Trying out a new recipe!

One of the blogs I read, Little Did I Know, had this awesome recipe for Hawiian Bread Sandwiches that looked awesome and I just had to try it.  Here are the sandwiches before going in the oven.  They have ham, swiss cheese and a mixture of onions, butter and dijon mustard. (We left out the poppy seeds.)

After assembling them you bake them in the oven and they come out a warm delicious sweetness!  Out of this world!

Here is the finished product, I almost missed getting the picture because the girls were eating them so fast!  We paired this with a dinner salad, and even though we had to turn the oven on it was still a great idea for dinner or lunch.

Thank you to Lisa for posting this.  You can see the recipe on her blog here.

A womb with a view...

Katy and I traveled to North Carolina a few weeks back to visit the birthmom of my twin boys that are due at the end of summer.  It was a fun time for both of us.

We had to catch two flights, the first was from KC to Cincinnati, OH where we had a layover for 1 hour and then to Charlotte, NC.  We arrived around 1 pm and caught a cab to the car rental place.  By the time we left Enterprise Car Rental we hit a little traffic on our way north to Lake Norman where we were staying at a really nice Hampton Inn.  We checked in about 3pm and called C (the birthmom), she was tired and so we decided to wait to get together in the morning , as we had a lot of fun things planned.

Katy changed into her bathing suit and we hit the pool.  Of all the things I have to say that the pool was a little disappointing, you see Katy is 5'9", and the pool is about 12 feet long...I am NOT kidding!  So she can dive in and touch the other side almost immediately!  Oh well, at least it was a great way to cool off.  I just sat down on a chaise lounge and took a quick nap.

We went back upstairs so Katy could rinse off and get dressed, then we headed downstairs to the Manager's reception, which is kind of like a happy hour with lots of food.  They had Italian Meatballs in sauce, noodles and great big rolls so you could have meatball sandwiches which is exactly what we decided to have.  They also had a delicious salad with lots of dressing choices.  After we were done, we were originally going to go out to dinner, but we were basically full!

So we got in the little rental car and just drove around for a awhile.  We ended up at a Target and picked up some nice gifts for C and her family.  Then we stopped at a Starbucks and went to a movie, we saw The Hunger Games which I knew nothing about.  It was pretty good, but a little frightening for mine and Katy's taste.  My Mom told us we should read the book, but we may wait a bit more.  Katy was very worried for the main character, even after she won her battle.

After a kind of late night, you would have thought we would have a hard time getting up the next morning, but we were so excited to meet C in person, we were both awake by 6am.  We got dressed and wrapped all the gifts and headed downstairs to the lobby for their FREE breakfast!  I do enjoy a meal that someone else prepares for me, especially when it is free!

We drove over to C's apartment around 9:30am.  I was so nervous, but also so excited to see her.  She is beautiful and so kind to us.  We sat in her apartment for about an hour, talking and looking at pictures.  Her children were still asleep, so we had to whisper, and we all kept giggling!  Then it was time to go to her doctor's appointment and to see the 3D Sonogram.  We drove her in our little rental car, if you had seen us, just chatting away, you would have thought we had been friends forever!  She is so nice and friendly!

The doctor's office is right on the first floor of the hospital where she will be having the twins, it is very pretty and so easily accessible.  It will be very easy to visit when we come back at the end of the summer.  The office administration and the nurses were very kind and sensitive, they led us to the sonogram room and the technician told us everything she was going to do.  Katy and I squealed when she showed the first picture on the big screen they have!  It was quite thrilling to see Baby A's face for the first time!  He is so handsome and seemed quite happy to get his picture taken.

Here is Baby A.  I have been told that it is surprising after they are born how close they look to their sonogram photos.  I can not tell you how impatient I feel now to hold and see these adorable little guys!  I keep telling myself that I must be patient, they still have a long way to go.  But seeing this beautiful face makes my heart skip a beat!

Unfortunately, Baby B was not quite as cooperative as his brother.  (Is this a little preview of how he will be?)  He was quite comfy with his back to us and after a bit of prodding from the technician would only show us his profile!  I found this to be quite endearing!  Baby B is full of surprises and will probably turn out to be a bit of a stubborn boy!

