18 Months Old

This is my 500th blog post!!!  Bethany and Zachary are also 18 months old today.  We got a new growth chart...they're both 31 inches tall!  To celebrate, we got a special treat.  My best friend from Abilene came to town, and we took our kids to the Indoor Safari Park in Southlake.

Colin and Bethany were having fun in the ball pit.  Jackson's busy sliding down the slide, and Zachary was enjoying the trampoline!

 Riding on an elephant!

Zachary's turn :)

Christi and me!

All four of our kids.

Peach Crunch Cake

My brother told me to keep posting recipes, but I'm running out of ideas.  I don't think I've posted this one before, and it came from a friend of mine at church.  It's similar to Dump Cake, but it uses peaches instead.

24.5 oz jar of sliced peaches in light syrup

1 package yellow cake mix

1 stick butter (1/2 cup), cut into 16 pieces

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Layer ingredients in 13x9 inch dish, in order starting with peaches.  Bake for about 40 minutes.  Pretty easy, huh?

Birthday Parties & Easter

Our weekend was busy, but it sure was fun!  On Saturday we drove to Granbury to wish my papaw a happy 80th birthday.  Here he is with Grandma Billie (my dad's parents).

All of the family who came to celebrate with Papaw.

 We celebrated Aaron's brother's birthday too!

 Cousins on Easter (Bethany's wearing Katie's dress).

Our family picture...don't the kids look happy?

We found Zachary's eggs for him :)

Bethany was good at hunting eggs!

My parents with all of their grandkids.

Catching Up

My friend Christi likes to do "Wordy Wednesday" so here's a little update on what's been going on lately.  Last weekend Aaron and I went with our church youth group on their spring retreat.  The kids stayed with Aaron's parents, and they took them to a place called Sharkarosa.  I had never heard of it, but they got to ride around in a little train and see animals.  They also took a picture with a baby albino kangaroo.

Then on Sunday night after church, we had our "secret sister revealing party" and I finally found out whose been giving me such great gifts for the past year.  Check out these pretty flowers!

Picture Taking

Something happened about 6 or so months ago, and my children no longer cooperate to take pictures.  It's not fun!  When one of them is smiling, the other one's not.  When one of them is looking at the camera, the other one's not.  They'll be 18 months old next week, and I got the bright idea to try getting pictures...again!  My mom met us around lunch, and here's what we got an hour later.

Then I came home and thought I'd try again after their naps.  Aloha!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

Here's a wonderful dessert my mom makes when we have a mexican food meal.  It's not the most healthy, but it's SO worth it!

2 pkg. crescent rolls
2 (8 oz.) pkg. Cream Cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 cup Butter

In 9 x 13 pan:

Layer one package of the crescent rolls for bottom layer. Mix the 2 packages of cream cheese with 1 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and spoon it onto bottom layer. Layer one package of crescent rolls on top. Melt 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Pour the melted butter, sugar and cinnamon on top of crescent rolls. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Bake the day before so cream cheese will harden.

Bluebonnets

Thanks to my mom's friend Michelle, we got some pretty good pictures in the bluebonnets this year. We got much better ones of Zachary than Bethany!

Rudy

Getting pictures with Rudy isn't always easy.  I remember we tried to get him in our Christmas card picture, but that didn't turn out so well.  Maybe we'll try again this year.  The kids really do like Rudy, and he seems to like them too.

Different Personalities

We've been playing in our backyard (I wish it was more kid friendly) but a couple of balls seems to entertain them!  I got some cute pictures of them around the yard and on our deck.  Zachary just runs around, and when I come over with the camera, he flashes a smile!  Bethany usually has a silly face, which shows her personality.

Stacking Blocks

I tried to upload this video yesterday but never could get it to work.  So, here's Zachary stacking his blocks over and over again.

The Great Outdoors

Bethany and Zachary LOVE being outside!

Trying to smile his way out of a nap :)

I was trying to get a better picture of her ponytail.

By the way, I would love to get some outside toys for our backyard.  If you know of anyone who wants to get rid of their old toys, please let me know!

Crunchy Chicken Crescents

I haven't shared any recipes for a while, and I finally tried something new thanks to my friend Christi.  Here's what you'll need:

1 tub of cream cheese with chives and onions

2 cans of white chicken meat

1 or 2 tubes of Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough

1 box of Stove Top Stuffing (chicken flavor)

Butter

Mix cream cheese, chicken, and 1 tbsp softened butter.  Separate dough into triangles.  Put  about 2 tbsp of mixture in center of triangle.  Fill and seal all of the crescents.  Melt 1 tbsp butter and pour contents of stuffing into another bowl.  Dip crescents in butter and stuffing (to make a crust).  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

I had extra stuffing mixture probably because I used the big cans of chicken.  So I went ahead and used two tubes of the crescent rolls.  Mine ended up looking more like balls, but they were super yummy!  Enjoy :)

Sunny Sunday

I took some pictures at my parents' house this afternoon.  Katie was sunbathing...she'll be 5 in June.  It's so hard to believe she'll be in Kindergarten next year!

Randal loves playing in the water!

I gave Bethany her first ponytail.

Zachary's all smiles!

Park Playtime

Ready to play...and get sweaty!

The horse says Yee-Haw :)

Still a cute picture even though I cut his head off.