Miss Pretty Princess!

Bryn sure acts like a "pretty princess". She loves dresses, to twirl and dance in them. She loves purses, phones, (loud) princess high heel shoes, her Minnie Mouse pajama dress, earrings, nail polish, you name it, she loves it! I have even walked into my room and she is rubbing Darrin's dresser saying it was "Sooo pretty!" She also has her little girly voice to go with it! A lot of times when she is talking to us, she will also tilt her head to one side or go back and forth! It is pretty funny!
It is fun to watch Bryn learn new things. She can sing her ABC's, she can count to 14, she knows most of her colors (red is mainly the last color she has a hard time with. She even knows black, brown, and white before red!!) Bryn still isn't 100% potty trained but we are still working on it and most days, she does really good! We finally bought her pull-ups(which are her new underwear for now,just in case she has an accident) but she loves them and rarely has an accident now.

As some of you may know, we had a scary incident with Bryn last month. On August 23rd, Bryn started to get a fever in the evening. I took her temperature and it was 102.5, high but not extreme high. I gave her tylenol and we sat on the couch watching a show on the computer. About 15 minutes after giving her meds, I looked over at her on the couch and her eyes were rolling up into her head. So I started saying her name and then I noticed she was turning blue. Scariest moment of my life. I hurried and put her on the floor, called 911, starting breathing in her mouth, yelled for Isaac to go grab the neighbor, and tried keeping Jordyn from going out the front door! It was crazy! She finally stopped turning blue when the neighbors showed up but she was still really pale and very out of it. We kept trying to get her to focus on us and keeping her awake till the paramedics came. (When you are in a scary situations like this one, it seems like the paramedics take forever to get there. They didn't come fast enough! That is how I felt!) She was doing better but the guys thought we should still get her checked in the ER so the neighbor drove us to Darrin's hospital where Darrin met us at the ER. They gave her an IV to get fluids in her and gave her meds for her fever. They figured it was some sort of febrile seizure. It was a long night but Bryn was sure a trooper. She barely cried when getting the IV put in her. And of course, she loved that they wrapped it in pink! She was very cute with all the doctors and nurses helping us. It was the scariest night of my life. When she was blue, lying on the floor not responding to me, I thought, "We can't lose our Bryn." It was very sad. I didn't know what was happening to her. I have never been around or seen someone have a seizure and thought someone always shook when they had a seizure. I see now why people are right when they say it is good not to panic when calling 911, but man is it sure hard not to panic when something like this happens. Thank goodness Bryn is perfectly fine now, we just have to watch her if she gets a fever of at least 100 degrees and start giving her meds.
(Sorry that was a long story, I wanted to tell the whole story because I am also putting this in her book.)

Bryn is such a happy little girl(except when fighting with her brother, which she can pinch pretty hard!) Bryn is also a good big sister(except when she is bugging Jordyn! haha She has her moments!) Bryn was eating breakfast this morning and of course, there was Jordyn trying to get food from her. So Bryn would take a bite of her food and then give Jordyn a bite. It was sweet!




I was thinking earlier today at how fast Bryn is growing up. It is kind of sad. She is at such a cute age.
Darrin will always ask Bryn, "Who's baby are you?" And Bryn will always reply, "Daddy's baby!"
We love our pretty girl Bryn!

Miss Wiggle Worm!

So our little miss Jordyn is the biggest wiggle worm ever! Out of all of our kids, she is the busiest of them all. Changing her diaper or clothes can be such a challenge, she just won't hold still for just one second! People will always try to hold her and once they are holding her, they comment about how much she is moving around in their arms!


It is crazy to think she is already 10 1/2 months. She learned how to really crawl at 9 1/2 months but was army crawling and rolling a lot earlier. She is always standing up to furniture or the fireplace.
She has also learned how to climb up the stairs or get onto our fireplace(which isn't good!) Earlier today, Jordyn was in the basement with the kids and I quickly ran upstairs to put a few clothes away. I then walked back into our kitchen and there Jordyn was in the dining room by the top of the stairs. That was the first time she really crawled up ALL the stairs. Thank goodness she didn't fall.

