Crockpot Cookoff....

One of my friend's daughter is in American Heritage Girls and they were having a Crockpot Cookoff to raise money for a food pantry. They invited us to come and when I told Logan about it, he was very excited. He wanted to make something, too! I do cook in my crockpot, but thought we'd look online and try something new. I looked on the Year of Slowcooking Blog and ran across a recipe that I thought Logan would like and he could do a large portion of the work, too.

Here is Logan serving his soup.


They had bags in front of each person where the people that came could drop tickets in if they wanted to vote for your dish. Logan watched as tickets were dropped in his bag and was really excited! Well.....

He won first place in his category. And his friend, Jackie, she won first place in her category, too! It was really fun and Logan is already talking about what he should make next year!

The soup was very good and we will make it again for sure!

Crockpot Pasta Fagioli
--1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
--1/2 large red onion, chopped
--1 cup carrots, chopped
--2 celery stalks, sliced
--2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
--1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
--4 cups beef broth
--1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce (I used 14 oz)
--2 tsp oregano
--1 T Tabasco sauce
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time


Use a 6 quart or larger crockpot, or cut the recipe in half. This makes a lot.

Brown the meat on the stovetop, and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add it to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and Tobasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 (I cooked mine for 3). When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

Serve with a bit of parmesan cheese if you have it (we didn't take cheese with us, but did serve it with crusty French bread).

Ivy rots the bones....

Logan learns a new Proverb each week. He just finished reciting this weeks for me. "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but ivy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30". :-)

You may recall Logan saying that Jennifer is the first book of the Bible. Yesterday while reviewing the books on our first day back after Christmas break he said the 5th book is Deusus. I laughed and told him no, it is Deuteronomy. His response, "Oh. I thought they all ended in 'us'". :-)

Alright, I think this tops the "ivy rots the bones". Logan is working in his Bible Notebook. He is illustrating day 5 of creation by gluing fish in the water and drawing birds in the sky. I look over to see black dots coming out of all the birds. "Look, Momma. They're all pooping!". Yep---all BOY!

It's the little things.....

Merry Christmas!

Blizzard 2009!

Wow!! I had no idea until 2 PM yesterday that a blizzard was headed our way. My husband called me from DC. "Go buy a sturdier snow shovel". Last I had checked, we were to get about 5 inches....no big deal. Ummm. As of 2 PM today, we have 16 inches and it is still coming down heavy! It says we are supposed to get 12-22 inches through the night! The last storm we had like this was in 2003 when Logan was just a few months old.

After the boys and I finished up a few things at home yesterday, we headed out to get a sturdier snow shovel. Costco was our first stop. They ran out at noon. Picked up some toilet paper while there...don't want to run out of that. Drove to Home Depot and saw a worker outside. Stalked him in my van until I was close enough for him to hear me. "Excuse me. Before I drag both of my kids out, can you tell me if you are out of snow shovels?" " Yes. We are sold out". I didn't bother going to Lowe's because it is right across the street and I figured if Home Depot was out, Lowe's would be, too. Headed to a Ace Hardware that is kind of tucked away and not in the main area of town. They were out, too, but expected a truck around 7 PM. Drove across to a grocery store. Stocked up on a bunch of food and found some ice melt there. Drove back to Ace...it was now 7:15. The sign on the door now said they expected the truck around 8 PM (possibly). I entered and saw a line. I went to the end and asked if it was the line waiting on the truck. Yes, it was. I called my husband, who was on the bus on his way home, and asked if he really expected me to wait in the line. Of course, I was only kidding when I asked him because I had no intentions of waiting.

