Birthdays and dreams come true!

Tyler and I have birthday's one month apart, 10-12 and 11-12, born in the same year. I always thought that was neat. We celebrated both with dinner out on our own and then dinner with his family. These are pics of Tyler's birthday dinner...

I didn't get any pics at my birthday dinner, but it would have looked much the same! We both enjoyed our days and still can't believe we are 26.

So I made a little dream of mine come true today. I made some extra dinners to freeze and hope to do a couple more tomorrow while getting things ready for Thanksgiving.

Here are pics from today, I made my favorite casserole, Mexican Chicken. I love that it is: good, has veggies, and everyone likes it in the family!! I often give it as a new-mommy dinner for friends that don't have time to cook while caring for their new baby.


Here are all the cans of veggies and beans that I strain.....

Then I add cheese, sour cream, rice and salsa to the mix. After cooking chicken breasts (from my cheap chicken sale!), I shred/cut it and add it in. Then put it in a casserole dish, cook it and serve with chips, salsa, and/or sour cream. Occasionally, Tyler will roll it up in a tortilla.

Also, if you know Tyler, you know he is a picky eater. Well, he is making huge strides! Tonight, at the dinner table, he said "Honey, I need to apologize to you." I thought "ok wonder what this is about" but knowing Tyler wasn't alarmed since he typically begins a conversation this way.

He then said, "You're right, you can't taste the tomatoes." I looked at his plate and there was not a little pile of tomatoes like there normally is!

I made ours for tonight and these two extra. Felt pretty good about my start to freezing meals!

Sadly, we lost the game Friday. It was a good game, 13-14, our extra point got blocked in the last 40 secs of the game. It was a good season, though. Here is Garyn ringing some bells, it was pretty cute!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Full Recipe for Chicken Mexican Casserole...

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can rotel

1 can black beans

optional can of corn

1 cup minute rice

3 cooked/shredded chicken breasts (sometime I boil, sometimes I microwave)

2 cups cheese (can add more if like it cheesy)

8-12 oz of sour cream

8-12 oz salsa (can spice it up more if desired)

wash and drain all the canned items

mix everything else in with veggies

cook in a dish for 30-45 minutes on 375 covered with aluminum foil

then take off foil and cook another 10-15

serve with tortilla chips, salsa, and/or sour cream

(note: variation in time depends on how much you strain everything, you don't want it soupy, so may need to cook longer. Also, we can not ever eat a whole one, so I typically divide it into two smaller dishes and freeze or give-away one)

Halloween

Due to my procrastination and the lack of computer/internet access at my house lately, I have been unable to blog like I want, but here is some pics of our life lately...

Play-by-play of Halloween...

Daddy trying to gear Garyn up for his costume, note this is the 2nd costume we bought; Garyn is afraid of a lot of things right now and Halloween worsened it all!

Garyn saying "No Dinosaur, Mama!"

Me saying "Its ok, Garyn"

Garyn now saying, "You're so silly, mama" (me and about 5 other adults are being goofy so that he would laugh)

Yea!! Dino Garyn! I think at this point he was too worried about everyone's costumes and scary decorations to worry about his own. His new phrase is "Its ok mama, don't be scared" which actually means "I am scared"

We had a good Halloween, I, obviously, was worried when he wouldn't put on his first costume, a Lion, nor his 2nd. But once it was on, he did great all night!


This is him dancing in my new cowboy boots that were only $2 at a yard sale!!! Meg found them for me! Thanks Meg

Red Bank is in the 3rd Round of Playoffs tonight!! 12-0 so far!

(my camera is funky right now! wish these weren't blurry)

Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving!!!