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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tasty Tuesday

KING RANCH CHICKEN CASSEROLE




 INGREDIENTS:
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomato and green chiles
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
 
PREP:
Sauté onion and bell pepper in hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in chicken and next 7 ingredients; remove from heat.


Tear tortillas into 1-inch pieces; layer one-third of tortilla pieces in bottom of a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Top with one-third of chicken mixture and 2/3 cup cheese. Repeat layers twice.

Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes.


Omg...delish!!  My fellow battle buddy Rachel made this for Kevin and I the other night and brought it over.  It was so tasty, that I emailed her that night for a copy of the recipe.  I loved how creamy it was and the chunks of chicken and green pepper were just perfect!  I can't wait til we can make it again.  I even think adding white rice to the layers would be great too. 
Enjoy!

Monday, September 27, 2010

13 months old!

Our darling, Miss Lauren Grace, is 13 months old (tomorrow)!!! 
She is such a good big sister, minus the occasional bop on the head to Kaelin. She is learning though, and is doing so great with her new little sister.  She also LOVES to give Kaelin kisses! 

Lauren is talking so much lately too!  She now says Mama, Dada, Baba, Flower and Kay (Kaelin).  She babbles in her own little language ALL the time.  She definately got her gift for gab from her mother.  :) 
She now has 5..almost 6 teeth on top, and 2 on the bottom with 2 more just starting to poke through last night. 
We have now switched to whole milk, but are still working on weaning off the bottle.  It has been a challenge since her little sister is taking one several times a day too.  That is really the only thing she gets jealous about.  I figure, she will be off of it in her own time.  There is no book that says she has to be off the bottle at exactly one year of age.  Someone once told me "There is no question on a college application that askes how long you took a bottle."  We have a lot of change and traveling in the next two months, and we will get more on a schedule and working on taking the bottle completely away then.  Until then, Kevin and I are completely fine with letting her have a bottle a few times a day.  Mostly just first thing in the morning and an hour or so before bed.  Lauren still refuses to drink anything but water in her sippy cup.  I guess that's not such a bad thing.  It's healthy, right?  She will take a sip or two of milk but most of the time it just gets thrown down unless it's water.  She also refuses to drink out of any sippy cup except for the old school tupperware cups.  I have about 8 Nuby cups that I invested in because everyone said they were the best, and she won't even touch them.  She definately has a mind of her own and can be very stubborn sometimes. 

Lauren is also our little climber!  She climbs on the couch, the coffee table and now our bed!  I couldn't believe it when she climbed up and got on our bed.  She is a monkey, that is for sure!  I try to discourage the climbing on the bed, for fear of her falling off or falling into or throwing things into Kaelin's bassinet that we have at the end of the crib. 







We couldn't be happier with our little boo boo bear.  She has been an amazing blessing to us.  She has always been such a good little girl, and if it weren't for her, then we would have been terrified to be parents again.  She has made it fun, challenging and just so awesome.  She makes us laugh all the time.  We can't wait to see her and her sister grow up together.  Lauren Grace you are truly amazing. 


 

Friday, September 24, 2010

Details, Details...

Again..I apologize for the lack of posting. We are still trying to adjust with an almost 13 month old and a 11 day old!! We just love our little girls so much.  I am going to try and get you the details of our special day.

