Chicken Wreath Recipe

Full disclosure: this doesn't really make a wreath. And it's not so much of a recipe. And the chicken is from a can so I don't even know if it counts as a chicken recipe. But other than those tiny details, the title of this blogpost is legit.

Back story: once upon a time I decided to make a wreath recipe. R & I were living in a tiny apartment and waiting for the next payday to buy groceries so as I went to gather the necessary ingredients we didn't have them. I pulled out everything from the cupboards and put them together to make this instead. It didn't pass as a wreath and wasn't anywhere close to the recipe but we've been making it ever since. It's been my go to dish since B was born and have had people actually ask for the 'recipe.' It's gotten good enough reviews that I thought it was time to share.

Chicken 'Wreath' (errr... ummm... square)

Crescent rolls
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken, drained
1 can mushrooms, drained
1 large handful (or more) shredded cheddar

-Unroll crescent rolls and place half of the sheet in the bottom of a greased square baking dish.
-Mix remaining ingredients and pour over crescent rolls. (You can add anything else here- peppers, cream cheese, sour cream, vegetables, seasoning, whatever!)
-Place remaining crescent rolls on top.
-Bake 25-30 minutes at 375 or until golden brown.


That's it! If you have more than two hungry people you may want to make a double batch in a 9x13 pan instead. Enjoy!

Dust Bunnies and Other Stuff

Did you read (in)courage today?
I can relate. My house is a mess. But at least the bed is made today.
Last week I asked a friend's husband to grab the mamaroo out of my bedroom. I cautioned him that the room was a pit so just grab the swing and go. He and his wife saw it and said they wished their bedroom was that 'clean.'
Why do I worry about how messy the house is all the time? Cleaning was on my to do list for the day but...... I think I'll hang out with B all day instead. Those dust bunnies will still be there tomorrow.

Good Read

I don't normally recommend books about parenting because I think there's SO much information out there that it's easy to be bombarded and overwhelmed with it. That and I think a lot of them are just plain crazy. Ahem.

But. I have been reading 'The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding' and have to admit I'm liking it a lot.
Background info: I have an FCS degree and focused on child development in college. I've worked with some of the big child development researchers at ISU and I'm fascinated with brain development research. I love following new studies. That being said, women and babies have been doing this breastfeeding thing (and basic survival thing) for centuries and the human body (both the mama and the baby) have an amazing way of just making it work.
What I am liking about this book is how it explains what has been working for hundreds of hundreds of years and the reason behind that. Not just breastfeeding but solid feedings, sleeping, etc.
Okay and I admit- I like that it backs me up in my reasons to do the things I'm doing. I feel like being a mom is one of the roles that we're judged the most in. People have opinions about what we're doing and they aren't afraid to share it. It feels good to have history and science on my side when 'well-meaning' advice givers let me have it.
I don't necessarily agree with 100% of this book and definitely am not putting all of it to practice. But I do think it's a good read.

Anyway- all that to say I hadn't heard much about this book before B so I thought I'd share it in case you'd not heard of it either. I probably wouldn't have started reading it but our doula brought it by for me to borrow and it's been sitting here awhile. I just found out she's pregnant so I thought I better read it and get it back to her before she needs it again soon! :)

Oh and the Mr has even read some of the interesting stuff in it. :)

B's First Valentine

We had a pretty typical Valentine evening- like most Valentines we spent it at a basketball game. B was spoiled this time though and got to be out of his carseat for almost the entire time because his grandpa came so he held him for most of it.
An exciting Valentines first though was that B and I surprised R with lunch at work (just Subway) and brought frosted sugar cookies for the teachers lounge.
(I'm taking this learning how to bake cookies thing seriously.)
Another Valentines first was that all the mail in the mailbox that day was for B. Here he is with his first ever Valentine card. It was from my mom and he was pretty impressed.
Oh and don't mind his outfit. He has a daddy that loves him lots and helps take good care of him. Even if that daddy puts 0-3 mo pants and 6-12 month shirts on him. I think it's pretty cute. :)

#happyvalentines

Happy Valentines Day, everyone!!!

I know I'm probably a bad mom for printing Valentines of Dakota last year and not doing it for B this year but in my defense, we never handed any out last year. We never see anyone this time of year (basketball season) so it makes it hard to give to everyone. I guess I could have made a point to get caught up on 'thank yous' and stuck them in the mail with our thank yous but I'm so far behind on those that maybe I'll just make another little picture like this and change it to #thankyou #lovebeckett. :)

Anyway, hope you all have a great Valentines Day! We plan to.

 I mean any day that the Kitchen Aid has frosting in it by 8am is going to be a good day, right? :)

3 months

Baby B is THREE months old! I can't even believe how fast the last three months have gone. He has grown and changed so much. Every day more and more of his personality comes out. He is such a sweet little guy!

At three months:
Weight: 15+ lbs
Length: 25+ in
Diaper Size: 2
Clothing Size: 3-6 months
Your Favorite Things:
Your hands- you are figuring out how to work them pretty well. You watch your pincher fingers real careful and grab things to pick up. You love to put them in your mouth and they are your favorite chew toys.
Reading books- especially if they are about animals. You really like the books with cows and puppies. You just laugh and laugh. It made me realize we do not own the old lady who swallowed a fly book so we watched it on youtube. You thought it was hilarious.
Sophie is still your favorite toy but you have really been enjoying your wrist rattles from Kylie. The cow is your favorite (of course).
And while I wouldn't call him your favorite, you have started paying more attention to Dakota. You will stare at him and smile at him now.
My Favorite Things: Your contagious laugh. Your ginormous smiles. The way you've started wrapping your arms around our necks like you are holding on. The milk drool you get when you take a break from eating to smile at your mama. All the fun new talking sounds you're making every day. Your new efficient eating habits. :) The nights you sleep 11 hours straight. :)

Oh baby boy, you've brought so much love to this home in three short months. You are the best little thing in the world! Your daddy and I love you so, so much!



