Our Weekend

I love weekends like this last one. Nothin' but good food, the best family, and relaxation. 

Ahhh the good life!

Monday of course brings us back to a little reality so I am going to reminisce.....

I picked up a potted plant this weekend that I had ordered from a local landscaping company here in town...usually I just buy my flowers from the store and plant them myself but since I received a gift card from my hubby for Mother's Day this year I decided to put it to good use and treat myself to a fancy potted flower arrangement! It turned out so beautiful and I am going to enjoy every minute gazing at it for the next few months of summer! 

Saturday we smoked a brisket on our pellet smoker for eighteen hours! We spent some serious time researching what recipes and methods to use and ended up using a combination of a few..

this one,  this one and especially this one were the 3 that caught our eye and we ended up combining techniques and ingredients from all of them. For our first try it turned out pretty dang good...don't get me wrong, it's not BBQ competition ready by any means but we were pretty excited with how delicious it was and can't wait to try it again sometime...except for the waking-up-at-5am-on-a-Saturday-to-start-cooking part..but we value food over sleep around this house! This makes for killer leftover brisket sandwiches the rest of the week too!

Sunday we spent the entire day at the lake! The weather was to die for perfect and we all came home a little sunburned and a lot exhausted.

We ended the day with a little Father's Day dinner celebration and the most rich, decadent, delicious cheesecake that ever existed.

My husband and dad are always requesting cheesecake so I like to take the opportunity to try new recipes! This recipe for salted caramel cheesecake looked pretty irresistible! I swapped the oreo crust for an espresso brownie layer which was the best decision I've ever made by far. I just used a store bought brownie mix and added a little espresso powder to the mix. I baked the brownie layer for 15 minutes before pouring the cheesecake batter over the top and following the rest of the baking instructions. I am still having chocolate salted caramel dreams about this dessert!

Terrible Twosday

Terrible Two's.

 How bad are they really? I always used to say, "whoever coined the term terrible two's obviously never made it to age 3!" This must be a boy thing...because with G, I vividly remember three being WAY worse than two...now here we are with little miss E approaching her 2nd birthday and I am eating.my.words.

She doesn't look so terrible does she? 

How about when you're trying to leave the park and get all three kids to the car and she takes off running in the opposite direction? Soooo you haul your diaper bag, blanket, and 8 month old back down the grassy decline to grab her. You get to her, grab her to take her to the car and she turns into a friggin limp wet noodle, one that screams and cries "noooooooo!' while being dragged to the car?  

holy. crap. 

How about when get to the car and as I am opening the door and sternly instructing her NOT to move....she books it back down the hill? This time she is headed for the small creek at the bottom. Soooo you literally plop your 8 month old on the sidewalk curb (because you can run wayy faster without him on your hip) and hope he doesn't find a dirty band aid to chew on while he is down there, ask your 5 year old to "watch him"...and chase after her again! 

holy! crap!

 Terrible Two's received a whole new meaning in my world yesterday! Either G was not quite the little spitfire E is..or I have successfully blocked horrific instances such as these out of my mind completely.

Obviously we finally made it to the car and I somehow managed to get us all into the car too...thanks to the help of a nice woman who clearly took pity on me while watching the 15 minute circus and offered to hold Meyer while I tackled wrangled miss E  to the car and into her car seat. 

Thank God for the 5-point harness system!

Never again will I take 3 kids to the park with just my 2 hands. 

Never.

Despite this little stinker giving me the ultimate run for my money yesterday, I love her with all my heart and I am so thankful to be her mommy!