Out of Mouths of Babes...

A couple of Sundays ago we went out for lunch after church and we ran into some other friends from church at the restaurant. We stopped to say, Hi and let the kids talk on our way out....one couple was an elderly couple that we absolutely adore. Hailey looked at Mr. Chester for a little while and then very seriously asked him, 'Why do you have your seat belt on??' We all cracked up because Mr. Chester's signature fashion statement is to always wear a pair of suspenders!! Hailey thought he was still wearing his seat belt!! He thought that was the best thing he'd heard all day and is still telling the story at church :-)

E-Mealz.com

Tabby has had this site advertised on her blog for weeks now and I kept meaning to ask her about it. I finally did and she told me they have been loving it!! So today I signed up :-) If you are anything like me my least favorite time of the day is planning what to have for dinner. I usually wait till the day of and we never have everything we need to make the meal. Then I don't want to drag the kids out to the store so we have whatever can be put together or we go out if Darren is home that night. I also have a horrible time shopping because I can't think of what to buy and what will make a meal when two kids are talking or crying or running down the aisle!! This site does all the work for you!! It lets you pick your favorite store, even a low fat or vegetarian plan and comes up with a week of menus. Then the best part is it prints everything you need to buy to make the meals and what section of the store it is in!!! Awesome!! Tabby said they have really enjoyed the recipes so I'm looking forward to trying them out! I'll let you know how it goes! And get this.... only $5 a month.... :-)

Mommy's Day vs Daddy's Day...

Mommy's Day:

Keep kids busy by trying a fun craft that was found on Ramblings of a Crazy Woman. It included 1/2 C. bubbles, 15 drops food coloring, make as many colors as you want :-) We made red, blue, green, and purple!

Then we taped our papers to the fence and a must, we put on our paint shirts!! Food coloring stains people!

Jack got busy blowing his bubbles! When they pop on the paper they leave the color behind!Time to pick out a different color to use...
Here is Hailey's finished masterpiece! She thought they looked like fireworks.
Jack had to take a picture of his. We've been letting them use our old camera to take pictures this week. They are having the best time with it! Jack with his masterpiece...notice the love of green and the leftover residue on his nose :-) Thankfully it wiped right off their faces...we just had to scrub hands for a couple days.

Daddy's Day:

No cute crafts, no paint shirts, but they did play!!

This is one of the many things they do at SWAT practice. This is a flash bomb entry. Darren was towards the back in this footage but now he is the breacher...the guy at the door with the big stick thing...I'm sure that is NOT what it is called :-)

Visit with Konnor and Kelsey

We had a great visit with 'Aunt Katie' this Saturday! She came over with Konnor (3) and Kelsey (4months) to play and have lunch. The kids had a great time playing trains, bubbles, and just whatever else they could get into!! We made pizza for lunch and me and Katie caught up on all our now 'mommy' stuff....in the old days it was 'girl' stuff....oh how times have changed. We met each other back when I was in the eighth grade and she was in the seventh!! She's know Darren even longer than that!! It's great to have friends that you've know so long and can reconnect with even after being apart for months or even years. Her husband is a preacher at a congregation up in TN but every time they come to GA to visit family we make sure to get together!! Love those kinds of friends :-)

Jack and Konnor playing out by the trees in the backyard.

Hailey with Konnor posing for pictures (kind of!)

Baby Kelsey!

She loved watching the bubbles float by!!

Miss Hailey loved blowing the bubbles, but she did NOT want anyone to pop her bubbles...you could pop your own, just not hers :-D Girls...so dramatic!

I have more pics to post from this weekend but blogger is giving me some trouble loading more so I'll try again tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Guess what?!?! This is our last week of summer vacation! Hailey's big girl school starts Aug. 4th!! Oh my goodness and then Jack will start going to 4 day a week k-3 Aug. 11th!! What am I going to do with myself?!?

I'm sure I'll find something :-}

Bumper Bowling!

Before we headed off for the bowling alley the kids decided to get in a little Wii time. It was their first attempt at boxing each other so I had to capture the moment even though they were looking a little rough :-) Hailey is really good at this. She even knocked me out!!Then we went to the Gold Cup Bowling Alley to meet up with Darren's mom. The kids were so excited to go bowling!! The last time we went they can't even remember it's been so long!Jack was a little intimidated at first. I had to force him to go up to the lanes the first few frames but he got the hang of it and realized nothing was going to happen to him. I just love those little bowling shoes!!Watching their ball go down the lane....sometimes that event took quite a while :-)Watching the ball come back up the track!! That was so cool! They loved that thing. Cute little behinds :-) Oh!! I mean...Darren helping Jack bowl!Hailey supervising!She was so proud! She got a spare one time too!! Her final score was 75!! I know this is blurry...the lighting was so awful; but I thought it was so cute how he looked carrying his own bowling ball! He started fooling around after he'd pushed his ball down the lane...
I think he loved the slippery floor...
The whole gang...

We all had a great time yesterday afternoon and then headed to Wendy's for lunch with Nana. We had a wonderful night at church and got to see our 'Aunt' Katie and her new baby Kelsey for the first time!! She was a cutie and big brother Konnor is doing great. They are here for a visit from their new home in Tennesee so hopefully we'll get together with them soon and catch up.

Have you seen this?!?

