Watermelon Smoothie

I LOVE me some watermelon.  So does Briggs...he got it honest. 

I have been wanting a new way to eat it since we got one literally every single week this summer.  Briggs and I would eat them pretty fast but sometimes I would freeze some of it for the following purpose.  I googled some recipes for a watermelon smoothie and came up with this...

Honestly...it's pretty much just anything I have in the freezer/frig,

 but I did get some ideas of what would go good together.

In this smoothie:

watermelon

strawberries

mango

peaches

orange juice (any kind of juice would work)

kale

Note: Use frozen fruit and it makes the smoothie more slushy, or you can add ice if it's all fresh fruit

To make it more filling, I usually add protein powder but since I'm pregnant, I'm skipping that for now. And yogurt is usually a staple in these, I just didn't have any when I made this one

This is what the finished product looks like. 

 I know it has a green tint, which is from the kale.  

Honestly you can't taste the kale, it's just for the nutrients.

And then, if you have a cute little guy like this one...

nothing is your own anymore, so you get to share everything, 

including your smoothie.

But...when it's something that's good for him, I'm all about sharing

and letting him have some of my yummy, healthy snack. 

As you can see...even Briggs thinks it's good.

Free Books

We are part of a free program offered at our library to encourage early exposure to reading.  Go here to read more about it and to see if it's available in your area. 

All we had to do was register at our local library, or there is also an option to do it online at the link above.  We get a book delivered to our house every 6 weeks or so.  The books have been really good so far and are suppose to keep coming until Briggs starts kindergarten.

I mean...he looks pretty pumped about his book 

(yes this pic is pretty old...shows you how far behind I am on my posts)

Here are the books we have gotten since we registered for the program...not bad..yeah?

Briggs loves to read and look at books, so this is a great way to encourage early literacy and learning....did I mention that it's FREE! 

 So go sign your kids up and get them some FREE books :)

Wedding Gift anyone?

We are pretty much out of the wedding season in our life, for the most part.  But occasionally we get an invite.  If you know me well, you know weddings are my FAV! I love everything about them, the planning, shopping for the dress...especially the dress, the details, the production, the character of each one, pretty much the... everything.

Anyway...we just recently got invited to a wedding shower and here is what I copied from pinterest as part of their gift.

This is my version and steps on how to make it...

Start with a package of the clear glass ornaments.  It's a great time to get them NOW..because trust me, you won't be able to find them after Christmas...I tried.  I got the medium size ornaments but I really think the smaller size would have worked fine too.

Note:  I got these at Hobby Lobby. They actually weren't on sale when I got them, but if you have an iphone, you can pull up the 40% off coupon on their website, flash it at them at the register and they will give you the discount.

Next cut the wedding invitation into strips.  I didn't measure or anything, I just tried my hardest to keep a steady hand and cut the strips to where the important words stayed mostly intact (i.e. wedding date, their names, location...).

Then wrap the strips around a pen.  I was skeptical about this step, but it worked like a charm.

Stick the pieces into the ornament, 

put the top back on, 

tie some cute ribbon as the hanger, AND...

Final gift all put together...

This project seriously took me all of 20 minutes, maybe a little less and the longest part was curling the strips and sticking down in the ornament.  

Next time..I might would try getting some more paper or tinsel a similar shade to the wedding invitation and fill the ornament a little more.  I was still pleased with the final result.  I just think since I used the medium ornaments, there was a little more extra space than needed.

Overall it's a great way to put a personal touch on a wedding gift and something that couple will treasure forever.

Baton Rouge Trip

We finally made it down to Baton Rouge.  We have only tried TWO other times and three if you count the summer.  Justin was working a ton this summer, even on the weekends. Our first official planned trip, Justin got sent out of town for work.  The second planned trip, Briggs got sick.  So needless to say, we were excited to FINALLY get down there when we did.

Our main purpose was to meet this little guy...

Landon "Ty" Poland, Jr.

He is our newest little nephew.

G-maw has him here

 Aunt Iris got her a little snuggle time

 And uncle J...

I think we both forgot how tiny those new babies are

Here is the whole gang...Ty decided he needed to sleep

And Briggs still isn't sure who his G-maw his holding

photo shoot with G-maw

And here are the proud parents

Landon and Jamie

Briggs had fun with his uncle Landon

 Briggs likes to be thrown really high :)

Briggs even got to go to church with G-maw so she could show him to all her friends

Then we moved our party over to LSU Tiger territory.

We spent time with Abs and her family.

