cHiCaGo!

So to explain the Sept. kids thing (for Janice lol). When I got pregnant with Zane I became part of a online community message board. It was a place women due around the same time could go to to chat about pregnancy and life. This group has now been together for 7 years, we decided a few months ago to meet up in Chicago for the weekend to finally meet. Some of them had met before, but for me it was the first time meeting any of them! It was such an awesome experience and I can't wait for our next get together. It was so neat to finally hear their real voices-not just the made-up ones in my head. lol

This was taken Sunday morning before we all left to go back home. This is such a wonderful group and I already miss them so much!



This is what we did most of the time!...just hanging out talking and enjoying each others company


Here are 3 of the best babies in the whole world! They were so good the whole weekend.

Isn't she just a doll? anytime she had the camera on her she would stop and give the cutest looks.

When Cyra saw this picture of me she asked if it was when I was in Chicago. When I said yes, she got so excited and could not stop talking about how FANCY Chicago is...the curtains, the couch, the wall color. After that she insisted I show her the rest of the pictures. She now has decided that on HER next night out she would like to go to CHICAGO. (man she is going to be disappointed soon!)

I showed her this picture of the outside of the place we stayed (because I thought it was nice) and she said" That's not Fancy, that is just PLAIN" I guess I don't know my stuff.

Dinner at Tuscany Friday night. By the time we finished our dinner it was raining( well not just raining but also windy). We had walked to the resturant so by the time we got back to our place we were all soaked.

Waiting for seats at the cheesecake factory


The Hancock Observatory Building. You ride an elevator to the 94th floor, on a clear day you can see upto 80 miles and 4 states.

The view from the 94th floor. As you can see it wasn't the clearest day, but it was still awesome!

View of the city


guys playing buckets on the streets.

September kids Video

This is a video I put together for my Chicago trip. It is pictures complied together from the last 7 years from my Sept. board I am on.

**Don't foget to pause the music player on the side if you want to watch this!

SuPeRaD- The name Gage wants to use for his band

This is from awhile ago but I just figured out how to put it on here. It is Gage playing his Guitar.

Almost forgot...if your going to watch it your going to want to pause the music player on the side.

JaCe

We were at Grandma and Grandpa Jensens last night and the kids were going across the zip line again. I remembered my camera this time, so I had to get video of Jace going across. Here it is:

Later I will have to post pictures of my Chicago trip!

Goblin Valley!

We spent our weekend at Goblin Valley. The kids had a blast climbing and crawling through dirt for 2 days. We knew it was time to go home when the battery died on the trailer, it ran out of water, ran out of propaine, and the generator ran out of gas. lol It was a fun time though and we took LOTS of pictures! Here are just a sample of the pictures we took. (I got home to put them on our computer and saw we had 520 pictures! That was after deleting picture that just didn't turn out.)
The kids are now SO excited for summer and all the trips we have planned, they are dissapointed that that need to go back school in the morning.



This was the second night sitting aroung the camp fire, after going on a frog hunt. Cyra was scared the frogs were going to come into the trailer while she was sleeping. We had to explain to her that they can't jump high enough to get into the trailer.


This is "lizzie" (named by cyra) on Jaces shirt. He woke up from his nap to see the lizard, he thought it was the coolest thing.

Cyra was SO funny while taking pictures, she had to POSE for every picture!

James jumping a Goblin.

Jace walked so much that day. he didn't want to be in the backpack James was carrying around,he just wanted to climb everything. The next day though, he had a had time even walking to the bathrooms. lol

Another POSE!

Notice jace at the bottom trying to keep up with all the BIG kids.

This is Gage jumping over me from one goblin to another.

You still have to look "Fancy" even if you are camping!

Gage jumping off a goblin

It's kind of hard to see in this picture when it is small, but Cyra is walking up to where Zane and Kaysha are. This was at the first camp spot we were at.

Just hanging around!

Zanes NEW home

Gage surfing

I'm not sure what they were all doing here with there hands.

The first of many...

We love our B-B-Q's around here and it wouldn't be spring break without one, so last night we all got together to start off our spring break right...

No better way to do it then to have the Grill Master (aka James) to cook the food.


This is Cyndi coming back for Seconds!!! (just kidding)


Brady going for some b-b-q, but not before first stopping to get his potato salad. I made the mistake once of not making the potato salad and will never do that again. I really think that is the only reason they even invite me to these things!


