Cheesy Chicken Rolls

This week I am going to feature two meals that we love instead of our weekly meal plan.  These are two highly requested recipes that I needed to get new pictures and blog posts dedicated to.   Last night we had my mom's cheesy chicken rolls.  This is a very tasty, comfort food that I love and it is a huge hit with my boys, so I've been making it a lot lately because it is one way I can get N to eat meat (he isn't a fan of meat at all!).

Ingredients:

3 cooked chicken breast, shredded

1 can crescent rolls

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup milk

Cook chicken and shred.  While chicken is cooling, mix cream of chicken, milk, and cheese and melt together over low heat.  Lay out crescent rolls and stuff with shredded chicken 

 Place the 8 rolls in a greased baking dish

 Cover with a cheese mixture of cream of chicken, cheese, and milk.  Cook on 350 for 20-25 minutes or until rolls are brown and sauce is bubbly.

Enjoy!!!

Our Little Skeleton

My friend Meredith is hosting a virtual pajama party tonight and all of the kids are wearing their skeleton pajamas!  So fun!!!  Here is our cute little skeleton playing on the front porch with the pumpkins and the ghost tonight!

 He has to have the pumpkins lined up just right!  This is about the 5th or 6th time he has moved them around!

Talking to the ghost!  ADORABLE!

Go on over Meredith's post and see all of Nicholas' pajama party friends!!!

Disney on Ice...Mickey! Hook! Princesses! Oh My!!!

Today was another one of those days I dreamed about for years and couldn't wait until Nicholas was old enough to enjoy going to Disney on Ice.  I heard it was coming last week and after researching the show it sounded more boyish than some of the others, so we decided to go.  Before the show we went to our favorite local hamburger place, Urban Stack and ate.  I didn't want Nicholas to ruin his Mickey shirt before the show, so he went in a skeleton shirt instead! Ha!

When we got to the arena where Disney was Nicholas was so excited!!!  He couldn't wait to put on his Mickey shirt and go in! Haha!  I spent an unbelievable amount of money for some cotton candy so he could have these ears.  Good thing he loved them! :-)

 Me and my little man before the show!  He was sooooo good and I am so proud of him for behaving so well!

 My heart for all of my life!

We were there about 20 minutes before the show started, but once it did, Nicholas was mesmerized and in a trance!  He got so excited when Mickey came out!

 This show wasn't all about the princesses and that was the only thing I was worried about.  It started with the Incredibles, then a piece of Alice and Wonderland, then a pretty long series of Peter Pan!  Nicholas knows Peter from Jake and The Neverland Pirates and really enjoyed seeing that part.

 Next we saw Lion King, Snow White, Rapunzel, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.  He loved the end when Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy came back out with all of the princesses and princes.  Mickey was right in front of us!

I understand being hesitant if you have a boy to take them to Disney on Ice, but I highly recommend seeing the Treasure Trove show.  I didn't get a girly feel for it at all and as a matter of fact I would almost say it was geared more towards boys with very few princessy themes to it.  Nicholas loved it and that is all that matters to me! 

Fall Fun With A Fun Toddler

This Fall is quickly becoming the best Fall I've ever had.  I am LOVING age 2 and I absolutely cannot wait until Christmas.  I cannot even imagine how much fun he will be this year because he has been a blast while enjoying some Fall activities!  Last night we took him back to one of my dad's games and he was so good and really enjoyed watching "Pawpaw team".  He loves looking up into the press box and watching Pawpaw work.  He was just the cutest thing I've ever seen in his green and grey jersey and pants.  Melt my heart! 

Last night was their last home game (unless they get lucky enough to play at home in the playoffs) and they also set a school record for most wins in a season with a new record of 8-1!!!  They beat a team that they were really worried about 24-0!!!!  I am SO proud of these guys!  They have been working very hard since June and it shows!

Nicholas had fun watching the game and cuddling with Gigi.

After the game Nicholas and Pawpaw posed for a few pictures!  Pawpaw, we are proud of you and your guys!!!  Keep up the hard work for another few weeks!

This morning we loaded up and went to a really cool farm in Sale Creek, TN, about 45 minutes away with one of our favorite families, the Millers.  We are so glad we found this farm/pumpkin patch because it is an hour closer than where we usually go and there was so much for the boys to do.  They loved every minute of it!  Nicholas has begun to love and I mean LOVE tractors and he squealed and ran over to this red tractor as soon as we got through the gate.  

