"How To"; By Harry

The poor little gold fish surrounded by all it's competitors, it did not have a chance against the warehouse size box of Cheerios that were carefully scattered on the tile by a inquisitive 13 month old.The little cabinet that hides the cereal, potato's, and other miscellaneous items was found by non other than Harry the Explorer. With Daddy out of town, anything goes, including messes. To make a mess really fun you have to first, pour the whole box of Cheerios over the entire kitchen floor, leave no tile un ttended.Then step on them over and over, make as much noise as possible while putting them out of their misery. Find a container to put them back up with....put it on your head and giggle!Eat a few then for clean it up with then clean it up with your nifty new vacuum. Don't forget to get those hard to reach places!
Then find a toy you forgot you had and play with it until you get bored with it again.

Then get bored, get a bath and go back to that same cabinet hoping that you can find more food to decorate with.
Make sure you put a pillow under the cabinet to prevent any novice injuries. You have to be flexible for this gig.

Once you get done with that, try to get in the garbage can, let me know how it goes, I have yet to mastered that obstacle..

Don't give up, save yourself!

Brook Turns 1

Brooklyn had a party to celebrate her 1st birthday! We had a good time celebrating with her. She was very excited to see Harry there, but not as excited as Harry was to see her! I think he thinks she is his little doll! Harry is learning to be gentle.They are really posing, Harry thinks he can get use to this!
Harry had to get a shot with Hannah before she left to go back to college! Hannah is president of Ju Go Ju this semester, yes, she is only a junior. She is also on yearbook staff, ensemble, and more activities at HU. We are so proud of her.
Mimi and Harry dressed alike, great minds think alike. Blue and brown look great on these two blue eyed Wares!

"Where are you goin' Harry?" Brook asks?

Harry and Me

Harry practices uses his cooking tools!

Harry and I had the house to ourselves this week, Daddy has been working very hard out of town, we will be happy when that traveling ends! I am not a big fan of meatloaf but, Harry was caught stealing lunches at school and it was meatloaf. When I got home, I pulled out Deceptively Delicious and made him Italian meatloaf, he chowed down, it has been funny trying out Jessica Simpson's recipes with extra vegetables. I am also able to collaborate with Lauren and Kim and we don't end up making things that aren't so good in her cookbook. Do not even let me get started on her rice balls! Anyway, Harry and I have had a great week of playing and trying out new meals! When Daddy came home, we decided it is much more fun to have Dad around!

Last Year's News

I wanted to get some of these pictures up before they are to outdated. Harry was in the silliest mood, it made it a lot of fun.

Harry's New Year's Resolutions

1. To read more books...read in English by next January, Spanish and French by 2009! 2. Maybe even write his first book, it could even be called Peace Love and Harryness 3. Get my first mullet, to say I have one, then maybe I can have enough hair for a haircut.

4. Get a new tat that says Mom.
5. Find more clothes that have Mom's name on them.
6. Remodel playroom (already starting this one, it looks different every day, by my handy work).
7. Start my own band, me as the drummer!
8. Learn that not everyone deserves Mommy's kisses.
9. Stay in the same size shoe for longer than 3 months, this is to help the parent's budget.
10. Save all my money and not spend it on end of the season sales at boutiques.
11. Learn the difference between a soccer ball and a basketball.

12. Keep bothering my mom while she cooks so that she will just feed me the packaged sugary stuff.
13. Learn step ball change in my tap dance.
14. Try out for Dancing With the Stars
15. Get on Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader and win.
16. Start doing chores around the house, like unloading the dishwasher.17. Keep smiling when I get in trouble, I have found this lightens the mood and the punishment, if any.
18. Gain speed at climbing out of the Wal-Mart basket and restaurant high chairs.
19. Try not to poop in the tub this year...oops I already failed at this one.
20. Write my own blog post, I try every time, I have some great blog material!

A View From Saturday

Today was a great day to enjoy the outdoors! Can't beat 70 degree weather in January! We started if off by forgetting our camera at home and missing out on great pictures at Taylor's birthday party! She is a little diva and her party was fit for a girl that is #1! We love you Taylor and loved celebrating your birthday with you!

Next stop, the park! We decided to take a little stroll to the near by park via wagon. Mimi and Papa, you did not go wrong with this Christmas gift, Harry loves his wagon. He is chowing down on a sausage ball for a snack, yum yum! Enjoying the swings, he also loved the slide and through a fit when we were walking away but, was happy after seeing his wagon.
While I was cleaning the kitchen, Harry was playing on the floor, and some how fell and busted his lip. I don't know what he hit it on, it must have bit it, because there was nothing around him but my leg. Poor guy.

This video is for Adalie and Co., although it is not from Saturday, it is worth watching. All that trouble of going to the post office to be told that you can't send things that moo, was worth it. This is a new favorite here, great for the kitchen. Don't mind the outfit, Emily babysat him and did not realize that this outfit, yet adorable, is to small, Harry didn't mind! Thank you Kim, Adam, and Adalie!

