Pesto Chicken Sandwiches

I made these last night and they were really tasty. The kids even liked them and it's a fast dinner if you broil them open face in the oven.

Pesto Chicken Sandwiches

1 package mushrooms, sliced
2 chicken Breasts, sliced
1 onion, sliced
White Bread or Ciabatta Bread
Mozzarella cheese
Pesto Sauce (I just bought mine, but you could make it)

Cook chicken, onions and mushrooms together until done. Spread pesto on each slice of bread. Place mozzarella cheese and chicken mixture on bread then grill in a panini grill or like grilled cheese or broil open face in oven until cheese is melted and golden brown. Enjoy!

I ended up broiling them because the ciabatta bread I bought was full of holes and I didn't know how else to make it sort of work. Plus that went much faster than cooking them in a pan one or two at a time. I had the last minute thought that tomatoes would be a nice addition to this sandwich so I got some from the garden and it was very yummy.

Just for me

Saturday I went to the General Relief Society Broadcast with my friend. Our Stake had a dinner beforehand and it was nice to not have to make dinner. Then we watched the broadcast. I enjoyed all the talks, but I swear President Uchtdorf is speaking just for me. He said things that I really needed to hear right now. Some things that really hit me:

"...our splendid sisters sometimes undervalue their abilities — they focus on what is lacking or imperfect rather than what has been accomplished and who they really are."

"Everyone can create. You don't need money, position or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty,"

"Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before: colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter."

There was so much more that was awesome. You can listen to his whole talk on lds.org if you missed it.

He also spoke at our broadcast Stake conference at the beginning of the month and again I felt that he knew just what I needed to hear at that time. Besides that he's a fabulous speaker and it's also fun to listen to his accent and it makes it much easier to listen to, I mean REALLY listen to his talks and find what I need in them. This weekend is General Conference so I look forward to hearing more from President Uchdorft and all the other Prophets and Apostles--I have a feeling it will be just what I need.

Park and new dance move

Liam and I went to the park with some friends last week. He got brave and climbed up to the slide all by himself. (it was a VERY short climb) It was so funny when he'd get to the top he'd try to walk down the slide so each time I'd help him sit down and then hold his hand while he went down the slide. By the end he was scooting his bum forward to help me get him going and he got to where he could keep himself from falling backwards when he slid down too. He's definitely a brave and adventurous little man.

The video is of Liam's new dance moves. He started this on all on his own with no help from anyone. We turned on the music and he just started doing this. After he finishes this move he has a difficult time staying standing and has been known to walk around looking pretty wobbly afterwards while he tries to stay standing. I'm sure you can all tell what talent he has--he'll be famous someday. ;)

TGIF and misc

What is it about Fridays that is so great? Today is great because my kids have no school and of course the weekend is coming.

I love no school days because we can all relax and be lazy in the morning. The kids want to go to the dollar movie and see "Kung Fu Panda" I'm hoping we can time it well so Liam will sleep through most of the movie. I'm also thinking of taking them out to lunch--we'll see how the timing works with the movie time though.

Last night we had the second meeting of our book club. Rosalie was the host and she made the BEST food! It was great! Loved the spinach dip and the carmel sauce with apples! I love carmel...we were at her house for several hours and it was so much fun even if we probably didn't give the book it's fair share of time in our conversation. It wasn't because it was a bad book or anything...she chose the book "Book of a Thousand Days" by Shannon Hale. It was a good read. She's a great author- I've enjoyed all her books, but some of them more than others. I highly recommend "The Goose Girl", "Princess Academy" is also good.

We spent some time talking about our trip to Vegas. I'm excited for it in a few weeks. I'm sure I'll share more about it after we go. Or maybe not...you know What happens in Vegas...

We also talked about blogging ;) Why is it so much fun? I'm guessing it has something to do with being able to talk about yourself and your family as much as you want and no one can stop you lol :) A bragging Mother's dream. :) Personally I love reading other people's blogs more than writing my own. Some people are so witty and funny (something I'm not). Can you learn to be witty and funny?

Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to post about soon. Oh, I know I will because my sister is coming on Tuesday! I can't wait to see her!! I wish she could stay longer, but she's just passing through.

Book review

I've decided to review the books I'm reading in case there are any of you out there wondering what to read. I LOVE to read and have since I can remember. I'm sure these won't be very literary reviews but I'll tell you what I thought of the book and if I'd recommend others to read it. If you have any specific questions let me know. You can also see what I've read in the past by looking at my goodreads page.

The book I'm reading right now is called "A walk in the woods" by Bill Bryson It is about the authors experience walking the Appalachian trail. He tells lots of background about the history of the trail and the changes that have happened to it over the years. He also talks about environmental issues too. There is a bit of swearing so if that offends you this book is probably not for you. It was somewhat entertaining, but it wasn't a book I couldn't put down.

