Enjoying some Nature...

We got to enjoy some good amounts of nature in the first few weeks of March. We spent a Sunday evening at Martin Nature Park with some family friends. We spent a day at the zoo with Grammy and Nicole. And spent as much time as possible in the backyard and at our neighborhood park soaking up some sun and enjoying our beautiful world!

Ironically... A second snow!

Yes, I realize that my last post was about a "very warm winter, " but somehow we still managed to get two different snows! It snowed on February 12 late at night, the storm came quickly and poured on a good amount. We got out early the next morning to play in it because the temperature that day was supposed to get up to 60!
 This second snow was considerably more than the first! Still not a load, but we were able to make a pretty good sized snow man! As I rolled up the snow man's body, the kids were yelling at me to stop taking away all the snow! We had fun. Lyric still did not join us in the snow. She once again stood on the edge of the porch and cried. Poor girl.  Maybe next year Lyric,  maybe next year. :)

Valentine's Weekend in Kansas City, just the two of us...

Dylan and I got to go to Kansas City for a one night stay on Valentine's weekend. He had an event for work to attend at a local church there in KC on Saturday morning, so we rolled out of town on Friday afternoon, and got to have a fun over night trip while the kids stayed here with family. We got to eat Friday night at a sport's bar that had over 90 televisions in it. We were able to watch some of the Thunder game while we ate. Saturday we woke really early to a very chilly day in KC and went to a local church to help with a VBS workshop that Dylan put on for work. After we got to go eat some AMAZING BBQ at a place called, "Oklahoma Joe's." SO good. Then we spent the rest of our time in KC at a local art museum. It was a really relaxing and cool experience. Here are a few photos from our experiences...



This is painting by Claude Monet. We learned about him this year in our homeschooling. 

Me and Dylan at "Oklahoma Joe's" for lunch. A wonderful BBQ place in Kansas City, that is half BBQ joint, and half gas station. 

At the art museum by a knight. And some armor in the background. :)

I'm thinking, I'm thinking. 

There was snow on the ground in Northern Oklahoma as we traveled to Kansas City. 

My love after our "work" portion of the trip was done, and that is a pretty cool looking building as well. 

When we got in the car on Saturday morning, my water in my water bottle that was in the car over night was completely frozen!

Mommy, Kellen, and Lyric's night out...

While daddy and Abigail were at the daddy/daughter dance, the rest of us had a night out too! Kellen wanted to eat at Taco Bueno and then have dessert at Orange Leaf. When we were walking into Taco Bueno Kellen said, "Mom, if I could get sprite, that would make this the best night ever!" So, we got sprite. While we ate, I asked Kellen a few questions about his day, he had a basketball game that morning and he played against a pretty big boy. I said,"That boy was pretty big that you played today..." Kellen looked at me with all seriousness and asked, "Yea, but did I handle him?" Oh man, I love mine Kellen. ;) We moved on to get some yogurt and then went home to play some Mario Kart, of course. ;)

Everyday randomness...

I try to capture as many moments as I can with my camera, here are a few from January and February. Kellen looks cute in my winter hat that I pretty shamelessly wear almost everyday. Abigail showing off her teeth carving skills in her apple. Lyric playing "pretty pretty princess" with all eight earrings on her one ear. Grammy watches the kids every other Thursday for mommy to have a day off, that is a photo of my cupcake from "cuppies and joe". Abigail coordinated a saturday morning craft for us to all do, we made valentines out of cardboard and glitter. And yea, that is Sam Bradford with Caitlyn. No, this moment was not captured with my camera... but it was with hers! It was such a cool experience for her that it needed to be documented here. :)

A very warm winter...

This winter has been very mild. We have had some really cold days, but they have been the exception and not the rule. Most days are around 50 degrees! Which means we get to spend more time outside! Which we all love. The zoo has free admission on Monday's in the winter, well for good reason, cause who wants to walk around at the zoo in winter time? We do! Because it is 60 degrees! Winter can be tough as a homeschool family. There can be days and days where it feels like you are completely homebound. So we are very grateful for this abnormally warm winter.

Daddy & Daughter Dance

It is that time of year again! Time for Yukon's Daddy and Daughter Dance! Abigail absolutely LOVES this event. She loves getting dressed up, Daddy dressing up, showing Daddy what she looks like all dressed up, Mommy takes photos (it was such a cloudy day ALL day, and the sun came out for like the ten minutes that I needed to get some good shots of them, Thank You Lord!), and then going to the dance! At the dance Abigail won a little toy dog because she was the only one wearing purple socks. After dancing the night away, they were off to have dinner together. Abigail chose Red Lobster, but after finding out that it would be a 35 minute wait, she decided that Chik-fil-a sounded pretty good.  Such a special and fun night for them both. Memories that they will never forget...

Moving Church Buildings...

Our church is moving! We have decided to move to a smaller location on NW Expressway. My kids are so pumped about the move. They talk about it like WE are moving houses. As a family, we have a lot of great memories in that building. We started attending Northview when I was pregnant with Kellen. Octoberish of 2006. Many, many, fun and wonderful memories in that building for sure. But, it is not the building that brought us there or kept us there. It was the wonderful people, and their love of our Jesus. I am excited to make this move with my Northview family and see what the Lord does with us as we follow His lead.

My Chili Recipe...

   Winter is the time for chili. My chili is one of Dylan, and Kellen's favorite meals. (I like it a lot as well) I thought I would document how to make it... INGREDIENTS...

1 lb of ground beef

1 diced onion

salt and pepper

3 cans diced tomatoes

3 cans chili beans

handful of brown sugar

sour cream, cheese, and tortilla chips to top it all off

Brown ground beef in a big pot, so that you don't have more than one cooking pan to clean. Add your diced onion as you brown your meat, I also like to go ahead and add salt and pepper at this point.

Drain the fat off of your ground beef. This is my method, I place a strainer on top of a bowl, and press my beef down to get all of that fat out. And then I put my beef back into the pot. 

This is why I finally decided to buy an electric can opener. Get to work opening all six cans and then dump them into the pot with the ground beef. 

This is what it will look like at this point, now grab the brown sugar!

I buy the big bag of brown sugar from Sam's. I am at the bottom of my bag, so my brown sugar is quite clumpy. Grab a handful, or a big ole' rock in my case, of the brown sugar and add it to the pot. 

It will look like this.

Stir up that pot a few times, and then put the lid back on for it to stew for about 30 minutes on low-med heat. You can use that thirty minutes to...

Clean out all those cans and recycle them like a good girl or boy. :)

After thirty minutes the chile will be reduced down a bit and be richer in color. 

I like to add some chili powder to mine (because I keep it out for my kid's sake of the big pot), add cheese, and sour cream, and crunched tortilla chips on top! Or you can use the tortilla chips as a spoon like my hubs does. :) Enjoy!