Nioquis!

One of my students that graduated a few years ago just recently returned from a mission in Argentina. We just love Tycen, he is such a great person and my boys really look up to him as an example. So last Sunday he came over and showed us how to make Nioquis, a little potato pasta, that they eat in Argentina every month on the 29th. He told us we would need "a lot" of potatoes so Bret peeled an entire 10 pound bag. We had so much pasta, it was really fun!

Tycen had no problem adjusting to non-missionary life, as displayed in this photo. How did he get so lucky to get so much help from two beautiful girls? Actually the one on the right is Michelle and they were really good friends in high school, she is married but her husband didn't get there until later. The girl on the left is Jessica and this is the one he is dating now.

You boil potatoes add, seasoning, cilantro, garlic butter and mash them. Then you dump it on the counter and everyone helps knead flour in until it becomes a dough. Tycen said the only way to do it is with the whole family. So everyone was kneading at the same time, it was really fun. We used sooo much flour and I didn't know if my kitchen would ever be the same, there was flour everywhere!


More kneading.....


Once you get enough flour in the potatoes you roll out the dough and cut into little squares.


Tycen is showing us how to flip them off a fork. Um, I think you are born with this talent some us didn't get it. Aaron was good. It was very time consuming.



Dawson and Jessica. yeah I know, we do own clothes for him.



Stacy and Brett stopped by for some fun and food.


Then you boil them in water and when they float to the top, they are done. We topped them with shredded pork and red sauce. Oh, yeah we also covered them in cheese. They were SO GOOD!



This picture give you a glimps of how my kitchen looked.It took us two hours to make the dish, but it was so worth it! Thanks so much Tycen, we love having you back!

Hollywood!

I had the chance to go to California over Christmas break and do three photoshoots. It was a lot of fun and on the last day as we were going to the airport we drove through Hollywood and I got to snap a few pictures for FUN! It was nice to be able to just snap away at what I wanted. Here is a collage of some of the things I found interesting. The last picture is my favorite....scroll down to read why

 

Generally when you think of hollywood, you think glamour, money and movie stars, but if you have ever been there, you look around and think, this is Hollywood? It is quite dirty and most people that live at lower income levels. That is why this is my favorite picture that I snapped from the car. I am calling it "The real faces of Hollywood" I love the fact that these everyday "real" people are standing in front of a wall of movie stars. Two totally different worlds...in the same place.



The real faces of Hollywood

Ca-Ching!

Ok, so I'm TRYING to be a couponer. Another teacher is helping me get into it and so I thought I would give it a try. Wow, it was actually fun! So after printing and printing and printing coupons, I headed to the store. I took Aaron with me because I figured two heads are better than one, right? Haha, shoulda left him home, enough said. After all was said and done I ended up getting 432.62 worth of groceries for 96.30! Wahoo! Ok, now some of you seasoned couponers might be saying, whatever, I can do better than that! But for a beginner I thought that was pretty good. Also try not to judge me too harshly on the food storage selections...who needs fifty pounds of wheat when you have fify pounds of fruit snacks. Any of you interested in 50 ways to incorporate fruit snacks into a delicious dinner, I can send you the link. ;)

 
 

Cade...the writer

Cade is our nine year old and he LOVES to write. He is always making books or writing a story. And then spends time illustrating the books. He could spend hours engrossed in writing. His last story he spent typing on the computer. I hadn't really thought much of it until I sat down to use the computer and read his latest story, I really liked his latest. WARNING: this story has quite a, hmmm, shall we say morbid ending. So, if you only like happily ever after, don't read the work of Cade Lange. He usually writes stories about, dragons and hero's and magic and wizards. As of late he has been writing stories that took place in the old west. p.s. I didn't change any of the spelling, kept the integrity in tact.


Once upon a time there was a man named John.b.willim. He was the best hunter around. He could shoot A buck a mile away. Every one loved him. But one day wolves were eating every ones sheep. And the people said who ever kills 90 wolves gets 90000 dollars. So john went out and killed 900 wolves. And lots more but one day. He made a promise. That he would not kill another wolf again. Cause they made him a fortune. But one day, A lone white wolf came and killed every ones sheep. And john forgot about his promise. And he went out to the market and bout a sheep for bate and bout a chair. And went out in the woods. And tide the sheep up to the tree. And sat on his chair with his gun. But one day John went missing. So they went out looking for him. And they found him. Dead with his throat cut and the sheep untouched.



By. Cade Lange

A few of the Lange family Christmas traditions

Another Christmas is here and I LOVE Christmas time! We had a great Christmas and we are now sitting inside where it is nice and warm watching a huge snow storm roll in. I thought I would share some of our Christmas traditions, you might think some are crazy but we enjoy them none the less!

