Comfort Foods - One of My Favorites

I love Cracker Barrel's hash brown casserole. About a year ago, I went searching for a copy cat recipe. I have this baking in the oven now. I'll freeze it in individual servings and have a warm bowl of comfort whenever I want it. Try it and enjoy!

Hash Brown Casserole

10.25 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup
8 oz colby cheese - grated (I use sharp cheddar)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 small onion, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 lb bag frozen shredded hash browns

Spray a 13x9 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, combine soup, cheese, butter, onion, salt and pepper. Gently fold the potatoes into the mixture and pour into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until heated through and top is browned.

Finally Hit That Point

In all the other winters that I've been a mom, we have stayed inside. I let them play in the snow once or twice a season, but that's really it. It's just too cold to be outside...for me at least. For the last 4 days, I've let the kids bundle up and play in the backyard (stomping all the ice everywhere) while I snuggled on a nice, warm couch inside and watched them. I love that they are old enough to play outside by themselves! They don't seem to care that it's cold. I know...bad mommy! I should be outside playing with them, but it's just too cold for this Southern girl! I'm just praying they all stay well. Allie has a funny rash right now that might require a doctor's visit on Monday, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with the cold.

Piper Reed - The Great Gypsy

I haven't read to the kids at night in a while. We checked out some new books from the library and we are loving one of them: Piper Reed by Kimberly Willis Holt. Piper Reed's dad is a Navy chief and they are currently stationed at NAS Pensacola. Her dad just left on a cruise and they are crossing off the days he's gone on a calendar. It's been fun to read because so many of the places in the book are real. For example, Piper's Mom rented the space ship beach house at the beach for Christmas. The book was very accurate, even describing the Alien looking at the window. Fun...we drove past it when we were in Pensacola and pointed it out to the kids.

Not sure what the point of my post is...just felt like sharing :p.

4 Days Has Turned Into 5

The kids were so excited to have a 4 day weekend this past weekend (the teachers had a 2 day in-service). I was not excited. We've had good days and bad days. Saturday was good...Sunday was an Alexandar-Bad day. Monday was okay (and ended with a counseling appointment so that was good) and then Tuesday was pretty good. The weather was bad Tuesday - snow, but no ice; so we met a friend for breakfast and shopping at Ikea because we really needed to get out of the house. I love Ikea! I love Smalland! I love wandering around a store without saying "Don't touch that," "please stay with me," "if you do that again, you are going to lose every ticket in your cup!!!" Thank you for meeting us, Karon and Eric!

The weather turned considerably yuckier as the day progressed yesterday. The snow melted into sludge. Then last night it snowed/rained some more and now everything is covered in a layer of snow or ice. The road in front of our house looks like solid ice. Jaelyn and I watched our neighbor scrape off his car this morning with a frisbee. I wish him luck getting where ever he needs to go. As expected, the call came at 6:30 that schools are closed today. Our 4 day weekend has turned into a 5 day weekend. On the agenda for today: finger painting, a puzzle marathon, some reading time, granola bar making and maybe a movie mid-day so I can take a nap (yeah, like that's possible).

Allie's Poem (at least she says it's a poem)

Translation: I like to believe in God. He protects the world. The world believes in love everybody. The (she was writing "the end," but I guess she got tired.). She wrote it to give to her teacher.

Sick

The kids have all had yucky colds and I'm finally getting it. I woke up with a pounding headache and a sore throat. I was supposed to be painting at my friend's house this morning, but I cancelled. Instead, I took a nap on the couch while Caden watched Spy Kids and tried his best to wake me up. Zac even got in on it. I woke up with him on top of me nose to nose. The silly cat picks the funniest times to be sweet.

My cold medicine is starting to kick in so I'll be going to Allie's class this afternoon to be the "mystery reader." I hope she's excited to see us.

Doctors' Appointments

Allie had 2 appointments this morning. The first was with her orthopedist (is that a word?) for her scoliosis. Her curve was 16 degrees today, compared with 15 degrees this summer. It's not a significant change and might not be a change at all. The variance could just be in the x-ray and angles. We'll go back in 6 months for another check. 20 degrees is the magic number where they start talking about bracing. She got weighed and measured today. She is 44 pounds and is 44 1/2 inches tall. I think it's funny that for her those measurements are always almost the same.

Allie's second appointment was with our pediatrician for what I thought was a sinus infection. I was right and now I get the honor of forcing 2 teaspoons of bubble gum flavored antibiotics into Allie twice a day. Oh the joy that is going to bring us - not.

And since I'm on the subject of doctors, Zoe, our kitty, saw her doctor yesterday. When we adopted her a year ago she felt so fragile to pick up at 6+ pounds. She is now a whopping 10 pounds and just as sweet as can be.

Snow Day

It snowed today. It started this morning and stopped late this afternoon. We are experiencing major cabin fever so I let the kids bundle up and play outside for about 30 minutes. Fun times!

Catching Up Snappies

Happy New Year! The kids had a blast playing with sparklers.

A day at the park with my friend Jennifer and her kids. My girls especially like the tire swing. I had to include this one for Jennifer. She's stuck in a pile of 4 tires and had a hilarious time trying to get unstuck!
Allie, Cassidy, Brody, Caden, Delaney, Jaelyn and Jackson
I even got to spin, but I have determined that 35 is too old for a time swing! Oh my! I would have rather been stuck in the pile of tires. Allie modeling her new coat and hat (she's lost the hat now). She's sitting on Daddy's new chair. Funny, she thinks he might have trouble fitting on it.

