Jordan & Amanda's Wedding

This weekend we celebrated at my cousin Jordan's wedding! I was honored to sing in it and Lincoln was the cutest stinkin ring bearer I've ever seen! I sang "Feels Like Home" which was sung at our wedding. I can't believe I made it through without choking up! It was a beautiful day ...

 

 

new job!

I just realized I never told Blogworld some pretty exciting news for our family! I finished nursing school and I got a job! Let me just say that God was really looking out for me in this situation.

 

Most new nurses have to work the night shift before switching to days---I got days!

 

I know a lot of nurses who have to work every other Sunday---I have to work one Sunday a month and they said if another nurse on our unit wants to switch days with me, I don't even have to work that!

 

I started on Monday and everyone is so nice. I really like my boss and the nurse who is training me. AND I've already met two ladies who are also Christians! YES!

 

Another bonus...it's full-time, 3 days a week, and 8 minutes from my house. All I can say is Thank You God! Our prayers were definitely answered.

 

 

nuts for doughnuts!

My Mom invited us over for dinner yesterday. After dinner we watched The Little Mermaid because Lincoln claimed he'd never seen it AND it's like the best Disney movie ever, right? After the movie, we made a late night run to Krispy Kreme in Louisville. If you've never had a hot doughnut right off the line, you are missing out!

 

Lincoln loved watching them make the doughnuts. Forget all of those comments about Lincoln saying he wanted to be a singer, nurse, or doctor --- now he wants to be the "Sprinkles Guy" at Krispy Kreme :-)

 

 Sorry the phone photos are a bit blurry.

 

 

In other news, two of my sweet friends have come back to Blogworld! Hop over to Laura and Jessica's blogs and welcome them to the blogosphere!!! ha!

wordless wednesday :-)

lifegroup

Yesterday we got together with our Lifegroup class for a cookout and some fishing. We joined the class about three years ago, and these people have become our family! It has been so neat to see everyone grow together, spiritually and in numbers! Our class is called Family Matters but I'm pretty sure we should be called the Baby Boomers...and I LOVE it! :-) It's pretty rare to have friends who will pray for you and your family, encourage you, and bear your burdens with you. AND who just happen to be funny as all get out and amazing cooks... and we have a class full! We are blessed with some amazing friends.

 

Love this one of Tanner and his fish!

 

Laura and Danniell

I am still rolling at the expression on Megan's face while she was pretending to be Natalie's hairstylist!

Lincoln and sweet Layla

 

 

Isaac :-)

 

5 years

Five wonderful, crazy, beautiful years.

What an amazing journey we have been on as husband and wife. My mom kept Lincoln yesterday so we could go out for our anniversary. We celebrated by having dinner at the Melting Pot, going to see The Great Gatsby, and sleeping in till 10am this morning. It was perfect :-) We are going to watch our wedding video tonight when Lincoln goes to bed, because it always upsets Lincoln that he wasn't there. ha!

I am so thankful God placed Chris in my life. What an incredible gift.

On my own I'm only half of what I could be. I can't do without you.

YUMMMM

I am hooked on some foods right now that are way too delicious not to share.

Blackened Chicken and Cilantro Lime Quinoa. I found this recipe on Pinterest. I seriously might start eating this every. single. day. It is so good! We scraped out every last drop of the avocado cream sauce. INSANE! And it's good for you too! Quinoa is a great source of protein.

 

Chicken Salad. Another Pinterest find! So not healthy for you, but delicious! I admit it ... I am a chicken salad snob. This is my favorite so far!

 

 

Thai Chicken Pizza. We have been doing "International Cuisine Night" for probably a year now with our sweet friends, Adam and Jessica McKain. For Jess's turn a couple months ago, she made Thai Chicken Pizza. This pizza is amazzzing!! I've made it at least every other week ever since. We LOVE it! Jessica is Susie Homemaker so she used homemade pizza dough. I, on the other hand, use the Boboli Pizza Crust found in the spaghetti aisle. (GASP) Seriously though, make this pizza :-)

 

 

Little Chris

 

 

This is one of Lincoln's favorite books. I have probably read this book to him five times a week for the past few months. MONTHS, people! The story is about a dog who wants a boy for Christmas. The puppy's mother tries to find him a boy, but there are no boys to be found. As you can see in the picture below, she asks him if he would rather have a rabbit, canary, or some guppies for Christmas? The puppy says no, he only wants a boy. The rest of the story consists of the puppy searching everywhere for a boy.

A couple nights ago, Lincoln asked if he could read the book to me. We came to this page and here's what he said:

"Would you like a rabbit? No.
 Would you like a parrot? No.
 Would you like some fish? Yes! I would love some fish!

 But then his mother didn't give him ANY fish! Poor kitty ... "

What?! Poor kitty?!

It reminded me of a story about Chris. Chris had to write a book for school when he was in first grade. His book was called "The Fox and the Dog"  (which we still have, by the way). Every single page is talking about how the fox and the dog did this and that. The last page reads, "This is the end of the story of the fox and the rabbit."   Rabbit?! Whaaaat?!

Love these silly boys so much :-)

Awana

If you've seen videos of Lincoln saying his Bible verses, chances are it was either for CBS or Awana. I cannot say enough good things about Awana. I was blown away this year at how much Lincoln learned. Our church gave out awards yesterday for each Awana class and Lincoln was pumped! If you have a child and you are trying to think of ways to get God's word in their heart---consider Awana! They start back up in August. It's only an hour and fifteen minutes every Sunday evening. And you do not have to be a member at our church to attend. Think about it!

chicken week

If you're wondering how our week of chicken went after Monday ...

-Tuesday we had the Chicken Quesadillas. Chris was kind of scared of goat cheese in our quesadillas so I substituted with Santa Fe Blend Cream Cheese. They turned out good!

