My girls...

My girls are getting older by the minute! I just cant believe how fast time has flown by. Nayana is ten now, going on 15 of course... Sophie will be 9 next month and it will be her turn to get her ears pierced. Tia is going to be 4 next month as well going on 9. My days are definatly enriched by my wonderful girls. I cant imagine living life without them, and never in a million years would I have imagined I would have three very wonderful, very different girls.

This is Nayana and I in Montana when I was pregnant with Sophie late 1999-2000.

Baby Sophie April 2000

Nayana pushing baby Sophie in the doll stroller.. they had so much fun with that thing!

Nayana and baby Sophie out camping... 2001

Nayana too cute... 2002?

Nayana, Sophie and I went camping all alone! Well, we brought Bailey my chocolate lab with us! This was summer 2003?

Baby Tia.... at our house in Milwaukie on 39th street... Sophie was 2 weeks away from turning 5 when Tia was born and Nayana was 6 1/2.

Looking at all the pictures I have of the girls just amaze me how much they have grown, how much they have changed... So amazing! I hope you've enjoyed this little walk down memory lane with me!

Bumbling around town...

Do you ever feel like you just need to get out of the house? I know I do! The weeks I dont work that much (2 days) I feel like all the cleaning and working around the house just plain gets old! Yesterday after all the cooking and baking I did (still more posts to come about that)... I found out that my dishwasher part (the dishwasher has been out for a couple weeks now) is on back order! So I am still hand washing dishes... yeah!! yeah ... not so much!

So today I feel like heading out and bumbling around town. Finding places I've never been, checking things out I've never seen. I'm waiting to leave bcs my lovely neighbor is going to head out with me and she has some things to do first!

I've been up since 5am, got a load of water, did dishes, sent the DH and children off to school, made little Tia her breakfast, cleaned out the car and am about to go play with the dogs. I know its going to be one of those days I either end up over caffinated or ready for a nap by 2pm. So we'll wait and see!!

I'll definatly let you know if I find something super interesting!

Way-back_Wednesday

Well once again, Amy has inspired me! sorry Amy.... I feel like I'm just copying you! Here is my way-back-wednesday http://theatoztwins.blogspot.com/2009/02/way-back-when-endsday.html



This is Nayana (left) and Sophie (right) october 2004! Nayana was five and Sophie was 3!! They were so cute! We had soo much fun trick or treating... honestly I dont remember. I do remember those costumes! They loved them. We lived in a house on Monroe st in milwaukie, the girls carved pumpkins and I loved seeing the candles lit in the on the porch at dark. I still love seeing glowing pumpkins (doesnt happen that often).... Aren't they adorable?

Busy wednesday...

Today was a busy day for me, my friend Christy wanted me to teach her how to make bread. So before she could come over I needed to make sure my dishes were all done, my living room was picked up and vaccumed and my house wasnt a total mess! I know a true friend doesnt care, and she doesnt, its just me I cant stand it! So after getting the house cleaned up, I put in my dinner for mystery spice monday (thank you Amy!) http://theatoztwins.blogspot.com/2009/02/introducing-mystery-spice-monday.html I also got everything set out for bread making.

Christy called and said she was running late so I went out and played with the dogs. So tomorrow I will post the bread making... I also did some other things today that I will also share in another post.

Tired I am right now, but wanted to be as cool as Amy .... http://theatoztwins.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-first-month-of-blogging.html and blog everyday for at least a month!!! Way to inspire Amy!!

Dinner is almost ready, the DH (dear Husband) will be home in about an hour, the girls are finishing up homework... and I'm ready for bed!

Mystery Spice Monday....

My spice cabinets!

Here's my Mystery Spice Monday... Thanks Amy once again for the inspiration!!! http://theatoztwins.blogspot.com/2009/02/introducing-mystery-spice-monday.html


Okay, so my spice for mystery spice Monday is not that mysterious to probably a lot of you.. My mystery spice that I hardly EVER use is ..... Curry! So I found a great recipe for Moroccan Spice Chicken ... here are my ingredients... Chicken, carrots, coarsely chopped onions, dried dates (was suppose to be dried plums), Salt, Curry, Cinnamon, and chicken base (or chicken broth).

Coarsely chopped the onions...

Put the onions, carrots, and dried dates into the bottom of my crock pot

Poured in the chicken broth ....

Placed the frozen chicken breasts on top (the recipe called for thighs, you can use whatever you want! also -- mine were frozen as my crock pot is so very hot i knew they would be fine)

Then mix your spices, cinnamon, salt and curry seasoning (this is also a new way for using cinnamon I've never cooked chicken w/ cinnamon before)

Here they are up close....

And than evenly sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken...

