar bills, Blast concert on DVD, two wishes that will come true, electric razor blade replacements, and awesome winter gloves.

Thanks to both moms for your gifts. We're glad you were born Skyler! xo

For fans of Claire...

 Claire loved playing with this hanger while I put laundry away.

 I love taking baby sleeping pictures.

Claire wore her elf-like socks yesterday. 'Tis the season!

For those in the kitchen...

I have been getting my fruits and greens lately through smoothies, so I thought I'd share them with you!

Pear-Apple
2 pear
1 apple
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups fresh baby spinach (or other leafy green)
½ cup water
(I added some ice, plain yogurt and about 1/4 sugar)
http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/recipes/pear-smoothie-recipes-and-nutrition/

Cucumber Pear Smoothie

serves 2

ingredients:

• 1/2 medium cucumber, peeled
• 1 medium pear, cored and chopped
• 1 cup almond milk (or milk of your choice)
• 1 tablespoon creamy almond butter (or other nut butter of your choice)
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon stevia
• 6 – 7 ice cubes

(I used yogurt instead of nut butter and I didn't use chia seeds or stevia. It makes a nice cinnamony, fresh tasting smoothie. You could also put spinach in it.)

http://www.queenofquinoa.me/2012/06/cucumber-pear-smoothie/

Also, I found a winner of a dinner because of all of the positive feedback I was getting from Skyler. (yay!) It's like chili.

Picante Soup

Dump all of these ingredients in a pan and simmer/boil it for about 30 minutes. Eat with cheese, sour cream, and/or chips.

1 can chickpeas

1 can kidney beans (pinto is what I used)

1 can corn

16 oz salsa/picante sauce (I used one of the empty cans to measure some salsa out)

1 lb cooked ground beef or chicken (I used chicken)

Tell me if you try it!

Just an Announcement

Claire is crawling! Army crawling that is... She pulls herself along with her elbows and kicks her legs a lot. I'm not sure the kicking is helpful yet but we're impressed.

Another fun fact, we just discovered her second tooth coming in! I got all I want for Christmas and it's only Dec. 2nd! "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"

We don't have any pictures or videos of her crawling (camera battery is dead) but we can show you pictures of her outfit that we took earlier today.

Pumpkin Bread

I got a little carried away making Pumpkin Bread today... It was the perfect thing to do on a rainy day :)

I think I got this recipe from Jake and April Trent when I got married.
Pumpkin Bread by Alinda Shelley
3 C sugar
1 C oil
1 1lb can pumpkin
4 eggs
3 1/2 C flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cloves (ground)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
2/3 C water
Optional:
1 C nuts
1 C raisins
or 1 C chocolate chips
Combine sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to pumpkin mix. Add water. Mix and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes in 2 large greased loaf pans, or 3 small pans, or different sized tin cans for round bread. (All the the bread pictured above is made from this one recipe!)