Kid Quote of the Day

"Mom, is it Father's Day?"

Sydney's first question when she came into the kitchen and saw blueberry muffins for breakfast. Shows how often I make my family something out of the ordinary in the morning (Josh is our breakfast king).

Foodie Friday - What's for Dinner?

Jodi, I've been spying on Janine's blog and love her idea for "Foodie Friday." Here's what we had for dinner tonight. If you've spent much time around Josh & I, or my parents, you've probably had this dish - it's one of our favorites.

Stacked Enchiladas
2 small cans (or 1 big) of Enchilada Sauce - I like Medium Spice. I always forget what brand I like best, but I think it's the Old El Paso (they all work though).
1 medium sized package hamburger
Pinto Beans - you can use canned beans, but making your own is simple and yummy (see recipe below)
Shredded Cheese
Yellow Corn Tortillas
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Onion
Olives
Sour Cream

Brown your meat and salt and pepper to taste. Add Enchilada sauce and simmer until warm. Shred your cheese, warm your beans, chop your veggies and you're ready to assemble the enchiladas. Warm a skillet with a small amount of olive oil and fry your tortillas one at a time.

To Assemble: Place one warm tortilla on your plate. Add sauce first, then your beans, cheese, and condiments. Add another tortilla and repeat the process (minus the beans).

This is a quick but great mexican meal. It looks pretty so it's good for company as well (and inexpensive for a crowd).

Recipe for Pinto Beans
1 bag pinto beans soaked overnight
Onion
Garlic
Cooked Bacon
Kosher Salt and Pepper

After rinsing your soaked beans, place them back in the pot and cover with fresh water. Add chopped onion (I prefer red), a few cloves of garlic, salt & pepper to taste, and a few pieces of cooked bacon. Bring to a boil while uncovered. Once boiling, turn burner to low and cover partially. They take a few hours, but are also great to simmer the day away.

*Note - I will usually do beans every few months and then freeze them which works great. You can also do beans faster in a pressure cooker. The beans are great in chili, with rice, or alone. Sydney is addicted and asks for rice and beans EVERY night (literally).

Raisin Anyone?

My daughters are currently addictd to those little boxes of raisins. Seriously addicted. This morning however, Syd came running from the playroom, raisin box in tote, making a funny face and gagging sounds. She informed me that she mistakenly ate a piece of dog food from the raisin box. Hmm, I wonder who could have possibly put dog food into the raisin box . . . maybe the same little girl (Annie) who put the dog food AND raisins into the water dish yesterday? At least it was accidental on Sydney's part. The last time I heard the gagging noises it was when she decided to take a small "taste" of my diffuser oil in the bathroom. My darling daughter smelled like fig for days!

Motivation

My washing machine died. Thank God. I think the cheerful red LG with steam wash & dry will motivate me to do my laundry on a regular basis. If not, I'm in big trouble.

PS

If you haven't caught on, we've been doing some church skipping lately. When I looked at the calendar this weekend and realized that August has flown by and we'd only been to church once, we decided to finish the month out by skipping one last time. Come September 1st, we will be back on schedule, I promise! I used to be only feel a little guilty skipping until they put up this big banner earlier this year with the verse "I will not neglet the house of my God". It's definitely motivated me this year (well, for the most part). I did listen to all of the sermons online so at least I haven't completely fallen off the wagon!! I just wish Annie would learn that church is good and you really don't have to scream your way through it.

Weekend Fun

We had a busy weekend again, full of fun, but utterly exhuasting. All four of us went to bed on Sunday night sleepy and not ready to face Monday morning (or Tuesday for that matter). Friday I garage sale-d again with Angie which was another flop while Josh babysat our friend's twin daughters along with Syd and Annie. In the evening we went to the state fair with those same friends and had a blast with all of our girls! Rather than spare you the details, I'll just add some pictures later (lots of pictures, sorry). Saturday morning we headed to Depoe Bay to visit some good family friends and later headed to Shayla's parent's beach house down the street for some crab and clam chowder. It was a wonderful whale watching day and they have a beautiful view of the bay, so we had front row seats which was fun. The girls had a great time playing in the sand (and water for Annie of course), and we were also able to stop at the outlets and buy Josh a much needed pair of sunglasses at Sunglass Hut. He was very proud of himself that he had his last pair of Ray-Bans for 7 years (we bought them on our honeymoon - his first pair of "expensive" glasses). Sunday was not as fun of a day as exhaustion had begun to set in. We went to Albany in the morning and Josh went shooting with his cousin Nick while the girls and I went to pick up Syd's school supplies at Target. We met up with him later to celebrate his parent's 50th birthdays at a family BBQ, but everyone was a little grumpy! I think we all just wanted to be home napping. =) Oh well, we celebrated, bonded with the Edmiston fam, and then crashed once we hit the front door! Monday was back to reality as we went back to work and Josh's schedule changed again to swing shift for the next two weeks. We're attempting to adjust, but having a hard time. I think we'll all be glad when he has the same schedule for an extended period of time . . . even if it is graveyard.

