spaghetti tacos

Last night Layla said, "What's for dinner?" and I said, "Tacos!"

 Layla and Hayden have been on an iCarly binge.  These two munchkins will pick a tv show and watch every single episode from start to finish.  Kinda like what Gary and I did with Breaking Bad and Justified.  Our binges aren't quite as annoying as iCarly.  I just have to leave the room sometimes when they're binging.  Those characters are cray cray, but in a good way.

Why am I telling you this?  

I'm telling you this because Spencer, Carly's crazy older brother served spaghetti tacos.  Doesn't that sound amazing yet interesting?  

When I told Layla we were having tacos she asked if we had spaghetti sauce and pasta.  We did and as you can see this was their dinner. I actually passed on the spaghetti taco, but they cleaned their plates!  Yay!  I'm not posting a recipe because it's pretty simple, and as usual I always sneak zuccini into the meat sauce.  

Now you....go make spaghetti tacos!

the vet and homemade pizza rolls

The puppies had their first appointment with the vet here in Georgia today.  Thankfully we have healthy pups and they haven't required medical attention recently!  Today was just about shots and checkups.  Everyone is all good!

The children stole my phone and took a selfie.  Oh my goodness!  At least they didn't change my iPhone background picture.  They love to pull that trick on me!  

The doggies had great visits with the veterinarian.  Daisy was not a fan of the doctor at all.  She growled and barked at him.  Oh my!  Lily just wanted to lick everyone in sight.  She loves to make friends!

When we got home Layla made dinner for her and Hayden.  She is the best little cook.  I have to say I love it.  I just sat in the kitchen at the table and scrolled through Instagram and browsed Pinterest.  She cooked everything and only needed a little direction from me!  It's so fun to see her being independent!

She took biscuits, and flattened them.  She filled them with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.  Then she gave them an egg wash bath and sprinkled them with Parmesan and Italian seasoning!

Bake at 425 for 18 minutes and serve with pizza sauce for dipping!  Viola!  What a great summer meal for the kiddos.  They love pizza. It's much more fun to make and way less expensive than ordering pizza.  Win Win!!

tiny chef

This little lady loves to be in the kitchen as much as I do.  She begged all evening to make homeade dog treats and wanted to make them while I was busy in the kitchen cooking.  Our kitchen isn't super large so I kept saying NO!

 Finally she wore me down.  

She found a pinterest recipe for dog treats and had them whipped up and in the freezer in no time.

The pups devoured their treats and have more leftover for days to come. 

 I love my mini chef and so do Lily and Daisy!

tiny baker

Layla loves to cook and be in the kitchen with me.

She decided to bake cupcakes!  She did everything all by herself with help from Hayden.  He's a great helper and he puts up with Layla's bossy attitude.  

She made tie-dyed cupcakes and decorated them including added a filling.  She's fancy and pretty good as a baker.  She's going to do big things in the kitchen this summer.  I'll have her cooking dinner for us every night! ;)

She even made a few double stacked cupcakes and the green and yellow cupcakes are Baylor cupcakes.

Yummy yummy!

silent Sunday ~ colored eggs

{silent Sunday}

single sentence Sunday ~ BIB

My little chefs had the great idea to cook daddy breakfast in bed this morning!!

Single Sentence Sunday

I love Sunday's because Gary and the kids cook brunch for us while I relax and have coffee!

banana pudding and Chex mix X2

We've been having fun in the kitchen today.

Banana pudding is so fun and easy for kids to make.  They cut the bananas, lined the dish with cookies, stirred the pudding and kept layering until the dish was full!

We also made our traditional Charlie Brown Chex mix aka *trash*!!

The kiddos measured all the ingredients and helped me stir each time the 15 minute timer rang.

  Layla loved reading the back of the cereal box.  Don't we all love reading the back of cereal boxes?  

Well, she read the Muddy Buddy recipe and we had all the ingredients for it.  Holy Moly.  I've never made this recipe before, but it is amazing.  Mmmmmm!  I'm so glad we tried it, but now I have to try to practice a bit of self control.  I could eat it all and all of the trash too!  Tis the season right?!? 

