Parenthood... no, I'm not pregnant!

We had a busy weekend. It started out Friday night with a "kick-off party" for Steve's job that we went to. He works for the ALS Association (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease)... which is in MAJOR need of funding for research!!! (just FYI in case you're blessed w/ extra money and the Lord has laid it on your heart to give it away!) They have walks to raise money for research. Well, they had the "kick-off party" to start raising money for the walks that will be taking place this year. It was fun and we WAY over-ate! We ate bad food too! Over my calorie limit for sure! Gotta hit the gym hard tonight!

Then, we had the privilege of babysitting 2 of our nieces this past weekend. Brad and Shannon went out of town and asked us to watch Mallory and Morgan. Prior to the weekend, I was SOOOO excited about it. The day before it got here I got a little nervous. I don't know if it's because everyone would either laugh and say "Oh, can't wait to hear about that when you get back!" (while chuckling to themselves) or "Let's see if you're gonna want babies after this!"... things like that. That started sinking in before we went and I thought... "What in the world are we doing? We're not gonna know what to do!".

Well, I have to say it was NOTHING like that! In fact, it just confirmed my desire to want children and be a mother! I loved EVERY minute of it! Steve didn't even mind it! (ask him... I'm not lying) Mallory and Morgan are the best kids I've EVER been around. (If you know me, you know I've been around kids a LOT! I worked in day-cares and camps during college, I worked as a houseparent at a children's home, and much more). They were AWESOME! Props to Brad and Shannon!!!!!!

The girls are on a schedule and boy is it awesome! I had asked Shannon to leave me details on what to do (like do I warm up Morgan's food, milk, etc... if so, how much? Just little things that you parents have already learned). She left me a 3 page list of their schedule, instructions on how to make the bottles, what Mallory likes to eat, what they like to do, places we can go w/ the girls, EVERYTHING! It was wonderful and VERY handy! Shannon... THANK YOU!!!!

Outside of the girls being on their schedule... they are just a pleasure to be around! I can honestly say that we had NO crying, whining, fit-throwing, crankiness, or ANYTHING like that from Mallory or Morgan! Morgan cried for like 10 seconds in the car on the way to church... and then fell asleep. She cried again for like 30 seconds before she got her bottle (because I didn't have it ready)... and that was it! At nap time, both girls would just lay in their beds and go straight to sleep. It was amazing! I took LOTS of pics! I'll share a few as soon as I get them downloaded!

Again, Brad and Shannon, God is truly blessing your hard work as parents! You have beautiful and amazing children! Thanks for letting us be the one's to get to take care of them this weekend... it was an honor!

One more prop goes to my amazing husband! Steve, you were AWESOME this weekend with the girls! You held them, fed them, played with them, just sat with them, everything! You were so helpful and were amazing to watch with them. You're going to be a GREAT dad someday! I love you SOOO much!

Pictures

Sorry it's been a while! We've been here... but busy! Steve and I have joined a gym (Lifetime Fitness) and we LOVE it! We've been there EVERY day with the exception of this past Friday and Saturday because we were out of town.

We got to spend some time with our best friends, Jian and Cindy, last Thursday. Cindy broke BOTH of her arms so I was helping her with their son, Storm, who is just over a year old. Poor Cindy... she can't really do ANYTHING! She had been in two casts, but praise the Lord they took those off and she's now in splints. She still can't do much with her arms though so it's hard for her to take care of Storm. Here is a video of Storm. He does this thing they call "Crazy eyes"... check it out...



As I mentioned above, we were out of town... we went to Temple this past Friday night to Steve's parent's house. We drove to Palestine to see Steve's grandmother (Meemaw) for her birthday. She turned 88 I believe! She's an amazing woman. Below are some pics of our weekend at her house and then in Temple. There are some of our niece and nephew (Zach and Autumn). Also, Shannon and the girls (Mallory and Morgan) came to join us for lunch on Sunday since Brad wasn't in town. Enjoy...
This is Steve, his cousin Barry, Zach, Dustin, and Scott Four generations (Autumn, Steph, Sherry, and Meemaw) Zach's 9th birthday! Autumn A pic I took of Autumn and Zach at Ted and Sherry's house Zach, Autumn, Mallory, and Morgan Mallory (you can't tell very well in this pic... but she's covered w/ cinnamon apples on her face) Morgan The Morse family (Steph's husband, Ed, is the only one missing :-( )


Shannon, Mallory, and Morgan

More "Creativity" Time

So, here's our latest "creative" moment that we had. This is what we painted this weekend. It's hanging in our bay window above the bench seat. It's on the opposite wall of our other painting that we did a few weeks ago. It's fun to do things like this... but it was very tedious.

