{The Hobbit}

Kenny and the boys have been anxiously awaiting the "Hobbit" to be released ever since they heard it was being made!

Kenny read the book again in preparation for the movie and planned a day for just the boys to go watch it.  Kenny is great at telling the boys stories at night before they go to bed.  He has retold the Hobbit story to them for years.  

The movie was loved by all and Kenny is already wanting to go and see it again.

So why the boys were away, us girls were left to play!

  

We watched our own move, "Barbie, Princess & a Popstar!"

 Mya danced all around the living room while we watched.  

I love my little family and am grateful for the time we have to spend with our dear children!

{Crabs}

All you can eat seafood at the Morongo Casino was amazing!!!   Great friends and great food makes for a wonderful evening!

 We ate so much crab, I thought I might deliver a crab, my stomach was hurting so bad!

 Discard pile!

After all you can eat crab...All you can eat DESSSERT!!!!

I ate until I thought I was going to pop!  I definitely ate my money's worth of food....good times!

{Ceviche}

My wonderful neighbor and friend, Yarnida is an amazing cook!  I get so excited when I hear my door bell ring and when I see her at my door holding a plate of authentic Mexican food.  She has many recipes that I love.  Ceviche is one of my favorites, so I begged her to teach me how to make it.  

We went to Rio Ranch market to buy all of the ingredients.  She shared her secrets with me on how to make the best ceviche.  

 First of all you need one of these bad boys to squeeze the juice out of all the little limes!  This is not mine and as Yarnida put me in charge of squeezing the limes and saw how long it was taking me with my little lemon juicer, she ran to her house and brought back this lime juicer.  It is much quicker and I am asking Santa for one this year!

 We made a double batch for both of our families.  I love how healthy and natural ceviche is!

 Masterpiece!!!

Now here is how to make ceviche:

CEVICHE

Yarnida Hernandez

Ingredients:

1lb Raw Shrimp

1lb Imitation Crab

Salt

1 Bunch Cilantro

3 Tomatoes

1 Purple Onion

1 Serrano Pepper (Optional ~SPICY)

Oregano

1lb little limes

Avocado

Tostada Chips

Hot Sauce

Bring water to boil.  Peel and cut shrimp into fifths.  Once the water boils, turn it off and throw in the cut up shrimp.  It cooks in less than a minute.  Drain the shrimp and sprinkle salt over them. 

Squeeze the juice of all the limes.  Cut the imitation crab into squares and add it to the lime juice.   Let it soak for a minute or two, then break up the crab with your fingers into little pieces.  Add the shrimp to the crab and lime juice and stir.   Dice up the tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and pepper and add them to the bowl.  Flavor with oregano.

Serve on a tostada, with a cut up avocado, and drizzle with hot sauce.

Enjoy!!!

I had a great time cooking with Yarnida and eating ceviche for all 3 meals!  It was a cold and rainy day,  which made staying at home, cooking and eating, even more enjoyable!

I am so grateful for wonderful friends and for them sharing their talents with me.

I had to stop eating ceviche, so I could pick up my kids from school.  It stopped raining and we saw the most beautiful rainbows!!!

There is beauty all around....

What a good day!!!

{Kenny and HO HO HO}

Today is Kenny's 37th Birthday!!!!  We celebrated with his favorite birthday breakfast, biscuits and gravy.  The kids sang him "Happy Birthday" and he opened presents.  My four kids are so blessed to have Kenny as their father.  He is a honest, loving, kind person and such a great dad!  We love him dearly and I am grateful for the good example he is to us.  

That evening we had our church Christmas party.  A few children acted out the nativity, while Christmas songs were sung.  Drew and Ian were asked to be Shepard's.   I was nervous about them taking it seriously, so I warned them that if I saw them touch, giggle, or do anything to take away from the spirit being felt, Christmas presents would be being returned!

They did great and looked so cute!

We devoured the Christmas feast at the party!

