Yum, yum...

I promised these recipies awhile ago, but here they are!

This first one is from my mother-in-law who is an amazing cook:

Penne in a Cream Sauce from Cindy Boria

1 T butter
1T olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 pound sweet italian sausage, casings removed (when I made it I trippled it and used 1 # hot, 1# mild, and 1# sweet italian chicken sausage...and it was a GREAT combo)
2/3 cup white wine
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with juices (I used one of these then a large can of crushed italian tomatoes)
1 cup whipping cream
6 T parsley
1 lb. penne (I used organic, whole wheat)
1 cup grated parmasean cheese

melt butter and olive oil and saute onion (7 min)
add sausage until golden brown
add wine and cook down
add tomatoes, cook 3 min
add cream, cook 5 min
stir in parsley, salt and pepper
add cheese
cook pasta and poor sauce over, adding parsley and cheese on top to garnish!

Those were just the notes I wrote down over the phone, but I'm sure you can figure it out! Since we aren't doing grains, we are looking forward to having this sauce over chicken and veggies, and I think I'll do a little less of the liquids to make it a little thicker since we're not having pasta. Enjoy!

The other recipe is amazing from Williams-Sonoma:

Thomas Keller's Slow-Cooker Cassoulet (it's the picture at the top:)

Click here to go to their website to retrieve...but it was amazing! We'll have to slightly modify this to do without grains, but I'm sure it will still be just as yummy...and perfect for fall!

What to blog, what to blog...

I really don't have much to blog about...I haven't seen my family hardly at all until today, which has been hard on all of us. It has been great getting to be back in the classroom, and I really feel like God is providing for us, so that's great. I'm taking the day off tomorrow since Andrew has the day off until the evening, so we can just spend some time together, I'll try and get some pictures taken. Noah's first day of preschool is Friday! I bought a little journal at New Seasons today to keep track of all the cute little things my kids have been saying and doing lately...my plan is to write them into their scrapbooks so they'll always be remembered!

What happened to lazy days?

Wasn't it just a few days ago I posted about lazy days? Well gone are those days...I am working every day this week subbing, which LOVE being back in the classroom, but it makes for a long busy day with volleyball and Bible study, especially on away games when we don't get home until 10pm! I am so grateful with how the Lord provides in our time of need.

This past weekend I watched a friends kids while they were at the duck game, and here are a few fun pictures from the trampoline! I love that family, it's always so fun getting to spend some good time with them, I've watched their kids since they all came home from the hospital! You know how you just have some of your special families? This is one of mine.
So calm and peaceful? NOT!!!


In other, very important news, Noah recently got spoiled by Grammy with the deluxe Tidmouth sheds roundhouse...for you Thomas fanatics out there you know how big of a deal this is! He pretty much lost his mind and plays with it non-stop. He had to do his responsibilities six days to earn it, and he did! He set up a pretty cool track with Auntie Cole and me.


I have been getting that feeling the past few weeks that I'm ready for another baby...shocking, I know. I am, and have been so passionate about not having any more children...way too much work! I love them, but there's something about getting fat, nursing for a year/never having a night off, and constantly being needed that just doesn't sound appealing again for selfish little me. However, I have always had a heart-felt calling that I need to do foster care and adopt from there. So, we began the process last week and could have a little girl as soon as Christmas, but it will probably be a little longer realistically. So save your cute, little girl clothes for me! As soon as Andrew gets a job and I'm just home with the boys, that can be my ministry. Please pray for this opportunity. Not sure if you remember how my new years resolution was to do something big for the Lord? I feel like this could be it, along with my Bible study, which doubled in size this week...we went from 1 to 2! Hopefully we'll continue this trend:) Hope your week ends up great!

Thanks, Hannah!

Hannah took care of this blog post for me, thanks!

Go check it out by clicking here.

Lazy Days...

This past week we've had a lot of lazy, family days, doing nothing much at all. Andrew and I have both been home with the boys until the afternoon/evenings, so we've been spending our days organizing and deep cleaning with all our Mrs. Meyer's cleaning supplies that Andrew is now hooked on after we got a starter set from Heather, going to different parks, lots of walks, trying to teach the boys some games, cooking, being lazy, playing, reading and working out. I've been really into reading some books that finally came in at the library...Love and Logic for early childhood, Multiple Blessings, plus I got the Julia Child cookbook with my mom that has so much to read, and Heather gave me a parenting book too! I'm so interested in all of them so I'm reading them all at once...which means I'm not making very much progress with any:)

Here are some pictures from today when we went to the splash pad after the gym in Happy Valley...even though it was only 75!

This is the way my boys play...they are always tackling and in eachothers way!
My boy who would not smile for a picture with me...there was a rock he was trying to get. Very important.

