Happy St Patrick's Day!

And thanks Gramma and Pops for watching the kids so we can go out tonight. :-)


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Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

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Where I've Been...

Sorry the blog has been abandoned this week. I started P-90x 13 days ago and it's taking up every extra waking hour I have.

But I'm still Pinteresting, Slow Cooking, and watching 2 cute kiddos....I just don't have too much time to tell you about it.

But hopefully soon....

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Slow Cooker Sunday: Italian Chicken and Potatoes

I'm sorry I forgot to post this last night. Maybe I was still deliriously exhausted from Saturday's festivities....or maybe I was catching up on Biggest Loser, The Office, and watching an episode of 30 Rock that featured one of my high school buddies, (An)Drew Gehling, as Bradley!

Here is what we ate for dinner last night. Super easy and very tasty.

Source: thedrivewayoflife.blogspot.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

(FYI for non-Pinterest users, you can still click on the pic and get the recipe!)

The party of the century!

Not too many people can say they work for a 100 year old organization...


...or that part of their job includes hosting a birthday party for 4,000 people. With baby farm animals.

Today, we held a huge 100th birthday party for the Girl Scouts. Troops from all over western NC came out to celebrate, including my favorite Daisy troop. :-)

Brooklyn and her friends did a ton of things, including letter writing to the soldiers, candle making, cake and ice cream eating, making a tote bag from a tshirt, hula hooping, and animal petting.


And a little resting...


Me and my sweet girl- so lucky to have partly shared this day with her.


She has the best leaders...but I may be a bit biased. :-)


And I KNOW I am biased, but I work for the BEST staff!


Happy birthday, Girl Scouts! May you have 100 more!

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Birthday Hap"pin"ings!

As mentioned yesterday, I got a lot of great ideas for Brooklyn's Rainbow Spa birthday party on Pinterest. I was actually quite proud of myself that I used Pinterest for something other than family menu planning.

Brooklyn and I made these cupcakes as her "party favor." They were pretty labor intensive but turned out super cute. I don't have the post anymore on Pinterest, but I also got the idea to put them in plastic cups and place in a treat bag so guests could take them "to go." Perfect for a 9am party.

Source: apartystyle.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

The sweet treat we served AT the party was this cake batter dip. I didn't really measure the ingredients (whoops!) but it still turned out quite yummy.

Source: aspottedpony.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

This was very easy to make and the girls were impressed. :-) For mine, I used a row of green grapes on a skewer as the stem (since I accidentally ate the celery last week).

Source: ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

This was Brooklyn's favorite treat of the morning. Though per the birthday girl's direction, we used strawberries, mandarin oranges (they were like putting a worm on a hook- ew), pineapple, green grapes, blueberries, and purple grapes.

Source: quick-dish.tablespoon.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

And finally, nothing jaw dropping, but I brought materials to make these fruit loop necklackes just in case we had some extra time. And we did, so it was good I brought them.

Source: pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Brooklyn's "Rainbow Spa" Birthday Party

Last Saturday, we held Brooklyn's 7th Birthday party with her girlfriends at the "spa" near our house. We had a bunch of her friends meet us at the nail salon for finger and toe nail painting. Since the party was at 9am, we were creative with the food (since I kinda refuse to serve cheetos before the sun rises).

We sent everyone home with a cupcake in a plastic cup in a treat bag so their parents could choose when it was appropriate to consume sugary treats.
And with a Brooklyn-chosen rainbow theme, we served lots of fruit, some cheese, and animal crackers with cake batter dip. All Pinterest inspired...post coming later this week.

Space was limited in the salon, but they were so sweet to let us take over their business for an hour and a half. The birthday girl was sooooo excited.

All the girls seem to have enjoyed the morning snacks.

And when presents were done, they ventured outside for some fruit loop jewelry making while they waited for parents to pick up.

Thanks, Zen Spa and Nails, for another great birthday party for my pretty Princess!

Way Back When-esday: The Shout Sister Edition

It's been a while since I posted about Brooklyn's sweet "Shout sisters." These girls have all grown up together Sunday evenings at our church's Sunday night Contemporary worship service.

