Flashback Friday - Sean and Aaron

Here's Sean and Aaron.

Sean is probably two or three and Aaron is maybe 6 months to a year old.

I'm assuming this is around the end of 87 or the beginning of 88.

This just reminds me of my own kids.

More New Favorite Recipes

I've come to realize that I don't have a big enough collection of recipes.

I've also come to realize that my girls are picky eaters.

So I'm constantly on the look out for new, easy, yummy, kid friendly recipes.

Anyway, here are a few that I've tried recently and liked.

My girls haven't like all of these though.

When did they become so difficult to please?!

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Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

These smell AMAZING!

And the homemade syrup that goes along with it is super easy to make.

I'd never made my own syrup before this.

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Crockpot Pineapple Salsa Chicken.

We ate this in tortillas with rice and homemade refried beans.
It was yummy!

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Quesadilla Casserole

I found this recipe on Pinterest.

It looked so yummy that I had to try it.

I didn't make mine into a casserole though.

The recipe instructs you to layer the mixture between tortillas and bake it.

We just put the mixture into our own individual tortillas and it was delicious!

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Creamy Pasta Salad

I'm not a huge fan of pasta salads.

They are usually too oily for my liking.

This particular recipe calls for creamy Italian dressing.

And it makes all the difference in my book.
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Chocolate Syrup Brownies 
with Peanut Butter Frosting
 Chocolate and peanut butter are always a winning combination in my eyes.

Usually box mix brownies are my favorite but I loved these brownies! 

Instead of using cocoa powder you use chocolate syrup.

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IHOP French Toast
Okay, I never actually made these but my sister-in-law did and I ate a ton of it.
It's just a simple, delicious french toast but you top it with  yummy coconut syrup.
It sounds weird but it's awesome!

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Blueberry Breakfast Cake
This recipe is actually for a blackberry cake but I used frozen blueberries instead.

Lexi's Preschool Graduation

 Thursday night was Lexi's preschool graduation.

Lexi insisted that I painted her finger and toe nails and put decals on them too.

She also wanted me to curl her hair and wanted to wear her favorite twirly dress.

And I surprised her with these new shoes.

Once she was all dolled up I took her outside and snapped a few pictures.

It's official, she doesn't look like a toddler or little kid anymore.

She's growing up way too fast!

 

This next picture of Lexi reminds me of her cousins Halle.

I think it's her mouth. I am not sure really.

Does anyone else see it?

 

And I thought I'd try to get a picture of all three kiddo's together and I got some okay ones!

 

After our little photo shoot we headed to Miss Tami's house for graduation.

Here's Lexi getting her graduation hat put on.

She had been talking about her hat all day.

 

Lexi's classes has been learning some songs this year.

The first song is to help them know how to write their numbers.

And the second song is to help them remember how to spell the names of the colors.

 

 I took this pictures of Sean and Eli during graduation.

I love these two handsome guys!

 Avery was so excited to play in Miss Tami's backyard during graduation.

As soon as Tami announced that she was giving the kids awards, 

I knew that Lexi would get the most obedient award.

Lexi's teachers always tell me how well behaved and quiet she is in class.

Tami made all the kids these little books.

They're filled with questionnaires and assessments she took of each kid.

Also with some of their school work and pictures she taken of the kids all year.

Lexi was so excited about hers.

In fact, she's been carrying it around with her for days.

 

After the little program we headed down stairs to the preschool room to show Sean 

and to show Avery where she'll be going to preschool in the fall.

Lexi was so excited about all the American flag stickers she put on her hat.

 

Now that school is out I've made some goals for Lexi for this summer.

We're gonna work on holding her pencil the right way and work on her handwriting.

Also, I'm helping her learn how to write her last name.

And we'll work on memorize some more sight words and learn some more word families.

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Lexi is really excited for kindergarten.

We just found out this week that she's going to be in an afternoon class.

Which is what we wanted.

When I told Lexi that she got into afternoon kindergarten she exclaimed, "Hurray! I can sleep in to 8!"

And is will be on "D Track." She's going to a year-round school.

And her teacher is going to be Miss Asay.

Lexi's Last Week of Preschool

 Last week, Lexi's preschool class went on their last field trip to Wheeler Farm.

We ate lunch together and then walked around and looked at the animals and then fed the ducks.

Here's Lexi's class...

There were tons of ducks and geese.

I took this next picture right before that little boy on the far left in the gray shirt got bit.

A lamb!

In this video Avery says to the sheep, "How ya doing? Say Baaa."

Avery looks really sweaty in this next picture but she's not.

I dumped water all over her.

I also brought a spray bottle with me and was constantly spraying my kids 

and then eventually everyone to keep them cool.

