Teacher freebies...

I haven't spent as much time as I'd like to get ready for another year of Kindergarten but hopefully after our next few trips I'll have a whole week strictly dedicated to Kindergarten preparations. But for right now all I'm doing is a lot of praying and lots of google searches.

Here's a new freebie I found!! Super excited since this is such a cute story!!

http://kinderkraziness.blogspot.com/2011/06/miss-bindergarten-unit.html

July 4th!!

What a wonderful independence day!

We had an early celebration with the youth staff which was fun then traveled to good ole Kosciusko on Monday. It has been a LONG time since all the Olivers were together so we knew we were in for a great day! Steve had not had a chance to hang out with the whole gang but he braved the craziness and tackled his first Oliver holiday...congratulations! We had about 28 people in all and enough food to feed a small army...we had ribs, pulled pork, chicken wings, spaghetti, potatoes, green beans, taco dip, corn, and oh Im sure there's something I'm forgetting...everyone had something they would like! Crazy combinations but it worked for us! And I didn't even mention desserts...lots of those as well! We also got to go see Meredith and Robert's new property and house. It definitely gave Steve and I house buying fever. We would LOVE to live in a small town out in the country...maybe one day!

On our way home from Kosi we randomly saw two fireworks shows...we pulled off the side of the road and enjoyed about a 20 minute show in Southhaven then drove a little futher and ran into another one in Olive Branch. We felt very blessed to run into to great shows.

What a day of blessings to spend time with family and enjoy great fellowship!

My 4th of July fruit kabobs...such easy and quite yummy!

Will liked them!! :) What a cutie!

Celebrating the red, white and blue with some yummy CUPCAKES!!!!!

The kiddos loved them!

Like I said, we had LOTS of food!

The girls enjoyed playing beauty shop!

The whole gang!

Our first 4th of July together!! :)

Summer of the traveling Shorts...

The summer is FLYING by and boy have we been busy!! We have been gone for 3 of the 5 weeks I have been out of school, with 2 weeks being consecutive trips. And we are not done yet...we will leave for Middle School Camp bright and early Monday morning. When we return Friday afternoon I will spend a frantic Saturday cleaning and doing laundry so we can get on the road early Sunday morning to head to Gaitlinburg for family vacation....then a short weekend trip for our anniversary! Its been nice not to have to work but it has de

finitely been a summer on the road.

One sad note about the summer...I have somehow lost my desire to get out my camera and take snap some photos...whats wrong with me??? We have about 2 pictures f

rom the mission trip in Arkansas and 2 pictures from our 2 weeks in Florida. Hopefully I get back on my picture taking craze soon! :) But until then enjoy the FEW pictures we do have from the summer of the Traveling Shorts...

In Arkansas at the "Purple Cow"...We got to have delicious purple milkshakes...yumyum!

One of the girl's groups made us act out 'Tangled'...hilarious!! :)

One of our only pictures on the beach...please ignore the terrible hairdo :)

Family time...

Despite a busy, busy summer we were able to spend some quality time with Steve's mom and sister when they came to visit!! It was great seeing them and two of our nephews! We hate being so far away from them so we value every second we get!

Here's a glimpse of our fun-filled few days...

Travis got a mask at the disney store and wore it ALL day! It was so cute!

Chillin at our apartment!

A fun night on the carousel...

Silly faces!

It worked...

So my apple upside down cake was a hit! :) With a little help from my hubby in peeling the apples it turned out great! Definitely a keeper!

And my attempt for new things tonight....pork chops (haven't quit mastered those yet...we both agreed they'd be better on the grill but they were ok.)

I added a green veggie and these potato wedges.

They were very YUMMY and easy! Of course I got the recipe from my favorite cookbook...here's basically what I did....

INGREDIENTS:

2 potatoes cut into about 7-8 wedges each

1/4 tablespoon of salt

1/8 tablespoon of pepper (both of which I just guess)

1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup of melted butter

1/2 tablespoon of garlic salt

I mixed the butter, salt, pepper, and cheese together then placed the wedges in the mix.

I then put them on a cooking sheet (with foil) and sprinkled garlic salt on top.

I cooked them for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees and then for 20 more minutes at 350.

And there you have it...a yummy yummy side dish! :)

Trying new things...

Ok, so we've been married almost a year now and I still find myself cooking the same things on about a 2-week basis. Its easy when I know the recipe by heart and the ingredients are almost always on my grocery list! We have about 12 meals that I rotate but no excuse now that its summer. So I pulled out probably one of my FAVORITE wedding gifts...

and decided to try some new things...

Tonight I'm sticking with a main dish that we like...Chicken Roll Ups (we haven't had it in a while and its quick, easy and YUMMY!)

But for desert I'm going to cook Apple Upside Down cake and of course add some ice cream for the hubby! :)

Lets hope it turns out to look this good! :)

Tomorrow night I found a great recipe for potato wedges in my favorite cookbook...now if I could just think of a main course thats different...we always do BBQ chicken but I might turn it into Steve's favorite Rocky Top Chicken from LongHorn or maybe Pork chops...haven't tried that...we'll see!

Just a side note...you can tell its officially summer when I actually have time to blog...about food none the less...I had forgotten what free time felt like! Its awesome!

Just a preview...

...of two of my cutest nephews that will be hanging out with Aunt Ashley and Uncle Steve this week!

We haven't seen them since Christmas...Jakey was barely crawling when we saw him last time and now he's walking.

I will admit that I tried to take him home with us last time we were in Ohio....he is SUCH a good baby!

I'm sure we will have many stories of cuteness after our trips to the zoo and chuck-e-cheese! :) We're so excited they are coming to visit!