Yum Yum Yum

The Pizza Casserole turned out delicious as always but I forgot to take pictures and stuff while I was cooking it so next time I make it I will post the recipe!

One of my all time favorite meals is Easy Chicken & Dressing!! I have made if for people who just had a baby and when people come over to my house and EVERYONE loves it!

Easy Chicken & Dressing

*6 Chicken Breasts
*1 bag graded mozzarella
*1 can cream of chicken soup
*1/2 soup can of water
*1 small package of chicken dressing mix
*1 stick of butter

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
1. In a 9x13 dish, lay the chicken breasts on bottom and put the cheese over them.

2. Mix soup and water in a bowl and pour over the chicken and cheese.

3. Sprinkle the dressing on top.

4. Melt the butter and pour over the dressing
5. Bake covered with foil for 1 hour, then remove foil and continue baking for 30 more minutes.

As you can see I only use two chicken breasts. Basically I just judge how much cheese I on want on the chicken, use about half of the soup mixture and then cover with dressing. I use about half a stick of butter also. Anyway it is by far one of the easiest recipes and most delicious that I have!

Crockpot Orange Chicken & Fried Rice

Since I have started cooking a lot more my main goal has been to be easy and fast! If you have a toddler you understand that some days they might allow you to cook a 2 hour gourmet dinner and the next day you might get a good 15 minutes. So anything I post will recipe wise will be fairly simple and quick!! 

Last night was the first time I have not enjoyed our dinner. :( In fact the orange chicken didn't turn out at all and Bryan stopped and got us some orange chicken from a chinese place by our house :) The fried rice was delicious however! I'm still going to post the recipe cause I know what went wrong.

Crockpot Orange Chicken

*3-4 boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks

*1/3 cup flour

*olive oil

*1/2 Tbs salt

*1 tsp balsamic vinegar

*3 Tbs ketchup

*6oz frozen orange juice concentrate (thawed)

*4 Tbs brown sugar

1. In a bowl mix the orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt and ketchup.

2. Pour the flour in a small bowl. Cover the chicken breast chunks in flour and shake off the excess.

3. Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and brown the flour-covered chicken. (Here is the first place I think I slightly messed up. I think I cooked the chicken a little too long.) It does not need to be fully cooked since it is going in the crock pot. 

4. After the chicken is done cooking, pour the pieces into the crock pot. Then cover the chicken with your sauce mixture and give the pot a stir. 

5. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 2-3

(Here was the second problem!! I followed these directions. And because it was a not feeling good, already tired of being pregnant kind of day, I only checked on the chicken once or twice. 5 hours is WAYYYYYY too long in my crockpot! This is what the chicken looked like after 3 hours 

At this point I was thinking oh my goodness this is going to be delicious! And I think 3 hours was all it needed! It was completely dried up and burned by 5 hours. So if you attempt this I would suggest making sure you have extra time the first day to be able to check on it often to make sure it doesn't dry out like mine did. 

Now on to the fried rice! 

Fried Rice

*3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best)

*3 Tbs sesame oil

*1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)

*1 small onion, chopped

*2 tsp minced garlic (2-3 cloves)

*2 eggs, slightly beaten

*1/4 cup soy sauce

1. On medium hight heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok

2. Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender

3. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of the skillet and stir fry until scrambled. (I scrambled them in a separate small skillet because mine wasn't large enough to scoot everything else over. It worked just as good.)

4. Now add the rice and soy sauce. (I made my white rice yesterday morning and left it in the fridge all day and I think it worked just like cooking it the day before.)

5. Stir fry until thoroughly heated and enjoy!!!

Overall this was a quick dinner and I was able to do certain parts at different times of the day which is helpful with a certain little munchkin running around. If you happen to make the orange chicken let me know how long you cook yours in a comment!!! 

On the menu tonight Pizza Casserole! One of Bryan's favorites! I'll post the recipe tomorrow! 

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

And so it goes

So I fell off the face of the earth for awhile! I'm back! I can't even believe how long it has been since I last posted because this blog is such an outlet for me even if no one reads it :) Many things have happened since my last post that's for sure!!! 

I'll start with Hudson. He continued to get better after his tubes and we had a wonderful Christmas! This last Christmas was so fun because of seeing the joy on his face this year as he opened his presents! The best was when my parents gave him his new Ford Rapture truck. He was in love and still is! 

