Happy Birthday Kaylee!!

Kaylee turned 9 yesterday. I can hardly believe my first little baby is getting to be so grown up. We always make birthdays a big deal around our house. Usually birthday's end up being more like birthweekends. And Kaylee's birthday was no exception. On Friday night we had a big friends birthday party she invited 16 girls and I think all but one showed up. We had a very noisy house that night. Lots of laughing and screaming. She had a Valentine themed party. We decorated giant heart shaped sugar cookies, had a heart shaped pinata, and made heart shaped flowers for their hair. On Saturday we went to Chuck E Cheese with just the family. We spent about and hour there, about as long as the parents could stand. Sunday was here actual birthday, we didn't do too much except open presents and have her favorite thing for dinner, tortilla soup.

All the crazy girls at her birthday party!

Kaylee taking a whack at the pinata.

Tortilla Soup

(Kaylee's Favorite, and one of mine too because it is so easy)

1 family size can of Campbell's chicken and rice soup

1 can corn

1 can ranch style bean

1 can Rotel brand tomatoes Mexican style

2-3 chicken breast cooked and diced or shredded

Precook chicken, I like to cook a bunch of breast in my crock pot, shred the meat and store in cup proportions in my freezer for recipes like this one.

Then just dump all the cans into a big pot add one large can of water, add chicken and heat through. Top individual bowls of soup with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and a couple drops of Tabasco sauce if you like heat. I like to add tortilla chips to my bowl, but some people prefer to dip.

The perfect Fries

We decided to save a few bucks and make french fries instead of going out. I looked up how to cook french fries on the Internet, because I had heard there was a trick to getting them crispy and cooked all the way through. I tried it out, and it was a little more work, but the fries turned out perfect. I know a lot of my friends and family have gotten deep fryers recently, so I thought I would share the recipe here.

This is what you need:
Russet potatoes cut into 1/4 inch fries (with or without skins)
A large bowl with ice cold water in it
1-2 cookie sheets (depending on how many batches you make) line them with paper towels

First heat oil to 350
In the mean time cut your fries and throw them into the cold water as you are cutting them. The cold water keeps the fries from sticking together and ensures maximum crispness. Leave in water about 10 min, then take out a batch at a time, (aprox. 2-3 handfuls) dry and put in fryer.

blanch in oil at 350 for 3 min. When done, they will still be white and soggy, don't worry. Place on cookie sheet and put somewhere cold like the refrigerator or outside.

Repeat for all batches.

Now heat oil to 365. Take the first batch out of the refrigerator and fry again for 2-2 1/2 min. They should come out golden brown crispy and delicious. Repeat for all batches. Salt dip and enjoy!

New years resolutions

So I have been thinking over the last few weeks what I would like to accomplish this year and this is what I came up with:
1. Finish my spring cleaning, before spring is over. Last year I started in the spring and didn't get done till the end of summer. So this year I am going to start in January and hopefully it will get done before June.
2. Run a half marathon. This is a resolution I actually accomplished last year and it was actually a lot of fun. I would like to run a different one this year just to switch things up a bit.
3. To get my death in order. Okay, this last one takes some explanation. I just got done reading "Tuesday's with Morrie", over the Holidays. This book has some good basic life lessons from a man who is dying. One thing that jumped out at me was, when he talked about getting your death in order so that you can live. So, that is my new years resolution: to get my death in order, meaning: write a will, and write letters to my children and husband, you know just in case. Not that I think I am going to die or anything, but I have already gotten started by writing letters to each of my kids, and it really does ease your mind. Now I won't be sitting up in Heaven (hopefully) thinking, "I wish I could tell them them how much I love them."

Happy Holiday's 2009!

I've been trying to think of the best way to do this post, since I can't seem to get myself in the blogging mood, and I was really horrible about taking pictures over the Holidays. So, I decided to just take all the pictures I took over the holidays, even the random ones, and stick them in one big post and get it over with. So here goes......

One of Santa's elves always delivers our girls an early present on Christmas Eve. New Christmas Pajamas! The girls look cute posing in their pajamas. Sydnie has especially taken to the camera lately and any time she sees it, she begs me to take her picture by doing goofy smiles and saying "Cheese". Speaking of, here are a few more of Syndie posing for the camera....