And just for fun....

.....okay so that wasn't so fun! He is growing way too fast! :(

Be sure to check out the cbh page today for more of the little man.

Couch Potato

One of B's favorite spots is the chaise end of the couches. (Both our couches are U shaped sectionals.) He can hang out there and play for so long at a time. We read books there, we do tummy time there, we sing songs and play silly games. It dawned on me the other day that all my B pictures are close up shots of him and I wanted a shot of him on the big comfy couch. I love how small he looks in contrast to it. And I love how it shows him in his favorite environment. I want to get better at taking pictures that include scenes from his life around him. Maybe someday he'll look back and like seeing where he lived- kind of like when we look back at the flower printed couches and shag carpeting pictures. And hopefully he wont care that his mom didn't take time to edit his poorly lit pictures. :) (I grabbed the camera and snapped these right after I had taken his picture with the iPhone and realized my camera was in the shot- laying next to him on the couch. I decided I should probably pick it up more and get pictures of him that aren't just taken on my phone. M told me it doesn't matter how I get the picture, just that I get it. So I'm going to keep that going and say it doesn't matter how the picture is edited, just that I have it. She's right, time passes way too fast to be worried about that!)

Prayer Warriors

Hey, Prayer Warriors!
Here's a fun project for you- My friend Mary posted this awesome idea on her blog and I couldn't wait to copy it! She took her Christmas cards from the year and put them on a ring. They choose some cards from the ring and pray over the people that sent them the card. What a great idea, right?!
I finally got around to digging out a hole punch and ring tonight though I think I'm going to need another ring... this is just the pile of cards that I never even got around to hanging up this year. That's bad, isn't it!?! Of course the other cards are still hanging up for everyone to enjoy (mostly because I still haven't taken down the rest of my 'winter' decor yet).
Anyway....
The first card I picked up tonight to punch a hole in was from a dear friend that was recently diagnosed with NHL. And as I go through the pile there are friends in there dealing with some other pretty (really) heavy stuff right now. It hurts my heart to think of all the giants my friends are facing right now. I love the prayer ring idea as being more of a visual aid (versus the list app on my phone that I pull up every night and update with prayer requests) as we pray. I love being able to pray for my friends when I feel so helpless in being able to help them out in any other way. So I apologize for my absent self lately, but know that I'm praying for you tonight!
(And feel free to steal Mary's idea. I did. I'm sure she wont mind!) ;)

Desktop

Organizing the desktop has been on the to do list for about a week now. I was inspired by DrewB today and finally got it done. What an improvement from where it was! I should have taken a before picture so you could fully appreciate it. (Also, the 'right now' section is empty- that's where the images I'm currently editing go. It's kind of a big deal that it's empty right now (until tomorrow morning anyway)! (but for now) Woo hoo!)

Day in the life.......

Ali Edwards is doing a day in the life today. As I went to bed last night I was thinking about how fun it would be to do. I could talk about how sweet my baby is and how he entertains himself so well while I work and how I read a book and worked on my prayer ring and had a well balanced lunch and.... Well you get the idea.

So you do know how today turned out instead. Right? ;)

Still wouldn't trade these days for the world. We're pretty blessed around here.

GOOD Morning!

I was kind of feeling sorry for myself before I even got out of bed today. Then I got a couple emails from great friends. Then I heard a certain someone laughing through the monitor. Then I went and found this smiley guy waking up and everything was in perspective. It definitely is a good, no GREAT morning! God is good. No, great!

Hands On

B found his hands a little while back and is a little obsessed with them these days. :)

Super Bowl

A house full of beautiful babes and I only take one picture all night. And just with the iPhone. It's a keeper though. B loved snuggling with A. Obviously. We were just short of a dozen kids (Corey left the twins at home! Bummer!) and it was so much fun. I watched a total of 1 second of the game. And I guess I'm not even sure if I caught that live or saw the replay. The Broncos won tonight. Right? ;) Oh I love a good excuse to see friends. Thanks for party planning Zay. :)



PS. I so meant to get a picture of Ky and B tonight because I really can't believe what a difference a year makes. Last year the Super Bowl party was Ky's first outing after coming home from the hospital and we didn't even know about sweet B yet. God is so good.

Been There Pinned That: Dorito Chicken Casserole

My to do list from Pinterest is pretty pintimidating so I'm going to start keeping track of more of the pins I've made.
Tonight for dinner we made the Dorito chicken casserole.

http://www.plainchicken.com/2012/01/doritos-cheesy-chicken-casserole.html?m=1

R says: it's addicting.
H says: it's okay. I liked how easy it was (I just used can chicken to make it even easier) and the short cooking time. It wasn't spectacular in my mouth but definitely one we would make again.

We also made PB bars tonight.

http://www.thewickednoodle.com/reeses-peanut-butter-bars/

Or as they're known in the H house: lucky PB bars. The first time we made these was just three hours before leaving for the hospital to have B. :)
We haven't dug into this pan yet but loved 'em last time.
R says: are you going to wash the PB dishes?
B says:

caption it

Okay. You're right. This photo is begging for a caption. So here's a little contest. Leave a caption for it in the comments. Best one wins a pat on the back. From yourself. Ready, set, go. ;)