We love her so....

Becca's Graduation!

Me and Holly
Us Kids

She's so cute!

Me and Becca...CONGRATS Lovey!

Last weekend was my sister Becca's graduation from OSU. (Congrats Becca!) My other sis Holly flew home from Texas for about a week so she could be here and we had a blast. We surprised her at the airport (she thought just dad was picking her up) and Hannah got to see her for the first time since last August! In no time Hannah was delighted there were two Aunty's to play with and now she can't stop talking about Holly (Holly I told her we could call you anytime she wanted...I think she's going to take me up on that!)

We had a weekend full of activities and graduation and parties and Hannah did great despite being dragged to all of it. (She loves people!) Sunday we had a small family party and then Monday we had a bigger one with many of Becca's friends and her boyfriend Fran's (Hannah calls him Tio) family.

I LOVE getting together with his family. They are the cutest and warmest people! And I ALWAYS end up eating way too much food! There were homemade tortillas and yummy guacamole and salsas and enchiladas (YUM!) and way too much to mention. Long story short I ended up eating WAY too much food all weekend. But it was worth it! So Congrats Becca! And I'm real glad you're home and we get to see more of you now! Hannah's pretty excited too. :)

Recipe!

We had this for dinner a few months back for book club and we all loved it so much we demanded the recipe! One of the ladies in our book club teaches a cooking class in Mac and owns a cooking supply store downtown and this is her recipe! It is SUPER delicious! And you can make it as spicy or mild as you'd like. (We like it spicier!) It calls to cook it on the stove top but I combine the ingredients in the crockpot and let it cook on low for several hours, or high if you have a shorter amount of time you want it cooked in. Enjoy!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

1T. veg. oil

4 chicken breast fillets, skinless, boneless

1 small onion diced

1 clove garlic minced

4 C. chicken broth

1 C. masa harina flour (next to regular flour or in the Mexican section of the store)

3 C. water

1 can (small) enchilada sauce

16 oz. Velveeta cheese cubed

1 tsp. salt to taste

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

Garnish: shredded cheddar cheese, crumbled corn tortilla chips, cilantro, pico de gallo (see below)

Pico de Gallo

2 medium tomatoes

1/2 small onion diced

1 fresh jalepeno pepper, seeded (unless you like heat) de-ribbed and minced

1 T. fresh cilantro, minced

pinch of salt

(And then I add lime juice as well)

To Make:

Add 1 T. oil to large pot over medium heat. Add chicken to pot and brown for 4-5 minutes per side. Remove and set chicken aside. Add onions and garlic and saute over medium heat for about 2 mins. or until onions begin to brown. Add chicken broth.

Combine masa harina flour with 2 C. of water in a medium bowl and whisk until blended. Add masa harina mix to pot with onions, garlic and broth. Add remaining water, enchilada saice, cheese and spices to pot and bring to a boil, stiring occasionally. Shred chicken into small bite-sized pieces and add to pot.

Reduce heat and simmer soup for 30-40 minutes or until thick.

Serve soup in cups or bowls and garnish with cheese, crumbled corn tortilla chips and pico de gallo.

Makes 12 servings.

Serving suggestion: Serve with warm corn tortillas and salad.

Hannah's New Shoes!

Hannah and I went shoe shoppin the other day. After a couple weeks of her saying "Hurts Mama," when putting on her current shoes I figured we should seriously look into getting her new shoes. Good thing we did! She pretty much skipped an entire shoe size! No wonder she kept saying they hurt!! So I took an entire afternoon and we looked for shoes. I didn't want to get too many since many of the shoes right now are summer shoes and she pretty much doesn't wear shoes if she doesn't have to outside. But we found some VERY cute tennis shoes and a pair of rain boots. I had to take most of the pictures without her wearing them cause she doesn't stand still long enough to get pictures that don't look like she's running by!

