Monday, September 19, 2011

White Chicken Chili

I finally decided to try out a recipe for some white chicken chili! I made it last night, but put it in the crock pot before I left for work this morning. I'll say that I made it a little differently than listed below, but next time I make it - this is how I'll do it. I used 5 cans of beans and we decided that was a bit too much. I could use a little more spice, but I think Vannah and Danny were happy with the amount of spice I used. I served this with fresh baked bread, sour cream and cheese.

1 lb. chicken
2 onions, diced
4 cloves of garlic
2 cans green chiles
1 jalapeno pepper
1 box of chicken broth (32 oz I think)
4 cans of Great Northern Beans
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. oregano
1 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Cook and shred the chicken. Saute the diced onions and garlic in a pan over medium heat. Add green chiles and chopped jalapeno pepper. Let cook for a few minutes. Meanwhile, put two cans of beans and all of the chicken broth in the crock-pot. Puree two cans of beans in a food processor and add to the crock-pot. Add chicken to the crock-pot along with the onion mixture. Add the spices and stir well. I put all of this in the refrigerator overnight, popped it in the crock-pot first thing this morning on low and it was perfect by the time I got home from work. In fact, Vannah said that it was the best meal I've ever made. I'd say that was a slight exaggeration, but it was pretty tasty!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Regrets!?

Today was my first pay day at my new job. Not to be too terribly shallow, but I have to say that any regrets I may have been feeling about leaving my old job (which were few), have faded away. We aren't rolling in the money by any means, but it's nice to breathe a small sigh of relief for once! It's nice to feel like I'm finally being paid what I think I'm worth, considering my education and licensing. And I'm still loving the job...except for a few days that have been terribly boring because my work load appears to be significantly less than what it was before. I'm sure that will fade the longer I'm in this position, but I do feel as though this job is much more manageable than my previous one. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I've been given here and still am loving working with these boys!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

So excited!

I've discovered that Sophie loves to watch the bird sing the birthday song on PBS sprout. Here she is watching last night!

YouTube Video


Monday, September 12, 2011

6 month check up

We went in for Sophie's six month check up this morning and she's doing great! She now weighs 17 lbs, 6.5 oz (75th percentile) and is 27.5 inches long (97th percentile!)! The doctor said that everything looked great! He said that we could probably feed her more than we do now (I feed her fruit and oatmeal in the morning and veggies and rice in the evenings). He said we could do 3-4 feedings a day instead of two. He also said that it would be fine to start giving her some fruits/veggies off our plates, as long as she can tolerate their texture. He then gave me a quick lesson on how to dislodge any stuck pieces of food. 


I can't believe how quickly she's growing. She is truly a joy to be around (well, sometimes at bedtime, joy might not be the first word that comes to mind). She is such a sweet girl, though! She's sitting up by herself and scooting all over the floor. It's not quite a full crawl yet, more like a little army crawl, but she gets where she wants to go. She's become much more enamored with the cat....who doesn't want too much to do with her and really doesn't like it when she pulls his tail. She's not quite able to pull herself up yet, but she's pretty close. If you let her stand, she will hold on to something and hold herself up. She's as strong as an ox - she broke my necklace this morning while waiting at the doctor! 



Eating her mum mum.


Standing at the pack n play


Vannah struggling to accept how quickly she's growing up!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Bakerella's Triple Chip Cookies

In the last week, I've made two batches of these cookies. Um, to say the least, they are delicious. In the first batch, I used white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. They were absolutely divine. I didn't make any other changes and loved the flavor of the extra brown sugar. The second batch, I made out of desperation. Vannah was craving some cookies but the first batch was gone, and I didn't have as many flavored chips left. I made them with maybe a cup of white chocolate chips and the rest regular chocolate chips. Still delicious! 



Triple Chip Cookies
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
1 1/2 cups white chips
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large bowl, mix flour, soda and salt with a wire whisk and set aside.
  • Using a mixer, mix butter and both sugars for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
  • Add eggs and vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined.
  • Add flour in two additions, scraping down the sides in between. Mix until thoroughly combined.
  • Mix chips together in large bowl and stir into the cookie batter.
  • Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Then use a 1.5 inch scoop to place cookie batter 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
  • Bake for about 10-12 minutes.

Non-Sophie update

I'm two weeks in at the new job and left work yesterday feeling very fulfilled. The new position has lots of challenges (working with boys) and lots of benefits (lighter work load, more money). I'm still trying to figure out a few people. My boss seems very flexible and allows for a lot of autonomy in my work.  There were a few days during my first week when I just felt completely overwhelmed. The thought of working with teenage boys frankly terrified me. Now that I have two weeks of sessions under my belt, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with them and actually enjoy the time I get to spend with them. One of the guys came in my office this week and was crying because he was not allowed to play football that evening. My heart just melted. It almost made me want to have another baby right away so maybe we would have a little boy. Almost. 

Saturday, September 3, 2011

watch me grow...month 6!

Every month, I try to think of where the time has gone and this month, I'm truly at a loss. The month of August absolutely flew by and now we have a six month old little girl. It's hard to believe how big and active she is! She's growing and changing so much! Last month, she was just starting on solids and now it seems she has them mastered. Her favorite foods are green beans, carrots and prunes. She seems to like everything but squash and peaches, but we'll try those again soon. She is now sitting up on her own and getting up on her hands and knees. Danny and I were watching her tonight and she's really good at scooting backwards, but not so much forward. She still has not cut any teeth, which is a bit surprising to me, but I'm sure it will happen in due time! I got her a sippy cup and she's trying to figure it out (just with some water in it). We'll go to the doctor soon (bad mommy forgot to make the doctor's appointment this week) and get an update on height/weight. She's now in size 3 diapers and her 3-6 month clothes are getting tight. I think I'm in denial that she's moving up in sizes and just not quite ready for that! We're half way to celebrating her first birthday! We are unbelievably thankful for how healthy she has been and for what a happy baby she is. We really could not be any more blessed. 


2 weeks old....


1 month...


2 months...


3 months...


4 months...


5 months...


6 months...





My 29th Birthday!

My birthday was last weekend and we had a great time celebrating. My mom kept Sophie for us. After I dropped Sophie off, my friend Macy took me to get my hair cut! It felt so great to relax and have some nice adult time. After our hair cuts, Macy and I did some shopping for the evening and went back to my house for a while before dinner. Our friend, Brad, stopped in for a surprise visit and Danny's parents came over to drop off my birthday gift (beautiful earrings that I think I've worn every day since!). We went to Chuy's for dinner and had a great time. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me, but apparently mis-heard my name. So they sang "Happy birthday Izzie!" After dinner, we came back to our house and enjoyed sitting outside with the fire pit and playing on the slip and slide. Later, we played the Just Dance game, which was pretty hilarious! All in all, it was a great night. And I got to sleep in a bit the next morning! :)