The beginning of the year brought with it lots of preparation for weddings. My cousin Whitney married Mr. Tyler Ferguson in March and it was a fabulous wedding! The week before their wedding we got a big surprise and found out I AM PREGNANT!!! We absolutely couldn't wait and told my parents, brother and soon to be sister in law that night at dinner. I got my dad a cookie cake (it was a week before his birthday) and I wrote on it Happy Birthday Popi! Love Hudson & Baby #2. Now the funny part of this story is no one could read the writing. :) Bryan had to sit in the car with Hudson during the end of dinner and the cake sat in the floor with the heater on so it kinda melted :). Anyway after a few minutes and finally telling them what the last part said everyone started screaming and crying. We had planned on starting to try within the next few months, but obviously God had other plans. We are expecting our another precious boy Grayson Daniel right before Thanksgiving. 

This is the video we posted to spread the news!!!

Hudson turned 2 on April 2nd and we had a wonderful time with him, family and friends. After his birthday my brother got married on April 14th. Their wedding was on a ranch in Tahlequah and it was absolutely perfect! Rain was in the forecast and we even planned on having the wedding inside the barn where the reception would be. Of course God cleared every worry and it was absolutely beautiful all day! 

After the wedding we went with my parents to Disney World! What a magical trip! We had so much fun even though we all vowed we wouldn't be going back for many years. All those people can really get to you after a week! We got up each day and went to one of the parks. After lunch we would head back to the condo so Hudson could take a nice nap. After his naps we either went back to the parks, went swimming or just hung out! 

While we were there my parents sold their house in Oklahoma City. It was such a huge blessing for it to sell after being for sale for over a year. However it was a pretty emotional thing for me and my mom especially. This was my parents dream house and they figured they would live there forever. I had always dreamed that my kids would grow up in the same house I did and continue to have many wonderful memories there. This isn't what God had planned though. Once the house actually sold and everyone was moved up here for good things got alot easier and we have already made some wonderful memories at my parents new house. 

The next big event in our lives happened when we took Hudson back for his ENT check up on his tubes. We all expected it would be a quick easy visit because everything seemed to be going fine. However alittle background, Hudson still had yet to really start talking. We got a new pediatrician at his 2 year appointment and she suggested speech therapy which we were in the process of getting started. Anyway our ENT started asking me all kinds of questions, like how he sleeps, his eating habits, was he talking yet. I was totally confused as I answered them all. He told us Hudson needed to have his tonsils taken out because they were so large they were touching every time he swallowed. He believed this was a part of his bad eating habits, long afternoon naps and lack of speech. So we scheduled his tonsils to be removed the beginning of July. 

Him getting his tonsils out was the absolute worst thing I have ever been through in my life. I would have done absolutely anything to take the pain away from him and I couldn't. The surgery went flawlessly, it was the recovery that was miserable. He would not drink anything, which was a huge problem. The other huge problem was every time we tried to give him his pain medicine he threw up. We never knew how much he got if any. After a horrible first day and him being up half the night screaming I called the Childrens hospital and spoke to the most precious nurse. She told me that the pain medicine burns anyway, so when he would let it sit in his mouth it would only burn worse. Then he would end up gagging on it and throw up. Anyway the first 48 hours were absolutely terrible. I didn't sleep, he didn't sleep, we almost had to go to the ER for an IV of pain meds and fluids. I can't even begin to describe how awful and helpless I felt. Anyway after two weeks he was finally back to himself and it was such a relief. I will post again soon about all the speech issues and other things going on with him. 

Now all the drama seems to be over for now and we are trying to patiently wait on Mr. Grayson Daniel to arrive and survive this awful heat in the meantime! I plan on updating this much more often in the future. Now once I have a newborn and a toddler I can't guarantee anything :) With my newfound love for Pinterest I have found a newfound love for cooking! :) WE have been eating at home most evenings and I'm really enjoying trying all sorts of new recipes I find on Pinterest! In fact tonight we are having Crockpot Orange Chicken and Fried Rice. Maybe I will post those recipes tomorrow! Until next time friends! 

Update on Hudson

My sweet little boy is doing wonderfully!!! Thank you sooo much for all the prayers! You will never know how much I appreciate them. Last Monday morning we arrived at the surgery center at 6:30am. He wasn't allowed to have any milk or food after midnight on Sunday so we were pushing it on him getting hungry. We met with the anesthesiologist ( who was AWESOME) and then Dr. Santos came in. He told us how everything would go and then prayed with us. What a blessing to have a wonderful christian doctor who truly cares about each of his patients! I would highly recommend him! A few minutes later they came in to get him. He went back with them, no tears or anything which made it alot easier on this Momma!! I'm not kidding within 15 minutes Dr. Santos came to get us and told us everything went wonderfully. He was glad we went ahead because he said his ears were alittle worse than he thought and he should be feeling much better. Right after we talked to him they called us back because he was awake. Boy was he mad!!! Which they warned us that every baby wakes up mad because they feel kinna drunk and don't know why. Anyway we stayed for about 20 minutes and they let us leave. Once we were in the car he calmed down and within an hour of the surgery he was back to his normal self.

