And the little one said "Roll over! Roll over!"

On Wednesday, we had some tummy and mirror time with sister love and Anne rolled over! WOW! Dad said he has been practicing with her and yesterday Charles watched her and got to see her roll over then too. She is getting stronger every day.

Shepherd's Pie

My niece Michelle loves Shepherd's Pie and recommended this idea to add to our recipe book. We made it a lot when she stayed with us before. James made a white sauce (from our Cannelloni recipe) or you can add beef brown gravy.

1-2 lbs ground beef
1-2 cans green beans (or 1 bag of mixed frozen vegetables)
8-10 servings (lots) instant mashed potatoes

Cook meat with spices you prefer, layer meat and veggies with potatoes on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Add gravy on top if desired.

Cheeseburger pie

1 cup Biscquick baking mix

¼ cup cold water

1 pound ground beef

½ cup chopped onion

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

2 tablespoons Bisquick baking mix

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 eggs

1 cup small curd creamed cottage cheese

2 medium tomatoes, sliced (we don't add these)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix 1 cup baking mix and the water until soft dough forms; beat vigorously 20 strokes. Gently smooth dough into ball. Knead 5 times. Roll dough 2 inches larger than inverted pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inches. Ease into plate, flute edge if desired.

Cook and stir ground beef and onion until beef is brown; drain. Stir in salt, pepper, 2 tbsp baking mix and the Worcestershire sauce. Spoon into pie crust. Mix eggs and cottage cheese; pour over beef mixture. Arrange tomato slices in circle on top; sprinkle with Cheddar cheese. Bake until set, about 30 minutes. 6 to 8 servings.

Casserole

Creamy Chicken Casserole

from Southern Living

3 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 (10 ¾ ounce) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream

1 tablespoon poppy seeds (I don't use these)

1 ½ cups crushed round buttery crackers (40 crackers)

¼ cup butter or margarine, melted

Combine first 4 ingredients, spoon into greased 11x7 inch baking dish. Combine crushed crackers and butter, and sprinkle over chicken mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Yield: 4 servings (We always double it!)

Girl Scout Cookie Booth

We started out in the freezing cold and they took pity on us and let us move inside the exit doors with some heat! Thank you God for the blessing. We sold 62 boxes together with Isabel; 31 each! Lowe's was a great location for our 1st cookie booth sale. Isabel and her family sold 1000 boxes last year. Woah!

Gifts from VA

The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, Anne of Green Gables and the movies

State Quarters

We have been collecting state quarters for about 10 years - since Jamie was a baby. My mom started it and we finally finished it!

Square Dancing Partners

Tuesday night we started square dancing lessons. What fun! Jamie had 4 different partners but only this one was close to her age and size. Johnathan is almost 12 and very talkative. Jamie was so excited!

Ten Commandments

Emily picked Jamie's dress for church. When we went to church yesterday, there was a paper encouraging the kids to sign up to learn the Ten Commandments on Sunday night. We now have a goal to learn the Ten Commandments by Jamie's 10th birthday. We are also trying to strengthen our family by learning more about our faith. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

Sleepover

Webkinz, Playdoh, dress up, singing, horse riding, movies, bathing suit bath fun, story time, etc.

Bunny Slippers

My girls are modeling bunny slippers - a little early! We had so much fun!

Pictures

Yesterday, Anne and I rested on the rainbow quilt Grandma Jacky made for Jamie when she was a baby. We read about Noah's ark too. Jamie has been giving Anne lots of sister love - holding her, reading to her, singing to her, even changing her diaper twice this week. Jamie got a cd player for Christmas and Charles got us a Christian WOW cd to listen to. Jamie loves it. This is one of the best pictures/smiles I've gotten out of her in a long time. I took this one during our vacation / holiday break.

