Wednesday, February 29, 2012

celebrating mom

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday. A milestone birthday. My dad took her to the local Mexican restaurant for dinner and when they showed up…surprise, Jason and Molly and crew were there. And so was G. G., Jeremy, Delaney and I. Bri and Allison were at a basketball game, so they couldn’t make it. And we were also missing Scott and Erika. :(

After dinner, everyone came to our house for cupcakes.

IMG_1037

IMG_1041

IMG_1047

IMG_1048

IMG_1051

IMG_1053

IMG_1059

Happy Birthday, Mom!! Thanks for letting us celebrate your BIG day with you!!!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

oops

When I picked up our mail, this is what I found:

IMG_1033

Delaney likes to “play mail” and she has all sorts of stickers and return address labels that her grandmas have given to her. Sometimes she sticks her mail in the mailbox and then I have to remember to take it out the next morning. Apparently she snuck some mail past me. Sorry Mr. Mailman!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

a couple of recipes worth mentioning

Last week Jeremy took his class on a field trip to the state capitol, Topeka. It was an all day and into the evening trip, so I took advantage of the fact that he wouldn’t be around for dinner and fixed something I knew he wouldn’t like.

Cashew Rice and Chicken Casserole

I started with a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli. I love those things. They cost less than a package of chicken breasts and it’s already cooked. It’s pretty much a no-brainer!!

IMG_1002

Combine chicken, long grain and wild rice, cashews, celery and fresh parsley.

IMG_1005

Add melted margarine, chicken broth, white wine, pimentos, sour cream (hence the reason I have to wait til hubby is away) basil, salt and chopped garlic.

Bake and enjoy!

IMG_1006

Here’s the entire recipe:

Cashew Rice and Chicken Casserole

2 1/2 c cubed cooked chicken
2 1/2 c cooked long grain and wild rice
1 c salted whole cashews
1 c (2 stalks) sliced 1 inch celery
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
3 T melted margarine
1 1/2 c chicken broth
1/2 c white wine
2 (2 oz) jars pimento, drained and chopped
1 (8 oz) carton of sour cream
1 t basil
1/2 t salt
2 t chopped garlic

Heat oven to 350. In a 9 x 13 dish, stir all ingredients. Cover and bake, stirring occasionally for 50-60 minutes. Uncover; continue baking for 10-15 minutes or until rice has absorbed all liquid.

********************************************************************************

The other recipe is a side dish I found on pinterest. I thought it looked amazing. And then I saw it was from pioneer woman and I knew it would be amazing. And I was right! Here it is. You must try these. Soon!

Click on the picture to go to pioneer woman’s awesome blog and find out how to make these super easy, super yummy potatoes.

potatoes

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

puppy love

IMAG0611

IMAG0612

IMAG0615

We got together with some friends a week or so ago. They have a new puppy…a great dane! She and Nate enjoyed each other’s company!

Monday, February 20, 2012

a day off with delaney

Today we had a rare treat…a day off from work! Nate’s nurse was coming to work, so we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to do something fun with the girls. Of course, there was only girl at our house willing to do something fun with us! It was too windy and chilly to go to the zoo, so we decided to go to Exploration Place, a hands-on children’s science museum in Wichita.

IMAG0624 IMAG0625

This Kansas girl is no farm girl. But she liked the novelty of milking a cow. With a mechanical milking machine. And the fact that the cow is fake helped. A lot!

IMAG0629

Experiencing the wind of a tornado.

IMAG0637 IMAG0635

Building a dam with dad.

IMAG0648

IMAG0650

Flying an airplane. Her great-uncle Craig would be so proud!

IMAG0658

 IMAG0660 IMAG0662

And her favorite thing…playing in the kitchen. Nothing like paying big bucks to go somewhere else and do things you do everyday at home!

They also had a traveling exhibit about geocaching. You use a gps to find caches that other people have left behind and registered on a website. There are caches hidden all around the world. I think this would be a fun thing to do as a family. I always have big ideas that we never seem to do. Perhaps someday.

Happy President’s Day! Happy day off of work!!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

kids say the darndest things

Delaney’s at the age where you never know what’s going to come out of her mouth. Here are a few of her latest funny quotes.

Me: Delaney, I’ll read 3 pages of the I Spy book before your nap.
Delaney: You’re killin’ me, Smalls! (It’s really only funny if you’ve seen the movie The Sandlot).

Delaney: I cut my finger on the envelope. It was bleeding and I was freaking out.

Gaga: Well I’ll be darned.
Delaney: No….you’re Gaga.

Delaney: Say “Why are you wearing your shoes?”
Me: Why are you wearing your shoes?
Delaney: Because I’m going to school to tell my teacher I’m sick. I will tell her I have a fever and I’m throwing up. But I won’t tell her I have diarrhea. We don’t say that word.

Me (While watching Toddlers and Tiaras with Delaney): Do you want to do that someday?
Delaney: I can try.

Sometimes she cracks me up!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

feel the love…v-day 2012

This is the first year for Delaney to have a Valentine’s Party at school. So we worked hard this weekend to get Valentine cards prepared. I could have been one of those moms and made some fancy Valentines like the ones I’ve been seeing on pinterest. Like this:

vday1

or this:

vday2

But let’s face it. If we keep the expectations low from the beginning, no one is disappointed!! So we did Princess Valentines from Walmart and Delaney signed a “D” and I wrote the rest. Easy Peasy.

IMAG0602

Then she decided to make a Valentine for me. And she actually wrote “mom” without any help other than me telling her the letters to write. The reason this is so remarkable is she has been extremely stubborn about writing up to this point. In fact, this was the first time I was even able to convince her to write a D. So I was pretty impressed with the results!

IMAG0606

So what if it’s upside down. I think it’s beautiful!!

Sadly, this morning Delaney was throwing up and had to miss her big Valentine Party. Boo!!

Even though pinterest wasn’t my go to place for Valentine cards, I did actually get a couple of other ideas for Valentine’s Day.

IMAG0620

This is the candy bouquet I made for Jeremy.

And after our Papa Murphy’s heart-shaped pizza, we’ll enjoy these little morsels of yumminess:

IMAG0622