I'm here

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. If you could see my house you would understand why :( I haven't been feeling well and life has just gotten away from me. I was finally able to get an rx from my ob to help with the morning sickness. I still feel just as crummy, but at least I am keeping most of my meals down now. That is improvement! I'm praying that life will get back to some kind of normal soon.

In just a matter of weeks we will be flying half way around the world. My In-Laws moved to Abu Dhabi, UAE a year ago. We will be going to visit them for 3 weeks. I am a little anxious about how the boys (Truitt really) will do on such a long flight. At least we will have my In-Laws on the flight to help us. Please pray with us that the travels would go smoothly, that we would have a wonderful visit, and that I would feel well enough to enjoy this time. We are very excited to have an extended period of time with Grandma & Grandpa!!!

Bounder

Chris has been working really hard on a new iPhone game and it just released. You can check out "Bounder" by Kaio on the App Store. There is a lite Christmas version that is free and the full version is $1.99. Here is the trailer on youtube

Often Requested

Here is another favorite in our family. This also makes 2 9x13 baking dishes. It freezes very well!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake

2 packages (6 ounces each) stuffing mix

1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1 cup milk

8 cups cubed cooked chicken

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 pound sliced deli ham, cut into 1-inch strips

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese

3 cups (12 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Prepare stuffing mixes according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine soup and milk; set aside.

Divide chicken between two greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dishes. Sprinkle with pepper. Layer with ham, Swiss cheese, 1 cup cheddar cheese, soup mixture and stuffing. Sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese.

Cover and freeze one casserole for up to 3 months. Cover and bake the remaining casserole at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Defrost frozen casserole overnight in fridge before using. Each casserole is 6 servings.

Yummy!

I know I should be posting about all the holiday baking I am doing, but I'm just not in the mood to bake and sweets don't sound good right now. Instead I will be sharing some of our families favorite mealtime recipes.

Cheeseburger 'N' Fries Casserole (makes 2 9x13 dishes)

4 pounds lean ground beef
2 cans cream soup
2 cans cheddar cheese soup
1 package onion soup mix
2 packaged (20 oz each) frozen crinkle-cut French Fries

In a skillet, brown the beef and drain. Stir in soups and soup mix. Pour half into a 9x13 baking dish. Top with 1 bag of French Fries. Bake uncovered at 350 for 50-55 minutes or until the fries are golden brown.

Pour remaining mixture into a gallon size freezer bag. Lay flat to freeze. When ready to use, thaw and cook as instructed above.

Addition

I know that most of you have read the news on facebook or heard it from us directly, but I thought it was only fitting to announce it here as well. That's right our family is growing again. We are happy to announce that we will be adding a new baby to our family this July. Our boys are very excited to have another sibling. I'm sure there will be plenty to update you on over the course of the next 7 months.

Thankfulness!

We have so much to be thankful for! We choose to take time and remember all that we have to thank God for. A few of the things that we praise God for are:

A family that serves God together!

Health

Our Home

A job

A Faithful God that provides!!!

As you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, what are you thankful for?

Hello!

It has been so long since I have posted here. I have thought about many different things to blog about over the last 10 months, but life has just been too crazy. Hopefully I will be back to blogging more regularly soon. Until then.... enjoy your Thanksgiving!!!

Crock Pot Recipes

I love to use my crock pot. It is great on busy or cold days. There is nothing like the aroma of a homemade meal wafting through the air of your home, especially one that took very little effort on your part.

I am always looking for new crock pot recipes. Well, I was told about a wonderful blog devoted to crock pot recipes (Thanks Susan!) This lady decided to cook everything in her crock pot for an entire year (that was in 2008) and she is still going strong. I can't wait to try some of her recipes. You can check out her blog here.

Maybe someday soon I will share some of our families favorite crock pot recipes.

Grocery Shopping

Grocery Shopping is not one of those tasks that I enjoy. I do it because I have to. Now, I could wander around the grocery store for hours (especially in those specialty stores) and just look and take in all the new and strange items. I find it relaxing to just roam the store and dream of all the new recipes I could concoct with such great finds. Am I the only one that finds this fun? Please tell me that others find this therapeutic too!!!

I must make a list of meals that I am planning to prepare before I can make my grocery list. That way I know what items to put on my list. I have found that if I just go shopping without a list I come home with tons of groceries, but never seem to have all the ingredients to prepare an entire meal. How is it that with my pantry stocked to the gills that I can be missing an essential element to any recipe? I still don't understand how that happens. Well, it does.