In this one she got so excited she actually fell off the chair immediately after the picture was taken, it still turned out cute.

This one I took just before writing this post. When I got my camera out to upload Christmas pictures she insisted on posing with Brianne. This was one of about 10 shots she insisted I take of her.

Okay, now to Christmas morning. Boy did Santa spoil our girls this year! I don't remember them being that good. Maybe its Santa's way of saying they would be great girls, if they just had better parents. Ha Ha.

Brianne opening a new Christmas blanket. My girls love blankets. I find them everywhere when I am cleaning the house.

Sydnie with the hard to find Zhu Zhu pets. Santa looked everywhere and finally managed to find three just in time for Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised that they lived up to all the hype and my girls have had a lot of fun playing with them.

Fast forward to New Years Eve, I will fill in the rest later. We had a quiet new years eve this year. We decided to not make the long drive back to Idaho and just stay home. It was too late to make other plans so we just stayed home rented a movie and played Rock Band. The next day we went sledding with the girls, then today we went ice fishing (pictured above) I have to say we have had funner ice fishing trips than this one. It all started with Sydnie getting car sick on the way, and throwing up all over her clothes, luckily I had packed extras just for this very reason. Then, when we finally got to the ice fishing spot, Sydnie started crying and would not stop for the entire 2 hours we were there. NO not because she was cold but because she wanted to play in the icy water and I would not let her. We finally gave up after a couple hours of only one nibble. On the way back to our car we must have looked like a sorry sight, because a nice couple stopped and gave us a ride on their snow mobiles. Thank goodness!!! Then on the way home literally within eyesight of our house Sydnie carsick once again threw up. Well, that was just about how the day was going. Once we got home, Brianne(she is a die hard fisher woman) and Shaun decided to try the spot on our lake about five minutes from our house and caught a bunch of little fish, so I guess the day wasn't a total loss.

As for the rest of the Holidays.... We had fun doing favorite things theme on both sides of the family. It was fun to see what everybody's favorite things were. And I have had fun this week trying out some of of my brothers and sisters favorite things, as well as trying out some new recipes. So far, we have tried out Nancy's candy syrup recipe (a big hit, and I have had to talk them out of having waffles for dinner almost every night this week.) We also had, Hawaiian Haystacks (from Greg's favorite recipes), and Beef Stroganoff (from Laura's). I tried out a great cleaner for hard water that Laura gave me, and used a lime squeezer (that Natalie gave us), on a new recipe for white chicken chili. I have also enjoyed reading one of my brother Greg's favorite books "Tuesdays with Morrie". So far, so good, I look forward to trying all the rest of the fun things we got.

Of course I can't leave out one of my most favorite things about the family Christmas parties we attend: that is the fun things my Dad always makes for us. He is a very talented wood worker and always makes all the grand kids fun handmade wooden toys. This year Brianne and Kaylee got a barn complete with fence and hay bales. Sydnie got a cute pull toy with two silly looking guys teeter tottering back and forth when you pull it. Then the whole family got a handmade wooden Chinese checker board.

We had a great Holiday season this year. Thanks again for all the fun things we got from everyone. And to Josh and Jenny for letting us stay at their house and rock out to Rock Band till all hours of the night. We went home exhausted.

And You Thought Your December Shopping List Was Big....

We have a very busy December at our house. Not only do we have to shop for Christmas, we also have two birthdays to think about. Brianne's was yesterday, and today is Shaun's. Actually is some ways it is nice I usually get all of the shopping done then just decide later which is for Christmas and which is for birthdays. Kaylee's Birthday is in January so I usually get her birthday presents at the same time.

Happy Birthday Brianne.

Brianne was superstar of the week last week in Kindergarten. Her teacher asked me to come and share some special things about Brianne and read her favorite story. I brought pictures to help me show some of the things Brianne likes to do. I also brought a picture of her as a brand new baby, and told about how Brianne was suppose to be born in January, but decided to come 3 1/2 weeks early. We got to bring her home from the hospital on Christmas Eve, just in time for Christmas. She was our extra special Christmas present that year. I teared up when I was telling the kids this, and almost couldn't read the story I brought. Brianne continues to be our special Christmas present every year. We are lucky to have her in our family.