Headed home and got all the groceries in and put away. I needed to mail a package and thought we could grab some food while out. Well, the snow came early and it was pretty bad when we finished eating. Should have gone straight home, but decided to stop at the Post Office since it was on the way. There was a line at the 24 hour kiosk. I was watching people drop their packages in the slot and hoping it didn't get full before I got to it. Sure enough, the woman before me dropped her packages in and it was jammed. I was out of luck. I had already bought my postage, so decided to take the route home that took me close to the other post office in town. Well, a lady was just going to leave her packages there and when she heard I was driving to the other post office, she gave me her packages, too. Guess I look like a good person :-). Made it to the other post office, but saw one person had slid into the curb, and another had crashed into a pole. Dropped my packages in and we were on our way home. Turned onto the road we live off, but had about 2 miles before we got to our neighborhood. Saw a few other people that slid of the road. I drove slow and steady. Made it 2 blocks from our house and the road going the other direction was closed to through traffic. We had just come down a hill and had one final one before turning into our neighborhood. The light was green, but the cars weren't moving. The person at the front of the line was just stopped in the intersection. I guess they just decided they didn't want to go up the hill. Several people got out from behind them and headed up the hill. I watched as they all slid around. I figured the roads were only going to get worse, so we went around. There was a pickup two cars ahead and they were literally almost sideways going up the hill. I passed the car that was just sitting and switched lanes. I headed up the hill and passed the sideways truck. Wow! We made it up the hill and I've never been so happy to turn into my community!!

Here are a few pictures that I've taken so far---The picture above was taken at about 1 AM on Dec. 19.This picture was taken at noon on Dec. 19.This was taken at about 2 PM on Dec. 19--about 16 inches, so far!!

Prim and Proper!

Last Friday, we took the boys to get their haircut. We use a barber shop and the boys LOVE it! Logan gets his hair cut by the same guy just about every time. He calls him his "friend" :-). There are a couple of ladies that I have cut Lucas' hair. They are both mom's and have lots of patience. He does pretty well, though. He has to go often because his hair grows so fast!

Anyway, Lucas was able to get in the seat right away for his hair cut. When she was all done, the lady spiked his hair up a bit. I, of course, thought it was cute! I told her that Logan wouldn't like it because he is very prim and proper when it comes to his hair. When we went and sat by Logan while he waited for his "friend" to be ready to cut his hair, he noticed Lucas' hair. "That is horrible! Just terrible", he said as he made a mad dash towards Lucas and began smoothing his hair down. I told him that I thought it was cute, but he insisted that it wasn't. Finally I told him to leave it alone because it wasn't his hair. When his "friend" was finished cutting his hair, he walked past me (on his way to get a lollipop) with his hair all perfectly combed and laying flat, I asked him why he didn't have his hair spiked, too. I got the "are you crazy" look!

This morning I decided to spike Lucas' hair up a bit after I got him dressed. He immediately got offended. "NO!! I wanna smoov my hair down". Oh my, I was laughing so much. I would spike it up, he would smooth it down. By the end we were both laughing and momma got her way! I can't help it, I just think it is cute! It also makes him look older than the 3 that he is! Here are a few pictures of my styling boy:

Santa Train

Last weekend, we took the boys on a train ride with Santa. They really enjoyed it!Lucas especially liked the candy cane that they handed out!After the train we did some shopping, had lunch, and then that evening we went to see a friend's daughter in a play. It was certainly a fun-filled Saturday!

In the beginning....

The curriculum that I use with Logan is Christian based, so just recently we have started learning the books of the Bible. It had been a few days since we had done school and Logan was having a hard time remembering the first book. I was trying to prompt his memory and offered the beginning sounds to him.

me: "Gen....".

Logan: "iffer".

Oh my did I get a laugh over that one. Yes. The first book of the Bible is Jeniffer! Ha!

Story Time with Grandma....

I just wanted to share a wonderful idea that my mother in law had. A few years ago, she started recording herself reading children books. She loves to read, but doesn't live close enough to read to our boys very often. We typically only see her once a year. So, to make up for this, she has been sending recordings of her reading various books to the boys. Just recently, Logan has really enjoyed being read to. We put the cds on for him and he listens to his Grandma read to him as he drifts off to sleep. It is fun for him to be able to talk to her on the phone about the story that she has read to him. Just today a Christmas package arrived with the last few chapters of The Wind in the Willows and a couple of other stories, too. I know that Logan will be so excited to open the new cds from Grandma!

Bed time....

Last night, in an effort to put off bed time, Logan announced that his food needed time to congest. I was on the phone with my dad and my husband had no clue what Logan was talking about. Ummm. Digest. I think he means his food needs time to digest. Good thing these boys have their momma to translate for them. HA!