Gabe and Ashley's BBQ

Gabe and Ashley decided to have a BBQ at their house and several from church were able to attend.  We had an awesome day eating burgers and hot dogs straight off the grill with all the fixins, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs, ham and cheese pinwheels, pasta salad, potato chips, doritos, ooey gooey bars, chocolate chip cookies and strawberry cream cheese tarts.  What a delicious meal we enjoyed while getting to visit with each other too!

While getting prepared for the big BBQ, Noah and Colton decided they'd help Gabe set up the horse shoe game.  Then decided to slide instead.

 They then decided to relax before everyone started arriving.

Once people started arriving, the kids started playing.

 

The food finally came and we all sat down and enjoyed our meal.  Once that was over though, the BIG kids were ready to play some horse shoes.........

Some of the grown ups just wanted to sit around visiting and enjoying watching the others have a good time.

After the men were finished with playing horse shoes, they decided to get down to some nitty, gritty football and even let the girls in on a game or two.  What gentlemen!

Everyone had a good time, even the little ones, along with me while playing some ladder ball.

 

We hated it to come to an end, but some of the kids needed a nap and I think some of the adults did too.

I'm so glad the day turned out to be such pretty weather, we had a nice breeze and some sun at times too!  WHAT AN AWESOME DAY FOR A BBQ!

Colton's Playhouse

Today was a beautiful day to play outside and enjoy the surroundings.  Colton went to play in his playhouse and I followed him around with my camera.  He loves to be outside doing anything.  He had fun just climbing around in his playhouse and hiding from me.

He's at the age he loves to play hide and seek, but I didn't want to go crawling around in his playhouse, so I would just try to find him outside the playhouse while he was on the balcony.

Once in a while he would peek out at me through one of the windows and I would have to hurry and snap a picture.  He is a funny boy and I do mean funny.  He keeps me laughing that is for sure.  He kept peeking out at me through this window and every time I would bring my camera up to take a picture, he would squat down and hide and just cackle with his little laugh.  Finally I snapped this picture when his head popped up.

This next picture he has a play phone in his hand and he looks like he's in deep thought.  Sometimes I wonder what that little mind of his is thinking about.  Don't you wish you could just read their mind at times?  I do.  Kids are such intelligent "little people" and they catch on and learn things so fast.  Oh my just to have a mind of a kid again, what I would give to learn things that fast and retain them!!

Cheesy Mexican Chicken Casserole

I told you I've really been enjoying making new dishes for my family to try out.  I kind of use them as my guinea pigs, so to speak.  Last weekend, I made a new chicken dish for mom and I to see if we liked it.  I'll have to say, this one was a little spicy, but at the same time we both thought it was a keeper.  You need to give it a try when you are craving something more on the spicy side.  I found the recipe here.  To me the recipe name should be "Cheesy Mexican Chicken Spaghetti", but it's called "Cheesy Mexican Chicken Casserole" instead.  I think it tastes like a cheesy, spicy spaghetti with chicken, but no matter the name, it's good.  I hope you enjoy.

CHEESY MEXICAN CHICKEN CASSEROLE #1
from  www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com


4 Chicken Breasts, Boneless & Skinless
You can also use Rotisserie Chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounce) Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can (10 ounce) Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies
1 clove Garlic, Minced
or you can use 1/2 tsp. Garlic powder
1/2 Onion, Chopped (opt)
I use 1/2 tsp. Onion Powder instead
1 tablespoon Margarine or butter
1 – 8 ounce Velveeta Cheese, Cut Into Small Cubes
8 ounces Spaghetti, Cooked And Drained

Cut up chicken into bite size pieces.  In a large skillet melt butter or margarine.  Add cubed chicken, garlic & onion.  Cook over medium-high heat until chicken is no longer pink and no liquid is left in skillet.  Stir in soup, cheese and Rotel Tomatoes.  Reduce heat to low, and cook until the cheese melts, stirring constantly.  Place the cooked spaghetti in a greased 2 quart casserole dish.  Pour the cheese/chicken mixture over the top of the spaghetti.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through. Serves 6.

Jen's Mexican Casserole

Lately, I've been indulging in preparing new dishes for my family that I've found on the internet at different sites.  It's been something I've really been amusing myself with.  I enjoy cooking and I've also had some extra time on my hands, so why not live it up with something I really take pleasure in.  I was thinking today about some ingredients that I thought would make a good dish, so I concocted my own recipe.  I'm excited to say, it turned out great I thought.  Here is my new dish I want to share with you, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Jen's Mexican Casserole

1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 onion, diced
1/3 C sweet red and yellow peppers, diced
1 can crushed tomatoes, blended
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of cream of chicken soup
2 tsp chile powder
1 C water
3 C shredded colby or mexican blend cheese
12 corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brown ground beef in a pan with diced onion and peppers.  Drain excess grease.  Place ground beef back into the skillet and add the packet of taco seasoning and just a little bit of water to mix.  In another bowl, combine crushed tomatoes, soups, water and chile powder and blend until smooth.  Now add the ground beef mixture to the soup mixture and mix well.  In a greased 9x13 pan, place a layer of 6 corn tortillas torn into pieces on the bottom of the pan.  Next add a layer of the ground beef and soupy mixture, then add a layer of shredded cheese, just 1 cup.  Repeat the layers one more time, but don't add the last layer of cheese yet.  Bake uncovered for half an hour or until brown and bubbling.  Next spread the remaining 2 cups of shredded cheese evenly on top and it will melt all by itself.  Enjoy.

