Weekend fun

The weather has been up and down for the last couple weeks.  Hot Hot Hot weather than cold and rainy in the blink of an eye.  When it is beautiful we immediately use that time wisely and what I love about spring and summer is laying out, swimming, fishing and soaking up love time with my family!!

We have been out on our boat 4 times in the last month.  Last weekend we took Trace out for the day and we had a blast.  Hannah stayed poolside over at Grandpa and Lisa's house.

My little fisherman

our guest was hungry

bathing beauty!!

she was trying to flex

This weekend the kids were with their dad and it was rainy on Saturday.  The damp weather made my back ache so I spent it in bed on a heating pad.  Sunday I blogged, uploaded pictures and caught up on my TV and read.

Next weekend is Mother's Day so I am looking forward to spending the day with my mom.  I made her, my Nannie, my Grannie and  Mom Judy super cute cards on snapfish.  I also made Judy a collage of our Easter pictures.  My mom wants a family picture made so hopefully we will be able to do that in a field with flowers next weekend.  I also made my Aunt Theresa and my dad picture cards for their Birthdays.  I have something planned to make for Father's Day for him.

I love Snapfish and what's so cool is I was able to make different cards for each person and with snapfish mailing them the cards were like $3.50 a piece.  You can't beat it.  There were cheaper than the store and 1,000 times more priceless!!  I will probably never buy a store card for a family member again.

They also have discounts up to 40% off.
Here's a link http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/welcome

We have a busy next couple months and we are all looking forward to summer break.

In two weeks we have Hannah's field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo on a Tuesday and on Friday Trace's trip to Seaworld.  Brittany is graduating from high school the end of May.  We have her graduation party and Curtis' birthday party the beginning of June.  We are hoping to go away for a long weekend over Father's day and for my birthday and then a Girl Scout field trip to Homosassa State Park the end of June.  Also I am taking online classes for my Coding and Billing certification.  Its crazy, we are busy, I love it and wouldn't change it!!

Until Next Time!!

Food, Flowers and Fish.....

I love to cook, bake and try new recipes.  They don't always come out like I expect or look like the picture but its something I enjoy and have a passion for.  Besides that I love to eat!!

One of the kids favorite thing that I make is chicken pot pie.  I normally season and boil a whole chicken and use some of the broth when I am preparing the mixture.  The rest I freeze for chicken noodle soup.  If I am in a hurry I will buy a rotisserie chicken.  I chop up the chicken, use 2 cans cream of chicken soup, 2 cans of cream of potato soup, and a big bag of frozen mix vegetables thawed.  I mix them all and add chicken broth to make creamy and split between 2 deep dish pie crusts.  Then I cover with the Pillsbury roll out shells found in the dairy department.  I also brush egg on the shells and bake until hot.  It is delicious and easy easy easy!!

Ignore the pan.  I saw on Pinterest a way to get that film off.  I only use that pan with tinfoil or underneath stuff. One thing I read that does that to pans is using generic Pam spray.  I am not sure if that is 100% the case but I switched to only using only Pam and it hasn't happened to my other pans.

With the broth from this last chicken and with some I saved I attempted to make chicken noodle soup for the second time.  The first time DID NOT come out good.  The broth tasted like water and it was a disappointment.  I am happy to say that this last batch was awesome!!!  I am so proud of myself.  When I was boiling the chicken for the pot pie and additional chicken breasts for the soup, I used a lot of garlic salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and parsley.  I also boiled some onion, carrots, and celery in the broth for the soup.  Then I cut up the chicken and added it back along with more broth, green beans, corn and noodles that I cooked separate so as not to absorb all the broth.

Another thing I saw on a facebook page was a recipe for Zucchini chips.  They looked good so I tried them.  They were pretty easy to make and tasty.

Here is a link if you want to make your own. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/zucchini-parmesan-crisps-recipe/index.html

I also baked a few goodies around easter.  I made for the first time chocolate dipped macaroons, candy bar surprise cookies and chocolate dipped strawberries...YUM

On to flowers....I previously blogged about my black thumb and being known to kill all things living.  I have been diligent in taking care of my flowers and trying to garden out of pots this year and I must say that I am doing AWESOME!!!  Look for yourself....

purple peppers

Gerber Daisy's

My garden

Jalapeno

My beautiful tomatoes!!

This is a tree of some sort that I need to plant

Bamboo by the pond

pretty in purple

spider plant

As my garden plants get bigger I move them into bigger pots.  So far so good!!

My last few pictures are of the fish, pond and surrounding areas.  I just love this time of the year and how everything is growing and looking new and fresh.

Goldfish, Koi and algae eaters in pond

Bumper and Lily

Our Flag

Happy weekend all and until next time!!

a little bit of us...a little bit of family...and a few Iphone pictures

I am going to be short on words and big on pictures.  I want to get caught up on camera pictures and phone pictures and just of course love sharing my beautiful family!!

AJ, Garrett, Hannah and Trace at Easter



Hannah and Brooklyn

Trace, Hannah and I

ahhhhhh.....says Trace

CHEESE!!!!

Lily

Pond life....

I love instagram and her!!

Trace's timeline project



what cute centerpieces

Hannah and her birthday bike

My pretty nails by Kay

 I love to cook so I think my next blog will be about recent things I have cooked and more....

Until next time!!