New friends

Yesterday we had a playdate with Adom's new friend Josiah. Josiah's parents attend our church here in Fort Worth. His mom Jessica and I had wonderful fellowship and a yummy lunch together! We can't wait to do it again soon!

Eggs!

Yep Amanda you were right.... I forgot 3 whole eggs! It was the only ingredient I needed out of the fridge so that's my excuse ;)

Have a Blessed week!

Kitchen Ramblings

When I started these "Kitchen Ramblings" of mine I said I would share the good and the bad. This breadlike cake tastes wonderful don't get me wrong. But I did forget an ingredient that would have made it more of a cake probably than "breaklike". I was very busy and distracted when I up and decided to bake this cake (please keep that in mind). Can you guess which ingredient I forgot? Post your guesses and I'll let you know soon.

Jamaica Cake

2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 bananas, peeled and diced
3 eggs
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix together sugar, vegetable oil, pecans, flour, and bananas in a 13 x 9 inch pan. Stir in the eggs, pineapple (with juice), vanilla, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Mix well. Do not mash the bananas.
Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 60 minutes or until cake tests done.

Drummer Boy

My drummer boy......... Sort of.

Happy Birthday GiGi

Happy Birthday Verna, a.k.a. GiGi!

We love you very much!

Have a great relaxing day, we'll see ya soon!

Kitchen Ramblings

So I received a request for the muffins that I posted about previously.
They are really yummy!
The tricky part is getting the cream cheese part in the middle of the muffin batter but it can be done.
Happy munching!







Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brown sugar

4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons chopped pecans

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners.

To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.

For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.

Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Happy Birthday Landry!

Today is our niece Landry's Birthday!

I can't believe shes already 3 years old.

Happy Birthday Landry! We love you!

Food Photography

Today I decided to bake some muffins.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins to be exact. mmmm.

They turned out beautifully, so I thought I would snap a shot, not expecting to find a new hobby...

I love food, I love photography. FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY!

I'm good with still objects when it comes to taking pictures. I like to take my time finding the right angles, and lighting.

I'll leave the rest of the picture taking to my wonderful hubby!

So I'm going to try to remember to take photographs of what I cook. I hope you like it. Blessings!

Oh if you would like the recipe leave a comment saying so and I'll post it under my "kitchen ramblings".

Goodwill Hunting

Not the movie.

I decided I had to tell you about the bargains we found this past weekend!

This time Greg went with Adom and me. He teased me about how excited I was to be going "Goodwill Hunting".

That was until he himself felt the thrill of the hunt!

I'll keep it short and sweet, he found 2 pairs of jeans that in the retail store would have added up to around $150, he paid $26 people! Thats not all but I think it sums it up.

A hunting we will go! Heehee!

Kitchen Ramblings

If you've ever been to our house for dinner theres a big chance you've had my Tortilla Soup.
I got the recipe from Verna and have added my own touches to it over the past couple of years. (So I can't take all the credit).
My favorite thing to make it SOUP!
It's been raining here in Arlington and looks like it'll be raining for a few more days, so that put me in the mood for soup.

Tortilla Soup

1 Rotisserie Chicken

2 32 oz. boxes chicken stock

2 cups water

1-2 chicken bouillon cubes

1 small onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 can rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles (mild or hot you pick)

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tbls. cumin

juice one 1 lime

handful of chopped cilantro

Bring chicken stock, water, and chicken bouillons to boil. Add onion, celery, rotel, and spices. Pick meat off of rotisserie chicken, slice into small chunks, (be sure to take skin off chicken as well) add to soup pot. Add lime juice and cilantro. Add Salt and Pepper if needed. Simmer for 1 hour at least. In the past I've simmered up to 4 hours. It just gets better and better. Especially the day after when you warm it up :)

Most of the time I just buy tortilla chips to go with the soup. We garnish ours with chopped avocado, a wedge of lime, and monterrey jack cheese.

This recipe is wonderful for the rainy days! Also wonderful when the cooler months role around! ENJOY!

Bargain Hunter

Living in a bigger city definitely has some benefits. I am always on the lookout for sales. I love the feeling of buying something for $6.99 when the original price in the store was $60!

There are several places close to us that I am constantly finding amazing deals.

I love Steve & Barry's which carries Sarah Jessica Parker's clothing line. Everthing is $8.98! I LOVE their purses! Thanks, Amanda for introducing me to this store!

But my all time favorite hunt is the Goodwill Super Store down the road from our apartment.

Yesterday I bought some GAP jeans for $6.99! In the past everything I've bought there has been name brand clothing. Express, GAP, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and all sorts of others. This stuff is practically brand new!

Goodwill is such a wonderful organization helping communities and people throughout the world. They definitely help our budget thats for sure!

I actually returned a pair of jeans I bought at the mall because I found the exact pair at Goodwill for $50 less than what I paid in the store!

So go have some fun and feel the thrill of finding a totally awesome deal!

A day at the Mall

Saturday was soooo hot. We decided to take Adom to the mall for some fun family time. First we ate Chick-fil-A. The boy loves french fries!






Then after a lot of "Dada's" (French Fries) we attempted our first carousel ride.




Let's just say I'm glad Greg was the one to volunteer to go on with him.






