a blessing!

this weekend we had the privilege of going to our nephew's baby blessing. it was a wonderful day and my brother gave such a sweet and touching blessing to his son. i shed a few tears of joy at the sweetness of the experience.

it's funny - i was looking at all of these pics and it is amazing how many different facial expressions this little boy has. take a look and see for yourself -

the happy family

father and son

grandma and the blessing boy

uncle hubbers and the blessing boy



my sweet chubbers.
i love this little boy so much!

elder jakey. i guess it was matching tie day for these elders. :)

and - it's been awhile since i've posted a recipe. we had this for dinner last night and it was yummy!

Mexican Stuffed Shells from http://thewaytohisheart.wordpress.com/

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 package low-sodium taco seasoning ( or better yet use this Taco Seasoning!)
4 oz. cream cheese
14-16 jumbo pasta shells
1.5 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup monterey jack cheese
3 green onions
Sour cream
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a frying pan cook ground beef; add taco seasoning and prepare according to package
directions. Add cream cheese, cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Blend well. Set aside and
cool completely. While ground beef is cooking, cook the pasta shells according to directions; drain.
Set shells out individually on cutting board/baking sheet so that they don’t stick together.
Pour salsa on bottom of 9×13 baking dish. Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. Place shells in
9×13 pan open side up. Cover shells with taco sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes, with the foil removed.
Top with any condiments you’d like (green onions, black olives, etc.) Serve with sour cream and/or
more salsa.
Adapted from: A Pinch of This & That

what a weekend!

i don't know about you, but we had a FANTASTIC Easter weekend!
the weather was awesome, we got a lot of things done, and we got to spend a lot of time with family.

we started the weekend off by seeing our cousin Michael get married to the awesome Amy. we are SO excited to have her in our family. and what a beautiful bride she was!





grandpa and Martsie

the siblings. what a bunch of good lookin' people.
(mother of the groom is on the right end)

on saturday we had the first of a few Easter egg hunts of the weekend.
this one was at grandma's house with cousin D.

the chubbers couldn't wait to get outside and find those eggs!
"let me out mom!"

all the adults went out to help the 2 kiddos find the eggs.

i love these next 2 pics - the chubbers is not interested in the egg hunt at all!
in this pic - he is running away from the fun.

in this pic - he's just sitting on a tree stump.
"eggs? what eggs? i love nature."

and here are the results: Cousin D = a lot of eggs. the chubbers = the eggs i found for him and made him put in his basket. little did he know there was candy inside. oh well for him.

then on Easter sunday we had an awesome day at church, dyed our Easter eggs and got ready for the annual Egg Roll with the hubber's side of the family. we LOVE this event and look forward to it every year. we alway have so much fun and love being with the fam.



granny annie, the chubbers, and i

one....two...three...crack!



here is cousin W - one of the winners.

we had a fantastic weekend and hope you all did, too.

the sickies -

we have had the sickies at our house the past week or so. and we are more than ready to escort them right out the door, not to come back anytime soon. but - it has given us lots of time to hang out in our jammies and watch lots of cartoons.

we learned all about markers.....washable ones, thank goodness.....

....reading stories....

...putting together some pretty newfangled-looking things......

...eating oreos.....

....loving eating oreos.....

....wishing uncle jakey was here to eat oreos with us.....

....watching more cartoons while mom mops the kitchen floor.....

...and finally being let outside to get some fresh air.
"come back here soccer ball! i'm not through with you!"

"all right! mom gave me some chalk!"

"come here purple chalk....we are going to go color with you"

"drawing...drawing...drawing..."

"oh - let's try the yellow chalk now"

"now let's push you all down the stairs and watch you scatter all over"

this is our lovely stairwell.
good things our next-door neighbors love us.
did you know you can draw on windows with chalk? neither did we.
now, thanks to the chubbers and his mad art skills, we do.

here's hoping the sickies don't come visit at your house.
if they do - turn on the cartoons and settle in.