52WPC Week 3

The photo prompt this week is a picture showing love.  How easy, right?  Well, it's hard to choose!  I decided to go with a picture of Alex and Belle from our Disney World trip a few weeks ago.  As soon as we told Alex we were headed to Disney World, he talked non-stop about how Belle was going to be so excited to see him and how he bets she is wondering why he isn't there right now.  What's funny, is we have no idea why he is so obsessed with Belle because he'd never seen Beauty and the Beast before his infatuation!  We had dinner reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table on Christmas evening and we were told that many of the princesses would be there.  Of course we were hoping to see Belle. Unfortunately, she was not there that evening. We did get to see Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, and Jasmine though!

After dinner we went with my brother and his family to see some attractions and ride some rides at Magic Kingdom.  One of the attractions we visited was Belle's Enchanted Tales.  It was newly opened and we had no idea what it was.  As we walked into the first room, a girl told us a brief story and then ushered us into a different room.  There, we had a new man talking to us and he started assigning parts to people in the group.  Brad, my brother, niece, nephew, and Alex all got parts!  Little did I realize that Alex had been given the part of the Beast!

Into another room we went and the cast and audience were ready for a performance!  Belle comes walking into the room in her beautiful yellow dress and I thought Alex was going to faint!  He got a shy smile on his face and his eyes were glued to her.  The "play" went on and everyone did their part, and finally it was Alex's turn.  He went up behind Belle, roared at her, she fell in love with him, they danced together and she hugged and kissed him.  I had tears streaming down my face because his biggest wish had come true!  He met Belle, but he also got to be her Beast, she fell in love, danced, and kissed him!  It was love for sure!

52WPC Week 2

I was pretty busy this week with life getting back to normal after Christmas break.  The kids went back to school, Brad returned to work, and I started tutoring again.  I finally got all my Christmas decorations put away and Brad got them all lugged back up to the attic.  (thanks, Honey)  The piles of laundry we accumulated were finally finished and put away, the house is starting to come back together, and I feel like life is finally back in routine.

I kind of forgot to think about this week's photo challenge.  It was the letter P.  I came up with a few different ideas of what I might do for this picture, but didn't really love any of them.  Then I put Abby's hair in ponytails today!  It is the first time I've been able to do it.  I'm so excited!  I took a picture because I thought she looked adorable, and then it hit me!  Ponytail!  So the picture isn't great, but it does show my pretty, ponytail princess!

Black Eyed Pea Soup

I like to follow the old tradition of eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day to bring good luck for the coming year.  We love black eyed peas and although I'm not superstitious, I think it's fun to follow these kind of traditions.  However,  I failed to remember to get the peas for when we returned from our Disney World vacation.  We got home on the afternoon of New Year's Day, so after being up for almost 12 hours by the time we walked in the door, going to the store was not top on my list.  We ended up going to my Dad's for dinner, which was wonderful.  He made some delicious cabbage rolls, also a New Year's Day tradition, so we did get to eat some "good luck" food after all.  

I decided to do our New Year's Day meal the next day after a good night's rest and a ridiculously huge trip to the store.  My friend Staci made the best black eyed pea soup for bunco last month, and I thought it would be perfect for our meal.  She was gracious enough to share her recipe and we had the soup and left over cabbage rolls from my dad for dinner.  With two good luck foods at one meal, our 2013 has got to turn out awesome, right?!  

Here is the recipe:  (thanks, Staci :) )

8 slices of bacon

1 onion diced

a couple cloves of garlic

1 jalepeno pepper

6 cups of beef broth

1 large can of tomatoes

6 cans of black eyed peas - washed and drained

 

Cut bacon into 1" slices and saute in a skillet with the jalepeno and garlic.  Bacon will not be crispy, just cook till it looks "done".  In a large pan combine all ingredients and bring to a boil and then let it simmer for about 30 minutes or so.  Serve with pepper jack cheese.

This recipe gets a two thumbs up!  Brad loved it because it has a lot of bacon flavor.  Yum! 

52WPC (52 week photo challenge) Week 1

I am going to try to do the 52 week photo challenge (52WPC).  Each week I'm given a theme and have to take a picture of that theme.  I plan to post my 52WPC pictures on Saturdays.

Week 1- Hands

What is sweeter than my two children holding hands?

New Blog

Happy New Year!  It's 2013, and after a couple of months of contemplating, I've decided to start the blogging journey.  This is not a new year's resolution, because God knows I never succeed with those! It is more of a way for me to share things that I don't want to broadcast via facebook. I plan to share pictures of my family, recipes that have succeeded and failed, things I've tried because of Pinterest, and other life happenings.

One of the things I am trying to do this year is a 52 week photo challenge.  I have found a list of themes for each week of the year and will take and post a picture of that challenge.  My first theme is "hands".  Once I get my pictures uploaded, I'll post.  I think this will be a fun way for me to photograph things  that are a little out of my norm.  Please bear with me, I'm not a wonderful photographer by any means! Hopefully I'll learn a few things along the way and get better at photography!