 His favorite thing, other than the big antique tractors that were there was the 2nd story barn slide!  There were 2 of these on either side of the barn and he went down them several times...alone even!  Someone make him slow down!  I don't like that he is getting so big!!!  Love his expression here! Hahaha!

 He also loved the corn crib.  I think he would have played in it for hours if we had let him! 

 He just kept falling down and sinking in it!

 Nicholas loves farm animals and the petting zoo was adorable.  He kept saying "goat, goat".

 There was a tractor display there today and he absolutely loved sitting on all of the tractors.  He had to sit and "drive" all of them!

 After playing and eating a lunch from the concession stand, we went on a hayride.  Nicholas loved riding the "tracor".  It took us out into a pumpkin patch and we got to pick a pie pumpkin for everyone in our party.

 

 We chose our 3 pumpkins and got back on the ride.  The Millers got a big pumpkin along with their little ones, but since we already had some, I held off.

 When we got home, Nicholas put them all on the porch and kept moving them around until they were just right!  I love how he has to have everything just right...like his Mommy! Haha!

We still have one more fun surprise for him this weekend. He is going to Disney on Ice tomorrow!!!  I am so excited for him to see Mickey in person and well, I'm pretty darn excited myself!  Poor kid is going to have a fun overload by Monday with all of these fun activities in one weekend!

Social Media Day of Silence

As of right now I'm observing the social media day of silence tomorrow for Julee Turner in memory of her husband, Matt Turner. No FB, no Twitter, and no blogging. Please join me in praying for the Turner and Bell families.

Fall On The Porch

Over the past couple of weeks I have slowly been decorating our house for Fall.  I finally finished our front porch and I LOVE how it all turned out!

I usually like either yellow or bronze mums, but they were all out of yellow or bronze that had not bloomed, so this year I got red.  I'm excited for them to bloom soon!  We had plans to go to the pumpkin patch yesterday, but rain and 55 degrees for a high didn't sound like ideal take-the-toddler-to-ride-on-hay weather.  :-)  We are trying out a different pumpkin patch this year instead of taking the 2 hour drive to Burt's.  They don't have the BIG pumpkins, but that is ok, they have a lot more activities that Nicholas will love...and that is what is all about now!  I bought a couple of pumpkins at Ingles Saturday and I'll probably get a few small ones when we go to the pumpkin patch.

I don't really do Halloween or Thanksgiving decorations, but I'm starting to get more into Halloween now that I have Nicholas.  Since I've decided to get more into the actual holidays, I decided to add a little to my porch this year.  I found inspiration for this on Pinterest a few months ago and I think he turned out pretty cute.  At first I wasn't happy with him at all, but now that I've added a bowl to his head, I think he looks pretty cute!  Here it all is at night with the lights on.  I am pretty happy with how it all came together and Nicholas is obsessed with the "BIG BIG GHOST"! Haha!

Please continue to keep Julee, Preslee, and their families in your prayers.  I know they need them.

Prayer Request For A Friend

This morning I was beyond heartbroken and saddened to hear the news that a sweet blog and Twitter friend, Julee, lost her husband late last night in a car accident.  Julee and I became friends through our struggles with infertility.  I have never met her in real life, but I definitely consider her a friend.  I have been praying all day for Julee and her sweet 10 month old baby girl, Preslee.

Please join me as I pray for this family in the hours, days, weeks, and months ahead.  You can read more about Matt by reading this article from the new station where he was an anchor.  You can also read how you can help Julee and Preslee here.  This is something I see everyday through my job, but it hits home so much harder when it happens to someone you know.  My heart just isn't into cleaning the house, tagging for a consignment sale, blogging about our Fall decorations, or even being online or watching TV.  All I want to do is just be still, hold my family, and remember that no one is promised tomorrow.

Meal Planning Monday

This week is just a boring week.  As a matter of fact, everything is coming out of our freezer and I only bought 8 things at the store this week for a total of $18 (what you see plus 2, 12-packs of cokes)! Ha!

