Happy Easter

The kids in their Easter outfits. Taylor picked her dress and at the same time found Brent's vest. She's a good little shopper. They were both on sale for a good deal, so I was happy. And I was eyeing this little skirt for Peyton anyways. I love my adorable kids. They are so sweet and they love each other so much. I feel so blessed to be their mom.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We went to Houston for Spring Break to hang out with my mom and in laws for the week. So our St. Patrick's Day we got to wake up at Grandma's house. Which is so fun, because Grandma Marilyn's house is "our house" according to my kids. Last summer when we moved in for a few months I explained to Brent that this was going to be "our house" for a little while. So our first day we were there, Brent greeted my mom at the door when she came home from work and hugged the door frame and said, "Grandma, this is MY House now." She got a kick out of it.

So this time when we got to my moms, Brent went around saying remember when we did this... remember when we lived here mom. It was cute that they have so many fun memories there.

So for St. Pattie's day we woke up and the goofy leprechaun sent the kids on a scavenger/ treasure hunt for a treat and then they got to go to the donut shop. Later on in the morning (because Brent likes to have 2 breakfasts) the leprechaun turned the eggs and milk green.

Peyton was so hilarious... she LOVES scrambled eggs and so she got some of the green eggs too. But she totally snubbed them and made her yucky noise when she doesn't want to eat/ drink something and started to toss them on the floor. Such the food snob. So I had to make her normal scrambled eggs that she welcomed and ate them right up.

We made these fun shamrocks for our craft and made some extra for our friends the Allen's that we met at the park that day. I found the idea on my new favorite site called MADE. It has so many fun ideas!

50's Day at School

.. So we get a phone call from Tays teacher yesterday telling us that she forgot to tell the kids it's 50s day on Mon. We were heading out the door to eat dinner at another families house , So when we were getting ready for bed I told Tay and she really realy wanted a poodle skirt. I was like, tay I'm sorry we don't have one. Everyone we know has to dress up tomm too... there aren't any extra poodle skirts lying around. So we dig through our fabric and I can't believe I had 2 yards of felt.. Seriously a few minutes later as I'm stressing thinking how in the world am I going to do this to make my little girl hapy? My friend drops by ... And taylor tells her we are trying to make a poodle skirt ( I was not very enthused at thus point). And my friend said she had a pattern. ( not that I really know how to follow a pattern). So after A few phone calls to Sarah and lots of scavenging... At 2 am I finshed the poodle skirt. It seriously was a miracle... I really know the Lord helped me... I know that sounds really silly, but He must have cared about this silly poodle skirt, and Taylor's happiness. I just happened to have exactly 4 white puff balls, only one sheet of iron on applicae, I randomly had ric rac. It was a miracle. It was so fun to have Taylor wake up and be so excited. She was bouncing around until we could take her to school. :).

Even though I only had a few hours of sleep, I was on a mommie high... I'm sure I'll be grumpy in a few hours.

Date Night In Abilene

So when in Abilene.... act like an Abilenian.. no... that's not a word...

When in Abilene, be a true Texan...

So for a date night this weekend, Eric and I and some friends went shooting. It was really a lot of fun. We took our friends arsenal of guns and ammo outside of town and set up some fun targets and shot guns. No, this isn't illegal, it's Texas. Everyone has guns. It's so great! A few of my girlfriends even have their concealed weapon permit. Eric is really getting into all this gun, hunting stuff... so it's really fun.

We shot at soda cans that we shook up so when we hit them, they exploded. ...so fun! The guys took gun powder, or some sort of explosive and filled up these little apple juice plastic bottles and set them up... I wasn't sure what was in them, so I just started shooting and BOOOMM! It sounded like a bomb. It scared me... The guys thought it was pretty funny. ( It seemed like they were reverting to teenage pyro boys...) We had a good time trying out different guns and learning... don't worry we were really safe. And decided to call it good when the neighbor yelled that he thought bullets were ricocheting into his yard. .... :)

Then we went to dinner! :)

Gotta love living in West Texas... don't fight it, just embrace it. That 's my motto!

I now know that Eric thinks I'm hot with a gun...

guys are so funny...

Entertaining...

