Cruisin' Together

Josie and I made it down to Florida without a hitch.
I've decided she is my favorite road trip partner.We made one quick stop at Starbucks for a diaper change and a little treat to celebrate our first Mother Daughter trip.
Everyone "Ohhed" and "Ahhed" over her and how ridiculously cute she is.
Little Stinker.

We got to my Dad's at about 3:30 and by 3:35 she had convinced my Dad to take her in the pool.

We have been in the pool almost all day everyday. Which is fine by me. I lather her up with sunscreen, since I'm trying to catch up to her tan, and out we go.When we aren't outside, she is busy entertaining her Grandma, Grandpa, and both my little sisters. She has a full audience here.We are going out and about today for some fun expeditions.

I desperately miss Andrew, but it is so great to be with family. Now that I know Josie handles the 5 hour drive so well, we will for sure be coming more often!

Show Me Where You Live - Children's Rooms!

Hmmm, what could be behind this door? It's Princess Josie's Garden Room!

And there's Princess Josie straight from her nap!

I did a tour of her room a few months ago, but we've done a couple projects so I thought I'd show it again.

Afterall, it is one of my favorite spots!

We just found those paper lanterns at Serendipity in Griffin and they are just what the room needed!

Josie has never tried to climb out of her crib and she sleeps, well, like a baby in it so we haven't moved her to a big girl bed yet.I bought her bedding from Pottery Barn Kids about 4 years before she was even born!

I was a little baby obsessed.

Luckily, it fits her and her room just the way I hoped it would!This armour was Andrew's Maw Maw's.

It is beautiful. I love that her clothes are in the same spot Maw Maw's were.The top of it is covered with family pictures.And this poem:

If you are an adoptive Mom, you need to go read it.

It melts my heart.My Mom made her that bullitin board and had the growth chart made for her.The hooks are just from Micheals and then we painted them to match.

The apron is from some foreign place my Mom traveled to.

I love the way it looks hanging there!Now that our yard is turning into an actual yard, Josie has a great veiw!And here is my favorite part of her room...

HER CLOSET!

And to think there are mornings I am convinced she has nothing to wear!

I had to take the shower curtain rod out of our guest room so that I could have another row to hang stuff up on!

And thanks to Amy and Darlene, the girl has more shoes then I do!
Since I had already shown her room awhile back, I thought I'd throw in her bathroom.

Right now, she has the hall bathroom.

Whenever Baby Number Two decides to come around, the guest room, that has a bathroom in it, will become her room and bathroom.

Amy and I are about to paint this bathroom as soon as I can decide what shade of green I want to do it in.

Here it is from the hall.

Complete with the sign I made, Spelling errors and all.

I decided that until she can read I am going to leave it.

I know, I'm lazy. She has a HUGE mirror and a double sink. Perfect for munchkin sleepovers!

I bought the towels, toothbrush holder (that houses M&M's for potty training instead of a toothbrush!), soap dispenser, and cup on clearance at Pottery Barn Kids when we were in Arizona.

I absolutely love the colors and I think they will grow with her perfectly.I just added a couple decorations.

She made the flower at one of the festivals I took her to and the Minnie Mouse sign was a gift to me from my Daddy back in 1996!

I was 5.

Just kidding. (Stop laughing Amy.)I love, love, love the message he wrote me on the back of it.

Exactly the way I feel about Josie Girl.And here is the actually bathing/potty area.

Obviously there is better lighting in there!

These are the same colors as the rest of the room, just a lot clearer here.It took me forever to find a shower curtain that I liked. I found this baby at Target and I was smitten instantly.

I waited a long time to be able to decorate a little girl's room and I am in love with the way hers turned out.

Well, that's it for Josie's domain!

Oh, who am I kidding?!!? The whole house is that kids domain!

Come back next friday for more sneak peaks! And check out all the other awesome home tours over at Kelly's Korner!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

By the time this posts, Josie and I will be on our way to Floridia for a week by the pool and the beach!
I love Summer!

Gotta Share The Good Ones.

It's a well known fact around this ole blog that I am still learning how to cook.
I love being in the kitchen and I love coming up with ideas about what to eat. It's the execution that I kinda stink at.
I take short cuts, make weird substitutions if I don't have all the ingredients, and I try to mix stuff without using the right amount of dishes.
So when I get one right, when it's really good, when even Josie eats her entire plate, I know I have got to share it!

It is pretty much the easiest thing in the World and way cheap, both right up my alley!

I took the idea from the new Kraft cookbook and then made some subsitutions and compromises since I totally forgot to pick up skewers.

I don't have exact measurements since I wasn't aware that it would be so yummy!

