Something to make you smile...

Rosemary Ranch Chicken

DA took one bite of this and declared that it was a keeper. It was full of flavor and the kids loved it too. I got the recipe from Real Mom Kitchen.

Rosemary Ranch Grilled Chicken

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup ranch dressing
3 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon white sugar, or to taste (optional)
6-8 boneless skinless chicken cutlets

In a gallon size baggie, mix together the olive oil, ranch dressing, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, pepper, and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes. Place chicken in the baggie, and coat chicken with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 4-8 hours. Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill chicken for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear.

Cheesesteak Subs

I am crediting Real Mom Kitchen for this recipe. It was fast and easy and really good. TJ even liked it. AM turned up her nose but that's pretty typical these days. This one has made the cut and will be going into my cookbook. The only changes I made was to replace half of the butter with Olive Oil and I added tomatoes after the sandwich had been put together. Thanks to Maria for having some oregano on hand. I had forgotten that when we moved I threw a lot of outdated spices away.

Quick and Easy Cheesesteak Subs

3 tablespoons butter
1 green pepper, halved and sliced
1 onion, halved and sliced into thin half moons
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons A-1 steak sauce
1 pound deli roast beef, cut into 2-inch strips
Salt and pepper
4 -6 (6-inch) sub rolls (depending on how meaty you like them – I did 6)
4-6 slices provolone cheese, cut on half

In a large skillet, melt the butter, add the onion and peppers; cook until softened and golden.  Stir in the garlic and oregano and cook for a minute, until it smells fragrant. Add the A-1 sauce and the beef, stirring well to coat the beef with the sauce and onion/butter mixture. Cook until the meat is heated through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Place the sliced rolls on a rimmed baking sheet. Place to halves of provolone on half of each roll.  Broil until bread is toasted and cheese is melted. Top each roll with meat mixture . Serve immediately.

Have you ever heard of Trios?

I hadn't, but my friend Juana's friend is having a giveaway on her blog. They look pretty cool and I think TJ would like them so I'm trying to win them. I get an entry for posting about it here so...... go and check it out. Since I am the most unlucky person and never win anything,  you'll probably be the one to win them!

http://www.thedietcokediet.com/

What a moment for my mama heart...

TJ has always been very shy. He's always on the fringes of crowds and never joins into groups until he's sure of the reception he's going to receive. Moving has been hard on him. He's struggled to find where he fits in. I didn't realize how bad it was until he started carrying around his puppy that he's had since he was a baby. For 2 years puppy had only been slept with at night and all of a sudden he was being carried around the house and talked to. Puppy was swinging on the swings with him, watching TV with TJ and was a constant companion. Nearly broke my heart once I clued in to what was going on. But, things have improved over the past two weeks and the past two days have been even better. *Whew* We didn't ruin his life by moving.

Part of his shyness has also extended to all those primary programs at church. DA and I have had 5 years of Mother's/Father's Day programs with no one singing to us. He's never participated in the Christmas programs at church or the yearly Primary Programs. Every year, to each of those events, we would walk him down the aisle to the front just to have him start sobbing.

Until this year.

He went down on his own without a qualm. I'd been praying the whole week that he would be able to do it and not be scared. He went and sat up on the stand and sat there smiling. He sang the songs and when it was time for him to speak his part he did so without a quiver.

Totally made me cry. He's finding his way and he's going to be okay.

My sweet, soft-hearted, geeky little boy who INSISTS on tucking his shirt in each day. I wouldn't trade him for the world!

Our new house

It's still a work in progress. I was going to post more pictures but when I saw how cluttered they looked I decided not to. It started to make me feel stressed just looking at them. One drawback to this house is there aren't many storage options. So we are busy building shelves and trying to get projects done without completely neglecting our kids.

So.... the front of the house. It's another open floor plan so the kitchen, family, and dining rooms are all together, but at least you can't see the kitchen from the front door!

The entry way. The stairs to the basement are on the right.

The kids room. I lost the "paint before we move in" discussion, so it's a lovely shade of mint green in there. This room is just off the front door, directly across from the cutout in the entry way. We put french doors on it so we could use it as a bedroom until the basement is finished. Then we will use it as a living room. DA is currently painting those doors as we speak.

the kitchen

The Family room. The mirror will soon be going in an area in the entry way and the TV will be mounted on the way where the mirror is now. The antenna situation is hopefully going to be fixed next week. I'm trying to figure out how to decorate this area (shelves) without it looking so cluttered. It's better than it was, but it still has a way to go.