#1 Christmas eve dinner at Grandmas

This tradition takes a little explaining...Since Bret and I have never had any famly in the valley we have adopted my babysitters family. We call her grandma Bonnie and we just love their family like our own. Every Chrismas eve we go to her house for a dinner. Her house is small and it is getting more and more crowed with all the growing families. We decided to have the dinner at our house this year and it was so much fun. We had home make chicken noodle soup and taco soup. Grandma Bonnie fried up some scones We are so grateful to have family as great as they are!

#2 Opening our Christmas pajamas

I know this is a tradition for a lot of people and we do it because the kids really want to open something on Christmas eve. This is really the only night they actually wear pajamas. Most of time is whitey tighties or boxers. But the kids like this tradition, so we keep on doing it.

#3 Reading a Christmas Story

Every year we get a new Christmas book and read it on Christmas eve. This year I received a Christmas story at church so we

decided that would be our book. Here is a picture of Bret reading, he usually can't finish the story without crying. He did pretty good this year, his voice only got crackly once.

#4 Driking egg nog from fancy glasses

Once a year we pull out these fancy glasses and drink egg nog, we go around in a circle and toast to something we are thankful for or something we think is great...This is what everyone toasted to this year...

Dad: to Christmas

Mom: to being alive and health

Aaron: to family

Alec: to Christmas

Cade: to angels

Dawson: to pajamas!

#5 Building a fort

When the boys were little we would build them a fort so they would get excited and want to go to bed. As the years have gone

on and the boys have gotten older they have taken to building their own fort. Aaron helped create this "deluxe" fort for the boys and of course, the dog.

#6 Leaving a treat for Santa

The kids like to throw carrots on the roof for the raindeer and leave a treat for sant on a plate by the front door. We usually leave cookies, but dad assured us that santa would really really like a piece of pumkin pie with whip cream on top.

#7 Santa leaves a trail of candy

Every year santa leaves a trail of candy from the door to our presents. We usually have to pick them up quickly or the dog gets an early chocolate breakfast....sounds good to me.

#8 Waiting at the top of the stairs

Every year I take a picture of the kids sitting at the top of the stairs, waiting to run down and see what santa brought. I hope to someday fill the stairs with daugher-in-laws and lots and lots of grandchildren.

#9 The treasure hunt

This is probably one of the kids (and parents) favorite tradition. Each child has their own set of clues that sends them on treasure hunt. Each clue sends them all over the house trying to find the next clue. As they get older the clues get harder and harder. When they get to the end of their treasure hunt they find a bigger gift from mom and dad.

#10 Grandma Roundy's orange rolls

These were a recipe that my mom used to make when we were growing up and so I carried this on to my own family. Here is a

picture of them in the oven and another picture of them half eaten. These are traditionally done in a bundt pan, but when you can't find one and your going on 3 hours of sleep, you use whatever you can find!

#11 Aracely's Tamale's

Ok, so this isn't really our tradition, but we are so glad that it is a tradition with our good friends. We have some very good friends from Guatamala and every year they make a big batch of tamale's. And yes, we get to be the recepients of this tasty treat. This might not look like the best picture, but boy oh boy do we love it when the Carias family rings our doorbell on Christmas eve!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gingerbread houses!

So we made gingerbread houses for family night and we had a great time, so much so that the thought of eating another piece of candy made us want to lose it. We broke into teams because Bret bought the kits and we only had two. Aaron and mom were a team and dad and the other boys were another team. Let's just say Aaron and mom's house was kicking serious butt and we were thinking we were so cool. That is until we were almost done and our roof started sliding off because we used too much candy and it was too heavy. Bret said something about the three little pigs and Aaron and I not being patient enough, and we would have to come to their house for shelter blah, blah, blah...Whatever, we didn't even care about being the best and it wasn't supposed to even be a contest. Who cares about being on teams and dumb candy houses? I'm not bitter at all.... :) Aaron actually got the drill out and drilled a hole in our roof and tied a zip tie through the top and it worked great. We had a fun night and I just kept eating the candy off the roof over the next two days to lighten the roof and "keep the roof from sliding".

Doesn't even phase me....

Yes, that's Dawson up on top of the plant shelf. I came out of the bedroom and found him sitting 12 feet up. Worried, who me? Naw, with a house full of boys, that doesn't even phase me. I'll just keep telling myself that this kind of stuff is normal and hopefully I'll get through these years of raising my boys with only 99% of my hair turning gray...



Giving me the peace sign that everything is ok!


Jumping, with no fear I might add, to his daredevil dad.