New favorite website

I love to bake, always have! My new favorite website has kept me busy and so far my favorite cookies are these. I am working my way down the top 10. The 1st one, Smitten Kitchen’s Oatmeal Cookies were really good. The recipe is here. And last week the Dallas Morning News website had a brownie recipe and I made brownies from scratch - without a box! Happy Baking!

Tickle Bootie

Madeleine makes up songs. Today on our way back from checking out the new kids area at the Dallas Museum of Art, Madeleine began to sing, "Tickle Bootie." These two particular words are ones that she likes to sing and say together. I am not sure of their derivation. What made Lee and I laugh though was to hear "Tickle Bootie" to the tune of Kum ba yah.

Imagine, in a very serious singing voice, a nearly 4 year old singing,

Tickle Bootie, tickle bootie. Tickle bootie, tickle bootie. Tickle bootie, tickle bootie. O, Lord, tickle bootie.

What the kids are up to...

dressing up... check


crawling... check

Everett is crawling!!!

And I caught it on video...!!! Superwhy from PBS is the sound in the background.

Everett and Austin

On Memorial Day my sister and her family came over for dinner. It was great to see Austin and Everett bond over the exersaucer just as Madeleine and Sydney had. The first picture is of Everett in the exersaucer and Austin standing. The second picture is Madeleine in the exersaucer and Sydney standing.

Pool party!

Sunday my stepsister Terri hosted my dad's 65th birthday! My dad is 65! Terri has a pool, so here's a photo of me with the kids. Today my mom turns 64! My parents are in the prime of life!

He's a Texan, alright!

Here's Everett in daddy's cowboy hat that he was wearing to mow the yard. Lee mowed the yard, not Everett :)

Precious commodity!

I am a precious commodity! 33 and ordained elder! I found this diagram at this website.

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day I wanted a picture of me and the kids, here they are! Thank you, Lee.

Our hobby

Last night Lee and I celebrated our anniversary by going to Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, which Texas Monthly had recently deemed as the best steakhouse in Texas. Lee and I are going to continue our tradition of staying the night somewhere for our anniversary, but we are not going until June when we go to the W hotel! Lee and I really enjoy going to different places to eat. I love reading D Magazine and Texas Monthly and picking out all of the new places that I want to eat at. So, last night Lee and I determined that our hobby is going out to eat. I know it is not the most healthy hobby, but it sure does taste good!

So: Pappas Bros. Steakhouse was incredible! We started with the crabcakes for an appetizer because the Texas Monthly review said they were good. They were incredible. Such wonderful flavor! Then, the review also recommended the lobster bisque soup. It had a cayenne pepper kick and was great. Lee got the wedge salad and after sneaking a bite, the blue cheese dressing had a great bite. Then, on to the steak. I got the filet, Lee got the New York strip. Sides were au gratin potatoes and creamed spinach. The steak was so tender, it melted in my mouth. And the sides complemented the steak as well. I couldn't finish it all, but I couldn't decide what I should not have ordered so that I would have more room in my stomach. Now, the reason why I wanted to come was because the moon pie dessert had been voted as one of the best new desserts in Dallas, so even though there was no more room in my stomach, we had to order it. It was delicious as well and I think I'm going to finish it for my breakfast this morning! Now, we just have to wait for August when it is Restaurant Week!

8 years!

8 years ago today Lee and I were married. I thought it would be easy to remember, 5-6-00 and I remembered yesterday, but today I just forgot ... until Lee reminded me!

In 8 years together Lee and I have:

lived in 4 different homes - apartment in Oak Lawn, parsonage in England, parsonage in Krum, home in Lake Highlands

had 3 cats be a part of our lives before they went to animal heaven - Wayne, Mabel, Daphne. We have decided that we are not good for cats.

had 2 kids - Madeleine and Everett. We have decided that we are good for children.

purchased only 1 car! Lee bought the Jeep in March 2000 before we were married and I already had the Ford Contour which we sold when we moved to England. My mom drove the Jeep while we were in England and when we got back we bought the Honda (after driving Lee's great aunt's car for a while - the Hoopty!) . We love not making car payments!

been a part of 6 great churches - Oak Lawn UMC in Dallas; 3 in England - St. Paul's, Trinity, Langdon Hills - all in Basildon, Essex; Krum UMC, in Krum; and Lovers Lane UMC in Dallas

together traveled on a cruise to the Caribbean for our honeymoon in 2000, then in 2001-2002 all over England and while we were in England we went to Barcelona and Ireland. In 2003 we went to China and since kids in 2004 we have only traveled out of state 3 times - to San Francisco (Ranga and Alicia's wedding), Jackson Hole and Yellowstone, Wyoming (Scott and Jen's wedding) and Santa Fe (7 year anniversary).

had many fights and made up many times as well! Life is good, marriage is good, and every day when I wake up I decide to be nice to my spouse! I truly believe that love is a choice, it is a verb, it is something that we decide to do (or not do) each and every day.

May we always make each other laugh... and may God continue to bless our marriage.

Joy

I truly enjoy my time at home with Madeleine and Everett. Today Madeleine and Everett were really playing together. Madeleine had been looking at baby pictures of herself on the computer (something she loves to do) and she wanted Everett to play with the same toy that she did on the same blanket that she did. Enter the cups! Everett loved it and Madeleine loved playing with him. Then, Madeleine put her Strawberry Shortcake tent over them both and they played in the tent for a while. What a great day!

First photo is Madeleine's first outfit for the day.


And here is the picture of her at 7 months that she was trying to copy.

Everett is 7 months old today!


I got a video of Everett laughing, enjoy!