Superbowl munchies

We had our parents (some of them) over for the Superbowl yesterday.  I decided to make homemade sweet and sour meatballs - super yum.  And these:  (remember I'm a sweets junkie)

They were truly heavenly and super easy to make.  Here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/11/no-bake-oreo-truffles.html

I'll definitely be making these on a regular basis.

New Year! New You!

In an attempt to follow through on my New Year's Resolutions (aka NYR's) I'm making an attempt to start posting on my blog again. 

First, I usually don't make NYR's, but for some reason I did this year.

Two, I think my NYR's are pretty attainable, hence the reason I made them.

And three, well there's no three.  I've just been reading many other blogs lately and they have all motivated me to document our life again.

One of my NYR's is to provide more wholesome meals for my family - more meals made from whole foods and from scratch as much as possible.  Although anyone who knows me knows how much I love sweets so I've got to include those too.  I'm a bit of a novice foodie and love to try new recipes as well so why not make my meals more healthy too, right?

The other night I made a fantastic-ly good, and easy recipe I found on my Whole Foods app.  Even my kids liked it.  Can't say they loved it, like I did, but they did eat some of their veggies - double plus.  Of course in typical fashion I do not have a picture of this dish.  Maybe some day I'll post pictures of my dishes to this blog.

Asparagus and Portobello Farfalle



Serves 4

This pasta dish is light, yet satisfying. The liquid from the cooked portobello mushrooms adds a rich flavor to the pasta and goes well with the crisp spring asparagus.



Ingredients

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups sliced portobello mushrooms

1/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth

3/4 pound (dry) farfalle (bowtie) pasta

1 bunch asparagus

1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

Ground black pepper

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts



Method

Heat olive oil in a saute pan and cook garlic and sliced mushrooms over medium-low heat until mushrooms are tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Set aside.



Cook pasta according to package directions.



Trim asparagus, cutting off the woody stems and steam just until tender. Drain and cut on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces. Toss hot drained pasta with the mushrooms, asparagus, goat cheese and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.

Give it a try.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

A day in the life of Curren the Terrible!

This post is dedicated to all things Curren,  little devil child.  (But one only a mother could love!)  He's in the throws of the terrible twos!  UGH, Double UGH and Screaming UGH!

Yesterday morning, I got him out of bed and dressed then told him to head downstairs to play with his brothers while I changed into my workout clothes.  I found him standing by our fireplace with a large bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal.  He had pulled the cereal out of the pantry, carried the box along with the step stool over to the cabinet where his bowls are stored.  (Thank heavens he can't reach the milk!)

About a half hour after breakfast I found him with a granola bar.  He once again got into our pantry grabbed a granola bar and grabbed some child scissors from the "craft" cabinet and opened the packaging.

Note to self:  Must buy lock for pantry door.

Later that morning we headed to Kohl's so I could buy Aidan some new church shoes.  We walked in and I proceeded to grab one of their shopping carts that have the child seat attached, but the first one I grabbed happened to have two seats.  Since neither Kellen or Aidan need to sit in one of the seats I started to grab a single cart.  However, Curren had other plans and wanted Kellen to sit in the two-seater with him and when I said no he started SCREAMING at the top of his lungs.

Like a good conscientious mother that I am grabbed him kicking and screaming and walked out of the store until he calmed down.  A few minutes later we headed back in the store and I decided to let him run around the store like a wild banshee.

It's now getting close to lunchtime and I still need to go grocery shopping so I decided to take the kids to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  They happened to have balloons for the kids and of course Curren is more concerned with where his balloon is stored for safety than eating lunch.  And then once I finally get him eating he remembers there is a child's play section and jumps down from his chair and walks over to the entrance of the playroom.  Thankfully Kellen was about done with lunch and took Curren in there with him.

Being the kind mom that I am, I let them play in the playroom for a little while, but Curren for the first time has figured out how to actually climb the climbing contraption that they have and is now at the top of the play structure refusing to come down and is of course afraid of the slide.  Thank heavens for older brothers because Aidan climbed to the top and pulled Curren down from the structure.  While I'm at the bottom bribing him with ice cream.  (I was not planning on buying them ice cream, but now must because I'm an honest mom as well.)

