Tea Time and my 100th post!

Today, Laney, Olivia, Ms. Monkey and Ms. Hippo, had their first real tea party.  The girls play tea party all the time, but today I made them real tea.  I used my real tea cups and gave them real cream and mini sugar shakers.

Ms. Monkey was Olivia's guest of honor and she said she had a real good time.

Ms. Hippo was Laney's guest.  She liked the pound cake and jam.

Savanna and Addison were napping.

Having little girls is so much fun!

Grandma Sherry's Macaroni Salad

Grandma Sherry to the girls, not to me.  If she was my Grandma, that would age her way too much.  Grandma Sherry is my husband's step mom, and she makes a mean macaroni salad.  In fact, any time I make any salad with mayo and noodles, Josh always tells me something is missing.  He says, "Maybe you should ask Sherry what's in her salad."  And because I love my husband and food is the way to his heart, I asked.  Actually we went to Calin's house for a Bar-B-Que, while we were in California, and Grandma Sherry brought her macaroni salad.  I asked, and now am sharing with you.  Because it really is the yummiest macaroni salad I have ever had.

Part of Grandma Sherry's genius, is she doesn't measure anything.  I didn't measure anything either, but I did take pictures, so you could get an idea of the measurements.  Don't worry, you can do it.  I think the key is to not be afraid of using too many spices.  After I made the dressing, I tasted it and it was very salty, but once it's mixed with the noodles, it's perfect.  I also have to say that this recipe doesn't taste exactly like Sherry's, but it's close.  Grandma Sherry, please feel free to correct me, if I get anything wrong.

Ingredients:

1 16 oz. of noodles (elbow or any small noodle)

5 hard boiled eggs

sweet pickles (not to be confused with sweet relish)

Mayo

Mustard

Garlic salt (I didn't have any garlic salt, so I just used granulated garlic)

Celery salt

Seasoned salt

pepper

3 stalks of celery cut into tiny pieces (I forgot this part)

Make your hard boiled eggs.

Boil your noodles.

Cut up about 15 little sweet pickles.

The ingredients.

The spices I used.

I used 5 heaping spoonfuls of mayo.  I used the big spoon.  You know, like with your silverware you get a little spoon and a big spoon.  I'm sure it has a more dignified name, but I have no idea what it is.  I also put the yolks of the hard boiled eggs in with the mayo.  I don't know if Grandma Sherry does this, but it sounded like a good idea.  You have to mash it with a fork and get it good and mixed up.

This is about how much egg and pickle mixture you need.

The mustard.  I actually ended up putting twice this amount in the end.

The seasoned salt, and again I put twice this amount in.  So completely cover the top with seasoned salt and you should be good.

The garlic.  This is a good amount.

The celery salt.  Use twice this amount also.  Promise it's not too much.

Add a little pepper and mix it up.  You want a nice creamy yellow color and lots of specks, like so.

After you drain the noodles, add the pickle and eggs.

Add the dressing.

And, ta-da, you have the best macaroni salad in the world.  This makes plenty of salad for lots of people.  Or several meals in a row.

We came back from Cali and.....

our grass was green and our tree sprouted leaves!  Our grass was green when we left but it wasn't full.  And the tree has zero leaves.  We love hanging out in the back yard and now we have shade!

Since we moved here in August, I never saw these beauties.  I think they are iris's.  These are in our backyard.

And this one is in the front.  So pretty.

