Busy busy week!

So its already Tuesday! Monday flew by, thank goodness and here we are. I have a lot of plans for this week! Most of them are recipes I want to try. This evening we have our Parents as Teachers lady, Kathleen, coming by for a visit at 4:30. I am very excited! We have only met with her once but she was so wonderful it was hard to wait all summer to meet with her again! At 7 this evening I am meeting up with a few work friends for a drink! I know.... On a Tuesday! One of the architects here is in a "Rockabilly" band that is playing in Westport at 7. Seeing as I promised him I would come see him play at some point, I figured a 7 o'clock show was the perfect time for me :) I can still be at home in bed by 10! (You know you are getting old when you say that) lol
As for the rest of the week there are several new recipes I want to try! Most of them are from blogs that I subscribe to :)
Cauliflower Curry from The Way the Cookie Crumbles
Lime Coconut Cheesecake from Our Best Bites
I need to use up an old baguette (bread crumbs), so I was thinking maybe an easy chicken parm with whole wheat pasta? I would just throw this one together, no recipe needed.
Blueberry Crumb bars from Annie's Eats (We made the peach ones last week! SO GOOD)
Apple Pie from Deb Spalding, a fellow 360er who gave our pie tutorial!
I know I will not get all of these desserts made but I am thinking I will definitely get the apple pie made. My Grandma picked some apples for me a few weeks back that I still have not used! YIKES. I hope they are still good because I was going to make her mini apple pies in my large cupcake pan... Or I guess I could just go for the full pie since my Aunt Marian will be in town. I know that between, Granny & Grandpa, Mom & Dad, Me & PJ and Marian this pie will get eaten! That is what I will do :)
So that is all on my week for now! Have a great Tuesday :)

Friday Night Football

My dad is a teacher at Rockhurst High school here in KC. So when he offered us free tickets to the big rivalry game between Rockhurst and Blue Spring, PJ and I were happy to take them off his hands :) We invited a few friends and headed out to the game!The game was packed! So we ended up standing on the visitors side for the first half.

Me and my PJ :)

Me & Sari!

It was a fun way to take me back to my high school days :) As well as give us a glimpse of the fun that is to come with Brody! Hope everyone had a fun Friday!

What we are given

Driving into work this morning I was listening to my usual, K-Love. The song "God You Reign" came on. First of all I thoroughly enjoy this song. But as I was listening to it this morning it really moved me... I sat there thinking to God, so basically praying in my own way, about how much he has given me, and how my view of life has truly been changed since having Brody. This morning for the first time I thought of Brody as our gift from God. Brody without knowing it, or even doing anything for this cause, has brought God back into my life. . . And I am so thankful. I have been given so much of the things that really matter.... family, love, friendship, health. These are the things that matter most and touch my heart single everyday. The song brought me to tears this morning, in a good way. God has brought me happiness :) Have a great Friday friends!

My love for Rompers

I love me a good romper! Granted I only have 2 of them, and one of them was just given to me by my sister, they both are among my favorites in my wardrobe! I have my yellow cotton one... very casual, cute and easy for running errands and such!

This was one of my fav outfits for Disney world it was so easy and comfy! LOVE IT! First with PJ in Animal Kingdom, you can see the mountain in the back! And the second is probably one of my fav pictures from the whole trip! We entered Africa (in Animal Kingdom) and I saw an African Dancing tutorial going on. I asked all the girls if they wanted to try it. Ella was the only one who wanted to! I was SHOCKED that the other girls did not jump at the chance! Regardless Ella and I had the best time shaking our booties! I think the picture portrays that really well :)

The second romper i just inherited from my sister. Its a denim one. A little dressier, if you can even call a romper dressy! haha I wore it for the first time last Sunday. I threw a green cardigan over it and put on an antique gold broach (I believe my great grandmothers on my mom's side) and yes I did wear it to breakfast and church :) Along with my 2 most used accessories, the diaper bag and my coffee mug! Here are a few pics out front before heading to breakfast at Einstein Bros with the fam.

PJ took these pics and apparently could not get one with my eyes open! Oh that silly boy. Oh well you all get the point!

Happy almost Friday day!

Splurge

My favorite special treat to myself... to go get a pedi with my sistie! We went this evening and it was wonderful! Not only do I love the foot & calf massage but also my toenails looking perfectly polished :) I took my sister for her late B-day present. It was perfect timing too because Brody was in bed and PJ had his fantasy football draft this evening.

