"Green Dinner"

We unintentionally had a green dinner on St. Patrick's day! I didn't even realize it went with the day's theme until I was mixing the pesto in the pasta. It was very good. Ashley all of her salmon and wanted more. Natalie ate all of her pasta and wanted more. So they switched plates and were happy! We usually have this once a week!



Salmon with Pesto Pasta


2 lbs salmon- cooked however

1⁄2 C pignoli (pine nuts imported from Italy)

1 C chopped fresh basil

1 C chopped fresh spinach leaves

1 large garlic clove

1⁄4 C freshly grated Romano

1⁄4 C freshly grated Parmesan

6 T butter softened

1⁄2 C olive oil

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper


In food processor or blender with metal blade add pine nuts, basil, spinach, garlic, and cheeses. With motor running, add the butter and oil. Mix in the pepper. (this should take no more than 1 minute). Use with 1 lb cooked pasta. Toss with cooked salmon.

*****
I try to make several batches of pesto at once, especially in the summer when basil is in abundance! We put it in 1 cup containers and freeze it. The hot pasta will melt it, so we don't even defrost it. If you refrigerate or freeze it, be sure that you block air from touching it so it doesn't turn brown. The containers I use fit perfectly so the lid touches the pesto, but you can just put a layer of plastic wrap touching it inside the container if it doesn't fit perfectly!
We like to cook our salmon with lots of lemon pepper and pressed garlic.

As a side note: if you make the recipe exactly as indicated above, the whole pesto is 2207 calories with 213 grams of fat. I am not sure exactly how much pesto you end up with, but we usually divide one cup of pesto into 8-10 servings- a little pesto goes a long way! Hope this is helpful!

The Best Dad Ever

Last Friday Jeff had Natalie, Alona, and I meet him for lunch and a tour around his work. We wanted to go to Subway, but it was packed and we were limited on time. So we went to Jack In The Box. The girls loved it. Then we headed back to his work. He showed us all around. Then the girls wanted to play in the "garage" so we headed back down there. There are a couple of TVs with all of the different game consoles and games to play. There is also a ping pong table. We showed Alona how to play. Natalie pretended to be the PingPong Bandit from the Backyardigans episode "Blazing Paddles." If you haven't seen it, you should. It was so funny to watch the kids singing the songs from the episode and Alona trying to do the Bandit Slammit! Natalie would take away our paddles just like the PingPong Bandit did on the show when someone lost a game to him. The girls and I had so much fun! And Alona only got hit in the forehead with a pingpong ball once!

This week Jeff took his girls out on lunch dates. It started on Wednesday with Natalie. He came home from work and picked her up. Then they headed off to McDonalds. It was obviously Natalie's choice. She had a great time and loved all of the one on one attention!
Thursday was Alona's turn. She wanted a milkshake and chose to go to Sonic. She drew a map that had our house and an arrow that went all the way around the page to a building labeled Sonic! She showed it to Daddy and said "this is where we're going!" It was so cute. She had a wonderful time. I think she would love to go to lunch with him every day if she could.
Friday there was no school, so it was Ashley's turn. She chose Burger King. She was so excited, but she doesn't talk about things quite as much as her little sisters.

I am not sure the girls in our family fully appreciate what a great Dad they have. Just so he knows, Jeff is the Best Dad Ever! (Sorry to any other dads out there who might be offended!) He absolutely loves and adores each of his girls! And they are happy and love him very much, too. I don't think these pictures even begin to hint at the love that is in our home between Daddy and his girls, but I will show them anyway just to give you an idea. I wish I had all of the pictures we took when Ashley was a baby on the computer- there are so many of her and Jeff!


At the coast with Natalie and Alona.


At the coast with Natalie, Alona, and Ashley.


Easter with Alona.


Just messin' around with Natalie.


Building a snowman with Ashley and Alona.


Reading to Ashley, Alona, and Natalie.


Lunch at Wildlife Safari with Alona and Natalie.


At the pumpkin patch with Natalie.


Napping with Alona.


Showing Alona how petals are thrown at Kari's wedding.


Helping Natalie impersonate Gene Simmons.


Showing Ashley how to wash the car.


At the coast with Alona.


Chillin' with Alona!


Helping Alona eat her 1st birthday cake.


Ashley and Alona helping him study!


At the Army Ball with his FAVORITE GIRL!!!!!

The Neverending Bathroom Story

This is the current state of the bathroom remodel. It is progressing slowly. I got the first coat of paint on the walls tonight. It will require a second coat.
The open shelving in there now has a back to it. It still needs to be painted. I plan to get a face frame for it and Jeff's dad will hopefully make doors. A cabinet will look so much nicer than open shelves on that wall.
Jeff put up the bead board and trim in the toilet area. It still needs to be painted. We still have a long way to go on this one, but hopefully we will have the toilet back in by the weekend!

Life has been kinda blah lately. The kids are busy, busy, busy. They play with legos, each other, and stuff they shouldn't. What's new?! Oh, that is my life. :) My children. How I love them.
Ashley's sweet innocent face. She is always so sleepy lately. I will take her to the doctor on Thursday. They will check her iron and maybe see if she has seasonal allergies.
Alona's big blue eyes that can just eat right through to your heart. One look is all it takes. She is enjoying her new dance class- intro to hip hop/jazz. It is more her pace than ballet was. She loves when I volunteer in her kindergarten class on Wednesdays.
Natalie's big silly toothy grin followed by her pretend doggy pant! Then she gives me a quick kiss(lick really, after all she is a doggy) and runs off to play again. She is into everything! She is so curious and just wants to experience it all. She absolutely refuses to give in to what I want her to wear. She would wear the same dress every day if she could. I have to hide the dress from her so she will wear something else!
I wouldn't give them up for the world! They are what I live for everyday. My sweet beautiful little girls!

Engagement Photo Shoot

I went up to Seattle over the weekend to take Charles and Kelly's engagement picture. We drove up to Deception Pass to take them. It was about an hour and half from Kelly's house.
Charles is always playing around, so it was so much fun. This is how it went. They had to walk over all the logs to get to the water. Charles was such a gentleman and helped Kelly down. Then there was a bit of rock climbing mixed with kissing! What else do you expect? They are in love! There was a cool tree stump that they leaned on for a bit and then Charles had to twirl Kelly around. Then they found a seagull perched on a concrete bench and Charles just had to feed it a grape. It didn't ever take the grape. It flew away (the bird, not the grape) and they played around on the bench for a bit. We warmed up in the car for a bit after that and then headed back out for more fun. This time they played teeter-totter on a log! Then Charles wanted a picture of him holding Kelly in the water (cause really, what kind of trip would it be without Charles ending up in the water?). He got in and then started to sink! It was quite funny, but I was afraid they were going to fall all the way in! They didn't. Kelly just ended up with one really wet foot!