Peanut Butter Strawberry Bars are Pretty Great.

It was brought to my attention last week that maybe I don't do enough "cooking meals out of a cook book cooking" so starting Thursday, I pulled out some cook books and BHaG magazines and found some recipes. Thursday we had grilled orange marmalade and pineapple porkchops garnished with orange yogurt sauce and cashews.(well I had the yogurt sauce and cashews, someone else didn't want to try it) along with some red peppered honey glazed carrots and bananna pudding for dessert. It was yumm-o! Friday, we had parmesan stuffed chicken with melted strawberries, and I opened a can of green beans, because well, if one cooks a meal out of a recipe book, they're allowed to cheat and open a can. and once again, I was the only one to try the melted strawberries with my chicken, and might I say it was awesome! For dessert I made peanut butter strawberry bars

(and yes there is one missing). This just may be my new favorite dessert! They are soooo good! (and I won't go into all the glorious details about how many calories and fat grams are in them)

You also might want to know, that while making those delicious peanut butter strawberry bars, I had a near-death experience with my hand mixer. near-death experience for my kitchen that is. I was just happily mixing away when all of a sudden, one of the beaters flies across the kitchen! slinging peanut butter bar batter all over everything. my mixer is now in the trash and the kitchen is clean. at least i think it's clean, I'm sure I'm going to find a hidden glob of peanut butter bar batter somewhere.

and also, I signed Ave up to play soccer yesterday! I really hope she likes it, and I'm excited for her to get some interaction with other kids other than Marley Jane. and yes I know MJ is really a dog.

Digital Scrapbooking

So yeah, my new layout may be jumping the gun, but I do believe I'm over summer. I'm soo ready for those beautiful fall days!
So I've had photoshop on my computer for about two years now and haven't really taken the time to learn anything about it. I have also had a few digital scrapbooking kits on here that I downloaded a while back. and haven't done anything with them either. until the past few days. I think it might just be my new addiction! I learned how to use the magic wand tool in photoshop, and learned to work with layers. and well, it's fun! (and I don't care if you call me a nerd for getting excited about it) So if you want to get in on the nerdiness, go here The Shabby Princess, you can download free digital scrapbooking kits! How do you like my new header? cute huh?

and on a totally different note, I had a job interview today. and although the interview went well, I am so totally not interested in having said job. so I will continue to keep looking.

Randomosity

These are just a few random pictures from the past week. along with a couple videos. that you are sure to enjoy. we haven't been up to much.

We babysat Seth last Friday. and we dressed him up like a girl. because he wanted to.

(sorry Sarah)

Ave shakin' her booty. did i mention that Ma and PawPaw paid for dance classes for her as a birthday gift? she's really excited about it. and maybe I am too, because she's just too cute in her little leotard and ballet shoes. and tap shoes.

Adjusting Seth's sunglasses.

and just because she's cute...

Miss Marley Jane showing off her shirt I made for her. really, i made her wear it. and was making all kinds of insane noises to get her to look at me all inquisitive like. right after this picture was taken, she rolled around until the shirt came off.

This morning, Ave said she wanted "ponies" in her hair. so i gave her pigtails. she said she didn't want pigtails, she wanted "a whole bunch of ponies". so.

I do apologize for the grossness of this next photo. I saw this on someone else's blog a few days ago, and can't remember what blog. but anywho. I asked Ave what she wanted for dinner and she said noodles. and then she said a hotdog. so i thought this would be the opportune time to try out these little dudes. i think they're supposed to be octopi (isn't that the plural of octopus?) but we called them spiders. she saw them and got super excited and wanted ketchup with them.

I think she may have had second thoughts... but did gobble them up and ask for more! (and note the pretty crayon marks all over her table, the table I painted. in her defense, she did say it was a picture of avery and daddy. and well, after that cuteness, i couldn't very well get mad about it)

The first one is Ave and Seth dancing and the second one is Ave doing the Hokey Pokey. one of many, many times today.

