More Pinterest Recipes!

I have been cooking up a storm thanks to Pinterest!  I have had some frustrating moments with things that don't turn out like they are supposed to, or recipes that aren't as specific as I need them to be.  But overall, it has been great adding things to our menu, I'm hoping I'll keep them in our rotation.

The first recipe that will definitely be sticking around, is Sour Cream Chicken!  It was really easy to make, and had the perfect blend of crunchy stuffing on top, and very juicy chicken. I usually don't go back for 2nds and I did for this one! This is going to be one of my go-to chicken dishes, it's made up of things I usually have in my fridge or pantry all the time.  I'm not good at taking photos as I go as most food bloggers do (I'll try to get better!) So you'll just have to settle for this bad picture of my plate with my sour cream chicken, green beans, and mac and cheese :)



You'll notice the green beans on the plate?  They were actually replacements for the Microwave Potato Chips (think Zaxby's/Logans) that were major duds. They didn't crisp up at all, just got majorly soggy. I figured it was too good to be true, but there were lots of comments from people who loved them, so I thought I'd give them a shot.  One recipe marked off the "to try" list!  Oh well, gotta try new things, right?!





Oh, and Charlotte enjoyed her Apple/Grape Cars for lunch the other day!  She loved eating the "wheels"  (sorry, no pic from me, just a screen shot)



The Super Bowl was this Sunday, we had a little party just the 3 of us ;)  I did go the easy route on 3 dishes - I got TGI Friday's frozen appetizers for Jeff's Buffalo Wings, my Potato Skins, and our Spinach and Artichoke Dip.  For frozen appetizers, they were pretty good!!



I did try my hand at one new Pinterest recipe for the big game: The Peanut Butter Mini Brownies. Wow-o-wow were these good!  I thought they were too gooey and put them back in for a couple more minutes, but I shouldn't have.  They didn't "cave in" quite like they should have, but I was still able to get some peanut butter in them and of course top them with chips!  Jeff and I both thought they were delicious.  They are super rich though, so watch out!



I was going to make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, but realized I bought the wrong kind of crust, so that's back on the menu for later.  Instead, I had a box mix for Lemon Squares so I went ahead and made those.  I also used my crock pot for a Super Bowl must have -  Chili Con Queso!  (Velveeta, Rotel, and 1/2lb ground beef)



Overall, we had a great Super Bowl, just the 3 of us. (and all that food!)

 

My menu for the next 2 weeks has these new Pinterest recipes: Slow Cooker Pork Chops, Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole, Crockpot Chicken Tacos (may do chicken or pork), Grilled Cheesy Potatoes, Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake, Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken, Taco Casserole, Heart Shaped Muffins (for MOPS), Breakfast in a muffin tin, Crescent Roll Cheesecake, and I'm gonna try the Sliced Baked Potatoes again, with smaller potatoes.   Wow! That's a lot of food to cook!! (You should see how full my fridge and pantry are!)  I'm not going to  link them all, you can find them all here.

 

 

Charlotte is 3!

*Warning! This post is all about Charlotte so it is very looooong!

Can you believe it?!  I can't!

3 years ago we went into the hospital to be induced?



3 years ago we brought home a 5 pound 9 ounce 19 inch long tiny squirming thing??



3 years ago we went from being Jeff and Jordan to Charlotte's PARENTS?!  Amazing.



Speaking of Amazing - our kiddo is soooo amazing!  She has such a sweet spirit, is absolutely hilarious, is very well behaved, and a pretty smart cookie too.



Her favorite things lately are reading books, singing us songs, doing puzzles, playing with cars and trains, Candy Land, and just recently got into playing pretend with her babies.  Charlotte loves to play outside in our huge drive way, go for walks/rides, go to Target and the library, and eating out at restaurants. Her favorite foods are mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries, any breakfast foods, and fruit.  She loves all things tech/electronic: playing games on PBS.com or Disney.com, games or books or shows on the iPad or iPhone, and watching movies like Toy Story, Bugs Life, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, and shows like Dora, Max and Ruby, Calliou, Curious George, and on and on.



