Great Dinners Once Again..

Our dinner group came through once again with some really great meals.
Monday :chicken enchiladas w/ salad, fruit
Tuesday: Broccoli/chicken lasagna w/ salad and rolls
Wednesday: Baked Croissant sandwiches w/ potato cheese soup/ veggies/fruit
Thursday: Dr. Pepper Pork burritos w/ fruit

Truly Great Food from Truly Great Friends…
Thanks Ladies

We have a New Addition to the Family....

NO, no, no, it's not what you think....That can't happen anymore...
We got a hot tub. It is the newest member of the household. Rick has wanted to get a hot tub for the last 5-6 years and it has finally arrived. The kids are having a blast in it. Rick and I have been enjoying evenings in it watching the stars and even storms roll in. (Last night was kinda scary) Blake especially likes it. He thinks it is a great big bathtub and throws a real fit when it's time to get out....This puts us one step closer to being done working on our backyard...yeah!

Dinner Sharing...what a concept...:)

Some friends and I have started a dinner sharing group. There are 4 familes participating and so far it is awesome. We each cook one day during the week, but make enough for all four families. It is SOOO nice to only cook that one night, and weekends...
This week we had :

• Pork chops w/ mashed potatoes(totally awesome, thanks Jamie)
• Chicken w/veggie shish-kabobs, salad,fruit and rice(wow Thelissa)
• Chicken calabaza w/ rice and beans (you know I like this Bree!)
• Baked Ziti w/Turkey sausage, bread and steamed broccoli(go me)

It is alot of work the day you cook but soooo worth the days off! The only complaint so far is that everyone is making dessert and we are going to have to work out twice as often..that's ok, you only live once.

Jesse...

While blogging, I forgot to include a very important part of our family. Jesse is 3.5 years old and a ton of fun. This dog thinks he is human and LOVES being around people. The kids love him so much. His favorite person is Rick and then Kalvyn. He could pretty much care less about the rest of us. He thinks he is a big dog and tries to jump over the fence (haha) and get the giant rottweiler next door.Lately, Blake has been trying to hold him, it's pretty funny to watch the two of them. He has a huge personality for his little 7 pounds.. anyone that knows him can vouch for that!

We Survived the First Week of School!

Well, we made it thru the first week of 2nd grade and jr. high. Kalvyn had a great time this week. She is so confident. I remember the first days of 7th grade being scary. She breezed right thru it and likes all of her classes so far, especially dance. We even got to go out and spend $66 on dance stuff, fun.
Tate had a good week as well. He needs to get control of his bladder and learn to go at recess, but other than that he did great on spelling, math and reading tests and has been very happy to see all of his friends.
Blake and I had a pretty boring week, mostly just cleaning up after Blake, haha.

OHHH Blake...what am I going to do with you???

Seriously, We have a 6.5 year gap between Tate and Blake. I totally forgot the absolute mess that a toddler can make. For the last few days, I have spent %80 of my day bending over and picking up baby messes. We have cleaned up a broken bottle of nail polish, glass and all, my husbands collection of 100 year old medicine bottles(his 94 year old grandfather found buried in his garden),dog food and dog water. We have put items back into the recycle bin more times than I can count and taken things out of the recycle bin like shoes, hair brush, new diapers, toys ect..
I am about to go out of my mind . Today he found the one cabinet in the kitchen that doesn't have a lock on it and emptied it out. ARGHHH! I just need to remember, this too shall pass. In the mean time, I guess I need to pull out a few new toys to see if that will spark his interest instead... Wish me luck...

This weeks yummy menu!!!!

So I ran across a really good chicken recipe for this week and it was really easy.(pictured)
All you do is use pepper, salt and cayenne on chicken, saute in olive oil for 8 minutes each side. Meanwhile, chop up avocado and add in a little onion and tomato. When chicken is done, put avocado across top of chicken. It was too spicy for the kids so I made theirs a little different. Serve with a salad and viola.
This week we are having:

Spicy Chicken w/avocado and a salad
Tostados
Shrimp and Pasta w/a pink sauce, asparagus
Grilled Salmon w/ broccoli
BBQ chicken on the grill w/ salad

Tate learns to wakeboard!!!!!!!!

My little Tate went boating with Rick and his friends from work. Kalvyn and I decided to go shopping instead.. This is what went on while they were at Canyon Lake. I wish I would of gone just to see this! He is so dang cute... of course I am biased. Go Tate!

This Weeks Menu......Mmmmmm

I have been searching for a new recipe but unable to find anything that jumps out at me. I did find a yummy breakfast recipe on a blog called The Picky Palate.
Its a cinnamon, chocolate chip bread muffin.
As far as dinner goes, we are having the following this week for dinner:

Taco Salad
Chicken Ravioli/Broccoli
Kung Pou Chicken/Edamame (from Costco)
Lemon Pepper Chicken/Salad
Turkey Burgers/Corn on the cob

So the Breaking Dawn book came out Friday at Midnight. A few girlfriends and I went to Scottsdale to go to the release party. It was a lot of fun. Of course, being that the book is a young adult book, we were the oldest in the crowd. We started off at SPRINKLES and then over to GRIMALDIS for diner. We went shopping for a bit and then to the Scottsdale Waterfront Borders.
Bree, being the Twilight wiz that she is, answered so many trivia questions correct that she won the prize of going to the front of the line. We also won for the best T-shirts.(thanks Thelissa and Bree).
I am sure that my fellow readers are well on their way to being done with the book, however I haven't been able to get too far. My family has been taking up my weekend. I will stay up late tonight to really get into it...