A visit with old friends

It's been 17 years (I think) since I've seen my friend Susanna.  We were the best of friends when my family lived in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.  I would go play at her house after church on Sunday's and we would have sleepovers.  We usually stayed at Susie's house, because she got homesick.  I, on the other hand, loved to get out of the house.  Much like my Laney bugs.  She loves her family, but would give anything to have a sleepover without us there.  Susanna taught me how to climb trees.  Their family introduced me to Dr. Pepper and I have a continued love affair with the soda.  I'm pretty sure we used to sing in church together, you know, like up front with a microphone.  Maybe I made that up, I was like 10.  I have lots of fond memories with her and her family.  Her parents were always so sweet to me and made me feel like part of the family when I was over.  My family ended up moving, and we tried to stay in touch.  Thanks to Facebook, we have reconnected!  Susanna is married and has an adorable little boy.  Her family and her parents came through here, on their way to the Grand Canyon.  We met at a Cracker Barrel. It was like 17 years had only been a few weeks.  Except we are married and have five kids between the two of us!  It was a really wonderful time and I am so blessed to have met up with them again.  Thank you guys for stopping to see us.  It meant so much to me.

     

Addy is only a few months older than Hayden.  Don't you think they would be a cute couple?  We decided they should get married some day.  Isn't he the most beautiful little boy?  Those blue eyes.Me, Susanna, and the kiddos.  We probably should of had the husbands in this picture, too.  They kids were antsy and I didn't even think about it.  Sometimes I forget stuff with my children around.

Go vote for the Voiles

My sister-in-law is good friends with a family that has six girls.  They have a single, twins and triplets.  They are the Voile family.    They entered a contest on TLC for Ragu.  They are one of the top three finalists.  Click here for the link to got vote for them to win!  

The Big One

Here is THE family photo.  The whole reason I did this photo shoot was for this picture.  The last time we had a family photo was when we went to Hawaii in 2002.  It's not perfect, but I love it.  From left to right, The Staples, the Tanners, The Williams, and The Mcnally's.  One mom, one stepdad, three kids, their spouses and children.  Amazing.

Calin, Steven and Aidan

This is my husband's little sister Calin, her husband Steven, and our nephew Aidan.  Two year olds don't really care to have their picture taken.  Aidan, I get it dude. I don't like to have my picture taken either.  I did use the candy bribe trick, and he loved that.  Love and miss you guys!

THE Grandkids

Ok folks, so here are the grandkids pictures.   When you have eight kids that include two 2 year olds (one who chews her hair), two babies under the age of 2, a three year old who needs to be  picking flowers instead of having her picture taken, a four year old who was having some sort of an allergic reaction in his eyes, a five year old and an eight year old, it's extremely hard to get a perfect picture.  But what I love most about these pictures, is the fact that we will look back and remember how crazy and wonderful it was when they were all so young.  In case you were wondering, I picked out all of their clothes.  I think I was a stylist in another life.  If I believed in that sort of thing.  Let me know which one is your favorite.  I love the ones in color, but the best poses are the ones in black and white.

My Morgan

Well she's really not mine.  She's my beautiful niece.  She is the first of eight grandchildren on my husband's side. (She's eight, and four of those kids are mine.  Weird.)  The first time I  met Morgan, she was only a few weeks old.  Josh and I were dating and he took me to California to meet his family.  She was the cutest baby ever.  Full head of black hair and she was so tiny.  We spoiled her for three whole years until my Laney was born.  Then the floodgates of babies opened and now their are eight grandkids.  Isn't she beautiful?!

We are back!

We are back from vacation to California.  And I have to say, I am exhausted!  Two days in the car with my kids almost drove me nuts.  I just vegged today to try and get my senses back.   They were awesome on the way there, but very tired on the way back.  It was totally worth it to see family that we love.  We had a blast.  I took tons of pictures, but will take my time posting them through out the week.

Here's some pictures that are super funny to me.  Hopefully they make you laugh, too.

I guess this is what boys do.  I have no idea.  My nephew is definitely teaching me what boys are all about.

Here's my nephew Aidan, bolting from the scene.  This picture makes me laugh really hard.

Ok, well these next two pictures are of myself.  I was trying to get my darn remote to my camera to work.  These were the only two times it worked and I obviously was not ready!  I ended up just using the timer on the camera.  It's funny to see everyone in the back.  Maybe they were thinking, "How long is Michele gonna make us stand in the middle of nowhere?" "Does she have any clue as to what she is doing?" 

Guys, I really don't!