Jordyn is pretty much always happy. We always say she is such a character! She is at the age now that she can interact more when Isaac and Bryn are playing with her. Bryn and Isaac think it is funny when Jordyn is crawling down the hall trying to get them. Or when they play peek-a-boo with her. I love watching my kids all laughing together!

Jordyn now has four teeth(two on top, two on bottom) with at least two more trying to come through. She STILL sucks her two stinkin' middle fingers on her left hand. I have been trying to get her to stop but it is sooo hard. One thing that is nice about Jordyn is she is not a picky eater. She loves food and loves to eat!(You wouldn't notice that with her size. She is very petite.) Whenever she sees someone eating, she will start to grunt and get mad at you because she wants some!


Jordyn's smile and laughter brings so much happiness to our family!
We sure do love our Jordy! Or as Bryn would call her, Jordya(Jordia)!!

Swiss Cheese Chicken

This is another new and tasty dinner I tried tonight! (I got it off of Macaroni Mamas blog) And of course like always, very simple and inexpensive! To start off I would like to say I am not a huge fan of swiss cheese so I wasn't sure if I would like this but it was yummy! The kids loved it and I didn't even have to fight them to try it!
So here you go...

Swiss Cheese Chicken--(I will give the normal recipe and in the brackets have how much I used)

8-9 chicken breasts (2 chicken breasts sliced in half to become 4 and thinner)
Sliced swiss cheese--enough to cover each piece of chicken
2 cans of cream of chicken soup (1 can)
1/2 cup sour cream (1/4 cup)
2 cups Ritz crackers crushed- about 1 1/2 bags (1/2 bag of crackers)
1/2 cup butter (1/4 cup)

Place chicken breasts in a 9x13-inch pan (mine was in a 11x7). Place cheese over each chicken breast. Mix soup and sour cream then put it on over the cheese and chicken. Sprinkle the crackers crumbs over the top. Melt the butter and drizzle over the cracker crumbs. Bake uncovered at 275 degrees for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. ( I cooked mine for about 2 1/2)

We enjoyed this chicken dinner with a side of Uncle Bens Wild Rice(fast cook), and some steamed carrots with a bit of butter on top. It was delicious! Enjoy!

My 3 Crazy Kids!!

I haven't written about my kids for awhile so I thought I should while I have time so I can remember things about them at this age and print it off and put it in their books!!

Isaac--5 yrs old.

He is our smart little cookie! He has been reading books for over a year and amazes us with how much he knows and how much he memorizes stuff that we don't even remember. The other day, we were in the parking lot walking towards Walmart. Out of the blue Isaac says, "Save Money, Live Better, Walmart!" (I actually just had to ask him what the saying was again so I could type it on here!!) There were no signs around that said that saying or anything. He just had remembered it from a tv commercial!
He has been skiing 4 times this winter and loves every minute of it. He even follows Darrin and goes through the trees and down black diamond hills! (I don't even like to go down black diamonds!) He is in swimming lessons right now during the winter to get some of his extra energy out! During the whole lesson he never stops hopping up and down because of excitement. He also doesn't like to get his ears wet but he is doing better with each lesson. In the warm weather, he enjoys riding his bmx bike on the street, at skateparks, or on bmx tracks. He loves his nerf guns. He loves lying on the floor with his dad and just wrestling away. He is a very active boy just like his mom and dad. We enjoy playing board games with Isaac. He loves to play Life and Monopoly. He says that when he gets older he is going to be a doctor, police officer and a fireman. And says that he will be a doctor on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A policeman on Tuesday, and a fireman on Thursday. He also says he will make $100,000 as a doctor! (because that is how much a doctor's salary is in the game Life!)
He is a very kind, loving boy! He is the one that if you or someone is sad, he will be wiping the tears away or trying to make you laugh. I remember last year I was really sick one day with an extreme migraine. I was pretty much just lying on the bathroom floor. He came and sat next to me on the floor and just started rubbing my head and telling me it would be ok.
He is the best brother in the world and sure takes care of his little sisters!! Yes, he can bug them at times but he always makes sure they are ok. He loves to make them laugh and tries to do funny stuff when they are sad. The other day, he was playing and talking with Jordyn and turned to me and said, "Me and Jordyn are best buds!"
He has a few obsessions!! One, transformers of course! But his newest obsession....STARCRAFT! This boy loves Starcraft! Darrin is playing right now while Isaac is watching and Isaac is just squealing when something exciting is happening and giving advice on what Darrin should do. He is always asking when he can play or when we will play. He is only 5 and he can play better than me! He sure knows how to work a computer!
We sure love our boy!!