Brody and Mya, best of friends!!!

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus came for the party and all the kids were eager to climb up on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas!

 Drew asked him for a DS, a phone, a computer, and a Wii!!!  His list is very expensive!!!
Hope he isn't disappointed Christmas morning!!!

 Owen asked Santa for a DS.

 Mya asked him for barbies and princesses!

 Ian asked him for $1,000!!!!

That's definitely not happening!

We had a fun day celebrating Kenny and Christmas!  Our lights went up today on our house and the tree is going up tomorrow...its finally starting to feel like Christmas!

{Foreign Object Removal Take 2}

So it is official...BOYS ARE CRAZY!!!

  I take you back to a couple months ago, when I documented the bead being removed from Drew's ear http://kandjsummers.blogspot.com/2012/09/70-bead.html.  I was so frustrated with the whole experience, but hoped we had learned from it, and that nothing like this would ever happen again....I was horribly mistaken!!!

While we were in Oklahoma, my sister-in-law/nurse practitioner Deven, discovered a foreign object in Owen's ear.  She was checking all of my children for ear infections, and when she looked in Owen's ear, she said, "I think there is something in his ear!"  She tried flushing his ear to get out the object, but it did not budge.  I was puzzled because he never complained about his ear hurting or ever told me he put something in it.  Deven wanted a second opinion, so we took Owen to the emergency room where Deven worked.   The doctor on call took a quick peek, confirmed there was a foreign object, and recommended we visit an Ear Nose and Throat Doctor.

We had taken Drew to the ENT and he wasn't able to get his bead out and Kenny was able to, so we decided to wait and have Kenny take it out when we got home.  We had no clue how long the object had been in Owen's ear, so we figured another week wouldn't hurt!  When we got home the Veterinarians went to work after a lot of chuckling!  I kind of think they enjoy having these obstacles to fix, just wish it weren't with my kids!

Owen was such a trooper!  He held still for the first hour Kenny spent on trying to retrieve it!

He tried the little vacuum suction, which is what removed Drew's, but the darn thing would not budge!

He tried Dr. Ryan's idea, and used super glue on the tip of a q-tip, and it did pull the foreign object closer up, to where they thought they could grab it....

but it fell back down!

Drew was very interested in the whole process, since he had experienced this before, and wanted to watch everything!

 We even had a viewing section.  The kids and their friends were hoping to watch the Dr.'s pop the object out!

My favorite...Dr. Ryan, trying to suck it out!!!

These men were determined to get this thing out.  They spent 3 hrs working on it without any luck!

I made an appointment with an ENT for the following week.   Kenny wanted to take Owen, since when I took Drew, they spent a minute trying to retrieve it and wanted to have surgery.  I figured Kenny would just hold Owen down and that the ENT would have better tools to grab the little sucker and that would be it...wrong again!  Kenny called me yesterday from Owen's appointment, and told me the hospital would be calling to set up a surgery time with me for the next day!   

Angry, Annoyed, Stressed, where just a couple of ways I was feeling at the moment!  Kenny told me to come to terms with it and that this was the only way to get it out.  So we went in for surgery today!

An anesthesiologist came in to talk to Owen about what was going to be happening.  He then told him how when he was Owen's age, he had put a popcorn kernel in his ear and had to have it removed by a doctor.  Then a nurse, told us about her grandson sticking a rock down in his ear.  All the stories were of BOY'S!!!!

He walked with them back to the surgery room and I felt helpless.  All I wanted to do was to go with him and hold him.  I knew he would be fine, but I still hated not being right beside him.  He was very brave!

We were escorted to the recovery room after he had woken up.  He was eager to see what was in his ear!

We've decided that it is a peppercorn seed!  It wasn't perfectly round like the bead in Drew's ear, which made it hard to remove.  The Doctor said he had trouble getting it and had to use a tool to stretch the ear canal.  We have no clue where, how, or when it went into his ear!  He still swears that he did not put it in his ear....Drew?????

