Who's that baby in the mirror?

HB has gotten very curious lately. Today when we were getting ready for work, she climbed up on the mirror and started talking to herself. She even managed to get a few kisses in :)

Playdate with Lacey

My friend Holly and I have been really good friends since we were in high school and have managed to keep in touch with each other. Unfort she lives far far away in Germany! Her husband is in the army and they have traveled all over and have now landed there for 5 years. We both told each other on the same day that we were pregnant! Her little girl Lacey is only 3 weeks older than Hailey and they have pretty much done the same things one after another. We finally got the chance to see each other and get our little girls together. This was SO exciting to be able to do this because not only have I not seen Holly since 08, but she is one of my only friends that have a girl. I picked her up and right off the bat the girls were trying to peek at each other in the back seat out of their car seats.... they kept reaching for each other and making noises. When we got to the resturant to eat, it was also time for Hailey's bottle. Well Lacey had already ate so she was already in her "big girl" seat and HB did not like this at all!! She ate maybe an oz and a half and then was totally done with it. So I sat her right next to Lacey and they talked back and forth and kept touching hands... they were already having fun :) Once we got back to the house it was time to play!!! Soon as there body touched the floor they were on the go. Following each other and getting their hands on any toy that they could. They crawled on each other, stared at one another, and even gave some smooches. It was so fun to watch them get along and even share toys (for the time being right!) Around 3 they were both worn out and ready for a bottle and bed. We tried to get one last pic of them together and you see below how that worked out.... HB wanted nothing to do with that and let me know! haha. My little ham decided to show me who was boss!
Once we got in the car it wasn't 2 minutes before they were out! I had so much fun catching up with her and gettin got see her sweet baby :)

Big Girl or Bad Girl?!?!

Hailey has been all over the place lately. She went from not crawling to making it across the living room in 2 seconds flat! Haha. It is such a fun and exciting time, and I love to watch how excited she gets with herself when she speeds over to a toy that she wants. Along with crawling, she has mastered the art of pulling up on EVERYTHING! Her toys, the sofa, us, THE DOGS!! lol.. which they are not to thrilled about :) She has not fear what so ever either, she will just let go and stand there for a few seconds and then get excited and fall down. Along with pulling up on everything, she now thinks that bed time is a game to see how many times she can get mom and dad to come back in the room before she settles down for the night. Tonight she pulled up on the crib (which we have already lowered once!) 3 times before finally getting tired (after no afternoon nap as well!!) and going to bed.... so of course I just had to snap a quick video :)

Menu Monday

I didn't do a recipe for last Monday because we were suppose to be out of town and then just got really busy! so here is this weeks Menu Monday


This weeks dish has been one of my favorites for a while! It is so simple, yet packed with so much flavor. And the best part of all is that almost all of the ingredients are things I always have on hand. I don't know if you are like me, but I keep canned veggies and boxes of rice and pasta on hand... so this is one you can throw together if you needed to :)

BAKED RICE DISH
4 Servings
15 mins prep 15-20 cook time

1 lb Ground Turkey
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
2 cups cooked long grain rice
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (2 1/4 oz) sliced rip olives, drained
6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
2 tspns chili powder
1 tspn garlic powder
1/2 tspn salt
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded chd. cheese, divided
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tspn butter, melted

IN a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and green pepper over med. heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the rice, tomat, corn, olives, bacon, chili powder, garlic powder and salt. Bring to a boil; remove from the heat, add 1 cup of cheese. stir until melted

TRANSFER to a greased 11x7x2in baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Toss bread crumbs with butter. sprinkle over top. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 15-20 mins or until cheese is melted

Helpful tips:
*Note that the rice is COOKED so you dont get to the mixing and forgot about it (which i am speaking from experience!)
*You can substitute any meat for the Ground Beef. I like to use Turkey Sausage to give it more of a Jambalaya taste.
*You can substitute the long grain rice for spanish rice to give it an extra flavor.
*Use diced tomat. with chopped green chili's to give it a spicier flavor.
*The great thing about this dish is that you can take out or add anything that you want. I don't use the olives or bacon, but add zucchini and sometimes celery.
*Instead of melting butter, spread bread crumbs on top and then use spray butter to coat them.
*You can freeze left overs for up to 3 months

ENJOY

~**~Nicole~**~

Daddy's New Do!!

You want a piece of me???

Valentines Day

Well I am a little late with my post but I am finally uploading Valentine's pictures! We had a very interesting day..well night. Since it was on Sunday, we went to church and then after lunch came home to chill out the rest of the day. We watched Couple Retreat and it was a cute and funny movie. Right after it ended I got up to start my part of the dinner. Dustin was going to cook us some yummy steaks and I was doing mashed potatoes with veggies. He has had a female bearded dragon that has been pregnant for a while and said he wanted to go and check on it. Well this is where the night turned into an interesting one. He came up to inform me that she was laying eggs! His first one, and she was laying eggs.... So he had to tend to that right away and make sure that the process went smoothly. So we decided to post pone our dinner and wait until Monday. She laid 20 eggs! and they are on their way to hatching :) We had a great dinner the following night and even got GG to watch HB while we had a romantic dinner :) Things were def. different this year!

Valentine's Day

It's Snowing!

We got snow earlier this year, but it was very little compared to friday. I felt like we were having a blizzard!! I worked Friday until 4 and then still had to go into town and fill a prescription for HB for her ear infection that we had went to the doctor earlier that day. Needless to say by this point it was really coming down. Dad drove me into town and by the time I got on the road to come home, it was very scary!! I made it to the driveway and got halfway up and started spinning!! Dustin had to cut me a path to the garage and then help push my car into it.. haha! Soon as I got out you would have thought Dustin was five again and was saying how some of our friends wanted to come over and play in the snow together. We had some people over and had snow ball fights and attempted to sled on a trash can lid old school style... well that didnt really work :/ I sat HB at the window and let her look out into the snow and she was just facinated by it... but by the time it stopped snowing and I wanted to get HB out in it (bc of her ear) we decided to take her over to my parents house the next day where they had one of the boogie board sleds. I got one or two on my camera, but mom has some great ones of us that I hope to add soon :)

Snow Day 10