when it's too quiet+smothered buttermilk chicken

You know something is definitely going on. When you are in the bathroom and all of a sudden, the "peep peep" and "choo choo" sounds stop, something is most definitely going on.

 Like pulling tissues out of the box and replacing them with Cheerios. And dumping the entire bowl of cheerios over to make the first statement easier.

 It sure is a good thing he's cute:)

 He got this pool ring from the bath tub and put it on his head, goof ball:)

 What we had for dinner last night:

Smothered Buttermilk Chicken

I am not sure exactly where I got this recipe...I know I got it back when I was on weight watchers but it wasn't one of their recipes. It is one of my favorites to make because it is in the crock pot and it is tasty:)

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced (I usually just throw in some baby carrots instead because I pretty much always have those on hand)

1/3 cup chopped onion (I usually don't measure and do 1/2 of a small sweet onion)

1/2 cup water (or chicken stock)

2 tbsp butter

salt and pepper 

1 bay leaf

1 package chicken gravy mix

1/3 cup buttermilk

2 tsp flour

1 cup frozen peas

1. Combine chicken, carrots, onion, water, butter, salt, pepper, and bay leaf in crock pot, mix well.

2. Cover, cook on low 6-8 hours (this only takes 5 in my crock pot). About 20 minutes before serving, do the following:

Remove and discard bay leaf, stir chicken gravy mix into crock pot (I use a wire whisk which helps shred.break up the chicken).

In a small bowl, blend together buttermilk and flour until smooth. Stir flour mixture and peas into chicken. Mix well.

Cover, increase heat to high and cook 20-25 minutes or until peas are cooked.

Enjoy!!!

she's a mind reader

I have been bringing lunch for her when I pick her up from school and she had 5 baby carrots. She asked me why I always gave her 5 and I told her when she turns 6 I wouldn't give her 5 anymore. She then said "well, you better not give me 6." I asked her how she knew that's what I was thinking and she said (with her best hello it's so obvious eye roll/sigh) "I just got it from your brain." haaaaaaaaa ha.

Another funny thing she said yesterday was when we were walking down the hall at school to her class. Every month, one of the suites decorates the main bulletin board and this month her class decorated the board with snowmen. She had shown me which one was hers and last week, Shaun came with us to pick her up and I showed him. Yesterday I told her that I showed Dad which one was hers and she asked me if he was "pressed." Hee hee, meaning was he impressed? 

Love the things she says and I totally need to start putting them on here when she says them. I found a scrap piece of paper in my purse from awhile ago with funny things she said, but a lot of them I couldn't remember the context or what she had said exactly. The case of mama brain....

***

The headband is something she wanted to make yesterday after looking through the Oriental Trading Company catalog I had gotten in the mail:)

take 3 tuesday

I took these pictures yesterday and immediately thought of the following challenge: take 3 pictures that represent somebody's "right now," without showing their face. Who wants to play?

1. trains...the obvious one, lol.

 2. only one sock on:)

 3. a sippy cup randomly placed

This is what we had for dinner last night: Asian BBQ Turkey Lettuce Wraps

They were sooooo tasty! I couldn't quite get the lettuce leafs to wrap up, but they were still yummy served over rice. Everyone liked them and they were incredibly easy and quick to make, try them!

I think I will start using ground turkey more often. This was the first time I cooked with it, believe it or not. 

Alright now...go take some pictures!!

painting, hot chocolate, and trains

 Last summer I read about a fun thing to let your kids do. Give them paintbrushes and a bucket of water and let them "paint" the outside of your house. I let them do it inside, but the water didn't show up very good. I think because the paint on our walls has some glossiness, if it was matte it would have shown up. But the kiddos did have lots of fun doing this:) At first Aislynn said she was just cleaning the walls, then she said she painting all the Disney characters and fairies.

 He was just happy to stick his hands in the water:)

 Then there was hot chocolate.

 She eats all the whipped cream off with her fingers first.

 yuuuuuuum yum:)

 Sunday morning was watching "Ta."

