Menu Monday

Monday:

Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas

Tuesday:

BLTs

Wednesday:

Cheesy Chicken Noodle Casserole

Thursday:

Grilled Pork Chops

Steamed Broccoli and Cauliflower

Smash Hot Potatoes

Friday:

Hamburgers

Saturday and Sunday:

Plans with family!

Menu Monday... a day early for a change!

Monday:

Grilled Pork Chops

Roasted Vegetables

Grilled Asparagus

Tuesday:

Meatloaf

Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans

Wednesday:

White Chicken Enchiladas

Thursday:

Breakfast Casserole

Home Fries

Muffins

Friday:

Home Made Pizza

Saturday:

Leftovers

Sunday:

Grilled Burgers or Hot Dogs

Chips

Phone Photo Unload

My phone is full of pictures and I try to load them to the computer and clear them off the phone on a pretty regular basis.  The key word there is "try."  It never actually happens.  I usually only manage to do it every 3 or 4 months.  Today, I did just that.  So, here are a few of my favorite phone photos from this summer...

Grandmommy and Ava Grace picking flowers.

The pool!

You know I had tons of pool pictures.

I'm only sharing a few, but had to share this one of our sweet neighbor and friend, Kassidy!  Both our girls love her and think she is the coolest.... because, well, she is!  Have I mentioned today that we have the best neighbors ever?  Ever. 

This picture is posted as proof that I exist.  It's a running joke at our house because I am always the one taking the picture and thus never in them!  

These two have gotten crazy close over the summer.  Chris is just plain and simply the best. daddy. ever.

If one paci is good, two is better, right?

Playing at the park with Papaw.

Ava Grace is a little dare devil!  She loves to slide and swing!!

This was the summer of the scooter for Lily!  This thing went everywhere with use!

Okay, one more pool picture!  This water bug is all about "wimming."  She even jumped off the diving board at Grandmommy and Papaws!

Too cool for school...

LOVES Mommy's glasses!

Chris and Lily at her favorite place...

the ZOO of course!

Fun with Daddy at the gym!

Sister can put away some milk!

The best view is from daddy's shoulders!

Okay, a couple more pool pictures.

They are just too darn cute!

Future golfer?

Ava Grace loves to go to the golf course and ride in the golf cart and "help" Daddy golf.  Last time we went, she insisted on bringing her own clubs and playing alongside Chris.  It was too cute and she was so proud of herself!

Fishing at the park.

Painting

2nd day of 4th grade!  I forgot to take a picture when we picked her up on her first day... ooops!  She is getting so big and grown up... I STILL can't believe she's a fourth grader.  Every time I say it sounds weird!

Lauren and Courtney's new addition, Connor!

Me and Connor

Courtney and Connor!

He is the CUTEST little thing!  I was blown away at how tiny he was.  I swear I don't remember Ava Grace being that small.  Too. Too. Sweet.

Ava Grace's new, most-favorite-in-all-the-world thing to do is play "chi-chen" (kitchen).  We moved Lily's play kitchen to the loft and Ava Grace has played with it every single day.  She takes me to the bottom of the stairs every single morning and asks to go up and play kitchen.  This morning I snapped this picture of her serving me a breakfast of hot dogs, chicken and a very large carrot.  Yummy.

Dinner and a movie!

This little plastic chair and table, that we got for the deck, have been loved and used all summer!  Inside AND out!

Menu Monday

Monday:

Terriaki Chicken and Rice

Tuesday:

Taco Salad

Wednesday:

Grilled Chicken

Potato Salad

Baked Beans

Thursday:

Pizza

Friday:

Out

Saturday:

Leftovers

All About Ava Grace

Sweet Ava Grace,

 School has started back and I am so thankful I get to stay home with you!  We have so much fun together and you are learning so much!  With Daddy and Lily off at work and school, we have been finding new ways to have fun!  One of our favorites is ditching the diaper and having water fun out on the deck!

 Boy, do you love to splash!

You are 18 months old now and you surprise us every day with new words and phrases!  You are so very smart and a big time problem solver!  You are still small on the growth chart but we have experienced first hand the good things that come in small packages!  You may be small, but your are mighty!

We did some painting this week and you did not like the paint getting on you or off of the paper you were painting.  You don't like getting dirty or messy and we had to stop every few minutes to wipe up all the paint and wash your hands.

We have been working on colors and counting to three.  You can say all of the colors, but as far as "knowing" them, you aren't there yet.  According to you, everything is yellow!  As far as counting goes, your favorite number is 2.  If we ask you about how many of something there are, you always say two!  When counting, you say, "two, two, twooooo" instead of "one, two, threeeee."  It's pretty cute.

You talk in short phrases and sentences now and it is so cute!  You say, "I come!" if you want to go with us.  You also say, "I go, I watch, and I read."  You like giving us instructions like, "Sit right here."  You also tell us that you want to have "lunch" every time you are hungry!

You and I are finding new and fun things to play with around the help to polish your fine motor skills and to work on things like counting, sorting, sharing, and taking turns!  One of your favorite "new" toys is the Parmesan cheese container!  We cleaned an empty one and put q-tips in it!  You love to empty it and then we take turns dropping the q-tips in the round holes one at a time.  You enjoy a similar activity with an empty peanut butter jar that has holes drilled in the lid and pipe cleaners to push through the holes. 

