Longing for warmer weather....

Anyone else TIRED of this cold weather yet?? I sure am! I guess I must be missing summertime pretty badly because I was flipping through pictures the other day and found these two photos of my little guys at their grandparents' pool from last summer. I knew I had to scrap a page, so I pulled out some fun summer papers and Sketch #108 from Sketch Inspiration and got to work! Here's to warmer weather.....

Ribbon Ring Giveaway

Check this out, and be sure you mention my name as sending you there whenever you leave a comment or sign up to be a follower!

http://lisafalduto.blogspot.com/2010/01/ribbon-ring-ribbon-storage.html

Tried Another Recipe...

Ehhh.....not so great. I tried Chicken Tortilla Casserole (a crockpot recipe).
I just never have much luck with the family liking crockpot recipes. It's a shame, really.

Neither of the boys liked it very much. In fact, I think Aaron spit more out that he actually ate. It was okay, I thought...but not my favorite. Too onion-y (is that a word??) for our liking, even though I put less onions in there than it called for! It's a good cold weather meal...but probably won't be making this one again anytime soon. I made Southwest cornbread to go with it...at least the boys ate that.

If you want to try it, here's the recipe:

Recipe #2

Chicken Tortilla Casserole
Ingredients:
-4 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked in broth and cut into 1" pieces (reserve 1/4 cup broth chicken was cooked in
-10 6" flour tortillas, cut in strips about 1/2" wide x 2" long
-1 medium onion, chopped
-1 tsp. vegetable oil
-10 3/4-oz can chicken broth
-10 3/4-oz can cream of mushroom soup
2 4-oz cans mild chopped green chilies
1 egg
1 cup cheese, grated

Directions:
1. Pour reserved chicken broth in slow cooker sprayed with cooking spray.
2. Scatter half the tortilla strips in bottom of slow cooker.
3. Mix remaining ingredients together, except the second half of the tortilla strips and the cheese.
4. Layer half the chicken mixture into the cooker, followed by the other half of the tortillas, followed by the rest of the chicken mix.
5. Cover. Cook on low in crockpot for 4-6 hours or on high for 3-5 hours.
6. Add the cheese to the top of the dish during the last 20-30 minutes of cooking.
7. Uncover and allow casserole to rest 15 minutes before serving.

Are You Tired of Disney Layouts Yet?

I sure am! LOL But, I've got to get these done. I know it's unrealistic to think I can get all of my Disney pics scrapped, but I'm certainly going to try!

Here is one I did using a shaped photo collage template from Scrapbooks Etc. I left one part of the template blank so that I could add my journaling there. Super simple, but DONE.

These pics are of my boys finally getting to meet Buzz & Woody at Hollywood Studios. Aaron had talked all day about meeting them, and he finally got too. Priceless.



By the way, many thanks to all of you who have been commenting on my blog. I {love} comments and enjoy reading them! :)

Recipes

One of the resolutions I made for this year was to try out at least 10 new recipes. Sounds easy enough...but I really don't enjoy cooking, so this is going to be a task for me. I like baking...but cooking is just....eh.

I've decided it's time to learn some new recipes....expand my menu, if you will.

So, I'm looking for GOOD, EASY recipes if any of you have any good ones to share. But let's get one thing straight: I want recipes with real ingredients, not ingredients that I've never heard of or have to travel to Italy to obtain. Something that even kids will like, and no...I repeat absolutely no....seafood/fish of any kind. Something easy, something delicious, preferably something that won't take hours.

Tonight, we tried Chicken Packets. Very simple to make, and I am happy to say that these were a total hit! Everyone loved it, and the boys even had seconds. Yay!

I served these with some Uncle Ben's Southwestern rice, but a side salad would have been a great choice to go with these. It made 8 packets, so we have plenty for leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Score.

But wait...it gets even better. The mixture for these can be made ahead of time and frozen for when you are ready to use it. Or, you could make these for a meal but double the recipe for the filling, and then freeze the filling for whenever you want to make them again. ;)

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it out for yourself:

Recipe #1:
Chicken Packets -

Ingredients for Cooking Day:

* 2 cups cooked chopped chicken
* 1 -3 oz. packet cream cheese
* 1 Tbsp. chopped chives
* 2 Tbsp. milk
* salt to taste

Ingredients for Serving Day:

* 1/2 c. crushed seasoned croutons (I have substituted bread crumbs)
* 2 -8oz. package refrigerated crescent rolls.
* 1/4 cup melted margarine.

Directions for Cooking Day: Mix chicken, cream cheese, chives, milk and salt. Freeze in freezer bag.

Directions for Serving Day: Thaw chicken mixture. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll rolls. Make rectangles instead of triangles by sealing the perforations. Place 1/4 c. filling on top of each piece of roll. Fold over and seal. Dip packet in melted butter and roll in crushed croutons. Bake 20 minutes until golden brown.

Easy peasy and will definitely be making these again! :)

If you have any EASY recipes you'd like to share, please leave a comment below!

A Couple More

Trying to catch up on some Fall layouts! :) Here are a couple more:

A Few New Layouts

I did these before our trip to New Mexico, but I'm just now getting around to uploading them! :)

This first one is from last year's 4th of July at the lake. I used a Pagemaps sketch for it. All the papers are from Target's Dollar Spot. I love it when they have cute scrappy stuff there!:



These next 2 are from the Pumpkin Patch this past October:




More to come later!!!!!!! :)

We Made It!

