It is SO quick and EASY and soooo fresh and delicious. It’s perfect for summertime. My dad loooved it. They don’t look too special until you put them in your mouth and it’s like a party in your mouth! Mmm mm. I’m making them tomorrow!

Mandarin Orange And Kiwi Cool Lime Napoleons Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
• 3 kiwi, peeled and sliced
• 1 can (11 ounces) mandarin orange segments, drained and patted dry
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp lime zest, finely snipped
• 1 container (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, roasted, cooled, then finely chopped
• Powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF
2. Lightly sprinkle counter with flour
3. Unroll crescent dough, pinch seams to seal
4. Lightly sprinkle dough with flour
5. Roll out dough evenly
6. Transfer dough to baking sheet
7. Prick dough
8. Bake 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown
9. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes
10. Carefully remove pastry from pan to cooling rack; cool completely
11. Using a pizza cutter, cut pastry crosswise into six rows and lengthwise into four rows to make twenty-four 2 1/2-inch squares
12. Place one kiwi slice and one orange segment onto each pastry square
13. In a bowl, combine whipped topping, powdered sugar, lime zest and lime juice; mix until smooth and slightly thickened.
14. Put a dollop of whipped lime mixture onto the center of each pastry square.
15. Sprinkle finely chopped almonds over whipped lime mixture
16. Lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar
17. Place one pastry square on top of another, pressing down lightly
18. Repeat with remaining pastry squares
19. Serve immediately

Cook’s Notes:
The pastry squares can be served as 24 single dessert canapés, if desired.
Toasting almonds makes them more flavorful. To toast almonds, preheat oven to 350ºF. Spread almonds onto baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown; cool completely.

My holiday begins tomorrow at noon. I. Can’t. Wait.

Last weekend we saw Dave Matthews in concert. From the lawn. Lemme tell ya — things are a bit crazier back there on the lawn than they are up in the seats. Needless to say, we saw some crazy things! It was wild but fun. We camped out that night before heading off to my parent’s house for the day on Sunday. I love lazy days at my parent’s. My mom is an amazing cook and we had delicious food all. day. long! Love it!

This weekend we’re having a big 4th of July cook-out and I’m goin to try to re-create a recipe of my mom’s: shrimp wrapped in bacon on a skewer with pineapple chunks. Oooh it makes my mouth water! I’ll also be making other fun desserts and I plan on going all out on the decorating! I’ll take lots of pics so I can share next week.

In the meantime… I’ve been working on a little somethin’ somethin’… I can’t wait to reveal it!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! It’s SUMMER!!!

The girls came with me to this shoot bright and early at 8:30 on Saturday. They sat obediently next to a tree with animal crackers and water. The father of this family said “who are their parents? Can we get some parenting advice?” It was all we could do to get their boy Lucas to sit still for just a second!

Here are some of my favorites from the morning:

(two steps higher and it’d be the family portrait we all wanted so badly!)

Tommy doesn’t know yet… but I mentioned the idea Friday night and he was really excited about it. So this is a little surprise for him.

I’m so excited!

This weekend Tommy and I had the girls stay at our house while their parents went on a trip. It was so much fun! We did so many things.

They were great sports while I did an 8:30am photoshoot…

Then we went swimming at Miss Beverly’s pool!

(I just love the way she is sitting, she looks like a little genie!)

Come on Shelby! Get in!

Annalee and Miss Beverly

Happy girls

After lunch we came outside and found them like this! How cute!

Then we came home and took baths and long naps. Then Sunday morning we woke up and went out to breakfast and then right over to Target to buy a Wiiiii!! I had to get there right when they opened. We also got the Wii fit! So exciting.

Then we came home and played outside for a while. The girls raced Hawkeye until HE got tired. He was worn out before them! So funny…

“Run Annalee, RUN!!”

Oh yah, and this little one hung out with us on Sunday, too. She is a toughie… she runs and falls and knocks into things and nothing phases her. She is so beautiful!!

It was a very, very wonderful weekend. I had fun pretending I had a little family of my own. Tommy said “this is birth control if I have ever seen any…” Haha. He is happy to know we don’t have to start with three… we can just start with one at first.

