Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day Weekend! I love extended weekends. We had Amy, Andrews sister here for the weekend. She wasn't really feeling well, so she stayed home and laid low for most of the time, but the kids were able to spend some time with their Aunt Amy so that's good.
Saturday we went to a BBQ/get together with friends.
I did not take one picture that day, so thanks Tracy for sending these to me!!

Hugs!

Their little friend Ciera.  They had so much fun getting to play with her. Ciera was born just a couple weeks before them in the same hospital, same nurses, etc... And actually, she came early, so we were expecting to be there having the babies at the same time! But, they had to move away. They were just here for the weekend.

So cute! Little hugs...

My baby boy crashed out -

Today was gorgeous! It actually was on the 'too hot' side, but I'm not going to complain, because I've been waiting for the Summer weather to kick in for a while.

This is where we hung out allllll day (My parents)

I love Summer days at the pool.

Even though it was really hot out, the pool water temperature still was a little chilly, so we filled up the little kiddie pool for Emma and Drew so they had water that was a little bit warmer to play in. Even when the pool water isn't too cold we still fill up their little pool for them sometimes because it allows them to play in it all day without having to have one of us with them at all times in the big pool.

This was funny - Drew completely blended in with the towel that was on the lounge chair. Except of course for his obscenely white little legs. He definitely got the Irish genes, for sure.

Just Chillin'....

They are totally wiped out from swimmin' their little hearts out and being in the sun all day. There's nothing like that feeling at the end of the day after being in the sun all day; usually I can be asleep at a very, very early hour after days like that. Although that isn't saying much, because I usually can't hang very long as it is on normal nights anymore. Once I get the kids to bed, depending on the night and how tired I am, sometimes I am asleep shortly after them! But I admit it, I have come to terms with it. I love my bed, and I don't care what time I go to bed.
I guess I was walking around outside a lot today, or standing... because my back is very burnt.Oops. Andrew did my first round of aloe, but then he went downstairs to watch a baseball game, so Drew helped me out with my next one, since my skin absorbed it so fast. He's such a good little boy.

Here's a fun recipe that I tried out this weekend to bring with us to the BBQ Saturday -

Lemon Cream Bars

They are creamier than your typical lemon bar.

For the crust part you use one box of vanilla cake mix, 1 stick of butter and 1  egg.  Blend all of that together with a mixer as well as you can. (Soften the butter first) It will be crumbly at first, so you really need to throw the rings off and get your hands in there. once you knead it a little bit you will get a better consistency.  You want it to be like a dough. But don't add anything else to it, because it needs to be pretty compact as it's just acting like a crust, and not a cake.

Line a 9x13 baking pan with foil really tightly. This part is optional, but it makes it much easier when you are done and they have cooled off to lift it right out of the pan to cut it into squares.

Spread the mixture to cover the bottom of the pan. Try to avoid taste testing it because you can't really spare very much. It has to stretch to cover the entire area of the pan. But, GUILTY! I did try it and it was reallllly good. That's why I'm warning you. (aside from the whole raw egg thing.) But, I was curious to see what the consistency of the cake mix would be with just those ingredients.

So, here's where we are:

Now for the creamy lemon top layer. Use 2 bricks of cream cheese (softened), 1 package of lemon jello powder mix, 1 cup of sugar and 2 eggs. Using a mixer, blend the ingredients together until it is completely combined and smooth. Pour the lemon cream mixture over your crust layer and pop it in the oven on 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Once it is done, LET IT SIT a little bit. I know we are all impatient (and I am not excluding myself from that) You don't have to wait forever, but before trying to pull it out or cut it into squares, let it solidify a little.

Cut it into squares, and.....

There you have it! I kept them in the fridge. I'm not sure if you have to, but I figured with the cream cheese part it maybe should be kept in the fridge. I'm not sure if after you bake it if it makes a difference, but just to be on the safe side.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Memorial Day Weekend, and were able to spend time with family and friends. And of course,  a shout out to those who serve our country, many of which I know personally, and would like to say THANK YOU for your dedication and courage,  you are all Hero's! xoxoxo

