The weekend flew by

We had such a great time with John, Allison, Emma and Brooklyn! We still can't believe they flew up here to see us! We had lots of things planned to do and we got to do them all- despite poor Brooklyn's cold and lack of sleep. (I should throw in Allison's lack of sleep, too!) It was so great to see friends- it is hard enough to find friends that will travel a few miles to get to your house. What a blessing for us to have friends that traveled over 1000 miles to see us!

I want to post everything from our trip, but this will have to be short tonight. The girls played so well together and got along really well, too! We ate at home on Thur. night and then got Graeter's ice cream-yum! On Fri. we went to the zoo and to eat at Max and Erma's. On Sat. we went to the cool place in Gahanna, then came home and put little kiddos down for a nap and then went back to Gahanna to get Al's iPhone that had jumped out of her backpack. I guess it liked Gahanna so much that is wanted to live there! :) You can hardly blame it! It was actually fun for just Allison and I to drive there- time flies when you don't have kids in the car! And it was a beautiful day. John took a lot of great pictures with his awesome camera. You will want to check with him for them b/c he is way better than I am at editing them. He was super nice and showed me a few things. It's going to take me some practice! On Sat. night we ate birthday dinner at our house to celebrate Olivia and Brooklyn's birthdays. We made cupcakes and the girls got to design theirs with fondant icing. (I ordered a new kind today. Satin Ice- I finally figured out that it is the kind that tastes like marshmallow) After the movie Travis and John were so nice and let Allison and I go to the movies while they put all 4 girls to bed. This was not a restful night for Allison, but we had fun! It makes me want to move back to Fayetteville- or just live in magic friend land. I guess we did live there for a while- most people refer to it as college!

Here are a couple of pics. One of the girls on our playground and one of Allison and I on the razorback at the zoo. There will, of course, be hundreds on picasa! :)

The Nelson's made it and we are having fun! I just did a check-up on the little girl I had told you about before. Please check their site and pray for this precious little girl! She is waiting to find out if she can even have surgery. Pray God will give this family everything they need.


www.roomforatleastonemore.blogspot.com

Yummy veggies

I have wanted to post recipes for quite a while, but I never have the time. So I decided to at least post a few veggie recipes. I want to eat them every meal or at least lunch and dinner, but we often run out of ideas. So here are a few. They are mostly from Cooking Light- and taste good even if you don't typically like that type of veggie.
Here is the first
Roasted Sesame Asparagus
You need: Asparagus, sesame oil (olive oil will work if you don't have sesame, but I highly suggest buying some- a tiny amount adds so much flavor to your food), balsamic vinegar, sesame seeds, crushed red pepper (I only put this on Trav's part- not mine), salt, pepper, shaved parmesan cheese.
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Snap off tough ends of asparagus. (actually if you do this when you first get home and then stick them in a cup of water in your fridge they last better and you can skip this step when it comes time to cook). Arrange them on a jelly-roll pan covered with cooking spray (I use aluminum foil and then spray it for easier clean up.)
3. Brush with sesame seed oil. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 10 min.
4. Add vinegar, red pepper, and cheese- toss to combine.
This is so good. Just try it once. Travis doesn't even like asparagus and he loves this!

Roasted Cauliflower
You need cauliflower florets, olive oil, salt, pepper.
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Arrange cauliflower on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. (again foil works really well)
3. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
4. Bake for 25 min. turning cauliflower twice while cooking.

I do not like cauliflower, but I like this. These are both healthy and yummy. Hope you enjoy!

If you want cooking light and southern living recipes, just go to myrecipes.com They have every recipe there for free. It's a great resource!