Amazon's description: The Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America–majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way–and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).

Torn

I am seriously torn. I don't know what to do...sounds serious huh? I'm just trying to decide whether or not to cut Liam's hair. Let me tell you my reasons for both choices and maybe you can help me decide.

To cut: His hair on top is WAYYY longer than in back and the back just keeps falling out/breaking off so now his hair is starting to look funny. It would be nice to even it all out, but as long as you don't see it from the back you can't tell ;)

It is REALLY hard to comb through his curls. They are so tight that the only time I really can comb through it is when I bathe him and then he screams the whole time I'm combing and it makes me feel horrible

To NOT cut: I LOVE his hair! It's just so cute! I know he's a boy and it'll grow back fast I'm sure.

I am pretty sure once we cut his hair it will no longer have the soft cottony feeling when it grows back and I'll have lost the baby hair forever...

So...I'm sure you can see my dilemma now--Daddy wants to cut it and has for awhile. If you pull his hair straight it's probably 4 inches long at least. So far I've put off Daddy telling him we MUST get a video camera besides my still camera before we cut it so we can get both video and still pics of the cutting etc (which I have a feeling will be a nightmare, but will probably make for funny home videos later)

So, help me be decisive!! What would YOU do??

Mother Daughter book club

Our local library has started a mother daughter book club. They hold it ever other month and have a discussion about the book, a craft, and a refreshment--all for free! Emily has been wanting some time alone with Mom lately so we headed to the book club last night even though we weren't able to get the book read because we had just barely gotten it from the library a few days before the meeting.

This month's book was "The Miraculous adventures of Edward Tulane" and from the discussion both Em and I are excited to finish the book. They had felt rabbits that the girls could make clothes for (cut outs from more felt) and they had decorations for the clothes/rabbits too. I failed to take my camera so you won't have the joy of looking at pictures, but Em and I had a great time and we are really looking forward to November when we are reading "The best Christmas Pageant Ever" and we get to make gingerbread houses for the "craft".

Dancin' fool

Liam has recently turned into a dancin' fool. Whenever he hears music no matter how fast or slow it is he starts dancing. It's really fun to watch. You can check out some of his moves on this video. We turned on some music and he sat like this in front of it for a long time. Then he stood up and danced a bit and went back and sat down to get closer. I don't think you can hear the music...I had a better video but I can't figure out how to make' it not sideways...someday I'll figure out all this technology. ;)

A funny dancing story. Yesterday our little family sang in church--we sand Families can be Together forever. I was holding Liam and Jason was standing in front of us. For most of the song Liam was showing the ward his dance moves. Then towards the end he grabbed Jason's shoulder and started shaking him back and forth--I guess he wanted someone to be gettin' down with him. I finally took his hand away and then he was mad at me so as soon as I let go of his hand it shot out quick as lightening and grabbed a big handful of Jason's hair and pulled HARD. I couldn't help laughing--thankfully we were on the last couple words of the song. I'm surprised I didn't laugh through the whole thing. I knew I could count on Liam to distract from our singing abilities (or lack thereof). :)

Far World

A local author visited the kids' school and they came home DYING to read his book. He had a book signing at the Library on Saturday so we headed over to check it out. Emily had gotten her Dad to buy the book for her already so they went to get the book signed. Smokehouse was there with free food (BBQ sandwiches, chips, drinks, and cupcakes) They were also giving out posters so the kids stood in line and got their posters and the book signed. He was nice...I haven't read the book so I dont' know if it's any good, but so far both my kids are reading it and liking it enough to fight over who gets to read it. So, I'll have to put it into my pile of to read books.

Costa Vida

This afternoon I got to go to lunch with some friends from our neighborhood in honor of Bonnie's birthday (that was the beginning of Aug, ahem sorry about that B!). It was a lot of fun. Bonnie chose Costa Vida and although I've eaten at the other restaurants like it I hadn't been there. I got the chipotle chicken burrito and it was REALLY good. It had great flavor without being too spicy for me...so if you go there you should try it. Thanks for choosing, Bonnie! We ate and sat and talked for a long time. I was surprised that by the time we got home it was almost time for the kids to get home from school. I brought my camera to take a picture for this post, but totally forgot between eating, entertaining Liam and being entranced by the conversation. Maybe next time...

Have a great day!

Pacifiers

This post is really mostly for me so that I don't forget. There are so many things that I thought I'd never forget when the twins were small and now I don't remember any of them. :) One of the benefits of blogging for me is it gives me a way to remember these things later.

