catch up

Whoops, well it appears the last time I blogged was in June! I'm not sure who actually reads my blog, but just in case you do I'll fill you in on the last 4 months! (This could be a long update....)

July was "play in the sprinklers month" it was nice and warm here and we all just loved it!

The 4th of July rolled around again and we spent some time at the carnival.

Jason and Katie being daredevils.

Jason and Evie going for a ride!

Liam on his "horsie" ride.

I attempted to take a picture of my parents with the kids after rides.....
But someone was having attitude issues.

On Sunday (the actual 4th) we had a BBQ at my folks and then went down to watch the fireworks!

In July we also had the chance to celebrate a friends birthday Ninja style!

Every woman needs a man who doesn't mind dressing up as a Ninja and letting little boys beat him up.....

In August, Katie attended her first summer camp! Sonlight Christian Camp is a local camp that's been here for 31 years! They had kids from as far away as Hawaii and Boston attend this summer. Needless to say Katie had a blast and is already asking when I can sign her up for next summer!

Just a few short days after camp Katie celebrated her 8th birthday! It was supposed to be a pool party, but on the morning of it was raining outside, so we moved it to our house. Luckily it cleared up by the middle of the party and we sent the kids outside to play and jump on the trampoline.

The big kids getting some air time on the tramp!

Liam getting his jump on too!

The day after the "party" was Katie's actual birthday and I took the kids to the pool. My parents met me there and we had a blast soaking up some sun and playing around!




After the pool we headed over to the salon and the girls got pink highlights in their hair and Lisa painted their nails for them!

The first day of school came just one short week after Katie's birthday. Katherine Ann is in 3rd grade this year and went from a class of 4 to a class of 28. It's been an adjustment. Evora Claire is in Kindergarten, attending only half days and is doing well.

In September we took a family picnic to William's Lake! Mom and dad hadn't been up there yet this year and wanted to go before the weather got too cold. The weather was beautiful, but the water temp was pretty chilly already! Though it didn't stop the kids from getting soaked!

In mid September it was time for Colorfest! Pagosa has a large group of balloonists that launch on this weekend and I've never had the chance to take pictures up close. So this year I dragged everyone out of bed early (promising them breakfast a local restaurant afterwards!) to go see the balloons up close. The kids ended up having a good time, even though it was kind of chilly and I got some great shots.

The local hot springs!

In September we happily celebrate Liam's birthday on the 16th and mine on the 20th. And once again we combined the 2. Liam was thrilled to get a belt, motorcycle and "electric" guitar (among other things) as presents! He also enjoyed the cake!

We finally made it to October! The fall season is upon us and I snapped these shots while we were having family pictures taken. October will bring it's own round of fun, including Evie's 6th birthday and Halloween. I promise that I won't wait another 4 months to post a blog about those things, I will attempt to get them on here in the same calendar month!


I now feel that I have properly caught you all up as to what's going on in our lives! Well, now that I think about it I've missed a couple of things, but maybe I will post about them all on their own.....

there's no place like home...

Larry the Cucumber ~ "I put an oven mitt on my head just because Veggie Beat magazine said it would make me cool. Even though I couldn't see. It, it didn't make me cool! It made me bump into a toaster and then fall into the sink! And now I can't get out, I'm gonna be stuck here forever and people are gonna set plates on my head! And I'm never gonna get to go to the circus, or run through the fresh cut grass, or feel the ocean breeze in my hair as I pilot my nimble schooner Felix off the coast of our family home in Kennebunkport!!! Oh Auntie Em! There's no place like home, there's no place like home! Click, click, click."

Jason came home on Thursday evening with the news he'd been offered a job. A good job that was looking to guarantee us 40 hours of work a week (even in the winter!) at a pay rate we couldn't argue with. Even a company car to use during business hours.

Where you ask?!?! Here. In Pagosa.

That's not the door I was expecting to open.

See, I was fully expecting God to move us away. I have been so open to it (Jason too.) Praying that we'd go where He wants us. Saying "no, I can't" (with peace) to all the various things that take up time. Thinking that God was preparing me to be able to leave. To not have any strings - other than the heart ones that would inevitably get tugged - to keep me tied down in Pagosa.

A scene from "Enchanted" comes to mind. Prince Edward of Andalusia is in New York looking for Giselle and he is trying to enter an apartment building. He wants to get inside. But he runs through a revolving door and instead of going halfway through, he goes all the way around and winds up back outside. Where he started. He eventually gets in after trying again.

We've been praying (knock, knock) that the Lord would open the door where He wished us to be. We've been wanting to walk through to the other side for 2 years. Turns out the door we've been knocking on is revolving.

*SIGH*

There are days I just don't understand God's plans. I wish that He provided us all with roadmaps of our lives. So we can see when the road is going to be bumpy or have a lot of sharp turns. Or when it's going to be smooth. Or when we're going to get a u-turn. I'd love to know where the pit stops are. Where the road blocks are going to bring us to a halt. Where the car is going to completely break down. I'd love to know the purpose of the journey - where the road is leading. Because some days it just feels like I'm driving down the street and my cool mini-cooper is making no visual impact on the pedestrians.

