For Nicole

Two easy recipes that I've done lately that were delicious and made me think of my little housewife sister. Because I'm such a good sister, I've even written a grocery list for you that includes everything you'll need. You're welcome.

Recipes: Chicken Pot Pie and Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

Grocery List:
1lb chicken breast
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 bag frozen vegetable soup veggies
1 box of Pilsbury pie crusts (found in refrigerated section)
1 mini tube of refrigerated biscuit dough
milk

Chicken Pot Pie
- Cook 1/2 lb of chicken until tender and cut up into small pieces.
-thaw out frozen veggies.
-mix 1 can of cream of chicken soup, veggies and chicken together. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
-Spread one pie crust on a pie can. Prick several times with fork to keep from puffing and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
-Take crust out, pore pie filling in and spread second crust on top and seal with edges. Prick with fork several times and can even do a little pattern on top with leftover dough. Beat 1 egg and brush on top to make pie bake golden.
-Bake 30-40 minutes at 350. When it looks light brown on top, take it out.

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings
-Pour 1 can cream of chicken soup into crockpot. Then fill up can twice with milk and pour into crockpot. Put 1/2 lb chicken in. Sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, basil and parsley if you have it. Stir all together.
-Cook on low for at least 6 hours. Stir occasionally. An hour before serving, cut raw biscuits into small strips and stir into crockpot mixture. Cook for one hour.
-Then serve!

Both recipes come highly recommended from my 6'7" man to yours. Love you seester.

Smorgasboard of Randomnimity

Sorry for the blog hiatus.  No real reason, just lots of little boys, lots of family time, and a killer diaper rash for one Coley Bear. Here's our catchup of the last week. Beware it's random.

Fin loves pushing Cole on the little swingset Jamie and David lent us. Cole is thrilled as you can see :O)

Now that Cole is 1, he got  job as a truck driver. Following in his Daddy's footsteps and getting his CDL.

Fin joined Cirque de Soleil. He's doing his caterpillar/tunnel impression.

Cole stole Emma's paci and she was NOT amused :o)

Pat gave Fin a haircut. I usually always do it but he did it this time and they looked so cute together.

                                    That's our week in a nutshell. Let it blow your mind.

Stephenson birfday

Tonight Denise cooked us a delicious birthday dinner tonight to celebrate Cole's birthday. True to form, Cole found the smallest chair in the room and camped out there for most of the night. The boy LOVES to climb.

And give everyone a heart attack by standing on the chair and dancing.

Denise got him this cute birthday hat. It may or may not have fit Emma's head better than Cole's.

Kerry reading a hide and seek book to the twinsies. Fin took it literally.

Yummy birthday cookie cake.

Can you tell I was excited about this cake?

Cole got some awesome presents including many foam balls and light up rubber duckies. Grandma knows him well.

The night ended with the adults sittting around exhausted while the kids ran around with all the lights off looking for crabs with flashlights. Isn't that always the case? Let it be known too that we looked at pictures from Pat's parents wedding and if my boys inherit one thing from Dennis, may it be the ability to grow an incredible afro.

He's One.

We had such a sweet day celebrating our Coley Bear yesterday. I am so glad that the Lord placed him in our family when he did and protected him. Before I knew I was pregnant with Cole, I was in a bad car accident and had surgery and the Lord totally protected him during that time. How grateful am I because we love this little boy so much!

Fin and I started out the day by bursting into Cole's room singing 'Happy Birthday' when he woke up. Except Fin sang, "Happy Rocking Chairs to you". Ah the humor of three year olds.

Our sweet neighbors brought over a gift for Cole first thing in the morning which he LOVES. He and Fin have a little passive aggressive sharing over this toy camera.

Then of course we had a little dancing/clapping session to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

I took the boys to the Y where Cole brought down the house with his Tie shirt. Then I treated myself to a Diet Coke after b/c I did birth the child afterall. After naps we headed to the park where Cole alternated between climbing all over the equipment and munching on pita chips.

People, do you get cuter then this?

Fin waited impatiently for Pat to get home so we could give Cole his presents. Cole was very into helping Pat unwrap the present.

And Fin gave Cole his gift of a slinky. Sidenote: when did slinky's stop walking down stairs? So dissapointing.

Cole gives his ball train present one chin up.

Which ball to choose? Why is life so hard?

Then Nanny, Uncle Will and SJ popped over after dinner to walk to get milkshakes with us at Happy Holly's. It was such a nice night.

Cole wrapped up his birthday with a rousing game of Putt-putt and called it a day.

We are all birthday'ed out over here but so grateful for two healthy, happy boys. Now I need to start detoxing from birthday cake.

Sunshine and Daisies?

Lest you think it's a big lovefest here 24/7, let me put your mind to rest. This morning I was dragging around getting ready to go grocery shopping with the two boys. This is a chore I try to avoid at all costs since it is REALLY hard to keep a running total in your head, plan 5 meals based on what's on sale at the moment, keep your 3 year old from using the lemon juice containers as a nasal syringe, and keep your baby from gleefully reaching back and tossing out everything you are tossing into the cart. It's ain't fun folks.

