Our Little Graduates

Our little babies are growing up so fast!

Here are our little graduates on the last day of school:

So proud of them!!

Saturday Morning Special

There's nothing like getting to hang out in Mom and Dad's bed on Saturday morning. Cause it's sheet washing day.

Brooks is still very sleepy (so is dad). She's growing!

Boone is a little ball of energy in the mornings. Playtime!

Here are the babies. Just enjoying themselves.

Welcome Home

Homecoming after Casey was training in Germany for two very long weeks.

Please disregard the screams. Actually you may want to turn the volume way down. They are either myself or Aunt Katie (probs Aunt Katie since she was holding the camera)... screams of happiness get the girls more excited.

I wish you could've seen them from the front. They were running so fast down the hall, their chops were flowing in the wind. So funny. Like, motorcycle-ride style.

Talk about some babies who love their daddy.

Dinner blog!

I got this recipe from my sweet friend, Carina! At one of my wedding showers, everyone submitted a recipe they wanted to pass on, and this one was from her. We really like it.

Chicken Farfalle in Light Tomato Pesto Cream

1 lb farfalle (We did not use that much though or we'd have leftovers for a week. I think I halved that. And we used whole wheat.)

2 T EVOO

2.8 oz pesto

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup sour cream (fat free)

1 29 oz can crushed Italian tomatoes

Pine nuts

2 T half and half

Parmesan cheese

Chicken, if desired

We do add chicken, so I cooked some chicken tenders in a teensy bit of olive oil (EVOO) and seasoned with rosemary, thyme, italian seasoning, and garlic powder. I cut the chicken up into little chunks. Then set aside.

Cook farfalle. Drain and set aside.

Heat EVOO in a large skillet. Saute the garlic, then set aside.

Add tomatoes and simmer over medium heat (covered) until the liquid is reduced. This will take about 10 minutes. Add the cooked chicken and remove from heat. Leave covered to keep warm. (At this point, I also threw in some extra herbs and what not for added flavor. Be creative.)

In a small saucepan, blend the pesto, half and half (which we did not have, so we just used milk), and sour cream. Heat on low until warmed through.

Toss the pesto sauce with the pasta.

Then add the pesto pasta to the large tomato sauce-chicken-skillet.

Toss.

Top with cheese and pine nuts! We ran out of pine nuts, and Harris Teeter was flat sold out. Was everyone making Chicken Farfalle this weekend? So we went without the pine nuts this time. They do add an excellent touch, but it was still amaze without.

Enjoy!

We also ate this with a side salad of green leaf lettuce, cucumber, tomato, shredded parm, and Basil and Romano Italian dressing.

It was delish. Oh, and here's the whole meal plated up.

On a side note, one of our shelves on the our fridge door fell off just before I started dinner. It housed about 4 bottles of wine, a bottle of beer, and 3 Seagrams or Smirnoffs. No we are not alchies. And yes, I may have screamed. We lost a little wine. And a Seagrams lid popped off. Bummer. So I conned Casey into drinking the Seagrams "Jamaican Me Happy" (watermelon, strawberry, guave...sounds amazing to me!) with dinner. So we didn't have to be wasty-pants and throw it away. It's not very manly or very Italian, but he did it for me cause he's the best. And who are we kidding? He makes everything manly. He said he'd planned on have a beer, but he'd sacrifice for me.

Here's what he drank:

Here's what he'd planned on drinking:

Dinner was still good, and I'm sure the Seagrams was secretly his favorite part.

"Where have you been lately?" you may be asking yourself. Well, I've been around...just super busy. Casey just got back from 2 weeks in Germany, so we are back into the swing of things and our routine. Thank goodness. It's tough being a single mom!

But, parts of me love it because my girls follow me EV-ER-Y-WHERE. They're just making sure I'm not going anywhere too. How could I with the eagle eye watch they kept on me the past two weeks? It was just so precious. That being said, we missed dad like WOAH. They were beyond excited when he came home. Kate filmed it, and I plan to upload it so ya'll can see just how darn cute the girls are with their daddy.

I couldn't capture many other moments while Casey was gone because he had the camera. For good reason. I mean he was in Germany and Switzerland and Canada...and I was in Charlotte.

The girls graduate from school this Thursday. They are so smart. We are proud parents. They'll get graduation caps and certificates and everything. Yes, we will take pictures. Duh.

Here are a couple moments that I did manage to capture on my cell phone even though Casey had the for-real camera. Thank goodness for technology, right?

I love being a mom.

Brooks has been eating lots and sleeping lots. She's like a teenager right now! And growing, growing, growing. She's still a tiny little peanut though. Tiny. She was nodding off halfway through school on Thursday night. And then she conked out before we even left the parking lot. She likes to stretch out all up the back of the passenger seat chair like she's about to climb a rock face. Then she settles in. Presh.

And then cause she sleeps all the time, she'll half-wake up and look around and then land her sights on you and just all confused and sleep-drunk. Then just plop back down for more naps.

Here we are driving home from a day at work with mom (Friday). Boone is super cuddly. Boone just loves to be close. My heart melted when she did this. We drove for miles and miles like this.

Play hard, sleep hard around here.

Tonight we'll go to dad's and papa's softball game. I plan to bring my little cheerleaders if it's not too hot. Go team!

Pupdate

Our girls are getting so big!!!

Here's a couple pics for your viewing pleasure though. They love each other. And us. And we love them.

Get a load of those cute little tongues! We rarely have tongue sightings around here. This may be just the third time. And never both at once!!!!! (Yes, that warranted a billion exclamation points.) And it is so adorable.

And here they are just playing outside at Grandma and Papa's house. They love grandma and papa's yard.

That's it for now! Weight update.

Brooks: 19 pounds

Boone: 25 pounds

Brooks is our little peanut. They both have the biggest paws! So we think Brooks is just waiting to grow. They are both just the most precious little souls. They make my heart sparkle.