Baking with Cordelia

These pictures are from just before Christmas. I was doing some baking and I let Cordelia lick out the bowl. She really liked it....
....until I took the bowl away.

Then it was straight to the bath.

Pictures

This is the Lego castle that Santa brought for Fred Rion. It took me almost three hours to put together. Fred Rion is really good at putting together Legos, but I think this would have taken more work than he is willing to put in. And it was kind of hard too.
Santa brought Torii a Leapster. It's a cool handheld game system from Leapfrog. He also got two games with it. Fred Rion wants one too. I think he'll be getting one for his birthday. Those will be nice to have on long car trips this summer.

Torii in his ugly Vikings jersey. His team made it to the playoffs and mine didn't so I guess he gets to continue to wear his jersey. He also likes the Steelers (I'm not sure why) and they also made the playoffs. I could live with him being a Steelers fan, but not a Vikings fan.

Barely a year old and a phone in each hand.

Cordelia is such a climber. She really likes going up and down stairs. This was on Christmas day.

"I'll be home for Christmas...."

I'll see everyone soon! I work on Monday 9am-2pm and then on the road to Billings! It's about a 6 hour drive from here and we will stop in Billings at we will be staying at the Clarion Inn & Suites. I'm sure we'll be up very early on Tuesday to get home as soon as we can. Hopefully the weather is ok. I know tommorow we will be driving through snow all day. Idaho is suppose to 3- inches of snow and then I'm not sure about Montana but I think they are getting snow all day Monday also.
We will call tommorow to let everyone know how the drive is going. Talk to you soon!!!

Lots of Hugs,
Kelly

Let it snow

For once we have beat Fargo. We got 12 inches Saturday night. I can't remember what Fargo got, but I know it wasn't in double digits. We have some very impressive drifts in our driveway and backyard. We did not go to Sunday school on Sunday. I'm not sure there was even Sunday school as many churches cancelled services. We stayed indoors the entire day. Many stores didn't even open on Sunday because of the weather. With two nasty storms this winter this is by far the worst winter Fred has experienced here. I am loving it. It's been a really long time. It is reminding me a little of the 96/97 winter. I will never forget that one. I made it to work today. The parking lot was full of deep snow. I made it to my office, although I had to do some shoveling just to get into the building. The roads have been cleared, but it is really cold. I'm not liking that so much. The schools didn't have recess outside today because of the dangerous wind chills. So we are inside staying warm. Now I'm just waiting for it to warm up a little so we can go sledding!

Tex-Mex Beef and Bean Dip

I tried this dip tonight and it is soooo good. No need to say it, but it came from Cooking Light. I did use a whole pound of beef just because I was too lazy to do anything with the extra 1/2 pound. I also used plain chile powder. And since I could only find a big chunk of queso fresco, we crumbled some of the leftover on top of the chicken tortilla soup that we had tonight too. We were stuffed after dinner.
Ingredients
1/2 pound ground sirloin
2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste
1 to 2 teaspoons chipotle chile powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled queso fresco
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
3 ounces bite-size baked tortilla chips (about 60, such as Tostitos Scoops)
Preparation
1. Cook beef in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain well; return beef to pan. Add tomato paste and next 4 ingredients (through diced tomatoes), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes or until thick, stirring occasionally.
2. Spoon meat mixture into a serving bowl; top with crumbled cheese and green onions. Serve with tortilla chips.

Brian on a magazine? Wow!

Not quite on the front of a magazine that will be published anyway. He wishes it was true though. I made this for him while he's been a little stressed with the end of the semester and he can't wait to be done. He thought it was neat and had to show a few people at work. I guess it was passed around to everyone and some people had to tease him about it. Ha ha. So, he got his picture on the front of a magazine and he got me some fresh truffles from the local candy shop down the street. Good trade.

Thanksgiving in Michigan

Hi everyone, just thought I'd let you know how my thanksgiving went. I missed mom's cooking and family, but was still able to enjoy myself and get plenty to eat :D Thanksgiving week was great because on tuesday Eric's mom cooked because Eric's brother was in town and wouldn't be for thanksgiving, so we had an early supper. Then for Thanksgiving day we went out to some friends of his family, which was really nice. They had a cute little house north of Grand Rapids. It was realy nice to get away from the city for awhile. Supper was very traditional mixed in with some traditional Polish Sausage and sauerkraut from Eric's grandpa. Very good! For dessert, we had six different pies, which was fabulous :D Everyone enjoyed my apple pie, and they all kept asking me where my apple came from. They were a bit surprised when I told them North Dakota haha!
Anyways, I can't wait to come home for xmas. Eric and I are getting really excited to get out of Michigan for awhile and road trip. I have two more weeks left until the end of this semester, which is nice, but extremely stressful! So much to do!! And I'm still trying to get over this stupid cold! I have thee worse cough, and it has not let up in nearly a week now :(
Oh yeah, I am all moved into my new house. I love it :) I will post pictures once I get a little more settled in and I will send my address soon :)

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from thanksgiving day. They had a really beautiful horse... kinda made me miss seeing horses every day :( Enjoy.



Eric


Kelly is going to be jealous....