Silver Dollar City, Here We Come!

Well, it's official, we've been to Silver Dollar City already this year! And sadly enough we are going again this coming weekend! But, that's what you have to do when you have season passes and kids that beg to go there all the time, right!?! About a week ago, we went and had a blast! We got to go with the Walkers, LaBrues, and Grandma. Both the girls love the place, especially Kayley who can now ride the bigger kid rides (with an adult of course!) But, she is one daredevil for sure! In fact, there is one ride that you can see below with little boats. She chose to ride it with Daddy and let me tell you that it was FAST!! I can't believe she wanted to go on it after seeing how fast it went! But she said it was fun, although as soon as she got off the ride she came up to me and gave me a BIG hug and said "Mom, I missed you SO much!" It was cute and just showed me how brave she really is! Cora on the other hand finally loved the little kid rides...last year she cried throughout the whole ride. But the frogs were her favorite. They actually do jump really high for a little kids ride. After the ride was over, she kept saying "Jump, Jump!" and wanted to go back for another turn. She pitched a fit when we finally did have to stop riding it.

The first day we went it was nice weather, which meant a lot of people! So many people that the lines to catch the trolley were about a mile long...so Nick and I braved it and walked our way up to the park. (For those that have been to SDC before know that once you get into the park there is nothing to do BUT walk, so to walk to the park takes a lot more energy and you value those trolley rides for a good break!) But we survived and then realized that it wasn't that far of a walk anyway! Then the second day was overcast and boy was it perfect to be there! No lines! The girls had a ball being able to get right back on the ride right after they were finished...so did we adults!

Couple of notes from the pictures. The picture of Kayley with Cora below shows Kayley doing her cute little wave that just melts my heart when she does it! :) She would often wave like this all weekend on the rides and it was so cute! She also did this during her song debut at the ward talent show once she spotted Nick in the croud filming her. (Oh and for my followers...I'm sad to report that I don't think I'll be able to post that video of her until we buy a specific program to help put up a video from our camera. I know, I know...boo who! Believe me, I think I'm more sad you all can't see it than you guys are! I guess you'll just have to come to our house to see it!:)

Oh...and the other cute thing about these pictures. The collage of Grandma and Cora. A few days before going to SDC I pulled out this shirt for Cora to wear for the first time this season and I put it on her and she kept saying "papap" (This is how she says Grandma for those that don't know) But, I asked her "Grandma?", she replied with a big, enthusiastic "uh-huh!" Then she was pointing to her shirt and I asked her if this was a shirt like Grandma's and she replied with an even bigger "uh-huh!!!" So, we had to pack our "Grandma shirt" as we call it now and asked Grandma to wear her Grandma shirt. Cora picked this up all on her own that it was just like her...smart girl!! :) It was cute to see how excited she got to see Grandma in her matching shirt! Oh...and one more cute thing she did with Grandma that weekend. Grandma was riding home to Springfield with us from Branson and we had stopped to do some errands. The girls' carseats are next to each other with Cora's behind the driver's seat and Kayley's in the middle and then there's a spot behind the passenger seat, which is where Grandma was sitting. Well, we got back into the car after one of our errands and after a bit of driving, Cora says with fear in her voice, "Mama!! Papap?" I told her Grandma was right there, pointing to Grandma and she looked over to her and said very cutely, "Oh!" It was really cute! She sure does love her "Papap!" :) Well, sorry this post was so long, but as you can see I had a lot to catch up on!

Happy Birthday to Me

I had a good birthday that was extended into two weeks after the fact, which is always nice!! :) Anyway, my birthday was really nice and was very relaxing as the girls didn't argue or fight with one another and played well while I actually enjoyed, yes I said enjoyed doing some yard work on my birthday. But, the day before Nick had made me Cashew Chicken and we had my sister and her family over for their first taste of Cashew Chicken (Springfield style of course) and they loved it so much that Edward had like 3-4 plate fulls (he's 7 by the way). Then back on my birthday Nick came home from work surprising me with flowers and we went to Ruby Tuesday to eat dinner. We had a coupon because as you all know we are way cheap at times!! But we both got the steak dinner which included steak, mashed potatoes, onion strings, broccoli, AND the salad bar...which was great for the girls! Oh..and did I mention all for $17, including tip!?! Then we came home and just vegged. It was a good birthday until about 3 in the morning when I guess my stomach decided that I had had too much red meat and I lost my cookies and then again about 5:30. So, Nick stayed home half a day the next day which made my birthday linger even longer as I got to sleep in and my stomach ache went away and I was able to enjoy the morning with Nick and see him shortly after only a few hours of work. Then a week ago when we were in Branson/Springfield I got the rest of my birthday present as pictured above. The best carpet cleaner I've seen yet! I was so excited about it that I cleaned all but two of my mother-in-law's rooms in her house...as seen in the before/after picture. That machine picked up some nasty stuff and I'm not going to lie, it picked some nasty stuff out of our carpet too! It was cute because Kayley would run ahead of me to open the toilet lid for me just so she could see all the dirt come out of the machine...girl after my own heart...that's sadly the best part of cleaning carpets to me! But, that I guess officially ended my birthday surprises, but it was a good birthday! It's nice to have a day to pamper ourselves isn't it or...a few days at that matter!?!