Bryn--2 yrs old

Bryn is such a character! She will make some of the funniest faces or noises that make me just start laughing! I will be talking to her and she will just close her eyes most of the way, tilt her head from side to side and make funny faces and noises with her lips! Where did she get that from? It is hilarious to see, at least I think so! When ever she sees a candle she gets excited and starts singing/saying "Happy Birthday" even if it is a scented candle we have on the stove! She has learned to use the word "because" very well when we ask her a question like, Why did you pinch Isaac? and her reply..."Because."
Some of her favorite things are Mickey and Minnie Mouse! She has both a Mickey and a Minnie that she sleeps with. She also loves babies, dresses, riding on the bike with mom or dad, princess', talking on anything that looks like a phone, and her Aunt Courtney!! Oh I almost forgot to add her obsession to SHOES!! This little girl loves her shoes, any shoes! She will always be walking around the house with shoes too big for her. When we go downstairs to get her out of her room from her nap, she will have her shoe drawers open and trying on all the shoes.
She is always wanting us to turn on our ipod and says "dance". She has the cutest little dance moves ever!
Lately, she has been our accident child!! I keep saying Bryn needs to wear a helmet. I think she might have gotten this from me!! haha
She loves her baby sister Jordyn (Jordy)! She will get excited and yell stuff to me when she sees Jordyn do something. A few examples, Jordyn will be some where and be slobbering and Bryn will yell to me, "Jordyn spit up!" or another one that can drive me crazy, Jordyn will be asleep either in her carseat or her swing and if Bryn is around and sees Jordyn either peek out of an eye or make the slightest move, bryn will yell, "Jordyn wake up!" and of course it will actually wake Jordyn up!
She loves to play hide and go seek around the house.
She will say some of the cutest things like, one time she was on the toilet and I was wearing some soft pajamas when I went in to help her. She started rubbing my pants and saying, "Gorgeous!" She loves saying that our hair is pretty. She loves getting a brush and brushing my hair (more like putting knots in it!)
She is a true girl and we love it!!!


Jordyn--4 months

Jordyn is the best baby ever! I thought Bryn was a really good baby but Jordyn has topped that! She is such a happy baby!! She will always smile or laugh at you. She thinks Isaac is so funny and will always laugh at him! She is very ticklish on her rib cage. She will always put a smile on your face.
She is a really good sleeper! She has been sleeping through the night since she was 5 weeks old! Thank you Jordyn! She puts herself to sleep so that I don't have to rock her.
I have never seen so much drool come from a babies mouth!! haha She is the slobber master in our family!! She sure loves sucking on her hands! (More than a binky) Her two fingers between her pointer finger and pinky finger on her left hand are her favorite! That is what she sucks on the most!
She loves her swing. Mostly all of her naps during the day are in her swing, unless we are out and about and she falls asleep in her car seat. She never takes naps in her crib.
Isaac loves it when she "talks" to him! Bryn is always trying to copy the things that Jordyn is doing whether lying on her tummy or "talking" like Jordyn!
She sure brings a lot of happiness to our home!
Even with all the slobber, she is the cutest baby!! I can't get enough of her!!

Crock Pot Chicken!

Another new easy recipe I tried tonight! This recipe I got from Macaroni Mamas and I really enjoyed it. Normally I am not a fan of cream cheese but this was good. Here you go...