Thoughts

It has been a busy year already. Jamie had a lot of projects and homework the first week. Found out she is being evaluated for the gifted and talented program and therefore, has to turn in papers for each subject. She also has additional testing today and next week. This week we started our extra activities. Monday morning we went to 1/2 price books for 2 hours. Monday afternoon was Jamie's therapy and then at night we went to girl scouts at c0-leader Susan's house. They made lip gloss with vaseline and a pixie stick. Tuesday morning I subbed 1/2 day from 11:45 to 4:30 at Reagan High School daycare center. It was hard leaving Anne to watch other people's babies, especially when they are sick. Friday last week 3 babies had fevers. Tuesday night I went to my Parenting: Love and Logic class. Next week Jamie will start square dancing. Wednesday morning was moms in touch prayer time and at night we went to church - children in action for Jamie. Thursday was my Moms Together bible study. Anne went to the nursery and they said she was a very good baby! Jamie went to Grandma's house after school for piano lesson and a visit. Today I gave Anne a bath and listened to rubber duck music. Hope to have a movie night.

First word/sound

One night last week, I was woken up by a child's voice saying Mama. It sounded just like Jamie and I went to look for her but she was sound asleep. When I came back and started feeding Anne, James told me it was Anne who had said Mama. I was surprised but excited. She is copying the sounds we make already. Wow!

Answer to Prayer

Charles had a job interview on Monday with Time Warner Cable and he starts orientation Feb. 6th and then training Feb. 9th. God has a plan for all of us. Due to Charles being laid off at Home Depot along with about 30 other contractors, James is now able to get overtime. God provides; even if we don't always understand why things happen the way they do.

Happy Birthday Aunt Teresa!

Jamie had a ton of homework last week so we were a little late celebrating Aunt Teresa's birthday but we had a good time when we finally got together. She got lots of chocolate - her favorite! I also gave her calendars! I can't believe it's 1/2 way through January already. My Mom's birthday was January 9th - miss her lots! Trying to move forward with our new family adventures!

Visit

We are finally getting settled into our new house and were able to have James' best friend and family over for dinner: Cannelloni recipe I posted a few days ago. Charles helped me cook all day on Saturday. We also made brownies for dessert and a separate carrot cake for Teresa's birthday dinner. Our dishwasher is still broken so I did dishes all day long too. Sunday we went to church and then visited most of the day. Took all 3 of us taking turns an hour to wash dishes that night. I will be glad when it's fixed. The kids played a board game before dinner and made golden jewelry. After dinner, they played webkinz games online.

Cannelloni recipe

Cannelloni – Jacky Watkins recipe

Crepes: 2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 tbsp butter melted
½ cup unsifted flour
¼ tsp salt

Tomato Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small yellow onion chopped
½ carrot minced
1 small clove garlic pressed
1 small stalk of celery chopped
1 pound fresh mushrooms sliced (I omit these)
3 cups fresh tomatoes or 2 cups canned tomatoes
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tbsp chopped fresh basil or ½ tsp dried basil

Meat filling:
1 lb ground beef (preferably ½ lb beef, ½ lb ground veal,
1/3 lb ground cooked chicken)
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ tsp salt
ground nutmeg to taste
pepper to taste

White Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
1 ½ tbsp flour
½ tsp salt
ground nutmeg to taste
black pepper to taste
1 cup milk

shredded mozzarella cheese

Meat filling: cook meats in oil then remove from skillet
Add butter, parsley, cheese, salt, nutmeg and pepper
Mix until blended and set aside

Tomato Sauce: Heat oil, add onion, carrot, garlic, celery & mushrooms. Cook until limp.
Turn tomatoes into coarse sieve to remove seeds (I don't do this)
Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, & basil to skillet. Bring to boiling, reduce heat & simmer 45 minutes or until thick

White Sauce: Melt butter & blend in flour to make paste
Add salt, nutmeg & pepper. Gradually add milk. Cook & stir until sauce boils.

To assemble: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spoon filling into each crepe.
Pour ½ tomato sauce in bottom of pan.
Place crepes in sauce & pour remaining sauce over crepes.
Top with white sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, & Parmesan cheese.
Bake uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes until bubbly. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with salad.

