Recipe of the week

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail ~ Cerviche

2 lbs. cooked, peeled and chopped shrimp
1 T crushed garlic
1/2 C finely chopped red onion
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 C tomato and clam juice cocktail
1/4 C ketchup
1 t hot pepper/chili sauce
1/4 C horseradish
pinch of salt
1 riped avocado - chopped

Mix first 10 ingredients together in a large bowl. Gently stir in avocado. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving. Serve on pita bread, toasted baguette's or your favorite crackers.

First swim meet of the year

My girl had her first swim meet and she did great!!! She swam back stroke and freestyle as individual events....

and she swam freestyle in a medly relay. This is her first experience with swim team and she wasn't so sure about it all. Warm ups (8 laps in the pool) wore her right out and she told me that she was done swimming, good thing she had a 30 minute break before her first event.

It was so crowded at the YMCA so we had seats outside. It was a lucky thing that the sun was out most of the day. Still it was cold for the wet swimmers. We're looking forward to our next meet.

Shrimp anyone????

Gene has a few hospitals in his division that are in Lousiana. He's made a few trip there recently and this past week he came home with 20 lbs. of prawns. Luckily he split them with his boss. I spent all morning cleaning them and freezing some. They are huge! Almost the size of my pearing knife. Now I am on the look out for any yummy recipes.

Happy Birthday to you!

Lane couldn't have asked for a better birthday wish. He was hoping for no school and he got it. The threat of snow shuts down all the schools and some of the buisnesses.

We all got up this morning so Lane could open his birthday presents. As you can see in the background Riley is thrilled!

GO TITANS!!! Lane has wanted a Titans jersey for a while. Too bad they didn't do better this season.

Yeah Legos!!! I love stepping on them in the dark and getting them jammed in the vacuum. ha ha ha. Lane doesn't play with them that much any more but he loves to build them.

I have to say that his football cake turned out pretty good. Happy Birthday Lane!

SNOW DAY

Another snow day today. I think it's crazy!!! 10 flakes in town and it paralyzes the entire county.

We survived Christmas!

Christmas was very quiet this year at our house. Lane went to Utah to visit his dad and Aaron and Austin stayed in Idaho. You would think Riley would love the fact that she was an only child for 2 weeks. Not so, she was so bored. After running out of things to do she decided to do daddy's hair. Very cute!

We made cookies for Santa and made sure there was some nice hot chocolate for him as well.

Christmas morning was nice. With Riley being the only one home we were able to sleep in until 8 o'clock. We actually had to wake her up.

Mommy was the lucky one with the camera. I got to take fun pictures of everyone with their Christmas morning hair. Sometimes staying behind the camera has it's benefits.

New books, Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Smith.

After opening all our gifts we ate a quick breakfast and got on the road. We headed up to Ohio to visit my brother and his family. It wasn't to bad a drive. Only 5 hours and Gene did all the driving so it was a nice drive for me. ha ha ha. He let me relax and read. What a nice husband. He didn't make to much of a fuss while I read the Twilight series for the whole 2 weeks of Christmas break.

We got to David's house in time for dinner. There was a slight turkey accident but he saved the best part. Just an FYI for all of you. If you deep fry a 25 lb turkey make sure you have another person standing by with a cookie sheet as a safety net just in case the turkey legs decide to fall off!

It was great to spend the holidays with some family.

David and Tyson brushing up on their Guitar skills.

We played a little while we were there. Bowling and Laser Quest, what more could you ask for? Maybe a nap for the grown-ups.

I don't think Tyson can be serious in any picture.

Ashley.

My Mad bowling skills at their finest!

Riley beat me at both games.

Riley, Tyson, Ashley, Tyler, Alyssa as a totem pole.

We drove to Cincinnati and went to the Aquarium. It was a lot of fun. Riley finally pet the star fish and horse shoe crabs.

Gene and David testing their "Shark Jaw" strength.

Feeding the fish.

How tall are you?

Petting the sting rays.

Over all we had a great Christmas. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Christmas is here

Friday was Riley's class "Winter Party". It was a lot of fun. Our room mom is amazing! She always has the funnest activities for them to do. She made a little ginger bread village for each child to decorate. The trick is in the construction.
If you have ever tried to make a ginger bread house before you know it isn't easy. The walls don't stay together and the icing isn't the best glue. Here's the trick she used; hot glue and an empty milk carton. The milk carton is the perfect size and if you use enough hot glue you can stick anything together. The graham crackers and sugar cones made perfect little houses.

The kids are so excited that Christmas is so close. The proof is in the sugar overload!

Merry Christmas to all!!!