Christmas Pictures

I know I'm a little late, but better late than never! Here are some pictures from Christmas. I mostly spent it with the girls. Everyone was out of town and Ben decided to pick up a couple of shifts at work to get some overtime hours and great holiday pay. We were together all Christmas morning though, it was nice. Shelby had 2 favorite toys; her Dora playground block set and her Dance & Twirl Castle. She loves princesses and has just had a ball playing with it.

Chicken Enchiladas

So, we've now had these Chicken Enchiladas twice and I've decided to add them to my recipe collection because they are so good. I even ate them as leftovers, and I don't eat leftovers much. They're from my Cooking Light cookbook, which is probably my favorite cookbook.

Here's another great recipe from my older brother. He found it years ago and now we all use it. It's great for this time of year because it has ham and ham is always on sale during the holidays. Sorry, don't have a picture of this one, but trust me, you'll love it!

Penne Pasta with Smoked Ham & Pepper Cream Sauce

1/4- ½ lb. Smoked ham, cubed
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 small red and 1 small yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced (so they won’t be spicy; also, wear gloves)
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chicken broth
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 lb. Penne pasta, cooked and still hot
parmesan cheese, grated

The sauce takes a long time so start it first and do the rest while it’s reducing. Reduce chicken broth in pan to 1/3 cup. Add heavy cream and reduce over high heat till desired sauce consistency. While al that is going on, saute ham in olive oil, over medium heat, till slightly golden. Do not brown. Remove ham from pan; saute red and yellow peppers for a minute. Add jalapenos, salt and pepper, and saute till peppers are softened (2-3 minutes). Remove peppers. When sauce is thick enough, taste for salt and pepper; then add the ham and peppers.

Meanwhile, in large pot bring 4 quarts water to rolling boil. Add 1 T salt. Add penne pasta. Stir to separate. Cook till al dente; drain.

Place hot pasta in large bowl. Pour ham/pepper sauce over it. Toss well, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and serve immediately.

Try and enjoy!

Look How I've Grown!

Today was Erin's 2 week visit to the pediatrician. I was so curious to find out how much she weighed because I still have such a hard time waking her up and keeping her awake for pretty much any of her feedings. But, we had great news. Erin gained 1 whole pound (now weighs 6 lbs. 4 oz.) and grew to 20 inches!! I couldn't believe it. We were all pleasantly surprised and the pediatrician said she was doing great and that I could lengthen the time between feedings since she's getting enough to eat. That will be nice during the middle of the night-no more setting the alarm clock every three hours! Maybe I can get some better sleep now too.
I came over to my parent's house today with my camera, ready to take some cute pictures of our growing girl in front of the Christmas tree but come to find the camera battery is DEAD. So, cell phone pictures will have to do for now even though they pretty much stink! Erin's got fuzzy hair again because I gave her a bath this morning...oh what fun.

Fun Pics

Here's some pics from yesterday.


This was after her first bath at home. What a fuzz ball. Erin has crazy hair, it goes all which way with lots of cowlicks.

Birth Story

Well, since I already had 2 requests to write about my birth story, I guess I'll share. I actually started writing it in the last post, but I wasn't sure if everyone wanted to read it. I'll just copy and paste what I sent out in my family email.
The two days before Erin was born, I was "nesting" like crazy. I was scouring the house, preparing Shelby's things for whoever would be taking care of her in case grandma was away for Christmas, washing baby clothes and blankets and getting the cradle ready, and buying diapers. Mind you this was about 4 weeks before Erin was actually due. Saturday I was having mild contractions all day but nothing to be too concerned about, I thought. My mom and Ben kept telling me I couldn't have the baby yet, it was too early (as if I could really do anything about it). Ben also threatened me about going to the hospital too early since we went twice with Shelby and were sent home before we actually had her on the third visit. Early Sunday morning, about 2am, I was awoken with the first of some harder contractions that wouldn't let me go back to sleep. I hung out in bed as long as I could stand it then went to watch a movie. I almost got through the whole movie until I couldn't bear it anymore and I was bawling through my contractions and starting to hyperventilate! My contractions weren't any closer than 10-15 minutes apart, so on hands and knees I crawled to my phone to call my mom, who happens to work in L&D at the hospital, to ask her if it was too soon to go in. She told me to get to the hospital and she'd be right over to take Shelby. Now it was close to 8am and in the 5 minutes it took my mom to get to my house I could barely even get dressed my contractions were coming so fast and furious. Thankfully the hospital is only about 2 miles from our house so it didn't take us long to get there. I had to stop twice going in because of contractions. The second one was in the elevator; I couldn't get off for a minute, and there was a guy on the couch right in front of the doors who couldn't help but be a part of our moment (lucky for him). I got right into my room and the nurse was working furiously to get me prepped because the pain of the contractions was so bad-commence screaming. I couldn't hold it in any longer, the screaming just got longer and louder as I progressed and I kept asking where my epidural was and after I got it how long until it worked then WHY ISN"T IT WORKING YET!!! I was dilated to a 5 when I got there and by the time the doc got there and checked me I was ready. The pushing was awful, I could feel everything, and the epidural didn't have time to catch up. Thankfully, Erin was born in less than an hour and it was all over. Recovery at the hospital wasn't bad and I hardly had to take many pain meds (unlike with Shelby, I was still begging for the strong stuff two weeks later). Coming home was nice but without much sleep. With Erin being a preemie, she's had a hard time at night feeding but is progressively getting better. We've had to take her to the hospital the past two days as well to get her bilirubin checked and one more time hopefully on Sunday to make sure it's ok and doesn't have to do light treatment. All in all, she's actually doing really well according to the pediatrician, so we're happy. Anyway, Ben's home on paternity leave until next week so he's helping out with Shelby most of the time and she's loving having a REAL baby around. That's it for now, I should really be in bed already.

Welcome Baby!

I know it's been about a month since I posted but we've been kind of tied up. Our little bundle of joy came 3 1/2 weeks early! Wow, what a surprise. Erin Elizabeth was born on Sunday, December 7th at 8:58 am. She weighed 5 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17 1/2 inches long.