Last Saturday while Mark and I were off doing horses Ken tried a new recipe for dinner. It was delicious! Mark and Abbie ate until I thought they were going to be sick and then came back for more right before bed time. Since Mark enjoyed it so much we made it for his birthday dinner on Friday. I thought everyone else might enjoy it too. Let me know if you get to try it.

Chicken Ragu

Sautee in 3 Tbsp olive oil for about 8 minutes:
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped (I used the heart w/ all the leaves)
¼ cup onion
2 cloves garlic, minced

Add about a pound of chicken and cook for about 5 minutes more, until the chicken just begins to brown.

Add:
1 qt whole tomatoes, undrained
1 tsp chicken seasoning (or 1 chicken boullion)
salt and pepper to taste (I did about 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper)

Simmer gently for 45 minutes if the chicken is cooked when you add it, or 90 minutes for raw chicken. These are minimum times. Simmer until desired thickness and then cover over low heat until ready to serve. Serve over pasta.

Makes enough for 16 oz pasta, which is enough for one hungry family. I added 2 Tbsp butter to the finished pasta to keep it from sticking.

Yesterday and today I'm hosting a little Stamp Day at my house. These are the cards we are making. I think my favorites are the piggies and the vases, but I also love the starfish one too.

Here are two quick pages I made. All the kids sure are loving playing with the magnetix. David loves making domes that magnetically stick together and then he spins one. Ken and Jessie played together on Saturday and Jessie's favorite was her name that Ken made. Click on the pictures to see a larger version of them. If they are too big then change the magnification down in the bottom right hand corner of internet explorer until they fit on your screen (or just scroll around).

David was given one of the drawings a guy did of him in the art classes he models for. He was pleased with the finished piece.

We had a great time celebrating Mark's birthday. On Thursday night the family went to Jumpin' Jacks, an indoor play place with 7 huge blow up toys and slides. It was great because the parents could go on most of the toys too. We had races through the obstacle course and down the slides. It was fun to be a kid again.

Friday also happened to be the 100th Day of 1st grade. Mark took 100 pieces of unpopped popcorn. It sure didn't look like 100 pieces. In the evening Ken's family came over for dinner and cake and ice cream.

Mark and Jessie were most excited to unwrap the presents and Spencer was most excited to sing Happy Birthday. So we opened presents first and Ken lit the candles on the Dalmatian cake. Then we sang and Spencer got to the candles first blowing them all out. Mark was a great sport and just laughed about the whole thing, so we lit the candles again and explained to Spencer that it was Mark's turn to blow them out. Spencer didn't have any problems with that and so Mark got to blow out the candles too.

To top off all the celebrating Mark spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. There he got to watch part of the Jazz game with Randy and play Monopoly with Grandma and Grandpa.

Mark and Jessie love to try and find the longest icicles whenever we go out to run errands. Mark was pretty excited with the one he broke off of the chicken coop.

We got some new Lego toys and the kids had a blast putting together a butterfly, a penguin and a car. Vickie couldn't find the rest of the white squares that she needed so the penguin got a Christmas belt. And do you love Spencer's cape? He had me tie it on him early in the day and didn't take if off until we went to celebrate Mark's birthday in the evening.

Here are two fun creative kid moments. First Mark and Jessie were assigned to pick up the family room downstairs and so they tied the laundry baskets to the sled dog Mark and filled them with everything that needed to be put away upstairs. I'm not exactly sure how he pulled them upstairs but once he was up Abbie and Spencer thought they were excellent sleds and hopped right in. This made the pulling of them nearly impossible and almost ripped the belt loop right off his pants. But hey, they were being happy.

The second picture is one that you take to keep from screaming. Abbie and Spencer got in to the flour bucket and made a huge mess all over the kitchen floor. But to be helpful afterwards Spencer grabbed the stroller and rolled it back and forth across the mess. It was his "snow plow" trying to clear the flour.

This afternoon Jessie and I went to a baby shower together. A lady from Ken's work was able to adopt a little baby girl, and she sure is cute. After the shower we went and did horses again. Jessie loves being able to lead the horses in from the pasture to their stalls and ride on the back of the tractor when we take the hay around. And to top it all off the sunset tonight was just beautiful!

For our Friday night fun this week we took the kids up to the Planetarium at BYU to watch a star show. Ken and I went last Friday on a date and it was really fun. Before the show started the kids enjoyed doing all the science experiments they have set up as you come in the Eyring Science Center. Spencer really liked the Vortex Cannon. When you hit the top it shoots out a puff of air at whatever you have aimed it at (usually a person). Jessie also really enjoyed all the crystals they have on display. Two of them were as big as a couch.

The kids were really good during the star show which was Legends of the Creation. Abbie got a little scared when a volcano erupted during one of the tales. And Spencer was really good, although I could hear him whispering to Ken, "Dad, where did the moon go?"

Yesterday Abbie, Spencer and I went to read There's no Such Thing as a Dragon in Mark's class. Spencer and Abbie loved being able to sit on the big rug with the other first graders.

This week in 1st grade Mark is the star of the week. For his poster we made little pockets to hold the tags about him. He was so surprised we used the sewing machine to sew together paper pockets. But everyone was excited to help and took a turn pushing down the peddle on the sewing machine. On Friday I get to go to his classroom and read a book to his class. When I went for Jessie, two years ago, I read The Enormous Potato. It will be fun to see what book Mark chooses.

This afternoon after church we tried to take a family photo. Sounds simple, right? Did we mention adding 4 kids to the mix? Well, after 4 rounds of six poses, we finally gave up and used the first picture we took.

Our camera has a great feature - when you set it to take a picture automatically, it blinks a light at you while you get in position. Then just before it starts taking the six photos in sequence, it makes a crazy sound like a clucking chicken. It may have worked a little too well. The kids were LAUGHING in a few of the pictures, not smiling.

Spencers mangled neck is doing lots better. The last of the scab came off today at church, and he is glad it's gone. And since he didn't get a nap today (11:00 church makes naps impossible) he went to sleep well tonight. Yeah!

One last bit of news - for Sunday dinner today we had elk. A neighbor of ours bagged a big one this year, and shared some with us. It was great. It would have been even better if I was experienced in cooking steaks. I'll work on getting better.

Check back soon!

Ken (my first contribution to the blog!)

Sorry no pictures today. Unfortunately I left the camera at home. This afternoon Mark and Abbie and I went with a friend from church and helped water and feed about 40 horses. Mark and Abbie got to ride on the top of the hay bales piled on the back of the tractor. Mark also helped lead a few horses to their stalls. By the time we finished the chores it was too late to ride, but maybe we'll get to go riding this coming week.

Here is a picture of little Spencer's big "treadmiller" accident. He was playing with a handled ball and got too close to the treadmill while I was walking two mornings ago. The ball hit the back of the belt and got pulled under the treadmill and since he was holding on to the ball his hands got pulled under too which left his chin on the end of the belt getting all the skin scrapped off. It was a little scary there for a minute.

He's doing quite a bit better today, as long as nothing touches his neck.

Good morning all!

This is our experiment for the week. It's been so fun to be able to see what friends far away are up to I thought we could try a blog too. We'll start with a picture of the 6 inches of snow we got this morning and see how this goes.

I've shoveled the driveway twice today already.