I was more than happy taking pictures :)















I love this picture. It's as if he were asking Greg,

"What were you thinking?!"

















"What is this thing, and why am I on it?"

Finally we ended the day at the kids play area where Adom displayed his awesome stuntman skills. haha. it was quite the day. Fun. But exhausting.

Another door closed

Yes, it's final... we SOLD our house in Kerrville! Thank you for all the prayers!

It seems like doors in our lives close left and right.

So this door is closed, I can't wait to see which door the Lord will open for us next!

First of many I'm sure

I hate it when my Adom is hurting... I don't do well with it.

Ask Greg, I panic.

Especially if theres a fever or puking involved.


I was not there when he picked up the kitty food can...

I was not there when Daddy found little drops of blood on GiGi's porch...

I was there though when he needed to tell me all about it.


And believe me people he milked it for all it was worth.





It wasn't the tiniest of cuts I'll give him that.

So off we went to HEB for "Diego" bandaids.

Just in case your wondering, it has healed and little man is just fine. I'm sure this won't be his last "BoBo". Unfortunatley (For everyone).

Kitchen Ramblings

I've decided that I will share my adventures in the kitchen with you all... Good Luck! I thoroughly enjoy cooking for all of my loved ones and I am very excited to let you in on my experiments (the good and the bad) haha.

When Greg and I first got hitched my family consistently teased me and him about my cooking abilities. They claimed that he would starve to death, eat nothing but hamburger helper, and so on and so forth.

By the grace of God I have proved them wrong! As you can tell we are not starving, and in the process I've discovered something I'm pretty good at :) So I don't exactly know what these Kitchen Ramblings will turn into but it should be interesting.

Chicken Dijon

4 Skinless boneless chicken breasts

1/3 cup dijon mustard

1/3 cup mayo

1 tbls italian seasonings

2 tbls sour cream

2 tsps white vinegar

1 cup bread crumbs (original or seasoned)

2 tbls olive oil

salt & pepper

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine mustard, mayo, italian seasonings, sour cream, and vinegar in medium bowl. Combine bread crumbs, olive oil, and salt and pepper in medium baking dish. Coat chicken breast with mustard/mayo mixture well. Then coat chicken with bread crumbs in the baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes then remove from oven and sprinkle parmesan cheese on chicken. Bake until cheese is melted and serve warm.

ENJOY!

This dish is super easy and fast! Feel free to post any questions you have about the recipe... I hope I typed it out right. I'll get better at this with time :)

TADA!

So I think I'm finally satisfied with the new look! What do ya'll think of the new page?!

PopPop and PawPaw

PopPop and Adom reading bedtime stories

While we were in Kerrville Adom got to spend lots of time with his Grandfathers. I think that these pictures perfectly represent the kind of relationship he has with each one of these wonderful men! He is so lucky to have two wonderful Grandpas.

Adom goofin' off with PawPaw

Be patient

Please be patient with me as I work on my background and header... any tips would be appreciated :) Thanks!

Big Boy

Shooting his first "Gun" (don't worry it's a BB gun) with Daddy!

Playing horseshoes with the guys

3 generations being "manly"

Meeting Baby Emery

Soon after Adom and I arrived in Kerrville we had to go meet Baby Emery! She is gorgeous, and Ryan and Marissa are completely smitten, as any new parents should be ;) They were not the only ones smitten though... Adom could not stop talking about her! He couldn't say Emery so I think I heard something like "Emy". Anyways, this picture says it all!

WARNING: HOLDING THIS BABY WILL PUT YOU AT RISK OF CONTRACTING "BABY FEVER"!

Congratulations to this beautiful family! Ryan, Marissa, and Emery Joy Neal!

We love you guys!

2 Years Old!

My baby is 2! I can not believe how fast these last 2 years have flown by. He is such a joy in our lives, I can not imagine life without him.
So we had a birthday party for him on the 26th (his actual Bday is the 27th) and it turned out great! Adom and baby Landon (Ryan and April Simpson's youngest) were the only boys haha! Adom was definitely the Ladies Man for the day :) He got tons of wonderful presents and played with lots of little girls all day long. I made cupcakes with dinosaurs on top for his birthday and of course the little toot wouldn't even take a bite... instead he ate his weight in gummy bears (see them in the bowl below the cupcakes?). I didn't care, it was his day, and besides the rest of us didn't have any problems finishing off the cupcakes :) Greg was busy filming everything so we didn't get a whole lot of pictures. Maybe I'll attempt to download the film off of our video camera... maybe. Thanks to all that made Adom's 2nd Birthday so wonderful!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 1st Anniversary to our wonderful wacky friends Dustin and Jessica Cowart! I don't know what we would do without these people. We love you guys!

It's bad

It's really bad :( I haven't posted in over 2 weeks! Sorry! Adom and I went to stay at GiGi and PopPop's for a while and Greg joined us the last week. We had such a wonderful time! So over the next few days I will be catching up on pictures. We celebrated Adom's 2nd birthday while we were there and spent a lot of time with family and friends. So.... get ready for lots of pictures :) Hope everyone is surviving the heat! It was 108 degrees in Dallas yesterday ugh! I can't wait till fall! Blessings!

My first attempt at blogging a video.... we'll see how it goes :) Adom loved riding up and down this little hill at Gigi's in his car.