The baby is napping...

I get most of my computer time in when the baby is napping. This week the older children are on spring break so my quiet time has been limited. I'm sure you can just feel the tension in my typing! But as I was getting on the computer to quick check my e-mail ie: facebook. I looked to my left and saw Annabelle, Mathew and Jacob all sitting in the recliner helping Mathew with his DS game. It was great they are helping each other and being quiet, that just doesn't happen in our house.
What I really got on to post about was a funny realization I had about an hour ago. My dad and one of my sisters are coming to visit in a few weeks. My dad told me to do something for myself he mentioned a massage or manicure. I scheduled a dentist appointment. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, I mean really this is what I do with my free time. Hey, if I do it while they are here 1. I actually get to the dentist and 2. I don't have to pay a sitter.

Happy Wednesday!!!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Rachel and Family

Sewing Easter Eggs

The children and I finally completed an art project this past weekend! As seen on Sprout we made our sewing cards. We made eggs with Easter right around the corner. I hope to have them in the mail to grandparents by tomorrow.

(from left to right: Annabelle, Mathew, Jacob)

In other news:

Lance will be home tonight. His school did not work out for him. I know he is disappointed but we love having him home! With the children on spring break and baseball starting up next week the extra hands will be much needed!!

The gym has been going pretty well too. I try and go everyday with Sunday being my rest day. Each day is set to certain areas to work.

Monday-Legs

Tues- Chest & Arms

Wednesday- Cardio

Thursday- Back & Shoulders

Friday- Core

Saturday- a little of everything/ Cardio

Once Lance is back I think the days change, I kinda go with what he does so we are done at the same time. That's the good thing about our gym on post. It has 2 free hours of childcare!!

Rachel and Family

My Sewing Space.....s....

The Before.....

The after.......

I also cut and iron my fabric on the dining room table! I bought myself one of those small/half ironing boards as a house warming present!

I have a bin with all my fabric. I thought I needed it more accessible, so I bought under the bed storage bins. I didn't measure first so I have to put them under Annabelle's bed for now. Ha!

As I was setting up my space I also realized I have no chair to sit in. Ha! Guess I'll be making a trip to the store.

Hello, Quilting Powers could you make it a little harder for me to get started.

I also googled a few quilt shops near Ft. Lewis. But I have to wait for payday to go check them out! And I should probably have a good idea of what I want to try and make first. Ha!

We also do crafts at the dining room table tomorrow we are doing "sewing cards". Remember the ones you hole punch and then sew with yarn! Thanks Sprout for the idea, my children can't stop talking about them. We may even make them into Easter cards!

Happy National Quilt Day!!!!!

Rachel and Family

Fun Flip Flops

One of these days I'll post a true to me blog. But while your waiting check out these flip-flops.
Who would have thunk it!!!!!


Have a wonderful weekend!!!


Rachel and Fmaily!

Attention Quilters!

Here is a link one of the blogs I followed posted about a quilters giveaway! Thought I would share!

Rachel and Family

New Cookbooks!!!!

Thank you so much to my Aunt Deb for all of these cookbooks and magazines. I look forward to trying new recipes!!!

And I won't have to worry about too many leftovers. The hubs leaves today so I won't have to make much to have left overs.

Rachel and Family

Cabbage and Sausage Soup

Good Morning all.

We really enjoyed this soup the other night. Only one of my children refused to eat it, in my book that is pretty good. Then again he never tries new things easily.

I am not going to be too specific on amount in this post, the soup consisted of mostly "leftovers and extras" I had around.

4 russet potatoes peeled and chopped

16 oz chicken stock

1 tsp garlic minced

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 head of cabbage (leftovers from this recipe)

4 turkey sausage chunks

Place potatoes, chicken stock, salt and pepper, and garlic in crock pot. Cook for 2 hours on high. Add cabbage and turkey sausage cook on high another 3 hours.

I would have normally used kielbasa but sausage is what I had in the fridge!

We also had a loaf of bread with some butter to finish off the meal. It was great on our chilly Washington night.

Rachel and Family

Trip to Mt. Rainier

Mt Rainier is magnificent. Lance and I would love to climb it one day. We drove up to Paradise and took a few pictures, the visitors center is also located here. It is full of diagrams, and information about the mountain the the wildlife.

We walked one of the trails to a waterfall you can see from the road. It was gorgeous. The children had a blast!

And my pictures are not spacing correctly, so my post is short so I don't throw something at the computer.

Rachel and Family

Ground Beef Stuffed Cabbage

GROUND BEEF STUFFED CABBAGE

My father used to make these when I was growing up. I am missing family these days so I thought I would give this a try!

I finally bought ground beef again. I have been buying ground pork and turkey instead to help our weight and health issues. I bought a leaner beef, and it seemed a bit dried out. I found this recipe at Southerfood.about.com and changed it.

1lb ground beef

6 cabbage leaves

2 cups cooked rice

salt & pepper (to taste)

1 egg 1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup chopped onion

I followed the cooking directions.

Combine beef, onion, rice, salt/pepper, egg and milk in a bowl and fold until mixed well. Boil cabbage leaves to soften. Spoon the mix into cabbage leaves and roll. I folded one end up and then side to side finishing with a top fold over. Place in crock pot (I could fit 6). Cover with sauce.

Sauce

8 oz can tomato sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Make sure sauce covers rolls to prevent burning.

I cooked on high 5 hours. Put it in at noon and ate at about 5:20.

It was delicious. The kiddos even ate the cabbage!!

Rachel and Family!

Day at the Park

Okay so really it was about 35 minutes. The nascar race took longer than expected and then the sun went away sooner than expected so it started to get too chilly for the baby. But there will be more days at the park I'm sure of it!

As you can see the playgound is pretty genric, we hope to find different ones very soon!

This was Landon's first time in the swing. He loved it! And if you look closely you can see Lance smiling!!!! Not too often do we get that on camera! Jake thought it was real cool he was swinging with Landon!

Annabelle, Mathew, and Jacob love to climb. I always have to remind them to be careful when there are other families on the playground.

You even get to see me on the playground, to bad my bum doesn't fit on the kid slide to well anymore HA!

Here's to fun family days!

Rachel and Family