Thanks friends!

Well, life's thrown us another crappy curve ball. Doing OK now but I really don't want to say much more about that.
I do want to say that we have the best friends here in AZ to stand in as our family while we are so far away from ours. You guys are the best and I just wanted to state it publicly for the record (I'm not sure which record but somewhere there is a record right?). I am glad to have friends like you-you know who you are! And I love you all!

Best Buds and Chocolate

So what do you do when 2 best friend 2 year olds love playing with each other but also love stealing toys from each other ending in one or both crying? The answer is give them a little project to do! And since it involves chocolate-it's always better!
Tolson was here playing with us this morning and that was the exact scenario. They really do love each other but sometimes........well, they're 2!
So I've been wanting to make these cupcakes and I thought getting them to help would be the best way to get them back to being best friends again.

They were so excited to help. It was SO cute!

Tolson helping make some yummy cupcakes.

They're chocolate cupcakes with junior mints in the middle!

Brady helping mix in the ingredients.

(Yes, he's in his underwear!)

The best part about baking-licking the batter and spoons!

Messy faces!

Here's Brady with the finished cupcake. I think he is sick of the photos and he just wants to eat it!

If you want the recipe to these cupcakes go to the Picky Palate website. I really like her recipes and have made a lot of them. They are always so tasty!

Tucson Children's Museum

On Monday night we went with the Kemptons to the Children's Museum in downtown Tucson. The boys had so much fun playing together and here's some pictures. (I put these on here mostly for Grandmas and Grandpas to see so I won't be offended if you are bored having to look at pictures of my child!)

Police Motorcycle (it was kind of weird lighting in this room so it's kind of dark)

Fireman Brady!

The jacket was really heavy and when I put it on him he just stood there and couldn't move!

Brady driving his buddy Tolson in the firetruck

Cooking some random fruits and veggies in a muffin pan in the play kitchen

In a submarine

Yummy Salad!

So I made this salad for dinner last night. I've made it several times before and we always eat it so fast because it is so good! It is not a creation of my own, but a copy of something else. It's a copy of the Caribbean Chicken salad from Chili's that they no longer have on their menu. Sad :( So that's why I had to make my own at home because I love it so much and I can no longer get it!

I told a couple people about it and they wanted to know what was in it so here it is:

Lettuce, pineapple, mandarin oranges, grilled chicken, pico de gallo, honey lime dressing, tortilla strips.

First, I marinate and grill the chicken. I used a Mrs Dash garlic lime marinade but any kind of marinade with a citrusy flavor would do and then grill it on the grill (actually Aaron does the grilling part!). Slice it up and put it on the lettuce.

This picture of the chicken looks funny because it is on my black cutting board-I'm not a very good food photographer! :)

Here's the rest of the ingredients with a little more detail--

Any type of lettuce or greens you like-I used a spring mix with all kinds of mixed greens and baby spinach

Pineapple (I used fresh last night because I had it but canned is fine too)

Mandarin Oranges

Pico de Gallo -- 2 tomatoes, 1 jalapeno, 1/2 of a red onion all chopped into small pieces and a big handfull of chopped cilantro (this is actually my own recipe I made up but pico is pretty much about the same right?)

Doesn't that look so pretty? It's really yummy too!

Then you drizzle it with the dressing (I looked it up on some website online) which is a honey mustard/lime dressing. 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup dijon mustard, 1 TBS sugar, 1 1/2 TBS cider vinegar, 1 1/2 TBS lime juice (I usually put a little more than that)

The other topping that makes it so good is tortilla strips. But at the store yesterday they did not have the ones I usually get-the mini little tri-color ones. They are the best, but last night I substituted some bigger tortilla strips and just kind of broke them into smaller pieces.

Here's the finished product!

It makes me want to eat it all over again! Hey-there's still some leftovers in the refrigerator........... :)

Sorry, my food photography is not the best but I hope you get the idea. I am in no way a food blogger but I do love food so I thought I would share a good and healthy dinner idea! Who doesn't need that???? Enjoy!!!! (I sure did!)

