Kale Chips

I have joined into the kale craze...and this is my new favorite snack...

I've been hearing all about kale chips and have been meaning to make some, just haven't gotten around to it. When we were in Florida visiting my parents, guess what my mom made for a snack one day...KALE CHIPS!

All you do is tear or cut up the kale leaves into smaller pieces. Make sure they are really dry. Drizzle some olive oil on them. Sprinkle with your choice of kosher salt or Paula Deen's house seasoning. I've done both and they both are good. Cook on 350 for 9 minutes. It may vary a little depending on your oven, so I had to watch mine and figure out how long at my house. But 9 minutes is perfect for my oven...




Once you pull them out, stack them on a plate, and you have a yummy healthy snack. Since my mom taught me how to make them, I wanted to make sure she got the credit :)


I make these for lunch a lot of times and eat them with a sandwich instead of chips. Or sometimes I just eat them for a snack with some water. They are easy and yummy.

Note: They do kind of make your house smell a little...so I light a candle when I make them.

Doctor Swindle

We went to visit a friend at the hospital this week. While we were there...guess who we went to visit...Doctor Swindle! She was getting her hair cut so we had to wait...they told us to just go hang out in her office...so that's just what we did.

Briggs had fun with Dr. Swindle's medical assistant, Sam. He showed her all his tricks...



Then he decided to go exploring. Everybody thought he was so cute poking his head out of the office and eventually he tried to make a run for it...but we caught him :)


And finally he got to see her...or she got to see him. She of course scooped him right up and chatted with us for a second.

Just want to reiterate...we were just there to visit a friend. I sent this pic in a text to some of my people and of course the first response..."Are you pregnant"...no mom...we just went for a visit :)


We LOVE Doctor Swindle and St. Vincent's Hospital. I forgot to take a picture b/c I was more focused on seeing my friend but we ran into a couple of nurses and they actually remembered us. We had such a great experience both times we were in the hospital there. I think the staff genuinely enjoyed seeing us today and getting to see what they helped to bring into this world.

Briggs was of course stealing all their hearts with his little hat, fat cheeks and infectious smile :)

Easter Basket Ideas

Since Easter is right around the corner...some of you are probably getting your Easter baskets ready for Sunday morning...and some of you might not :)

Easter baskets were always a tradition at our house growing up. We didn't really do the Easter bunny or anything...we would just wake up to a little basket of treats. So, I decided to incorporate that for our family this week.

Thought I would share some money saving tips and fun ideas.

You know that colorful "grass" people put in the bottom of the baskets that you just throw away after?...I decided to make my own version with some stuff I already had at home. I used some paper that had been used to package something I had purchased and a shredder...


I bought a bucket at Target that I'm going to be using for something else. I wadded up some newspaper on the bottom and then covered it with the shredded paper on top...


Once covered it looked like this...


Then I filled our bucket with a few fun little items, like these shirts for mommy and daddy...

*disclaimer*...Justin always calls me his "HOT WIFE"...which is why he got that shirt :)


And you're probably asking yourself, what does one put in a basket for a 10 month old...glad you asked. I did some fun things we can use this summer...a little blow up pool, magnetic letters, bubbles, a fun bath mat, soft little balls to play with and camouflage easter eggs filled with...PUFFS of course :)


A few other things I put included in our basket is some candy for mommy and daddy, new dish towel and some new shoes for daddy (TOMS).

Here is the finished product...


And here is Briggs trying to get into it already...if you look at what his shirt says..."HERE COMES TROUBLE"...I think that says it all


I decided to do a family Easter basket/bucket this year. Hope I gave you some fun ideas for your basket and even though this is a fun thing we do at our house... we don't ever want it to overshadow the true purpose of Easter...to celebrate the RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!

Happy Easter everybody!

Fun at the Pool

This is the summary of our time at the pool.

It was Briggs' official first experience in the water. As you can see in this video...he definitely had a good time...but took a little bit for him to warm up to this point.


We started out like this...he wasn't sure about the water. I kept telling him it was just a big bathtub but he didn't seem to understand or believe me :)

Just FYI...it was in the 80's outside and the pool was heated.


He is slowly starting to warm up to the idea...


And...not so sure again...


There we go..now he is having fun!


And here is the group shot of the pool gang. Mom is taking the picture because she doesn't like to get in the water.


Thought I would add a little clip of Briggs "swimming". My Dad's theory is that he was just crawling in the water to get his toy...either way...it's one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Spring Break - Florida Trip

Here is another recap of part of our trip. Briggs had a great time with Rah-Rah, Papa and Uncle Russ.

This is a picture of the happy little boy. I'm sure you can see by the look on everyone's faces, they are not having a good time at all....NOT :)



This is me and my first baby. Russ is 11 years younger than me and he prides himself in the fact he is much bigger and stronger than his older, little sister (he still thinks he dunked me in the pool b/c he is bigger but I really just let him do it).


Briggs showing off his walking skills with Rah-Rah.


Papa and his little buddy. Anytime my dad came around, Briggs was reaching for him. He loves his papa!