Love Story

This last weekend was our Ward's Variety Show. Kayley agreed to sing a song by Taylor Swift, "Love Story." She was so cute and we were so proud of her. Nick didn't think she'd do it at all and would end up getting scared, but we practiced every night and then that day, she even took a nap with her dress in anticipation of putting it on and performing. She was so excited and then even at the show, she kept asking me when it was her turn. She got up there and did great! Nick did film it while I was mouthing the words to her at the bottom of the stage. However I have no idea how to put the video on the computer. I'll have to see if Nick can do it. But, I also had my camera on the wrong setting when I gave it to Jess, so the pics aren't that great either! So I had to get some pics afterwards and of course her hair was all falling out, but it looked really cute and I had a flash forward to my future of putting up the girls' hair for their dances when they get older. Sigh!! Oh...and a couple of cute things she did was throw her flowers to the crowd in the middle of the song (she did that all on her own without any prompting) and she also spotted Nick videotaping her and she gave him the cutest little wave. We were very proud of her and love her so much!

Elizabeth's Baptism

This last weekend we got to go down to Farmington to my brother Edward's house for our niece Elizabeth's baptism. I didn't get any pics of the special birthday girl, so thanks Stephanie for posting a cute pic of Elizabeth and Edward! We had a blast with family as you can tell from the pics! The baptism was on Saturday and was great. It was neat to hear Elizabeth sing with Dale or Grand-dad (Stephanie's Dad) and it was good to hear talks from both Mom (Jani) and Denise (Grammy). Then all the nieces and nephews on both the Felker and Wright side that was there sang "I am a Child of God" for the opening song and Kayley was the loudest! I was afraid she wouldn't want to do it cause she is shy about things like that at times, but apparently not, so I'm excited for the Primary program later this year!

Then we went to Ed and Steph's house for lunch afterwards and the kids loved being able to play like crazy in their great spacious backyard! They played until dark as you can see from our trampoline pics. Then it was time for baths and let me tell you that we did start with clean water for all the little kids, but it didn't stay clean for long as you can also see from the pics. Then, we all surprisingly had beds (the adults) and the kids loved being able to sleep with their cousins, so it didn't matter that half of them ended up on the floor. Then Sunday came and our trip had to be cut short as Nick woke up with one of the biggest headaches. He took some medicine that made him nauseasted and he ended up throwing up on the way to church and then we left after sacrament meeting. But we had a great time with family.

One of Kayley's highlights of the weekend was getting the Rainbow Brite doll from Grandma Jani, as you can see in the pics here. She would have taken a bath with her if I had let her. Mom brought the one from when Katie was little that still is in her basement and let Kayley have it and she has been indebted to her ever since. When she gave it to her, Kayley said "Well, I was waiting until garage sales, but they take too long." Needless to say Rainbow went with us everywhere and still does and if she's not with her, she tells everyone that she has one now. It's cute.

Once There Was a Snowman

Well, once there was a snowman...today anyway! This last weekend we were lucky enough to get probably what will be our last snow for the winter. It snowed about 3-4 inches...probably our biggest for the year that I can remember anyway. By the time we got finished with our errands and naptime on Saturday, we went outside to play, but the snow would not cooperate for anything to make a snowman. So, luckily it has stayed cold enough until today and there was still snow on the ground so we put on our gear and built a snowman before it all melts in a few days as it's supposed to get up to 67 in two days (that's Missouri for ya!) Anyway, as you can see, Cora's pants are actually a bit big on her as they are 3T's rolled up, but they worked ok. She and Kayley were both excited to go out, but once we got out, Cora did not like it, between Einstein trying to take off with her gloves and her trying to walk in the snow, Cora was not a happy camper by the time we were finished with our masterpiece. I have to say that I was pretty impressed that I was even able to lift the middle snowball onto the bottom one...it was a lot heavier than I expected and I wasn't about to have to wait until Daddy got home to get it up for me, so I pulled out all my muscles and finally got it up there. Kayley liked it a lot and had a lot of fun. Then afterwards inside the girls sang "Once There Was a Snowman" about five times to each other. Kayley was so impressed with the snowman that she is anxious to show Daddy when he gets home from work, but she made sure to ask me that it wasn't going to melt before he got home. It was cute. It was a fun day and now we can officially say we built a snowman this year! :)

