Fun with the Marble tower.

Jim got a marble tower for Christmas, one we can build over and over and always be different.

The girls mainly place marbles and watch them roll down but they have an input to where to place the 'whirl circle' (lg blue and yellow circles) or the 'spinners' (one is orange, green ad pink) and all the other parts.

 It's a simple, whole family activity that we are enjoying.

The towers can get tall too, EW is little taller then 30". :) 

Until Next Time,
Lexie ><> 

Bake Potato Pizza

Jim and I made one of the best pizza's we've made in a long time. I thought I'd share our recipe and show off our wonderfully made food.

It's a vegetarian bake potato pizza, sound yummy? Yes, yes in deed it is!

So, try it out, add or take away veggies and enjoy!

Ingredients:

potatoes (i used baby reds, purples and yellow)

green onion

broccoli

red pepper

mushrooms

pizza crust

sour cream

rosemary

thyme

Italian seasoning

garlic

canola oil

1. Roast your potatoes first with the following:

@ 350 degrees for 55 mins.

4 c. of 1/2 cubed potatoes (or adjust to your liking)

4 T. canola oil

1 tsp. salt

4 T. garlic

chopped thyme & rosemary leaves (fresh or dried)

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

Mix the potatoes and seasoning, lay out on pan, stirring every 15 minutes.

2.Prepare crust according to package direction or your own hand made crust.

3. Place 1 c. sour cream on crust, then add potatoes, onion, broccoli, red peppers, mushrooms and cheese

3. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes

we are 'that' family...

I can now say we are 'that' family! We have the cat, dog, two kids and now this sweet mini van. Oh and I almost forgot to mention our 18 chickens. :-)

Here's another project to show off Jim's great handy work and all the hard work he does for his family!

It seats 7 small butts, a 2006 Ford Windstar SEL; tan, leather, 6 CD disc changer, stow-n-go rear bench, 4.2 V6 and it's a beast (this is a good thing) according to Lexie. :-}

According to Jim this was a 'pretty simple fix'. He found this van at a place in SD and couldn't pass it up. He even had a buddy check it out before buying because it seemed 'to good to be true'. The parts he found were some new and some off of other vans at the junk yard. I wouldn't say this was his most exciting part, tramping through the yard in January looking for parts. But he did it. New to this van is: steering connecting rods, new steering pump, front bumper, right fender, right inner fender liner, hood, radiator, A/C condenser, right head light, wiper fluid reservoir, lower radiator core support, after all this was put in or on, we sent it off for it's paint job.

Now it's good as new and it's our driving machine!

The before shot: taken apart & the front corner that needed to be fixed.

And of course, we decided to personalize our plates to Waa-La.

Cheers to JimWaa for a job well done!

Snowmen, the best thing about winter!

Jim and CMW were out shoveling, enjoying the snow and building snowmen! This picture includes her family and she continues to want to build more, 'how about g'ma and g'pa?' she said. Jim said, that's for another day.

Jim says 'she wants an army out there'.

I don't blame her, why wouldn't Claire continue to have fun, as long as her dad helps in building. :-} He was a little short on coal for the eyes and buttons, but with a little imagination, you'll be good to go!

Claire wouldn't look at the camera, but this is 'Claire' the snow-lady!

She says to me, 'Mom, I need a carrot for the nose!', I said 'alright'!

We continue to get snow, each day a little here or there and the wind continues to blow. Our street also continues to be slimmer and the sun peaks out every now and then. And i guess we look forward to more snow and of course, building more snowmen!

Sometmes cheap labor isn't worth it...

For all of summer (I know) we have been prep-ing our house to get it painted for, lets hope, the next 10 years. Yes, I am crossing my fingers. And today Jim was with CMW priming. She was certainly enjoying it. Even though Jim says 'cheap labor isn't worth it' since CMW is creating more work then help. Like paint in her hair or on Jim or places it isn't suppose to go. But he did say, 'I just couldn't resist, she was so cute!'. She went to find her own paint brush and came out and asked to paint and for a little while he did.