-Wednesday we had the Roast Chicken with Creamy Polenta and Mushroom Ragout. Let me just say I HATED the polenta ... yuck. But the Mushroom Ragout (whatever that means) was delicious! I will definitely make that again as a side dish. Here's the recipe ...

Mushroom Ragout
Cooking time: 15 minutes

2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups sliced white mushrooms
1 pinch Kosher salt
1 pinch pepper
1 pinch dried thyme
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp tomato paste

1. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add onion and saute for 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and continue cooking until softened, about 5 to 6 minutes.

2. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme. Add chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste. Mix well to combine.

3. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Per serving: 95 calories

-Thursday my Mom invited us over for dinner. WHOO HOO!
-Friday we had the Curried Chicken Couscous.

So, I think it went pretty good. It definitely shortened my cooking time during the week, which was great! Other than the chicken itself and the mushroom side dish, most of the recipes were just ok. I would do it again, but just use different recipes for the chicken.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

 

I read an article that said roasting a whole chicken at home is a good way to save money and time. Sooo...today I roasted a chicken. Let me tell you--- it was EXTREMELY easy, my house smells amazzzing, and the chicken is delish! The article also gave 5 dinner recipes to go with the chicken AND the shopping list. This is what's on the dinner menu for this week ...

-Roast Chicken with Creamy Polenta and Mushroom Ragout

-Chicken Panzanella Salad

-Chicken Lettuce Cups

-Curried Chicken Couscous

-Chicken Quesadillas

 

I'm actually kind of excited about dinner this week! I will let you know how they turn out. So far so good!

 

Cooking time: 2 hours 10 minutes

7 lb roasting chicken
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 lemon, quartered
4 cloves garlic, peeled and split in half

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Season the outside of chicken with salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Squeeze the juice from all lemon pieces into the cavity. Stuff cavity with garlic cloves and lemon pieces, then place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a roasting pan.

2. Roast chicken at 450°F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F and continue roasting for 2 hours or until a meat thermometer inserted at the inner thigh reaches 165°F.

3. Remove chicken from oven and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing. After chicken has cooled, remove and discard the skin, then wrap the meat and refrigerate until needed for other recipes.

happy Earth day

A few weeks ago, part of Lincoln's Awana homework was to plant something. Lincoln was put in charge of watering it. He has enjoyed the responsibility and going out every day to see if it had sprouted. I was starting to get worried it wasn't going to come up, but it did! One little baby sprout so far.

After Lincoln finished watering his flowers, we celebrated Earth day by planting some lilies in the backyard. We were both so muddy by the time we finished we had to take baths!

 

 

 

 

After dinner we walked to the park. We've been doing this almost every day since the weather has been so nice. Lincoln ate an ice cream cone on the way. Must be nice!

 

 

These next few photos are kind of blurry because he was running all over the place, as you can imagine!

 

 

 

knock knock

 

 

Lincoln: Knock Knock
Me: Who's There
Lincoln: Boo
Me: Boo who?
Lincoln (in his most whiny voice ever): Don't cry!!!

Chris told this knock knock joke to Lincoln probably 6 months ago. Out of nowhere, Lincoln told it to me a couple days ago. We couldn't believe he still remembered it! He makes me laugh so much :-)

out of the mouth of Lincoln

A couple days ago I was sitting at our dining room table, when Lincoln walked past me, opened our sliding doors, and walked into the backyard. Before I could even turn around, he had pulled down his pants and started peeing! We don't live in the middle of nowhere, people! We are surrounded by neighbors on all sides. I asked him, "What are you doing?!" He replied, "I'M PEEING!"

 

There's a game on our ipad that Lincoln loves to play. So, when he drop kicked Rufus the other day he lost his ipad privileges. The next day when he asked to play with it I reminded him, "You can't play with it today because you hurt Rufus. Remember?" He said, "You need to obey or I'm going to call your mom." I told him, "I don't obey you. I obey God."  He growled and stomped off to his room. About a minute later, I heard him on his pretend phone, "Nini, you better get over here. Mommy needs a spankin'."

-The other day I was singing around the house and Lincoln told me I was a "happy little Christmas bell."

-My allergies have been out of control here lately. After I finished sneezing for the zillioneth time, our observant little Lincoln said, "Mommy, I think the sunlight is making you sick!" No buddy, the Spring is! haha

Our church decorated for Easter. There was a bunch of new plants by the big wooden cross in the foyer. I saw Lincoln standing there just staring and I assumed he was staring at the new plants. So I asked, "Do you like the new Easter decorations?" He said, "I'm sad ... that's where Jesus died." He pointed at the cross. I thought my heart might explode from the tenderness of the moment. And then he said, "He's happy now!" He made a crazy car noise and zoomed off  :-)

These last two photos of Lincoln crack me up! Lincoln's eyes are super sensitive. He is squinty even when it's cloudy outside. So you couldn't see his eyes in a lot of the photos today. After I took this photo I asked him if I could get a picture of his pretty eyes ...

 

 

I saw him start to open his eyes as wide as he could and I snapped the camera. Here's what I got ...

 

AMAZING! Even Lincoln was laughing his tooshie off at that one!

For those of you who remember Rufus, he is still alive! He has survived four years with Lincoln! I'm not gonna lie, it's been a rough four years on Rufus...but he made it! The poor little guy is going blind and he runs into something every day. But for being almost 10 years old, I think he's doing pretty good :-)

God's Love is So BIG!

Lincoln's class at CBS did the opener today. They sang a few of the songs they have been working on for quite awhile. It was precious! We had been singing them with Lincoln at home and he was so excited to go up on the "big stage like a big boy" today. He did great! He had a minute where he started to cry, but he recovered! We are so proud of our Lincoln boy.