Taco Soup: Seriously yummy, easy recipe!

A fellow pea, on http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/, shared this recipe for the crock pot. It was excellent and hit the spot after a long day out at the Air Show (which was truly amazing as well).

taco soup in the crock pot

3 cans of beans (I used black, kidney, and pinto)
1 can of corn
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 lb beef browned
1 pkg ranch mix
1 pkg taco seasoning

Mix it all up and cook for 4-6 hours on low.

We put it over fritos and put shredded Mexican cheese on top, so we kind of ate it more like a taco salad. It was good and even the kids ate it. This is definately one I'll make again!

Dinosaur Museum

Breccan earns stickers for staying in bed all night. When he gets six stickers he get a trip to somewhere fun...Chuck E. Cheese or the dinosaur museum are usually his first choices. So here we are at the dinosaur museum. They love going there.




Unfortunately I don't have as many good pictures of Breccan there as I do BayLea. The two of them can't ever be together as they are looking around, and I tend to follow BayLea and Jery tends to follow Breccan!

A night at the Cabin on Grand Mesa

We thought we'd get away for a weekend before the weather got too cold! We rented a cabin on the Mesa for two nights. Well, the plan didn't go as planned. The morning we were to leave, I had a stomach flu bug and BayLea had a stomach bug. But we went anyway. We didn't feel great, but we were able to enjoy the evening somewhat.

But our cabin was soooooo small, with only a double bed and a pull out twin. That night was pretty miserable. The kids wouldn't go to sleep together on the pull out twin, so Jery moved over there with Breccan and I slept with BayLea in the double. The pull out was totally uncomfortable and Jery was miserable. AND he woke up in the night with the bug we had! The next day was not a whole lot better. We suffered through most of the day at the cabin, but decided we didn't feel like sleeping there again in a cabin that was too small and in uncomfortable beds. So we packed it up and went home for Saturday night. We finished up our 'cabin experience' that evening at home with steak and veggie foil packets and marshmallows over a fire here.

Breccan caught his first fish...they were so excited!

They are so darned cute!

The kids had hot cocoa in the morning. Breccan called it his "poffee".

One more little fishing excursion.
The flowers BayLea picked for me.


That's our cabin...way tiny!

The colors on the way down the mountain.
The foil packets we had at our little campfire at home.


Marshmallows before bedtime! Yippee!

BayLea in a pink tutu

I needed to take pink pictures for a pink challenge on a photography forum I'm on. Aren't they cute? Isn't she cute? She's a good sport to do this for me.

My cute girl!

Daddy bought her this little horse. It rides around in its own little purse. BayLea loves it.

This is SOOOOO Breccan!

This just cracks me up! This is so him. I think it's an awesome picture though...on my part...it's exposed right, it's sharp and clear, and it's pretty close to be compositionally correct. That's my handsome boy!

A few family pictures...

This doesn't happen very often, a picture of all four of us. But I needed a family photo for my book I was "publishing" (ha ha...through http://www.blurb.com/) and so we made the attempt at getting one. I really hate the tripod and timer thing...I ALWAYS look like a dork when I join into the picture. You should see my big ol' knees in this below picture...but ha, you can't cuz I cropped them out!
Now this one of BayLea and I I like. But again, had to crop out my legs!
My men! Aren't they handsome!?

Seven years ago today...

Where were you? It is now 6:30 a.m. and in NYC it is 8:30...I don't remember the exact times the towers were hit, but I know it's just about now. It's funny that I can remember just exactly where we were when we got the news. I used to think it strange that people could remember exactly where they were when JFK was shot, but I understand now.

The night before, September 10, the Broncos played Monday night football. My mom and dad, Taylor and Catie had come to our house to watch the game. Catie was just a litte thing, maybe two? and she fell asleep at our house. We decided to let her spend the night.

The next morning, we didn't turn the TV on (we didn't really do that in the mornings then) so we didn't hear anything until we were on our way to work. We were driving past the Duck Pond Park (we were in one vehicle for some reason so I was taking Jery to work and Catie back to mom and dad's house) when vaguely on the news we heard something about a plane hitting a building, and President Bush with his very distinct, nasaly voice saying something about "We won't stand for this." Jery and I immediately began to make fun of Bush, because that's what we did with his voice! So I dropped Jery off at the liquor store, and headed to mom and dad's to take Catie back. As I drove out of the parking lot at the store, I again heard something about the building being hit, and possibly another hit. I began to listen...

As I drove the couple miles to mom and dad's, the true sense of what was happening hit me. Complete shock on my part. I got to mom and dad's, got Catie out of the truck, and went into their house. Dad was reading the paper; mom was refilling her coffee cup. No TV. I said, "You're not watching the TV? All hell's breaking loose!" Dad said, "What?" and clicked on the TV. At that moment the first tower fell. We sat there in SHOCK.

I was a little late for work that day, but since I was teaching at Rocky Mountain, and we had TVs in our rooms, hooked to cable, we watched that with the sound off all day.

For me, even now, I'm still sad, and a little pissed off about it all. Jery and I have been to Ground Zero two times since that day. The little church across the street from where the towers stood is now a place for remembering. It amazes me that this little church had no damage to it! There's a place for me that brings out the emotion, besides the pissed off emotion. The first time we visited, they were selling books about that day. I told Jery, "We should buy one of these. Some day BayLea will be studying this in school." and I burst into tears...

BayLea's artwork

BayLea has really progressed in the last two years in her artwork. I think she's pretty talented. My Grandma Fowler was very artistic, in painting. My mom is too. I'm pretty thrilled to see the way Bay can also paint pretty well for a four year old. These first couple are from when she was 2 1/2...

The above one was just before she turned three.
Three and a half years old was the rainbow...
And then these are this last couple months. The above is markers she did in the car. I sometimes use it for a bookmark because it's a small sized piece of paper.
These she painted. I love the bottom one the best. I'm considering framing it for her.

A test shot of my two before I took some senior pics!

Those are MY babies! I love them! It's sooo hard to get a good shot of the two of them together. If I get one to pose correctly, the other one moves into a funny position, or if one smiles nice, the other is making a face. I thought this one was okay. It's totally them!

Jaron's Football Game

Jaron played a game against Horizon High on Friday night. He sure does love football. He's number 52, and he's been that number since his elementary years playing pee wee football. Personally, I'm thrilled he's playing football for Central (Go Central...Beat Junction!...Just kidding, guys, don't get mad! {insert cheesy grin here}). If nothing else, Central's colors are much prettier to photograph! I love shooting pictures of red!!!

There he is smack in the middle.
Just doin' a little jig while he waits...


Get him, Jaron!!!!