These Boots Were Made for Walking.....

And the poor things had been sitting in my closet for years without a nice backpacking trip, but all that changed this past weekend.  Often, my birthday request has been to go backpacking, and for many years that is exactly what I have done on my birthday, but it haed been four years since I had gone.  Something about being 8 months pregnant, then having a not quite 1 year old, then not wanting to leave my little angel, but this year, she was more than happy to stay with MeeMaw and let Mommy and Daddy go backpacking.  We walked much further than anticipated due to a wrong turn on my part, but we still had fun.  The biggest complaint I have is that my remote, quiet Piney Creeek is evidently in the flight path of the new Branson Airport cause there were LOTS of planes overhead which was somethign never previously heard before.  But I still woke up listening to a screech owl.  Here are a few pictures....

 A deer skull in the bottom

 This was a wolf spider with something on its back....do they carry their babies? 

 This was our campsite....the sun wasn't very high yet and it was in the woods, so pictures were a little difficult to get.

 Here's the creek just below our campsite

 This is lookign the other direction

 Here's the trail....one time through here was where Daddy asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and he told me, "Find something you love to do and figure out how to get paid to do it."  Some of the best advice I've ever gotten.

 Between Mud Mountain (Hike it you'll understand why we call it that) and the final climb back up to the tower. 

 Yes, this was our trail up.

 And he was still willing to stop at my favorite place in the world and get his picture made.  I've hiked hundreds of miles (literally) across the west and Arkansas, but this view right here is my absolute favorite one ever!  Especially this picture with my sweetie in it!

 Ok, so this was Thursday night.  We took her to the little fair here in town so she could ride a merry go round.  Seh LOVED it....but only rode once cause it was $3!

Happy little girl getting off with daddy. 

And what did Emily do while we were hiking?  I think she played baseball and frisbee and Blaine must've had a scooter or somethign because Sunday night we were looking through the toys r us ad and she saw the scooters and said, "I want one those, like Blaine. But I want princess one"  Was pretty plain, so he must've had one....

And now my day must begin...plus Emily wants to type so it might get hard to read:)

Our week

Ok, so I thought I'd share another recipe with you this week.  I mentioned last week that I made cinnamon apple crepes for the girls and they were wonderful!  Sorry no pictures:)  First off, make crepes.  I used the recipe from my betty crocker cookbook, but you can use any crepe recipe you like, or totally cheat and buy already made ones at the store.  Dice up apples....I diced up 3 small apples and it was just about the perfect amount for six crepes.  Put your apples in a skillet with butter, cinnamon and sugar.  Cook until the apples are tender and carmalized.  While your apples are cooking, spread a layer of cream cheese over each crepe.  After the apples get tender, put a spoonful of apples in the middle of your crepe and roll it up.  Put whipped cream on it and serve.  Yummy! 

And for those of you that arent interested in my new recipe addiction lately, here's a few pictures for your amusement.  And let me also add the disclaimer that yes, usually she does dress herself!

 Cutie pie!

 She had been sitting under the tree with the dress spread all around her but I wasn't fast enough with the camera!

 Fingerpainting.  We were making apple cores out of paper plates and on the top of the paper it said, "God loves me to the core!"  They turned out cute.  I'm really not sure why we had a red nose.

 In learning about apples last week, we had to try out different ways to eat them, so on Thursday they all got to make their own caramel apples.  Emily thougth they were tasty, although a little hard to eat!

 It cooled off, she got out her hat and "mits"  She's worn them almost constantly!  And before the picture she had been dancing to the "yodeling veterinarian of the alps" ....a song which will inevitably be stuck in my head now that I mentioned it. 

And this is a picture from last week whenever Meemaw and Grandpa stopped by on their way home from vacation.  They were looking at pictures...then we decided to just hook the computer up to the tv to watch. 

Ok, gotta get ready for the rest of my day.  The good news is that I already put the lasagna together and its in the fridge for dinner tonight and I chopped up my chicken, carrots and celery for my chicken noodle soup tomorrow night and so I dont actually have to cook dinner for the next two nights!

Yummy, yummy, yummy

I confessed my newest addiction to pinterest.com on here last week.  This coupled with the fact that I'm tired of eating the same things all the time and that leaves my poor husband trying out recipe after recipe since Saturday.  For those of you that don'fdt want a new addiction, but would like a new recipe I decided I would share what I've been making with you.  Ix've tried mozzarella sticks, glazed doughnut muffins, pepperoni pizza monkey bread, crock pot mac and cheese, and twice baked potato casserole, oh and frappucinno.  And I made cinnamon apple cream cheese crepes for the girls this week (very yummy too although there was no recipe involved, we are just studying apples this week)   Actually it was all ok, the potatoes were awesome....not exactly healthy, but very tasty!  And tonght we are having crock pot taco chili, which is what I'm going to share.  I got the recipe from redsie05.blogsot.com with a few minor adjustments.

Here's a picture of mine, currently cooking in my crockpot, waiting for dinnertime and smelling yummy.

Ooops. no picture.  technical difficulties.  maybe next time:) 

and the recipe...

