Easter Photos

We took all 6 grandkids to Sears to have photos made for Easter. Considering how many kid-o's we had, I think they did pretty well (and I even made mine change clothes once! Crazy Mom!!)
Any way, here are the proofs. Happy Easter!

Here are my girls, pretty in pink.
Here are all 6 of them, poised and ready to take a beautiful photo for Nana and Papa.
Here are my brother's 3 kids. Look at all those handsome boys thrown in there with a gorgeous girl!! How did they manage that?!?!? Luke and I never did figure that one out! ha ha!
Here are my three little ladies again. Doesn't Kate look ALL GROWN UP?!?!?!? I'm not so sure I like that, but BELIEVE YOU ME, she likes it!

Here's Kate.
Here's Miss Abigail.
And last, but certainly not least, here's the Grace.

Happy Easter! Hope the bunny brings lots of chocolate to your house!!!

Abby's American Girl Birthday

On Monday we took my girls and my brother's kids to the American Girl Store in Dallas to celebrated Abby's upcoming 6th birthday. (Her birthday isn't actually until next Tuesday, but it's Spring Break, and we could manage to get everyone there this week, so we celebrated a little early.) The girls had a fantastic time, and we had a very "girly" luncheon at the American Girl Bistro. My nephew (who will also be 6 years old soon) was very unimpressed. He convinced his Dad to take him to Bass Pro Shop instead. Ha! Gotta love a real boy's boy! My SIL, Rox, got a video of Abby blowing out her candles, so I'm going to try and post it. (This will be my very first video, so wish me luck!!)

Cheep, cheep...

Abby's sixth birthday is next week, and guess what she wants for her birthday? A nice Barbie doll? A fun movie? Some cute shoes? No, no, and no. She wants some CHICKENS!!! (And I don't mean from Kentucky Fried Chicken, either!!) She wants real, live, egg-laying, pecking, cheeping, chickens. SO... of course we will get them for her, because we do live on a farm, right?? This weekend we went to the feed store and bought 4 baby chicks and two baby ducks. The chicks are colored for Easter. Here's what they look like.Are they not Cute (with a capital "C")? Yes, they are! We ordered her a little chicken coop, and it has arrived, but it is literally in one million pieces, because, you know, there is "some assembly required". We will need to be working on that sometime really soon.

They chickies and duckies are really young, and have to stay under a heat lamp for awhile until they get a little bigger. Right now they are living in our garage in a cardboard box lined with hay.

They have great names. (The girls love to name things.) The chickens are "Pearl", "Tex", "Dumpling", and "Chatter". The ducks are "Bubba" and "Bill". (I particularly love that one, as I have a brother named Bill, and, you know, a duck DOES have a bill! ha!) Ah, the humor... it doesn't take much to amuse me!!

I'm sure these birds will provide lots of good material for the blog before it is all said and done. But, for now, I will leave you with some photos of the girls holding their chicks.

Here's Grace, with Tex.
Here's Kate with Chatter.
And here's Abby with Pearl. That Abby, she'll surprise you every time. She may be the biggest farmer of them all!!!

Shop 'til you drop!

This weekend my friend Shelley and I decided we should take the girls shopping for Easter dresses on Saturday because both of our husbands had to work. Keep in mind that we each have three daughters. The oldest one is 9. Then when Shelley talked to our friend Amy, she thought it would be a good idea to join us. She has 5 kids. When we actually started working out the logistics, Amy decided to only bring her oldest two kids. I was hoping to leave Grace at home too, but finding a sitter proved to be impossible, so I loaded her in the car right along with everyone else! We left my house at 8 am, picked up Shelley's family, and hit the road for Abilene. We got A LOT done. All the kids got dresses and shoes, and lots of other clothes that were much needed for Spring. We took them to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and they thought we were Moms of the Year! We finally made it home at about 10:30 pm. The kids were really worn out! I (of course) forgot my camera, but I can always rely on Shelley to be responsible! She had her camera, so she kindly sent me some pics of the kid-o's in Chuck E. Cheese. Enjoy!


Here are the "big" girls, Katie and Abbey H., posing in front of the Chuck-ster.Here are the best buds, Abby K. and Lainey, jumping around in the play scape.
Grace had a ball in the play scape!

It was a crazy trip, but we sure had a good time. Thanks, Amy and Shelley, for being brave enough to tackle a monster trip like this one!!

CRAZY Morning!

This time change thing is really throwing us for a loop... we all like our sleep, and the only family member who is a "morning person" is Kate.  Last night we had rain and I guess it knocked the electricity out for a few minutes.  At least, it turned all of our clocks off!  So, this morning, no alarms sounded, and since the time changed (and because of the rain) it was still really dark.  I rolled over at 7:45.  School begins at 8:00.  There was a slight moment of terror and panic, and then I thought, "We are going to be late.  It doesn't really matter if we are 10, 15, or 30 minutes late.  I am not going to go stress everyone out and yell at them."  So... I didn't.  I casually went upstairs and woke everyone, and when Katie realized what time it was, so flipped.  I told her to calm down, and then it was ok... I guess I had given her permission to be late or something.  We made it to school at about 8:30.  I was NOT the only one who was late... there was a page full of tardys before us!

