Why play with toys when you have a box?

Am I right?! My kids love love love boxes. This big one is especially awesome. They have played together in it today many times. It makes me so happy to have my kids play together. They are getting so big.

Casen is 11 months old. He is pretty much walking. He takes steps all over the place. Is the past few days he gas been venturing out on his own. It's so fun! He has lots if teeth now. Four on top and three on bottom. He has the best grin :) I love his crinkled nose

Adria is my sweet three year old. She loves to watch/help me make food. She always pulls up the stool right next to me so she can see. She enjoys riding her tricycle. Adria still loves her babies and takes good care if them. And of course our new chickens are favorite! She happily goes out to visit them.

Chicken noodles Casserole

Last night I made a yummy dinner that my whole family enjoyed. I created my own version of chicken noodle casserole. I'm so happy with it I thought I would share my recipe!

Ingredients:
12 oz extra wide egg noodles
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cans cream chicken soup (10 3/4 oz)
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups chicken, shredded
1 tsp Natures seasoning
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:
*Cook noodles as directed and drain
*Steam veggies in pot on stove
*In a sauce pan combine soup, broth, cream and chicken, and seasoning and warm.
*mix everything together( I did it in my large pot I cooked the noodles in)
*spread mixture into 9x13 casserole dish. Top with cheese
*bake for 18-20 minutes. Serve hot.

Chicken Palace

 Here is our fantastically fabulous chicken coup!

Notice the chickens are actually in it :)

We are so happy to have them, we have been looking forward to our chickens for a long time.

Casey worked so hard creating and building this pen. I'm so proud of him. He asked advice from both of our parents and then he went out and did it. The coup is made very well thanks to my wonderful husband!

The roof is a very nice, Casey placed in at an angle so the rain will run off 

 Final preparations before we pick up our chickens from grandma Durfee. They are filling the food and water containers.

 Happy Helpers!

Notice the fancy perch from the wall to the stumps. Also the chickens love the stumps we made for them. Chopping down the trees was a big job but it worked out good.

 Adria loves the chickens! She has gone out and visited them multiple times. She talks to them and feeds them leafs and grass and even rocks. She is so thrilled we have them. Today she even went out and showed them her Sunday dress.  HA ha

 Our happy chickens are going to have a good life at our house.

Fabulous Forts

Remember as a kid how magical it was to make a fort and play in it for hours? Last week, Adria and I built a fort. The kids loved it! Casen thought it was the funnest thing to crawl in and out through the sheet wall. Adria set up her bed, her baby's bed, and her baby dolls stuff in the fort. We played and played. Her imagination grows every day. She is getting good a pretend and likes to play that she is the mom and I am her daughter and her doll is the baby. She always calls me "My Darling." Adria came up with that pet name all on her own, it's so sweet. It was nice to be a kid again and just play.

Happy girls continued

Play me a song on the piano girls!

 silly girls

Happy girls

We were so lucky and got to spend time with Valette. These girls have been having so much fun together. They play so well. It makes me so happy! Valette spend the night (while noelle had her baby) and when Adria woke up she ran to my room and said is Valette still here? Can we play now? They played and played. Valette's only melt down was when she had to go home. She did so good. Oh another hilarious thing Adria said was, while driving in the car, is Valette going to be ours now? Ha ha we laughed and said she was just visiting for a few days.

Baby Food

The latest and greatest happenings with Casen and food. This boy loves to eat! I'm telling you. Bananas are favorite. He will happily hold and devour it any time. For finger food he really likes rice crispes, cherrios, veggie sticks, blue berries, slices of strwberries, orange slices, green beans.

 I was very brave and decided to make my own baby food. I baked butternut squash in the oven for an hour and It turned out delicious. I put it into glass baby food jars I had saved. Most went into the freezer and a few in the fridge. When I gave bites of squash to Casen he didn't really like it. Translation: He spit out every bite!. I was totally disappointed.... then I put it into my handy dandy babyfood grinder(which I love love love) with some banana and now he loves it! I'm so thrilled :) It is a better texture for him and a little sweeter.

Casen 11 months old