Welcome Phineas and Ferb

Emily has been wanting a pet that she can snuggle with. So with Easter around the corner....we got bunnies!


Two to be exact, Phineas and Ferb. Phineas is the male and is a mini-rex, Ferb is the female and is a mini-lop.

They have been a lot of fun to have and Emily has been taking very good care of them.
She loves to snuggle with Phineas and he is a very patient bunny.
Ferb, on the other hand, is a little scared. We hope she will warm up but if she doesn't we will still love her the same.

What's next? What animal do you think we should get?
Goats, Chickens, Pigs, Horses, Cows, Buffalo???

Happy Birthday Isabella

Isabella (the pup in purple) turned 3 today!
Emily and I made her a cake to celebrate with her sisters Lily and Lindsay.
They licked their plates clean!



Here is the recipie for the cake:

Peanut Butter Delight Birthday Cake

1 cup white or whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4c peanut butter
1/4c vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp vanilla
1/3c honey
1 egg

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour and baking soda.
Ass remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a small baking pan sprayed with
nonstick preay for about 40min. Time will vary depending on pan.

Cinnamon Frosting

Combine the following ingredients and blend thoroughly:
12oz cream cheese (room temp)
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp honey

Happy Birthday Isabella!

How to go Sledding on the Ranch

Welcome to our ranch - Isabella and Lindsay

As you all know we have been missing Dylan a lot and we have been looking for a new dog to add to our family.
We signed up under Nor Cal Weim Rescue to adopt a dog and have been looking at their listings every night. Jeremy e-mailed me a listing for two little girls that needed a new home. I immediately called them and told the coordinator that we wanted them. We were told that they were being held for us until they were able to get transport to Sacramento.

Well...on Friday we met our girls! Lindsay and Isabella! They are so sweet and are a perfect addition to our family!

This is Lindsay, I love how her tongue hangs out of her mouth most of the time. She has the sweetest face and is very adventurous.

Do you know how hard it is to get all the dogs to look at you at the same time?
Isabella is in the purple, Lindsay is in the pink and Lily is our lab.
They all have similar eyes!

To our surprise, Bella and Lindsay get up into our truck very easily. I think they have done it before!

It snowed last night and our girls got to go out and play in it. They had a blast!

We know how hard it is to loose a member of your family. We are so glad that we were able to take in these beautiful dogs and give them a forever home. They are a great addition to our family and we look forward to having many, many years of fun with them.

Chopping Kindling...What a Chore!

This is our wood shed. It is temporary for now until we get a new structure.
We house the wood we need for the winter since our only heat source is a wood stove.


Jer has to go out there and chop kindling for me so I can build fires.
It snowed the night before so he wasn't too excited to do it.
He sat down on his usual stump and got to work.

He looked down at his progress and noticed there was nothing there!
He had been working for about 5 minutes so there had to have been some progress.

He cut one more piece and looked down.
There was the little thief!

She was taking away the kindling one piece at a time!

Now if we could train her to stack wood...that would be great!!

Look the sun!

The sun is out this morning! It is supposed to be in the 60's finally! Time to get the kiddos outside to play.

Here is my morning picture...



Can you tell I love where I live?

Lean on me...when your not strong

On my daily drive to drop Emily off at school I saw this tree...

the song "Lean on me" immediately popped into my head. Isn't it amazing how trees adapt to their environment?

Here is a little science lesson for you...

What is the chance that an acorn will grow into a tree?

In a good year the oak tree will have many flowers -- up to several thousand. With the right humidity, the right temperature, no late frost in the spring, and sufficient rainfall in the summer, tiny scale-covered acorns (called nubbins at that point) begin to grow. They will mature to become full grown and ripe acorns by late summer. The chances of one acorn making it to become an oak tree are very slim -- less than 1/10,000. That means that for every 10,000 acorns, only one will become a tree! (Taken from Interesting Facts about Oak Trees).

Picture Perfect Morning

I woke up this morning to a warm house (Jer started a fire before he left for work...I heart him!). Emily was in a great mood and Jack woke up with a smile on his face.

I looked outside and it looked foggy however, it wasn't fog, it was clouds. We were in the clouds.

It was a bit chilly outside but the rain had just stopped. It smelled so good, you know that smell, just after the rain but imagine it mixed with pine trees and wood burning stoves.

I took Emily to school and as we drove through my favorite part of the road I saw this...


You can see the clouds covering the tops of the tallest trees, the beautiful green color of the moss and the underbrush and the clean lines of the pine trees.

It truly was a picture perfect morning.

Champagne and Strawberries

Jeremy and I hit up Ikea once again and bought 4 large pieces of furniture which equals about 4 hours of putting it together.

So I decided to make it a little more fun...


Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries....YUM!

It made putting together the furniture a lot more exciting!

Boys and their Toys!

Jeremy has been working hard getting the house set up for all of us. We all went shopping this weekend and he casually said he wanted to stop by a hobby store to "look" at the RC cars. Little did I know, he has been researching them for quite a while. He walked in and new exactly what he wanted. How can I say no to that face!

Here is the newest addition to the ranch trucks!

This thing can go 45 mph! He is planning on making a track so he can drive it. I know that we are going to have to get Emily one soon so she can go driving with her daddy.

