we'll give this a try...

A real post

2011-02-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

It has taken me hours and multiple tries to get some updated pictures on this. Why am I so blog challenged?

As some of you know I put a put a gingerbread village under my tree every year (thanks to my mom for the awesome tradition). This year my family got together at Thanksgiving and baked all the houses (we were going to get done early!) SO my goal was by the first week of December I would have my house decorated and my gingerbread up and Christmas was going to be awesome this year. I got my house decorated and started on my gingerbread. Finished assembling and decorating the ski lodge and the santa house and left them overnight to dry. Let's just throw it out there that to get to that point takes all day. I came downstairs the next morning to discover my fat, pig dog had eaten my gingerbread. The evidence was all over her face, her fur and her bed. Needless to say I wanted to cry and it took me a week to recover from that and to start over from scratch and rebake the houses. Then it took me another couple of days to decorate them and by the time I was finished it was mid-December. Then Dogzilla ate what was under the tree and the rest was demolished by my children. Why do I do this every year?

This is why I don't blog....

2010-05-05T08:39:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when I get on the computer and ignore my kids for 3 minutes....

This deserves a good comment

2010-02-12T10:20:00.000-08:00

Check out this article:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1908194,00.html

I'd like to know your thoughts...

Well actually....

2010-01-21T13:21:00.000-08:00

That last post was meant for a recipe blog that I started last year, but I accidentally put it on this one. Those of you that want to check it out are welcome: letseatfamily.blogspot.com

It is suppossed to be a place where my sisters and I post all the recipes we tried and liked, but so far only one has been posted from someone other than me. Figures...

Cucumber Salad

2010-01-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

You know the really good kind that you get at Japanese restaurants. So fresh and so yummy and SO EASY. According to Mutsumi, my Japanese friend, you are supposed to let this sit overnight so the cucumbers soften and really soak up the flavors, but I made it an hour before dinner the other night and loved it.

2 English Cucumbers
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

In a medium sized bowl combine vinegar, sugar and salt. Whisk until sugar is dissolved. Take wrapper off of cucumber and quarter lengthwise. Then slice up each quarter trying to keep an even thickness. Add to vinegar mixture and toss with spoon to coat each piece. Let sit covered in the fridge overnight or at least for an hour on your counter.

sort of confused

2009-11-11T23:37:00.001-08:00

i am not really sure why i have this blog

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

We went to the pumpkin patch with the Whitakers and each picked out the pumpkin we wanted. John 5 loves pumpkins and was elated to be around so many. Of course on the day we went there was literally a wind storm and there was so much dirt blowing everywhere the poor kids had to close their eyes. When we got home we all brushed our teeth to get the layer of dirt off. Looking at the sheep

John and Parks talking about the goats.

You can see the wind blowing the corn stalks over.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

2009-10-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

On September 16 Sophie turned 1! I honestly can't believe she's one. It went by really fast. Sophie is so sweet and fun to have. She loves her brother so much. I thought she might be walking by now, but not yet. She stands on her own and loves to walk while you hold her hands or she is pushing the laundry basket. She thinks it's hilarious to crawl away from me and have me chase her. Thankfully she'll still eat anything and takes her meal times very seriously. Her hair is just long enough for me to put in little piggy tails, but she somehow always pulls them out. She is feisty and sweet and still loves to cuddle.

Happy 3rd Birthday John!

2009-10-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

I know it's October and his actual birthday was August 24th, but I am still going to post it 2 months late. More pictures to come.... John 5 and Grandma Dunlap

John 4, Kates and Sophie enjoying the game

Grandpa and John with Archie, the big red blob - the Reno Aces mascot, for some odd reason which I don't know.

my summer garden

2009-10-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

So I actually planted a successful garden this summer. I was amazed. I read this book that my mom gave me called Square Foot Gardening - great book. The guy who wrote it is a genius. This was the very first harvest. And it was unfortunately the only picture I took of all the yummy things I grew.

