pioneer day -

we went camping this last weekend with Brookie and her family to celebrate Pioneer Day.
the hubbers and the chubbers seem to really enjoy camping

our beach front property

the chubbers really liked playing with rocks. so much so that he even put one in his mouth :)

good times

the hubbers even likes doing dishes in the wildernesss





the chubber's first time on a boat.



we had a FANTASTIC vacation and loved boating and camping with Brookie and her family - THANK YOU!!!

strange things.....

i don't know why - but this picture is very blog-worthy:

yep.
it's a love carrot.
or a weird metamorphized (i made that word up) piece of nature. but i think i'll go with the love carrot. kind of made me and the hubbers laugh at how funny looking it was.
poor carrot. didn't even make it into the pasta salad we were making.

and yes.....i'm now older.
thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes - you all made me feel loved and appreciated. :)

progress.

this is your story for the week.
it's called "Progress".

you see, this used to be one of the chubbers favorite pasttimes.
but he's moved past that.

then his favorite pasttime was to pull himself up on the side of the tub and reach over to splash in the water when we were getting ready for his bath. this scared the crap out of the hubbers. we didn't know he could pull himself up to stand.

but you see from these pics - he is a mover and a shaker!
at first he liked us pushing him around in this car. but that didn't last long.....


after a few minutes he wanted to stand up in the car.....

...then drive himself...

...then stand up some more....

....and then...give me this look. i know he's thinking "see mom - i'm growing up FAST!"

BUT - this isn't all. he now has an even better favorite pasttime. last night the hubbers and i were upstairs doing stuff and i went back to go downstairs to see what the chubbers was doing. and lo and behold!!! he was on the 3rd step of the stairs by the time i got back. uh....WHAT?!!?!? where did my little boy go? and where is his fear?

we are in so much trouble.
anyone have any duct tape?

tamale pie - that's not tamale pie

since i haven't posted a recipe in awhile, i figured it was time.
this is our favorite thing to eat lately. i don't know why - but we just love eating it. i'm not sure what it's called, but i ate this growing up and it's so yummy. so for this post's sake, we'll call it Tamale Pie, even though that's not what it is.

and my disclaimer - i have a FANTASTIC corn bread recipe that you want to use with this recipe. ever since i found this cornbread recipe - we make it from scratch. no more corn-bread-from-a-box-for-us. we make it all the time - and buttermilk is now a standard grocery list item just in case we want to make this.

Brown 1 pound hamburger
drain
add 2 cans chili and 2 can tomato sauce
mix together with meat and put it all in a 9 x 13 pan
make cornbread and drop by spoonfuls on top of meat mixture
bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until the cornbread is cooked

Cornbread
Anell’s Famous Corn Bread - from http://everydayfoodstorage.net/
½ c. butter/margarine
1 c. buttermilk
1 c. yellow cornmeal
1 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp. soda
½ tsp. salt

Melt butter; add to the sugar and stir well.
Add eggs and beat until well blended.
Combine buttermilk and soda and stir into sugar-egg-butter mixture.
Add cornmeal, flour, and salt and stir until just blended.
Pour into greased 8-inch square pan.
Bake at 375 degrees about 30 minutes or until it begins to pull away from sides of pan. Serve piping hot with butter and honey.
Note: For glass pan, reduce heat to 350 degrees


enjoy with shredded cheese, olives, sour cream - pretty much whatever you want. now - these measurements can certainly be changed. if you like more cornbread, double that part. if you like less tomato sauce, leave a can out. you can make it yours. and the best part is - it makes GREAT leftovers.

oh - so yummy. i'm having it for lunch today and i can't wait.

it's a great day...for a...white wedding.....

Troy and Jennifer got married last night.
it was a whirlwind leading up to the festivities.

we might have been getting a little punchy. zane likes to show off his belly all the time.

sister and i got put in charge of decorating the wedding arch

the bride decorated the wedding cakes and they looked FANTASTIC!

the finished arch.
i think we did a pretty good job, if i say so myself.

oh - the chubbers enjoying the festivities from the safety of his father's lap

aren't we just precious?

then the toilet broke so grandpa had to rush to home depot before they closed for the much needed parts

- day of -
p.s. - by this point - i realized my camera battery was dying so i wasn't able to take as many pics as i would have liked to.
fannie and kye

grandma and grandpa

the hubbers and the chubbers

the chubbers and i

us and the arch. and the sister in Hawaii is in the middle - pretend you can see her

the kiss

sorry - i had a bad seat for taking pictures

the cake - i think it looked great - and it tasted good, too

the happy couple

* 4th of July *

well, the 4th has come and gone. i can't even believe it's july. where does the time go? i love this time of year because it's just great for all of the festivities that go on. and boy, oh boy, have we been busy. i think life will calm down for us in a few years. :)

this weekend we went to the cabin for the hubber's family week at the cabin. we went to a rodeo (the chubber's first) and he wasn't too impressed with it. he spent the majority of the night laying his head on one of our shoulders. i thought he would have loved it because there was so much going on and he loves watching stuff. but nope - he just layed his head down and cuddled with us.




"mom....take me home."






Niki and Critter


Pais and Whitta


Grumpy and the grandkids

there was lots going on at the cabin this year. one of the bridges we have to cross was washed out because of all the rain so we had to take the alternate route - which doesn't get used much and is very narrow. it made for an intersting time pulling our tent trailer through it all. also, we found out while we were up there that one of the horses had a baby. no one even knew she was expecting. SURPRISE! so we went on a walk over to the horse pasture to check out the baby horse.






Our little family's 4th of july picture


our tent trailer did pretty well on its first voyage into the wilderness.


"following the leader, the leader, the leader....."


this is the new baby horse. so fun to watch her follow her mama around and learn about people.

this is the bridge that was washed out. we drove over to take a look at it. it is so amazing what water can do when it does whatever it wants. such a gooey mess.



the road was washed out in so many places. made for a bumpy but fun ride.

happy (late) 4th everyone! freedom rocks!

next up: the wedding

lots of pictures.

well, the chubbers birthday came and went. but oh, how fun was it?!!? i can't believe he's a year old now. where did the time go?


now that he's a year old, we're putting him to work.
actually - he took this wash cloth out of the laundry basket and started dusting everything: the crockpot, the door frame, the garbage can, the walls, the floor. it was awesome!


a new favorite hiding spot. he loves playing under his high chair.

The birthday festivities

at first he was really shy about everything, but he warmed up after awhile. i think it was just all the people around and he didn't really know what was going on.


me and my boy


the hubbers and the chubbers


some dudes


pais and critter






we had a pinata and it was so fun. it was a cute little dinosaur before it got be-headed.


i think grandma D. was the one to behead him.


our little family.


"you mean....i get this all to myself???"








the hubbers picked out the chubbers birthday present from us.
can you guess what it is?


it's a rocking horse! literally.
he plays a little song when he moves and it's cute. the chubbers seemed to like him. and - when he gets bigger, we can turn it into a bouncy horse thing. its cool that it'll grow with him.

our next adventure

the chubbers can't wait to get inside