More posts and a recipe

Just to let you know I started several posts, but didn't finish them until tonight, but the videos of Little J went up after them. Make sure you go back and read the others. Also, here's a quick recipe that I made for dinner. It was fast, easy and everyone loved it.

Easy Skillet Hash

1 lb. hamburger

1/2 bag southern style hash brown potatoes (could use O'Brien)

1/2-1 cup corn (I cut some off a leftover cob and added a little more frozen)

1/2-1 cup green beans (I used frozen)

1/4 cup red pepper

1/4 cup onion

1/2 cup water

2 TBS sour cream (optional)

Seasoned salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

I browned and drained the hamburger, then added the vegetables and water. After seasoning it, I cooked it all until tender. At the very end I added the sour cream. I would have added cream of mushroom soup, but I didn't have any. You can leave out the sour cream too. You can't really mess it up.

More new tricks

Aunt Mar's visit

The kids with my mom's sister, Aunt Mar.

Our zoo has penguins. The girls posed by the statues outside the exhibit.

This was our first visit to the zoo.

A few weeks ago my Aunt Marilyn visited from California. It was great fun having her stay with us for a few days. We went to the Zoo and to a waterpark. She did awesome with the kids--playing, reading, helping out, etc. And Josh and I enjoyed our conversations with her about cows, sports and politics. We made a lot of fun memories that week. Thanks again for the visit Aunt Mar!

Enjoying time with Zani

We have been spending a lot more time with the horse lately. The girls are getting to the ages where they can safely (well, we're still working on E. She gets a little excited and still runs around a bit. Good thing Zani is used to it.) be around the horse. They love to brush her, lead her around and ride her. Little J even had his first ride. (You can't seem him in the photo, but Josh is right there holding on to him).

Emma talks about "brushing my Zani cause she's dirty, dirty, dirty," all the time. She wants to give Zani oats in her pan. And she asks, "my Zani home?" which means "Is she standing next to the gate?" in Emma terms. We have the horse in the pasture right next to the house. We've had great weather for it and I hope we'll have more days of riding through the fall.

Mackenzie's Bag

Here she is modeling her newest creation.

She was really getting into it.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, MJ and I started a new sewing project. Josh had wanted to find some fabric for me to make Little J a blanket so we found that then he suggested I get the girls some too. I thought a bag might make a nice second project for us to try. I'm not really big on following recipes; I find them merely a suggestion. Same goes for patterns, well at least in this case. When I was growing up and sewing in 4-H, I definitely followed a pattern, but these days I just felt I could wing it. Plus, I wasn't sure exactly what kind of bag I wanted to make so I didn't want to be limited to a pattern. I did look at a few, but wasn't convinced by any of them. I'm not sure flannel was really the best fabric for the job, but it's cute, it was on sale, it's soft and so far it's holding up well.

I did look online at some different blogs and searched bag patterns, but for the most part I just kept imaging in my head what I wanted it to look like and worked it through that way. I took a suggestion for size off a blog and started with that. I knew I wanted to line the bag and put pockets in it. MJ did most of the straight sewing (side seams, top hem, etc.) and learned to safely use an iron. She thought that was really cool. Now I don't claim to be any kind of expert in the sewing department, but I am pretty excited with how it turned out. And it was a fun bonding activity for us. I look forward to more of them. Now the key will be if I can re-create this bag again. :)

Emma picked out a monkey pattern (imagine that). Not quite sure if I'm going to make it into a bag or a blanket.

The kidlets

Mackenzie and I had a new sewing project we worked on a few weekends ago. She had picked out some new fabric (pink and brown flannel). We decided to make a bag. More on that in another post.

Typical J-blowing bubbles and lots of smiles

Little E-she has incredible fashion sense, don't you think? Where does she get that style? First she just had on the princess leotard because she and MJ were dancing. Then she added the hot pink skirt. After that it was MJ's BSU hat and sweatshirt and finally she rounded it off by putting on her new horse rain boots. Project Runway, here we come!

