Thursday, April 30, 2009

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!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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.


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.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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.




Monday, April 27, 2009

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!  

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

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!