I wish they would leave the time alone.  Just about the time we get used to it, it will be time to "Fall Back" again!

Good, Old Fashioned Chicken Fried Steak

Last night I made some chicken fried steak, and I actually followed a recipe.  (Usually I just dip the steak in flour, and then the breading all falls off.)  This recipe had a new idea for the breading, and a new idea for keeping it on the steak, and... IT WORKED and it was delicious.  I can't promise that it is a HEALTHY meal, but it sure was yum-bo.  SO... here it is!

Old Fashioned Chicken Fried Steak

6-8 medium sized round steak, pounded and tenderized

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

4 cups fine dry bread crumbs

1 1/4 cups fine cracker crumbs (I used saltines smashed with a rolling pin)

Oil for frying

Salt and Pepper to taste

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. (Important!!  Choose a cookie sheet that will fit in your freezer!!)  In a shallow bowl, combine egg and milk.  Mix well.  In another shallow bowl combine bread crumbs and cracker crumbs. Salt and Pepper the crumbs to taste.  Dip the steaks in the egg mixture, then in the crumbs, then back in the egg mixture, and then back in the crumbs.  Place steak on the cookie sheet and freeze for about one hour.  (THIS IS THE KEY!!!  Freezing the coated meat makes the crumbs stick to the steak while cooking!  Eureka!  The secret is out!!)  Remove steak from freezer and fry in a skillet of deep, hot oil.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.  Make a little cream gravy and some mashed potatoes and you will be in country-cookin' heaven!  Enjoy!

"5 Things..."

OK, so my dear friend Amy "tagged" me to post on five little known facts about me.  This will likely be a disaster, because I just did my "100 things about me" post, so there is NOTHING that you all don't know about me!  But, I'm a sport, so here we go...

1.)  I have had a lot of "interesting" jobs.  I've been a waitress at a sushi bar.  I've wrapped gifts and waited on customers at a lingerie store.  I've been an "after-school nanny" to some kids in Waco.  I spent an entire summer at a Jewish sleep-away camp as a counselor one summer in Pennsylvania.  I was the pre-school age director of a sports club camp one summer.  I've been an after school tutor.  I've been a part-time TAKS specialist.  Oh, yeah, and I've taught third grade.  (Not to mention my current, glamourous job, as a MOM.)

2.)  I married a man who had the same last name as me.  We were not related (until we got married.)  I never had to change my driver's license or Social Security cards.  Luke and I used to pretend to be brother and sister in college so that we could check each other's grades at the registrar's office.  He also pretended to be my brother once when I was really sick and in the Health Center at Baylor so that the nurses would let him come in and check on me.

3.) I was an NCA All-American cheerleader in high school.  I also took ballet and tap lessons for about twelve years when I was a kid.  

4.)  I had fertility issues.  I had to take fertility drugs (and a lot of them) to get pregnant with Kate and Abigail.  I miscarried a baby between Abigail and Grace.  We assumed I couldn't get pregnant on my own, and even though we wanted more kids, we didn't think it wise to keep taking lots of drugs to do it.  So, once we decided to be content with two kids, I got pregnant with Grace.

5.)  One of my "dream" jobs would be to be a photographer.  I love taking photos!  Some day I want to take a class so I can be better.  I want to photograph old barns and old churches and make calendars and stuff.  My other "dream" job would be to be a children's book author.

There you go !  Hope you have learned SO much more about me (and my ability to be really random! ha ha)

HAPPY WEEKEND!!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

*disclaimer* I realize it's not Wednesday anymore, but I tried all day to post these photos yesterday and could not... blogger wasn't my friend! So I am trying now. And, I also realize that since I am explaining, it is no longer "wordless". Oh well, so it's not "Wordless" or "Wednesday"... I had good intentions, though. Happy Thursday!

Voting Day!

It's voting day, Texas.  Did you make it to the polls?

Good Night, Gracie.

We took the kids out to eat last night in Waco to celebrate good report cards from the eldest two.  They chose to go to the Hibachi Place, which is good food and entertainment all in one.  Gracie was pretty tired, because she won't EVER take a nap, but those car rides will knock her out almost every time.  She slept the whole way over and did not wake up until after we ordered.  She did well during the meal and wasn't grumpy or whiny (which is usually the case when she hasn't slept enough!)  On the way home she fell asleep again and woke up as we were coming up our drive.  She heard us talking about bath time and bed time, so she piped up and said, "I just want to have a bath in my car seat."  

Tee-Hee.  

Love that kid.