Blogger Challenge Day 21

Today's blogger challenge is favorite recipes. Oh man...I love food. I wouldn't say I am a suzy homemaker, but I like to cook when I want to. And sometimes it's good and sometimes it isn't. Poor Bryan and the kids have to suffer through some of my "cooking mistakes." Anyway, I love winter. It is my favorite season. Why? Crockpot food, of course! I love to make Santa Fe soup. Mmmmm! It is so good. And when I make it I usually put a little extra beans and tomatoes just so it makes more. Here is the recipe:
    
     1 lb ground beef
     2 pkgs. Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing
     2 pkgs. taco seasoning
     1 (16 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
     1 (16 oz.) can kidney bean, undrained
     1 (16 oz) can rotel
     1(16 oz.) can diced italian style tomatoes
     1 (16 oz.) can shoepeg corn, undrained
     Onion powder, to taste (you can use 1 onion diced)
     Salt and pepper to taste

   Cook beef and drain. Add all remaining ingredients in a crockpot. Stir. Cook slow. Garnish with sour cream, shredded cheese and corn chips.

Blogger Challenge Day 20

Well, today of the blog challenge is a hobby of mine. Well, this blogging thing has become a hobby. I love doing it and I feel like I am doing this not only as a hobby, but as a "gift" for the kids and Bryan, for that matter. I can put all that we do (well, most of what we do), and pictures on here so we can always look back on it and remember when we did different things. I used to scrapbook, and I loved it, but I haven't been able to for over a year now. I do hope to get Jonah's scrapbook finished up. I feel bad doing 5 years of Noah's life and I only have about 1 year of Jonah's. My plan is to take the first week, or two if needed, that Jonah starts pre-school and do it! But, for now, the blog is helping me to keep up with all the memories. I am still getting used to it and how to do different things. It is so funny, when I figured out how to make a new header I got all excited and changed it 15 times just to do it and see which one I liked best. Brooke told me how to do it. I have probably drove her crazy asking questions and I probably still have more! Thank you Brooke for helping me.

Blogger Challenge Day 19

Today's blogger challenge is to name a fun memory. I am gonna name a fun memory from my childhood since I just posted baby pictures and am thinking alot about things we did when I was a child. One of the fun things I can remember doing is riding the 4-wheeler for the first time. My uncle, Gwen, bought my cousin, Micki, a 4-wheeler when she was just a little bitty thing. I am a few years older than her, but I had never drove one. I watched her and my uncle drive it several days before I would try it. One day I decided to drive it up Taunton's driveway, my grandmother. I have never been so scared in all my life. I almost wrecked and didn't get on it for at least two more weeks. Taunton and Micki were laughing hysterically when I got back down the driveway and I was so mad because they were! Looking back now, I was just scared to death and it is funny. Now I was probably only 8 years old and I realize that is plenty old enough to ride a 4-wheeler, but I had never even been around one. So this was all new to me. When I finally got the guts up to ride it again I loved it! Micki and I would ride it for hours every day. We would go out in the pasture and ride down to the lakes and in the bottoms (which is just what we called the back part of the pasture that is down in a hole). We loved it especially when it rained because we could ride it through all of the mud puddles. We would be filthy when we got back and usually got in trouble for it! There was a hill in the front pasture that we always "jumped." We would go as fast as we could and hit this small hill and go flying through the air! It really is a wonder that we are still alive because there was only one helmet, so therefore one of us was usually without one. These were good times. I love all of my childhood memories.

Blogger Challenge Day 18

Today's blog challenge is baby photos. I had to go to mothers and get pictures. That is why my post is so late. Sorry.

This was my first "portrait" picture.



I actually thought this picture was cute. Wish I could see more of my face.



I asked my mother exactly, "what were you thinking putting those overalls on me?" She swears I looked cute and that it was in style then. Wow! Didn't realize I was THAT old! Ugh!

Cassie, my sister, will appreciate this one! I am knocking on her head!!! This is hilarious!!!

She will also appreciate this one. I think it is so funny. And, how did the photographer get us to sit like that with each other long enough to get a picture of it??? We must have liked each other!

I don't know how old I was in this picture, but if I had to guess I was 6 or 8 months. Check out the duck on the front of my dress!

