winner winner cauliflower dinner

Hayden loves this weird chili recipe I make.  

It's really simple and is tasty on a tortilla with cheese.  You can use any chili packet mix and add tomato sauce and pinto beans and either ground beef or ground turkey.  I love to use leftovers on eggs or on a baked potato.  It's basically a mild chili con carne lazy girl style.  

Hayden requested chili the week of his birthday and so I thought I'd share my mock baked potato meal.  I just steamed cauliflower and topped it with the chili and cheese.   

I feel like cauliflower is the forgotten broccoli.  I prefer it over broccoli any day of the week.  Thankfully my family does also!  Yum! 

Hayden is 8!

This sweet man is 8 today.

We went to Roadhouse last night to celebrate with a steak dinner.  He ordered steak and potatoes.

Saturday we celebrated at the lake on the boat.  He was so excited to splash in the water and ride in the boat.  We had a fun day at Lake Waco.

Gosh, this little man is just the sweetest most caring guy I know.  I'm so proud to be his mother.

I feel so bad for him lately.  His eczema has been bothering him since we moved back to Texas.  I was hoping by now he'd have outgrown this skin issue, but so far he is still struggling.  He loves to swim, but the water drives him crazy and dries his already dry skin.

We are on day 7 of being Red dye free.  We are hoping he'll see a difference, but so far he still has itchy red spots.  He scratches all the time.  I'm forever getting unsolicited advice from friends, family and strangers and nothing has worked so far.  When I mean we have tried everything, we have tried everything we can in the last 7 years of his life. He has a positive attitude and thinks he will be free from itchy skin in 3rd or 4th grade.  Gosh, I hope he's right.

He doesn't really let his itchy skin get him down.  He's a fast runner and a baseball lover.  He spent all day playing with Legos.  He bought a set with 664 pieces and he's been building like crazy today. 

 He still enjoys Minecraft and loves all his Nerf guns.  He asked for chocolate cake with white icing for his birthday cake and my mom made cupcakes for him last weekend.  They are all gone so I made him monkey bread this morning with 8 candles.  It was a wonderful birthday treat!

Happy Happy Day Hayden Cole!

This girl is 11!!

Layla turned 11 yesterday on July 11th.  It was a fun day doing all things Layla.

She (like me) has been celebrating her day for a week so far!

She chose cookie cake for her birthday cake this year!

She is just growing into such a smart little lady.  She loves to play guitar.  Every time she walks by the piano she plays a couple of songs.  She doesn't realize it, but she's constantly singing, especially in the shower.  She's still as loving as ever with animals and she's pretty loving towards her brother too.  They have their moments of fighting, but mostly they are buddies.

Her legs are getting so long!

Yesterday for her birthday we went to see The Secret Life of Pets.  It was so cute.  We all enjoyed it!

7-11 continued their free slurpee on 7-11 tradition, so we joined in on that fun.  She got a birthday cake flavored slurpee and it was pretty tasty!  After the movie and slurpee we came home to swim and then she chose Chic-fil-A for dinner.  It was a fun day and that is exactly what I want for the kids birthday days.  I love celebrating them!

cat watching

This silly group makes me giggle.

  The dogs love this front room in our house.  They love to gaze out the windows and heck, so do I!  I love having my morning coffee in my polka dot chair.  I get to see all kinds of wildlife even though we live in the city.  

I took this picture with my phone, in a hurry.  It is rare that I get all four in one place at the same time.  The dogs spotted a cat sitting in our shrubs.  Silly cat.  Goodness, the dogs were whining and barking and losing it over that cat.  The kids stopped what they were doing to find out what the fuss was and that is when they all decided to stare down the cat.  The neighborhood cat didn't mind and it just gazed back at them through the window.

Oh what a group these four are!  We are enjoying our summer that's for sure!

July 4, 2016

Our July 4th was pretty low key and that was just fine with us.  The good thing about being back in Waco is that we have lots of friends to keep us busy.  We have been taking advantage of Gary being off work and enjoying every minute and so it's been a super busy summer so far!

Today was all about us hanging out together and staying somewhat low key.

We bought sparklers and smoke bombs and just hung out here at the house since Gary starts his new job bright and early in the morning.  I'm so excited for him!

God is good and he has shown that since we made our move back home.  I'm so happy with our choice to move.  I'm excited to see what else God has in store for us.  I can just visualize the home I can't wait to purchase.  I don't mind renting for now because I know that in time we will find the right spot for our family and I'm hoping that includes a pool for these hot summer months.  We have three summer birthday celebrations in our family and a swimming pool would be amazing.  

I'm saying all that to say...I can't wait to look back at this blog in a couple of years to see where we are compared to where we have been!  I sure do enjoy this scrapbook of ours!

we finally got on the boat!

It's no secret we have had tons of rain.  The lakes all near us are many many feet above normal water levels, so most docks and parks are closed for boating and camping and anything lake related.

We love Lake Whitney and our buddies put the boat in the water, so we joined them for an afternoon of fun.  I'll be honest with you, I was not thrilled to go.  I just knew all the people in the world would be on the lake on a holiday weekend.  I didn't want to have to see huge logs and debris from the flooding.  I was basically just a grump about going.  We did end up having fun.  It was a challenge getting to the boat on the water, but all in all we had a wonderful time in the sun.

The girls did a little tubing.

Gary and Jarred rode the Airchair.  It was windy and the water was choppy, so we had the must fun just sitting in the water floating around watching the kids jump from the boat.  My favorite thing!!

I'm thankful for no injuries.  I'm thankful for a fun day with good friends and I wish I hadn't been such a nervous Nelly, but heck I guess someone has to worry for everyone right?!?!

Hello July!!

I can't believe June is over.  It has been a fun month celebrating.  

40 is going to be a great year! 

Now we welcome July with celebrating these two all month long.  I love having July babies. 

Happy July y'all!