The need to not become to crazy!

So this month was an overwhelming experiences one right after another,

 it start last month and has snowballed.  

We were asked to take in our nephew, Christian at the beginning of June.  Due to family situations in his family he would not be able to live with his mom.  After much prayer and family talks we decided it was ok for all.  He is just 3 months younger than Nathan. He loves basketball and seems to want to play it every moment he can.  So we are looking forward to school starting so he can jump all he wants lol.  We had to do a lot of moving around and my house is still not totally back in place.  But we are adjusting. Also this month Nikolas will be turning 12 which to me is another teenager!  

Next my sweet daughter and hubby decided I have been very lonely with out my dog Jack who ran away last year.  They had secretly talked to Lisa Boren and got to puppies from her litter she just had.  They are 2 boys.  I named the bigger one Rufus.  See I love the movie (original) Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure.  If you have seen this movie then you know who Rufus is.  The smaller puppy I named Cooper.  He was so much smaller than the other, and I have always wanted a Mini Cooper to drive so now I have a mini Cooper in puppy form!  I love them both!  Our older beagle Scout is now a Grandpa but he isn't so sure he likes having them around.  It is cute to see them follow him around.

Next was my Grandpa Stewart passing.  We were able to drive to Sierra Vista to see him once more before he passed on.  I know he is with my Grandma now and much happier.  It was hard to see him but I am glad I got the chance.  That side of my family is very split over family things. It is sad to see one person tear a whole family part.  Little does she know or care to realize all the more harm than good she has done.  

When we got home from the visit 2 of our chickens were dead.  We still have 4 and one of them is the kids favorite (momma) but it was hard to deal with.  

Let's see then we had our ward split.  When we moved here I remember hearing the clerk say "you guys are one of the lasts and then our ward is done growing". (meaning no more homes to build in our boundaries) Well he was WRONG!!!  We kept growing.  It was hard to hear we weren't going to be apart of Sierra Ranch any more.  The kids had a really hard time, mostly Emalee.  But I promised her she would be ok. I was right we are doing well in our new ward Castlegate.  We all are making new friends and love that our old ones are still so close and we can see them when ever we want.  

So to round off this post -----

A few sad moments and new ward,

4 teenagers , 4 chickens, 2 puppies, 1 dog and 1 hubby!  

Enough to keep any mom busy!

Crock Pot Lasagna Casserole

      

I am not one for BAKING as my mom tells me.  It drives her mad, when she asks to help me with food prep and I don't have exact measurements. I am a dump and pour kind of girl. (Mom says that I cook not bake) I love to make things that I think will be easy and simple.  My kids love when they see meal on Tv and there I am trying to make my own home version.
 Alot of it is simple and not genius trust me!  I find when I cook at home my kids actually prefer it, sure fast food here and there happens but on a budget it doesn't happen alot.   So ANY WAY here is my way of making Lasagna, because I don't like the whole way it is normally made....it just takes to long in my world and the egg in the cheese mixture creeps me alot!

My ingredients are Lasagna noodles, Italian sausage, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, your choice of sauce, and cream cheese with garlic flavor (this is something new I just started adding).

First thing I do is mix the ricotta (only one container-sorry I pictured 2, cream cheese and mozzarella cheese (little more than half bag) and stir together.  

I like to use Italian sausage if you want to use ground beef that is totally cool. My trick that I do (and I think I saw Rachel Ray do this to, is to use a potato masher it makes the meat ground up a bit more,  do this after most of the meat is cooked)

Next I break up the noodles into bite pieces, makes it more casserole style.  I cook them till the are well done, I don't like a lasagna noodle that is still raw or uncooked (another reason I am not a fan of regular lasagna never seemed cooked)

Then let the layering begin.  I do sauce, noodles and then cheese mixture.  When I have reached my layers that I want I top with some of the left over mozzarella cheese.  I also add a bit of water around the edges, this also helps if the noodles didn't get cooked enough.  In a crock pot I try to let it go for at least 2 hours on high.  If you were wanting an all day approach cook on low for 4-5hours. You could also cook this in an oven if you wanted, 400 degrees till bubbly.  