Karoline's Blessing

2009-09-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Karoline Teerlink's blessing. It was so fun to see Heather and Chris and John loves seeing his cousins. The Dunlap and Teerlink Families

Grandma and Grandpa Dunlap with their growing brood of grandkids

That's my sweet child glaring and refusing to look at the camera.

more fun with fireworks

2009-09-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

John getting his first experience with sparklers. Are you surprised that he loved them? I thought he was going to singe off his eyebrows a couple of times, but he managed not to cause any permanent damage to his face. john and amelie loving every minute of it

at the end of the sparklers we had our own unbelievable fireworks display, complete with the mo-tab singing the star-spangled banner for background music. we're so patriotic. john didn't quite make it through the show.

here's dad showing him the proper techniques for sparklers

what? don't put it so close to my face? why?

4th of July!

2009-09-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

We spent the 4th in Oregon this year. It was a blast. John had never seen the parade in Ashland - it's always a crowd-pleaser. Luckily there was no one naked in the parade this year. There were some pretty cool entries though.

Here's John with Grandma Bounds and Remi - she loved the parade too.

chores and a new house...sort of

2009-06-28T13:18:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning chores with dad - get out there and mow the lawn He's working really hard to push that mower - the grass was pretty tallI got this sweet playhouse at a garage sale I went to with my friend Hailey. John freaked until he realized that these babies cost 200-300 bucks new and I got it for 40. What a steal. And of course John 5 LOVES it. He goes in there and Remi follows right behind him. He ate dinner in there last night at about 9:15 at night. we couldn't get him to leave.

we love when cousins come to visit

2009-06-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

My sister Mendi and her family dropped by for a visit on their way back to Roseville from Utah. We were very excited to see them but John 5 was especially excited. He loves having visitors, as I am sure all kids do. Here's John and Amelie riding bikes and cars in the backyard. Sophie and Soleil. They are 2 months apart. As you can see my children always have noticably large heads than Mendi's kids.

Everyone loves bathtime pictures

meet the newest member of our family...

2009-06-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

meet Remi. our little girl golden retriever. i got her when i was in oregon and john was on a fishing trip in mammoth. he got to go fishing for the weekend and i got a dog - that's a pretty even trade in my book.

lots lots more

2009-06-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

just a happy little girl
sophie double fisting her food - she can't get enough in her mouth fast enough...

john and courtney

fishing with dad

where does the time go?

2009-06-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

trying to take easter pictures....

easter basket! i won this sweet basket in a local competition i entered in online

me and Mendi's 2nd girl (same age as john) Amelie

sorting eggs

sophie's egg

Bolognese Sauce

2009-05-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

I realize it's May and it's almost been 2 months since I posted anything, but I really am trying - honest. This blogging thing doesn't come so easy to me. I think it's fun and I like doing it, but somehow I never find the time to do it and then when I do things happen like my computer won't accept anymore pictures to be downloaded. And let's face it posts without pictures are boring, kinda like this one for example. Having a husband who works on computers for a living doesn't help - I wish it did. So for now I am going to just post my recipe for really good Bolognese Sauce. I figure it kills 2 birds with one stone since my sister Lindsay keeps telling me to start a food blog and since I don't have anything more interesting to say. Here you go...

Step 1: Stop using jars of Prego, Ragu, or whatever.
Step 2: Make a double batch of sauce when you have time and freeze it into 2 cup portions - 2 cups is enough for about 1/2 pound of pasta. You don't even have to defrost it first - just pull it out of the freezer and dump it into a pan with a little water to heat it up. Snap - homemade sauce just as fast as opening up that nasty jar.

Bolognese Sauce
yield: about 2 quarts

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 large carrots, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 pounds ground beef or pork or turkey - whichever you prefer
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper - if you are still using table salt: STOP and if you don't have a pepper grinder, then it's time to get one.
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups milk
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup chicken stock
2 cans crushed tomatoes in puree
1 1/2 to 2 cups water

1. Heat a dutch oven or 5 quart pot and olive oil over medium heat and add onions, celery, carrots, garlic and bell pepper. Cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add pinch of red pepper flakes.

2. Add beef (or pork or turkey) and season generously with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring to break up the meat, until browned, about another 8 minutes. Add tomato paste to meat and stir to evenly coat the meat.

3. Turn heat to high and add the milk and nutmeg, stirring frequently unti milk has evaporated. Add chicken stock; cook, stirring frequently until stock has eveporated.