Gram bought her these! We LOVE these! I almost bought them for her but didn't and then Gram came home with them. It's hard to tell in the picture but they've got little tiny sparkles on them and are kind of punk rock. :) She wears them everywhere right now!

Hannah picked these out all by herself. She's got very good taste! :) She got the right size and everything. She bypassed several other styles and picked these right out, came to me and says, "On Mama." So we left with them since her other ones are now too small. This girl knows what she likes!

Hannah....

I can't get enough of her in this swimmy-suit! Nona Sonia bought it for her and she is so stinkin cute! haha

We had a well check last Monday and it went well. She's done with vaccines until about school age! YAY! She was a total trooper and hardly cried at all. It's still heartbreaking though and I was super nervous given her last reaction to vaccinations!!! (NOT GOOD!) So she's in the 30th percentile for her weight...(she's only gained a few lbs but it's straight muscle) and in the 80th percentile for her height! So essentially she's built like her daddy. They were really excited about how well she's doing since she was so early and so small, and were impressed that she talks non-stop and says WAY more than the recommended word count. (I think this count is seriously low tho!) It's funny because you teach your kids things or you try to anyway and you never know if they'll actually use them. But I have to say as crazy as she can be when we're out and around people she is SO polite and kind and uses sign language (she LOVES to sign) and is like a totally different person. So it was very cute to see her at the doctor. So in short she's doin well and on her way to age 2....although as I've said I swear we're there already.

Ok so yesterday was just WEIRD!

First the ants, now the....bees? So yesterday Hannah and I were eating lunch upstairs when all of a sudden she points outside and says "Mama raining." Usually that's correct but yesterday...it was NOT rain. I say to her..."That's not rain that's....BEES!" This was not a few bees. This was a torrent of bees. An entire cycloning cloud of buzzing honey bees gaining speed on the house!
Now I hate bees. Honey bees are only slightly cuter and less disgusting, however, they are still bees. I have never really liked them but I can stem my absolute terror and hatred of them back to about age 12. (A rough guess.) My sister and brother were outside riding their bikes and accidentally drove straight into a yellow jackets nest in the woods. In a panic they came running up the hill and into the house with an entire swarm of bees on them and behind them. Because they were panicked they did the first thing most kids would do they ran straight inside the house as I stood outside in horror watching this happen.
Back inside, my mom and I got my brother and sister contained to the basement to remove any and all articles of clothing and set out on the task of finding and killing any and all bees we could find.
Now...many of you have been to my parents house (or have lived there! haha) and so you know...there are a LOT of places for bees to go here. A LOT. We shut every door we could which really doesn't close off much of the house. It's 3 levels with a 2 story open living room to the upstiars area. I somehow managed not to get stung, neither mom or I did (how I don't know!) But the task of hunting them down and listening for the slightest buzz took forever. We'd close them off in rooms and wait till we could get them with either a newspaper or a fly swatter. There is no sure way to get every single bee out of the house (short of burning the house down...which was not an option) and so for days even weeks afterwards we'd find a wayward bee or I'd hear them buzzing as I lay in bed. I REALLY hate bees. In fact I don't think any of us four kids escaped that without a phobia of bees. Maybe Troy came out allright!
Back to yesterday...so the sky is filled with bees in a mass I have never seen. And I've seen bee swarms. They hit the house and go over the top. You can hear them. Hannah and I run to the other end of the house to see THOUSANDS of bees swarming around. Oook...trip to the library put on hold as there's no possible way to get to my car without being in the midst of this mass of bees. A few hours later I went out to throw something away and see what was going on since I could no longer see or hear the bees and found this:
That mass on the side of the house are the bees. It doesn't look that bad but it's many bees deep with many still flying around! Yikes! They are currently still there. Not sure what happened but after the really bad storm last night we're wondering if where they were before this prompted them to move quickly to get out of the storm. This side of the house was out of the wind and rain for them. Dad says they're just there resting until they feel it's safe to leave and find another hive....it's crazy and fascinating...but I still hate bees.