Meat Feast

I'm so sad that I forgot to take pictures of our Fourth of July celebration. The guys (Ben, John Paul, and Trey) decided that they wanted to go all out and eat as much as possible. They were in charge of the meat and I was in charge of the sides. They told me they were going to do steak and chicken kabobs on the grill and ribs in the oven. I learned the day of that they were also doing sausage on the grill. I also learned that they were splitting this meat fest into 2 seperate meals...kabobs for lunch and ribs for dinner. Oops, I only planned sides for one meal, thinking it would be like Thanksgiving, make a lot of food at once and then eat leftovers later. But we did a little rearranging and a quick run to the store and all was well. Better than well really. Since I don't eat pork, they saved me a huge steak for my dinner. I also made my Grandmother's Banana Ice Box Pie, which was a big hit thanks to some last minute instructions over the phone. A few years ago my Grandmother, mom, and aunt made all the girl cousins a cookbook with recipes of the stuff we grew up on (except for one recipe in my mom's section that I have never seen or heard anything about...hmm). Girl cousins, if you don't use it, you should. Get it out. It is great! And moms and aunts, keep the recipes coming. I rely on them heavily. I love how they are tried and true. Anyway, it was a great day.

We finished the day off with a game of Texas hold em (no cash, just chips for fun), which I had to learn since I had never played before. I am hooked! This is a super fun game! Last night Ben, John Paul and I played again, and the above picture is almost all of my winnings. I somehow managed to beat the guys out of all theirs. I do have to say that my hair looks like that because it was after midnight. Please excuse it.

I'm also adding some pictues of Jonathan from our lazy Saturday morning. We got him the cardboard blocks this week and they are a huge hit. He loves to knock over the tall stacks. After they all fall down he squeals and stomps his little feet around in a circle. It's awesome! He's also saying so many words, but most of them are a one shot deal. If we don't catch it the first time, it's not coming out again. The ones he's saying consistently are ma for ball and tic tic for tickle (he tickles his own tummy while he does that one). This week he also saw an arena football game on TV and a baseball game on TV, and both times he took one look at the TV and said "ma, ma, ma" and they weren't even showing the actual ball!!!! How does he know that ? He also has been trying really hard to say avacado. I guess he knows it's a funny word.