Another "Who's Who"

Well, there shouldn't be much guessing here b/c I've recently posted pics and there are dates on half the pics, but it's been requested, so here goes :)

My Sweet Girl

The other night, my wonderful husband went to Walmart for me and even offered to take one of the kids. So we let MJ go--poor little man was so disappointed :( He even said, "Bye Mommy," and was heading out the door with Daddy and sis, just to be pulled back inside.

Anyway, upon entering, MJ saw some flowers and told Eric they "needed to get Mommy some flowers!" He told her they'd get some later. Well, they did all their shopping and were in line when MJ exclaimed, "Daddy, we forgot to get Mommy some flowers!" Eric told her they would have to get some next time and got such the super uber devastated look from MJ that he got out of line and let her pick some flowers out for me. She also informed him that she wanted to give them to me--which she did as soon as she came in the house :) Too sweet :)

Favorite Recipes

Ok--I've gotten a couple of recipe exchange emails and even a blog challenge for favorite recipes in the past week or so. I know I'm not playing exactly by the rules, but here's what I have time and energy to do. Fortunately, they're already typed up b/c I've already shared them with quite a few of you--they really are our faves :) So here goes:

Mexican Lasagna

1.5 lbs. lean ground beef
1 pkg. (1.25 oz.) Lawry's Taco Seasoning Mix
1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned (I normally use a can of RoTel--Chili-fixin' if I can find it; otherwise reg. RoTel)
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce and 1 can (4oz.) diced green chiles (I don't put in the green chiles)
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
10 corn tortillas
2.5 cups (10 oz.) grated Monterey Jack Cheese

In large skillet, brown ground beef, stirring until cooked through; drain fat. Add taco seasoning mix, seasoned salt, tomatoes, tomato sauce and chiles; blend well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. In small bowl, combine ricotta cheese and eggs. In bottom of 13x9x2 inch baking dish, spread 1/2 of meat mixture. Top with 1/2 of tortillas; spread 1/2 of ricotta cheese mixture over tortillas and top with 1/2 of grated Monterey Jack cheese. Repeat layering, ending with grated cheese. Bake, uncovered, in 350 degree oven 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

Becca's Chicken and Rice

Ingredients:
1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 c. uncooked rice, 1 stick of butter, 1 lb. of chicken breasts, 1 packet of Lipton's Onion soup mix, 2 cups water, salt & pepper to taste.

Directions:
In a 9x13 baking dish, melt butter. Salt and Pepper the uncooked chicken and place in dish. Pour soup of top of chicken and then sprinkle soup mix on top of that. pour dry rice evenly over all of it and then add the water. Seal with foil. Bake at 325 for 1 hour.

Quick Fix Beef Burrito Skillet

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 pkg. (1-1/4 oz.) TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Taco Seasoning Mix

1 can (19 oz.) kidney beans, drained, rinsed

1 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1 cup water

4 flour tortillas (6 inch), cut into 1-1/2-inch squares

1 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese

1/3 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

1/3 cup chopped green onions (about 1 large)

BROWN meat in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat; drain. ADD seasoning mix, beans, salsa and water; stir. Bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat 5 min. STIR in tortillas; top with cheese. Cover; let stand 5 min. or until cheese is melted. Top with sour cream and onions.

Gooey Butter Cake

1 Duncan Hines cake mix (we've decided red velvet and dark chocolate are our favorites)
1 stick melted butter
1 egg

Mix together until form a ball--spread in 13x9 ungreased pan

In same mixing bowl beat:
8 oz cream cheese (I've even used the Neufchatel cheese--an alternative to cream cheese)
2 eggs
1 stick melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 3/4 cups (16 oz box) powdered sugar

Spread on top of other mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-47 minutes--middle will still move.

Swollen Oatmeal

So I had somewhat of an epiphany this past Sunday. We were getting ready for church--bathing kids, getting ourselves ready and so on. MJ, EM and KL were each crying at some point at not wanting hair washed or whatever the reason, but still I had our hymns playing and hadn't lost my cool. Then, KL got to wear the oh so adorable sailor outfit that Aunt Kelli got for MJ a few years back, so what's a mom to do but to take a few pictures? My wonderful Eric assisted me in trying to get her to smile and so forth. By then I'd used up at least 20 minutes when I should have been doing other things so as not to be late. My wonderful hubby fed the kids and then proceeded to offer to make me something to eat. I told him I wanted some oatmeal, but I wasn't really wanting him to make it b/c I'm pretty picky on how I like it. But he was offering, and I really don't like to turn him down when he's offering to help. I told him how long to warm the water and such. He got everything ready for me, and I went to the kitchen looking forward to filling my hungry tummy with my yummy oatmeal. Upon pouring the water into my bowl, I thought it felt a little warmer than usual, but that didn't stop me from pouring it in. Well, I don't know if you've noticed before, but, the hotter the water is, the more the oatmeal swells, thus also giving you a larger portion of food to eat. I DETEST overly swollen, goopy oatmeal--it makes me want to gag! But, I'd already poured the water, so that's what I had. I asked Eric if he warmed the water for the amount of time I'd told him, and he said yes. So I continued to probe saying that he MUST have warmed it for longer b/c it was just way too hot. I finally found out that he'd filled the cup with scalding hot water from our kitchen sink and then warmed it in the microwave! Well, I hated to waste two packets of instant oatmeal, and I knew Eric would be frustrated if I didn't eat any of it. But the whole time I was just complaining and questioning and really wanting to just dump it out and do it the "right" way :) The joy I'd had just a few minutes before was stolen, and I really just wanted to be upset that now I didn't have time to eat breakfast b/c Eric didn't do things right. In trying to calm my inner thoughts down, the Lord graciously reminded me that I spent 20 minutes taking pictures, with Eric helping, at my request, and he was just trying to help me get something to eat--I'm just not being very grateful. After church, my epiphany was that Satan was trying to steal my joy over a bowl of swollen oatmeal! He wasn't successful through whining, crying kids, but he could somehow take my husband's thoughtfulness and turn it into something bad in my eyes. So, may I never forget the lesson of my swollen oatmeal, and I pray the Holy Spirit would not allow Satan to steal my joy, especially right before going to worship.