This has been a HUGE week for him!! He has started saying some of the words he had been saying before getting so sick ANNNND he is actually starting to eat again!!!! This is HUGE for him! For the last couple of months he would eat chips, fries, cheezits or grapes. He would not even taste any other foods. He refused things like blueberry muffins for heavens sake. I was told that he probably wasn't eating because his ears were hurting, tonsils and adnoids were swollen which made his throat hurt all the time. I'm pretty sure that was the case. Wednesday night he ate 4 asperagus, noodles and tried some chicken! He has also had cantelope, honeydew, green beans, cereal, dried blueberries and a couple other things. I'm so proud! It's the little things!!! After making all of his food from 5 months until 13 months it was hard to not be able to get him to eat anything good for him! Anyway thanks again for all the prayers!!! We love you all!!!

Hudson's ears

Hudson has battled his ears for quite some time now. He had 3 ear infections before he turned 1 and has had 2 since then. The problem is he has had continuous fluid in them. On September 18th he got really really sick (after a whooping cough vaccine..thats a whole nother post). He had a 103.5 fever for two days and a horrible cold to go along with it. Before he got so sick he was saying around 15-20 words and once he got sick his speech stopped. He still jabbered all day long, but was no longer using words. After about a week he was back to his normal self except for the speech. We went in for his 18 month well baby the beginning of October and they had no explanations for me as to why his speech had stopped. However they did say he had another ear infection and had probably had it since he had been so sick. I laid in bed awake that night for hours trying to figure out what was going on because I knew it was all correlated somehow. All of a sudden it clicked. He had fluid in his ears at his 12 month, 15 month, and an ear infection at his 18 month. HE COULDN'T HEAR! At that point I was furious and devastated all at the same time. I was so mad that our pediatrician was too clueless to figure out the problem and that it took me as long as it did. I know I can't beat myself up about it but it's hard not to. I called the ped the next morning and ask the nurse if I could be right? Previously they told me they weren't concerned with his speech until he was two. Thats a long time to wait if something is going on!!!! Anyway she said I might be on to something and if I wanted to I could bring him back after he finished his antibiotics the next week. We set up the appointment. Sure enough he still had fluid in his ears. I made an appointment with the ENT for December 1st. We went to see the ENT and he said his ear drum was grey. That usually is a sign of chronic ear infections but can also be caused from chronic fluid. Because of his speech and the fact that the fluid won't go away he highly recommended tubes. Deep down I knew this was going to be the prognosis but was still bummed to hear it! No mom wants her 20 month old to have to be put to sleep for any reason regardless of how short the procedure is. We took a few days and after talking to my parents, and lots of prayers we decided it was in his best interest to have to tubes put in.

The very hardest thing about being a parent is making life changing decisions for them. If it was me I would have had to tubes put in that same day. However when you think about how he will have to live the decision I make for him it makes it soooooooo much harder. Thankfully I completely and whole heartedly trust our ENT. It's still hard to trust "part of me" with him! Being a parent is tough!! Hudson's surgery is set for this Monday morning at 7:30a.m. It should only take 10 minutes and about 30 recovery. However prayers would still be GREATLY appreciated! Pray for Bryan and I's strength during the procedure, Hudson to handle the whole thing well, the surgery to go flawlessly, and that it fixes all his problems and he feels better immediately!! Thanks for you love and support! I will post later with an update on how he is doing!

The last two months

It's been awhile...once again! I'm telling you trying to blog (the way I would like) and chasing a toddler around just don't coincide very well! My free time is when Hudson naps. Some days its an hour and a half and others it's three hours. Oh how those three hours are cherished Mommy time :) I decided once again to do a little picture update!

Hudson had his first trip to the Pumpkin Patch! He LOVED IT!!!

Then he had his 2nd trip with Momma & Mimi & enjoyed it just as much!

My little punkin!!!

Hudson & I took our first trip to the Jenks Aquarium! We had a blast!

Then it was time for Halloween! As you can see I have the CUTEST little parrot that ever was!!!

We have had a wonderful couple of months with our precious boy! I absolutely CAN NOT wait until Christmas!!! I am more excited this year than I can ever remember! (I'm sure I was more excited as a little kid but not much!) Hudson is going to have a blast this year opening presents. He is already mesmerized with the trees! I will definitely have a Christmas post filled with lots of pictures!!! Until next time! :)

18 Months

Hudson,

I really can't believe you are already a year and a half old. It just doesn't seem possible! Every night I wonder how we made it through the day and you are still all in once piece. You are the wildest, most on the go little boy I have EVER been around. I guess Mimi & Popi weren't kidding when they said I would pay for my raising! You are more and more like me every day. Very persistent, stubborn, and passionate. Thankfully you are also just like your Daddy in so many ways too. You have his ornery side and always want to have fun and be goofy. You keep us laughing every single day! We love you more than you will ever be able to comprehend well at least until you have kids of your own ;)

Here is what you have been up to lately!

