Cooking Extravaganza!

Today has been a crazy day! I woke up and found our freezer to be completely thawed out!! Yeah, lots of food, lots of money, I couldn't see it all go to waste so I decided I'd start cooking like a crazed maniac!! lol! It kind of worked out because Ben and I had been talking about setting up a weekly meal plan. I hadn't really given much thought to freezer meals, but let me just say, I'm definitely thinking about it a lot more. I spent about 3&1/2 hours in the kitchen cooking, but I now have SEVEN prepared meals!! SEVEN!! (Actually nine because my Taco Soup & Chili made a double batch)!!

Here's some of the ingredients for all my lovely little meals. :)

I made Tater Tot Casserole (from the Duggar's), Chicken Alfredo Lasagna, Roasted Chicken with Vegetables, Chicken Pot Pie, Taco Soup, Chili and Baked Chicken Parm. (I'll add the other recipes to my recipe blog soon, but I'm a little bit exhausted today). :)

Here's all the food cooling down. YUM!

Packaged up and ready to go into the freezer.

Somehow I managed to fit everything in there.

I definitely think I'm going to like this freezer meal thing. As long as you have a plan in place, it's pretty simple. I think it will help cut down our grocery bill and it will give me more time to spend with my family. I look forward to not being trapped in the kitchen while they're all playing together. Even if we don't stick to the freezer meals, I still plan on using my planner and soon to be Erin Condren planner (thanks to my hubby) to make out our meals hopefully a month in advance.



Fantasy Football 101

Ben and I have talked about having a live fantasy football draft for a couple of years now, but that's all that it's ever been, talk. We've always said, "we should do that". This year, our talk actually turned into real life!! =) I'm a sucker for always wanting to get everybody together especially when football is involved, so last night we had our First LIVE Fantasy Football Draft!!!

Here's the spread of yummy game food!!

I just love this little basket that I got at Kirkland's the other day. I dressed it up with a little bow and voile'. Cuteness! :)

I think with all the kids and adults there was like 20 people at our house! It was pure chaos!! We had the laptop connected to the tv and then two whiteboards  where our picks we written down and we literally had a draft.

We randomly drew numbers as to who could have the first pick and so on.

I have to say even through all the chaos it was a lot of fun!!

And yes, Austin and Ben looked liked complete idiots dressed in the same $3 Hurley shirt that Allie and I got them the other day at Dillard's.

The kids had a great time playing. I'm so glad that we can all get together and our kids all play so well together. It makes for a really good time.

Now on to fantasy football.... GAME ON!!!

Good luck everyone this football season!!

Chuckie Cheese & Ice Cream

Saturday was a busy day.

 I got up,

went to Zumba, a birthday party,

Chuckie Cheese, to eat & ended up at the mall.

Like I said, busy day.

Our first stop (after Zumba)

was my little cousin, Landon's birthday party.

Here's the birthday boy with his BIG gun. =)

After Landon's party at their house,

we all went to Chuckie Cheese.

Ben had played in a corn-hole tournament earlier

and he couldn't go to the birthday party at their house,

but he met up with us for the trip to Chuckie Cheese.

My mom kept Owen for us so we could just take Olivia

 and let me tell you, that was a HUGE help

because Chuckie Cheese was a CRAZY mad-house!

I'm not sure what Olivia really thought of it all,

but she "played" a couple of the games.

Here's Olivia and Landon riding in the car car. =)

Since Chuckie Cheese was so crazy,

we didn't eat there, we went to El Chico's instead.

And who can avoid the ice cream?

Obviously, not these two. LOL!

I'm pretty sure she LOVED it!

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

I'm looking forward to taking it easy this week!

Food, Friends & Fun Times

Friday night we met up with some of our friends to catch up!

It had been FOREVER since all of us got together.

A little background info...

If you look at our group of friends,

you would think that a few months ago

that we all got together and planned to get pregnant.

To much disbelief, it was not planned,

but three of my best friends and myself all had babies

within months of one another

and Friday night all us of except one,

got together to eat and catch up.

