Hanna's Baby Shower

Hanna is a friend from church whose baby is due in early November. Missy Howell and I decided to get together and throw a baby shower for her on the 17th of this month. Missy (on right) opened her home for the occasion.

Because Hanna had already had another shower hosted for her, she decided that she'd like this one to be a diaper and wipe shower. It worked out pretty well! She ended up with quite a few packs of diapers and wipes to get her started off once the baby arrives. Here's a shot of the diaper cake that I made. She has chosen pink and green to decorate little Faith's room with, so this will match with that if she decides that she wants to leave it as a decoration for a while, before disassembling it and using the diapers.

Among the food at the shower was this chocolate hazelnut mousse, which was so yummy and so easy and quick to make. I piped it into small cups and sprinkled it with shaved chocolate. (I'll include the recipe at the end of this post.)



Here's our pregnant mommy, Hanna. She's checking out some sweet little burp cloths trimmed in pink and green ricrac and made from cloth diapers.

We had a nice time and it was a great reason to get friends together on a Saturday morning. Girl time is awesome!

Chocolate Hazlenut Mousse

1-13 oz. jar Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread--look with the peanut butter to

find this)

1-16 oz. tub of Cool Whip, thawed in refrigerator

Spoon Cool Whip into a large mixing bowl and follow with the Nutella. Using a wisk, mix the Cool Whip and Nutella together until well incorporated. Leaving some streaks of white and chocolate is pretty, but optional.

It's ready to eat immediately, though I prefer it chilled for a few hours. It's pretty spooned or piped into small serving dishes for a pretty impression. Enjoy!

Reaching maximum capacity and a Cutie Patootie

Allie's belly at 38 weeks is truly a site to behold. Best described as large and EXTREMELY pointed, it is a sight that frequently draws stares. The picture really doesn't do it justice, as it must be seen dimensionally in order to fully appreciate the shape. To me, it strongly resembles the bough of a ship. Most times when we're out, she is asked by more than one person how many babies she is having. That's how large it is. I exaggerate not! This is either a very big baby, or there is a hidden and undetected twin lurking somewhere in the depths. We find ourselves speculating about it all of the time. Unbelievably, with two weeks left to go, it will continue to grow. Her navel has turned completely inside out and protrudes in a bizarre manner. It really is crazy. To help take some of the stress off her back, which is becoming a problem, we have found a belly band. It works!

Today she is in town with Tamia to house hunt. They'd like to get out of Birmingham and be closer to us. I'm trying not to get my hopes up yet. So, we've looked at a few places. One or two are possibilities, but time will tell. How cute is Tamia?!?!? She was such a good sport during the house hunting.

A Baby Shower for Allie

We got together here at our house on the 12th of September for a baby shower for Allie and little Tim. We're a month out from her due date at this point, and her belly has grown substantially. Brianna has come in from Tallahassee for the occasion, and we have several friends from church here as well, and a total of three pregnant ladies, including Allie.

We enjoyed some yummy breakfast food, including sausage quiche, monkey bread, and grits casserole.

Everyone helped to assemble scrapbook pages that we later slipped into a baby scrapbook.

We had a great time! It was fun to get everyone together and enjoy a morning togther with 'the girls.' Girl power rocks!!!

In attendance: Lisa Smithson, Debbie Clark, Laine Morse, Ashtyn Clark, Brianna Howard, Alicia Motley, Renee Howard, Hanna Heaton, Missy Howell, Moeata Santos.

Before Brianna headed home, we managed to sneak in some girl's time. We had a late night scrapbooking session (Allie was cracking the whip to get those pages done!) and stayed up 'til the wee hours laughing and talking. It was a great weekend!

Baby Belly Pictures

Well, Allie's pregnancy is moving right along! She is at 28 weeks now, with about 12 weeks still to go. She's excited, Tim is excited, Tamia is excited.......pretty much everyone is VERY excited. Holly and Grace are anxious to assume their roll of Aunt for another little one, and Holly is plotting ways to be there when the baby is born (sure!) and pretty much how she might use him as a live baby doll to feed and change and hold to her heart's content.

The last big announcement regarding the baby, is his name! He will be Timothy Dewayne Motley II. If all goes as planned, we'll see him sometime around October 12th!

School's Out!

The girls are undoubtedly excited by the prospects of summer and all of it's glory. As a mother, it always seems sad to me when the school year ends, and not just because I'm afraid that the kids will drive me nuts over the next 12 weeks. (Which they always do.) The thing is, I have a real appreciation for the work that my kid's teachers do and I try to do all that I can to support them during the school year. I send my girls off to them every day and they become our partners in parenting for that school year.

