A 1/2 decade in a few pictures

We are ever so thankful,
ever so happy,
ever so everything that you are our girl.
Happy Birthday Lil Lil!

5 Reasons to Celebrate

What a milestone for our family today. She came in quietly five years ago on a cold Monday morning and we've been filled with joy and gratitude ever since. So many happy moments and some sad ones too but all of it wonderful. She's a whole lot of sweet and a little bit of sassy and we wouldn't take her any other way.

More pics to post later but we've got some birthdaying to do right now.

Happy Birthday to the sweetest, most precious little lady we know. Have fun being 5!!

We love you beyond anything we could describe!!

Taking Cute to a Whole New Level

Busy weekend currently underway as we celebrate a certain little lady's 5th birthday. She's officially five tomorrow but we had her birthday party today. It was a tea party for little ladies; lots of fun with some sweet, sweet friends. Here are the cupcakes made by a very special friend who sure loves Lilly alot. These must have taken a sweet forever to make...so many sweet little details. She even made a special version just for the birthday girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Click on the pics to see them in larger size...it seems everytime I looked at them, I noticed something new.


More about the festivities later. We are enjoying some time with family and friends and celebrating a milestone of a very loved little girl.

Not a Post for The Vegetarian

They get some frequent billing on this here blog....our great friends the Yoders. It's because we spend lots of time with that wonderful family. We spend alot of time hanging out at our houses and considering they are 8 houses down, it's a nice quick trip for either family. It's usually low key and casual and that's just like we like it!!

Our kids and their kids play beautifully...most of the time (Lilly can get a little bossy with Courtney and we're working on that); most everytime we get together, the 4 bigger kids run off to play for hours and hours and the adults are able to enjoy an evening without alot of refereeing and intervention. Then there's sweet baby Charlie who just smiles, eats and sleeps so all in all, it's a great match. We're also in cahoots with them on a little project that's underway - it's a secret for now, you'll just have to wait and see. Joe and Brian have good fun together as do Katie and I. We have quite alot in common -- we all love to cook and eat so most every plan we make involves a meal and well.....meat!!

Brian is the grill master...he's got every outdoor cooking mechanism imaginable...gas, charcoal, smoker, turkey fryer.....and on many occasions, there have been multiple ones in use on the same night.

So recently Brian and Katie watched Food Inc....and learned alot about cows and chickens and how they are raised and fed before well, you know....they eventually end up in the case at Publix. We'll skip the details there....I think you know.

Last Saturday we got together for a Meat Taste Test...chicken and beef....the details of each were kept top secret so a fair assessment could be made. We rated each on texture and flavor and compared our results. The results were fairly consistent across the board and the verdict is in....

Chicken - Organic, free range versus Mass Produced

The differences were very subtle but they were there for sure, most especially in texture....for free range, there was more of an "organic" feel to it...a difference in textures in the bites we took. The flavor difference wasn't as distinctive but when we considered the amount of chicken "flavoring" that's likely injected into the mass produced, we wondered how much that accounted for the CHICKEN taste. We also wondered how much we are now accustomed to the taste and texture of mass produced.....scary really. We're used to eating highly processed chicken.

Chicken Verdict -- organic had superior texture...not necessarily enough for the increase in price but considering the overall health factors for us and our children.....if money not a consideration....Organic, free range chicken ruled the roost (pun intended)

Beef - Grass Fed versus Dry Aged Grass Fed versus Mass Produced

The differences here were more obvious and much easier to distinguish than the chicken. The cuts were the same but thickness and marbling were different so this muddied the waters a bit. A definite "richness" varied in flavor and texture too.

Beef verdict - hands down grass fed won out over mass produced. For Katie and I, that's where the differences stopped. For Joe and Brian, they could tell a big difference in dry aged versus just grass fed. (Preference being Dry Aged) Not surprising....both Joe and Brian are quite the carnivores and clearly have a more sophisticated pallet than us girls. Price is a HUGE factor with the beef.....and adding the dry aged element raised the price even more of course. A little sad to say b/c we are Publix people and typically enjoy their meat selection but by far, Whole Foods won out in the beef contest.

If you are still awake and reading, the bottom line....you get what you pay for with chicken and beef and the moral of the story -- grass fed, farm raised, mass produced, chicken flavor injections...it's all so much better and more fun when shared and compared with really great friends!!!

If we leave now, we can still make the Pro Bowl

For those of you who don't know (and likely don't care)..It's been moved to Florida this year and frankly there's not a soul in this house who thinks that was a good idea!! Now make no mistake, we'll be watching it tonight but watching with some trepidation and a whole lot of begging from the 1st grader who will want to stay up WAY past his bedtime to see the game...it starts at 7:20 for crying out loud....REALLY?!?! Thank You Lord for DVR!!

