32 Years Young!

This past Thursday was my 32nd birthday and I feel great! This past year I gained 30 pounds of baby weight and then lost 60 (most of which I never lost after AJ)! I run 4 miles a day M-F, I eat better and I feel better. I am a newer healthier ME! A me that is loving my 30's, a me that loves having enough energy to keep up with my energetic children and a me who loves and cherishes every moment with my husband and who finally once again feels like I make him proud. I feel strong, confident and ready to take on everything coming my way this November!

I had such a great day and then an amazing Saturday night! My mother got me a pair of Tory Bruch flats that I LOVE LOVE LOVE and AJ, Dylan & Alex gave me the best/nicest cards, a new pair of ballet fats, skinny jeans and a top (all from Target) ! AJ & I baked a cake during the day and Alex brought me home some Stretches Chicken Savoy on the bone for dinner. I gave the kids a early dinner and bath before Alex got there so we could just do cake with them and then enjoy our dinner alone! It was SO great! The kids cooperated perfectly, went to sleep early and we had a nice night! Alex also let me know that we were going out to dinner Saturday night and that his parents would take the kids overnight so we could have a morning to sleep in!!! Saturday night we went to the Strip House in Livingston and for an AMAZING meal - we started off with a really great crab cake with a perfectly spicy aioli! For our main course I had the 20 oz bone in rib eye - AWESOME with perfectly crispy fat and Alex had a filet (boring and flavorless in my opinion but it's what he likes and he loved it) - we shared black truffle creamed spinach (hands down the best creamed spinach I have ever had) and some sort of crispy potato (just ok). For dessert we had some awesome pistachio ice cream and did a fun blind port test! I totally guessed right - go me! We went home after dinner and watched the Mountaineers loose to LSU (not horribly like we expected) and then enjoyed sleeping in the next morning!

10 Months Old!

Happy 10 months to my little smiler! This month I am happy to report we have a crawler! He was a little more then a week shy of 10 months when he finally got it and he has been non stop ever since! He gets on his knees and tries to pull up on everything - he constantly bumps his head into very hard things when he does - the kid has a strong head! He loves the remote, the phone, and the tv speakers which doesn't make daddy happy. Unlike his sister his is into EVERYTHING in reach. I often catch him with a cheek full of Marley's food, playing in Marley's water or knocking over the kitchen garbage can. He also has 5 new teeth (4 new on top and 1 more to the bottom) and has 7 now total. He has been drinking his afternoon formula from a sippy cup and he is down to 2 bottles a day (soon to be 1 and then none by a year)! Sometime this month I am going to start with some organic whole milk! He and AJ are so fun to watch these days - they play nice for about 30 seconds till he either pulls her hair or she knocks him over or shoves him and one of them is crying! He has no problem being very vocal and yelling and looking for some back up when AJ is smothering him! He still loves to eat and we can normally stop a fussy baby just by giving him some food! He gets annoyed when I feed him - he would much rather finger foods that he can give himself! He is tons of fun and we can't wait to see what the next month brings!

1st Day of School!

Since camp ended a few weeks ago AJ has been super excited to start back up at school. She was thrilled to finally get to wear the outfit she has been begging to wear since she got it (thanks Auntie - it was a huge hit)! It was our day to bring snack that AJ picked out over the weekend (Trader Joe's cat cookies, TJ's cheese and cracker sandwiches & TJ's apple juice) and AJ just couldn't wait to get there! When Mrs. Brand opened the door AJ was the first one to run in with a big smile on her face! We are so proud of our little independent girl!!!

September 11, 2010

On September 11th, 2001 when we lost my cousin Don, the lives of my entire family were changed forever. We love and miss your smiling face more then words could ever say. Your spirit lives on in your amazing children Taylor and Donnie. To know you was to love you.

Today we went to NYC to honor him and we had a really nice day. The ceremony was beautiful - what made it extra special was to see my cousin Will read his brothers name and here his loving tribute to him. After we had a lovely lunch on the water - it was such a beautiful setting.

In loving memory...

Stuffed Bread

Here are the stuffed breads I made for the family picnic! 4 Loafs went quick - everyone enjoyed and some asked for the recipe. Well here you go....

Pizza dough (x4)

6 hot sausages

1 bunch of broccoli rabe with the stems cut off

1 stick of pepperoni cut up into chuncks

1/2 can of pizza sauce

4 cups of shredded mozz

olive oil

4 graded cloves of garlic

4 TBS parmesan reggiano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and roll out dough onto olive oiled pans. In a seperate pan heat about 2TBS olive oil and add the broccoli rabe and cook till wilted - add the garlic and cook a few more minutes. In a seperate pan brown the sausage and then add that to the broccoli rabe pan. Top 2 of the doughs with 1/2 the mixture of sausage & rabe and, 1 cup of shredded mozzarella and 1 TBS parmesan. Top the 2 remaining each with 1/2 the pizza sauce, 1/2 pepperoni, 1 TBS parmesan, and a cup each of mozzarella. Roll up each dough and then bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes. Let cool, slice and serve! SO GOOD!

I had some extra ingredients and a loaf of crusty bread so I used it all up and made Alex & I some french bread pizzas for dinner that night - AWESOME!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a really great family filled Labor Day weekend. Saturday we spend swimming, acting crazy and eating pizza with the Carras cousins. We had a awesome time eating pizzas, playing football, lounging in the pool and making waves and doing crazy jumps into the pool! Everyone had a blast! We happily finished up the day routing our Mountaineers onward to victory - icing on the cake! Sunday was my sides annual family picnic. There was tons and tons of great food, tons of great cousins to chat with, a football game, kids running around, 2 motorcycles to check out and lots of yummy desserts! I am happy to say my stuffed bread and chili dip seem to be a hit and were gone in about a minute - all 4 loafs! Recipe to follow...

Saturday-

Sunday-