Two Plus Two: Why Do I Feel Outnumbered?
Remember when I said that cooperation was the word of the day Christmas morning??? Yeah, well that was definitely NOT the case Christmas afternoon! My little one was being as uncooperative as possible and was making taking group photos all but impossible!
Luckily Hinson was being more cooperative…
Well……most of the time anyway!!!
to be continued…
Ingredients:
Chicken (whatever is on sale—whole chicken or breasts)
Carrots, chopped into bite size pieces
Potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces
Frozen kernel corn
Frozen sweet peas
Frozen onion (already diced)
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of celery
Bisquick
Milk
To Make:
Boil the chicken. Once it is boiled tear/cut it into bite size pieces. Save the broth!
In the chicken broth boil the carrots and potatoes until tender.
Once the carrots and potatoes are almost done, add the corn, sweet peas, and onion.
Set aside about 2 cups of broth.
Drain most of the broth off of the vegetables.
Add chicken, cream of mushroom, and cream of celery.
Mixture should be somewhat soupy. If it is not, add some broth back to it.
Pour mixture into a baking dish.
Mix ¼ - ½ cup chicken broth, Bisquick, and milk to make topping. I honestly don’t measure. If you like thicker crusts use less liquid and more Bisquick. If you like thinner crusts use more liquid and less Bisquick. My boys aren’t big fans of the crust so my topping is very liquidly. Pour Bisquick mixture evenly over chicken & vegetables.
Place in oven and cook at 350 for about 25 minutes until top is golden brown & cooked through.
Baby’s first Christmas brings a special joy to the day and we were blessed to celebrate Hinson’s first Christmas with him. We took a break mid-morning and headed to Hinson’s in our p.j.’s and coonskin hats so we could check out the loot that Santa had left. And the boys got a special surprise while there. In the early hours of the morning, while Aunt Lindsey was going to check on Hinson, she surprised Santa who dropped a bag in her living room. And. This bag contained more gifts for Trey & Jesse. Boy o’ boy were they excited!
Aren’t they just too cute in their coonskin hats?!? Hinson was fascinated by them and Jesse was very good about sharing. So sweet!
Christmas Day was a busy one for us and we got started bright and early! I was the first one up at 4:30 am getting things ready for breakfast. At 7:00 I was still the only one awake and I couldn’t be patient any longer! It was time to wake the natives and see what Santa had brought. I couldn’t wait to see their expressions!
The boys must have been very good this year because Santa was very generous! They were so excited to dig into all their new stuff and they posed so well with it! Cooperation was the word of the morning and for once they both had it at the same time:-)
Once the stockings had been thoroughly explored, it was time to open up gifts and see what other surprises the boys had in store.
Jesse received his long wished for DS and spent the rest of the day glued to it!!! Seriously, cooperation time was over. And there was no better place to relax & play than on his new bear skin rug.
Trey got a microscope and his SMAC hoodie that he had begged for! He was one excited little boy. He spent much of the day (& the days since then) looking for specimens that he could look at.
Once all the gifts were opened it was time eat breakfast, relax, and spend the day playing! Papa & Ah-ee came over & later Grandma & Da joined us to eat & more importantly to check out the boys new loot. We broke out the DSes, the new games, the new microscope, and everything else we could. We captured spiders, captured aliens, and jumped on the trampoline. It was an amazing day spent making Christmas memories with our little ones. From my view, it was picture perfect!
A grumpy gus! That's what I feel like today. I sure didn't want to come to work on this cold and rainy morning, but come we must! I am excited that I have a new cleaning lady coming to my house today so I get to go home to a nice clean house! Yea! Over Christmas break I camethisclosetolalmostcatchinguptheblog! Of course I have a ton of Christmas photos to share. Unfortunately I currently have no computer at home. A virus has struck and left me computerless. And while I can blog from school (shhh!!!!), I have found that uploading photos one at a time is much too tedious. I much prefer uploading via LiveWriter. But since I don't have a computer at home I have no access to LiveWriter or photo editing software for that matter. And all this happens the very day that I receive my new camera (these photos were not taken with it). Drats! Hmmm...yes today I feel much like my four year old often acts...like a grumpy gus!
On Friday, however, my baby was no where near a grumpy gus! It was Warm & Cozy Day at school and he was so very excited! He wore his new p.j.'s that he got for Christmas, brought in Buzzby, his new pillowpet, for show & tell, brought Toy Story 3 for movie time, and got to drink hot cocoa & eat s'mores for snack time! It was an awesome day as far as my four year old was concerned and there was no grumpiness involved! He got out of bed immediately, got dressed in his p.j.'s without being asked, and was ready to go long before anyone else!
