Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday, and I thought he deserved a little ditty on my blog for his special day. He is such a wonderful Father and I am so blessed to have him as my Dad. He has always worked so hard to provide my family, both physically and emotionally. He always tells us kids and my Mom how much he loves us, but is still the toughest man I know. My Father has played so many rolls in my life; coach, fan, teacher, friend, comedian, and comforter, but best of all my the best Dad in the world. Here are some pictures of us throughout the years.

No matter how old I get I will always be your little girl. I love you Dad! Happy Birthday!

4th Picture

The instructions: go to your 4th picture file, post the 4th picture in it, then tag 4 people

This is right around Jared's first birthday. I just gave him his first haircut :o)

I Tag: Cindy, Beth, Jen and Carolyn.

Little Miss Crabby Pants / Chicken Parmesan

Have you ever had a day where nothing really huge or significant is going wrong in your day, but your just crabby? Well for me, today is one of those days! The stupidest things are tickin' me off today, and I get ragging mad! Watch out world, I'm on the war path today!

I started a new routine of working out in the mornings last week and I started eating healthier. My body is probably in shock, so maybe that's whats why I'm so crabby. I don't know! On a good note, I have lost 8 pounds in two weeks! Which is really exciting! Now the hard part is going to be staying motivated!

Nick seems to be getting back into the swing of things at school, and thinks his classes are ok. Now that he has had a taste of what its like having a real job, he really wishes school was over with and so do I! He still has a long way to go!

I don't usually post recipes but I tried a new one tonight. It turned out REALLY good, it was quick and easy, so I wanted to pass it on.

Chicken Parmesan

1 1/2 lbs of thin sliced chicken breasts

2 egg whites

1 Cup Italian style bread crumbs

Spaghetti sauce of choice I prefer Preggo

Mozzarella Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 13x9 in pan. Coat chicken breasts in egg whites and dip into bread crumbs until well coated. Place in pan and cook for 20-25 min until chicken is fully cooked. Pour spaghetti sauce over chicken and sprinkle with cheese. Continue to bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. We also had whole grain penne pasta with zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli and spaghetti sauce. Serve and enjoy!

Christmas and New Years

I know, I know! It's January 5th and I'm just now posting about Christmas and New Years, I'm a huge slacker!

Christmas was wonderful! We had our first round of Christmas on the 21st of December. We celebrated a little bit early with my brother Aaron and his family because they were heading to Carolyn's parents in Tacoma for Christmas. Nick and I were the hosts this year, and I must say we made a killer dinner! We had a Ham with a honey-orange glaze on it, funeral potatoes, jello salad, green beans, and chocolate silk pie for dessert. After dinner Aaron, Carolyn and the kids opened their presents. Uncle Mitch bought Jared and Ally the cutest Christmas outfits that they wore that day. They looked so cute!

Christmas was spent with my parents, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable day. We spent the day just hangin out watching movies and playing games. We brought the game Taboo over, it is such a fun game, even my Dad seemed to enjoy it. Which really says something!

The day after Christmas we went to visit Nick's family in Gig Harbor. It was so much fun! Nick's little brothers (Brook 16, Taylor 9) and sister (Amie 12) are becoming so grown up and it is fun to see them change. While Nick was working on the west-side he was able to see them quite a bit and I've only seen them maybe 3 times since June. Its amazing how much they change in such a short period of time. We played Rock Band 2 for a good chunk of the day, Nick played monopoly, and just spent time enjoying eachothers company and catching up on life. Sadly we didn't get to see Nick's sister Kristin and her husband Ryan this trip but hopefully I will get to see them soon (Nick saw them almost everyday). We will get to see his family more now that Nick doesn't have to travel anymore.

That brings up another thing! Nick is finally home! Jan 2 was his last day of work and today was his first day back to school. It is SOOOO nice having him home again, I'm sure our car enjoys the break too! It is still unreal having him home again, but I'm sure it will be a change that I will quickly get used too!

New Years Eve was spent with our friends Scott, Brittanie and their new baby Braron. We had alot of fun eating, playing games, eating, catching up, eating, watching the ball drop and eating. Just the food you eat on new years is enough of a reason to have a new years resolution to work out more! Geez!

New Years Day was probably the most enjoyable/relaxing day I have had in a long time! I slept in, and made breakfast for Nick and I. Scott came over and watched football with Nick. So I took a shower and got dressed for the day in my jammies and scrapbooked most of the day. It was awesome!

We hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas and New Years. Good Luck with your New Years resolutions!

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread is a family favorite for the Rhodes family and is a tradition at our house to eat on Christmas morning so I thought I would share our tradition with you. I always thought that it was called Monkey Bread because my Dad always called us kids his little monkeys but I found out last night as I was googling for a picture it is the actual name for this recipe.

Mix:

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 TBSP Cinnamon

in a large freezer bag

Cut:

2 Cans Refrigerator biscuits

into fourths and add to the freezer bag

Shake:

until covered well and Place in a greased bunt pan

Melt:

3/4 Cup Butter or Margarine

Add:

1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar

to butter, mix well and pour over biscuit pieces

Bake @ 350 for 30-34 min

Enjoy!

You can also add nuts or raisins to the Monkey Bread but I prefer it without.

So Many Things

I'm playing catch up! One big thing is we finally got a car!!! Woohoo! We ended up getting a Nissan Pathfinder the day before Thanksgiving. We love it! Its alot of fun having an SUV. I have been meaning to post about this for a while now but I keep forgeting to take a picture when it is clean. Oh well!

What we have been up to:

We of course celebrated Thanksgiving

Nick and Mitch decorated the outside of our house

And I decorated the inside

We went to Leavenworth

I helped Mom get ready for her and Dad to go on a hot date. After all of these years they're still so in love!

My primary (sunday school) class came over, we decorated cookies and went Christmas caroling

Jared and Cooper (My cousin) Played with Papa's new train set. The picture was just too cute to not post

I learned how to make cool blog title scrapbook pictures

Just a little tip: export as JPEG and you can put it in place of your blog title and its FREE!

It has been a busy couple of weeks. It always is around the Holiday's but time just really seems like its flying this year! Only 6 more days until Christmas and only 2 more weeks until Nick finishes his internship and is FINALLY HOME!!

Wicked

So the other day my good friend Linda let me know of all of the awesome musicals that will be coming to Seattle this coming year and I am so happy to announce that WICKED is coming to the paramount in September and I can hardly wait! Nick and I have been tentatively planning a trip to LA (its the closest show location to us) for quite a while so we could see this show and of course go to Disneyland but this makes me so much happier that it will be so much closer to home! I must admit however, that the music will not be the same without Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel but it will still be awesome! Some of the other shows that are coming to Seattle are:

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

THE LION KING

CATS

RENT

I just thought I would share my excitement with you. I'm affraid that I may be spending all of my extra money to see shows this coming year. Anyone want to double date sometime in Sept to see the show?