Great Weekend

This weekend we had a great time!  Started it off by taking the girls to a free thing that the library puts on...it was okay...not sure if Ava liked it but it worked!

Then I dropped the girls off to my mom's for a day and night without kids!!!  They had fun.  This was the first time mom had them both...they stayed up until 10:30 watching movies and having tea parties..I have a picture but I can't get it on here...


I then went to visit my niece, she just had a baby...so sweet.  After a couple hours with her I decided to go to the ghetto mall...it was nice just to walk around by myself...we take that for granted sometimes!  


I finally came home and we went to dinner with some great friends The Cox family.  We went to Carrabba's it was nice then we went to their house and they introduced me to Words with Friends...now I'm kinda addicted but aren't ANY good!!!


Saturday we kinda slept in and then went to eat breakfast together, girls came home and Mike and my mom took them shoe shopping while I went to a baby shower...then we went to a good friends 30th birthday party.


Sunday we had church and a new members class.  Afterwards we took our friends Melissa and David to the winery in Plant City...they had some friends from out of town that wanted to go...it was nice just to spend adult time with good friends!

To finish the weekend off we had them all over for dinner and we watched Madea Goes to Jail.  It was a nice weekend!


Today the weather is yucky but I decided to wash my car.  Ava loves to play in the water...

And tonight well its our last Monday night dinner with my other family...The Albrittons, they are moving to a church north of Gainesville.  I guess I'll post more later about how our dinner went :)

its been way too long

So tonight I decided I needed to do something, somewhere to vent somewhere to share and I thought...why not blog again!!!  My last post was March 2010!  I can't believe it, well yea I can...its been a long year and I hope to keep this up, especially with the summer and all the things I've got planned...ha ha


So I don't even know where to begin... lets just start with what I've been doing this week...


Monday I went to Ikea with Ms. Vivian, Evelyn and Abi...had a long day there but was worth it! 


Tuesday, I decided to make it a priority to take the girls to the Cobb for FREE movies on Tuesday and Thursday...they actually show two movies a week showings on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays...but I have other plans on Wednesdays so T/R works great...


This is the picture from Tuesday we saw A Diary of a Wimpy Kid.... they both loved it!

After the movie we walked in the heat around Lakeside with Kim and Brendan then had a cheap lunch at Burger King


Wednesday, we stayed home and I cleaned!!!  Then later a guy from church came over so I could help him look for jobs and prepare a resume.  Kinda a slow day


Today we went to see How to Train a Dragon...was good but not a favorite...here are some pics from today

Tonight I took this picture of Mike and the girls while Mike was trying to look things up on his new toy...the Ipad2 Ava just couldn't help to get all up in his space...

So I've started this and now I also found out how easy it is to upload my phone pics to this blog I have a feeling I've started a little something...thanks for letting me post away...maybe I will have some followers (if that's the wording) :)

Random Pics

Don't have much to write about but have some random picture to share

Mike and Abi boxing with the Wii

 She's loving the big bath tub!

 Green Eggs and Ham, yes I made them...Abi missed school last week and she was upset because she was going to miss making them, so I made them and she didn't eat them.  Me and Mike did-- pretty good!

Grocery Cart

Does anyone shop at Winn Dixie? Well I do and the one I shop at has remodeled the store and stuff in the past year, well yesterday Ava and I went shopping. Just like we have in the past. This day was a little interesting. After we were done I needed to return my redbox movie which is about 10-20 feet from the store. I was pushing my cart and then all the sudden the cart locked up on me! I couldn't believe it, I was trying to push it just trying to make it to the redbox...if anyone was watching me they had to be laughing! It wasn't moving! Then out of all people a bum walks by and and looks and me and I said what is going on...he said " they lock up" so I had to leave Ava (just a few feet away) to return my movie and then either drag the cart to my car or transfer all my groceries to another cart. So luckily there was another cart next me to. So yeah, my cart locked up on me and if this has happened to me, let me know...I just laughed at my self!

Swing

Since the weather has been so nice lately, we've been able to take advantage of it.  Ava loves the swing.

Abi doesn't stop talking as you can tell in the video I have no clue what she is doing!

Abi is the new big helper

Abi started helping me with Ava.  What a big sister, she also feeds her just like Mike, she opens her mouth when she gives her food!  Its funny to watch!

Our backyard

So about a month or longer we had our drain field for our septic replaced, which meant the back yard got to be a huge mess.  So after that was done, Mike decided that he would dig up the entire back yard and start fresh!  Well he didn't know how hard it was!  See we have devil weed (stinging neddle) in the backyard so really we couldn't enjoy it if we wanted to.  That's why Mike wanted to dig it all up.  Well after two weeks of piles in the back yard I convinced him that he shouldn't be doing this and where would we put all the dirt!  So I called my uncle, he's a landscaper with a tracker.  He came out and hauled all the dirt away and leveled it all out. 

After he leveled it all we laid rye seed down.  Well that took forever and Mike wanted sod, so we got sod!  Its brown sod, but the promise it will get green!  We also got some palms from a great friend so our back yard is starting to look better. 

