Footprints in the Snow

It is hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago-Auburn had lots of snow and now we are enjoying the 80 degree weather! That is Alabama for you! To be honest, we only played in the snow for about 30 minutes but I did get a couple of cute pictures! Mom-sorry it took so long to post these!

CRAZY HAT DAY!

"You are never too old, wacky, or wild to read a book to a child!"~Dr.Suess

Italian Sausage and Spinach Pie

This is one of my new favorite recipes-so easy, yet it looks like you spent all day in the kitchen! Pair it with an Italian dressing-tossed green salad and buttered garlic bread for a complete Italian meal.
Italian Sausage and Spinach Pie

1 lb bulk Italian sausage

1/2 cup chopped onion

5 eggs

1 egg white

1 10-ounce pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 ounces)

1/2 of a 15 ounce carton part-skim ricotta cheese (about 1 cup)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Pastry for a double crust 9 or 10 inch pie

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon water

1. In a large skillet cook sausage and onion over medium heat until sausage is brown and onion is tender;drain. Set aside.

2.In a large bowl whisk together the whole eggs and 1 egg white. Stir in spinach, mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, garlic powder, and sausage mixture.

3.Divide the pastry in half. Line an ungreased 9 or 10 inch pie plate with one pastry circle. Transfer sausage mixture to the pastry lined pie plate. Trim pastry to edge of pie plate. Cut slits in remaining pastry circle. Place on filling. Trim to 1/2 inch beyond edge of plate. Fold top pastry under bottom pastry. Crimp edge as desired. In a small bowl whisk together egg yolk and the water. Brush top of pastry with egg yolk mixture.

4.Bake at 375 for 50-55 minutes or until top is golden. Cover the edges with foil, if necessary, to prevent overbrowning. let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

* I think I will add mushrooms or artichokes next time!

Cut into wedges and ENJOY!

Daddy Daughter Date Night

Brian and Annabelle attended their 1st Daddy Daughter Date night last Thursday and had a blast! This is an event sponsored by the City of Auburn for girls up to the age of 12 and their daddies. It takes place around Valentines Day each year. It is a real big deal-I mean I got the tickets back in December! The event is complete with a DJ, yummy snacks, and even a professional photographer-for the "prom" like pictures! No Mommies are allowed in, but you can check out Ali's blog for a few pictures she was able to capture-she works for the city-they are too cute! Brian did take the camera and I was so proud of the pictures he took......Enjoy!

Getting ready for the BIG night-love those curls!

Double Date Pictures with Gabe and Winsley


On the way............

Every date should have food-Right?
Making a mess is WAY more fun than dancing!

Santa Visit

Annabelle and her dear friend Winsley went to see Santa this weekend. Neither of them liked Santa, but they sure had fun running around the mall and eating at Shogun. Maybe next year we can get a better picture!

Saturday at the park......

Brian took Annabelle to the park this weekend. They had a great time playing chase, swinging, and sliding. Brian (being the great husband that he is) took some pictures for me (I was in the bed sick) to see when they got back. The pictures are so cute and thanks so much to Mrs. Amanda for the cute shirt. It is a felt Rudolph made from a tracing of Annabelle's foot and her hands.

"Run,run as fast as you can...you can't catch me!"

Peek-a-boo

Happy Girl!

Oh how she has changed...2007 pictures:

I am a little under the weather today and am taking it easy! Brian is at the park with Annabelle and I am going through old pictures. I came across these from last years Christmas album and thought I would post a few of them!

December 19th? Really?!

December really has went by in a flash! It seems like just yesterday I was thinking to myself,"I really should post the pictures from Thanksgiving.......", and we see that I still have not done that! We have been really busy! I love the holiday season and it is so much fun with sweet Annabelle, but I feel as if I can never get it all done! I have to take time each day to tell myself to slow down and just enjoy the season-but that is so easy to say and so hard to live! Today is the last day of school until next year. Most of you know that Brian and I both teach elementary school, so we get a great, well deserved two week break. I am very excited about spending time with family and friends. I have not even started shopping! I have so much to do and only 7 days to get it done(I have made a list-lets just hope all my ideas pan out)! I did get my Christmas cards out this year-Yeah! Last year I had to send New Years cards due to my procrastination. I am going to share some pictures of December and of Thanksgiving since I have failed to do so......

I want to take just a minute to admit-I AM A BLOG STALKER! I have a couple (just 3) of blogs that I check often-but no, I do not know these people! So that makes me a stalker! There is one blog in particular that teaches me so many cute ideas! This lady is super-woman! Not only does she have time to do all this stuff-but she also shares with the world! I love it! Thanks so much, Darby! She has taught me how to make eyelet socks, bows, appliqued shirts and her newest trick-labels! Summer and I decided that we would have a craft night once a month-since the hubby's have decided that they need to go camping once a month! Here is a picture of the shirt I made Annabelle using her tutorial for appliques. Summer also made Winsley a cute turkey shirt and some dish towels. The possibilities are endless!

Turkey Shirt

Thanksgiving 2008 I made these cute little pilgrim hats for Annabelle's friends at Mrs.Amanda's house and for the 1st grade feast. They were a hit with the kids and so easy!

A little Christmas cheer....
Our December "craft night" turned into a night out! We got a sitter and went out for a great dinner and some downtown fun! I always have such a great time with these gals! A randomn little Elf jumped in our picture!

Annabelle went to a great cookie decorating party hosted by the Galimore's. She really enjoyed herself and has been asking for "cookties" ever since. Thanks Jenny for a great afternoon-you are such a fun and crafty mommy!I wish I had more pictures-BUT, I had my hands full!

Annabelle in full concentration

Sweet Riley and Annabelle
Handsome Barrett
More updating to come soon....... Hopefully!

