What's in your lunchbox?

I used to know what kind of sandwiches my kids wanted to have for their school lunch. Not any more. My kids' tastes have matured. I had the following conversation with Natalie last Monday night - the night before school started:

We were having tacos for dinner and I had just placed chopped cilantro on the table.
Nat "ooooo cilantro!" (as she grabs a couple of tablespoons to put on her plate)
Me: "ummmmm you like cilantro now?"
Nat: "Yes, Aunt Cheri made me this sandwich thing with it on it cuz Uncle Jonathan took all the lettuce to work."
Me: "What kind of sandwich?" (and totally laughing about Jonathan taking all the lettuce!)
Nat: "It was on a tortilla with mayonaise and ham and cilantro"
Me: "You liked it?"
Nat: "Yeah - can I have it for lunch tomorrow?"
Me: "uhhhhh maybe" (wondering if I have all these strange ingredients in the fridge - and wondering when she had left the world of pb & j behind)
Fast forward to the next morning . . . I had totally forgotten about this mysterious "sandwich" when . . .
Nat: "Mom, can you make me that thing with the tortilla and mayo and ham?"
Me: "I can try . . what's all on it again?"
Nat: "Tortilla, mayo, ham and garlic"
Me: "Garlic?" (ackkkkk she likes garlic now too??)
Me: "How about if I call Aunt Cheri and ask her what goes on it. Then I can make it for you tomorrow." (and knowing that Natalie will nag me about it for the rest off my life until I find out what is on it)
Nat: "Okay"

So here's what on it - I was too chicken to try it, so I'll take Natalie's word that it's good.

You mix cream cheese, chopped garlic, roasted garlic & red pepper seasoning, and mozarella cheese. Spread that on a tortilla then a layer of ham and a layer of cilantro leaves (like 20). Roll it up and cut into slices. Sounds more like a sandwich you'd find at a fancy ladies' tea instead of a 3rd graders lunch box. Nat's wrap and Kaylee's ham and cream cheese bagel.
I know it's not as good looking as a P-dub creation.

Back-to-School

The girls started school today - YAY!! Kaylee in 6th grade at Housel Middle School and Natalie in 3rd grade at Prosser Heights. Natalie's teacher this year is Miss Russell. Kaylee also had her in 3rd grade. Here is the kids picture this morning. Andrew was still asleep!

Colten starts kindergarten next week.

Scrapbook Queen Contest

Good Morning Everyone!!

I've entered into a scrapbook queen contest over at www.craftwarehouse.com (to win a $250 gift card) and I need your help! I need votes!! To be exact I need votes with a rating of 5. So if you could help a girl out, I'd appreciate it. You'll have to register in order to vote. Craft Warehouse does not send out a lot of emails - I think I get one every other month, but you could just unsubscribe when you do get one. If you're interested here's the steps on how to register/vote.

1. go to www.craftwarehouse.com
2. scroll to the bottom left corner. it will have a login in bar. Click on "register"
3. fill in the info - use Kennewick as your store (you do not have to fill in your birthdate)
4. when your registration has gone through - log in
5. next you'll need to click on "photo gallery" in the main lime green tool bar
6. click on "2008 Scrapbook queen contest"
7. click on Kennewick Store entries
8. click on my layout- the All-American Kids one
9. give my entry a "5" rating. well if you like it anyways!
10. you can give the other entries ratings as well - and you can vote at the other store locations, but giving anyone in my store a high rating hurts my chance - so give them all a 1! hehehe just kidding! kind of ;)

Thanks!!!!

Anyone know what this picture represents?

No, it's not a random picture that I found on my camera. It's the picture of Kaylee's rite-of-passage into middle school. It's the picture of my heart strings pulled a little tighter. And my apron strings becoming looser. I know, I know it's only middle school, but I can't believe that my baby is old enough to have 7 classes and a locker and she's too little to be in that big school! I have so many fears for her - and she has none. She's excited and I'm a nervous wreck! And I have to let Colten go to all-day kinder this year too! Does it ever get easier to let them grow up?

Mommy's aren't allowed to be sick!

