"I can Talk Talk Talk , I can Talk"

We'll we are back from Florida as you can tell from the video . Boy Alistair had alot to tell Daddy about when we got home. He definitely needed some male bonding time after being with all those women in Florida.
Sorry I've been slacking on the blogging....been quite busy since we've gotten home.
We had so much fun while we were there and hope next time we'll see Disney World when he gets a little older.

Thank you Grand Mariner and Gigi for making us feel so welcome in your home.

Thank you Grammy for teaching my baby to talk....now he won't stop

Thank you Aunt Roe and Aunt Shawn for loving and squeezing me while I was there.

Florida Trip - Day Seven

Alistair's Open House !

Good Friends and Family were banging down the door to see him.

His first meeting with his Aunt Shawn changing his one of many diapers that day!

Aunt Shawn always takes beauitful pictures, she's gotta teach Aly how to pose

Aunt Pat Still showing him how to fly baby style!

Aunt Slyna holding him close...not sure when we'll see each again...he could be in school next time...haha

A quick change into his sailor suit to impress the ladies...poor baby had to model all his clothes for us...just kidding

Yolanda came over too and fell in love with our little man...sang lots of old Italian songs to him till he started singing them back at her.

All Four generations there together at last!

I LOVE......MEAT!!! (in my best austin powers goldmember voice)

So I'm sitting at work one day when I received an email from my good buddy Jay entitled "oh ya". I open it up and peer inside to see a hyperlink to the "Bacon Explosion" recipe. After reading the recipe it was clear that I HAD to make this right away (especially since Tara was not home and she will not touch pork)

Sooo.... The recipe calls for 2 lbs of bacon.. (yes that pounds with a "P") and 2 lbs of Italian turkey sausage. And that's pretty much it outside of some BBQ sauce and some BBQ rub.

So the recipe goes a little something like this...

Take strips of bacon and create a nice little weave pattern almost like your making a basket.. Keep it nice and tight because we do not want that bacon goodness to drip out of this thing. After your done..spread some of that homemade BBQ rub all over it. You may be asking yourself... "Self, that's not two pounds of bacon I just used, I have a lot left over?" Don't you worry your little head.. we will take care of it. It should look like the picture below.



Then if that were not enough artery clogging goodness for you.. your then going to take 2 lbs of Italian sausage and spread a nice little layer right on top of your bacon basket weaving project... ( I used mild Italian sausage and I think next time I'll use Hot Italian sausage)


Remember all that left over bacon we had.. Well now your going to cook it just like you would if you were having bacon and eggs. Crispy or soft how ever you like it. Now we are going to cut that into bite sized bits and sprinkle it all over our new sausage layer..Now it wouldn't be a BBQ without some BBQ sauce... So take your favorite BBQ sauce and sprinkle it on top of that, add some more of that BBQ rub and your almost done.


Now here is the tricky part.. we want to roll only that sausage up leaving our basket weaving project still flat. Roll it up nice and tight until you have a nice log of sausage. Pinch off the ends to seal in all those bacon bits. Now after you do that you are going to take our basket weaving project and roll it around our sausage log. Looks something like so.....

Now comes the fun part. We are going to smoke this over indirect heat at 225 degrees for 1hr per thickness of your log.. mine took about 3 hrs total. You want an internal temperature of 165 degrees. I smoked mine using pecan wood and it turned out great!! Here is the finished product after smoking it in my Big Green Egg.

Now when you slice it.. you do not want a thick slice! This is VERY rich.


I took it to work the next day to let some of the boys at work try some and it was GONE!.. This is such a great recipe but it is not for the faint of heart. Here is the link to the official recipe.
http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/print/bacon-explosion.html

Florida Trip- Day Six

Farmer's market at the park! Grand Mariner , Alistair and I got up early and went to the farmers market down the road from their home.

Thats me eating Boiled Cajun Peanuts....I haven't had these since I was a wee lassie.

Lots of Fresh Veggies to bring home for supper tonight.

We went walking through the park to the Botanical Gardens where we found lots of Lily Pads and Crazy People getting married at the wedding Garden for Free on Valentines Day! You should have seen all the crazies lined up for this.

Gator signs everywhere...good thing we didn't get to close to the water's edge with Megan!

For Valentines Night Grand Mariner and Gi Gi went to the Symphony and a romantic dinner , leaving Grammy and I home with a movie and leftover Pizza..ha!

Our Valentine was Alistair anyways.

One last good bye to Alistair and kissed him goodnight.
Little did they know that when they left , Alistair was going to tell us his first story !

Florida Trip - day Five

Mariner made us all reservations for High Tea at the English Rose Tea Room. They even had hats for us to try on and take pictures. We didn't make Alistair wear one because he's a MAN and daddy would not like that at all.

Rosanna and I looked so English in our lovely hats. We shared a pot of Happy Tummy Tea and ate scones with special English Cream.

The food was delicous and the atmosphere was positvely radiant !

We took a stroll down the Venoy in St. Petersburg and stopped to get some Gelato.

I had the bailey's and dark chocolate mix...amazing!

