I'm going to assume that I'm not alone on this, when I say that my kids don't like vegetables.  Well, unless you count corn and potatoes as vegetables.  Yes, I'm glad they love corn, but I wish they would eat more of the "good for you" stuff.  I can sometimes slip small chunks of zucchini and onions into sauces, but it's not very often.  

Anyways, enough about their poor eating habits. I had heard about Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, so I thought I would try it.  I bought a pound of butternut squash, a pound of sweet potatoes, and a pound of carrots.  I went with her suggestions to roast the squash and potatoes.  I didn't think it through all the way when I chose the pan to roast them on, I grabbed a flat cookie with no sides.  BIG mistake...the juices from the veggies ran all over the oven, making a huge mess.  While roasting the mess, I steamed the carrots on the stove in a double boiler pan.  Distracted by the juicy messy oven, it didn't occur to me that the water might boil away in the carrot pan.  Well it did, and it destroyed my pan and the carrots.  Puree night was not off to a good start, but I managed to pull through and get the squash and potatoes pureed and put in the freezer.  

I'm going to say I'm 1 for 3 on my deceptively delish success rate.  I made some Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They had pecans, chocolate chips, and chickpeas.  Hadley fell for them, but Hudson and Andy didn't like them.  I thought they were okay.  They had good flavor, but the chickpeas were kind of a weird texture.  I think I could have gotten away with the chickpeas if I would have mashed them up. Maybe I'll try again.

Second recipe I tried was Turkey Burgers - eight thumbs down.  The consistency was horrible, threw them away.  Lastly, I made Spaghetti.  Everyone liked it.  I minced up zucchini, onions, mushrooms, and added in a cup of the squash puree.  Everyone loved it, and didn't hear a complaint.  

I still have a few bags of puree in the freezer so I plan to try some more recipes in the future.  I just thought I better cool it for a little while before the fam figures me out (wink wink).

We had a great Easter and the kids loved hunting for eggs over and over again. The Easter bunny hid our baskets, so first thing Easter morning we found our baskets and ate too much candy before Church.  It was a great morning that we were able to enjoy as a family because Andy didn't have to work.  I have a video that I'm going to try and upload at some point.  It's of Hudson looking for his basket, but finding Hadley's instead - it's hilarious!

Oh, and I made an awesome dessert - Strawberries & Cream Dessert Squares

click on the image for more.

We celebrated Hudson's birthday last weekend by having a pirate-themed party.  Andy and I made an awesome Pirate Bean Bag Toss, I created an amazing treasure/scavenger hunt, and the weather was wonderful!  If I sound like I'm tooting my own horn - toot toot toot...I am!  I made Pirate Punch labels for the juice bottles, I made name tags for their scavenger bags, I made a pirate pennant (that I didn't hang), oh and I made chocolate cake pops. Refer to my "Preparing for a Party" post for all of my adorable labels.

These are the pictures that made up the scavenger hunt.  At each of of the items above, there was a prize for each kid and the next photo clue.  The prizes included pirate tattoos, bouncy balls, eye patch, and hankies for their heads. The last clue was the police car lights and the picture was hiding on the playground.  When the kids found it, Andy wooped on his car sirens and scared them all, and then gave them bags of candy.  It was great!

I'm not going to lie, the party got off to a bit of a rough start.  I tried making a pirate cake on Saturday and ended up throwing in the towel after creating a turd.  I was really disappointed in the cake that I made so I started calling bakeries.  Nobody could have a cake done by 1pm the next day, except for Walmart on the north end of town.  So, I showed up at Wally at 1pm the next day to pick up the cake that I personally had ordered - it was never made, go figure.  I waited around for 25 minutes and then dashed home to a house full of people.  I was a little stressed in the beginning, but just had to let it go...on with the party.

Click on Hudson to see more pics

We've got a bad case of Beaver Fever in our household!  Hudson's t-ball team (aka - the Beavers) had their first game on Monday night and it was so fun to watch.  The field was filled with about 20 little bobble heads chasing the ball and running to the bases (sorta).  Really though, all of the kids did a great job hitting the ball, running the bases, and fielding.  We're looking forward to this season, and can't wait for Game 2!  In the words of Hadley, "Go Biebers, Hut-son!"  

Click on the image for more...

Yesterday was such a beautiful day so we were outside enjoying the warm weather.  Hudson and Hadley were playing on their playset and I was working on a furniture project.  Hudson began shoveling some dirt (he has a little metal shovel for gardening) when his sister walked through the line of fire and got swiped by the shovel.  We all started screaming...Hadley in pain, I in fear for her eye, and Hudson in fear for his hiney!   I woke Andy up to take a look at it, he cleaned it out, and sent us on our way to Urgent Care.  

The doctor suggested using glue on it rather than stitches, and I was all for that.  So, with two of us holding her down, the Doctor glued her wound shut.  In 7 to 10 days the glue will just peel off and we will not have worry about removing stitches.  

Hadley's sentence of the day: "Hut-son, suvel, eyah!" So young, and already knows how to work the system.

Need I say more?

Thanksgiving Day started early in our house.  I knew I had a list of several things I needed to get done before turkey time, and so did my internal alarm clock because I was wide-eyed at 5:30 am.  I, unfortunately, got side tracked designing our Christmas card and watching the Macy's Day Parade and was late getting started on the baking and preparing that I needed to do.  Everything that I prepared was easy to make, just a little more time consuming than anticipated...I'm usually pretty good with managing my time, so I'm not sure where I went wrong.  It could have been my little potty-training helper I had in the Kitchen with me, or the three dishes that I was preparing, or Andy - who decided to work on his workshop and kept asking me to help. Can you say "Amazing Multitasking Mom" five times?


It takes a lot to make me feel overwhelmed, and I was definitely on the brink of it - but I managed to pull through and we were only about 5 minutes late to the festivities.  I'll admit, I wasn't exactly put together - we drove with the window down so my hair would dry.  Along with the delicious Turtle Cake, I also "prepared" rolls (notice I didn't say "made") and Balsamic Glazed Carrots.  


Thanks to my Parents and Mamaw for making such delicious dishes and hosting a wonderful relaxing Thanksgiving Day.   

My sister emailed me pictures today of my niece Jett Lillian and they are so sweet.  The pictures capture her big personality, and I can't wait to squeeze those scrumptious little thighs.  It's never been easy being away from my sister, but now that we have Jett in our lives it's even harder.  I couldn't help but smile when I was looking at the photos (while tears ran down my cheeks).  I love you!

After church on Sunday I took the kids to a nearby park to take some photos - Hudson loved every minute of it.  Crawling all over the rocks, while Hadley kept tripping on the rough terrain.

Hudson went to his best friend Blake's birthday party today at the pumpkin patch and brought home a little pumpkin.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, we got out the Halloween decorations this weekend - which ended up being a bunch of "stuff" rather than decorations.  One of the items was a carving kit.  Hud took it upon himself to carve the baby pumpkin while I was cooking dinner.  He did a great job - Hadley and Johnny watched.