Chicken with Mango Barbeque Sauce

2 Tbsp olive oil
	1 small uncooked onion(s), diced (about 1 cup)
	1 item(s) (medium) uncooked bell pepper(s), red seeded and diced (about 1 Cup)
	3 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), coarsely chopped
	1 tsp table salt
	1/2 tsp black pepper
	1/2 tsp ground allspice
	1/3 cup(s) red wine vinegar
	3 Tbsp molasses
	2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
	2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
	1/4 cup(s) canned tomato sauce
	1 1/2 cup(s) mango(es), peeled pitted and diced
	2 small jalapeño pepper(s), 2-3 seeded and minced

Instructions

• Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring a few times, until translucent, about 3 mins. Add the bell pepper, garlic, salt, black pepper, and allspice and cook, stirring for 2 more minutes. Stir in the vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire, lime juice and tomato sauce, and cook for 1 minute more. Transfer the mixture to a blender and add the mango and jalpenos. Blend until smooth. Put 2 cups of the BBQ sauce in a large, sealable bag with the chicken and marinade for 1 hour in the fridge. Reserve remaining sauce for serving. Grill chicken and discard sauce in bag. Serve chicken with reserved sauce on side.

Cancun Carnitas Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing

I posted on facebook that I had made this and got some requests for the recipe so I'm posting it here.

	1 medium uncooked red onion(s), chopped
	1 item(s) (medium) uncooked bell pepper(s), red chopped
	1 cup(s) fresh radish(es), sliced
	1 1/4 cup(s) fat free salsa
	3/4 cup(s) olive oil
	2/3 cup(s) fresh orange juice
	2 tsp orange zest
	1/2 tsp table salt
	1/2 tsp garlic clove(s), miced
	1 medium avocado
	1 cup(s) cilantro, chopped
	1 lb Del Real Fried Pork, Carnitas, heated in microwave for 3 minutes and chopped
	1 lb Fresh Express Spring Mix, Family Size

Instructions

• Evenly divide salad mix onto 8 plates. top each salad with red onion, bell peppers, radishes, and sliced avocado. Evenly divide and place carnitas in the center of each. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing over entire salad. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve immediately. ' Citrus Vinaigrette In small bowl, whisk salsa, olive oil, orange juice, orange zest, salt and garlic. Blend Well. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Whisk dressing well before serving.

Which would you prefer?

Bella's usual morning routine is to climb into our bed and snuggle with us while she watches "her tv."  Today we hear her jumping on her bed so we tell her to stop so she runs downstairs and I can hear the tv on.  She then came upstairs to go potty so I said, "What are you doing down there?"  "I'm watching my DVD of Despicable Me.  I can watch it up here with you or downstairs, which would you prefer?" Huh??? Which would I prefer?  How about my 4 year old to not have better English than I do!

Isabella at 4

1. What is your favorite color? today it's pink sparkles
2. What is your favorite toy? baby dolls
3. What is your favorite fruit? corn & watermelon
4. What is your favorite tv show? Caillou and Kai Lan and Elmo
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? mac & cheese and peanut butter sandwich and after lunch I like eating candy
6. What is your favorite outfit? dresses
7. What is your favorite game? my candyland game and my princess game
8. What is your favorite snack? fruit snacks
9. What is your favorite animal? nice animals 
10. What is your favorite song? all of the songs that I make up and I know
11. What is your favorite book? all of my books
12. Who is your best friend? all of my friends are my best friends
13. What is your favorite cereal? the cereal that's rectangle with dried frosting (I have no idea what she's referring to - anyone know??)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play on the swings and play on all of my slides and all my toys and play on my little slide and I like to play in the blow up pool and going on the hill
15. What is your favorite drink? all drinks except the grown up drinks
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas when I get to see Santa at your mommy's house.  That's the holiday I like. 
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? my stuffed animals and my dolly's to sleep with me and my dolly  - Holly and Dora Dora's the baby 
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? toast and german pancakes and mickey pancakes
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? mac & cheese (we never eat this for dinner) and cheese sandwich and chinese noodles (ramen noodles) for dinner.  Those are my favorite two. 
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? what were you first when you grow up?  I want to be that - give out the snacks on a plane - a flight attendant.  What you be'd when you were a grown up. 


As you can see Isabella likes everything!  Her favorites change on a daily basis.  
She's getting SO big.  She grew 3" from March - June!   Isabella is a very sweet girl that knows what she wants.  


We love you Isabella! Happy 4th birthday!

My baby is 1

I know it's such a cliche but I can't help but say it, I can't believe my baby is 1!  Yesterday was Grayson's 1st birthday.  We had a very fun Dr. Seuss birthday!  We had about 50 people here for the party (typical Frank style, "small bbq for family and close friends).  Unfortunately we don't have any real family here, but we have a lot of great friends that helped us celebrate!

At 1 year Grayson has been walking for about the last week.  He Pat a Cakes (including roll it and roll it and toss it in the air).  He LOVES to play with Figaro the cat and they play together quite well.  When anyone else is singing Grayson starts singing with them.  He loves his big sister and watches everything she does.  He also blows kisses to anyone that asks.  One of our favorite things is when he says no.  He shakes his head with about as much conviction as you've ever seen from a 1 year old.

Grayson is a happy, calm, loving baby.  He loves to give hugs and kisses.  He plays really well by himself and will spend lots of time taking things out of the toy boxes and putting them back in.

He is such a joy to have in our family and brings a nice calm influence to this house of craziness!

We love you Grayson!  Happy 1st birthday baby boy!

Bedtime Stories

Bella wanted me to tell her "a snowman story not from a book" tonight.  I'm not feeling great so not having much of an imagination so I asked her to tell me a story, this is how it went.

"There was a snowman that got into a fight with a wolf and he got eaten. The wolf didn't like that he was cold so he spit him out and he was green. Everyone asked why he was green. Then they got in a fight again, but Frosty had a knife and killed the wolf. Than he wanted to be a man so he said, [singing] God make me a man [singing].  God made him a man RIGHT AWAY. The end."

I love this girl. She's so funny!

Pretend Grandparents and Marriage

When we were driving to and from UT for Christmas we had a lot of time to talk to Bella.  She was asking us all about our lives prior to her.

We got into a discussion about grandparents and so we explained to her (as we have previously, but not in so much detail), that my mom is her grandma, my dad (who's in heaven) is her grandpa, and so on and so forth.  Then she couldn't figure out how Grandma Kim and Grandpa Dan (our next door neighbors) are her grandparents.  So we explained that we aren't really related, but we just call them Grandma and Grandpa because they mean a lot to us and we don't have any near by.  She then went to my mom's house and proceeded to tell her, "you are my mom's mom and that means your my Grandpa.  Mommy's dad and Daddy's mom are in Heaven but they are my Grandpa and Grandma, but Grandma and Grandpa Kim are my pretend Grandma."

She also asked us how we met.  We told her we met at a work meeting.  She thought about it for a minute and then said, "Then you hugged and kissed and got married?"  Yep, something like that.