4. Add tomatoes, and simmer gently over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed to prevent the sauce from becoming too dry (1 1/2 to 2 cups total) for about 2 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To Freeze Sauce:
Pour out of the pot into a shallow dish to speed up cooling time. Once cooled, separate into 2 cup portions and pour into a freezer-safe container or baggy, whatever you prefer. Label it and date it.

Mommy Tip: I put the carrots, onions, celery, garlic and bell peppers in the food processor and chop them up into very tiny pieces so my littles and my husband can't see the vegetables and say "Gross, why are there carrots and celery in my spaghetti?"

M-I-C-K-E-Y...

2009-03-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

so cool

2009-03-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

i bought him some cheap sunglasses from childrens place - he picked them out and was so excited. Now he wears them all the time -so much better than him saying "owwee mommy my eyes hurt"

peas and home depot

2009-03-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

The Home Depot has kids workshops on saturdays so the Johns took advantage of the free goods. They made a car race track - built it, painted it - the works. I love the apron.

Here's sophie trying peas for the first time - not so sure she thinks they're as great as I do.

But of course she's still happy

she's sitting up!

2009-02-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

she's such a happy little girlstill a little wobbly

or maybe not

happy valentines!

2009-02-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

i asked john to give sophie a love - he pulled her ears instead - do you see the fear in the poor girl's eyes? picture time was over

Evolution of Dance

2009-01-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

Goodbye, President Bush

2009-01-21T09:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's easy to make fun of President Bush, but it's nice to hear some good things for a change. It's long, but worth reading:

follow this link: http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/090121bush.html

2009-01-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

If you love the food network, you'll love this

2009-01-13T15:59:00.001-08:00

In November I packed up the kiddies and the mass amounts of stuff that goes with them and headed to San Fran for a little excitement. And by that I mean a book signing for Ina Garten's (Barefoot Contessa) new cookbook.

Yes I was by myself

With the 2 kids on a 4 hour drive plus traffic

But you know seeing her for 3 minutes was all worth it. And you better believe that I took advantage of those 3 minutes. Let's just say that my sister Mendi who thinks she's cool because she used to work on Rodeo Dr and never got starstruck was embarrassed of me and my sister Lindsay who went with me.

But honestly people, have none of you ever gotten so excited about meeting someone that when you actually met them all you did was vomit blabber which didn't make sense and most likely scared the object of your admiration?

Here's my disclaimer: I was only scary because I was taking poor sleeping Sophie out of the bjorn for Ina to see, hold, maybe invite to her amazing house in the hamptons.

Lindsay made it way worse.

Here's how it went:

Ina: oh your baby is beautiful, how old is she?

Me: she's 2 months (now is when i am physically taking sophie out of the bjorn while she is trying to sleep and this is obviously alarming Ina)

Ina: is this her first book signing? (laughs) oh your baby is falling out.

Me: oh she's fine. yes. we love you show. i drove all the way from reno.

Lindsay: our dad loves to cook now because of you. he cooks dinner every sunday and loves your recipes. we love your show. you are so nice. your voice is so kind. i made your roast chicken last week.

Ina: (obviously a little scared) how did it turn out?

Lindsay: It was great. You are just so nice and kind and we love you and your show.

Me: (smiling and agreeing with everything lindsay is saying)

this is when the williams sonoma workers pushed us through the line.

Not scary, just a little excited, right?

I would love to hear any of your celebrity encounters

TRAINS!

2009-01-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

john 5 is obsessed with trains right now, so when we found out that the carson city train museum had an old operating train that you could ride we drove right down. And as a special bonus at christmas time Santa comes and gives you a candy cane - of course most of the kids cry when santa shows up, but whatever. The car we were in was built in 1800s. so fun!

little sewing project

2009-01-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

I made this little activity pillow for Ellie - Lora's daughter. I got the idea off another blog: makeandtakes.com and then i added my own twist to it. I LOVE how it turned out. Actually i borrowed some pinking shears from claire and made the edges really cute, but didn't get a picture of it before i sent it. Basically it was crazy easy but I am so proud of myself - I felt so crafty. You can take the letters off the buttons and replace them with shapes and numbers.

