A Little Bit of Sugar

So I'm cooking the other night, and I asked Bree to get Nana some sugar.  I turn around to find her all puckered up for a kiss. 

I grinned and said, "Oh! I need some sugar for the tea, but I'll be glad to have some of that sugar, too!"

Isn't it funny being from the South and talkin' the way we do? 

My grandkids don't know which "sugar" I'm talkin' about!  *smile*  I love it!

Fab Fall Ideas

Love this picture!  Follow me on Pinterest for more awesome fall decorating ideas!

 

(Courtesy of CountryLiving.com)

 

 

Pumpkins and Scarecrows and Flowers...Oh My!

Fall is finally here, and it's my favorite time of the year! Cooler days and brisk nights, beautiful leaves adorned with red and gold tints falling from the trees, and the first of my favorite holidays is near - Halloween! 

 

I just love decorating with pumpkins, cute little scarecrows, and gorgeous fall flowers! 

And, oh! The cartoons and Halloween specials I get to watch with my granddaughters are the best! 

It's just a great time of the year! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Beach Baby Bree

Bree celebrated her 6th birthday at the beach, our fave place, in case you didn't know that by now!

Carlie had a blast feeding the birds then chasing them!

 

Of course, we enjoyed our fave beach picnic - sandwiches, funyuns, and sodas!  Why is it that those sandwiches taste so much better at the beach?

 

Janna rented us a Charger to drive down to the beach for the day!  What a ride!

 

And we shopped, of course!  Here's Bree at the Rainforest Cafe Gift Shop!

 

We ended a great day with a trip to Galveston Island's new Pleasure Pier!  What an awesome day!

"Play" Time

Bree the Pirate!

Well Bree attended her very first play last night!  Her mother - my oldest - Janna treated us to "Peter Pan" put on by a nearby college.

The young actors did a great job!  My favorite was, of course, Peter Pan.  And...like the original Peter Pan, the part was played by a woman. 

The young lady who played Peter last night was awesome!  And we were lucky enough to catch up with her afterwards so that Bree could get a picture with her!  Bree had a blast, and we had a very fun night!


Bree and "Peter Pan"

Peter Pan

I'd Rather Be At The Beach



The girls all had fun in the water...

So me and my "girls" recently had a fun day at the beach!  We just love going down to Galveston when we get the chance.  Yeah, I know it's not Florida's beaches, but it's our beach, and we love it! 

We enjoyed a day of sandwiches on the beach, playing in the water, building sandcastles, and, of course, visiting our favorite seashell shops!

  

 

Bree had a blast feeding the seagulls...





While Carlie had fun playing in the sand.


It was a great day!

Nana's Little Helper

Bree just loves to help her Nana anytime I'm cooking!  Whether we're rolling meatballs, making a dessert, or whatever the case might be. 

One of her favorite things to do is to batter the chicken when we make her Mommy's favorite new dish, Crusted Parmesan Chicken.  (Oh!  And it's Aunt Jessie's, too!)

We dip us some chicken, have a little chit-chat, and  make a bit of a mess, but we have a good time doing it!  *smile*  She's a good little helper!  I love my time with her!

Nana's Strawberry Pie

This is one of my Janna's fave desserts!  I would go to the bakery to buy her one cuz, to be honest, I don't have lots of confidence in my own cooking.  But I finally got tired of spending $15. just to get this pie that, personally, I didn't think was that great. 

So I started searching for recipes, but most were more complicated than I wanted to deal with.  If it gets too complicated or has to many ingredients, lots of times, I won't even try it.  I like things simple and easy so I don't over-work my itsy bitsy brain. 

So I finally came up with my own little version of a strawberry pie.  And guess what?  It's super simple and so easy to make!

Last Christmas, I found, to my delight, that my niece, Haley loved it, too! 

So...here ya' go! 

Ingredients:

Fresh strawberries

Strawberry Gelatin (Premade in the produce section)

1/4 cup Sugar (Optional)

Fat-Free Cool Whip

Pet Ritz Pie Shell (For less fat, try the Keebler Reduced-Fat Graham Cracker Crust)


Directions:

Combine sliced strawberries with gel and sugar.  (Save some of the strawberries if you'd like to garnish your pie with them.);

If using a frozen pie crust, bake per directions on package.

 Spread strawberry mixture evenly in crust;

Cover top of pie with cool whip, and garnish with strawberries;

Refrigerate.

Oh yeah!  Eat up!

Crusted Parmesan Chicken

I originally found this recipe on All Recipes.com, and I tried it out on my family this past week. 

Oh!  It was so moist and yummy!  Of course, I put my own little spin on it and changed it up just a bit.  I try to always make things a little healthier if I can.

I served it with my oven roasted potatoes and a dinner salad! 

I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I did!

Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken Breasts (Cut into cutlets or filets)
(This feeds my family of four)

2-4 T. Olive Oil

2 T. Minced Garlic

1 cup of Bread Crumbs

Grated Parmesan Cheese (I use the kind in the canister)

Mrs. Dash Original Blend

Season Salt (Optional)

Black Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees;

Cut chicken into cutlets or filets;

In a medium size bowl, mix your oil and garlic together;

In another bowl, mix your bread crumbs, cheese, and seasonings together;

Dip your chicken into the oil mixture, and allow any excess to drip into bowl;

Now dip the chicken into the bread crumb mixture and coat well;

Place chicken onto a sprayed, foil-covered cookie sheet;

Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven.

Enjoy!

New Year's Eve Blast

Yep!  That's what we had - a New Year's Eve blast with our grand-daughters - Bree and Carlie! 

We just hung out at Nana's house, had a pj party, watched some cartoons, and ate some take-out. 

The grand-girls laughed, danced, played, and they just had a good old time. 

When midnight came, they put on their sparkly red hats, grabbed their horns, and headed outside to announce to the world that it was the New Year! 

We sprayed 'em with silly string, tooted horns with 'em, and hooped and hollered with 'em, as well. 

They loved the fireworks that everyone was doing, and they must've yelled "Happy New Year" about a thousand times to the neighbors and anyone else who could hear them! 

I'd say they had a pretty grand time!  I loved bringing in the New Year with my grandbabies!  They are wonderful!  Just wish my little grandson, Brayden, had been here, too! 

Who needs alcohol to celebrate the New Year when you've got grandkids!

Hope you all had as much of a blast as we did!

~Nana~

Happy New Year 2012!!!

Well folks, it's now 2012!  As I look back at 2011, of course, there were some good times and some bad times! 

I think the Lord gives us the bad times sometimes so that we'll appreciate the good ones just a little bit more! 

I don't know that I'm actually going to make any New Year's resolutions this year, cuz I'm not usually very good about keeping them.  But...I would like to be a better person, friend, daughter, sister, wife, mother, Nana, etc...  Especially I'd like to be a better servant to the Lord! 

I pray that each and every one of my family and friends has a wonderful New Year in 2012 filled with health, happiness, peace, and love - and most importantly GOD! 

Let's hope 2012 brings us all lots of good times and great memories! 

Happy New Year!