Happy Valentine's Day

The kids have been really excited about Valentine's Day this year. So much so, that they were both up at 5:30 running thru the house to find us and give us a hug and valentine's they had drawn and colored for us. :) Drew had his school party yesterday, and Kenzie's today.

The teachers gifts are pencils I cut in half and made into 'coasters'. Topped with our homemade apple butter.

Mrs. Hicks asked me to bring in snacks for the kids today, so I made 'heart-healthy' snacks. Chocolate chip granola bites and cut apples. Kenzie said everyone loved them and one friend even told her I was the bestest cook ever! Score!!! - Healthy and Yummy and Pleasing to the kids!

Let's all be sure to share our love today and everyday! :)

Monday, February 13th

Finally sitting down to blog again. The weather has been a bit up and down here lately. We have freezing rain and snow headed for us now. I have to admit, I'm hoping school gets cancelled tomorrow. Would be nice for a lazy day (even though I'll be working) at home. I have been really enjoying the 'little' moments lately.

Last week, there was a day at mid-morning that I looked out to see that a fog had rolled in and all the horses were at the fence. So I grabbed my camera to run out and snuggle a bit and take a few shots. So serene and pretty.

This weekend while I was working on a few things, the kids were coloring and playing. I sneaked a peek into the living room to see they had tuned into a show and were all snuggled up. I had to grab my camera to sneak some pics. :) I'm not sure they'll always adore each other this much, so I'll take it when I can.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow - the kids have been really excited and we've been busy working on their boxes and valentine's for school. After Daddy helped Kenzie with selling cookies at our Girl Scout booth this weekend, they ran an errand and came home with gifts for everyone. Josh never seems to miss a Twilight movie release... he knows the way to my heart! LOL Since he still hasn't seen Breaking Dawn, that will probably be what we do for our Valentine's evening, once the kids are in bed. :)

The movie came with a free fabric poster, that Kenzie begged to have. She knows she can't watch the movies till she's older, but she's already a huge fan of Bella and Edward, and even Jacob.

Drew has been highly anticipating the new special event 'Jake and the Never Land Pirates: Peter Pan Returns' . So his new Peter Pan book was a huge highlight for him!

And, I didn't forget! It's meal-plan Monday!! :)

Hoping everyone stays warm and safe tonight - c'mon Spring!

Two Grays

Nothing too exciting going on - oh, except for 1 minor thing. I mean minor to most, but to me - I'm as giddy as a 16 year old getting their first car... Have you ever heard of the world-known Gray Photography?? Meet Zach & Jody Gray. Two of the most AMAZING people and photographers I've ever heard of.

And me, lucky me - gets to spend a full day with them at their home, learning more about photography. These two have hearts of gold, hearts filled with passion, and the hearts of a teacher. The photography world is blessed to have them share their journeys and knowledge. And I am so blessed to be able to learn from them. I.AM.STOKED.


So, until April comes, I'll just have to continue on... :)


Tonight is Zumba night - looking forward to my 'girls' hour. Working on a photo shoot for tomorrow that I'm really excited about. Saturday is the big delivery of GS cookies - fun, fun! Saturday night plans are developing for a bunch of us to go downtown for an adult night out. It's been a while, so should be fun and nice for Josh and I to get out with friends. Sunday begins our GS cookie booths... how can anyone deny buying cookies from these girls? Aren't they fun? They get so excited spending time together.

Happy Hump Day!

Addicting Comfort Food

The past few days, I've been craving some good (but not so good for you) comfort food. I blame Josh - he made 3 pans *yes I really said 3 pans* of chocolate chip cookie bars at the end of last week. Bless his heart, because he used whole wheat flour, he thought he was doing good. However, they still contained sugar, which of course puts my body into 'addiction' mode. So fast forward to Monday evening and we are on the 3rd pan.


Kenzie's teacher had asked me a few weeks ago if there were any good dairy-free dips. That made me think of tofutti and having heard that they had a french onion cream cheese......

Mental note: it is just as addictive as the 'real' french onion dip. Paired with some amazing blue corn chips, and you can see the tub is gone after a couple days in this house. :)

And then we have the 'Panera potato soup' and I am not at all a 'soup' person. but...... YUMMY DELISH! (Recipe below)

6 cups chicken broth
6 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (8 ounce) package tofutti cream cheese (or regular cream cheese), cut into chunks, room temp
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)


Combine broth, potatoes and spices. Boil on medium heat until potatoes are tender. Smash a few of the potatoes to release their starch for thickening. (If you like it smooth smash more). Reduce to low heat, adding cream cheese. Heat, stirring frequently, until cheese melts. Sprinkle bacon over each bowl of soup.

Anyone else have their good ole comfort foods?

Menu Plan Monday

I'm going to try and follow the theme of Menu Plan Monday. Though, typically after I get our meals written up, they change thru-out the week. Oh well, it's the planning that at least intends to make the week easier, right? This was last week's finalized meal plan. Did anyone else have chili for the Super Bowl?

This week I'm going to try and continue to focus more on growing the blog and my photography, if time allows me to. Kenzie has a short school week this week for stockpile days, and we have her parent-teacher conference. I may take a little time off of work one day for what we call a 'mental health day'. Saturday is the big Girl Scout cookie delivery day, so let the cookie madness continue begin. I'm still not sure what I was thinking volunteering as our entire service unit coordinator. (Ali, I blame you for telling me it was easy! At least we're in it together. :) Then again, no one else would volunteer, so someone's gotta do it.)

Speaking of Ali and photography - hopefully I can get thru our pics from the park last month, this week and get them posted. For now, here's a little glimpse of Luke at 5 months. Isn't he sweet?

Productive & Rainy Day

Busy day today. First on the agenda - need to get the house back in order - I have scrapbooking paper everywhere! (Thanks to hubby for cleaning the kitchen up last night while I worked late!) We have a girl scout event this afternoon for World Thinking Day, and Josh has a night out with the boys tonight, so looking forward to a little quiet 'Me' time this evening. We've been doing the couch to 5K program to get back into running again, and since Josh works Saturdays, I decided I'd get my run in first thing this morning and just go to a local track at a school so the kids could just hang out while I did my run. While we ate our breakfast I checked the radar and realized I didn't have much time, so we hurried and dressed only to get poured on, on our way there, but then a break before the bigger rain came. The kids enjoyed cheering me on as I rounded the track and thanks to the radar, I timed it perfectly as it started pouring again as we left. It was a fun carefree rain though, so the kids didn't even want to leave.

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the weather, no matter what it is!

It's a Start!

Technology. What a concept - at times we love it, at times we hate it. Time runs away, and for once, instead of utilizing technology to just take my time away, I've decided to use it to my benefit. To my family's benefit. I want to start this blog to keep a digital scrapbook, because frankly - my memory stinks! And life's precious moments go by so fast. Not to mention, my scrapbooks for the kids are not even close to getting done in a timely fashion. This is also a great way to keep family & friends updated, if they want to check in on what we're doing (or what I'm posting about them - Ha ha!). Welcome to our family adventures - living our dream in TN and enjoying every day that we're blessed with.