That's Lieutenant!

Kate is doing great at Navy Officer Development School.  She's a Division Officer in Golf Company.  Here are a few pictures she has sent of her in her uniforms. 

St. Patrick's Day!

Holland's class had their "wear green" day the Wednesday before Spring Break so I asked Kirk to take a picture of Holland before leaving for school.  I think I know what Holland was saying before this photo.  I'm sure it was something to the effect of, "no, no pictures, I want to go to school."  lol  I hope she is saying that when she is in high school. 

We didn't do anything special for St. Patrick's Day today since Kirk was in class and Holland and I are suffering from allergy/sinus stuff.  Yuck!  We are sneezing, coughing, and praying for rain.  We just hung out at the house, but of course, we wore our green!  We also had a Green Shamrocks book to read to Holland. 

I wanted to make some chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing and little shamrock sprinkles for St. Patty's Day.  I didn't have a buttercream icing recipe to use, so I checked plainchicken.com and low and behold, she had posted a recipe for Irish Cream Buttercream Icing the same day I was baking the cupcakes!  What are the odds?!?!  I had to print and make it.  Fabulous!  And, another must have for St. Patty's is Guinness! 

House visit

We had called to schedule Britton's 4 month photos during Spring Break since we didn't have much planned.  Instead of going to the studio, Dixie came out to the house.  She wanted to recreate some of the newborn pictures we had done with Holland.  For Britton's photos, I made a hot pink, black, and white tutu and painted her name wall letters.  It was crazy trying to get both Holland and Britton to cooperate.  Dixie took photos of all of us together, Holland by herself, and Britton by herself.  A huge thank you to Dixie for driving out to our house and being so wonderful at what you do! :)

So far, so good!

The weekend of Kate's wedding, we weren't planning on trying any new recipes.  But we surprised ourselves by doing so.  We wrapped chicken breasts with prosciutto and then olive oil fried them on the stove and served with pesto pasta.  It was really good and we loved the leftovers.  The first weekend in March we made homemade chili (Deen brothers recipe) with cheddar cornbread waffles (plainchicken.com).  Kate and Matt were in from their honeymoon and came over to eat this meal with us before Kate left for ODS.  Kirk loved it!  It was really good.  I might have to tweak the cornbread recipe just a little.  I like a little sweetness to my cornbread so I might have to add a little sugar to it.  I also made butter dips (plainchicken.com) and we all loved them.  Since the cheddar cornbread waffles and butter dips called for buttermilk, I went ahead and made my favorite muffin recipe, bran muffins, to finish out the rest of the buttermilk.  Here is the cheddar cornbread waffle with chili. 

This last weekend, we made Bubble Up Pizza (plainchicken.com) and again, loved it!  You take cut up biscuits mixed with your favorite pizza toppings (we used pepperoni and hamburger meat) and pizza sauce and bake.  So easy and so yummy!  I also wanted to make rosemary roasted chicken and potatoes, so I bought one of those McCormick seasoning kits that includes the recipe and it turned out really good. 



The happy couple!

Yeah!  Pictures from the wedding.  The happy couple, Kate and Matt. 

The wedding party

Our little family

Me, Britton, Mom, Holland, Kate, and Mommer

The happy couple!

And more tutus.....

I don't think Sara can be stopped!  She's a tutu making lady!  Sara made rainbow tutus for the girls and they are adorable. 

Our sweet Piwi

Piwi, our K9 Belgium Malinois, was hit and killed by a car on the highway while on duty this morning.  We are very devastated by this loss.  Piwi was a wonderful drug dog and pet.  He was so sweet to everyone he met and was very gentle and playful with Holland.  Since we got Piwi (Aug 2009), Holland learned all the czech commands and Piwi would mind her.  The loss of a drug dog is very different for me as compared to losing a pet.  Drug dogs are highly intelligent, very protective, and work for a living.  K9 dogs are considered a deputy/officer of the department they work for.  Piwi took an oath to protect and was assigned a call number.  I always felt safe and secure when Piwi was home because I knew he would protect us.  He wasn't an aggressive dog unless you gave him the commands to be aggressive.  I didn't realize how attached I had become with Piwi until now.  Piwi was buried where Precious and Prissy (Mom's chihuahua) were buried.  We lost Precious, my chihuahua, last August.   

Sister love

Holland finally asked to hold Britton the other day.  Kirk and I were both shocked.  Kirk and I are both so happy that the girls love each other.  They will just look at each other and smile.  If Britton isn't around, Holland will search the house and ask where she is.  Britton smiles and laughs when Holland just looks at her.  It's so sweet!  Well, I took several pictures but of course, it's hard to get a decent one of both of them.

Dancing tutus

Holland loves going to dance class with Molly.  They are preparing for their tap and ballet routines for recital in June.  Here are a few more pictures of Holland and Molly in their tutus and preparing for dance class.  This week, Holland put her leg warmers and ballet shoes on all by herself. 

Kate's wedding

On February 26th, my baby sister, Kate, was married to Matt!  The wedding service was at St. Paul and was beautiful.  I was Kate's matron of honor, Holland was the flower girl, Britton was an honorary flower girl, and Kirk was an usher.  The reception/dance was held at the Hamilton Ballroom.  Fun was had by all who attended.  I was so happy to see aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven't seen in a very long time.  The happy couple is honeymooning in Aruba. 

Once the happy couple is back home, Kate immediately leaves for Navy officer development school (ODS).  Kate has been commissioned in the Navy as a Lieutenant and will be a Professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis!  We are so excited and happy for Kate and Matt as they begin their life together and start such an amazing journey.

Will post pictures from the wedding when I get some.  I can't believe I didn't take any! :(