She knows her colors, shapes, a lot of the alphabet, how to count, and is starting to recognize numbers and letters, and is continuing with her sign language. Crafts and art are starting to become more fun now that she can be more hands on.  We've got the name, birthday, and most of the address down now.  With us moving, she also is starting to understand how we all live in different cities and states.  She is also starting to help around the house - cleaning up her toys, helping with her bed, getting ice in our cups for dinner, and carrying things to the table.  This is of course just a small list of all the amazing things that our amazing 3 year old can do.



We have not had our 3 year check up yet, that'll happen next week.  From what I can tell, she is perfectly healthy, still tall and has filled out a little more so isn't as much of a stick :)  She also had her first dentist appointment a couple days ago.  Charlotte did fantastic!   They have a huge indoor play place inside so that definitely helped her feel more comfortable!



It was an option to have them clean her teeth and she did let them do it and had no issues.  We got a clean bill of health - no cavities or any issues there.  The dentist did alert us to potential future issues.  Have you ever noticed the gap in her front teeth?  Apparently that's cause from gum/tissue coming down too far and pushing those teeth apart.  She may have to have a frenectomy to remove that tissue and braces to close the gap, unless her permanent teeth come in and push that tissue out of the way. Fun huh?  She also inherited her momma's small upper jaw.  This means her upper teeth on her right side sit on the inside of her bottom teeth when she closes her mouth, instead of coming down on the outside.  I had the same issue and had to have an expander and then braces in high school.  It's crazy that C is just 3 years old and we are already looking down the road at orthodontics and possible oral surgery.  Double Ick.  That may be too much information for you, but there you go anyway!



On to Charlotte's party! C's birthday was on Monday (the 23rd) so we decided to have her 'party' the Saturday before.  We weren't planning on doing anything big - we don't really have a lot of friends down here yet, and it would have been tough to do something in Spring Hill with our TN friends.  We decided to keep it simple with just a family get together.  We had more family able to come down than we thought! Saturday Jeff's parents, brother, and his family drove down from Bowling Green KY and met us at the Mellow Mushroom here in Hutnsville for lunch!  We had a great time eating lunch together, then headed back to our place to hang out.  Charlotte had so much fun with her cousin Reese who is just a couple months younger.  They ran and played and scram all day :)  The balloon curtain that I made from Pinterest was a big hit too!

It's hard to get a good picture of 2 active little girls!

Visiting with Grandad and cousin Avery

I didn't have anything major planned, but we did do an art project - making butterflies out of their feet! They had fun picking their colors and getting their feet painted.

My parents joined the party that afternoon about 3:30 - just in time too, the girls were ready for cupcakes!  I have to admit I'm pretty proud of Charlotte's cupcakes! They were baked in sugar cones and I frosted the top with cupcake frosting in a spray can - it was so much easier! Top it with sprinkles and they looked just like ice cream cones.  Love it!





Then it was time for presents! Charlotte got 3 pairs of shoes - she is a shoe-aholic - lots of cute clothes, a Woody doll (to match her Jessie from Christmas), PJs, an art easel, and a few more things.  After a little more play time, it was time for the BG folks to head back north.  We were sad to see them go after just an afternoon of playing together, but Jeff and I are so grateful to them for making the big trip all in one day so they could celebrate C's 3rd Birthday with us. Thank you all!!


My parents spent the night and we had a great breakfast the next morning, and then took a drive!  We were excited to head up to Monte Sano here in Hutnsville and enjoy the view of Huntsville and maybe taking a walk on the trail.  Unfortuantly, it was very very cloudy and rainy.  We did enjoy our drive though - it was crazy thinking that we were actually driving through the clouds!

This was our "view" but all we saw were clouds! It wasn't raining but we got wet just from being in the clouds.

We had to get out and walk around at least at little bit for this active girl!

That afternoon, Jeff and I gave her our present!  A big girl room!  We converted her crib to the full size, so she got a new mattress, bedding, art, lamp, etc.  She looks so tiny in that big bed but she loves her new room.












All in all, Charlotte had a great birthday party weekend!  On her actual birthday C and I had MOPS that morning, then Jeff came home from work early.  After her nap we headed out for a Jeep ride with the top down on the beautiful 60 degree January day!  A trip to Target to spend her birthday money, diner at Zaxby's and a movie night with Cars 2 wrapped up her day.



What a beautiful kiddo.  Jeff and I are so blessed to be her parents.

Maybe today...