But just look at those little fingers, they are so sweet to me!  I can not wait to wrap them around my own fingers, I think I even see him wincing, like he is trying to say, "Please leave the light off and let me sleep a little longer!"  We had such a fun time and C was so kind to lay there and let the technician get tons of pictures for us.

After our "photo shoot" we went out to lunch and then back to C's apartment to play with her little kiddos and meet her family.  Everyone was so nice and we stayed and talked to them for 4 hours!  I am so happy that everyone is so encouraging and supportive and that our plan is to be open with this adoption and to stay connected to the birth family so these little guys will always have lots of people to love them!  We even talked about having C and her children join us for Thanksgiving this year.  We'll have to see how she feels and if she is ready, I already know two things I will be thankful for!

Katy and I went back to our hotel on cloud nine!  We had met the manager, Tonya, the night before and she took us on a tour of the hotel so we could see one of their suites.  This is where we will be staying when we come back for the twins, so I wanted to be sure we will all fit.  I will be bringing my other girls with us, so we need room for the 5 of us and the babies as soon as they are released form the hospital.  We will have to stay in the area for around 2 weeks to file the paperwork with the courts, and that is only if there are no medical issues.  I am praying very hard that the boys will be ready to come home with us right away, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

The hotel manager was so sweet and she got very excited for us too.  I have to say, I just love the people of North Carolina!  I was a little worried, as I think of it as so southern and worried about how Katy would be treated.  But I am so happy to say that there was not one unkind word or stare or anything!  A lot of worrying on my part for nothing, thankfully.

That night we fell asleep with visions of cute little baby boys in our heads!  Thankful for all that God has revealed and for the place He has led us to.  The next morning we woke really early and drove back to Enterprise to drop off the car. They called an awesome cab driver who we will definitely call again when we return, he drove us safely back to the airport and we flew from Charlotte to Atlanta, GA, then back to KC and were met by my Mom and my other daughters who I could not wait to get lots of hugs from!!

Such a fun adventure and so much more to look forward to!

Exciting Weekend!

WOW!  What a weekend!  We started it off on Friday night with the big news about our twin baby boys!  Yea!  After we got off the Skype with our birthmom I realized it was almost 9:30pm and we had not had dinner yet!  OOps!  So I took the girls out to Jose Peppers to celebrate!  They close at 11 on Fridays and we basically closed them down!  The girls all wanted nachos so we basically had chips, salsa, espinaca, chips, chicken, and more chips!  Such a healthy meal!

On Saturday morning we got up and the girls and I were still so excited about the news, it was about all we could talk about!  They wanted to go shopping and start picking out little boy outfits X2!  Of course I wanted to do the same thing, who do you think they got their shopping gene from?  But we had some work to get done first!  So we had a healthy breakfast, strawberries, apples, eggs and toast.  And then we got some of our chores done and then headed out to Target to "look" at some baby things.

Yeah, right!  We looked at baby things going into our cart and into our shopping bags!  We didn't really buy very much.  Just one outfit apiece and a couple of blankets.  Mostly we just looked at what we like and talked about what else we might need.

I have so much!  But it is all pink!  I have this really awesome swing, it swings both backward and forward and then it also swings side to side.  It is a plug-in so you don't have to worry about batteries, and it has lights and music.  I got it when Ava Marie was a baby and she loved it.  It has a laying down position and a sitting up position for when they are older.  Aidan did not like it, but other babies have.  But it is all pink and butterflies and flowers.  It is really sweet, but not the right thing for boys.

Now my Mother says it does not matter since baby boys can not tell what color it is.  But you know how many pictures you take when they are little.  I just don't want my sons to see themselves in all this pink stuff!  So the swing, otherwise known in our house as the "pink cloud" will have to be given away.  One of the ladies in our Home Church is about ready to have a baby and we are all waiting to see what it is, maybe she would like it!

So, Saturday night we went to a salad place and had all you can eat salads, my girls are such salad eaters!  And talked about...well you know, the babies!

Sunday we had church at one of our members homes.  We go to a Family Integrated Church that usually meets at a local hotel right down the road from us.  But every once in a while we meet at a members home, which I love!  It just makes it so homey and comfortable.  Then we had our fellowship meal which I also love!