Crock Pot Chicken

4 frozen chicken breasts
1 envelope of Italian dry dressing mix .....(Look down the salad dressing aisle! It took me forever to find this. haha)
1 8oz. Cream Cheese
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
Cooked Rice

Put raw chicken(frozen and all) in crockpot. Sprinkle with dressing mix. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. (Don't add water) If you half the recipe and only use 2 chicken, you can cut the time. Maybe only 2 1/2-3 1/2 hours. Shred chicken; then return to crockpot.(you could also just shred the chicken in the crockpot.) Add cream cheese and soup; warm. Note: If only cooking 2 chicken, I still would probably use all the soup and most of the cream cheese. Serve over rice.

The chicken sauce was more on the thicker side but it actually tasted quite nice! We had asparagus on the side. A roll would have been nice too but hey, I was sick today! :)

Enjoy!

Toasted Ravioli

So this recipe I tried last night I got off of the blog Macaroni Mamas. I am an extremely picky eater and so ravioli with ricotta cheese is not part of my diet(the texture kills me) but I still try to make things that Darrin and the kids will eat, and I eat something else. I did however bite one small corner of the ravioli and it tasted good, but Darrin said it was good, so we will go with that!! This recipe was very simple to make and didn't take long at all. Here is the recipe...

Toasted Ravioli

Ingredients:
1 bag (13oz) of Ravioli-frozen or fresh....I used frozen which worked great.
1 1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs....I think I only used one cup.
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup Buttermilk
oil for frying...I used olive oil

Directions:
-Cook ravioli until al dente(whatever that means)..Follow directions on package. Let them cool.
-While cooling, mix bread crumbs and 1/4 cup of cheese.
-Heat oil to approx. 350 degrees. (I just let the oil get hot enough and tried one to see if it was ready)
-Dip the ravioli in the buttermilk and then in the bread crumb mixture to cover well.
-Gently place in the hot oil....Warning: HOT! haha and fry until golden brown, I did it for about 2 minutes.
-Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese on the cooked ravioli.
-Serve with spaghetti sauce for dipping.

This would be nice with a salad on the side.

Enjoy!

Southwestern Chicken Wraps!

For the last couple of months, every time I was grocery shopping, a bag of wraps kept calling my name to buy them. I finally gave in a few weeks ago and bought some, not knowing what I was going to make with them. Yesterday I decided I better search online to find a yummy recipe to make before the wraps go bad. I searched, wrap recipes with chicken and black beans and here is the recipe I found and made last night!

Southwestern Chicken Wrap
(here is the recipe it has online but I changed a few things and will tell you what I did)

Serves/Makes: 4 Ready in: Less than 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 roasted chicken (2 lb size) skin discarded, meat removed from bones and shredded.
(I think boneless skinless chicken breasts would work the best if you don't already have a roasted chicken!)
1/2 cup barbeque sauce
1 cup canned black beans-rinsed
1/2 cup frozen corn--thawed, or canned corn, drained
1/4 cup light sour cream (I just used what I normally get)
4 leaves of romaine lettuce
4 whole-wheat tortillas (10 inch size)---(I used traditional softwraps and heated them in the microwave)
2 limes cut in wedges (I didn't have any, but you only have it as a side)

Directions:
Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, barbeque sauce, beans, corn, and sour cream.Stir to combine and cook until hot. 4 to 5 minutes.
Assemble by placing chicken mixture on wrap and top with lettuce, roll it up as you would a burrito. Slice in half diagonally and serve warm, with a wedge of lime.

Now here are the modifications I made:
I didn't have a roasted chicken and I also didn't want to boil chicken, so I just used a can of Swanson chunk chicken that was 12.5 oz. I think a chicken breast would be the best but it was still delicious with what I used and easier!
I still only used 1/2 cup of bbq sauce because I didn't want it too strong, but I put in about a can of black beans and a can of corn because I wanted more of those. Also for the sour cream, I used a little less than 1/2 cup instead of 1/4 cup.
I just used my normal lettuce that I would put on a burrito or tacos. And then of course a soft wrap.
Here is everything I put in my wrap when putting it together.
So you have the wrap, put the chicken mixture, then shredded cheese, mexican rice(I don't know why they didn't put those in the recipe because it was delicious with those!), lettuce and a little more sour cream in with it. (Darrin also put fresh salsa in his)

So extra stuff you might need, cooked mexican rice from rice a roni, cheese shredded, and salsa if you want.

