Chicken Enchiladas

I made Chicken Enchiladas from Southern Living's December issue last night.  They were yummy and so easy.  I left out the green chiles, because I thought it would be too spicy, but the dish was very mild.  I will definitely make them again.

 

• 3 cups chopped, cooked chicken
• 2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 8 8" soft taco-sized flour tortillas
• vegetable cooking spray
• 1 (8 oz) bottle green taco sauce
• 1 (8 oz) container sour cream
• Toppings: chopped tomatoes, avocado, sliced green onions, fresh cilantro

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Stir together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl.  Spoon about 1/2 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; roll tortillas up.
2. Place rolled tortillas, seam sides down, in a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.  Lightly coat tops of tortillas with cooking spray
3. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Stir together taco sauce and 8 oz container sour cream.  Spoon over hot enchiladas, and sprinkle with desired toppings
 

Ha Ha Tonka

We have had the prettiest weather lately so we decided to take advantage of it while we can.  I'm not convinced we'll get to use those new snow sleds I bought the kids.  I'd read and heard Missouri weather was similar to Maryland, but I'm not buying it.  Anyway, my doctor, of all people, told me about Ha Ha Tonka State Park.  It was a quick 45 minute drive from our house.  A very rich man built a castle retreat on the Lake of the Ozarks in the early 1900's.  In the 40's it was turned into a hotel and shortly afterward burned down in a fire.  The only thing standing are the stone walls.  We had a fun day hiking around the castle, through sink holes and over natural bridges.  The view was beautiful.  We definitely need to go back when everything is green.  (Hey, Beatles, this might be something for when you come as long as we have lots of tic spray).

My kids cooperate very well for pictures...the dog, not so much!  Please ignore the view she's giving you :p.

Parts of the trail were normal dirt, rock, root paths, parts were paved and parts were boardwalks through the park.

This is the old water tower for the castle.  The servants lived underneath it.  How would you like to sleep under a tower filled with water???  Not me.

The natural bridge, had two trolls living under it!

Dan was tired of being dragged by Gracie Mae and Caden was just plain tired, so they turned around to get the car, while the girls and I hiked over the bridge and explored a tiny island.  Girls Rule!

We hiked between three and four miles.  This is how Gracie stayed the rest of the night.  We wore our little doodle out.

Happy Birthday Caden

Caden turned 7 today. Can you believe it? I can't. It seems like just yesterday we were calling the states to tell everyone we were going to Landstuhl to be induced. Caden has turned into a smart, funny, outgoing little man.  We seem to have moved past some of his separation anxiety and he is acing first grade.  In a class of 26 rambunctious, crazy first graders (I feel sorry for his teacher), he is one of the few with a "gold bar" for being such a good kid.  He brought all M's for Mastery home on his 2nd quarter report card.  I love you, Little Man.  I am so proud of you and the big kid you've become!

For anyone who heard about Dan's shoe fiasco...here they are.  I wrapped them up for Caden's birthday and he loves them.

Life

It seems to be passing very quickly.  I'm not busy blogging, but I am busy with STUFF.  We came home on the 30th and I don't think we've stopped.  It took us a day to unload the car and get everything put away.  Even though I washed all of our clothes before we came home, I still managed to find 4 loads to do right away (boy am I thankful for my ginormous capacity washer and dryer).  I spent another day undecorating Christmas stuff.  Today, the kids went back to school.  It's been nice to have a quiet morning to get things done around our house.  Tomorrow, Jaely and I are heading to Springfield for a doctor's appointment.  I work at school on Thursday and then Friday I am allocating as "blog catch up day" while I wait for repairmen to come fix the four work orders I called in on our house today (I love not owning when things go wrong). So stay tuned...

