Party Dip Recipe

My sister, Morgan, and I have been spending quite a bit of time together lately. One thing we both love to do is EAT! She has recently lost 30+ pounds, and has lost all her baby weight, plus some, while I have not lost the last 5 pounds of baby weight. Grrr. Anyway, we still take part in our favorite past time. Recently, she spent the night with me and Riley and we made this dip.

Oh my, was this ever great. I have always made cheese dip using 1 can of Rotel tomatoes, 1 lb of ground beef or sausage, and velveeta cheese. My “rotel” dip has never been my favorite. It’s to velveeta”y” for me, or something. Now, don’t get me wrong, I will eat it, and eat plenty of it. It just doesn’t taste that great the next day and I always have a bunch leftover.

Those days are over with. I found this 3 ingredient recipe on OurBestBites.com and knew I had to try it out. Morgan and I whipped this up between supper and bath-time, and let me tell you IT’S AWESOME. To start, it’s 3 ingredients! And velveeta isn’t one of those 3! Yes!

OBB used cream cheese instead, and I love cream cheese!

1 12-oz pkg of cream cheese
1 12-oz pkg sausage
1 cup salsa

Brown the sausage. Drain grease if needed. Cut the cheese into little blocks and add to pan with sausage. Add salsa and heat until cheese is melted.

And that’s totally it. Of course, we topped it with shredded cheddar cheese, but this dip will taste fine without it.

So it’s no more velveeta for me. This will be my go-to party dip from now on!

Keeping Busy

Dear Riley,
Spring is here, and as I said before, you love to be outside. The weather is so nice right now: cool when the sun comes up, a little windy throughout the day, a few clouds every now and then, warm in the afternoon, and the sun doesn’t set until about 8:00 p.m. We play outside as much as possible. You love to play at Grandmom and Grandad’s house and PawPaw’s house.
  Here, you are blowing your first dandelion. I am so happy we took a picture of this. One day, I hope you enjoy looking at all these pictures.
Grandad has quite a collection of hats. He has them hanging on hooks in the garage. I don’t know who started this with you, but all you want to do is play with those hats. But, someone has to stand there with you and hang the hats up. And then hand them all back to you. And then hang them up. And then hand them all back to you. And so on. You are very particular about how you want them to lay on the garage floor. It was really cute the first day you did this, but now… now it’s not so cute for whoever is hanging and unhanging the hats.
The clover at Grandmom’s is so pretty. Of course, you can’t wait to pick the flowers.
Here’s to many more Spring’s like this one, Riley. Let’s always pick the flowers together.

Riley Claire – 19 Month Newsletter

Dear Riley,

These newsletters come way too soon each month. It almost seems like tomorrow you will be packing your bags to go off to college. I remember the first few weeks after we brought you home, I never thought I would ever sleep again. It’s amazing how things change and how I would give just about anything to be back in those first few weeks.
So, let’s see, what are you up to now. How about EVERYTHING! Nothing is off limits to you. You try and reach your little hand into kitchen drawers, you love to take your clothes out of your drawers, and you love to play in dirt. Dirt.
Oh, and you love to sit at the computer. You know how to click the mouse and everything!


Probably the biggest development is your speech. You have REALLY started talking this month. Your ever-growing list of words includes: Momma, Dadda, ball, bite, pretty, shoes, bye-bye, drink, nose, mouth, eyes, ear, belly, Mamaw, Papaw, your own variation of Grandmom and Grandad, dog, and cat. There may be a few more, but that’s all I can think of. You respond to many more words than this, you just haven’t figured out how to say them yet.
You LOVE to play outside. And hate to come indoors after frolicking around.


You are my little girl. Sometimes I stare at your little face trying to remember everything about you. Your little cheeks and the dimples when you smile. Your sweet little nose. Your bangs. The part of your neck that meets your jaw.
You make my days worth living.
I love you,
Love, Momma

Easter

Just sitting here thinking about Easter. Last year we took a picture in front of the wisteria. This year Henry was working, but Riley and I kept up our little tradition. Tradition. We have a family tradition!


You can’t see the wisteria in this picture, but we were standing in the same place as this year…

Riley has grown so much! I just don’t want to believe it!

Easter – Part 3

Dear Riley,
You had an amazing Easter! We did so many fun activities with friends, family, and strangers. I think you had a great time and that makes me so happy.
On Easter Sunday, you and I went to church. You almost made it in the nursery by yourself, almost. After church we went to my cousin’s house. He has two little girls, Lori who is almost 4, and Jamie who is almost 2. We had good food and an Easter egg hunt.


You had the best time with these girls! Braxton was there too.

One day I will tell you what Easter is really about. The eggs are nice, but the Gift we have is even better.
I love you. Happy Easter!
Love, Momma

I love you.