I put on my beloved BOBS ( like Toms) and proceeded to wipe out on our bathroom floor by slipping in a giant puddle of...urine. Yep, urine. Right next to the toilet. The culprit couldn't be lazier if he tried.

I called Fin into the bathroom...

Me: Fin did you pee on the floor and not tell me??

Fin (puzzled): um...no?

Me: WHY is that a question? It has to be you. I know it wasn't me and Baby Cole is in diapers.

Fin: Oh yea, it was me. I couldn't pull me wieney out all the way (demonstrates) so it kinda pointed down instead of out.

Me: Bud you HAVE to tell me when that happens. That is so gross. Now you have to help me clean it up.

Fin (lights up): Oh thank you mommy, I love to clean!

Apparently that was not a sufficient punishment. So would NOT making him clean work? Oy.

Days like these I"m thankful for Nutella on sale.

And free diet vanilla cokes.

However bad your day is just know that if it does not involve falling into a puddle of urine, you're doing ok.

Bye.Bye.Birdie

Things are getting a little out of hand here. I just had to say goodbye to my second sister leaving the country. Cait's gone to Honduras until May to serve the Lord working with orphans which is all good and well except...I miss her. Between her and Kier leaving, the numbers of girls are dwindling and I don't like it one bit.

We did muster up enough festivity to throw her a kickin' goodbye party. Theme: Bye bye birdie. Colors: Yellow and Teal. Mastermind: Sage of course. 

Here's everyone running around setting up. 

Decorations and Food pictures...

Lemonade and Glass Bottle Diet Cokes of course

Everyone getting ready to say grace

Nicole took the plunge and got side bangs. Only she could pull it off in our fam.

Cole with his Pops

Almost walking!

Goodbye pic. If my smile looks fake it's because it is. I was trying not to cry.

Pretty much the only way I made it through that night was Anna brought Nutella. We love you Cait and can't wait to see you again soon.

Gruncles

My boys are blessed with awesome family on both sides of our family. Everyone is so loving and available to them and nothing makes them happier then to see their family. Lately Fin and Cole have had some fun times with their uncles who are great. Or...gruncles.

Fin spent the night last night at Nicole and Rob's for the first time and Rob went out of his way to make sure Fin had a good time. Let's just say it involved make your own pizza, The Incredibles, and Rob and Fin playing the guitar together. For a new uncle, he seems to have this gig down.

Will became an uncle at 9 which in my book is the perfect uncle age. He is SO much fun and the boys adore him completely. He is the #1 favorite person to them. He is so great to entertain Fin endlessly and we love having him over to our house. I caught this sweet moment of him snuggling with the boys today while they were watching Shrek.

And just because he's cute...

Lovies.

Sweet boys matching Chucks. (picked out by Daddy of course)

My boys reading together. Minus Cole who does not read but has awesome cheeks in this pic.

Cookies from scratch. Can't imagine why there are gaps in the cookie rows.

Boys in bed. Remote to myself. Reading blogs and eating a cupcake.

                                  It's the simple things.

Preschool Days

This year a lot of Fin's little three year old friends started going to preschool. Apparently 3 is the magic age for that, but I was not ready to part with my little buddy yet. I know once we start down the school track there's no looking back so I'm really treasuring this time with him now.

We have started doing preschool at home three mornings a week. Fin LOVES it and has been begging to do school all day, every day. We've been working on coloring in the lines...

Learning his name in fun different ways...

and tracing shapes and letters. At the end of our preschool sessions we end up singing our verse of the week.

That's the great thing about preschool our way, we can incorporate anything we want. I love that we can talk about Jesus as we do our lessons and then we end our lessons with a prayer thanking God for one thing and asking God for help with one thing and learning a verse.
I've been enjoying this special time with Fin, even the times when we spend a half hour just.tracing.circles. The Lord is teaching me patience right along side Fin learning lettters :o)

Flying Biscuits and Chicken Hats

This morning Cait and I strolled around Cameron Village with the boys. With her leaving on Friday, I'm trying to pack as many moments as possible in with her before she goes. I'm in denial that I'm losing another best friend.

Of course we went in when we saw a party store and it had every random decoration and toy possible. Think witches hats and a huge bucket labeled "Reading Rubber Duckies". We started trying on these fabulous hats...

 Cait's a cow, Fin's a pig of course. Then a grumpy store lady came over and told us no photos please. Really?? I was already wearing a chicken hat. If I didn't take a picture I would just look silly. So we snuck this little gem in...

I'm such a rebel. It was so pretty outside, Cole was SO good sitting in the stroller and popping in and out of stores.

Cait bought Fin this random...I don't even know what you call it...thumb monster? That little rubber creature was the equivalent of Caitlin telling him he never had to nap again and he could eat chewies for every meal, he was THAT happy over it.

For lunch we ate at a place I have ALWAYS wanted to try, the "Flying Biscuit". It was soo cute and so good. Fin and I got breakfast food which I could eat every meal. My mom met us out there and it was fun to all hang out.

                               Loved my morning. Love my Cait. End of story.