Sunday, March 22, 2009

Grilling is a man's job

This morning I had good intentions for put a roast in the oven for lunch, but after going to the freezer I realized that I had no roast in the freezer, so 2nd choice was steaks. I thawed then during church and all was well. Once we got home from church I put some potatoes in the oven, and seasoned the steaks.
While Mike was gone to pick up Brendan from church, I put the steaks on the grill - everything was still well. I seared one side, flipped over the steaks and turned down the heat thinking I didn't have to watch them so closely then. About 5 minutes later, I saw billows of smoke blowing across the deck. I ran over the the slider door, my first thoughts were I screwed up dinner. There was fire and black smoke coming from under the hood of the grill. I quickly turned the gas off and ran back in the house to get some water.
After getting the fire out, I got the steaks off the grill. Here's the results of my grilling.


...and the grill after the fire. Mike's thinking a good grill cleaner will clean it up.

(the top is not suppose to be black)




So at 12:30, I started over, thawing out some more steaks. I let Mike do the grilling, and steaks turned out wonderful - so tender and juicy. So I have given up on grilling, I will probably never again do the grilling...at least if the family wants to eat.

Mike's steaks

Friday, March 13, 2009

last birthday celebration for the twins

On Thursday, the boys brought in birthday treats. Their teacher gave them special brithday crowns and the class sang "Happy B-day to You". The twins loved celebrating their birthday and already asking when it's their birthday again. :O)

standing under the birthday flag.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Unsupervised snack time

I have so had it with the messes this week. I believe this is the fifth time in two days that I mopped or vacuumed the floor. UGH!!!!!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Austin & Lucas!!!!

Today is Austin & Lucas' 5th birthday.
We had g&g's over for lunch - bbq ribs & chicken, corn on the cob, tater tots, homemade applesauce, garlic bread....YUMMY!!!!
Of course the boys were so excited for their birthday.


The boys had a Cowboy/western theme party. The boys wore their cowboys hats and gave everyone a sheriff's badge to wear. They though it was the best party ever!!!!


Luc & Austin by their presents before opening them.
They were too excited to even look at the camera.


They got legos,
Diego dinosauer truck, safari animals,
and roller skates.
My attempt to make a Sheriff Badge cake

blowing out the candles.
Austin and Lucas - Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you. You are becoming wonderful little men, who have a great love for Jesus. We love you more and more each day. We pray this coming year will bring many blessings for you. We can't wait to see what's in store for you.

Twin's 5 years pics






Friday, March 6, 2009

Kitchen FaceLift Part 1 of 3

So for the three plus years that we have been living in Freeport, I really haven't loved my kitchen. Yeah, it's a great size, there's room for everything in the fridge, I have the best island - even our family of 6 can eat at it every night, but I don't like the white cabinets, and I hate the floor. Well, I finally lived with it long enough...Mike was surprised I lasted this long without changing it.

Part One was painting some of the cabinets black. We don't have the money to put all new cabinets in, even those I would have really like that - but at the same time I didn't think I would change much as far as the layout, so I research how to paint laminate cabinets. It was definitely a process. First, a commerical grade cleaner to get all the years of dirt and grime off the cabinets, then sanding, priming, sanding, painting, and painting again and finally distressing them.

If you know me at all, you know that I love to paint. I don't mind trimming out at room and rolling the paint on the walls...I've even been known to decide to paint a room, get the paint and paint the whole room before Mike comes home from work (that was before we had 4 kids.) I love to see the transformation that happens with paint - it's almost like instance gratification for me. BUT this doing a little bit at a time thing, not my style. It took me a 1 1/2 weeks to finish this painting. I will say it may be a while before I start part 2 of the kitchen Facelift...it's painting again and it's not walls. :O)

BEFORE: (this was a pic from when we first moved in, previously I had painted the walls, changed out the cabinet knobs and put up new wall coverings.)
AFTER: Desk area in the kitchen
AFTER: The island also got a facelift - now it's all black

Now that the painting it done, I LOVE my newly painted cabinets. I would have done it sooner. I wonder how long it will be before I start Part2

These didn't cut it

I thought I would try and get the twin's 5 year pictures before their birthday this year. I had to do it in two different "photo shoots" Here are some of the pictures that are cute, but I didn't want to remember there 5 year this way.
On this one, Connor tried to sneak in the picture.
The twins wanted to do funny faces, not my favorite.

Austin pouting - he's the one that I couldn't get a good picture of during the first photo shoot.
What is he thinking about?
more pouting...
...and picking the nose.

You will have to wait until the twin's birthday to see the good ones. Have a great day!!!!