Get. In. My. Belly!!!

Last night, our small group from church met at our friends, the McCarrell's, house. Only a few couples were able to make it, but I loved it! Anyone that knows me, knows I am not a fan of large crowds. Only four families, including ours, met for a breakfast dinner, had good conversation and it was PERFECT!!!

Our conversation somehow led into cooking, which led to Pinterest. Did you know that everything can lead to Pinterest?!? It's crazy!! From home decorating tips, latest fashion, How-To ANYTHING, cleaning tips, gift ideas for anyone you know, vacation destinations, to cooking. My cooking board is my favorite and most used. I am not a good cook and never have been. I have stuck to the basics for years because I thought it was too hard to learn. And then Pinterest came to my rescue. There are literally thousands of recipes for anything you could imagine!! And the best part of it all....they all have pictures! It's dummy-proof!!! Since then, I have made at least one new dish every week trying to figure out what our family likes. And we have liked Every. Single. One. so far!! Success!! Finally!!! Don't misunderstand, there is still complaining, but the majority has always approved.

I wanted to share a few of the dishes that have made several appearances on our menus and then a few of the latest ones we've tried. I am not going to share the actual recipes because that would take forever! If you see one you really want to try, let me know and I can send you the recipe :)

Before I get started on my parade of pictures, I want you to be aware that I am still not a very good cook, so most of these are SUPER easy and/or crock pot recipes.

Let us begin......


  

 Pizza Casserole....Kid favorite, obviously :)

 Cream Cheese Crock Pot Chicken

 Tomato and Mozzarella Pasta Al Forno

Crock Pot Itlaian Chicken

 Three Ingredient Pork Chops....in the crock pot :) Duh!

We have tried a LOT more recipes, but these are at the top of our Most Favorite list. These are recipes that I have memorized and can fill a day on our weekly menu when I can't think of anything else. Super, super easy meals!!!!

I have a couple more that we have tried more recently that we WILL be making again in the near future...

Another Italian Crock Pot Chicken....but totally different from the other!!

 Taco Pasta...um, yes please!

King Ranch Chicken Mac 'n Cheese

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

These are just a few of the many that we have tried and have liked every single one. If you have not been introduced to the world of Pinterest yet, there is something seriously wrong with you! Lol! 

Let me know if you are interested in recipes or need an invite to the world of Pinterest! Lol!

Keep your eyes peeled for an updated post on more new and easy dinners.

Catching Up...or Trying!

Once again, I am getting way behind on my blog!!

I'm not sure what all has happened since my last post, so I am just going to do some updating on our latest happenings around here.

Well, our router isn't working. That's fun. FYI: new technology is not my friend.....And I have NO idea how to fix it. I called the Belkin place to have them fix it. After asking, plugging, unplugging, asking again, plugging, unplugging and asking and asking and asking......it then turned into me absolutely losing my mind and turning into a psycho, yelling at the poor "indian" (dot, not feather)  schmuck on the other end. The call ended with me ordering a new router. Perfect. So, now I have to wait five to seven business days before a new one arrives, then I have to call India to have them turn it on, or whatever they do with it.....Did I mention that we use our router solely for Wifi? They may be its only purpose, I don't know. But that's what we use it for. Our Wifi is what allows us to access our Netflix account.....no Wifi, no Netflix.....very unhappy children :( But I suppose life does go on without Netflix. Moving forward, it has now been twenty-five days....TWENTY-FIVE DAYS people!!!!! And our new router is still "broken"!!! What the crap!?!? So, if any of you know how to fix a router that supposedly is not broken, give me a call :)

Ummmm, let's see. Kenzie recently auditioned for her first play. She was so cute! 

 And nervous.

The play was Alice in Wonderland so she was fairly familiar with the story. But when you have to actually READ the script from that movie....you realize how weird that movie really is!! The way those characters talk are completely unnatural. It goes against everything you have ever been taught in English class growing up. She practiced and practiced and then we went to the auditions. We sat there looking at all of the "competition" and she became even more nervous. The room was fairly good sized and full of people....that she had to audition in front of. I guess she thought she would go into a different room alone to read her lines. Oops! She was wrong :) Then, the auditioning started and the boys went first. Kenzie very quickly realized that the judges (?) were off to the side of the room and all of the boys were facing that direction. You could see the relief in her face when she figured out she didn't have to face all of those people in the audience. The boys finished and then it was HER turn. Her name was called and off she went. She went on to read her lines and then wait an hour and a half to be called up to read a different line. I thought she did a great job, of course, and not just  because I'm her mom :) It was her first time to audition like that and she had some pretty good competition.....she had to wait three days to find out if she made it or not. It felt like FOR-E-VER!!! They finally posted the Cast List. I've never seen her read names so fast in my life! But she didn't find her name :( She was disappointed and I was a little sad for her, but this was just her first audition. By the time we were done talking about it being her first time and working hard for next time, she was all better. :) From what I've heard, The Little Mermaid and Cheaper by the Dozen will be coming up pretty soon....so keep your eyes open for the next "Aerial" :)

Last weekend Kyle went on a Men's Retreat with the guys from church. I was so excited for him! He hasn't been able to spend quality time with ANYBODY since he started school. I am his only source of making friends at church....and I'm not a very good "big crowds" kind of girl so he has been out of the loop for a while. So when he was able to go with all of the guys for some good 'ole fashioned man time, I was pumped!! Sad that I wouldn't see him all weekend, but happy for him to make good Christian friendships stronger. It took some real convincing and a LOT of consideration, but I finally came to the decision that I would "allow" him to take my camera. Of course he made promises and I made threats along with this decision, but in the end, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he could be a responsible adult and bring it back in one piece.....and he did :) What he failed to do, was take PICTURES!!!! A picture is worth a thousand words and if you have a husband like mine, you NEED these pictures to know what went on!! He is not the best communicator!!! So this is what I got out of his trip other than the very general "guy stuff" answer....