I thought the road was leading to Washington (or Phoenix.) But as we've "driven" through those areas, it's been deserted. We've not heard a thing.

God has given us what we asked for here. So we're staying. For now, this is home.

once a month cooking

So I was told about this web site called Once A Month Mom (onceamonthmom.com) that gets you cooking just once a month for your family! You can get a menu, grocery list, recipes, labels for your food and a list of what to do when, all from this gal on her site and it's free! So fabulous!

You're "supposed" to do it with a partner and then you split all the food you make. It's "supposed" to take 8-12 hours for 2 people to do all the cooking. Well, I decided to split the recipes in half and just do it by myself. It took me a little longer than 12 hours, but I split the shopping and cooking over 2 days and took my time. (I have a big group of friends who got together and split into teams, but I missed this months team list.)

I did change it up a bit from what was posted, because some of the recipes aren't things we usually eat, but mostly stuck to what I was given. And then some of the items that I purchased weren't as "high quality" as I had hoped- example: I was going to make the stuffed buffalo chicken, but my chicken breasts weren't so great, so I chopped it up and made enchiladas instead. The cost wasn't too bad and if you average it out over all the meals I got from it (39 total) it comes out to around $7.70 a meal. I think that next month I could do it for even less! I had to buy some spices and other things that I didn't have on hand and now that I do, I can cut that cost.

I also think that next month I will take advantage of the labels that are provided. I was out of ink and couldn't get any (sometimes I wish Pagosa wasn't so far from Office Depot...) so I just wrote my own labels.

Each meal is supposed to feed 4 ADULTS and I'm pretty excited about that! As Jason eats enough for two we'll see if there's is enough in each meal for him or if he winds up raiding the kitchen late at night because he's still hungry! But I'm not too worried because Katie and I don't eat a whole lot and Liam and Evie combined only eat about one adult size portion.

All in all, it was a really fun experience and I am looking forward to doing it again next month!

Here's what $300 worth of groceries looks like in the back of my car...

2 days and 20 hours of cooking, one cut finger and 2 sore feet later, I have 26 lunches/dinners and 13 breakfasts in my deep freezer! Yay me!

I've got: lemon chicken, tangy marinated steak, tomato basil burgers,

Italian flank steak pinwheels, a bag of spaghetti sauce...

...chicken pesto wraps, buffalo chicken wraps, chicken enchiladas,

spicy beef taco filling, black bean chicken salad, summer harvest soup...

...homemade strawberry pop tarts, cinnamon rolls w/ icing,

french toast sticks and fruity breakfast wraps!!!

6-19-10 Special Note:

Thank you Tricia for posting my blog under Saturday Stumbles on your web site! WOW! I feel honored! To those of you who have posted comments asking where I got the recipes, etc. ~ everything is from onceamonthmom.com under the Summer 2010 OAMM Menu. There is a list of what's on that menu posted below with notes as to what I did differently.

Blessings, Brynn

Breakfasts-

Fruity Breakfast Burritos (LOVE these!)

Harvest Cinnamon Rolls (WOW!)

Frozen Fruit Cups (I didn't make these. I added French Toast Sticks and Pop Tarts- both recipes from OAMM!)

Lunches-

Summer Harvest Soup

Grilled Chicken Pesto Wraps

Black Bean & Mango Chicken Salad (Jason doesn't do mango well, makes his mouth go numb, so I subbed in peaches.)

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Dinners-

Stuffed Buffalo Chicken (Lousy chicken breasts, so I chopped it up and made enchiladas (my own recipe.))

Lemon Chicken

Beef Potato Wraps (Didn't do these. Got a taquito recipe from OAMM, but then I had issues w/ my tortillas, so I bagged the meat and will use it for tacos.)

Sun Dried Tomato & Capers Pasta Sauce (Didn't do this either, I have another pasta sauce recipe I like, so since some sauce was required for the soup- I made a pot, used what I needed then froze the rest.)

Tangy Steak Marinade

Italian Flank Steak Pinwheels

Bacon and Blue Burgers (Didn't make these, I don't eat much red meat, so I just opted to not make them.)

Tomato Basil Hamburgers

1st haircut- by a professional

Well just the other day I attempted to give Liam a hair cut and it didn't go so well. I've been cutting his hair for 2 years, but this time around he wouldn't sit still and screamed the entire time. Needless to say, his hair came out looking pretty lopsided, so I asked a friend if she'd buzz his head for me (she does her own son's hair) but she suggested that I take him down to the barber and just have him trim it for me! So Jason and Liam had a guys morning, they went to the barber downtown and both of them got haircuts! I do miss Liam's "bowl cut" it made him look more like a "baby" - I get so sad when my babies turn into big kids. But it's a super cute cut and Jason said that he handled getting it done like a man! Only crying right at the very end when the barber asked him to put his head down so he could see his neck. Here's some pics from the monumental occasion of no longer having to sit through me cutting his hair. The girls wish they could be so lucky...