I often get in a cooking rut, so I love when people post recipes they like. So...here's a recipe I made last week that was a hit with everyone in my house! Ella took a bite and said "Daddy try it. It's delicious!" That is high praise-she is hard to please!!
This is a variation of "hobo packets" with hamburger and potato. I just used sausage instead and it worked great!
1 potato per person
1 package sausage (I used the Eckridge skinless smoked sausage-fully cooked)
raw carrots
salt & pepper
Chop potatoes and carrots into chunks (I peeled the skin off Rusty's and Ella's potato first but left mine on). Cut sausage into slices.
Rip off one large sheet of foil. Place a few dabs of butter in bottom, top with potatoes, then salt and pepper. Put carrots on potatoes, then place sausage on top of carrots. Make 1 packet per person.
Wrap packet up tight, but try to leave a little room for air. Place packets on large baking sheet (mine leaked a little). Place in 375 degree oven for about 50-60 minutes.
I actually did mine in a 375 oven for about 40 minutes and then cranked it up to 400 degrees and cooked another 15 minutes or so and it was perfect. I also didn't have carrots so I just cooked veggies seperate in the microwave.
This is really yummy and clean up is easy! The sausage makes the potatoes really yummy and flavorful. I was pretty liberal with the butter too so that probably didn't hurt either :)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Its a....
...BOY!! Probably everyone who reads this blog already knows that, but thought I'd post it anyways!! Here are a few pics from our ultrasound
His cute little profile!
And...the money shot. He definitely wasn't shy!
We are so so excited! Even more than being excited about having a boy, we're just happy that everything looked great and he is looks healthy!
We came home to tell Ella and she seemed to not care at all :) Rachel came home from work and had bought me a little onsie that said "Little Brother". I was holding it later and Ella said "hey, that's for my little brother!" So, I guess she understand a little!
His cute little profile!
And...the money shot. He definitely wasn't shy!
We are so so excited! Even more than being excited about having a boy, we're just happy that everything looked great and he is looks healthy!We came home to tell Ella and she seemed to not care at all :) Rachel came home from work and had bought me a little onsie that said "Little Brother". I was holding it later and Ella said "hey, that's for my little brother!" So, I guess she understand a little!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Winner!
Last month I won something on a blog giveaway! I see blog giveaways all the time but rarely enter them. One blog I read pretty frequently is The Macs blog. They have an amazing (and sad) story and God has really used them. They are so humble. They had a giveaway in December for a $50 gift card to DaySpring-I entered and I won! So I wanted to give some recognition to The Macs blog since I won from them, and also to DaySpring! I had always thought DaySpring only did cards and stationary but they had a ton of stuff and great prices! Here is everything I got for $50:
A Calendar Set-it came with a full sized calendar, a smaller desk sized calendar and a purse dayplanner.
I got a mug for my mom for her birthday:
A child-sized apron for Ella:
A mug for Rusty for Christmas:
This Christmas serving platter that says "Jesus is the Gift":
I also got an advent calendar for next Christmas that I forgot to take a picture of.
A Calendar Set-it came with a full sized calendar, a smaller desk sized calendar and a purse dayplanner.
I got a mug for my mom for her birthday:
A child-sized apron for Ella:
A mug for Rusty for Christmas:
This Christmas serving platter that says "Jesus is the Gift":
I also got an advent calendar for next Christmas that I forgot to take a picture of. :)
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Thoughts and Ramblings
As I started thinking about 2011 and some goals I wanted to set for myself and my family, I was a little overwhelmed at how many things I came up with. Looking back over the list, they all boiled down to one thing-spending more time with God. By myself and as a family. I came across 2 blog entries recently that I thought I would share. I came across this blog over a year ago and follow up from time to time because I'm always inspired! I love how purposeful this girl is with her children.
One thing I've been recently convicted with is praying for Ella (and this new baby). I feel like I should be praying daily for Ella but there are times when I can't remember the last time I just sat down and prayed for her (I hate to admit). So when I came across this idea, I had to share it. Here's a link for an awesome idea-a prayer journal for your children. I really want to try this! I think it will help me better relate to Ella and be more patient with her. As her mother, I am called to pray for her and will be held accountable before God on how I raise her.
