Sunny Saturday with perfect weather!

Today was relaxing and spent mostly outside..... Kids swinging and dogs staying close!

 

My Sweet Gus Man!

 

Sweet Miss Izzie!

Mickey mouse and Piggy's birthday!

Yesterday morning Padyn informed me that it was Piggy's (little stuffed beanie baby pig) birthday. Porter promptly informed me it was of course Mickey Mouse's birthday as well! So we took to the day with a party that evening.

We started with cupcakes, Padyn wanted green cupcakes with toppers and Porter wanted yellow with sprinkles.

Then we made party hats.... Porter didn't want to wear his, but Padyn, Piggy, and MM wore theirs.

When it was time for the party, after dinner our neighbors came over and we sang to the birthday "kids".

 First to Piggy

Then To Mickey Mouse

 

This day made Padyn's week and after a week of a sick house it was fun for us all.

June pictures

In an effort to pick back up with keeping the blog, and taking pics of the kids, I am going to try to take a pic each day of the kids.....

Today started with rain so we spent over an hour playing with play-doh.

Little Man Blowing his Nose...

Porter has started "blowing his nose" and it cracks me up so I took a quick video on my phone so I could share.

You Scream I Scream we all scream for ICE CREAM!

So Last Wednesday (yes a full week ago) Tripp was home sick and I had a pile of Redbox to return that I had rented for him the day before. He wasn't up staying home with the kids while I returned them so the three of us jumped in the swagger wagon and headed to redbox. After I returned the movies, with a HUGE thanks to the lady who let me go in front of her, I decided we needed ice cream.
We had done ice cream on Mother's Day and I completely missed the entire ice cream cone Porter ate (his first) b/c the lady who was scooping our ice cream decided EVERYTHING was more important than actually doing her job, and talking to her coworkers too priority over the lady with two small kids and a husband who was trying to keep the kids seated and supervising the eating of the ice cream cones.
SOOOO I needed a redo and here it is. This time I skipped the cone and got a snack size McFlurry for the kids to split. We got home, I put it in bowls and we hit the porch.

Padyn was saying CHEEEESE (that's why she has that look) and it wasn't a good picture (totally on my phone)




Porter's turned out much more photogenic. He has a better CHEEEESE face and I LOVE the ice cream dripping down chin and shirt.

New Family Member, Cinco de Mayo, Sick Hubby, and BBQ Chicken Nachos...

Yes it has been entirely too long since I have been back on here. B/t getting the power back on and Tripp finally going back to work, then he was sick with the flu for 4 days then we had out of town guests for 2 nights, then brewfest with the Beckers....

And the worst part is I took next to no pictures.

Padyn got a new Puppy from her Lala


Meet "Puppy Lou" We currently had the little brown puppy who answers to "puppy" then we have George. So Lala and Padyn named Puppy Lou from Lala's dog Lou Lou and that's how Puppy Lou became a member of our family.



Then let's Celebrate "Cinco De Mayo".....

When Daddy was sick Porter was a good comforter!


He loves his Daddy more than ANYTHING in the world....Literately!

And Last but not least.... while using up Cinco leftovers we recreated one of the very best dishes.... Rosies (Mexican restaurant in Huntsville) has a BBQ chicken nachos that are soooo great!
Here is my take!


Now I left them in the broiler just a min too long. I took leftover shredded chicken and warmed it up in some BBQ sauce on the stove. Then layer a few black beans on the tortilla chips, then top with the BBQ chicken and sprinkled shredded cheddar on top. Put in the oven under broiler just until the cheese melts.
Serve with guac, sour cream and salsa!
You will LOVE this quick snack for a Saturday afternoon or serve with fruit and rice and you could even have it for dinner.

The Worlds BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies

So how many of you have seen the episode of Friends when Monica is OBSESSED with having THE BEST chocolate chip recipe? Well I laugh every time I see it b/c that is SOOO me. I have this dream that my children will be polite when they are at their friends house and eat the cookies that are offered but then the come home and tell me mine are still the best!... haha we will see, but I do think I have a FABULOUS recipe.
It came from my maternal Grandmother and I remember when I was a little girl going to her house in Vermont and making these cookies. Every time I make it I put on my apron and it takes me back. The biggest difference is back in the day we mixed it all by hand, now I have my trusty kitchen aid.

This is BY Far one of my Favorite pictures of my grandmother at my wedding...




On to the best Chocolate Chip cookies in the world!

Cream:
1/2 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 c shortening
add
2 eggs
1 pkg (2c) chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla
sift
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

bake at 350 for 12 min














The Trick is to NEVER over cook the cookies... these a made a little smaller than normal because I wanted to make sure I made enough cookies, so these only baked for 10 min.

Here is a pic of my little monster while I was baking!