It is a love hate relationship, entertaining... I love it.... I mean WE love it. We love to cook togeher. I love to sit down with Eric and come up with a menu. What genre of food, a theme, etc. etc. I love to have people over and eat great food. BUT.... I hate the stress... why do have to do this?? Why can't I just enjoy every step of it...??... the stress of the countdown until that day... the number of grocery stores I have to go to, to get all the ingredients. And I'm discovering that Abilene is very limited in it's speciality items. The stress of not only cleaning the house, trying not to ignore my kids too much, prepping the food, trying to get most of the food done so that the timing is all right and then making sure I'm ready. The stress of having it mostly all put together before Eric gets home to help me with the last remaining finishing touches... without resenting him too much. It's hard to do it together on a work day.. I mean why can't he just take the day off and cook with me all day. Is that too much to ask... I mean really is work that important? ;) One of these days I will figure it all out and be better at entertaining. For now I will still love to do it... well maybe next week I'll love to do it again. ...for now I'm a little burnt out..

So last week we had some of Eric's associates over for dinner. We went all out and did a Southwest Cuisine Menu. (Eric loves Bobby Flay...southwest food is his thing) This was our menu:

Appetizer: Cotija Crusted Quesadillas with Basil, Red Chilies, and Charred Corn Relish

Entree: Lime Zested and Ancho Chili Pepper Rubbed Rib eyes over Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes served with a Southwest Chopped Salad. Accompanied by homemade mini loafs of bread.

Dessert: Creme Brulee with a Ancho Chili chocolate Sauce

Ok, sounds kind of fancy huh... I know... I think it does... and things that sound fancy are alot of work. I'm not going to sugar-coat it, it was a lot of work. Eric is lucky that I don't charge by the hour for my labor. :) After all the work was said and done, it was a lot of fun and Eric's co-workers really enjoyed the dinner and it was a really fun evening. Everything turned out great for the most part. You would have thought I would have taken a picture, but too much was going on. I need to be better about that. It's nice to have a picture of all your hard work. So this picture will have to do from Bobby's Book: Bobby Flay's MESA Grill Cookbook. Mesa Grill is Bobby Flay's Restaurant in Vegas and NYC. It is one of our favorite restaurants, so we love to cook out of this cookbook. I don't have the time or patience to write down all the recipes from our meal, so I'll include the amazing quesidillas... they are so great! The goat cheese gives them this really unique flavor and the cotija cheese on top compliments it so nicely. You have to try them.

Cotija Crusted Quesadillas with Basil, Red Chilies, and Charred Corn Relish:

12 (6-inch) flour tortillas

1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack Cheese (6 ounces)

8 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled

2 large red jalapeno chilies, finely diced (We just used green ones)

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into thin ribbons

Kosher Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 T. canola oil

1/4 cup grated Cotija or Parmesan Cheese

2 Teaspoons ancho chile powder

Charred Corn Relish for Garnish (recipe, see below)

(in the picture there is a Smoked Red Pepper Sauce) (I did a cilantro oil to drizzle on the plate.)

1. Preheat over to 425

2. Place tortillas out and divide in order the monterey jack, goat cheese, jalapenos, and basil among the tortillas. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stack the other tortillas on top to make your quesadilla. Brush the tops with canola oil and sprinkle with cotija cheese and chilie powder.

3. Transfer the tortillas to a baking sheet, you probably need 2. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the tortillas are lightly golden brown and the cheese has melted. Cut into quarters and top with the Corn Relish

Charred Corn Relish

4 Fresh Ears of Corn (Roasted on the grill) (I brush mine with olive oil, and S&P and grill them until they are slightly charred. ... a few brown spots. Then remove from the cob. I just put them vertical on the cutting board and slice off the kernels.

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

2 T. Balsamic vinegar

1 T. Honey

2 T Canola Oil

2 T. Chopped Fresh Basil

Kosher Salt and Freshly ground black pepper

Combine Corn, onion, vinegar, honey, oil, basil, and salt and pepper to taste in the bowl. Let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes and up to one hour before serving.

Make this for your next little get together and all your friends will love it, needless to say be impressed too. :)

Funny thing... as I was checking out the night before with some of my ingredients. The cashier (here in my little Texas town of Abilene) says in her Texas draw accent, "So whatcha makin..?" I said, a big dinner... and I told her a little bit about what we were cooking.. And she said, "Craaam Brew Laaayyy... I just love Craaam Brew Laaaayyy, There's here only one place that has that here in town and it's a whole $8..."