Buzzby had to hide in his backpack so no one could see him until it was time for show & tell. We even had to switch backpacks so Buzzby would fit.
Warm & Cozy Day was a big hit with my four year old! In fact, I wish we were having one right now! Till next time...whenever that may be!
We spent Christmas Eve at the Tyre’s partaking of our traditional low country boil and opening gifts! Before we dug into the yummy crab legs and shrimp though we took a time out to take some family photos…you know BEFORE kiddos got all dirty! Unfortunately, Jesse was not in a photo taking mood!!! He was far more interested in playing and getting him to cooperate was a challenge.
After enduring photos and having to wait for the adults to stuff our faces, the kiddos finally got to the good stuff…opening presents!!!
After excitedly ripping off all the paper on the presents that were inside, it was time to head outside and see the presents that were too big for wrapping!
The kids were very excited to find not one, but two trampolines hidden in the trailer, one for each set of grands! Thanks Grandma & Da!!! However, since they couldn’t jump on their new trampolines yet, they quickly found more excitement in shooting their new Nerf guns.
Soon it was time to head home, spread out the reindeer food, set out the cookies, milk, and carrots and get to bed so Santa could come. Our Christmas was off to a great start and we had a busy day coming.
We celebrated New Year’s Eve with family roasting oysters and gobbling up crab stew. Everyone loved the stew and ate multiple bowls. And it is so simple to make.
Ingredients:
3 sticks butter
5 cans cream of celery soup
3 cans evaporated milk
1 quart half & half
2 lbs crab meat (I use the canned king crab claw meat found in the meat section of our grocery store.)
Worcestershire, hot pepper sauce, salt, and pepper to taste (more Worcestershire than hot pepper sauce, light on the salt, generous with the pepper)
In a large pot, melt butter completely, then add cream of celery soup, mixing well. Add remainder of the ingredients, being sure to break apart the crab meat. Simmer over medium to low heat until hot. The longer it simmers the better it is.
I can not believe that Christmas break is over! The past two weeks have flown by and we have enjoyed every minute of it. But today it’s back to school and time to buckle down for a long four months. Jesse is very ready to go back to school. Trey not so much. I can’t say that I blame him, I’m not all that ready to go back either. But go back we must, knowing that summer will be here soon!!! To help get us in the spirit, I thought I would finally post about our spirit week which occurred back in September. Spirit week is one of our favorite times of the year and we all three get into the dress up days.
Wacky, Tacky Day
I was a bad Mama this year and didn’t get photos the other days of the week. Trey’s class color was orange, so he wore his Daddy’s hunting vest on class color day. He was so stinkin’ cute and he wore the vest all day long, but I managed to forget to take a photo. However, I did get photos of the pep rally on Friday. Everyone was dressed with Eagle pride and pumped up about the football game that night. It’s one of our best pep rallies of the year…
One of the reasons that all the students look forward to our spirit week pep rally is because this is the only time during the year that the Bubba Boosters come out and cheer for the crowd. They are always a big hit!!! And this year I got video…
Sunday, December 19th we visited my in-laws church to watch our nieces and nephew in their Christmas play.
Cora Jane, Vera Kate, Whit, and all their friends did an excellent job! Afterwards, it was time to enjoy food, fellowship, and visit from a special visitor.
Each child received a special early Christmas present from Santa and they were very excited. The boys both received movies that they had been wanting for a long time, which gave me the gift of peace and quiet the next day. LOL!
As we said good-bye to 2010 and said hello to 2011, I counted my blessings. I have many...my husband, my boys, my family, my friends, the good health of myself and my family and friends, my job, my hubby's job, Appling Christian Academy, my home, the food that we have to eat, the clothes that we have to wear...I could go on and on and on. But. My biggest blessing of all is that Jesus loves me. Even though I'm not perfect. In fact, I'm no where close to perfect. But He is perfect. And He loves me. And He forgives me for not being perfect. And for that, I am thankful.
These videos were shot back on October 10, 2010 during our Old Fashion Day Service, but they never got posted. My camera died while shooting them and I didn't get all of either one of the songs and none of the songs that the older kids sang. As we welcome in 2011, I thought it would be appropriate to remember just how much we are loved by our Father. And these little ones do a wonderful job of reminding us that love.
The B-I-B-L-E
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
