hunger games

Lately I have been going through photos on the computer. I am estimating half of the recent snaps are of food. So many! I guess it makes sense because it is a huge part of every day. The boys are all (every last one) eating like grown men. Usually Parker can out-eat Matt. (Oh golly, we will never have any money.) This means I am at the grocery store almost every day. So naturally I started taking pictures there too. Welcome to my world, blog friends.

 Trader Joes! Clever.

 When the boys are at school, Matt and I eat like grown ups.( And apparently don't bother to properly chop up the bacon.) The secret to brussel sprouts, IMHO, is a splash of apple cider vinegar and bacon. Always with the bacon.

 Have you seen all the commercials for the new Lay's potato chips flavors? We had our own little taste test. Between Chicken and Waffles, Siracha, and Cheesy Garlic Bread, we most enjoyed Chicken and Waffles.

 Kale. Matt's convinced we can work this super food into every meal. I swear we are all turning green but he LOVES it.

 Yep, there is kale in there, too. Here's a handy tip; if you get a big arse cup from Baja Fresh, save the straw for smoothies. I am expanding my hoarding tendencies to eating out now.

 My mom and Ken bought us a panini maker for Christmas. It is awesome, thanks for buying us the best gift we never knew we wanted! This one was a lasagna panini with tomatoes and ricotta cheese and Italian seasoning.

 If it is not kale around here, it is beets. I am not complaining, just in shock of how my husband has changed his diet over the years. Most of the boys will get on board with these veggies as well. (Maybe they are just shoveling it in too fast to notice what it is?)

I found a recipe for caramel corn that did not require corn syrup. Hooray! This recipe is a favorite now. I add in Chinese five spice at the end and it is divine.

Okay, back to the kitchen because someone is undoubtedly hungry.

Andrea and Miles

We had a visit from an Idaho friend and the sweetest lil chubbalicious baby boy. Andrea flew up for her spring break, even with an active eleven month old she wanted to enter the Archie fray. Or maybe because of?

 So fun to have a baby in the house. And exhausting! Miles quickly realized that four boys were basically at his beckon call. Which was a good thing because Andrea and I were busy cooking and baking and crafting. This cake we made for Collin's birthday, for example:

 It was only really good for pictures but there was no shortage of good thing to eat. And dishes to wash. A very happy mess. (there are only 5 candles on his 6 year old cake ;)

 The Beetza: golden beets, bacon, basil, goat cheese. There are no words to describe the deliciousness. We also made chocolate Guinness ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, an angel food cake, & cauliflower mac n'cheese.

Thanks for making the trip Andrea and Miles!

Blessed

The Archuletas enjoyed Easter with Seattle sun, cascarones, & a good ol' dose of perspective. Life is short, the days are long, and parenting is haaaarrrrrrd. But when you think of that cross and even better, the empty tomb, who really cares about any old thing. God is good. He is Risen!

(rest assured, I will be back to whining and complaining soon enough ;)

cabin fever

Last year:

We had snow in Seattle our first winter here. Not so, this year. Which is fine by me but some boys I know received sleds for Christmas & were itching to try them out. So when our friends Justin & Emily invited us to her family cabin, a plan was hatched.

 Just an hour or so out of Seattle & just enough snow to satisfy. We headed into the mountains a lil bit to find a sledding hill.

Why no pics of Justin & Emily? Well, let's see, they were too busy building epic sled jumps & making us steak dinner. They are seriously the best. Thank you both for embracing the chaos that is our family ;)

alice in wonderland tree

 This tree is busy transforming our front yard into a pink petal-ed paradise. I am in heaven. It reminds my of the "paining the roses red" scene from Alice in Wonderland. I think it is called a Camellia tree.

 We are seeing signs of spring pop up and trying to get the yard back into shape. When we moved in, the house had been empty awhile and the yard was serviced by a professional lawn care company. It was perfect! Matt and I are working on some realistic expectations for the yard in this season of life. The doing isn't as hard as the agreeing on a plan part. (Maybe this is true of all life?)

Pinterest in real life

During many hours of scrolling through Pinterest and not doing many of the projects I loved, I'm over it. More doing, less "pinning".  I found quite a few ideas for these plastic animal topped jars, like the ones on this blog. 

 Pretty easy, and straight forward. I even had some of the crazy strong glue around from attempting to make a cake stand a few years back. It also got Matt off my back about my hoard of glass jars.

 Not this: "³ And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

⁴ And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

This:

 One I started spraying everything gold I couldn't stop.

 And they are in Aden's room storing valuables or what an eight year old values anyhow. (btw, those may not look like much but that half jar of Squinkies is like $20...ugh...)

shedding light on the darkroom

Despite many unpacked boxes, we have been in this house for almost a year. Some projects we planned on tackling last summer are wrapping up just now. When we first set up the sleeping arrangements, Aden insisted the darkroom in the basement would be his bedroom. After ripping out sinks and countertops, everything got a good dose of white paint.

Grandma Ellen was on board to help for not only one but two of her trips up here. She is completely undaunted by any DIY project. (We've asked for help on some nightmare situations.)

We added a chalkboard wall on one side. Aden has had a lot of fun with art in the past so I hope he will feel inspired to create in his space.

The concrete floor is actually in great shape so we left it alone. The walls are all crazy though so Matt & Grandpa Ken wrestled a nail-shooter-into-concrete-machine to add some molding.

The bed frame is new from Ikea and we have plans to transform the headboard into something soft and cushy for him to lean against while he reads in bed. For the time being it is raw pine and so is his long, lean shelf above the chalkboard. Then came another area that is specialty; custom murals.

 Aden had a really cool idea to do the Seattle skyline.

 Paint dried and things started to find a place. The dark box behind the apple painting (made by a friend) will be the window after we get our tax refund. The Mickey painting was something I did at Aden's request. He painted the American flag. The circle cubbies are Ikea, we bought them 10 years ago and the boys still like them.

 Aden painted the bird on the left of the doorway. A whole lot of trim work and lighting and adding that window to do still. I couldn't wait to share, though.

phobic

Aden has replaced Parker in the child-most-likely-to-refuse-having-their-picture-taken category. These are a few nuggets from the past months. I guess it's lucky then in the ebb and flow of life, that Parker has discovered the Facebook selfie thrill :)

making an entrance

I have been using an actual camera again. *gasp* Here is another house update I documented. 

So we are still living with the knotty pine in the front room. We use this mostly as a dining room and the boys also do homework in there. It is the room the front door opens into so it also has to be an entryway.

This one is kind of dark but it is from before the coat hooks and baskets were set up. The table need to be refinished but in the meantime I have some pretty tablecloths to cover it up. 

And look what I found! A picture of the other boys wearing the corduroy blazer. (It has leather elbow patches that are not shown.)