Driving in the car....

One of three decent nature shots... this is #1

#2

#3

And a vintage lunchbox....

And there you have it folks!! They drove to Angel Fire, looked at the mountains and saw a lunchbox.

It's crazy how different guys and girls really are. You KNOW if me and the girls from church had gone, I would be documenting play by play right now with literally more pictures than I could post. Well, he said that he had a great time and feels a lot closer to the guys than he did before, so I think it ended up being a very productive trip for him. :)

So much has happened the last few weeks that I could make this post into a small novel, so I am going to end on our MOST recent news.....the girls are officially wearing bras. AhHhHhH!!!!!!!! I can. not. believe it!!! They are not old enough to be wearing bras, I swear!!! But their chests are saying otherwise and has for a while now, but I just couldn't bring myself to acknowledge that their bodies are changing. That they are growing up front little girls into young ladies :( And that our next big talk will be "THE" talk. I am definitely not ready for that one. I need to do some serious studying up about the best way to approach and address this topic with my pre-middle-schoolers when it is so hard for me to talk about it AT ALL!! Any help or suggestions on reading material or good tips would be greatly appreciated!!

And on that note, I'm going to say...

TO BE CONTINUED...

A New Normal

 The fifth week of school is already upon us and I still haven't posted anything about the first day!!

So let me update you.

Monday August 27, 2012

We all woke up extra early. The "first day" jitters had gotten the best of everyone the night before so everyone was wide awake. Everything went so smoothly though. We all got dressed, ate breakfast, packed lunches, got our hair fixed. It was a perfect morning. And then it was time to go. Everyone got their backpacks, lunch boxes and lined up outside for their annual picture. They had already been warned the night before that I would take pictures until I got the one I liked, so they smiled like champs :)
Got it on the first shot!

I took all of the pictures I was wanting and then we were off to school. The older girls were first. I am no longer "aloud" to walk them to class anymore, but I still get a pic of them standing in front of the school. Bailee was sooooo embarrassed!! I felt bad, but not really :) I want these memories. And I know, someday, they will too. They blew their kisses to me and ran inside.
Then it was Braxton and Madison's turn. They hopped right out of the car. We got our pictures and proceeded to go inside. I could feel the lump in my throat getting bigger and bigger. We walked down the hall to Madison's class first. We went in together. She put her things in her locker, gave me a hug and kiss, and  then went to sit on the rug. That's it?! No crying? No whining? No, "Mommy don't leave me!"? I called out to her one last time before I left. She turned around to me, smiled, and then waved goodbye. I quickly walked away down the hall towards Braxton's class trying not to think about how easy it was for her to say goodbye. And again, Braxton put his things in his locker, gave me a hug and kiss, and went to sit on the rug. No crying, no whining, no "Mommy don't leave me". He turned around to me, smiled and waved goodbye.
I started walking down the hall towards the front door realizing no one was holding my hand or racing me to open the door. I was alone. I held it in as long as I could, but once the car door closed behind me, I completely lost it!!! I turned the radio on and headed home.

Since then, I have been trying to figure out how to literally manage a day alone without kids. I drop them off every day at school and either go to my empty house or work alone. There's no one for me to take care of. For nine years, basically my entire adult life, I have had someone to take care of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week....this included work. I have been at the daycare five years now and have ALWAYS taken at least one child with me everyday. To go places without kids is a very foreign thing to me now.  My role as a mom has changed and I just can't figure it out!!

Now that I have gotten past the first day of school, I can get back to some sort of a routine of crazy school mornings, homework, ballet classes, karate, parent teacher conferences, school fundraisers, countless birthday parties sprinkled throughout our weekends...I could go on forever, but I will spare you :)

Karate is a new thing we are trying out this year. We have always done gymnastics in the past, but I think everyone is bored with it now. And to be honest, I was getting kind of bored with it too.

I have two karate kids in my family now. 

Braxton

and Bailee

They have been doing it for several weeks now and seem to really enjoy it. Which is great because now I have something I can threaten to take away if their behavior takes a nose dive. :)

Madison and Kenzie are, of course, still in ballet. They absolutely LOVE it!

This year, Kenzie is taking a different class with the older girls. It is a much more challenging class which will be perfect for her. I have felt like she has done a variation of the same routine for 7 years now and Kenzie was super excited to try something new. I wasn't able to get a picture of Kenzie on her first day because she ended up being extremely nervous to be the youngest in a new class. I will get a pic on a later date. They have both had several classes already and are still in love :)

We are finally starting to get used to our new crazy routine and are starting to feel more normalcy again :)