Taco Tuesday!!

What you will need

I actually didn't use the chili powder this time and only put salt and garlic powder. Make sure you are generous with the salt and garlic powder. I like to use cheese slices-they are the right thickness and size, I just cut the cheese(hehe) in half.

Brown meat with onions sprinkle with garlic powder and salt at some point while browing, but before it is cooked. Once browned, put to the side. I like to set up an assembly line-see my torilla, cheese and meat, the skillet with oil is next to the meat. Put a cheese slice on tortilla and add some meat, fold and put in hot oil.

Make sure the oil is hot before cooking tacos. (I have found that the tacos cook differently in a non-stick pan as opposed to a stainless steal one-not bad, just different). I like to put the taco bottom in first holding it upright with tongs for a couple of seconds, it helps to keep the torilla closed. Yes cheese will ooz out and you might loose a few pieces of meat-but no worries.

Cook taco on each side until golden brown then put on paper towel. I like it like that-it soaks up some oil. I NEVER buy store bought taco shells-YUCK to me. Go to Taco Bell if that's what you like. Not me.


Here is a funny story. I was talking to my sister a few weeks ago and Ky's birthday was on a Tuesday and she was telling me that his girlfriend came over for dinner and they were having tacos. I said "Oh, you really do have tacos on Tuesday? I thought you guys were always just joking around." She said, "No, we've been doing it for 18 years now!!" So I decided that would make life easier for me and Justin happier- he loves Mexican food and tacos are great and easy to make. So it will be Tacos on Tuesday until who knows when. (I get sick of them-maybe).

Yummy Breakfast Puffs

Okay, so I haven't been good the last two weeks. I am going to get better-I promise. Here is a yummy breakfast that I made. They are French Breakfast Puffs from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook. They are so easy and oh sooooo yummy (and fat free ;) we wish). I'm not sure if you can get the recipe on her website, but go take a look and if you have her cookbook-these are a nice treat and good to share because the recipe makes two dozen.

Happy Birthday Aubree

18 years old!! I still can't believe that she is 18. I was in 7th grade when she was born.

When went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate. Mom got the luau salad-yum

I got the orange chicken (first time too). You want some don't you? I am eating the rest for lunch tomorrow.

Then came the cheesecake. Aub got her favorite, chocolate Godiva (it just needs to be capitalized). Poor thing took a softball to the face today too at conditioning practice. Busted the inside of her lip. She looked like she had botox done. Made eating a little hard I think.

Growing Strong

These are just some of my favorite pictures of him.

Oh this boy is just growing up so fast. When he was born all we wanted was for him to grow and be strong and now I wouldn't mind if he slowed down a bit. He is getting big. Boo! He is 27lbs and has 9 almost 10 teeth! He is a boys boy. He climbs, plays and wants to be outside as much as possible. He is a happy boy and loves to give loves. He loves his nana and papa and throws a fit when they leave. He loves his cousins and had so much fun playing with all the kids when they were here. We miss them. I miss them, it was so nice.

Happy Birthday Kyler

Nothing but Homemade

Who ever invented store bought treats should be punished. Really! Have you ever tasted the store bought Rice Crispy Treats? YUCK! They hold no bar to home made Rice Crispy Treats. They are soooo sweet and taste nothing like they should. I told Justin he better not give Duncan one of those wannabes. I made these the other day and they are so good and taste like they should. So I say NO to store bought treats that can be made.

Seriously, you should too.

Just say no to bad treats.

Carry Laughter With You Where Ever You Go!!

Happy Birthday to. . . Sam

I'm sad that I don't have a picture of her that doesn't need to be scanned. I really need to get my camera out more when family is here. Sam is a sweet girl. Duncan really had a good time playing with her while she was here. Fun and fashionable is what Sam is and a tender heart. I remember when she was still really little maybe 3, we were at the Easter Pageant and she cried at the end.

Happy Birthday to Samantha-14 years old!!

Rubba dub dub

I know I didn't blog for a couple of days, but I am not counting that due to extreme tiredness and sick little boy. So there, it's my blog and I can make the rules. Duncan loves taking a bath, but I never get to take pictures because this is how he reacts when he sees my camera and then the last picture turns into screaming whinning. Therefore, I limit the number of pictures of bath time.

