Recipes

Here are a few favorite recipes I mentioned in my last post. I'm kind of an add to and not measure person. It's right when it tastes good! I must have picked this up from my mom. So here's the base and you can add to and adjust as you'd like. (The artichoke dip recipe I got from Becky my fellow Air Force sweetheart neighbor and the potatoes are an old favorite that everyone does right? I like how mine have a taste of olive oil though. Makes them taste more earthy and I usually try to add more spices and add as as little cheese, sour cream, and bacon (and I substitute turkey bacon) so they're not too heart clogging...)

Spinach Artichoke Dip
1 can little green chopped chilies
8 oz cream cheese
1-2 cups frozen spinach (heat in bowl saran wrap for 2 minutes. Drain water)
1 bag 8-12 oz frozen artichokes or 1 can (drain and chop)
salt and pepper, garlic salt, crushed red pepper to taste (usually about 1/2 tablespoon each)
1 tbsp mayo
mix everything together. Heat at 350 for 20-30 minutes. Serve with bread, tortilla chips, and Ritz crackers. Yummy

Twice Baked Potatoes
Wash potatoes (I usually do a lot so we have leftovers about 8-10), poke holes, and drizzle with a little olive oil on top and salt and pepper. Heat at 450 for an hour or until soft. Let sit until they're cool (about an hour or so) Then cut off the tops and spoon out insides. Put insides into a bowl and the tops I keep and heat again when I cook them the second time and eat them like fries.

With the inside of potatoes add about 1/2-3/4 cup sour cream, 1/2 cottage cheese, salt and pepper, garlic salt, onion salt, ranch dressing seasoning (about 1-2 tsp), chives, cooked turkey bacon. I've done all of the above and some of the above, and more or less depending on how much potato insides I have. Put back into potato bowls, top with cheese and cook at 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese melts. It's already cooked so doesn't take as long. So yummy and so delicious.
Bon Appetite!!!

December Fun

Wow December 15th already. Where has this month gone? We've just been plugging along and keeping busy here in Grand Enid. Mike is flying lots and working super hard. He should have his second check ride right after Christmas and after that supposedly things will calm down quite a bit. I'll believe that when I see it though :)
The weather has suddenly dropped to become freakishly cold here. Colder than Utah if you can imagine that, but without the perks of snow, mountains, and skiing. The humidity makes it feel like it's in the teens and I'm sure we'll have our first ice storm before we know what hits us.
This past Saturday we had a great date night to get in the holiday spirit. I cooked my super yummy twice baked potatoes, spinach artichoke dip, and a yummy salad. Mike made some yummy muddy buddies and then we watched Hancock, Harry Potter 4, and started Elf. We planned on making a gingerbread house, but pooped out before the evening so we'll have to do that soon. I guess we're warming up for our Christmas festivities which will include watching movies, eating great food, and vegging out. So far I'd say we've got it down.
Cute nursery moments this past week would include:
*watching the little kids hold their hands above their heads like a steeple as we (actually a few mumbles and Sister Mohlman) sang "I love to see the Temple."
*watching 6 pairs of big eyes staring at me as I taught a lesson on how Jesus was born.
*watching Kennedy spin around like a ballerina every time I told her how pretty she was.
I've had a strong urge to bake lately as well. I made a ton of sugar cookies for Mike to take to the guys at work. I even made little airplanes just for them, but turns out the circles went first. More cookie per bite. Over the holidays I plan on making Grandma Koerner's famous cinnamon rolls, chili and my mom's famous corn bread, my super yummy broccoli cheese soup and bread bowls, and maybe some more sugar cookies since I didn't get any from the last batch. Isn't this time of year great...It just makes me smile all over :)
I took a few pictures of the kids in nursery. They all got camera shy so I only got a couple before they all started running away from me.
Evie and Reagan swimming in the bath tub.
Xander and Mikey
Kye. He actually reminds me of Mike when he was little. Sadly he wouldn't give me a full pose. This is the best I could get.
Kennedy aka "The Ballerina"
Here's one of Mike's flight buddies. I love this picture. I think he's making this face b/c I made him where my Santa apron to get in the holiday spirit while he made his crazy eggnog that used every bowl in our kitchen and more.

On the way to the ugly sweater party, but only Jeremy participated. Mike, Jeremy, and Dave.

Check out this vest. Love it!

I wanted to do something to show off the Christmas cards we receive. It's fun to have pictures and notes from family and friends since we're so far away from everyone. It makes us feel at home. I think I'm actually going to keep this up for a few months into the new year. It makes me so happy.