Wordless Wednesday

Our Little Rudolph!

Rudolph is Annabelle's favorite song these days. This picture is from last week at Mrs. Amanda's house! LOVE IT!

It's HER way or the HI-WAY!

Annabelle is really starting to assert her independence these days! This is how she insisted on eating dinner the other night:

Auburn vs. Georgia 2008

"Ball, ball, ball,....."Annabelle and I

AB went to her first Auburn game last weekend. It was a pretty good game even though we did not pull out the win! I braved taking her alone since Brian was not able to go with us. She had a great time and lasted through half time. She enjoyed watching the Georgia band and pointing on the field as she said "ball" over and over again. I think the most fun she had though was running around the stadium concourse when we took a bathroom break! She was so tired of sitting still! Trying to keep her still during the game was difficult! She sat in my lap and wiggled and kicked the poor man in front of us at least a thousand times! It was so crowded in our section! Maybe next year will be a little easier! WAR EAGLE!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Chicken Spinach Lasagna

16 lasagna noodles, cooked
1 (10 oz) pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
4 cups diced chicken (I use the herb flavored rotisserie chicken from the deli)
4 cups shredded cheddar
2/3 cup finely diced onion
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 cans cream of mushroom
16 oz. sour cream
2/3 cup mayonnaise

Topping:
2 cups grated parmesan
4 Tbsp butter
2 cups chopped pecans (If you don't like nuts you can use mozzarella cheese. Just be sure to cover with foil when you bake so cheese does not burn.)

Combine all ingredients except noodles in very large bowl. In a large and deep baking dish, layer chicken mixture, noodles, chicken, noodles, chicken. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Melt butter in skillet, add chopped pecans to lightly toast. Sprinkle over cheese. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Will make: 1 9x13 dish and an 8x8 dish-Freezes Well!

Happy Veteran's Day

We stopped by to see Papa Lee on our way home from the beach on Sunday and Annabelle had a great time getting into everything in sight! Papa Lee is a very proud Veteran of World War II. His goal is to be the oldest living WWII Veteran in Dale County. I hope all of his dreams come true! My Papa and I have always been very close and it is so sweet to see him building a relationship with Annabelle. I wish Grandma "Annie" (short for Annabelle) was here to join in on the fun! Happy Veteran's Day, Papa! We love you and are so thankful for what you did for our country!

Cute Pumpkin Craft

I found this cute pumpkin craft on the Family Fun website and actually made them last night! I filled mine with goldfish, teddy grahams, and candy corn since toddlers are going to be eating them! It only took me an hour to make 30 pumpkins-Brian even helped with the pipe cleaners! Hope everyone has a great time trick-or-treating tonight!

Materials needed:

1st one done, 29 to go.......The finished pumpkin patch:

The most precious witch EVER!

I am having problems downloading my pictures from yesterday, but we went to very fun fall festival and Annabelle had a blast! Thanks so much to the Muncie, McDonald, and Thames Families for having us! Annabelle sure enjoyed herself! I will share more pictures soon-but until then here is one I "stole" from Julie's page. Thanks Julie!

Silly Sunday

Annabelle looks so cute in pigtails that I try to do them whenever she will stay still long enough! However, when the day is done and I remove the bands this is what we are left with-talk about a bad hair day! Brian thinks she looks just like Jim Carrey in his Saturday Night Live skit from years ago!

My Excuse.......

Why did I stop blogging? I have heard that a LOT lately! WELL, what had happened was:

I went to the beach with some great friends the weekend after that "zoo" post on July 15-(yes, I know that was 3 whole months ago) and ended up in the hospital! Then my mom had to come get me and I ended up having surgery in Auburn that Wednesday! After a 2 week recovery, it was time to start back to work! THE SUMMER IS OVER AND NOW IT IS ALMOST NOVEMBER-WHERE DID THOSE MONTHS GO? So much has happened! Brian and I both went back to work, its so hard to go from a "stay-at-home" family to an "all working" family-overnight! I love my new position at Richland Elementary! It is such a great school with such a positive environment! But, it has also kept me really busy this first 9 weeks! Lesson planning, IEP meetings out the wazooo, parent conferences, the new reading series, and report cards-I could just go on and on, but I won't! I will share some pictures of the past few months! And hopefully I finally have my head above water and will become a more "regular" blogger!

Richland Champions getting ready for a GREAT year!

I also lost my Great-Grandmother since I last posted......

She passed away soon after this picture was taken in August. I drove to Huntsville to visit her on a Saturday and drove back that night, but I will forever be grateful to my sweet husband for encouraging me to take that trip! I was able to spend a wonderful afternoon with her before she became too ill. She was a remarkable woman and I miss her dearly!

I know you want to see Annabelle, so I am downloading pictures now for that post! Maybe it won't take me 3 months!

Date to the Zoo

Last Wednesday, we took Annabelle and her sweet buddy, Brooks to the zoo. On our way to Montgomery, Brian and I look in the back and this is what we saw:

I can assure you that they did this all on their own! This was not a "posed" photo shot-but what a sweet picture! Whenever Brooks would take his hand away, Annabelle would reach her hand out and make all kinds of noises in order to get his attention because she did not want him to let go! We figure if we start taking her on her "dates" now then she will ALWAYS want us to take her!

We had a fun and HOT day at the zoo. Annabelle loved looking at all of the animals and having the company of Brooks. She loves being around other children and has a mild obsession with 4 legged animals so this was her kind of date!

So Pretty!

Isn't this new design so much brighter? Holly Muncie designed my new look and I think she did an AWESOME job-and a quick one too! Thanks again, Holly! Now, I have to get to sewing this week and pay her back! It is so nice to "trade" services with friends!