Christmas!

On Christmas morning I woke up SICK!  I was sick on Christmas Eve too but much worse on Christmas Day.  I did get a few pictures of the girls opening gifts.  They enjoyed everything they got, Summer got the art kit she asked Santa for and Pepper got a stuffed puppy.  It was nice, it didn't take too long and thankfully I felt better the next day.

Extra Activities

In alphabetical order:

Art
Ballet
Choir
Gymnastics
Hand Balancing
Horse Vaulting
Jazz
Karate
Piano
Soccer
Spanish
Vaulting

Have I forgotten anything?  These are some of the things Summer has tried.  We are still doing piano and jazz and these are about the only two things we have time for these days.  I can't wait for Summer to actually want to do something on her own.  I keep trying these things with her hoping she finds something she loves.

I have thought about swimming, chess,  tae kwon do, acting - there is just so much!  So far she has been almost too easy and willing to try anything.

Pepper has tried gymnastics so far.  She likes it but I am waiting until she is ready for the unassisted classes.  It's not that I don't like participating but we are busy enough I have learned with Summer that she won't remember it anyway, not that we won't do another class, maybe a mommy and me dance somewhere.

Just a random blog post without any pictures for once!

More Christmas

Today it is cold and windy and raining/sleeting ish!  Perfect day for a cup of hot steaming chocolate, or maybe a hot tea.  I am going to make taco soup for dinner, nice and warm!  I don't like cold weather for long periods of time but a day or two, I am ok with that.

The girls let me take some great holiday photos of them yesterday.  Now I need to go back and find pictures of them for the past 12 months and order my 2014 calendar!  Yah I need to get on that.  Here they are in all of their Christmas glory!

Lights, Camera, Christmas!

Here is a picture of our house with the beautiful colorful lights !!!  I know, a horrible cell phone pictures, maybe once it gets even darker I will get the real camera and try to take some more.

December

It is finally time to get ready for Christmas.  Somehow I got into the mood yesterday and now I am ready!  We got out Leah, our Elf on the Shelf, and she is already getting into things, like cereal, and making a mess.  Today she also somehow magically got the girls a gift!  Mostly because we are only giving the girls a few gifts and I bought this and didn't know who it could be from ... tada! And they have to wait until Christmas to open it, of course!

I saw a picture on pinterest of a kid in a bathtub looking like Santa and I thought to myself ... I can do that!  So here are the girls in the bath last night acting like Santa.  You can tell Summer was more into it ...

Pepper kept trying to wipe the bubbles off her face, silly girl!

I still have to take some "holiday" style photos of the girls, I tried this shot last night in the dark, it looks kinda near.

Here is the room with all the chaos, I mean decorations.  The tree, train, gifts, stockings, well everything Christmas is mostly contained to this room.  I let Summer put all the ornaments on the tree, I did the balls.  You can tell she can only reach so high because all the ornaments are around the lower center front/side hehe.

We started a new fun tradition this year, 24 nights of books.  Each night, starting on December 1st, taking turns (Pepper has odd nights), they get to pick one wrapped book, open it, and we read it.  So far we have opened 2 books and they are both enjoying it.  I got all the books at the thrift store and paid about 50 cents a book, not a bad deal!

We also have lights on our house!  We paid someone to do it :o( we aren't getting on the roof, are you kidding me?  I would have taken a picture last night but someone was parked in front of our house, which annoyingly happens a lot.  Parks in front of our house/walk way which is also illegal because it is right in front of the stop sign.  Hopefully they are gone tonight so I can go get a good picture!

Bring on the Christmas!!!

Fall in Las Vegas

It is most definitely FALL in Las Vegas but we don't have the trees that make all the neat leaves, at least in our yard, but just a few miles away there is this place that has those trees so we went there today to take some cool FALL photos!

Green Rice Casserole

My grandma was a cook.  No really, she worked as a cook at an elementary school for several years.  She was also very skinny, and I was always told never to trust a skinny cook but I liked her food.  I remember several meals that I considered hers, like her chicken and noodles, goulash, pigs in a blanket, and one of my holiday favorites, green rice.  I was lucky enough to get the recipe before she passed, and I have successfully made it for a few years.  I like eating it with ham and sweet potatoes.  It makes a lot, so I usually make it at Thanksgiving and freeze some for Christmas, New Years, or Easter.  Here is her recipe, and no, it is not healthy at all!

Grandma's Green Rice

Ingredients:
1 Onion
1 Pound Bacon
4 cups Instant White Rice
1 Jar Cheez Whiz
2 Cans Cream of Broccoli Soup
1 Can Cheddar Cheese Soup
1 Can Cream of Celery Soup
1 Can Vegetable Broth
2 Cups Shredded Cheese

Cook the rice and set aside.  Cook the bacon until crispy and then cut (or tear) up into bite size pieces. Cook the onion for a few minutes (I cook mine in the bacon grease).  Put everything except the shredded cheese into a big bowl and mix up real good (cooked rice, cooked bacon & onions, soups, cheez whiz and vegetable broth).

Separate it all into the pans.  I use small foil pans to freeze.  I usually add the shredded cheese right before I actually bake it.  The glass dish is what I baked yesterday and it was SO delicious.  It really makes a lot.  Bake it at 350 for 40-45 minutes, whenever the cheese on top is nice and melted.

Yes, leftovers!