Another great idea this same girl had was creating a morning routine. We have a very loose morning routine, I don't like it. I feel like I'm constantly on Ella's schedule, especially lately. I feel like there has been a very definite change in Ella's behavior lately-she has become very defiante and is constantly testing boundaries. I think having a set schedule every morning would really help. Here's a link for this one. I find this a little overwhelming, but very inspiring. I'm not exactly sure how we would implement this since a lot of play dates, outings, etc. take place in the morning for us. Plus Ella wake up around 5:30 and I'm barley coherent at that time of day! But I'm sure I could do something more that what I'm doing now. I love that this incorporates bible time and chores-neither of which are things we do on a regular basis.
These are both BIG steps for me and are a big time commitment. But as I looked back on 2010, I was asking myself "what area of my life have I grown in?" I really couldn't come up with anything. I had not been in the word more, fallen more in love with Christ, or grown as a wife or mother. What did I do in 2010? I was not purposeful. So...these are just a few of the areas I would like to grow in for 2011. Being a mama is a priveledge and I want to honor God in how I am raising these children that He has blessed me with.
One thing Rusty and I have started doing as a family is family devotion time before Ella's bath time. We've only done it a few times but hope to do it every night except Wednesday and Thursday when we have Awana and Life Group. But even after just doing it the one time, Ella remembered it and was excited about doing it the next time. She knew where to get the bible (we just use her children's bible), and that she needed to go sit on the couch. We're still working on not letting her bring any toys (tonight she wanted to bring her farm animals with her), but it's a work in progress. We also have a short prayer time afterwards. She still hasn't said her first prayer by herself, but I will ask her who she wants to pray for and then I will pray. I try to get her to repeat prayers but so far she hasn't wanted to. Tonight when we asked who she wanted to pray for, she said "Aunt Lori"-one of Rusty's sisters. So, we prayed for Aunt Lori!
I'm excited to see how God will work this year in our family!
One thing I've been recently convicted with is praying for Ella (and this new baby). I feel like I should be praying daily for Ella but there are times when I can't remember the last time I just sat down and prayed for her (I hate to admit). So when I came across this idea, I had to share it. Here's a link for an awesome idea-a prayer journal for your children. I really want to try this! I think it will help me better relate to Ella and be more patient with her. As her mother, I am called to pray for her and will be held accountable before God on how I raise her.
Another great idea this same girl had was creating a morning routine. We have a very loose morning routine, I don't like it. I feel like I'm constantly on Ella's schedule, especially lately. I feel like there has been a very definite change in Ella's behavior lately-she has become very defiante and is constantly testing boundaries. I think having a set schedule every morning would really help. Here's a link for this one. I find this a little overwhelming, but very inspiring. I'm not exactly sure how we would implement this since a lot of play dates, outings, etc. take place in the morning for us. Plus Ella wake up around 5:30 and I'm barley coherent at that time of day! But I'm sure I could do something more that what I'm doing now. I love that this incorporates bible time and chores-neither of which are things we do on a regular basis.
These are both BIG steps for me and are a big time commitment. But as I looked back on 2010, I was asking myself "what area of my life have I grown in?" I really couldn't come up with anything. I had not been in the word more, fallen more in love with Christ, or grown as a wife or mother. What did I do in 2010? I was not purposeful. So...these are just a few of the areas I would like to grow in for 2011. Being a mama is a priveledge and I want to honor God in how I am raising these children that He has blessed me with.
One thing Rusty and I have started doing as a family is family devotion time before Ella's bath time. We've only done it a few times but hope to do it every night except Wednesday and Thursday when we have Awana and Life Group. But even after just doing it the one time, Ella remembered it and was excited about doing it the next time. She knew where to get the bible (we just use her children's bible), and that she needed to go sit on the couch. We're still working on not letting her bring any toys (tonight she wanted to bring her farm animals with her), but it's a work in progress. We also have a short prayer time afterwards. She still hasn't said her first prayer by herself, but I will ask her who she wants to pray for and then I will pray. I try to get her to repeat prayers but so far she hasn't wanted to. Tonight when we asked who she wanted to pray for, she said "Aunt Lori"-one of Rusty's sisters. So, we prayed for Aunt Lori!
I'm excited to see how God will work this year in our family!
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Happy New Year :)
Happy New Year! Hard to believe the holiday season is over-well not officially over for us since we haven't done Christmas with Rusty's side of the family yet-that will be next weekend. Thankfully it's not at my house so the de-Christmasing has begun! I was already clearing out the Christmas decor the day after Christmas. The only thing left is my Christmas tree which is hopefully coming down later today! It doesn't help that it's been warm here-it was almost 60 degrees yesterday! It put me in the spring cleaning mood so I was going nuts cleaning and organizing yesterday!