It was on the Today Show this morning and I noticed it on their web site this evening. These guys raised this lion cub in 1969 and this is a video of their reunion after a year of release into the wild. Pretty cool.... If you go to the Today Show's link it's pretty funny...they say "you miss the second part when the lion forgets they aren't lions and eats them :-)" The article is pretty interesting too. I just can't believe you could walk into a department store in 1969 and buy a lion cub!! CRAZY!!

Wordle

This was fun...I found it on Jenny's site. You take posts from your blog and make a word cloud. Turns out pretty cool. You can customize the font, style, and colors. www.wordle.net

Two Great Recipies!

We had my parent's over for dinner tonight since Darren was off. I made a great dish that has become a favorite in our house and theirs too. I got the recipe out of an old Pillsbury recipe book a few years ago. I wish I'd taken a picture of it before we demolished it but I promise it's yummy and appealing to the eye as well!!

Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Lasagna

1 can (10oz) Old El Paso enchilada sauce

1 lb. cooked chicken diced (the recipe calls for the packaged southwestern-seasoned chicken but I just use some taco seasoning on plain chicken)

1 container (8oz) sour cream

1/2 cup sliced green onions

1 Tbs taco seasoning mix (for sauce)

8 tortillas cut in half

2 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese

1 cup tortilla chips

1 cup chopped tomatoes

2 Tbs ripe olives (optional)

1) Heat oven to 375*F. Spray 13x9 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Reserve 1/4 cup enchilada sauce. In large bowl, mix remaining enchilada sauce, chicken, sour cream, 1/4 cup of the onions and taco seasoning mix.

2) Spoon 1/4 cup enchilada sauce in bottom of baking dish. Arrange 8 tortilla halves over sauce, overlapping as necessary. Spoon half of chicken mixture over tortillas; sprinkle with 2/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat layers...tortilla halves, rest of chicken mixture, cheese...Cover with foil.

3) Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Uncover; layer tortilla chips, tomatoes, olives, remaining 1/4 cup onions and remaining 2/3 cup cheese over top of casserole. Bake uncovered about 5 minutes longer. Let stand 10 min. before serving.

**Tip.. use as much cheese as you want to!! The more the better! Serves 6.

For dessert I decided to try a recipe that my friend Amber posted on her blog a while ago. It was delicious!! You must try it!! It was Blueberry Crumb Cake and oh my goodness...we just loved it and it was really easy to make. I've never made a cake from scratch and I did it, first try!! I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning...I'm going to have a slice for breakfast!! Yum Yum!

Lost and Found!!

We Found BABY!!Jack loves this little guy. We have a December Beanie and September Beanie, he calls the Dec. one, Baby and sleeps with him. You can see he's missing his little birthstone nose...Pedro got a hold of him, but Jack doesn't mind...makes him special. About 4 days ago we lost him. I looked high and low, under and over :-) I knew we didn't take him anywhere because we didn't leave the house the day we misplaced him. Well this morning I found him!! I was making Jack's bed (I've done it before this week) but when I put the pillows in place I noticed one was a little lumpy....Baby was tucked inside the pillowcase!! Hallelujah!! Jack was soooo happy when I brought him his Baby!! He hasn't let go of him since. Sarah told me we'd find him when we weren't even looking...and we finally did!!

Pool Side Fun...

Our Saturday evening was spent by the pool. It was nice and we finally had a storm free afternoon. Hailey has been wanting to go swimming but we've had lots of rain (thankfully) but that puts a damper on the pool thing for her when lighting is involved.

We took Pedro over and it was his first time by the pool. He wasn't too interested about getting in. He's so different from our previous dogs. (Labs, they loved water) He doesn't really like the hose either. He enjoyed watching them play though and then he just went off and played on his own.

My little Jack...all geared up to swim. He even said he was going to do it this time but nope! Just wanted to sit on the FIRST step and kick. Hailey said maybe when Jack is 4 he'll swim :-) Pretty soon he got up and started playing in the hose to water the flowers and make mud puddles!
Hailey is getting so much braver!! Now she doesn't care if she goes under when she jumps off the side.
Swimming with Papa! They stayed out there for a long time after we all went in. They had a good time hanging out with each other!

Here's some of my mom's flowers out by the pool. I'm trying to play with my camera more and learn a little bit.... I just need to sit down and read the manual :-)
Some residents have moved into a little mailbox that is on the back of their back porch. They'll be evicted today! Haven't been paying any rent...

Nobody has moved into this one... I guess it looks a little scary to a bird :-) I think it's cute! We had a great time at Grandma and Papa's. Pretty soon the kids are going to figure out how to walk there on their own and I'll be in a lot of trouble!!

Hit and Run

There was a hit and run in Warner Robins about 2 a.m. Thursday morning! What was awful was that the person hit was one of our local police officers! He was looking for a stolen Yukon and out of the blue that Yukon t-bones him!! The car thiefs ran on foot. The officer was taken to the hospital and as far as I know he has a broken pelvis, really hurt shoulder and leg. Darren wasn't working that shift and due to lack of people he had to go in on Thursday night. The car thiefs had previously stolen a mustang that evening and because of matching fingerprints they were able to catch the first guy Thursday night (a 15 year old!)
Last night they were able to get the second guy (16 yrs. old!) They are both being held in the JuV center. I hope they don't get off on this just because they are under age. Please keep this officer and his family in your prayers. He had been a police officer somewhere else but he'd only been with our department for a few months.