Josh's babysitting style - video games and jammies till 2pm. The girls were raving about him!

Annie & Emma holding hands

Molly & Syd eating the Dairywomen's ice cream. Yum!!

"Footsies" - Good thing mom was thinkin' and brought lots of quarters!

The girls in front of the cute baby cows - they were upset that they couldn't pet them!

Emma & Syd on the swing ride (both twins had to have a turn with Syd, too funny)!

Annie at the beach (she got her pants wet in the water)

Kellie & Syd - you may ask "how does Syd stay so clean?" She is very concerned about dirt and asked my permission to sit in the sand. Gotta love a clean kid!

Syd and I - I tried to get a picture with Annie but she won't sit still when water is in sight!

Syd & Josh - Priceless

Shayla's boyfriend Fernando finally eating the fruits of his labor (crab). Syd liked it too (almost as much as she likes Fernando). Shayla's cousin Andrew is the long haired guy - he's in the punk band "This Providence". You should download their music on ITunes if you have time - not bad! The hands belong to her dad who wasn't crazy about the mess involved with crab.

We have a swimmer!

Sydney has been taking swimming lessons all summer and today was her last lesson. I am usually at work (so her babysitter takes her) or chasing Annie in the kiddie pool so I don't often get to see what she's up to during her lessons. Today I made Annie watch part of it and I was amazed when I saw her put her head under the water and do about 5 strokes before she needed a breath . . . all by herself! Wow, what a proud mommy moment! I tried to get a video on my phone of the swimming, but missed my chance and got one of her coming down the water slide instead. Annie was not happy that her big sister got to go down the water slide while she had to stand at the edge of the pool and watch. Such an injustice in the eyes of a 16 month old! On another note, we received a letter from her preschool teacher today informing her about the first day of school and how excited she was to meet her. I am a dork about sending my daughter to school and started crying before I even started reading. Sydney just gave me a funny look and said "mom, just read the letter please". It amazes me that my 6lb peanut could be almost 4 and so grown up.

I'm not the best videographer so please bear with the long and entertaining clip of the ground!

Making up for lost time

I had to work late last night and didn't leave the office until 9:45pm. By the time I arrived home, everyone was sound asleep and I had missed an entire day of my daughters' lives. Thankfully this doesn't happen often with my job because I probably wouldn't survive long, but lately my hours seem to be longer and my job require my attention even on my days off. This morning, when both girls woke at 5am and ended up in my bed until 7, I knew they desperately missed their mommy and needed a day full of my attention. While I wasn't completely attentive as I still had to pick up the house and get a few things done for work, we had a fun day together at home. We made sugar toast for breakfast, created a "fort" in the living room and watched the Little Mermaid, tried on their new clothes that came in the mail from The Gap, and ate Cars soup for lunch (a new phenomenon in the life of Sydney). After nap time (and a much needed work hour for myself), we decided to do an art project. I didn't really have a plan, so we drug out the paints, markers, stamps, and macaroni, and I let the girls go to town. My mom just bought them art aprons a few weeks ago, so I didn't worry about their clothes. Annie's body however was covered with paint and markers by the end of the event! Sydney wanted me to paint her face, so we made a sun on one side and a flower on the other. Annie also wanted one, but she wouldn't hold still so her cloud looked like a giant blog. Oh well. After Josh got home he took Syd on a grocery store adventure for milk and Skittles, and we watched John & Kate Plus Eight after dinner as a family. It's funny to me that Josh actually will sit and watch this with us. All in all it was a fun day and my little buddies are now snug as a bug in their beds (Annie was so sleepy she literally RAN to her room tonight).

