Elinor Vs. The Pacifier

Ah the perplexities of the artificial nipple.

Swiss Chicken

Here is a recipe I came across that Rob and I are just loving, so I thought I would share:

Swiss Chicken

4 Chicken breasts
4 slices of swiss cheese
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/4 C. milk
2 C. Stove Top
3T. butter

1. Take trimmed chicken breasts and pound them just until flat (this wasn't in the original recipe, but I happened to do it the first time I made this and didn't the second time and we both noticed a difference in our enjoyment of the meal- so I really recommend doing so!), then lay them in a glass casserole dish.

2. cover with swiss cheese (I really love my swiss cheese, so I double up on the cheese when I make it- again, I would recommend doing that too!).

3. mix the soup with the milk and then spoon over the chicken and cheese.

4. cover with the (unprepared) stuffing.

5. melt the butter and then drizzle over the top.

6.cover with foil and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Let's face it, this meal isn't going to win any gourmet awards but this is really yummy "comfort food" like stuff, the flavors of the chicken, swiss and stuffing really compliment each other. I also really like meals that only use one pan, so it gets a big plus from me that you don't have to brown the chicken (or otherwise cook it first) and the prep is so simple. It also speaks well for it that Rob really likes it and he is positively ALLERGIC to casseroles (he had some nasty casseroles as a kid due to a creative mom). So, he likes it enough to overlook the fact that it is one.
(He also will eat my chicken tortilla casserole though, because it's yummy too).

Oh, also- totally serve it with green beans. Green beans are the perfect side dish, in fact, I take the extra sauce and cheese stuff that's at the bottom of the pan and dump the extra green beans in there and stir it all up and eat it for lunch the next day or (more likely) as a midnight snack (too much information?) I suppose you could add them to the *whispers* casserole, but I cannot- as it might unlock some of those bad casserole memories from Rob's brain.
Apparently, most of those casseroles involved green beans and I believe him, as we currently house his mother's food storage in our basement and you would not believe the amount of green beans down there. But I digress.

You know what? Don't add the green beans to the dish, that even makes me icky, just serve them along side, but make sure you swirl them in the sauce when you eat them.

Original recipe credited to Carolyn Burdette from allrecipes.com. Let's give credit where credit is due.

Belly Laughs

Elinor treated us with her first belly laughs tonight. She has been chuckling for quite a while now, but Scout was finally able to achieve bellies by playing patty cake. It was mostly Scout's laugh that was getting her going though. Speaking of, sorry that Scout's laugh gets a little "shrill" a time or two.

I happened to have my ipod plugged into the computer charging, so it was right there and therefore got those very first belly laughs caught on film, I was so pleased. Good times.

Blessed

We blessed Elinor at church this week. My sister Amy and her husband Scott and 2 of their kids came down (Annie and Kyle), along with my mom and brother Matt and his wife B. We were joined by Amy's daughter Sarah (attending BYU), and my cousin Dan and his wife Lorri and daughter Hope drove out from Tooele to attend. Elinor's grandpa Pugh also drove out from Orem to see and help bless her. Glad to everyone who came out despite the snow storms that littered the weekend (especially Sun morning)! Ells had a nice little blessing even if she cried through most of it. Little stinker is the quietest little thing and never makes a peep or protest unless she is hungry and guess who got hungry 5 minutes before blessing time? Oh well, daddy held her as far from the microphone as possible and her cries didn't reach it, therefore you couldn't tell she was the one that was crying (I could as the mom of course), but it wasn't obnoxious and loud in the mic at least. It was fun seeing all that came out, thanks for the support, we appreciate you all! It's always fun to have you out to visit and to fill our house with lots of laughs (Lola got the biggest laughs Friday night with her lerpyness and stretch sessions).

Me and the brood

The whole gang

Just the little one

Just the ruffly bum
(I couldn't resist)

Insight as to why Uncle Scott called her KKK baby once (or twice)

Dinosaurs and Sparkly Lights

I took the kids to the Festival of Trees on Saturday (I love how haggard the kids look here! Me? Fresh as a daisy, I tell you...... but alas, looks are deceiving-- believe me I felt a lot more like Scout seems to be feeling after hauling those girls around for 4 hours). We didn't mean to stay that long, but a snowstorm stuck us there while Rob was caught in traffic. Sue was originally going to join us, but due to some stomach ailments her dog displayed in her living room the day before, she was unable to join us.

Scout was being so funny loving this giant nutcracker and told me to take a picture and for some reason, lost all playfulness when I pointed the camera at her and I was left with this melancholy scene.

We filled most of our time there in the kid's corner which was Festival of trees for "cheap crafts". Thank you thank you for all you did for me that day, one can only look at so many Christmas trees, and crafts are Scout's favorite thing ever.

I laughed at this tree so much and thought I should buy it for Sue since she couldn't join us (it was still for sale for a measly 3,500) If you can't tell, it is a Star Wars Nerd's dreamland consisting of four trees decorated with Star Wars figures "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (*nerd noise*) all in their original packaging" and a little scene in the center with more figures taken out of their protective cocoons. All constantly pitched by a nerdess trying to convince the crowd what a deal this tree was and how it's market value will skyrocket someday. Anyway, I had to take a picture of it for Sue since I didn't have such cash with me (dang) and it was her perfect tree until I came upon this one about 15 minutes later...............................

If you can't tell, it's a Lord Of the Rings Christmas with so many toys in their original packaging, I had no way to fit them all in my lens. Sorry Sue, this one was sold already (double dang). Some nerd is going to blow his little mind this Christmas.
Even Scout looks kind of impressed.

As you can see, you REALLY missed out-- and you thought it would be more fun to stay at home and scrub dog poo. Sue was sad about not joining us and had Tuesday off, so we decided to go to Thanksgiving Point's Dinosaur Museum (or Museum of Ancient Life, I should say)

Sue and Tiny E killing time while Scout buries dinosaurs in water and sand.


They had a little display where you can build your own dinosaur, I told Scout to go stand by our handy work and she one upped us by posing as the T- Rex's baby.


Still a dinosaur baby, but I believe this was after we built the stegosaurus.


This was probably the item that made the biggest creep out impression on me (ok there were plenty of those moments) but LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS TURTLE!!!!!!!!!! It was found pretty much in tact too AND somewhere around where was it Kansas or something Sue? Blew my mind.

C R A Z Y.

Let us take a moment and look at a cute baby because next was the creepiest thing by far for Sue......................(and this will come as no shock to anyone that knows her at all).......

This beauty is just the head of an ancient shark-- for whatever reason they decided to recreate only it's head. Could it be because this shark was over 70 feet long? (Sue quickly did the math and estimated it to be about 3 Jaws long.) I tried to get Scout to stand in front of it so we could get a perspective for the picture, but she wouldn't get anywhere near it and Sue had to even carry her through that room (but who was going to carry Sue?)
Unsurprising perhaps, Sue and I decided several time throughout our museum experience two things.
1. I'm glad those are extinct
and
2. Those were in Montana? That's close! *panicked look in eye*
(for some of these creatures, hearing they were found in South America elicited the same response).

For those of you that played Scattergories with us Thanksgiving weekend, when Rob called, he asked if we were wary of the brontosaurus bones. We were babe-- (and truth be told, Scout was actually afraid of them)
Perhaps we should have awarded Rob both points?

Side by Side - about 5 weeks

Elinor.....................Scout

Well, that one was slightly easier to do.

I did say slightly.

Oh man, I love the one where they are both in the same dunglees looking like they're trying to split.