Rock Climbing

Last Thursday, Rhett's friend had his birthday party at a local indoor rock climbing wall. It was so fun! Now, Rhett wants to do his next party there! The kids each took a turn or two climbing. Even Miss Gracie with her skirt and flip flops! Jason also scaled the top and rang the bell, but I didn't get to see it. I arrived late due to a meeting at the school, so I missed out. I did get to see the kids and take these pics though!

Braden

Rhett






Gracie

Workin' and Eatin' at the Lake House

Last Sunday we drove over to my mom and dad's house to hang out with them for the day. They've got a beautiful place on the lake and they've almost always got some sort of project going on. Today, the project of choice was working on the rock retaining walls. Jason was glad to be able to help with the manual labor. Plus, he loves landscaping stuff and still misses it since he went out of the business about 3 1/2 yrs ago.

Here's PaPa and the kids on his "buggy". Goober wouldn't miss the photo op either!

Daddy let all the kids ride back from getting some gravel with him.
Even Gracie wanted to help!



Gracie loved riding with her Daddy.

After the work was done, PaPa and Daddy took the kids to the water for a little fishing while MeMe and I cooked. Mom had been smoking a pork roast and ribs all day and I made some taters, green beans and mac and cheese for the kiddos.

This picture will perfectly illustrate just how good the meal was. Rhett, aka World's Pickiest Eater, couldn't get enough of the roast and ribs!

Saturday at the Craft Fair

Last Saturday morning, we went to a craft fair. It was so neat. I could really do some major damage to the budget at these kinds of things!



We bought the aprons I'd already mentioned in a previous post as well as some other things.

Gracie scored this hot pink tutu. Of course, she insisted on wearing it immediately!

Daddy gave Gracie a lift on our way to the car. She's holding her new Raggedy Ann doll that Mammaw bought her. She's even wearing Razorback clothes!


I was asking Daddy if he'd carry me out too!

The boys each got some handmade wooden crossbows from Mammaw and Daddy bought them wooden swords and shields too.

Gracie got 2 precious handmade dresses and an assortment of awesome hairbows too.

We had a fun day!!

Fun at the Fair

Last Friday night, we took the kiddos to the fair. Uncle Jeff is leaving for Antarctica soon, so we were glad he could join us too. We had LOTS of fun! We were there for over 4 hours!

Rhett and Braden on the Ferris Wheel.

Jeff and Jason

Uncle Jeff bought an armband and rode every ride the kids wanted to ride. He rode so much at one point we thought he was gonna lose his Twister Taters!


Here's the boys' first time on the Tilt-A-Whirl. Uncle Jeff sure could get that thing spinning!

Gracie on the teacups.

Kids on the dragon roller coaster. That's Rhett in the black t-shirt on the back. Braden and Gracie are riding together below him. Check out the look on Gracie's face! You'd never know it, but this turned out to be her favorite ride and she rode it 5 times in a row at one point in the night!

What sweet little girl doesn't like riding the Carousel?!

Jason and Jeff look like their solving the world's problems on their way up the "Drop Zone".

They bribed Braden to ride it with them later in the night. He was Capital T Terrified!

I can't say that I blame him! That's a LONG ways up there! You can see their legs dangling down before they dropped.

I missed the pic of his face right when they got down, but it was priceless. It was a look of pure terror. This is him when he got off the ride and walked over to me. I had asked him, "Whatd'ya think of that ride??"

Those were the best smoked Turkey legs we've ever eaten. Y.U.M.M.Y.

Gracie and Daddy on the way out of the fair. She was too tired to walk anymore!

The boys with their new pets they won. They're tiny little goldfish. Rhett's is named Dr. Ralphie and Braden's is named ________. I can't remember... I'll have to get back to you on that! Was it Bruno? Why can't I remeber?!

UPDATE: It's Biff. And Rhett says you can call Dr. Ralphie just Dr. Ralph if you'd like.

Dancin' Queen

Gracie is still loving her dance class. She talks about it all week and waits patiently for Tuesday afternoons.


This week, their end of class performance was to "The Wheels on the Bus".


One of the cutest things I've ever seen. I love her teacher Mrs. Emily. You can see her next to Gracie in this video. She's around 4 months pregnant with her first child. You can hardly tell. She's just the cutest little thing.

What's For Dinner?

I've been on one of my culinary highs lately. I go back and forth with this. I will go for a while when all I want to do is be in my kitchen creating things. Then I'll go for a while when I think I'll scream if I have to cook another meal. For now, I'm riding the high while it lasts and my family is enjoying it. Well, my husband is enjoying it. The kids are enjoying most of it. The veggies, not so much!
I thought I'd share some of the yummy goodness we've been enjoying lately. I will post recipes later if anyone is interested.

