Taco Soup

Fall has come and winter is on it's way. 'Tis the season for a good warm soup. This is one of my favorite soups to make and eat. Please enjoy!

Taco Soup:

2 cans of corn with juice

1 / 28oz. can of diced tomatoes with juice

1 can black beans with juice

1 qt. of box creamy tomato soup

1 lb. Ground turkey breast

Dried minced onions

1 packed of dried taco seasoning

Chips

Sour cream

Cheddar cheese

In my crock pot I open and pour all the canned ingredients--corn, tomatoes, beans, creamy tomato soup--and turn my pot onto warm. Then I brown the meat on the stove top. While browning the meat I sprinkle it with dried minced onions about 4 table spoons. When the meat is completely cooked and drained, I add a cup of water and 1 pack of taco seasoning and let it boil for about 5 min. Then I add the meat to the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. Turn the crock pot on for at least 8 hrs. low. I usually serve this over low salt or no salt chips top with a dollop of sour cream and grated cheese. Sooo good .... --emily

Jawa

Often during Andrew's nap time, Jacob and I will do a project of some sort. Today Jacob designed this guy--a jawa. Jacob has been talking about jawas since he watched Star Wars with his dad a few weeks ago. I asked Jacob what he wanted to make, and he drew the jawa on a piece of paper, picked the fabric he liked, then we cut him out of Jacob's pattern. Jacob helped turn the knob on the sewing machine as I sewed the jawa together. Jacob stuffed him with stuffing all by himself. He picked green for his jawa's eyes so they would match his, and he drew a heart on him so he would be alive. I stitched his name on. It was a fun afternoon project. I think we might have to do something like this again. Jacob had a great time.

--emily

Happy Halloween

On Halloween we celebrated Andrew's second birthday with friends and family. We had good doughnuts and cider instead of cake and ice cream. It was a fun time. Drew opened a few gifts before we ventured out for some trick or treating.

Here is a picture of the kids right before we headed out the door.

The weather was what we would expect for a Halloween evening, it was drizzly and chilly. The kids had a great time anyway. I love our community for holidays such as this. Our neighbors all get involved. The sidewalks are covered with kids and parents. It is such a fun sight! I enjoy saying Hi to neighbors and friends as we see them out with their kids. It is tradition for my parents to come over and pass out candy at our house so both Kelly and I can go out with the kids.

This year Kelly's mom and step dad joined us for this fun weekend.

--emily

The boy wonder

At our ward Halloween party tonight Andrew won first prize for best costume for nursery age children. The boys went as Batman and Robin they looked darling together. --emily

Taking good care of our house guests

A friend of ours has asked us to house her Christmas horses for a couple days until she can find a more permanent place, till the big day. We have loved the company. This morning I found Andrew feeding our house guests puzzle pieces out of a stacking toy drew enjoys playing with. What a good host! --emily

Carving the Pumpkins

Saturday evening we carved our pumpkins as a family. Jacob enjoyed this so much this year. He started out sitting on his stool. He worked his way up to sitting on the counter so he could see what he was doing. He had a much better angle from above anyway. He did a great job. His pumpkin looks awesome!

I wanted to get a cute picture of the boys sitting on the porch with their lit pumpkins, but Andrew was all done by this point. He is not usually the screaming meltdown kid, but there was no energy left even for a cute picture. I love the look on Jacob's face! --emily

Pumpkin Patch

This morning we went to our local pumpkin patch as a family. Kelly's dad is in town and we thought it would be fun to get outside and get some fresh air especially since it wasn't raining. The boys had a great time with Grandpa trompin' through the mud to find the perfect pumpkin.

What a beautiful place this is.

The patch we go to has free hay rides, a jumping hay pit for the kids, popcorn, hot chocolate, and a candy bucket. It is such a great place.

This is all my mom's fault. My parents house has outside stairs that lead to a deck that their front door is on. Every year my mom would buy enough pumpkins to put one on each stair and in little grouping in the nooks. So as you can see, I have that same bring-the-patch-home mentality. I can never buy just a few or one for each person. It is always a mini patch and I love it! We actually have more than is in this picture. We had a few stragglers in the kitchen still. --emily

Hey Mikey,

I was talking with your mom the other day and she had mentioned that you enjoy checking out our blog. So Jake wanted to send a fun picture to reminded you of the crazy fun you two used to have. You should tell your dad to send you and your mom up for an adventure! See you some time soon! --emily

The after party

This morning Andrew was caught in the act of sneaking a cupcake from his birthday party last night. He climbed onto the counter and helped himself to the yummies. --emily

Birthday Boy

Today is Andrew's second birthday. His story began with a bit of a surprise. He was a planned baby, but he came into our world 5 weeks early. I was at our baby shower planned by my friend Amanda; she gathered a few friends to celebrate our second baby. We had a great time chitchatting, eating good food, and opening a few gifts. It was a fun afternoon with my girlfriends. On the way home from this relaxing event, my water broke and Andrew was on his way. I continued my drive home to meet up with Kelly and take Jake to my mom's house. A few hours later Andrew was born. He was 6 lbs 3 oz and 19 in. long--big for a pre-mature baby boy.

He was given a room in the intensive care unit and placed on a CPAP machine to help him breath. We lived in the intensive care unit for 14 long days while Drew's lungs developed fully. I was given a room in the hospital for a few extra days until they kicked me out because they "needed" the room. So we where back and forth from Overlake Hospital and my parents' house in Bellevue for a few days. At the time our house was in North Bend and that is a long drive for the wee hours of the night and morning. So we crashed at my parents' place for that time.

What a crazy experience. I feel so blessed we have a healthy boy and we survived that experience. As stressful as it all was, we had wonderful friends and family to help us through unexpected moments like this. Drew has such a kind and loving spirit. He has always been so mellow and loving. I am so glad that he is part of our family. Happy Birthday baby Drew!

This is the first time Jacob had met his little brother Andrew.

Not so little Drew enjoying his birthday meal and momma-made cupcakes.

Drew was showing me all his new gear. His shirt was a desaster after the meal so that came off and we didn't get a shirt back on 'till after the bath. Drew is showing you his new skater hat and mittens, along with his new VW bus. Jacob found this car in the Target dollar bins. I love that the favorite toy is from Jake who knows what his brother is into, and it was only a buck! --emily