Blogger Challenge Day 17

Today's challenge is "my parents." They are gonna kill me for posting this picture, but it is the only one that I had of all three of us. This was 12 years ago on my wedding day.I have alot of memories of both of them while I was growing up, but I will share just a couple. When it was time to wake up to go to church or wherever we might be going on the weekend, or if Daddy Paul just wanted us to wake up early for some reason, he would put his hands up to his mouth like a trumpet and do this noise and sound like a trupmet. You know, how they do when they wake you up in the army? I'm sure you all have heard that before sometime in your life. Well yes, it woke us up alright! And I can remember he would just be smiling and laughing when I opened my eyes. I can also remember him singing the one-eyed one-horned flying purple-people eater alot. We thought that was so funny! There was also a story he use to tell us about a door. I can't remember how it goes, but he would always tell it to us. Now mother always had fun with us, too. She always went to the dances with us, to chaperone, but ended up always on the dancefloor somehow. Now to any other teenage girl this might be somewhat embarassing, but Cassie and I (I used it right Cassie) didn't care. All of our friends loved my mother. She was alot of fun. Mother has a big heart. It doesn't matter who you are, you are not a stranger. She can talk to anyone. I love that about her.

Jonah and Papa are playing the wii. My kids adore Papa. They think the sun rises and shines in him. Everytime we start to drive up in their driveway they start asking if Papa is home. And, if he is, they start screaming with excitement. They have always had the best time with him. When Noah was a baby they would sit in the floor for hours playing. Especially with Legos. Noah would always say, "Papa, you wanna build a castle?" And, of course, Papa would. Mother would act like she was jealous and say, "you won't play with me?" And he would say, "Mema it's a boy fang (thing)." We would laugh histerically everytime he said it.
Then Jonah came along. Well, that made it two little boys that Papa had to share his time with. Jonah adores Papa just as much as Noah always did. Jonah's thing is getting Papa to go to the sand pile and play. One day while trying to get him to use the potty Papa told him if he would use the potty that he'd play in the sand pile with him. Well, he didn't that day, but within the week he did start using the potty and one of the first things he said was, "now you can take me to Papas and we can play in the sand pile." We are gonna say that is what made him start using it. I am so glad that my boys love him so much.

This is Mema and Noah riding the rhino. They boys always wants mother to come spend the night with them. She has done this a few times and they love it. She sometimes will pick Noah up from school and their thing is stopping by Jack's and getting a milkshake. He has come to think that if she picks him up that they need to get one. Jonah is always telling Mema, "I love you a hundred sixty ninety nine." That is his way of telling her he loves her alot. Both of the boys like to call Mema on the phone, too. Noah has learned her phone number and Jonah is learning. They always think that she has to get a sandwich bag and fix them some sort of snack when we leave their house. They now have a thing about eating ice cream at their house. They get those small cups of ice cream and the boys go straight for the freezer everytime we walk in. If for some reason they don't have any, the boys will tell Mema to call Papa and tell him to get some. They love their Mema!

Happy Birthday Cassie!

Happy Birthday Cassie! I hope you have a great trip to Cancun. You deserve it. You are a wonderful sister! Thank you for always being there for me, like staying with me in the hospital so Bryan could be here with the boys, for always  cheering me up with words of encouragement, and for loving my boys like I do. They love you so much and so do I.  

Fall Festival

Here is Jonah the firefighter and Jaden "sharkboy"

Russell and Rita was Tigger and Pooh.

Shelby was an 80's Lady, Emily was a rocker (I guess), Brooke was a "Sexy Gypsy" and Brittany was just being her own pretty self.

Morgan and Daniel were tourists.

Regan was Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, not sure what Nathan is...maybe an Auburn Razorback fan??? And Casey was Freddy Krueger.

Donna was Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmations. Too cute. She won the adult costume contest.

Sgt. Jacob Amason

Braxden was spider-man.

Not sure what Will and Garrett were, but I think wrestlers.

Clay was a bear. Grrrrr!

Addyson was a cute ladybug. She won second place in children's costume contest. Her cousin Everly one first place, but I didn't get a picture. She was a fairy.

Peyton was a skeleton and his brother, Evan, is behind him, but he didn't want his picture taken.

Popeye (Jason) and Olive Oyl (Jan) with Sharkboy (Jaden) and Sgt. Jacob

Jeff and Meredtih were blind referees. Since they were blind they didn't know where to look for the picture!

We all had a blast. I wish I had gotten more pictures. We had people dressed up like M & M's, hillbillies, Hulk Hogan, 50's Chick, and some more that I just couldn't figure out. Maybe they just throwed on some clothes and said they were dressed up. Anyway, a fun time was had!