Yeah this was a boring blog, but I had pictures so I thought I would share...

Once the sod gets finished being laid I will take more pics to share!

Recipes

So I'm trying out some new recipes this coming up week. Tonight's was a winner! This one is for Becky it has a glaze!

Glazed Chicken with Apple Salad

(Pampered Chef-29 Minutes to Dinner cookbook)

Dressing & Apple Salad

2 tbsp cider vinegar

2 tbsp apple jelly

1/3 cup Mayo

1 Granny Smith Apple

1 McIntosh or Gala Apple

1/2 cup lightly packed watercress

Chicken & Glaze

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt & pepper

2 tbsp apple jelly

1 tsp stone-ground mustard

1 tbsp brown sugar

1. For dressing, mix together vinegar, jelly and mayo, set aside. For salad, slice apples into julienne strips. Remove leaves from watercress stems. (discard stems); coarsely chop watercress leaves. Combine apples and watercress in bowl.

2. For chicken. heat Grill Pan (since this is a pampered chef recipe) not sure what else you would use, I guess just a pan to medium high heat 5 minutes. Meanwhile, flatten chicken to even thickness. Brush oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook chicken 4-6 minutes or until grill marks appear. Turn chicken over; cook 4-6 minutes or until center is no longer pink.

3. While chicken is cooking, prepare glaze. Combine jelly. mustard and brown sugar in a small bowl (prep bowl if have one) Brush chicken with glaze during the last minute of cooking.

4. To serve, arrange additional watercress on serving plate, if desired. Pour dressing over salad just before serving; toss gently to coat. Top watercress with salad and chicken

Yield: 4 servings Calories: 280 per serving

Abi's Photo Shoot

A couple weeks ago Abi was outside playing in the dirt, remember those piles I was talking about, well since it was such a nice day out I figured I would take some pics, she's not dressed up at all, we just had fun!  Enjoy!

Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom

Yesterday as I was on hold with the turbo tax people Ava was sleeping and Abi was playing in her room.  She came out and told me..."I cleaned my door", I said with what, but before I could get that short phrase out of my mouth, I smelled it...she cleaned it with Lavender Hand Sanitizer!  Oh my and wait it gets better then she decides to go into the bathroom taking a long time then she comes out and asks me what is this, while holding a small bottle of cologne.  I asked her where she got it etc.  She told me out of the trash.  Well then again I smell something!  She smelled like the cologne.  Since I was on the phone I couldn't really do much, but after they hung up on me I went into the bathroom and the smell was so strong!  She apparently poured it out in the sink and instead of throwing it back in the garbage she climbs up on the toilet and puts in the medicine cabinet, like she didn't do anything!  Oh the joys of staying at home!  Below are some pictures from the last couple weeks, mostly of Ava because she's so darn cute!

 Yes, Abi is doing work, I bought this at Sams and she loves it!  She's going to be smart!

This is how I keep her contained...just kidding!

 She got stuck behind the end table!

 She's sitting in her MESSY play room listening to music while she's figured out a way to keep the basketball in one place so she can prop her legs up!

 Thought this was cute...you can see her tooth!

 This is one of those pictures I was suppose to take when she was newborn...just a little late she's almost 10 months!

Valentine's weekend

This year Mike surprised me, well he tried to until Andy blew it.  But oh well.  I knew Mike had something planned because he was texting and being secretive he wouldn't even talk to me!  So Friday night we went with the Garmons to Pizza Connection.  On the way to pick them up I kept asking Mike what we were doing.  He wouldn't tell me.  I told him it would with probably be either The Melting Pot or PF Chang's.  Well we picked the Garmon's up in the mini and we were discussing what we were going to get on the pizzas, Andy said...Lettuce Wraps from PF Chang's....I looked at Mike and he looked in the rear mirror and said "Thanks Andy"...so I knew what we were doing, but didn't know with who or if it was with ourselves.  I knew the Garmon's couldn't come so narrowed it down...don't have that many friends!  :)  Well I was really hoping that Danny and Courtney would be able to go with us or if Mike asked them I hope they would say yes, since we don't get to spend much time with them.  Well traffic to Tampa is awful so we thought we were running a little late, Mike called someone and said we were in traffic and would be there soon.  So I knew then someone was going with us.  But still didn't know who.  We finally got there not too much after he called whomever, and walked in and there they were...Danny and Courtney!  Yay!  I was really happy.  So we all enjoyed dinner and talked the whole time to the point where I had to say, I think we need to leave since they are probably wanting to sit the table.  But the night didn't end there we walked around the mall trying to find them something to wear for an event, but no luck.  Thanks Honey for the nice night and thanks Danny and Court for being such good friends! 

Here's some pictures of Abi & Ava all dressed up in there Valentine's outfits.

After church that evening we decided to roast marshmellows...yummy!  Abi learned that she really likes them.  I think me and her ate all of them because Mike was gone on his phone doing church business...