Our Family Adventure

Today after church, mom, Gabe, Ashley, me, Colton and Noah all piled in Gabe's truck to head toward Mazzio's Pizza for lunch.  We all love their calzone ring and we hadn't tasted one in a while, so we decided to go chow down on one.  Man did it ever hit the spot!  YUM!  This was Colton's very first time of trying one, he loved it.  He ate two pieces of the calzone ring all by himself and one cheese breadstick........I was a very proud mama.

Every time we are all together, it turns into an adventure of some kind.  On our drive over to Mazzio's this time, Colton thought he was going to vomit, so Gabe had to hurry and pull over so I could get him out of the truck.  What an ordeal, thank goodness he didn't puke, but I think it was just in the nick of time that I got him out and let him breathe in some cool fresh air.  He calmed down pretty fast and the upset tummy went away.  He's just like me when I was younger though, I got car sick every time around those curvy roads.  Mom always carried a baggie with us in the car just in case she couldn't pull over fast enough to let me out in case I puked, boy did that ever come in handy.  I gave Colton half a dramamine about 45 minutes before we even left church today, knowing we were going to be driving on the curvy roads, but apparently that didn't help.  His pediatrician recommended he take a half one of those when we know we'll be going around curvy roads, but for some reason, it wasn't working this time.  Mom thinks he should've ate a snack with the pill and maybe that would've made it better, but dingaling me, didn't even think of that.  Next time, I will know.

Anyways, when we arrived to Mazzio's, it was packed!  We had a hard time even finding a table to sit at, but we finally did.  My smart little sister-in-law had called in our order on the drive over, so we didn't have to wait at all to get our pizza and cheese breadsticks.  What a smart little lady she is!  Gabe made a good choice when he picked her.  :)

On our way home, Colton thankfully fell asleep, so we had no worries about him getting car sick on the drive home.  We were then beautifully serenaded by my singing little nephew, Noah who is 2 and 3/4 old.  He will be having a birthday coming up in June.  He was so precious singing along with an old time Country Gospel cd they had of the Happy Goodman's.  Noah knew every song word for word on that cd, that boy can sing!  I love to watch him because he puts everything he has into singing songs for Jesus.  LOVE IT!  That was the highlight of my day today, nothing more precious than to see your family singing songs and worshiping the Lord.

Colton's First Trip to Silver Dollar City

Today we spent the day with our good friends at Silver Dollar City.  This was the first year Colton has ever went and let me tell you, he had a blast.

When we were first walking around trying to find the Half the Dollar Holler, we had to stop to see the moving statues, how awesome are they?  At first, I thought they were just statues until I saw them change their stance, it was amazing how real they looked like statues.  Just unbelievable!

We then continued on to find the play area for the kids.  Katie and Colton finally found where they could ride the ladybugs, butterflies, frogs, swings and the roller coaster.  Colton had a great time riding with Katie, they enjoyed themselves today.  He loved the roller coaster too, he had me ride that with him 5 times.  WOW!

Then they went to the swings and carousel.  Nana got to sit down and ride with Colton on the carousel while Dan stood by Katie while she rode the bear.

Finally, when we were walking around trying to figure out what we wanted to eat for lunch, we ran into the flower ladies.  How cool are they?  Can you find her face?

We also rode the train.  That was about my favorite part.  They had the show that they always put on which I enjoy of the criminals robbing the train.  Angel gave Colton and Katie money to give to the robbers, and the man gave them each HIGH FIVES.  How cute.

Colton's favorite ride of all was what he called the "shoot the guns wide"...........which is code name for the Shooting Miner's ride.  We rode that a couple of times, then on our way out, we had to stop by and ride it again.  Colton couldn't leave without riding it just one more time.

 I had to have a funnel cake before we left..........one of my favorite parts of going to Silver Dollar City and one of my traditions while there.  You have to enjoy a funnel cake.  YUMMY!

Then before we could even leave the park area, this is what happened to Colton.............he fell fast asleep.  He played hard today and had a wonderful time with his friends, Katie and Ryan.  This is actually how mom and I felt too after the day was over and we were leaving, but only one of us was able to actually nap...........and as you can tell, it wasn't me or mom.

We all had a great time, I hope we can do that again sometime soon.