It's not just a plain white cake

It's the beginning of a new, fun hobby and hopefully an investment in many birthday cakes to come;) I started a cake decorating class with my sister in law, Brooke and her friend Kelly last week. It's so much fun! I will say, a lot went into making this simple looking cake. I'm supposed to take this cake to class tomorrow and we will learn how to start decorating our cakes. What you see is what we learned to do last week.

Jackson can't wait to eat everything I'm making. He's already asking me if I can make dinosaur cakes and other crazy, advanced ideas that will take me some time to actually learn. Yes, I have to make a cake every week for 4 weeks. Anyone is welcome to my practice cakes. We don't need cake hanging around here, because I WILL eat it if it's there. They may look funky, but they should taste pretty good;)

Yummy Goodness

These are two of my new favorite recipes that must be shared!

I would show pictures, but I forgot to take some. I'll try and remember next time, because these will be a repeat meal in our house:)

Upside-Down Pizza
2 lbs ground chuck or ground turkey
1 cups chopped onion (optional)
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (1 ¼ oz) envelope spaghetti sauce mix
1 (8 oz) carton sour cream
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

Brown ground meat and onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until meat crumbles; drain and return to skillet. Stir in tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce mix; cook over low heat 10 min, stirring often.
Spoon meat mixture into a lightly greased 13x9x2 inch baking dish; top with sour cream, sprinkle with cheese. Unroll crescent rolls, and place over cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Yield: 8 servings.

*Servings are easy to measure for this pizza casserole; just follow the natural perforations in the crescent rolls.



I love this one especially because it’s made in the crock pot. Don’t forget your crock pot liner so clean up is super easy!!

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchiladas
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese with peppers
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chilis
½ cup sour cream
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
8 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 (8 oz) container sour cream
1 (8 oz) bottle green taco sauce
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese with peppers

Toppings: chopped tomato, chopped avocado, sliced green onions, sliced black olives, chopped fresh cilantro

Stir together first 5 ingredients. Spoon chicken mixture evenly down center of tortillas, and roll up. Arrange, seam sides down, in a lightly greased 6-quart slow cooker, stacking tortillas, if needed.
Stir together sour cream and taco sauce; spoon over enchiladas. Cover and cook on LOW 4 ½ hours. Remove lid, and sprinkle enchiladas with 1 cup cheese.

ENJOY!!!

Just some of my latest favorite pics!

Giving hugs!
Yes, my 14 month old is wearing pigtails and ponytails. She looks like she's 4 when she has them.

Jackson is ready to go camping. We keep telling him when it gets cooler:)

Jackson trying to teach Kate how to down hill ski on the Wii.

Fun in the Tub

My little Picasso

Bathtime was a little messy this evening, but so much fun! A friend of ours was telling me that when her kids were little, she used to let them paint with shaving cream in the bathtub. So I thought my kids would love it and they did. They painted the walls, themselves, and each other. It was everywhere! But the best part was that it was easy clean up. Even though it was in their hair and everywhere, it came off so easily. Thanks Therese! So much fun!

Just the two of us

Jackson and his glowstick. They had glowsticks for when they left the reception. So cute!

Me and my sweet cousins, Kayla and Leslie (the bride)

Jackson ready with his boarding pass. We had to take Shamu on board!

Jackson and I took a trip to North Carolina this past weekend to see my cousin Leslie get married, and it was so much fun to have him to myself for a little while. I decided to take Jackson with me because I didn't know how manageable it would be for me to take Kate in the stage that she is in at the moment. She wants down and to walk around everywhere, and on a plane for 2 1/2 hours, I don't think that's feasible. We also had some trouble getting there because of bad weather in Dallas, which made it an extra long day that I'm glad I didn't put Kate through. Jackson was a trouper!