1 onion chopped
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
2 cans tomatoes with green chilis
1 b:ag forzen corn (15 oz)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp  cumin
1 package taco seasoning
3 boneless skinless chicken breast

Put everything except the chicken in a crock pot. Stir it all togeether. Put the chicken breast on top and cook on low setting for 10 hours.  I didnt even thaw my chicken first, just stuck it in frozen and it worked....I cooked on low for 12 hours...that's just the way my day worked, it smelled wonderful the last half of the day.  So before serving pull the chicken off the top and take it out and shred it with a fork.  It shredded very easily.  If a person was talented you could probably use two forks and just shred it in the pot.  Then return it to the pot, stir it all up, serve in bowls.  Emily and Neal added a dollop of sour cream and cheese to theirs, I ate mine plain, and it was in fact, very tasty!  Of course afer smelling it ALL afternoon when I didnt get lunch today made me really hungry for it, but it was still good.  To make it better....would have been incredible with a chunk of cornbread on the side. 


Oh and one more quick and easy recipe that turned out where Emily kept asking for more apple treats...Preheat oven to 400.  Grease a cookie sheet.  Spread applesauce 1/8 inch thick on cookie sheet.  When oven is preheated put cookie sheet in and turn down to 170.  Cook for approximately 4 hours or until you can peel the applesauce off and what do you know, you've got a fruit rollup.  How simple is that?  Even better if you have a dehydrater, put the applesauce on the little tray that is made for that sort of thing and turn it on. 

I'll try to do better about getting recipe pictures, I just cook, don't usually photograph my food:)  But it sells people better on the recipe, I know.  Now, what should be on the menu for next week.....

Where were you?

For the first nearly 22 years of my life, I never questioned national security.  I knew I was in America, and just that fact alone kept me safe from the attrocities of war.  Then one morning, my senior year of college that feeling dissappeared over a bowl of cereal.  I remember exactly where I was sitting in our apartment watching the today show.  at first we were watching a horrible accident, a plane had crashed into one of the world trade center towers.  I remember Katy was standing in the doorway between the living room and kitchen whenever the second plane hit, and no longer were we watching a lone plane, a horrible accident, we were suddenly watching America being attacked, and at the time as niave college students, we didn't know who the enemy was.  I remeber that day was different.  Walking across campus, you gave your friends hugs, instead of just saying hi.  You called home just because it made you feel better to talk to mom and dad, and you actually saw people stopping and praying.  As a nation that has taken God almost out of daily life and left Him solely in the sanctuary onSunday mornings, that Tuesday, people prayed in the libraries, near the fountain, in the entomology lab.  So did we learn anything ten years ago?  Anyone over the age of 15 could do as I've done, tell you exactly where they were on that Tuesday morning in September.  There are people that lost loved ones in the attacks, and since then there have been many young men and women fighting and losing their lives in a war that we suddenly found ourselves fighting.  America remebers, on the anniversaries, but as Americans we should never be afraid to just stop and pray...we don't have to wait until life as we know it is gone, we need to spend more time down on our knees, looking to our creator in the good timee,as the bad.  Don't let that day be the only day you've ever prayed without thought of what you need to get done for the day, make it a daily thing.  Regardless of what is going on in the world around you, good or bad, God is in control.  So on this ten year anniversary, remeber that day, think about where you were and look at how life has changd for you, and decide what kind of life you want in ten years from now and know that today is the day to start working toward bcoming that person.

pinterest.com

ok, if you are  holding a baby that screams when you lay her down and waiting for a two year old to go to sleep, then this is a good website.  if you have something you need to be doing, don't go there.  That site should come with warning labels....its the most addicting website i've ever been on.  It has also given me some great ideas for an upcoming birthday party...the recipe for starbucks caramel apple cider, and an adorable table idea for Emily.  We won't discuss the laundry that piles up while browsing.  so if you need ideas for how to clean your mattress, make your own oxiclean, or an oreo chocolate chip brownie recipe head on over.  just be prepared to be there a while as one interesting thing tends to lead to another...  

Emily

We decided to save our money and not go anywhere this weekend, plus a long weekend at home never happens so it has been nice.  Emily's cousins came over and spent the night Friday and all day Saturday with her.  She now has pink fingernails with sparly flowery stickers on them.  she's funny she just stares at thhem and then says "My Becky painted my nails"  and yeatreday the weather was awesome, if a bit windy, and went to the park.  Tried to catch a goose but to no avail...probably needed a lemony cinnamon roll....
She also posed for me and so here are some pictures of a very silly little girl.

And yesterday morning she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I need a Jessie baby doll"  Good thing, I purchased one last week as a part of a deal of deal in which I managed to purchase a whole box full of toy story and princess goodies for under $30.  The calendar changed to September and I realized that means her birthday is NEXT month!  AHHH....I'm going ot do a party for her with her friends and one with family so there is some planning.  And I don't believe in purchasing games for the party and so I'm going to make them all...that along with the gifts I'm making....again let me say AHHH!  The three and a half hour nap today and I made some progress.  But I still havent figured out exactly what I'm going to do for her cake yet......all I know is it will involve toy story.