It's Official!

Jason's flight is booked for J's surprise birthday party! Thank you so much dad, Mary Joy, mom and Peter for chipping in as part of Jason's birthday present. I'm just so excited that Jason is making it up to Wisconsin for the party. Nikki has promised me that she'll take tons of pictures of J's face when he sees Jason standing on the doorstep. Jason really needs a little fun time as well. He's been working crazy hours lately and the boys have been slightly more demanding than usual. Let's not even mention his very hormonal wife is probably driving him nuts!

I also booked our flights for the entire Payne family's Wisconsin trip in July. No way can it be called off now! We're really looking forward to seeing everyone...family and friends! We plan on spending the first half of our vacation in Neenah and the second half up at my parent's cottage. I can't wait to plop my butt on a floaty and drift around the lake. The last time I was there we had the infamous water skiing "accident". I can guarantee you that I won't be doing any activities that involve pulling me behind a boat this year! I don't mind sitting on the sidelines...I can take much better pictures that way:)

Besides that, not a whole lot more is going on. The temps are now soaring into the 90's so it's damn hot outside. I wish I could spend every day at my parent's pool, but have to settle for a few hours here and there on the weekend. Jason is totally swamped at work and now that it's so hot outside, he's really drained when he gets home. I'm still experiencing afternoon/nighttime sickness so I'm having a hard time getting motivated at home. Thank goodness the boys LOVE peanut butter & jelly or turkey sandwiches for dinner:) I'm hoping this wears off during the next couple of weeks when I finish up my first trimester.

Oh, I downloaded all 350 pictures from my camera and started the editing process. I'm hoping to find some time this week to finish up so I can finally put some photos on here! I got some really cute shots of the boys when we made ice cream sundaes. Jameson was totally hamming it up for the camera which is soooo out of ordinary for him!

Okay, enough...I really need to get back to work!

Chicken Pot Pie

One more for Roxanne...this one is loaded with yummy veggies!

Ingredients:
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 9-inch unbaked pie crusts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Place one pie crust in pie plate. Pour chicken mixture onto bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over the top (I find I don't use all of the liquid mixture). Cover with top crust, seal edges and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy! Even Jason, who doesn't really care for vegetables eats this one right up!

Greek Pasta Salad

This one if for my dear friend Roxanne, who is also expecting. She's having a hard time eating her veggies so I thought this one would be perfect for her...plus it's a good salad for the summer.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon white sugar
16oz cooked rotini pasta
3 cups fresh sliced mushrooms
15 cherry tomatoes, halved (I dislike tomatoes so did not add this ingredient)
1 cup sliced red bell pepper
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (if you're not a feta fan, use parmesan or mozzarella instead)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 4oz can whole black olives (I love olives so doubled this one)
3/4 cup sliced pepperoni, cut into strips

The best part is that you could add even more veggies...cucumbers would be yummy!

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, basil, oregano, black pepper and sugar.
2. Add cooked pasta, mushrooms, tomatoes, red peppers, feta cheese, green onion, olives and pepperoni.
3. Toss until evenly coated. Cover and chill 2 hours or overnight.

Enjoy!

It's A Girl!

Do I have any medical proof to back up this claim? Well, not actually. But the Vietnamese lady who does my nails, told me so last night. She did the "ring" test on me. You take your wedding band (or anyone's wedding band...doesn't have to be yours) and put a string through the opening to suspend it in the air. Gently tap your palm with the band 9 times and then hold the string up with the band hanging over your palm. If the ring starts to move in and a back-and-forth movement, it's a boy. If the ring moves in a circular motion, it's a girl.

You have to follow those steps for each child you have or are having, including miscarriages. So since I already have 2 children and one on the way, we did the process 3 times.

First the ring moved in a back-and-forth motions....a boy for Ayden. After 9 more taps on my palm it moved in a back-and-forth motion again...a boy for Jameson. After 9 more taps on my palm it moved in a CIRCULAR motion...a girl!!!

Okay, so you may have your doubts as to how reliable this all is. I did too. Judy has had 3 children (girl, girl & boy) so I asked if I could do it to her. First the ring moved in a circular motion, then again in a circular motion and then finally back-and-forth. Weird!!!

So after this medical breakthrough while getting my nails done last night, I'm convinced I'm having a girl. Don't rain on my parade people. But just to prove to you that this is quite a reliable way to determine your baby's sex, I'll prove it to you after my ultrasound on 6/16 when they are unable to find a penis on the baby growing in my tummy.