After church we headed to rehearsals at Miller Marley for Mackenzie and Katy.  The girls have a big Dance Show in June at the Music Hall in Downtown KC that they are preparing for.  After Mackenzie was finished, Katy's group still had another hour, so we headed quickly for Costco to pick up milk and bread and strawberries!

Then we came home and the girls wanted to play outside for a little while.  It was about 6pm, so I said they could play while I got a quick dinner started.  I was just pulling out the pots to boil water for pasta when I started to hear a lot of thunder and see a lot of lightning!!  I mean, a LOT!  I walked into the garage to make sure the girls were not standing out in it and they were in the garage watching outside, I could see a lot of the neighbors in their garages watching out also.  Then the Tornado sirens started going off!  We didn't wait around too long after that.  We closed the garage doors, then grabbed the dogs leach and our tennis shoes and headed for the basement.

We have a spot cleared out in the southwest corner under our breakfast area.  We have a carpet down and blankets, water, flashlight and videos in case we are down there very long.  My son Randy called to make sure we were safe.  He said the news had shown a large funnel starting to form, but had not dropped down to the ground yet.  It was about 5 miles away.  Another friend called to check up on us.  She said the news was reporting that a funnel had touched down in Gardner and was heading in our direction.  At that point, I wanted to see the news for myself, so I sent Katy, my fastest runner upstairs to bring down both computers, which we should have grabbed in the first place.  After about 45 minutes they said Olathe was in the clear but to keep watching during the night.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful.  I finished  up dinner, no one got a bath because we continued to have lightning.  We watched the final episode of The Amazing Race and were happy with the winners of that race.  And then we went to bed, me included.  Only 2 and a half weeks of school left for Mackenzie and Madyson.

And the Twins are....

Before I go into the big reveal...

I have to tell you what has transpired in the last week.  Katy and I have been doing some serious planning and shopping.  We made meals that we froze ahead of time, made lists of the girls outfits for my son to read so he can just hand them clothes.  I was even thinking of putting each girls outfit for each day in a gallon ziplock bag and labeling it.  I want NO drama while I am gone!  I just want to be prepared.

So, we have been working to get this all done so Katy and I can fly away to meet the birthmom and go to the doctors with her and spend time with her, etc.  Well, last Sunday she had to go to the emergency room, she had some bleeding and was worried.  Everything is fine, she had a sonogram and the twins are fine and healthy and the doctor said they are growing great and big!

So she texts me that she is fine but she happened to study the sonogram and was able to discuss with the Tech what the sexes are.  So she has been teasing me all week about this and really driving me crazy because I just want to know!!!

Then yesterday my wonderful son calls me to let me know he has an interview for a new job...and by the way he got the job and they asked him when he can start and he tells them right away!  Aren't I happy for him??!!  NO!!  I remind him that he is supposed to stay with the kids next week, "Oooops!"  He says!  What?

So we had to cancel , or should I say reschedule our trip out there until June, because my Mom will be here in June for 2 weeks, for the girls Dance Show.  So she suggested we just go then instead.

So I call the birthmom and tell her we won't be coming out there until June and she suggests we Skype so she can give us the surprise of what the sexes are now!!  So we did!  It was so much fun!!  Here are the girls waiting for her Skype to call us.  I guess Ava Marie was not as excited as the rest of them.


So all I have to say is that I am really excited, I have been waiting to find out what we are having so I can start to plan...which for me is the really fun part!!  And also so I can start picturing their little faces and to pray for them by name.  Oh I am so blessed!  So here is a little picture from pinterest to let you know that....

We're having twin BOYS!!!!!

Can you believe it?!  In my pretty pink world we will now have twice the testosterone!  And we are all thrilled!  And the best part...I have nothing!  I will need so much!  Except the double stroller, I actually already have one of those, but otherwise we will be on the hunt for everything from clothes to a new baby bathtub.  Yes, folks, I have a bright pink bathtub!  I think it is time to start the shopping!!

Yummy Jambalaya!