View from the kitchen to the front door.

And that is the end of our short little tour. If you want the real tour, clutter and all, you have to come and visit us!

Land of Imagination

TJ has always been a very literal kid so it's been really interesting to see him start to play pretend. He has been the guy at a drive up window, and worker guys (construction) and a whole bunch of other things.

Tonight he was a waiter and it went something like this:

TJ: what would you like? (Ordering pad and pen ready)
DA: Oh.... I'd like the Tour of Italy.
TJ: Well. We've got pancakes. How about that?
DA: That will work.

He then moves on to AM.

TJ: What would you like to order miss?
AM: mumble, mumble.... bacon.
TJ: The cooker is making pancakes. How about that?
AM: Okay.

I'm so glad that everyone is so easy to please here at the A restaurant.

AM's constant companion

AM hardly goes anywhere without her baby.

My sweet SL this summer

Giving up on waiting for Mom to pick her up. Don't worry, I did make sure she could breathe in that blanket.

This was taken last week. She loves being outside. This week I've started sitting on the porch before she goes to bed at night. She is so calm and quiet in my lap when out we are out there. I'm going to miss sitting there with her when it gets cold.

What a sweet girl we've got!

First lost tooth

TJ lost his first tooth. It was a Sunday afternoon. The day before I noticed some white stuff behind his loose tooth. I kept thinking "yuck" and told him 3 or 4 times to go and brush his teeth because there was food stuck behind it. Finally DA looked and noticed it was a tooth and not food. So we got to work trying to get that tooth to wiggle more and more. We worked on it and worked on it and it wasn't getting any looser. He kept saying that it hurt and I thought he was just being a baby. Finally I grabbed a bib (it was close by), grabbed that tooth and yanked before Toby even had an idea of what I was doing. (bad mom, I know) We'll it came out soooo easily. We were both surprised and TJ was happy until some blood started to come out. Then he panicked and cried for a bit. But, Holy Cow. Look at that tooth! No wonder it wouldn't wiggle and it hurt. The front was totally longer than the back.

My brave boy.

First Day of School

TJ was soooo excited. We had met his teacher the week befoe and TJ was pretty confident that he was going to have a good time. Mrs. H seems to be the perfect teacher for him. He hasn't had any anxiety about going and every morning he gets dressed carefully because "He wants to look good for Mrs. H." Makes my mama heart smile.

My AM

As I am sitting here I watch AM as she tries on all my clothes. I went shopping yesterday for my birthday and I left everything I bought over the back of the couch. She tries something on and then announces that she is cuuuuute. I just love this girl! She is sweet and loving, but still her crazy little self.

Puffed French Toast

Being in our new home has brought my creativity back out of hiding. Either that or I'm bored with all my current recipes. Probably more the latter than the former. Anyway here are two fabulous new ones.

The first I got from Our Best Bites it's called Puffed French Toast. Gotta give credit where credit is due. They call it a once a year recipe and I agree. You look forward to it all year (I'm thinking it will make a great General Conference breakfast) but if you eat it more than once or twice a year you'll be able to watch your butt grow bigger. It was sooooo good. This is definitely a keeper. Next time I will half the recipe though. My toddlers don't eat that much and DA and I don't need to eat all that is leftover.

Puffed French Toast

2 eggs
2 ½ Tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. milk
1 c. flour
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
12 slices Texas style toast, cut in half diagonally

Directions

In a large skillet or frying pan, heat about 1/4" of vegetable oil (not olive oil) over medium heat. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk together eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, milk, flour, and baking powder. Test oil heat by flicking some water into the frying pan. If it pops, reduce the heat. If hardly anything happens, turn up the heat. If it sizzles, it's just right.

Take each 1/2 slice of bread and soak it both sides in the milk/egg/flour mixture. If you leave it in too long, it will get soggy, but you want to make sure enough of the egg mixture has soaked into the bread. Gently shake to remove excess batter and place in hot oil. Cook until puffed, golden brown, and a nice, crispy crust has formed on each side (probably 3-5 minutes per side; you really need to babysit them and make sure they're cooking correctly) and then remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. While cooking remaining French toast, keep cooked pieces warm in an oven set to the lowest temperature it will go.