Grammy had to be different and get the Pitashio favored.

Aunt Roe loved walking Alistair to the different stores we visited, she's gonna make such a great mom someday


We ended our lovely day with some homemade pizzas Rosanna and I made our all time favorite : Onions and Black Olives pizza! Check back tomorrow !

Florida Trip - day Four

Another beautiful day in Florida! Grand Mariner worked half day today and has the rest of our visit off.

We are trying to give Baby Alistair some more belly time and have him play in his boppy gym belly down.

He seemed to really like reaching for the colorful toys and we heard many squeals of delight from him. He's found a new love for blankets as well. Loves to put them around his mouth and feel the fabric in his fingers. Not really needing his paci all that much ,but he always welcomes it...lol !

Grammy was showing him how playtime should be done!

Megan's so interested in the baby an even runs to protect him when he cries.

Loves his swing time!

Check back for more tomorrow!

Florida Trip - Day Three

What a Fun day !



1. Grammy cut my hair


2. Alistair learned how to do a pushup


3. Aunt Ro came to visit






Not such a great picture of my wet head.




Alistair was a bit hungry and wanted to be apart of the action, so the haircut took two days to accomplish.



"new moms aren't allowed to be pampered"



we cut about 3 or so inches off, believe I needed it after 6 months









Little man started to realize he had back and arm muscles and wanted to show them off


his little legs were up in the back as well, like he was balancing on his tummy.




Daddy isn't going to recognize me when I get home...he's a Muscle man!











Then Alistair got to meet Aunt Roe for the first time. He thanked her for treating mommy to some of her maternity clothes and the beautiful shower she hosted. He told me later that he thought she was pretty cool.

Aunt Roe and I went to a Indian Cusine called Curriez and I had the special Chicken Goan and she had the buffett. We smelled like her IT dept and some of the doctors I used to work for..lol!

Needless to say we needed to get the taste out of our mouths with nothing better to do that with but McDonalds frozen yogurt..yum

I think this day was spent very well indeed. Looking forward to Day Four

Florida Trip - Day Two

Day two Grammy , Alistair and I spent a relaxing day settling in. In this video I captured us by the pool on the patio listening to the birds and the wind pass by.

A little one on one time with Grammy.

Then we decided to go for a walk on a beauitful Florida afternoon in the neighborhood.

Alistair is soaking up the humidity . Proud Grammy takes her great grandson on a stroll. We sumed up the day with some homemade Chiken soup that we got the receipe from Bobby Flay on the food network. yum!

Check back for tomorrows adventures

Florida Trip - Day one

We had such a grand entrance when arriving at Grand Mariner and Gi Gi home. The French Sewing room turned into a nursery for us and what a wonderful room it was!

Our first night was a little bit different and sleeping didn't come so easy ,but I think tomorrow night might be better

Megan (Grand Mariners dog) just loves Alistair and wants him to grow up real fast so they can play together.

Daily updates to come on our trip !

First Plane Ride

Alistairs first Plane Ticket (sorry for the sideview)

He passed with Flying colors...haha a little blog humor. We got to the airport with about an hour to spare before the flight. Daddy was able to walk us down the gateway and load us in safely. So glad we listened to Aunt Jen about taking the stroller with us on the trip because it saved my back and so much time going from one gate to the other. When we got on first leg to Houston, Alistiar slept from takeoff to landing.

Everyone complimented us on how well behaved and I said it was in his blood to fly planes. When we got to Houston it was a rush to find our next gate because it was going to start boarding in 10 mins!!

We were so lucky when we found out that the gate was only couple down from where we were already.

Alistair decided he wanted to stay awake for the final flight to Florida and was content to suck on his paci and stare at the crazy passengers.

So awake he laid until we arrived ! Grand Mariner met us at the Terminal and he was so excited about seeing her. He hasn't stopped smiling since he landed.

We'll keep you updated on our Florida adventures...maybe with better pictures on a camera.

Well our Bags are Packed and we're Ready to Go!

So the time as time to visit Mom's family in Florida. Mom and I are all packed up and ready to go. Though its going to be really hard to leave Daddy for the first time, I'm excited about seeing some of my other family I've never seen before. This will also be my first ever Plane Ride ! Maybe one day I'll fly in the plane Daddy's flys? Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing the Beach and getting sand in my toes.
Mommy said that I will be meeting Aunt Shawn, Gi Gi , Grammy , Aunt Roe and some of her friends while we are there.
I'll have Mommy put some pictures of our trip together when we get back.


So for now Ta Ta !

A very pleasent Lake Pleasent

Looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon, we deciding to take a little drive to Lake Pleasant . After a very bumpy ride through the mountains we found a spot where Jeff could laid down some lines and go fishing.
Grace had fun chasing birds and Alistair looked on happily in his carseat.
We had to hurry before the sun went down so we could find our way back to the main road.





Baby Alistair bundled in his carseat

Grace enjoying the Great Outdoors







Jeff trying to catch dinner for ....Tober only


http://www.maricopa.gov/parks/lake_pleasant/

Maybe someday we'll rent a boat and enjoying the lake even more