Her Future's So Bright

She's gotta wear shades...

 

...at the breakfast table.  

Or maybe it has something to do with the kitchen lights being a bit bright in the morning.

What a funny kid!

And little brother was eating his breakfast too.

Unfazed by the lights.

 

A couple of comedians I live with!

Setting up Shop

Yesterday was one of those dark and gloomy days here.  Clouds covered most of the day and there was a light drizzle coming down.  Carly didn't have school and I was watching Isaac wondering if he was truly sick or not.  (He had thrown up the night before, but I had my suspicions that he had just gagged and wasn't really sick.  I turned out to be right.)  So we just stayed home yesterday.  And all day yesterday, the kids played grocery store.  I was amazed at how long they played this together.  Every once in a while they'd drift off and do something else for a few minutes, but they'd always come back to the grocery store.  Interestingly enough, the only arguments I heard was when they weren't playing grocery store.  Anyway, Momma appreciated their focused play too.  I was able to get some laundry washed and folded, dishes put away, bills paid, and more work setting up the new blog look.  I could take more gloomy days if they turn out like this indoors!

  

The shopkeeper trying to smile

  

 checking out a customer

  

scanning a hot dog!

  

  

 "here you go"

  

 "have a nice day" (he really did say that!)

  

 off to take her groceries home

 

Blueberry Muffins and a Reminder

Last week I went to a baby shower that was a potluck brunch.   I had visions of bringing my mom's maple pecan twists, but I was running a bit low on flour.  So I opted for these...blueberry muffins.  I found the recipe here, on allrecipes.com.  Their actual name is To Die For Blueberry Muffins, and they pretty much live up to their name in my opinion.  I've made them a few times before and have made them with and without the streusel topping.  This time, I didn't do the streusel topping, but sprinkled raw sugar on top before baking.  They turned out great and were even less work preparing.  Also the recipe says you MUST use fresh blueberries, but I've done it with fresh and frozen.  It doesn't change the taste at all.  The only thing about using frozen that I've noticed, is it's best to take them straight from the freezer and put them into your batter.  Mix just enough to blend, but not too much.  If your berries thaw even a bit, then they'll make your batter look a bit blue.  Again, no change in taste, just looks.
Another thing, I realized is that I should bake and take pictures of the finished products in the morning more often.  I had great natural light to work with!  That always makes a difference.

And just a reminder, I'll be changing my blog address tomorrow, February 1st.  Please consult your Christmas card that you received, or check my facebook page for the new address.  You can also email us at phelpsak[at]gmail[dot]com if you'd like to find out what our new address will be.

A Girl After My Own Heart

The other day Carly was at the grocery store with me, which doesn't happen as often anymore since I try to go on the mornings when she's at school.  That way I only have to take one kid to the store with me.  But last week it didn't work out to shop with just one companion.  So while we were there, I let her pick out a box of valentine's.  I know it's early, but sometimes in Juneau you gotta get what you want when you want it and not wait until the last minute because it might be gone by then.  So she picked out some Dora cards to give her friends this year.

She basically begged me to let her start them as soon as we got home.  I was thinking that opening the box too early was a bad idea.  It just gives opportunity to lose cards or use them for other things, and then there wouldn't be enough to give to her classmates.  But my lovely husband thought I was encouraging her to procrastinate.  So I gave in a couple of days later and let her start by making up some cards for friends and family.  She and I came up with a list of names and I wrote them out so she could see the spellings.  I helped her get a few going, and then went about my other "things to do".  When I came back by she looked like this:

Notice the organized piles she created.  The blank ones are all stacked by size.  The finished ones are folded and also organized by size.  The pencil, list, sticker sheet, and beverage all have their places as well.  Ahhh!  Beautiful isn't it?

Now, I have a lovely friend, Jody, who is very nice and occasionally tells me how organized she thinks I am.  Jody is a sweetie, but I also think she's giving me a bit too much credit.  I'm not completely disorganized, but there are SOOOO many areas that I'd like to be better organized in.  (I saw an article in the lastest Real Simple magazine about organizing and I was totally wishing the pantry in the photo was mine....sigh.)
So, I'd like to be better at my own organizing, but isn't it nice to see a little preschooler trying to be even just a little bit organized too?  Ahh, she's a girl after my own heart.

And by the way, momma was right.  We've misplaced or used too many cards and now there's not enough for her school friends.  So...I picked up another box at the store today.  Do I dare say, "I told you so?"

Turkish Pork Loin Chops

 We had this scrumptious meal for dinner the other night.  It has become one of Shawn's recent favorites, and the good news it is SUPER easy.  It's a make ahead freezer recipe--love those!  The pork chops bake for about 45-60 minutes so baked potatoes pair perfectly with it.  Which means even less fuss for dinner.  Something extra like a salad or green beans and I'm done!  Well, with the prep part that is.  There's always the dishes to do afterward. Boo for dirty dishes!

 

So here's the recipe.  I got this from the cookbook, Fix, Freeze, Feast by Katie Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik.

