january never ends

I really have nothing new to write about. I was mostly tired of looking at my last post. The kids have been a little under the weather the past few days and it has been very cold out, so we have enjoyed lots of inside time playing games, making banana bread, painting, watching movies, coloring ...

Mike and I leave for Flordia in a week, and the kids are going to spend a week in Calgary with Papa D and Grandma K. After Flordia I am going to fly up and spend a week in Calgary as well. I hope flordia is nice and warm!

what do you do

What do you do when you are craving Kung Pao Chicken but you live in a small town with resturants that have never even heard of Kung Pao Chicken? You try to make it.
It turned out pretty good. A couple people have asked for the recipe and it was somthing different for dinner...

Kung Pao Chicken

1 lb chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

6 or 7 green onions, chopped with tops

1 large carrot juilenned as thinly as possible

2 garlice cloves minced

1/4 - 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 Tbsp fresh grated ginger, (can use 1/2 tsp of powdered ginger, but fresh is better)

8 Tbsp rice vinegar

8 Tbsp Soy sauce

8 tsp sugar

1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts

4 cups cooked hot rice

1. Combine chicken and cornstarch in a small bowl toss chicken to coat

2. Heat oil in wok or large fry pan on medium heat. Add chicken

3. Stir-fry 5-7 mins or until chicken is cooked. Remove the chicken from heat.

4. Add gr. onions, garlice, red pepper, carrots and ginger to the hot pan, stir fry 15 seconds or so

5.Combine vinegar, soy sauce and sugar in small bowl, stir well and add to the hot pan.

6. Add chicken back to the pan and stir until well coated

7. Stir in the peanuts

8. Serve over rice

I added some cilantro and lime ontop for extra flavor.

David and Sadie even enjoyed it for dinner.

cooper family pix

While we were up at the cabin this christmas we took some family pictures, they turned out great!

Palm Des

After christmas in freezing Idaho we headed south to soak up some sun in Palm Desert. My mom and dad and Hill were there and we got to spend a week there with them. The temp. was 75-80 degrees and it was paradise.

Here are David and Sadie showing our morning grapefruit that we picked right off the tree outside the house.

David was getting pretty confident in the water. He was going underwater and swiming in the shallow end without his wings!

New Years eve was pretty mellow, we had a bbq, watched a movie, played a game and had chocolate fondue.

The College street fair.

Sadie enjoying the amazing parks there.

Hill and I enjoyed some girl time, shopping, tanning and watching movies.

We arrived back to Idaho late last night to cold and snow.

christmas at the cabin

This year we had christmas with Mike's family at the cabin. There was SO much snow and it was a wonderful white christmas! We watched movies, played games, went on a snow machine ride, and just relaxed. Here is the massive tree that we decorated on Christmas eve.
David and his buzz and woody. These definatly were his favorite toys.

Santa brought this race track

Little Sadie all bundled up ready to play in the snow!

David and Mike ready for a snowmachine ride.