Spicy Chipotle Chicken

This is such a simple meal that your husband will think you slaved over!

{Pick up the Grill Mates Chipotle Pepper Marinade- directions are on the back, I changed it a little}

For marinade, combine 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil, and mix in a large plastic bag or glass dish.

Add meat, turning to coat all sides. Marinate in fridge 15 min., or longer for extra flavor. {The recipe says to baste but I just left the meat in with the marinade throughout cooking, and it was perfect}

You can grill, broil or bake until done. I baked at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. SO easy, SO yummy!

Go Cards!

First off, what is up with this?:

What does it MEAN!? Someone please explain this to me. My mom took this picture; she found this sign in a parking lot in Utah.

Moving on... since Tony won't blog about it, I gotz ta say, how about those Cardinals?! Pretty unexpected that they are going to the Super Bowl! It'll be crazier, er, more crazy if they win. So yeah, he's excited for the game, I'm excited for the junk food. OK, I'm excited for the game too...

Ummm....

Meet Brody. What am I saying? You know HIM...

well...

He's just like any other boy, scaling walls despite the consequences...

Causing old-fashioned little boy mischief

I'm pretty sure I didn't leave those paper towels like this... although I can't be sure. Look at that innocent face.

Sure, he's the only guy I know who smiles this big while shoe shopping... but that could be because he's a baby... really, he doesn't know what's going on... mystery solved.

Connie, where are you going with this? We ALL know Brody is a dashing young MAN. You don't need to remind me everyday.

OK, OK. I'm just a little confused. Tonight at Safeway some lady said "SHE'S soooo beautiful! So beautiful!" Tony and I said, "Thank you" and after rounding the corner started cracking up!!! This is not the first time this has happened! Look what he was wearing!

I guess in the end I'm not as concerned about Brody's handsome prince-like qualities (it's on the shirt!) as maybe that lady needs her eyes checked. And that other lady... and that one guy. GOSH people what's the deal, he's in BLUE! hahahaha

I usually shy away from these

...you know, the internet ads that make you think you'll win a million dollars if you can guess "whose celebrities lips these are". Or you'll see the barely dressed person trying to interest you in laser hair removal. Whatever the ad may be, I usually hate them.

Until this morning when I saw this:

It took me a while to let it sink in. I'm so used to seeing that picture on my night stand. But once I realized it was an ad, I had to share it. How cool! Now, I'm not sure how long those have been up but I've never seen one before. Just commercials on TV. Anyway, I'm glad to see that there are ads around that can actually do some good for the world!

Short and sweet weekend

(So this is basically for you mom since I'm sure you want to see pictures.) I had the opportunity to have my Dad and my brother, Mike in town for a couple days. And of course the trip was too short and I wish they lived closer... but, we had a great time going places and just being together. My family is awesome. They even went out of their way to bring me oranges, that they hand picked from my grandma's tree, in California! It is my favorite fruit- and for those who have lived or worked with me you know I eat one everyday. But it has to be an orange from her tree because the store bought oranges are disgusting! Thanks again, guys!

Here are just a few pictures of their visit...

And something specifically about Brody, naturally...
This is a little video I took on my phone a couple weeks ago. I wanted to share it, I think it's so cute! It's his new "thing". You can't really tell but he makes the funniest face when he does this!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day. heh heh. Tony and I went on a date and saw Valkyrie. If you like history stuff or you're obsessed with Tom Cruise this is your movie. I'm really not either but I still enjoyed it. Seen any good movies? I want to see pretty much everything out but I know I won't get to... plus I don't want to waste money on one that's mediocre. Any suggestions? Ok I'm off now... (I do this "..." a lot, I've noticed) K bye

A MESSAGE FROM GRANDPA JED

This is JED, Brody's Grandpa, Connie's Daddy, Tony's Father-in-Law, Melody's Husband, and Molly's master, and I want to make a short entry in Connie's blog to make it known that I am here with Connie and her tiny family, and I am the happiest grandpa in the whole world. I am here because of my beautiful bride of 26 years paid for me to travel out west with our son Mike, and we are having a great time. Melody is freezing in the not-so-balmy Washington DC area, but Mike and I are here in the wonderful Southwest loving life because the weather has been perfect in California and Arizona. We spent time with Anne and her family, my mom, and now Connie. Mike and I will continue our road trip tomorrow when we continue on to El Paso to see Melody's mom. I have the best family and I am so happy to see everybody, and even though I have made fun of my beautiful bride for not getting to see her grandkids and for having to endure the chilly weather back east, I really appreciate her sacrifice for my trip, and I want the world to know how much I love her for it.

Merry Christmas to me!

I have to give props to this man...


...he did quite well. You see, he knows how to gift give. A couple of my gifts I am especially thrilled about. SO, I give you... my gifts...



