{Baxter}

I recently had a pretty big surgery and am just barely getting back to the point where I can take care of myself, let alone my kids. Imagine my surprise when Kelsie and Kamrin brought home this.... (With permission of course!)
Just what we need...another dog. It hasn't been that bad though and we're all starting to become attached to him. He is a bit hyper though, hence the following picture. He wouldn't sit still for long enough to get a picture and he just wanted to grab my arm and the camera.

{Kelsie-Softball}

I am going for the mom of the year award this summeer for sure! I only got a few pics of Kelsie playing softball and most of them are blurry.....so here's the one good picture of Kelsie batting at her game.

Playing first base......

And Kyler watching......

{Fireworks}

So, since I am down and out for awhile, we didn't do much. However, some friends did invite us over for dinner and some fireworks. I figured that I hadn't been out in quite awhile and that since they lived only a mile away I could go and just sit the entire time. Josh was game and we enjoyed some good company, food, and some fireworks. The funnest part was when Kyler decided after the first few fireworks that he was afraid of them. He hid his head under the blanket and would shake and say I'm scared after each one went off. I'm not sure if he was really scared or if he was just being silly because we caught him laughing a few times also.

Before, as he was enjoying the show.....

and this is how he spent the rest of the time........

My good camera is being repaired and so these pictures just didn't turn out well, but they were all we had from the night, so they'll have to do.

{ I love America!! Part4}

Day 4....


America in Words & Pictures

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty." -- John F. Kennedy

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -- Abraham Lincoln

"America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens." --George W. Bush

"Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."~Thomas Paine

{I Love America...Part 3!}

DAY 3

Food...What is Independence Day without food??

Here are a few of our favorite Salad and BBQ recipes for the 4th.......

Jell-o, what is summer without it?

Red, White, and Blue Ribbon Jell-o


Two 3 ounce boxes red jello

Two 3 ounce boxes blue jello

4 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin

One 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

boiling water & cold water

1. In a medium bowl, mix one box of red jello with 1/2 envelope of unflavored gelatin. Add 1 cup of boiling water and stir to dissolve. Cool to room temperature and pour into a 9×13-inch glass pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes (make sure that your refrigerator is level, or your jello will come out uneven-looking).

2. While first layer is setting, prepare white layer. In another bowl, mix sweetened condensed milk with 1 cup of boiling water. In a separate small bowl, sprinkle 2 envelopes of unflavored gelatin over ½ cup of cold water. Let stand a few minutes and then add ½ cup of boiling water to dissolve the gelatin. Add to the milk mixture and stir to combine. Cool to room temperature. Pour 1 cup of this milk mixture over the first layer of red jello. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

3. While white layer is setting, prepare blue layer. In a medium bowl, mix one box of blue jello with ½ envelope of unflavored gelatin. Add 1 cup of boiling water and stir to dissolve. Cool to room temperature and pour on top of white layer. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

4. Repeat with red layer, another cup of of the white layer and then finishing with a blue layer on top. Refrigerate for 15 minutes after adding each layer.

5. Let jello set before cutting. Use a sharp knife to cut, and then use a metal spatula to slide underneath the jello and scoop out jello squares.

Yield: About 40

Hamburgers for the grill

2 pounds lean ground beef
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons liquid smoke flavoring

Chopped onion

1 egg
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and then form into 6 burgers and form a well in the middle. Cook the burgers on the grill without smashing them with the spatula. (This is why there is a well in the middle, so that they won't rise so high in the middle that you are tempted to smash them and squeeze out all of the juices. )

Top with bacon, cheese, whatever toppings you like!

Chop Salad

1 rotisserie chicken, white and dark meat, diced. I have actually used canned chicken and it doesn't turn out too bad.

1 lb cooked, crumbled bacon

2 tomatoes, diced

1 8oz block Monterrey Jack cheese, diced

1 cucumber, peeled & diced

1 head iceberg lettuce, diced/chopped

Good Ranch Dressing- we make homemade

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, adding dressing last. Mix well until combined throughout. This would easily feed 6-8 people DINNER, or provide a side salad for 10-12. It's a huge recipe. Enjoy!

And For Dessert........

Step 1. Bake any cake of your choice.......yes, I just use a boxed cake.

Step 2. Prepare the frosting as follows:

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Directions
Combine sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt in a saucepan; stir until well blended. Boil slowly without stirring until mixture will spin a long thread when a little is dropped from a spoon (hold the spoon high above saucepan), or reaches 238 - 242 degrees F (114 - 117 degrees C).
In a large bowl, beat egg whites with a mixer until they are stiff, but still moist. Pour hot syrup slowly over egg whites while beating. Continue until mixture is very fluffy, and will hold its shape. Add vanilla, and beat until blended. If icing does not seem stiff enough, beat in 2 or 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until stiff enough to hold its shape. Spread on cake.

Step 3. After allowing the frosting to cool decorate the cake with stawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. You know the design.

Step 4. Enjoy the cake!

{I Love America...Part 2!}

Do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001?

I think that this day has shaped a large part of the patriotism that our generation has, I know that it has mine. I don't think that I will ever forget that day. I was at work at the hospital. I was five months pregnant with our first child. I can remember how scared I was to be bringing her into the world at a time like this. So much evil and hate in the world. I think that we got the least amount of work done ever on that day. We spent the day gathered frequently around the television and rushed straight home to be with our families. What a day.

****I also came across this, an email that I've had around for awhile. Who knows how true it is, however the message that accompanies it is worth sharing.....


You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is. So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan; the only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, 2001, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans welcome the best of everything…the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers on the morning of September 11, 2001, earning a better life for their families.
It’s been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world.
But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.