Well, Olivia is 5! I can't believe it! She had a great birthday! It actually started on Thur. morning when we surprised her with a visit from my mom. Then we got a surprise call from the dentist that they wanted to do Olivia's root canal that morning. So we did that- she did wonderfully. Thank you God. And the dentist even said she wasn't numb last time. We still have to go back for two crowns and she has a suspicious looking place, which may mean two more visits. After she recovered we drove about an hour and a half away to Marmon Valley. A super fun horse ranch. They have pony rides (you lead them yourself- see pics at our picasa site) for 30 min for $5! And you can hold bunnies, see a horse, cow, chickens, a goat, llamas, pigs, kittens, and a sheep in the big barn. My mom and I both like to ride horses, and they had a ton of them ready to go, but it would have been a little hard to leave the girls just standing around for an hour! We drove back and ate at Max and Erma's. The next day we got stuff ready for Olivia's party and the new fondant icing (that actually doesn't taste bad) arrived. So we got to decorate her cake with it. It was really fun!

On Sat. we got up and two of Olivia's friends from dance (Mollie and Emmie) came to our house to go with us to Chuck E. Cheese. Olivia's two other friends, Olivia and Abby, met us there. We played for a while (my mom and Travis won over 700 tickets) and then Trav stopped and picked up the pizza and we came back to our house to play and eat. The girls were all very sweet and had a lot of fun together. We did a pinata and then she opened presents. She got some fun new things and had a good time. After everyone left, she, mom and I went to Hobby Lobby to get a gigantic mirror to put in our living room for her to dance in front of (see picasa for that too!). Then I made her favorite pork and we ate and had cake and more presents. It was like Christmas for her! She had so much fun and was really sweet to let Annika open her presents. Annika was a little confused about why she didn't get presents, but was still very sweet.
It was a very fun day- they were both worn out at the end of it!

On Sun. we got up and ate brunch at the Cheesecake factory. It was really nice so we sat outside. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and then took my mom to the airport. Travis spent the afternoon sealing the deck. And I mean the whole afternoon. We ate leftover pizza and cake and then back to Barnes and Noble.

It was a fun weekend. We have a fun week coming too! My best friend Allison and her family are coming to visit us. I think Trav and John can watch the kids a few days while we go shopping, get massages, go to the movies, have coffee and lunch, etc. don't you? I wish! We do plan to go to the zoo and the cool place in Gahanna. I will post pics after they come! Oh, Annika is going to be Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street for Halloween. Isn't it cute?

Please Pray

Please be praying for this family. www.roomforatleastonemore.blogspot.com They went to China to get their sweet daughter and she is very ill. She is in a hospital with terrible care. She just needs to get to the US and they are having a terrible time getting anyone to move quickly. They really need God to move. Their story is extremely difficult to read, but you can be praying for Susannah. Gosh, my heart hurts for them.

Photoshop

Well, I love photoshop. So much so that I catch myself thinking of how I could change things in our house to look better on photoshop. Then I remember that it only works for images, not real things. Shoot. I wish it did b/c my house would be looking sweet! I have this huge book I am reading about how to use photoshop, so I am trying to use the things I learn for things I need to do, too. Somethings I just do for fun. So here are a few.

In other news, Olivia has learned to swing by herself (about a month ago) and to jump rope. I love that she has learned because I loved both of those things as a child. I am sure Annika will learn to swing by herself before Olivia, but Olivia just always wanted me to push her since I was pushing Annika. Now I am not allowed to push her. I love both of my girls and I am enjoying them so much right now. Olivia is being really sweet and not annoying (which can sometimes happen to an almost 5 year old- what, I have an almost 5 year old?) and actually pretty funny. Annika is at my favorite age and I love everything she does! Today we did face painting. Which is AWESOME! We all loved it! Travis painted a penguin on my face that was awesome! We bought paint at JoAnn, which is like Hobby Lobby, and got to work. Annika wanted to paint us to, but i found an old, cheap baby doll for her and she painted the whole thing! I would highly recommend it and it isn't very messy. It washes out of clothes if you spray them first. Really, run out and get some paint!

Travis is cleaning the outside windows. I accidentally put this on here- I thought I was picking the one where he is mooning me. Well, you can guess what it would have looked like! This is the butterfly Olivia painted on my cheek! You can see more pics at our picasa site.

I have so much to post about, but I like making these better! Josh and Margo came to visit. It was so fun to see them! We went to the cool place in Gahanna and I made this from the pics we took. There are many funny pictures from that trip- they are on our picasa site!