Broken Resolutions and Promises Made

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wait...You don't seriously believe that it's already the end of September do you? I mean come on I just know that your world stopped for the last nine months waiting for a blog update right?!? Well unfortunately I didn't discover a wonderful way to slow down time. It's more like we figured out a way to actually get busier. I have missed all of you out there so much and as I looked back over the last six years of my blog it became clear to me that I. CANNOT. STOP. BLOGGING. This little ole blog is our family scrapbook and seriously the only way we can remember whose families turn it is to get us for Christmas and Thanksgiving...ha! The sad part about my absence is that maintaining this little treasure was actually one of my New Year's resolutions...obviously that was an epic fail...haha! But the good news is that I'm still keeping up with my other New Year's goals and I'd like to offer this promise to you. I will catch up on the blog and do my best to keep it current. Along the catch-up journey we are about to embark on you'll read about my other goals of 2012 that I'm actually still working hard on. Of course thats a post for another day. In the meantime, Here's January!
We brought in the New Year with our traditional fireworks in the hood with our dear neighbors.



While we were all still in Holiday eating mode, Rhett and I made THE best French Toast Caserole for our New Year's Day breakfast. If you are ever in the mood to splurge on breakfast, I highly recommend this recipe.  Click on the link above for step by step instructions with pictures included.
We spent the rest of January celebrating our wonderful little Wyatt.  The weekend before his actual birthday on the 9th, we spent the day at the Galleria. We thought W would enjoy eating at Rainforest Cafe but we thought WRONG! He was not amused by the life-like Gorillas and Tigers causing a ruckus every couple of minutes. Luckily a slushie the size of your head can get you through any situation.

We managed to survive Rainforest Cafe without any animal attacks and headed over to Build-A-Bear.



Wyatt is always watching Big Brother Rhett. Even when they are making wishes to put in their Build-a-Bears, he wants to be just like his "Rhep". L-man did join us on this trip he just wasn't all that interested in making a bear...ha!
Wyatt's Birthday fell on a Monday and we celebrated at home with clown cones and glow in the dark Thomas train tracks.

Wyatt's actual birthday party, Texans, recipes and some zoo fun still to come. Happy New Year!

Wyatt's Three and The Texans Made the Playoffs!

We celebrated Wyatt's birthday January 14 at Jump n Jungle. Most of our neighborhood friends came and made it so much fun for our big three year old.


Oh our little W, how in the world are you three already? You are the sweetest, funniest, most mischievous little dude on the planet. You hide nothing behind your eyes. Your joy, excitement, curiosity and grumpiness all shine through your hazel eyes with the brown specks. Each emotion you share is just as you unique as you and those eyes. We love you so much and hope that you always continue to be as unique as your hazel eyes with the brown specks.
The only thing almost as cool as W turning three was that our football team made the play-offs for the first time. Each of our neighbors took turns hosting Texans watch parties. Our beloved team was eliminated by the Ravens after Wyatt's party but despite the loss we still had a ball with our neighbors.

We LOVE our cheesy neighbors and we LOVE our Texans!

Koolookamba Hunting, Recipes and a Concert

We ended January with a trip to the zoo. We love going when the weather is cooler because the animals are so active. If you haven't been to the Houston Zoo in a while you should check it out. The boys love the new African Forrest exhibit and trying to find all the hidden Koolookambas.

We also tried out some pretty yummy recipes in January. I'm pretty sure I found most of them on Pinterest. I wanted to make the bell peppers and eggs but knew I'd have to adapt it for the boys so Yoda came to the rescue. The boys thought it was pretty cool.

In a boy house cooking is a full contact sport so helmets are a must! Actually you can find any of my boys wearing some kind of crazy head gear at any given time. I love to get the boys involved in the cooking process because it makes it easier to get them to eat their own healthy creations. Everyone enjoyed assembling and baking their own foil packed chicken and it was super yummy!

I'm pretty sure the best cooking trick I've ever learned is that you can cook a whole pan of bacon in the oven. We put bacon on everything so this trick has come in so handy. Just line your baking sheet with foil and load it up with bacon. Cook at 350 for about 15 minutes. I just watch it and adjust the cook time based on our desired crispiness. The best thing about it all is that I can cook up to 12 pieces at a time without stinking up my kitchen. 

Jason and I bid farewell to January with a fun date night out. We attended the second concert from the series of tickets I got him for our anniversary. Mason Jennings put on an amazing acoustic show and we will definitely be seeing him again next time he comes around.

That's it for January folks!