What a FANTASTIC Weekend...

Hello friends!  I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.  Its only Sunday morning, its not over yet, so if you haven't done something fun, GO DO IT!

Beau and I had such a great weekend.  Friday he had call and therefore was to be there overnight.  We had been anticipating my parents getting in and at about the time I was expecting them to ring the door bell, I jump up to answer the door and THERE IS BEAU!!!!!!! I have to say I have a great deal of love and respect for his new friends at the hospital since they sent him home for the duration of call knowing we had family coming.  Thanks guys, that was really great of you!

So after a great deal of jumping up and down and squealing, hugging and kissing on my man because I was just SO excited that he was home and just love his face so very much we snuggled in a bit and waited for mom and dad to get here.  They weren't far behind!

I was thankful that both mom and dad made it up.  The guys had planned on going to a gun show for quite some time now and dad was really needing a break from work for a weekend.  Beau had tried talking me into going, but I just wasn't feeling it this weekend.  So I talked my mom into coming too.  I needed some girl time with my momma.  I think I am just now starting to appreciate her.  When I was younger, we didn't get along so well.  But not, she's amazing, wonderful, beautiful and well...I just really love her and enjoy every visit.

Isn't she just adorable?  Saturday while Beau and Dad we're doing their "guy thing" mom and I did some running around.  I put in some applications and then we headed back home for lunch.  While sitting at the table and chatting, dad called and asked if we wanted to meet them at the grocery store.  "What?"  You may ask...well let me just explain that our grocery store is about the size of Wal-Mart and Sam's PUT TOGETHER and is INSANELY CHEAP.  So we met up and did some grocery shopping and then Dad took us all out to eat at Fuddruckers.

Very Berry Strawberry

My baby, the matching was not planned...

My mom and dad.  They're wonderful.

Then it was off to Menards!  Mom and Dad are finally getting their bathroom remodeled so we went to look at bath tubs and what not.  Beau and I LOVE to do things like that.  One of our favorite places to go is Lowe's.  We love to go through the aisles and get ideas for what we'd want in our home.  We've even gotten ideas for our dream kitchen.  Thanks Lowe's! :D

Then we headed home and there were a couple recipes I wanted to try out while they were here because I LOVE to make good food for the ones I love.  Here are a couple things I tried:

Nutella Monkey Bread (I call them bites)

2 cans of pre-made biscuit dough

Nutella

Its really very simple.  All you have to do is cut the biscuits in half, flatten them out on wax paper, dab some Nutella in the middle, and close them up!  Then you bake them in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes!  

What I did was grease an 8x8 baking dish.  I think when people think "Monkey Bread" they think about baking it in a bundt pan and layering the biscuits.  I've never had any luck doing it that way and so I just arrange them in one layer.  I think the next time I make these I will use croissant dough instead.  As you can see, the dough began to pop open as I continued to fill the pan.

*note: make sure the dough remains cool as you roll them otherwise it will stick to the wax paper and make a huge mess and cause you to swear profusely. 

They taste what I imagine cream puffs to taste like.  We aren't chocolate fans so I sent them home with my parents. 

I also pinned a recipe a while ago for Spaghetti Braid...

Spaghetti Braid

Spaghetti

Thick Spaghetti Sauce

Mozzarella 

1 loaf of Rhoads frozen bread

Garlic Powder

Italian Seasoning

Butter

First you want to lay the bread loaf out and let it thaw for about an hour.  Boil the spaghetti and add the sauce.  Once the spaghetti is all done roll out the dough on a piece of wax paper until it is roughly the size of a cookie sheet.  Place the spaghetti in the middle of the dough length wise and add cheese.  Make slits in the dough from the edge to about two or three inches in on either side and lay the dough over the spaghetti.  Brush on melted butter and sprinkle with garlic powder and Italian seasoning.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes!

Thankfully my mom was here to help.  We learned the hard way that the dough can't get too warm so if you're like me and have to use your stove top as a work space at times, then you might want to roll out the dough and then let it sit in the fridge for a while so the heat from the stove doesn't cause it to stick to the wax paper.  

Mom doing my dirty work for me.  She loves to cook too though, so its ok ;)

It was so wonderful having Mom and Dad here this weekend.  I am so glad they don't live too far that it makes it difficult for them to come visit on their busy schedules.  Nothing feels better than having family sitting around the table eating food, drinking wine, and enjoying conversation.

We're so Norman

Oh!  And yesterday was "neighborhood" in the photo challenge.  Here is a picture of our neighborhood...

We had another huge snowfall on Friday night and again this morning so I think I am going to have to have a snowball fight with the hubs today.  Yep...its on!

In Gods Love,

Kenz