Here's the group pic of all of us.

Even though Kayla & Jenny are the one's holding the babies,

they are not their mommas.

They're the babies aunties. =)

Here's my two guys!

Here's little Ms. Stella & her daddy Josh.

(I'm not sure why this pic is sideways)

Here's little Ms. Kenlee. Isn't she the cutest??

And here's Kenlee's daddy, Jesse & my sweet pea Olivia,

also known as the child who eats everything!

She was too funny last night because

she just kept eating & eating & eating!

You can tell by looking at her that

 she doesn't miss any meals! LOL!

We had lots of fun catching up with our friends

and I'm so excited that all of our babies are going

to get to grow up with one another!

Thank You Mickey D's

We've not had a whole lot going on around here lately. Just takin' it
easy at home... Watching Olivia drag out all her toys & watching Owen
sleep... That pretty much sums it all up. :-) Since I felt like the
walls were starting to close in on me & was craving some McDonald's (I
don't remember the last time that I had fast food), when Ben got home
last night we loaded up the car (the kids & I were in our pjs.. Yeah
real cute) and we went thru the drive-thru at good ol' Mickey D's.
This is Olivia with her first ever chicken nugget Happy Meal. She
really liked it. She looked adorable drinking her apple juice from the
juice box and not her sippy cup. My little girl is growing up. ;-)

PB & J

Olivia had her first PB & J yesterday. I think she liked it. :-)

Family Reunion

It just happened that as we were already in Missouri last week,

we got to go to Ben's Family Reunion.

We've never been able to go before,

 so this was an extra special treat

not only was it Olivia's first family reunion,

it was our first family reunion to go to as a family.

We had a really good time.

Below are some of the pics...

I hope you enjoy!

Olivia with her Daddy

Cousins playing

Sittin' around talkin'

Olivia with her Gran Gran

Olivia and her Aunt Ellee

Olivia playing the guitar with her Papaw 

Random Thoughts

I've got lots on my mind today.

I feel like my mind is going 90 to nothing.

This weekend was KICK-OFF for NFL!!!

WHOOP WHOOP!

When I was pregnant with Olivia

I bought her a Rams cheerleading outfit.

Ben is a huge Rams fan and I'm a Patriots fan.

Yeah, totally opposite. ha.

However, my two sweets looked pretty cute yesterday.

(No, Ben did not wear his jersey to church). Ha.

But as soon as he walked in the door, he changed.

Even Poppy was kind of dressed in Rams colors. ha.

(I'm sure he did not plan it that way).

I wanted to get a cute "Kick-off" pic of me and Olivia,

but as you can tell from the picture above

she was obviously tired of getting her picture taken.

Of course when the game is on,

we have to have game food.

A couple of our friends came over after church

and we enjoyed: tacos, rotel dip & chocolate cupcakes.

I'm proud to say that the Patriots won-38 to 24

and even though the Rams lost- 13 to 17

they still played a good game.

I'm pretty happy with the new QB, Sam Bradford.

Other randoms from this weekend:

*My new wreath is now hanging on our front door.

I'm pretty happy with the finished product.

*Saturday Olivia took a dive-HEAD FIRST- off of her changing table. It scared me half to death, but thankfully she is OK. I just happened to turn for a split second and the next thing I know she was flying off the changing table.

*Please remember two families at my church..

Mary Lou Milby lost her husband Bill a few weeks ago and I know that she's going to have good days and bad days, but please remember her and her family in your prayers. They were married for 54 years and one morning she woke up and he didn't. I know that she has a long road ahead of her, but when you pray, please speak her name.

Also, another lady in my church, Sis. Nancy, was diagnosed with stomach cancer two years ago. She underwent surgery and chemo and radiation and from the reports, all the cancer was gone. However, last year she was diagnosed with brain cancer. She underwent surgery, chemo and radiation and again, they thought they had got it all.