My cuties pies making "art"

Little Miss Sunshine

Adventures in Garage Sale-ing

While I don't ever venture to garage sales myself, I love having a yearly sale of my own. Usually I do it late spring, but it has been busy around here and Saturday ended up being the day. We decided to have it in my parent's barn again, which usually works well, and my mom and two cousins had a ton to add to the sale. Obviously if you live around here, you know that Saturday was one of the hottest days of the year and people were flocking to the beach, not garage sales! We had hardly any customers and were so discouraged that we closed shop early and decided to try again this next Friday. If you happen to love a good sale (or a good laugh at all of our junk), stop on by Friday. While I was sweating like a pig in the barn, Josh's family was all on the Santiam River in Jefferson, staying cool while floating to the Bluffs. Not fair! We met up with them afterwards at his aunt's in Jefferson for a BBQ. It was still hot, but they had shade and margarita's so all was well. We let the kiddos run through the sprinkler, play in the pool, and eat homeade popsicles like they were going out of style. We had a great time since we love hanging out with them. The only downside was losing three games of Skip-Bo to Terri, Court, and Heather! Rematch anyone?????

The Garage Sale - The barn is PACKED!

Sprinkler Fun

Josh actually thought he looked cool here, haha=)

Nick + Josh = Cousins forever

Nick & Court's daughter Nadia - Attack of the corn cob!

Annie - our little tomboy in a pink ruffled swimsuit

Unsuccessfully attempting a group photo - notice here that NONE of the kids are looking at the camera!

Our good friends Mike & Sue came to visit this evening from Bend with their BEAUTIFUL daughters Beth, Kylie, & Kendall. We had a fun dinner at my parent's house and spent the evening enjoying the garden, sunset, and dear friends! Our garden is amazing by the way, we have an eggplant & watermelon now growing strong in addition to all of the "normal" veggies. We had the best dessert also, which I meant to take a picture of but forgot! I thought I'd share it here in case you're interested.

Mint Ice-Cream Pie

1 C chocolate chips

3 TBL butter

2 C Rice Krispies

1/2 to 1 Jar Hot Fudge

1 Gallon Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Homade Whipped Cream

With a double broiler, melt the butter and chocolate chips. Add the rice krispies, mix together and press into the bottom of a pie pan. Freeze for 5-10 minutes. Take the hot fudge and spread it on top of the rice krispy mixture and re-freeze until ready to assemble the dessert. Spread the ice cream on top of the hot fudge, re-freeze 5-10 minutes until it has set. When serving, add a large dollop of whipped cream and enjoy.

Here are a few pictures I did take of our fun evening!

Kendall, Beth, Kylie, Syd, and Annie

All the girls =)

Me and my little brother

Showing off our first WATERMELON!!!!!! Yay garden!!!!

My baby girl

The boys

Husband of the year

My husband is the best. Today is supposed to be his much needed day off, the first Friday in over three weeks where I wasn't planning to ditch him in order to go to work. Instead, he got up bright and early to go work for my dad. As you learned in my post earlier this week, we got a new dump truck and have a ton of work going on right now. When he volunteered earlier in the week to drive truck onsite for a day, I thought it was because: a. he missed working in construction, b. he wanted to make my dad happy, and/or c. he wanted a chance to drive that nice, new truck. So last night when I asked him what had possessed him to work outdoors on the hottest day of the year, his response threw me for a loop. He informed me that while a,b, and c are somewhat correct, he really wanted to work so that I could have extra money for my trip to California coming up in September (he's working on a prevailing wage job so it's pretty good money for a day of labor). What a silly, sweet man he is. I've already been saving all of our extra money, and will have plenty. He just knows how much I love to shop in Palm Springs and wanted to make I have an extra-fun time on my yearly shopping spree with my mom! Too bad I miss him and wish he was home to hang out with us today . . .

We love you daddy!

Perfection Shattered!

As I read through my blog posts, it seems like all I do is talk about all of the wonderful, exciting things happening in our life. Don't get me wrong, there is much to celebrate around the Edmiston household, but our life isn't always so put together. Take for instance the current state of my home. I love having a clean house, however the combination of two messy toddlers, a puppy, and a busy schedule has left my home somewhat in shambles. Yes, it still gets cleaned thoroughly once a week, but that just doesn't cut the mustard when sticky little hands touch (and spill) everything in sight. Plus I am completely out of my industrial cleaners (which really do a better job and you should try), so I've been cleaning the past few weeks with your common household cleaners (yuck). The icing on the cake has to be my laundry. I hate laundry, always have, probably always will. Obviously I did not inherit my own mother's joy for washing, drying, and ironing everything in sight on a daily basis. Granted I have become better at keeping up with this horrible chore, but with the busy week/weekend we have experienced, things got a little bit out of control - okay, a lot out of control. I managed to wash and dry about half of the laundry, but it was sitting in the basket, wrinkled, just waiting for someone to fold it. Yesterday was "laundry catch up" and I spent the day washing and folding everything in sight. I was pretty embarrassed/impressed by the magnitude of clean laundry I had folded and thought I'd take a picture to make everyone else feel better that they have their laundry more under control than me! Hope it helps.PS - Mom & Grandma, if you read this, please don't disown me!