There you have it Crock Pot Lasagna Casserole !  If you try this let me know how it worked for you and if you tweaked it let me know that too!

She DID IT!!!

May 26, 2011, Emalee Marie had her 8th grade promotion.  

Just a tiny back ground about my Emalee.  (I will probably tell this story again later in life like when it is high school graduation time for her) When Nathan started school Emalee was so upset that she couldn't go.  She didn't think it was fair.  So I remember telling her it was ok cause she could go to head-start the very next year.  Well come to find out they changed some law and we ended up making to much money.   (go figure)  After Nathan finished kindergarten, we decided to put him in a charter school that many of the other kids in our ward were attending.  When we got there a friend of mine asked how old was  Emalee I said she will be 5 in September.  She said you know our cut off is December 31 so she could start kindergarten this year instead of waiting another year.  THAT EVERYONE WAS MUSIC TO MY EARS!!!  Emalee has always been my into everything, find a way around things girl!  They told us that she may be a bit behind since she was at the younger end but she tested ok to start kindergarten and may be reading by christmas.  So there my little 5 year old was off to kindergarten.  It was nice cause her and Nathan are so close that being just behind him in school was good.  Then it happened I heard Emalee reading on her own and it was just before Thanksgiving!  It was like a whole new world opened up to her!  She never looked back.  Always getting A's in school and pushing herself to do better.  When we moved out to Queen Creek she was told that she would have homework every night.  She was so happy to hear this!  (I know, RIGHT) There are times I would even catch her doing her brothers homework not for him but along with him like it was her work too. Her 8th grade year she attended the high school so she even took a couple classes that were for 9th grade.  This year she has been amazing! All A's in all her classes, GPA of 4.0, was in an awesome Marching Band. She was told if she wanted she could possibly graduate a year early (which would actually be 2 years early) We joke about it cause that means technically she would graduate before her brother (E comes before N)  lol.

I love her so much!  I know this was a bit over board on the PROUD MOMMA post but hey I am allowed.

Emalee

This will be one of two posts that I will share about Emalee this week.  This first one is about her last concert.  She has just amazed me.  See she is in the 8th grade yet made it in the symphonic band, and stayed there all year.  She is hoping for wind ensemble next year.  She has been playing the clarinet since 5th grade and has gotten better and better every year.  I love hearing her play.  She was also in the marching band and wowed me there too.  There is also some kudos to Mr. Werner who is just amazing himself.  All the time and hard work he puts into the band program it shows! band has grown by leaps and bounds.  I can't wait to see what all is in store for next year

Chickens

So last October we decided WOULDN'T IT BE FUN TO HAVE SOME CHICKENS!  We went and got 6 of them, they were so small and cute.  We held them all the time and thought how cute and sweet they were.  Falling asleep right in the food or on each other.  Then December came and it got cold and they got bigger and we wondered where are we going to put them.  My Dad came to the rescue and got me a coup for my birthday.  We knew it was small for 6 but we thought oh they will get along and love each other and it will be ok.  Which brings me to February.  They turned on each other!  The pecking order was hard to watch see and hear!  It got to a point that we had to completely remove one from the coup.  We named her momma.  She had her own pen and loved it.  Then it happened another fell victim to the pecking order.  We learned that our lovely cute sweet chickens were VAMPIRES!  They smelled blood and would just not stop pecking!  So we took that one out and named her HI (hurt one, the I in her name is for roman number for 1) momma became like a puppy she just roamed the yard.  She would come to the door when you came outside it was cute.  So in our coup we have the triplets and meanie who loved to peck all the others.  They started laying eggs and it was wonderful.  Nothing like fresh eggs.  We love to share them to when we have way to many in our fridge. The beginning of May we knew we needed to make more room for them. We built a whole fenced in area and now HI and meanie and the triplets are in the fenced area, Momma however still just roams the yard and loves to be held.  We get at least 4 eggs a day sometimes 6 which is nice.  If you ever want to come and see them come on over.  (course let me clean the house first lol)