When ready to serve, roll each piece in cinnamon sugar. I personally thought the cinnamon sugar made it too sweet, but DA loved it. So did the kids. I think I would rather have powdered sugar.

Top with your favorite version of maple syrup.

Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parmesan

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon water

1 1/4 cups Panko bread crumbs (seasoned with Italian seasoning)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

Unsalted butter

Directions

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-inch thick. You can use either a meat mallet or a rolling pin. (If you use cutlets then you can skip this step)
Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly.
Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
Serve with spaghetti and top both with Prego traditional spaghetti sauce.
Hope you enjoy both recipes!

PF Changs Frozen dinner

I saw these in the freezer section and thought I would try them out. I don't get there anymore because who in their right mind would take 3 kids, 5 and under, out to dinner unless they have to?

Anyway, they were super fast to make and they even tasted great. The only drawback was the portion sizes. The package said they were for two people, but those two people better have really small appetites! I'm glad I had bought two packages for us to have for dinner.

Ribbon Retreat Giveaway

If you want to have a chance at winning a gift certificate to the Ribbon Retreat, the head over to Crap I've Made (hover over the title for the link) and enter her giveaway!

I've got my fingers crossed. I've got two little girls who need bows for their hair!

Baby SL's Birth Story

SL’s Birth Story

As I approached the end of my pregnancy with you, Dr. L and I decided that March 25^th would be a good day to have you. I would be 39 weeks pregnant at that point and by the time that date arrived I was more than ready! I had high blood pressure on and off, my sciatic nerve made it hard to walk and my feet were super swollen.

The night before we had you, we packed up our family and went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to spend the night since they lived closer to the hospital. On the morning of March 25^th Daddy and I got up early and were at the hospital by 7:30. I got checked in and signed endless forms. By 8:00 and was in my hospital gown all ready to get things started. Dr. L came and checked me. I was still only dilated to 1+ (had been there for an entire month) and 80% effaced. Dr. L broke my water and officially stared my labor. Not much happened for a while. The nurses came and got my pitocin started and I had maybe one contraction. At 9:30 the nurses came back and upped the pitocin since nothing was happening. At 10:00 they came back and upped it again. After that I finally started having contractions.

By 10:05 I finally had contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart. Now they started to get stronger as well. By 10:30 the nurse checked me and I was only at a 3. I was pretty disappointed and decided I was ready for an epidural. While I waited for the anesthesiologist to come the nurse showed Daddy how to apply counter pressure during contractions to help ease their intensity. Daddy did a great job helping me!

At 11:20 the anesthesiologist showed up for my epidural. Yay! I was more than ready for him. But, I didn’t get relief as soon as I hoped. First he noticed my potassium was really low. When your potassium is low you are at risk for heart arrhythmias and heart attacks so he was concerned. He also decided he wouldn’t do the epidural until he knew what my platelet count was. So we waited and waited and waited on the lab to find out what my platelet count was. While we were waiting they checked me again and I was at a 5. I spent the next 30 minutes sitting Indian style and laboring while the anesthesiologist prepped me and chatted with Daddy. Finally we got my count back (normal) and we proceeded with the epidural.

Once again (as with your sister A’s birth) the epidural didn’t work right and I hit transition as soon as the epidural was finished. I could feel everything on my left side and my right side was barely numb. We rolled me onto my left to try and get the medicine to work over there and that was awful! I stayed that way for about 10 minutes while the nurse went and found the anesthesiologist again. He came back (12:00 by now) and gave me some stronger drugs. Still no relief. So he decided it was time for the spinal block. So once again I was sitting Indian style while contracting non-stop. He gave me the block and I instantly started to feel better. As soon as they got me laid back down (12:15) they checked me again and I was at a 9.

Dr. L came into the room around 12:40 and 6 pushes later you were born. It was 12:46pm. You were 7 lbs and 5 oz. and 19 ¾ long. You were so beautiful and angry! You were crying and crying but calmed down as soon as you heard my voice. We love you!

Yes it's been forever

but give me a break! Baby SL isn't into sleeping these days. I'm signing on to let you know about a super cute giveaway. Go here to check it out!.

Last belly picture

This was taken the night before I had SL. I'll be back soon to share photos and a birth story soon.

Yum....

Free ride beans. TJ thinks they taste really good! I love it when he mispronounces something and the name sticks. Forevermore I'll think of refried beans as little hitchhikers getting a free ride.