J's first fireworks!

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

A great new recipe I recently tried from Allrecipes.com

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
2 pounds tilapia fillets

DIRECTIONS
Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil.
In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise and lemon juice. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. Mix well and set aside.
Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes. Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.

Summer Activities

Amy at Momadvice.com had a great post about coming up with a list of fun summer activities which I kind of already had but I thought it was a good way to have an active go-to list of fun stuff to do. So here's my list:

1. Try bowling
2. Campfire night w/ smores
3. Go to a local baseball game
4. FREE movies - at several of the theatres in town
5. Go to several Sunday Evenings in the park - another wonderful local treasure
6. Sprinkler parties
7. Plenty of pool days
8. Attend & volunteer at VBS
9. Dinosaur camp
10. Have a picnic
11. Go to Grammy & Papa's
12. Make homemade ice cream
13. Play in a warm summer rain
14. Go to the zoo
15. Park, park and more park!

March of Dimes/Babies

I was proud to walk this morning in the March of Dimes/Babies. It was a lot of fun and very special!

Happy Homemaker Monday

On my bedside table:

2 bibles - My chronological then my life application to explain my chronological one

On my TV:

Wonder pets

On the menu for tonight:

Chicken Parmesan

On my To Do list:

Clean toilets

Laundry

Find activities to keep Joshua occupied.

New recipe I tried last week:

Nothing

In the craft basket:

My prayer quilt for church...I have to finish it before monday!

Homemaking Tip for this week:

Put extra garbage bags at the bottom of your garbage can for ease of use.

Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):

All the fun easter crafts at The Crafty Crow

Favorite photo of the week:

Lesson learned the past few days:

Flying a kite in grass that needs to be cut is more fun then cutting the grass.

On my Prayer List:

my church, the economy, a potential opportunity for my husband

Devotional, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Tim 1:7

Hosted by Sandra @ Diary of a SAHM - stop by and check her out!

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

Last weekend our church had an easter egg hunt...but alas, I got us there too late and the eggs were all gone. Luckily some kids shared their eggs...but it made me sad that Joshua didn't get to hunt. (I won't tell you about the emotional melt down I had about it.) They did have a kids band and cook-out which we enjoyed and some other kids were very nice to share their eggs w/ Joshua.

Today we went to a different church so Joshua would get the opportunity to hunt eggs...and to relieve some of my guilt. We had lots of fun! There were TONS of eggs and very few kids so the kids actually got tired of hunting eggs and left a lot there. Then they had the easter bunny there. So I said to Joshua, "look the easter bunny"...in which he replied,"That's not the easter bunny that's a guy in a bunny costume."

Then this evening we dyed easter eggs. Joshua had an absolute BLAST!! The tips of his fingers are probably permantely colored but it was lots of fun! Now I wonder what the easter bunny will bring...

And in case I haven't told you this story...I was trying to explain easter to Joshua in which he replied, "I want Chechee (our old deceased dog) to rise next time."

I am humbled by the incredible sacrifice that was made for our sins and rejoicing in the resurrection! It's really special to try to explain this amazing story to a child because it really brings to light just how uttering amazing Jesus is! I hope you have a blessed Easter!

Dueling Pianos

Happy Birthday Joshua!

This day 3 years ago, I woke up like it was any other morning and went about my day. Around 2pm I was in the Chick-fil-a drive-through when our adoption agency called to tell me that our baby boy was born that morning and we needed to get on a plane immediately to fly to California to pick him up. At 11pm that night we held our sweet boy for the first time! We are so thankful to his birthfamily for all the joy he has brought us over the last 3 years. Happy Birthday Joshua!!

2nd Annual Easter Egg Playdate

Last year I started a tradition of getting some of our friends together for an Easter egg hunt playdate...so this year we did it again but another friend hosted. It was lots of fun and the weather was perfect. The funniest thing was watching our boys wrestle for a good 30-45 minutes. It amazes me how inate the wrestling characteristic is in boys. We also made the milk carton easter baskets!

Milk Carton Easter Basket

Here is a cute little easter basket I made out of a milk carton. The ears are made with card stock paper and hot glued onto the container. You can unwind a cotton ball for the ears and glue one on the back for a tale.

Caleb Laughing Video

Snow Day

We got about 6 inches of snow last night and had a blast playing in it today. I was especially thrilled that John got to stay home today to enjoy the snow with us.

We made snow angels.

We went sledding.

We learned about the letter 'S' and played with snow. We also did snow experiments like melting snow in hot water.

We warmed up in the bath.
Then we went back outside and made a snowman

Prayer Quilt

Here is a picture of the prayer quilt I have been making. I'm absolutely LOVING quilting and freezer paper applique particularly. I especially love the fellowship I've been enjoying while making the quilt since I joined a quilting group at our church. We meet twice a month and give our quilts to someone in our church in need...after finishing our quilts we include a prayer block on the back and pray over the quilt. It feels very much like I imagine Mitford would! I hope to have this done in the next month. I'm also working on a dinosaur quilt for Joshua that I hope to give him for his birthday.

Farm Chicks Giveaway

The Farm Chicks are hosting a giveaway...go check it out!

Pictures

Smiley!

Me trying to get the boys to take one decent picture with all of us.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling!

Jumping, Jumping, Jumping!

Free Quizno Sub

Go to the following website and print out a free Quizno sub coupon! Hurry they are only giving out a million!
http://www.millionsubs.com/

The Park