What a difference 10 months makes

          
You forget how quickly the little ones grow!  Last August, Craig and Taylor got married and we bought the girls matching dresses.  The smallest size was a 2T which back then was pretty big.  On Sunday she wore the same dress and I couldn't believe how small it was on her.  Please excuse the spill, she decided to drink some OJ just before I took the picture.

Chloe is silly!

Last weekend I had just loaded the dishwasher and was on the other side of the house and I could hear her doing something with the dishes.  She loves to help me unload the dishwasher so it didn't really surprise me.  What did surprise me was what I found when I came out to see what she was doing.  When we put dishes away at our house, we don't usually put them away on the floor, but she did a great job organizing them!

Another funny story about Chloe...  She is really into bugs right now and pretty much anything that is small and black is a bug.  I was cradling Chloe in my arms and she was looking up at me.  All of a sudden, she pointed up at my neck and very excitedly said bug!  Yeah, she was referring to the moles on my neck!

We were blown away!

                 
While Cade was playing in the field the rest of us were being blown away, literally.  What most people don't know, is that Las Vegas can be VERY windy.  In fact this last game made many boys with little heads chase after their baseball hats.  We, of course, didn't have that problem!

T-Ball is officially over!

Yes, T-ball is officially over!  Time to hang up the cleats, bat and glove!  Thank goodness because it was getting hot!  I love my son and he made so much improvement over last year but I had to capture some of his moves while out in the field.  I love the one where the coach is wiping his head and looking at him playing in the dirt.  I don't know what it was with this last game but he was really into karate chopping and doing the splits.  

It pays to go to Girls Camp!

I'm sure everyone that went to Girl's Camp has wonderful memories!  On Friday some skills that I learned came in very handy.  Casey was helping out with the 4th year hike in our stake.  The hike consists of hiking down, spending the night and then canoeing down the Colorado River.  The thing is, the men go early in the day, take boats and pull the canoes up river so they are waiting for the girls.  Our whole family got to go, I didn't bring my camera so I don't have pictures, and we had fun, well let's just say it was an adventure.  We started out pulling 3 canoes.  We didn't have a very powerful boat so we couldn't go very fast.  There was a lot of wind which created a lot of currents which made the boats go sideways.  One boat passed us and took one of our canoes so we were down to 2.  After going a little ways, the back canoe tipped over and was upside down.  Luckily the oars were still in there, we were worried we would have to go searching.  Anyway, Casey was trying to figure out the best way to get the water out of the canoe and I knew just what to do, thanks to my days at Camp Ritchie.  I climbed in the face up canoe and Casey and I pulled the other one on upside down and let the water out.  We thought it might help to have some weight in the canoe so I got to go for a little ride.  By the way, the water was COLD!!!!  This is water that comes out the bottom of Hoover Dam and it was freezing!  Later Cade joined me and while we were getting situated the rope connecting the canoe to the boat got unhooked and as Casey started to leave Cade freaked out screaming, "Don't leave us Daddy!!!"  Even though this day didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked, we will have many more memories than if it had.

That night I started to think of all of my memories from Girl's Camp and I couldn't stop laughing!  From pulling off the "perfect prank" to our leaders getting us completely lost on our 3rd year hike.  Can you hike, can you climb, can you starve all the time, can you swim, can you stroke, can you build a boat?

Uncle John Is Home!!

Casey's baby brother got home from his mission a couple of weeks ago and we were able to drive down to Phoenix the morning of, just in time to see him coming off the plane.  Aunt Taylor made a great sign and you can't really tell but the kids all signed their names.  When we got to the airport the kids were very excited, as you can tell.

Like all airports we had to wait and the kids got a little bored, as the next picture captures.  We were quite the scene with all the kids and the sign.  Many travelers passing us smiled, some cheered, "Yeah!  Uncle John!"  One person asked if he was in the military.  We definitely brought a lot of smiles to peoples faces.

To pass the time and the boredom, Seth started to lead the other kids in a chant, "We Want Uncle John!" over and over until he came off the plane.  You could tell John was a little embarrassed and was even hiding behind a couple of pilots that were walking in front of him.  The pilots realized that he was "Uncle John" and stepped aside and let him lead the way.  After giving the nieces and nephews five, he went straight to his Mama.  I won't mention the fact that he went to everyone that was there before he came and hugged me!  How long have I been in the family?! Oh, did I just say that?  I guess because I had the camera, he thought I was busy taking pictures.
This is us on the way back to the car.  Can you believe all of those kids?!

Stuffed Shells

This is very tasty pasta dish and a great way to sneak in some veggies.  My kids used to love them more then they do now but Casey and I still like them!

1 pkg 10oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed, and well drained

1 16oz container of cottage cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 egg white

1 medium red pepper, chopped

1 envelope of Italian Dressing

20 jumbo macaroni shells, for stuffing, cooked and drained

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix spinach, cottage cheese, half of mozzarella, egg white, red pepper and italian seasonings until well blended.  Spoon evenly into pasta shells using about 1 heaping tablespoon per shell.  

Spoon half of the spaghetti sauce into a 9x13 pan.  Place shells, filled sides up, in the baking dish; spoon remaining sauce over the shells.  Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese over shells.  Cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes or until heated through.  

**I usually put the sauce in the dish before I stuff my shells, that way I can just put them in the dish after I fill them.