He was really excited about the otter pop he was given.  He wasn't able to eat or drink anything all morning and there was some drama from him this morning over breakfast.  He kept telling me, "MOM, I am going to die if I don't eat!"

We celebrated the removal of the peppercorn seed with ice cream!  I think he was a little high or tipsy on something because he was acting pretty goofy!  I am grateful that he was okay and that they were able to remove it.

So we are the owners of a $800 peppercorn seed!!!!  Merry Christmas Owen, maybe if you plant it, it will grow into a money tree!

If my boys put anything else in their ears, I am going to cut them off!

***For the record, I DO LOVE MY BOYS***

{Falling Leaves}

The leaves have finally started falling in California!!!  Ian worked fervently raking up the fallen leaves into a pile and letting each of his siblings take a turn jumping in them!

As you can see, he didn't have too much to work with!!!

 Leo had fun playing with the kids too!

 Silly Owen taking his turn in the little leaf pile!

 Ian would get excited after each kid's jump and cheer for them!  It was really cute to see.

 He assisted Mya's jump, with a little loving shove!

More cheering, with lots of giggles coming from everybody!

Fast forward a couple of weeks and our leaf pile is growing!

 Kenny had me come into the back yard to look for Mya and Owen.  He had hidden them completely under the growing pile of leaves!

 Its more fun to jump in a big pile of leaves!!!!

I am thankful for semi cooler weather and the beautiful fall leaves!

{Thanksgiving Getaway}

We have not been home for Thanksgiving in 9 years!  We decided it was time to take a family vacation to see the family!  Our first stop, Oklahoma!  We had a blast going "okie" with my brothers and their families for a couple of days.

Owen woke up with the Rooster and went immediately outside to see what all the commotion was.  He found some very hungry chickens and was more than willing to go out and feed them!

 Owen fed and collected eggs from Uncle Adam and Aunt Deven's farm!

 Farm eggs are so delicious and I told Kenny how the minute we have some land (who knows when that will be)  the first thing I want are chickens....then a horse!

 Adam and Tyler raise goats!  They have an awesome set up that reminds me of my Grandpa Elliott's sheep farm.  This goat was my favorite...super cute!

 Cousin Jaxyn loved showing off all her animals to Owen!  Owen was partial to this duck!

 Drew and Ian stayed with Uncle Ty and Aunt Tara in their "cabin."  Ty had a list of chores for the boys in the morning, and they couldn't have been more happy about it!

 I went and surprised Ty at work.  I barely recognized him with his new shaggy look!

 The best part of Oklahoma, were these two ladies!!!  My brothers picked out some amazing women to marry and I am so grateful that they fit in so well to our family.  I love sister-in-laws!!!!  Tara, the one on the left, Ty's wife, is expecting their first baby in May!!!!  I can't wait to see them as parents and to have a new niece or nephew to snuggle!

Ian liked the animals, but he was more excited to shoot Uncle Adam's guns!   All the kids took turns trying to shoot at the water bottle.

 Drew only shot once and was quickly over it!  He couldn't understand why anybody would want to shoot at animals!  He definitely won't be hunting with my brothers!

 Ian on the other hand, can't wait to have a gun of his own someday and would shoot at anything that moves....sound like somebody else in my family....TYLER!

This is my little brother Tyler and his partner in crime, Jill.  They shot a turkey when they were 6 years old, out of season, and totally illegal!  My dad didn't think there was anyway they would hit anything, so he allowed them to shoot their BB guns at the turkey.  My righteous and responsible father called the police and told them about it!  They had to give the turkey to the police, apologize, and were told to never hunt without a license!  They were pretty proud of their first kill!

It was so good to see my brothers!   I miss them living so far away and hope to make it to Oklahoma more often to see them.  

 Mya taking an "Okie" nap!!!

