Pizza Pie

Last night, at the request of Blake, we made "Pizza Pie" for dinner. I made up that name so that the kids would eat it and it has worked ever since.

I have tried a making this many different ways, but the kids really prefer it the way I will share with you. We have added green beans, corn and peas to no avail!




Ingredients:

Ground Turkey or ground beef (we prefer ground turkey)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
Instant mashed potatoes (I make enough for four servings)
1 cup of grated cheese
Seasonings for meat-I use garlic powder, onion powder, ground red pepper and black pepper.

Preheat oven to 425

1) Brown ground beef or ground turkey in a pan. I use olive oil spray to coat the pan to prevent sticking. I season the meat and add 1/4 of the jar of spaghetti sauce while browning the meat.

2) While browning the meat, make instant potatoes in the microwave.

3) Once the meat is completely browned, add 3/4 of the remaining spaghetti sauce to the meat.

4) Pour the meat sauce in the bottom of a lightly greased baking pan. Place the prepared mashed potatoes on top of the meat sauce and then pour the remaining sauce on top of the mashed potatoes.

5) Last sprinkle the cheese over the top of the mixture and place in the oven for 10-20 minutes or until the cheese is melted on the top.

This is famously named Shepherd's Pie and I don't even know the original recipe, but my kids think ours is delicious.

Typically I add pureed veggies to our spaghetti sauce, but haven't tried it with this recipe yet. I guess that would just be one more dish to dirty and I hate dishes!

New Spring Pictures of the Kids

We had a photographer take some pictures of the kids last week and I wanted to share some with you! These are their Easter pics and Cadence's fourth birthday pics. I think that they turned out great! You can visit Amy's Blog at www.amybrinnphotography.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Scott and I met in the fall of 1999. I had given up finding the man of my dreams and was willing to give up dating all together. I had been regularly attending a single adult Sunday school class, but had decided that maybe I was a little young for this group and so decided to try out the college age group. On Sunday,
October 3, 1999 I attended an innocent game of broom ball at the local ice skating rink. Little did I know that my future husband would be there.

The game began and I was a little bit apprehensive. I hardly knew anyone there, but I was determined to have a good time. For those of you who have never played broomball, you hit a ball across the ice with a broom or hockey stick, all while wearing your regular shoes. It was a hilarious sight to say the least. Anyways, back to my love story. So, there he was. A extremely handsome, talented and athletic player! I was sure he was dating one of the hot girls checking him out every 5 seconds. J/K but some of the girls HAD been talking about him before we started playing. So, this extremely talented and athletic man, exerted himself so much and gave the game his all, that he BROKE his hockey stick. Here was the dialouge that followed:

ME: "Would you like to use MY hockey stick?"
HIM: "Sure, but what will you use?"
ME: "Oh, I could just kick it like a soccer ball."
HIM; "You play soccer?" Said in his macho, athletic voice
ME: "I did, but that was a long time ago."

Game has continued around our flirting. He takes off, flashing me a smile. I thought that was the end of it. But, he came back later for more.

HIM: "So, would you like to play on my coed soccer team?"
ME: "Sure."
HIM: "I'll get your number when we're done playing and I will call you to let you know when our game is this week."
ME: "Great!" Kind of sarcastically. I say this because I was never really good at soccer and it had been over seven years since I had even played! What fun this was going to be!

He called me that night. Not a man of many words. I thought for sure he didn't like me. I figured he just really needed an extra girl to play on the team.

I believe we played soccer on the following Tuesday. He claims that I played well. Yeah right. I had conveniently parked in the wrong parking lot, so he offered to drive me to my car. I obliged. We ended up sitting in his car for the next two hours talking about EVERYTHING! By the end of the night, he asked me on our first date! And no, we didn't kiss.

Our first date was great. We went on a double date with a friend of his and then to a movie. I have no clue what the movie was because I was too busy waiting for him to hold my hand. He didn't.

The next day I had to shop for a dress to attend a wedding. He offered to come with me and help me pick one out. How sweet was that! He came along and we met up with another friend of his for lunch. Again we went to a movie and we held hands. Don't remember what that movie was either!

We kissed that night.

Got engaged a year later.

Got married eight months later. June 23, 2001

Not very many early pictures of us, as that was pre-digital camera, but here are a few of us together!



Happy Valentine's Day Honey! I love you from the bottom of my heart and appreciate all that you do for our family! God could not have blessed me with a better husband and friend. Thank you for being you!

Love always and forever!

A soccer star is born!

When Blake was three we put him on a soccer team. From the time he could stand, he could kick a soccer ball. We thought he would love playing. We knew he was a little shy, but nothing prepared us for how he reacted to playing organized sports. He hated it! We had to literally carry him around the field and swing his body to kick the ball. He would cry, scream and throw a fit. We were "THOSE" parents, the ones with the child who would not cooperate. Needless to say, we pulled him off of the team after four weeks of trying to force him to play.

So, this past summer Blake asked to play soccer. We were a little reluctant, but he had just finished a stellar season of baseball, so we thought we would give the much dreaded soccer a try.

Well, I guess he was finally ready! He was the star of the team! I am not just saying that because he is my son-he really was the star. Our team was quite the underdogs and didn't even make a goal until the last game! BUT, guess who made that first goal, at our last game? Yep! You guessed it! Blake! We were and are so proud of him! Here are SOME of the MANY pictures I took this season!

Out of the baby vault!

I found these pictures on our computer and couldn't help but share. I miss having babies so much and can't wait to have more:) No, there are not any in the works yet! This was Easter 2006!

Our visit with Santa

Here are some pictures of our visit with Santa this year. We picked a random weekday and thought it would not be busy. We arrived at 4:30 in the afternoon and STILL waited an hour! Oh well! Cadence was a little shy, but Blake was very outgoing and told Santa EXACTLY what he wanted! Blake asked for a LEGO x-wing fighter and a REAL computer and Cadence asked for a Littlest Pet Shop! Their first Christmas actually asking for what THEY want, not what mommy and daddy want them to get!

Thanksgiving at Rainbow Lake

This year we decided to relax a bit for Thanksgiving and spend a few days at a rented cabin with Scott's family. His cousin's family, parents, sister and our nephew all joined us for the weekend. We shared a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, played in the snow, the men fished on the lake and we all enjoyed playing games by the fire. We LOVED our time spent together and can't wait to pick a new destination for next year! Enjoy some pictures of our Thanksgiving!