Dinner with the Parents!

Last night I made french dip and we had David's Mom and Dad over. I am sorry to say I don't have any photos of the actual food. We were so hungry that we just ate it up. The house smelled so yummy when I walked in from work. I also made homemade the Cilantro Lime salad dressing and it was amazing!

Here is our dessert plates, we had a fruit shortcake with blueberries and mango!

We had a mini iphone photo shoot with Davids parents so I will leave you with a little photo montage.

Aren't they cute!

Happy Friday!

Top Three Thursday- Things you'd bring to a deserted Island

This week's top 3 is on things you'd bring to a deserted island!

 I'm going with the ones that popped into my head right away.

1.Computer and Internet (I don't know how to make that happen, it just needs to)

2. Big Pot & Pasta (lifetime supply)

3. David!! He can make and fix anything! He's good to have around!

Davids list is very different from mine as he is being practical.

 1.) Magnet for navigation and finding other metals.

2.) An Ax for hunting and basically anything

3.) Large Flint for starting fires

What are your top 3 things you'd bring to a deserted island?

Wordless Wednesday- Sleepy Baby

Menu Planning and a Happy Celebration!

We had crazy thunderstorms driving home last night from work. The lightening was out of control! Needless to say, I wasn't stopping at the grocery store. I did want to share my menu plan for the week of what's for dinner at our house. Most of the recipes come from Pioneer Woman and Our Best Bites this week. I have never made number 2, 4 and 5 so  I will post on those after and let you know!

Meal 1- Margherita Grilled Pizza (if you haven't tried grilling your pizza, you need to!) We make our dough and you cook one side on the grill for a few minutes. Then you bring it inside and flip it over on the cooked side to put your toppings on. Throw it back on the grill on the uncooked side and there ya go! We do ours on foil to make sure it doesn't burn.

Meal 2 - Butter Chicken

Meal 3 French Dip

Meal 4- Bow-Tie Lasagna

Meal 5- Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

Breakfasts- I am going to try to make homemade granola

I also wanted to give a shout out to Bill and Karen! There was a surprise 30th wedding anniversary celebration up in NY this past weekend and I wanted to show some photos with you that my Mom sent.

How cute!

Here they are at the party with 2 of their kids- Christie on the left and Heather on the right. Congrats Karen and Bill and may you have many more years to come!

Fun in the Sun!

This weekend we spent most of our time out on Lake Lanier. We borrowed Amber's boat for Davids best friend David's birthday. He turned the big 3-0 last Thursday. I tagged along on Saturday when the boys were wake boarding and hanging out. On sunday we went back out with just David and Dana. Here is a picture of the birthday boy.

Here are some action shot of the pros showing us how it's done (David and David).

After watching everyone else go, I was gaining the courage to give it a try. I have only tried skiing a few times probably 10-15 years ago.

 Here I am waiting to go. The first time, I let go of the handle and rope because it was so heavy, it didn't feel right. No one really stressed how hard it was going to be to hold on to the rope. But, magically on the second try, look what happened!

I got up!! I stayed up for maybe 30 seconds. I was definitely screaming the whole time I was up, too bad we didn't take video on this one. I wasn't sure what to do next so I just let go and down I went.

Here is a close up shot of me that I zoomed in at so just in case you didn't believe it was me. It's still kinda hard to see, but I did it! I was so sore even right after this went down. My arms and legs feel like I worked out for a week straight. I am glad I tried it, but probably won't be doing this as a hobby.

Even Dana gave it a shot after she saw me go. She hurt her elbow and also found it so difficult to hang on to the rope. I am proud she tried it, even after all the water in the nose and the hurt elbow! We had fun just hanging in sunset cove and floating around all afternoon, we had entertainment all around us. Happy Birthday David!

Homegrown Food

I picked my zucchini last week and wanted to show you what I made with it.

I was so nervous that it looked good from the outside, but not on the inside. So as soon as I cut it open and saw how great it looked I took a picture! It was normal!!

I also spotted this beauty in the garden! It's a cucumber and its growing so fast!

I also picked basil from the garden and made pesto! Here is a basic recipe that I used:

2 tablespoons pine nuts 

2 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves

1/2-1 cup (4 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 to 2 garlic cloves

1. Lightly toast pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until golden, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
2. In a food processor or blender combine basil, cheese, oil, pine nuts and garlic; whirl until pureed. If made ahead, cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before using.

