Thank you. . .

GooF, for brightening my day!! I love them!

Swimming in the kitchen?

Our kids are so ready for sunny summer swimming days. . .they just couldn't wait, so this morning we set up the pool in the kitchen :) They had a blast with their goggles and beach ball, and I had quite the mess to clean up!The little ones haven't felt their best lately, but we did get to enjoy some time outside this weekend building stairs on our deck! We debated putting a slide down it :) I'm exhausted and needed, so I'll make this post quick and leave you with a smiling pic of Trey. . .

The Little Lamb

Oh my goodness, I am still laughing!! One of my favorite childrens books as a little girl was "The Little Lamb," and my parents saved it and passed it on to us. So tonight as Ainsley and Daddy were reading it, she really wanted him to be Timothy, the Lamb, and her to be Emmy, the little girl in the story. What a dad. . here he is dressed up in white wooly jogging pants, with a leash and bell on, and her in her party dress :) They acted out the whole story, including when Timothy the lamb knocks over the birthday table that he's tied to :) GooF and I couldn't stop laughing!

The pic of the day is Trey in the sink. . .there were 3 in the tub and the little one said, "I'm crowded, I'm going to the kitchen sink!"

"We've Got a Poke at our House!"

That's what Porter told Grammy on the phone today. The poke at our house is Trey's 1st tooth and we are all very excited about it! I don't have a pic of that little poke yet, but here's a short video of Trey discovering how to play peekaboo yesterday :) He was SO PROUD of himself and his big siblings were pretty proud to!

Saturday night we babysat for Maddie and Cohen and I got a cute shot of the girls in their nightgowns. . . .

And then Sunday Porter went grocery shopping with me and the checkout lady gave him a HUGE balloon and one for him to take home to his sister, but I just have to tell you what the checker said, because she made me chuckle. Let's start by saying she was pretty old and when she asked Porter what his big sister's name was, we said, "Ainsley." Most people say "How beautiful." Not this lady. . she said, "That's what my son wanted to name his daughter but after my response, they named her Ashley." Then she said, "But that was thirteen years ago." Atleast she was honest and made me laugh. Here's to the HUGE balloons I had to fit in my van with my groceries. . .

and Miss Ainsley Brielle, I think your name is absolutely perfect for you. . .

Freezer Meals

So I am all excited about freezer cooking. We had a speaker at MOPS and I won one of her freezer meals. Then my MOPS table got together and made meals for our freezers, so I'm going to share the recipes we made! I LOVE baking, but it is always so crazy trying to get dinner on the table while the kids want to play, Ryan's coming home, etc, so here's to my new adventure in being able to just pull a meal out of the freezer!! I made and froze cornbread to go with this meal

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

6T butter

1T chopped onion

1/2 c flour

3 c chicken broth

1 box long grain and wild rice, prepared

1/4 c shredded carrots (thanks Jaymi for shredding all those carrots and making me get the giggles. . I'll always think of you while shredding them :) )

1 c diced chicken

1 c evaporated milk

Prepare rice as directed on box. Saute onion in butter in soup pot. Stir in flour, whisk in chicken broth and stir til boiling. Stir in rice, carrots, chicken. Simmer 5 min. Blend in evaporated milk and heat til serving or freeze til later (we made 8 times this much!!! Yes, that's 8lb of chicken I cooked and cubed, but seriously if you're going to do 1lb you might as well do 8 :) )

Next, we made Chicken with Angel Hair pasta (thanks Julie for bringing me this when Trey was born and sharing the recipe!

4-6 chicken breasts

1/2 c butter

1 packet dry Italian dressing

1/2 c white wine

1 can golden mushroom soup

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

Put all ingredients , except chicken, in freezer bag and squish it all around (is that a cooking term?) Add chicken and freeze. Thaw and either cook it in your crockpot or in a 9 by 13 pan at 350 for 30-45 min. Serve over angel hair pasta! It is DELICIOUS!

Next, we made Saucy Apricot-Glazed Chicken

1cup chunky apricot preserves

1 8 oz bottled Russian dressing

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

4-6 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts
Put all in freezer bag. Thaw and cook in crockpot or in sprayed baking dish at 350 for 1-11/2 hrs. Serve over rice or wild rice.

Last, we made kid friendly Calzones.

You thaw Rhodes frozen bread dough and cut 1 loaf into 5 pieces for 5 calzones. Roll them into circles and add ingredients (except pizza sauce). . .hamburger, pepperoni, sausage, cheese, veggies, whatever you like. Fold over and pinch around the edges. Add some seasoning on top, and put in a freezer bag with EVOO :) Just stick these in the oven 350ish til they look done :) Serve with warm pizza sauce for dipping.

Now, I haven't frozen this next one, but it's "what's for dinner tonight," so thought I'd share. . my kids LOVE IT!!

2 pkg crescent rolls
1 1/2 lb hamburger cooked

1 pkg sloppy joe seasoning

8oz shredded cheddar cheese
4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

15 oz tomato sauce

In 9 by 13 pan, lay down 1 pkg crescent rolls. Add meat mixture (meat, seasoning, and tomato sauce mixed together). Add cheese, and put the other package crescent rolls on top. Bake at 350 for 30-45 min.

Enough about meals, here's my cute little guy STANDING!! AAHHHHH!!! Just look at that little tush!

And I proudly have 5 sleeping children in four different rooms of my house :) (or so I thought Porter was asleep) Am taking care of my niece and nephew this afternoon, and thought it was hilarious that the boys were all at the table for lunch LONG before the girls :) Here's a shot of Trey and big cousin Bridger.

Last night my little ones had a slumber party on our living room floor because there was a snowstorm and dad got to go in late to work today. . there are a few perks to snow in April :)

"What a beautiful day for a picnic,"

says Porter :) So the kids made sandwiches, packed up juiceboxes, chips and blankets and we went to a "pretend park" aka our backyard for a picnic. We had our pant legs rolled up tanning our legs.

We enjoyed swinging "at the park"

And whispering secrets

When dad got home we had two other neighborhood families in our yard. . it really was like the neighborhood park :)

I just had to post this pic of the brothers. . look they're crawling exactly the same!

Who Me? Couldn't be!

This post is for you, my GooF, since you tease me for writing about the cute things the kids do, and not about the trouble they cause :) I do have to write one cute thing first. . today we were at playgroup and Porter played the toy guitar while Ainsley sang in the toy microphone. . they are quite the duo! On the other hand, we daily have Porter pushing Ainsley over, and Ainsley egging him on. Today as I was downstairs putting laundry away, Ainsley came running downstairs to tell me there was trouble. I ran up the stairs and on the way heard a thud and a cry. Porter had picked up Trey and dropped him. Needless to say, he was in Trouble with a capital T! By these pics it looks like he's saying "Who Me? Couldn't Me?" It's hard to stay mad at him when he says "I love mommy" with a hug. Here we are off to meet dad. . I ended up carrying Trey, and pushing the other two and the tractor in the stroller :)

By this pic you took babe, it looks like Trey will be following in his siblings footsteps :)