A sniff of this and a taste of that....

Look at this egg!! It's speckled! Everyday is an adventure when the hubs goes and gets his little basket and collects all that the girls have to give. He stands at the sink with the water running full blast for like 19 minutes while he cleans the eggs and insists on a running commentary on which girl is producing which egg and how much production is up in correlation to the barometric pressure. Ahh, turn the water off!
I can't hear the t.v.! There isn't a moment in my day when I wonder if Bertha is in need of a piece of gum to chew to pop her eardrums because the barometric pressure is a little high today. Seriously, eat my scraps and plop out some eggs. Done. Thank you.

My sweet boys bundled up and ventured out to see the animals. The boys love when I drag out the air pop popcorn maker. "Pop, pop". They jump up and down when the kernels start shooting into the bowl. Then it's off to throw handfuls at the chickens. Logan always stops after a toss or two and starts eating the popcorn. It's like he realizes that this fresh, delicious treat is being wasted on the animals and he's going to enjoy it while he can! That's my boy!

Yes, that is a swingset. With no swings. Not in the boys yard, in the goat yard. For the goats. The goats have a jungle gym to frolic and jump and play on. They have a picnic table. My goats have a picnic table. For what? you ask....for laying on and pooping on. Not for sitting around serving lunch and hanging with your offspring and hubs...for pooping! Oh, the injustices I endure.

Well, they are kinda cute.

Who would have thought I would have posed in a picture with my twin boys and two goats?

Or tried to catch a chicken for the boys to hold? This is a mother's love. To run after a chicken who clearly doesn't want to be poked and squeezed while held by two little boys. She finally let me get her and the boys really had no interest in her. What?! Oh well.....run free little chicken. Go plop out a speckled egg so I can hear all about it later.

Cole found a suitcase of Lego's in the basement while we were packing. His brother was still napping so he got a rare treat of not having to share. He was so cute as he quietly played with this new found toy.

I'm no Ken Kolker but this picture is so cool! I love how he's just playing in the background unaware and the focus is on the toy.

I was making salad and Cole decided to help.

We made a plate of scraps for the bunnies. Which now is just "bunny" but more on that later...

Look how cute he is when he is so focused on his task! We were peeling carrots. Peeling carrots with a 2 year old takes along time. Doing anything with a 2 year old takes a long time....

Every second and fourth saturday is "burn day" here in Cascade. We have a fire pit and a burn barrel. We ONLY burn the appropriate things and would NEVER burn anything from the forbidden list. Today was getting the wood we weren't ever going to use-gone. The hubs gets the fun job of burning while I get to stay inside and take care of the youngin's. *pout* (If it's the year 2034 and you are reading this youngin's....I got the best part of the deal!!!)

As I watched the flames my mind wandered to where it always wanders....food. Fire food. Smores! I know, let's make smores pie!

Random chicken photo here. See how big they got?! I'm still learning how to blog and move things around...apparently I need a lesson or 3.


Anyways, back to pie! Here are the ingredients for a fabulous and easy pie.  .



There are 467 ways to crush graham crackers for your crust. Pick one. Grab a sleeve of graham crackers and make it dust!



The boys are such good helpers in the kitchen. I gave them my french rolling pin and put the sleeve of crackers on the floor. They took turns beating the crackers to death. It was a hoot.





After you have successfully beaten away the stress of the day toss them in a bowl. Melt a 6 tablespoons of butter, which is almost a whole stick, and add to the crumbs.




Here is the texture you are looking for. Sticks together when pressed together.



I don't know why I took a picture of this. Really? Put the crumbs in the pie plate.....



Pat the crumbs in the pie plate. Here I used the fluff to press it into the edges. I like a crisp edge, what can I say?




Grab a bag of whatever kind of chocolate chips you have. It's chocolate, it's pie. No need to be picky here, peeps. Throw it in a bowl and microwave it for 30 seconds, stir, another 30 seconds, stir, another 30 secon.....you know how to melt chocolate. Yes, I usually use a double boiler but I have 2 little kitchen helpers and I don't think their father would approve of them stirring chocolate over a steaming bath of boiling water. He's cranky like that.




I need a manager!! Look what I found in my fresh tub of delicious, creamy cool whip? A finger swipe!! No, it's not mine! Why do you ask such a thing? Oh, what? Where? On my face? Thanks.......mmmmm. I think a flip flop would taste good with cool whip on it.




"Boys, here's some chocolate chips, just tell the man you found the Cool-whip like that."



Here is the afore mentioned melted chocolate. No little monkeys were burned in the melting process.



Here's where the magic happens. Oh, divine magic. Plop a glob of cool whip in the melted chocolate and fold it in. Don't stir it, peeps. We want it to be light and fluffy pie that if we take just a little too big of a piece we can justify it by saying "it's light and fluffy pie".



Fold, turn the bowl, fold, turn the bowl.....until you reach a good mixing of the two or you just are tired and want to put your pie in the fridge and put your feet up and watch "The Fabulous Beekman Boys".