Did you know the City of Chicago is located in Cook County, IL? I’m telling you, it was meant to be.

I love this city. I have been before — for my 21st birthday. It is where I bought my first alcoholic drink (a mojito, gross. I had one sip and passed it on). It’s like a clean, upscale NYC. I love, love, love it! I can’t wait to go back!

My sister and I spent last Friday in the city playing with our cameras and snapping pictures of everything we saw — including each other. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

silly mirrors @ Navy Pier

adorable girl playing in the fountain

my sister, in the windy city

chicago

the green, green grass of chicago

me, resting.

America, the beautiful

The next time I go, I want to stay a few days and see a Broadway show, shop ’til I drop, and try a few fancy restaurants. Maybe in a few years my husband will take me as a birthday present.

I love this song. It is my favorite hymn of all time. I recently learned that the lyrics were written by John Newton and the music by a slave in one of the ships he manned while slave-trading. How… amazing. God blows me away with his perfect timing and plans for our lives…

It makes me sad when people sing it and don’t realize the words they are really singing. it is such a popular song that I think that happens more often than we realize. I hope you will watch the video above and really think about the words that she sings. It is simply breathtaking.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found.
Was blind, but now I see.

twas grace that taught my heart to feel
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

When we’ve been dead ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing gods praise
Then when we first begun.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found.
Was blind, but now I see.

So most of you know that I have something freakishly wrong with me.

I cannot vomit.

I think I wrote about it in my 100 Things About Me post? Anyway… yeah. My whole life I have been unable to vomit. I had surgery when I was a baby because I had terrible acid-reflux as an infant and I couldn’t keep ANYthing down. The Dr. did something with my sphincter (such a fun word!) so that things could go down, but nothing could come up.

When I was 14 another Dr. told me that I should be able to vomit by that time… that after so many years it should have loosened or something. Anyway, still… I could not vomit. All I would do was dry-heave, over and over until my body either A) Got over it. Or B) Pushed it out the other end.

I know, gross.

So anyway! I threw up for the first time in my life yesterday! I was sick all day long… I must have tried to throw up (a.k.a. dry-heaved) over 15 times yesterday… but one time I actually THREW UP. I am so excited.

But, it apparently won’t be a regular thing. At least not yet. Because after I really DID throw up, my body continued to dry heave for the rest of the day. I dunno what that was all about (seriously, I have no idea why I was sick) but it’s all gone now.

And I can no longer say “I have never thrown up in my life that I can remember.”

Oh, by the way… it was a totally perfect experience. It was right in the middle of the airport, no trash can, no toilet… just out in the middle of floor. People walked by and ignored me. I had a true vomiting experience. It was great.

And! It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! I thought I would taste stomach acid and yucky stuff… but nope! Just the OJ I had drank earlier. haha.

Okay I don’t know if any of you read this. Hopefully I didn’t make you sick if you did. I warned you!

At least, I think so. This was such a wonderful day… the bride and groom made pictures their priority and we had SO MUCH time to get in some awesome shots. I am thrilled! Here are a few:

Are you ever just sitting, browsing the internet or reading a book… doing something… when you recognize a feeling of anxiety in the pit of your stomach but you can’t recall why? Usually for me it’s something that has recently hit me and for just a moment my mind drifts away from the worry and I have trouble remembering what it was.

It used to happen to me all the time when I was younger. My mom would ask me to do a chore and my stomach would drop. I’d scurry off to my room and get distracted by something and after a few minutes I would stop and recognize that feeling in my stomach. I would have to trace back my steps to remember why I had the feeling… then.. aha! I gotta do the dishes. Blah.

I have had that feeling all day today. The nerves of “a wedding is coming up.” My sister and I leave at 3am tomorrow morning for our flight to Chicago… we’ve got a big wedding on Saturday. This will be the first I’ve done where the bride and groom see AND kiss one another before the ceremony. I’m excited to have a less-stressed environment to take some awesome pictures. I am really, really excited about the wedding… but still just as nervous as I always get before a wedding.

I am hoping to come home with some of my best work yet. I can’t wait to show you!

Pray for us!