A truly rich man

is one whose children

run into his arms

when his hands are

empty.

~unknown

Happy Father's Day to Ry... :)

a fabulous and loving father...

who loves to watch some football with his girls... :)

Happy Father's Day to my dad, another great man

who we love!  And, he's a great Bebot Daisy!! :)

And, a Happy Father's Day to Bebot Boot, another wonderful example of a dad! 

We beyond blessed with wonderful men in our lives... :) 

breath of fresh air :)

i'm finding that this song is one of my favorites.... 
incredibly uplifting and fabulous.......

:)
i hope you will be blessed by it, as well :)

meals for the week 5.6.12 through 5.13.12

time to get back into posting the meal plan...  it helps keep me more organized... :) 
here's what we'll be eating this week... :)

• Sunday:  beef and potato boats, green beans, broccoli corn bread
• Monday: baked ziti
• Tuesday: pigs in a blanket, mac n cheese, veggie
• Wednesday: leftovers
• Thursday:  pancakes
• Friday: leftovers
• Saturday:  out to eat or scrounge at home :)
• Sunday:  chicken parmiginana and spaghetti

hope you all have a great week... :)  don't forget that Mother's Day is on Sunday :)

it's been awhile...

nothing like a long, long break from blogging.... :)  life has been a little busy...  :)

we enjoyed some time over spring break NOT traveling... :)  instead, we had my parents here for Easter...  the visits with our grandmas and bebots are always too, too short....  we had lots of fun, though....we did some shopping, went to church, had yummy meals and enjoyed each other's company...  :) 

katherine snapping beans with grandma daisy

(katherine calls both grandmas "grandma," but she specifies each one by one thing that she realized while she was very young...my parents have a dog, Daisy, so my mom became "grandma daisy."  Ry's mom is "grandma boot" because K calls her Aunt Brittany "Boot"... :))

the girls were so cute in their Easter dresses....yep, i did what i never thought i'd do and dressed my girls in the same dresses :)  they were really cute :)

(i won't even tell you how long it took us to get this picture of the two of them together...  katherine was being especially cheesy and was bouncing like tigger, hannah was crying and falling down because her sister insisted on holding her hand while bouncing like tigger...and they needed naps :))

then, Ry's mom, dad, and sister came into town and we all hung out and enjoyed each other some more. :)  we had yummy food and cooked at home, too... :)  of course, we did a little shopping, and we made chocolate covered strawberries and cupcakes...yummy! :) 

one of our strawberries :)

we've been busy playing outside (when it wasn't raining)...katherine loves being outside, but i think that hannah may love it even more...  she cries to go outside and cries even harder when we come inside...  :)

we have done a little gardening...we planted some bulbs and also planted a little garden! :)  all we have in our garden are strawberries right now, but i'm going to add a few more things...  katherine LOVES to go out and check out our plants...it's been really fun to see how well our things are growing :)

our first strawberry, picked as soon as it was red, and eaten on the spot by this little green thumb :)

since october, i've been working as a teacher for an after school program in the county where i used to teach... it's been a great experience, and i've really enjoyed helping kids...  i'm not ready to get back in the classroom, but i hope that i can do their after school program again next year...  the hours are perfect (i drop the girls off after ry finishes his day and head up the road a few minutes to school) and it's good to help! :)  unfortunately, it ends this coming week, but i'm sure i will find SOMETHING to do with my extra time :)

now, because my teaching license has to be renewed every 5 years, i'm in the first week of taking a 3 credit course for recertification...  i had taken another course in the fall of 2010 for half of my points, and i thought i had enough professional development from 2008 and 2009, while teaching, but i kept shoddy records and can't even find them in my files of packed school items :(  so, i'm taking a literacy class on teaching phonemic awareness and phonics....it's really interesting...  :)  i'm especially excited to start using my new-found knowledge on a little guinea pig i know... :)  (i really wanted to take this class so i could learn what i should be doing for K... :))

in the midst of all of this, we've had vet appointments, trips to the store, time with our friends, dentist appointments, and just plain attempts to stay afloat in this trip called life :) 

but........summer is knocking...Ry only has 21 days left with students...  i always love summer because we can do so many fun things together as a family and life is a little more relaxed.... :) 

 don't you just love the strangle hold of love here? :)

totally staged, but it looks real, doesn't it? :)

i promise i will be back sooner than i was this time... :)  there's always a ton to report, but time is fleeting and i never get to share all the happenings.... :) 

hope this catches you up on a bit.... :) 

dancing after the rain

because...........

wearing dresses means she's a princess....





















but wearing boots after a rain makes her adventurous...