It shouldn't be perfect, it's pie. Taste it. Do you like it? Good, then you are done folding and turning the bowl.




The boys tasted it and thought it was good. They liked that I used dark chocolate. They told me.




Here's a "Captain Obvious" photo......




Now, this is how I usually serve this pie. Well, with chocolate crust instead of the graham. But remember the whole burn day, thinking about food and smores thing.....yep! not done yet. I don't have a creme'brule torch. *GASP* I know, how do I get up in the morning? So I have to use the broiler. I don't want chocolate soup so I put the pie in the freezer for 30 minutes. This is a long thirty minutes. I have to find something to occupy my mind so I don't cave and just eat it without letting it fufill it's smores destiny.
What to do?..........



After an agonizing 30 minutes (like when American Idol was worth watching and you had to wait to find out who got voted off until after 27 commercial breaks and long Seacrest pauses...)take out your pie and plop on the fluff. This is a 7 oz jar and I used the whole thing.

Place under the broiler and wait........after 5-8 minutes this is what you get.....

Doesn't that look amazing?

Look at the marshmallow cracks!



How did this get in here?? Yep, it didn't take long to try it. So good, rich-so you don't need a big piece.



Being a helper in the kitchen is very hard......

Good pie, peeps. Try it./You don't need a campfire to enjoy smores anymore!

Ramblings....

 I was reminded today that it had been a couple days since I blogged....yep, having an organ removed will set you back a day or two in the blogosphere. I apologize. I am renewed. I will try not to fail you, again. 


Reese is now over 2 months old and fitting in beautifully. The boys are crazy about her and can't do enough for her. They give kisses now and put their cheeks on her forehead...oh, that melts me.

It was a beautiful day a few days ago and we let the chickens, ducks and bunnies out with the goats in the main yard. It seems it's cause to abandon all else to watch the duck splash, the bunnies hop and the chicken scratch the ground. You can see how into it Reese is....she's wishing she was back in her swing, swinging away to the sound of the rainfall. Me? oh, sure I like it just fine. I like that for 17 minutes I can be left to do what I need to do!

Hi, Sugarbutt. Nope, I won't pick you up and rescue you from hearing ALL about what chicken lays what color egg and how big they get and yada, yada.....Remember when you came home and woke me up at 3 am....Paybacks baby!

As most of you know, I am a dork. An overfed, fashion lacking dork. I love projects and am always searching out new ideas. I found this hot mess of a chair on Craigslist for a whopping $10!
Can you see all the possibilities? Yes I know, it needs work. A good sanding, new stain and some killer new fabric...ah! Can't wait.  Where am I going to put it? I can't wait to show you what I do with it.

So, I finally put my kid down long enough for her to enjoy her play mat. The boys spent a good amount of time on the mat in their day. Seriously,  kids entertain yourself for 10 minutes while I Facebook. Ha, I jest, kinda...if you don't keep up you get really behind.  I'm just sayin'. This mat has a singing, blinking light that keeps her attention for like 3 whole minutes.

 Minute one...........................




Minute two.............................................

Minute three.........................................



Yep, thanks Mr. Blinkie Sun for those 3 minutes. I got the dishwasher emptied, refilled, dinner prepped and in the oven, the garage cleaned out, the boys bathed, the laundry folded and put away....oh wait, that was in my daydream. I did get caught up on Facebook and for that I will invest in batteries for you Mr Sun.

 Two nights after I had my gallbladder removed the boys climbed into our bed at bedtime. Save me the lecture peeps, sometimes I just want a simple quiet night. They start off in our bed and we move them after they fall asleep. It makes for a very quiet, quick drifting into the Land of Nod. Andy laid down with them to quiet a headache and this is what I found 15 minutes later. Logan flipped around and put his foot in Andy's shoulder. Since we took the bed off the frame in preparation for moving the dogs have taken that as full permission to lounge around on my quilt.

The boys love getting out on sunny days and exploring the yard. They insist on wearing our shoes and today Logan wanted to wear Andy's hat. I think they are so stinking cute. I know, I'm bias but look at that face!

 Lately my Logan has been kicking up his scamming, sneaky ways. He waits for Cole to hit REM and then quietly slips from his room or our bed and comes out to the couch where he finds a parent to snuggle with. Every night! It has become so cute to count on him to appear with his blanket and pillow creeping out. He climbs right up on the couch and literally is asleep in 2 minutes. On this night he found Fred in the perfect spot for a pillow.

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts".

Well peeps, my heart is so full. I have been blessed with 3 healthy and cute kids. What more can a girl ask for? I mean yes I should have used the Palmer's lotion more consistently during the pregnancy and I regret not buying those black heels at T.J.Maxx but for the most part the tank is full.

 I have a fresh loaf of dark chocolate banana bread with a sugar crust right out of the oven.........

                                      and a bed that never gets cold.....................life is good.