They first started in 2005 as Allie and Brooklyn (here age 3 and 1/2 and 4 weeks).Zoe and "Little Allie" came in August 2006 and January 2007. Here are the Sisters in April 2008 (Zoe 20 months, Allie 15 months, Allie almost 7, and Brooklyn 3).

Callie joined the group in July 2008. Here are the Sisters at Callie's 1st birthday party on the 4th of July (Allie 2 1/2, Allie 8, Callie 1, Zoe almost 3, and Brooklyn 4 1/2).

And though it's not the best shot, it's miraculous to have them all in the camera lens. This is the only pic I have with the Sisters since the birth of Reagan in October 2010. Here are (from left to right) Reagan- 16 months, Callie- 3 1/2, Zoe- 5 1/2, Allie- 10 1/2, Brooklyn- 7, and Allie- 5.

Now, of course, we have our sweet Shout boys- Jake, "Little Allie's" brother Kyle, and Zoe's brother Silas, but there's just something about these sisters. They are lucky to have each other and it's so amazing as parents to watch them all grow up together.

Brooklyn's Birthday Night

After our day off school and work celebrating by eating eggs and bacon, fried chicken, salad, and chocolate dipped strawberries (thank you, Golden Corral), we ended Brooklyn's special day with dinner with the grandparents and great grandparents.

Brooklyn asked her Gramma to bring her an ice cream cake.

Seven years old? My, oh, my!!!!

Of course, presents were her favorite part of the evening!

Seasons of Love (love, love, love)

I was uploading pics of Brooklyn's birthday weekend when I realized I completely forgot to post a few pics of Brooklyn and Daddy's Father-Daughter dance and Jake's Valentine's party at school.

So in trying to keep this blog somewhat chronological, here you go!

Slow Cooker Sunday: Cream Cheese Mexi-Chicken

That's not its real name, but the author of the blog didn't have one either, so I did the best I could. :-)

Tonight's Slow Cooker Sunday meal was scrumptious! Chad ate it over white rice, and I ate it over white rice in a tortilla, then without rice in a tortilla, and then when I saw each tortilla was 120 calories, I had a scoop on a plate. Each way was so yummy!

Source: thelarsonlingo.blogspot.com via Jaclyn on Pinterest

Lucky Number 7!!

Today is my sweet baby girl's 7th birthday. She lucked out and had a teacher workday and I was off work, so we had quite the "Brooklyn Day."

She wanted Golden Corral for breakfast AND lunch, so I bargained for BRUNCH.

Then we ran lots of errands...all birthday related. We had some down time at home this afternoon and Brooklyn asked if we could do her "questions for the internet."

So, without further ado, here is Brooklyn at age 7 (typed by Brooklyn herself):

Favorite color: blue

Favorite food: country fred chicken

Favorite drink: mountain dew

Favorite dessert: cake

Favorite book: Are you my mother?

Favorite clothes: what I'm wearing today

Favorite movie: polar express

Favorite TV show: Good luck, Charlie

Favorite activity: outside

Favorite subject at school: science

Favorite best friends: Mallory and Avery

Favorite song: Victorious theme song

Favorite day: my birthday

Favorite restaurant: Golden corral

Favorite toy: my microphone

Favorite holiday: christmas





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A Day

Lots of bloggers post about a day in their life. I never felt the need thinking nothing extraordinary happens, however, when I had a very much "normal" day today, I realized maybe one or two of you can relate. :-) Don't have time to read it all? Just skip to 7:05pm and you can make yourself feel better about your day.


6:40am: Finally out of bed after about three attempts from hubby to get me up and awake. I do not speak until 11 minutes later when I am out of the shower.

6:51am: Emerge from the shower singing with bluebirds fluttering around my head ala Snow White (not really but I am much more social) Find Brooklyn face down in my bed fully dressed, back asleep, and pissed at the world (the apple doesn't fall far)

7:00am: Tag team with Chad to get Brooklyn's teeth/hair brushed; Get myself ready in between

7:15am: Jake still sleeping (it's a gamble every morning) so I run downstairs and get lunch packed, Jake's breakfast in a cup and bowl to go (don't judge), make my coffee, and pack the van

7:30am: Jake's awake; PJ's soaked; Get him changed while watching Little Bear on the bed; Check iron and straightening iron plugs (have turned back around one too many times for these!); Go downstairs and load up in the car

7:45am: Putting butt in car when Chad calls; Brooklyn has dumped her Instant Breakfast on her pants in the school parking lot; I tell Chad that I am already late for a meeting across the state and cannot bring her new pants- check the office, check her ziploc bag in her class, etc.

