Sunday, September 25, 2011

A blog post about (wait for it...)Chicken!!

My friend, Jessica, got us loving these mesquite grilled chicken breast from Sam's.  I wouldn't normally be attracted to precooked, grilled chicken, but let me tell you, we LOVE them around here.  I love them so much I decided to dedicate a blog post to frozen, grilled chicken!  What in the world?!

Jessica always makes me a chicken wrap if we're ever over at her house to play and so I started buying the chicken and making my own wraps.  Here are some ways you can use this chicken.  I like that I can make a super-easy lunch or an actual pretty nice dinner out of them!  I zap them for 3-4 minutes and I can make almost anything out of it!

Hello Sam's chicken!



-We cut the chicken up and put ranch, lettuce, tomato and cheese on a wrap and have a really yummy lunch out of it.


-Jessica cuts hers up and makes a quick chicken alfredo dinner with the chicken.


-I also shred it really fine and throw in on a quesadilla on my griddle.


-Although I haven't done it yet, you could cube it and put it on a salad!


Here's my very favorite meal that I have made with it.  I modeled this meal from Applebee's Fiesta Lime Chicken.  I just made this up myself and it is almost like what you can get at Applebee's!  My mom got my recipe and also made it and they LOVED it as well!


Here's what I did:


I cooked my chicken in the microwave first.  I then layered Mexican rice, chicken,



I made up some Mexi-Ranch by mixing some leftover homemade salsa with ranch!



Next, I threw on some of those little tortilla crunchy strips...



And added some cheese on top....



And then I threw it under the broiler for just a few minutes.  It really was SO easy!



Jordan declared that it was one of the best meals I've ever made.  I just like that it is so easy to make and pretty fast too!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Cabin Fever and Croup

We noticed the boys might all be coming down with a bit of a cold this week. I had to take Noah to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon after I picked the boys up from preschool.  It was totally fun taking all 3 of them to the doctor at naptime!  It ended up Noah didn't have an ear infection.  I was SURE that he did, but he was fine, just a small cold!  Our chunky monkey weighed in at 15 pounds 10 ounces and 25.5 inches long.  he is getting SO big!

I think the boys have  all passed this cold around but John Michael's turned into croup overnight Thursday night.  We had a really long night Thursday night.  We sat him outside and I pondered if I was making the right decision not taking him to the emergency room.  Jordan slept in the den with him and then he took him on (so I could stay home to feed Noah) around 7:40 or so.  They luckily had an opening so he was seen around 8:30 Friday morning.  He weighed in at 36.5 pounds.  We're afraid Matthew might overtake him in weight soon!

We've had a long few nights and franky, it's starting to wear on me.  Honestly, I just don't deal well with not getting much sleep.  Having 3, 3 and under does not go well with this.  Sometime I dream of what it might be like to just go to sleep at night and get to sleep for like 10 hours.....I can't even imagine!  Oh well, we'll all sleep one day when our kids are grown and out of the house, and then I know we'll be sad.  This is just a season in life!

We've basically been homebound since Wednesday afternoon.  ALL of our boys wore these precious Alabama outfits on Wednesday.  I could just die of the cuteness!



We've just been playing and watching way too much TV.  I slowly feel cabin fever creeping up on me knowing that another hard, cold, icy winter is just a few months away.  I also do not deal well with ice and cold, I am from Alabama after all. I pretty much hate winter and just grin and bear it until Spring eventually rolls around!



Noah's been sitting in the Bumbo so he can "play" with his brothers!  And Matthew has been teething like crazy lately!  He's been chewing things and having some pretty bad diaper rash.  He never has rash!  I am loving his sweetness during the day.  He always is saying thank you or giving Noah TONS of hugs and kisses or asking where his brothers are.  He's a sweetie!



And John Michael has been pretty pitiful.  He's gotten croup about once a year and it's no fun!  We've just been snuggling and watching a lot of movies the last few days.  Unfortunately, we totally forgot about how AWFUL steriods are on little kids.  Steriods for us=whining, crying, screaming and fit throwing.  It's been pretty bad!  I know it won't last long though and he'll back to his normal, sweet self!



Jordan caught Matthew sitting in the Bumbo watching Lassie on Netflix today!  He loves the Bumbo!



Well, I've got to go get some sleep.  It was very odd, none of our 3 slept well for nap.  We don't know if they heard something outside or what.  So, they were up early from their nap and then it took us 3 hours to get them all down for the night.  We are exhausted! 


It ended up being a great day because Alabama beat Arkansas.  We wish we could have gone back to Alabama to go to the game.  Not this year!  I know my family had a great time at the game though!  We wish we could be in Tuscaloosa with them!  Roll Tide!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sittin' Up!

Look who is sitting up like a big boy?!



I finally realized it was time to pull out the old Bumbo.  Noah did so well sitting in it.  Onwards and Upwards Noah!!



And just for fun, I just found this picture of Matthew sitting in his Bumbo for the first time!



Man, they look so much alike!  My blog post shows that Matthew was right around Noah's exact same age (right before 3 months) when he first sat in his Bumbo!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Our Week

We have been doing a whole lot of NOTHING the last few days.  Thursday we decided to just hang out and have a fun day at the house.  It has turned really cold, dark, and rainy here the past few days and our boys don't have a THING to wear.  Jordan hasn't gotten into the attic yet to get down the Rubbermaid boxes of clothes.  I have a feeling getting all the summer clothes out and getting all the new fall clothes in is going to be a huge ordeal that I will save for a Mother's Day Out day!