It all was supposed to start on Friday, Sept. 10th.  I was to call in to the hospital at 5:30am and see what time they wanted me to come in for my induction.  I anxiously woke up at 3:30am..I just couldn't sleep out of nervousness/excitement.  I made the phone call.  Unfortunately, labor and delivery was full at that time and they told me to call back at noon.  They told me to go back to sleep *(yeah right)*  We went to lunch, and then I called back again at noon.  Still full!  Seriously?! They told me to take it easy and call back on Saturday morning.  So again, I was up at 3:30am, showered, got ready, and made the phone call.  Denied...again.  This time, I started crying.  For the last 9 months, I have had elevated blood pressure, a concern enough for 3 out of 4 doctors to suggest a scheduled induction and now that the day has come, they don't have room for me!?!  I asked the nurse if I could come in for an exam because I had not had an exam in 11 days because I was scheduled for my induction.  She agreed and brought me in. 
As we got to the hospital that morning, I realized the on-call Dr. was the one Dr. at the Army hospital that I absolutely HATED!!  Of course, that made my heart pound seeing him there.  The nurse proceeded to tell me that the Dr. didn't want to induce on a Saturday and after looking at my chart, that he felt I could wait until Monday.  Oh, and even though I was undressed from the waste down, he wasn't even going to come in and check to see what I was dilated.  I was so upset, but at the same time, relieved.  Relieved because I didn't want the stupid, arrogant doctor delivering my baby.  The nurse checked my cervix, 2 cm.  I was going home. 
We had decided the night before that if we weren't having a baby on Saturday, that we were going to go to Topeka and take Lauren to the zoo.  After lunch, and the zoo, we did a little shopping at Slumberland.  They were having a HUGE inventory clear out sale.  Now, we had not planned on purchasing any furniture until Kevin got home from Iraq, but these prices were too good to pass up.  Kevin called it my "birthing gift"  :)
Sunday, I slept in and relaxed.  It was fabulous.  I was actually able to get a good nights sleep, because I knew that I wouldn't have to call in that morning and fear of being denied again. 
Sunday night I began having contractions.  They were about 20-30 minutes apart and not painful.  My stomach would just get extremely hard.  I went to bed, waking up with contractions about every 10 - 15  minutes about 3am.  I decided to take a bath and just relax.  They seemed to subside after I did that. 
I made the dreaded call at 5am...I couldn't wait til 5:30am.  I was just too excited.  They said I could come in at 7:30am!! I was going to have a baby today. 
When we arrived, the nurse informed me that I was the only woman in labor.  I had the full attention of everyone in labor and delivery!  It was amazing.  The nurse and resident examined me and I was already 4cm dilated.  They decided to start pitocin around 9:45am.  They informed me that at any time I could have my epidural since I was already in active labor.  Because I was hooked up to pitocin and knowing the pain I felt with Lauren after they broke my water, I chose to get my epidural around 12noon.  They broke my water at 12:45pm.  Unfortunately, the epidural did not take.  The only thing that was numb was my left leg.  I could feel every contraction.  I could even feel the cathether they had placed because of giving me the epidural.  That was almost worse to feel that move than some of the contractions.  After a while, I buzzed the nurse and explained that I could feel everything!  She called the anesthesiologist back.  She took out my epidural and gave me a spinal.  She then re-did my epidural but decided that because she had administered the spinal that she was not going to hook up any medicine to my epidural.  The spinal was instant pain relief.  The Dr told me that it would be good for a few hours.  This was at 2pm.  I finally decided to rest a bit around 2:20pm.  However, within a few minutes, I began feeling everything again.  As the minutes passed, the contractions got stronger and stronger.  After about 15 minutes of  dealing with the pain, I had a doozy of a contraction and could feel some major pressure! I told Kevin to go get the nurse.  She came in around 2:45 and I was fully dilated and the baby was crowning.  She said it was time.  I was freaking out.  I could feel everything!! I called my mom and told her that we were going to get things started.  The nurse went and got the Dr.  They got everything ready.  I pushed 3, maybe 4 times, and we had our beautiful daughter: Kaelin Deborah at 3:00pm on the nose! 


Saturday, September 18, 2010

Kaelin Deborah Erickson

Kaelin Deborah Erickson
Born: Monday 9/13/2010 @ 3:00pm
8lbs 5.3oz  20.5 inches








The details of our special day are coming soon.  Please be patient and keep checking in, we have just been super busy trying to adjust with an extra little person.  I promise I will be back to writing very soon.