......playing outside after the rain, with plenty of dandelions, sure does make life grand.

meals for the week: 2 weeks worth :) (3.18 through 3.31)

well, we're knocking on April's door...  hard to believe...  then again, we've had crazy hot weather for March, so maybe April will be cool and inviting :)  i don't have my fingers crossed, but i think i can dream a little :)
i didn't get a meal plan posted last week...  for a woman who doesn't run to a formal 9 to 5 job on a daily basis, i sure do feel like a chicken with her head cut off sometimes...  the weeks seem to be busier than usual...  no real reason...maybe it's the longer days and more time outside?  maybe it's just that i have more on my lists of "to do"...  i've stopped trying to figure it out and i'm just resigned to the fact that i'm busy or a poor planner of time...  i'm sure my two sweet kids don't have much to do with this fury of time that passes... :)

so, our eats of the week... :)  well, the last 2 weeks...  i do this more for my records...but if it inspires you, then so be it :)

3.18 through 3.24
Sunday: grilled out :)
Monday:  corned beef, potatoes and carrots in the crock pot
Tuesday:  homemade pizza
Wednesday:  spaghetti
Thursday:  sour cream pancakes
Friday:  dinner with the Davis' :)  taking dessert (tye-die cupcakes & ice cream)
Saturday:  out to eat - Vinny's Grill

and for this week... :) 

3.25 through 3.31
Sunday:  macaroni soup and grilled cheese
Monday: baked ziti
Tuesday: potato and onion omelets and toast
Wednesday:  leftovers
Thursday: Meg's BBQ meatballs, mashed potatoes, corn
Friday: leftovers
Saturday:  out to eat (probably)


deep thought of the week... 
i know i've mentioned it before, but we're very blessed to be going to a fantastic church... 
in today's sermon, our pastor talked about VISION and how one sees various challenges...  he spoke about Florence Chadwick, who attempted to swim 26 miles from Catalina Island to the coast of California.  After 15 hours of swimming, surrounded by boats with armed men to scare sharks away, a dense fog set it and she had to stop swimming by her own choice.  She said she lost sight of her destination...  how sad she was to know that she got into the boat a mere mile from the coastline... 
is there anything that's keeping you from achieving something?  have you lost your VISION? 
just as a side note, Florence swam her 26 mile journey, again, two months later...  she said she kept a mental image of the coastline as she swam...  she finished, and even beat the men's record by over 2 hours. :) 

because i don't want to forget: {nativity carnival}

During the holiday season, Katherine was, well, to be honest, obsessed with the Nativity and Baby Jesus.  I'm glad for this obsession...  i won't tell you how many trips past outdoor nativity scenes we made...we went the extra mile...a lot!  :)  K and i even walked to a scene in our neighborhood so she could "touch" the people and animals (while i silently prayed that no one would come out and try to shoot us because we were on their property at 9 at night). 

Last year, we purchased the Little People Nativity scene...it was a HIT this year...as a matter of fact, i just put it away in February...  EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING, for months, Katherine would prepare the nativity scene before breakfast.  things had to be in a certain order, in a certain place, etc.  And, well, heaven help us if Hannah happened to toddle over to her scene and disturb the characters...  That, my friends, would often cause a nice tantrum... oy!  (and that is why Hannah was called "hurricane Hannah" or "tornado" during this time)

I giggled at this scene one morning...  apparently, Mary, Joseph, the Angel, three Wise Men, and animals were not enough for Baby Jesus...

