A new green smoothie recipe

I came across this recipe on Pinterest. It is sooo good! I will be having one of these everyday!

1 frozen banana
1 T peanut butter
1/2 C vanilla greek yogurt
1 C vanilla almond milk
4 C fresh spinach

Christmas Road Trip to San Antonio

Chris had been in Utah for two weeks on business. When he finally made it home we decided to take a road trip to San Antonio before Christmas Eve.  It is a three hour drive west of Houston and is pronounced San Antone by some of the locals.  On our way we stopped by Seguin, Texas to see where Chris' dad grew up.  We saw the graves of his grandparents (Nanny and Opa) and great grandparents along with his dad's childhood home.  It was special to finally see the place where so many fun stories were created over the years. 

We continued on and arrived in San Antonio later that afternoon, checked into our hotel, and headed for the River Walk.  We strolled the river and later found a great Tex Mex place right on the Walk.  The evening weather was nice, we were seated on a balcony overlooking the river with mariachis serenading.  It was very romantic minus the squirming baby and keeping our kids from throwing things over the balcony...ha.  The next day we headed to the Alamo.  This place was inspiring...200 Texans held their ground and fought to the death against thousands of mexicans under the direction of Santa Ana's rule of tyranny.  "Liberty or death....remember the Alamo."  Chris has a distant relative named Major John Joseph Baugh that fought and died at the Alamo, pretty cool.  Psssss...remember to remove your hat and speak softly when you enter or they will let you know....this is considered hallowed ground in Texas.

After a lot of fun we headed back to Houston.   On the way home we pulled off the beaten path to a little town called Luling.   This is home to a famous small-town BBQ smokehouse.  I truly felt like I was having a real "Texas experience".  Being in a small, cute town eating BBQ with some reputation. There was quite a line and their own special way of ordering.  There were huge smokers the size of cars, unlike anything I had ever seen. The ribs, brisket, and sausage are ordered by the pound, served in a pile on butcher paper, and paid with cash.  By the way we ate everything with our hands except the "tater salad".  I could not get enough of the sauce, it was soooo good. We had a fun road trip and created some good memories.

 

Grandpa Bill's childhood home - paint, garage doors, and a clock, otherwise the same.

Famous tree in the Alamo courtyard

Zombies on the River Walk

Ready to chow down, the kids love BBQ

The pride of Texas - the Alamo

My favorites

We take family pictures every other year. Like many, I think of what co-ordinating colors we will wear and how we will hopefully get at least one good shot. This year was such an ordeal.  I am not a procrastinator and planned to have our session at the end of October. Many things came up, and we finally had them done at the end of November. I had us wearing cream and gray which Chris did not care for at all. It turned out that the pictures did seem a little bland and we did not get one good family shot, someone was always off. Our photographer offered to do retakes of just family shots for free. I then went shopping again for clothes with color. I just love seeing my children in pictures and am so proud that they are mine. Here are some of my favorites.....

School Pictures

McKay 3rd grade

Madison 1st grade

Halloween

Oh how sad it is that the days are over for me of co-ordinating Halloween costumes. :( I promised the kids last year that they could be whatever they wanted this year. So we have Ariel, and 2 ninjas. Woo hoo, pretty exciting..... not! BUT, they were very happy and so was I( no battles to fight.) Savannah and I dressed up for the ward party as well. She was a rainbow, and I a pot of gold!

2 birthdays

Trenton's birthday is on the 24th of October and Savannah's is on the 25th! Yep, they are 3 years and 1 day apart. We just kept it simple and did a family party. I made their cakes out of cupcakes. A T and a S. We played the donut on a string game, which the kids really enjoyed. Savannah and Trent were spoiled by all and seemed to have had a good time.

Fall Fun

We've had some fall fun while living with Bill and Linda! Crazy hair day at school, halloween snow globes, and a trip to Dewberry Farm!