The boys got to see Mike the Tiger

Our LSU visit brought back so many memories.  

It's where Justin and I met...and now look at us 

11 years later and 1.5 kids

**disclaimer...I'm that not fat, just in that awkward, starting to get a baby bump stage...hate that!**

Then on to Aunt Abs and Uncle Josh's house for some play time

Cade

Brooks showing Briggs the ropes with the truck

Want a ride ladies?

Brooks

And they just kept getting wet and dirty 

so we just stripped them down and let them go in their diapers.

Had to get a couple cousin shots

to end the day we all went to feed the ducks 

photo by... yours truly.

little tubby refused to feed the ducks..he thought that was wasteful 

so he decided to eat it himself

a great ending to a great visit

We were able to make our visit a little longer...Friday to a Monday which means we packed some stuff in there.  Got to visit some of our good friends for dinner, spent the day with baby Ty (Landon and Jamie), saw Justin's parents, spent some time with Abs and her famly including visiting LSU, even had time to swing by our old church (where we got married) and say hey to a few people.

We were all tired when we got home, but it was a good visit and we got to do a lot of stuff.  More importantly we got to spend time with family, which is always good.

Garden Tea

Since the seasons are changing, if you have any fresh herbs and are wanting to use them up...here is a yummy way to do it.

Mint and Sage are suppose to last through the winter, but basil will die as we get more cold weather unless you move it indoors.  So, I decided to make some tea with some of my herbs.  I'm going to call it garden tea because when I shared a glass with my neighbor, her comment was..."yum, this tastes just like a garden".

Pictured below you see the basil stems, mint stems and sage leaves I cut.

To prep for the tea I pulled off some leaves and washed them real good with water.

Next I used boiled some water, placed two green tea bags in the hot water to steep and added my sage, mint and basil leaves. (forgot to take a picture, but was nothing fancy)

 I left it there for a little bit...then combined it all in a pitcher (pictured below).

The final touch was two tablespoons of honey to add a little sweetener.

This is a very mild tea and not very sweet, but very refreshing...enjoy!

Birmingham Reunion Part 2

 One of the days everybody was here, my dad's side of the family came over from all around Birmingham...Georgia, Huntsville, and we had a cookout.  It was interesting...there were 25 people who came in and out of our house that day.  We, of course, love having a place for everyone to come and get together. 

And here are a few pics to document our weekend...

Uncle Debe with Russ and Dad..

Some of the girls

Gramme and Pa

Some more of the guys...Justin trying to be cool

John-boy (Jonathan), Sandy and Grayson

Dad's brother

Joey, David, Spec (Becky), Michael and Jason. 

And yes all those boys really are as tall as they look in this pic

Dad's sister

Dane, Debe (Steve), Kathy and Mallery

Dad's brother

The Bob (Bobby) Parker family...

we are the only ones who have reproduced..so far :)

Gramme and Pa

The ones who got us all here

Great Gramme and Pa with all the babies

Nobody wanted to be sitting...they were all wanting to play

If ya blink, you will miss this little lady....Momma Jean (mom's mom)

She came over from Georgia for a few hours to see the kids and my mom of course.

She followed all the kiddos around and spent some time visiting with all of us. 

So we crammed all these people into one day.  It was a packed, fun-filled day where we got to see family, eat yummy food and spend some time together.

We feel very blessed to have such a great family and enjoyed all the time we got spend together.

Birmingham Family Reunion

We had our annual Parker family reunion weekend at our house in Birmingham.  It was fun.  Check it out...

The boys thought it was fun to terrorize the cat down the street

Ra-ra supervising

Fun times outside

Briggs focused on something?...

Ra-ra keeping Brooks occupied...

Dad thinks he is being sneaky by covering up the LSU sticker with his home-made "Go Bama" sign.  Don't worry...it didn't stay there long :)

Yes...that's my "little" brother...Russ.  

A teaser for what the rest of the day held

I'll do this in a separate post...some of the girls from our family

We can't ever get dad looking at the camera and smiling :)

Parker is in this pic too...you can kind of see him (baby bump)

Josh wasn't able to make this trip b/c he was out of town

Great Gramme and Pa with all the babies.

They all just wanted to be running around.

All the boys LOVE uncle Russ...he kept them all busy for the weekend

Just a few candid shots of the babies...

Me and Abs with our babies, minus Cade

It was a fun weekend as always.  Lots of food, fun, and thank goodness Briggs had started walking about two weeks before so he was able to chase his cousins around.  They are all so cute together. Can't wait until we get to add another little guy to the gang.