The pro bowl should be in Hawaii for one thing.... and AFTER the Super Bowl for goodness sakes, but clearly we didn't get a vote. If we did, I think we might see a mighty fine player on the field tonight....and he'd be playing for the NFC of course. He's already showing some classic moves....



Well clearly this one isn't so classic but my boy with a #4 jersey....Green Bay no less....yes, I was proud even if only for the 3 seconds he wore it. He borrowed from a friend.Don't tell him I saw this picture -- he wouldn't dare do this in front of me. His favorite hobby is taking the opposite team from anyone I choose. It's a favorite past time for Winston and at times, rather annoying for his Mama!!

Now that's a classic drop-back right there....a little Peyton Manning-esque. And even though he's an AFC dude, we like him alot! A little shout out to our Indy pals -- the Yoders.
Hmmm....perhaps Sidney Rice here...an acrobatic move to catch a #4 stinger??? Maybe more like Steve Smith....he's flexible isn't he?!?!

And this one just reminds me of some side line warm up passes from just about any of those NFC quarterbacks...and just cuz it's my blog and my post....I'm going with a Favre reference again...he IS still wearing that jersey you see.

Happy Pro Bowl Day Ya'll!

A Plethora of Random

Hard to believe this little one is turning 5 in a few short weeks. I just can't wrap my brain around it. She's grown up so fast....I simply don't know where the time went. Her birthday is Super Bowl Sunday...bless her heart....we'll celebrate with her friends the Saturday before and she can't wait. Should be a fun weekend for Lilly girl.

Special Guest at Winston's basketball game a few weeks ago -- thank you for coming Ms Luciano and Rashad!! What a special treat. It meant so much to Winston.

Make your own Pizza night with the Yoders was super fun. A few Friday nights ago...great way to begin a long weekend. Joe and I have become a bit obsessed with the PERFECT pizza crust. We've made this dough recipe tons of times and it NEVER turns out the same way twice. When it's good...well, it's absolute perfection but when it's bad....it's really bad. The kneading and the punching and the rising....my goodness, it's alot of work but it's fun and usually worth the effort. We got a little crazy with topping selection too....we went for broke and added seared filet mignon, caramelized onions and browned chorizo to our toppings bar. Great fun and as far as I'm concerned, nothing is better than fresh mozzarella, tomato slices and basil shreds. YUM-MY.

B-ball still the sport of the day in our house. Winston loves to play and is learning alot. He's pretty good at it too. Raptor season is in full swing and so far, so good!

a few other notables...

Report Card for Winston -- excellent again. He's doing great, recently passed a very big reading benchmark and amazes me quite often with his mental math skills....the stuff he can solve in his head just blows me away. Clearly a gift from his Daddy!

Speaking of Daddies....my Dad is still hanging in there. Thanks to all of you for your constant prayers and concern. We've had some set backs these last few weeks -- first his counts bottomed out and he had to stop treatment and then most recently a bad case of shingles put things on hold as well. He got the green light this past week to resume so he's back in his regimen and while he feels horrible, we know he's getting the meds he needs to hopefully get back to some quality of life soon. God provided so generously here recently in such a huge financial way...one of his meds costs $7,300 PER MONTH (that is not a typo -- monthly cost for ONE of three drugs). This amount of money is simply staggering for anyone but for a retired family with limited income, this is simply a back-breaker. Insurance covered all but $800 of this but seriously....$800 a MONTH for a medication he will likely need for the rest of his life???....how does one afford to have cancer....and that's WITH insurance?!?!?! The current health care reform bill might not be the BEST solution but you will never EVER convince me that we don't need some kind of health care reform. It's simply the right thing to do. Okay I'm off my soapbox....back to my point....long story short...we've gotten approval from a cancer policy my parents have and they will be covering the extra cost of the meds for at least the short-term. PRAYERS ANSWERED. And really, what else can I say about all that.

Thank you and good night...

Time Heals All Wounds

Sorry to my 3 blog readers for the bloggy break this past week....busy with school, basketball and well, preparing my nervous system for that game last night!!

Will post some pics and updates this week....right now I'm nursing a broken heart for my Valiant Vikings. Hard to win a game with 5 turnovers but without a shred of doubt, #4 showed again and again why I'm such a fan. What a season it was....not the ending I'd hoped for but can't take anything away from the comeback year it was for a 40 year old Southern boy!!

More later.