Snow.

We didn't have much snow last night when we went to bed.  Well, we do now!  Dylan keeps reminding me that it won't be here for long because its spring now.  Wise boy.

And you just know he had to try and climb it!

Avery was angry because the deep snow slowed her down too much.  I had to go out and rescue her in a snowbank because she was laying there like a slug.  She never revived after that.  Instead, she just sat there whining away.

So my attempt at a cute brother/sister snowbank pic was a no go.

This is a sammy from yesterday evening.  It was just so-so.  Its ground chicken with marinara sauce and it was just too messy.   The recipe was in Cooking Light from this month.  You can find it here.  I dunno - maybe you like messes?

And today I had to make more of the dip I'm obsessed with.  Ahhhhh!  Its so good!  Its good with pita chips, veggies, on sammies or if you are wanting a faster method to get it into your mouth - use a spoon!  Works great!

And in an effort to avoid making more dough balls, I decided to make banana soft serve instead.  If you haven't made it yet and you own a food processor then shame on you!  Does this or does this not look like ice cream?!  All it is is frozen bananas that have been processed for a few minutes!  The brown blob is dark chocolate peanut butter.

Finished product.  This seriously cures any hankering you might have for ice cream.  Its sooooo good.  Even without the dark chocolate peanut butter, I swear!

Well thats all for now.  My TV and couch are calling my name!  Have a good night!

BERdeen.

Dylan, Avery and I are at my parents house for the week.  I think I said that in my last post?  Its been awhile.  Sorry about that!  I get distracted when out of my normal habitat.  I'll work on it.  I know a certain someone who was probably fighting the urge to call me and ask what the problem was.  His name starts with a D, ends with a Y and has ANN in the middle. He's very loyal, but also a slave driver.  I ought to make him do a guest post so he can see what this takes.  Ha!

Anyway, when we were here at Christmas, Dylan had brought along a gingerbread train to construct with Grandma.  Well, once again, we were distracted by other activities and it was forgotten.  Have no fear!  The St Paddy's Day Gingerbread train is here!  Woo woo!

Avery's first braid!  I distracted her with candy to get the job done.  Very sneaky.

And she lobbied for MORE, MORE, MORE!

I've been working on my Zumba routine this week and my Mom's been giving me shit for my "hair cutting face" that I apparently have when I'm dancing (aka, thinking).  HERE is HER "hair cutting face."  HA!  Take that, Mom!

Dylan loves coming here because he gets to watch lots of TV with Grandpa.  Yesterday I came home from Zumba class to find him watching Modern Family.  Ummmmm.  ??????

Finished product - prior to the gradual deterioration we've been watching the past few days.  (sneaky fingers.  For the record, this is all NEW candy - not the crap that came with the train)

When we got here, we were amazed by the snow!  We don't have this much.  So I took pics of it.  Its melted a lot though since we've been here.

You can't even see the mailbox!

I made him go out and stand by the snow bank for perspective purposes.  He didn't want to.

He's wearing my shoes.

This guy flew in from Texas.  He'll be flying to White Earth Lake in May or so.

Up to no good?  Always.

Today's lunch = delish.  This is Rachael Ray's French Style Tuna Melt.  It was so good that I ate TWO of what you see here.  TWO.  Plus chips.

And finally, Dylan wanted a picture of his ice cream from tonight.  Fancy!

Tomorrow I'm planning to make some vegan Samoa cookies.  Can't bring myself to buy processed girl scout cookies, so these better live up to my high expectations!

 

Later!

 

World’s Longest Post

Ready for it?  I thought so.  I don’t know how I ended up with so much to write about today!  Then again, this post is also very picture heavy, so maybe I don’t have much to say?  Pictures speak louder than words, right?  Anyway, first thing's first – I’M FAMOUS!!  Physique 57 sent out their newsletter yesterday featuring me in their very first customer testimonial feature!  I posted about it awhile back and now it has finally been sent out to all of their newsletter subscribers.  Very exciting day for me, indeed.  AND to top it off – they are sending me the new DVD set as a thank you when it is released in the next few days (well, it BETTER BE in the next few days!  I’m jonzin’ for more P57!).  I’m SO excited to get them!  Here is a link to the email if you want to see the official post.   

Dylan’s first hockey practice of the year is/was tonight.  They are there right now, actually.  So Eric had him try his stuff on the other night to make sure it all fit right.  Personally, I think he just wanted me to take pictures of D in his gear.  No big deal – I wanted to do that anyway!

Slap shots in the house – not such a good thing anymore.  He is seriously going to break a window or a plasma tv one of these days.

And then there is this one who has to do whatever her brother is doing.  She keeps saying, “Hockey! Hockey! Hockey!”  

She totally had the right idea too!  She dropped the ball right in front of her and took aim with the stick.  

Dylan showing her how its done.

And it snowed a bunch yesterday!  Avery and I chose to stay where it was warm, so I took pictures thru the window.  Eric actually had to break out the snow blower for the first time this year!  Very exciting, I know.

She just can’t decide how she feels about the winter outdoor landscape.  On one hand, she wants to go out, but once she’s out there – she decides its too cold and her snow outfit is just not comfy.  I looked out the other day at them in the snow to see that she was laying flat on her back on the sled motionless.  She looked hilarious!  

Got the Christmas movies out!  What to watch first, what to watch first.  The clear choice here is Elmo’s Christmas Countdown.  Classic.    I need to start wrapping gifts, so I have to have my movie all picked out for that.  Will most likely go with Love Actually first.  Cuz it’s my fav.  It really is a shame I have no one to watch these gems with!  Eric refuses to watch anything he’s already seen.  He’s such a scrooge! 

  So this is a VERY exciting tidbit for you -  we got a remote for the camera today!  Woohoo!!  No more pressing the button on the camera and running for our places!  Here is the first official picture – yay! It works!

And then Dylan made me hand it over to him.  Knew that was going to happen.  Just wish I would have done my hair and put on make up today.  Dang it!  I should keep better track of my UPS tracking numbers!  I could have been READY!

Avery was very unsuspecting.  

I love her look of confusion.  “What is it that we are doing?” SO cute, he is!     Seriously – we are gonna have SO much fun with this thing.  I told Eric to be ready for family photo shoots!  OH yeah, baby!

And finally, tonight’s dinner.  It was fabulous.  It’s a Ropa Vieja that slow cooked all day long.  The meat was SO tender and delish by 5pm and the flavor was great.  I served it over this fabulous new product I found!  See below for a pic! 
I think this would be perfect for working folks as well!  You could throw it all together the night before in your crockpot insert thingy.  And then all you would have to do in the morning is put it in your crockpot and put it on low for the entire day.  Dinner is served when you get home!  Perfect!  Do it up!  

Brown Rice Couscous!?  Genius!  We LOVE couscous in this house, but since its not exactly as nutritionally sound as I want it to be – this totally made my day when I saw this!  I screwed up though and forgot the spice packet that was supposed to go in it.  Whoops!  It still tasted good though.

Ok, that is IT!  No more from me! Today, anyway…