This recipe was extremely delicious. You could taste a little bit of barebeque flavor but it wasn't overwhelming!

Enjoy!

Dinner!

I love it whenever someone posts about a meal they made for dinner because I always love new recipes! I decided I would post what I made last night.
Dinners for me, I like them fast, easy, cheap, and also yummy!

I got this recipe from my cousin's blog when she made it for dinner. (Thanks Maury) It is really fast to make and tastes delicious!

Ranch Chicken

Take boneless skinless chicken breasts and cut them in half so they are thinner. Then cut them into strips. For kids, you can cut the strips into cubes like chicken nuggets.

Dry mixture:

1 dry Ranch dressing packet
3/4 cup Kellogg's Corn Flake crumbs (I put it into a ziploc bag and smash, and then measure 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese


Combine dry ingredients and mix.

preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 dish with foil.

melt 1/2 cup butter in medium bowl

dip chicken in butter, then in the dry mixture, and place in the lined 9x13 dish. (I usually have a little bit of the mixture left over so I sprinkle that on top of the chicken to give it a little more flavor and crunch)

Place in oven and cook it all the way through. For about 25-30 minutes. For me, it is 30 minutes.
And there you have it! For side dishes to go with this, we usually have rice-a-roni or wild rice and some steamed broccoli.

Scaredy Cat!

Scaredy cat, that would be me! Actually I am just afraid of a lot of things! Last night, I thought one of those things happened.
Jordyn woke up around 5:45am. After getting her out of her crib, I was sitting on the side of my bed facing the wall and heard Darrin cough while lying in bed. As I was turning to put my legs in bed, I looked towards our door and I saw this man walking across our hallway down towards Jordyn's room. All I could see was his black shadow. I started to shake because I was so scared. I hurried and turned towards Darrin to hit him as I was saying "someone is in our house, they went into Jordyn's room" As I went to hit Darrin, I was just hitting the bed and talking to myself. Darrin wasn't there. Then I heard Darrin cough in the bathroom. The shadow man....was Darrin! It took almost a half hour for me to be able to settle down. I still thought there could be someone there but they walked across the hall after Darrin walked into the bathroom. Now that it is morning and I am awake, I am fine!!


Another thing that scares me is.....long basement stairs. Yes, long basement stairs!!
And you ask, Why would those be scary?
Well, I hate going up them. I get good exercise when I have to go down them alot because when coming up, I always have to run up them! In my mind, I always think that someone might be down in our basement hiding and when I am going up the stairs, they might try to grab me. Seriously! I have to run up and kind of look back while I am going. Even when I am 9 months prego, I have to go up the stairs as fast as I can. Weird, I know, but I remember doing it as a little kid and always running upstairs from our basement because I was afraid of the same reason I still do it.

I don't know why but I always think someone might be in our house or looking through our windows.
Well, that is the end of telling you some of my weird things! Trust me there is more but I won't go into it!

Recently read...

I just got finished reading the book Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. The characters in the story are fictional but it is based during WWII in France with true events that happened.

It was a little sad (no crying involved though) but was still a nice book to read. Every day I couldn't wait to read more to find out what would happen next. Also it looks like they are making this book into a movie! I can't wait!

I have a list of books that I am wanting to read so maybe I will post more after I finish reading them.

Baby Jordyn!

I think I should post about our new baby girl Jordyn since she is already 2 months! These past two months have been extremely crazy/busy with life but we love having another little girl!

Jordyn was born on November 4th. 6 pounds 13 ounces, 19 inches long! She just had her 2 month appt and is already 11#7oz and like 23 inches long!

Isaac and Bryn sure love her, and with Bryn sometimes too much! We always have to watch Bryn because she thinks she can pick her up and hold her herself.

Jordyn is an extremely good baby! She loves to smile and has just started to laugh!