Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend we made our way to Midland, Texas to attend my cousin's wedding. We traveled about 1,000 miles in just 3 days. It was a little exhausting, but well worth the trip, and we we fit as many friends and family as we possibly could into that small little window of time.

We stopped in Amarillo to stay one of the nights. We saw my grandparents and our dearest friends Ross, Missy and their two boys Reid and Max. Saylor and Reid love each other so much and it just thrills me to watch them together. Seeing Ross and Missy makes me desperately miss Amarillo and all the fun our families used to have together. Maybe someday we will be reunited :)

(I know this picture is blurry, but I think it is just so cute of them yelling at the football game, holding hands.)

Saturday morning we headed through Lubbock to see Mas' sister, Angel (who is due to have our precious niece next week), brother-in-law Francois, and our sweet nephew Zach. We also got to see Mas' mom, Meme, which was a total surprise!

Sweet cousins

Saturday night we celebrated my cousin saying "I do". It was a beautiful wedding and it was so nice to see so many family members. We all had a great time and Saylor made herself at home on the dance floor during the reception. She kept telling me she wanted to dance with the pretty girl in the white dress. (I unfortunately don't have any pictures from the wedding--I'll post some after someone emails me what they have.)

Sunday morning we started the long, long drive home. Saylor did FANTASTIC!! Not a tear was shed, not a whine was heard the entire weekend in the car. I am so proud of my little traveler! Her attitude may have something to do with the awesome DVD players my very handy hubby installed in the headrests a few months ago, but whatever it takes....

August Wrap-up

Ok, so it's the last day of the month and I haven't posted one time. I've been a lazy blogger. I really don't have any great pictures or anything super exciting so I haven't felt the urge to blog. Here is our August in review:
~Mas celebrated a birthday at the beginning of the month. We didn't do anything too exciting, and he actually worked that day.
~My parents came to town for about 4 days and we had lots of fun. We packed a lot of fun family outings into a long weekend and it was great! And I took about 2 pictures I think.
~Our dog, Samson got very, very sick with acute pancreatitis. Who knew dogs got that? It was terrible, but after many meds, some TLC, and a pretty hefty vet bill....he has fully recovered and is back to driving me crazy and entertaining Saylor.
*That's all I can think of at the moment--super exciting month, hu!

Also, I thought I would share a few of my favorite recipes. One is my favorite because it's super easy, the other because it is super YUMMY!

Southwest Chicken in the Crock Pot--easiest recipe ever!
You will need:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1 can of corn
-1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
-1 jar of salsa (we use Clint's Texas salsa in Medium--because we buy anything that says Texas on it. Ha! But it is almost to spicy for Saylor)
-1 (8oz) pkg of cream cheese

Place chicken breasts, corn, beans, and salsa in crock pot. (I add in some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and usually chopped onions.) Cook on high for 4-5 hours. Then stir in cubed cream cheese and cook for another 20-30 minutes, or until cream cheese is thoroughly mixed throughout. We serve it over rice, but we've also discussed putting it in tortillas and making tacos out of it. SUPER EASY, SUPER YUMMY!

Paula Deen's Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding--yummiest recipe ever!
-1 box of nilla wafers or pepperidge farm chessman cookies
-1 pkg cream cheese
-1 can of sweetened condensed milk
-1 (5 oz) box of instant vanilla pudding
-2 cups of milk
-about 6 bananas
-12 oz of cool whip

Line 13x9 dish with cookies and then a layer of bananas on top.
In a bowl, combine milk and pudding mix and blend well using hand held mixer. In another bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese--mix until smooth. Fold Cool Whip into cream cheese mixture. Add cream cheese mixture to pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour mixure over cookies and bananas and cover with remaining cookies or bananas--or both. (I do bananas on half and cookies on half because Mas doesn't like bananas in his BANANA pudding and I don't necessarily love soggy cookies:)
ENJOY!

Some Singing, Saylor-isms, And A Shout-out

Saylor's microphone is a toilet paper holder that I use for extra rolls in our guest/Saylor's bathroom. I don't even know how she knew to associate it with a microphone...but she all of the sudden felt the urge to sing into it. So, here is one of her songs. I need to record all of her regular songs that she sings before she starts sounding too much like a big girl.

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*Saylor's new thing in the mornings is to yell "Mooooooommy, tan you pease tum wake me up!"

*Saylor told me the other day "Mommy, you have a big bobo, I have a little bobo. Mommy has big legs, I have little legs." Really....of all things you picked those two to compare. Awesome! Way to make a girl feel good!

