Mickey Mouse pancakes

As a kid pancakes was one of my favorite Saturday morning breakfasts (well, as an adult too!) I can remember how much "better" shaped pancakes were. So here is my first attempt. Ears are a little lopsided, but other than that I thought it wasn't bad. Cole could have cared less, but I enjoyed doing it for him nonetheless. He will appreciate it one day I am sure.

Favorite Church Potluck Casserole

MMMMMMM....Yummy! Chicken Rotel is my favorite church potluck casserole! My mom used to make it for almost every potluck we had a church (or at least that is how I remember it) along with her FAMOUS chocalate pies! Lucky for me, she made it for me last time she was here. Here is the recipe:

4-5 Chicken Breasts (with the bone & the skin!)
1 Diced Onion
1 Diced Bell Pepper
1 Stick Butter
8 oz Vermicelli
1 lb. Velveeta
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 can Rotel
1 can drained LeSeur peas

Boil chicken breasts until fully cooked. Remove chicken breasts from broth. Set aside to cool a little before removing bones & skin. When cooled shred chicken. Melt butter in skillet and saute onion and bell pepper in butter. Cook vermicelli in chicken broth until most of water has boiled off. Put onion & pepper in vermicelli/broth. Add velveeta, worcestershire sauce, and rotel then stir over low heat until cheese melts. Stir in LeSeur peas and shredded chicken. Pour into 13x9 casserole dish (2-2 1/2 qt). Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 min (until bubbly).

The great thing about this recipe is that you can mix it up before you need it, and then just pop it in the oven when you are ready. It will take a little longer in the oven after being refrigerated of course! I might have to make this soon!!!

#1 thing I've learned this week...

Amoxicillan sure doesn't come out lookin' like it did when it went in!!

This week...

Cole climbed/fell out of his crib today. Savannah has her first ear infection. Guess how well our week is going.....

Favorite Restaurant EVER

I think that this Favorite Friday topic is really impossible for me. I just like too many places! But I will have to go with The Cheesecake Factory. My first Cheesecake Factory dining experience was in Chicago. It was soooo yummy. I am so glad we have one here now. After getting past the fact that the wait can be inhumane at times, this place has got it all! A wide variety of yummy appetizers and entrees, and of course the best cheesecake ever (I vote for the Godiva or key lime). I love the atmosphere too! MMMMMMM...and the best part is that you can drop in and pickup a piece of cheesecake to take home whenever the cheesecake urge calls. This is dangerous to the hips and the wallet though. I will have to say that I tried the carrot cake once and it wasn't very good. So when you go there for desert, stick with the cheesecake!!

Favorite Children's Book

My favorite children's book is LITTLE QUACK by Lauren Thompson & Derek Anderson. I have been reading it to Cole since he was about two weeks old. Our copy is a board book and it is starting to look kind of worn. I love it because it shows "children" conquering their fears and relying on their family while gaining independence. Plus as the ducklings "cuddle close in the nest", I get to cuddle with my children. It is a fun little story that I get to read over and over again because it is one of Cole's favorites too. I hope that Savannah enjoys it as much as he does. I am so excited because I just discovered that there are more "Little Quack" books when I was finding the picture of the book to post. They may just find there way to our children's book collection.

We are so blessed that Cole has such an interest in reading. Hopefully Savannah will follow in his footsteps! Here is Cole "reading" LITTLE QUACK.

Easter Morning Pictures

What a poser!

Thanks Grammy & Papa for my pretty dress!

MMMMMM...My bonnet tastes good!

Spoiled Rotten

Nana & Pawpaw came to visit this weekend. We were all spoiled rotten! We didn't get any pictures with everyone looking at the camera when we were taking pictures of Savannah with Nana & PawPaw, so here is one where no one is looking! Nana & PawPaw also took Cole out to play in the bubbles! He enjoyed this very much!!! Thanks for everything Nana & Pawpaw!!!!

Snow?

Did anyone else notice there were slow flurries this evening? Snow flurries, in April, in the South?? What is up with that? Doesn't Mother Nature know we have Cole's FIRST egg hunt to go to tomorrow?

Hot Cold - Favorite Easter Tradition

Growing up Easter morning was all about the Easter bunny and what he had hidden for us in our Easter baskets. We would play "Hot Cold" to find our baskets. As we (me & my brothers) would walk around the house, our parents would tell us whether we were "Hot" (close to our basket) or "Cold" (no where near our basket). I can still hear the intensity rise in my Daddy's voice as he would say "warmer, warmer" when we started getting close to our treat! The Easter bunny was always really nice to us. We also had fun dyeing eggs. I can't wait to carry on these traditions with my children.

So that is my favorite Easter tradition.

One thing I would like to say about Easter.... In the Church of Christ so often we avoid discussing the resurrection on Easter Sunday, although we are more than willing to discuss it any other day of the year. I can remember Easter Sundays where from the pulpit it was made a point to say that we weren't going to talk about it "like the rest of the world". Although I know that this avoidance is no longer the case in all Churches of Christ, I would just like to say that I have always found avoiding talking about the resurrection on Easter Sunday very sad. There are people who will be at Church this Sunday for the first time since Christmas - THEY NEED TO HEAR THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD SO THAT THEY MAY RECEIVE GOD'S GRACE & FORGIVENESS!

Happy Easter!

a wonderful husband, a wonderful daddy....

I have the most wonderful husband in the world! I love him so much and I think he is the BEST daddy to our two children. He gives our family so much. God truly blessed me when he brought Matt into my life. Husbands/Daddys don't always get the recognition they deserve. So I just thought everyone should know that!

Google Analytics...Scary

Does anyone else find it a little scary what google can do? I signed up for Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics). It shows you the places people are looking at your blog from (or you can use it for any other website) and apparently if you are signed into google while you are looking at the site using google analytics, it will not only give the analytics user your location but also your user name/blog site name. It is this last part that freaks me out a little. I mean it is a really cool tool because you can see which of your friends loves you the most (just kidding :)), but the fact that they can track that information without you knowing you are being tracked is a little frightening. It makes me think of reading "Big Brother is watching you" in 1984 -the book, not the year - when I was in high school. It also makes me wonder how many times I was tracked viewing a page when I didn't realize "Big Brother" was watching. For all of you out there who tracked me viewing your blog lots of times, I am not a stalker, I am just interested in seeing how you are doing!