January 31

Happy Birthday Rich!

January 30

"How does this thing work again?
I could use a bit of warm water right about now."

January 29

Blake and Gramps

January 28

1/2 of 25 is 12.5...
So I guess that means Rich and I
are halfway to 25 years married today!

Don'cha love our little flowergirl and ringbearer??

January 27

Ever since I bought this 'little black dress' and shoes
for Josie for Wednesday's Formal Day at school,
she's been wearing them non-stop:)
Clip clop clip clop...

January 26

Quite funny...I opened my recipe book to copy the recipe...
and it smells like...Chicken Chow Mein!

Boil a large yellow bag of Farkey steam fried chow mein noodles

according to directions on bag.  Set aside.

Cut 3 chicken breasts in strips and fry in a little bit of oil.  Remove from pan.

Fry 1 medium chopped onion in 1 tsp oil.

Add:

   1 cup chopped celery

   2 cups chopped cabbage (or use bagged coleslaw mix)

   1 red or orange bell pepper, julienned

   2 carrots, julienned

Stir fry until tender.

Add:

   Cooked chicken breast

   1 can mushroom soup

   Soy sauce

Heat through.

Add:

   1 cup sliced snow peas

   Cooked noodles

Heat through and serve.

January 25

Interesting ice cubes I found in the freezer.
Looks like someone got ahold of the food coloring.

January 24

Love my awesome little walking buddy!

January 23

The winter pansies have 'had it'.

January 22

January 21

Spying on the 'Quack Quacks' in the water.

January 20

January 19

Saturday...cleaning day.
The kids thought it would be fun to clean windows.
Reuben couldn't reach the top ones so he got a kitchen chair...
Still not tall enough so...a stool...on a chair.
I didn't realize how precarious this was until I was just looking at these pictures... 

See how close that one stool leg is from slipping off the edge of the chair?

January 18

Auntie Es giving Josie a ride on their quad.

January 17

He may not have been impressed with his cake,
but he did put is 'all' into blowing out the candles:)
You'd think with that effort (see the flame all bent over)
he would only need one try...but it took three!
Good thing he only had the #5 candle...not 5 single candles!!
The kids would have been waiting a long time to eat a cupcake.

January 16

Wow!  Doesn't he look thrilled with his 'cake'.
Don't know why but he wasn't too impressed with my cupcakes this year.
He had is heart set on a store-bought cake...and I didn't deliver.
Sorry buddy, hopefully next year better!

January 15

I think we have a problem...
There were 2 FAT mice 'cleaning' off my deck
underneath the bird feeder yesterday.
Gross, gross, gross...
especially because this is very close to my (well-used) back door...

January 14

Happy Birthday Reuben!
5 years old...already...

January 13

Josie's new pastime...
making friendship bracelets.

January 12

We are spending our Saturday trying to make order out of chaos.
It's a crazy busy month and the housework is a bit neglected :(
Kids are tackling their bedrooms, I better get busy with the rest.

January 11

A new year is about resolutions, isn't it?
What's ours?
To eat lots of these...and other fruits and veggies.

January 10

Super easy bird treat!

Take a empty toilet roll.  Put a 'hanging' string on it.
Smear peanut butter all over it.
Roll it in bird seed.
Hang it up!

You'll have birds snacking 10 minutes after
you've found your empty toilet roll!!

January 9

Don't let the blue skies of this picture deceive you...
this was at Manning last week.
Here it's rain, rain, rain...and more rain.

January 8

When I was little, I would try to find any excuse not to have to eat pea soup.
Crazy...'cause this is the best pea soup recipe out there!!  So delicious!!
(and for the record...no excuse got me out of eating it).

If you are interested, here's the recipe.
Thanks Mom, for letting me share this...it's too good not to share:)

Split Pea Soup

Soak 500g (or more) dried green split peas overnight in your big soup pot.

In the morning, add:

1 leek, cut up

3 potatoes, cut up

1 large onion, cut up

1 small celery root, cut up small (if you can't find this, add celery instead)

1 small smoked pork hock

6 small beef bouillon cubes

- and enough water to fill your pan

Cook on low until the veggies have mostly 'fallen apart'.  Stir regularly.

Remove the pork hock, cut off fat layer, and cut up the meat and add to soup.

Add farmers sausage.

Season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Stir often!!  Very important, or you'll have burnt pea soup.

Enjoy with bread or crackers.

January 7

It was back to work for Rich today and Blake was in 'withdrawal'
(and so was Rich, I think.  These two have a special bond.).
So when Rich popped in for a minute, this is what I found in the office.