Siri

I realized that I don't have very many pictures of Siri on the blog.
(Poor, little, fifth child) So here are a couple of cute shots of our little Lulu.

Indoor Smores

Okay, anyone who knows us knows that neither Craig or I are big campers and I've always felt the tiniest bit guilty that we never take our kids camping. Obviously not guilty enough or we'd be out setting up a tent in the wilderness right now, but I wonder: are they missing out on some fundamental childhood experience? Anyway, not to make a short story long, but James kept asking to go camping and make smores. Well I knew the camping thing wasn't going to happen, but we decided to try the smores anyway...just inside, roasting marshmallows over the flickering flames of a candle instead of a fire. So here are the pictures of us making our "indoor smores" with mini marshmallows on toothpicks, and Hershey's kisses. (Jen, does this bring back memories of our childhood whenever the power went out?)

Ty's football training

This is from our April trip to La Jolla. Ty was NOT happy about getting the football, but he couldn't just leave it in the ocean. It didn't matter how many times we threw it into the water, he would get it...screaming the whole way. Are we mean parents that we got such a kick out of this?

more beach shots

Color splash

I just got these pillows from Pottery Barn for the family room. That room was desperately in need of some color and these pillows spice it up a bit. You can't see it very well in the picture, but there's a blue in the pillows that I really like. I'm thinking of painting the walls some shade of blue, so that little bit in the pillows might help tie it all together. (The yellow that's on the walls now was a BAD decision. I've decided that I don't really like yellow anymore.)

This is a test to see if I can upload videos. I haven't been able to do it before.

Yummy treat

When we were in California my brother and his wife made these easy key lime pies and they were awesome. The best thing about them is that they're SO easy to make. Key lime pie is one of my favorite treats and when I can make it in minutes...what's not to love? Thanks Joe and Lindsay! Here's the recipe:

ALMOST KEY LIME PIE

1 can sweetened evaporated milk
1 container Cool Whip
1 container frozen lime juice
graham cracker pie crust or make your own with crushed graham crackers and butter

Use a store-bought one pie crust or make your own in advance by mixing 1 1/2 c of crushed graham crackers with 1/2 c butter. Press into pie pan.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool.

Mix together frozen lime juice and milk. Add Cool Whip mix until smooth.

Pour into pie crust and place in freezer overnight.

Enjoy!

happenings

Well, there have been a lot of happenings around here since I last blogged. I figured it was time to start up again after the two month hiatus that I took. Here's the scoop on these past couple of months (in a nutshell):

*Went to Pinetop with friends and had a great time enjoying the NICE weather and seeing tall trees again. There were also some pretty intense games of capture the flag played and one late-night Denny's visit with seventeen children and six adults. I don't think we're welcome at that Denny's anymore.

*La Jolla! If I could live there I totally would. We got a chance to go to the beach with my extended family and spend the first week of June there....lots of playing at the beach, games, laughing, a little kayaking and surfing, and way more eating than was necessary. So much fun!

*Hip Hoppin'! Okay, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I signed up for an adult hip hop class (and convinced some friends to sign up too). We've had one class so far and it was a blast! I loved it even though I'm way too old to be doing this sort of thing outside the privacy of my own home. Maybe this class will raise my level of coolness...? Yo, dog!

*Swim team...every day...at 7:30 in the moring. Need I say more? What was I thinking?? The kids rotate between hating it and loving it, but I keep telling them that it builds character and that if you grow up in Arizona it's just a requirement that you be on swim team. So far they believe me. We'll see how long that lasts.