"Look at me, I could be...Centerfield!"

Our first family TEXAS RANGERS game! I made us matching family shirts!

 

Dustin and Noah caught a practice ball before the game.........Oh yeah!

 

 

"I love my daddy for catching my ball!!"

 

"Oh yeah...I caught it...what do u have to say about it now?!?"

Poor Poot was soo hot!

 

Poot being all relaxed! :)

 

 

Kids being kids

Sometimes, you just gotta let the kids be kids. I was about to get onto Noah this morning for blowing bubbles in his milk, but I was like, you know what buddy? Go right on ahead. Poot got in on the action too. I need to let them be kids more often. :)

Smore Brownie Balls

Ingredients:
Your favorite brownie mix ( I used Betty Crocker Triple Chunk)
1/4-1/2 cup hershey's syrup
1 pkg Candy Melts in the color of your choice or almond bark (I used red because I forgot to buy chocolate almond bark)
4 graham crackers (smashed up into crumbs)
1 cup mini marshmallows (two for each ball)
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I used some leftover easter candy...fyi)

Cook brownies according to the package.

Once cool, crumble up into a bowl and add 1/4-1/2 cup hershey's syrup and stir until mixture can be rolled into balls easily.

Start with a small amount in your hand and roll into a ball.

Press mixture into a "nest" and add two marshmallows.

Fold the "nest" in on itself and pinch to close. Add more mixture if needed.

Roll into a ball and make sure marshmallows aren't sticking out.

Stick balls into the freezer for about 15 minutes. While your balls are hardening, melt your chocolate or candy melts in a double broiler. Keep on low-medium heat to keep it from over heating.

Put your graham crackers into a bag and crush into crumbs.

Take your brownie balls out of the freezer. Doing one ball at a time, drop into the melted candy coating. With a spoon, roll the ball around until covered.

Once covered, use a fork and carefully tap the excess coating off the ball. Once it's no longer dripping, place the ball on a parchment lined plate.

While still hot, sprinkle the brownie balls with graham cracker crumbs.

Repeat the process until all balls are done. In a small cup, Melt the milk chocolate. Once melted, place into a bag and drizzle the balls with chocolate. BE CAREFUL! The bag will be very hot. Do not use a thin sandwich bag for this, but instead use a thicker quart bag. If you don't have a bag, just dip a fork into the chocolate and drizzle on.

Place in the fridge until the coating hardens. Then serve!

Savory Crock Pot Chops

This recipe is from a friend of a friend, so by the time it got to me, it got changed a bit, but here's my take on savory crock pot pork chops.

Ingredients:

2 pkgs Dry Onion Soup Mix

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 32 oz box low sodium chicken broth

2 pkgs low sodium brown gravy mix

2 pkgs thick cut pork chops

Throw all ingredients into the crock pot and cook on high five hours or low six to eight hours. Pork chops will be tender and moist. Enjoy.

A family in need

So Dustin's Aunt Jackie (Gonka) told us about a family who had just lost their house due to a fire and had a little two year old boy. She wanted to gather up some stuff for them, so I put together a few things of Noah's. I gave him a bag of clothes and toys, diapers, wipes, and a little care bag with stuff like tylenol, qtips, and bandaids just in case they hadn't thought about that kind of stuff yet. It was hard to give away Noah's blocks because he loves them so much, but he did have three sets of them, so it was only right to give them to a little boy who had lost all of his toys. Noah came home from daycare and saw us loading up all his stuff and he asked Dustin, "Are you trying to sell my toys?" and had a sly grin on his face. We just told him that a little boy had lost all of his toys and needed some since Noah had plenty. Suprisingly, he didn't get mad and said ok because the boy was his best friend. :) Awww...melt my heart, how sweet. :)

Mama's Pot Roast

Mama's Pot Roast

Normally it can take me a while to make pot roast. Usually I start by cutting it up, rolling it in flour, frying it so that the outside is nice and crisp and then making my own gravy....just like mom taught me. But, while searching for a new recipe, I came across Budget Savvy Diva's pot roast recipe and tweaked it to my taste. I was so shocked at how it tasted just like my mom's recipe from when I was growing up. This one is a keeper!!

Ingedients:
2-3 lb Arm Roast
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 packet dry onion/mushroom soup mix
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 32 oz box of beef broth
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4-6 yukon gold potatoes cut up into chunks skin left on
2 cans cut carrots

Except for the roast and carrots, combine all ingredients in your crock pot. Mix until well blended and then add your roast (don't cut up yet, just put it in whole).

Cook on high for 4 hours. After the fourth hour, take the roast out and cut into small chunks. Put back into the crock pot. Add the two cans of cut carrots. Stir and recover.

Cook on high for one more hour. Serve and enjoy.

Family Day Out

Today we decided to go on an adventure...even thought it wasn't much of one. We started off by heading toward Rusk. We were going to go to the Rusk Railroad Park, but then we went looking for Jim Hogg State Park. I got all confused on my directions and couldn't find it, so we found a little roadside park called Butler Park. It was essentially lots of stairs, some picnic tables, and a bench at the very top. It hasn't been taken care of and there were a lot of trees down. The morning was kinda overcast, so it was a little creepy. We didn't stay too long.

Ohhh no....a ghost!!

So after our creepy park adventure, we went to see my sister Mary at Pizza Hut. It had been a while since I had seen her, so we thought we'd stop by and visit. I'm glad she had a minute to visit. :) Noah was estatic to see his MiMi, but when she would talk to him, he acted all shy. Classic boy. :)

I love this picture of Poot with her finger in her nose...why do kids always seem to pick their nose when you take a picture? Lol.

Pootie...the lounger

Olivia is a known lounger. She will relax on her little couch, our laps, even the floor. I had to get a picture of this particular lounge of her's because she spread her little blanket out and laid on the hard kitchen floor. I went to take pictures and she and Bub got into a giggling match and kept smiling for the camera.

My older sister Crystal turned 36 today. Things kinda have became stagment between the two of us...lots of hard feelings from the past I supose, but I'm not in the mood to go into all that. Anyhow, I texted her to tell her Happy Birthday. Kinda sad, I should've at least called her. Maybe one day things will sort themselves out. We're just busy with our own lives right now.

Poot, me, Crystal, and DeAnn at TMF day at the Park in Tyler (September 2011)

Summer Class Done

So, I took A&P Intro this summer because sadly, I ended up having to drop it during the Spring Semester becasue I was taking 16 hours and Algebra was kicking my butt. Something had to go or my mind was going to, lol. Anyhow, I managed to pull an 86 and because my lecture teacher had opened up an extra point quiz for me, I made her muffins to thank her. I also made my lab teacher some. Lab was great and over all I had a 96 average in there, so that was great.

To be honest, if I hadn't done good, I was going to reconsider nursing as my major. I guess I had gotten distraught and had really been upset about droping the class in the first place. But I did good and now I know I can do this. I've already signed up for Fall classes and I'm enjoying my time off with my family before I start juggling school and work again.