December recap :)

Happy New Year!! I am more than excited about 2011 because we get to meet Brittyn Hope!! We celebrated New Year's Eve very low key at Jeff's parents house. Seeing as how I am 34 weeks pregnant, we have two toddlers and I was recovering from the last 24 hours with food poisioning, our plans weren't wild and crazy, ha! But we had a great time and I had fun trying to explain to Braelyn what New Year's was.. :)

I have to do some catching up from December cause we did some really fun things, always a good month!

One of Jeff's closest friends is a Marine that is stationed in Japan. Him, his wife and daughter got to come in town for the the begninning of December and we had a lot of fun. It was soo good to meet Chiaki and sweet little Arize!

 One of my favorite events of the year is the Abilene Christmas Parade! It was really cold this year and the parade is really long but we had so much fun! The kids loved every second of it and I did, too! :)

   

The girls and I had a major mission the first week of December.. Christmas cookies! We do lots of baking at our house but making the cookies was a lot of fun! We even did homemade icing.. it was soo good! I love these memories with them!!

 Also, the first week of December.. on the 7th, I turned 27 year old! I had a fun birthday and decided to make myself a birthday cake because it was a recipe I had been wanting to try for over a year. I made myself a Rainbow Cake.. it turned out soo pretty but honestly, I am not a fan of white cake so I didn't like the taste that much. No worries, I think Jeff ate the whole thing!!! :)

 Just for documentation purposes, our black tree was back for year number 2 and I still love it! I can't do clear lights, by the way. It just doesn't feel like Christmas to me unless there are pretty colored lights on my tree!!

And just because my two year old is so cute.. Here is Happy Faith! :)

Our second project in December was a gingerbread house. I totally cheated and bought a kit. We did not make gingerbread from scratch and assemble a house. I bought a kit and iced it together, which by the way was still a pain in the rear! It's not as easy to assemble or decorate as the box looks, ha! Luckily, between me, Aunt Kristie, Braelyn and Happy.. we ended up with this beauty of a gingerbread house.. don't laugh :) Anyways, we had fun and displayed it for December and then I trashed it :)

Braelyn's preschool class had a Christmas party the day before Christmas break and we brought the whole fam! Braelyn was so excited to show off her baby sister, Happy, to all her friends. They are just too cute to each other!

 The girls Christmas tree in their room.. I love it! I bought it for Braelyn's first Christmas back in 2006..

 Here are the pictures I took of the girls before we went to Jeff's parents house on Christmas Eve! They are just so sweet.. I am pretty lucky to be their Mommy!!

  

 Sweet angel, Braelyn and my bitty princess, Happy (she wasn't feeling it to take any more pictures :)

 Then we went to Jeff's parent's house and had Christmas with his family. We had a great dinner and time with his family. The girls got waaay too many presents but it was precious! This year was fun because they are both perfect age for Christmas and had great expressions while opening presents! (See Braelyn's faces below, ha!)

  

  

The next morning we did Christmas at our house after Santa came so I will have to blog about that next!

Over all, the holiday were blessed for us. I am so excited to know that 2011 holds another precious miracle for our family and I can not wait to meet her! Next year Christmas will be even more full and blessed!!!

Swiss Stuffing Chicken

Here is a recipe I made tonight.. another one stolen from Kelly's Korner Recipes and it was delicious! Even my 3 year old and 1 year old ate their chicken and at our house that equals success! :) Here is the recipe.. make it tomorrow night!!

SWISS STUFFING CHICKEN

4 large skinless boneless chicken breasts
6 oz. Swiss cheese slices
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/4 cup white cooking wine
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup herb-flavored crushed up Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix
1/2 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place uncooked chicken in shallow buttered casserole dish. Layer cheese on top. Mix soup, wine, salt, pepper; pour over cheese. Sprinkle stuffing mix on top and drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 1 hour.

Simple and delicious! Enjoy! :)

King Ranch Chicken

Hey everybody! I made a delicious recipe last night and I just had to share it. However, I take no credit for this one. I stole it from Kelly's Korner Recipe Blog It was so easy and turned out perfect! I served it with Mexican style Rice-a-Roni and it was a hit at our house! Check out her blog for some more great ideas and desserts.. yum!

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 chicken breasts, boiled and cut into bite size pieces

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can rotel

1-2 cups cheddar cheese

Package of corn tortillas (small)

Tear the tortillas into small pieces and line the bottom of a pan. Mix together the soups, rotel and chicken and pour on top. Top with cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Seriously - it's that easy!

Two side notes:

1) I seriously had never boiled chicken before so I googled it (haha, I know). It was so easy. Throw thawed out chicken in big pan of water, heat to a boil, and then slower heat and let simmer 30-50 minutes (times depends on the size of chicken breasts, cut in to them and make sure they aren't still pink.. voila!)

2) We do not eat anything crazy at our house. By crazy I mean fat free, low calorie, low carb etc. My kids are tiny little things and I am always trying to fatten them up! So if you are looking for a diet meal, don't pick this one. As long my kids are eating meats, fruits and veggies everyday then I allow junk like snowcones, ice cream, candy because believe me, they need the extra sugar and fats!!

Try the King Ranch Chicken tonight! Your stomach (and family) will thank you :)