It was my turn to bring the entree for our church fellowship meal today.  I made Jambalaya from the Southern Living cookbook that is in the magazine racks at Walmart right now.  It was really delicious!  I made it last night in my big 6 quart dutch oven, refrigerated it overnight and then put it in the crock pot this morning to take to church.  I doubled the recipe, but I should have tripled the liquid because it was just a little dry to me.

I also used polish sausage instead of andoulli because I like that sausage better.  One of the other women brought a green salad and someone else brought wonderful honey butter rolls.  It was a delicious fellowship meal, but then it always seems to be good when we share with our fellow Christians around a table.

The countdown begins for us tomorrow...one week to Katy and I leaving for North Carolina to meet the birthmom of the twins!  If you find this boring, I warn you, it will probably be all that I can think of for the next week!  Besides the excitement of getting to meet this wonderful woman in person, and finding out the sex of the babies, and seeing the beautiful state of North Carolina, I am also a little trepidatious as I am leaving my other girls behind for a couple of days...with my grown son in charge!

I am sure everything will be fine, but I want to leave as many things ready for him as possible.  I want to have breakfast, lunch and dinner planned and ready, clothes picked out for the girls so he doesn't have to help with that.  You know...the girl stuff.  He is not the kind of guy who likes helping little girls pick out their wardrobe.  though he is an awesome big brother!

I am also trying to pick out a few fun things to bring to the birthmom, things to give her an idea about Kansas and our lives.  Also she has a couple of little ones of her own and I want to bring them a gift.  While we are there I want to spend as much time as we can getting to really know her and her family.  I want them to know how much we love and appreciate her and admire her for her courage and selflessness.

Have a Blessed Sunday!

Eggs in a Nest for Breakfast!

Yummy yummy!  I love to get up on Saturday morning and make a good breakfast.  Now that tax season is officially over and I am starting to feel back to normal I am able to get up earlier on a Saturday and get some things done.

This morning I was folding laundry and watching the Cooking Channel and caught Ree Drummond, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman on her show.  She made Egg in a Hole which we call in our family Eggs in a Nest.  It is really yummy, you fry a piece of bread with a hole in it in a pan of butter, break the egg into it, cook the egg on both sides and then serve.  I leave the yolk unbroken, so when you cut into it the yellow goodness just flows out over the bread.

We used to have this for breakfast more often, then I guess I forgot about it.  I used to make sure that I served a different breakfast every morning during the week so the girls never ate the same thing.  And we hardly ever had cereal.  Now the girls seem to always make it down here before me, and they get right into the pantry and get a bowl of cereal.  So unless I tell them ahead of time to wait for me, they already have breakfast before I get down to have my coffee!

I am going to make a few batches of banana bread today, I freeze the extra loaves and then I take it out of the freezer when I want to serve it for breakfast.  I will take pictures and post the recipe.  It has sour cream in it and it is very moist.

The girls earned $20 each for being really good the last week of tax season and the money is burning a hole in each of their pockets, so we are going to the dollar store today to spend some of it!  They are so silly!  Madyson said she wants 20 bags of candy!  Ava Marie wants some bubbles, Katy wants to buy 1 pack of gum and Mackenzie said she wants some shorts...at the dollar store?  I have to teach that girl how to shop!

Update on the twins!  Everything is progressing well.  Katy and I leave to visit the birthmom in a few short weeks.  We will only be there for a couple of days, but she has already made the appointment with her OB/GYN for us to see the sonogram and we will get to find out the sex of the babies!  This is so exciting to me.  I really don't have any preference for what these 2 are, I would be just as happy with more girls or 2 little boys or even one of each!  I am just so grateful for the opportunity to love and parent these 2 little angels.  But I dearly want to be able to pray for them by name and to start to imagine them in our home, so knowing what sex they are is kind of important.

I will reveal the sex of the twins on here after I find out, but I probably won't reveal their names right away.  I am not sure, it kind of depends.   I am very settled on 2 boys names, I have had them in my pocket so to speak for a long time.  But I am not so sure on the 2 girls names, I have one that I am positive on and then I am having a hard time choosing a second girls name.  And I don't really want to worry about it, as I may not have to choose a second girls name.

Oh well, it is all in God's hands now.  He has already made them in His image and they are beautiful and wonderfully made!  Sometimes I can hardly wait!  Other times I keep reminding myself I better get caught up on my sleep!