Uncle Russ and Briggs. Uncle Russ is about to leave for work. He is one of the newest employees of Publix...my FAVORITE place to shop!


Briggs knew if he wanted to eat or play with some fun toys...Rah-Rah was his girl. She kept him busy and entertained the whole time. And of course got lots of kisses.


We took lots of walks while we were there...


And this is Rah-Rah's post during a lot of our visit. We had some AWESOME FOOD...fish on the grill, BBQ pork, pimento cheese, spinach dip...I love going home for that reason...my mom sure does know how to cook.


That big black thing is my parents pride and joy...besides their children. But you might as well go ahead and say they have four kids instead of three. Anyway, it's name is Bullet and Briggs went from pulling back when Bullet would run by...to this...

Oh my...don't know that I'm anywhere close to having a dog but my dad is convinced every little boy needs one...maybe ONE DAY.


And here we are at the airport. Mom helped me get the bags checked


And dad kept his little buddy. Briggs was just sitting content in Papa's lap.


Overall it was a great trip. Nice to get away. Even though we were only there for two whole days, it was a fun and much-needed break. We did spend some time at the pool and Briggs got to swim for his first time. Pics coming soon...

Traveling Solo

Last week my mom, brother, Briggs (which means me too) were on spring break. My dad took off work, so I guess he was part of the spring break crowd. Justin had to work...BOO!!!!

Anyway since we all had time off we decided to make the best of it and spend some of the time together, BUT that meant Briggs and I would have to fly there by ourselves....YIKES!

So here is the picture of Briggs and myself before we took off on our flight...ALONE...without daddy...I'm gonna be honest...I was pretty nervous.




We usually fly direct from Birmingham to Tampa. But since we got our tickets so late, we had a layover in Charlotte, NC. When we booked the tickets I was thinking, no biggy...

It was a pretty smooth trip...EXCEPT our plane from Birmingham was delayed an hour...our layover in Charlotte was 1.5 hrs...you do the math...that means we had 30 minutes to get from one plane to the next. I was thinking...ok..I can do this.

Well I forgot to take into account deboarding, wait for stroller (which is under the plane) and THEN...see this picture below...


Oh yes...we were in terminal "E" and we had to go to "B"...that means mommy got to RUN (I'm not joking), down 4 of these puppies. If you look closely, you can't even see to the end of this terminal...that's how long ALL FOUR of them were. I exercise and would say I'm in fairly good shape. I ran, I'm sure over a mile, and of course when I get to our terminal I see the waiting area EMPTY. I was SWEATING, could barely breath, and then I just started crying b/c I'm thinking I'm gonna be sleeping in the airport tonight with a 9.5 month old.

Good news...they had already booked us on the next flight. So we had 1.5 hrs to compose myself, grab something to eat and play a little...see below :)

And here he is happy as always in his stroller. This was after our MUCH WASTED EFFORT marathon run through the airport.


I was pretty prepared for whatever might come my way since I was by myself. So here is a picture of our playtime in the corner of the airport.

I'm sure when I sat down and started unpacking my backpack with the mini play area for my baby, people were saying to themselves...OH BOY...LOOK AT THIS CHICK.


And the much dreaded plane flight...after our crazy day, I fully expected this...



which very quickly changed to this...


and then shortly after changed to this...BIG SIGH (from mommy and I'm sure the entire plane of passengers)


And after a LONG day...we finally arrived at our destination with a crew to welcome us...Rah-rah, Papa, and Uncle Russ.

And then my stress was over b/c I was with my momma who would hardly let me lift a finger :)

Don't know how much of a spring break it was for her b/c she was taking care of ALL her babies (my dad) included (sorry dad...but it's kind of true..hehe). But I think she enjoyed the extra company..hints..my little traveling buddy.

More pics from our actual time together coming soon....I PROMISE MOM!

Workout Buddies

This is my friend Tanya. We work together and don't know if you can see the similarities but most of the residents, family members and even the staff at the nursing home get us confused and either call us each others' names or think we are twins. I mean we are almost the same height, similar hair color...but I don't know that we could be twins?

Anyway, we have been workout buddies for a couple of years now. We used to go to the gym and take classes together. Since neither one of us go there much anymore...we decided to start a little home workout system.

Tanya is going on an anniversary trip with her husband this summer and needed a challenge...so we decided to do it together. We ordered a video (below) that we did 6 days a week. We just completed our first 6 weeks! (we are currently on a break until the next video we just ordered comes in...but we are both in charge of keeping up some kind of activity during the interim)


Here is our KICK BUTT video. Seriously people...you want a workout and want to sweat off some calories..this is the one you need to get. Click here to order. And good news...it's only 20 minutes. That is a very doable time frame for busy moms and women on the go.


Just to give my friend Tanya a shout out...she has lost 10 pounds in our process! WHOO HOO...GO TANYA! The way we worked it is...we would text each other every day. So whoever finished the workout first would send the text and the other would have to confirm they finished. It was a great system for us and very motivating. Since we are both pretty competitive, we didn't want the other to win...so it helped us stay accountable to our agreement...most of the time :)