Friday, November 30, 2012

Been There...Tried That - Part Two

I told you guys I would do a post about the recipes I have taken on in the last month and I am a woman of my word.

*taken on - Please don't be fooled by this statement. Not one single dish was difficult.

With all the countless emails I receive requesting me to fill you in on the numerous new recipes that I take a stab at, I figured it's about time I do that. 

I'm just kidding. I don't receive any email regarding food or recipes. I don't get any emails requesting anything actually. Okay, I don't get emails at all. But I've always wanted to put that. Just to feel important for a second. But soon after I wrote it I felt like a fraud. I don't want to be a fraud.

I digress.

I HAVE actually tried a few new dishes and desserts this week. That was not a fraudulent statement. So here's my ever so popular segment : Been There.... Tried That.  Also, it's really not popular at all. 




Caramel Cheesecake Apple Dip I served this at Landon's Birthday party recently. It twas' a hit,  I say. And by hit I mean I have never seen so many kids eat so many apples at once. And double dip. I just bought the pre-packaged Apple slices at the grocery store. (the red and green kind) Here is the recipe. It's easy peezy! Don't recommend the lemon squeezy. Unless of course you use fresh apples and want to help them avoid browning. Then use the lemon squeezy.

 




Bite Size Party Bark You can find the recipe here for these beauties. But that is all they are to me, Pretty. I love sweet but I had to spit these out. Matter of fact - I'm pretty sure my brother-in-law did too. Or maybe that was everybody. Anyways, these things were super, duper sweet.  Like eating a piece of hard sugar dipped in more sugar. 

  

So obvs I'm doing all the sweet stuff first. If it wasn't obvious, I'm doing all the sweet stuff first.

Smores Bake - This was really easy and if you can get past the marshmallows you may like it. I'm not a big marshmallow fan, as we discovered on Instagram this week. But my kids don't mind them so much so I thought I would make this while tree decorating and listening to some Christmas tunes. I give it a thumbs up because it was easy, it was definitely tasty and a hit with the kids. But still too much marshmallow for me. Now these puppies (see below) are to die for. They are the perfect mixture of all the glory that goes into a Smore without all the gooey that I don't like . I, personally, have not made them but my girlfriend has and I loved them!!! (Shout Out Erin!!)



You can get the recipe for the Smores Bake hereAnd the Smore Bars here.



Taco Pizza - So I wanted to make this beautiful, picture worthy, Taco Pizza. But I didn't. I made an "eat-worthy" Taco Pizza. I'll take it. Anytime my kids will eat anything, I will take it. And they ate the heck outta this!! You can find the recipe for this awesome dish here.

Side Note: I would use the size dish pan she used or recommends. I didn't have one so I had to go smaller. (9x13) I believe. So the crust was thicker and I was going for thinner. Also, I didn't add anything except the beans, meat (ground turkey) and cheese. When I cut my serving I added shredded lettuce, hot sauce and jaleps. My kids added hot sauce and sour cream. So you can make it your own. Enjoy!!


Tomato Basil Soup - Only this isn't your average TBS. My favorite is from La Madeline. Like it's the best soup in the world. I have tried to find something comparable. Between other restaurants and the grocery store but, to no avail, always came up short. This is no different. There is still nothing like La Madeline but this soup was definitely delicious. There are a lot of TBS recipes on Pinterest. I picked this one because I wanted something a little more hardy for my family since I was serving it as dinner. The thing is, I didn't make it until this afternoon. I pre-made it for our dinner tonight. (may not have been the best idea since it states to serve immediately) But I did give some to my three year old and he ate it up!! Again, if the little likes it then it's a hit in this house. You could always make it without the pasta and ground turkey. I did try it and I'm looking forward to my dinner tonight!!




Crockpot Pineapple Chicken - I loved this. I love just about anything you can put in a crockpot and leave to cook for the day. I made rice to mix it up with and a side salad and crescent rolls. (And I wonder why I can't lose weight. Pfffft...) Anyways, all the kids loved it too and it was really simple. 4 ingredients and that includes the chicken. You can find the recipe here. Hope you love it as much as my family did!




I have updated my 'Recipe' tab on the home page. You can go straight there to see any of these or any previous recipes I have tried and lived to talk about.

