Progress...

Fixing up a house with a 2 year old, a 5 year old, and two full time jobs can be kind of tough.  Especially with Clint's rotating shifts, and days off.  But, we are still making progress and this weekend we got a lot done.  I don't have total "after" pictures, but I will post those later.

Here are a couple from our fun weekend of cutting down trees!

 This was the "before" picture from yesterday.  Notice the two, great big, spruce trees?

 We thought that we would practice with the littler one!

and then today we tackled the bigger one!

 Not sure why I couldn't coax a smile out of little man for this picture, but here he is!  Kimber is really afraid of the chainsaw, so if it's running she is inside watching through the window, or hiding around the corner!  

 Ya know how I know that Clint loves me???  Cause he makes sure my favorite kind of squash is planted!!!!  Delicata squash is SO DELICIOUS!!!!  and it's pretty hard to find...  so we are going to grow some!  

Snowy spring days...

The last couple weekends have been filled with crazy Montana spring weather and Clint working overnights/weekends!  Which means the kids and I stay out of the house as much as possible, hang out at grandma's, try a lot of new recipes, and find lots of projects to keep us busy!  

Nothing too exciting...  except for the fact that as I look at pictures I realize my children must thing it's actually hot summer weather based on the amount of clothing they are usually wearing! :)

The one fun thing was Clint's birthday!  We baked him some of his favorite muffins....

 Made him homemade cards, and got him some fun stuff!  

 Blowing out the candles on birthday scones!  Clint loves scones so it's a special birthday treat for him!  :)

 This weekend we did have one nice day, and we made the most of it.  The kids and I spent the morning with my friend Jill and her niece.  Then when Clint got up the kids helped him outside.  He is cutting down the juniper trees in our back yard.  That is until Dane got a "fight" with one of the cut down trees.  Unfortunately, he lost to the tree and the back of his head got a nasty cut.  But, he is a trooper and after we got him cleaned up and some TLC, he was just fine!

 and I guess we could just say, the picture below shows how government employees and supervisors are created! :)

By Request - Delicious Kale Crackers

As most of you know I'm always on the quest to make healthy things for the family.  Luckily, my kids and hubby are super relaxed and are pretty much willing to try anything!  Since we have such a love for kale, I saw a kale cracker recipe and tried it one day.  My first attempt was okay, but I played around with it and have come up with something that Clint, Kimber and I like.  Dane is still on the fence; he is an old school kale chips kind of guy and prefers his kale straight up baked with a little olive oil.  So, he is a little offended by everything else that I have added! :)

I know that this recipe won't appeal to some of you, but I did have a couple requests for the recipe, and thought I would go ahead and post it.  We like to dip them in guacomole, hummus, or just eat them as a snack.  They aren't exactly ritz, but I'd venture to say that they are a fair amount healthier!!! :)

Ingredients:
one bunch kale (rinsed, stems removed, and torn into pieces)
1/3 cup roasted almonds
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup flax meal
2 TB chia seeds
1.5 TB soy sauce
2 tsp sesame seed oil
1 tsp olive oil

Place kale in food processor and chop.
Add other ingredients one at a time, turning on food processor in-between additions; ending with liquid ingredients.  If more liquid is needed you can add a tiny amount of water to help bind the mixture.
Place cracker dough onto parchment paper on a flat surface.  Roll out until very thin...  I have found the thinner the better.  Score with a pizza roller or sharp knife.

I like to use a baking stone for mine, however a cookie sheet would work fine.

Bake at 225/250 until done.  Usually 2.5 or 3 hours. I usually turn mine a couple times while baking.

The great thing about this recipe is that you could really adapt to fit your own taste.  We love the soy sauce/sesame oil flavor but you could use just olive oil or whatever.  You could add different spices like garlic or onion and I have even added carrots when I chop the kale.  (however that adds more moisture so you will have to alter the amount of liquid and baking time)  You can also leave out things that you don't have or use a different type of flour, and I'm sure it would come out fine!

I hope you enjoy, let me know how you adapt it in your own delicious ways!

A wonderful trip to the cabin

Last weekend we had a delightful 3 night trip to the cabin.  The greatest part was that there was no agenda, we just did exactly what we wanted, ate when we wanted, fished a lot, hiked, and just had an amazing time!

The kids played for hours on the shore...  throwing rocks, finding crawdad claws, shells, and other treasures!

This little guy was holding on for dear life!  Good thing little man is pretty tough!

At one of the places that we were fishing, there were lots of leeches...  I'm not a big fan of leeches, but I imagine they serve some purpose, besides being good bait.  

Kimber enjoys helping reel in the fish!

We did get to see some wildlife, like this coyote.

Then back at the cabin we did some fun crafts.  I got the kids these really great kits for Christmas that come with pretty much everything you need.  They are perfect for trips like this!

Daddy and Kimber put together a cow...

Dane's giraffe

Then a turkey!

After all that hard work, you have to make jiffy pop!  This is one of those traditions that Dane wont let us forget!  We have to make popcorn!

The sunsets were beautiful!

This was on a hike that we took to explore some State land.  We just stopped to eat a snack.

Dane can always find some treasure to pack around.  Here he is with a cow bone.  He ended up bringing home feathers, a coyote skull, crawdad claws, shells, and an animal tooth.  :)  Good thing I'm relaxed about those things!

There was a group of sharptail grouse hanging out by the cabin.

and the snow geese are starting to make their trip back North.

I decided to sneak up on them to see if I could get some closer pictures

Once they saw me, the gig was up and they didn't stick around for long!

Clint did catch a couple nice trout too!

It was an awesome trip, can't wait for the next one!