Simply-Victorious

I love trying new recipes and have learned there are many great resources out there on the web....which is great because that means they are free. One of the blogs that I follow has featured one of my recipes on it today so you will have to head over to 24/7 MOMS to see which recipe I posted. They were looking for kid friendly recipes which is what made me choose the recipe I did. I have also learned that another great free resource for recipes is the library. I don't have room for all those cookbooks anymore, so I like to check out cookbooks from the library and then make copies of any recipes I may want to try. The cookbook I currently have from the library is called Beyond Macaroni and Cheese , it has lots of great tips like ways to involve the kid in meal preparation. Leave me a comment with the title of one of your favorite cookbooks. And just for fun here is a recipe I made this weekend for company which everyone seemed to really like even the kids. Of course, there aren...

It's hard to believe that six years ago today we were blessed with yet another beautiful daughter. Since we didn't find out whether she was a girl or a boy, I can remember thinking back, how I really hoped she was another girl so that Marissa would have a sister to play with. I enjoy watching the girls do all the things that sisters do together! After school today I picked up Makayla along with 4 of her friends and took them all to lunch at McDonald's. I think they all had a lot of fun. After lunch and playing in the play land we headed home to have cupcakes and open gifts. Makayla has enjoyed all the cards in the mail and extra phones calls from her family today!!! Everyone enjoying their Happy Meals....... Makayla with all her friends playing at McD's Yummy cupcakes....can you tell I had help with the sprinkles?? Last night I told Makayla I needed lots of extra kisses from her because that would be the last time I would get kisses from her while she was st...

We finally made it. I think the girls have been wanting one of these dolls for a couple of years now maybe even longer, but we just didn't feel like they were old enough to really take care of one or appreciate one. We told our girls that they needed to save their money to put towards one of these dolls. Just because 3 girls means 3 dolls which equals a lot of money. Plus we were hoping that maybe they would really appreciate their dolls more if they had to use their own money towards one. So they did, they worked really hard to earn some money and save for their American Girl Dolls. So we planned a special day where all of us girls could go to Chicago and surprise the girls. We had told them that we were going to go this summer in July, so when they finally found out that we were going this week they were so excited. While we were in Chicago on Wednesday I stopped by the store and grabbed a few catalogs. After we told them I think that night and and all the next day the girls, al...

While we were home we planned a day to go to the city with the girls. We picked the best day of the week to be there. The weather was beautiful, we hardly needed out coats. The girls were amazed by all of the tall buildings and loved looking out on the lake, as we drove by. Our first stop once we got to the city was to Moody Bible Institute. We were able to show the girls where Daddy went to school and they also got to see where Grandpa worked. Jeremy never actually went to school there while his dad was working there, he got the job the week Jeremy graduated. It would had been nice if they were there at the same time they could have drove together to school/work. We had lunch at Rain Forest Cafe....Myah wasn't sure what to think at first..... I think the girls wanted one of each of these....... When we sat down to eat they put us with the monkeys......as you can see we had our own monkey at our table for our own entertainment....... After lunch we headed over to the John Hancock. ...

While we were home we planned a little birthday party with our family for Makayla at Chucky Cheese. It is hard to believe in just 1 more week she will be 6, yikes time sure does fly by! She was so excited to go and had so much fun with all of her adorning fans that were there with her. I'm pretty sure the parents all went home with headaches but the kids had a blast! Here are some pictures from the party! That morning we had all of the kids pictures taken together, which is why they are all wearing matching pink shirts!! Austin was having fun playing Ski-ball..... Here's the proof even the big kids were having fun...... Makayla was glad to have her daddy help her win some tickets so that she could go and pick out some junk , I mean valuable prizes..... I think that Chucky was telling Myah sorry for stepping on her while he was doing his birthday dance...... We were trying to get Makayla to go and see Chucky, but she was a little hesitant to do that. Thanks to our fa...

We didn't really plan it this way but it ended up working out that we headed home a day early for our Spring Break to have Easter dinner with my family. It seemed so weird to be at church that morning knowing that that evening we would be having dinner with our family. After dinner we all headed outside so that the kids could have an Easter egg hunt. I think there were over 60 eggs hidden and the kids found all but 2, it started to get a little cold out so we decided they could find them another day! Here are the kids waiting to all go out at the same time! Myah got to go first since she is the youngest out of all of the cousins.....she was having fun! The girls stopping for a quick picture...... This was where the prized egg was hidden and guess who found it......Marissa

While some of you may be busy playing practical jokes on your family and friends, I like to remember this date for another reason. Thirteen years ago today, my husband, who has such a sense of humor, picked April 1st as the day he would ask me to marry him. Later when someone asked him why he picked April 1st, he said that way if I would had told him No, he could have just played it all off as a joke. Now if only I was thinking quick enough, I could have went along with the theme of the day and told him No just for fun. It's hard to believe this June we will be married for 12 years! He is a great guy and I am so thankful for him! God has definitely blessed us in many ways! I can't believe I am even putting this picture on here....this is our engagement picture, I have to admit, this was never my favorite picture. We both had worked all day and then after work went to get our pictures taken on top of it all it was raining out which is why I suppose my hair looks like it does. Do...