The tooth fairy has made a stop at our house.

Mason lost another tooth.  Both of his two front teeth were super loose and one of them fell out this week.  He now has that adorable, naughty, snaggle toothed grin going on.

It truly is too much. I am having a hard time taking him seriously with this silly smile goin’ on.  Even his teacher is having a difficult time disciplining this face (yep.  he gets a bit of discipline every now and then. hard to believe, I know).

It won’t be long though, because the other one is hanging on by a thread.

 

There are two things he loves for sure.

Getting his picture taken and his big sister.

 

Potato Plate is pretty much like baked potatoes but easier to eat for a couple of my non knife using kiddos. I came across this idea at a super cute little eatery in Laguna Beach, CA while Scott and I were on our mental health beach camping weekend. I was internet searching vegan restaurants and found The Stand. It is literally a food stand with some outdoor seating.  They have the largest vegan menu I have ever seen.  Scott and I ordered 4 different things and just ate family style.  By the way, the smoothies are also delicious.

Sooo, back to my middleoftheweektoobusytocookanythingelse recipe……

I cube about 12 medium potatoes (no judging~I have four very big eaters) and boil them.  Then we throw anything we can think of right on top of a pile of potato.

Here is our list tonight.  Next time it might look totally different.

Black beans, Guacamole, salsa, vegan cheese, green onions, lettuce, kale, spinach, chopped carrots and diced green peppers.

Kinda sounds like nachos but with potato………..and kale.

I try to add some green veggie like broccoli or kale to as many meals as possible.  Super green veggies rule.

My kids eat this up and they can design their own plates, which they love.  I usually go behind them adding all the good stuff but at least they get a bit of control:)

I have heard from a very reliable source that grandparents get pretty upset when I post food or book pictures without children in them so here you are….a middle of the week recipe picture plus my cute boys.

Happy cooking.

Jennifer

Today I bribed asked Alice to go outside with me for a mini photo shoot.  I have been working on shooting in some new to me settings on my camera and she just got a new haircut (so she was feeling sassy).  Alice is pretty photogenic and I don’t have to ask her to be silly; she just hams it up.  I can do a decent job just shooting in auto or aperture mode but I have never shot pictures in manual.  I have been practicing inside but today has been gorgeous and warmer so I braved my midday sun/manual mode phobia and headed out there.

I still have a lot of work to do but I think I am starting to get the hang of it.  My adorable model makes it easier too:)

This is my favorite.  I did crop it and bring up the color just a bit.  I think that I could adjust my camera settings a bit for sharpness.

Love that girl and her green eyes.

Happy Sunday.

Jennifer

Today is our sweet baby Paige’s birthday.

Our precious brown-eyed girl.

Happy Birthday, lovebug.

 

 

 

 

So, for the first half of our winter break we braved the snow and cold and hung out around home but by Wednesday it was pretty clear these kids were going to turn on us so we packed up the truck and headed to warmer places, grandma and grandpa’s house.  The sun was shining, snow was nowhere to be seen and I didn’t need a puffy in or out of the house.  It was glorious.  Here are some great shots of the kids on Friday.  We took them over to Red Rocks Open Space and got our climb on.  I did climb a bit too but no one took my picture 🙂

Thanks to my parents for hosting all of us plus the dog for a few days.  We loved our time away from the arctic tundra we call home.  Now I am sitting here, sipping a warm tea, watching the snow fall.  It is amazing what a 2 hour drive can do for the soul.

Happy March! Back to school and work tomorrow!

Jennifer

So, while many of our friends are enjoying their winter break on the beach sipping boat drinks, we are still hanging out at home in the snow and cold…sipping hot chocolate. We could feel sorry for ourselves but instead we are taking advantage of the situation. The sun was shining today so the kids and I headed to the skating pond. It was a bit windy but we enjoyed our time skating nonetheless. Mason is a bit under the weather but even he tried out his new ice skates for a few minutes and then sat down to watch the other kids. Unbelievably, we had the entire pond to ourselves. After skating, the older three played in the snow in our cul-de-sac. They love making scary sledding runs down the enormous piles of snow. I have to admit that they are fun:) and it is a good way to go sledding without leaving home!

It is so awesome that we get this break from school right in the middle of winter so we are going to enjoy every minute of it!  Have a great week mountain friends!  And here’s to lots of snow and a great winter season….and to a very warm spring.

 

It has been five years since we adopted our little man.  Five. years.  Wow.

We changed his life that day but he has been changing ours every day since.

We love you Masonator.

We LOVE to make Valentine’s Day cards around here.

Well, I LOVE to make them and the kids put up with my crazy crafty moments.  Every year we try and come up with something super cute and new.  Nothing is original because we get the ideas (and tweak them) from Pinterest but they are new to us:)

If you need some fun ideas, here are the cards from last year and here are the cards from two years ago (those were my favorite).

This is what we came up with this year…

Alice liked this idea and I secretly I thought it might be sort of boring but they turned out adorable.  The great (or not so great, depending on who might be a craft control freak) thing about these cards is that Alice made them all by herself.  She painted all the rocks and designed the card herself.

I just glued.

Paige loves her Valentine’s and it was really hard not eating all the contents.  Smores.  Who doesn’t love a smore?!?!?  We came up with a few cute sayings but she finally decided on The World Needs Smore Love.

These are so Paigie.

Mason went with the non-food choice.  It can be hard to find homemade card ideas for boys. This one turned out pretty darn awesome, if you ask me.

He has two saying on his Valentines.  Girls- You make my heart race.  Boys- You are Wheelie cool. 

Evidently middle schoolers don’t pass out cards, so Sam just hung out and watched.

So, Happy Valentine’s Day to you.  I can’t promise I will be around the blog tomorrow so here’s to a day filled with the people you love!

Give someone a hug!

Jennifer

Last year, Scott started a new tradition with the girls.

The Daddy Daughter Dance.

The girls adore getting all dressed up and spending the evening dancing with their friends and (sometimes) their dads:)

The boys and I stayed home and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.  I adore spending time with my boys as well:)  and we didn’t have to get dressed up!

BTW, Paige was feeling a little down while I was taking pictures but she perked up by the time they arrived at the dance.

 

 

 

Today we are hanging out at home.  We have so much snow in our cul-de-sac that the kids can sled right in front of the house.  Scott and I even got out and did a few bumpy runs along with our (adult) neighbor, Sally.   We are working on a luge run through the middle:)  The snow is getting a bit out of control around here but it does make for fun sledding and snow ball fights.

See ya!

Jen