Country Chicken Hodge Podge

I love meals that you can prep and then let cook. I use my crock pot some, but I love the smell of something cooking in my oven. We had this the other night and it was a hit with my kid, my hubby and even the in-laws!

Country Chicken Hodge-Podge

4 chicken breasts (I use boneless skinless)
6 medium potatoes, cut into 1/4" slices (break out that mandolin)
salt and pepper
Thyme (fresh or dried)
Rosemary (fresh or dried)
2 Bay Leaves
1 cup smoked bacon, diced (use the good stuff, don't go turkey bacon on me!)
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup sliced carrots
2/3c stout (I use Guinness because it is in my fridge at all times)
2 Tbsp melted butter

Arrange a layer of the potato slices in the bottom of a wide casserole, use a circular pattern and overlap as you go starting from the outside and working towards the middle. Season with salt and pepper, and then at thyme, rosemary, and the bay leaves.

Top with the chicken, then sprinkle with the sliced bacon, onion, and carrots. Season well with salt and pepper. Then arrange the potatoes again in a circular, overlapping manner, just like the bottom.

Open up the stout, take a sip, then pour over the potatoes. Then drink the rest!

Brush the potatoes with the melted butter, and cover with a lid.

Bake in a preheated over, 300 degrees for about 2 hours. Uncover for the last 30 minutes to brown the potatoes.

I serve this with fresh rolls.

The best part of the meal is that you can use what you have for veggies. You can add celery, leeks, parsnips, etc.

YUM!!

Charlie's Soap

Living in the country, life is a little different than the city. One big difference is the laundry. We live off of a septic system and have been told that it is important to have low sud soap so it isn't harmful to the system. Remember the movie "Meet the Faulkers."

Jeremy searched online and found "Charlie's Soap"

It is a low sud, environmental friendly soap. You can buy an all-purpose cleaner and laundry soap.

The all-purpose cleaner is great! It breaks down all the grease in my kitchen (the previous owner liked to fry, I swear almost every night, so the build-up is NASTY!) and it also tackles the red dirt that my kid and my husband like to roll around in.


When I opened the package, we were delighted to find a reusable grocery bag inside. I try to use them as much as possible, when I don't forget them in my car while tackling a 3 month old.

This is what the FedEx man delivered to our house. A 40lbs of laundry soap! I wonder how long that would last me.

Let's figure this out.

1280 loads divided by 365 days = 3.5 loads a day!

I spent $145 on this bucket which will last me an entire year!

11 cents per load!

When I buy it at the grocery store a package of All Free and Clear runs me about $20 for 96 loads. That means it was costing me close to 21 cents a load. I am saving almost half!

Too bad there isn't a way to save from actually doing half my laundry!

I've got mail!

So Jeremy and I were curious if anyone would deliver to us out on the ranch so we bought something and had it shipped. Yesterday as I was talking to my mom on the phone, we see the FedEx truck pull in!


We were all very excited. Well, Jeremy wasn't thrilled because that means that I can do online shopping now!

The driver was very nice however, made the comment that he hopes he doesn't have to drive out here too much. I figure that the next time he comes out we will have something nice to give him for his travels. Maybe a bottle of water and a snack to make it back home.

Freshman Stripe

My little giril loves to play outside now that we don't have to worry about cars driving by.

She came in with a big smile on her face and I went out to see how she was doing riding her big girl bike.

Apparently, she loves to ride through the mud. She had mud on her face, legs....

and her back. At UC Davis, we call this the "Freshman Stripe." It is when the freshman think it is too cool to put fenders on their bikes and when it starts to rain (and it rains a lot in Davis), the water/mud/gunk would fly up their backs in the form of a stripe.

I have to admit is is much cuter on a six year old!

Jack gets the taste of the good life

Jack got to try solid foods for the first time - well it is semi-solid. Rice Cereal! YUM! He is loving every bite of it and knew exactly what he was doing when the spoon came close to his mouth. We are very proud of him!

"Oh What a Beautiful Morning...Oh What a Beautiful Day..."

"...I've got a fabulous feeling, everythings going my way."

We woke up to this! Picture perfect!

My Morning Commute

We woke up this morning to about 4" of snow...suprise!! I got to test out my new tires and my car in the snow. It worked perfectly. Emily was very excited to go to school this morning but then wanted to stay and play. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. The snow melted quickly and we are left with lots of slushy mud. YUCK!

Emily turns 6!

With the move, we have all been super busy. We got a much needed break to celebrate Emily's 6th birthday. We asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner and the request was "Chicken Nuggets and Tater Tots" - easy enough! I made her a Funfetti Cake with pink icing and it was a hit! She got a big girl mountain bike from mommy and daddy and a few other little items. Gramma and Poppa gave her the quilt that she picked out from the Pottery Barn catalogue. Auntie Becca gave her "Bling Bling" Sunglasses. Grammy and Granddad took her shopping for new clothes and an art easel. She had a great birthday!

Emily's First Day of School

Emily's first day of school at her new school ended up being on her birthday. Her school is absolutly amazing! It is a two-room school house that has a total of 34 children and two teachers. Emily's class is K-2 and the older class is 3-5. She made friends very quickly and found out that one lives down the road from us.

She got to wear her new raincoat. It was sprinkling but not snowing....yet.

Can you tell that she is excited?