Chicken Casserole

On December 1st we celebrated my brother Nathanael's 23rd birthday. I always cook or bake something for his birthday so this year instead of going with his normal favorite, taco salad, he picked something different. He went with chicken casserole (and my cookie brownie bars for dessert). Well I didn't have a recipe for it, so where did I turn? That's right, Pinterest!! I found a recipe that sounded incredibly yummy :) Just look at the pictures!

 Everything mixed together

Add buttered ritz crackers, and bake 25 minutes.

Yum!!

Let me tell you, it was delish!!

I think it could use a tad less sour cream than the recipe calls for. Maybe just use 16 ounces instead of 24. I will have to play around with it. I do know it was just as yummy leftover! You must try this recipe!!

Here it is. ENJOY!!

CHICKEN CASSEROLE

• 3 to 4 cooked chicken breasts, chopped
• 16-oz. pkg. wide egg noodles, cooked
• 24-oz. container sour cream
• 2 (10 3/4-oz.) cans cream of chicken soup
• 8-oz. pkg. shredded Cheddar cheese
• 8-oz. pkg. shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 sleeve round buttery crackers, crushed
• 1/4 cup margarine, melted

Combine chicken, noodles, sour cream, soup and cheeses in a large bowl. Pour into a lightly greased 13"x9" baking dish. Mix together cracker crumbs and margarine; sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until crackers are crispy and golden and cheese is melted.

10 weeks!!

10 weeks!! We are one 1/4 of the way closer to meeting our sweet baby! I went to the doctor this week for a prenatal visit. They did another ultrasound since it is still a little too soon to hear the baby with a doppler.  It's amazing how fast they grow! The little heart beat was 167, and the baby looked really good! They also took blood this visit. Not my favorite thing to do in the world, but it had to be done.

A few highlights from the week...

Size of baby: Our baby is about 1.5 inches long. About the size of a prune :)
Total Weight Gain: Actually lost two pounds since my first prenatal visit! Pretty impressive considering I had chowed down on Thanksgiving food for several days before ;)
Symptoms: Fatigue, nausea, metallic taste in my mouth, indigestion, headaches, some dizziness, and a few others that I'll spare you from.
Best Moment this week: I had my second OB visit this week, and got to see our sweet little baby for the second time! He/She had grown so much! The little heart beat had gone from 146 bpm at the first visit to 167 at this visit! Wow! Does that mean it's a girl? We'll just have to see ;)

Here's the newest pic of our little bambino :)

9 weeks 4 days

Happy Thursday Everyone!!

Corn Casserole

One of the biggest hits of Thanksgiving this year was a yummy corn casserole I made. I got the recipe from my brother's-in-law wife, and it is super YUMMY!! Not to mention easy.

Look how good this looks! (got a touch bit too brown, but still tasted AWESOME!)

I meant to get a picture of it after we dug in, but things were so crazy that day I completely forgot!

Here's the recipe :)

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 (8.5 ounce) package dry corn bread mix
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (14.75 ounce) can creamed corn
• 1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.

2. In a medium bowl, combine butter, eggs, corn bread mix, whole and creamed corn and sour cream. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.

3. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown.

I doubled the recipe and used a 9x13 inch baking dish. I put foil underneath for easy clean-up as well. I can totally see us using the smaller portion and eating this just as an everyday side dish. So good!!

We're Expecting!!!

It is so hard for me to keep good news to myself. As many of you may know, I am NOT a patient person. It's something I work on everyday. I kept this secret however, for 4 weeks! That's a big deal. I was trying to hold it in until Thanksgiving, but I just could not wait anymore!!! Yep, WE'RE PREGGERS!!!

Several weeks ago I was feeling really under the weather. I wasn't due for my period yet, but I've felt this way once before :) I decided to grab a little $1 pregnancy test at Dollar General one day while picking up some diapers for James, just out of curiosity, not really expecting it to be positive though. Well I got home, took the test and immediately got two VERY dark lines!! There was no squinting trying to see some very faint line, no the test line was darker than the control line!!! I told Jed and I'm pretty sure he thought I was joking at first, HA!!

IT'S POSITIVE!!! (sorry it's sideways, I could not get it to turn!)

I called the doctor the next week to make my first appointment, and we set it for when I thought I would be 6 weeks (according to when I'd had my last period). In the meantime we couldn't help but tell a few close friends and family and everyone was so excited! They all told me this one had better be a girl. No pressure!!