*On Monday Saylor was begging her daddy not to go to work and stay home and play with her. Mas tried to explain to her that he has to go to work so we can pay for our house, our cars, give money to Jesus, and buy her toys. All he had to do was mention toys and she said "Ok, Daddy, you go to work now. Bye bye!"

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Yesterday, my amazing husband and I celebrated 4 years of wedded bliss. I know I say this all of the time, but I am beyond thankful for him. And I'm so thankful that the Lord thought that I somehow deserved this wonderful man as my husband! He's everything and much much more than I ever dreamed of in a husband and partner. Looking forward to many more wonderful years, babe!

Where the Wild Things Are

Mas and I took Saylor to Arbuckle Wildnerness last Saturday. It's about an hour and a half drive--halfway to Dallas--a perfect day trip. We thought Saylor would really enjoy seeing and feeding all of the animals, but the truth is that Mas and I probably had way more fun. Saylor really enjoyed it too, though. It's basically a drive thru safari and you buy feed to give to all of the animals out of your car (they also have a walk thru area and go carts--but it was over 100 degrees that day, so we skipped on that). We actually went through twice because we didn't get enough food the first time. Most of the animals are just roaming around free. The giraffes, buffalo, rhinos, and wolves are "behind bars". Giraffes are my absolute favorite and I got to be literally face to face with them and feed them out of my hand. It was AWESOME!! They are so beautiful--especially up close. Our God sure was so creative when he made all of these animals.

We weren't giving the zebra pepsi, the feed just came in those cups. And those animals were sneaky and would grab ahold of the cup and try to rip it out of your hand. We were trying to save some food for the next group of animals and they weren't having it. One camel took a whole cup of feed from Mas in about 2 seconds.

The zebras were so beautiful as well! (Although I think they may need to see a dentist!)

We had a blast and will definitely make the trip again!

SAYLOR 2.5

My sweet pea is two and a half today! That's just six months away from THREE!

Miss Priss is definitely going to be tall like her daddy. She wears mostly 5T shirts, 4T pants, and size 9 shoes! How can that be? I refuse to buy little girl clothes. I want a T behind those sizes for as long as possible...although I don't think that is going to last much longer for her.


She is completely potty trained during the day. Still far from it at night.


Her favorite books right now are Silly Tilly and Fancy Nancy.


Favorite food is still fruit and cheese....and goldfish.



She NEVER gets tired of Sesame Street, but will now sit still for Imagination Movers as well.


She starts preschool in the fall. Just one day a week for now. I'm so excited for her and so heartbroken for me at the same time.

She's fun and silly and loves to make us laugh. She loves to learn, loves music, loves to eat, loves to be outside, loves water, loves the trash truck, loves for her nails to be painted, and really, really loves her daddy. She's so darn sweet and loving sometimes that I just can't stand it. She talks or sings non-stop all the time. And I mean ALL THE TIME.

2.5 years with this little girl have been the very best of my life!

OK-A-HOMA

Here is a cute video of Saylor in all her nakedness--I asked her several times this afternoon if I could put a shirt on her, she declined that request.

She has the greatest memory. We can talk about something one time and she will remember it....for weeks and months later. She learned all about Idaho from Kellen and Tana because she was over at their house the day they were teaching Averey about Idaho.

A little sunshine

Some of the bright spots of my day:

*I got to wake up at 8:30 this morning, instead of 5:00 like I have the past two days for work. And work was CA-RAZY. So I was so excited to wake up late and to a sweet little voice. Even though that sweet little voice did say "Tome here mommy, I pooped!"

*Saylor completed her two weeks of swimming lessons today. She made LOTS of progress! Her class was just for beginners. They didn't actually learn to SWIM--just go under water, blow bubbles, kick, etc. Every day on the way there she would tell me she did NOT want to go under water, but that is the first thing her teacher made her do, and she did just great!

*I found a little bit of heaven in Oklahoma. It's called CREST MARKET. It's a lot like MarketStreet for you Amarillo peeps. We had nothing, and I mean nothing like that here. Our best fresh produce could be found at Walmart. That's how bad it was. Oh, and occasionally Target, but they didn't always have a huge selection. I'm so happy to have found a good place to buy fruits, veggies, and meats!

*My hubby is back on days for a few months. Hallelujuah! I love getting to have dinner as a family in the evenings, getting to watch movies with him at night, getting ready in my own bathroom instead of Saylor's so I didn't wake him up, and not try to keep a very vocal 2 year old quiet during the day while he tries to sleep.

*Saylor asked Mas a few days ago what his name was. He told her Tomás. She then proceeded to say that her name was To-Saylor and today she told me that my name was To-Mommy. :)