clark & rusty got the lights up

Rusty needs to spend a little time finding the bulb that needs replacing in that bottom string of lights tomorrow! :)

thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving! We had such a nice day. I was thankful for my helpers in the kitchen this year! Thomas and Elle enjoyed helping prepare our lunch....well, except for all of the dish drying!

Here's the plate of food picture for our family in Nebraska. We pigged out! The meal turned out good but my favorite was dessert. I made creme brulee and it turned out! We hope you all had a great day. We were thinking of you and are looking forward to seeing you next month!

happenings around our home

Dancing. Elle and Ava's dance show went great on Saturday! I videoed their dances so family can see them at Christmas! I forgot to take photots though. Thank you to my friend Steph for sharing this one she took of her daughter Lexie with Elle! Such cuties!

Baking. Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe is the best!

Short School Week! I'm pretty sure that's why Thomas left this note for me. :)

Drawing. And it's not on the walls!

Menu Planning for the big Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite holiday!

Geography. One of Thomas's favorite subjects.

Handwriting. Not one of Elle's favorite subjects. :)

Knitting. Christmas surprises! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

wish this was on video too

See if you can tell what happened just by looking at these pictures -



As soon as the last word of Happy Birthday was sung Ava jumped up on Elle's chair and blew out almost all of the candles. The little turkey! It was hilarious! Did you notice the sheer joy on her face in the first picture?! We relit them so Elle could blow them out. I love that last picture with Thomas's hand over Ava's mouth. It was a good laugh!

happy 8th birthday elle

Our sweet Elle Marie turned 8 years old today! It's been a fun-filled day around here. She's raced to the phone every time it's rang. She ran out to the mailbox as soon as she saw the postman and was so excited to get 4 birthday cards. Later she walked into the post office with the biggest smile on her face to pick up her package from Grandpa and Grandma. It's so fun to watch her enjoying her special day so much!



She chose strawberry muffins and pepperminty white hot chocolate for her birthday breakfast. The kids always crack me up in the days before their birthdays trying to decide on their birthday menus. It's a big deal for them and they always change their minds over and over.

Thomas couldn't believe she would choose veggie wraps for her birthday lunch. He opted for some leftovers in the fridge instead. :)

Thomas got Elle a new lego kit so there were hours of lego construction going on here today.

Along with some sewing practice on her new Hello Kitty sewing machine. She is going to have so much fun with this thing!

chocolate angel food cake

This is yet another dessert we love. Obviously we like sweets as it's the category with the most recipes on my sidebar! And it's chocolate,of course! Make this and your family will think you 'rock'. I love it when my kids say that. :)

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
12 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of your angel food cake pan with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, cocoa and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside. Chop the chocolate and toss in a small bowl with 3 tablespoons of the flour mixture.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set at low speed, beat egg whites until foamy. Increase mixer speed to medium, stir in cream of tartar and salt and continue to beat until egg mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually mix in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. If you've never made an angel food cake before this is what you are looking for -

Stir in the vanilla and lemon juice. Gently fold the flour mixture into the beaten egg whites, then fold in the chocolate pieces, stirring just until no white streaks remain. Gently scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the surface of the batter and tap the pan lightly to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 60 minutes, or until the surface springs back when touched. Cool upside down before removing from the pan.

I prefer to serve this cake with a dollop of chocolate cool whip. Fresh sliced strawberries would be really good too!

said by elle today....

'Mom, I want to get my hair cut into a kabob.'

So cute! :)

future barista

Scott makes the coffee in our house. I make terrible coffee and he's the early riser so he always gets it going. Lucky me! :) Ava has decided that she's Daddy's helper to make coffee. If the grinder wakes her up she's out of bed in no time flat calling for him to wait for her. There have even been real tears shed if its brewing and she wasn't up to help.

Look at how happy she is to press that button!


Another part of her morning routine is putting Scott's sandwich in his laptop bag. She's the only one who gets to do that. She's such a good little helper. :)

checking in

Fall has arrived here in Minnesota! After a very cold and rainy October we are loving the sunshine and warmer temps. We've been busy getting outside projects done. Be back soon!

conversations with ava

Some of my favorite conversations with Ava are when I cuddle her for a few minutes before her nap. She always tells me she needs 'alotta cuddles' while holding up all her fingers.

When we got the mail today there were several catalogs, so we each picked one and looked at it while we ate our sandwiches at lunch. Of course, that led to talking about what the kids want for Christmas. Ava continued this conversation at naptime. She said she wants something 'nice, special and shiny.' She suggested a baby toy.....for when she's a baby again. :)

We then started talking about best friends and how much she loves all of her best friends. I asked her who they are and she said 'Muffin, Leila, Maggie, & um......, um.......... Mom.' Muffin, Leila and Maggie are all dogs. I guess I'm just happy I made the list! She said that she couldn't tell me the rest of her best friends. The girl cracks me up!


I took this picture a few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon. She fell asleep while we were watching Food Network together. She still loves Giada and Ina. :)

halloween '09

The kids had a great time trick or treating around the neighborhood last night. Elle dressed up as Pippi Longstocking, Ava was a princess (she would tell you she was a princess in a castle), and Thomas was the Aflac duck. It was so funny to hear them go up to the door and say 'Trick or Treat please' and then to hear Thomas follow that up with 'Aflac!'