Perfect Pot Roast by The Pioneer Woman

I copied the Pioneer Woman's idea to serve pot roast with mashed potatoes insted of adding the potatoes to the roast. Brett and I liked it much better with the creamy mashed potatoes than the cubed baked potatoes!

If you want the recipe...look to the right under "Daily Reading" and find The Pioneer Woman Blog. Once you get to her blog, click on the tab at the top of the page labeled, "Cooking" and you will find the step by step directions with pictures!

"The best SALSA you'll ever have" recipe

This is my mother- in-law's salsa recipe. I have been making it for years, and it is a favorite for my family and friends.

If you have these laying around...
You might as well make some SaLsA!

Wash the tomatoes, cut them in half...
Chop them. I use my Pamper Chef chopper but any chopper will do.
Next, I add green peppers.
Cilantro-- take it off the stem, wash it, dry it well...
...cut it...
...and add it to the tomatoes and pepper mixture.
Next up, it's the avocados! I love avocados!

Cut them in half.... Take the seed out
...and cut them in cubes.

This is when I add the salt to the salsa because it helps keep the avocados from browning quickly. You may add more salt at the end, to fit your taste.

When you're done cutting the avocados, you can mix in the onions. Chop them up!

The last ingredient I add are the hot peppers.
I mix it all in my dutch oven because it's nice and big. but any big bowl will do.



When I am all done mixing it, I put the salsa in containers.

When I give some to friends, I give them a couple of hot peppers in case they want to make it hotter.
ENJOY!

No need for training wheels for Brayden!

Brayden kept asking Brett to take the training wheels off his bike. We hesitated at first, since he is only 4, but we decided to give it a try... and good thing we did. Brayden is doing an awesome job riding without the training wheels- way to go Brayden!!!

* sIdE nOtE: Last week was "bike week" in Preschool. The kids had to bring their helmets and the preschool provided the tricycles.

I would ask Brayden every day when I picked him up if he had a turn riding the tricycles, and he would say, "No, not yet." I was fine with that, figuring he would eventually have a turn. However, on Wednesday when I picked him up, his teacher informed me that Brayden is refusing to ride the tricycles because they have training wheels, and he doesn't need training wheels. HM!

He did ride the tricycle on Thursday, after Brett and I had a little chat with our (#trainingwheelsarenotcool) wonderful and amazing son. :-)

Kylie starts 1st grade. Brayden starts Preschool.

*Kylie started 1st grade a few weeks ago and she is doing a great job, working hard and learning a lot!

On her first day of 1st grade, we went to Kennedy Elementary School. Kylie is going to Kennedy for Music class.

Me with my wonderful, beautiful, smart daughter!

** A week after Kylie started 1st grade, Brayden joined Our Redeemer Preschool!






Brayden with his sister!

Brayden with his teacher, Kristy Graves!

*** Side note-- Hawkeye parties are in full bloom!

We even went as far as putting an old Hawkeye shirt on Piper-- she hated it, we loved it! ;-)


**** Last week, AWANA started

This is Kylie's 3rd year as a Spark and Brayden's 2nd year as a Cubbie.

Fall schedule is full swing...almost. Homeschooling group and piano lessons start tomorrow and Jazz lessons begin in October.

Summer 2011

I haven't updated the blog much this summer but it is not because I have not been taking a million+ pictures. Here are some of the things that we did and some of the pictures that I took:

*** State Fair 2011!

The butter cow...need I say more?

Grandpa with Brayden on the skyride
Kylie rode with Grandma on the skyride and it is important to note that the skyride is her favorite at the fair... this tidbit of information begs the question, "Do we have a future pilot on our hands?" :-)

Clifford was at the fair also!... Seeing Clifford at the Fair, left Colton in utter amazement! hehe

We watched a very funny Western skit! The kids quoted lines from it for days and weeks to come!

We also watched "The Swampmaster's Gator show"!


Crazy bravery

*** We're going on an ant hunt...

The kids went on a bug hunt around the backyard- fun times.


*** Great Grandpa Bill turned 80 this summer!

We had a party for him at a restaurant and the whole family gathered togeher to celebrate this wonderful man!

I love this picture of Great Grandpa and Great Grandma with their 3 great grandchildren!

The HOBEN men-- Brett, Brayden, Colton, Bryan, Gpa Bill, Dakota and Bryce (LtoR)

Our little family!

This is one of my favorite pictures of all times-- I love Colton's smile and his big blue eyes, I also think his aunt, Nicole, is BEauTIfuL!!!

Earlier in the day, before Gpa Bills' bday party, we went wedding dress shopping with Kate! How fun!!! This is all of us at Texas Roadhouse after a successful day at the bridal store!


*** Mya, Lauren, Benson and Jack came over for a sleepover and a day of fun!

We had a water baloon fight-- the kids vs. Brett (I was the photographer so I was off limits when it came to water ballons....that was until I put the camera down and Brett turned all the kids on me! "Go GET mom!" )

***DAkota, Brett's youngest brother, got married this summer

It was a beautiful wedding!

The bride looked beautiful and the groom looked so hansome.

Grandma and Grandpa at the wedding

Our family at the reception dinner

Nicole did all the flowers for the wedding, she did an amazing job!

We borrowed Benji and Abby's WII and the kids had a b-l-a-s-t playing.

Brett tied Brayden's tie for the 1st time! (it was an emotional time for me...)

*** Earlier in the summer, Kylie and Brayden were in swimming lesson...

*** Kylie learned to ride her bike without the training wheels!! Woohoo! Way to go Kylie!

*** Colton found himself a girlfriend this summer...

*** ...and he gave himself a black eye, when he ran into the corner of a picnic table (scary and sad! :-( but it did not bring his spirits down, he was so tough)

**** I am sorry about the weird spacing. I am not sure how to fix the problem, I keep adjusting the space in between pictures or sentences and when I publish the post, it shows up with the same weird spacing. If you have a blog and know how to fix this spacing problem, let me know, please! :)