It was so much fun to see my family that we don't get to see that often and the wedding was beautiful and so much fun! Jackson actually slept (snored) through the wedding, so he was very still;)

Jackson's highlights for the trip were:

*meeting soldiers on their way to Afghanistan (sp?) at the airport

One actually gave Jackson his patch that was velcroed to his uniform.

*Experiencing turbulence on the plane that he thought was so fun. His mommy thought otherwise:/

*renting a car. For some reason, he loved the thought of being in a different car and riding in a different carseat. He kept saying, "mommy, I love this car". "It's so funny".

*swimming in the hotel pool.

*eating wedding cake at the reception! (Who doesn't love wedding cake?)

Summer Vacation!!!

Humor me:) I know it's a lot of pictures, but we did so much and I tried to cram in a little of everything!

Oh yes, it's 1:00am and someone is excited about Sea World! We got to the hotel late Thursday night and we were all wired and ready to play!

Kate was just excited at 1:00am because we all were! She had no idea what was going on, but she was ready to play too!

My favorite reason to stay in a hotel............breakfast in my room!!

Feeding the dolphins! So much fun!

I love this picture of Jackson and the shark! He's such a boy and very much into animals that growl and have sharp teeth;) (Not that a shark growls, but you know what I mean)

Feeding and petting the dolphins.

Our favorite part: Shamu!!! The show was amazing! We went to their first show that day and apparently the whales were not wanting to perform, so the trainers asked us to come back later that day, hoping for a better show. Sure enough, the whales just needed a little warming up to do that day, and they put on an amazing show!

The ultimate souvenir when you go to SeaWorld!!

Kate getting in a little pool time at the hotel.

Jackson being silly as we enjoy our smores we made during one evening of our stay. The hotel had several fire pits out by the pools and offered smores to roast. So much fun!

Swimming at the Lost Lagoon at SeaWorld

Kate all suited up!

A little river walkin while Kate's nappin.

We went to the children's museum in downtown San Antonio. They had a little mini HEB to do some pretend grocery shopping. The kids loved it, and so did we! It was so much fun. After you shopped for your groceries, you can check out at registers. Too cute!

Justin checked Jackson out at the register.



Jackson checking my baggage at the "airport" for my "departure"!

My little Pilot!

And conductor too!

This picture makes me laugh out loud:) Yes, he's milking a cow!

Kate at Schlitterbahn. This was our last stop before heading back to the big "D"!

Schlitterbahn!

Congratulations Ben and Sarah!!!!

I realize this is almost the same picture, but he was just so cute, I couldn't help myself.

The cutest ringbearer

Jackson giving little Gavin a few kisses before the wedding

The ringbearer

My baby brother

Jackson and Sarah

Ready to get married!!

Jackson and Kate playing in the bridal suite before the wedding.

Poppa and Jackson sneaking a peek at the cakes before the wedding

Ben and Sarah getting instructions from Pawpaw (the pastor) at the rehearsal

Nanna and Kate

The sisters! Getting ready.

Jackson and Sarah

Ben and Sarah were finally married this weekend and it was such a beautiful and fun wedding! I can't believe my baby brother is married. Much to my surprise, I was quite emotional. I guess that's because I'm his big sister and I still see him as my little brother to take care of, but now he has a wife to do just that. We love Sarah so much and we pray the best for their marriage. We had family from all over in that we spent some time with over the whole weekend! It's so much fun to see everybody.

I took pictures, but I wasn't the best photographer. I guess that's why you hire one;) I got some of the rehearsal, pre-wedding and from there, I didn't get any. I guess I was busy as a bridesmaid and mommy at the same time. I'll post more as I get them. I do have to brag on my little boy, the ringbearer. I wish everyone could have seen how precious he was and how well he did in the ceremony. He walked all the way down the isle while staring at his pillow and no one else. He never looked up until he got to Justin. Pre-cious!

..................At the moment, Ben and Sarah are out in the middle of the carribbean soaking up some sun! Ahhhh! (I'm a little jealous;)