Oh july....

Here are some brilliant things that made me smile this month...

spending lots of time in the water and eating popciles

going on really warm evening walks to see the magicical lighting bugs

meeting tyson for family lunch dates

roaming around campus as they do construction so brody can see all the tractors

feeding the ducks multiple times a week at the park and at mirror lake on campus

being greeted every morning when getting brody with "good morning mommy, i love you"

going to zoombeezi bay and all three of us floating down the lazy river together

riding the rides at the zoo, especially the swings. brody loves the swings.

having lots of bbq's and making smore's

hanging out with friends and play dates with friends

brody starting to say prayers at dinner. so heart warming and we may have both been teary eyed the first time. he is precious!

brody wants to be bare foot all the time. he loves running through the grass bare foot.

trips for "slushies" aka slurpees

dance parties in the kitchen before bed. brody likes to rock out to 'flo rider - ride round' it's pretty much the best thing ever.

blowing bubbles and eating ice cream cones

goodbye july....we are glad that we still have a couple months of summer left! we still have lots of fun things to do!

some fun: a baseball game and cornhole...

take me out to the ballgame! we went to a columbus clippers baseball game a few weeks ago. it's a definite summer must do! we had a really great time and it just so happened to be DIME a dog night. yup for one night all the hot dogs you can eat for 10 cents each. that was fun! brody is a sports fan and loves watching all sporting events, its pretty awesome. but i am quite sure the mascots are his favorite part. we stayed to sing 'sweet caroline' and cheer on the clippers till the 8th inning, we were winning big time so we headed home. i'm sure we will hit up another game before the summer ends.









some of our good friends invited us over to there house for a 'cornhole' competition. what's corn hole? it's pretty much a game of bean bag toss. we had never heard of it until we moved to ohio. but it's big here and pretty sure it originated in ohio. so we got together with our friends for this friendly competition. we were asked to wear team outfits and have a team name. we were team 'hawaiian domination'. sadly we didn't dominate. but we did have fun being with friends, playing cornhold and eating yummy treats! there was even a "golden" bean bag that would be given to the winning team. however a summer thunder and rain storm graced our presence and there was no winner. not gonna lie, that made me kinda happy. ha! i want to play again and try and win the golden bean bag!! :) muahahha!

Menu of the Week...

back by popular demand and many request for 'menu of the week' i am back! look forward to a whole new slew of menus and yummy things to eat!!

this is what we are eating for dinner this week...

bbq ribs - these are yummy and EASY! i couldn't find baby back ribs at my grocery store, so i just got pork ribs sans the baby part. and they were seriously so good. you could totally do these on your bbq'er too if you wanted. we will be having these ribs with corn on the cob, baked beans (we like BUSHS Vegetarian style) and watermelon. seriously can't get more summery than that!

crock pot santa fe chicken - this is quite the tasty meal. we like to have it with rice. it's yummy served up as burritos too. we like to top ours with cheese and sour cream. i will also make corn bread muffins to go along side.

grilled chicken with peach bbq sauce - OKAY...so normally when i post a recipe we've already tried it before. but we are going to be brave and try this together. who's with me? its looks super good! and we love chicken and our bbq'er. so let's do this shall we? we will have corn on the cob for sure. we eat a lot of corn on the cob around here in the summer. its just so good! and most likely we will have watermelon too and a side of delish uncle ben's 90 second wild rice. yum!

tomato, bacon, mozzarella, pesto panini - easy and sooo good! the low down: use any bread you want. don't have a panini maker? me neither. either we use our waffle maker or we use the frying pan and don't smash it. anyway you do it. its yummy. i like to add shredded lettuce to mine. i have a wonderful friend who bought me a jar of pesto at Sam's club that is delish. but i see it all the time at the grocery store or it's super easy to make your own pesto too. a great recipe for pesto right here. we will have chips with our sammys and side bowl of raspberries, blueberries and strawberries.

for more menu's of the week go Here!

happy cooking and happy eating!!

husband...

this is my husband.

we laugh.....A LOT!

the 4th in pictues...

The Fourth of July is one of our favorite holidays. I love celebrating our freedom; I love the colors; I love fireworks and sparklers; I love barbecues and flag cakes; I love all things Americana.

we spent our day playing! we ate lunch at the cheesecake factory for tyson's birthday! took about 5,000 attempts at trying to get a decent picture of brody and of all 3 of us. we played at the park and ran all around. had a yummy bbq dinner, celebrated tyson's birthday and ended the night with a dance party in the kitchen. the weather was perfect! and because we saw the awesome firework show on friday the 1st, we stuck to schedule and brody was in bed and we played with sparklers.

it was a beyond fabulous day!

happy 30 tyson...

born on the 4th of july!!
we are so happy you are all ours!
we are quite certain 30 hasn't looked better!

we love love love you!
happy happy birthday!

xoxo,
jen & brody

happy 4th

happy 4th of july! we've been celebrating our weekend by playing in the water, eating popcicles, bbq'ing, making smore's, playing at the park, watching fireworks, going on walks, eating yummy food, playing with sparklers and spending time as a family! it's been perfect!

Red White and Boom....

with it being out 3rd year of living in state of OH-IO! we figured what better way to start off the 1st of the month than to go to the annual Columbus Ohio Red White and BOOM! this was first for us. we got a stellar parking spot off the beaten path, had plenty of time to walk to our desired destination for viewing the fireworks, lit a sparkler or two and before we knew it, it was 10pm and the sky was lit up in color! we had a fabulous time and brody was in awe and loved every minute of it. the firework show did not disappoint. one of the best shows we've ever seen! it definitely set the mood for a fun weekend!