Little Pizza Chef

Last night Andrew & Drew went to pick up Amy from the airport (Drew went because he LOVES to see airplanes) and Emma and I stayed home and made pizzas!
I actually let Emma make the pizzas. Not really sure what I was thinking there, but she absolutely loved it! She had a blast and then she was SO excited to eat it once it was done. She was also really excited for everyone else to eat her pizza. That reminds me, when they were just learning to talk, both of them would call pizza 'teetza'. Do you ever find yourself calling certain things by the name your toddlers have designated for those items? I'm sure child development professionals would strongly object to doing that, but it's hard not to! And some of the names they give things are so funny.... that it just sort of sticks. In our house, chicken nuggets are 'nuggies', donuts are 'donies', we all call my sister 'Chacha', bananas are 'nanas', M&Ms are 'yum-yums', Mac & Cheese is 'ronies cheese'... and the list goes on. They make up their own names for things.
So back to our Teetzas from last night.
I will admit, I did pretty much cheat because I bought the pre-made dough/crust. I usually try not to cheat when I cook, because things just taste better when they are really home made, but that wasn't my intention with this meal. I just thought it would be kinda fun to make the pizzas instead of ordering it.
So I gave Chef Emma the dough, dumped some sauce on it for her to spread around and then gave her the 2 different types of cheese that we were using. (I used one pizza cheese mix, and one 3 Italian cheese mixture)
And, she went to town! Each time we were ready to go to the next step in the process she would say "Mama, let's do it!!"

Spreading the Sauce around

Putting the Cheese on:

2 pizza's ready to pop in the oven:

 And... Here you have it folks! The finished product.

While I'm at it...I'll share 2 of Andrew's favorite chicken recipes that I make.

Parmesan Breaded Baked Chicken

I like to cook with the thin sliced chicken breasts... but it's obviously your preference. I just like that they cook quicker, more evenly, etc... And usually 2 thin sliced pieces are equivalent to 1 chicken breast.

I put breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese in a ziplock bag - with a little garlic salt and pepper and mix it up really good. Sometimes I use the regular breadcrumbs, but Panko breadcrumbs are good to use also.
Throw all of the chicken breasts into the ziplock bag with the parmesan cheese/bread crumbs mixture and toss is around for a bit to make sure all of the chicken is covered. You can leave it at that, OR, sometimes I will take them out, spray them with a little olive oil or butter spray and coat them with the parm/bread mixture again for a little bit of a thicker coating.

Before baking

Place the chicken in a baking dish or on a baking pan and bake until done - which will vary depending on how thick your chicken breast slices are, and your oven. Usually mine go about 30 minutes-ish on 375. But I always end up cutting one in the middle to make sure. I'm definitely not trying to kill my husband with raw chicken.

And that's it!! Easy, right?! And usually I make steamed veggies or something with it - in this case it was a veggie/pasta mix.

I've also mixed some of the ranch mix (packet of dry powder ranch mix) into the parmesan/bread crumb mix on occasion. That's pretty good and adds a little bit of a different flavor.

Lemon-Wine Chicken

I like to use thin sliced chicken breasts for this one too - but again, doesn't make that much of a difference aside from cooking time.
For this one, put about a cup of flour in a big ziplock bag and add garlic salt (or regular salt... I just tend to like to use garlic salt) and pepper. You can also add basil and or parsley.
Put the chicken breasts in the ziplock and shake it up a bit until the chicken is 'dusted' with the flour mixture.
In a skillet or a large stovetop pan (heated with some olive oil and a little bit of butter) - maybe 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a tblspn of butter? You can adjust depending on the amount of chicken you are cooking in it.
Cook the chicken until it is slightly browned on each side (At this point, you don't have to worry about it being completely cooked - but it should be almost there.)
Leaving the chicken in the pan, add white wine, lemon juice and a little bit of chicken broth. Start with about 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice and 1/3 cup of white wine - and 1/4 cup of chicken broth. You will simmer the chicken on a lower heat in this mixture, which will finish cooking the chicken and the sauce should thicken a little bit. If it starts to look dry or if you want more 'sauce', just add another splash of the lemon juice, wine or broth.

And I make a veggie to go with it.

Highlights from our Weekend

Andrew went to San Diego this weekend for his sisters graduation (graduate school). By the way - CONGRATULATIONS AMY!! Way to go, girl!! All of us weren't able to make it out there this time, so Andrew went and then Emma and Drew will get to see Aunt Amy this coming weekend when she comes to visit us!
So this weekend was just me and my twinkies.
Here are a few highlights -

Drew driving his car around. It's his favorite thing to do. And, when it gets dirty, he insists that he needs to take it to the carwash. He has a thing with carwashes. Loves them.

