Grilled Homemade Pizza and Homemade Ice Cream

So tonight I decided to try something different and grill my yummy homemade pizza. I have heard it was yummy! Well, it was yummy but not as much of a smokey flavor as I expected and desired. I would say that this probably would taste even better on a charcoal grill...but then again, doesn't' everything you grill taste better on charcoal?

First gather all your ingredients.

I just brushed the grill with olive oil then put the dough on and closed the lid. I flipped it when it bubbled but after I popped the bubbles. When flipped, I then added the ingredients. This is how it looked in the end :
The first one is a pesto pizza and the second just good ole' pepperoni for the kids :) It was a fun and different experience so I will do it again. I'll post my yummy pizza dough recipe another day.

And here the kids (and neighbor Molly) are enjoying a homemade vanilla ice cream cone. This vanilla is much better than my previous favorite vanilla from Breyers. I ended up buying a second ice cream maker....yes that's right..I have 2 of the same ice cream makers now! I figured that I needed the second so that it can make enough for company! So I'm excited to make homemade ice cream for my inlaws next week when they come for a visit. I think I will attempt blueberry and mint ice cream over the weekend first!

Another day...

So it was a good day today overall. I walked the kids to the park and pitched the boys' some balls to hit and threw some to catch. I am a horrible pitcher by the way. I can't line it up worth a lick so they didn't get much good practice due to my inability to throw near the bat...haha! We had fun throwing fly balls and grounders for them to chase though :) We also came home and grilled pizza on the grill and read to them before bed. I'm currently reading the Chronicles of Narnia : the Magician's Nephew to them. I decided we will read through all the books in this series this summer. Josiah has read a few on his own but I want to read aloud to them as well and thought we would start here since I've heard that another Narnia movie is coming to a theater in December!

On the downside, I have a very heavy heart emotionally due to some things going on. I am so very sad and torn by the situation. Also, I didn't receive an email from my husband either so I'm feeling lonely as well. I'm just so sad and want to talk to my best friend but the army has him working such long hours at the moment. I will go to God in prayer because I know he will comfort me. I'm so thankful for God's love and comfort in my life. He has truly brought me out of the pits in my life and has blessed me abundantly! Thank you God!

On the upside...Judah won't stop rolling over :)

And he rolls...


This picture is just because it makes me smile :)

Stitches

So tonight Malachi had to go to the ER to get some stitches. He was riding his bike and somehow managed to get his leg caught into his bike chain and it ripped behind his knee. We were at the ER for nearly 4 hours and he got 4 stitches. This makes it his 7th trip to the ER for stitches/staples in his nearly 7 yrs of his life. However, this is the first time that his stitches was not on his head :) He did not cry at all when it happened, nor when they shot him 2 times with the numbing solution (painful), or the actual stitching. He is a trooper with a high tolerance to pain!! So it's now late, and the cleaning I had planned to do tonight will have to wait until the morning. I'm tired. We also had church and a cubscout pack meeting today as well. It's been a long day. Good night blog :)

Grilled Chicken Salad with apples

So I thought this was just a simple meal....a grilled chicken salad with apples, cranberries, and walnuts. The kids on the otherhand thought that this was the best! Josiah asked if he could even have the recipe for when he gets older! They also said that I have to make this for Grandma and Papa Carr when they come to visit in 2 weeks! I guess putting apples in a salad makes it extra special for them! I will grill the apples next time too! And my chicken wasn't so hard this time (as I tend to over cook on the grill...lol)!

Handsome boys ;)

My darling little one ;)
He is just too cute!
And my handsome young men! They were exhausted after playing around outside in the sprinkler! This is a rare sight to find them fallen asleep for a nap....especially together on the same couch too!
So cute!And another cute one :)

T-ball

Here are a few pictures of Aliyah during her first t-ball game.

Here you can see that the helmet is too big for her! It sure was a funny sight to watch 3-4 yr olds play tball! Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the boys playing baseball this next game.

