The Effects of a Good Meal.

By now, I'm just going to go ahead and assume that you have heard and have visited the website phenomenon of Pinterest.  If you haven't, you're really missing out.  This might get you motivated to head over and check it out-don't be overwhelmed..just do it.  A lot of my new recipes lately have been coming from pinterest. We had one of my absolute favorites last night.  Here's a little background of how the day went...
I was off work yesterday so Tenley and I had a day to be productive at home!  I had laundry to do and I wanted to try out a new recipe.  I got everything going in the crockpot for Italian Chicken.  T had different plans though.  The crockpot was convienently placed on the counter just within her finger tips reach where she could move the dial from "Low" to "Off" in a simple little flip of the wrist.  More than once I went to check on my frozen chicken breasts only to find that the crockpot was OFF.  That little stinker.  I finally moved the crockpot to another counter and mentally added another hour to the cook time.  This is how the rest of our day went:  Whine Whine Whine Whine.  Mickey Mouse.  Coloring.  "No Tenley, you can't color on your high chair."  "No, mickey isn't on right now."  Scream.  Whine.  More whining.  I'll admit, I lost my cool more than once and had to walk away.  Are we nearing the terrible twos?!  There can just be so much attitude in such a sweet little girl (Grandparents, I know you're rolling your eyes not wanting to believe such things).  But it's true!  By dinner time she had me looking at the clock wondering how close we were to bed time.  With Daddy's help we got her settled down and in bed early.  I went to check on my great recipe and while it smelled delicious, it was just one of those days where I wanted to burst into tears and order a pizza instead.  But I knew I had to keep going.  So I made some egg noodles, shredded the chicken, and plated this meal:

Now I have to tell you, that I looked at Mike before we sat down to eat and I said, "This smells good, but I still just want pizza."  I felt defeated.  That beautiful little girl just got the best of me.  He grabbed my hand and sweetly said, "If this isn't good, we'll order pizza.  I promise."  I laugh about this statement now, because it was meant to be so nice and assuring- but now thinking about it I think he really thought this meal was going to be awful.  We both took a bite, looked at each other and exclaimed "It's good...really good!!"  And it was.  Sigh.  I relaxed knowing that even if the day didn't go as planned, at least SOMETHING still came together.  Something as simple as a crockpot meal.  To top it all off, Mike said after his second helping, "That was the best meal I've had in a long time."  I'm feeling less defeated now.  And I think I'll double this recipe next time. Here it is for you and here's hoping it has the same effect on your family!

Italian Crockpot Chicken

4 chicken breasts

1 packet dry Zesty Italian dressing 

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1-2 cans cream of chicken soup (depending how cream cheesy you want it)  *I only used one and I thought that was fine.

Place the chicken in a crockpot and sprinkle Italian dressing over it. Combine cream cheese and cream of chicken soup in a small pot over low heat and pour over chicken. Cook on low in the crockpot for at least 4 hours. You can leave it in there all day.  Once chicken is done you can leave the chicken breasts whole, cube it, or even shred it. 
If you feel the sauce is too thick you can thin it to your preferred consistency with a little milk. Serve over pasta or rice.

Baby

Here's a video that I forgot to post last time.  I love watching Tenley with her babies.  She loves to cover them up with her blankie and play peek-a-boo with them.  This is what she was doing when I caught it on video.  I've always known that I'm not cut out to be the mom of a toddler and a baby - so because of this and a variety other of reasons we don't plan on having another baby for quite some time!  It really stresses me out just to watch moms with kids close in age when they are little.  I'm sure it gets easier, but boy- it sure doesn't look fun to me.  Not to mention that I just love this stage so much, so I don't really want to share Tenley yet and risk missing anything.  But watching Tenley be so nurturing and fun with her baby makes me feel a little more at ease our plan isn't His plan.  Enjoy!