Ft. Worth Wedding Weekend

This past weekend, we headed to Ft. Worth for Billy's cousin's wedding. Billy was an usher and Ave was the flower girl. We left Friday and went straight to the rehearsal. Ave did okay walking down the aisle in front of people she's never seen before. Actually letting go of the flower petals was a different story. After the rehearsal we went to the rehearsal dinner at Los Vaqueros. The food was great and we had a good time. After dinner we headed to Weatherford to Billy's Aunt and Uncle's house, where we stayed the night. It was nice getting to catch up with everyone and meeting baby Peyton. Avery is still talking about him. Saturday was spent hanging out with family until around 2:00. We then left for the hotel to get ready for the wedding. I fixed Ave's hair approximately two times before I realized that nothing more than a few simple clips was going to work in a rowdy 3 year old's hair. When we got to the chapel, Ave and I practiced her flower-girling while they were taking pictures. well, we practiced until missweddingplanner said that "I really needed to hang onto the flowers because Avery was going to ruin alllll the petals". phmp. Right before the wedding started, I left Ave in the back of the church with the nice bridesmaids and made my way to the third row. so that Ave would actually walk down the aisle. When it came time for her big entrance, she pretty much ran/walked straight to me. without dropping a single petal. she was pretty cute. When the wedding was over and everyone was filing out, she decided that then was the time to throw the petals. one at a time. then stomp on it. She may not have been too fond of flower-girling. We then made our way to the reception. Where we proceeded to have a great time! Ave took off her shoes and pretty much danced the night away. Her mommy may have as well. And the one or seven glasses of wine may or may not have had anything to do with that. We pretty much crashed when we got back to the hotel. Woke up Sunday morning, and after a quick breakfast made the drive back to Arkadoo. It was a great weekend and a great wedding! And as per usual, I only had my camera out for a small portion of the trip. so here are a few pictures at the rehearsal dinner.

And now a picture post

because I'm getting tired of trying to move them around and not going where I want them to. =)
And you should probably scroll down and start at the first birthday post. =) if you want.

Sometimes you just gotta go...
(We love our Seth)

Gabby, the cowgirl, and Ave

Ave and PaPaw

Cute girl

Cadie B

Chasing Seth

Giving the flowers a drink. because apparantly it hadn't rained enough.

Emma, Gabby, Ave, and Josie playing in the sprinkler

Ave's Birthday. Day Three

Sunday. the day of the BIG party at the waterpark! You know, the party that Ave has talked about for 2 months. The one she was super excited about. Well. boo. it rained. Stormed really. and the nice people at the waterpark were too concerned for our safety to let us have a party there. (got my refund in the mail today by the way) I may not have been very nice to mr. waterpark assistant manager when he called for the 11millionth time trying to get me to cancel. I was NOT going to cancel. but I did apologize to him, I believe I said "I'm sorry for being a @#%!#, but I really don't want to disappoint my little girl". so they cancelled for me. So party at the house. (the house that has now fully recovered) We had pizza. from the Pizza Shack. And ate the second birthday cake, that I didn't get a good picture of. and that also had a fenceless back. because I ate those darn cookies. again. So no party at the waterpark. But a great time at the house. playing in the rain and the sprinkler. and having an impromptu pony ride. really it was a horse. not a pony. my sister happened to have one in the horse trailer. And then a big ol' cousin slumber party! full of dancing, coloring, and more playing in the rain and sprinkler. because it rained the next day too, dashing our hopes of going to the waterpark.

Who really needs a waterpark anyway?

Ave getting ready to blow out candles

Opening presents

Gabby, Ave, and Josie. dancing to UFC fighting.

Cadie B loving some pizza

Ave's Birthday. Day Two

The day after her birthday, Ma & PawPaw, Aunt Julie, Uncle Travis, Austin, and Brennan came to our house for the weekend. We spent most of Saturday on the lake and had a great time. I even rode the Gyro. It is the most not fun tube. Really, it's not even a tube. it is a cylinder that you climb inside of. and then the boat takes off. and you get the bejeezies beat out of you. it is neat-o.

We left the lake just as it was getting dark. When we got back to the house, Ave's "Aunt" Cara came over. after she had just ran the Dam Night Race. (super proud of her by the way) Ave opened her presents from Aunt Julie and Cara.

Opening her presentsCara's "18th" birthday was on the 27th, so the birthday girls had to pose in their tutus.

Ave's Birthday

July 24th, Ave turned 3. THREE. three years old. and I guess that means that now she can call me "Mom" instead of "Mommy". cause that's what she's been doing for the past week. makes me sad =( We didn't do much on her actual birthday. I just let her do pretty much whatever she wanted. (umm, cause I never do that?) she opened a big bag of presents, baby dolls, clothes, movies. and batteries, she really liked those. and we ate her practice cake. some of it. The dogs enjoyed some too. Then we took the boat out for the rest of the day. and I forgot my camera.

She got to jump on our bed.

She was happy about it.

Singing Happy Birthday. To herself. =)

Blowing out ALL the candles.

Opening her present

Slacking

So I know I haven't written anything for a bit. And I know I need to blog about Ave's birthday and her party (that did NOT happen at the water park) and our trip to Ft. Worth this weekend. but I'm tired right now, and may just go to bed in a few minutes at 5:00. So, for all of you that read this (all 5 of you) I promise, I will update in a day or so.