Turkish Pork Loin Chops (with bacon....mmmm)
1 Costco sized tray (6-8 lbs, or 12 chops) boneless pork loin chops
1/4 cup Turkish seasoning
12-15 slices of bacon
toothpicks
2 one gallon freezer bags, labeled

Homemade Turkish Seasoning: 1 Tablespoon salt, 1 Tablespoon garlic granules, 1 Tablespoon ground cumin, 2 teaspoons black pepper, 2 teaspoons dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried cilantro, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

To Prepare: 1.  Rinse and trim chops as desired.  2.  Rub about 1 teaspoon of Turkish seasoning over the surfaces of each chop.  Wrap one or more slices of bacon around the edge of each chop, securing with toothpicks.  3.  Place wrapped chops on a rimmed baking sheet and place in freezer for 1 hour.  (Or forget about them in there for a couple of days like I've done before!)  Divide froze chops evenly among the freezer bags.  To [try to] avoid puncturing the bags, you might want to double-bag the chops.  4.  Seal and return to the freezer.

To Cook:  1.  Place chops in an ungreased baking dish.  (Cause you know those chops are gonna grease that dish just fine on their own!)  Cover and completely thaw in the refrigerator.  2.  Preheat oven to 350*F.  3.  Bake chops, uncovered, for 45-60 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a chop reads 160*F.

I usually cook 2 of these monster chops for our family of 4.  But I've also cut the chops in half when I prepared them for others or just to have some 1/2 chops as options.
Give this recipe a try if you like.  It's really great and I'd say pretty easy on the prep day as well as the cooking day.  Bon appetite!

Neighborhood Friends

Just a few days ago, I was surprised to see two bald eagles hanging out in the trees of our neighbors backyard.  I don't remember ever seeing eagles hanging around in our neighborhood before--not even flying by.  Imagine my surprise when I came home several hours later and found two eagles hanging out in another tree in the same backyard.  I pointed them out to the kids and they were quite impressed (with the eagles, not me...hmmph).  Before we knew it there were four perched on two different trees.  I looked up and saw about 4 four more soaring in the air high above.  So naturally, I ran inside and got my camera.  I managed to get a few pictures snapped before they moved around too much.  I still don't know exactly why there were so many in our neighborhood at the same time.  I could hear a lot of raven noises, so maybe that had something to do with it--who knows.

my best close-up

 a little perspective

 

a fresh landing on top

 

It's times like this that make me appreciate living in Alaska.  It's truly a unique, wild, and beautiful place.

Walking on Water

After all the wedding festivities were completed and most of the family had all returned, we geared up with those that were left for a walk across the frozen Mendenhall Lake towards the face of the glacier.  We did this last year as well, and now this is something I hope we do each winter.    This year was a little different though, we haven't had as much snow, so we were literally walking across the ice.  Plus the glacier is always changing, so it never looks the same from year to year.

This is how Isaac started out our walk.  We live less than 5 minutes by car from the glacier, but he still managed to fall asleep.  But I was able to transfer him onto the sled and he kept right on sleeping until we got to the shore of the lake.  Then he just sat up and got pulled the whole way.

All five cousins playing together on an iceberg in the middle of the lake.

On our way.  Notice that it's the 4 year old pulling the 5 and 7 year olds.  I think the ice helped her out.

I had the girls stand in this picture to give you an idea of how enormous the boulder on top of the glacier really was, and because they look cute!  Don't worry, we didnt' get too close to that side of the glacier.  It was a bit nerving.

Victoria and I were both playing photographer, so we didn't get very many pictures of each other.  But I got her in this one when Eric was pulling all 5 kids on the sleds.  It was boys vs. girls.
Unfortunately, Shawn stayed home to take a nap before he went into work that night.  So hopefully we'll have a chance to make this trek again this winter.  We all had fun, even the Okie kids!

Wedding of the Decade

Well since the decade just started, I guess it was the wedding of the decade... so far.  But we started out the decade and the year by celebrating with Lee and Rachel on their wedding day.

It was a pretty busy week for us.  Shawn was the best man and I was basically a co-wedding coordinator with my friend Lela.  She and I did a lot of work planning, preparing for, and finally setting up for the big day.  I think it all turned out pretty well and the best part is that the bride loved it.  If you'd like to see more pictures of the day, Lela has some of her shots on her blog.  Below is how we had things decorated for the reception.  The white snowflakes on the tables were crocheted ornaments that an old friend of the bride's made as favors.  We had some on a tree in one corner, but I think they looked great on the tables too.  Oh and that tree--it was one of seven that we got for free from a local nursery after Christmas.  It was such a HUGE blessing and probably saved us close to $200.  We used one tree for the snowflakes and Shawn took his chainsaw to the rest and we used the boughs for the table decorations. 

It was a lot of fun being creative and doing it all with my friend Lela.  And having my sister in law, Shannon, there to work with for the last few days was great.  But seriously after all the work we put in, I think I needed a vacation just as much as the newlyweds! 

2009 Top Ten

This has been a busy start to 2010 for us.  But before I get too far into posts about what we've done in the past week, I wanted to recap my top ten favorite pictures from 2009.  I did this last year, but this year I managed to keep it to 10 pictures.  Not an easy task, but it was fun to go back over all the pictures we've taken.  So many memories.  And really that's probably the number one reason that each of these pictures were chosen--the memory they bring back for me.  But a fair number of them just make me laugh out loud too.   Hope they bring a smile to your face too.

September--at the pool

September--her first day of pre-school 

June--on Cook Inlet during our mission trip to Nikiski, AK

June--on the airport trail

 May--at Nugget Falls by the Mendenhall Glacier

July--a very hot day on the airport trail

July--on our boat, fishing and whale watching

August--He was being a little too quiet

August--waiting for Daddy to get the boat and fish ready to go home

April--clam and cockle digging with Lee and Rachel

(I like this picture so much because it shows how much fun they were having with something we'd never done before.)

Hope your 2009 was blessed with lots of fun and beautiful memories as ours was.