I was attemping to make a Taco Soup, but altered the ingredients/amounts a bit to make it more of a chili/stew. I decided to name this one "Mexican Chicken Chili" and it was delish. We ate it with shredded cheese on top and dipped tortilla chips in it as well. This was a crock pot meal, which made it even better! I threw it all in the pot at 8am and it was ready by 4pm. I must admit that I did not force my children to eat this. They're not much of the "all in one pot" meal. They like their ingredients plain jane and separate, for the most part. This night, they ate chicken nuggets and green beans instead.

A couple nights before the chili, I made Nacho Chicken (coated in crushed Doritos!) and also, these Parmesean Potato Wedges. Talk about yummy. Jason was the only one who seemed to like the chicken very much. I don't think I'll be making that again. But the taters, they've already made a second appearance at dinner at my mom and dad's last weekend and I'm pretty sure we'll see them again.

Last night, was spaghetti. On Monday, Labor Day, I made a pot of homemade spaghetti sauce with beef. One of those "simmered on the stove for 4 hour" varieties. We already had dinner (leftover roast, taters, and green beans from mom and dad's on Sunday) so after it was done, I put it in the fridge for the next night.

Here's Jason's plate. I promise there's some good looking spaghetti sauce under all that mozzarella cheese! And I didn't even put a vegetable on the man's plate. You'd think he'd died and gone to heaven.

Here's my kid-version of spaghetti night. Again, not big fans of the meat and the sauce actually being cooked together in the same pot. So, I just gave them plain marinara sauce over their noodles. Noodle variety of the night, Radiattore. I always try to mix it up and use different shapes so they never know what they're getting. They seemed to like this one.

You'll also notice that there's not a single vegetable on the plate. GASP. When I realized this at the last minute, I immediately grabbed some bananas and sliced them up on their plates. It made me feel like a better mom, and the kids loved it. They were STOKED about the no veggies deal. They take after their father! I must say that Braden and Gracie normally do pretty good with the veggies. I didn't have any luck with the Zucchini I made last week, but the standard corn and green beans are usually big hits with them. Rhett on the other hand... not so much.

Enjoying Spaghetti night!

I pulled out my current favorite cook book and decided to make a quick dessert at the last minute. The book calls it "Chocolate Spoon Pie". I prefer "Warm, Ooey, Gooey Chocolate Cake."Here's a serving of the "pie". It was supposed to have been served "A La Mode" but we didn't have any "Mode". I'm still trying to lose 1 more pant size and ice cream is a BIG weakness for me. So, I just tend not to keep it around. Although, I'm not sure the dessert in general is a good idea. Oh, well. Life is short!! But it would've been heavenly with the cold ice cream though. Not sure eating it without the ice cream did the recipe justice.

I recently purchased a beautiful roasting pan from my favorite Pampered Chef consultant, my friend Brenda Manley. I have a whole chicken in my fridge and I'm planning for the two to meet sometime this week. My mouth is watering already. I've been dreaming about roasting that chicken in my new pan.

I have some ground turkey in the freezer that I intend to make Turkey Tacos with in the near future as well. Other than that, no big culinary plans. Yet. I've been taking the cookbooks to bed with me at night, so I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Oh, did I share my kitchen inspiration with you yet?

A new apron. I've never had a cute apron. In fact, I've been using one for years that my MaMa Dennie gave me that was a freebie from the Louisiana Lottery. It's the only one I've ever had. We went to a craft fair this past weekend and my sweet hubby bought me this one. And he bought Gracie one to match.

Aren't we just darlin' little 1950's looking divas in our new aprons??

I temporarily broke my "no kid touches the camera" rule to let Gracie snap this picture of me.

After calling my spaghetti "the best I've ever had in my life" last night, Jason said if the apron was my inspiration, he would happily run out and buy me 5 more.

Off to start making buttercream. I'm making my nephews birthday cake this week!

Day at the Ball Park

This past Sunday, we met my Mom and Dad aka MeMe and PaPa at Arvest Ball Park for a Naturals game. This was their first time at this ball park and I think they really enjoyed themselves.

It was Nickelodeon kids day and they had these big character cutouts on display.

Gracie was excited when she saw Dora.

PaPa and Gracie

Daddy and Braden



MeMe and Rhett

After the game was over, the kids got to run the bases.

Here's Braden in the gray shirt, jean shorts and hat about to hit the base.

Here's Rhett in the dark shirt and hat about to hit the base.


Here's Braden crossing home plate!
Here's Rhett crossing home plate!

It was very sunny, but it was a mild day with temps in the low to mid 70's. The game went into extra innings and we were there for 4 hours, but we had lots of fun and lots of yummy snacks too. Thanks for coming to spend the day with us MeMe and PaPa! We can't wait for the next fun outing we can all do together!