This year we had great teachers! Holly spent a couple of hours each day with Ms. Gilliland (left), who helped her with Math, Language Arts and Spelling, and was with Mrs. Warren (right) in a regular classroom setting. Both of these teachers were nurturing, patient and encouraging.

Grace's teacher this year was Mrs. Price, and Grace had a lot of fun with her. She worked hard with the children to teach them to be self-sufficient. Grace loved her classmates this year, and especially all of the girls in her class!

We made the rounds on the last day of school and the girls gave each of their teachers pen cups (filled with felt tip pens, highlighters, scissors, pencils and erasers, dry erase markers and permanent markers) as a special thank you for a great year.

So, Summer---here we come! We're looking forward to following John on some business trips to Huntsville, swimming, sleeping in, and watching Allie's baby belly grow. When school starts in August, we'll be at a new school. They've finished an elementary school that's only ten minutes from home, which means no more 75 minute bus rides!

Roadtrip!

We got a call at the beginning of May from Rikki (Sean's wife), to say that Sean was going to be coming back early from Iraq! He wasn't due back until July, so it was a real treat. When the weekend rolled around, we gathered our stuff, boarded the hounds, and headed for Ft. Campbell.
























It was a nice weekend! We enjoyed a great couple of days with Sean, Rikki and Madison. Maddy is growing by leaps and bounds---so big, so smart! We picked up a dress-up dress for her while we were there, and I don't think that she took it off the whole time.

Thanks for having us up, guys! We're especially thankful to have Sean back safe and sound, and for the service and sacrifices that he and his family make as he serves 0ur country.

Chicken Enchiladas

Last week I was emailing with Kate, the mother of the family I nannied for a couple of years back, and she said I should blog the recipe for the chicken enchiladas I made when we all lived together. While Kate was probably being nice or had taken one too many pain killers that day, the idea of those sweet little kids (who are now so old that it rocks my world) having a fond memory of the time we were all together left me all warm and squishy inside (and filled me with memories of bluebonnets and kidsongs videos). I thought it was awesome to hear that two of the four enjoy kickin' it in the kitchen, and I've had chicken enchiladas on the brain for a few days now. This goes out to the Feists!

Disclaimer: These aren't authentic. We're usin' packaged enchilada sauce mix and flour tortillas here, folks. The way that I do it works for me, but if you have a preference for your abuelas enchilada sauce, corn tortillas, can't stand the idea of shredding chicken or something else, you should do what works for you. ;)

The ingredients for a 10x14 pan are:

6 chicken breasts, about 3 lbs.
1 medium onion
1 tbs. minced garlic
2 tsp. salt
water (to cover all of above)
2 pkgs. enchilada sauce mix (I use McCormick's)
15 oz. tomato sauce
3 c. water
3-4 c. shredded cheese (I use a cheddar/jack blend)
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
16-20 8" flour tortillas




Cut the ends off your onion, peel the skin off, discard the ends and skin. Halve the onion, then cut into thin slices--you'll end up with half-rings.





Throw your onion, minced garlic and chicken breasts into a pot of boiling water. Toss in a couple of teaspoons of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium-high heat for 15 minutes.





While the chicken, onion and garlic cook, we're going to prepare the sauce. If you're confused about the sauce pack, this is what mine looks like. You'll need two packages and one 15 oz. can of tomato sauce.





Into a saucepan, empty the contents of the sauce packs, three cups of water and the 15 oz. can of tomato sauce. Whisk it together, bring it to a boil and reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens.





Once your chicken is done cooking, dump it into a collander to drain off the water. DO NOT get rid of the onion and garlic, just drain it with the chicken. Allow the chicken to cool for ten or fifteen minutes before shredding it by hand or with forks, then dump it into a mixing bowl, along with the onion and garlic.

To the chicken mixuture, ladle in two scoops (about one cup) of enchilada sauce and two cups of shredded cheese. Mix thoroughly.





Then add 1/2 tsp. each of ground black pepper and cumin. Mix thoroughly to incorporate the spices.





We're ready to start rolling! This is what my tortillas look like. The brand that I buy generally comes with 20-30 per bag and they are roughly 8" in diameter. I find them easier to handle and more pliable (and less apt to split) when they're warm, so I usually nuke mine for a minute or so before starting.





Before rolling the enchiladas, ladle in two or three scoops of enchilada sauce to the bottom of the pan. This will prevent the enchiladas from sticking. Now you're ready to roll!





Scoop a scant 1/4 c. of the filling onto each tortilla, then roll tightly and place seam-side down in the pan. Seam-side down keeps them from unrolling, so don't get creative on that step! Keep rolling until you've used all of your filling and your pan is full. This is what my pan looked like when full.