We now finally head over to the grocery store where Curren loves to ride in those obnoxiously HUGE kid-friendly shopping carts.  However, like a typical obnoxious 2 year old wants to get out of the cart halfway through my shopping and insists on helping me pull the cart.  I'm thankful for his help, but I proceed to practically run him over several times.  At least there was no screaming involved.

Later, after naptime we go outside to play with our neighborhood friends.  He really loves playing with the boys his age, but like a typical 2 year old doesn't enjoy sharing and always wants what his friends are playing with.  We have a few screaming fits that afternoon as well.

That evening I gave Curren and Kellen a bath.  While I changed into my pj's Curren decided to dump water out of the tub.  Fun times!

We had donuts for our FHE treat.  It was a 2 donut night for me.

Love the kid, but the terrible twos, threes and fours are not my fav!

Leprechauns have foiled us again!

Well we tried, but the leprechauns escaped their trap and wreaked havoc on our house.

The leprechaun trap Aidan made.  (Kellen made the rainbow.)  It was a great trap, but those leprechauns are pretty slick and got away.  They even took the coins we put in the trap to entice them.

It looks like Chula got in a tousle with one of the leprechauns.  They also overturned our couch pillows and scattered paper and placemats all over the downstairs great room.

We'll get them next year!

Green belt

A couple of weeks ago Aidan tested for his green belt in martial arts.  He was really excited and also a little nervous to test, but he did great and was presented with his green belt at the following class.

Way to go Aidan!!!

We're your Backyardigans!

Yep, that's right the older boys love the Backyardigans almost as much as little Curren.  And I have a picture to prove it!

Cabo San Lucas...yes again!

Last week we took the kids (and my mom and step-dad) back to Cabo San Lucas, MX.  We just love it there and since we finally broke down and bought a timeshare there we thought we'd escape the cold temps and snow for a little while.  Plus, with purchasing the timeshare we also received some bonus points so it allowed us to stay in one of their penthouse rooms.  It was HUGE with great views of the ocean and pool.

The kids had a blast playing in the pool as well as the beach.  It was Curren's first time at the beach as well as playing in "real" sand and he couldn't get enough of it.  The water...not so much.

Most of the time was spent at our resort, but we did take everyone out to some great local taquerias, down in to Cabo San Lucas (we now stay just north in San Jose del Cabo) to Pedregal to see some whales on the Pacific side as well as a local beach Chilleno where we usually go snorkeling.

It was a great trip!  Nice and relaxing and a good amount of time for the kids.  By Friday (the day we left) they were ready to head home to their normal surroundings.  We did have a snafu with our flight, which could've been disasterous..at least from a mom perscpective, but thankfully turned out well.  As the flight was taxiing on the runway the pilot told us they were having problems with their electrical system.  Of course Curren was napping at that time and I was hoping he's sleep a good portion of the flight.  (It's only 3 hours.)  To make a long story short, we sat on the tarmac for 3 hours while they tried to fix the problem and ended up taking off from MX when we were supposed to land in Denver.  UGH!  But the kids were troopers and behaved well.  Thankfully it wasn't a full flight so it was easy for them to get up and move around.  The pilot made up some time, thankfully and we got to Denver in 2 1/2 hours.

Can't wait to go back again!  It's nice going to a place we love and a place we're familiar with too.  It's easy for us to navigate through town and we know some great, but inexpensive places to eat.  Plus it doesn't hurt that Rick's BFF lives down there with his family too.

Snow, snow, snow

It took a long time for us to really get some snow, but over the last few days and weeks we've been hit with some good storms as well as some REALLY, REALLY cold temperatures.  (Thankfully we were in Cabo San Lucas for the cold temps.)  Anyway, here are some pictures of the boys playing in the snow a few weeks ago when we didn't have school.