T.I.R.E.D

Can a brother get a nap around here? Date night tonight...so we're driving out to Malbis for some Longhorns. Grandmother gets to put the kiddos to bed...yay yay yay!!!
👀

Merry Christmas



Home For the Holidays

We left Missouri yesterday at 5:30 am. It was a long, long, long day, but we were all excited to drive into Florida at 8:00 last night. My parents were waiting for us to drop off our kitty (such good grandparents) before we headed to Dan's parents house to spend our holidays. Gracie coughed up another plastic mouse early this morning (how many mice did Zac have?). Ughhh Today we are enjoying just hanging out and playing with grandparents and cousins. It's great to be home!

Gracie and the Groomer

It took three tries, but I finally managed to get Gracie to the groomer yesterday.  Dropping her off was like dropping the kids off at Kindergarten, and then just like kindergarten, I realized I had four hours of freedom to do anything I want (so far, her limit is 2-3 hours in her crate).  FREEDOM!  And all for $20...puppy is getting groomed once a month!

I signed Gracie up for the puppy package which is bath, bottom, feet and face.  I like the shaggy dog look so I asked that they just trim her hair at the corner of her eyes and even up her eye brows. 

Before

After

It's hard to see in the picture, but she has a shaved unibrow.  They also shaved under her eyes and down her nose.  To make it worse, they'd tied a bow in top knot.  She looked so ridiculous.  She's still cute and it's not quite such a shock this morning.  She just looks surpised all the time now.  I miss my shaggy puppy.

Oh, since I'm talking about Gracie Mae Doodle, I should report she's been accident free for 2 days!

Santa Got Our Letter

I've been suggesting the kids write Santa a letter for weeks asking him to come early.  Allie asked for a doll house and it really needed to be delivered to Missouri, not Florida.  Last week, Dan finally typed a form letter and had them sign it.  We mailed it to Santa on Thursday and crossed our fingers that he'd get it in time.  Jaelyn woke me up when she snuggled in a little after five because she'd had a bad dream.  She quietly whispered that Santa had come.  She said he brought Allie a huge house and had brought Caden a bicycle, but she didn't know what he'd brought her.  I'm not quite sure how she missed the large white desk and art supplies.

Once we turned on the lights, Jaelyn was excited to find her Santa present (ignore the closed eyes please).

Notice the clock on the wall...Jaelyn woke me up, then dog threw up, and by the time it was cleaned up and she was walked and fed, the rest of the kids were up and ready to open presents (since I'd told them we'd exchange our presents when Santa came)

Caden is disappointed in his present. He can ride a bike without training wheels, but all the sudden he's scared and refuses.  We tried today, but it didn't go well.  I wonder if Santa will stop back by and leave the training wheels!

I had to rearrange the girls' room to accommodate the new furniture.  I'm actually happier with it now.  It feels like they both have more room.

My Dad has finished the top to Jaelyn's dresser.  I'm excited to get it and bring it home after Christmas.

DOG and the Cat Toy

When Gracie is being good, she has many nicknames.  I call her Gracie, Gracie Mae, Mae Mae, Gracie Doodle, Gracie Mae Doodle and Doodlebug.  When she's being bad, she has one name...Dog.  Wednesday night, she was BAD DOG.  Gracie swiped one of Zac's cat toys.  It was a leather bird looking toy with a feathered plume tail.  I managed to pry her mouth open once (which is how I knew exactly which toy it was), but she clamped it shut before I could get a grip on the toy.  There was no way she was letting me have her prize.  She was actually growling at me and instead of letting me pry her mouth open again, she swallowed.  The toy went down whole in just a few gulps.  A friend told me it would take about 24 hours to move through her; so on Friday when it hadn't come out either end, we headed to the vet.  The vet xrayed her, but since I'm a good pet owner and don't buy them toys with metal in them, they couldn't see the toy in her stomach.  I left with directions to an emergency vet clinic in Springfield encase she had trouble over the weekend.  At 5:45 this morning, 84 hours later, I heard her throwing up in her crate.  Sure enough, she finally threw up the bird toy plus two plastic mice.  Hmmmm...Allie confessed to giving her the little mice when she was crying in her crate to make her happy.