I have been choosing different colors this summer, not the usual pinks and reds. I have done green, purple, and now blue! Playing with toenail polish has been a fun way to spice up my look.

I love this matte blue polish!

Date Night

My mom had mentioned free tickets to the sneak peak of The Producers at Starlight on Monday night. When PJ acted interested I jumped on it! We had a coupon for a free meal to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Brookside. So we popped over there before the show and then headed to Starlight. There was a slight breeze, so it made for a nice evening outdoors! We both thoroughly enjoyed the show!

The set over intermission! I loved all of the lights and flashy signs!

PJ and me before the show started. This was the best pic we had... for some reason I just looked like poop in all of them! lol

And of course we got a huge bucket of popcorn over intermission! It was the perfect date night :)

Rabbit's food.... I think not!

I had all the fixin's for a delicious salad for lunch today. The best part was that everything was all ready to go. No prep involved!

Green leaf lettuce, Cucumber & white onion (leftover from a cucumber/onion salad with red wine vinaigrette), Grilled Chicken (leftover from BBQ Saturday), Bruschetta (tomato, onion, garlic,basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, leftover from BBQ Saturday),Feta Cheese and Diced Olive

Yes it was that easy and SOOOO GOOD!

And a fresh mango for dessert! Yes my lunch was a delish as it looks :) Happy Monday!

Weekends how we love thee!

Its been a wonderful weekend :) Friday night we headed to Butler to spend some time with PJ's fam. We had a delicious pork dinner with mashed potatoes, green beans, hominy and strawberry shortcake for dessert. We played an impromptu game of poker, which I am proud to say PJ and I were the last 2 in so we won $40! That was a very pleasant surprise :) We came back yesterday morning and hung out for a bit. Brods and I went to the pool and met up with Aunt Bef, Uncle Tev and Nana! It was perfect hot and sunny, just right for a pool day! After that Brods took a long nap while we went to Macys. We got Brods several new outfits, all around $3! It was a successful Shopping trip. Then back home to bbq with the fam and watch the chiefs preseason game. Needless to say we were wiped out and went to bed promptly at 10. lol But that made for wonderful sleep and a good start to our Sunday. Now to get ready for breakfast and then mass. My sis and her husband are house shopping so I think Brods and I might go check some out with the today, just for fun :) Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!!! :)

Super Woman

Even though I know I am not Superwoman, I did have a superwoman night last night :) I got almost everything marked off my list that I wanted to! This rarely happens, sometimes I don't even get to the list to start redlining....

1. Fold Brody's laundry
2. Changing Brody's sheets/blanket & tidy up his little room
3. Start my laundry
4. Weed garden (its like a small jungle out there)
5. Go through seeds, separate & get rid of the old
6. Make dinner & homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert
7. Make zucchini bread for trip to PJ's parents (and one loaf for work this AM)
8. take a shower
9. Paint my finger nails

And I got everything checked off except for starting my own laundry & painting my finger nails which have now been transferred to my list for today :) I love when I am able to be productive! I got all of this done while working a full time job, then coming home to my second, and FAVORITE, full time job, being a super fantabulous Mama! (or doing my darnedest) Ok I am done patting myself on the back for this morning. Everyone have a WONDERFUL Friday!!!!

Parrrrrrrrrrrty!

My sister, Beth and her husband, Kevin, have the same birthday.... August 6 but they are one year about. So this year for Kevin's 30th birthday Beth decided to put together a party for the big 3 0! They rented a patio at a local bar and invited family and friends. It was a great time! It took about 4 days to recover from the cocktails. But hey, every now and then you have to really celebrate. And what a perfect occasion to do so! Here are some pics from the lovely evening :)

Beth and Kevin with their birthday hats on! We are about to sing happy birthday to them both.

The 2 birthday cakes!

Dad & Beth The 2 proud Mamas!

Rick, basically party of the family with Sarah and me! Me and Peeeeeeeeej :)

Me and the B-day Boy! Our boys!

Happy B-day Sistie! Brent, our brotha from anotha motha! (Just pretend)

Me and Gracie Lou Me and Sari

Kevin and his college buddies that came out to celebrate him turning 30!

Fun was had & sleep was lost, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

Happy Thursday Friends!