 This concludes the 'Been There....Tried That' portion of this post. Hope you all have a great weekend!!


Thursday, November 29, 2012

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing....This actually has nothing to do with this post. However, now that I have Googled it quite thoroughly, I made need to take the time to watch this movie.

I will start over.

This is a compilation of my randoms. You're very welcome.

My Thanksgiving was wonderful, thank you for asking. I did not eat enough though. Days later I wished that I had eaten more. Or taken left overs home. Something. I did burn myself on the delicious and very hot green bean casserole. That numbness stayed with me for a few days and was a nice reminder of how badly I wanted more.

My mom bought the small olives for the appetizer. Therefore, there was no fun eating olives off my fingers. No, not this year. Tragic, I know.

Remember that kidney infection I had back in August. Yeah, my insurance company is still contending with me to settle it. Seriously. It was not a pre-existing condition. P.S. I hate you. (Not YOU, the insurance
 company)

I loathe this weather. It's so ridiculous. So not fall like. Which only means winter will, yet again, skip right over us. I know this opinion isn't shared by everyone. But the people that I do share this with keep me comforted. Allison, I thank you for the "future forecast" text. It has done wonders for keeping my hope alive. 


The word LOATHE is stupid. Necessary at times but still STUPID.

In years past, we would normally let our children decorate the tree all on their own. The ritual was that after their bed time I would usually rearrange all the ornaments in an orderly fashion so that my tree didn't look like it threw up all the ornaments in one place. This year, however, the ritual changed. This Holiday Season, my husbands' OCD only compelled him to move a few and these were mostly all of Landon's doing. At the front, on the bottom, three ornaments to one tree branch. Obviously a necessity. Otherwise, I don't know if I'm more proud of myself for not rearranging anything or my kids for decorating the tree with a purpose. I give this year's tree decorating ceremony two thumbs up.



I have four more gifts to get and I will be done with my Christmas shopping. Four. I can hear your applause from a distance. It's very satisfying.

Yesterday, while we were at the doctors office, a stranger came over and started making conversation with Ella and Landon. It was weird. She then proceeded to sit on the ground and teach Ella how to multiply by 9's. The weirdness continued. She heard Ella say that she was going to write a story. Stranger wanted to know every detail in her story, like putting Ella on the spot because she hadn't thought that through yet. And just when I thought she would never go away, she said that she had an appointment with her therapist. Of course at that point, it all made sense. 

I am registered for two different 5ks!!  As excited as I am about this I also believe it will be very anti-climatic. I always pictured my loved ones being at the finish line with a big bottle of water, hugging me and congratulating me on my success. Maybe even some tears. But I run more than a "5-k" distance at least three times a week. This really isn't going to be an accomplishment for me. More like a "Yay!! I got a t-shirt and a runners bib! Go Me!" And the 2nd 5-K, well that's so crowded and colorful I hear you can't even run it because everyone is stopping to get sprayed with color. I mean obviously I will be doing this very thing. I watched the Color Run video again last night, I don't care if I run it, walk it or crawl it - I am so looking forward to this event!!!

I'm going to start training for a 10k. Soon. Very soon. By soon I mean after the New Year. Just so we are clear.

I have tried three new recipes from Pinterest this week. I will be posting about them later. Be excited. Be very excited.

My Mom bought my daughter,Ella, tickets for the Taylor Swift concert. We have decided to give them to her for Christmas. This is torture. I can't even freaking wait to see her face when she gets this gift!! She is going to looooooove it!!

You know when you are uber thrilled about giving your kids a gift that you think they are going to love just to have their reaction fall flat and not meet your expectation at all? Total Bummer.

So you know that Christmas Party that I got so worked up about for my Husbands work? Well now Husband doesn't know if we are attending. Mostly because he doesn't want to have to buy me anymore clothes for anymore special occasions. Is it my fault that his company called for a business attire? Absolutely not. So I may have nothing to report about. What I will tell you is that if my sweet Husband waits until the last minute to tell me we are going just to have me frantic about what I need to find to wear, I may kill Husband.







Later Gators





Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A-Z Something about ME....




Ya Know Ya Wanna Know...