Running with excitement all over when we first got there:)
Playing with dad! Who will never be in any pictures...he's pretty cute, I don't know why! Done for the day...sleeping in his "hot tub"...gross.
At a park earlier this week. As you can tell Jacob is really excited about doing the slide together...this was just moments before he flailed himself off the slide and got a bloody lip. Yeah. That's Jakey.

Bible Study

Tonight was our first night of our volleyball Bible study, and it went really well...despite that there was only one girl! It actually was perfect, we really got to talk a lot. I'm excited to see how God is going to work in all the non-believers and that lots of the girls are willing to come (next week they all said...we'll see:) The one girl that did come doesn't do church, and those that do skipped...lol, but how cool to have that opportunity! We watched a Nooma video and talked a lot. Which is cool, because you don't have to be a Christian to get something from those, and it illustrates a lot of ideas really nicely.

I feel really positive about what's going to come from this, please keep it in your prayers! Pray for more girls to come next week, no more late practices and lots of homework:) Last year I really got to open up with a lot of the girls, and I'm praying that will get to happen again this year. At the very least, I really want them to know that I care about them, more then just at volleyball. And do remember, you never know what people go home to...

Where were you?

Today is an important day to teach...to teach our kids, the next generation of what we all experienced during our life time. There aren't very many national events that have affected me, or that I feel apart of, and I don't want that to happen to my kids. So somehow today, maybe driving out to our playdates, maybe snuggled in bed, we need to share with our kids what happened this day, so that we don't forget...can you believe that was 2001?

Sleepover

After a long, rough day for me yesterday, I wanted to do nothing more then sit on the couch and watch a movie. However, my husband convinced me to go and have a slumber-party with the boys...probably the last thing I wanted to do at 9:00, didn't I just finish with them? So we moved Noah down into the bottom bunk (a full) and got Jakey out of his crib, and we all snuggled in. It was one of those moments that was so precious because Jakey (yes, my Jakey) layed with us for almost an hour still, without screaming, trying to get up, and not hitting anyone. We were singing lots of songs, and once we ran out, Noah started making up his own. He was singing loud and proud, and was so funny with all his inflection he had. He sang about all his trains, some of his friends, Nana and Papa, and then started on Jesus. Here is how his Jesus song went:

"Jesus loves me, oh, I love Jesus
I fell getting in the bathtub
and hit my crunchies
Oh, it really hurt and I cried"

At that point Andrew and I busted up laughing (therapy for my long day) and couldn't stop. Noah didn't mind, he just kept right on singing.

Airplanes!

Our boys are both obsessed with airplanes, so today, Andrew had the genius idea to take them to Marine drive to see all the planes and to be by the river. It was so pretty down there today, and we enjoyed walking and riding our bikes up and down the path. We even saw 5 fighter jets take off...boy, that was loud! The mountain was so beautiful with the river...we just had to take a family picture. It didn't turn out the best, but we still had a good time together!

Noah's Responsibilities

Something that is important to both Andrew and I, is that our boys grow up to be responsible. It drives me crazy when children (adults) can not just take care of themselves, so we want to start training that now. We ask Noah to do lots of different things, but decided last week to make "official" jobs that are his. So I made him this responsibility chart where every day he can check off what he's done! I still need to laminate it tomorrow and the check boxes that I am going to stick on with velcro, but I'm pleased with the way it came out!

Getting Ready for Fall

We're getting ready for fall around here...sad to see summer coming to an end, but excited for the next season too! We spend the morning before church getting a few little things to help bring in the season. That background is going to be looking much different here soon!

My Boys!

I am loving the ages my boys are at right now, it's such a joy being their mom! We have had lots of those special moments with Noah where we have gotten a glimpse inside his head and see a little of what he's thinking. When I was driving home at night from swimming with Noah one night, he said, "Mom, God is holding our car protecting us." It makes me think about what he can see that we can't. So sweet. He has been really into asking "why?" To which I reply, "why do you think?" His answer is mostly because that's how God wants it to be. He is very into his friends, and develping those relationships...all the time. He always wants to have a friend around. I have been so pleased with his mannors lately, where he's been saying, "No, but thank you though!" He also is getting better at writing his name...now the N looks like a very long mountain chain, the "O" is pretty good, the "a" is simply an "o" with a tail, and his "H" is a nice bridge. And of course the letters are all over the page. :)

Jakey is also developing quite the personality! He is talking alot, of course I'm sure I'm the only one who can understand him. He knows just what he wants and when he wants to do things. He also has lots of his "favorites." Crackers, or actually just food in general, his cars, trucks, and trains, balls, running, and screaming. Yes, screaming. He runs from Noah with a life-size shark screaming...so funny. He is attached to his blankey...and in the past week has started sucking on it all the time...gross.

I love my boys and love being their mom! We had a great day at the zoo today with Gina and Cade, and I'm looking forward to many more "mommy" days with them!