I told her for $8, she could easily make it for 8 people... she just needed a kitchen torch.

I know by typing it, I'm not doing the story any justice... Her accent and they way she said Creme Brulee, it was halarious. Abilene is just really funny sometimes. We have a lot of country folk, some might call them hicks... and they are fuuunnnyy! I've just gotta laugh!

Our Attempt at a Garden

So the people who lived in our house before us must have had green thumbs, because they had a serious garden. We are going to attempt to carry on the tradition, and hopefully by osmosis... or living in the same house... we can inherit what they had.

So with the help of backyard farming, a great blog on amazing gardening tips, we started our pea pods and we are going to try to sprout some seeds. If we fail, then at least we tried... right. The kids will have a good experience. We will see if we get any harvest....

I love the idea of Farm to Table cooking. I dream of going outside and plucking a tomato, bell pepper, and trimming some fresh basil and making a delicious meal. I'm sure it's all a pipe dream, but hey, a girls gotta dream.

We have the pea pods inside, and upstairs in the game room window seat. It seems like it has the best heat, and light. The kids and I water them everyday... hopefully they will sprout soon.

Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day consisted of everyone having the flu... so our Valentine's day was a day late this year. Cupid had to wait to come until everyone was healthy. I had our special valentine's breakfast and dinner all planned. I love holidays and making them fun and special for the kids. For breakfast we always have quiches in these heart shaped ramikens and heart shaped blueberry muffins... it's tradition. The kids didn't really realize that it was Valentine's Day and we weren't doing the normal tradition because they were so sick. ( On Friday night, while Eric and I were on our Valentine's date, we got a call from the babysitter that Peyton had woken up and thrown up all over her crib. The kids were helpful in helping her clean in up... and that of course lead to both of them getting sick the next day, and me getting sick on Sunday. ) Finally, by Monday afternoon it was all out of our system. So Cupid came around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and we had breakfast for lunch to celebrate our be-lated Valentines. The kids were excited to get their little presents from Cupid- Webkins and flash-cards. They didn't care much about the educationcal flashcards, but the Webkins were a hit. Brent kept asking... when did Cupid come, I didn't see him?? Who is cupid mommie? Taylor was sweet and kept our little secret.

Valentine's Week

I love holidays. I love any excuse to bake, entertain, and do silly memorable things for my kids. Valentines is one of these holidays for me. Over Christmas we made sugar cookies at my mother in laws house, and she has the BEST recipe for sugar cookies. They taste like the ones at the grocery store that are in a plastic clamshell that have that yummy icing on them, that always changes with the seasons. You know what I'm talking about? You know that ones that are probably super healthy with nothing but white flour, margarine and crisco. But Oh, so yummy. So I had this great intention of making sugar cookies for All of Eric's associates at work, and Taylor and Brent's teachers. This meant making over 150 sugar cookies; iced, decorated, wrapped in a bag and tied with a ribbon. AM I CRAZY! Yes, I was.... there were a few late nights and early mornings, but it got done... and now this week I'll be running... ever so running on the treadmill working off all of those tester cookies that I had to try. So Eric took a cute basket I put together with all the individually wrapped cookies, he took it two different days so people from all the shifts could have one. They loved them, and the kids took their teachers cookies in cute little boxes with clear tops so you could see into them.

Here is the sugar cookie recipe:

3/4c. shortening

1/4 c. softened margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 c. flour

1 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until barely brown on the bottom

Frosting:

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup softened margarine

5 Tablespoons milk

1 t. vanilla

Making Jolly Rancher Suckers

I got this cute idea from my sister Sarah... Making Jolly Rancher Suckers. I have never attempted to make real suckers where you have to boil, and make the candy, and risk getting burned. So these easy suckers that you can make with your kids sounded so fun. So Taylor had a friend over and we did these suckers as a fun activity.

They'd be cute in a heart for Valentine's Day, and they are really cute when the colors are arranged with one color in the middle and then the other colors in coordinating rings. My kids did their own version... :)

ENJOY!!

