Friday Five

1. Aunt Carrie came up to meet Landon! She brought her new fiance, Bubba, his daughter, Ava, and NeNe, so we had a great time hanging out. We feasted at Bamboo Palace, watched the girls play at the fountains, and scarfed down some Oreo treats.  Ava and Avery (confusing?) had a blast playing together; I'm excited for Avery to have a cousin close to her age! We don't get to see Carrie all that often, so we were thankful to spend some time with her!

2. I enjoyed my first snow cone of the season today! I've been whining that our town doesn't have a snow cone stand, so since I had a couple hours by myself and needed to do some work at church, I decided to check out the stand between our house and the church. 1) It had a drive-thru. Score. 2) My wedding cake with cream snow cone was delicious. I'll definitely be back (especially since we can satisfy snow cone cravings without getting the baby out in the heat)!

3. I've got nothing for number 3. I have a lot I need to be doing instead of writing this blog, but I've been so stinking consistent this week that I hated to let it go today.

4. My parents were supposed to come home from Europe today. They've been gone for over two weeks, but their flight from NYC got cancelled, so now they're on a super early flight to try to get back in time for...

5. ...Avery's birthday party tomorrow! We're doing a very small family party at our house and then going to Avery's favorite place, The Ballpark in Arlington. Yes, we're having a Rangers themed birthday party for our little girl. What can I say, she loves her Rangers. I'll post a party update later!

No-Bake Oreo Bars

It's no secret. I have an insatiable sweet tooth.

Unfortunately, my 27-year-old (how did that happen??) body doesn't metabolize quite as well as my 18-year-old body did, so now I actually have to pay for my food choices.

Screw that.

You see, thanks to Pinterest (the most addictive time-sucker in my life right now), I'm addicted to No-Bake Oreo Bars.

People. You have to make them. They're essentially Rice Krispie Treats made with Oreos instead of the Rice Krispies, so the texture catches you off guard at first. But once you come to grips with the freaky chewy Oreo sensation, your life will never be the same.

And because plagiarism is wrong, the original recipe can be found here. But for those of you who are too lazy to click on the link, here it is:

1 pkg Oreos

1 pkg large marshmallows

4 Tbsp butter

Grind all the Oreos using a food processor (if you're fancy like that; if you're ghetto like us, a Ziplock bag and a rolling pin will do). Melt marshmallows and butter in microwave until puffed (about 1 1/2- 2 minutes).  Remove and pour in ground Oreos.  Stir to combine then transfer to a foil-lined 8×8 inch baking pan.  Let set up for 10 minutes.  Remove bars out of pan with edges of foil and cut into squares. The recipe says it makes 9 bars, but trust me when I tell you that a little bit goes a long way. Cut them into smaller bars and enjoy them for longer. :)

You can repay me by sharing your finished product. I love Oreos.

Wordless Wednesday: 2 Years Old

 

(to see the rest of Avery's photo shoot, check out Allison Jean Photo)

Happy Birthday to Avery and America!

We have just had the best two days around here!

{Avery's Birthday Celebration}

We're having a small family party next weekend, but we wanted to do something fun for Avery's actual birthday. I love birthdays and really want to make them memorable and special for our kids.

Since her birthday fell on a Sunday this year, she got to wear a special birthday skirt to church (complete with cupcake bow!). She even got to sing "Beautiful One" into the microphone on stage during worship team practice. Everybody was wishing her a happy birthday all morning, and her little Sunday School class even sang to her. I don't think she minded the attention one bit.

We came home for a delicious lunch of sausage, diced sweet potatoes, and (A's favorite) green beans. We'll do a cake at her party, so her birthday treat was No Bake Oreo Bars. The girl loves dessert (um, that might be my fault). But she's allowed to love dessert because she also loves fruits and veggies. See, I'm not such a bad mom. :)

After stuffing her face with chewy Oreo goodness, Avery got to open her birthday present from us, a Leapfrog Tag Reading System with a Disney princess book. (We decided to go with the Tag instead of Tag Junior because you can still use the Junior books with the Tag, and since the Junior system is a little more limited, we thought we'd get more years of use out of a regular Tag system.) She LOVED it (like gasped when she pulled it out of the bag). Point for Mommy and Daddy!

We snuggled on her bed for awhile with her new book and then she got a great nap. Yippee! Good naps make late nights bearable.

Our good friends Kendra and Carlos joined us for the rest of the evening, which consisted of Cotton Patch, fountains, and our town's fireworks show.

