Happy Birthday Jeff

Our very special Dad had a birthday this month. We were so happy that he was in Utah the night before so that we could do some surprise planning. The kids and I decorated the living room and bought him a cake and some presents. It was really a surprise because I told him he could get his new mountain bike for his birthday. He wasn't expecting anything else. He said that he was actually surprised. I think it was a first. He usually gets all present surprises out of me. Yeah we did it!
This looks like a wrestling match, but it is actually Jeff opening presents.

His lovely chocolate, chocolate cake. Jeff was really impressed with the flower on top.

Ryan decorated the presents in crepe paper. Ryan also bought dad a diet coke, 3 musketeers, and taped 85 cents to it. He did it with his own money.

The decorated living room.

Happy Birthday Jeff we love you so much!

Broken Nose and Braces

Normally I am not at all comfortable with posting a big picture of my self on our blog, but today is an exception. I convinced Jeff to take my braces off. He was a little hesitant because they weren't perfect yet. I was very happy with near perfect and wanted them off before we went to the AAO. So here is my new smile. My orthodontist rocks!

You might also notice that my title included something about a broken nose? Well I did break my nose on Monday at my adult tumbling class. I was doing a round off back hand spring on the trampline. It didn't go well and I fell back. I took the fall good, but my knee recoiled off the tramp and into my nose. Ouch! I heard a crack, felt the blood oozing out of the top of my nose, and felt the pain. It was mostly embarrasing, I had done the trick right about 10 times before that. I also get a little queesy around blood especially my own. After I got home and iced it for a few hours I felt fine. It is tender to the touch and I get headaches, but other than that I am doing great. I even played in my 2 soccer games this week and kept up with my running. It is too bad my nose is bruised and I have a nice scratch on the top.

Easter pictures

Kaylee on Easter Morning before church. This was the only good picture of her because she was crying or had teary eyes for the rest. We don't even know why she was upset that moring.

Here's my little cuties.

Taylor was staring into the house and I saw her reflection, I thought it was kind of a cool pic.

This was at the Easter Party that my mom threw for her grandkids. She bought the girls bonnetts and the boys a baseball cap. It was really fun and I am grateful she did this for us.

Easter egg hunt at Grandma Byington's house. It was also fun that Grandpa was in town for Easter.

Ryan and Trystan in their ball caps.

First video

I got a new flip video recorder and I am messing around to see how it all works. I thought I would try adding a video to my blog. Hope you enjoy. Just ignore the annoying voice on the video, I hate hearing my voice on videos.

The playset is finished!!

Jeff is pounding in the last few nails.
Ryan loves to roll stuff down the slide. Here he is rolling a bunch of golf balls.

Kaylee loves to swing. She is actually good at pumping herself, but she insists that she doesn't know how so that we will push her.

Here it is complete with rubber mulch. Now we are getting bids for a few more yard projects, is it ever going to end?

My 3 little happy cuties! This was before all the mulch was put down.

Hooray for Spring weather finally! We love the sun.

Recipes

I am finally posting the fruit tart recipe. I am also posting the recipe for Hamburger Helper Lasagna that I promised to post for my friend Leslie, sorry it took so long Les.

Hamburger Helper Lasagna soup

2 cans stewed tomatoes, cut up

5 cups water

1 lb. hamburger browned and drained

1 can corn undrained

Boil and cook for at least 20 minutes, sometimes the longer the better.

Add contents of Hamburger Helper Lasagna box (noodles and sauce) simmer until noodles are tender.

We love this recipe because 1. it is so easy 2. it takes only a few ingredients and 3. it is delicious.

Of course we always sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Also for those people like me that hate hmburger helper, this is not the same thing. It is a soup.

White Chocolate Fruit Tart (pictured in an earlier post)

¾ cup butter, softened
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
Filling:
10 oz. white chocolate chips, melted
¼ cup whipping cream
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 can pineapple chunks, undrained
1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
2 kiwi fruit, peeled and slices
Glaze:
3 T. sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch
½ tsp. lemon juice
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Gradually add flour; mix well. Press into an ungreased 11-in. tart pan or 12-in. pizza pan with sides. Bake at 300 for 25-30 min. or until lightly browned. Cool. In a mixing bowl, beat chips and cream. Add cream cheese and beat until smooth. Spread over crust. Chill for 30 minutes. Drain pineapple, reserving ½ cup juice, set juice aside. Arrange fruit over filling. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and reserved pineapple juice; bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 2 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Cool; brush over fruit. Chill 1 hour before serving. Store in the refrigerator. Yield 12-16 servings.

Taylor turned 2!

So our baby is 2! I can't believe how fast my kids grow. You would think that I would be used to it by now, but it still makes me sad.

Taylor is such a special girl in our home. She is Kaylee's best buddy. They play so well for hours on end. She is also Ryan's shadow. She loves to follow him around and he loves to help her do things. Sometimes when she is hurt she will ask for RyRy. Then he will help her feel better with a hug.

We celebrated a few days before her actual birthday on March 26th. We have to accomodate for the grandparents schedules. Taylor requested a Dora cake so I got her a Dora cupcake cake. She loved it and was so excited to look at it, and even more excited to eat it.

When we were opening presents every time she saw what it was she would shout, "Mine!" You can tell she has older siblings. It was so fun to celebrate a super special little spirit. I am so glad that the Lord blessed us with the kids that He did. They are perfect for us.

Rylee Gray (cousin) and sister Kaylee

Looking intently at Grandpa McMinn

This was about the 10th shot, she would not take her eyes off of the cake.

spring Break

So for Spring Break we decided to buy a playset for our kids and get it set up in the back yard. On The weekend before the break we got started. Friday night Jeff and I worked and got as much put together as we could in the garage. Jeff decided that he would keep his truck outside for the week while we worked on the playset.

Here is one of the 5 bags of screws, washers, nuts, ect.

Here are the pieces that still need to be assembled when the structure is taken outside.

Here is the spot we chose to put the playset, we rented a sod cutter, cut the sod and then hauled the sod away. It was a lot of work and took up most of our time on Saturday.

This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning. We were frustrated, but knew that we had all week to work on it. Surely we would have a few good days.

So this was later in the week. If I went out and took a picture today it would look much the same. Jeff is still having to park his truck outside, and I have to look out my window every day at the area where we are someday going to put our playset. My goal is to have it done by the first part of May when we go to the AAO meeting. We will see if we ever get a few nice days to let the ground thaw so that we can finish what we started. It was a very frustrating Spring break for me.