Bring on the champagne

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day at work - we bought a new dump truck and trackhoe! As most people know, my family has a commercial excavation company and my brother and I both work alongside my parents (Josh used to, but deserted us all last year to be the "fuzz")! It has been a challenging year to say the least, but God has been so faithful as we have gone from zero work to almost a million dollars in front of us in just a matter of weeks! With all of this work came the need to add to our current inventory and replace our OLD dumptruck (my husband was on a call last week when he heard it coming from about a mile away - he has fond memories of that old truck). We were able to buy both pieces for a great price and celebrated together last night over pizza and champagne. I know it may sound funny to you to toast a piece of iron, but to us it is a reminder of how faithful God is! It is exciting to know that He meets (and exceeds) our needs - and coming from a doubting Thomas like myself, that is pretty profound.

Randomness

Here are some fun shots of our life over the past few weeks . . . enjoy!

My hanging basket, bought in late May . . . still alive and flourishing!

Our first tomato of the season

I thought this was a sweet picture of Sydney

The girls at Grammy & Grampys - yes, her flowers are better than mine

Little Annie

Sydney with our friend Marc at the Volcano's game - a yearly tradition!

My cousin Chris and his first car!

Midnight Madness

At approximately 1:23am, our cute little houseguest Benz woke us up, barking uncontrollably (yes, he moved from the kennel to our bed in less than a day -he's cute so you can't really blame us). The good wife I am, I volunteered to take him out to go potty. Actual translation: Josh was still half asleep and a little grumpy. Anyway, thankfully I was smart enough to put his leash on, because when I opened the door he bolted out and continued to bark until I realized just what he was barking at . . . A GIGANTIC, MEAN RACCOON!!! The racoon was hiding out in the tree out back just staring at us. Obviously, I know enough about the species to understand that poor little 5lb Benzie would be dead meat if he encountered Mr. Racoon. So of course I started getting excited, ran back inside, woke Josh up, and he took the airsoft gun outside and started firing away (no, we didn't hurt the guy).

An unexpected houseguest . . .

We are dogsitting my cousin's yorkie named Benzie for a few weeks. It was a last minute thing, and he came over late last night after the girls were already asleep. The were super excited this morning when they awoke to a puppy, and our day was full of fun getting to play with him. After less than 24 hours with the little guy, I've come to the conclusion that we really don't need to get the girls their own puppy, a dog kennel would work just as well! Oh, and all dogs really do go crazy after they get a bath.

Benz (or Benzie as I have nicknamed him)

See what I mean? This was Annie's favorite activity of the day!

Our "puppy" had to come out to play and eat with Benz.

Where I found "puppy" somewhere along the way today!

Flower Power

This past weekend our good friend Lianne got married and Sydney got to be the flower girl! She did smashingly well . . . and she took her job very seriously. Here are a few highights of the event.

• Watching our beautiful daughter walk down the aisle and stand ever so politely at the front.
• The lip sync she performed while we sang two hymns
• Her mouthing to Josh "I am being good" halfway through the ceremony
• Dropping her basket of petals (which she forgot to throw) during the vows and scrambling to pick them up
• The adorable smiles she passed the groom's way at the beginning of the ceremony
• Watching her dance with Poppa and Daddy during the reception

It was great to see the Happy Hoffman's and watch Jordan and Lianne begin their life together. Here are some pictures of the big event . . .

Annie and I at the rehearsal (she was thankfully not invited to the wedding. We love her TONS, but it's hard to keep her quiet and still - thanks Grammy & Grampy for keeping her)

Sydney and the beautiful bride

Kisses from Mom & Dad

Too Cute!

Practicing her smile at the rehearsal

Syd and the girls

Praying for Lianne before the wedding

A great shot of Jordan and Lianne (Jordan is to the left of Li). They had the wedding party run through this field . . . so cute!

Take your daughter to work day . . .

Since Josh now has three days off, he keeps the girls one day so I can get a few extra hours of work in at the office. Two days a week does not allow me to get everything accomplished and those extra hours are really helpful! This morning however, Sydney was so upset that I was leaving her again that I decided to take her with me. I was worried that I'd get nothing done which is usually the case, but she was very helpful and we had the best morning! She was my mail and paycheck delivery girl, phone answerer (when poppa called), and even came with me to pick up a check from our insurance agent. That was the most fun because our agent had jelly beans AND a little red Ferrari car for her. We were productive, professional, and had oh so much fun . . . and we made it home in time for naps. YAY!