Cooking Experience

I forgot to update everyone on my cooking experience after I finished! It went GREAT! I must say that I was a little stressed out EVERY night because I was all worried about making sure I had everything- (even though I had already made a grocery list based on every recipe)- and making sure I had the timing down of getting each item done at the same time w/o something else getting cold. Well... my meals weren't THAT complicated... but it was nerve racking for me because I didn't want to mess anything up! All in all... I only messed up ONE thing... and really, it wasn't my fault at all!

My first attempt at the Weight Watcher's "Spicy Fries" recipe was a total BOMB! I followed the recipe precisely! The only thing that I did was not let it cook AS LONG as the recipe called for-- cook for 15min's at 425 degrees then turn up to broil for 10mins.-- I checked the potatoes at 11 minutes instead of 15... and then at 7 mintutes instead of 10. After 7 mins on broil, the potatoes were COMPLETELY BURNT! I mean... almost disintegrated! We literally had to SCRAPE them off the pan... what potatoes were left that is! So, because I knew I didn't mess it up... I was determined to try them again! So, the next day I made them again and succeeded! The only negative is that they weren't very spicy... next time I'll add more spice than the recipe calls for!

Other than that... cooking went well and I'm done!

This past weekend Steve and I felt "creative" on Sunday. So, below is a picture of our new "painting". I'm in the process of another "painting" and will upload it on here when I've finished it.

Let the cooking begin!!!

Welp, I've FINALLY started cooking the meals that I owe Steve from our "Biggest Loser Challenge" (see archived blog).

I actually got excited when we went to the store and bought the food on Saturday. I started cooking Sunday night and will cook until this coming Sunday night! I have a menu all planned out and showed it to Steve last Friday to make sure the meals were all okay with him. We are trying to still stay SOMEWHAT healthy... or at least where we're not over our 1500 calories! So, here's the menu...

Sunday:
-Cheeseburger Casserole (that's what I'm calling it anyways... it's similar to Sheppard's Pie... but I cut a lot of the stuff out... got the recipe from our friends Jian and Cindy when they cooked dinner for us one time... thanks Cindy!) :)
-Green Beans
-Corn
-Rolls

Monday:
-Pork Chops
-Mashed Potatoes
-Rolls
-Mixed Veggies

Tuesday:
We have dinner w/ our lifegroup so I'm getting that day off and am extending my 7th day to next Sunday.

Wednesday:
-Pork Roast
-Corn
-Rolls

Thursday:
-Spaghetti
-Garlic Bread _(using wheat noodles and bread)

Friday:
-Breakfast Tacos (using Wheat tortillas of course)

Saturday:
-Hamburgers
-Spicy Fries (a weight watchers recipe I'll be trying)

Sunday:
Not sure yet!!!!

So, the first meal went well!!! I'll keep ya posted on the rest! Hopefully I won't burn the house down or anything in attempt to make any of these meals!!!!

Family Time!!

We had a family reunion this past weekend (one of 3 that my family has each year)! It's been about 3 years since Steve and I got to go. A LOT has changed since the last time we were there! Our immediate family alone has grown... we went from 8 to 12(13 if you count my dog). It was GREAT to get to see everyone and spend some time just "chilling" out with my husband, parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces and nephew, and all of my other family! So, this blog is going to have a lot of pics from the reunion... sorry if it's too many... but I LOVE pics and videos!!! So... here goes: First, here's a pic of ALL of us: Here's a pic of "my" family: (we have no pics of just Steve, me and Briley) Here's Mom and Dad: Jason, Jenn, Julia, and Johnathan: Brad, Shannon, Mallory and Morgan: Here's 3 Generations of Bankheads: Julia LOVED Briley: Here's Mallory's "surprise" face:


Here's one last video. It's of Morgan going cross-eyed while looking at her pacifier:


Ok- I think that's it for now.

Pics Updates

First, here's a picture of Steve teaching Zach how to play the guitar...


Here's a picture of me w/ our niece Autumn at our house...


I've got some pics w/ me and nieces Mallory and Morgan, but they are on my cell phone... I haven't downloaded them yet... as soon as I get those done, I'll post them.

Here are some "before and after" pics so far of mine and Steve's weight loss. The main thing that I could tell a difference in myself was by looking at my neck.




Then, as I mentioned in my previous blog... Steve hand made me the card with the poem in it... here's a picture of it... I LOVED it!!!