Speaking of Food. . .

You NEED to try this. It will forever change your life. Or at least it did mine.
It is easy and so delicious!! My "no sweet eating" husband even thought it was great and had seconds, and that is saying something.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

INGREDIENTS

1	package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2	cup sugar
1	egg
1/2	cup coconut, if desired
1	roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated chocolate chip cookies

DIRECTIONS

1.	Heat oven to 350°F. In small bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in coconut.
2.	In ungreased, 9- or 8-inch square pan, break up half of cookie dough. With floured fingers, press dough evenly in bottom of pan to form crust. Spread cream cheese mixture over dough. Crumble and sprinkle remaining half of dough over cream cheese mixture.
3.	Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until chilled. For bars, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store in refrigerator.

Fruits and Veggies

This week we ventured to two berry patches. The first was for strawberries. The kids loved to pick them.

It didn't take Keeley long to figure out that they were edible and then there was no keeping them out of her hands.



The second was to get blueberries. Although there was no picking involved we have enjoyed the having fresh bluberries in our house. The will make for some great smoothies this summer!

We are finally getting some goodies from the garden!!!

we have butternut squash by the dozens, tomatoes
(if i beat the birds to the red ones), crockneck squash, zuccinni, cubcumber, bell peppers, green onions, lettuce, and cantalope(although they are still a little small).

Ohh It is going to be a delicious summer!

1 Year Old

Matt, Keeley and I went for a bike ride last Saturday on the Cape Fear River Trail. We were pleasantly surprised how nice this ride was. It is 4 miles each way all paved which made a perfect place to take the bike trailer for a test run. I took along a dress to change Keeley into in hopes to get a few 1 year old pictures. This is what we ended up with.

These are definitely not professional quality but this is just exactly how I think of her.

The stage Keeley is in right now is so much fun. We will miss this age for sure but I'm told it only gets better.

Rotavirus

See this pitiful little face? She has Rotavirus. Poor thing.

What that means is. . .an entire package of diapers in the past 3 days. Butt rashes. Enless amounts of baths. No wipes to clean up the 15 diapers I changed on Wednesday. Only soy milk, pedilyte, banans, Activa, and applesauce to eat. No beach trip this weekend. And worst of all 5-7 more days of all of this.

Catch Up

So today was catch up day. Enjoy the posts! We sure enjoyed the experiences behind the posts. They go all the way back to Easter so you have to push "older post" on the bottom to see them all.

we have been beyond busy the past few months. matt is in busy season and in a way i feel like i have been too. other than the things that were posted we have landscaped our house, we are still tending to our ever growing garden and fighting the ants. i took a week long substitute teacher class, done 4 landscape designs, had company 3 times in the past 2 month plus 3 birthdays in our house and really i'm just trying to keep up with a very active 1 year old who is cutting 2 teeth at the moment. matt is working late and i'm still coaching cheer one day a week. so if i havne't returned your call sorry! this is the first week i have had to even organize my house but i'm loving having a clean house. give me a few days i'll get back to returning calls eventually.

p.s keeley pulled my shift key off so caps is diffucut these days so don't mind the uncapitalized names and sentences.

1 going on 13

Keeley turned 1 last weekend.

WOW

I can't believe that she is one already. This year has gone so fast. She has so much personality and attitude now but this has been the best part for both Matt and I. We love her spunk and persistence. She will be very independent just like both Matt and I.

Mark and Gail ventured 5 hours to spend the day celebrating Keeley. We were grateful to have family here to party with. (Yes Gail is still suffering the results from their last venrue to visit.)


The morning I spent making these little creations.



Keeley and I with the cake that took 6 hours to make and 2 minutes to destroy.
Impressed? So was I. The bear is 100% edible. Although I think fondant shouldn't be considered edible it tastes horrible. Aunt Joy gave us the cake decorating kit and pan for Christmas and we have been saving it for the big day.

Keeley was very much into opening presents. She enjoyed ripping the paper and got so excited with every present. She would carry them around and tried to put on all of the clothes.
Check these pics out!


The next following picture deserves a story. Grandpa gave her a card that sings. When she opened it made the kids laugh so hard that she wasn't sure she liked it so she would close it quickly. Her face was hysterical. But she kept opening it to get them to laugh and then the laughing would be too loud so she would close it again. We were all laughing so hard I think I cried.

When we sang happy Birthday Keeley's eyes got so wide and she was very quite. You can see how big her eyes were in this picture.
The first bite was a bit difficult. She couldn't quite reach the ear which is what she really wanted.
So she settled for a leg.
And boy was it good!
Happy birthday little one! Daddy and I thank Heavenly father every night for your wonderful presence in our lives. We love you beyond measure. You have brought us so much joy. We love your happy, active attitude and we hope you will always be able to find the excitment that you have for life right now. We love you Monsty Goose!