Engagement Pictures

A few weeks ago, Scott and I dressed up and headed to Montevallo to take some Engagement pictures. It was BEYOND hot (as you might can tell from our hair!), but we had fun! We started out at the back of the American Village property, then headed over to the University of Montevallo and took pictures on the side walks, by the President's Home, and at the Lake. Mark Parker of Mark's Brides is the amazing photographer behind these photos! He is very talented and we look forward to working with him for our wedding! Check out his website HERE!

Below are a few that we like!

Haley's First Day of Pre-K

Last week, Scott got a phone call from Haley! She was so excited to tell him that she was getting promoted to Pre-K at her preschool!

Today was the big day! In honor the occasion, I put her in a dress, put a ribbon in her hair, and took her on!

(Unfortunately, she lost the ribbon during naptime. She hates wearing bows....and that makes me sad!)

As we were already buckled in ready to go, she yelled, " Oh no! I have to wear something under my dress so you can't see my panties!"...Of course she does! Luckily, she recently got a pair of bloomers with a dress I bought her....unluckily, they were green! Oh well, be a trend setter! :)

On the first day of Pre-K, Haley knows how to:

(1) Write her first, middle, and last name (she just doesn't know how to label them appropriately),

(2) Count to ten in spanish (I wish she'd learn more English first!),

(3) Write all her letters,

(4) Count by 5s and 10s,

(5) Say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and to the Christian Flag

(6) Quote some Bible verses,

..amongst the many!

I can say this, because she isn't my own, but Haley is super smart. Almost too smart for her own good. She can listen to a song, and pick up on about 75% of the lyrics (which is why I only listen to WDJC - The Christian station with her!). She is super nosy - maybe she's inquisitive, maybe she'll be a tabloid writer! I'm dreading when she learns how to spell words, because I always spell words out loud so she won't know everything I talk about!

Haley has a wonderful personality, she is very smart, very cute and I know she'll do well this year in Pre-K! We can't wait to see what she learns this year!

..MMMmmm Good!

If any of you follow Kelly's Korner (blog), you'll remember this mouthwatering recipe called "Chicken Enchilada Ring". Click HERE for the link! I tried it and it was an instant hit with both Scott and myself!

Scott, the innovator that he his, thought I should try my own take on a "ring" of some sort. My spinach-artichoke dip is a favorite and he thought it would be great to add some chicken to my recipe and put it within the crescent roll "ring".

If that looks good to you, let me promise you, it was!

I made a half recipe of the following recipe, added about 2 cooked, chopped, chicken breasts, and baked for about 25 minutes on 375!

1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained

1/3 cup grated Romano cheese (if you don't have this, I just increase the parmesan cheese)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (I usually just use garlic salt to taste)

1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Have fun! Make it your own!

Three Stryk-ers on the Enemy!!!

Just before my Dad passed away, he was going through some of my Grandmother's belongings and found this newspaper clipping from WW2. He gave it to my cousin and he had someone in his company scan the image in and clean it up because it had been folded, torn, and warn over the years. My cousin sent this to me, all pieced together!

These people are my great grandfather and his two brothers! Two army men and one Marine! It was such a big deal because they were all leaving at the same time to fight in the war. And, they must have been rough and tough based on this article. I guess I know where I get it from! :)

Learning about your lineage is so interesting! Have any of you traced your ancestors?

This article makes me proud to be a Stryker!

Some Cute Boys!

In case you don't remember, I have some precious nephews! I took some pictures of them in June that I thought were too cute!

Mr. Connor

Mr. Colton

These little boys are so much fun!!! They are so precious and are at a really fun age! It's so crazy how different they are in so many ways! I miss seeing them so often!

Happy July 4th – In August!

Better late than never, right? Bare with me…

Our family had one of the best July 4th weekends that I can ever remember having. I think the best part is that it fell on a Sunday and we had the following Monday off! We had the pleasure of having both Haley (4) and her cousin, McKenzie (6) the entire holiday weekend. So, I had a sneak peak of what it is like to have two girls. Boys, boys, boys! :)

On Saturday night, we went to the firework show put on in Veterans Park in Alabaster. It was sponsored by Kingwood Christian Church and it was wonderful! There was a ton of free stuff for the kids to do, a movie displayed at dark, and the fireworks were incredible! Unfortunately, no pictures.

On Sunday, we ate some barbecue and loaded up the kids to head out to a true Patriotic venue – American Village! We ended up missing most of the kids activities and thought we would make it to walk around and catch fireworks at dusk. Well, come 9:45pm, still no fireworks. They had a oldies cover band playing. They were actually pretty good, but when you have two whiny children who wanted to know where the fireworks were, we didn’t get to enjoy them and really wanted them to stop singing! We ended up picking an AMAZING seat…about 100 yards away from where they were being shot off. It was so cool! So loud..but so cool! The kids were laughing so hard because it felt like we were being invaded by fireworks!

There are some awesome places in Birmingham to catch fireworks if fighting the traffic downtown isn’t for you!

It was also great to spend some time at a place that is so special to me and Scott! The next event at American Village will be the wedding of someone you might know…..

...I'm BACK!

I’m BACK! Ok, there are a lot of reasons I took a blogging hiatus. The biggest reason was my lack of a good camera to take pictures. I mean come on, who likes to read blogs without great pictures to look at?


But, I’m SO excited that as a wedding gift, my mom, step-Dad, sister, and brother-in-law, gave Scott and me …

...THIS!!

I’m happy to get back to blogging. I promise, no more unexplained hiatuses. Some of you have been so sweet to comment to me about how much you like the blog! BUT, you people have to start promising to start commenting. If you don’t know how to, email me and I’ll let you know! I feel like sometimes I’m talking to no-one out there!!! And, I promise to be an even-better blogger after my wedding too!

..Get ready for some updates!!