If I had known she would actually play IN the fountain this time, I would've brought her swimsuit. Good thing I had extra clothes!

Every time a firework went off, Avery would yell, "They hit a home run!" Um, someone has been to too many Ranger games.

Lauren and Brian joined us for the fireworks!

{4th of July}

Our town had a 4th of July parade, so Allison got up "early" to meet us at the house to go with us, and Kendra and Carlos met us out there. Um, the "parade" lasted maybe five minutes and was completely lame. 

Oh well. So we went over to my parents' (who are still in Europe-- come back already!!) to eat pizza and swim next door. 

We headed home for Avery to nap (she fell asleep in the car like two minutes after we left-- we wore the girl out this weekend!), and then we got our stuff together for the Talleys' annual 4th of July celebration. 

We just love the Talleys (Kendra's parents), and every year they invite over whoever from the church wants to come and watch the Duncanville fireworks from their front yard. They fire up the grill, and everybody just eats and hangs out until the show starts at dark. Avery loved playing with her friend Lily (and all of her other favorite people), and Landon was definitely not lacking in snuggles! The fireworks were awesome, and it was a nice, low-key way to spend the evening.

After a couple of busy days and late nights, I'm looking forward to a "normal" day tomorrow. Goodnight, everybody! Hope your holiday weekend was as fantastic as ours. :)

Avery is 2!!!

Our sweet baby girl is TWO today! It really is hard to believe that it's been two whole years since Avery entered our lives, but in other ways it's hard to remember our lives without her!

Avery Grace, here's what you're up to these days:

• You still wear a size 2T for the most part, but I'm starting to buy 3T now just so you have some room to grow. 

• You're officially a potty pro! You only wear a Pull-Up at night now (instead of at naptime also), but most mornings you wake up dry, so eventually we'll get brave and ditch the Pull-Ups altogether.
• Singing is your favorite! Seriously, you sing ALL the time, whether it's Jesus Loves Me, If You're Happy and You Know It, or the recently learned Sesame Street Theme. You have the sweetest little voice!

• You know numbers 1-10 and still love your ABCs, although last month you began replacing U with O. Oh well, we have time to fix that before kindergarten. :)

• You still love to read, although you've finally moved on from Fox in Socks (thank you!). You haven't been too particular about which book we read, so we've definitely been appreciating the variety. :)

• You moved from the nursery to the 2s/3s Sunday School class last month! You look like such a big girl walking into that classroom (although you're the youngest in the class since you have a summer birthday, so you just look big to me). You love your little friends at church, especially Lily.
• You are such a good big sister! You frequently run up to Landon, get right in his face and say, "Hi Landon hi!" before you run away. Anytime he cries you either start singing Jesus Loves Me to him or go over to him and say in a sweet, high-pitched voice, "What's wrong, Landon? It's okay, little boy" while you pat his leg. It makes me tear up every single time. You've pretty much memorized your "big sister book" and go around quoting lines from it, like "Look at me, baby, I'm your big sister!" I'm excited for you and Landon to be pals.

• People are always surprised to find out how much of a Texas Rangers fan you are. I don't really know how it happened (besides the fact that you've been to tons of games since you were born), but you are obsessed. You love to go to games (duh), and you actually pay attention to them, cheering for your favorites, Kinsler, Hamilton, Elvis, Murphy, and "Michael Young!" You ask to go to Ranger games all the time, and every time you ask, you talk about the fireworks and polka dots (the dot race).

• You have a few favorite sayings : "No way!" (emphasis on "way"), "Oh my gosh" (drawn out emphasis on "gosh," although we've pretty much gotten you switched to saying "goodness" instead), and "I do it by my own self" when you don't want help from us.

• The other day you woke up early and I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, so I went to the kitchen with you while I was half-asleep. Meg started barking at the door to go out, and I said, "Ugh, Meg, shut up!" You quickly responded, "Mommy, I say hush." I told you that you were exactly right and apologized for saying "shut up" because those aren't nice words. You said "yeah" and we moved on. Until Daddy came into the kitchen. You totally ratted me out and told him, "Daddy, Mommy said shut up but I say hush." I have a feeling this is not the first time God will use you to call me out.

• You have quite the imagination! Not only do you carry on hilarious pretend conversations on cell phones, you also "cook" for us all the time and play with your Little People house and dolls. I'm always surprised when I hear you talking out stories with your toys. You even love dress up. 

You've brought so much happiness to our lives, and it's been our joy to watch you grow into a little girl with a huge personality. We love you SO MUCH!

Mommy and Daddy