BTW, it's so bright outside that I make them wear their goggles/sunglasses. Learned a couple years back when the older boys eyeballs, yes their eyeballs got sunburned while sledding.

Kellen is 6!

It's hard to believe, but Kellen is 6 years old already! We celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese. (Unfortunately, Aidan was really sick the week of his birthday so he couldn't join us.:()

(A visit from Chuck E. Cheese!)

(Kellen and his buddies)

(Kellen in the ticket blaster)

Then the following evening my parents took the family out to Red Lobster for Kellen's birthday dinner. Of course in typical fashion, Curren woke up from his nap with a high fever so I ended up staying at home with him. (At least Rick brought me some dinner.) Even with sick siblings Kellen still had a great birthday and received lots and lots and lots of Hot Wheels toys! Nothing's better than that!

Christmas

Hard to believe Christmas has come and gone already with 2011 right around the corner! We had a wonderful Christmas this year. My whole, and I mean WHOLE family came to town. My brother and his family (6 of them) drove from NC, plus my dad and step-mom came from Western CO and of course my sister, mom and step-dad who live here locally. So that means 16 people spent most of Christmas week at our house.

(Love, love, love this picture of all of us!)

The cousins had so much fun playing with each other and us adults had a great time talking and hanging out. We went to the Denver Mint, The Denver Art Museum (The DAM) to view the King Tut exhibit, Rick and my brother David spent a day on the slopes at Copper Mountain, Rick, Aidan, David and one of his sons' Quin went to a Colorado Avalanche game (hockey). Did a little hiking on Spruce Mountain down near Larkspur and we enjoyed lots of good food.

(Aidan, Kellen, Truman and Quin outside the State Capitol Building)

(All the kids around the gingerbread train my dad and step-mom made. A Christmas tradition in Sweden. The kids couldn't wait to eat one of the cars.)

(Kellen, Truman and Aidan leaving cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.)

(My nephew Grey is an amazing artist. He likes to design his own shoes with sharpies.)

Christmas morning actually started off later than expected...thankfully. The kids didn't start stirring until 7:45am or so and we actually had to finally wake Aidan up so he didn't miss out on the gift opening festivities.

The weather has been very California-like. No snow anywhere in sight.... well you can see the snow topped mountains from our house, but none in the Denver Metro area. In fact, Christmas day was in the 50's so we spent a lot of time outside, playing basketball and riding bikes.

(Aidan's new bike - a gift from everyone - thanks!)

(Playing a little basketball with Kellen in the foreground trying out his new scooter.)

The week with my family sped by way too fast and we were really sad to say good-bye to everyone, especially the cousins. Too bad there is about 1600 miles separating us. Thankfully we did get some great pictures of my whole family to memorialize Christmas 2010.

(Eden (17), Kellen (6), Quin (11), Truman (9), Curren (2), Aidan (9) and Grey (15))

(David, me and Kirsten - just for the record, I'm the baby:))

Testing for his yellow belt

Today Aidan tested for his yellow belt in martial arts. He was pretty nervous (because this was his first time testing and he didn't know what to expect), but he did great. Master Scott gave him some good critique to focus on for the future. However, we did have to explain to him that Master Scott wasn't mad at him, but giving him some information on how to improve. Isn't that what life is about? I believe he will be presented with his yellow belt in class on Monday.

WAY TO GO AIDAN!!!

(FYI - the video is just a snippet of all the things he had to perform during his test. And this was taken with my iPhone so I'm unable to zoom in.)

Halloween weekend

Nowadays it seems Halloween isn't just a day it's a whole weekend. At least that makes it fun for the kids, but exhausting for the adults. (Although I had fun too, watching my kiddos have fun.)

Friday were Aidan's and Kellen's school parties. Their school doesn't allow them to dress up and the party must be called a "fall party". Go figure. At least it's something they get to look forward too. Of course with Kellen being in afternoon kindergarten their parties were at the same time.

So I split my time between the two of them.

