Menu for the week:

Monday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Tuesday: Hot Dogs, French Fries, and Applesauce

Wednesday: Cashew Pork over Rice

Thursday: Dutch Babies...aka Puff Pancake...aka German Pancakes

Friday: Pizza Night

Saturday:

Sunday: BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Flashback Friday

My Grandma Lalah...Isn't she pretty! She is a concert pianist and an extremely gifted organist. Whenever I have musical questions, she is who I call. She is also probably the funniest person I know! Ask either of my sisters and I think they'll agree. Todd and I always comment on how we hope we can be half as spritely as her when we are in our 80's.

My Grandpa Jim. He went to medical school in the Navy and is looking so handsome in his uniform. He is extremely smart...a trait he passed on to my mom and I wish would have passed down to me! :) He is our resident James Dean look-alike. One Friday I'll have to post pictures of Grandpa where he looks like the rebel James.

Grandma Lalah and Grandpa Jim...two of my very favorite people!!!

Our Talkin' Girlie

In true girlie fashion, Ava is a complete chatterbox! We love listening to her baby sounds.



If you look closely at the background, you will see Tanner in his element. That child NEVER stops moving!!! :)

One More Thing

I forgot to mention that we also have a small camping stove and some fuel cannisters so that we can heat up the water to cook our food. That is a must! Also you will need some mess kits and a camping pot. :)

72-hour Kits

I have finally finished our 72-hour kits. It took quite a while, but it feels so good to have them complete! Just in time for tornado season :) I did a lot of research this year and here is the end result:

Everything that could get wet I put into ziplock baggies...and I do mean everything! We each have a full change of clothes: pants, t-shirt, fleece, jeans, pj's, socks, underwear, diapers/wipes warm hats, and shoes. The shoes actually didn't fit into the packs, so we ended up stringing them to the outside.

Every year I throw out so much food when I go to update our packs, so this year I decided to go a different approach. Simplify! We each have a ziplock full of our food: oatmeal packets for each breakfast, ramen for each lunch, fruit leathers, peanut butter crackers, granola bars, cookies, hot chocolate, trail mix, and crystal light packets. For our dinners I purchased some dehydrated camping dinners. We have Beef Stew, Scrambled Eggs with Bacon, and Lasagna with Meat Sauce. I love these because they are super light weight AND they won't go bad for a long time.

Water is a big issue with 72-hour kits. It is super heavy and you need so much of it! So, we each have an empty Nalgene bottle strapped to the outside of our packs. We also each have a couple of water bottles in our packs. For the bulk of our water however, we have a super-duper camping water filter AND some water purification drops. Both are small and light weight.

Here are some of the things we have inside our packs: A first aid kit, all kinds of medicine, rain ponchos, emergency blankets, sunscreen, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, small Tide packs for washing clothes, big black garbage bags, toothpaste/brushes/floss, small shampoos/deodorants/lotions, extra glasses, eye drops, tissues, flashlights/batteries, matches, money...and I can't think of what else. We have about $100 in our packs right now, all in small bills. I would like to get $200 eventually. We also have several quarters, dimes and nickles.

Here are our packs. I purchased small packs for the boys. They each have their own food bag, a water bottle, and a bag of their clothes in their pack. I also put a book for us all to read, "James and the Giant Peach" and a pack of UNO cards.

We have backpacking packs for Todd and I to carry. We got one at Costco and one at a yard sale. They each have a sleeping bag attached to them. Todd's also has a camping axe attached to the outside of his.

The one thing that I am missing that I am going to put into our packs is a laminated, current family photo with our names and extended family names and numbers on the back.

More Adventures in Tanner-Land

Tanner, Tanner, Tanner...Arrgghh, Tanner. What else can I say?

For all of his "stinker-ness", he is one sweet boy. We sure love this kid!

Menu for the Week

Here's my menu for the week:

Sunday: BBQ Chicken, Asparagus, Pasta, Orange Rolls

Monday: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Tuesday: Chicken Nuggets, French Fries, Peas/Applesauce

Wednesday: Manicotti and Cheesy Garlic Bread Swirls

Thursday: Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and Spanish Rice

Friday: Pizza Night

This week's culinary explorations are a bit juvenile, but hey, that just means my kids will actually EAT what I make for dinner. :) Plus, who doesn't love some yummy chicken nuggets and french fries dipped in "special sauce"?