Last, pour as much sauce as suits you over your enchiladas, then sprinkle with 1-2 cups of shredded cheese. Cover loosely with foil and bake at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes, assuming that your ingredients are still room temperature. If you've prepared this earlier and stowed it in the frige, you'll want to increase the baking time to more like 45-60 minutes, or until bubbly. Remove the foil during the last 10 minutes of baking.

A budding artist, a passel of pigs & a bun in the oven.

First off: Not my bun, not my oven. SERIOUSLY. But we'll get to that a little later. It's awesome news!

Well, we just finished up with Holly and Grace's Art In The Afternoon classes. I must confess, I'm kinda glad. The classes getting out at different times was kind of a pain for me, but I digress. Holly took art/painting. Aren't her pictures wonderful? That's the friendliest lion I've ever seen, her sun has top oral hygiene skilz, turtles have long been one of my faves, and check out the diving action on that dophin! Yeehaw, Holly! (She threw in the house with pink tree trunks, just for good measure.)

Grace took drama, and her group just completed a production of The Real Story of the Big Bad Wolf. The premise of the story was basically that the wolf got a bum rap and ended up in prison for murdering those piglets. (That's the short version.) And Grace was a cell mate. Even the door jam and paint job contribute to the effect, albeit unintentionally....

Here she is (far right, back row), with her cast mates. Aren't they all cute?

She had a fun time, but I don't know that she'll go for drama again. She says that it's embarrassing to talk in front of all of those people. Although singing a song about a wolf puffing and huffing and snuffing, then sneezing out a booger wasn't too embarrassing at all.... Allie drove down from Birmingham to attend the play with me. Here she is. In the room that looks like the visitation center of a prison. Seriously. It was bizarre.

And that brings us back to the bun. It's Allie's bun and Allie's oven! Our little Allie recently found out that she's going to have a baby. She's very excited and we know that she'll be awesome. She's a wonderful Mommy already and we're so proud of the amazing woman she has become. Congratulations, Freddie! The little bean should make it's appearance sometime in late October or early November. And since Allie can't handle surprises, we should have a pretty good idea of whether it will be of the male or female persuasion well before it shows it's little head.

Next Stop: SPRING BREAK!

Four stops, cartwheels, wet feet and a white dress.

What a difference from last Sunday! Today was warm and beautiful, the perfect combination for an afternoon of picture taking. And since we're gearing up for Grace's baptism at the beginning of April, we needed some shots of her in her white dress too.



The location turned out to be a major fiasco, though. We raced home from church, ate lunch, fixed hair, then set out. Destination? Gee, so glad that you asked! Four stops later, it was the reflecting pool and fountain across from John's office. Well, how was I to know that everywhere I wanted to go was closed on Sunday? ....And gated. We never go anywhere on Sunday except for church and home! To say that I should have done my homework turned out to be an understatement. But aside from the brown, dormant grass, it was all good! Personally, I find brown grass a little UN-springlike, but we worked around it! Mostly. Don't they look pretty in their dresses?



G is all about cartwheels these days. I'm so glad that it's warmer outside now, because the girl was about to drive me crazy with the cartwheels inside of the house. She had a grand old time here though, and turned cartwheels until she was dizzy.



We had a nice time and got the mission accomplished. I think that we probably could have gotten a ticket for wading in the fountain, but thankfully it was dead downtown and no one else was there to witness the dirty deed. Plus, H had a great time. And doesn't G look pretty in her white dress?

In like a lion.....don't know yet about the lamb part.

I swear, we have been having the craziest weather ever. I'm not sure what's going on, but one thing is for sure: If you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes and it'll be different! March is definitely in like a lion. Looks more like December, though, doesn't it?





After a week of temperatures in the upper 60's, we woke Sunday morning to temperatures in the 30's and snow. SNOW! Now, we only see snow MAYBE once a year if we're lucky, so this was nothin' to sneeze at. It started sometime around 5 a.m. and kept going until about 2 that afternoon. When all was said and done, it came out to a little more than four inches, which is just crazy. Though these pictures were taken earlier in the morning, you can still get the idea. Don't you agree that everything look prettier when it's covered in snow?

Sunday, sickness, a really big cold sore and loooove....

Well, it's been one of those winters for colds in the Howard home. We made it back from our quick trip to Florida and the girlies promptly fell sick.

Sunday morning brought fever and the start of a mondo cold sore for H (it was really sad). G was fevered and coughing, so I threw in the towel at that point and sent John off on his own to church, while I tended to my sick little peanuts.

Once amply dosed with cold medicine and armed with hot cocoa and tissues, we dug out the art supplies and took advantage of the down-time by making valentines for the girl's school classes. It turned out to be a good project for them, since it kept them still and entertained.

We used tags cut from cardstock, holographic pencils from the dollar store and some fun, foamy, glittery hearts. It was an idea taken from the February, '09 issue of Family Fun. I think that they turned out cute, and the girls had fun making them.