CMW looks huge because she is wearing a life jacket (her idea of a 'jacket') under her paint shirt and she is wearing a dress (which you can't see) with those black boots. Isn't she fashionable?

A little more of CMW

CMw put this diaper on her bear all by herself.

Isn't she talented and she was so proud of this too.

She loves her daddy!

She's ready to go hiking!!

We were downstairs working on laundry and she found the back pack and got her baby in and got ready. Clipped the waste belt that's on the floor and got the straps on her shoulders and she was ready! Photo opp! :-)

And for our MOMS Club harvest party we dressed up as a ballerina. She was one last year too but this year it was more fun for mom. I made her tutu and we put the rest of the outfit together by her already owned items. Tights from ggg aunt Jeanie, shoes from maga Paula, let warmers from gg. g'ma Kay and the shirt a hand-me-down.

It's a pretty good costume, is it?

I'll try to get another picture closer to Halloween for the full effect. :-)

CMW was working on decorating a pumpkin with stickers and markers.

Jim the Handy Man

While I was gone helping with corn, Jim was busy doing this, putting in our new stove. There is a hole in our wall due to the controls from the old stove, so now I get to use some creative decorative items to hide it. I'd rather do this then sheet rock it when in the future it will be gone completely. It was a surprise to me because I thought the stove was coming a week later then it did. So Mr. Jim got busy and worked about 7 hrs putting this project together and boy do I like it! I'll give you a little step by step of his process so you know it wasn't just sliding out the old stove and sliding in the new, nope this project was not that easy. Jim had to obviously took out the old stove and unhooked the electricity and took the controls out of the wall. Then he cut out the the drawer from below the stove and proceeded to move the cabinet over too.

(This is the best picture I can find of our old stove, Miss CMW trying out my high-heels! See the drawer below the stove, this was one item he had to cut out!)

You see, our old stove was a set in and our new stove is not only a free standing stove but it is 3 inches larger. He had to move the fridge over and cut out flooring to move the existing cabinet over to the left 3 inches. He even cut the back-splash to match the counter as it wasn't matching up due to the move. He then went and hooked up the gas line with a nifty gas hook up kit and only had 2 ft of gas piping left over. Great work honey at the little amount of waste you had!! Then he was finished, only after an 1hr of clean up. He got to bed @ 2am and made it though a full days work with a few cups of coffee to help him through. :-) I might have missed a few details but you get the drift, and send Jim an email (james.waa@gmail.com) letting him know, what great work does!

The Man himself, look at how chipper he is after this project! (just kidding, this was not taken after his 7 hrs of labor)

Projects

I'd thought I tell a little bit about what Jim's been up to. He has been busy building a chicken coop for our 12 chickens coming in August. CMW was a big help too. We built it one weekend and this last weekend we stained it so it won't tune grey. This was Jim's idea. It is quite portable, the front and back walls detach and the roof will be where we get into the coop. Just the right size for 12 chickens and the fence will come when we get the chicks and when they are ready to venture out.

He also is putting in a more efficient drain system so our house will stay free of H2O. He has dug trenches, leveled them to the right slope and is going to throw down some rock and cover up the tubing and he'll be done. I hope he'll be done. It's a lot of work to keep changing the drainage system each year.

He's planning to plum our outside sump pump to the inside sump pump. It runs most of the winter and he wants it to say ice free this year. And then it's to the furnace. He wants to re-plum this to go out the side of our house instead of up the chimney. I say, whatever, it's work he's creating not me. All i know is by September, I'll have a new stove and a slightly remodeled kitchen. I'll be so excited about this and I'll let you know when it happens.

Jim is also working on his sail boat, his hobby cat. He is getting it ready to sail and I'm thinking August, he might get it in the water.

CMW pounding away.

The basic shape, a roof that is clear and water resistant is opens!

The man, busy at work. What a great husband I have.

The color we stained the coop!

The new systme to keep the water away from the house.

The grey tubs that will be in the ground.

The Sail Boat.