PEACE SIGNS

Me and Stephanie (I wonder what Steph's thinking)

Me and Erica just goofing off.

Nicole, Me, Erica and Stephanie

So, my family knows my recent obsession with peace sign shirts.  I love them.  And I only have 1, trust me, I always look at them at the store but I haven't found another one that I just "have to have".  So one day this summer after Church I told everyone to put on their peace sign shirts so Dad could take a picture of us.  Honestly, it was like we were all 3 years old, it was hard to get a good picture of everyone at the same time, but this one will do.  Thanks kids for humoring me.

ERICA'S PLANTS

One of the things we did to surprise Erica for her Birthday this year was to take her to a Flower Nursery on the Saturday before her Birthday to let her pick out 3 plants she would like. These are the plants she picked out and the sales lady at the shop gave her an "angel flower fairy" statue just because she liked Erica so much. Erica has really taken an interest in flowers this year so it has been fun for her to take care of these. It really was a fun surprise.

Me, Steph and Erica

Steve and Erica.

STEVE HAS A NEW CAMERA

It seems like Steve took a trillion pictures this summer. But I'm glad. Pictures help remind us of things that we would otherwise forget. Thanks babe for putting up with all our teasing and moaning and groaning. Here are a few fun pictures of everyone when they've had enough of all the picture taking.

Here's Steph trying to look enthusiastic about another picture.

Nicole looks like she's trying to hide. Sorry about the red eyes, Nic has blue eyes and a lot of her pictures turn out with red eyes and I don't know how to fix that.

All we really want to do is eat our s'mores without the flash going off.

Honestly, Erica is trying to "work" on the computer. That's what we call playing Webkinz
(our work)

Even I've had enough of all this picture taking.

Okay, now I'm really done!!!

Even Kim the cat looks irritated, but she always looks this way. You can see Missy the dog in the background doing what she does best, sleeping. ( Thank goodness when Britney comes next week she said she would give me some blogging lessons. Yeah Brit, Steph thanks you)

I guess Erica thought the flash was a little too bright.

OUR FAVORITE FAMILY GAME IS POUNCE

One of our favorite family activities in the summer is playing pounce. You all know what that is don't you? Aunt Barbara taught it to all of the cousins years ago. Thanks Aunt Barbara. My family loves it. 3 or 4 times a week in the summer we all go out on the deck for about 10 rounds of pounce. Sometimes, okay, many times we have treats. Here are some pictures of Erica waiting for everyone to join her before she eats all the licorice.

The reason I can't blog is because I need to change my wallpaper. This just feels wrong. Help Brit. I guess I can put these pictures on because technically they were taken in June which was before the 4th of July. Here's a picture of the whole family when Brit, Shared, Ethan and Kylie were visiting in June.

Here's a picture of the "sisters"

And here's a picture of Ethan with the sisters. He ran in at the last minute because he thought he was supposed to be in the picture. It was very funny.

I am so far behind. Here are some pictures from when Brit, Shared, Ethan and Kylie came to visit in June. We had a lot of fun. We took these pictures outside in the front yard. Here's Ethan chilling.

Here's Erica on the porch.

Nicole and Kylie.

Ethan and Stephanie.

Ethan was having fun jumping under the oak tree.

I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up. Sorry, my bad. Here is a yummy recipe that Nicole and Steph have made a couple of times. You can get the recipe from this blog
My Kitchen Cafe
Warning, it is yummy delicious, as Brit would say. (what I mean is that "yummy delicious" is her phrase, got it Nic?)

Baked Chicken Taquitos

Last night we had chicken taquitos, another recipe I got from My Kitchen Cafe I did take quite a bit of creative liberty with this recipe. I sauteed onions, mushrooms, orange and red peppers (here's the thing, when you buy the big bag of mini peppers at Costco you really have to use them a lot so they don't go bad and you have to throw them away, I'm neurotic about waste, we'll have to talk about that some other time though) also, I didn't have enough cream cheese so I used some shredded cheddar and some cotija (mexican cheese). Everyone thought they tasted good but we are a spicey family so next time I'll add a little hot sauce or something. Try these, I hope you enjoy them.

I've become a food blog addict, well, not really, but I do like to look at them. The other day I made this recipe that I found on My Kitchen Cafe (I really hope my link worked, if not I'll try again another time) We really liked it. Next time I make it I will probably sautee some onions and red and yellow peppers to put in it. Hope you enjoy this recipe. I'll post more recipes that our family loves, with pictures hopefully. 3 times this week I've forgotten to take the camera with me to events that would have been fun to post about :(

Okay, this is why I want my own laptop. I want to lounge around on the couch while I'm watching TV and look things up or play games. Nic is obviously having fun with that big smile on her face. I love ya nic nac.

Erica and Kim watching for birds

One of Kim's (the cat) favorite things to do this time of year is watch for birds. She makes this horrifying clicking noise that freaks me out. Erica on the other hand likes it. This morning she was watching out the window for birds with Kim.

Hi everyone, so, this is my first post. You can tell by my blog name what my current mantra is. My goal is to make my blog uplifting. But I guess if I write a downer blog you'll know that it isn't a good day. So today is a wonderful day, I feel good, optimistic and most importantly, calm

Thanks Brit, for helping get my blog up. Hopefully soon I'll learn how to do pictures.