Autrey Mill

We took the kids to Autrey Mill Nature Preserve in our new home town of Johns Creek on Saturday. It was SO NICE OUT - 70's in late January -WOWZER! We had a picnic lunch, hiked around on the trails and saw some pretty cools stuff! There was a cute duck pond, a little house with turtles, fish and frogs, some American Indian tepees, old historic buildings from around the area including a farm house and a general store and some pretty good trails! We had a great time and will definitely go back!

MIL's Chicken Jumbot

Another great but easy all in 1 meal compliments my MIL:

1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast cut into cubes

1.5 jars sweet peppers (seeded and cut up)

4 TBS juice from sweet pepper jar

1 large onion sliced

1 can of sliced potatoes

4 TBS olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried basil

Brown chicken in 2 TBS olive oil. Add everything else and then let the peppers, onions and potatoes soften! SOOOOO easy and really good tasting - LOVE the jarred sweet peppers instead of fresh peppers, it is key to this recipe - they taste so sweet and SO good!

*You can make with italian sausage instead or add some too! My MIL has even made this with hot dogs!

Llama Llama Red Pajama

Today at school AJ just had a event called A Stroll Down Story Book Lane! All the classes picked their favorite book, made some props, dressed up and put on a parade for the parents in the gym! AJ's class picked Llama Llama Red Pajama and they did such a great job! They had to wear red pj's (AJ HAD to wear the red & pink nightgown from Auntie of course!) to school which AJ though was great and they made llamas on sticks they carried around with them! After the parade we went back to the class, read the book together (AJ had to sit on Daddy's lap) and then had some special treats! It was such a cute day that the kids really seemed to enjoy!

Oreo Cookie Faces!

Both my kids love Oreo's, it must be because they were always in stock on 13 Badger!!! Don't these dirty cookie faces look delicious??

Well I think they do anyway!!!!!

2 Little Monkey's

I have two monkeys that are always climbing, jumping, standing on everything! At the present time Dylan has 2 cuts and 2 back and blues on his face alone! They are both a little too crazy for a mother's taste - it's a miracle that there have been no ER trips thus far! Luckily AJ has only recently been starting to get daring - she was pretty timid up until about 3 years old but now has been a lot more physical - and Dylan, he has always been nuts - lucky me!

First Haircut!

Dylan just got his first haircut and he looks adorable in his little mohawk! He was pretty chill and didn't seem to mind getting buzzed up! We have one cool little dude!

Evil Goodness!

Ok, sometimes a girl craves some grease and tonight was my night and it was SOOOOO GOOD! I don't feel too bad since I got in 2 runs on the treadmill today, well YES I DO - LOOK AT THIS GREASE - at least my kids ate healthy tonight (broccoli, chicken & tomoatoes)!!!!! Someone may have to call DYFS if I fed them this....

I can't even bring myself to post the recipe since it's so bad and so gross - figure it out yourself people!!! HA!

Here is to a healthy & happy 2011 once again!!! Cheers!!!

NJ Visitors

This past week we were thrilled that Mimi, Auntie & Aunt Nonie came to visit us in GA! They got here Thursday morning and Auntie & Nonie stated till Monday morning and Mimi was here till Wednesday afternoon! We got in tons of shopping at 2 great malls, visited Harley in Roswell, ate at some awesome restaurants (5 Seasons Brewing where they brew their own beer and we got some awesome organic burgers and the best ever onion rings, Adobo for Mexican and Margaritas and DANCING, Smokejack for some great BBQ - burnt tips were the bomb, and gold ole' Outback Steakhouse!), hit up Atlanta and toured CNN and the Olympic Park and just hung around home and acted silly and played with the kids! We were so sad when everyone left and we hope they come back soon!

GA Snow!

Well for the second time since we have been here we got some snow! We woke up to about 6 inches and this time it was enough to close down the entire metro area including our county schools for an entire week and close Alex's office for 3 days! NJ would have laughed this in the face and things would have been up and running by noon! The problem is there are no plows or salt trucks that make the rounds and since it was cold enough all the snow and freezing rain turned into a few inches of solid ice! Alex and I drove 2 different times to the grocery store around the corner out of sheer boredom and just to see how bad it was and it was REALLY BAD - people were stuck everywhere and we were slipping and sliding in our 4WD vehicle too! Even the main roads were just covered inches of thick ice! We watched from our window for days people trying to get up the hill out of our development to no avail! People would get stuck and park right out in front of our house - at one point there were about 8 cars out there! Luckily things were getting better enough by Thursday so Alex could make it to the airport to get our visitors from NJ and after being cooped up SO long we were so glad to have new faces to look at!!!

Awesome Dressing/Marinade

I found this simple awesomeness while surfing the web for a marinate for grilled portobello mushrooms. Well it was so good I used 1/2 for marinating all the veges we are grilling tonight (peppers, onions, zuchinni, squash and the portobellos) and the other 1/2 I am saving for our salad.

SO simple and SO good!

1/2 cup olive oil

1/6 cup red wine vinegar

juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

(I had some fresh parsley & some fresh basil so I threw that in too!)

New Grill

This year for Christmas Alex's parents gave us a awesome new Weber grill! Well today Alex finally got it all set up and I can't wait to Christen it tonight with Island Soyaki chicken breast and marinated zucchini, squash, peppers, onions and portobellos!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We we rang in 2011 with the stomach bug - YUCK!!! It hit us quick and hit us hard and then it was gone! AJ & I went to the ER early New Years Day just to make sure we weren't too dehydrated and make sure it was just a nasty bug - luckily the ER Doc said is should be gone in 24 hrs - she gave us some meds for nausea and we were on our way! Let's hope this isn't a sign of our year to come and hopefully we all have a happy & healthy 2011!

Here are pic of our NYE eats which only Alex really got to enjoy! UGH! I missed out!!