On the tags, we wrote things like 'you're so sharp', 'write on', and 'you're all write!' When the tags were done, we punched a hole in the corner and looped them around pencils with elastic string.

Florida, a bargain, two bears and a bunch of ducks.

What, may you ask, do these things have in common? Why, it was our January trip to Tallahassee!

At the end of January, John had to make a run over to the corporate office. With two hours notice, and luck on our side as we needed to board the hounds, we decided to tag along. The company's paying for mileage and hotel, so why not? Right?!?

We survived the four hour drive and no blood was shed, though it got close there toward the end. Thank goodness for the portable dvd player and mp3 players! Once checked into our hotel, we headed over to our oldest daughter's house to have dinner with her and her husband. The food was great and we're super thankful that they were willing to accomodate us on such short notice. It was really nice to be able to spend a few hours with them and do some catching up! (And John thinks it's pretty awesome that with three of the kids grown and gone now, we can impose upon them to take care of us now and then! I agree, it is pretty wonderful.) Thanks again, guys!

The next morning we dropped John off at the office and headed over to the mall to kill some time. I've turned into a total mall Scrooge over the last several years, so I was happily surprised when we drifted into Gap Kids to look at what was on sale, and hit the mother load on winter clearance. I LOVE that! I'm an enthusiastic bargain shopper and try to stay a size/year ahead on clothes, so this was right up my alley, baby! We got cute t-shirts, soft, warm pants for next year, a couple of jackets, new mittens, hats and scarves. It was awesome! I think I walked out with 13 or 14 items for under 30 bucks. Yay!

While we were at the mall, we paid our first visit to Build-A-Bear. It's a good thing that we saved so much money at the Gap, because our frugality ended there. How, may you ask, could we have escaped this particular money pit for so long? I attribute it entirely to my Scroogedom. The problem is, one can only take Scroogedom so far and so long before becoming an ogre. So I caved. H and G REALLY wanted to go, and the rest is expensive history. They both opted to put sound in their bears; H went with the one that says "I love you!", and G decided on the roar. (How fitting, considering that roaring and growling seem to be her favorite angry sounds to make these days!) ;)

Our last stop of the morning was at Lake Ella, a nice little park that's great for walking and duck feeding. H was ready to wade through the ducks and get to it! She had no qualms about being in the middle of all of those birds and cheerfully doled out bread to them.

G did not share her sister's enthusiasm for this peaceful past-time, and was a slightly more reluctant participant. What do you think?


















The difference made me laugh. She just wasn't feeling much love for the ducks. Or the gulls. There were a TON of gulls there. Now, I've been around gulls before, but these were soooo agressive! They would fly right up in front of you and hover just in front of your face, waiting for you to toss some food to them. It WAS pretty cool how they always caught it in mid-air though... G didn't really appreciate the novelty of that, either. Before we left, I got a shot of the girls together. H is showing me her teeth and looking at some more birds to go feed. G is holding on to H and giving me the 'hurry up and get me out of here!' look. Gotta love it!

A windy Saturday, friends at the park & a crazy woman with a camera.

On a blustery afternoon about a week ago, we headed off to the park for some fun with friends. I took a million pictures of everyone, but really like these two. They aren't going to win any awards---G doesn't really need that other hand, does she? That's why H.F. gave her two, right?!? Still, I love how they capture the joy of the girls doing things they love.

While it always worries me, H loves exploring outside (usually as far from the house as possible) by herself. There were six of us on the playground, but she was always off by herself exploring and finding what she liked. See how happy she looks in that moment that she glimpsed the next thing she wanted to go to? I love that! While the distance that she wants to roam still gives me ulcers, I should work harder to not worry about her love of solitude. After all, being able to appreciate solitude is a valuable thing, right?

Then there's G. She is such a rowdy little stinker! At 8 she isn't much different than she was at 2. Neither of the girls are, really. G still loves bouncing and tearing around like a lunatic, constantly in motion; it's when she's happiest. So I love this (one handed!) picture of her on the teeter-totter. It shows how she lives life--a smile on her face and arms thrown open wide to embrace the moment she is in; preferably with as many friends around her as possible. G does not possess the same appreciation for solitude that her sister does. ;)

Anyhow, we had a lot of fun. Squealing, jumping, climbing and dangling were in abundance that day. But man, was it cold! We had to go 'warm' up by hitting the DQ for ice cream and french fries when we were done. Because H and G are numbers 4 and 5 in our kid line-up, I find myself more aware lately that many of the things we're experiencing with them are likely 'lasts'. I feel a greater sense of urgency than ever before, to take it all in and really live those moments as they happen. I've gotta soak it all up, baby!