Brisket Tacos

I'm holding out for some more pictures from Shannon before I post about the 2nd half of my week with her and sis. If you want, check out Shannon's blog for Daily Doha Diary entries and a visitor's perspective. In the mean time I wanted to share a recipe that we made while they were here. I make it often at our house and we love it. Its easy and great to serve for having friends over for a casual dinner. It makes A LOT!

Brisket Tacos
(there are a variety of recipes...I like this the best)
1 well trimmed roast
1 can Rotel - I like "mexican" the best
1 or 2 cans green chilies
1 pkg of dry Lipton Onion Soup
3/4 can of milk
1 pkg of Taco Seasoning
2 cans of pinto beans

Combine roast, Rotel, green chilies, onion soup and milk in the crockpot. Cook on high for 5 hours (or until the roast falls apart with a fork). Shred the roast and add pinto beans and taco seasoning and turn to low for an additional hour.

Serve with tortillas, cheese, avacado and sour cream or any other favorite taco toppings!

Ashley and Shannon Visit Doha (first few days)

It felt like Christmas when I got to hug Ash and Shan in DOHA! Their flight came in almost an hour early so when we drove up they were already outside waiting for us! I barely got the car in park before I jumped out in the middle of the road. I really couldn't believe they were here! I cried and hugged and hugged and cried! Nick was already there and he was shocked to see them so casually walk out of the airport so early! We went to Chili's to eat dinner then home to get settled. Jet lag proved to be a mess for both of them. Brooks woke up in the middle of the night and to no surprise, Aunt Shani kicked it in mommy gear and put him right back to bed since she was up suffering from the time change.

The next day we took Brooks to school went to Villagio Mall and did some serious shopping at H&M. Probably Shannon's highlight of the trip :)


After the boys napped they got to open presents from Honey and the Tuleys that our visitors brought in their suitcases. Honey send all kinds of Easter treats. You wouldn't believe all that we asked them to buy and bring. We miss a lot of good things from home like Reece's, Butterfinger, Children's Place, Gap, Target, Crocs, Benadryl, Triaminic, marshmallow cream, kites, jump ropes, XXI, Marshalls, and the list goes on...



Mrs. Katie sent Barrett a birthday present as well as a present for Brooks. The piano and jumping frogs are a huge hit! Thank you Tuleys!!!


That evening we went to the Souqs (local market), where we seemed to be some of the few Westerners, which is usually not the case. It was a rush of culture shock to say the least. To stick with the culture, we picked up the popular local food, Shawarmas and of course hummus.


Who knew a fake kitty at the souqs would be so popular with the boys.

Russian dolls painted like the local dress here. Pretty funny!

Bear got lovin' from both Miss Shani and Aunt Sissy. These sweet mommies, left their babies to help take care of mine. The boys LOVED it but definitely missed Justin and AnnaLou.

Painting while dinner cooked...

Someone painted their back...

Bear and his silly camels. His absolutely favorite.

Skyping with Honey on her birthday.

to be continued...

Easter

It was a different Easter to say the least. BUT we enjoyed the weekend and did the usual things just in an odd order.

We went to church at our usual time on Friday for a Good Friday service, but dressed as though it was Easter. Following church we spent some time taking a few pictures until the restaurants opened (12:30).




Friday night we had an Easter dinner with our good friends the Volstads and Duncans. Bailey hid eggs for the little ones so the boys got a little huntin' in. We're all missing home quite a bit so getting together was much needed.








Saturday morning the Easter Bunny came to our house...why not, everything else was being done in a strange order.




Finally Easter Sunday...Nick went to work and we decorate eggs and enjoyed a play date at the mall.






Sunday night we met Nick at church for the Easter service.



This Easter weekend turned out to be great. We experienced all the traditional fun stuff but it wasn't a distraction from what Easter is all about. Nothing was rushed and we got to focus on Jesus. Happy Happy Easter!

Our Runners!

Look at these STUDS! I'm so proud of my sweet family. They ran in the Big D Marathon this weekend. Ash ran the 1/2 and Dave and Dad ran the whole darn thing! They are way too humble! This was an incredible moment! I'm sad I missed watching them cross the finish line!

Anna Lou bundled up for the race!

The cheerleaders! Lou Lou in the middle with her cute shirt!

Whoohooo for Ash!

Dave trained with Team in Training raising money for the Lymphoma Society. He was honoring his step brother Jay who passed away last fall. Little kiss from Anna to keep him going!

Here's my Daddy running his first marathon. Can you believe he's 58? Ash and I both consider him our hero. He's one of a kind and we're so glad he's our's! Way to go Dad!

Our runnin' STUDS! So sorry we missed it!!

I have to post special moments from home. Although we're not there we still live through them with all of our family. If you have a moment, please pray for Nick's mom's husband, Ronnie. He had a stint put in one of his arteries this morning. Also our brother-in-law, Chris is having surgery to remove the tumor in his back on April 14th. The power of prayer is deep and wide! We believe in it and thank you for it.

Weekend Happenings

Friday night we got a babysitter and met our good friends Jackie and Mark out for a sushi date.



Lucky for us we also got Brain Salad...finally!

Saturday morning we drove with friends across Qatar to the west coast. The terrain looks a little different which was awesome.

On our drive down the coastline we stopped for a minute and out of no where came a Qatar Military SUV. Scared the devil out of all of us. Naturally they stopped at the Junod vehicle. We assumed we might be in the wrong place! But that wasn't the case.
As usual when you take off on a little adventure, there's always a chance your car might get stuck in the sand. But this time it wasn't us. They were extremely nice just needed help The military car was trying to help another truck who was stuck. Why the military SUV didn't have a tow rop, still boggles our minds. Of course we helped, well our friend, Malcom who had the tow rope did. Slightly afraid to even take pictures, I caught something very interesting to this cultur. Notice the 2 men holding hands. Men hold hands here all the time as a sign of friendship. I doubt Nick will be hand holding with any of his buddies this summer.

Another interesting moment was when this military soldier felt the need to strap on his gun before getting out of his SUV for a simple tow. I think our friend, Malcom in the picture looks pretty harmless :) (Mom is going to kill me for posting these) I promise this was a very safe and innocent situation.

The beach was great. Some people probably prefer a nice hotel beach with showers, bathrooms, and a pool (which we enjoy), but the natural God created beach has its benefits. The water is completely clear and most everything is untouched. We had the entire place to ourselves. Took us forever to decide where to stop...what's worse? Too many people or too much space. As soon as we got there Nick caught a crab. Entertainment for all as long as it was in the bucket. Barrett kept calling it a bug.


This island that you can hardly see...is the one Nick and some others swam to.

Seriously!
That's as good as my camera could do. Not sure about the grey spot but you can see them standing on the island. They made it back just fine and loved every minute.

Thought we would bring a little Texas White Trash to the Qatar Beach. Strawberry Fanta says it all....

We ended our day with a pretty hilarious sight. This isn't the first time we've seen camels but its the first I've had my camera. Normally, Texas kids grow up driving along side horses and cows as entertainment. Not our B's...as you can imagine they get rather excited to see camels!