The Soup-er Sunday Challenge Continues...

Week 6
Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

Week 7
Loaded Baked Potato Soup

both huge hits in the Walsh household! Stay tuned!

I'll admit it...

Overcoming denial is the first part, right? Well here I go. I'll admit it- I bought a Snuggie, yes I did. And I LOVE it! It also just so happens to be an Iowa Hawkeye Snuggie and I WILL be tailgating in it :)

SOUPer Sunday Weeks 4&5

Week 4: Beer Cheese Soup
-recipe above found on Cooking Light website
-Mike ate 4 bowls in a row so I think it was a winner
-enjoyed on Monday night in honor of Packer v Viking game (unfortunately they lost)

Week 5: French Onion Soup
-recipe from Food Network Magazine insert 50 Easy Soups
-substituted Jarlsberg cheese for the Gruyere (for cheese toast toppers) to save $$ & calories

New Soup-er Sunday Funday Tradition

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= love





I'm starting a fun new tradition for this fall/winter football season. You may already know this about my hubby Mike but he lives for and loves NFL football and soup. If these things were available at all times for him he would be a happy guy so I'm doing my part to combine these loves of his and went ahead and made this into a challenge for myself. My challenge is to make a new soup every Sunday this football season. That means 17, count 'em, 17 soups! I'm 3 down so far. I am gladly accepting suggestions for future soup ideas! I am going to try not to repeat too often, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to.

Week 1: Chicken Tortilla Soup (I created my own recipe which turned out delish!)

Week 2: Vegetable Beef Stew (I made 5 gallons in my favorite giant soup pot)

Week 3: Chili (my own classic recipe)

Xena Pupdate

Believe it or not our little puppy is not such a little puppy anymore!

Xena had a great summer and continued and continues to grow every day. One highlight of her end of summer was a camping night with us at Lake McBride which included much romping through the woods which left her and especially her ears covered in tiny little green burrs (3 hrs of combing and cutting fur later....) and sleeping in our tent with us. She also spent lots of time digging in and eating mud from the puddles in our backyard.

She is approaching 6 months old at the end of this week and has already lost her baby teeth and currently seems to be going through a bit of a rebellious stage (one book I read called it the equivalent of a human hitting their teenage years) This outta be fun!!!

Lake of The Ozarks Mini Vacay

For the last 5 or 6 years Mike & I, Jessie & Chris and a couple of other friends have been making the trip every August to The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri to meet Mike's family for a long weekend of boating, golf, lots of sun & coolers of cold beer. We always have the best time and even though the drive down there is not the most fun we always decide it is well worth it. Here are some pics of trip to 'LOTO' last week.

the girls on the boat (Sarah, Becca, me, Lisa & Jessie)

me & Lisa try to stay afloat in Party Cove

Chris aka "filly" with Jessie, Becca, "UJ" and Chris "W" also stay afloat in Party Cove- koozies are a MUST when you party with the Walsh's!

our fearless captain "T-Bone"

(otherwise known as Mike's dad)

Mike caught the largest horse fly I'd ever seen! They were attacking us!

photo-ops after just making it to the dock before a monsoon rain hit

thanks Jessie & Lisa for the photos! :)

Des Moines Adventure & Pics

We had the most fantastically fun weekend with Jessie & Chris on our "Choose Your Own Adventure in Des Moines" Christmas gift! Jessie & Chris met and greeted us with cold beers at Prairie Meadows where we watched traditional horse racing with the hilarious promo event of camel & ostrich racing Friday night. We each chose our faves but had no idea who won because we were all laughing too hard. Our favorite horse was guess which name (see picture) even though she didn't win us any $!

Saturday we started out the morning with a bike ride to the biggest and most awesome farmer's market we'd ever see in downtown Des Moines where we enjoyed breakfast and a bloody mary bar- yum!

We stopped for a photo-op by Grey's Lake

Then we went golfing! How does my swing look?

Next we headed back to Jessie & Chris' apartment to relax and have a 'dip party' and 'good' beer (2 of our custom adventure choices for the weekend) it was one of my favorite parts! Jessie made 5 dips and provided plenty of fun different dippers.

Then we were off to a Barnstormer's game with a pregame warm-up at a close by sport's & gaming bar (Mike was in heaven!) We snuck down to 2nd row seats and it was such an exciting game- we now LOVE arena football and wish we had a local team! We then hit the downtown bars and experienced the Des Moines nightlife.

We ended our adventure on Sunday morning with a delicious breakfast at a popular local diner and headed home exhausted and happy and feeling so lucky to have such a wonderful sister & brother! Thanks Jessie & Chris!