It's 2011...

Happy New Year!!

Taco Roll

Ok, so all of you know that I am not a cook, and this is not a cooking blog...

this is a special post for Big Will and Lor-Lor on " How to make Taco Roll".

These are the ingredients you'll need:
2 cans crescent rolls,
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 c. cheese,
taco seasoning mix
side of your choice
.... that's it!

Cook the meat until brown and follow directions on taco seasoning packet, lower heat and let sauce thicken a bit

Add cheese right into the pan...I probably use about 1/2 a cup, you can use more if you like.

 stir, set on low

 take crescent rolls triangles apart and start spacing them on your round.... start like this and then fill them in evenly, making sure they all lay the same direction.

Notice that I laid the second layer just a bit lower than the first, giving me a bigger surface to add the meat to later

 I use a roller to seal the edges, but you could use your fingers to do the same thing

 Scoop the taco meat/ cheese mixture (now a bit thicker) evenly around the dough (I use an ice cream scoop) and then start to fold the "point" of the triangle over and tuck it back into the dough in the center of the circle...

 It will look like this when you put it into an oven set for the temp your crescent rolls call for (mine is 375);  Bake for 20 minutes, until the crust is thoroughly cooked (especially under the meat) and brown.

 Like this :)

 Serve with your choice of sides....I usually serve with Texas Caviar, but here I just had avocado, sour cream, corn (cut off the cob), and salsa. (If you have it, have some "Jack's Salsa" for me!!)

Serve, and in no time at al, plates will look like this!
Mmmm, YUMMY! 

Even my kids like it.... All of them!

Yep, it's that good!

Cool Rides

So glad these two are feeling well enough to get out and try the new, cool rides Santa brought!

I'm impressed... 

they're pretty good!

Christmas Day

trying out Santa's chocolate milk before bed

Poor Georgia was feeling so bad that she didn't even want to come down to see what Santa had brought her.  We convinced her to come down for just one gift and she was not disappointed!

She pulled it together for a ride around the house and the rest of her gifts and then she went right back to bed!

I think everyone was pretty happy with what they got...and then we were off to the USO.

Christmas Eve

Santa came through our neighborhood on a firetruck,

handed out treat bags,

and made these little ones,

very,

very,

Happy!!

Luke couldn't keep his eyes off Santa,  

or the firetruck,

and watched them both until they were gone!

The Post Where Sara Eats A Lot and Overcomes Childhood Fears

We left Southeast Botanical Gardens to have lunch.

We ate at a restaurant on base and Sara wanted the sampler as her meal.

This is how it came...in a huge skillet!!

 Then she had pie!!

 Wow!! I think she's going through a growth spurt! : )

 I think HE just likes the chocolate ice cream.

 All that food must have been good for her... 

after years of being scared of ET, I got her to take a picture with him for her Dad...

 With just a little help from her little friends!!

** Sara wanted me to let you all know that she did NOT finish all that food alone, and that Jackson and I shared the pie with her too!!**   ;)

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

This year we have all been very calm about Christmas.

I didn't talk about it much... so neither did the kids.
Most of you know that we do three gifts each for the kids, so there was no frenzy of gift buying to stress me out at the last minute. I literally hit the "PLACE ORDER" button one time on Amazon.com when Mom & Dad were visiting and the shopping was complete.

I have had the mentality, that of we could just get past Christmas, then we'd be that much closer to Wade's return, and time was doing its part by flying by.

With Christmas literally two days away, I thought maybe we should try and get into it just a little bit, so the kids and I went over to Southeast Botanical Gardens for their Christmas Lights Display.

During the day, we went in and played on the playgrounds,

enjoyed feeding the crazy carp,

and enjoyed the gorgeous day!

Nordbergs...  All Aboard!

But at night....

we headed back for Christmas lights galore

Now, with just one day left...we were starting to feel it!