Sunday - Grilled Pork Loin (the recipe is for smoked, but can also be grilled), Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes

Monday - Leftover Taco Soup

Tuesday - Chicken Tetrazzini, Peas and Carrots

Wednesday - Chicken Fried Rice (ok, I'm cheating on this one. I had a coupon for a frozen meal, so it came out of the freezer section at Bi-Lo a few weeks ago for $1.99!)

Thursday - Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops (can also be done with chicken), Broccoli, Mashed Potatoes

Friday - Dinner with Gigi before football game

Saturday - Football Food TBD!

Weekend Wrap Up

Whew!!! What a week we've had!  It has been a little crazy here which led to me being MIA again, so here is a catch up of what we've been up to the past week:

Wednesday we celebrated a pretty important day at work, Dr. Smith's 50th birthday!  It wasn't really until Thursday, but we knew we had to do it when he was scheduled to be in the office or he would never show up! Ha!  We decorated and put up "caution, 50th birthday" tape all over the office.

Dr. Barker bought a HUGE chocolate suicide cake from a cafe downtown and it is probably the very best cake in Chattanooga.  This, my friends is what $71 and a LOT of chocolate look like in a cake!

I am loving that Nicholas is very possibly my dad's team's biggest fan!  Any time we talk about Pawpaw these days he yells "PAWPAW'S TEAM!".  On Fridays we always wear our green and gold and this past Friday he made me laugh out loud.  I was getting him dressed and he pointed to me and said "Mama wearing green" pointed back to himself and said "Ichas (his name for himself) wearing green too! Pawpaw's team!"   He also ran into school and pointed to his shirt and announced to his teacher "green pawpaw's team!"  It made my football loving heart explode! Ha!  Here we were before school.  No clue what I am looking at! Ha!

I've had several long days at work and Michael worked Monday-Saturday this week, so we had a nice, relaxing Friday night in.  Nicholas was so tired that when we got home that he requested to watch Cars and when I turned around from letting the dog out, he was curled up on the couch under his Cars blanket! Ha!  I think our week was hard on more than just Michael and I!

I may have been at home and in my pajamas by 8:45, but that doesn't mean I didn't spend my Friday night Twitter stalking the team while they played 2 hours away! Ha!  I have a subscription to an awesome online scoreboard that texts me every time someone scores in their game.  I could not be any more proud of a certain group of 31 boys as I am Dad's team!  They won their 6th game of the year 56-19!!!!  That is a HUGE accomplishment for such a small team.  I'm a believer that 1. You can do anything you think you can when you trust in the Lord and 2. they have a HUGE heart and know how to play as a team.  They have now beat 6 teams that not only out sized them, but had a team twice their size!  They are definitely living up to their motto:   Colossians 3:23: "Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men."  I'm excited for this upcoming Friday night to take Nicholas back to watch "pawpaw's team!"  Here is the forecast, PERFECT! 

Yesterday N and I had a day at home.  We had our Fall Scentsy going, taco soup in the crockpot, and I spent the day cleaning out his Summer clothes and bringing in all of his new Fall and Winter stuff.  I also sorted stuff for our upcoming yard sale and consignment sale.  This kid has A LOT of clothes! Ha!

We also watched the UT/UGA game.  Let's not talk too much about the game other than to say that I think they did AWESOME considering that Georgia is 5th ranked.  They hung in there and that is more than I expected.  Sometimes a cool Fall day is just complete with taco soup and a Fall beer in front of the TV watching good college football!

This morning we went to church and back home to get organized for the week ahead.  Nicholas is loving his Sunday school class and I am so happy.  We actually had not been in awhile until a few weeks ago because I didn't want to leave Nicholas anymore than I had to and I hated the thought of dropping him off an extra day every week.  Luckily he has done great and loves it!  Here we are before we left.  He cracks me up with his muffin and milk!

My dad gave him some trail mix to have in the car on the way home and I turned around to see this!  Haha!  Needless to say, that shirt went in the washer immediately!  Thanks, Pawpaw! :-)

This afternoon, Michael organized our pantry (I LOVE HIM!) and I got our meals for the week ready.  I am also working on an online Bible study for Unglued.  You could still get caught up, we are just one week in.  It is at MelissaTaylor.org.  It is definitely something I needed to do for myself.  That book sure has spoken to me in several ways.  One thing that stresses me out and I tend to get unglued about is our messy house and it made my heart so happy that Michael organized this for me!  It looks amazing!