We had fresh vegetables (including my zucchini) and tortellini with homemade pesto sauce. Mmmm Good.

Top Three Thursday- Movie Series

This week's top three is on favorite movie in a series. Most of the sequel movies out there are boy movies like Star Wars, Kill Bill, Die Hard, the Terminator, etc.. Mine aren't really in any particular order.

1.) National Lampoon's Vacations- I like watching these and especially the christmas one. Always good for some laughs.

2.) Meet the Parents/Meet the Fockers- So funny! I need to see these again soon.

3.) Pirates of the Caribbean- Johnny Depp is great in these movies. Love them.

Shooting the Hooch

This past weekend a bunch of us went tubing down the Chattahoochee river in celebration of Lacey and Leah's Birthdays! We used a company called Up the River Outfitters. I've been wanting to do this for a while so it was the perfect time to do it! I was warned that the water would be cold, but was not expecting that cold. They said it was 42 degrees and although it was freezing, I'd say it was probably 60 or below. I love lazy river type things so I had a blast just floating and enjoying the scenery. David of course took it to the next level and would get out and swim. I'm pretty sure he got frost bite.

Here we are waiting to get our life jackets on.

Life Jacket Shot! How short am I?

Here is our school bus that took us to our drop off point. 

Back of the bus crew

Front of the bus gals

View of the river, it had rained a ton the night before so water isn't as clear as normal.

As you can see David and I strategically placed the paddles over our stomach and bodies so the paddles came in handy.

Here are some shots from everyone floating down the Chattahoochee.

We used ropes to tie us up into a big circle with the cooler tubes floating in the middle.

We had so much fun that we are going to do it again soon with Davids family!

Sausage with Peppers and Onions

It's Italian week on the blog, just because I want it to be! I have a few good recipes that I've been saving and they all are italian and so good. This recipe is Sausage with Peppers and Onions. 

Ingredients-

1 lb of Italian Sausage (I usually use mild or sweet)

1-2 Green Peppers sliced

1 Onion sliced

2-3 Cloves Garlic minced

1/2- Whole Can Pasta Sauce

Submarine Sandwich rolls or Italian bread

Cook sausage in big pan about 6 minutes per side on med. high heat (be carefully of spitting). You can also grill the sausage outside if you'd like.

Slice your peppers and onions fajita style in long strips

Take out your sausage once it is cooked and set to the side to cool off. Sausage is done when there is no pink in the middle. You can slice them into 1-2 inch pieces once cooled. Add garlic and saute your onions and peppers until they are tender. You use the sausage grease to make everything taste better, just go with it, there isn't much.

Once your vegetables are tender add your pasta sauce (you may not want that much so don't pour whole can in unless you like a lot of sauce) and sliced sausage back in. Simmer for 5-10mins.

Serve on a bun, roll, bread or whatever you'd like.

Anniversary Cake

I've been meaning to post this sooner, but other things kept taking the spot. I finally got these photos off my camera so I wanted to share our 1 year anniversary cake. Our cake lady was fantastic and she bakes your top layer of your wedding cake 1 year after you are married so you don't have to keep it in your freezer. It was just as good as I remember (I hardly remember it though).

                       She even decorated it exactly how it was at the wedding (minus the flower topper).

It was filled with strawberry butter cream with fresh strawberries. Delicious!

David decided it would be funny to smash a little cake in my face since I wouldn't let him do it at the wedding. 

We even had enough cake to share with Mom and Shell when they were visiting. It was the cake that kept on giving. So yummy!

Top Three Thursday- Talents

This weeks topic is top three talents that we wish we had! 

1.) I wish I had the talent to sew! My sister and I were talking about this and we want to be able to take our pants up (because they are always too long) and shorten curtains, replace buttons, make pillows etc... The good thing about this talent is that this can be learned! So one day we want to take lessons and learn how to do the basics. We did take home economics in high school and made stuffed animals. My mom, grandma and Aunt sew quite well, we've just never had the interest when we were younger.

2.) Ability to sing! I don't want to be a professional, I just want to sound decent. I only sing in my car, in front of David (sorry) and my sister because I know I'm that bad.

3.) Be more crafty & creative- This one is just a general statement. I wish decorating, crafts and projects came more naturally. My mom is super crafty and some of that rubbed off on me, but not fully. This one I can also try to work on, but the natural ability just isn't fully there. I wish I had a room that looked like this.

What are your top 3 talents you wish you had? Check out Lacey's blog if you want to participate or read other top threes!