There's been lots of changes happening all around us lately!  To start, we had to find a new babysitter because Sarah (our old sitter) is expecting her 4th child in less than a month!  We are so excited for this new addition to their loving family, but this also meant that we needed to find a new sitter for Tenley.  We were lucky enough to find an Amish woman who babysits out of her home with her daughter.  She came with fantastic references and we know another child's family that goes there.  After we met with Miss Iva we thought it would be a great fit.  So Tenley has been there for three weeks now.  We had a rough go at it at first.  Switching sitters at this age is tough anyway, but it brought on some separation anxiety that we've never had to deal with before.  Tenley has always been VERY outgoing and will go to anyone at any time!  But now we see the "stranger danger" side!  While it's very flattering to know she would rather be with us, it's absolutely heartbreaking to have to leave her at the sitter, the church nursery, or even grandma and grandpa's when we know she's upset.  But today- after three weeks- we finally had a morning with NO TEARS!  I walked out the door after dropping her off and I wanted to celebrate!  But just that quick I thought, "aw...my little girl is growing up."  I suppose that's pretty normal.  During this time though, there's been other changes at home.  Mike has switched jobs - He's now working at Chore Time in Milford. He is really enjoying it and it's so amazing to us to see God's hand in getting him there.  He's truly been at work since the day we moved back to Nappanee.  

Here's a few things that Tenley has been up to in the past couple weeks!

Tenley had a playdate with Eli a couple weeks ago!  They played together great.  It's so much fun to watch them interact together now that they are getting older!  Tenley shared her book with Eli and he shared his juice! Ha.  

Here's a sweet picture I got of her on my phone the other day.  I love my days home with her!  I know that when she starts school I'm really going to miss those days.

In the mornings I usually let her watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on tv while I'm getting things ready for the day or picking up after breakfast.  She has never shown much interest in tv and is usually too busy to care!  But when Mickey comes on she gets so excited!  She loves to sit up on the couch like a big girl, or she will pull daddy's big Notre Dame pillow in front of the tv and lay down on it to watch.  We would love to take her to Disney World before she gets into school, so I'm glad that she'll be so excited to see Minnie and Mickey!

Sliden'

Tenley got a slide for Christmas and we got it out the other night.  She loved it!  Yesterday morning she ran right for it and wanted to slide some more!  Here's what I caught.

Update

Does anyone else feel like life is just really flying by!?  I had such a goal to keep this updated more, not only for grandparents in Florida, but also for myself- so I'll remember these milestones.  Hopefully I can keep up a little bit better than I have been.

We have had a very strange and mild winter here, but we finally got a big snow a couple weeks ago.  The first snow we got we took Tenley for a ride in her sled that she got from her Great Grandma Huber for Christmas.  We pulled her around the yard and she seemed to enjoy it...until she fell off.  That was the end of our snow adventure.  So with this last snow we thought we would try it again.  She did well for a little while, she seemed to enjoy walking in her boots.  Here's a picture of her in all her gear.  Cutest little snowboarder isn't she?  

But then when we tried to sit her down in the snow, she wouldn't have it!  She didn't want to touch the snow at all.  Isn't that funny?  We tried several times and finally decided that her incessant screaming wasn't going to stop any time soon, so we took her back inside.  Oh well, we'll keep trying!  

I want to remember all the funny moments that make Mike and I look at each other and think "Where does she come up with these things".  This was one of those moments... 

Silly girl!!!  She has a fascination with her nose lately.  She's always touching it or trying to blow it or sticking fingers in it!!  Hopefully this little fascination passes quickly! :)  

I'll try and get a new video of her up soon.  We just took one the other day of her dancing that is so funny!  

Pinterest

Have you ventured over to Pinterest yet?!  If you haven't- do it!  Sure it sucks up all your spare time and makes you feel like you need to cook more, shop for new clothes, be craftier, etc.  BUT there's so many great ideas.  I have been complaining since we moved into this house about the lack of counter space in the kitchen.  I have wanted an island for so long, but the cost to buy one is ridiculous- even for one of those tiny little butcher block carts!!  So I went to Pinterest to try and find ideas.  I found the idea of turning an old dresser into an island.  It seemed like the hardest part was finding the right dresser, so I started looking!  Low and behold, I found the perfect one on craigslist with a marble top already on it!  So we got it at a great price and I finally finished it!  We now have a fantastic island!!  I love it so much and I'm pretty proud of it, if I do say so myself!  I wanted it to look antiqued and rustic, so I just gave it one coat of paint and made sure you could still see the wood grain underneath.  I added new hardware, some felt pads on the legs so we could move it around and then secured the marble top!  Here's our new addition:

Christmas 2010

Here's Tenley last year- Her first Christmas.  At this time of year, I start looking back and think about how far we've come!  Tenley is running around, talking so much and into everything!  I loved the stage she was in last Christmas, but I really love this stage.  Seeing Christmas and all it brings through her eyes is a true gift.

Christmas 2011