So, lately Liam has been doing a funny thing with his pacifier(s). He'll have one in his mouth and he'll see another one, spit the one he has out and grab the other one to put it in. He did this on my lap for about 10 minutes last night and it was so funny. After awhile he didn't even bother putting the second pacifier down he'd just hold it for a couple seconds and then replace the one he was sucking with it -trading out. Writing this down doesn't do it justice...those of you with kids know how cute/funny something simple like this can be when it's your little one doing it. :)

Finally a pantry and food storage

This closet has been a catch all ever since we moved into this house 7 years ago. I have always wanted to make it into a pantry because we just don't have enough cupboard space in our small kitchen. I finally just did it and I'm so happy with it! When I first started thinking about making this a pantry years ago for some reason I thought I couldn't make it work, but with a few tweaks on some ready made shelving it works great! I don't know why I waited so long. I still would like to get some kind of organizers to go either on the doors or on the part of the wall in front of the shelves that isn't being used so I can better utilize that space. It is great to have somewhere to put appliances that I use, but not enough to want on my counter and a place for larger boxes etc that wouldn't fit in our regular cupboards.



After getting my pantry done I got to thinking about food storage again. We had quite a bit of food storage before Liam was adopted because we were focusing on getting it, but that really fell by the wayside when he came. Now I'm trying to get back to stocking up and using our food storage. We have all of some of the basics, but are still working on getting the rest of it. The hardest for me is powdered milk. I hate to buy it because we don't like to drink it and it doesn't store very long and it's so expensive. These pictures are of our "food storage closet". I wish we had more room--don't know how we'll fit everything else we need for our years supply in there!



That white wire shelf thing in front is from the now pantry closet and I'm trying to figure out how to make it useful in the food storage closet, but right now it's just taking up space. The case lot sales are coming up here so hopefully we'll be able to stock up on some of the stuff we use often so we can save money in the long run. We spend WAY too much on our groceries. It's funny that when we were poor college kids we could eat for pennies, but somehow now that we have money to spend we way overspend. I really gotta work on that. How do you keep your food bill under control??

Good Hygiene

Liam loves to play with his tooth brush he got from the dentist when the rest of us had our check ups. Whenever he finds it he'll play with it and he even puts it in his mouth and moves it back and forth like he's seen us do. Its fun to watch. I tried to help him do it right and he liked it when I did the bottom teeth, but when I tried to do his top teeth he laughed the first time and then wouldn't let me near him with the toothbrush again. :)

BIg Boy

Jason left his backpack in the living room and Liam kept playing with it. Eventually he brought it over to me and so I helped him put it on. It was so cute I had to take some pictures. The backpack is as big as he is! He is always happy when brother and sister get home from school.

Inspired

We had Stake conference this weekend. It was one where they broadcast it to a bunch of stakes. All the stakes in Utah and Wasatch county were in on this one and it was so good! It's usually so hard to get much out of church when you have small ones, but Liam slept and I was able to actually listen and feel inspired by the talks given.

I really liked Sister Dibb's talk about not letting Satan's counterfeits lead us astray. The quote she said someone gave her at Women's conference keeps coming into my head too. "Satan can't have a family and he wants YOURS" or something to that effect. I admit my memory isn't the greatest, but man that really hit me and I just keep thinking about it and how I need to keep my family safe from the counterfeits Satan has made so many of in this world.

I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk. He talked about how important missionaries are and encouraged all young men to plan on going on a mission. He said we need to ask ourselves what we need to do personally to increase our faith and what we can do to strengthen our marriage and family too. Then he mentioned three things that can help. The two I really need to work on are scripture study DAILY and Prayers. I have a really hard time finding time to study the scriptures--how do you do it? What works for you? I need to have some new ideas! Prayer--well...I pray every night and I do pray a lot of little prayers during the day, but I feel like I'm getting to where I don't think as much as I should about my prayers. How do you keep yours from getting too rote? Thanks for your help!

If you got to see this same broadcast please share anything you leared from it that you'd like to share!

Some cool stuff

Last night some friends and I went to the what women want expo. I'd never been but a friend gave us all free tickets so we decided to check it out. It was basically a place where anyone who sold something could pay for a booth and try to get us all to buy their stuff. Kinda like a craft boutique but on a bigger scale I guess. It was fun to look at all the stuff and I even found some things that I'd never seen before that I liked.

The first thing I'm gonna tell you about are these cool headbands. They are fabric, don't hurt your head, and don't slip off and they fit little girls up to adults. They are tons of fun and they really do work. check out their website--they actually had more patterns than are on their website when we were looking yesterday. I bought one and I've been wearing it all day and haven't had to adjust it or anything. You can find their website here.