I don't have any pictures, but Thursday we decided to not do anything since we have a busy first-half of the week.  We ended up taking a walk to our neighborhood park with a friend down the street.  It did NOT go well.  It was SO cold and windy and I had to pull 2 random pairs of pants out for the boys that I found in the very back of the closet.  The pants came up to JM's calves.  Classy.  Then, I had to find them a sweater or jacket to take with us.  I found a reindeer sweater for Matthew and a really old random coat for JM to wear on our walk.  Noah ended up screaming the whole time and Matthew fell and hit his nose and it bled a little bit.  It was not the most successful trip to the park, but at least I had Jessica with me for back-up.  That always helps here lately!

Friday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to put my french toast casserole in the oven.  It was my group's turn to bring breakfast to MOPS. I brought fruit, danish, and the casserole.  We had a great meeting and the boys did great in their classrooms.  We came home, had lunch, then everyone went down for a good nap because we had Parent's Night Out at church that night.

I decided to leave Noah at church this time because we were only going to be 2 blocks away downtown eating, so I fed him right before I left and he did great.  He didn't need any of the 2 bags of milk I had left for him.  I wanted to be sure he wasn't hungry ;)

So that sums up what we've done the last few days, not much of anything interesting! 

Noah has been smiling away lately!  He is just so sweet and precious.  I could eat him up!



 



He is enjoying some tummy time and holding his head WAY up!  He can even scoot just a little bit across the floor!



Jordan had to go to the Saturday morning meeting this morning, so we didn't go do anything.  It was seriously dark and cold and rainy this morning so we stayed in our PJs and had cartoon time.  I was in full blown zombie mode because I had gotten up several times during the night.  It took me hours to fully wake up!



When Jordan got home, the boys watched football with him and generally crawled all over him!



Matthew loves to give Noah tons of "hugs" (head locks) and kisses lately!  He doesn't know his own strength!


It's been a fun and very low-key weekend.  There are 3 ballgames going on in my den right now, so I know fall is here FOR SURE!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Wazzup?

So what have we been up to lately?  The boys have started back to school and we are falling into a more regular fall routine!  Bible Study has started back (yay!) and also MOPS has started back!  We've got a full schedule and I hope we can keep up and not keep our little ones too busy.  I don't want to miss out on these sweet moments while I still have them all at home with me most days!

The boys were excited for the Alabama/Penn State ballgame last weekend.  They didn't get to see too much of it because it was during naptime.  After nap we headed to a friend's house for a Sunday School function we have a few times a year.  You sign up and go to someone's house but it's a surpirse as to who all will be there!  It's a fun way to get to know other people that you don't see as much!  The boys had a blast with the other little boys there that night.  They all played SO hard out in the backyard!



A weekend or two ago we headed to a park with ice cream!  The boys ate their ice cream and played until it was dark!




Even Noah was somewhat happy, although we held him the whole time!



Matthew is getting so big!  He's saying so many words and using 2-3 word sentences.  He is starting to grow into JM's 2T shirts, just as JM is starting to grow into 3T and 4T shirts!  They are all getting so big!



Even though it was dark, we walked a block over to our little downtown square.  Sometimes it feels like smalltown America when we're there.  There were lots of people gathered playing guitars, banjos, etc. that night and it's just such a fun, relaxed atmosphere.  Our boys love to go to the square.



It doesn't hurt that they have a fountain that they love to put their feet in!




And just for fun, look who is going to be 3 months old at the end of next week?!  Isn't he just precious?!



 

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Game Day!

Roll Tide to our family back in Alabama!



The boys have their Alabama Big Al shirts on.......



and they've been reading their Big Al and Alabama Game Day books all week!  They already love football season!

Friday Fun

Friday Night Fun



With Four Little Feet



In The Fountain!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Lately....

We've been laying low here lately as we slowly start winding down from a crazy and stressful summer.  Noah got a great check-up at his 2 month check-up.  He weighed in at 14 pounds 1 oz and 24 inches long.  That makes him 94%ile in weight and 91% in height....another BIG boy!  No surprise here!

Noah has been sleeping pretty good lately.  I generally get up once or twice a night with him.  Noah generally wakes up around 7 or 8.  He eats, gets changed for the day, and stays up for about another hour or two.  He feeds again and I wrap him up in his miracle swaddle and put him in his swing on level 1! 



He sleeps for a few hours and gets up around lunch and stays up for a bit before I wrap him back up again around 1 or 2 and he sleeps until 5 or 6 usually....awesome!!  He has really loved being wrapped up and put in his swing for naptime.  I'm so glad he is a good sleeper.


Noah's only issue has been the carseat.  He really, really hates his carseat.  He will only tolerate it so long and then he basically screams his head off the whole time we're in the car.  It kind of makes it hard to run errands or go just about anywhere because he's such a screaming mess by the time we get there.  I am hoping he will get better about his carseat soon because all the screaming is getting old!



Jack hasn't been on the blog lately, so here's a picture for Bop!  Jack's been a bit naughty lately stealing the boys' food and eating a few things that are too gross to even type!



We've been fortunate enough to have a visit from Uncle Judd and his girlfriend Jennie!  We've been to the pool, First Friday downtown, and watched the Alabama football game on Saturday!



The boys had fun playing with them in the pool.  I dunked Noah's little toes in and he didn't seem to mind. 


John Michael said, "Oh look, Noah's getting wet!" and then proceeded to splash him in the face.  This was the result:



The boys ate snack, swam, threw a ball and waded in the water.  We then came home and had lunch and we all took a HUGE nap!  The pool wore them out!




It's been a fun week!