Jared going for the yummy grilled pineapple!


Russ and Auggie


Joel loving the bread sticks


HOUSEKEEPING!




Cyra in heaven with all the dress-up clothes. She kept coming down with one more thing added to the outfit and wanted me to take a picture each time.


Madison relaxing


The GANG!! Take a look at the sunburn on Dia's arms (ouch!)


The rest of The GANG!


It was such a fun night! I can't wait for summer to begin, we are all going to have a blast.

Glazed Strawberry- Lemon Streusel Muffins

I have been making treats like crazy lately. Here is another recipe I found the other day. I thought it was a very good recipe. I wasn't too sure about the strawberries, but they were actually good.

LEMON STREUSEL TOPPING:
¼ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated lemon peel
1 Tbs melted butter
LEMONY GLAZE:
½ cup powdered sugar
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
MUFFINS:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup milk
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 large egg
1½ cups fresh strawberries, chopped
1 tsp grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 375°F. Paper-line twelve 2½-inch muffin cups.
Prepare Lemon- Streusel Topping: Combine all ingredients for streusel and stir until crumbly. Set aside.
Prepare Lemony Glaze: Combine sugar and lemon juice in small bowl, stirring until smooth. Set aside.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Combine milk, butter and egg in small bowl until well blended. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened. Fold in strawberries and lemon peel. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle Lemon Streusel Topping evenly over tops of muffins.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Drizzle lemony glaze over tops of warm muffins. Serve warm or cool completely.

Yield: 12 muffins

Here is another one the kids loved! How could you not, rice crispy treat with chocolate, what more could you want!

Extreme Toasted Marshmallow Rice Crispy Treats

12 Cups toasted rice crispy cereal

2 10.5 oz bags mini marshmallows
6 Tablespoons butter

1 Cup chocolate chips
3 Cups mini marshmallows

10 mini Twix candy bars, chopped

10 mini Snicker candy bars, chopped

1. Prepare rice crispy treats according to directions on the cereal box, I doubled recipe. Press into a 9X13 inch baking dish. It will be filled close to the top.

2. Preheat oven's broiler. Sprinkle chocolate chips over rice crispy treats. Sprinkle 3 Cups mini marshmallows over top. Broil in oven just until marshmallows start to puff and turn golden. Watch very carefully, it happens quickly!

3. Remove from oven and press chopped candy bars over toasted marshmallows. Let cool for 1 hour before serving.

The last recipe I will post for tonight ( I made a few more things but will leave them for another day) is the :

No Bake Fudge Cookies of Love
1 stick butter

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cup quick oats

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add next four ingredients and heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for one minute, then remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and oats.Drop mixture by the spoonful onto a sheet of waxed paper, parchment paper, or aluminum foil. Allow no-bakies to cool until firm, approximately 20 minutes.

These are very quick and easy!

It is very late, so I will have to post pictures from the fun get-together we had today, in the morning. We started off our spring break with a great b-b-q!

Night Out...

This is Jace (drinking his chocolate milk) at Mcdonalds last night when he went on his FIRST night out with dad. He was so excited that it was finally his turn to go. Every week he would cry because he wanted it to be his turn. I asked him if I could come along and he told me" No, you are TOO big." I barely got a kiss from him because he was so excited to leave, but when he got home he gave me a big hug and didn't want to let go. He is growing up so fast! I will see if James got anymore picture of him when he gets home. This is the one he sent me as a text message while they were out.

This weekend... (before the snow hit)

These pictures (yes the quality of these pictures ARE awful, but i didn't have my camera with me so I had to use the camera from my phone)are from Grandma and Grandpa Jensens house this weekend.
Cyra was terrified to go on the zip line, but after her first ride down she didn't want to stop. Zane, of course, LOVED it. James even put Jace on it (i was up at the house at the time) and he also loved it. I was so scared he was going to let go and fall into the water. The water is just about ankle deep, for now. James and his dad are talking about digging that part out to make it deeper.
The last picture is the fort that grandpa built for them. There is also talk about making a zip line from the tree down to the other side of the water. I really wonder sometimes if they are just trying to kill the kids. Oh yeah, luckly they have a grandma around because without her there would be no rail going around that fort, he just had it as a platform.
Watching the kids do all this stuff scares me so bad. So far the injuries at their house have been minimal, so that is good. Or that could mean we are in for a big one soon!