Penne with Sausage & Peas

Penne with Sausage & Peas

I found this recipe in my Family Circle magazine and gave it a try. The kids and I really enjoyed it. I thought the peas sounded odd but they tasted great with this dish. Here is the recipe (a few modifications of ingredients):

4 c. penne pasta, 12 oz, cooked and drained

2 T olive oil

1 pkg fully cooked sausage, sliced on the diagnonal

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 lb tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or canned tomatoes will work)

salt

1/2 c. chicken broth

1 c. frozen peas, thawed

2 T freshly grated parmesan cheese (I used ground b/c I didn't have fresh)

Cook pasta, drain and set aside. Cook meat in 1 T olive oil, scoop out when cooked. Reduce heat and add remaining 1 T. olive oil and garlic and cook 30 sec. Stir in tomatoes and salt and cook for 2 min. Stir in chicken broth, peas, and browned sausage. Heat through. place cooked pasta in a large bowl, add sausage mixture and 1 T. parmesan. Toss and top with remaining parmesan.

Yummy Toes!

Judah has discovered his toes...and enjoys sucking on them :)

Such cuteness! He also rolled over this past week for the first time!

Sprained Ankle

I'm not sure if I posted about my sprain or not but I was trail running nearly 2 weeks ago and I slipped on some pebbles and sprained my ankle really bad. I did go to the dr. to make sure it wasn't broken. Here is a picture of the bruising. If you look closely you can see the brusing goes high on my ankle. I am frustrated because it has me taking time off of running. However, I did do a test run yesterday of a mile and it didn't swell up anymore than it already is. I will just do a few miles here and there as long as it isn't too painful nor gets worse. I am still trying to stay active by swimming and cycling so that I'm still prepared for Pikes Peak marathon in August. So I'm hoping it heals fast!

Recent Sewing Projects

So I've been on a round of sewing lately. It began with my sister, Stacy, requesting an overdue nursing cover. Then her friend requested one, then she requested an apron for my 2 yr. old nephew Daniel. I then decided to go ahead and buy some material to give my living room a new updated look. So here are my recent sewing projects.

Another nursing cover...

Although with this cover I lined the bottom and the straps with a coordinating fabric!

And the curious George apron for my nephew!

Before:
After: (who said fabric was only for clothes and pillows?! I used scrap fabric leftover from my pillows to outline my pics.)

Before:
After
Before
After ( used the brown curtains in the before picture and sewed them as a lining to the new curtains so that they weren't wasted.)

Before
After
Before
After
Before

After (I don't normally like "animal" print, however I thought this print would tie in my black and white photos....and I think it did the job!)

So I had fun "updating" our dingy living room. I even bought an upholstery cleaner to clean my furniture. I really love the new look! I hope Frank does too :)

Commission/Chore List

We decided to take Dave Ramsay's approach for the most part with kids and money. We don't want to hand out allowance just because nor do we want them to earn it for everything either. So here is the chart I came up with to teach them about money. Before they spend any money, they tithe 10% on it and also put 10% in long term savings.

Here is the full chart:

The daily chores are what is expected from them to do as part of a family without being paid.
Here are chores listed they can earn money for. The boys will just alternate their chores every other week. The extra chores are beyond the basic and I put a minimum of 2 a day so that Josiah who is very motivated by money will not cause us to go broke!

And I thought I would throw in deductions for not behaving well.

So in theory, the kids learn that hard work earns them money (like a real job). If they don't work they dont' earn the money. They also learn the importance to giving to God first and also saving for something down the line. As for the deductions it teaches them that they can't argue and the such with co workers in the future or they won't have a job. I think all of this is a good concept and allows them some freedom such as they can "give" their chore over to a sibling and let that sibling get paid for doing it rather than them. We'll see how it goes. The kids are all pretty excited over this chart by the way!