Duncan has been a little sick, he has a really bad runny nose and a cough. The cough didn't start out that bad, but it just seems to be getting a little worse each day, so I am taking him to the Dr. tomorrow. Here's hoping they can do something for it.

Pretty place to visit

I was just going through my pictures and I just really love this one. I believe this was taken in New Hampshire on my last visit in 2008. I just love how still the water is and how perfectly the bridge reflects in the water.

Happy Birthday to. . . ME!!

Had a nice day at work, nothing too amazing. My kids were actually nice and got excited to learn it was my birthday, too bad for them the teacher doesn't bring treats to share with the class. Went to dinner with my mom and dad and Justin to Macaroni Grill. It was a nice day.

Silly little man

One of Duncan's favorite places to hang out is on the steps, and when he has food Pippin is right beside him waiting in anticipation for him to drop something. Honestly I don't know how you can have kids and no dog. These dogs clean the floor for me so well. After Duncan eats or if he is caring around a cup with cereal, I know I don't have to clean up because the dogs will do it for me. Thank goodness for dogs.

Mr. Mischief

His favorite drawer to get into is of course-my make up drawer.

Too bad for him that daddy put an end to easy access to my drawer. The one thing I don't like about our house is that there is no door to our bathroom. Justin had to baby proof all the cabinets and drawers in our bathroom because Duncan loves to get into everything!!


On a different topic, I was a little disappointed with the dinner I made tonight. I have made Sunday Chicken so many times, and tonight I followed it exactly as it says, but for some reason the rice didn't cook all the way and was crunchy and the chicken had no flavor to it. Blaah- not what I expected after watching Julie & Julia. All that French food and complexity of those recipes and I couldn't get Sunday Chicken to come out right.

Happy New Year

My friend made a comment on Face Book that she has heard a lot of people say that 2010 was not a good year for a lot of people. I don't know what it is about this year but I sort of agree. I'm not sure if it was all the stress of moving, but this year has had its good and its bad. We spent 6 months finding a house and then moving very quickly, two weeks spent living with my parents. Then we moved into our house, which I love. We celebrated Duncan's first birthday, and his freedom from the house. He hasn't stopped since. There have been a few things that made this year not so great. I guess my desire to stop working is part of it. I really am going to start looking at other areas for work. I do enjoy teaching, but I just would love to be at home with Duncan. We'll see what happens.

Well, I hope that everyone has a great new year. My goal for this year is to post on here each day for the year, exercise, decorate my house for cheap, take more pictures, enjoy my time with Duncan(I already do, I just want to keep doing it :)

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Beutler cousin's party

We had the Beutler cousin's party the day after Christmas. We had pizza. The bottom one was my favorite, fresh mozzarella, tomato slices, and basil from my mom's garden-YUMMY!! The sad thing was that it stuck to the pizza stone, but we scrapped it off and it was still good. Sadly these are the only pictures I took. I swear every time I took my camera out Duncan was right there and wanted that thing. We had a good time, we played charades, and cousins exchanged gifts and played the WII. Kyler had Duncan and he got a wooden train.

** If you have a Fresh and Easy they make really good pizza dough if you don't want to make your own- I recommend the wheat dough. Also, always bake your pizza dough for 8-10 min and then take it out and put your toppings on, it will keep your dough from being soggy.

Great Aunt and Uncle

Duncan with my Aunt Mary

Duncan and Uncle Keith. This was his first time meeting Duncan.

Chrismas morning

This is how we found Duncan Christmas morning. I should explain that he figured out how to climb out of his crib. We tried different things, a port a crib-climbed out of it, took the mattress out and put port-a-crib pad down-climbed out. So we took everything out of his room and put the mattress on the floor and I put only soft toys in there and this body pillow.

Santa brought him a Fisher-Price farm and other books and toys.

This was the last picture of the day I think because then he was throwing a fit wanting my camera. This boy is OBSESSED with anything with buttons or levers, or lights. He got my mom's camera later this day and figured out how to use the touch screen on the back. Too smart of his own good. I'm convinced he is part monkey.