First Day of School

Julia and Rachel are heading to jr. high. Julia into 9th grade and Rachel into 7th. Grace and Tessa are off to 4th and 2nd grade. Jack starts preschool next week but really wanted his picture included.

Happy Birthday Pirate!!

Jack loves pirates. I decided to take on a pirate themed party for his 3rd birthday. The whole boy theme party is a little new to me ... it was usually princess dress-up tea parties. Jack invited his best buddies, Jack ("other Jack"), Dallas and his cousin JJ. I think everyone had a great time. The boys all dressed up like pirates and Rachel took them all over looking for their buried treasure.

Potty Training ... Uhg!

I'm new to this potty training a boy thing and it's been quite an experience. He is just fascinated by his sudden control of something that can greatly upset his mother. It is constantly on his mind. Every time he passes something with a hole or a cup or an opening a light goes off in his head and he says to himself, "I'm going to pee in that!". The girls were all trained at about 2 1/2 without too much of a problem. I was going to wait until Jack was a little older and more bribeable until I tackled this but he was starting to take off his diaper and mark his territory in his sisters' bedrooms. Then he'd go and announce to them, "I just peed in your room.".

It has had it's ups and downs but I think he's come a long ways. Every week I think about where we were last week at this time and we are making progress.
We are finally able to leave the house and run errands without accident as long as we make bathroom stops every hour or so. Yay!!
You gotta stay warm and cozy. Tessa's jacket is perfect!

Jack the Superhero

Jack likes to dress up like spiderman at random times. Last time he decided he could fly and so John grabbed the camera to capture our little superhero...

Creating Couch Pillows

Whenever my mom comes to visit we take on a project. Usually it is painting or redecorating a room. This time I needed new pillows for my couch so we decided to get creative. She put the whole tutorial on her blog. I will just post a few pics since it was so much FUN!

January Birthdays

Julia and Rachel are the January birthday girls in our family.

Julia turned 14 and thinks she is HOT STUFF. She is very helpful and smart.

Rachel turned 12 and is excited to be a young woman now.
She is a beautiful girl and has a great sense of humor.

Spicy Mango Shrimp

Guess what ... I'm going to BLOG again! I have been feeling really guilty because the kids love to go through and look at old pics on the blog. I have totally lost a year of our lives on here but I have decided to be better now. I'm going to start with a recipe because - well ... I love recipes. Here's what I made last night and it was a hit with the everyone. Super quick and easy too. I saw this on the cover of a magazine at the checkout the other day and I had to get out of line to read it and gather the ingredients so I could go home and make it. I doubled it to feed our family of 7 and had a little leftover for lunch.

SPICY MANGO SHRIMP
(adapted from the Sunset Cookbook magazine)

3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tsp red pepper flakes (I used less)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
3/4 lb medium shrimp
(peeled and deveined)
1 cup frozen mango (thawed)
1/4 cup toasted coconut

1. Heat oil in large frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook, stirring until golden brown, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, lime juice and shrimp. Cook, stirring often until shrimp turns pink (3-5 min).
2. Add mango and cilantro and cook until warm.
3. Serve over rice and sprinkle with toasted coconut. (to toast the coconut bake at 325 degrees for about 6 minutes)