 And.... Good news! The day I've been waiting for!! The pool is open! We did not get in it this weekend though, because the chemicals and chlorine have to balance out first since it's been closed all winter. But it's a step in the right direction! This is where you can find  us on any given weekend day for the next several months.

The kids really want to just jump in. All weekend we had to keep them from getting in. It was like they were being tortured!

Saturday we had tickets to go to this "Exotic Animal Expo."

It was interesting.

That pretty much sums it up. I must first say, their advertising was a bit misleading.

But anyway, I'll try to describe it the best I can.

When we bought the tickets online (it was one of those groupon type sites) several months ago, not knowing or thinking about the fact that Andrew wasn't going to be here. So I dragged my mom along with us. I'm sure she's really glad she was able to experience it. =/

First of all, it was at a mall. (A mall that I had never been to, or heard of before, which should have maybe told us something.) Ok so it was a dump. As we are approaching what wound up being the 'Exotic animal show' we were saying 'No... that can't be it, can it?' Probably should have been our second clue.

They had a make shift stage set up with some folding chairs and reptiles in cat travel boxes and some things that were in little glass aquarium tanks around the edges. Most of the things I couldn't identify. Apparently the highlight of the show was a little monkey, wearing a diaper, on a leash. (Thanks Sara! We had already left by that point I guess.) Which leads me to when we decided to leave. We weren't there long at all, it actually was probably more of a waste of gas than anything, but they had the little aquarium things with little alligators, snakes, iguana's.... huge spiders... And I turn around and Emma had just slid one of them open!! NOT locked or latched shut or anything! Thank god whatever was in that tank was asleep at the time. There was also a HUGE snake in one of those Tupperware storage containers. In the middle of the mall?! I was just waiting for someone to let it out. So, anyway, here are a few photos from that experience. But it didn't last long. Although the kids don't know the difference and they were interested.

Little Caleb would have probably sat here all day long staring at this little creature. So cute! He loved him!!

(Friends of ours also bought tickets to this thing. They had pretty much the same reaction we did. Although they may have even had to drive further than we did for it!)

I think that cage Drew is looking in may have been the one Emma just slid open! And then my mom and I scooped them up and put them in their stroller so fast!

This turtle was almost as big as the kids. Caleb actually rode it!!

We live and learn, right? And again... as long as the kids get the slightest bit of amusement out of it, I'm ok with it. They don't know the difference. And I'm not sure if they noticed that the folks that brought the animals and were giving the presentations were on every drug under the sun. All we wanted to do was take a shower when we left. This would be why my husband always reads reviews about things before just going for it. And, I would be the one that went for these tickets!

So that's that.

Sunday night I took the kids over to my parents for dinner.

 Drew loungin' by the pool

laughing about something with Pop

The weekend was really nice, it was hot and sunny. And then Sunday night rolled around and we had severe storm warnings and a tornado watch. We definitely got the severe thunder storms, complete with lightning, crazy wind, hail (yes, hail.. and it was 80 something degrees an hour before). We were under a tornado watch for a few hours, and the wind knocked our satellite out so we didn't have TV for me to keep up with it, so I was trying to watch it on my phone. All while Andrew was on a flight home. Perfect timing, right?
I am extremely surprised that they were able to land that plane and that he was able to make it home last night. We missed daddy and we were ready for him to come home. And, I will admit, being at home with the kids by myself during all of that was just a little unnerving. With the extreme tornado's that have taken place lately around the country, I was a little freaked out about the tornado warning.

So that we weren't sitting in a dark, quiet room, I was able to get a dvd to play since it didn't require cable or satellite connection. I wanted to keep the kids distracted.

So here's our tornado watch party - complete with a movie and popcorn.

waiting for dad to come home.

And then, I was left with this:

But we all survived and Andrew made it home.

I took this picture when we were in the car. She cracks me up, because she loves her sunglasses (She has about 5 or 6 pair) But she insists on wearing them upside down. ALL the time.

And, Drew playing with stickers ... (I wound up getting a few of them placed on random spots on my face and arms as well.)

This picture just makes me laugh because he was laughing SO hard when I took it. We were playing peek-a-boo, and he thought it was hysterical.

Drivin' Firetrucks!!

Yesterday I was out doing my regular weekend running around & errands, and passed the firehouse and saw they were having an open house, to tour the fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, etc... They had the truck lights on and everything. Well, seeing how Drew is totally obsessed with fire trucks right now, when I got home we took him over there to see the trucks. He was in his glory. Lately, he has actually been thinking that he IS a fire truck, and walks around the house making the siren noises. That gets to be a bit much.