 My favorite part of Oklahoma was our Shrimp Boil dinner in Ty's barn!  Potatoes, sausage, shrimp, and corn, all boiled together and thrown on the table!  Cocktail sauce and butter were squirted onto the table at each seat.

 No plates or utensils were used...everyone just grabs food poured out of the big pot and digs in!!!

Mya Coleen was glad to be reunited with her Ge Coleen!

  My boys love Oklahoma!  They pretty much lived outside the whole time.  Oklahoma offered animals, guns, and 4 wheelers...every little boys dreams come true!  No wonder my brothers made this place home!  We've decided when the boys get a little bit older, we will ship them to Oklahoma for the summers and have the uncles put them to work!


Next, we traveled back to Russell.  We stopped in Oxford to have lunch with Holly, Kirk, Kendra, and Jace!  We enjoyed seeing them and feasting on all their yummy Schwan's Man treats!

We also made a pit stop in Hutchinson to see one of the 8 wonders of Kansas...the Salt Mine!
Mya was too young to go, so Ge and Aunt Holly took her to the zoo.  The rest of us, put on our hard hats and rode 650 feet underground!  We all stuffed into an elevator and traveled down for 2 minutes in pitch black.

The salt mine was formed 275 million years ago.   This was a first for me to see it!

The boys down in the salt mine!

The mining for salt in this mine is for salt used on icy roads.  It is not cleaned for human consumption, so we were told to keep our tongues in our mouths!

We each got to dig for our own shiny salt rock to take home.

I was surprised to learn that Hollywood artifacts are stored in the mine in Kansas!

It makes a great storage facility!

 Owen's favorite discovery!!!

We rode by train and I was surprised how big it was!   The dark tunnels just kept going and going!

My beautiful niece Kendra!  We were in the bathroom taking this picture, while Kenny was in the boys bathroom.....LICKING THE WALL!!!!

He wanted to see if it tasted like salt!!!  He told us it did and that he waited to be in a room where nobody was looking, so he could taste it....Disgusting...the bathroom...really?!!!!!  He listens to instructions well!

We finally made it to Russell!!!  It was good to be back home.  Let the Good Times Roll...

Carmin and I forever having school spirit....

 Go Broncos!!!!!

 We realized we aren't quite as limber as we once were!

WE LOVE COUSINS!!!

 Aunt Holly, the kid at heart,  is always ready for some fun!  

 I love this man, my kids Great Grandpa Elliott.  I always like to see him when we come back home.  Mya thought the need to feed him!

 A trip back home, isn't complete, without a stop at the Sternberg Museum in Hays.

 Mya adores her girl cousins!

 Silly boys!!!

Ge always has fun plans for us to keep us busy.  We loved taking over a hotel pool to swim in for a couple of hours on a cold November day!

Ge shows her love through sweets!

   She had Kansas Dirt Cake for Kenny, home made fudge for me, and 3, 2, 1 cakes for the kids!  To make the individual cake:  take 3T of combined Angel Food Cake/ and your favorite cake mix flavor, 2 T. of water, stir together, and pop it in the microwave for 1 Minute!  Cake for Breakfast: fun, easy, delicious!!!

This is a Kansas Dirt Cake,  Kenny's favorite!!!

We played lots of games...

 Drew destroyed Grandad at Guess Who!!!

 Grandad turned 62!  Another reason to CELEBRATE!

 We went to the Russell Theatre to watch Arthur Christmas for free.

Gotta love small town charm.

 The kids made their own lollipops out of jolly ranchers.  Mya and Brynlee couldn't wait for them to cool!

 If the boys weren't hanging out in the tree, they could be found down at the hay bales!

 We played out there until the sun went down!

 Our trip home for the holidays could not have been more fun!  The kids had a blast being with cousins and played so hard.  As we drove to Colorado to fly home, they slept almost the whole way.  That how we know we've had a successful trip!!!

I love my family dearly and appreciate all they did for us to make this trip possible!!!