This quote is my favorite...

One day we'll get a real tree, but this year I added a red, white, and blue tree. Go America!!!

These are original Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that my mom had as a child. How cool is that?

And what do you use for wrapping paper when your husband is a pilot? Aeronautical charts. Doesn't everyone :)
It's kind of funny what we do in regards to our presents. We can never think of what to get each other so we like to just save our money for our next vacation. So come November pretty much anything we buy besides groceries I immediately wrap it up so it's like a new surprise Christmas morning when we finally get to open it and use it. This way we don't have to buy tons of stuff we don't need, but we still have stuff to open. I know we're crazy, but it works for us.

And yes for those of you who are wondering the pink tree is back. This year we added a new topper though.

Mrs. Froggy with the gorgeous lashes. Also if you notice right below her you can see the pickle ornament. We got that last year at a DI. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but to learn more about it you can read here. Fun right? And since we both have German ancestry we figured we'd add this to our family traditions when we have kids.

Merry Christmas blog buddies. I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful time of year.

Target 2-Day Sale: Elliptical

I meant to post this over Thanksgiving and forgot. These commercials totally cracked me up. Thought I'd share in case you missed them. This was my favorite! p.s. Is it just me or does anyone else think Target has the best buyers and advertisers? I love them. Way better than Old Navy. Those stupid mannequins need to go...

Thanksgiving Fun...

This Thanksgiving we had a great time. I flew down to Dallas the Saturday before and Mike came down Wednesday night. Activities included sleeping in, watching movies, eating great food, reconnecting with old friends, and just having a great time. Thanks mom and dad for having us down. We sure love and miss you already! Here are some pics documenting all the fun we had...

Here's my friend Cyndi. She helped me get the job I worked at for 5 summers during college. She has always treated me like her own. We had a great lunch date at one of my favorite places La Madeleine's.

I kept my eyes red on purpose. Vampire Kim. Notice my shirt too...Even though I'm Team Jacob I had to buy this shirt when I saw it. It just cracked me up!

Twilight Buddies! It was just as good four days after it officially released and not having to wait in any lines was even better. I can't wait for Eclipse.

Family photo shoot. This one is so cute with Gunner resting his hand on Harley.

Glam-ma and grand dog Harley.

Max and Terry getting involved with the dog on our Wii game.

Cute little Madison showing off the beautiful Thanksgiving table decor.

Trying to get a shot of Daddio, but he was so focused on buttering his roll it didn't turn out :)

Momma and me

Another huge highlight of the trip was getting to see my best friend Jasso and her family. Here's the mom in action. Check out those piercing blue eyes.

How cute is this? Little Nayeli was all about the ice cubes.

I love this shot. Particularly how Nayeli has her head in the glass again :)

Really can I eat her up? She is the most beautiful little girl.

Funny shot yet again. Nayeli trying to squirm out of my arms.

The girls.

Random cute Harley shot.

Black Friday shots. It really is true. People get up at insane hours of the day to do this stuff. Myself included. My mom and I got up at 4:15 to hit the Target sale (It was both of our first times to go). The line wrapped all over the place. We luckily got all the sales we went for and a few others. By 8 we were home with donuts and giggles as we told stories to our husbands of all the funny tales that we encountered. This was the most fun I've had in a long time. Who knew it could be so fun? We are so doing it again next year!

By 6:30 we were carb and caffeine loading with some popcorn and diet coke to get our energy up so we could shop some more and wait in the massive line that wrapped all the way around the store to check out.

Post Black Friday fun. The boys helped mom wrap presents.

I think that just about does it.
Here's a short video of Max and Harley playing together. Adorableness...

Keep scrolling I added three posts at the same time...

New hairstyle...

So about three weeks ago I got this idea that I needed to do something different with my hair. I called my mom and she booked me an appointment the night before Thanksgiving at 6:30 p.m. with this style hair guru in Dallas. He decided to squeeze me in even though he was completely booked since he's known my mom for 13 years or something. Thank you Gregg and mom for pulling strings!

(Which on another side random note I find it interesting that a stylist in Dallas can get me in within two weeks, but a stylist in little old Enid can't get me into her schedule for 10 weeks. That to me is crazy talk. I'm just saying...Needless to say I didn't end up going to her.)

I started clipping pics and looks I wanted. Drastic for me, but nothing too crazy like an A line bob or anything. I still wanted my length. I go to him with all my pictures and he tells me how he doesn't like them for me and how trashed my hair is and how I can't go blond. He's totally dramatic and crazy and hilariously funny.