A. Age: 34 and I'm okay with it...Well most of it. Hormones are stupid. 
 
B. Blog? No, I don't blog. 

C. Chore that you hate: Mopping. And vacuuming my stairs. I hate them both because of the equipment that I use to do them.

D. Dream: I love a good dream. But the worst is when you are almost at the end of a dream and you get woken up. It bothers me the rest of the day. 

E. Essential start to your day: Must Pee.

F. Favorite color: Blue. It's always been my favorite. Except for cornflower blue. That shade I never really liked. 

G. Gold or Silver: Both. All depends on the outfit.

H. Height: 54”  last I checked

I. Instruments you play: violin. okay not really but that is my favorite to listen to.

J. Job title: Mom

K. Kiss: Yes, I do. Unexpected ones are the best kind.

L. Live: You only do it once. Make it count. 

M. Mother’s name: Linda Pierce or Mom or Nana...She's the best Nana ever! And Mom! And Linda Pierce - I'm sure of it. 

N. Nicknames: Boo, Shawty, Lady A, 

O. One Day I Will: Go to New York for the Holidays. I love New York but I want to go back when it's lit up everywhere I go. 

P. Pet peeves: I could literally go on forever with this one but I won't. People who take things way to seriously,  Debbie Downers. (go away or shut up),  Loud talkers, People who don't use a sidewalk on a street when there is one for them to use, People that pop and smack their gum, Grammatically challenged individuals, walking into spider webs,  People who try to take credit for things when they don't actually deserve it (grow up), People who still use checks at the grocery store, Using the eraser of a pencil when it is clearly done for (I cringe every time), Procrastination, flies in my home, Pieces of fat on meat, Forgetting something crucial from the grocery store when you just made the trip, the grocery store...Wal-Mart..., 80 degree weather in November

Q. Quote from a movie:  "I'll give this little cookie an hour before we're doing the no-pants dance. Time to musk up." - Brian Fontana. I'm going with this one because I just watched the movie again and because Paul Rudd is my faves!  Otherwise, I'm not really a movie quoter. I don't have the memory for it. (See J: Job Title)


R. Right or left handed: Right

S. Your all time Fave Songs: Dude...Again, too much to consider here. I have so many. It's overwhelming but here I go. Brighter Than Sunshine - Aqualung, God Gave Me You - Blake Shelton, Awake - Secondhand Serenade, Stolen - Dashboard Confessional, Look After  You - The Fray,



T. Time: Yes, I will take some. Thank You.
U. Underwear: Super Hero Undies are the way to go.

V. Vegetable you hate: Beets

 W. Words to the Wise:(See below)




X. X-rated: I know nothing of the sort. 

Y. Yummy food that you love: I love Mexican Food!!

Z. The End: Well Said.

* If you have made it to the end of this blog that means your tagged & must copy & paste and write your own a-z have fun!* And if you would like to see the A-Z blog post I got this from you can visit Crystal Michelle's blog here.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Talkin' Turkey!!

Thanksgiving Link Up

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I'm linking up with Holly today to talk Turkey and Traditions!! I don't know about you guys but Thanksgiving is my favorite. Family and good food all day long....it doesn't get much better than that!! Or fatter...I'm going to get fat...and I'm going to love every single bit of it!! Until Monday comes around again and I'm at the gym running...then I may not love it so much.


1. What do you look forward to more: the food, football or parades?
This is an easy one for me. Obviously the food. I love all the food. I love that everyone that has gathered together has helped prepare or pitch in with the meal. It's like the biggest pot luck dinner EVER. If you know of a bigger one, please fill me in. I will be attending the next one. My favorite dish is green bean casserole. Really hot, right out of the oven (duh). It's so delicious!!

2. What is your favorite non-traditional Thanksgiving Day dish?  I can't really think of anything that we eat that isn't "non-traditional".  What about olives??? Do black olives count. My mom and/or Grandma always puts out a bowl of olives (among other things) while everything else is being made. I can't stop eating them. Actually, now that I think about it, I usually get full before we even eat linner. Yes, I said linner. On purpose. Maybe I should lay low on the olives this year. And just put them on all 10 fingers once. Once is enough.

