Operation Organization!

The other night as I was preparing for bed I noticed how messy my bedroom looked, laundry baskets full of unfolded clothes and baby clothes given to me that I haven't gone through yet. It doesn't help that I have my desk in my bedroom, and it is ALWAYS messy, no matter how hard I try to keep it clean. So, I said to my husband "We need to have an operation organization around this house". His response was "You fell down and broke what?" HA HA, that's ALWAYS his response when he "pretends" to not hear what I say. I know he secretly wants to be organized too and it drives him nuts with how much STUFF he has, and he says it's in his genes. If it "is" in the genes then Ian inherited this trait too, poor thing. I wish I could hire a professional to come organize for me. I know I would keep it up after it was all done, but the processes of getting there is going to be brutal. I get really excited when I see containers and fun cute things to organize in, and then I buy them and they just sit around collecting dust waiting to be used. Part of my problem has been mail, we get so much junk mail and I don't take the time to go through it right away and it moves from one counter to the other and then gets piled on my desk, so I have been taking the time to go through the mail daily and shredding papers and throwing things away, I guess that's one step closer to getting organized, but there are many things that I need to start working on as well. So, my goal this year is to get my WHOLE house organized room by room and have it stay that way. Wish me luck, because I REALLY REALLY need it!

Happy Birthday Ian!

We celebrated Ian's 9th birthday on Tuesday. After being out of school for a whole month, he was a little distraught about having to go back on his birthday, he soon realized that it wouldn't be so bad after all, because he would get to see his friends, take treats, and feel special all day. He had a friend birthday party last Saturday, our original plan was to go bowling but when we arrived they said that is was an hour and a half wait (at least), so we decided to go to a movie instead. Ian enjoyed spending time with his friends and pigging out on pizza and cake and ice cream.

Ian having a blast with his friends!

Ian's race car cake!

Ian had a sleepover with his best friend before his party on Saturday. We decided to go to the car show and they enjoyed getting into all the cool cars!

She has us wrapped around her little finger!

It's hard to believe that an 8 month old could have us wrapped around her little finger. She'll wake up in the middle of the night because she just wants to have me sing "You are My Sunshine" even though my voice is so tired and crackly. She'll play so well with her toys when we are in the room but the minute we walk out she'll throw a temper tantrum, she'll put her head on the floor, cry, and kick her legs. She even has her older brother wrapped around her little finger as well. It's amazing that babies learn these tricks so early on in life. How can someone not give into such beautiful baby girl? She is our sweetheart!

Cars Cars Cars!!!!

Do we have to stop by the toy department every time we go to Wal-Mart to look at hot wheels cars? Well, according to Ian the answer is "yes". He has money burning a hole in his pocket, and every cent he earns goes to by a new shiny car. No thanks to my husband who is also into collecting hot wheels and matchbox cars. I've put a halt to my husband buying anymore cars because he just brings them home and stashes them into a Rubbermaid tote. I figure if he's going to have a collection then he ought to build something to display his cars in. He hasn't listened to me and is continuing to buy cars. Ian's love for cars started about a year ago with the love of Mustangs. It escalated when he started asking Jeff questions about cars. This knowledge stuck to his brain. His love of cars escalated even more when in the springtime he and Jeff got tickets to the car races. On the way to the races they saw a Bugatti Veyron (a 1.7 million dollar car). I didn't even know what a Bugatti Veyron was until that day. At the races they also saw some Lamborghini's, Porches, and other expensive cars that I can't even name. He says his favorite car is the Lamborghini Reventon for $1.3 million. This kids got expensive taste! I hope his ambition of being a race car driver someday pays him these BIG$$$$$BUCKS$$$$$$ I keep thinking this is just a phase and he'll grow out of it soon, but with my husband feeding his brain with car knowledge, it's likely not going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, I'll just pretend to understand the lingo that's associated with cars and smile. If you'd like to take a look at Ian at the races you can go to our family website http://www.styrofoampeanuts.com/

Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of my newer favorite recipes. It's from Sandra Lee on the Food Network. I've made a few changes so here is my version of her recipe:

Filling: 2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 red potatoes diced

1 16 oz bag frozen veggies - corn, peas and green beans

2 chicken breasts diced - Sandra's recipe said cooked chicken, but I found it got

really dry putting it in cooked and then cooking it again in the oven.

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tsp. garlic powder

Place in a 9x13 baking dish and cover with foil - bake at 350* for 1 hour or until bubbly. Take out of oven and place refrigerated biscuits on top, brush with butter and sprinkle pepper on top of biscuits. Bake another 20 min. or until biscuits are golden brown.

Merry Christmas

We spent the weekend before Christmas in Wyoming visiting our families, and having a mini family reunion with my family. We had an adventure getting there. On Thursday evening we hit a BIG storm in Evanston with white-out and blizzardy conditons. We also learned that the mountain pass to get to Lander was closed, so we had to take the LONG way around. Our 5 hour trip ended up becoming a 9 hour trip. We feel so lucky to have made it safely, even though I was white knuckiling it most of the way. We had a good time visiting our families even though it was too short. It has been a few years since my family has had the chance to all get together.

We had a very quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We opened new Jammies on Christmas eve and watched "The Christmas Story" Lucky we didn't have a reenactment with Ian's new treasured BB gun!



Mogan is eyeballing the presents under the tree!

Morgan's LOVING her new baby doll!

Frontyard Sledding!!

So much to get done this month so little time left for blogging. Sorry to my dedicated readers for being a slacker. I've also had problems loading pictures on my blog. It ONLY took me about 20 tries to get this one picture uploaded. So FRUSTRATING!!!!




Last Saturday we received a GOOD amount of snow. Jeff and Ian decided to make a sled run in the front and back yard. They spent hours outside packing down the snow, testing the run and then spraying it with colored water to make it even faster. The sled run in the front yard is about 150' long and includes a jump. It continues to wind its way down toward the sidewalk and crosses the driveway behind our car and ends in a snowbank on the far side of the driveway.