Ground Beef 'n' Biscuits

This one's for you mom:)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cans (8oz each) tomato sauce
1 10oz package frozen peas
1 tube refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (I used the flaky layers biscuits)
4oz shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. In a skillet over medium heat cook beef, celery and onion until meat is no longer pink and celery is tender; drain.
2. Stir in the flour, salt, oregano and pepper until blended
3. Add tomato sauce and peas; simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer to a greased 13x9x2 baking dish.
4. Seperate biscuits; arrange over beef mixture and sprinkle with cheese.
5. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes for until biscuits are golden and cheese is melted.

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

You've all been so patient...thank you. Now, run out and buy all the ingredients and make this sinful side dish this weekend. I could make an entire meal out of it!!!

Ingredients:
6 medium unpeeled potatoes, baked (I cheated and cooked mine in the microwave to save time)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1lb sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 cups (24oz) sour cream (I only used 2 cups and it turned out perfect)
8oz shredded mozzarella cheese
8oz shredded cheddar cheese
2 green onions, chopped

Directions:
Cut baked potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Place half in a greased 13x9x2 baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the salt, pepper and bacon. top with half of the sour cream and cheeses. Repeat layers. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with green onion and serve.

Lots of Stuff

1. No, I haven't downloaded my photos yet. I know...pathetic. I'm actually scared to download my photos at this point. I've got about 1 1/2 months worth on my camera and I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed. I'm not making any promises, but I'm going to try and get to it this weekend. Maybe Saturday while the boys are napping.

2. You can tell all of our family is back in Wisconsin. Jason began his crazy 15 hour days again yesterday. Out the door at 6:30am and not home until 9:30pm. Poor guy. I've been warned that the next month will be like this. Oh joy.

3. It's officially summer. At least in my book it is. When I'm on my way to work at 6:45am and it's already 75 degrees outside, it's summer. With Jason's work schedule I see the the boys and I spending lots of time at my parent's house...in the pool. Look out mom!

4. Jameson can spell. Well, not technically...but pretty darn close. I woke up Monday morning to him pointing at my chest and saying a bunch of gibberish. I tried to get him to lay back down but he was being very persistent. After realizing that he wasn't going to let me go back to sleep, I started to pay attention to what he was saying. I had on a "HELP, I'm addicted to scrapbooking" t-shirt on and he was saying the letters. H....E....L....P. I almost died of shock! My two year old baby that can barely talk, was rattling off the letters on my shirt. Where did he learn to do that? So I asked Marguerite yesterday if they've been working with flash cards or something and she said yes. In fact, both Ayden and Jameson can identify all of the letters in the alphabet, colors, shapes and numbers. I knew that Ayden had already learned most of this stuff through school, but I was very surprised to hear about Jameson.

5. The beauty is being sucked out of me. While pregnant with the boys everyone would say that I had that "glow" about me. My skin was so clear and my hair was nice and shiny. Now everyone says that I look tired. They ask me how I'm doing with sympathy in their voice. I now have these two dry patches on my eye lids. I keep trying to moisturize them, but they remain flaky. I do great during the morning and then sometime after noon, the nausea kicks in. So, I heard from a reliable source that there's this old wives tale that if one is pregnant with a girl, the beauty gets sucked out of them. This is my story and I'm sticking to it.

6. I haven't had Diet Pepsi in about 3 weeks. Not by choice. I just can't stomach anything carbonated right now, especially dark sodas. So I've been living off of water and lemonade with the random Freska thrown in every once in a while.

7. This Sunday is Scrap Club. I'm pretty excited about it since I had to bale early last month due to my bad back. I managed to get one layout done and then I had to have Jason pick me up. Serious bummer. But I'm back in the groove and ready to tackle a fun project this weekend...an acrylic album that we cut out using my mom's AccuCut dies. Fun stuff!

8. I'm back at the gym. I had to. After a one month hiatus, I realized that there's no way I'm going to gain minimal weight during this pregnancy by sitting on my butt all of the time. So yesterday I went over with my boss and another co-worker for the Body Blast class. Holy shit! I don't think I've EVER done that many squats and lunges. I couldn't even stay for the arms because my legs were turning to mush. This morning I woke up and practically collapsed when my legs hit the floor. I was planning on hitting the treadmill today for a little cardio, but I think I'd fall right off. Tomorrow is Body Blast again, but with a different trainer. Apparently Peter works your abs and arms more than Brian so I think I stand a good chance of making it through the class. And for all of you who are concerned about working out while pregnant...I okay'd it with my OBGYN. It's healthier for me and baby if not tooooooo much weight is gained and it's also good for my SI joint.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'm sure I bored you all enough for one day:)