3. After dinner, is it football or a nap? Neither. It's usually games. If I watch football it's totally by accident and the parades don't really appeal to me all that much.

4. Do you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Which is your favorite float? See above question and answer. The only reason why I like having the parade on is because of what it signifies. It's freaking Thanksgiving ya'll. Let's do this!! If I have to pick one I'm going with SpongeBob SquarePants. 

5. Where do you go to celebrate and eat your big meal? Who is there (family, friends)? Well...usually my family from Nebraska comes in and we all have a ball. Every time we get together it is so much fun. I absolutely love it. This year, however, my cousin is expecting her third baby so everyone is staying behind - Just in case baby comes early!! Last year we spent Thanksgiving at my sisters. God Bless her!! It was perfect and I'm pretty sure she hated hosting. But we didn't have to skip around from house to house. We all got to go to one place and stay there the remainder of the day. I loved it!! This year, a few of us will be at her house and then we will be going to my husbands grandparents.

6. What is your favorite turkey day dessert?
I love cheesecake. And Chocolate Silk Pie. The End. 

If you want to link up just follow this link and Holly will tell you all the how to's and what not's. 

I hope everyone has a Happy Turkey Day and can find plenty to be thankful for!! 

P.S. I am signed up for 2 different 5k races!! Booooyaaaaah!! I am so excited!!! I can't freaking wait! But more on that later.  

With Love, 
 Amy Marie 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Small Talk



Hi, my name is Amy and I am socially challenged. Inept. Incapable. Incompetent. Uncool. Please feel free to insert any and all synonyms you wish because they all apply.

I blame this on two things. #1-  I'm not what you would call a overconfident person. Wait...scratch that...I'm not what you would call confident at all. #2 I'm a stay at home mom. I don't have much practice going out into the real world and converging amongst adults on a daily basis. At least adults that I don't know. The irony is that I could go into a deep conversation with a complete stranger about absolutely nothing.  I enjoy that type of conversation.  But having to make small talk with said stranger terrifies me. I loathe small talk. It's so fake. Always forced. I hate it because I'm not good at it. Most of the time I feel like I don't have much to offer to a conversation amongst strangers. Unless, of course they are discussing things that I happen to be an expert on. Which is what exactly? (Long Pause) Right, so you can see where my discomfort comes from.

I had a friend ask me once if I have social anxiety disorder. "Pfffft...No...why would you ask that?" I responded with surprise.  "Because you are sitting here at a child's birthday party not really talking to anyone. You look like you are uncomfortable." These were our friends she was talking about.  I don't technically know what Social Anxiety Order entails but I do know she was right that day about my behavior.

So you can imagine how excited I was when my Husband told me that his company was having a HUGE Christmas party this year. Spouses included. Yay!!!!!! I'm not going. Annnnnnnd  it's business formal attire.(What the hell...why can't they do an ugly sweater theme or wear your best leggings or yoga pants???)  On top of that there will be other people there. Important people. Ughhhh...Math nerds. I'm never going to survive.  I'm married to freaking Mr. Personality. He can talk to anyone. I got in a car accident the other day and while we were waiting for the police to arrive my husband talked up a storm with the guy who hit me. You know, small talk and stuff.  Small talk.Whatever.

I am meeting Jacob's favorite work peeps this weekend. Like he talks about them all the time. Like it's starting to get weird how much he talks about them. Although meeting just three new people isn't quite as daunting to me as the Christmas party is, it's still intimidating. No one is married. No one has kids.  I think when they ask me if I went to college, I'm going to fib. I'm going to go big. I played college basketball and I whittle cribs from trees in my back yard for babies. My super power is making money disappear and I only wear a cape during business hours. The skies the limit here. ;-) And please don't get me wrong, I am not ashamed at all that I stay at home with my kids. I'm very blessed actually but unless you have kids, sometimes that concept is hard to wrap your head around. At least I have my age. I'm older than everyone pretty much. So maybe they will just think I'm wiser because of it. As long as no one asks to see the gravitational pull the earth has on my breastases....we should be good.










Friday, November 9, 2012

Happy Birthday Landon!