Sara's Special Sauce:

1/4 cup Mayonnaise--Light or fat free works great

BBQ Sauce-I've never measured, but it's probably about 2 TBSP

Ketchup-a little less than the BBQ sauce...maybe 1 1/2 TBSP

Mix em up and enjoy. It tastes a lot like Training Table's "Ultimate Dipping Sauce"

Flashback Friday

Today I am flashing back ALL the way to...this past Sunday :) My mom came to visit over the long weekend, It was so much fun. We went grocery shopping; we went to the Fork and Screen showing of Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief; we went grocery shopping; we went shopping at Marshalls; we went grocery shopping...again; we watched 17-Again; and we watched plenty of Olympic events...including the Koreans taking themselves out of the race during speed skating short track, paving the way for Ohno and Celski to win silver and bronze. Loved it!!!

The weekend was so fun, but way too short! Next time Mom, you need to follow Riley's instructions and stay for "100-thousand, 8-trillion, 20-200, MILLION days" ;)

Unfortunately any picture we tried to take with Tanner in it ended up like this one. Eventually we kicked Tanner out for insubordination. Sorry Tans, we tried.

Carrots Anyone?

Little Ava has started eating solids...she was going through so much formula that we were on the verge of bankruptcy, so solids it was! :) Can I just tell you that she loves to eat!!! She loves it so much that it is almost impossible to actually get the food into her little mouth. She gets so excited when she sees that spoon coming that she flails her arms and jerks her head. Well, with my target moving around at warp speed, this is what happens.

Don't you just love it!

Flashback Friday

I think my babies look a little bit like this. This is my dad when he was little. The year...1946!

Menu...For Those Who Care

Thank you for your ideas...they all sounded really good! This week I'm thinking the cheesy soup sounds good...but next week I am going to try the Zupa Toscana knock-off. Yum! Here is what I have come up with for this week:

Monday...we had scrambled eggs and toast :)
Tuesday: piano lessons tonight...so it will most likely be cereal since I didn't do the whole crock pot thing this morning.
Wednesday: Cashew Chicken over rice
Thursday: Linell's Cheesy Soup with Rolls
Friday: My mom is coming in to town...so we might splurge and go out
Saturday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches with cole slaw and chips
Sunday: Roast with rolls, potatoes, and carrots

I'll post my recipe for roast when I can get some pictures...I have been working on this for years and, after MANY failures, have finally perfected it! Get excited. :)

Menu Planning Monday...Send Help!

Okay, I've been sitting here, racking my brain to come up with a menu this week. I must be PMS'ing because NOTHING sounds good. Blech! So, please give me some ideas...pretty please...with a cherry on top. :) It is pretty frigid here with lots of snow and ice...just like my friends/family out East, but not quite as much snow...so I'm thinking soup would be a good thing to have. Anyone have a yummy soup recipe? Help?!?!?!

Quotable Quotes

Yesterday evening Riley was playing around with Ava's face...you know, pushing her cheeks together and such. She was getting a little upset so I told him to please stop. He then says,

"Mom, I'm going to push Ava's cheeks and I want you to ignore me. Okay?"

Clever Riley, but no.

Flashback Friday 1997-1999

Todd went to El Salvador on his mission. Ocean, jungle, Mayan Ruins, humidity, bugs, coffee fields, volcanoes...sounds like paradise! He said that on P-Days the only thing to do was hike up the volcanoes. He talks of having to hitchhike everywhere they went, avoiding the dangerous coffee fields, the river that changed colors every day, sleeping under mosquito netting and eating lots and lots of beans :)

Don't tell Todd that I told you this, but in almost EVERY picture of his from his mission he is giving the thumbs up sign. It is pretty comical. Shhhh... :)

The Exibitionist In Action

View from my kitchen...gotta love it! :)

Menu Planning "Monday"

Okay, so have you ever spent your grocery money on things other than groceries? Well I have. This was one of those "spend your money on other things" weeks. I think I've mentioned before that tornado season is fast approaching, so this week I spent my money on our 72-hour kits. I have had one made every single year since moving to Kansas, but they have all been completely lacking. Every time I go to update our packs I think, "What on earth were you thinking Sara...these packs stink!" So THIS is my year to get it right...and my grocery budget has suffered the consequences. :) My menu this week will consist of whatever I have in my pantry/freezer. It won't be too exciting, but if I don't write it down, I'll never remember :)

Monday: Potato Soup...which I had on the menu for last week, but didn't actually make it.

Tuesday: French Toast

Wednesday: Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

Thursday: Pizza...this time the home made variety

Friday: Leftovers/Cereal

Saturday: Quesadillas

Sunday: Spaghetti and Breadsticks