On another random note, I have never had "baby fever" until now, I am ready for another baby to be in the house. Don't start the rumors just yet, Chad has me holding off for a while, I know that is best. Harry deserves his fair share of attention and I know that as energetic as I am, I am still not ready for potty training and no sleep!

New Year's Day Recipes

We had a some great food on New Year's Day if I do say so myself and since the recipes were shared with me, I feel I should share with you friends. You know if I make them, they are easy and low maintenance. These recipes are not just for New Year's Day they are for any day you want to make a quick meal. I struggle with time management and cooking is the the bottom of my list, like I have mentioned before the crock pot is my favorite invention!
Feel free to post your favorite recipes, it is always fun learning about new good recipes, saves the time of having to flip through a cookbook and crossing your fingers in hope that it is a good one!
Chad and I have a personal favorite, that he requests all the time, especially when the "boys" come over. It is called New Year's Eve Black Eyed Peas. I found the recipe from my best friend Lauren's sister's blog a long time ago, when I want to make it I search her blog for the recipe. I hope she doesn't care that I am putting her link on, it is so good I have to share! We eat it the first time with cornbread and the second time with chips. I have a batch frozen too!

Crock Pot Black Eyed Peas: secret ingredients are Louisiana Hot Sauce and Trappey's Tempero Pepper juice. Our good friends down the street, Trey and Darcy Fisher, gave us this recipe after we had dinner at our house! It is low budget yummy meal that is ready for you when you get home if you are planner, if not just make it in a pot and boil them for a long time! Here is the quick recipe:
Take dried black eyed peas or any dried bean (brown, northern, etc..) and let soak over night. Put them in the crock pot the next morning and cover with water about 3 inches. Add 2 pieces of bacon and a chopped onion. Then add a good amount of Louisiana Hot Sauce (we had a half a bottle, but make your own judgement, you can always add more later). Let them cook in the crock pot all day and then serve with a couple of teaspoons of the Tempera Pepper juice. You really can't beat this stuff!
We like to serve it with Broccoli Cornbread (I got the last recipe off the Internet, so not secret)!

Sausage Balls
Chad makes these, and he makes them PERFECT! It is a Ware house favorite.
1 lb sausage 1 lb shredded cheddar 3 cups Bisquick
Mix with hands and make in balls and bake 350 for about 10-15 minutes
Serve with BBQ sauce
You can't go wrong.

This next recipe is one of my favorites but, it is not extremely easy, but not hard either!
This is the Hick's House cheese dip. We back friends while eating this yummy spicy stuff!
I did not get permission to give out the recipe, but I can say, you will never make it as good as Matt or Holly, not matter how hard you try!
Take a stick of melted butter and mix it into a paste with 4 TBS of flour.
Add:
A few shakes of garlic salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp red pepper (i use Cheyenne)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 lb AMERICAN cheese (now this is they key ya'll) from the deli
In the microwave melt it with 2 cups of milk
Whisk until smooth
Once you go American you never go back to Velveeta!

Bringing in the New Year

We started out by having a New Year's Even lunch with our good buddies Rachel and McCoy at Market Place Express! Harry was obsessed with him, he really wanted to get in the car seat and hold him, he has become a little more active these days! As you can see he does not want to sit and be still, meal times are just not as fun as the use to be! McCoy on the other hand, is a perfect smiling angel! Chad and I were able to spend New Year's Even night with our friends Todd and Erin, we had a wonderful meal at Market Place (bet you can't guess my favorite restaurant)! They have a new item on their menu, Garlic Cheese Grits,mouth watering wonderful! We headed on to see The Great Debaters, a movie you must see! It is inspiring, informative, and emotional; I wanted to give it as standing ovation! We met Mimi at my new favorite hang out, Grandma's assisted living home. I love going there, I feel like a STAR! They treat me and Harry like celebrities, I may be spending a lot of 2008 getting a self esteem boost over at the nursing home! Harry loves going at meal time, this man took Harry for a ride on his scooter, afterwards he told us it was the most fun he had had in years, isn't that sweet?

Harry is into exploring there, the people there are fascinated by his squeaks!
He found new ornaments to pull down! He has become quite the character lately, throwing fits when he doesn't get what he wants, doing the same thing over and over after you repeatedly tell him no; we have a case of pretoddler on our hands.

Erin and Todd ended up coming over for lunch on New Year's Day! Amory came too! Harry loves visitors!

Chad did not enjoy watching the Hogs lose to your northern state, maybe next year with a new coach!
Harry wore his Ice Ice Baby shirt in honor of our icy January! MORE SNOW DAYS PLEASE!

New Years Day night Scott, Amy, and Hannah came over! We had lots of black eyed peas and played Nerz! I love that game but, I don't like to quit, I could have played longer, but I do know we have work tomorrow, this may explain my why I skipped my 8 o clock classes in college, too much fun at night!

Amy and Hannah were the big winners, it was my first time to play, I figure I can get a little practice in before our next match. Brooklyn came too, as smiley as ever! She is such a sweet girl, we love Brook!