Well, if you read my last post, you know that we were debating whether or not to go on with our trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico, last week because Aaron became ill right before we were supposed to leave. After taking him to the pediatrician, we were informed that he did, in fact, have a very very mild (and very early) case of "regular" flu, but the doc said that by the time we got to New Mexico, he would no longer be contagious. So, we decided to go on with the trip (especially after both boys started wailing when we told them we might just go home.)

So, we arrived in New Mexico last Friday night at around 8:00 p.m. It was a VERY long drive, but we made it there, and it was beautiful. The cabin we stayed in was up in the mountains and had the most amazing view. There were mule deer grazing freely all around us. There was snow on the ground, but not so much that it made it impossible to drive. It was just....beautiful. One of the days we were there, I went and sat on the back deck, facing the other mountains around us, and I was just amazed at how quiet it was there. Nothing but the occasional sound of a bird flying by or the snow dripping off the roof. Just so incredibly peaceful and quiet. Wonderful.

Aaron rebounded very quickly, and we all had a great time. The best part was taking the boys to the snow park. They had man-made snow hills that you could go down on in inner-tubes, and we had a blast! We also took the boys bowling, which was Aaron's first bowling trip. He absolutely loved it! It took the ball like a whole 2 minutes to make it down the lane after he pushed it, but with the help of gutter guards...he did really well. :)

I'm glad we decided to go. It was quite a task getting there, but it was well worth it. The kids had fun despite all of the obstacles, and it was just nice to get away for a while. I can't wait to scrap all the snow pictures!!! :)

Over the Mountains and Through the Woods....

To Ruidoso, New Mexico we go!

Or so I hope.

This trip has been planned since before Christmas. My aunt, uncle, their baby, my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, mom, dad, sister, sister's boyfriend, hubby, the boys, and I all planned on a wonderful little after-Christmas getaway to the mountains together. The kids have Friday and Monday off from school, so it's a perfect long weekend time for a little trip. Wonderful little mountain tourist town with great little shops downtown....big 2-story house for us all to snuggle in as we watch the snow fall beautifully on the pine trees outside....pure bliss.

Well, over the course of the last week, the following has happened:
-Mom and dad backed out of going for various reasons.
-My younger sister's boyfriend got hit with a stomach bug today, and now she thinks she has it too....so they aren't going.
-Bad weather and icy conditions may cause my aunt, uncle, and cousin to delay their flight.
-The town where we are going is supposed to get snow in the morning...so no telling what the road conditions will be like as we travel the 7 hours or so it takes to get there by car.
-My youngest started running fever today and is now super congested.

Lovely, right?

So, I've definitely learned that nothing EVER goes as planned. EVER. What do we do about that? Just go with the flow, I suppose, and hope for the best.

A part of me wants to just cancel the whole thing and stay home, but another part of me tells me to go and enjoy some much-needed away time with my family. I think I would really regret it if I didn't go and make these memories with them.

So, we are taking an unexpected detour on our route to New Mexico tomorrow and heading to the pediatrician's office first, which is about an hour away from home. Gonna get Aaron checked out and make sure he is okay. If he has something really bad, we will head back home. If it's just an ear infection or cold, we will hopefully get a prescription and then continue on our way to New Mexico.

Is this how I pictured things happening for us this weekend? Not at all. Am I looking forward to the 7+ hour drive? Heck no. Is my baby okay, and is he gonna get over these symptoms quickly? God, I hope so. Do I think the memories and time spent together will be worth all of this? Absolutely.

Sketch #105

I finally got my page uploaded for this week's challenge at Sketch Inspiration. Trisha is doing a great job with these sketches, and I look forward to them each week. :) Oh, and if you haven't heard yet, this week's sketch challenge is sponsored by Scrapbook Deals 4 U! All you have to do is upload your layout based on Sketch #105 to the online gallery, and you could win an awesome kit!!!

I decided to do a pumpkin patch page this time. I got on a roll with my fall pictures finally and did about 3-4 layouts of pumpkin patch pics this past week. Here is my page based on Sketch #105.

New Year, New Blog Design! :)

Thanks to my hubby, my blog has a new look!!! You like??

January kits from The Scrap Room!

Oh my, check out the reveal for the January kit from The Scrap Room!



Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!

Here are my Barista projects:











This monthly kit is loaded with goodies! Even after making all of the above, I still have tons left for more projects! If one of your New Year's resolutions is to get more pages done this year, then joining this kit club will definitely help you out! :)

2010 and Giveaway WINNER!

Well, here we are onto the start of a new decade! Wow, the past 10 years have just flown by, it seems. This past decade has definitely been the best decade of my life, bringing me my marriage and the birth of my two sons. Can't wait to see what this next decade brings!

Since it's the 1st, it's time to pick my giveaway winner of the cute Christmas stamps from Crafter's Companion! Drumroll please....the winner (picked at random) is................


scrappinmomto2girls

Congrats! Please email me at jenny41180@hotmail.com to send me your mailing address so I can get these sent to you! Happy New Year, everyone!!!!!!!!