We also worked together to get the garage clean enough to fit my car inside!!! My car usually only sees the inside of the garage in the Winter, but with cooler weather and rain coming tomorrow morning...I was ready to move it early! Yay! (Notice my new overhead storage for my holiday decorations!!! I'm excited about that too!)

One of these days (probably sometime in January), I'm hoping we can have a nice, quiet, relaxing weekend.  Until then, things are just going to be crazy!  I looked at our planner yesterday and it is out of control over the next 2 months.  There are a lot of fun memories to be made, but it will be a busy time for a certain toddler.  We have pumpkin patch, birthday parties, Boo at the Zoo, Fall Carnival at school, Halloween, Pawpaw coaching in the playoffs (Lord willing!), Thanksgiving lunch at school, Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping (ok, that is for Mommy, but whatever), School Christmas Pageant, Polar Express ride, and Christmas!  Whew!  That makes me tired to list all of that! Ha!

Two Years of Being A Working Mom

To commemorate the 2nd anniversary of going back to work I wanted to share a little bit of how I found peace with being a working mom.  It has been a hard road and it certainly isn't an easy job, but I know many of you struggle with finding the right balance, so here is how I make it work. 

Two years ago this past Thursday I left that sweet 12 week old little boy at school for the 1st time in his adorable little N shirt and went to work without him.  When I look back on that day we have come so far.  That morning I got up at 6am, got a shower, fed and dressed the baby, got in the car and when I got to the red light beside the hospital I freaked out a little.  I felt nervous and anxious.  What if he had a bad day? What if they have issues mixing his special formula and rice? What if he cried all day? (he was still having some GI issues)  Would he nap for them if he doesn't nap for me?  Will he even miss me at all?  When I walked him in and handed him over to a woman I had only met briefly and got back in the car I  felt like a bad mom.  I had tried to have this sweet baby for over 2 years and now I am just handing him over to someone else and I'm not crying.  What was wrong with me?!  I had a peace about working, sending Nicholas to a good daycare, and finding a balance between my two full time jobs.  I was ready to find a routine and I knew I didn't have a choice.  

While I was pregnant and on maternity leave I spent a lot of time researching and reading blogs of other working moms.  I wanted to know EXACTLY how these women did it all and found a balance.  The thing is, everyone has to find their own balance.  What works for me won't work for you and vice versa.  The three things that I think have helped me more than anything are these:

1. I enjoy working and have a job I love.  That is not a sin and does NOT make me a bad mom.  I enjoy having an outlet and Nicholas enjoys going to school.  It is a win/win for us both.  We get a break from each other and the time we spend together is very important to us.  In our situation, my working isn't optional, but it certainly helps that I have a job and career I love.

2. A daycare we love, trust, and where Nicholas learns so much.  I don't have to worry about Nicholas as much during the day because he is across the street from the hospital and I know that he is being well taken care of.  We love his teachers and in the rare event that I have had a problem, they have worked hard to fix the problem.  

3. Finding a routine and meal planning.  It took about a year and a lot of tears, but we finally got in a good rhythm and routine.  I do everything I can at night while Michael gets Nicholas ready for bed.  I get everyone's lunches ready, clothes laid out, and anything Nicholas needs to bring to school out and on the bar beside my keys.  I do all of my meals on the weekend and freeze for later in the week.  We would have junk or takeout every night if it wasn't for our homemade freezer meals.  

Those three things have been the three things that get me through.  There are days that I can't get it all done or that I spend all of my weekends running errands.  There are not days where I hate leaving Nicholas, hate my job and wish I could stay home.  Those days are few and far between, but I think every mom has those days no matter if they work outside the home or stay at home with their kids.  In the past two years since that day, I've realized that yes, it is HARD to be a working mom.  It is hard to be a MOM. Period.  One of these days I pray that the mommy wars call a cease fire and everyone just supports each other and we can all get along.  (I'm not going to get on that soapbox, but if you are a mom, you know exactly what I mean)  We all work hard and we all do what is best for our families and I think we all do the best we can.  

So, remember that sweet little baby on his 1st day of school 2 years ago?  Well, here is last Friday.  Where has the past 2 years gone and who is this BIG boy?!  :-)