My husband and I sat up talking last night after all the kiddos were in bed and we watched our t.v. and blew up all of Landon's birthday balloons. When we should have been going to sleep we found ourselves reminiscing about our baby, Landon. How we couldn't believe he is already 3 years old. How sweet he is. How funny he is. We laughed hysterically as we discussed all his wonderful little quirks.  Idiosyncrasies, that perhaps, sometimes should be disciplined but more often are laughed at. I remember the feeling of not knowing if we were having a boy or a girl, and how much I loved that excitement of the unknown. I told him having done both (finding out and not) I would absolutely do it that way every time if given the chance all over. And there he was...a beautiful, baby BOY!! And the surprise in Jacob's voice in that delivery/surgery room was priceless. "It's a....BOY!! Oh my gosh, I have a BOY!!"  And that we do. Landon is ALL BOY. 150% ALL BOY. He is such a blessing to our little family. He brings laughter and joy. He is an extension of our love. All of our love, put together, in this wonderful bundle of perfection.





I love you Landon Jacob Bryant. 





Sooooo much...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Short and Sweet

Ahhhhhh.....Where do I begin?? It's been awhile, I know,  but rather than doing a few different posts for this fabulous October I thought I would cram all the happenings into one. Probably a dumb idea because that makes the post even longer and then you lose interest midway through. Or perhaps before that...maybe you have already lost interest. Whatever, I will enjoy writing this one. It's freaking October peeps...and it ended well.

Pumpkin Patches and Halloween Parties and Trick or Treating...OH MY!! That didn't really flow well but you get where I was going with that, right?

I'm going to do my best to make this short and sweet because that is what October was. Too short and super sweet!!

I love adult Halloween Parties. I love dressing up. This year, however, was a bit more challenging than others. Why, you ask?  Because I'm fatter than in years past. Goooo Me! That was part of the issue..another part was that I am horrible at making decisions. Just ask ANYONE that knows me. Lastly, and the most important issue, I believe, is that they don't have mirrors in the dressing rooms of the Halloween/Costume stores that I visited. Seriously, who does that? So every time I tried something on I was forced to go outside the dressing room, having no idea how I looked, to hurriedly check myself out in the "public" mirror all while there was a line of people waiting to try their own costumes on. Because of this I have 60, non refundable,  costumes sitting at the back of my closet right now. Okay, 60 may be an exaggeration. More like 3. And yes, my husband and I are still married in spite of this little debacle.

Either way...I made a decision. Nerd was the WORD. 



We pull this off well, don't we? A little too well. 


Onward and upward...but first, here are a few of my favorite pics from the 2nd Annual Pickett Halloween Bash. And a shout out to the hosts' of this party. They know how to put together a crowd pleasing ambiance. 



I don't have very many traditions with my little ol' family but I'm working on that. A few at Christmas, cupcakes on Halloween and every year, since my oldest (who is now 10)  was 2 years old, we have gone to the same Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. I love that place and this year I loved it even more. We literally went last minute and I'm glad we did. The normal crowd wasn't there this time and the weather was a bit cooler as the sun started to go down. Even the bees weren't so plentiful and obnoxious. Needless to say, we had fun. Here are some pics to prove it!! 




 
 
*** Please ignore the pregnant blimp pictured above with Ella. Whoa....
 
 
Finally, there was Halloween. I love Halloween. Neighbors open their doors for you to pass out candy. Some people go all out and decorate their homes to make it even more fun for the kiddos to come a' knockin'.  I love seeing all the littles dressed up in their costumes. It is just so much fun. I really do love it!! We always go trick or treating in a rather large group. And we usually all get separated one way or another. It's going to happen though. Half the kids are big kids and the other ones are toddlers just trying to get to the next house while going through their bag trying to pull out the next candy of their choice. Actually, when we do all finally catch up we usually take that as a sign that are night is coming to an end. The big kids are worn out and the little kids, who are worn out too, just want to sit and examine their treasures. We always save that fun adventure for the drive way when we are done.


Haha!! Isn't Caleb's beard hilarious!!




Whelp that about wraps up my October. It's the first of November which means I get to update my calendar (yes I get pretty excited about doing this), baseball season is coming to an end (Thank Goodness) and my Halloween Decorations are coming down...but not until this weekend. I plan on putting up some fun stuff for Thanksgiving if I get around to it. Happy November!!!