Cubscout Day Camp

Today was the last day of cubscout day camp for the boys. Here they are right before leaving for camp. They have their packed lunches and their water backpacks. They brought home a few things and wouldn't stop talking about camp tonight! They had water games today so that was a blast. They both qualified on the bb gun range so they will earn their markmanship patch! They really love using the bow and arrow and bb guns. We do have bb guns at home but not a bow and arrow :(

Josiah won this paper mache of Saturn for being the best well behaved kid in his group! The theme this week was space. I think it looks pretty cool hanging from the light :)

The past week

So I have really still been busy even with cubscouts and soccer done for the moment. My "to do" list keeps growing by the day so it seems. It really is hard to accomplish everything that I want to or need to on a daily basis. I fall short often and find that I also "miss" playing with my kids because I'm busy with daily household stuff. My goal is to spend some quality time with them this summer. Right now the boys have spent all week at cubscout daycamp. I drop them off in the morning and pick them up right before dinner time. They have been having a blast and come home so filthy! I have missed them this week, so has their sister! I've been getting a few random things done on my list this week.

So I climbed the incline yesterday and beat my goal of 30 minutes! For those who have never had the privilege to climb the incline....it is a mile long hike up old railroad ties (steps) in which you gain 2000 ft elevation in that mile! It is very steep and in some spots I literally have to lean forward and put my hands down to catch my balance. I did it yesterday in 29:51. Most people that I personally know can climb it in 45 minutes or longer. I don't personally know anyone that has climbed in under 30 but I know few others have...so I felt good about hitting that goal! However, I ran down the trail to get down and I took a fall on loose gravel. I sprained my left ankle very bad. I literally watched it swell up with my own eyes. Now that was odd! I also cut my opposite knee and blood was all over my leg. So I started hobbling down at that point slowly and some girls hiking up the trail stopped me because they had a first aid kit. So I cleaned up a bit and kept going. I was blessed to have 3 ladies hiking down help me the rest of the way down by letting me hold onto one of them so I didn't have to put so much weight on my hurt ankle. I ended up going to the hospital to see if I broke it. Well, it's not broken so that is good! However, it is badly sprained and will take time to heal. They also decided not to stitch the knee because they couldn't get all of the dirt out and didn't want an infection. So I now have some sort of sterile strip thing that is staying on pretty good actually. I am very bummed...actually pretty mad about my fall because now I can't run the Garden of Gods 10 mile race that I signed up for this Sunday. Oh well. But the real frustration is that now I won't get the training in that I want/need to run a good Pikes Peak Marathon race. I believe I can still run that one but it won't be as fast because I will be missing a month of training, possibly more. Of course I will be swimming laps, pool running , and cycling all next week but that all is still different when training to run a marathon in which you are running 13 miles up a mountain, gaining 7k ft elevation and then run back down. I have only 10 wks until the marathon so hopefully my ankle heals fast so I can be running again!

So the boys started baseball practice tonight. They have always played soccer but this is the first time they have ever played baseball. Malachi has been anxiously waiting and so excited to play. Josiah on the other hand, didn't want to play because he was afraid he would get hit by a ball. He changed his mind after I talked him into trying something new and not being so scared. Well guess what.....Josiah got hit in the face tonight with a ball that his brother was throwing to him. He came up to me with blood all over him. Josiah gets random nose bleeds so it isn't a big deal, however, I have never seen so much blood come from any of my children before and especially had no idea a nose could bleed so much! A dad came over to help me clean him up as he apparently was a medic :) The funny part is that the coach didn't realize Josiah disappeared at the moment until Malachi said he needed a new partner because he hit his brother with a ball! Josiah was such a trooper! He didn't cry and even went back out there to finish practice! I was so proud of him because that was his fear and he didn't let it stop him. I told him now he knows what it feels like to be hit with a ball so now he shouldn't be scared! I had to laugh though because of his fear happening during his first practice....who would've thought??? Hopefully no more accidents for the rest of the season!

Randomness

Here are some kitchen curtains I made. I think I will go see if I can get more material and make a second panel for each window.

And here is a nursing cover I made for my sister. I hope she likes it!

A rare sighting of me :) Josiah took these pics. This one is a little blurry.

Judah enjoying his new toy from Aunt Maggie :)

Aliyah fell asleep like this in a chair :)

Aliyah having a tea party in her brother's room while they were at cubscout camp!

So I think their eyes and nose resemble each other.