May I share some of May with you!

All the things that I have been meaning to post but haven't gotten around to it:

Our trip to Kentucky/Ohio.....

Annalise and I went out to my parents house in Crestview Hills, Kentucky (where is that you ask......just 10 minutes from the Cincinnati airport.) My mom recently had some health issues when she went in for an endoscopy, and came out with a hole in her stomach. Needless to say it was a little scary, she ended up with emergency surgery the next day, ICU for 10 days, and total hospital stay of three weeks. She just got her feeding tube out this week (and this all started the end of April.) Well, when she got out of the hospital this gave Annalise and I an opportunity to go help mom, so we flew out to visit them a couple of weeks ago. Annalise loved being spoiled my Mamam and Papa, and she will get a lot more of that when we move out to Ohio in six weeks.

Here are some fun pics and videos from our trip:

Then when we got home Kevins mom came out for a visit, she helped us start packing our house up, and most importanlty go through Annalise's millions of outfits, and get rid of half of them. Annalise also moved into a big girl bed while Nana was here, she is doing really well with the transition, she has a had a couple of rough naps (trying to get her to stay in bed), but she is doing great now.

Here she is trying out ther bed for the first time:

Then on Friday we got to go camping together for the first time in over four years. Kevin has been to Scout Camp, and I have been to Girls Camp, but we have not been camping together in a long time. It was Annalise's first camping trip, and she loved it. We went down to a State Park in Delware, and the weather was a big concern since it was supposed to rain most of the night, but just a few minutes before we pulled up to our campsite it stopped raining!! We got to go with the Buchkovich's, and I think Annalise has found her new love....Westin. She gave him the cutest little hug when we left our camping trip......can you feel the love....

She also loved all the food and fun that came along with it....Here she is before we left, yes she is wearing a Virginia Tech hat and an Ohio State shirt.....she is a little confused.

This one is for you Nick, (he was very impressed by the trees that were growing parallel to the ground....they were pretty cool.)

Then the next day we decided at the last minute to go down to Maryland for Tutu's Birthday ( Kevins Grandmother.) She turned 82. I am very happy we were able to make it down there. It was sad to leave them because we will not see them for a while due to our move :(

Since then I have just been at home recovering from all of our adventures, and stressing about the fact that we are moving in 6 weeks....Aaaaaaah! But we finally decided on a place to live, so I am feeling a lot better about that. I was also released from my calling in the Young Women's program at church, so that helps with the stress levels (especially with Girls Camp coming up soon......Good luck Lindsay!) And I only have two weeks of work left, so everything is coming to a close (sad.) I am going to miss this area, our ward, and all of our friends!!! But we are not gone yet, so I hope to get a lot of socializing in before we go!!!

Fun time with Auntie Amy!!

We have loved being in Philly for the last four years, and it is getting more real every day that the fun is soon ending.  We are moving at the end of July, which is too soon for me. There are many reasons we have loved being here, but one good reason was having Kevin's sister Amy around. She lives and teaches in NYC, and Annalise begs to call her on the phone every day. We have taken some fun trips with her and Annalise will miss her a lot. Here are some pics of fun times with Amy, first at the Brooklyn Childrens museum, and then on Memorial Day in Princeton: 

Memorial Day: 

Yay for Mothers Day

I enjoyed my Mothers Day this year. Kevin let me sleep in, made me breakfast, got me exactly what I asked for and made me a cute card with pictures of my two favorite people.


Who could ask for more? 

It actually turned out to be a really busy day at church and a lot of cooking when I got home, but it was all enjoyable. 

So I just had to tell my story of that morning. I of course enjoyed sleeping in that morning, got up and ate my wonderful breakfast, but then we only had a short amount of time to get ready before we had to pick up Precious and head over to the church. So Kevin hopped in the shower while I got Annalise dressed. I took her PJ's off and went to go change her diaper, but unfortunately she had been dealing with a little rash from the previous two days, so I let her little bottom dry out for a few minutes while I put her dress on her. I Did her hair and got her shoes out. In the meantime Kevin got out of the shower and Annalise went running for Dada. I had not yet gotten myself ready for church, so I went to get dressed and do my makeup. About ten minutes later we were all ready and heading out the door. Kevin put Annalise in the car while I stuffed all my bags in the car, like the bag lady. We picked up Precious and headed off to church. While we were in the car Annalise was playing around and pulling her feet up over her head as she likes to do. She thought she was pretty funny, so I asked her if she was trying to moon me, and she of coursed answered "yeah" and giggled some more, but then I looked at her sitting in her car seat and thought.............did I ever put a diaper on her before we left? And the answer to that question was.... No. In the rush to get out the door I had forgotten to put a diaper on her. What kind of mother does that? (and on mothers day, a true display of what I am like everyday.) As soon as I realized what I had done I just laughed the whole way to church. Luckily there were no accidents and it something I can now laugh about for every mothers day to come!