Well, earlier this year they were told that there was a spot on her brain that they didn't get with surgery and she would need to undergo more treatments. She just finished her last radiation treatment a couple weeks ago and she doesn't go back for repeat scans until October, but please pray that the cancer is now gone. This lady is an AWESOME woman of God. She loves the Lord and her church family with ALL of her heart and it breaks my heart to see her and her family go through all of this.

So, please when you pray, please say a prayer for these two families.

Like I said, my mind is going 90 to nothing, but I hope everyone had a great weekend.

My only complaint is that they're just too short. =)

Oh Sweet Yummy Goodness

As I've said before,

when fall starts approaching,

I start cooking. I love to cook.

I just don't enjoy cooking when it's 100 degrees outside.

Nevertheless, it's finally started to cool off around here,

so I've been cooking. =)

A lady I work with was trying to find a recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie.

She finally found one and she just happened to share it with me.

Since I'm such a "SWEETS" lover, I thought I would try it out.

Oh my gosh, needless to say IT WAS WONDERFUL!!

So I thought I would share it with you.

(Sorry I forgot to take a picture of it...

I was too busy stuffing my face). ha!

Enjoy!

Mississippi Mud Pie

Ingredients:

1 (9 inch) cookie pie crust

1 tub coffee ice cream (softened)

1 jar Smuckers caramel sauce

Chopped walnuts or pecans (your choice)

1 tub Cool Whip

Directions:

Fill pie crust with softened coffee ice cream

Cover ice cream with caramel sauce

Cover caramel sauce with walnuts or pecans

Cover nuts with Cool Whip

Place in freezer overnight.

Take out of freezer 30 minutes before serving.

Taco Soup

Oh Taco Soup, how I've missed you.

I'm a HUGE fan of fall!

I love the cool crisp air, I love when the leaves change,

I love that FALL = FOOTBALL, like I said...

I'm a big fan of fall.

However, I'm not a big fan of 100 degree/100% humidity weather.

Unfortunately, that's what it has felt like here lately in KY.

Being pregnant and all I've had some food cravings,

but nothing major.

Well, even in this hot and humid weather,

I've been craving TACO SOUP.

I stumbled upon this recipe a couple of years ago

and it has now become a staple fall meal around our house.

Every time I fix it, it makes me think of football season and fall.

I made it last night and it was oh so good.

 Then I woke up this morning and our weather is kind of fall-like.

(I wonder if my soup had anything to do with that?)

(Kidding, of course).

It's just that this the first time in 38 days that 

the weather has been under 90 degrees!

YES, fall is on it's way!

Anywhos, besides me rambling about fall,

I thought I would share my beloved Taco Soup recipe.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 lg. cans Premium Chunk Chicken, drained

 or boil your own chicken

(I enjoy the simplicity of the can chicken)

1-2 Bell Peppers, sliced/diced

1 medium Onion, diced

1 can Original Rotel

1 can Great Northern Beans, drained

1 can Corn, drained

1 pkt. Original Taco Seasoning

1 box Chicken Broth

Olive oil

Directions:

Heat oil, bell pepper and onion in 1 1/2 to 2 qt. saucepan

over medium heat until vegetables are tender.

Add taco seasoning and salt and pepper, combine.

After the seasonings and vegetables are combined

add chicken broth, corn, beans, rotel and chicken.

Heat to a boil then reduce heat to low.

Serve with tortilla chips and fiesta cheese.

Memorial Day Weekend

Sorry to take a break from blogging...

It wasn't intentional, we've just been busy little bees lately.

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with our friends and family.

Olivia & I went up to the lake Friday night after I got off work and spent the night/Saturday with Poppy. (I think he enjoyed it).

One of my most favorite things to do up at the lake is go eat at breakfast at Bee Springs.

Even though it's the campground right next to ours, we usually get on the boat and ride over and eat breakfast outside. My dad aka Poppy says it's the ambiance. ha.

Anyways, since we didn't have the boat docked, we ended up riding the golf cart over there. (Olivia loves riding the golf cart).

The breakfast was good, of course, and of course, I love eating outdoors by the lake, but what wasn't so good was it cost us $20 bucks to eat breakfast.