Brianne on her Birthday in the Hospital. This is the picture I shared with her class.

We had Friends Birthday party on Saturday. You might recognize the horse pinata from last year. Only last year it was painted purple and disguised as a unicorn. This year Brianne wanted a Christmas/Birthday party, so the horse got turned into a reindeer.

I thought this was a super cute picture of Brianne. The cake however was a disaster. Half of it didn't come out of the pan and I didn't have time to start over so I attempted to glue it back together with frosting. I was laughing so hard that tears started coming out of my eyes. Brianne wanted to know what was so funny. Luckily she didn't seem to notice that her cake was lopsided. And once the sprinkles and candy canes were on it, it didn't look so bad.

Brianne ready to hit the pinata.

All the kids going for the candy.

Brianne on her birthday. She decided to have donuts instead of a cake. After opening her presents (she got a razor scooter, new snow pants, pajamas with feet, and a jewelry box), we went to Kangaroo zoo.

Happy Birthday Shaun !!!

Shaun probably will wonder why I chose this picture to share. But I thought it was so cute of him and Sydnie. Sydnie really loves her daddy, and it shows in this picture. We are so lucky to have Shaun in our family. He is a great daddy and a hard working husband. We are so grateful for all he does for us. We love you. Happy Birthday Shaun.

Sledding with the Jacksons

It has been so nice to get a little snow and have the weather turn a little warmer. I was getting tired of the single digit temperatures we had last week. Nancy and her family came for the weekend and just in time it snowed several inches overnight and we had a perfect day of sledding on Saturday. We are so lucky to have a sledding hill just up the street from our house. It is big enough to get a good ride, but not so big that the little kids can't make it up by themselves. Even Sydnie dared to go down by herself this year, although one of us would have to run down the hill after her and carry her back up.

Hayden and Kaylee ready to have Nancy push them down the hill.

Brianne and Sydnie getting ready to go down on the tube. Brianne was a die hard. She would sled down walk up the hill and go right back down again. She must have gone down the hill at least 20 times.

After awhile everyone got tired of going up and down the hill and we stopped to make a snow fort.

Nancy snapped a few shots for our Christmas card. I decided to post it here just in case I don't manage to get cards mailed to everyone this year. They turned out good, but I was disappointed in the quality of the prints I got from Sam's club this year. It wasn't the photo. I checked the resolution on my computer. So it must have been something weird with the uploading or printing process. I am going to send them out anyway. Oh well at least I tried.

Later that night we made apples we made around 80 apples it was quite the production line. I think that is the most we have ever made at one time.

Reflections contest 2009. Beauty is...

The schools in Utah participate in the national PTA art competition called reflections. Each year the kids are given a theme to model their artwork around. This years theme was Beauty is....
Both Kaylee and Brianne did very well. They both won first place in three dimensional art for their school and got to go on to the district level for judging. They also won second place in the category of visual arts with their paintings of peacocks. They were in different age categories Brianne competed in age K-2nd and Kaylee was in the 3rd-5th grade group.
Then we were excited for Kaylee when we found out she had also won with her three dimensional art on the district level. She now gets to have her artwork judged on the regional level.
We are so proud of our two little artist. We have been blessed with two great artists in our family, and Sydnie is sure to be a third, she is already watching her sisters and working on her scribbles. But with two artist as parents they can't hardly help it.


Brianne and Kaylee posing with their trophies for the three dimensional art, they also won medals for their pictures.


Kaylee posing for the newspaper, with her plaque she won for her three dimensional art on the district level.


The girls with their winning artwork, and awards. Click on the picture to get a better view. They both won second place for their peacock paintings, on the school level. Brianne won first place for her hummingbird sculpture on the school level, and Kaylee won first place for her swan sculpture on both the school level and district level. Good luck to Kaylee! Keep your fingers crossed that she will win on the regional level.