Uhhh, what an ordeal.  Poor Zac has lost all toy privileges and the kids are going to lose small toys that they leave laying out.  And Gracie Mae is going to be spending even more time in her crate when I can't supervise her (especially since she CLIMBED out of her superyard two times in a row today).

What a Weekend???

Life has become a blur.  The weekend was focused on my friend, Jenn.  She was admitted to the hospital Wednesday and got some scary possible diagnosises with a biopsy scheduled for Tuesday.  Dan sweetly asked if I needed to go to Orlando on Friday and that set crazy in motion.  Our friend, Michele, and I flew to Orlando on Saturday morning and surprised Jenn in her hospital room.  We knew she had an awesome support system helping her husband and kids but that left her alone a lot of the time to think about Tuesday.  We were more than happy to fill that gap.  Her reaction was priceless.  She cried and sputtered and stuttered and might have said a bad word.  On Sunday, Michele and I went to "lunch and Target" but really we went to two different airports to pick up another friend, Denise.  Who knew Orlando had two airports???  Not Michele, Denise nor I.  Jenn was complaining to Denise on the phone that we'd gone off and left her for hours when Denise walked in the room.  Her reaction again was priceless.  We spent the weekend laughing and crying (just a little) and playing a whole lot of Words with Friends against each other.  We met all of Jenn's good friends that we've heard so much about over the years and Denise even ran off a scared little vicar.  Jenn's biopsy was Tuesday.  The news was not what they wanted, but God is bigger than any ugly mass in her chest.  Would you pray for her?  She's got hard times ahead of her, but then she's going to be just fine!

I jumped right back into life when I got home Tuesday night.  We are ready for Christmas vacation.  We need a break from homework, school, volunteering, work, just life in general I guess. 

Prayers Needed for a Friend

This is Jenn.  She's a dear friend who I met during our infertility years.  We started out chatting online.  That turned into a dinner when we were visiting her city.  And that dinner turned into a 10 year real life friendship.

Jenn is in the hospital and she needs urgent prayers.  God knows all the details; so you don't need to know them.  Her husband, Bob, and their three beautiful daughters need them too.  Also Jenn's mom, Carol, and her good friend, Carmen, start chemotherapy soon to battle breast cancer.  It's been a hard few months for this sweet, sweet family.  Would you please pray for them? For complete healing and for God's strength and love to wrap them up and carry them through this difficult time.  Thank you!

Move Over Annie

Jaelyn's in the house.

On a lark, Jaelyn asked me to roll her hair in foam rollers after her bath one night.  We were SHOCKED by how tightly it curled her hair.  She looked adorable, but she absolutely refused to go anywhere with her hair so curly :p.

Gracie's Christmas List

Gracie Mae fit in Zac's cat bed with room to spare when she came home four weeks ago.  I think she'll be needing to ask Santa for a new one.

If I'm honest, I'm having a real love/hate relationship with our little pooch.  The house breaking is driving me nuts.  And actually, it's really not the house breaking.  We are down to just one or two pee accidents a day.  But when we go off, she gets very upset (I think you are right about the anxiety, your majesty) and her soft poop (which we are still medicating for) turns into diarrhea that she steps in and spreads all over her crate.  It's just nasty, but I can't sit home with her 24 hours a day.  Even though I don't work, I still have responsibilities that requiring leaving the house everyday.

Jaelyn's Thoughts on a Visiting Santa Claus

Allie and Caden's First Choir Performance

Gotcha Day Delayed

Gotcha Day snuck up on me this year.  On December 1st, we celebrated the 8 anniversary of Jaelyn and Allie's adoptions.  I normally spend time looking through photo albums and reminiscing.  I always have our gingerbread house supplies ready to go.  Not this year.  I didn't even realize it was Gotcha Day until Dan told me sometime in the middle of the day.  In my mind, it was only payday.  Uhhhh...I feel tired these days.  Can I blame it on sleep deprivation and cleaning up poo?

Anyway, we decided to celebrate today.  Instead of the gingerbread house kits I normally buy, we bought graham crackers and bags of candy.  I made 2 pounds of royal icing and we starting construction. 