...will start my new routine!  I found some motivation today to actually get my lazy butt up and do something called... I think I remember, it was called exercise?! maybe? ;)

But seriously. I have had the thoughts lately that it has to be all or nothing - a diet, exercise, going to bed on time, etc.  If I don't do it all, then there is no point doing just 1 of those things.  But after a talk with Jeff last night, I decided to change my thinking. We talked about the theory that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. So maybe my goal will be to do something physical/exercise for 21 days.  Then I'll be in the habit of doing it, and can add something else, like dieting.  I won't be changing my whole world all the sudden. I'll have one habit and then can work on adding another and so on and so on.  I can already find a lot of holes in this theory, but I'm gonna focus on the positive here and not list them all out ;)

So, maybe you can help me stay motivated?!  I have found a lot of motivation on Pinterest too.  From quotes, to exercise plans, before and after pictures of other women, food ideas, and so on.  Hopefully that will help more and seeing all the yummy sweets will not dissuade me!

This is my plan for now: Netflix.  They have a ton of exercise videos on instant watch that I am going to cycle through. (for all you fitness gurus out there, I'm sure this isn't the best thing to do, but I'm not dragging myself to a gym right now)  Today I did a pilates video that took 30 minutes.  The great thing was that it didn't feel like 30 minutes (in a good way!) and it was easy enough for my out-of-shape-bootie but still had challenging parts and has 3 levels you can choose from for the future.  There are a lot of videos in the 10 Minute Solution Series that I want to try too -yoga, their pilates, kick boxing, dance, etc.  I'm hoping I will be entertained by their variety.



I was also glad Charlotte LET me do this for 30 minutes!  She has been so "mommy-centered" since the move, it's hard to get her to play on her own.  During the work out she got toys out by herself and I only had to pause to braid Tangled's hair once!  She also did some of the exercising with me!  She has her own exercises that she does that are very cute, but I'm hoping that the more she sees me do, she'll join in with me - especially when it comes time for the dance!  I think this will be a great thing to add in to our daily routine.

After our exercising, I decided we deserved a little spa treatment!  I took a nice shower with a home made sugar scrub that we made at MOPS on Monday.  After that, Charlotte and I pampered ourselves with manis and pedis! Go pink!







Now it's time to relax!  The stretching from the Pilates has lingered and feels good too :)  We'll see if I'm sore at all tomorrow. I'm catching up on my blogging and Charlotte is spending some time with Woody, Jessie, and the gang.  Don't you love her box bed/house/rocket ship/whatever she wants it to be?!

She is showing Jessie the movie.  Isn't that the cutest :)

Christmas 2011

So we're a month past Christmas but I figured better late than never!   It was a different Christmas this year, with our being in Alabama we traveled the entire holiday and didn't get to have Christmas morning at our house :( I know other people have done this for years, and that this is just Charlotte's 3rd Christmas so it isn't a long standing tradition, but we missed it this year!  But I think we made the best of it and had a wonderful Christmas!

The Lyons Family Christmas: We traveled up to Bowling Green Kentucky Friday morning to spend some time with Jeff's side of the family.  We hung out on Friday and all the family came to Jim and Jolene's house Saturday for Christmas Eve fun.  We ate a great lunch, hung out with family, and watched all the cousins play together! That's the best part of Christmas to me  - seeing Charlotte enjoy her time with family, especially those that we don't see very often.  That evening we opened presents - it was fun chaos ;)   We had to pack up that night and head back down the Spring Hill, TN, but we had a fantastic Christmas Eve in Bowling Green!  Here are a couple photos from our trip, if you'd like to see more head here to Jeff's photo gallery.











We spent Christmas morning at my parents house in Spring Hill.  While we missed having it at our house, it was great being able to share in the Santa fun with my parents, sister, and Nana. Charlotte loved all her Santa toys!  (yes, it was a lot but they were all consignment sale buys or free from Kohls! Charlotte may be a bit spoiled but my wallet was happy.)







After Santa time, we had a great brunch and set about opening presents!!  We take turns opening presents so it takes a bit to get through them all - Charlotte actually lost interest in opening her gifts!  Regardless, we had a great time enjoying each others company and then playing with all our new toys.











All in all, it was a great Christmas spent with lots of family.  :)

To see more photos you can also visit my Facebook Album.