Easter

I didn't mean for Caitlyn's Easter dress to be the first thing on this post, but I can not get blogger to copy and paste today - ARGH! I guess because I should be grocery shopping for my little family right now - hee hee hee! Oh well! This dress turned out amazingly well I thought. I am proud and very grateful for my Mom and her finishing the zipper whilest I was catching up on my lack of sleep from the past two weeks of sewing every night from 11:00 - 2:00 in the morning! THANKS MOM! Even at 28 my Mom still takes care of me! Caitlyn looked so cute in this dress and she loved all the tiers. I was so happy.

There is actually one more tier, but it made the dress waaaaay too long, but I am going to just add it on the bottom when the dress gets too short and hopefully it will last a little longer!

PARK PLAY

Finding eggs at the Carlson Egg Hunt

For Caitlyn's basket I bought her a little toy of the new Barbie Thumbelina Movie and some frosted animal crackers.

Caitlyn picked out this animal shirt for Curtis' basket. If you don't know Curtis very well, his favorite foods are canned ravioli and totinos pizza (YUM!) When I found this larger than life can I knew I had to get it for his basket! BWA HA HA!

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I love this time of year when the flowers begin to push through the ground, the trees are beginning to bud and it's time to pull out the flip flops and capris! Spring is a time of renewal and reawakening. I love Easter! This year I tried to make Easter a little bit more about the gesture that was performed for me and all who choose to accept Christ as their Savior. Caitlyn and I had a discussion every night about the life of Christ, then we watched a video that would go into more detail. It was an amazing week. There is more to Easter than Christ suffering and dying for us. He lived for us. He set the ultimate example for us. Brought the true love of our Heavenly Father to us. I am truly grateful for the life he lived for me. For the suffering he did, alone. It was so nice to have the spirit all week in my home and to educate myself more about the life of Christ. I would like to continue this tradition in my family for the Easter holiday. With the holiday comes of course the family gatherings. I see my family almost every Sunday so no big deal. But we only see Curtis' extended family a few times a year. It's always fun to go to the big Carlson party. There is always a huge spread of food, tons of people and of course the egg hunt! Things are a lot more relaxed at the Williams house, a lot quieter too! I love the diversion between the families to really balance out the holiday. The salad I made for the Carlson party was a huge hit (which of course being the 30's housewife in a woman of 2009's body that I am) made me feel awesome! I had some people ask me for the recipe so here it is.

Aubreys Famous BLT Salad.....too much? Yes I think so!!

{ BLT SALAD }

What I love about this salad that you can add or subtract the veggies! I do not care for raw onions so I leave them out and add onion powder to the dressing.

So be creative!

Also, I do not have specific measurements for the veg simply because I add how ever much I want or do not want. I saw this salad once prepared in a gorgeous straight-sided serving bowl. I tried this once and as much as I feel the look of food is part of serving your dish, this wasn't a very friendly way to serve it. I have found the 9x13 pan works excellent!

:: layers ::

~Chopped iceberg lettuce

~Sliced red onions

~Sliced celery

~Sliced mushrooms

~Can of sliced waterchestnuts

~Bag of sweet peas defrosted

~Sprouts

~Sliced ham for the layers or bacon bits for topping

:: dressing ::

Mix 2 cups mayo with 1/8-1/4 cup sugar (more or less to taste really!)

I like to add salt and onion and garlic powder to taste as well.

Spread over the top of your salad layers. Cover with sliced tomatoes (bacon bits?) and sprinkle parmasen cheese over the top. I sometime omit the salt in the dressing and sprinkle a little seasoning salt on top to add a little color and flavor.

...enjoy...