The Holidays....

       Every year I tell myself that I'm going to do better about starting my Christmas presents early. And Of course I NEVER do. So these past two months have been filled with sewing machines, knitting needles, crochet hooks, slow cookers and of course my favorite baby in the entire world!! Which adding all of those together adds up to a very slow going at completing Christmas. But thanks to my AMAZING husband I was able to get everything done tonight!!! So I'm officially done and ready for Christmas and now I just get to sit back and relax!! (However, we still haven't sent out our Christmas Card this year... so for those of you getting it late I blame the baby ;) jk) I'm not going to spill any of what my needles and hooks have been doing since most of it will all go to family members, however for my lovely co-workers I made them all some amazing Apple Butter. I was planning on making them all some kind of snow flake to go with it, but I decided that my sanity and lack of stress was worth not doing them this year.

       But just to update on the Matthew Long family. We are all doing great and loving having that Dad is done with finals and can now help Mom get everything ready for our trip to Vegas. I'm loving that I can leave Eric home when I go to work this week, especially with how crazy it's been with last min gifts. I have to admit, with all the crazy kids/parents I see at work, I'm so grateful that Matt and I came from semi-normal families.

       Other then that life has been the same old thing, with bursts of joy watching Eric learn and grow. He's currently trying to figure out crawling and has moved a few times, but then Bray'Tac walks by or comes into his view and he just starts laughing and forgets about crawling. If I had to guess though,  I'd say Bray'Tac is soon going to be chased around the house by our little guy (at which point I will either spend the day filming the chase or playing hide and seek with Bray'Tac).

       But that's all the news for now!!


Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

And then one morning it was OCTOBER!!!!

      Do you ever feel like time just flies?? This is so how I feel right now. I swear I was just in the hospital giving birth and now I have a 3 month old!! I keep trying to tell him that he's not allowed to grow anymore... we're still working on the whole listening thing... But Eric had a big mile stone today!! He had his first ever solid food! Peaches and rice cereal for 2nd Lunch and Peas and rice cereal for 2nd dinner!! He was so funny eating them! I seriously wish I would've had a camera with me. He would make a face like he was trying to figure out what I was feeding him and then laugh and gobble it all up. It was so cute! Currently we are just making his baby food from either frozen veggies that I already have or from fruits that I canned. I totally prefer making his baby food this way because then I know EXACTLY what is in it and I know it's ALL good for him.

       Currently my little angel is snuggling with his daddy and loving his thumb (or middle two fingers, which ever he can get into his mouth first). It used to worry me when he started doing that, because I thought it meant he was hungry. and then he started doing it right after having eaten and spit up. So now it know it's just a comfort thing, and just makes me smile.

       Anyways to play catch up, Matt and I have been doing great. Just keeping busy being new parents, going to school, working, sewing clothes for Eric and teaching sewing classes. All of which has been wonderful!! (except the homework part of school...) Eric has started to sit up on his own a little, so we've been letting him sit up more and just put his boppy/nursing pillow around him so that if he does fall he doesn't get hurt. He has loved being able to sit up and see the world. And I've loved that I can do more now that I can just let him sit up and look around at the world. Other then that, we've just been watching our little baby grow into a little boy.

      Oh as a side note, We are going to be a Jedi family for Halloween. I told Matt that it couldn't really work because Jedi aren't allowed to get married... but he just laughed and said "Well, fine we can be bad Jedi then."    Silly Hubby...

Best homemade Thai Peanut sauce/curry I've made!

So I got this recipe off on one of my friends blogs and pretty much fell in love! For once my peanut sauce didn't turn into goop! Woot!!

1 cup of Rice

1/2 bag of frozen stir fry veggies (fresh veggies work even better if you have them!)

1 cup chicken chunks (1 raw chicken breast)

1 8 oz can pineapple chunks, drained

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

1. Cook rice in a rice cooker, or according to package directions if using minute rice style

2. Cut up chicken breast into tiny chunks and cook in a pan until cooked through. 

3. For sauce, in a small saucepan stir chicken broth into peanut butter. Heat and stir with a wisk until peanut butter melts. Stir in soy sauce, lime juice, red pepper, and garlic; heat through. 

4. Add sauce to cooked chicken. Add pineapple and frozen (or fresh) stir fry veggies. Cover and simmer until veggies are no longer frozen (about 3 minutes. 

5. Pour sauce/chicken mixture over cooked rice and enjoy!

Makes: 4 Servings

It says it served 4, but not in my house!!

Food Issues

Dear Samantha,

Would you please pick something you want to eat so I can feed it to you??

Love,
Mom
(so weird/excited typing that....)

Becuase it turned out amazing!!!

       So I've been a victim of a Dinner Rut (can't think of anything to make and nothing sounds good.. grilled chicken and ... salad sounds dinner ish to me!) for the past week ish.. So I decided to surprise my wonderful husband who never complained about my terrible dinner ideas (or lack thereof...) by making Cafe Rio's sweet pork burritos. And I have to say it was the easiest dinner I've made in a long time and it turned out amazing! All I did was take a pork roast (or any pork/chicken you have on hand) throw it in the slow cooker with 2 cups homemade salsa (I used the salsa that my wonderful sister Whitney canned) 1 1/2 c brown sugar and let it cook all day. when I got home from work I just broke up the meat into little pieces (and since it was so tender all I did was take a spoon and pull it apart). Let it cook a little longer while I cut up some lettuce, tomatoes, limes, grated cheese, pulled out sour cream, and set the table. Matt fried the tortillas for us and melted the cheese on top. It really was so good and so freaking easy!! And cleaning up was even easier because I'd used a slow cooker liner for the meat so all I did was put everything in containers, throw away the liner and wash our plates, cups and silverware! Seriously doesn't get any better then that!!