Mind you, it was just me and my dad. We both had toast, eggs, home fries & bacon or sausage. He had coffee and I had a can Dr. Pepper.

I mean, come on, $20?? Really.

Needless to say, my favorite summer tradition has now gone by the wayside.

We'll be fixing our own breakfast. Ha.

Nevertheless, that didn't stop our weekend fun.

Olivia must love the lake, but it wears her out.

This was her pretty much all weekend...

Sorry for the poor quality, it was dark and I took it with my iPhone.

Then here she is again... Sweet girl =)

Other than sleeping and paying way too much for breakfast we had a fish fry Sunday afternoon and grilled out Monday afternoon and played corn-hole and then little Ms. O went swimming for the very first time.

She LOVES her pool!

She would lay on her back and then flip over to her stomach and hang on to the side of the pool and pull herself around. It was the cutest thing. Then she started putting her face in the water and starting drinking the water. Lord, she's a hand-full. =)

Overall, we had a great weekend and we're happy that summer has unofficially begun.

Time to get on the water and have fun.

Happy Summer!

Oh Sweet Yummy Goodness

Yes, this is the cake that Ben made for me a couple nights ago.

Yes, I said, Ben. 

I was feeling terrible the other night with nausea & the works of prego life.

The only thing that sounded good was a yellow cake with chocolate icing.

I never thought that he would actually make one for me...

But from the picture above..

He did.

It was ohhhh soooo yummy & delicious.

Thanks babe.

Ladies Who Lunch

This past weekend my Sister-in-law, who came in from Frankfort took my Mother-in-law and my Grandmother-in-law out for lunch and did a little shopping.

We had such a good time together.

I wish that I would have been feeling better because later on that night my Sister-in-law & Mother-in-law met up with Becky,

my other Sister-in-law for some more shopping and more eating.

(I really wanted to go... but that's the price you may when you're prego).

Anywhos... we have some great pics from that day...

This is my sister-in-law, Abby with my little stinker bug :-)

We ate lunch at Happy House. YUMMY!!

Can we say, "Strawberry Pastries?"

Oh yeah.

Here's Olivia and Abby again resting while doing some shopping.

Here's Olivia with her Great-Grandmother.

She came down and surprised us.

We had such a good time together.

And last, here's Olivia "trying on shoes." Ha!

Her drama makes me smile.

=)

Good friends + Good food = Good times

*FRIDAY*

Even though I'm a few days behind, we had a good time this past weekend. Friday night our friends Corrie & Kelly met us at our house and we went to Shogun in Murray. (YUMMY!) This was Olivia's second trip out to a restaurant at night and she was WONDERFUL!!

I know she's mine, but she really is a good baby.

This was Corrie and Kelly with Olivia. I think Olivia was in awe of all that was going on.

Here's Olivia with her daddy. (My two loves!) :-)

Here's me & Olvia... I guess she was getting sleepy. She has such a hard life. Ha!
For those who don't know, Shogun is a Japenese Steak & Sushi restaurant. On one side they cook the food right in front of you and on the other side they have the sushi bar. As you can see below, it is very delicious.

Mmm.. good =)

Not so yummy...

*SATURDAY*
Ben was actually off Saturday! (Can you believe it?) I was so glad to be home and be able to spend the day with Ben & Olivia. Throughout the week it's hard for us three to spend time together because we both work Monday thru Friday, but then Ben also works Tuesday and Thursday nights at the hospital, so on the weekends, that's "our" time to be together and Saturday we did just that. We went to Paducah and went consignment store shopping. I was trying to find Olivia a little bouncy seat and a high chair. She has a walker but it's still too big for her and she's really going to be needing a high chair before too long because we have started feeding her cereal twice a day (out of a bowl with a spoon)! She's getting to be so big. ha! Anyways, we didn't find a bouncy seat or a high chair, but it was fun spending time just us three. Later on Saturday night we went to C & K's house for game night. (That seems to be our new weekly tradition). This weekend it looks like it will be at our house, but for now... here's the most recent picture of Olivia... isn't she adorable with all the cereal around her mouth...