Gardening

I have to admit I did not take very good care of my garden this summer... I thought I would have all of this spare time while working full time, being a mommy and keeping our home up... not so much the case. I guess I could have been out there from 7:30 - 8:30 but by the time dinner is done and the kitchen is cleaned up I barely wanted to take a shower and crawl into bed. So anyways I went out to pick some tomatoes last night, a few of us are meeting up for a picnic today and i volunteered to bring bruschetta, and there was a small jungle of weeds and volunteer tomatoes growing in my garden. I hated to do it but i just started ripping things out like there was no tomorrow! I cleared out about 4 volunteer tomato plants and several large arm fulls of weeds, oh trust me there is still much more to be done. There were tomatoes that had been on the ground that were rotting, this was not a pretty sight people! So I spent roughly 45 mins picking, pulling, throwing... etc you get the picture. I did come out with 2 large bowls full of tomatoes. I have a lot of beautiful cherry tomatoes i also have a lot of large tomatoes that have tomato blight on one half. I made bruschetta out of the pretty tomatoes and am saving the others for salsa making tonight with my mom and sis :) Well its really salsa making with my mom.... Beth likes to come over hang out with Brods and then take a bunch of the salsa home. lol she does not get down with the whole cooking thing. Here are a few pics of some tomatoes that I picked. Happy hump day!

This is a medium sized tomato, even though it looks like a grape tomato in this pic. Its actually the perfect size in my book! Its like a mix between grape & Roma.

A cherry tomato sliced in half before going into the bruschetta bowl! So delicious and juicy. I think cherry tomatoes might be my fav!

This one looked like a little pumpkin! Like the ones that are used for table decor during the fall... Seriously SO CUTE! I am going to slice it up to go with some mozzarella for lunch today.

Family day

We had a great Sunday! I woke up and met my mom for breakfast on the patio at Einstein brothers, read the paper and munched away on a breakfast sandwich. We headed to church and then the grocery store after that. We got home around 1 and I thought Brody would go down for a nap.... I was wrong! So we met up with the fam at the pool. It was a perfect "pool day" as my mom would say. The temp probably reached 85 there were white fluffy clouds and lots of wonderful rays.

Brody & Nana (LOVE this pic!)

I can not believe how time flies. I remember the first time we went to the Prairie Village pool and Brods just sat in between my legs content to sit and watch. Boy have things changed! He was wanting to crawl all over the baby pool, Chase his little fish toys, stand up, splash around. You name it and he was up for it yesterday!

It was a great Sunday! Hope everyone has a wonderful week :)

Beef its what's for dinner!

PJ got a free smoker from a friend and has been saying how he needed to try it out. This weekend we had nothing going on so it was the perfect weekend to try it out! I went to Bichelmeyer's, a meat market/butcher and picked up a 6 pound brisket for PJ's first go-a-round with the smoker. We woke up around 7 & that puppy was on there by 8.

I had decided bruschetta would be the perfect appetizer since I have a ton of cherry tomatoes and a friend had given me some basil from her garden. It was soooooo good! I brushed the bread with olive oil and garlic, threw the bread on the grill, one side got a little crisp, and topped it with the tomato, basil & onion mixture! OMG I will be making this again very soon!

For sides we had grilled corn and veggie kabobs, both delish.

And of course for the main event of the evening... wonderful wonderful wonderful smoked brisket!

I unfortunately did not get pics of the dessert, but it was so yummy. We had 2 options, homemade peach pie, or homemade chocolate chip cookie bars each served a'la mode with homemade vanilla ice cream!

What a delectable evening :)

Sunrise

On my way into work I looked to the east and saw the most beautiful sunrise, what a fantastic way to start my Friday! So when I pulled into our parking garage I was pleasantly surprised to see I had arrived about 15 minutes early to work. So I trucked it up the 2 flights of stairs to the top of the garage, which is open air to take in the beautiful scene...

The pictures do not quite do it justice but there were shades or pink and orange. On the drive in the Western Auto sign was backlit by the sun, it was a wonderful greeting to the crossroads this morning. I had to try and snap a pic with my phone :)

Happy Friday Friends!

Say Cheese!

I have been trying to give Brody the best start on his palate by making all of his baby food at home. Well I think my baby food making days are over.... he seems to be on a strike against all homemade food except for applesauce. So I think I will give into the demand, especially after seeing how much he enjoyed his macaroni and cheese last night!

He was such a happy boy eating his macaroni and cheese dinner! We are going to do a big grocery store run this weekend so I plan to stock up on Gerber as well as some new finger foods! He has not had any yet because he has a sensitive gag reflex but we are going to persevere through that and keep on trying! :)