The new house

We got here today, all of us.  We did an inspection on the house.  Patricia told me to take pictures so I did and thought I would share a few.  Have to do it now since we do not have internet at the house yet (we are in a hotel tonight, that will be fun!).

The outside.

Looking in the front door.  Dining room to immediate right, then kitchen, then living room straight ahead.  Hallway off to the left for the bedrooms and then a coat closet to the left.

Dining room that will actually be the office/homeschool/library.  Definitely will need some drapes.

Half of the kitchen.  Look at all those cabinets!

 

Other half of the kitchen, more cabinets and a pantry!

Kitchen and breakfast nook from living room.

 

Kids bathroom. 

Hallway linen closet.  Seriously, a linen closet?  What are those for?

One of the three smaller bedrooms.  Ruthanne & John had a blast running around today!

Master bath (there is another sink behind the wall).

Look, more storage!  In the master bath again.

I feel like we have started off too good.  The house at our next assignment will probably not be nearly as big and we will have been spoiled.  Oh, well, we will enjoy the space while we have it!

Paul Today

I can’t believe Paul is almost 4 months old. He is getting so big and getting so strong and sturdy, he really isn’t a newborn any more! Boo! They grow up too fast!

Speaking of growing, this kid is HUGE! By the scale today with clothes on (and a diaper of course) he weighs 19.2 lbs. CRAZY! Since I weighed him I decided to measure him too and got 27 inches. I had to go out and buy some 12 month clothes this past weekend. John’s clothes are starting to get wintery by this size (we were living in Utah and that was more appropriate) but we still have some hot days ahead of us here in Georgia! I needed to get to the stores before the summer clothes were all gone!

I also got these pictures of Paul today on his tummy. I thought they were pretty cute.

All the kids, including the little sister (that crazy baby doll that says “Islam is the light” which thankfully lives at Grandma’s house!) per Ruthanne’s request.

Be sure to scroll down and keep reading... I went crazy with the blog updating last night!

Crazy Kids!

Ruthanne likes to make John dance with her.  He tolerates it as long as she does something that he wants to do sometimes too.  Here are some pictures from the other night.

Posing:

Doing the “dance.”

After this the kids wanted my camera so they could take some pictures.  Being the nice easygoing mama I am, I let them!  Here are some of the crazy results!

Horsie Time!

Paul got a little time to play on the horsie.  I thought these pictures were cute!

Paul’s Blessing Photos

As my Mom said, how do people get all those nice photos of everyone on the blessing day.  We were too busy!  Paul got home from church and needed a nap, so I changed him out of his blessing outfit before we got a photo.  I had to put it back on to snap these (not so hot) photos after everyone had gone home!

Luke’s Graduation from Chaplain School

Ok, so I’m way behind on my blogging.  Perhaps I can get caught up tonight as the kids are sleeping and there is NOTHING on tv!

Here are a couple of pictures from Luke’s graduation day.  Some nice ladies sitting beside me offered to take the picture of Luke receiving his diploma because I had just gotten Paul to sleep.  There was also someone there with the school taking pictures that will be better, we just need to email them, but for now, this will do!

Recipe Blog

For those interested I posted the Chicken Cashew Pasta Salad recipe on my recipe blog. There are some other favorites of mine there too. I add more as the mood strikes. I may go back and add a new roll recipe I tried recently that I like better than the old one!

Cafe Rio Recipes

I always have to go back to Kara's blog to find these (since I think the recipes she found are the best copycats I've made), so I thought I would link them here to make it easier for me!

http://opp-family.blogspot.com/2007/08/cafe-rio.html

Curried Coconut Chicken

I've adapted a allrecipes.com recipe for the crockpot.

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (whole, frozen works great!)
1 teaspoon salt and pepper, or to taste
2 tablespoons curry powder (maybe start with 1 tbsp then add more if needed)
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
3 tablespoons sugar

Throw everything into the crockpot. Cook 6-8 hours on low. About an hour before serving, shred your chicken into more manageable pieces and so they will soak up more of the yummy sauce! Serve over rice.

Chicken Cashew Salad

12 oz Small salad macaroni (d'italini), cooked according to package
3 Chicken breasts, cooked and cut up
2 cups red grapes, halved
2/3 cup Chopped green onions
2 cup apples
1 cup Mayonnaise, I use low fat!
1/2 cup Coleslaw Dressing
1/4 cup Milk
1 cup Cashews
Salt & Pepper to taste

Wisk together the mayo, dressing, and milk. Combine everything except cashews and then stir in the dressing mixture. Chill.
Add cashews right before serving. We add the cashews to our individual servings mostly, they get soggy after a day or two (ew!).

Funny Commercial!

I haven't seen a mini-infomercial/commercial that made me giggle this much since the snuggie blanket. But today we saw the Wow Containers commercial. We must have rewound and watched it a few times. You have to at least watch the beginning where they are squashing the food. I mean, who is that stupid?

Haircut

I got 10-12 inches cut off my hair today and donated it.  Here is the new haircut.

Here is my dinner from the other night.  Zucchini and mushroom and tomatoes on garlic naan.  It was so pretty and yummy!

Here is a video of Ruthanne playing with Paul.