Ana Behibek – Arabic
Moi Tomak Bhal Pau – Assamese
Ami Tomay Bhalo bashi -  Bengali
Quechua Qanta Munani – Bolivian
Obicham Te – Bulgarian
Chit Pa De – Burmese
Bon Sro Lanh Oon – Cambodian
Sh'teme – Canadian
T'estim Molt – Catalan
Gihigugma Ko Ikaw – Cebuano
Wo Ie Ni – Chinese
Ti Tengu Cara – Corsican
Ljubim Te – Croation
Miluji Te – Czech
Jeg Elsker Dig – Danish
Ik Hou Van Jou – Dutch
Quechua Canda Munan – Ecuadorian
Mi Amas Vin – Esperanto
Mina Armastan Sind – Estonian
Tora Dust Midaram – Farsi
Doostat Daram – Farsi Persian
Mahal Kita – Filipino
Mina" Rakastan Sinua – Finnish
Ik Zie Oe Geerne – Flemish
Je T'aime – French
Ich Liebe Dich – German
S' Agapo – Greek
Hoon Tane Pyar Karoo chhoon – Gujarati
Ani Ohev Otach – Hebrew
Mai tumse Pyar karta hoon – Hindi
Szeretlek – Hungarian
Eg Elska Thig – Icelandic
Saja Kasih Saudari – Indonesian
Taim I' Ngra Leat – Irish
Ti Amo – Italian
Kimi O Ai Shiteru – Japanese
Naanu Ninnanu Preethisuthene – Kannada
Nakupenda – Kiswahili
Tangsinul Sarang Ha Yo – Korean
Te Amo – Latin
Ess Milu Tevi – Latvian
Gramo-Te Bue', Chavalinha – Lisbon
Tave Myliu – Lithuanian
Sakam Te! – Macedonian
Aku Sayang Enkow – Malay/Indonesian
Njyaan Ninne' Preetikyunnu – Malayalam
Me Tujhashi Prem Karto – Marathi
Jeg Elsker Deg – Norwegian
Tora Dost Daram – Persian
Kocham Cie – Polish
Eu Te Amo – Portuguese
Mai Taunu Pyar Karda Punjabi
Te Iu Besc – Romanian
Ya Vas Liubliu – Russian
Lubim Te – Serbian
Volim Te – Serbo-Croation
Mama Oyata Adarei – Sinhalese
Lubim Ta – Slovak
Te Quiero – Spanish
Mama Oyata Arderyi – Sri Lankan
Naku Penda – Swahili
Jag A'Lskar Dig – Swedish
Ch'ha Di Ga"Rn – Swiss German
Bhebbek – Sirian/Lebanese
Nan Unnai Kaathalikkiren – Tamil
Neenu Ninnu Pra'mistu'nnanu – Telugu
Ch'an Rak Khun – Thai
Ha Eh Bak – Tunisian
Seni Seviyo*Rum – Turkish
Ja Tebe Kokhaju – Ukranian
Mujhe Tumse Mohabbat Hai – Urdu
Anh Ye'U Em – Vietnamese
Wani Ra Yana Ro Aisha – Vulcan
Rwy'n Dy Garu Di – Welsh
Ya Te Volim – Yugoslavian
Ngiyakuthanda – Zulu

To the end of the Earth and back. I love you, Riley.

Easter – Part 2

Riley,
I am always on the lookout for fun things around Tyler for us to do. There are always activities going on, and sometimes those activities are FREE!
Last night, spur-of-the moment I realized there was another Easter egg hunt at a local park. This was supposed to be a flashlight egg hunt after dark. Kids could participate if they could hunt on their own, and since you can’t I called to see what else was going on. Little did I know, but The Easter Bunny would be there as well. I having been thinking about getting your picture made with him, but just haven’t had the time. So, we loaded up and headed out the door.
This egg hunt was more like a carnival. There was a fishing game, basketball game, jump house and dance area. Local dance groups were dancing to hip hop music. Also, you could have your picture made with the Easter Bunny for FREE! I couldn’t believe it. All you had to do was sign a release form and the workers gave me a piece of paper to access the picture on Walgreens.com. I was so happy. There were two options for getting your picture made:

or…
 
and this is what I took with my own camera…
After the traumatic photo shoots, we went and watched the dancers. Big hit with you, sweet girl! You danced with everyone!
  You really had a great time. It makes my heart full to see you so happy. Keep dancing Riley. Dance to your own music, but keep dancing.

Easter – Part 1

Dear Riley,

This is the first “real” Easter for you, Riley. Last year you were only 6 months old and now I wish we were back there. You have grown SO much in the last year. It’s hard to believe you had just learned to sit up this time last year.

Before I start crying I will move on. Your Daddy and I took you to your first Easter egg hunt a few days ago. 

There wasn’t much to the “hunt”. We were in the middle of a baseball field with eggs laying on the grass. So we stood at the starting line and waited for go. You had been trying to get at the Easter eggs before I let you go, and when you were finally free you didn’t really know what to do!
The first few eggs I had to point them out and tell you to put them into your basket.
It didn’t take long for you to catch on. You were off and running to the next egg!

Since it took so long for us to hunt the eggs, you only ended up with about 6 eggs. Those kids better watch out next year because you will dominate the Easter egg hunt!

I love you so much, Riley!
Love, Momma