Day 32: Weight Loss

Ok, I promise not to blog about this much, but today is the day I have weighed in and officially lost 10lbs.  I started at the beginning of May.

No before and after pics yet.  It's not all that noticable.  But I weigh the least I have since Gabe was born.  I am feeling great, starting to enjoy running again...and sometimes I even like eating healthier.  =)

I do have one picture to share:

Goal Shorts

Day 31: Scripture Memory

I'd love to tell you that Gabe has a large repertoire of Bible verses he can say perfectly, but this is how it truly goes.  He has several that he knows "pretty well."

This is what we've been working on lately.

Sorry for the coughing.  We're working on that, too.  =)

Day 30: Cooking flop

Tried a recipe I found on pintrest.  I thought the boys would love it.  Very cute in concept.  You just put dry speghetti through some hot dogs then boil it.  The result is little ... well, we called them jellyfish.

Great idea, right?  The boys thought they were weird.

This is definitely the before pic.

The after is too gross.  Too much food coming back out of the mouth.

Ell, on the other hand, showed great skill at eating only the hot dog and spitting the rest out.

Day 29: Library time!

Finally made it to library time this morning.

Gabe loves this.

Ell actually sat through about 5 minutes of it!  It helps when he has a cute friend.  =)

Instrument time is always the favorite.

Gabe finished his summer reading chart today.  Twelve and a half hours!  If we have time, we'll go back for his prize tomorrow morning.  Go Gabe!

Day 28: Father's Day!

Here he is:  THE man in our life!  The leader of our home!  Our Superhero! 

And it's no wonder he's the great man he is.  Look at this heritage:

Back:  Matt Engle, Jacob Engle
Front:  Roc Engle, Dale Engle, Mahlon Engle, Elliott Engle, Howard Engle, and Gabriel Engle

I love this pic:

From what I hear, Grandpa's always been great with the little ones.

One more:

They're shouting, "I love my cousin!"

Day 27: Where I Run

I've been meeting so girls to run a few mornings a week here.  Be Jealous.

Day 26: There IS such a thing!

We have been loving these FREE awesome lunches for the kiddos.  They are served everyday at McKinley School from 11:30-12:30.  The boys eat them up...literally!  And I love that they get a great lunch that I don't have to cook or clean up afterward!  Here is the link to their Website with Menus.  Enjoy!

"McKinley has the goodest food of ever and they always make the goodest food!"  ~Gabe

Day 25: More Food

I just love it when I make something my family loves.  We had these tonight (not my picutre):

Here is a link to the recipe.  All I changed was that I used half the cream cheese, and I used shredded pepperjack cheese instead, because that's what I had.

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2011/07/easy-philly-cheesesteaks.html

And then, last night, I made the following recipe.  They were delish!  And the boys ate them so well...that was the best part.

Black Bean  Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 can black beans

1 can rotel

1 small can mexicorn

1 clove minced garlic

2 Tbsp oil

1 tsp cumin

1/2 cup chopped onion

8-8" tortillas

2 cups colby jack cheese

Sauce Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbsp oil

1 small onion, grated into pan

1 15oz can tomato sauce

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

Sauce:

Saute onion and garlic in oil. Add tomato sauce, chili powder and cumin. Bring to a boil and then simmer until needed.

Enchiladas:

Heat oil in a large skillet with garlic until garlic "pops".  Add onion and toss in oil to coat.  Cook 3 minutes.  Add beans, rotel, corn, and cumin and cook until heated through. 

In the center of the tortillas, place about 1/4 cup of the mixture each, and top with a bit of the cheese.  (There should be cheese left over.)  Roll tortillas up and place seam side down in a sprayed pan.

Pour sauce over tortillas.  Make sure every bit of tortilla gets wet with sauce so they don't get to crispy when you bake them.  Top with remaining cheese. 

Bake at 350 degrees until the cheese melts. 

In my opinion, this one of those recipes where the leftovers are even better than the first time.  Enjoy!

Day 24: Concert!

Jake and I found out about this band a couple of years ago from a friend who tweeted about them:

http://pagecxvi.com/

They like to redo hymns to try to make them more relevant and modern.  Very cool sound.  You can stream some of their stuff free from their website.

So, I found out there were in Wichita last night for $3 at the door!  I surprised Jake and we got a babysitter and headed south!  The concert was very cool.  But the BEST part was the great conversation with my best friend to and from the concert.