We had to add "carni" workers...



Because, when Baby Jesus was born, the carni workers served popcorn...warm and buttery...and took your tickets...

and when Baby Jesus was born, a sweet little blond boy would play games with you as you waited on the birth of the King of Kings...

Next year, we'll add a Ferris wheel and a roller coaster...

Oh wait... we had the Ferris wheel...and it's safe to tell you that Mary and Joseph had their fair share of spins on the Ferris wheel...  obviously, giving birth to Jesus, being a Virgin, having to pay taxes...that wasn't enough for them....they needed the thrill of height, too :)

perspective

"You have nothing in this world

more precious than your children. 

When you grow old,

when your hair grows white and your body grows weary,

when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out.

It will not be the money you have made.

It will not be the cars you have owned.  It will not be the large house in which you live.  The searing question that will cross your mind,

again and again, will be,

How well have my children done?

If the answer is that they have done very well,

then your business will be complete. 

If they have done less than well,

then no other satisfaction can compensate for your loss." 

~Gordon B. Hinckley~

"mao"

we have a few stray cats that live around our house...  they're pretty nice cats for being feral, but we don't touch them...  we do feed them (thanks, Mom!) and so, i guess you know they are always hanging around now (we're going on the third summer)... 
the cats, affectionately called "Baby Cat," "Baby Cat Twin", and "Momma Cat Twin" (we're so official around here), sun themselves on our deck and spend most of the day hanging out up there...  we're not out on the deck often, so it doesn't really bother us...
Hannah, as are most 2nd born, tends to be more reserved...  she doesn't say a whole lot yet...  but, she loves doing from the living room to the kitchen to look outside... 
last week, she goes to the sliding door, plasters herself against the screen, and says, "Mao...." 
she's talkin' to the cats :) 
it's so stinkin' cute... :) 
:)

it's been a long, long time/meals for the week 3.10.12 through 3.17.12

well, it's been forever...  life seems to be speeding by at lightning speed...  i have every intention of getting something fun up on here, but the attempts are fleeting on my "to do" list... 
we've been so busy...  in the last few weeks, we've had both families here, a little party celebrating Hannah's first birthday, lots of sneezing, coughing, and the blowing of noses (for at least 2 of us), time outside, time with friends, laundry, cooking, 2 TVs made their way to appliance heaven, 2 TVs purchased, taxes done, dog shaving, freak 8 inch snows that are gone in a day, snowman making, snowball fights, snow angels, working, judging of a talent show...  seriously, time just speeds along with committments and needs knocking at a pretty constant pace... 
and, this week isn't going to be much better...  we have things going on almost every day this week...and we're also going to try to meet up with the fabulous Carrie Coleman to get Hannah's 1 year pictures taken...  she's home on spring break so we need to grab her talent and sweetness while we can.... :)
the weather is getting so warm... in the 70s to almost 80 this week...  i don't know whether to be happy that the weather is so beautiful or if i should be sad because that means our snow is probably finished for the year...  Katherine LOVES the snow, and it's so fun to hear her joy and contageous giggles as she's out in that wonderful white stuff... :) 
but anyway, i will attempt to get back into some normal posts...  i have one ready to go...as soon as i can dump the pictures from the last 3 months onto Picasa so that i can put the last picture into the post i have written...yes, folks, i'm really that far behind on pictures... :)  (are you sensing a trend here?  :))

so, to get back into a routine, i'll begin with the meal plan for the week... :)  that seems like a good start, don't you think? :)

Saturday:  belated birthday celebrating w/ the Strongs - took mac n cheese and tater tots :) Sunday:  cheeseburger soup (devine! :)  YUM!)
Monday:  spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday: french toast casserole with apples
Wednesday:  leftovers (soup and spaghetti)
Thursday: leftovers (french toast casserole)
Friday:  homemade pizza
Saturday: leftovers

so, there ya go... :)  enjoy your week...  Happy St. Patrick's Day on Saturday...make sure you wear your green! :)  :)