Recipe Time

As many of you know, I really enjoy cooking. I think it is my creative outlet. Anyway, one of our favorite places to eat in FW is Uncle Julio's. They have fabulous fajitas! The taste is just so different. With a little help from the internet, I think I cracked their secret.

Here is the fabulous marinate for your sliced skirt or flank steak:

1 bottle of beer (a good mexican beer like Dos Equis, I think it would be wrong to use Coors light)

1 small cup of pineapples

splash of soy sauce

few shakes of garlic powder

Sorry that I'm not more precise on my measurements, that's just how I roll in my kitchen. Let your pre-sliced steak marinate for 4-24 hours. Then you are ready to proceed as usual. Cook meat in sizzeling hot skillet until almost done. Remove from pan, then cook your onions and peppers in all that yummy stuff from the meat. I added a little salt, pepper, garlic, & cilantro. Cook veggies until almost tender then return meat to skillet until everything is good to go.

Enjoy!

Zac Brown Band Rocks!

Okay, I know this blog is usually about Hadley, but this post is a little different. Brent and I left her with Ms. Jenna and we went out on the town. We are big ZBB fans. It seems that whenever we move or have a big change on the horizon, there always seems to be a song that captures the event. The anthem for our move to Auburn has been the song, "Chicken Fried". Getting back to a small town and enjoying the simpler things in life is what we see about Auburn.

Right before we left for our trip to Arkansas, Brent called me and said that he had just seen a flier that the Zac Brown Band was coming to TCU for a free concert. I quickly emailed our sitter, Jenna.

We began the evening with a nice meal at Blue Mesa. You know I like my chips & dip, Margarita on a Thursday night, pair of jeans that fit just right, and ZBB cranked up. Then we headed over to the TCU Commons area.

Us before the concert. The smart people who brought chairs.

The band front and center

Picture from the front row!

Up close and personal

After the concert we were walking towards the back of the stage, towards the parking lot, just as the band was leaving. They were just right there, so I had to snap a picture. Check out how short he is.

The concert was very entertaining to watch. All of those guys were super talented musician. Then just experiencing it at TCU was also a treat. The students are much more tame than UA. There was a mass of students that were 2-stepping. Not just the one-two back one dancing, but the real-deal Texas twirling 2-step. They must take lessons at Billy Bob's! Anyway, we have lived here since June and this might have been our first fun thing in Fort Worth.

Some of Whatever it is.

Just the chorus of Chicken Fried. I was too busy dancing and singing to video much!

Easter and the week at Nana & PopPop's House

We arrived in Walnut Ridge on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, we were getting around and I had totally forgotten about Hadley's Easter basket. Okay, I'm not real big on the whole idea of the Easter Bunny, but I get stuff to give her on Easter morning. Since we are not at home, it seems that the actual holiday gets a little fuzzy in my mind. I've been known to forget Easter baskets and Christmas stockings. Anyway, I did give Hadley her basket before she started getting ready for church.

Hadley with her Easter Basket

Showing off some of her goodies.

Check out the necklaces and bracelets

The family

Nana & Hadley

Hadley and Daddy

Hadley & Mommy

After church, all of the family came over to Mom & Dad's for a traditional Easter lunch. Ham, Rhonda's pineapple salad, potatoes, deviled eggs, green beans, and Mom's dessert. Little Winnie was so excited about her strawberry frozen cake which she found the recipe in one of her many magazines. Mom was so proud of her masterpiece. None of us were hungry enough to eat right away. When we were able to eat, we had a little surprise waiting for us. Mom's dessert was still frozen SOLID. So we let it set out for a little longer. Then we noticed that the top and middle layers were melting, but there was a layer of fresh strawberries that were frozen like a brick. Winnie wasn't giving up, she got out her biggest butcher knife and went to town chopping her dessert. It was a real site to see. It actually tasted pretty good!

Nana going to town on her cake.

Another reason we came home for Easter was to celebrate my Grannie & Grandaddy's 65th wedding anniversary. With the help of Rhonda & Mom, I made them a neat memory book full of pictures throughout their 65 years (thank you Kodak gallery). Here is a picture of them about the time they were married.

William Russell Ellis & Tula Caroline (Stone) Ellis

Pop Pop's Nail Salon

Hadley's first manicure, and yes, it was given by PopPop!

Hadley getting her fingers painted and Taylor waiting for her toes to be painted.

I've got to be honest, I don't remember Dad painting our nails when we were little!

Brent and Hadley roasting marshmellows at Pop Pop's Hillfarm.

Hadley with Nana & Pop Pop

Hadley in Pop Pop's Square Post Buildings hat

Riding on the Ranger

Easter at Mimi & PawPaw's house

We arrived in Searcy on Thursday before Easter. On Saturday, the cousins came to visit and we had our Easter lunch. Luckily it was a beautiful day. The kiddos had a blast hunting eggs and playing in the wagon.

Hadley, Madelyn, & Will getting ready to hunt some eggs.

She found one!

Madelyn has great Easter egg hunting skills!

Little Man has done a great job of hunting, too.

Showing PawPaw some love!

The little ones having fun in the wagon!

Video of "The Hunt"

Easter Photos

The flowers around TCU have been beautiful. I really wanted to get some pictures of Hadley in her Easter dress with all the tulips. It had been really windy and then a cold spell swept over the area. I finally got an afternoon that when the weather would cooperate before the tulips started to die. Here are some of the pictures that I took.

Just walked up to one of the TCU entrances. What a perfect place for a picture!

I don't think that Hadley agreed with my suggestion. Oh man, this could take a while.

Okay, so we moved over to another bed of tulips just outside of her music class building.

Then I was surprised to get such a cute picture with the chapel in the background. The street behind Hadley is University St., which is always very busy. I can't believe there were no vehicles when I snapped this shot.

Beautiful hot pink tulips. Hadley found a twig to play with.

Big Cheese!

Sweet girl! Okay, now we are getting some good shots.

Oh, out comes the lip.

Little Miss Hadley is crying about the bugs.

Still sad, but it looks precious! Here's the money shot!

Just a little glimpse of how the photo shoot went.

Halbergs visit & the House

Madelyn was on Spring Break this week, so the Halbergs came down a few days to visit. The kiddos had such a fun time playing together. We were hoping to go to the zoo one day, but the weather would not cooperate. So I looked for a fun indoor activity. It just so happen that Disney on Ice was in town. This is one of the perks of living in the city, always something going on. The show was really fun. I had a little trouble getting my camera adjusted to the lighting, so the pictures may not be too clear.

Waiting to go inside

Lion King

Little Mermaid

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy making their way to a London adventure

Captain Hook's pirate ship

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

Bed time

Another terrific thing has happened. Our house in under contract! We accepted an offer on our house last week. We have now made it past the 7 day option period, so we are feeling pretty good about things. We will close the middle of April. The sisters that will be moving in are currently renting an apartment and thier lease is not up until July. They are allowing us to live here rent free until June 12. Yeah! God is good.

Bubbles

Hadley loves bubbles. While we were in WR, she had played with Taylor's bubbles and just had the most fun. So we had to get some once we got back in town. So her she is having a bubbling good time.

Okay, this has nothing to do with bubbles. I just had to get a picture of our neighbor's trees. They are so beautiful. That is Brent & Hadley near the road. We have a pair of ducks that have started calling our block thier home.