"Ana"

Today Cora woke up from a nap and asked me for a snack. Well, I couldn't figure out what she was saying, probably b/c I was trying to catch up on my blogging and not fully paying attention, but when I finally figured out what she wanted I realized she wanted a "Ana" as she calls it. I don't usually buy bananas very often as my girls go in and out of liking them and then they go bad and I am usually the only one that eats the banana bread, so to save my waist line, I indulge in other sweets! :) Anyway, I guess Cora has since realized that she loves Bananas! :) So I snapped a few pics of her with her bed head!

Our Cousin Katrina

The other day Katrina came over and played while Jess and Jud got some things moved and cleaned up at their place. She had pig tails in, which is now her trade mark according to Kayley. Anytime anyone has pig tails in now she always says they look like Katrina, no matter who it is! :) Well, I decided to see if Cora's hair would fit into pig tails (all of her hair that is) and it did and looked very cute I th0ught. I tried to get Kayley to wear pig tails so they would all match, but she's so into princesses that she has to always have her hair down now. Anyway, we had lots of fun with Katrina, I've never seen her so upset to leave our house before, Jess could barely get her out the door. It was cute!

JT's Birthday

Well, JT's 26th birthday was last week, so for his birthday he wanted everyone to join them for dinner at "On The Border" for dinner. Well, as JT was gone from the table, Jess asked the waiter to sing to him, but to keep it a secret as JT wouldn't have wanted them to sing to him. It was hilarious to see how embarassed and red faced he got. Sorry to enjoy your embarassment JT...er should I say JD as they called him! :) I forget how red faced JT can get. I remember when he and Jess got married and it seemed like the littlest things would get him so embarassed. It's also funny to look at the pic of his "BFF" as Jess and Becky call them. He's in the lower right picture. Salmone (sp?) and Becky Pinarosa joined us for dinner too. Sal is one of JT's managers so they work together 5 days a week, plus they work together in the Bishopric in church, so they see each other 6 days a week. They get along great and their wives sometimes have to tear them apart, but it's fun to see such two BFF's get along so well! :) Happy Birthday JT!

Cashew Chicken Recipe

Ok...so I had a few inquiries about my cashew chicken and since I know there are lots of restaurants that sell this, I wanted to let you all in on a little secret recipe and share Arlaine's (Nick's Mom) recipe of Cashew Chicken, which is Springfield style, which is in my opinion the only way to have it! Hope you enjoy if you decide to try it. I would say that it is almost one of my favorite home-cooked meals too. It is definitely Nick's!

Arlaine Bell’s Famous Springfield Style Cashew Chicken

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour 1 T garlic powder
1 T salt 2 eggs
½ cup milk 5-6 chicken breasts

Directions: Thaw chicken and cut into bite sized pieces. Mix eggs and milk and put chicken in there for about 5 minutes, but no longer. Mix flour, garlic powder and salt in another bowl and put chicken in there (without the milk mixture, go ahead and pour this out as you won’t be using it anymore). Heat skillet fryer to about 350-400 and melt a stick of margarine/butter and about ½ cup of oil. Fry in a skillet until golden brown and serve on top of rice with gravy sauce listed below. Arlaine Bell.

Cashew Chicken Gravy

Ingredients:
Chicken bouillon Oyster sauce
Water cornstarch

Directions: Doing a 1-to-1-to-1 ratio of each item, put a Tablespoon of bouillon and a Tablespoon of Oyster sauce and 1 cup of water to boil on stove top. Make more cups and more Tablespoons according to how much gravy you need. Then add cornstarch mixed in water to thicken gravy and serve on top of cashew chicken with rice. Arlaine Bell

Family Pictures 2009

Our family pictures from February 2009...

Just reminded of how old and grown-up Kayley is getting from all the pics!...Cora too!

We tried to get a few pics of just the girls, but Cora wouldn't leave my side...

Overall I thought they turned out pretty good. I always stress that one of the girls are going to freak out by one little thing the photographer says or does and that Nick's eyes are going to be shut. I was pretty pleased...although as you can see Cora seemed to have a little bit of a hard time at times, but we were able to get one that everyone was smiling and everyone's eyes were open! Wahoo! :)