8:00am: Arrive at Jake's school; Text from Chad received- Brooklyn has clean pants now

8:05am: Jake is dropped off; Today's dropoff was great- happy to say goodbye; Says his usual farewell- "See you at the doctor!" (We had a really sick January.)

8:15am: Arrive at work; Run upstairs and print agendas for a meeting I am leading in Hickory; Run back downstairs; Load in car with co-workers; Hit the highway; Start drinking my coffee

9:50am: Arrive in Hickory for 10am meeting

10am-2:15pm: My department meeting (insert lots of Girl Scout work, conversation, discussions, ideas, doing awesome things here)

2:30pm: Back to the highway; Check email on way home (No fear- not driving.)

4:00pm: Back to office; Meet with a staff member; Check a few more emails

5:30pm: Left office; Get Jake; Hear lots of false stories about what he "did" at school- potty, for example

5:35pm: Call Chad; The usual "Please start dinner...I'm on my way home" call; Shocker- it's a Pinterest recipe!

6:00pm: Home and pick up where Chad left off in dinner preparation; Tag team with Chad in dishwasher unloading, reloading, laundry changeover, table setting, snack refilling, Yo Gabba Gabba finding

6:30pm: Dinner's ready; Get Jake to call Brooklyn for dinner (super cute)- "BROOK-A-LYN, DINNNNNNERRRRRR."

6:35pm: Dinner's done (Not really but it feels like 5 minutes of sit down time)

7:00pm: Dinner's really done; Chad and I draw straws for kitchen clean up vs bath time

7:05pm: Jake's bath time; Because of a bit of a "bottom problem" this week, poor kid has a baking soda bath; I soap him up, let him play for a while and then pull the drain to let him play a few minutes longer while I get PJ's and diaper ready; Go back into the bathroom to find Jake standing and two nice "Presents" waiting in the drained tub (insert gag reflex here); Take Jake out to dry him off and clean the rest off his bottom but when I turn around to grab toliet paper, he takes off running; Jake runs to his favorite place to hide- behind my pants hanging in my closet. With his bare butt; On my cream-colored carpet; With his bare, DIRTY butt

7:10pm: Start screaming for Chad; Find the carpet cleaner

7:10pm: Carpet cleaning commences

7:20pm: Brooklyn takes a shower in our bathroom; Says hers was gross after the "Presents"; I don't blame her.

7:55pm: Take Jake to bed; Jake reads me "Moo Baa La La La" for the first time all by himself; I melt and forget about Fat TurdsDay 2012.

8:10pm: Jake done with four books; Goodnight prayers and he's putting himself to sleep. Rockstar kid. I don't take that for granted.

8:15pm: Tell Brooklyn goodnight; Chad takes her upstairs 15 minutes early (she lost 15 minutes tonight for some stunts last night at bedtime)

8:30am: Make my evening coffee; Eat two Russell Stover chocolates standing at kitchen counter; Read back label of package; Say "screw it" and eat one more anyway

8:35pm: Settle on couch with laptop; Start answering 65 emails that I received today while in my all day meeting; Watch The Bachelor and The New Girl while working; Now starting to doubt the content of emails sent- better check them tomorrow morning at work

9:30pm: Wrap up emails for the night; Check the latest news on Facebook and settle down to compose this blog while its all still fresh; Finish watching Desperate Housewives from Sunday night

10:45pm: Show's done; Blog's done; Bedtime!

10:47pm: Forgot that we still have to pack lunch tomorrow for Brooklyn and the laundry needs to be switched over.

Jake takes on the local Children's Museum

While Brooklyn was at the circus last week, Daddy & Mommy took Jake on a mini-date to the Children's Museum.

He was a doctor's receptionist...

A pizza maker...


A construction worker...




A grocery store clerk...

A backstage lighting director...

A camper...

A Lego Champion...


And a homemaker...


So many careers, so little time! We will have to go back again really soon.