Giggling Girls

Annalise has been getting older so fast (she will be two in August....what?), and she is turning into quite the toddler. She started enjoying her playdates that I have been setting up for her (playdates are really just an excuse for me to spend some time with an adult, but also for Annalise to socialize with kids her age.)  Yesterday we had Bonnie and Madison over for the afternoon. As Bonnie and I were sitting at the table making bows and other crafty things we heard the girls giggling in Annalise's room. I turned on the video camera, walked in the room and this is what they were up to:

Yes.... that is Annalise standing pantsless, spitting water out, while Madison falls over laughing. We thought it was pretty cute. 

Sheep Shearing Day!!

We finally got some spring weather, and it couldn't have been on a better day......sheep shearing day! There is a local farm in Pennypack Park near us called Fox Chase Farms, and Annalise is finally old enough to enjoy their festivities. In fact, she loved it. 

They had a band playing, which she loved dancing to. She has some killer dance moves:

The pigs were out running around, and the goats were getting a haircut too!

Annalise could have fed the horses all day:

And you cant forget the cows....

Then she saw a little boy with a smiley face painted on his cheek, and she was very excited about getting her own face painting, she held very still (which she never does for me.....apparently I need to bribe her with face painting.) 

By the end of the day she was very worn out, it was a lot of fun. 

Spring has sprung....and so has the rain!!

I am always so excited for spring...the gorgeous flowers and the warmer weather and walks in the park. 

But wait, all we seem to have around here is a bunch of rain!!! I know the saying goes:  April showers bring May flowers, but enough already. I think cold rain is the worst weather.

Well despite all this rain we have had, we have also had a couple of sunny days. Luckily Easter was one of those days, which is the only way to have Easter. Annalise has loved all the Easter Egg hunts that we have had, mostly because of all the candy.

 She will eat and eat the candy until she can't see anymore. 

On Tuesday at our mom and tot group we had a little easter party. Everyone brought food and the kids got to make a little chick! 

Then we had and easter egg hunt...ate some candy (for an appetizer)

and then we had some lunch. 

Then on Saturday Kevins sister and Mom came into town for the weekend and we all attended the ward Easter Party that night.

 Annalise, of course, mostly liked eating the candy....oh, and stealing everyone else's easter baskets. 

It was a great party!

 Annalise loved having Auntie Amy here, she showed her a fun website which has a lot of cool alphabet activties, which annalise now begs me to turn on every minute of every day!!

And she got to go Shopping at Davids Bridal for a bridesmaid dress (for Amy): 

 Annalise was pretty worn out by the end of the day!

It was fun having Kev's family here, and Annalise always loves the attention she gets when other people are around. She is going to have a rough week with just mom around this week. She has been spending a lot of time with Oakley and Carter lately,..... so we will just have to have a lot of play dates this week or create a sibling....hmmm. 

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter Weekend, here are some of our pictures from Sunday! 

 

Chicken Salad and Rolls

So I have never posted any recipes or anything like that before, but several people have asked for my recipe for my roll recipe (from Deanna) and the chicken salad recipe that Trisha gave to me. So for all those people who wanted it....here it is!

Chicken Salad

4 Chicken Breasts (or 3 large cans of chicken)

1 C slivered almonds toasted

3 C grapes sliced in half

1 celery stalk diced

1 C Alfalfa sprouts

1 tsp Bon apatite seasoning (made by McCormick)

1/2 tsp Garlic Salt

1 C Miracle Whip

2 C Mayonnaise

Mix it all together and serve on croissants of pitas

Quick Rolls

2 C Warm Water

2 Tbsp Yeast

1/2 C Sugar

2 Tsp salt

6 1/2-7 C Flour

1/4 C Soft shortening

1 Egg

Dissolve yeast in the warm water with some of the sugar. (The sugar will help seperate the yeast.) In large bowl add remainder of the sugar, salt and 1/2 the flour. Add yeast mixture. Beat thoroughly for 2 minutes. Add egg and shortening. Mix well. Put in the rest of flour until flour is able to handle. Grease bowl; turn dough over and put in fridge--Chill. Shape;cover; and let rise until double (1 hour-1 1/2 hours)

Bake @ 400 for 12-15 minutes.

If you are in a hurry you can skip the fridge and shape and let rise....They will work!

Both these recipes I use all the time! Enjoy!