*Still size 4 diapers. Hopefully we will start potty training in a couple of months. You already have a potty but would rather try to stand on it than use it for what it actually is for! :)

*We are starting to buy you all 18-24 month clothes. The shirts still swallow you, but you are soooooo stinking tall that you have to have them for your height!

*You have four bottom teeth, 3 on top and all your molars. Your other incisor and all four canines are coming in as we speak and they are making you rather fussy!

*You eat three meals a day plus snacks. You will no longer eat ANYTHING that even resembles baby food (yogurt, jello to name a couple) Your all time favorites are chips, fries and ketchup (just like Momma). It has been a real struggle lately to get you to eat healthy things because all you want are carbs lol

*We had to retire your high chair because you refused to sit in it. You now sit in a booster seat pushed up to the table like a big kid with your own placemat and everything. You think you are such hot stuff.

*You absolutely LOVE to play outside. I think you would live out there if Momma let ya!

*Other than playing with your toys you are crazy about reorganizing things! If I leave the fridge or panty open for a second too long you will rearrange the entire thing in the way you think everything should be placed. It's not a battle I have chosen to fight with you and actually enjoy sitting and watching you think about where you want to put things.

*You still love to read your books and will sit on your floor and read every single book until you have emptied your bookshelf.

*Every day (if its not raining) Momma raises your bedroom window so you can talk to the doggies. You will stand there and talk to them for a long time and anytime they bark you run to the window and tell them to stop. So cute.

*We have yet to give up your pacis completely. Once again another battle we have chosen not to fight yet. You are allowed to have them only at nap time or when you go to bed at night.

*Your toy chest is close to your bed and now you will try to climb onto it and then into your crib. Thankfully you haven't tried to climb out yet.

*Every night before you go to bed Daddy brings you in and kisses you goodnight and then Momma rocks you while you drink your milk. Then I pray for you and kiss you and lay you down. Usually you don't make a peep after that and go right to sleep!

*You are a dancing machine!!! Anytime you hear any kind of music for any length of time you start dancing! It is the most joyous thing to watch.

*You have become quite the flirt when we are out and about and everyone stops to tell you how cute you are and talk to you. I can tell you eat it up!

*I feel like we have hit the terrible twos every so often. You don't throw fits all that often but when you do OH MAN. Its best to leave you alone and they end within a minute or two.

*Watching you learn every day is my favorite thing! Here are a couple of examples...You first started out giving open mouth kisses and now close your little lips to give kisses. You have also learned how to give hugs and they are almost as precious as your kisses. Last night Momma got on the ladder and changed your light bulb that was out in your bedroom and this morning you found the old light bulb and took it straight to your room and held it up in the air at your light fixture. So smart.

*You love the hair dryer now. Used to you were very afraid of it and now you beg me to turn it on so you can play with it. Cracks Momma up!

*You love for Momma to sing songs to you like Patty Cake, Intsy weensy spider, Head & Shoulders, and any other song I make up!

*Your new favorite movie is Rio. I swear you could watch it all day long on repeat and never get tired of it.

*You attempt to say soooo many words now its hard to keep track. Here's my best shot....fishies, doggies, dog, up, buh bye, got it, you got it, pwease, dada, daddy, dad, that, this, I know there are more but Mommy's brain is tired :)

* You are a monkey. You attempt to climb on anything and everything that can possibly be climbed on and some things that can not. It is quite a challenge.

*You will go to the tupperware drawer (the only one your allowed to play in) and get out one of Momma's big hospital jugs and take it and it's straw over to the fridge and fill it up with water, then bring it to me so I can get the lid and put it all together. The first time you did it I thought I was loosing it and then you continued to do it almost every day.

*Everything can turn into drum sticks and you pound on anything you can.

*You literally talk all day long every when no one has any idea what you are saying.

*Every time we leave to go anywhere you try to set the alarm, then you open the garage door for me. When we get home you close the garage door, then the door into the house and try to turn off the alarm.

*Basically anything we do, you think you can do to!

I'm pretty sure I could go on and on and on about all the wonderful things you do every single day, but I'll stop for tonight. You are our world and it just wouldn't be the same without you! We love you to the moon and back! Life is so much better with you in it! XOXO