Ta da.... set crock pot on low...

and this is what it looks like after about 6 hours...

See the time I took the last picture?

Honestly, this wasn't a huge hit for my family... I thought it was good, something different! I served it with plain white rice. My husband is not a big curry fan, and had to choke it down with some bread. My daughters ate it because they were hungry but it wasn't their favorite! Oh well, i thought it was good.... I wonder what next Monday will bring?

Thanks again Amy!

Blogging Etiquette?

Well I've read in other blogs about a certain code, or blogging etiquette? What is this code? or Etiquette? Is it unspoken or is it acutally something we can read? Im very curious to hear about this bcs today... I'm having one of those days you cant wait until it's over, and once it's done, you want to pretend like it never happened!

So people PLEASE! enlighten me on this code written or unwritten, this etiquette spoken or not!

Homeade Graonla Bars.... Thank you Amy for the fabulous Idea!

Okay, Amy truly inspires me to blog for one and to try new recipes for two. I loved Amy's blog on making homemade Granola bars here's her blog: http://theatoztwins.blogspot.com/2009/01/homemade-granola-bars.html

Here's all of my ingredients..... Honey, Wheat Germ, Walnuts, Salt, Raisins, Craisens, Vanilla, butter, brown sugar and Rolled Oats. My delicous vanilla is some that was brought back to me from Mexico, my sweet neighbor got for me! Heat your oven to 400 degree's.

In a glass pan pour in your rolled oats....

Your wheat germ......

I forgot to put this in the original picture of all the ingredients, but I decided to add some Flax seed.

Crush your walnuts (any nuts work)... I put them in a Ziploc and smash them with a rolling pin. Great time to get out any anger, frustration or rage you've got pent up inside!!

Pour the crushed walnuts into the rolled oats, wheat germ and flax seed mixture.

Mix the rolled oats, wheat germ, chopped walnuts and flax all together evenly.

Once thoroughly mixed, smooth out to prepare for toasting in the oven.

Place in oven at 400 degree's for 10-12 minutes. Stirring often. I baked mine for a full 12 minutes. The below picture is how it looked once removed from the oven. You can now turn off your oven, you are done with it!

Meanwhile in a saucepan on medium heat pour in brown sugar, butter, honey, salt and vanilla.

Over medium heat, bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.

This is how it looks once its done, ready to be poured over oat mixture, and fruit.

Measure out about 8 oz of dried fruit. I used craisens and raisins, it measured to be about 2 cups. The measuring cup in picture below is a 4 cup measure.

Pour the dried fruit over the oat mixture and spread out evenly.

Than pour the sticky mixture over the oats & fruit. I tried to pour it out as evenly as I could.

Next, stir it up so that everything is evenly coated w/ the sticky stuff!

Once mixture is completely and thoroughly mixed, spoon into another pan that is lined and lightly coated w/ spray-- line w/ wax paper or aluminum foil (that's all I had).

Once all spooned in spread out evenly, and press down w/ spatula. Than cover w/ a sprayed piece of aluminum foil (or wax paper).

Press down hard to make a tight compact mix.

The little hands are of my little helper!! Let the mixture cool completely, I really think that having foil on it made it take a lot longer to cool. It was really hard to be patient! Once cooled, turn upside down on cutting board.

Cut into whatever size you would like your granola bars to be! Nice thing about this is it doesn't stick together perfectly, so while you cut you get some to nibble on! I wrapped the bars individually and than stored them in an air tight container. The girls had one when they came home from school today (can you believe I waited to eat one until than too?)... they loved them and I love being able to give them something healthy that is homemade and I know what all the ingredients are!!!

Granola Bars

2 1/2 cups oats

1 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup flax seed

1 cup crushed walnuts

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup butter

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

8 oz dried fruit

Trim around the outside windows....

When we built our house we went w/ the builders that was getting the most for our money. Therefore things like trim around the exterior of our windows was something left for the home owner to do. Along with an extensive list of many other things but we wont get into that right now.

(This is our bedroom window, the first one I did. Notice the little bit of decorative flair at the top? Good job considering all I had to cut with was a circular saw.)

Our house was completed in Feb 2007 and since then we have been trying to finish the house and do things to make it look complete. This post is about me putting up the exterior trim. I started a couple weeks ago, and haven't finished yet bcs I'm still waiting for a certain lumber company to get in more of my 1" x 4" rough cut cedar....

So so far here is what I've got accomplished.

Keep in mind, I've had to measure, cut and nail these all on my own! I felt so good being able to do this solo project its motivated me to do more!

Once that certain lumber company gets in more of my boards I will have some action shots of cutting (well not really, maybe action shots of the boards laid out before and after they are cut!)