It was 93 degrees that day and by the end of the trip Avery was too tired and hot to walk.

Last week I took Lexi's class picture.

And here's Lexi this past Wednesday.

It was her last day of school.

It was also the day that they celebrated all the summer birthdays.

Lexi had been looking forward to this day all year.

She was so excited to be sung to and receive a card and a new box of crayons from Miss Tami.

Here's Lexi infront of the door into Miss Tami's house.

And Lexi hanging up her back pack for the last time.

And since I took a picture of Lexi with Miss Tami on her first day of school,

here is a picture of her with Miss Tami on her last day of school.

After her last day of school we met up with some of her cousins 

to go ride bikes at a local church parking lot.

It was a good way to kick off summer!

Flashback Friday - Lexi's First Days of Preschool

 Last night was Lexi's preschool graduation.

So soon I'll be posting about that.

Anyway, here's some pictures of Lexi on her first days of preschool.

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Here's Lexi's first day of her first year of preschool.

This is August 23, 2011

 

And here's Lexi on the first day of her second year of preschool.

September 4, 2012

I can't believe she's all done with preschool!

Vegas Vacation - Hanging Out and Celebrating Sean's Birthday

 And here's a photo dump of all my other pictures from Vegas...

My girls had a great time.

Seriously, they were so well behaved and never fought.

They were always happy and always entertained.

And my niece Adalynn seem happy to have two playmates.

These Disney Divas (I just made that up) watched lots of princess movies.

There was lots and lots of dress ups going on all weekend.

Avery was hardly ever in regular clothes (but that's normal for her).

Lyla kinda followed the big girls around.

Lyla really loved Eli.

Every time she saw me without Eli, she'd ask, "baby?"

 These two are 15 1/2 months apart.

(Avery and Lyla are exactly 14 months apart to the day.)

They are both about 22 lbs.

Lyla is a few inches longer than Eli.

Lyla is in a size 3 diaper and Eli is in a size 4.

 Actually, all of Jared and Val's kids loved Eli.

Devin and Addie kept asking to hold him.

And they were so good with him.

It was really sweet to see them adore Eli so much.

 There was a lot of "princess fest" going on so Devin hung out with Sean.

Devin's motto was, "Boys rules and girls drool."

Devin and Sean were good buds.

Sean really like playing with him.

Devin and Sean played the Wii together and Battle Ship and Go Fish.

One morning Sean and I took all the kids for a walk while Val made us some yummy breakfast.

Seriously, if you need a good french toast and homemade syrup recipe, ask Val!

This samurai sword reminded me and Sean of an episode of Duck Dynasty.

Speaking of Duck Dynasty, we watch the entire first season with Jared and Val.

The little gun Eli is holding in this next picture is actually a lighter.

The first night we were there Lexi woke up and got a little scared 

so Sean went and laid with her on the air mattress in Addie's room.

Next thing he knew, he woke up and it was morning.

I snapped this picture of him sleeping with all the girls.

When Devin woke up and saw that Sean was sleeping with the girls, 

I think he got a little jealous because he had told Sean the night before 

that he was welcome to sleep in his room.

Here's the girls sleeping in another morning.

Sunday, the 19th, was Sean's 28th birthday.

We celebrated all weekend long. We ate a different dessert every night.

I want to remember that Devin was so nice to Sean.

He kept trying to give Sean birthday presents.

He wanted to give Sean some of his money and one of his Ninja Turtle action figures.

 Monday night we got a babysitter to watch the kids (except Eli) 

so us grown-ups could go out to eat at a buffet.

Sean feels like he needs to go to a buffet every time we go to Vegas.

I tried duck for the first time. I was kinda bland and a little greasy.

Val tried a sesame ball. And we're not sure what was on the inside but it was black and smelled gross.

Sean and lots of seafood and sushi.

And I can't remember what Jared ate other than a fruit tart that looked like an egg.

Eli ate rolls, saltine crackers and cold cucumbers.

It was so much fun getting out without the kids.

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I want to jot down a few other things that we did...

We learned that Sean is a good ribbon dancer.

We walked YouTube videos of speed walking and thought it was the weirdest looking sport.

Sean got to hang out with me and Val while Jared was at work and experience life as a stay-at-home mom.

Val showed me a few new things in Photoshop that I'm excited to try out.

We learned that Avery and Lyla love pistachios. We went through an entire bag from Costco.

Avery also discovered that she like kettle corn.

Val and I talked about home decor ideas and I can't wait to get her opinions when we buy a house.

That's all I can't think of for now.

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Now I just need to share the pictures Val took of my kids in her photography studio.

But that will take a while since she took hundreds of pictures.

So look for those probably sometime next week.