You're still our wild girl!  You love to jump, climb, flip, and romp around!  You and Lily have a big time climbing in and out of your pack and play together and flipping and tumbling around the living room.  You have already figured out that big sis is really cool and fun!

You love love love music!  You dance slow by waving your arms slowly around and slowly spinning.  You fast dance by bouncing, jumping, and waving your hands up and down quickly.  You also enjoy singing... especially songs that have motions!!!

We love you sweet girl!  We fall more in love with you every day!

xoxo

Menu Monday

Monday:

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

(This is my favorite crock pot trick!  I put a couple large chicken breasts straight from the freezer into the crock pot.  I cover them with water and season the water with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.  I set the crock pot on low and let it go for 6-8 hours while I'm at work.  When I get home I remove the chicken, shred with two forks, and then toss the shredded meat with buffalo sauce and a little ranch!  Put it on buns and you have dinner!  It doesn't get any easier than that!  For the kids, I pull out a little of the meat and toss with regular barbecue sauce.  All four of us love these!)

Tuesday:

Roasted Pork Loin and vegetables

(vegetables - red potatoes, carrots, and onion)

Wednesday:

Grilled Honey Chicken

Steamed Cauliflower

Green Beans

Thursday:

Grilled Chicken Salad

(with the leftover honey chicken)

Friday:

Pasta Night

Pioneer Woman's Pasta a la Betsy

Saturday:

Leftovers

Sunday:

Taco Salad

July Recap...

We have had trouble with our internet, but got it fixed today.  So here is a quick recap of the activities from the end of July...

Lily did acting camp again this summer!  This is her third summer in a row and she just keeps getting better and better!  This was her fifth play!  This year's play was Mary Poppins!  Lily truly knocked our socks off this year!  Her state presence was fantastic, her voice and motions were larger than life, and her singing was out of this world!  Way to go Lily!  You sure do make us proud!!

 Two days after Lily's play, Chris and I loaded Ava Grace up and headed to Cincinnati for surgery #3.

 We got there just in time to see a Red's game!

 It was so much fun!  Ava Grace LOVED it!

 It was very hot, so Ava Grace had to cool off with some ice cream... of course!

 Overall, we had a great night in Cincinnati and went to bed extra early in preparation for our VERY early rise the next morning at 4:00 AM our time.

 Ava Grace didn't seem to mind the early hour as we drove through downtown to the hospital to her awaiting room and, more importantly, toy bag!

 As if her bag full of toys wasn't enough, the nurses let her play with all of the equipment too!  I'm telling you, this place is the best!

 They always come in and let us pick a hand made surgery cap and a scent for her anesthesia!  They have something crazy, like 37 - I think - "flavors" to choose from.  We went with strawberry, since those are Ava Grace's number one favorite food of all time. 

 There is A LOT of waiting involved when we arrive at 5:30 (that's 4:30 our time) and surgery isn't until 7:30!!

 We walked her back, gave kisses outside the operating room, and then killed a whopping 20 minutes before we were paged back to the post-surgery meeting room.  Everything went great.  She was slower to wake up this time and we beat her back to her room to be there when she arrived... very groggy and slightly drunk.

This is the nurse and student that took care of us this time!  Everyone there is so wonderful!!  It was a great experience again!!  We head back for #4 in October!

The weekend after surgery, we prepped for house guests!! My parents (Grandmommy and Papaw) and my niece Bentlee came up for a visit!!

 It was great fun to see them!  We shopped, had a birthday dinner for Aunt Jan with Chris' whole family, and did lost of visiting.  We went the Corvette museum in Bowling Green and then picked Lily up from her week at her mom's.  Lily didn't know Bentlee was coming - it was a huge surprise!  Bentlee was beside herself with excitement and plans to surprise Lily and Lily was just as excited to see her! 

 They had great fun playing American girl and also putting on a dance show and a fashion show!

 When we were kids, mom had a bunch of dresses she had saved from being in weddings and such and we had so much fun playing in them!  For that reason, I have saved all my past prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and dresses from other formal events.  All those dresses taking up space, finally paid off!  Lily and Bentlee did a four round fashion show complete with jewelry!  It was so cute!

 Saturday of that weekend was Ice Day at the zoo!  We, of course, had to get in on that!  We had so much fun!!!  My parents and Bentlee came along, but we also hooked Chris' parents and brother and sister-in-law into joining us!  It was fun to see all the animals with their icy treats!

Ava Grace had fun as always and looked extra cute in her new go-to-the-zoo outfit!

The last leg of our July recap journey happened this past week.  Our amazing neighbors and friends (the one's across the street that keep Ava Grace) told me about the Sumner County Fair and encouraged Lily to enter some things!  We had just made the hair bows that I blogged about in a prior post, so we decided to enter the one Lily made...

...and look who got FIRST PLACE!  Lily was SO EXCITED!  We also entered our "Peanut-butter-Brookies," but they didn't win.  We are already planning our entries for next year!

Missy's girls had several entries as well.  Among them were some photos of Ava Grace!  They got first place too!!

 We went to the Fair Wednesday for some good, but not-so-good-for-ya fair food and some rides!  We saw Missy and the girls and even got to ride a ride with Kassidy!  It was a lot of fun!  Now we are gearing up for the Wilson County Fair next weekend!