Kellen's class had a little visitor before I arrived. A nice hairy, brown and black tarantula! EEEEK! I walked into the room just as Kellen was getting ready to touch the thing. Eeek! I really don't like spiders and definitely not the big hairy kind.

Afterward, his class separated into groups with one group making spider cookies and the other group making a spider treat holder. Curren had fun eating his spider cookie.

Heading over to Aidan's class I walked in while he was decorating his mummy cup. After he was finished he got to fill it up with candy. They had some games, face painting, food, lots and lots and lots of popcorn (A big black garbage bag was filled with popcorn, graciously donated by the movie theater.) And boxes filled with disgusting items to feel with your hands.

That evening Aidan and his friend Parker headed over to Aidan's martial arts gym to eat pizza, snacks and watch the new Karate Kid. When I went to pick them up after the movie they said they had a good time and the place was filled with kids. Great event by his martial arts instructors. (Not to mention a great PR event for them as well.)

Saturday was our ward's trunk or treat event. We had a chili cook-off, a spook alley (my kids had no desire to participate in that), an amazing Thriller re-enactment and of course the kid's favorite - trunk-or-treating.

Sunday evening I did allow the boys to trick-or treating on our street. They were pretty bummed they couldn't trick-or-treat the whole neighborhood, but it was a Sunday. They ended up being good sports and had fun handing out candy to the kids who came to our house and emptying out their bags to see what goodies they received. It was also really cute to see how quickly Curren caught on to this whole trick-or-treating thing. Once he realized from his trunk-or-treat experience that he receives candy in the bag mom was holding for him there was NO way he was going to let me hold it while we trick-or-treated the few houses in our cul-de-sac.

Weirdly enough we didn't get many trick-or-treaters this year. Not sure why, but we did handout candy by the handful so we only had a few pieces left. I've also convinced my kids to sell their candy to their pediatric dentist. They receive $1/pound of candy and the dentist's office ships the candy overseas to our troops.

Now it's time to take down the Halloween decorations and gear up for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Isn't it almost that time again?

Fall

In a nutshell here are some pictures to highlight some of the things we've been doing this fall. As I type the kids are on week 2 of fall break. So far it's been pretty good, with only a few fights and meltdowns. What else could a mom ask for? (NOTE: 2 cute videos below)


At the beginning of October we took the boys up Rampart Range Road (kind've near Devil's Head) to a trail system called Indian Creek. Gorgeous colors - all the aspen were turning yellow. Curren had fun walking a portion of the trail and then on mom he went. (Rick had hurt his achilles so he couldn't carry the extra load.)

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A couple of weekends ago we took the boys to a pumpkin festival Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield (near my old CO stomping grounds) was putting on. They had some bounce houses and rides, but the kids weren't too interested in waiting in line for the rides and instead had a blast running around the pumpkin patch and the border of the corn maze. The cool thing about most pumpkin patches here is that you actually go to the actual pumpkin patch - the place where the pumpkins grow. All of the pumpkins had been picked off their vines, but they were still in the fields or along the perimeter of the fields.

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Last Friday I, along with some other friends took our boys (there were 10 of them and no girls) to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in CO Springs. It's a pretty cool smallish zoo. The nice thing about this zoo as opposed to Denver Zoo is you're able to get a little more up close and personal with some of the animals. You can feed the giraffes - always a big hit. And as you can see from the picture above, the gorilla was enjoying a little company. Although he kept making some hand gestures which made me think he was trying to tell us to screw off. Either way I did capture a good pic with him and Curren.

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Last Saturday after Aidan's martial arts class we drove over to our neighborhood speciality store - Tony's Market to buy some caramel apples. They were making them especially for kids. The boys could choose up to 3 toppings. As you can see from Kellen's apple they were GIGANTIC. Two was plenty for the 5 of us. And they were sure yummy!

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Today I took the boys to see their pediatric dentist. And even Curren cooperated and had his teeth cleaned. It was a sight to behold. What a cutie. And even after eating those yummy caramel apples all boys have cavity-free teeth. Yippee!