Here's the pockets on the back to hold whatever is not being used on the front.

Sophie!

2009-01-12T18:33:00.001-08:00

Here's some pics of Sophie - she'll be 4 months at the end of this week. I can't believe it.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-09T09:41:00.001-08:00

so cute

2008-10-11T08:30:00.001-07:00

Sophie's first bath - she loved it. John is so good with her. Sometimes he gives a little too much loves, but she'll pull through. What a good little helper
Hello little girl!
He put the hat on his head like this and wore it like that almost all day- he even wore it all through costco.

Happy Fall...

2008-10-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

Wait, are you serious? I am excited for fall but wasn't ready for winter...

Birthdays, Weddings, Babies, Oh My!

2008-09-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

She's here! Sophie Lynn Dunlap was born on September 16 at 7:54 pm. She was 6 pounds and 18 inches and is beautiful. And I am finally getting some pictures on the blog again. Basically the last few months have been rediculously crazy for us but hopefully now things will get back to normal. Where to start...we bought a new house and got the keys on August 20! It was very exciting and stressful at the same time. All I can say is that moving when you are 8 months pregnant is not very timely. We are making a dent in the boxes in the garage though. You can actually walk through the garage now. Next came John 5's birthday. He's 2! I can't believe it. I didn't realize how big he actually was until Sophie came, but I am jumping ahead. My sister Lindsay got married on September 12. Yay! The wedding was amazing and I am grateful because I didn't give birth at her reception. She got married on a friday and then Sophie decided to come the following Tuesday. My poor mom has been running around like a crazy woman trying to do everything for all her kids. Life has definitely not been slow.

All I can say is that so far she is the best baby ever. Sho only cries for about 2 seconds when she's hungry or poopy. So amazing. Sweetest little girl ever.

Proud daddy in the hospital
All I can say is drug free is not the way to be when having a child. I actually look better than I felt which is not saying much. I started having contractions monday night, they continued sparadically until noon on tuesday. At 2:30 JOhn's sister Katie was driving me from Reno to Auburn because our insurance is with Kaiser. I had contractions 5 min apart the whole car ride. When I got about 15 min from auburn they started lasting 2 minutes and being 3 minutes apart. My mom and I got to the hospital in Sacramento at 6:30, I was dialated to an 8 and she was born at 7:54. John was still in Reno at 6 - needless to say he missed it - he walked in about 2 minutes after my mom cut the cord. I don't recommend this timeline to anyone.
Happy 2nd birthday! What's better than motorcycles to a 2 year old boy? NOTHING

He actually got the concept of opening up presents - it was so fun to watch

Ode to Slurpee

2008-07-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

Slurpee O Slurpee

How I love you so
Your icy cool sweets
Make me so happy, you know

With your cherry red taste

Tell me, what could be better?

So silly of me -

I'll add some cheese, but not cheddar

No, O Slurpee

You deserve the best

Of course only "string"

But will it pass the test?

Alas, I'm a genius!

Quick! Call the store!

A new taste is in town

Bursting with flavors galore!

Truly a feast for the tastebuds

There's no better treat

So let's raise a cup

To the cheesy cherry iced feat

our house in the middle of our street

2008-06-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

I cannot tell you all how excited I am! We had a walk-through today and the guy said it should be done end of July/ August. That made me so happy. So here's a few pics of the progress..

Here is the empty lot for our house - we took this pic back in april
this is the sweet view from our house...until they build houses on these lots, then we'll only see this from our upstairs.
Here is what our house looks like as of today! the houses on either side of ours are both 1 story so it is much better.
And I had to throw in some pics of the kid playing in the sprinklers. don't worry it's like 2 in the afternoon and he's still wearing his pajama shirt - he took the pants off long before

San Diego!!

2008-06-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to San Diego for John's Aunt's wedding. It was so fun. It would have been helpful to realize that the US Open was there before we went then we could have been somwehat prepared for the 3 hours it took for us to get our luggage and get a rental car...shoot me now. But, it was still a good time. AND we got to see Sister Hixson before she left and hear her speak.

