Happy 1st Birthday to Mason!

The Hillman family
Gracie, Alex and Jack
Alex and Jack
Brian and Jakob making Jack laugh(can you tell that Brian has done this before!)
N'awlins babies....turning into Georgia peaches!(Hannah, William and Gracie)

Hannah loved Ms. Catrina's yard!!
Maren playing in the jumping house
sweet cheeks!!
Good old Louisiana people!!
After the race Brian and I got cleaned up, picked up the kids and headed over to the Hillman's house for their sons first birthday party!! They had their backyard full of everything to make the kids who range in age of 5 months to 12 years old, have a good old time! And of course the adults always have a good time! The invitation to the party read, time 3-6, I think we all left around 10:00!!

Thanks Catrina and Brian, we had a wonderful evening!!

Peachtree Road Race!

our after party at TGIFridays!!

I only have one picture right now from the race. When they become available on line to by I will order some and then post them. My camera was to big to bring and Lena brought hers but not the battery for it(which is so something I would of done!)

The race went well, Brian finished the 6.2miles in 52 minutes and Lena and I 1 hour and 20 minutes. We have so much fun just being together and being goofy, so every ache and pain that I have today is so worth it!! And believe I have lots of them today, next year I need to at least do something to prepare for it. IT SUCKS TO GET OLD!!

Thank you Ms. C and Mr. J for watching my babies and letting Brian and I have a night to ourselves!!

Welcome Tucker Davis!

sweet little Tucker!

Peyton and her puppy!!

This is the little fur ball...I mean Tucker. He is the cutest little thing. He looks like a baby Lassie and who doesn't love Lassie?? If Lena can teach him how to save children from a well, I will be impressed :)
(Ms. Rona I think Gracie would love one of these fur balls!!)

Were off to see Night At The Museum this morning(got to love the Free Summer Movies!)
We will hopefully have pictures today of Ms. Lena's new addition!! They picked up their new little Shelty(I hope I spelled that right) yesterday and his name is Tucker!! We can't wait to meet him....
I need to ask you guys for some extra prayers for me, Brian and my girlfriend Lena for tomorrow. OK so really Brian doesn't need them but my girl and I DO! Were walking/running the Peachtree tomorrow and we(really I) haven't done anything to get ready for this race. Lena plays tennis, so she active and Brian well his Brian. But me, yeah not so much. So I'm wearing my knee brace and hoping for the best!! Last year we had a blast doing it and it was because I had my sista soul right next to me!!(LOVE YOU GIRL!)
I hope everyone has a good day!!
I'm going to make some memories!

It's Been Awhile!

my boys!! (aren't they cute)
momma and her girl!

she wanted CHEESE FACES,
so we gave her CHEESE FACES!!
me and my guy!
Chipper Jones wasn't to happy last night(did you see the game?)
Brian McCann

Alex took the last 2 pictures of him and Jakob's guys....

Well what can we say about the game, well...we lost and almost made a huge comeback in the end. Almost being the key word here!! We still had a great time(as usual)! We love Braves Baseball(yes I said WE) and are so happy when we get to go to a game!!

Easy Baked Manicotti!

OK so my husband has thrown a SMALL monkey wrench into my dinner plans tonight, not to worry I always have a back up plan!! I was going to make a spaghetti sauce from scratch and make Manicotti stuffed with chicken and cheese but I will not have time because my wonderful husband got Braves tickets for tonight:) were still doing Manicotti but a little different. I have used this recipe before and it really is YUMMY. The sauces aren't from scratch but it will do!
Here we go...
2 cups spaghetti sauce, divided (the sauce I'm using is Muir Glen Organic 4 cheese)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 3/4 cups Ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pesto......(even if you don't usually like pesto, use it in this. It really brings all the flavors of the cheeses together!)
12 manicotti shells, cooked and rinsed in cold water(I'm boiling the noodles now and then will put them on a greased tray into the fridge until this evening when I am ready for them)

preheat oven to 350. Spread 3/4 cup spag. sauce on bottom of 13x9 baking dish. Mix egg,cheeses and pesto until well blended. Spoon cheese mixture into large resealable plastic bag. Cut a small hole on one of the corners.
Fill manicotti shells, squeezing the mixture into both sides....(what I was going to do was cut chicken into strips and put a piece into each shell first and then add the mixture to both sides but that adds to the cook and prep time)

Put the filled shells onto the sauce that's in the baking dish, pour the remaining sauce over the noodles. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.

It sounds like a lot to do but its really one of the easiest ways to stuff the noodles and the kids can do a lot of this with you!!

I found this recipe from one of the Kraft food and family magazines a long time ago. I have tweaked it a bit with putting the chicken in the noodles and also with adding the Pesto( my kids and husband don't even know that its in there).
In the last year or so I saw that same recipe written again by someone else and they added the Pesto in it. Oh well I guess I missed my chance at being in print!!

I hope you guys get a chance to use this recipe, it really is YUMMY!!

HAPPY COOKING!!

Dinner Time!

Okay so I thought I would try something new on here....every couple of days I'm going to post what we have been having for dinner. If I have a recipe to go with it(if its not to long) then I will post it also!! If you girls or guys have a good recipe to add to mine or something you think I can add to it, please by all means tell me!!! I LOVE finding and tweaking new recipes and yes my family is usually my geniuna pigs:)
Sunday we grilled chicken, sausage, pork chops and some bird(one of the guys at Brian's work gave it to him). So tonight I warmed all the meat up, threw it into some baby spinach, chopped up some cucumbers, baby carrots and shredded some pepper jack cheese on top and we also had some corn on the cob!! YUMMY!
About two years ago I started giving the kids a few pieces of lettuce and spinach mixed together as their veggie for that nights dinner. I have to explain to you all that I was a VERY PICKY eater growing up and I did not want my kids to just turn their noses up at everything, so the rule in our house is you have to try everything on your plate...Pretty soon the complaining stopped and we started making great big salads and just putting meat in them!! It takes kids up to 15 times of trying something before they really know if they like it or not!! Now they look forward to salad night, which we do at least once a week. Stayed tuned for tomorrow nights dinner, if you like Italian, I mean REAL ITALIAN, check back in tomorrow. It's Alex's all time favorite!!

HAPPY COOKING!!