What's Happening This Week?!

Madyson's 2nd grade class had their Market Day at school on Thursday. The children have to create something and then bring at least 20 of those items to school to "sell" to the other children. They use classroom bucks, not real money so everyone has about the same amount to spend. They are supposed to use what they have around the house and not spend a lot of money making the items.

In the past we have spent a little bit more, because I really don't keep a lot of extra stuff around! We buy things to make a project, and when we are done we usually throw away the leftover stuff!! I know...I can hear all you craftsy, earth lovin', green-recycling-mamas out there cringing. And I am sorry, but I can not stand to have all that excess just sitting around!

When my son was little, I used to save everything, from picture scraps (The part of the picture after you crop it.) to fabric scraps to empty fruit baskets and cereal boxes to EVERY piece of artwork my little genius ever created!! And now I can tell you that I learned a whole lot about that...and the fact is that you will probably NEVER get around to using any of it. And you will eventually throw out almost all of those precious pieces of artwork. And keeping it around just makes it harder on you!

So, back to Market Day, we tossed around a bunch of ideas. Katy made hair scrunchies when she was in 2nd grade, Mackenzie made bookmarks. Madyson didn't like any of our ideas...she wanted to make cookies!
So Katy helped her make 40 Large M&M Cookies. They were so great! Mackenzie helped her bag them and tie the ribbon and Ava Marie put the finished product in a pretty pink basket. It was a fun little assembly line! Madyson even bought 6 of her own cookies so she could bring them home and share them with her sisters!
On Wednesday Katy went to our favorite African Hair Braiding Salon "Peace and Mercy" and had her hair done. Here she is at the start with all of her braids out. She is supposed to take them out every 3 months and then go a couple of weeks without them to let her hair have a break. But she doesn't like her hair short so I don't usually make her go more than a week without the braids.
Harper is getting so big! Here she is with Ava sharing her new doggy bed. She is just 6 months old and weighs 36 lbs. Most everyone who sees her comments on how big she will get. I keep thinking isn't she big enough already?!

Last week the girls had an extra day off after Spring Break week, and it was so beautiful, so we went to the zoo! We haven't been since we went to the San Diego Zoo 2 years ago! I bought a family pass while we were there so we will be sure to go back sooner. It was a really fun day and we had a blast walking around and looking at all of the animals. I think a lot of the animals were just as shocked as we were to have so much sunshine at this time of year!

Counting down to just a couple of weeks left for Tax Season! I will be so happy to see this one go as I am so busy with everything else. School has taken to the back burner so much that we need to get caught back up. Katy and I are planning a trip to go visit the birth mother of the twins! We will get to go to the doctor with her and we are praying that those precious little ones will cooperate and let us see what their gender is! We are excited for whatever we get!! But we want to get started on the nursery and we want to go all out pink or blue or a combination. I have found a lot of ideas on Pinterest!

We are also excited because we will be traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina where we have never been. I was in Raleigh, NC about 10 years ago for my cousins wedding, but that was it. I love North Carolina, it is so pretty and green. We will only be there for 3 days because I hate to be away from my other girls. When we come back for the birth of the twins at the end of the summer we will probably have to stay for 2 weeks. Depending on how long the paperwork takes and also the health of the babies. I am praying for their continued growth and the good health of the birth mommy. She is such a sweet little thing, and lately she is so fatigued. She is so wonderful to us and shares every little detail, we are so grateful for her choice to give life to these babies and to place them in our home and let us love them and make them part of our family.

Well, that is it for this past week. This weekend we are going to see Sleeping Beauty at Trilogy Cultural Arts Center. Can't wait, I saw some photos posted on Facebook and the costumes look awesome as usual! I also have a lot of clients heading over to pick up their tax returns. I love this time of year when so many are coming over. The weather is so nice and the kids are playing outside, so many friends, old and new stopping by to collect their returns and chatting on our front porch. Sometimes we have a line as one comes in to go over their return and then next few sit on the porch and get acquainted. Katy likes to make a pitcher of lemonade and we should probably have some more of those cookies ready!

Have a great weekend!