Christmas Card

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on the blog!  I wanted to post today so I could link up with Faith and show our Christmas card.  This was the most fun I've ever had sending out cards because we were announcing the new baby!  It was hard to keep it a secret but it was worth it when I got to send these out! 

12 Days of Goodies

Jenna is having a fun feature called the 12 Days of Goodies to get some good ideas for Christmas goodies. I'm being featured over there today with my grandma's recipe for Australian Almond Triangles. Head on over to check it out!

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

In all of Eric's spare time (ha!) he's been working on refinishing our kitchen cabinets. I LOVE how they turned out. It was a lot of work for him but he did a great job. He added beadboard to the panels and a piece of trim to finish it, and added crown moulding. Let me remind you of the lovely before:

And here they are now!



There is beadboard on all the doors but it was hard to get a good picture. Oh and out my window you can see the neighbor's beautiful new house color! :) We still need to fix a cabinet door and add two more handles but other than that they are done. One day we will get new countertops and backsplash and new appliances but I love the kitchen a million times more now! Thanks to my wonderful hubby for working so hard on them!

Oregon State Fair!

On Wednesday we took Alivia to the state fair for the first time! Eric and I have gone every year since we've been married so I was excited to continue the tradition with Alivia. It turned a little cold (in the 60s) so we bundled up. Didn't really feel like summer but it was nice that it wasn't blazing hot. Please ignore the cheese in her mouth.

Me and my sweet girl. Yes, the poor thing didn't have any shoes on.


No smiles for daddy ha!

Then Eric and I went on the slingshot. He's been trying for the last five years to get me to go on and this was his lucky year. It was fun but not worth the $60.


Alivia LOVED the petting zoo. The goats were obviously used to getting treats because they would just swarm you as soon as you walked in. Alivia is so used to having the dogs in her face that it didn't bother her at all. This lovely goat tried to eat her sweatshirt and she just pet it.

We had such a fun time and already can't wait for next year!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

I'm linking up with the sweet Kelly for crockpotalooza!

I made this the other night for dinner and it was so good and easy. Even my almost one year old gobbled it down. Anything that she loves is a keeper in my book! This recipe is adapted from Crockpot 365.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breast halves, pounded thin (I used three large Costco sized pieces and sliced them lengthwise)
Enough slices of ham for each piece of chicken
Sliced swiss cheese

For the sauce (I doubled because we like a lot of sauce):

--1 T butter
--3 T flour (I used brown rice flour)
--1/2 cup whole milk
--1/2 cup chicken broth
--1/4 t salt
--1/4 t black pepper

Spray crockpot with cooking spray or olive oil.

Pound chicken breasts flat (or slice lengthwise like I did).

Put a slice of the ham and a slice of the swiss cheese on each piece of chicken breast and roll it up. Put it into the crockpot, seam side down. Continue with the other pieces.

To make the sauce, create a roux with the butter and flour and whisk in the milk, broth and spices. Then pour on top of the chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. My crockpot gets pretty hot and I put it in at noon on high and it was completely cooked by 5. It was super moist and came apart really easy so it was perfect for a small child to eat.

Enjoy!

Silly Doglet

This picture just makes me laugh. Check Zoey out in the background ha!!

Tired, Tired, Tired

Oh my goodness the last few weeks have been crazy. Eric has been gone two weekends for work, Alivia is getting a molar, and I'm working on weaning her. Lets just say that I'm dead tired by the end of the day. Poor thing is just not herself. But we did get a few smiles out of her!

She's become quite the climber and I turned around this morning to find this.

She looks so pleased with herself. I love this picture.

Alivia's other favorite thing lately is to use Zoey as her pillow. She just lounges on her. Zoey loves it because she thinks she's being pet ha!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, our camera battery is dead so I have just been using my iphone lately.

Hopefully life slows down a bit in the next few weeks. I'm really looking forward to having her weaned so that Eric and I can go away for the night. It's been tough because she doesn't take a bottle so I've never been able to leave for more than 3 hours. But I'm so thankful I was able to meet my goal of nursing her until she was one. Well, I have two weeks left until then but I highly doubt she'll be fully weaned before that.

I think the rest of tonight will be spent catching up on some TV :)