I LOVE this necklace. If I could marry a piece of jewelry, I'd marry this necklace.



And these shoes? What GUY can pick out such adorable shoes. I pretty much knew he was getting them for me because a little before christmas he texted me this picture asking me if I thought they were cute. awww. haha!

I got many more excellent gifts thanks to my awesome hubby but I don't want to make you feel bad that your man got you socks. again. haha! jk



What did Brody get? Besides the slew of toys he never plays with? Like I said- his two front teeth. Isn't he adorable? He's pulling up and walking along things as of the past few weeks! Anyway...

Happy Birthday to Tony!

Tony's birthday was on Sunday this year, so we celebrated it Saturday by going on a hike to Wind Cave, out to lunch, and again out to dinner to Black Angus. We were going to have a picnic after the hike but we ended up not having time- and it was for the best since there were like a thousand scouts everywhere... it wouldn't have been romantic afterall.
Black Angus is great... but after going to Fogo De Chao with Tony's work office the night before, it just didn't compare. If you haven't been to Fogo de Chao in Scottsdale, I highly recommend it. Although it's pricey.

At the bottom

And at the top!

It doesn't seem that high, and it really isn't -but it was fun

So that night... the high chairs at the restaurant were crappy. They didn't have any straps! So at one point, Brody slipped through but he' so big, he got caught and that saved him a fall. It was hilarious trying to get him out, one couple by us couldn't stop laughing. lol

His actual birthday, we went to church as usual, watched the Cardinals win their playoff game, and I had him open his gifts from me and Brody. I think he had a good day

A couple shirts, a tie, gift card, his favorite sees candy, and track pants. He said I did good for him not "wanting anything"

That night we went to our monthly combined FHE with all of his family.

I tried to take a picture of him blowing out his candles but no one waited for me, whatev.

I thought this card was hilarious. It was from my mom. The pirates dropped their shorts when you opened the card

Brodster thought it was funny

Anyway, happy birthday Tony!

Going Private?

I'm contemplating making my blog private. But then again I feel a little sad when someone has theirs private and I'm not invited to read their exclusive life stories. I don't want to deprive anyone the opportunity of reading my oh-so-exciting posts. It's just that... sometimes I come across stories about Internet safety and I seem to be breaking some of their "keep your self safe" rules. What to do, what to do...

If someone in my family had a stalker, wouldn't I need to do what's best for us? Just thinking.. actually I've been thinking about this since I started a blog. Not too long ago. I won't be collecting emails just yet... but be warned. haha!

Chubby Bunny

I'm the best mom ever. I'm always rescuing Brody from something potentially dangerous. Probably because I put it there and didn't notice...hmmm. Just today I saw that Brody's already chubby cheeks had gotten bigger. That's when i reached in and found this:

Cookie crisp cereal. I wanted to blame Tony since he had it for breakfast but I had just finished eating my own bowl for lunch. Whops.

Anyway my carelessness could be due to the fact that I'm sick today. So feel bad for me...please. I'm achey and I threw up last night...not fun. Anyone want to diagnose me? All I have is ibuprofen and it's not helping.

Year end

Ahhh... my favorite holiday. I woke up bright and early and whipped up some homemade cinnamon rolls. Note to self: don't go with cream cheese frosting ever again, it sucked. We didn't wake up until 9am since we stayed up pretty late. Our Christmas Eve tradition is to order pizza, watch "It's a Wonderful Life", and go look at Christmas lights around town. Good times...
Brody with his stocking and his Santa present...

He looks a little disappointed that it's just a toothbrush... haha!

When Tony and I were dating he talked about "mountain dew" lip gloss and how he wished they made it. Because if you know Tony, you know that's his all time favorite drink. So I practically squealed with joy when I saw that they made it, finally!

Brody got a Michigan hat from Cindy and Sean so we had to get a picture of both of them wearing them in front of our crackling fire place.

Brody liked his Mickey car from my mom. It's counts to twenty when you roll it forward and it counts backwards when you roll it backwards. Genius. I never had toys like that!

We went to my sister in laws for our family dinner and gift exchange. And since it rained all day the field was too muddy for football, the guys' usual tradition

Brody got a lot of great stuff

That night was the first time I brushed his teeth... I'm a bit of a procrastinator. He looked so cute, I had to share these pictures!

New Years Eve was pretty fun... we decided to stay in and just watch movies till midnight and eat random appetizers. FYI, NEVER get TGIFriday buffalo wings. They tasted and smelled like buttered popcorn, it was so disgusting.

We didn't exactly eat ALL of that but it was fun to try(; We went to 4 different stores until we found Martinellis. Apparently a lot of people drink that around here?

Brody update... This is what he's up to right now. He doesn't listen when Tony and I say NO and broken/messy/torn objects result. Eh, I didn't care for that priceless heirloom anyway. Jk! I love being a mom, Brody's the coolest.