Another problem with shopping is that I seem to back track in the store. As I double check my list before heading to the check out line I always find a few items that I forgot. I end up returning to parts of the store that I had just seen minutes before. Thankfully, I had them on my list though.

Well, I have found an answer to both those problems (thanks to my MIL, Bev). She told me about another professional organizers website. I found an excellent form for meal planning and my grocery list all in one place. I print out a bunch of these at one time so that I always have some on hand. They break down my list by types of foods/areas of the store. Now when I am in the produce section of the store I look at the produce section of my list. I rarely miss things on my list anymore. Try it for yourself and let me know how it works for you.

One benefit to menu planning and shopping using this list is that I don't purchase as many impulse items. Knowing that I have a specific meal plan gives me a sense of peace knowing that we will eat well and that I don't have to try and fill that void by picking up junk. In turn this saves us money.

You can find it under the Personal section of free forms. It is called Grocery List/Menu Planner

Adventures in a New Country

After a very long and tough year my father-in-law has a new job. This job is an answer to prayer. It is almost too good to be true. I say almost because the one drawback to the job is that he will be far away for an entire year. How far away? Half way across the world. That's right he will be in Abu Dhabi for the next year. He will be able to come home a couple times during the course of the year, but it will be tough for my mother-in-law and the rest of the family. The kids are use to seeing Grandpa everyday (they lived across the street from us, up until their recent move in Nov.). We are making great use of technology. Skype has become a new "friend" of ours.

They have only been in Abu Dhabi for a few days, but they are already recognizing what a blessing this job is from God. After hearing a few of their stories we are extremely excited to see how God will use them this year.

My father-in-law has started a blog to keep in touch with family and friends. If you would like to follow his journey here is his blog http://wakefulatmidnight.wordpress.com/ Please pray for the entire family as we all walk this new journey together!

Giveaway

Check out this great giveaway for a custom portable fabric highchair. This would be so much easier to carry around then a booster chair.

Before the Morning

I have heard this song a lot on the radio. It has wonderful lyrics. It serves as a great reminder to me as we endure these trying times. I pray that God will use these challenges to bring glory to himself. I know that I may never see the reason for trials here on earth, but someday I will see the big picture.

I am trying hard to focus on the many blessings that God has given me. I have so much to be thankful for. I am looking for the little things that bring joy. Even when it feels like life is falling apart I still have a reason to rejoice.

Before the Morning by Josh Wilson

Do you wonder why you have to
Feel the things that hurt you
If there’s a God who loves you where is He now

Maybe there are things you can’t see
And all those things are happening
To bring a better ending

Someday somehow you’ll see you’ll see

Would you dare would you dare to believe
That you still have a reason to sing
Cause the pain that you’ve been feeling
It can’t compare to the joy that’s coming
So hold on you gotta wait for the light
Press on and just fight the good fight
Cause the pain that you’ve been feeling
It’s just the dark before the morning

My friend you know how this all ends
You know where you’re going
You just don’t know how you’ll get there
So say a prayer

And hold on cause there’s good for those who love God
But life is not a snapshot
It might take a little time but you’ll see the bigger picture

Once you feel the weight of glory
All your pain will fade to memory

It’s just the hurt before the healing
Oh the pain that you’ve been feeling
It’s just the dark before the morning

Savings

I'm sure most of you are looking for deals, just as I am. A friend blogged about Cellfire earlier this year. I have to admit, I only used this service one time, but I was amazed at how easy it was to use. I need to try and use it more often.

Cellfire is a free service that allows you to load coupons, for local stores, directly onto your store savings card. All you do is access cellfire from your computer or mobile device. You can then save grocery coupons onto your savings card or non grocery coupons onto your mobile device. There is no longer a need for printing the coupons. When you buy those items at the grocery store the coupons are automatically deducted from your total or for non grocery items just show the coupon (on your mobile device) to the cashier. How simple is that? You can also print out a list of all the items you have added to your grocery savings card so that you remember what you added.

Let me know if you are already using this service and how it works for you.

Christmas and Birthday

We had a wonderful Christmas. We enjoyed spending time with family and the gifts were an extra special treat. The boys were so much fun this year. Keegan kept repeating "this is the best Christmas ever." Truitt loved each gift he got. He was so excited about each one that he actually cried when we tried to take it away so he could open the next one. He finally got into it though and had a blast. We consider ourselves very blessed!

We celebrated Truitt's 2nd birthday yesterday. It was a great party with family and friends. When Truitt woke up Sat. morning the first words out of his mouth were "happy." He was trying to tell us that it was Happy Birthday. He then showed Chris how to blow (blow out candles) and immediately pointed to his mouth. He was ready to blow out candles and eat cake.