These headbands reminded me of another cool hair thing that I really want to try out. They are called Trash ties---have any of you tried them?? If you have please tell me if they are worth trying! If no one has tried them I may have to take the plunge. You can find out about them here

There were tons of different jewelry companies at this place, but the one that really caught my eye as different, cool and funky. It's called Tribal Jewelry and I love it! It's totally affordable too. I've seen other jewelry companies and often their stuff is expensive, but this isn't. Check out her website it's so much fun! I guess they've shown her stuff on Good things Utah too.

Have a great day!

Maiden voyage

Thursday we took Liam's new forward facing car seat on it's maiden voyage. He seems to like it. We had to take Jason to karate so I took him out in all his chicken pox glory...he looks so small in that car seat his feet just barely hang over the front of it.

Bat Boy

Tuesday Jason got to be an honorary bat boy at the local minor league ball game. It basically meant that he did the job of bat boy without pay, but he had tons of fun. He got to sit in the dugout with all the players and go grab their bats when they made a hit and give the umpire more balls before he ran out.

The first picture is him in the dugout just before the game started. Then him standing with all the players during the national anthem. Bringing a bat in and finally giving balls to the Ump. He had a blast and even though I worried he was cold he said he wasn't at all even though he was in short sleeves. :) It was fun!

Grateful

I just wanted to write down how grateful I am for people who are so willing to serve. Last night when Liam was screaming and thrashing in the middle of the night because he was itchy I was trying to figure out how I was going to get him something to relieve the itching without taking him out and exposing a bunch more people to his germs. I tried calling my sil this morning but she didn't answer. I didn't want to call either of my normal friends who bail me out since they both have small babies and I didn't want any chance of exposing them. I had decided to just go when Jason got home from work only to realize that he's supposed to go to the temple with the High council tonight so that wouldn't work either. I honestly didn't know what I was going to do, but I had remembered that I was supposed to go to a meeting today for the school carnival so I needed to call the lady in charge to tell her that I wouldn't be able to make it and and get the info another time. She was so sweet (I've never even met her in person but we know lots of the same people) and she offered to go get the anti-itching lotion I needed from the store. At first I did the whole no that's okay thing, but I realized this might be my only chance so I told her okay (I have a hard time accepting help sometimes-- especially from "strangers") I made sure she knew I'd pay for what I needed and she told me when she'd be by. Well...Liam had finally gotten to sleep and I was laying down trying to sleep while holding him when I heard her knock. I tried to hurry to the door, but Liam woke up and I had to attempt to make myself presentable so when I got to the door she was gone and had left the stuff I needed and a note telling me not to worry about the cost because she wanted to take care of it. I seriously almost broke down crying from the generosity of this person I hardly know to go get this for me when I couldn't and then offer to pay as well was amazing to me. I will try to repay her anyway when Liam is better, but her willingness to serve me when I really needed it was so touching to me. That is what the gospel is really about--taking care of everyone...even if you don't know them well. Now I just hope this lotion works so that he can sleep tonight and hopefully so can I.

Stupid Doctor

I think I finally have decided that I need to find a new doctor. We go to an office where there are two doctors. One I LOVE and the other is completely incompetent! I never go to the second one if I can help it, but today I had to since the good dr was not working. Liam broke out yesterday in blisters all over his body. I first only noticed a couple and thought it may be some kind of reaction to the mmr shot he got last week. Later in the day he had lots more so I called the on call Ped. and the nurse there said it sounded like it could be chicken pox. To be honest that hadn't crossed my mind since the twins had it when they were younger and I remember them getting bumps first and then the blisters later on. I decided to wait it out. We all had a miserable night with no sleep and Liam crying most of the night unable to get comfortable plus he now had a fever. This morning it was looking much more like chicken pox but I wanted to be sure so I wouldn't doubt myself when he didn't get the shot later on. So, I take him to the Dr. (Mr. Incompetent) he looks at him and says it might be chicken pox, but he's just not sure since he's used to looking at pictures of caucasian kids with it and he can't tell if it's the same on my aa baby. He wants me to go to a dermotologist to see if it's really chicken pox. I'm thinking he must be kidding--he's a pediatrician and this is a childhood illness and he can't make a diagnosis??? Mind you I'm already almost certain it is chicken pox--but he says there's something else it could be so I go to the Dermatologist (pay another more expensive co-pay) only to find out it is chicken pox. I told the Derm. right off that I felt silly being there because I thought my Ped should be able to tell me if it was chicken pox or not--he was really nice and told me it is harder sometimes to tell on AA children especially since there aren't tons of them that Dr's see around here. I still don't think that's an excuse!! Anyway...the Derm. gave me a prescription that is supposed to help him not scar from the pox so I guess that's good at least and he told me about a lotion that will help the itching so hopefully that will help him sleep better. Poor baby hasn't slept more than 30 min at a time since Sunday night. Ugh...it's gonna be a long 10 days.