Ingredients:
- Sirloin or some sort of steak (I just got what was on sale)
- 4 red potatoes
- 1/2 an onion
- 4 carots
- Ranch dressing
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Just cut up your veggies into chunks and throw them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil and just use your hands to mix them up so that they are all covered with the oil.
Next cut up your meat into chunks. Pile it up on the cutting board and squirt on some ranch dressing. Mix it all up with your hands to cover all of the meat with the dressing.
Then just layer the meat on top of your veggies on the baking sheet.
Throw it in the oven at 450 degrees for about half an hour.
I knew mine was done when the veggies were tender.

We dipped it in ranch or ketchup.

It was delish!

And only a cutting board, baking pan, and knife to wash!

I seriously ate three bowl. Next time I will double it because I am sure it would be good the next day for a quick lunch!

Hope you enjoy!

Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned

While we were all sitting around the living room on Sunday night, Jeremy started talking about some games that had some pretty vulgar names here to referred to as "The Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned".
We all teased him until he made Andrew go upstairs and Google them to prove that they were, in fact, actual games.
I'm still waiting for all the pop ups that are sure to come with Googleing the names.

As crazy as they sounded, it sparked all our interest.
So when David and Andrew got off work on Monday we all headed over to the O'Pry's to try our hands at The Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned.Turns out the Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned are real, with equipment and everything.
And really fun!And the Mabrey's rocked at this one.
Pretty sure they practiced sometime between the Googleing and the game playing!It's been rainy and overcast for a whole week so Josie was in Heaven getting to play outside all afternoon.She thought that The Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned were amazing.
She laughed and clapped after every turn!Daddy wasn't so great at the Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned.I swear she likes David!In fact, she kept calling him Elmo and we all know how she feels about her beloved Elmo.

I think Josie was giving Mama Mabrey some mothering tips.How cute is Amber?!?!
Little Olivia Kate will be here in September!The Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned got a little crazy after that.
I ended up taking Josie out to play in the driveway while the guys played.
Let's just say that I am nursing Andrew back to health and a lot of black coffee was required this morning!
Josie, Amber and I had fun hanging out. Josie got to have her first non-juice drink since I forgot to bring her enough juice.She was pretty pleased with herself.

Don't ask me the names of the Games Whose Names Shall Not Be Mentioned. It's a family blog!

Busy Busy!

Josie is growing very impatient waiting to leave for Grandpa and Grandma's house.
I think I started talking about it a little too early!

So I am busy cleaning, running errands, and packing for our week in Floridia.

I have a few things that I am dying to blog about, including a few of the projects I've been working on, but they will have to wait until we get back!

* I adore this picture of Miss Thing. So sassy. Tiffany from Simply Yours Photography snapped it at our last play date.

Ice Cream Cake Recipe

Amy's ice cream cake turned out so good that I just have to share the recipe.

Not that it was anything too spectacular, but it didn't stink and it was better then plain old cake.

I was originally going to just use the recipe in the Kraft book that just arrived in my mailbox. It was just an Oreo crust with ice cream spread on top.

Then we went to this guys Welcome Home party (he just finished training to work at the FAA as an Air Traffic Control Dude. Kinda scary to know the guy telling the planes where to go!) Any who, his beautiful wifey got him an ice cream cake from Bruster's with real cake in it.I ate a mongo piece and was craving more. Hence my idea to make my own.

All you need is:
A boxed cake (I used Devils Food Cake cause Amy's a little devil)
A carton of ice cream
An Oreo Crust or box of Oreos
Hot Fudge

- First prepare your boxed cake batter.
- Pretty little girl with nappy hair not necessary, but makes baking so much sweeter.- Then pour about half the batter into a baking dish. - Throw it in the oven at the temp that your trusty cake box tells you to.
- Let little girl lick the spoon, cause that's what good Mom's do.

*side note: white is not the ideal color for a two year old to wear while making a chocolate cake. - You have to watch your cake since you're not baking the entire batter. I think ours was done in about 10 minutes.

- Then throw your cake in the freezer (covered) for about an hour.
- Take the ice cream out of the freezer and let it get a bit soft.
- Scoop that delicious ice cream onto of your cooled cake.

- And smoosh and spread it around.- Put it back in the freezer for about 4 hours

- Try not to forget about it like I did.

- Take it back out and spread fudge all over it- Then top with Oreo crumbs.
- I used a pie shell cause I am not a fan of the cream filling. I know. Sad.

- Then just freeze it until you're ready to light it on fire for the Old Gal's wish.

This would have been perfect to make the day before so that I could have froze overnight.

And in retrospect, I would have done the fudge and Oreo on top of the cake and done the ice cream on top.

But I didn't and it was still delish.