Drew standing on the front of the truck

Drew driving the truck. Emma was his co-pilot

Emma's turn to drive!! The wheel was bigger than them!

Emma being an EMT in the ambulance.

Ringing the bell on the fire truck.

A few pictures from the park on Thursday....

They were going down the slides together at the same time, and would count and try to take off at exactly the same time. It was pretty funny.

It was SO hot that day. But I had to put their jeans on because the day before they kept telling me that the slides were too hot on their butts.

We had our Cancer walk today and to sum it up in one word I would probably say.... Miserable. It really is for a good cause and we were going to go regardless, but it was Cold, Windy and Rainy!! Could it have been any worse? I mean, really? I guess it could always be worse, but it was pretty darn bad. So we didn't hang around after to eat or socialize. They grill when the walk is over and have music. There were big tents but the kids were just cold and upset, so we made it quick.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that donated and have supported us in our effort to raise money for cancer research over the last few years... Every dollar makes a difference and it is a great cause. So even though todays event wasn't exactly enjoyable, our family raised a total of $875! (give or take, I still need to finish counting the change from one of the change jars)

But I can't tell you how much we appreciate all of your donations to help us get that far! xoxoxo

Cookies, Slides and Horses.... Our Day Off

I had an unexpected day off today. Our nanny had her wisdom teeth out on Tuesday, and I had planned on working from home Tuesday and Wednesday figuring she would be back today. She let me know last night that she didn't think she would be able to make it today because the teeth were giving her problems. So, considering my parents are out of town and Andrew is traveling for work... That left, Me! But that's ok, because I love my days with my munchkins.
Emma was battling a stomach virus earlier this week, and the poor thing was scared to eat anything because of it. I don't blame her... But she seems to be doing a lot better, and has a little of her appetite back, so we went to the bakery for breakfast! This bakery (or, 'makery' as Emma would call it) is amazing! It is definitely not something you can frequent, that's for sure. Well, I guess you could... But, anyway.

Those were just some trees out front that I really liked. =)

Giant cake Cupcakes

This place is huge! It goes on forever. It's dangerous.

I let each of them pick out a donut (They have miniature donuts) and a cookie. As you can probably imagine, that was not an easy decision for them to make.

Drew's airplane cookie

Emma really liked this little statue guy...

So, we sat down and ate, and they amused some of the older folks that were also having breakfast there.

It was supposed to rain for most of today, so I was just trying to get them out of the house for a bit. But, the sun was shining and it was really nice out, so on our way home we stopped at a park. It's not the park we usually go to in our neighborhood, but we were driving by it and I remembered them really liking it when we took them there one other time. Apparently every other mother in town had the same idea. But, thats ok because they loved being able to play with all of the kids. Most of the kids there were their age. And I think I may have been the only woman there that wasn't pregnant. = /

This is only about one third of the playground - it's big.

On our way home we stopped to see the horses. The guy that owns (or used to own?) Arlington Race Track has tons of land and a lot of horses that we drive by all the time.. so usually I will pull over and let the kids see the horses for a minute, but today there were a few that were right up at the fence, so we got out and watched them for a little bit.

I kind of had to hold on to Drew most of the time because he was seriously trying to climb over the fence and jump right in there with them! My kids are fearless.

We got home and the kiddos took naps, and in a few minutes we are heading back out to take a walk.

We are looking forward to Daddy coming home from his trip tonight!

This weekend we will be walking in the American Cancer Society's Walk & Roll event raise money for cancer research!! We're really excited to see what we have been able to do as a group. We have raised $140,000 the last two years with this event, and hoping that this year will be just as successful! If you haven't already, and wish to donate to support us, click on the link below and you are able to make a secure, and tax deductible donation! Remember, every dollar makes a difference! Cancer has personally touched us recently, and I can say that it is something that no one should have to deal with. My hope is for my kids to live in a world where cancer is not such a threat.... and people can celebrate more birthdays!! So we are out to kick cancers butt!!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/WalkampRoll/CFPFY11ILWalknRoll?px=14535537&pg=personal&fr_id=34385

I would also like to say, once again, a HUGE THANK YOU to those of you that have supported us, or donated on behalf of our family for this event the last few years!! We really appreciate it!