Today was his actual birthday. We had a great day together as a family just taking it easy.

We love our little man. He is so opinionated. He definitely knows what he wants. Someday that will prove to be a huge asset for him. It is very obvious that he loves his family. I love the little kisses he gives and the big grunts he makes as he trys to squeeze us hard as he hugs us. Most days he asks for Keegan and Daddy first thing when he wakes up from his nap. He loves his cars and balls. He is definitely a little boy! Truitt, I think God for you and can't wait to see what he has in store for you this next year!!! Happy 2nd Birthday, Snugga!!!!!

Holiday Meme

I stole this from Kristen. I can't wait to see everyones answers.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? hot chocolate

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? There is usually a large gift left unwrapped for each child and then a few wrapped from Santa.

Colored lights on tree or white? White!

Do you hang mistletoe? No

When do you put decorations up? The day after Thanksgiving. I want to enjoy them as long as possible.

What's your favorite holiday dish? Christmas Eve Potatoes...YUM!

Do you open gifts Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Chris and I each grew up with the tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve. We continued this tradition when we got married and now do it with our boys. We always get new pajamas. Everything else is opened Christmas morning.

How do you decorate your tree? We also grew up with a tradition of getting a new ornament every year. This is something that we enjoy doing. It is so much fun to pull out our ornaments every year and remember all the great memories that are attached to each one. It is fun to see what ornament each family member will pick each year. They usually represent something that we enjoy or something that has happened in the last year.

Snow. Love it or hate it? Love it...as long as I don't have to go out in it.

Can you ice skate? I don't think I have ever tried.

What's your favorite holiday desserts? How do you choose just one?

What's your favorite holiday tradition? I am all about tradition. I love each one. I wouldn't ever think about changing anything we do!

Candy Canes- yum or yuck? I'm not a huge fan of candy canes. I hate the sticky mess. I do like a little peppermint flavor in certain things though.

Favorite show? All the old animated Christmas classics....Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Charlie Brown Christmas......

Creation and Souls

I just read this post on facebook from Randy Alcorn and it got me thinking.

"What message do we send secular people when we dismiss environmental
concerns? What credibility do we have when we say we love the Creator, but
aren’t concerned about creation? We can disagree about global warming &
should never worship creation. But if they see us leading the way in reasonable
care for God's world it ...can build relationships, open doors to the gospel.
“The Lord rejoices in all he has made!” Ps 104:31"

lack of pictures

I have so many pictures that I have wanted to share over the last several months, but I am having problems with my computer. All of my pictures sit on my camera. I need to figure out a way to get them off of my camera. My hard drive is full and my laptop is having so many problems. I wish I could share some of the cute pictures of my family. Maybe someday I will be able to share pictures again. Until then, I will post without pictures.

Readers

Mostly I blog so that I can remember what is going on in our life. It is also a great reminder of how God is working in our lives. Sometimes I wonder though if I should just journal. Is anyone reading this blog anymore?

Holiday Meal

I love tradition! Every year I grew up with the same holiday meals. I look forward to it every year. I am one that does not like to mess with tradition. Why mess with it if it is working?

Well, I am adding something new to our holiday meal this year. I almost feel like a trader saying that. LOL! I stumbled across a salad recipe last year and fell in love with it. I will be adding it to our Christmas Eve dinner. It is a simple, refreshing and festive salad. Some might consider it a dessert since it has whip cream, but I still consider it a salad :)

Cranberry, Grape, Pineapple Salad

2 cups fresh cranberries

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of red grapes

1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped

1/2 cup broken walnuts (optional)

1 small can pineapple tidbits, drained

Put cranberries through the food grinder, using coarse blade. Or chop in processor. Stir in sugar. Let stand overnight.

Next morning, drain well, pressing lightly to remove excess juice. Cut grapes in half and remove seeds if necessary. Add grapes, pineapple and nuts to well-drained cranberry mixture. This much may be done ahead. Refrigerate.

Just before serving, fold in the whipped cream.

Serve immediately. Recipe doubles easily.

Useless Finds

We just had a repair man here to fix our refrigerator (there was a recall on it). While he had it pulled out I had the chance to clean behind/under it. It is sandwiched between two cabinets and has never been pulled out before, so I was afraid of what we might find under there.

We found many cheerios, vitamins, tons of dust bunnies and a check. Yes, a check! This check was almost 6 years old and was $1,000. How did we never notice a $1,000 check was missing???? I still can't believe this. Not only was the check for a significant amount of money and very old, but the person that wrote that check has now been dead for a number of years. I guess we weren't meant to have that money.