Additional Resolutions or things I want to do

Recipes to test - I've been cooking and typing up recipes to share with my niece - saving them and posting some on the blog, printing some to make a recipe book so they are all in one place!

Books to read - I've been reading Anne of Green Gables series but out of order - they are nothing like the movies, my friend Beth told me about Christmas with Anne which are short stories that I'm enjoying this week!

Photos to organize - I am blogging daily or trying to but not journaling as much as I would like to. We finally got ink and I want to print some out for Anne's scrapbook - baby dedication page is next. Need to make an appt with myself to do this at least monthly like I used to when Jamie was a baby - before Beth and I used to do it together.

I miss my girlfriends to help me stay accountable! Time to make new friends!

Noodle recipe

Noodle recipe-Goulash

1 lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can tomato soup

1/2 lb Velveeta (you can also use cheddar cheese soup)

8 oz pkg. wide egg noodles

Brown beef and onion in skillet.  Add soups and cheese. 

Cook until melted and mix with cooked noodles.



I doubled everything and made this recipe tonight;

it was good comfort food!

It was hard for me and Charles not to eat it before

James got home from work.

Room pictures

I had a few friends ask for pictures of the inside of our house. I tried to straighten up some and take a few photos today but it is night before I can get them posted. I spent part of the morning praying for my kids with another mom in my "clean" room that I had just vacuumed the day before. We sat on the floor with Anne (until she got fussy - then she napped with Uncle Charles.)

(Charles met with the dishwasher repair man at the same time; it will take a few days to get parts and if we want to wait for them to install, it will be the 20th. Sigh! The praise is that most of our appliances are fairly new and covered by our home warranty! Yeah! They are all silver and black Fridgidaires.)

Anyway, I unpacked my special ladies and Cinderella items and created my happy place with music boxes and new Christmas gifts. I love it.

Male Chauvinist Chili

Monday was a cold day so we made a big pot of chili and cornbread as well as some white herbed bread in the bread machine and rice in the steamer. We even had fritos - their mom used to put that on the bottom of the chili.

Male Chauvinist Chili (from the crockpot cookbook)
3 slices bacon, diced
1/2 lb hot Italian sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 lb ground chuck or hamburger
2 medium onions, chopped (I omit these)
1 small green pepper, seeded and chopped (I omit this too)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (I omit this too)
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 to 3 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 cans (14 to 16 oz each) Italian-style tomatoes
1 can (16 oz) pinto beans, drained
1 can (16 oz) kidney beans, drained

In large skillet, brown bacon pieces until crisp. Remove from skillet, drain well. Brown sausage and ground chuck with onions over medium heat; drain and add to Crock-Pot. Add bacon and remaining ingredients; stir well. Cover and cook on Low setting for 8 to 14 hours. Taste for seasoning. 6 to 8 servings (about 3 1/2 quarts)

I doubled everything for a big pot to feed Charles, James, Christine and I. It warmed up the house and us!

Board game day - Monday

Last day of vacation, Aunt Christine came over with a stack of board games to celebrate the holidays with her brothers.

Special Blanket

Jamie and Grandma Jacky made this special blanket - with different colors and textures - for Anne for Christmas. So Anne had some tummy time on her blanket after the dedication service with Jamie supervising while I unpacked - (I was looking for the music box posted below).

I love my girls!

Jamie's outdoor adventures

Jamie went to Enchanted Rock for a hiking adventure with Grandma and her cousins. The last picture is Jamie at Christine's property - they built a fort and had a sleepover there during her holiday vacation.

Jamie's baby dedication - May 1999

Here is a special music box (that I just unpacked last night) that my mom gave me the day I came home from the hospital with Jamie. I wanted to see it and hear it since we dedicated Anne this weekend. Also took a picture of Jamie's scrapbook page May 23, 1999 - baby dedication.