My little chef!

Layla is a wonderful chef!  She made our dinner, tortellini soup, for us today.  
She pretty much did it all.  She read the recipe, gathered the ingredients, opened all the ingredients and added them to the slow cooker.  This was our first time to make this particular recipe and I'll share it one day, but it needs help. The flavor was amazing, but Layla and I both agree we will make it different the next time!

Layla was beaming when we sat down to eat.  I'm so thankful she loves to be in the kitchen as much as I do!
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Christmas 2012

We had a great Christmas day!  We all stayed in our pajamas all day long and before we went to bed we changed into clean pajamas.  It was so fun for the kids to be here and play with their new toys all day long.  We got 3 new Wii games and so Gary and I had fun too.  I love playing games as a family, but they usually laugh at me because I get so mad when I lose.

Here are the kiddos right before we headed downstairs for the day.

I just love seeing their happy faces....

until they get downstairs and see their gifts.

Hayden said, BUT I WANTED A REAL GUITAR. 

The boy was SO mad until he heard the guitar being played.  Then we was good with it and hasn't set it down since!

Layla was thrilled with her Furby.  I named it Snowflake.  She still calls it Furby.

Hayden loves his rockin' cool guitar.

Layla got a bear-ish looking animal.  It's an inkoo and you can color it and the ink is washable.  She has colored it twice and I have washed it twice.  It really is cool.  She loves this thing.  She loves it even more that she can change it's look.

Layla is showing Hayden how his laptop works.

Hayden loves all his gifts, but LOVES his wallet with attached chain.

He the wallet/chain concept a Disney Channel show and has been asking for one for weeks.  It is the cutest thing when he asks me to hook it to his pajamas.  haha!  He makes me laugh.

Layla was an awesome helper in the kitchen.

We made monkey bread.  It was a great Christmas Day breakfast served with eggs and bacon.

Gary surprised me with a new Keurig!  We have a regular coffee maker, but I have been asking for a Keurig for months.  We had Christmas coffee all day long!

I'm sorta thankful for a fun day of playing with toys and video games.  I am feeling terrible and can't seem to kick this cold.  I'm hoping I'll feel better soon!

Merry Christmas!!

pizza pies

We wanted to do something fun and different last night for dinner since the kids don't have school today.  I thought homemade pizzas would be perfect.  The kids are always begging to help us in the kitchen.  We all four had lots of fun creating our own pies!

Gary got all the ingredients prepped and ready while I helped the kids take baths and put on their pj's. 

This is the best pizza sauce HANDS DOWN! 

Black olives are a must on our pizza.  

The kids almost ate all the olives before they could get in on their pies.

I was shocked...BOTH kids ate artichoke hearts & mushrooms.  They both snacked on them and topped their pizzas with them!

Hayden's little hand snagging a mushroom!

Gary brought this string cheese home from Wisconsin and it melted nicely on the pizzas.

Daddy smeared the pizza sauce and the kids did the rest!

Layla creating her pie!

She added artichoke hearts too!

Yum!

Hayden's turn to create!

He added artichoke hearts too!

My little three year old rocked this pizza creating task!  He had a great time!

My pie!

Daddy's pie!

In the oven they went for about 10 minutes.

I think Hayden's pizza looks like a kid pizza!

I was proud of Layla adding bell peppers.

I topped my pizza with some tomato basil cheese Gary bought in WI.  It was the perfect touch.

The pizza crusts I bought were 400 calories.  I wasn't sure if I could finish a whole pizza, but I did.  I added those calories into the "my fitness pal" app first thing Sunday morning.  I planned my whole day of eating around what turned out to be a 642 calorie meal. Yikes, but it was fun and worth it!

Gary's pizza was very similar to mine, but he added pepperonis and jalapenos.  His pizza looks super gourmet in my opinion.  Looking back at all our pizzas I think our creations match each of us so well.  Heehee!  Only I would say something like that.

Happy Monday!  

I hope you have a wonderful holiday today!