Our Christmas was great! Chris & Sarah came from TX and stayed Weds-Sun with us. It was hard to see them leave. Ella just LOVED them. We were worried about how she'd do since they left in August, but it was like no time had passed! When we saw them at the airport, she immediately went to Aunt "Sawah" and rode the escalators with her. She was just in her element the whole time they were here.
Christmas morning was fun. Ella loved all her presents-here she is with the easel that daddy bought her
...and her tickle monster hands. She likes to put these on and chase us around the house.
This pic is a little blurry, but this is Ella in her Christmas dress in front of the tree. She was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!
Before the "heat wave" came in, we had a ton of snow. Remeber Ella last year in the snow?? Well this year was a different story. She loved it and didn't want to come in! She was so funny though-we had a sled for her but it had just been sitting in our garage so it had gotten a little dirty and there was a tiny little dead gnat in it. We wiped it out but she just couldn't get over the fact that there had been a dead bug in it. So the entire time we were pulling her on it, she wanted to get out because she didn't want to sit on a bug. Girly girl!
Our other big news (which probably everyone already knows) is that Ella is in her big girl bed! Her crib converts to a day bed/toddler bed thing, so it wasn't a huge transition. We started out by putting a safety rail up, but since it really wasn't supposed to go with this particular bed, it came up really high. We weren't sure she realized she could get out. We wanted to teach her to stay in bed even though she could get out herself. So yesterday we took off the rail. It makes me nervous because she could fall out, but I guess that's just something she needs to learn too. If she does fall out its a very short fall to the floor and we have it lined with a ton of pillows so it wouldn't hurt. So far so good though! She's stayed in her bed all night long and hasn't fallen out! I'm still not sure she's even thought of getting out. When she wakes up, she just calls for me and when I come to get her she's standing up in bed waiting for me. So we'll see if the realization of her freedom kicks in any time soon :)
Our Christmas was great! Chris & Sarah came from TX and stayed Weds-Sun with us. It was hard to see them leave. Ella just LOVED them. We were worried about how she'd do since they left in August, but it was like no time had passed! When we saw them at the airport, she immediately went to Aunt "Sawah" and rode the escalators with her. She was just in her element the whole time they were here.
Christmas morning was fun. Ella loved all her presents-here she is with the easel that daddy bought her
...and her tickle monster hands. She likes to put these on and chase us around the house.
This pic is a little blurry, but this is Ella in her Christmas dress in front of the tree. She was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!
Before the "heat wave" came in, we had a ton of snow. Remeber Ella last year in the snow?? Well this year was a different story. She loved it and didn't want to come in! She was so funny though-we had a sled for her but it had just been sitting in our garage so it had gotten a little dirty and there was a tiny little dead gnat in it. We wiped it out but she just couldn't get over the fact that there had been a dead bug in it. So the entire time we were pulling her on it, she wanted to get out because she didn't want to sit on a bug. Girly girl!
Our other big news (which probably everyone already knows) is that Ella is in her big girl bed! Her crib converts to a day bed/toddler bed thing, so it wasn't a huge transition. We started out by putting a safety rail up, but since it really wasn't supposed to go with this particular bed, it came up really high. We weren't sure she realized she could get out. We wanted to teach her to stay in bed even though she could get out herself. So yesterday we took off the rail. It makes me nervous because she could fall out, but I guess that's just something she needs to learn too. If she does fall out its a very short fall to the floor and we have it lined with a ton of pillows so it wouldn't hurt. So far so good though! She's stayed in her bed all night long and hasn't fallen out! I'm still not sure she's even thought of getting out. When she wakes up, she just calls for me and when I come to get her she's standing up in bed waiting for me. So we'll see if the realization of her freedom kicks in any time soon :)Here's a video of her seeing her big girl bed for the first time...
I'm excited for 2011! This will be an exciting year for us, obviously with the addition to our family in June! My pregnancy is going pretty well so far. Over Christmas, I did have a little scare with some spotting. Since our miscarriage last year occured on Christmas Day, it made me more worried than I might have been otherwise. But thankfully when I went to the Dr. when they opened, they said everything was fine. I just overdid it a little over Christmas. We find out Jan 20th if Ella will have a little brother or little sister! Ella has said over and over that it is a girl, but I'm feeling more boy this time around so we'll see who's right! I admit I'm hoping a little more for a boy just to have 1 of each but of course I'll be so happy either way! Ella is starting to understand more and more about the baby. She'll kiss my tummy or sometimes if she's in not so nice of a mood she'll "crush" the baby, pressing her hands on my stomach. Hopefully that won't be something she does to the baby!!
Wishing you all a blessed New Year!
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