December passed and now almost January!

Wow! How time passes so quickly! December went by in a whirlwind.  My little etsy shop went wild and we received almost 200 orders in that month which is about 3 times more than normal so my sister and I were very busy sewing and have been well into this month and have about FINALLY got caught up!! Our Christmas was great and the kids loved every minute of it.  They were spoiled and we all had a lot of fun.  Right after Christmas, Jake's brother, Nate and their family came to stay for a week.  It was a lot of fun and we were sad to see our California cousins go back home.  After they left, then my sister Emily and her family came to stay for a week.  We played hard and also while they were here, everyone sadly got the flu bug! Booo!!! But we managed to get over it and went back to playing hard.  The kids loved the break and having no set schedule so it was hard to get them back into the groove of things in January.  But we are all now back onto a schedule and so it's all good.  Jake also started working full time for the contract job he had and is still trying to get his business funded and running.  We are crossing our fingers and saying lots of prayers that it will work out:)

Visited Ice Castles with cousins (Kids loved it)

E loving his train set and table that he got for Christmas!

Lots and lots of sledding the last two months in our backyard! E was so brave and would even go zooming down the hill by himself! Crazy little man!

The Looming craze has entered our house! Sammy got a set for Christmas and everyone has gotten hooked including myself and Maddie!

We have now upgraded to making animals including the latest-a pony!

E climbing everywhere! Clever boy! He told me he fed my sister's fish and I didn't believe it.  Then I found him doing this and yes, feeding the fish again.  Same day.

These guys have been little buddies lately.  Playing and watching movies together.

Tried out a new hair color thanks to my awesome sister Emily, who did a fabulous job.  Me and E before Church!

HELLO AGAIN

So it's been awhile that I have posted, okay 15 months in fact.  But I am back and ready to blog again.  My kids are now 15 months bigger and I can't believe how the time flies by.  They are getting so big!!!

Here is Sam J, she just lost another bottom tooth last week.  Luckily it got loose biting into a chocolate Crunch bar thanks to Halloween!  She was very excited to have her dad pulled it out and would barely let me wiggle it.  She was excited to get $2 from the tooth fairy (the prices have gone up!! I think I got 25 cents!!)

Maddie almost 5 and being her usual busy self.  Last Saturday was spent creating unicorn attire and her older sister helped with that:)

And last but not least, my favorite little boy E man!  I know he doesn't look too excited for church, but he is a very happy and fun little boy.  He pretty much just potty trained himself and so we call him the rockstar!!!  He is also wearing a cute tie that I learned how to make a few weeks ago:)

Ooh and he was the cutest little Jake and the Neverland pirate for Halloween! Love that boy!!!

Amid all this, Jake has had a job change and is working on getting his own company up and going while doing contract work for another small company.  He is also been finishing our basement and which we are trying to get done before Christmas and company comes!!! I have been busy with a small etsy shop selling camera bags with my sister and busy with the little ones!!!  Life is fun and exciting.  Oh and we got a puppy too.  Her name is Bella and the girls call her also little sister.  She is loved by all (except Jake when she has accidents:)  So that's our life in a nutshell right now!!!

AMAZING ALFREDO

So tonight I made a recipe that my sisters have both been raving about and that it tastes as good as Olive Garden's alfredo.  We LOVED it!! It definitely met up to the high expectations that everyone had been talking about!!

Amazing Alfredo by Missy Hendricks

10 ounces of pasta
1/2 c. butter
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 c. heavy cream (I actually used a little more to make it not so thick)
1 egg yolk
2 c. fresh parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. pepper

Cook pasta with 1 Tbsp. olive oil until noodles are soft.  In large skillet, melt butter and then add garlic.  Cook on low 5 minutes.
In small bowl mix 1/4 c. cream and egg yolk.  Beat and set aside. 
Pour remaining cream into pan with butter and garlic.  Increase heat to med high and whisk.  When cream starts to boil, slowly add cream egg mixture.  You don't want egg to curdle so keep mixing.  Mix until blended.
Add pepper, parsley, and cheese and mix until smooth (this is when I added a little more cream).
Serve over pasta and enjoy!!!

I also tried these breadsticks with it and they were very EASY to make and delicious also!!!

Quick Soft Breadsticks from food.com

1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup oil
3 cups bread flour (I used regular old flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Directions:

1 Make dough using your favorite method- bread machine, mixer or by hand.

2 Roll out into a 10x12 inch rectangle.

3 Cut into strips about 3/4 inch wide.

4 Give each strip a twist and place on a greased cookie sheet.

5 Let rise for at least 20 minutes or more if you have time.

6 Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes.

7 Brush with butter and sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan cheese.

July 2012

July 2012

4th of July and Ethan's birthday!

We kind of celebrated these two days together.  We met up with my family at Thanksgiving Point on the night of the 4th to watch the fireworks and celebrated Ethan's birthday too!  He got a cool car ramp and cars and outfits from Grandma and Grandpa Cookie.  The Hendricks gave him a cool light saber that he loves.  We gave him a cool little stand up toy with balls and music.  Everyone bought the kids cool light up toys that they loved playing with as it got dark.  The all enjoyed the fireworks and even little E didn't mind.  It was a fun night!

E is officially 1 years old!! Love this little guy so much!!

Duck Park and Em, Wes, & Hailey visiting

Do you love her little duck lips? So cute!!

 These two are so stinking cute! I love that they are only 6 weeks apart and how they even make the same silly faces! They also like to copy each other doing things which is so funny!

Krissy and I went to Mall of America with my parents (and just so you know Jake was invited to come but he said he was too busy with work!!).  We had an awesome trip!! It was such a blast shopping for 5 days in a row in a awesome mall.  And yes, we did do other things too!! Thanks so much for Mom and Dad for taking us and giving us LOTS of money to spend!! We had such a great time!!!

 Some money for shopping! Yahoo!

 Mom & Dad trying to get excited!

 Awesomeness!

 Our kids loved this!

 We even talked Dad into getting pedis! Our feet actually hurt from shopping and walking so much!

 House of Mirrors-a maze with mirrors everywhere.  Very fun and yes we did get lost at times!

 Cool shirts that Mom and Dad bought us-Krissy wore hers every day (no joke!)

 We went here one night from 5-10! It was a blast and they had some really fun rides!!

 You can see a bunch of the floors here in the mall!

 Me and Krissy had our own room.  This was our food cupboard.

 This was Mom and Dads.  See a difference?

 We went to the Sea Life Aquarium which was really cool!

 Even Mom went on some rides until it made her sick:(

 Notice the pink MOA shirt again?

 Our hotel had a waterpark which we went to one day and a morning.  We did the wave flow rider which we got some videos of.  Very fun!

 A lego Woody!

 We made it over to the St Paul Minnesota temple.  It was small but still very pretty!

Mom and Dad made it over to a baseball game and Krissy and I stayed back and shopped (surprising I know!)