Caden turned 4 in the birthday hat. We made him cupcakes with blue sprinkles and opened presents.

Caden playing dress up!Baba and Grandpa with the kids before they went home. Check out Caden's hair.

Expecting a Late Night Visitor - The Tooth Fairy

Jaelyn's 7th tooth came out today (her upper left lateral). Actually, it didn't come out, she pulled it. Can you believe that? She started with a paper towel pulling on it. That didn't work so she asked for an apple. The apple loosened it enough that when she went at it again later with another paper towel, it came out without problems. I'm impressed. To get her front tooth out this summer, that wasn't attached, just suctioned on, it took 2 people to hold her down screaming while I gently touched it to get it to come out. Crazy!

You Asked For It

You asked that I start blogging again so here goes. My life is not easy these days. It's 9:30 and I've already had 3 tantrums to deal with. The first one started at 6:30 with Jaelyn whining at me "my leg hurts." Where does it hurt? Why does it hurt? Did you do something to it yesterday? "It just hurts (insert whiney voice)!" Do you want tylenol, motrin, ice, heat? "NO, NO, NO, NO..." "My leg hurts." and on and on it went for about 30 minutes without me being able to do anything about it except listen. It must have magically stopped hurting because after said 30 minutes, I never heard another word about it.

Next came breakfast. She wants cereal. Fine, she gets cereal and apple juice. And then the whine begins again. "I'm hungry." What else would you like? We look in the pantry, the frig and freezer. I name about 30 things I'm willing to make for her. "There's nothing to eat." I went grocery shopping on Thursday, people. "I'm hungry (insert screaming whine here and a few stomps.)" At this point, I take a time out to my bathroom so I don't choke her and thankfully, she's figured out not to follow me anymore (well at least she knows to stop at the bedroom door, not beat on the bathroom door like she had been doing). I do my best to explain to Jaelyn what compromise means and how we need to find a solution that makes us both happy (for instance, driving to chick-fil-a will not make me happy - plus it's Sunday - and not eating won't make her happy). In the end, she chooses a waffle and goes about her morning as if nothing happened (again).

Allie and Caden have been so good up till this point, but they have their moments too. Jaelyn and Caden decided to play charades about 9 and excluded Allie (it's her game, btw). She's unhappy, but I make them share and include her. At some point Jaelyn does something that makes Allie mad and she calls Jaelyn an idiot. Allie goes screaming to time-out and tantrum number 3 begins. It continues in Allie's room and ends back on the steps with a drop of vinegar on Allie's tongue and an apology for Jaelyn. So there you go. My morning (it's 9:45 now) in a nutshell. Can't wait to see what the rest of the day brings!!!!!

Looks Like We Are Going...

...No Where!!!! Yea! According to an email Dan forwarded me today, they are slating him for a job here summer '09 - summer '10. It's not a lot of extra time (fall '09 vs summer '10), but I am thankful. The kids can finish a school year (Jaelyn 2nd grade, Allie 1st grade and Caden pre-k) and it'll give the housing market a little longer to recover so we don't lose quite so much on our house! After that, we are hoping for a class date for a year long school at Ft. Leavenworth.

I'm Missed

So, I've gotten a phone call, emails and now a comment requesting I get back to blogging. You must all miss me. It's been a LONG week. My parents left on Saturday. Sunday was long followed by an even longer Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We've had several explosions, tears, bad dreams, wet beds and a nose bleed that soaked a pillow and scared the pee out of me when I saw Allie's bloody face. I'll get back to blogging soon. We are just adjusting and the adjustments are taking all of my time in the day and making me very tired after the kids go to bed!

Polynesian Pork Ribs

I tried a new recipe tonight and everyone agreed that it was really good. Just thought I'd share encase anyone is looking for something new to make next week.

Polynesian Pork Ribs

Ribs
2 lb boneless country-style pork loin ribs
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small onion, sliced
1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple in unsweetened juice, undrained

Sauce
3/4 cup ketchup
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp grated gingerroot (or 1/4 tsp ground ginger)

1. Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place pork ribs, garlic, and onion is slow cooker and spoon about half of the pineapple with some of the juice over the ribs. Reserve remaining pineapple and juice.

2. Cover; cook on low setting for 8-10 hours.

3. About 35 minutes before serving, drain and discard cooking juices from slow cooker; wipe edge of slow cooker clean. In small bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar, hoisin sauce, gingerroot and remaining pineapple with juice; mix well. Spoon evenly over ribs. Increase heat setting to high; cover and cook an additional 25-30 minutes or until ribs are glazed.

Happy Birthday Little Man

My little man is 4 today (at 2:22 pm German time to be exact). How in the world that is possible, I have no idea, but it is! He has grown into a sweet, intelligent, lovable little boy who has promised to always give his mommy snuggles no matter how big he gets. I love him with all my heart and am so thankful he's in our lives!

(pictures later!)

PS

I promise to finish off our trip and get caught up this week sometime...or maybe next week. I still have some great pictures from a trip to the park to post!

Dan's New Friend

Dan made a new friend the other day. Think I should send some puppy treats in my next care package?

And I must say, I'm not a dog person, but that little fella is cute!

It's Daddy's Fault

We were in the car today and Allie decided to hit Caden. Poor little man! I love the face he makes when he's trying not to cry, but he really wants to. Anyway, I asked Allie what made her hit Caden. Her answer..."I miss Daddy so I hit Caden." Oh boy! We've had a talk about using our words to express our feelings and not our hands. It's all your fault Dan. We all miss you!