April already?!?!

Yes, I know it is now April 20, but March was so crazy, April just slid in with a sigh of relief! At our home, March Madness had more to do with our schedule than basketball (even though we did watch a lot of basketball too!). Between the beginning of baseball, AWANA games (in which the Sparks whom I co-coached won!), and the church's Easter drama, my head was spinning. I didn't really know how tired I was getting until it was over. Cooking at home did not happen as much as it needed to, but I did manage to make two kinds of cheesecakes. The first was a chocolate cheesecake tart and the other was a chocolate chip cheesecake. The most interesting part of the second was the crust which was made from crushed thin mints. Yummy! We ate turkey medallions, salmon croquettes, pecan crusted chicken tenders, and pan seared steak. The steak was super easy and awesome! Although it called for flat iron steak (couldn't find that), I used the same seasoning on tenderloins. Italian seasoning, lemon pepper, salt, and garlic powder mixed together and spread over each side of the steak. Another yummy dish!! So that is my March...just a little into April!

Praying after the game...giving God the glory!

The boys' T&T team...a close 2nd place

Nathan running the Marathon race. He started out slow, but when he saw the runners were going to catch him, he put on the gas and won the race!

The ladies from the scene at the empty tomb.

New Life

I thought that this picture of Nathan's gecko, Spartan (who really should be renamed since she is a girl!), shedding her skin would provide a good spiritual lesson on new life, or putting off our sin nature, or something really deep. But really I just think it is creepy and gross!

Kiss my grits!

Well, I was planning on being able to post pictures of Nathan covered in grits, but after driving to St. George for the World's Grits Festival, we missed the grits! We actually went up on Friday because I thought we would miss the crowds. We did miss the crowds, but we also missed the grits roll and the grits samples that were only on Saturday and Sunday. But I thought at least they would have lots of different booths selling grits made different ways. Nathan had big plans to eat grits for lunch. He had BBQ. Followed by fried oroes. It was like we were at the fair!

Therefore no pictures of grits...so I will post our Easter pictures. The boys and I picked up my parents and made the trip to Memphis. (Dave had to stay home with Champ and put up the invisible fence) We broke it up both ways, so it was not too bad. We had lots of family fun over the weekend and a great Easter service on Sunday. The one day we were able to get the kids to dress in nice clothes....

Our new addition...Champ!

Every boy needs a dog, or so the saying goes. So we finally have a dog again. We have been putting off getting another dog for several years now, and Nathan has been bugging us for several years now! Recently we started looking and I told Nathan to pray for the right dog to turn up. We have never paid for a full breed dog, but Dave didn't want to go to the pound either. So we contacted the Lab rescue society and were approved for adoption, right after we had called about an older lab puppy in town. We were torn as to what to do; keep our appointment to see the dog, or just wait a week and get a puppy from the rescue people. We decided to just look at the lab in town. The owners told us he was almost a year old and they only had to get rid of him because they were both about to hit the road as a truck driving team. They just wanted to give the dog away to a good family with a yard for him to run in. After driving to Goose Creek to see the dog, we were very impressed with the owners and the dog himself. We left saying we needed to think about it, but it didn't take long. He was a beautiful dog who was already house broken, and although we will miss the small puppy stage, we also were able to sleep last night without too much whining from the dog. And he is Lab mix and not a huge dog. And he was free!! Both the boys love him, even Camden who has been terrified of dogs. Nathan has been playing with him every second he can and they look so good together running around the backyard! So our life has entered a new chapter of having a dog in the family! It will be a doggone good year!

A very yummy dressing!

Well I have finished up with February recipes from my Southern Living 2008 cookbook.  We had some awesome shrimp and grits, some good fish, a tasty lemon velvet tart (and had fun making sugar swirls to put on top), and a great pan-fried chicken and spinach salad!  What made the salad so great was the dressing!  It was 8 oz of store-bought poppy seed dressing with 1/2 cup of blue cheese mixed in.  It called for 1/2 cup dried cranberries also, but I eliminated them. 

No pictures of our food from the recipe book, but I thought I would pass along a great dressing idea.  Now to March!  It involves cheesecake and Girl Scout cookies!!  Looking forward to it! 

Shirley Family Photo Shoot: A lot of pictures!!

Our family won a photo shoot at a silent auction benefiting our church's Peru mission trip last spring. Kim Woods was the photographer and she did a great job making our family look good...especially considering that my boys tend to scowl and frown or make silly faces whenever a camera comes out! She even was able to make my zit disappear! We had the pictures made in the fall, but I have been slack in posting or making copies. So tonight I am doing both. If you normally get our family picture, then you should get one soon!

Camden was super excited to have his picture taken!

Mysteries!

Camden's new favorite show is Busytown Mysteries.  I like this show, especially since it involves my favorite book theme, mysteries!  He goes around singing the theme song ( and other songs from the show that he has requested me to get on my Ipod!) and asking me to look for clues! 

The biggest drawback to this show is that it is on CBS...with commercials!  If I am near, I will fastforward through the commercials, however, I don't get to them all the time.  The lastest commercials have been for a CuddleUPets, some puppet that is a blanket, and an aluminum wallet.  He tells me know that he gets a CuddleUPets and I get an Alumiwallet.  I say I don't want a wallet, but he tells me it is full of cash, debit cards and credit cards!  Just what I need.  I think I should use some of that cash and pay for Disney again where we won't have to watch cheesy commercials!

Camden laying out clues to lead us to Nathan!