Unfortunately, we learned the difference between using graham crackers and gingerbread.  Oops.  It was really funny to watch as Allie house slowly imploded on itself as the graham crackers collapse under the weight of icing and candy.

While Jaelyn managed to stay intact, Caden's also experienced cookie failure as his tower crashed to the ground.

We had a nice dinner out at Cracker Barrel tonight.  Well, it was mostly nice.  They forgot my salad and then had to remake it three times to get it right.  Dan is counting it as four since the last time, they also forgot the dressing.  Craziness.  We wrapped up our evening with a big piece of ooey-gooey coca-cola cake.

Hi Miss K and Other Tid Bits

I talked to my Mom today and learned that I have a loyal blog reader I didn't know about.  Hi Miss K! Miss K was my third grade teacher.  My mom helped in her classroom until I went to middle school.  We saw her every few years after that and most recently reconnected with her as she became a very good friend to my Grandma Molly in the years before she died.  For that, she will always have a very special place in my heart.  Of course, the downside to having my third grade teacher reading my blog is my attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling is going to have to quadruple :p.

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog.  There are so many things swirling around my head to write about, but this silly dog is taking up all of my time.  She's taught me if I play with her and keep her tethered to me, she doesn't have accidents in the house.  As soon as I put her in the super yard and turn my back, she pees in the floor - even if I've just taken her out.  Everyone who told me puppies are like newborns is correct.  I even bring her into the bathroom when I take a shower so she won't get into trouble.  We are still having soft poop issues.  Three vet appointments later, she is on a third medicine.  The next step will be GI sensitive food.  If I overlook the poop and pee issues, I love my Gracie Mae.  She is such a sweet dog.  Her favorite place is on the foot of the recliner snoozing in the evenings.

The kids are doing good.  We've been busy with school work, math projects and book reports. Fourth grade is TOUGH and Jaelyn is struggling.  I've talked with the school counselor, but they don't see her struggling enough to get her extra help.  It's kind of annoying.  If she got help now, she could stay up with her school work, but we have to wait until she's way behind to get her the help she needs now when it's going to be even harder to catch her up.  Thankfully, Jaelyn has a wonderful teacher that I have a good relationship with (those hours I put in volunteering in her classroom every week have their advantages).  She's getting her extra help and documenting everything so next year....

I'm knee deep in Christmas shopping.  I think I've outdone myself this year, if I do say so myself :).  I can't wait to go home and let the wrapping paper fly!

Dan seems to really be enjoying his job.  I'm thankful he finally knows what his job is.  It sounds very important, but I don't think I can explain it properly.  His GRE prep books came yesterday.  I'm sure he'd appreciate prayers.  He takes it in January so he needs to get studying.  He can start applying to schools as soon as he gets his scores.  I'm excited to know where we are going next.  I need something positive to get me through Ft. Leonard Wood.  While we are making friends and keeping busy, it's not a truly fun place to live.  I continue to be amazed that people choose to live here.  I'm not a big city girl, but I'm definitely not a tiny town girl either! 

Dog's barking so my time is up...

Gracie Talking to Her Best Friend

Deconstruction

I know I've mentioned before what an amazing woodworker my Dad is.  He's built us many things.  He built this dresser originally for my Mom about 5 or 6 years ago.  She decided it was too big in the room so she gave it to us for the girls.  It's always been a little scary to me because it's tall and deep and really, really heavy.  The "what ifs" of this dresser falling on someone are too much.  I secure most of our furniture to the wall, and this big boy is #1 on my list as soon as we move in.

I'm not quite sure why we started talking about cutting the two top drawers off, but we did.  My Dad brought a box full of tools to tackle the project over Thanksgiving. 

Now the top is connected...

Now it's not.

The project isn't quite finished.  The job requires a router, which is at home in Pensacola.  We'll bring the new top back after Christmas and attached up.  I  love the new height.  It's going to be perfect for Jaelyn and it won't be so scary for me. 

Jaelyn isn't too keen on the faux top made out of moving boxes :p.