B: I know you probably can't check blogs but sisters get away with a lot more than elders, so here's hoping. We had so much fun being with you and the fam - I love you and know you are going to be the best missionary. I will miss you and seriously try my best to send you some letters - I will at least keep you posted on the new kid and the other one, plus I do want to hear about the craziness in Jersey.

Here's some pics from our trip

Fun at the beach. You can guess what came next after he stared at his fistfulls of sand.

John and Courtney - 6 months pregnant. I love this dress, it actually makes it look like I have a chest. Don't be fooled...

Johns 2, 3, 4, and 5. You gotta love it.

it's a real disease!

2008-06-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

"Trichotillomania, a hair-pulling disorder, involves an irresistible urge to pull out hair. This behavior occurs to the point of noticeable hair loss. The most common areas for hair pulling are the scalp, eyelashes and eyebrows, but may involve hair anywhere on the body..."

kind of unfortunate that it has to do with my mental health...
For those of you who still don't believe you can read the rest of the article at http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/trichotillomania

And I will confess that I have a bald spot on my lash line because I swear I could feel one of my eyelashes and it was driving me crazy.

go ahead, ridicule me...

2008-06-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Ok so I hear it all the time - "your phone sucks. why don't you get a new one?" or "that's your crappy cell phone?" Listen people, I may have a "crappy" phone by your tech savvy standards - but I would like to point out that I always have service, I can always hear loud and clear and it has a color screen. True no camera, bluetooth, navigation, picture messaging, cool ringtones, speakerphone, walkie-talkie whatever, ability to check my e-mails and control my life through the phone, but what in the crap do you need all that stuff for anyway? Do you know how many times I have dropped it - in the water no less - and it still works. I used someones old flip phone for one week and switched back because my "crappy" phone was better. Plus, as the evidence shows, who in their right mind would spend money on a phone when their 2 year old is bound to get a hold of it and do this...

need i say more?

fun times

2008-06-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

we love the sit'n'spin. especially when we have no pants on.

John with my parents' dog Rocko. yes, he's huge and john loveshim

playing catch-up

2008-06-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

i love looking at everyone's blogs, but i suck at keeping ours updated...there's always so many other things to do and it takes me 15 years to resize pictures and load them onto the page. there must be an easier way....

here are some fun pictures of what we've been up to. one day when we get a scanner I will scan the ultrasound pics of the new addition. I am 23 weeks along and feeling great - and of course since the legs were closed I don't know what the sex of the new baby is, but since the legs were closed I am thinking it's a girl - so ladylike, don't you think?

here's my out of control child riding the scooter

poop

2008-03-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I have no picture to accompany this, but I thought I would let you all know that my child just pooped on the carpet right by our bed. John was getting out of bed and almost stepped in it. I tried really hard to get a pic, but the battery was dead and then John cleaned it up before I could charge it. so gross. and don't worry, the smell made me gag and go running for the toilet. just another day...

More Easter Fun

2008-03-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Abel's property is a kids' paradise. We rode quads, tractors, and horses. We played whiffle ball and Baby John mainly went around hitting everything with his little red bat and then everything went down hill when he started hitting his cousins with the bat...typical boy.

happy easter!

2008-03-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. CA was a beautiful 70 degrees and so delightful and springy. Baby John didn't get the whole egg thing at first, he just wanted to run up and down the grass hills. Then he got the hang of it. so cute. so fun. It was such a fun weekend with aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and cousins. We love easter!

sugar high

2008-03-06T14:53:00.000-08:00

this was at an old ice cream parlour we visited in Florida when we went to see my sister Wendi and her family. john wasn't even laughing or talking. he was just eating the ice cream as fast as he could.

our first blog

2008-03-05T08:38:00.001-08:00

In an attempt to keep friends and family as up to date as possible, i am going to give the blog a try. Since I am pretty new at this whole video posting thing, it took me forever to get it up and the quality is not so great. But, I will keep on trying. Life is pretty normal for us. Baby John is getting so big, I can hardly believe it. Pretty much I don't know what to say so I will probably not be writing a whole lot, but posting pictures. We'll see how it goes...

we love to sing

2008-03-05T08:30:00.000-08:00