Saturday, August 25, 2012

a coin, or not a coin

our baby girl had her first foreign object experience this week
luckily it looked like the circumstantial evidence that she swallowed a coin, was in fact, proven to be false.
but we checked diapers and went to the doctor anyways.
the picture I really wanted to post I couldn't take, because it was in the x-ray room but here she is exploring the exam room:



don't worry, there was no coin, and she did great.
but, it certainly feels like a right of passage!

Monday, August 13, 2012

vegetables of my labor

I love having fresh veggies to harvest from my garden!





Sunday, July 22, 2012

A whole new deck... almost!

we finally got the deck refinished!






Thursday, July 5, 2012

garage organization mania

Being the poor "before and after" photographer that I am, I don't have a good before picture. Suffice it to say the garage was unorganized and the shelves were these "custom" (I use the word loosely) wooden shelves that were starting to fall apart and were over all not effective.

We decided some good shelves that we could take with us when we move was a good decision, so with the help of my dad and the fine associates at Sams Club I got 2 "muscle rack" shelving units.

I pulled everyone off (which I also did not get a good picture of everything on the garage floor waiting to be reorganized onto the new shelves) and demo'd the old shelves (very gratifying and hopefully calorie burning).

After installing the new shelves, I set about to reorganizing and throwing away. By far, the biggest contribution to the "trash" (really the hazardous materials waste dept) was OLD paint cans left from previous owner(s),

I also finally hung our extra bike from the ceiling and reorganized the way the tools were hanging. It's amazing, if I do say so myself.

To top it all off I (of course) swept thoroughly.

One of the best surprises was the discovery of the only wall outlet in the garage!!! I thought there were none! (there are some outlets on the ceiling where the garage door openers are but that is not user friendly for plugging in chargers, extension cords, etc.). So now I have a hand dandy power strip plugged in and affixed to one of the shelf's poles and have set up a pretty sweet charging area and it also provides easy access for plugging in extension cords and power tools.

Little N and Athena supervised.




we don't need no stinkin' play pen!







Out of the Ashes we will rise

One of the many fundraisers that our community has banded together to arrange are these:
http://www.wildfiretees.com/
It is a group of Colorado small business owners who banded together to create these T shirts and a web site to raise money for the Red Cross, Colorado Wildlife Relief Fund, and other organizations helping all the people who are adversely affected by the wildfires in Colorado. So, for $20 you get a sweet T-shirt and donate to a good cause :]

You can also donate to any of the following organizations:
Red Cross
Pikes Peak United Way
Care and Share





Image of C Fire - Austin Buck - Our popular signature tee!





Sunday, July 1, 2012

2012 Garden

I got off my butt and got my garden going... with a lot of help from my mom who is here many day with Naomi. She helped to turn the garden over and put my compost in so all I had to do was plant. Have I mentioned lately how much of a blessing she is to our family?
So here it is:

so far the radish crop was a bust (maybe because of the record highs?) but the I have harvested 2 set of lettuce which are delicious! the potatos are by far doing the best, and I added 3 blackberry bushes in the back for Tony. Here's hoping for a great crop (even though things are starting up slowly!)

The State is on Fire

If you haven't noticed, CO is on fire. So far at least 500+ people have lost their homes that I know of. We had quite the scare here in colorado springs during last week, and thankfully all of our family's homes are safe, but we lost about 350 homes. I have been strengthened by the trust in God I have seen and the community banding that has occured. I am even more grateful for all our public service members, Firefighters, Police, forest service, city office people, sherrif's department, and of course the CO National Guard where Tony is currently serving to help keep the roads that are closed, well closed, and to prevent any bad people from entering those closed areas to make a bad situation worse for a family (who are these people that think "hey, that community is evacuated, let's go steal their stuff" they must be really desperate or really crazy). We increased our household population by 5 humans and 1 dog on Tuesday, but by the weekend they were all able to go home. In the meantime, a fire in Estes Park threatened our grandparent's house, and burned 20 homes, and the high park fire- largest in colorado history- continued to burn. Today, the Waldo Canyon Fire is at 55% containment with only 1000 people still evacuated (down from 30,000+), and the High Park Fire is at 100% containment, and no one we know has lost their homes. WE ARE SO THANKFUL. God is so good and I know He will use this tragedy to bring us all together and will show His hand in all of this. We continue to pray for rain and guidance and peace over those who have lost their homes.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

7 months and growing

Our baby girl's 7th month April 18-May 18



Saturday, April 21, 2012

First Easter

4/8/12







Sunday, March 18, 2012

6 months!/26 weeks

3/18/12








25 weeks

3/11/12







24 weeks

 3/4/12





Sunday, February 26, 2012

braised pork and sweet onions

One of Tony's favorite dishes, you can do it in either the crock pot or pressure cooker. I think it turns out best in the crock pot so here is my recipe

Ingredients

1)      Pork shoulder or loin roughly diced up
2)      Sweet onions, halved then cut into strips lengthwise
3)      Soy sauce
4)      Sugar



-          Prepare pork and sweet onions the night before. Make the mix about 70%pork, 30% onions, however much will fit into your slow cooker

-          In the morning, place the pork and onions into the crock pot. Drizzle a couple tablespoons of soy sauce over them (I just guess, a couple times around the pot is fine) and sprinkle a couple tablespoons of sugar on top

-          Cover and cook for several hours. 5-6 hours on HIGH, 7-8 hours on LOW should yield a very tender dish

-          It’s as easy as that! I serve it over rice, but it’s great over egg noodles as well.

23 weeks

2/26/12







22 weeks

2/19/12