Tay turns 5!

It is unbelievable to me that I have a 5 year old. Taylor is beautiful and brilliant. She is such an amazing little girl. She loves well, is always ready to help and has such a kind heart. She has a joy of life and is completely a people person.

Yesterday we were able to celebrate Taylor with all things sweet. If you know our girl, she has quite the sweet tooth (the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree if you know what I'm sayin'). We don't eat lots of sweets around here, but yesterday we did not hold back. She was giddy with excitement all day!

Taylor's Ice Cream Shoppe

The birthday girl

Ice Cream Bar

Cousins :)

We went to a friend's birthday party a few years ago and played this game. It was hilarious! I am all about making people do embarrassing things, so here ya go. The goal is to eat the donut without using your hands. First the kids, then the dads.

I know there are a lot of dad pictures, but I just can't help it. They each make me laugh out loud for different reasons.
Here you can see my brother pushing Mark out of the way (cheater). 

Wonderful facial expressions. 

These are just amazing.

 Friends!

And to top off the crazy sugar filled children, a candy filled pinata!

My beautiful birthday girl!

the Z man got his first hair cut

All of our kids started to need a little trim work around 3 or 4 months old. They each have had a killer mullet and Zeke had a few over the ear pieces that needed to be chopped.
Nothing too crazy, I let the professionals do that.

Don't worry...I won't quit my day job. But I do think he is cute enough to pull it off.

3 months old

And cute as can be. Someone told me today that his name should be "cutie". I agree :)

This is OK, right?

As long as Noah wears a super hero mask, it's cool for him to dress up like a lady bug, right?

morning snuggles

why can't anything ever be easy?

If you or anyone you know has ever prepared a Dossier, you know the HOURS that go into getting it ready. A few weeks ago we completed our Dossier and sent it into our agency. They then sent off all the documents to be authenticated.

And guess what? All of our notarized documents had an incorrect date. Yay! (that was sarcastic). So now we get to redo all of those documents and send them back to our agency. We are looking at about a 3 week delay because of this one little mistake.

I used to let these little mishaps dictate my attitude. But you know what? We have been in this process for over 2 years now. What's 3 more weeks?

black bean brownies anyone?

Why yes please, don't mind if I do.

I cannot promise that this recipe is healthy, but it is gluten free and amazingly delicious. That counts for something, right?

Ingredients:
2 cups black beans
3 eggs
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sugar

Put all ingredients into blender

Once well blended pour all ingredients into 8" greased square pan

Sprinkle 1/2 cup (or more if you are like me) dark chocolate chips over top

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes until done in center.
You can thank me later.