I then just say, "Do what you want. I trust you."
Here's the final product. I just love it. Although you can't tell, he actually still cut quite a bit of length and he gave me blunt bangs. I love them. Haven't had bangs since I was in second grade or something.

This little outing was a highlight of my trip to Dallas. It's amazing what a good color and cut can do for a person. And for that matter a little mascara and bronzer. I will challenge anyone who says differently. Thanks mom for coming along and laughing with me!

Blackmail shots...


Here are a few shots of Gregg. All 90 pounds of him.

Sorry these are kind of boring and overly excessive for everyone. Ally Rae these profile pics are just for you!

I do like to call this new look my "Heidi Klum German look". I'm kind of obsessed with her and she often sports this do.

Veteran's Day Surprise

About a week after Veteran's Day Mike got a surprise package from my sister's 8th grade class. I knew it was coming so I was keeping my eye out for it, but Mike had no idea so he was like a kid in a candy store getting to open this special package.

This class went to the special effort of getting together a care package full of all sorts of goodies including a Timpanogos Acadamy fleece sweater, a school lanyard, some candy, and a binder full of pics and letters they had written to Mike and other pilots in training. Also included were some questions for Mike to answer back. Among the questions a few of my favorite where:
Do they serve good food on base?
Have you seen any tornadoes in Oklahoma yet?
Do you have dogfights?
Do you have your own plane?
Do you have to know math to be a pilot?
Did you have to shave your head?
Are you scared to die for your country?
I can tell these kids are really smart and these are questions that I'm still learning from my husband...

Here are a few group shots of Mike's new friends.

How cute is this?

This is my favorite. The post it says, "We're trying to be like airplanes. Can you tell?"

Mike with his awesome surprise and his reactions when he was opening it.

Mrs. Wilcox's class and Mrs. Wilcox I'd like to say a big thank you for thinking of my husband and his other pilot trainees. I know he's going to send you something back and answer all of your questions soon. He's kind of swamped with classwork and flying, but as soon as he can he said he's going to reply. Thanks for lifting his spirits and thinking of him on Veteran's Day. It truly meant so much to both of us. We love you guys!

Need something to make you smile?

Watch this...This little kitten is adorable. So cute!

Action Shots

Just another day in the life of 2nd Lieutenant Michael D. Mohlman. Taking names and kicking butt. It's official he has the coolest job ever!

Only 30 flights left and he's done with pilot training! Yahoo. Assignment night is February 26th and Graduation is March 12th. We are beyond excited!!!

I love you Bear. You're my hero. Thanks for working so hard to provide for our family.

Holiday Mail for Heroes

So I work for the Red Cross and I heard about this cool program to send Christmas cards to soldiers. Mike and I are going to do this for family night tonight so I thought I'd pass it along in case anyone else would like a fun Christmas service project this week.

Send your cards to the address below, and please read the guidelines carefully!

Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

All cards must be received/postmarked by no later than Monday, December 7th. Cards received after this date will unfortunately be returned to the sender. This deadline ensures enough time to sort and distribute cards before the holidays.

After the mailbox closes, the cards received will be screened for hazardous materials and then reviewed by Red Cross volunteers working around the country. Then, the cards are sent out to recipients in time for the holidays.

Please don’t forget to follow these guidelines while preparing your holiday greetings!

Do...
Sign all cards
Entitle cards “Dear Service Member, Family or Veteran”
Limit cards to 15 per person or 50 for school class or business group
Bundle groups of cards in single, large envelopes (there is no need to include individual envelopes and postage for cards)

Don’t...
Send letters
Include personal information such as home or email addresses
Use glitter – excessive amounts can aggravate health issues of wounded recipients
Include inserts of any kind as they must be removed in the screening process

(Information about the program was pulled from this link on the Red Cross blog. If you want more information you can go there.)

A few things I'm thankful for...

My amazing husband and our little dogs, family, friends, my health, things that make me laugh, my mom's home cooking, great books, fun finger nail polish, my height, horses, cows, beautiful architecture, little kids, seeing new things for the first time, babies, movies, google, amazing shoes and handbags, going on new adventures, cuddling, having a good scare or rush of adrenaline, my testimony, lunch with girlfriends, staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning and then sleeping in, free time with my hubby, cruises, ice cream, beaches, thunderstorms, primary songs, soldiers and their families, the American flag, our freedom, the fact that I can be with Mike forever, the opportunity to just be me and to live my life to make it the best life ever!!!