WADE SLEPT!!

I shouldn't be posting this and jinxing us, but we put Wade to sleep last night at 8:00, and he didn't wake up to eat until 4!!! I went to bed at midnight (I am working with my friend's VERY PATIENT AND AMAZING husband on getting my new website completed, so I am up to at least midnight every night working on stuff, getting galleries ready, writing out information, etc. BUSY!), so I got 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night. UH-MAZE-ING. And he is napping right now, and Owen and I are having a relaxing cuddle session on the couch. :o)

My cousin, Sarah

I posted on FB a few days ago, requesting prayers for my cousin. She lives in Australia (moved there after she got married to her Australian husband), and has been diagnosed with Golden Staph. It has attacked all of her organs, and she is in very critical condition. Golden Staph is a form of MRSA. She is breathing 20% on her own, and is on a heart and lung machine. The drs are saying that it will be months before they know how this has affected her, and her road to recovery will be long, as in years. It is still very touch and go right now. Please keep praying. Thankfully, my aunt Barb was able to fly out to be with her during all of this.

One of Wade

I shared this on my other blog, but wanted to share it here as well. Isn't.He.Perfect?!?! He is getting to be such a big boy, which makes me all kids of sad. :o)

Another recipe...

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Pasta

1 lb chicken breast (seasoned with salt and pepper, grilled, and diced into small pieces)

1 small white onion, small diced (you only need 1/2 of it)

1 package of frozen chopped spinach, cooked and drained WELL

1 can of artichoke hearts (NON-marinated!!), chopped up

1 package of cream cheese

1 pint of heavy cream

1 package of shredded parmesean cheese

1 garlic clove, minced very finely

1 lb of bowtie pasta, cooked

(Have each ingredient prepared as indicated above, prior to starting this recipe!)

In a pan, melt 2 TBSP of butter, and saute the onion for a few minutes, until it starts to turn a little clear. Then, add the cream cheese, stir it around, letting it melt. When that has melted a bit, pour in 1 cup of heavy cream to help thin the cream cheese. After that is all combined, add in 1 cup of shredded parmesean, stirring continuously. Once that is all combined and melted, add in the spinach, artichokes, and chicken, and stir it all up. You can add more heavy cream to make it thinner, and more parmesean cheese to thicken it up. I usually wind up adding the entire pint of cream, and using an entire back (2 cups, maybe??) of the shredded parmesean. Once it is all heated through, serve over hot, cooked (obviously) bow-tie pasta. SO GOOD. And SO BAD for you.

I miss my husband!

Chris has been working insane hours for the last several weeks...can I just say that we miss having him at home in the evenings and on weekends? He has been gone for 14ish hours almost every day for the last couple of weeks!

Recipe Correction!!

In the recipe post for Company Chicken, I *incorrectly* stated to combine the first 5 ingredients in your crockpot. You need to actually put the first SIX (which would include the italian dressing mix....) in your crockpot, cook all day, shred the chicken, stir it up, and serve over cooked egg noodles. Sorry if anyone made this and left the Italian dressing mix out while the chicken was cooking!

I went ahead and fixed that mistake in the original post! Sorry!

Private

I will probably be making this blog private soon. No worries if you read it, just send me an email at jennifer.nichole@gmail.com and I will add you to my readers list!

Run, don't walk to your crockpot and make these for dinner!

If you are anything like me, your time to prepare and cook dinner is quite small. I have always been a fan of my crockpot, but I have started using it even more now that I am staying at home. Here are two recipes that we L-O-V-E at our house.

Company Chicken- I got this recipe from a girl I used to "know" from a message board for newlywed women. It is absolutely delicious!

1 lb chicken breast (frozen of thawed, doesn't matter)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can chicken broth (i use low-sodium)

1 package of cream cheese

2 TBSP butter

1-2 packets of Italian Dressing mix (I use 2, we are big "flavor people")

extra wide egg noodles (not the frozen kind)

put the first 6 ingredients in your crockpot, and cook on the low setting all day. When it is done, take the chicken out and shred it. Return it to the crockpot and stir. Serve the chicken mixture over cooked egg noodles. Chris likes to top his with a little soy sauce, but I don't.

No-Peek Chicken Tacos (you will thank me for this one!!)

1 lb chicken breast (frozen or thawed, doesn't matter)

1 packet of chicken taco seasoning

1 can of RoTel (or you can use the equivalent amount of fresh pico de gallo)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup of water

sprinkle the taco seasoning all over the bottom of the crockpot. On top of that, lay your chicken breasts. Then, pour your Rotel (or pico) over the chicken. Then over the top of it all, pour the oil and water. DO NOT STIR. I know it will be hard, but resist the urge. Then, cook it on low all day, and do not lift the lid (hence the name "no peek chicken tacos"). When done, take the chicken out and chop it up, then return it to the crockpot and stir it all up. Serve it with all of your favorite taco fixings. DELICIOUS!

OMGosh Moment of the Day (well, 3 of them, anyways)

Chris and I have started the early stages of house hunting for our next home. We have the neighborhood selected, and the floorplan/builder selected. Yay! We are pretty excited, even though we won't start building for probably 2 years. (Which is going to seem like an eternity, now that we have other things in motion...) ANYWHO, we have been going out on the weekends in our free time (har-dee-har-har) to model homes in our area, to get ideas for things for our new home. One neighborhood in our area is, um, pricey. Let's just say, the main model home in this particular neighborhood is 500k, and that ain't even the most expensive house on the block.

So, we meander on in to this 500k home, to have a looksee. This house is GIGANTIC, and BEAUTIFUL. It is easily the most amazing house I have ever been in. Stunning. I literally cannot describe how amazing this house was. Breathtaking. So, we walk around the house, oohing and aaahing over all of the cool stuff, and then we make our way to the finished basement. Chris and I are looking at the wetbar, and I say, "Where is Owen?" (one of the times were I thought that Chris was watching him, and Chris thought that I was watching him. We aren't the only ones who that happens to, right?) I then look the left to see O, dropping his drawers and peeing in the 500k model home toilet. Let's not forget that he is 2, and well, his aim isn't something to write home about. So, I dash in the bathroom, and he said, "I'm making the water, Mommy." ("Making Water" is what he calls peeing) So, I clean the floor/toilet seat up, and was about to help him pull his drawers back up, and said, "Momma, I have to make poop now." Of course, my child would HAVE to go #2 in a 500k house. I said, "Sorry, O! You are not making poop here!" Ay, yi, yi.

Then tonight we went to our neighbor's house for a neighborly get-together. Owen drank a boatload of Capri Suns, and proceeded to pee on the deck, in front of like 10 of our neighbors. Luckily, we don't have stuffy neighbors, and everyone got a good laugh at me washing the pee off of the deck. Did I mention that O has terrible aim and peed all over his shorts as well?

Then about an hour after he peed on the deck, he went inside the neighbor's house to play with the kids that were inside. Well, one of my neighbors (an adult) went inside to use the restroom, and 5 seconds later he comes back outside and is laughing. He said, "Jen, come here." So I follow him inside, wondering what cool thing he is going to show me. We walked down the hallway, and he starts cracking up, and points to the hall bathroom. I looked in, and saw Owen, BUTT NAKED, standing at the sink washing his hands. And on the floor is the biggest puddle of pee you have ever seen. Apparently he didn't make it to the toilet!!! Pretty fun night for me, scrubbing my neighbor's bathroom floor while everyone is dying laughing at my son, lol!