 And then pushing his trains around.  See that sock under the sofa? I was looking for it everywhere when I was doing laundry...when I was editing these pictures I found it:)

 Na na joining in on the fun.

We had a nice weekend...pretty much stayed indoors and played. I didn't work on my DD at all but my goal is to get it wrapped up this week!

the simple things

A bowl of fresh fruit. What makes it even better is that I love the bowl that I got on clearance at Pier 1, and what makes it the best is that we are all eating more fruit now that it is sitting out on the table instead of the fruit basket in the kitchen. Both kids request fruit more often now...Kieran likes the kiwis, or "kikis" and Aislynn prefers the apples.

Hope your weekend was fantastic:)

granola and bruschetta pasta

She was super tired this week. I think being out of school for a couple weeks and then getting back in the swing of the old routine has been a bit tough on her. Today she didn't go to school because when she woke up she was complaining of a sore throat, head ache, and stuffy nose. Then miraculously, about an hour later...she felt better, hmmmm...

 I haven't shared any yumminess in awhile, so here are a couple things. This granola:

is sooooo insanely good. Like when I first made it and I kept inventing reasons to have to go in or walk by the kitchen so I could eat some. Add some honey and greek yogurt and you have a delicious breakfast. And it tastes so so much better then store bought granola. And it is ridiculously easy to make. I couldn't find any pumpkin seeds, so I added more sunflower seeds and almonds.

Then there is this Bruschetta Pasta that I made for dinner tonight. Again, yum yum:)

 The kids weren't fans, but I will definitely be making this for lunches for the grown ups. Again, really really easy. And it's pretty, isn't it? I left out the capers because I don't like them.

Planning on trying out some new recipes next week and will hopefully wrap up my December Daily album to share as well:)

she

 is a smarty pants. She is constantly making me smile with what she says. Over the break, we were playing lots of Christmas music. We were listening to Silent Night sung by Julie Andrews and Aislynn told us that this sounded like Mary Poppins. She did this another time when she heard a song sung by Angela Lansbury and she said it sounded like Mrs. Potts (from Beauty and the Beast). She also picks up on subtle things. When we were at Disney...we were taking a little break eating a snack. Aislynn wanted to get more treats but we told her we would later. She said "yeah, you don't want to eat too many goodies because you might get F A T." She spelled out fat because on the bench next to us there was a quite large person...and she knows you spell words when you don't want someone listening to know what you are saying. Of course, we were embarrassed (I don't even know if the person heard or not), but I thought it was clever nonetheless. She describes things so cute too...when we were at dinner the other night at a Chinese restaurant, she wanted to know if they were going to bring us some twisty chips, and she was talking about fortune cookies. She also wanted to know if Mulan lived in Chinese and if she eats rice, ha ha:) I suppose she will pick up political correctness over time;) Another time she was describing to Matthew (the boy we carpool with) what a light saber was and she told him it looked like a long, lighted up Popsicle:)

One of the sweetest things I ever heard her say was when Matthew was telling her about his big sister and she said "well, Kieran is my little brother and I have him in my heart."

And you sweet pea...are in our hearts always.

this little boy

currently loves:

 

showing his belly, pointing to his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, showing you his hands and feet and he likes pointing it out on you too. Watch out though...you might get a finger in your nose.

  

He loves his shoes...well, actually he loves taking them off. Usually just one though, and then his sock. Then he throws them down and says "uh oh, so...shu" (so=sock and shu=shoe) to let you know that he did that.

Favorite books are "foo," The Foot Book and "tray," Blue Train Green Train.

He also loves playing with his cars and looooooves playing with his trains. He wakes up saying "ta...pay," which translates into Thomas...play. He loves pointing out things and naming them. His favorite new foods he has tried are "prepels" and "kikis" or pretzels and kiwis. He surprises me all the time with all the things he knows. The other day we were at the doctors for his well check and Aislynn was counting up the floors, she said 1, 2 and Kieran finished with "fee!" He loves running and flinging himself at me if I am on the floor hugs me. He blows kisses (mmmm-mah!) at Daddy and Aislynn as we walk down the hall at bedtime. He recently started saying "hu you" too, which is love you. He also loves telling us all our names randomly..."Mama, Dada, Nana," he says. This boy...man we adore him:)

Here are 2 layouts I have done within the past week:

I used a sketch that was in the June 2010 issue of Scrapbooks Etc. 

