Artichokes

Bountiful Baskets has turned us on to artichokes.  Last night Cooky made us stuffed artichokes that...were...awesome!  It took some work to get the centers out, but a melon baller worked very well. J They were stuffed with mushrooms, bread crumbs, cheese and spices.

As you can see they were made in the Dutch Oven, which makes for some super easy cleanup.  

This picture is not from last night while Cooky was cooking, but I had to share anyways.  Check out those duds; he always makes me laugh.  I was trying to shoot covertly, but I could have at least moved the barrel of cheese balls, oh well!

Birthday Party

We went to Douglas over the weekend.  We celebrated 5 birthdays!  There was quite the crew there. Leah did the traditional baby-in-the-cake thing.  I had to help her figure it out at first.  I don’t know if anything more than frosting was eaten though.

It looks like she's scratching her head, asking,"What do I do with this?"

There were also swimming pools for all the little ones to swim in.  Grace, Anna and their cousin swam in the big pool while Leah checked out the baby pool.

This post seems a bit full of Leah!  J

Leah's 1!

It’s hard to believe that Leah is now 1 year old; that year flew by so quickly.  I just wanted to add a few of my favorite pics of Leah’s first year.  Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby!

First Day of School

Today was Grace’s first day of school as a 1st grader.  She got the teacher she wanted, Mrs. Allen.  She seemed excited to go back to school....I’m sure the new markers, colored pencils, shoes, and lunchbox made a difference too. J  They only have a half day today and Friday; then next week starts the real learning!

Big Horns

We took our camper, my father-in-law and our fishing poles and headed to the Big Horn Mountains for an extended weekend.  Due to the high fire danger, we couldn’t have a campfire.  S’mores over a propane grill just aren’t the same, although we all didn’t smell like a campfire either.  The evening entertainment is to go down 14A and look for moose, elk and deer.  One night we saw a bunch of moose, about 9 total, if I remember right.  Two days later all we saw was one.  I have a theory that the moose put on a show on the weekend and remain hidden during the week.

We also saw a bear by my grandma’s cabin.  I don’t know if you can say it was in the "wild" though; he was happily munching on trash from Bear Lodge.

We celebrated Leah’s birthday on Saturday.  Her first year just seemed to fly by and I think about the differences from a year ago. 

Peach Butter

I made some peach butter and canned 11 pints over the weekend.  Here is the end product, heck, I could eat it straight out of the jar.  My brother-in-law requested some and I aim to please.

With the big girls at Grandma and Grandpa’s, it’s been darn quiet around here.  I’ve managed to clean up their closet (you couldn’t see the floor) and clean out the dressers of clothes that no longer fit.  I was planning to donate some toys, but there really weren’t any toys that needed to end up missing. J  We’re gonna pick them up on our way to the Big Horn mountains for an extended weekend, which we’re VERY much looking forward to.

See ya next week with a vacation post!

Cloth Diapers

My friend, Heidi, is gonna make a crunchy convert out of me yet!  We’ve made homemade laundry soap, lotion, deoderant, shampoo and toothpaste.  Her hubbie is a stay-at-home-most-of-the-time-dad, so they thought they’d give cloth diapers a try.  Cloth diapers are not like your mom’s cloth diapers anymore....they’ve come a long way.  (I feel like adding the word “baby” at the end of that sentence.)  Besides being less wasteful than disposables, they’re virtually diaper rash proof and cheaper in the long run.  There are a zillion websites out there that tell you the benefits and costs and yada, yada....go read one or more, I’ll wait.  Anyway, they are doing cloth diapers and love, Love, LOVE them.  I asked daycare if they’d be willing to do that as well.  She said it made more work for me, but they didn’t mind....SOooo we are gonna go with cloth diapers.  I got some fun colors and a few fun prints.  They finished arriving today.  So off to the wash machine I go....I’ll let you know how it goes.