Valentines

Valentines Day came early for me. I found me a iPod Nano online and was going to save my money to buy one. Well.... John came home with a cute little gift and made Ethan bring it to me and say "Happy Valentines Day Momma." We usually don't make a big deal of Valentines, but he really surprised me. I feel so special. No excuse for not working out now!!

Cooking

Today I got up and decided to do some cooking. I have read blogs about doing a Freezer Cooking Day and Pantry Clean out meals. The Freezer Cooking day is where you cook a lot of meals on one day and freeze them for later. The Pantry Clean out is when you survey your pantry and really try to use up anything in there before you buy more. It helps reduce grocery bills! I quickly looked through the freezer and pantry. These are the meals I tackled today.

1. Put beans in Crockpot for dinner

2. Cooked King Ranch Chicken Cassarole and put in freezer for later.

3. Baked Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread and froze half for later.

4. Made 4 dozen Homemade Cinnamon Rolls and put in freezer for future events.

Now that I write it down it doesn't seem like a lot but I got it accomplished in 3 hours and that was even with some help from Ethan. Let me know if you have other recipes that are good to make ahead and freeze.

ZooBorns

My friend from church sent me this website a while back and Ethan & I love to check it out often. Zoo's from all over the world post their newest additions. We love the baby Orangutans and Gorillas. Something fun to do with the kids! ZooBorns!

Vacation

John, Ethan, and I spent last week in Cloudcroft, NM. We rented the Elk Hollow Cabin! It was so nice! We were nestled in the mountains and had mounds of snow all around. We love Cloudcroft because it is a little mountain village. The people are always friendly. They have some cute shops and the best bakery! Here are some pictures!

They have a really neat trail that we had been on before. We decided to take Ethan. It ended up being a 2.5 mile trail, mostly in the snow. Ethan made it half way and John was so nice to carry him the rest of the way. This picture is Ethan and I on the top of the mountain!

Ethan carried this stick with him and he wanted me to get a picture of it!

You cannot go to the mountains in the winter without skiing or tubing. We found the neatest place to tube in Ruidoso called Winter Park. It had 7 slopes you could tube down. In this picture Ethan is behind John on the tube. He had such a blast and it will definitely be something we will do again when we go back.

We left Cloudcroft and spent one night at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. John loves to go there to play Texas Hold'em. Ethan and I spent time looking around. He loved this fountain and begged me to take a picture of him by it.

On our way home we stopped and spent the night with my Meme in Lovington, NM. We had a good time visiting and laughing. It was so nice to get away from our everyday lives for a week. Somethings calling me now..... Oh, it's the laundry! Back to the real world!

Happy New Year!

We were so excited to bring in the new year that we fell asleep at about 10:30pm last night! Wow are we exciting! John and I were both tired. So... Happy New Year! I hope that this new year brings more fun and excitement in our family. I haven't decided what my New Years resolution will be, besides the normal "lose weight" one. I will let you know when I decide. I hope everyone has a blessed year.