The Summer of Ice Cream

I finally decided that we would use one of our awesome wedding gifts-almost 6 years later! I have proclaimed this summer as The Summer of Ice Cream.
Week One: Sunkist

Week Two: Grapico

 

What should we make next?

Our First Home:The Scrapbook Room-Part 1

My husband and I just bought our first home-just shy of our fifth anniversary. It is an older home, and the people who built it raised four daughters in it and were the only people to live in it. It has a huge kitchen (for my little chef) and three bedrooms. Luckily, I am able to turn one of those rooms into my scrapbook room. The following photos will show what I (along with Donnie, Debbie, Emily, and Kat) have been up to for the last two days.

This is what the room looked like when we bought the house.

This is the room looked like with the help of our awesome moving crew, ie. best group of friends ever!

I actually enjoyed taping.

The reveal: Olympic brand-Celery Sprig

My first time to ever paint a room.

Love it! Can't wait to fill it with all of my favorite things.

Merry Christmas from the Monroe family!

BLT Pasta

The husband and I have been trying to come up with easy new recipes to cook in out attempt at
not eating out so much in the upcoming year. The following is one that has made it to the list:
BLT Pasta
3 cups of penne pasta (We just used the entire box.)
4 oz. cream cheese, cut up
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup grated parm cheese (more if you want)
4 slices bacon crisply cooked, drained and crumbled(again, more bacon would not be a bad thing)
2 cups of baby spinach leaves
1 cup of grape or cherry tomatoes( I personally do not like hot tomatoes, so I will cut them up first next time)
1 tsp Italian seasoning

Cook pasta in a lg sauce pan according to package directions.
Cook cream cheese, milk and Parm cheese in large skillet on med high for 3 minutes or until cream cheese is melted and mix is well blended, stirring frequently.
Add remaining ingredients, cook, and stir 5 minutes or until heated through.
Add pasta; toss to coat.

Tubas and the Wild Rumpus

I have been told by my husband that I must update my blog. I find this very true, considering he has now started a blog:Taming the Beast. It is a blog about his journey back into playing the tuba. I am very proud of him. He is playing with the JSU tuba/euphonium ensemble. I am excited about Monday night's performance. They are joining forces with the JSU show chior in the Tubaween concert. It will be the last performance of Octubafest. I am told that this will be a very entertaining concert.

Things have been very busy with work, but I did find time last Saturday morning to take my sweet cousin Cora to see the much anticipated Where the Wild Things Are. The GPL had a wonderful setup at the movie theatre. There were crafts, games, and a reading of the original book by none other that the fabulous Ms. Heather. I did not realize that Cora had never been to a movie theatre. She would ask me after each preview if the movie were over. She did quite well for a three year old. She even led a wild rumpus! We had a great time!

To My Dear and Loving Husband

To the man that man that goes with me to Hobby Lobby

To the man that helps me set up my classroom

To the man who goes to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night to save me from the virus of death

To the man who lets me watch Extreme Makeover:Home Edition even though he knows he will have to stop me from crying

To the man who drives on all family vacations because his wife is a chicken and will not drive on the interstate now that she has a ring on her finger

To the man who will go with me to the prom, Friday night football games and graduations for the next 20 years

To the man who holds my hand

To the man who lets me have a scrapbook room and never complains about not having a "man room"

To the man who is adored by all the members of my family

To the man who is just as much of a nerd as I am

Happy Anniversary!

I love you very much. Thank you for all that you do for our tiny little family.

All photos by our awesome wedding photographer, Jerrod Brown.

New Books for New Babies

I love to scrapbook. I also love when I can scrapbook gifts. I was actually working on Ian's first book when I got the call that his mother had gone into labor. I hope that he will one day look back on this book and cherish it.