Blurry Basketball and Hockey Pics

DeA was starting to get a little overwhelmed with Ryker's growing clutter kitchen stuff. She ordered him a little rolling cart to keep his stuff.

Jens is loving basketball. She is starting to get aggressive and confident and it is awesome to watch

She has had so much fun and is loving it.

Rissa and Javi were going to take their kids to a Wild game, so we joined in and invited the Trumans from the ward.

Leo wasn't a big fan of the yelling. He likes to be the one that yells, not everyone else.

The girls had fun walking the concourse during intermissions.

They didn't like waiting in line, but they loved the cotton candy and popcorn.

We stopped "quickly" at WinCo where Ryker learned about their bulk food section. We ended up spending way too much time there.

Luca ended up fine after knocking out his tooth. He still eats like a champ.

 

Meat Party

It was our turn to clean the church, which means we have to eat at La Brisa. Ryker has shown Max the beauty of carne asada.

The weather has been very wintery, and I'm done with it.

Grandma Rae got Ryker hog casings for sausages, so Ryker and I tried to figure it out. Cubing the pork was the easy part.

Grinding the meat was the fun part.

There was a little bit of a learning curve, but they turned out looking like sausages.

Ryker liked using his mixer's accessories, but was more focused on the bread making.

We made choripanes because Ryker wanted something that would use the grinder and the mixer. Mom was excited to invite everyone to the "sausage party".

Luca was a big fan of the hand-cut fries.

I was almost walking in the door on a Tuesday afternoon when Rissa sent a text asking for help at Mom and Dad's. Luca fell and knocked a tooth out and was a little bruised and bloody.

He handled it like a little pro.

Leo was very concerned during the whole ordeal.

The Kitchen Table

Ever since our first trip to Coeur D'Alene and DeA discovered the rustic furniture store, she has dreamed of a rustic dining room table. Her dream finally became reality when her custom table was ready for pick-up. We loaded the trailer and drove through the fog to pick it up. It was a fun date weekend for New Year's.

I think she was excited.

DeA was definitely chomping at the bit to pick up the table, she didn't even workout!

She wanted to make extra sure that the table, chairs, and bench would be protected.

The base was too big to fit in the front door. Dad had the great idea to load it into a tractor bucket and drive it around to the deck. DeA was not a fan of this plan, and hid in the house and cried that she couldn't watch.

Here's the thing, I had just paid for this thing and driven five hours in fog and ice to get it home. Did she really think that I wanted it ruined?

Dad lifted it up with the bucket to the deck where Javi and I could pull it in. Then I had to attach the base to the top, and again DeA left saying that she couldn't watch. 

Thanks to Dad and Javi's help, the table was finally assembled and turned right side up.

Finally she looked happy and kind of appreciative.

It looked great, and we will create lots of memories when the kids are finally allowed to use it.

It took about a week, but the placemats finally arrived and now we can eat pre-approved foods on the table, with her supervision. 

 

A Boy and His Mixer, A Classic Tale

We had quite a freeze that made travel between Mom and Dad's and our house treacherous. DeA used a plastic board to sled over. I should have because I slipped and crashed.

Ryker used the excuse of the snow and ice to stay home and create with his new mixer. He made homemade, from scratch, fettuccine alfredo. 

DeA enjoyed it because she got a homemade dinner without homemade dinner work.

Oh, what's this? Homemade garlic breadsticks?

It was quite the meal!

The next day he decided that he wanted to try his hand at homemade hamburgers. Hampa had some steaks that needed used up, so we taught Ryker how to cube them and grind them with his new meat grinder attachment from Nama.

Surprisingly, DeA wanted nothing to do with this.

Grinding his own meat wasn't enough, he also wanted to make his own buns.

It made quite the delicious burger.

DeA was a little worn out from all the worrying about meat germs.

I'm not a huge fan of the week between Christmas and New Year's. It's lawless, unstructured mayhem at home but I still have a job. No one wants to let me go to bed in peace, and it made the mornings a little hard. At least I had the pretty sunrise to help me out.

Hampa got home from Utah and cooked up the prime rib that was intended for Christmas. Ryker wanted to contribute by making bread.

The prime rib was perfect, as it had to be with the newly appointed cooking expert watching. 

We had a lot of family time, Leo Boy loved watching Avatar at our house, away from the noisy kids.

Luca also liked being at our house, away from the noise. If all the kids were here, who was causing the noise?

Another day, another attachment experiment. This time it was turning $10 oranges into $2 juice. But it was delicious and fresh juice