Working on wrapping up my December Daily album this week, can't wait to share it:)

these two

 have been enjoying each others company. But tomorrow Aislynn goes back to school, and to be honest, we are all kinda glad. The other day she told me she misses school and I miss the routine of having her in school, even if it is only 3 hours a day. But I will miss these morning moments before they are all tired and cranky and they play nicely together:) I was folding laundry yesterday morning and Aislynn said she needed to do some exercise. So she started doing all kinds of moves and Kieran started copying her in his own way. It was too funny and cute:)

 My silly boy:)

Then this morning, I set up Aislynn's tent in the living room where we watched Dinosaur Train and Sesame Street+ate some pretzel sticks. Kieran thought it was lots of fun walking around the outside of the tent and poking it, causing Aislynn to laugh, thus causing him to laugh:)

 This picture below just cracks me up:)

 And this one just makes me happy:)

So...I know I am being totally flaky here, but I am foregoing the one frame a day project. I am thinking that at the end of the year I will turn the blog into book form. That will capture more anyways AND be one less thing to be updating...okay I am lazy. But my goal is to pick up the camera more and to bring it out more. AND to post on my blog more. I have averaged about 105 posts per year the past 3 years, so this year I would like to get the number above 200 posts. Keep your fingers crossed...I get waaaay too ambitious in the beginning of the year:)

1.1.11

 Happy 2011! I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve. We got a bottle of champagne just hung out and talked. The kids went to bed around 7-7:30ish. Aislynn and I made these crowns out of pipe cleaners and she wore hers for most of the day but Kieran wouldn't leave his on even for just one picture! So Shaun had to wear it, hee hee:

 I took this picture today of the kiddos playing in Kieran's room. For the story click on the one frame a day tab above. I am going to do this twist on Project 365. I am going to keep up with it as best as I can but I WILL NOT stress if I miss a day...or week...

 For dinner tonight...burgers, homemade french fries...and for dessert-brownies. Aislynn was supposed to go to a last minute birthday party this afternoon but it was storming so bad plus there was a tornado watch, and I really didn't want to lug both kids into town during the horrendous weather. She was kinda bummed, but she was totally okay with it when we said we would make cheeseburgers and homemade french fries...with brownie sundaes for dessert. Yep...I guess we are postponing the usual it's-the-new-year-lets-eat-healthy-now resolution. At least for a couple days...I like to start things on a Monday, ha ha:)

 

This was earlier in the week, Mimi and Papa came over to exchange gifts with us. They gave Aislynn a unicorn pillow pet, which she loves:) K got the pictured "Ta," which he loves...  

The next day I took Christmas down with the exception of the lights outside. Before our tree we had Aislynn's art stuff and her little table in the space, but she wanted to keep it in her room, so I pulled out some shelves and the kids books and made a book nook. I love it:)

 

Aislynn got this storefront from Grandma and James. While Kieran napped the other day, we played store and she wanted her store to be called Aislynn's Publix, lol. Oh, and see the unicorn? According to the cashier, she rides it to work everyday. And don't by the corn...it's poison. Apparently a wicked queen put it there. The muffin of the day was an interesting flavor of French Vanilla Coffee Cilantro...it's delicious, I'm told.

 

And here is a page I can finally share. It was in the December ScrapStreet issue.

  

So obviously I have been playing with my blog:) And I know I am wishy-washy, but I decided to go back to just one. I think I will blog more and I will mentally feel like I have less to keep up with:) I took this class to help me with some stuff, and I recommend it. The first part of the class I didn't really go through because I am pretty familiar with the workings of blogger, but as far as the design stuff goes...that was super helpful.