Canning Pickles

Thank you for helping me Kristi!!!!!!!!!!

Estes Park

Due to the generosity of our friends, who gave us 3 nights at their time share, Mike and I were able to spend a few days in Estes. The first two nights were without the boys, and then the third night Mike went and picked them up, and they stayed the last night with us. We had such a relaxing time....and were able to see TONS of elk, take naps, read, pray and watch LOTS of Food Network. :o)

As we first drove into Estes we saw an elk in the middle of the road. We thought maybe he had gotten hit by a car, but as we got closer we realized that it was a Mom elk and her baby, standing in the middle of the road, nursing!!! We so wished we had been able to get a picture of that, but by the time we turned the car around they had already crossed the street and started grazing on someone's front lawn!



Mike and I took a few hikes in Rocky Mountain National Forest. It was so beautiful. When the boys came the next day, we made sure to take them. They just loved it.

It was so warm on Tuesday. Even though there was snow on the ground, the sun was just blazing. What a perfect day.

These two males were practicing their sparring techniques. It was fun to watch.

Here's a cute baby elk.


And lastly, there's two cuddlebugs. :o)

My Prayer Warrior

I had a prayer shift last night from 7pm to 9pm. I asked Elijah, totally flippantly, if he wanted to join me. He immediately said, "Yes.", and he was soooo excited about it. This actually took me a little by surprise, and I told him that I had a 2 hour shift, and was he SURE he really wanted to go. And again, he so excitedly said, "Yes... " He really wanted to do a "night" shift, since he had never done something like that before. Although, he was a little nervous he would fall asleep. So, we packed him a bag of things to do, and a pillow and a blanket...just in case...and off we went.




When we got there we put on some praise music, and Elijah just went to town. He was praising so exuberantly. Spinning around...jumping....singing loud! What a joy it was to watch him.



Then right in the middle of a song, he ran to get a piece of paper. I thought maybe he was finished praising, and was going to color...but nope. He said he was writing down what the Lord was saying to him. "My angels are around you." "I love you more than gold and silver." "I love you."





After he praised with me for a while, he did some coloring. He did such an incredible job the whole entire time we were there. At about 8:30 he started to tell me stories about random things.....like how his friend Grace leaves the tops off of markers...etc...so I told him I had brought him a Bible book if he wanted to read it, and he did. That totally got him back on focus, and he started writing out prayers after that, and drawing crosses. It was such a blessing having him go with me last night.

Then on our way home he said to me, "Mom, why are so many cars still out on the street in the middle of the night?" He is just soooo cute!!!!

Foodies: This is especially for Sarah B

Here's a picture of my birthday cake that Mike made me......Totally homemade and YUMMY!!!!

These are pumpkin pancakes we made... My friend mailed me 3 boxes of them from Trader Joe's...the boys and I made them the other morning, and then we heated up some pumpkin puree, maple syrup and butter together....and spread that on top of them. They were really good. (Thank you Kellie)

My friend Jill e-mailed me a youtube video of a chef making scrambled eggs. Caleb and I watched the video and were blown away by the fact we had been making scrambled eggs wrong all these years. We quickly mended our ways, and this has become a staple for breakfast for the past 2 weeks. Caleb has been the one whipping this up almost every morning. They truly are the best scrambled eggs I've ever had.
Mike and I did this one...actually, mostly Mike. It is carnitas...which is Mexican pork. We have been making this for years and years and could never get it exactly right....well, I can now officially say we have now mastered it. The secret you ask? Putting it in the oven at a really high heat to get it crispy!!!!!
These are pumpkin muffins from the latest Rachel Ray cooking magazine. They were sooo good. The frosting took 3 sticks of butter, and only frosted 12 cupcakes. I ate most of them!

Generosity

We have someone we know who needs a little bit of help financially in order to buy food..... Well, we unfortunately don't have extra money at the moment, but I figured we could at least get a $50 gift card to a grocery store for this person.... Then, I remembered that Caleb has some money from his lawn mowing job, so I asked him if he would like to contribute any of his $ to this cause.....I said, "Maybe $10." He immediately said, "Of course, but Mom I can do more than that. How about if I give $20." Oh...what a proud Mom I was, but it wasn't surprising to me, because Caleb is soooo generous. That is just who he is.

Now, I didn't even mention anything about this to Elijah... because he's only 5, and doesn't really have much $ anyway. He gets a few dollars here and there from helping Caleb in the lawn mowing business (he picks up sticks)....but still, it never crossed my mind to say anything to Elijah.

Well, we were eating lunch that day, and out of the blue, Elijah said, "You know that person who needs food? I can give some of my money." Again, what a proud Mom I was. Especially because giving away $ isn't one of his strong areas.....yet. He is more of our hoarder. (But of course he has many many many other wonderful qualities) Okay..back to the story... I said, "Of course you can." Figuring he'd give a quarter. But no...he gave every single ounce of $ he had, which came up to $14.

Well, when Caleb saw this, he didn't want Elijah to have absolutely no money anymore, so Caleb gave Elijah a few dollars of his own, just so he could still have some spending $....and do you know what Elijah did? Promptly gave that over too, for the "lady who needs food". So, what started out as a $50 food card, ended up being an $88 card...all because of the generosity of two little boys!

Hint

Okay, Elijah did the funniest thing today. He was doing his Saxon Math and they wanted him to memorize some flash cards....like 2 + 2, 3 + 3...and so on, up to 9. So he busily got to work. I had fun watching him, because all on his own he would put the ones he knew in one pile and the ones he needed to work more on in another pile. Well, when I came back a little later I saw him writing really small on the flashcards he was having trouble with. I thought he was just putting a dot on them so he would know which ones he needed more practice on......I was so impressed with his ingenuity. I said, "Elijah, are you marking those so you know which ones you still need help on?" He said, "Oh no, I 'm putting hints on these ones." What he was doing was writing the answer in tiny print on the front of his flashcards!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought that was just a riot...he had no idea this was CHEATING!!!!!!!!

Snow Day

It snowed like crazy yesterday....the kids LOVED having a snow day. They played in the snow, drank hot chocolate and ate chicken noodle soup. And of course lit the fire. :o) Caleb's all time favorite thing to do.




Ben is in heaven......he acts like a puppy when it snows....and he's FOURTEEN!!!!!!!



But of course it will melt fast.....as it always does here. :o) Too bad!