Pumpkin Guts

I am lucky my girls are so icky.  I mean, not icky themselves, but they don't mind getting icky.  I bought a small pumpkin with the intentions of making a pair of shorts.  I needed help cleaning it out (bleh) and enlisted the help from Sausage and Pepperoni.  They were up to the challenge and almost cleaned out the whole pumpkin by themselves.  Well, I had to help scrape the sides, thanks to my pampered chef ice cream scoop, it was actually a pretty easy job.

I think the shorts were a pretty cute idea, tho there is no way she could actually walk around in them because that pumpkin is heavy, her poor little shoulders could only bear the weight so long.  I suppose I could have gotten thicker suspenders but the pumpkin was also moist on the inside and probably felt gooey.  After trying to get the leg holes big enough (it took 4 tries) it took a sucker as a bribe for her to put in on the 4th time to take pictures.  Whatever works right?

McKee Ranch

This is the fifth year we have been to the McKee Ranch, Summer was 2 the first time she went and Pepper was 11 months, so I guess you could say we like this place ;o)

What do I like most about it?  It has a LOT of animals that you can see and touch, such as chickens, roosters, rabbits, pigs, sheep, donkey's, horses, and who knows what else, some stuff I don't even know the names of.  I also like the owners, they are super friendly and are doing such a nice thing - allowing people who live in a place like Las Vegas to see a bit of the country life.  I also love the decorations, I mean come on look at this place!  The girls had so much fun when we went last night, and so did Papa and our friends :o)

Red Tutu

This is a picture I took of Summer at 18 months

These are some pictures I took of Pepper at 23 months

my favorite (below)

My photography has improved greatly over the years, thankfully!

Country Pepper

This cute little pink western dress was a hand me down (thanks Anca) and these cute little brown cowboy boots were also a hand me down (forgot who ... oops), and the hat, well I paid a few dollars at the Children's Place and got it when I thought we were going to be cowboys for Halloween.  So today I dressed Pepper up in her cowgirl gear and we headed out front in front of the garage and took a few pictures.  Pepper had fun saying YEHAW!

Cabbage Potato Soup

Recipe:  Cabbage Potato Soup

1 box beef broth

1 head of green cabbage

1 sweet onion

some garlic

2 brown potatoes

turkey pastrami

salt/pepper

water

I really like cabbage and wish I had more recipes using it, but I came across this soup and thought it sounded good.  I altered the recipe A LOT, instead of chicken broth I had beef, instead of ham I had turkey pastrami, but man was it good!  Kris and I both had 2 helpings and both girls ate theirs without much pushing.  Summer really liked it too.  Here is what I did.

Sautéed the onion and the garlic, add it to the pot with the box of beef broth, the head of cabbage all cut up into somewhat bite size pieces and some hot water to cover and cook for about 30 minutes to an hour.  Then I cut two brown potatoes into bite size-ish pieces and added it to the put and cooked another 30 minutes.  Lastly I added the turkey pastrami that was leftover from the lunch meat drawer cut up into bite size pieces, along with some salt and pepper and cooked another hour or so.  Honestly I didn't really time anything.  

It was delicious!  Here is a picture of the leftovers, that was all that was left!  Kris wasn't thrilled about the amount of garlic I used so next time I will use less, but he still ate it all.

Healthy?  Kinda.  Real potatoes, cabbage, onion.  I use jarred garlic and the beef broth box wasn't low sodium, and I have no clue about the turkey pastrami - but it seemed fresh and comforting, which was perfect for our strange overcast weather today.

Brown, Tan, Peach and White

Yesterday I was driving Summer to choir and we started discussing kids in her class.  I was asking her about this one cute little boy and started to describe him as black with an afro, but quickly realized she doesn't use "black" to describe people and doesn't know what an afro is, so it became the brown boy with the the sorta poofy hair haha.  She thought I meant some boy with a very hispanic name that I would assume would be hispanic and I asked her what color he was and she said tan.  I then asked her what color she is and she said tan.  She mentioned a few peach people in her class and one person was white, which also means peach.  Apparently people are either brown, tan, or peach, and Summer is tan, not peach.  I am obviously peach, but I suppose Kris and Pepper are also tan like Summer.  I just love this kid!  I am glad she is not growing up with the same discrimination that I grew up with.  Of course she will find some somewhere else, maybe same sex relationships, or maybe that will be gone and it will be something else.  For now I like how she thinks.

She and I are loving school.  She got another progress report, 5 A's and 1 B for handwriting.  We are really working on slowing down and writing neat.  She can do it if she tries but she seems to be in a hurry, something I can relate with.  I think she will get it soon enough and luckily she doesn't mind doing things over when it looks messy.

Speaking of messy - oh her poor hair :o) but the light was good so we took pictures.

Dior Make up

The artist in me loves makeup, the photographer in me loves taking pictures, the vain side of me loves getting a make over.  The thrifty side of me does not like spending money on expensive Dior makeup, but the generous side of me feels guilty getting a make over and not buying anything, so I have some new blush!

I have wanted to be a lot of things in my short life; a teacher, hula dancer, workout instructor, hair stylist, police officer, photographer, sex therapist, to name a few.  Maybe I need a few more lives after this one so I have more time.

In looking at these pictures of myself a few things come to mind like 1) I look older.  Not old older but old like I have lines by my eyes that were never there, where did they come from?  2) I prefer how I look without all my hair down and 3) I don't look like that anyway, who is she?  Which makes me think, maybe my girls DO look like me and I don't see it because I don't even know what I really look like.  I probably wouldn't even recognize my voice on a recording hehe.  

I told Kris I want short hair - he said no which is ok because maybe I don't so maybe one day.  I still need to go get that tattoo I want too.