I went to the doctor on November 6th. With James for the 1st appointment they really just wanted to make sure I was really pregnant. This time she went ahead and did a full exam and an ultrasound!! Yippee!! She warned me I might not be able to see the baby this early, but you know I was hoping I would. I got my wish! I got to see my sweet little baby (I was 4 days further along than I thought I was) and hear it's heartbeat. It was 146. Now you know they say above 140 means a girl, and under means a boy. Well James' heartbeat was always in the 150's so I know better than to believe that ;)

Our 2nd Little Miracle :)

I go back to the doctor on the 28th. I will be 9 weeks and 4 days. I also get to have another ultrasound, and Jed will get to go with me this time! He didn't go to the first appointment because we thought it was just a confirmation. I hate he missed see the baby for the first time with me, but am so happy he will be with me this next time!

We are so excited to be expecting baby # 2 in June 2012!! James is going to be a great big brother!!

Happy Birthday Jordan!! (and Daddy)

Three short years ago, Jordan David Burton entered the world, and I became an aunt! He is such a sweet, funny, handsome little guy! Look how little he was!

Yesterday, his Momma threw him a party for his 3rd birthday. Here are a few shots from the party :)

Sweet little Jordan :)

 This little guy LOVES his Grandpa!!! He just lights up whenever he is around!!

 Grandpa put Jordan's picture on the sign at church for his birthday :)

 Jordan and his Momma

 Little Sis, Alexis "Lexie"

 Getting some Eskimo love from Grandpa..how sweet :)

Jordan's 3rd Birthday cake!

He thought putting the icing on his nose was funny :)

Blowing out his #3 candle!

Silly Lexie!

These two found the organ and we had a hard time getting them away!

I think he had more fun ripping the paper off the gifts, then getting the gifts themselves ;)

Grandpa, this look is PRICELESS!

James says "oooh truck!!", Jordan say, "umm dude, that's mine!" lol

PINATA!

They went crazy over the candy..of course :)

Jordan went for all the suckers :)

We had a great time at the party!! Happy 3rd Birthday Jordan!! :)

Another special guy celebrated  a birthday recently, and I can't believe I forgot to "blog" him a Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday to my sweet, precious Daddy, who on the 8th of November turned 39...according to the nurses who recently preformed his annual check-up ;) That one made his day! 

He is a good, kind Christian man, who always puts other before himself, and I am so BLESSED to have him in my life! Love you Daddy!!

Grandpa and all his grand-babies (minus Brayden..I don't have a pic of him) He LOVES his grand-babies, can you tell ;)

Halloween!

Have I ever mentioned Jed and I are procrastinators? Yup, that we are, we are procrastinators. Last year we literally waited till the day before Halloween to get James' costume. There was literally only one costume in his size in the whole store. He had no choice but to be a teddy bear. It ended up up for the best though, cause look how cute he was...

Cutest teddy bear ever!!

This year we did a little better. We had already looked in stores and found nothing so 6 days before Halloween, we ordered his costume from Toy-R-Us. We got it the Friday before Halloween. Talk about cutting it close!  We ordered the Yoda costume, but someone has a bit of a big head, and the ears wouldn't fit, so he was just a regular old Jedi :)

My sweet Jedi :)

We started out the festivities by going to a big trunk-or-treat downtown the day before Halloween. There were TONS of people there, and he wasn't quite digging that.

 He made Daddy carry him most of the way. He didn't like all those people :(

He liked that they were putting "stuff" in his bucket though :)

 Daddy and James...a.k.a Jed's mini-me :)

 They were offering free hot dogs and chili. NEVER have I been able to get him to eat a hot dog...

but he did that day!!! Whoo hoo!!

The actual night of Halloween we went to another trunk-or-treat. This one was at a friend's church. This time we made him walk!

 Not so sure what to do..

Ooh, you are putting "stuff" in my basket. I like you! :)

More "stuff" please lol

Once he figured out all these people were putting candy in his basket he would take off as soon as one person would put the candy in the bucket to the next. He loved it!

At the Glencoe fire-station trunk-or-treat

 He loved the fire truck!

He really enjoyed chatting with the pretty fairy :)

We ended the night at one of Jed's former co-worker's houses. James really enjoyed their daughter's John Deere tractor :)

I can't believe we have now celebrated TWO Halloweens with our little guy! It's hard to imagine he's going to be in 2 in just a few shorts months. Loving every minute with our little man!!