And the OTHER best part?  MANDY CALL WAS THERE!!!  And since Mandy was there...there were pictures to document the event. 

Day 23: Cookout!

To celebrate the end of Harvest, we had everyone over for a cookout. 

Jake is kind of awesome at pulled pork.  He has this rub and we smoke it.  Amazing.  Everyone brought something to eat, and it was the perfect night to be outdoors.  Great family time.

Day 22: Three and a half!

On June 8, Gabe turned 3 and a half.  So, I gave him another car I had stashed away.  (His favorite thing.)  And, we measured him.  38 and a half inches tall. And just over 31 pounds. He's hardly grown at all since his 3rd birthday



6 months

.

One and a Half

Two and a Half

Three and a Half



Day 21: Swimming Pool

Ok, so this isn't just one day, but we'll let it be Day 21.  In fact, I'm not gonna lie, we haven't really been following perfectly day by day.  I'm ok with that.  Someday, I'm going to be so glad I did this this summer.

So, the Lord used some really great friends of ours to provide our pool pass for this summer.  I was saving up to buy it and they caught wind of it and just gifted it to us.  We were so blessed.  And the boys are loving it! 

Gabe is just a fish.  I mean, I think he was actually swimming today with his face in the water.  We have not taught him this.  Ell was walking around the kiddie pool today, smiling and splashing.  He even put his face in a time or two. 

Another funny story:  Gabe calls it the "Kitty Pool"  And we ask "The kiddie pool?" 

"No, Mommy, Kitty pool"

"Are there Kitties in there?"

"No.  That's Silly!  Just Kids!"

Since Jacob was there today, we tried to let Gabe go down the slide.  He has been asking me over and over to go down it.  It is a big slide.  I think once he got up there, he realized that.

So, down the steps we went.  He did like jumping in the deep end to Daddy, though. 

That Jacob Engle:  everything a Daddy should be.  I love him.

Day 20: Enterprise Park with Grammie

These boys LOVE their Grammie.

Our park of the week is "America's Park" in Enterprise, KS.  They have this wooden train that the boys were hard to tear away from.  We had trouble getting them to play on anything else.  They both love to climb!

Day 19: Vacation Bible School

So, Day 1 of VBS was really hard for Mommy.  Gabe wasn't sure he wanted to be left there.  He was pretty clingy.  I waited until he was distracted and slipped out.  I was so sad to think there may have been a moment when he realized I was gone and got sad.  But when I went to get him, he was happy as can be!  He told me he wanted me to leave him there the next day.

I was also a bit nervous about him getting a potty break.  I still don't trust him 100% when we're not home.  No accidents all week!

He had a blast with his friends.  And he MELTED MY HEART singing his song on stage the last night.

Day 18: Harvest!

Harvest is a big deal around here.  I knew NOTHING about Harvest until I got married.  Even when Jake explained it to me and sent picutres when we were apart, I didn't understand what a big deal it was.  It just looked like normal, everyday farm work to me. 

Now, I know that Harvest means lots of hours on the combine (lots of hours at home without Dado), lunch time phone calls home, four generations of Engle men around a family meal in the field, a little boy's anticipation of riding with Daddy in the combine, and the prayer, rush, and anticipation of a farmer's biggest payday of the year.

Gabe was in heaven.  Jacob let him work some of the levers in the combine.  They rode together for hours.  Gabe learned some of the most important lessons of harvesting as Jake described every function of the combine, what he was doing as he did it, and he even showed Gabe what to do when you have to "go" and you're in the field.  Best quote of the day:  "Are we going to harvest that poop?"  (TMI, sorry.)

Day 17: Visiting Cousin Dawson

Aunt Amanda is a new stay at home mommy.  So, we went to see her and Baby Daws in Manhattan.  Dawson slept through most of the visit, but it was great to chat with Amanda and the boys liked playing with Dawson's toys.

Day 16: Family Camp Part 2

Well, we didn't get a ton of sleep because it was FREEZING outside.  Ell slept with us in our Adam and Eve sleeping bag.  Way down in it.  We kept waking up making sure he was breathing.  And when he did wake up in the morning, he immediately woke Gabe up.  So, these are their morning cranky faces while they are waiting on breakfast.

Immediately following breakfast we left the boys with Papa and Missy and climbed the Jesus Hill.  6 years of family camp and this is the first time I've climbed it.  Fun little hike with the siblings.