Taylor's Window Seat Project

When we were shopping for a house, Taylor had one request: she wanted a window seat in her room, so she could read her books and play in. I smiled and said, "ok, sweetie, we'll do our best." When inside really I was thinking, "yeah right!" "There's no way I'll find a house that 1. I love, and 2. has a window seat, and 3. Has a window seat in a child's room. Then we started house hunting and I put it in the back of my head and forgot about it. Well, as we looked around, this house, the one we chose was the last one we looked at, and frankly it wasn't my favorite at first. But, it did have the window seat... but that wouldn't have necessarily deter me either. Because really, my seven year olds request was not going to be the deal breaker in this huge decision.

So really once we decided it was a big Perk that her room DID have the window seat. And it did give me one more thing to tell her about to look forward to... since she's moved around a lot in her short life. ... this is her 4th Elementary school and she's only in 2nd grade.

So now that I have my sewing machine from Santa Clause, I was off to work on my newest project: Taylor's Window Seat. Now, I am a beginner sewer. I just really started this past summer, so this was a really big deal for me. I found fabric that coordinated with her sham and quilt and started measuring and trying to figure it all out on my new machine. Well... it turned out pretty good, and she loves it. I even did piping on the top seam, which I am quite proud of. :) Now, my next project: pillows to match, so she can read with some comfy pillows around her. ...I think I want to switch rooms with her now.

Taylors room with her new bedding... pretty fun

I found fabric... probably too much fabric, I just couldn't decide... now I have lots of extra to make pillows with

This is my craft room/ loft... It's at the top of my stairs and it's my craft nook. I love it, I can set up shop and work, and sew and I'm out of the way, and my junk is not visible to someone who comes in the house... just dont' come up the stairs! :)

sewing, sewing..

finished product... It's not perfect, but good enough for me.

The was another project... My mom had an old french memo board that she gave to Taylor: We pulled the fabric covered buttons off and recovered it with new fabric and stapled it on. Then we took ribbon and went right where the other ribbon was and used the stapler to tack it to the back. I used the fabric and covered buttons so it would coordinate and glued them on with some heavy duty glue. Now Tay has a memo board that matches her new room :)

Tatanka!!

What's for dinner... ? TATANKA!

We had bison for dinner on Sunday! Bison, yes... Buffalo. Is this a Texas thing or are we just eating this in our home for the first time and we just happen to be living in Texas. I think it's a Texas thing.

Eric's associate at work has a son that runs the ranch for the Peterbuilt(sp?)... like Peterbuilt tractors) family in South Texas. And they have this huge ranch with lots of bison. So she brought Eric some Bison tenderloin, bison hamburger, and bison flank steak. ...yum yum. It is really a tender, lean and tasty meat. Eric made an amazing rub for the tenderloin and grilled it up, it was to die for. I always forget to take pictures of the things we cook, so I couldn't forget this one. I'm trying to be better. We made a salad, and sour cream and chive mashed potatoes, and homemade bread to go with it. Taylor, our little carnivore, devoured it, needless to say she loved it.

Happy Birthday Peyton!

I can't believe that it's already been a year. So much has changed in our lives and now Peyton is walking and even trying to talk. She is a champ at babbling and just the other day at Walmart she started greeting passers by with a "Hi" where she even raised her hand up. I was amazed, it was so cute.

She wasn't sure what to think about her cake... The kids were helping her eat it.

Peyton ate a little of her cake and wasn't sure about the frosting texture. She really didn't get a lot of it in her... but enough to throw up in the middle of the night! I felt so bad! She didn't even wake up... I was so sad when I got her in the morning and she had it all over her hair and just everywhere in the crib. Poor thing. It was just too rich for her little tummy.

Snow in Abilene

When we returned to Abilene after Christmas in Houston, it was covered in snow. Our driveway was covered in a blanket of ice and our neighbors showed us pictures of huge snow drifts that covered the side of our house on Christmas Eve. They had a lot of snow while we were in Houston. We were all a little sad that we missed all the snow excitement. But then... it did snow for us, and it has a couple more times after that. It's been such a fun, and cold... winter. Thank goodness for heaters. The kids have had a good time playing in the snow...

Here are a few pics of them making their first Texas Snowman.

Brent is so good as posing for pictures

We used Whethers chocolates for the eyeballs... so much better than coal

Yes, I did get hit by snowballs after this picture was taken.. :)

Poor Peyton had to watch the big kids from the window. It was just way too cold for her to be out. I walked out holding her, and she buried her head in my chest, hiding from the cold air.