Little J's new trick

Well, this little guy, who really isn't so little anymore is doing so much in his 7th month. He's learned to blow bubbles and likes to show off that skill a lot. Here he's showing off his new trick and doing his "boy noise" as I like to call it. It's a lot of grunting and such. He's also schooching up his buns and getting onto his knees. He's rocking back and forth and will probably be crawling within the next couple weeks. He pushes himself up to sitting from his tummy. Last night (Sunday) had decided to lower his crib mattress because that morning I had awakened to a little pounding noise. I went in to check on him and was sitting up in his crib, grinning ear to ear and pounding on the side. When I put him in it last night, he looked so little being so far down, but he immediately tried pulling up on the side! Good thing we moved it down. He'll be pulling up at it in no time I'm afraid. He has also found his voice in the last few days, making this high pitched shriek. He's moving all over the place, getting himself into whatever he wants. Time to baby proof this house. He's still just the happiest little guy around. I have made a little baby food for him and he loves it too. He's had green beans and some chicken. I still feed him some of the jarred stuff as it travels well and gives him a little more variety. He likes his oatmeal in the morning then gets a vegetable and fruit for lunch and dinner. He is also using his sippy cup much better. He had his 6-month checkup for his eye last week. They checked his vision and everything appears normal with no lazy eye. He will go back in a year. We're thankful for that good news. It's hard to believe how fast this little guy is growing. And on Friday, I found another tooth had popped through on the bottom. That makes seven teeth total that are in or have at least broken the surface! He just seems to change more and more every day.

More of Little E

Can't seem to keep her from making this little cheese face, but isn't it cute?

Smellin' the roses...

Smellin the weeds...

Mackenzie had started school on Monday, but Emma didn't get to start until Wednesday. We had been talking about taking "first day of school" photos all week. (That's why E was in MJ's. She just wants to do everything big sis does.) So, when Wednesday came she was really ready for her school pictures. I had taken some of MJ smelling the roses. So, Emma wanted to smell the roses. Then, she saw that giant weed (ugh!) in our yard and well, she just had to smell that too. This girl cracks me up. She still talks really fast and I usually have to repeat back what I thought I've heard to make sure I get it, but she has a real zest and zeal for life. Everything is very exciting. She uses a ton of inflection in her voice. I'm going to miss her little voice as she grows up. But for now I'm just trying to hold onto this little three-year-old as long as I can. She's growing up so much!

I am gaining a much better appreciation for her and her personality. She has just been so much busier than MJ and into many more things. I can't really let her out of my sight or she finds something--chapstick, lipstick, sewing needles, bleach, the list goes on. But, I just take a look at her and those big blue eyes and adorable grin and just have to laugh.

E's first day of school

As promised (I already feel so behind), here are some photos from Emma's first day of school. She walked right in and put her backpack up on the hook and moved her name over to the "in school" side. She was ready to go. It was much different from this spring when I had to leave her crying every day. She has changed so much over the summer. Her speech has improved tremendously. She not only models and repeats about everything we say (we really have to watch what we say), she is expressing a ton of words and even sentences on her own. It is so neat to see her progress. She loves going to school and is disappointed when it isn't one of her days. She just goes two mornings a week. She always tells me, "I'm ready Mom!" whether it's her school day or not. She has to be at school by 8:15 (that means living by 7:45) so needless to say these photos were taken after she got home. She was so excited to show me the paper in her backpack. The first few days I took her to school and picked her up, but she is starting to ride the bus home. She rides with just preschoolers and Kindergarteners. The first day she did great. This week she'll ride home again. She looks so little climbing off the bus, but the driver said she did great. She said it was fun to ride the bus. She will still have pull-out time with the speech therapist during part of her school day too.

Some before school photos

Here are a few shots of Mackenzie before her first day of school. Can you tell someone else was excited about going to school? She was trying to share the spotlight. I told her she would have her turn, but she just couldn't seem to wait. :)

Go Broncos! Beat the Ducks!

Here's our little BSU fan getting ready for the big game tonight! Josh bought him his first Bronco hat.

Kindergarten

Monday was Mackenzie's first day of Kindergarten. I took her to school and we met her teacher and half her classmates. They split the class, having half come the first day and half the second. Wednesday they were all together. She got to eat a little snack and we took some photos with her friends, Madison and Hannah. Then we said our goodbyes and they went to class. She was very excited and had a great time. She came running off the bus after she got home. She'd already met some new friends on the ride home. She said her favorite part of the day was working in the art center. She had several papers to show us already. 

It wasn't as hard on me as I thought. I know she is going to have a great year. And while I am a little sad to see my little girl growing up, it is exciting to see her enter another chapter in her life. I always enjoyed school, and I hope she and the other two have a love of learning all their lives. It will be neat to see her meet new friends and progress throughout the year. 

*On Tuesday, our friends Sarah, Rylee, Tyler and baby girl Hayden stopped by to visit. It was great seeing them and catching up. The kids had fun playing together too. We don't see them as often as we'd like, but now the girls are in school (R's in 1st grade), maybe we'll see them more. 

**Wednesday was Emma's first day of preschool. Photos of her to come.