Easter 2009

Grandma and Grandpa Hickox enjoyed helping Olivia color eggs again this year.

Olivia's 1st Easter Egg Hunt out at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Dandridge, TN. Olivia's doing her best to point at an egg.

I found one!!! Yahooooo!!!

Olivia got a bit distracted after awhile during the Easter egg hunt by all of the fun lawn ornaments and statues.

It was rather funny.

Olivia showing off her Easter Squirrel.

She carried it around in her basket for some time.

Cooking 101 - Worzel, this is for you!

It's Turkey Parmesan Casserole. Crazy story really. Found the recipe online. Printed it and kept it for weeks. Sunday I was trying to come up with what to eat for the week without going to the store. I saw I had all the ingredients except for the turkey (only had 1 cup instead of 2 thanks to leftovers from Easter Lunch...otherwise I wouldn't have had any). I decide to make it Monday, although we were getting our taxes done at 4:30. I decided to be on the ball and cooked a chicken breast to go with the turkey, thawed the broccoli, and cooked the noodles. All I had to do was dump it together when I got home and bake for 25min. Low and behold, we didn't get home until almost 7pm. As I'm mixing it all together, I realize I have no cream of mushroom soup. Darn. Ok. So we had different leftovers Monday. Cook it Tuesday. Although glancing over the recipe, I saw I was supposed to have uncooked noodles. Darn again. Ok. We'll use the cooked ones later in the week. So I buy the cream of mushroom soup Tuesday. Right before Justin comes home on Tuesday, I throw the ingredients together to put in the oven. As I'm trying to add the spaghetti and "mix lightly" I'm starting to get real frustrated....what kind of recipe is this??? So then I go back and read the recipe. Yes, up top it says "uncooked spaghetti", however on bottom, it says "cook spaghetti and drain". WHAT?!?! Who writes recipes like this? I wasn't about to give up on this meal yet! So I start undoing what I did. That's when Justin walks in and has to take a picture. I pulled out most of the uncooked spaghetti, scraping as much sauce off as I could, then added the already cooked noodles I had in the fridge, and 25minutes later, we had Turkey/Chicken Parmesan Casserole. It wasn't so good. I probably will not make it again. (It wasn't the noodles or turkey/chicken, it was the sauce...bland flavor.)

It proves once again that I need my own cooking show. If I made brand new recipes without looking at it until I was on the show, I could make millions and get lots of laughs I'm sure! Katie, you could be my side kick!

Yard Work - Take 1

Here's a couple pictures of the back yard when we got the house...the previous owner kept his boat in this spot and the storage shed he had for it finished out the fence. One of my big outdoor projects was finishing it so Luci would have a place to play....ok, so we could let her out and not chase her around the neighborhood. I'll publish a new post down the road when I get a little more done around the deck/patio area. I turned the spot where his boat sat into the first Ford Family Garden. I'll post some pics of that down the road as it develops.

There's a pic of the fence getting done and a pic of the first work day in the garden. Since there's still a good chance of a frost or two, I've only got carrots, cabbage, lettuce, and broccoli out. Can't wait to get the rest put in and start watching it grow.

Another Ohio Visit

There was a "Celebration of Kids" Expo at the Dayton Mall. Super fun! Olivia got to play in some weird texture tables, got a fireman's hat, bear, and 3 books, made a sock puppet, and played with some sticks.

Uncle Will's Flight School. She passed with flying colors!

We visited Aunt Tara's Pedicure Studio. Awesome color!