Brady Randomness

Brady always makes me laugh with the things he says and does all day. But I don't usually have my camera rolling or at hand all day long so I don't catch it. So I just put a couple things on here that have cracked me up recently as well as a good news update down below!

Brady is on this kick of "making things" for us to eat. Last night he was making us dinner and this morning he was making me breakfast. He raids my utensils drawer and this is what he is using to make our meals. A garlic press, a pastry brush, 1 beater from my little mixer, a spoon, a can opener, a turkey baster, 2 little medicine cups and a baby medicine thing. Funny kid!

This one was totally out of left field this morning. I had made Brady pancakes and he was standing on his little chair at the counter watching me butter them up and he looked into the butter dish and said "The Polar Express kids fell in here!" It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about but I did figure it out. The butter is kind of new and it still has that swirl thing in it. In the Polar Express movie a couple of the kids get lost and end up falling into that funnel thing that puts all the presents into Santa's bag. How random that he would think of that by looking in the butter dish!




GOOD NEWS!!! Brady has been making definite progress in the last week with going on the potty. He's been going on the potty on and off pretty much since Christmas but it was kind of random.

Now.....he gets stickers on his little chart outside the bathroom every time he goes and for some reason that has been working really well.

I have also put him in "big boy underwear" instead of Pull Ups and that has made a huge difference as well. The Pull Ups were too much like diapers and he would just go in them and take them off and announce to me that he had gone in his Pull Up instead of taking off the Pull Up and going on the potty. But he knows he can't go in his underwear so that's been working out better!

So that's what's new in our house today. There's always something going on and I'll have to try and be better about taking more pictures and posting more than I have recently!

Doesn't this look delicious?

How beautiful is this?????

My friend Wendy told me about this program called Bountiful Baskets. You order a basket on Tuesday or Wednesday and then pick it up on Saturday morning. They get it from the growers and you never know what you're going to get from week to week (that's why it's cheap) but the food is delicious and fresh. It's like $50 worth of produce for only $15! They have it in baskets when you get there but you transfer it to your own basket to take it home in.

So because it is so much food, Wendy and I are splitting a basket because we have small families so it will work out nicely for us!

In this basket we got 16 peaches, 8 pears, a pint of strawberries, a pint of raspberries, a pint of cherry tomatoes, a bunch of bananas, 2 stalks of celery, a bunch of lettuce, a bunch of spinach, 2 heads of broccoli, a bunch of green onions and a bunch of radishes.

I am so excited to eat it all! (Well our half of it anyway!)

Pittsburgh Trip

Well, we are all back in the land of the living finally. A couple weekends ago, Aaron's best friend from high school, Jeff, was getting married so we traveled to Pittsburgh. Since we've been back I was struck with some bug that left me laying in bed for 3 days straight with a high fever. They think it was something respiratory related but I think it was swine flu! Ha ha-just kidding! Then Brady got sick once I got over it so we have been some sickos in our house lately. But we are all doing better now and we're trying to get back into our normal routine again.
So back to this post.........Jeff and Ale (her real name is Alejandrina and she's from Argentina-isn't that beautiful?) got married and we got to go. Here's some pics from the wedding and from our trip.

Brady in a chair at this old cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh.

Brady and Jeff

The incline train thing that takes you up to Mt Washington

Up on Mt Washington overlooking downtown Pittsburgh and the rivers that run though

Brady going back down in the train

Jeff and Ale had a nice simple ceremony and they were both glowing and so happy.

The minister even joked about them both being so smart-they both have PhD's in chemical engineering. The minister after they were married pronounced them Mr and Mrs and Dr and Dr. It was cute!

Aaron's Grandma came from Maryland to be there and so did Aaron's parents. So we got to spend the weekend with them (sorry John and Teresa-I didn't get any pictures of you!). Brady wanted his Mom Mom Joyce (that's what he calls her) to hold his hand in the car and he wanted me to take their picture and she of course ate it up!

We had a great weekend that went way too fast. We are so happy for Jeff and Ale!