Man who wrote that rule?? I want to never be sick again! I've been fighting a cold/allergies for a few weeks now and went to to dr to find out that indeed it is a sinus infection. So here's what my kids did while I was resting one morning: Yes, this was a ginormous (is that a word?) fort that took up my entire living room. The furniture was completely re-arranged! I guess I can't really complain - they were all playing nicely, there was no blood, no tears, and they cleaned it up when I asked them too.
Here it's the midway point in the clean-up. All the blankets and toys are put away, they're just getting the furniture put back together.

What we've been up to . . .

since my last post we've been pretty busy. So I thought I'd just post a couple pictures of what we've been doing.

For Andrew's birthday we drove up to Granger for lunch. Monte works up there so it was a good way for him to get to go to lunch with us. There is a golf course just off the freeway that has GREAT pizza. They also have putt putt golf, pedal cars, and these "kid steam" engines. We did the pedal cars and the kid steam engine and then quickly left since it was 100 degrees outside and we were sweating! It was so much better than chuck e cheese - food was good and way cheaper entertainment! On Saturday the 16th we went up to my in-laws for a birthday party with the other cousins that have August birthdays. We swam in the pool, rode the 4 wheelers, and red-neck surfed in the grass - I wish I had pictures of that! I'll see if my sis-in-law does. Anyways, here are Maeson, Haiden and Andrew with their cakes. My sis-in-law is good and handmade their cakes. Maeson's is a watermelon and Haiden's is a wheel of fortune. Poor Andrew has a store bought Cars one :(.
At this same birthday party everyone had ditched Eastyn. He's the youngest so he often gets left out of things. Kaylee was such a sweetie to play with him, even though all he did was splash her and spray her with the hose!
Then on the 17th we went over to Renton to see my brothers new house. They had a house warming BBQ. If was so much fun and my sis-in-law Kristin made some really good food!! I mean REALLY GOOD! I ate so much I thought I'd have to roll back over the mountain. Here is a pic of Kristin:
And here's my brother Craig:
We spent 2 more days over in Duvall over at my sisters doing boring things like going to Costco and the bookstore. My kids love playing in her hot tub, so we did that a lot too.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew is 4!!! Ack how did that happen?? Here's a picture I took of him this morning - dirty face, scabby forehead and all - just keepin' it real!

Fishin' with the Family

Wednesday night we decided to jump in the boat and go fishin'. Monte had heard that the steelhead were biting above McNary Damn, so we decided to try it out. We caught a 1 1/2 pound small mouth bass but didn't even get a bite from the steely's. We were bummed but had a great time anyways! When you get no bites you become silly and take funny face pictures.
Even Mocha got to go.
This was our view last night - it was a gorgeous evening to be out on the water.

LDS funny

Natalie's Birthday weekend - Day 2!

Sunday was Natalie's actual 8th birthday - and she chose to be baptized. I'm so proud of her! Here she is all ready to go with her Uncle Michel - Monte's brother. Her day was made even more special by the fact that her cousin Ethan - who is just 7 weeks older than her - got to be baptized on the same day!
After the baptism we went back to our house for a family dinner. This is a picture of her cake. It's a cupcake cake that we ordered from Safeway - it was YUMMY!!
Here's a shot of her after blowing out the candles - I wasn't quick enough to get the actual "huff".
After this picture was taken my camera informed me "Battery Exhausted" man I love new electronic devices that tell you what's wrong with them!

Natalie's birthday weekend - day 1!

This past weekend was Natalie's 8th birthday! My sisters (& their families) and Mom came to visit us for the weekend, so on Saturday we went and did some activities. This picture is just of Nat in our front yard - Grandma colleen needed a picture for her talk at Natalie's baptism the next day. This is a picture of my Mom. She has Natalie's swim suit bottoms on her head. Don't ask. We (me, Mom, Cheri, Kaylee, Natalie and Andrew) are in the car on the way to go see Space Chimps. Please, please, please DO NOT go see that movie! Don't even rent it on video. I love you all so much that I am telling you this for your own good (and to save you the money, pain, and horror of having to sit through it)
After the movie we met up with my other sista Sarah and 2 of her kids Cayden & Ethan and Colten (who had gone with them instead of the movie) at the pool inside the Best Western hotel. The pool was freezing so the kids were in the hot tub most of the time.
Andrew got this towel for his birthday (which is still another week away) from my mom.
This picture of Ethan made me crack up!
There are no pictures of the husbands or of one nephew because they went fishing. They didn't catch anything but had a good time relaxing and visiting.