My Little Chatterbox

Taryne is talking more and more each day. She has started stringing words together for small sentences and even surprises us quite often with new words we didn't realize she knew.

She has also learned a song at daycare that she likes to sing in the car. We had no idea what she was saying except "fish" and "oh, no!". So I asked her teacher about it and it is a song called "Slippery Fish". They gave us a copy of the words, but when we try to get her to sing it, she just tells us "NO!".

One of my favorite things that she says is "Bless you, mama!". She tells me this every time I sneeze and if you know me, I sneeze ALOT! So I get to hear it quite frequently.

She also loves to pray before meals. She has not learned our prayer yet, but she knows it is almost the end because she tries to beat us to the "Amen" part.  As soon as we get to "blessed" (the last word in the prayer), she shouts a big "AMEN!". Just love it!

She also loves to tell us to "get up", "come on", "let's go". I can barely sit down and she pushes on my leg and says "get up, mama!". It is just go, go, go with her.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Baby Huggums

When I was a little girl, my Grandma Milady Martin gave me a Madame Alexander Baby Huggums doll. I know I must have played with it quite a bit because it was well-loved. While I didn't play with it much as I got older, I have a few special toys from when I was little from my Martin grandparents.

A few months after Taryne was born, my Aunt Arlene gave Taryne a Baby Huggums doll. I remember reading the card, thinking of my grandma and tearing up quite a bit. Aunt Arlene wanted me to make sure the doll was played with...it was not meant to be in a box on the shelf.

Well, we did keep it in a box on the shelf for a while...until Taryne really started playing with toys. Last weekend, we dumped out ALL of her toys (she has way too many!) and reorganized them. She has played with the doll a few times over the past several months, but since this weekend, she has started carrying it around with her throughout the house.

It truly warms my heart and makes me miss my grandparents and makes me think of my aunt when I see Taryne carrying that doll around the house. It is amazing how an item can bring such a powerful emotion to the surface, especially when we are all so busy with our daily lives. I think we often forget to take a moment to remember people and the things important to us.

The blocks in the picture below are also from my grandparents house. I remember playing with those ALL the time as a kid. I have the entire set...except the letter "C". Charlotte and I are pretty sure one of us took that block out of the set when we were younger. My mom recently found it, but then lost it again. At least we know it is in my parents house someplace!

Thank you Aunt Arlene for being a great Aunt to me, a great Great Aunt to Taryne and keeping Grandma Milady's memory present. Love you!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Menu Plan Monday

This is going to be a busy week. I have an advising day at the local community college and two new student conferences. We also have a cousin coming to College Station for her new student conference at A&M. It is always exciting to have another family member in town.

Last week for our pizza, I made my own pizza crust dough, so we will try to use up the rest of the dough and make calzones.

So, for this week we plan to have:

Calzones (with leftover veggie tomato sauce)
Chicken Florentine
Baked Fish
Breakfast for dinner
Sandwiches

Until next time...Gig'em!

Menu Plan Monday

I should really call this Menu Plan "after the fact", but hey, I am working to be as consistent as possible.

So this week, we have already had:

Leftovers from anniversary dinner
Pasta with squash, brocolli and tomato sauce
Hot dogs

And tonight we are having homemade BBQ chicken pizza and tomorrow most likely something with fish.

Not the best plan ahead on my part for the week, but hey, I was out of town part of last weekend and then I celebrated my anniversary.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Anniversary

Last Sunday, Kyle and I celebrated our 12th anniversary. I sound so cliche' when I say, "my, how time flies!", but it is so true. It seems like just yesterday we had our wedding. We have been so blessed the family and friends we have added over the years.

Here is a picture of us from 12 years ago:

I always feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have Kyle as my best friend and husband. He is an awesome father to Taryne and I could not ask for more!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Menu Plan Monday

We have a great little place in Bryan called the Farm Patch. They are the closest thing to a farmer's market that we have that is open on a regular basis. Much of the produce is local, so it is fresh and cheap. We spent a little time there on Sunday picking up lots of fresh veggies and fruits. They had peaches out and they were DELICIOUS!!

So on our menu this week, we hope to have:

Chicken Piccata (yes we are actually having it this week!)
Deer Steak
Breakfast for Dinner
Sandwiches
Baked Fish

So until next week...Gig'em!

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

First of all, thank you to all who serve so we may enjoy freedom.

We all had a three day weekend and because it is already crazy hot here, we decided to a little relaxing. Our weekend included watching lots of softball (watching, not playing), playing in the pool, cooking and going to the park.

You know Taryne is my child. I swear I did not teach her this, but everytime (and I mean everytime) we go outside and it is "warm" out, she says "HOT!!". It is a bit funny, but at the same time, I guess she is like me and Kyle, we really don't like hot or even very warm weather. We are pretty sure we could "deal" with it better if it actually cooled off at night and I don't mean "cool off" to 80. I am talking 60's to low 70's.

Anyway, so after swim lessons were over, she spend most of the weekend walking around saying "hot", "swim", "Hannah" all the time. So we went and got a little backyard pool. And of course it had to be big enough for all three of us to play in and cool off.

Practicing her dunking and kicking...

French Puff Muffins...yummmm....

It was so nice to have a relaxing weekend! Especially since the next week was the start of New Student Conferences and a super busy summer.

Until next time...Gig'em!