The Color Did It!

As I was getting either lunch or dinner ready yesterday, Mikaela comes into the kitchen and says, "Mommy, the green color just colored by itself all over Elijah's chair!" :)

Such a Boy

So this was another "you're such a boy" moment this morning. Elijah was using their kitchen ladle to try to hit the toy egg into the window :) Every now and then he'd scoop it just right and would really send it flying :)

Rolling Over

Fun Day

On Saturday, we had a little get together with many of the ladies from our church. It was a wonderful time of singing, sharing and then later talking over Ephesians 6:18. I pray we all become better intercessors after our time together. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast and lunch and had an absolutely gorgeous day to sit outside by the pool while we ate. MJ and EM had fun hanging out with Eric, Grandma A and Pops :) And then Eric and I enjoyed a little mommy and daddy time at Lupe Tortilla's and Starbucks to end the day (alone!) :)

No Words Needed...

Prayers

For almost every meal now, Elijah says, "I pray too," after we pray. His prayer every time is, "Dear Jesus, food, amen." :) He has to go last--we've had him go first and then we'll pray, and then he'll want to pray again, so we've learned to just let him close us :)

Very rarely does Mikaela want to pray, but every now and then she'll say yes. So she usually just says, "Dear Jesus, thank you for this food, amen." Then, one day this past week she wanted to pray too and said, "Dear Jesus, thank you for this delicious food, amen." I was surprised she added something in on her own. Well, shortly after for a different meal, she wanted to pray again. I was waiting for the usual and was very pleasantly surprised when she started in on something way different. I did not take a moment to memorize it or write it down, so I'm kind of sad about it now, but after thinking about it, some of it has come back to me. She started, "Dear Jesus, thank you for this food...please break our hearts and give us new ones...I pray that you die--thank you for taking away our sins :)..." There was quite a bit more--obviously, these are the things that really stood out to me. After she finished, she very proudly said, "That was a long prayer!" :)

It really was more of a scenario she was playing out of her head than a sincere prayer, but she knows the truth and really remembers the things we talk about, which is exciting. She's asked Eric and I each if we have new hearts and are God's children and has said multiple times that she wants a new heart too so she can be His child and go to Heaven and not to Hell with Satan. Oh Lord, please let your truth go from her head to her heart, and lead her to salvation soon.

Munchkin Funnies

The other morning, Mikaela came up to me (as I was still trying to wake up) and started counting to 100. I was thinking, "Wow! This is kind of random." So, she's going, going, going, very quickly. I'm kind of half-heartedly listening at this point b/c I thought she was going to eventually stop and quit, but she kept going, and I'm pretty sure she got it all right w/o any help from me (I'd kind of zoned out on a tiny part of it). I gave her a very excited, "Yay! Good job!" and a hug. We've been working hard on this to get her not to stop at every 10. So I'm excited at this point and just still amazed that she did this w/o any prompting from me or anything. And she then says, "Can I have some milk now?!" Poor thing counted to 100 so I'd get up out of my chair and get her some milk :)
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The other morning, I was in the bathroom and heard a thud from the kids' room...then the hard pitter patter of running into the living room. It was little man waking up. He came to me and said, "I jump-e off bed!" :)
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The other day I was finishing up lunch or something in the dining room, and EM was in the living room. MJ finished and walked into the living room, and I heard her, very dramatically, say "Oh. my. gosh!" (to something Elijah had done that she thought was a big no-no) So I called her into the dining room and asked her if we're supposed to say that. She tells me no and has her head down and then looking at me but not saying anything. I knew she was trying to come up with some excuse as to why she had to say it. Finally, "Only Daddy can say that?" :) Too funny--he really doesn't even say it very much anymore, but these kids don't forget anything!

Talk in Your Mind...

Many nights when we put MJ and EM down for the night, Mikaela will talk/play in her bed for at least an hour. Well, seeing as how Elijah copies EVERYTHING Mikeala does, he talks and plays for awhile too. So tonight when I put them to bed, I told Mikaela that she needed to set a good example for Elijah and not be talking and playing. She said, "But my desk is just in front of me." I said, "Your desk?" "Yes, my pretend desk," she said.

I could see that the nightly "please set a good example for your brother" really wasn't going to work, so the Lord put something different on my mind to suggest to her. I told her that if she really had to talk that she needed to do so in her mind and not let any words come out of her mouth. I left for a couple of minutes to get them some water, and when I came back she said, "Mama, I was talking in my mind! Watch...(brief silence) see?!" I think she then proceeded to tell me what she said in her mind, but I couldn't hear her. They actually went to sleep within a few minutes :)

Mikaela Funny

Last night, there was a teddy bear in Mikaela's bed that Elijah grabbed, gave a big hug and said he wanted to sleep with. Of course, Mikaela then said she wanted to sleep with it and was told no--by me. She kept saying she wanted to sleep with it, and I told her to stop talking about it and gave her a different bear to sleep with. Later on, Eric went in their room b/c they were talking:

MJ: "I want to sleep with Teddy."

Eric: "No, Elijah's sleeping with him."

MJ: "But Teddy doesn't even like Elijah." :)