Wordless Wednesday

Cousins

Stephen's brother and his family are in Arkansas for two weeks visiting. They came over to our house for dinner the other night. We are so thankful they are in town and get to spend some time with them. Caroline LOVED playing with Andrew John and Ella. She hadn't seen them since Easter 2012, but she acted like she sees them all the time!

Cousin Love

Andrew John is FULL of energy. He had Stephen running all over the place, and at one point doing cartwheels!! It was hilarious, and I'm pretty sure I was crying from laughing so hard!

A little ring-around-the-rosie

Caroline showing Ella some love

Love this!

and this too!

Spaghetti-Meatball Casserole and Stripe-It-Rich cake were on the menu!  

See below for the recipes

Meatballs Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup grated Parmigiana Reggiano cheese

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1T fresh minced garlic

1T onion flakes

1t salt

1t black pepper

1/3 cup Ragu Chunky Tomato Onion Garlic Sauce

1/2t dried oregano

2T dried parsley

Meatball Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Shape into small-medium sized meatballs; line baking sheet with parchment paper, and place meatballs. Bake at 350degrees for 30 minutes or until fully cooked. 

Casserole Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground beef

16oz box thin spaghetti noodles

3T olive oil

4C mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided

1C grated Parmesan cheese

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 jar 26oz Ragu Chunky Tomato Onion Garlic Sauce

1/4c grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese 

salt and pepper to taste

Casserole Directions:

Brown ground beef. Drain and add Ragu sauce. Boil the spaghetti until al dente. Drain well then return to saucepan and toss with 3T olive oil. Cool slightly then add eggs, 2 cups mozzerella cheese, 1 cup parmesean cheese, salt and pepper. Spray 9x13 baking dish  and pour noodle mixture over bottom. Scatter the cooked meatballs over the noodles then pour sauce over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and spinkle remaining 2 cups of mozzerella cheese and the Parmesan Reggiano cheese on top. Return to over for 5 minutes.

**I used a little more sauce than the recipe calls for, it came out to be about 30-32 oz.**

Ingredients:

1 box super moist white cake mix {+ ingredients}

3oz box strawberry Jello

1 tub {12oz, I believe} Cool Whip

Directions:

Bake cake according to directions on box. After baking, use a fork to polk holes all over the cake. Cook Jello on stovetop using 1 cup boiling water, then add packet, and 1 cup cold water. Poor Jello mixture over cake. Let cook completely then top with cool whip. Refrigerate prior to eating. Simple yet delicious!!

Wedding Weekend

Last weekend, my cousin and family were in town for a friend from high school's wedding. They stayed at our house all weekend, and I loved every minute of it! Rebekah hung out with us on Saturday while Elizabeth and Justin were doing wedding party things! I love her to death, and she just cracks me up! 

On our way to Chick-Fil-A for lunch

My friend, Molly, and I at the wedding

Rebekah was a beautiful flower girl

Rebekah and me

Elizabeth and I - Rebekah told me this weekend that I looked like her mommy which we've been told our whole lives that we look like sisters not cousins. Ha!

Fun in the Water

Last week, we went over to some friend's house to play in the water. She and Noah are almost three weeks apart, and they had so much fun! She LOVED Noah's trampoline!

That evening we had our own little water party at home!

Later in the week, we had a picnic in the backyard and some more fun in the water. Daddy even got in on the fun! 

Orange Beach 2013

A couple weeks ago, my whole side of the family went to Orange Beach, Alabama. There were 24 of us total. We stayed at Turquoise Place, and it was wonderful!! It was our first trip to Orange Beach, and we had a great time! The resort was perfect for kids! It had four pools plus a lazy river. Two pools were inside which worked out perfect because the first two days in rained! We decided to drive this year, and Caroline did great!! We left on Friday morning, and our goal was to be to Little Rock by lunchtime, back on the road by nap time, and then Jackson, MS by dinner time. We spent the night in Jackson {really it was Pearl, MS}. She would only sleep 40 minutes max in the car, but other than that movies, toys, and coloring entertained her. Caroline hated the beach which we kind of expected. Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip.

My favorite picture - Caroline and Papa

A little fun in the pool with Daddy after some pictures

There was no leaving Cracker Barrel without that gum

Playing with PlayDoh with Rebekah

Laughing at Papa at Shipp's Harbour Grill - this was one of the best meals!

This was how Caroline felt about the beach/sand

Thankfully, she loved the pool

Working hard - this was at Voyagers restaurant - it was another very good meal

My sweet girl

Stephen's plate from Steamers - this meal was AMAZING! Go.eat.there!

with Mimi and Papa

Best family pic we could get

Entertaining herself with PlayDoh on the way home

A couple other restaurants we ate at were Caffe Grazie, Bubba's Seafood House, and Lester's.
Caffe Grazie was one of our top meals! We actually ate their twice - it was that good!

Our Weekend

The night after we let Caroline play in the shaving cream, I decided to give her some strawberries and whipped cream before bed time. At first, I think she thought it was shaving cream again because we had to convince her to eat it. Now I'm sure she will try to eat the shaving cream next time. Ha! 

The crazy weather we had last week led us to waking Caroline up and taking cover. Thankfully, she was super sweet after being woken up and went right back to bed when it was time. 

On Friday when I told her it was time to go, she grabbed her purse. She's all girl! 

I played in a tennis tournament this weekend, so Caroline was able to go to Oma and Opa's house for the night. She always has fun! 

And she always eats well while she's there, too! 

 Katie and I had so much fun playing this weekend! Thankfully the weather cleared up, and it turned out to be a beautiful weekend for some tennis.

This cutie had a fever on Sunday, so she wasn't able to go to her first day of summer Mother's Day Out. Which meant she had to go with me to my hair appointment. I think she enjoyed it!