Thursday, April 29, 2010

Seafood Enchiladas

Grandma Gloria made these yummy enchiladas a few years back and I absolutely loved them. She shared the recipe with me so here it is:

Exported from Mastercook

1 pound raw medium shrimp peeled and deveined
1 can condensed cream of celery soup
3/4 cup sour cream
1 package 8 oz chunk style imitation crabmeat
1 box 9 oz frozen creamed spinach thawed
1 can 4 oz chopped green chile
1/3 cup scallions sliced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
12 corn tortillas
1 cup monterey jack cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese shredded

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat a medium nonstick skillet and a 13x9x2 baking dish with non-stick spray.

Add shrimp to skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring often, 2 to 3 minutes until pink. Cover, remove from heat and let stand 2 minutes or until shrimp are opaque at centers. Remove shrimp and put in a large bowl.

Add soup and sour cream to bowl with juices, stir until combined.

To bowl with shrimp, add crabmeat, spinach, chiles, scallions, cilantro, and 1/4 cup soup mixture; stir until blended.

Warm each tortilla in the microwave for about ten seconds to soften.

To assemble: Working with 1 warm tortilla at a time spoon 1/3 cup seafood mixture downt he center, then sprinkle with cheese mixture. Roll up and place seam side down in baking dish. Spoon the rest of the soup mixture on top of all tortillas. Cover tightly with foil. Bake 30-35 minutes until hot. Uncover and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 5 more minutes until cheese melts.

I usually replace flour tortillas for the corn ones. Half the time I forget the cilantro and it is still good. I only like to use about half the amount of spinach it calls for. To make things quicker you can buy a pound of already cooked shrimp if you want, that is what I usually do.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Fresh Summer Haircuts!



Aly loves her hair cut short. Last year in May for the first time she got her hair cut short. We decided for winter it would be better for her to let it grow and then in the Spring/Summer she could get it cut short again. She has been asking for the past month or two but I was waiting for the weather to warm up a bit. So we finally went on Monday and got her hair cut.

Aly wanted her hair cut that exact length. I asked to stylist to have it 1-2 inches longer. I guess Aly must have won with the stylist because she got exactly what she wanted! It looks cute though, the lady put in some light layers as well.

KK wanted a haircut too. This was a little harder on me because her hair was half way down her back. She wanted it cut short like Aly too but I wasn't ready to let go! After all, she didn't even start growing hair until she was 3 years old! So I told the stylist I wanted it cut just below her shoulders. The stylist did exactly what I wanted! KK liked it, Mommy and Daddy both liked it too! Maybe next year we will be ready to let go more and allow her to have short hair. After all shouldn't we get to enjoy her long hair for a couple of years? Aly had long hair at 18 months old so we had plenty of time to enjoy hers!

Hopefully Mommy is next! Not a cut though, just get a highlight/low-light!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Tooth Fairy Finally Comes!

Last October Aly's two bottom front teeth starting to get loose. Within weeks her permanent teeth were already coming in behind the baby teeth. We visited the dentist in November and February thinking he would want to pull them since she wasn't get them loose enough on her own. Both time he said we could still play the waiting game. Well on Monday we saw the dentist again and this time he said they can't wait. He gave us two weeks to get them out! I told him how hard it has been because she is afraid of feeling pain so he was nice enough to give us a tiny bit of his numbing cream to take home. He told us not to use it repeatedly only a few times.

So Monday night we put the cream on and Daddy went to work on those two bottom teeth. He used some dental floss to get them super loose. Aly was scared so we told her we could take a break and try again in a couple of days. On Tuesday she was super motivated to get those two teeth out. So Daddy got his floss and pulled both of them right out! She was so happy!


I took this video seconds after Daddy got the teeth out. You can tell by her voice how excited she was and nervous still at the same time.



She wrote her friends a letter. She also wrote the tooth fairy a letter. Anyway, she now says that she is not afraid of her teeth coming out and on her next loose tooth she won't be nervous to wiggle it out!

Monday, April 12, 2010

KK reads on a second grade level now

It has been awhile since I have taped KK reading and wow, has she made some amazing progress! She loves to read so much and the funny thing is for bedtime stories she insists that she reads stories to us instead of us reading to her! It is so cute! So, now I have two videos to share from her reading to me at bedtime last night!


Sunday, April 11, 2010

Baked not fried

LOL...I tried making baked donuts. They didn't turn out that great. Sure the topping was yummy, but the actually donut was kind of dry and muffin like. I think I need to play around with a few recipes. It would be nice to find a great recipe as a baked donut is definitely better for you than a deep fried one!

If you happen to have a good baked donut recipe, please do share! I need all the help I can get!

Easter late post

Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't been keeping up on my blog. I guess I have lost my motivation and most people are on my facebook so they see my updates there. Anyway, I finally uploaded Easter pics and thought I would post them here.
Lucky for me Daddy likes to be in charge of the egg dying every year! The girls had a great time dying eggs with Daddy. Once again mommy forgot to have a supply of vinegar on hand so the eggs weren't as vibrant. Oh well, maybe I will get it right one of these years!
Later that afternoon we were invited over to my friend Meghann's house for dinner and an egg hunt. Everyone had a great time and I bet after all the food we ate we each gained a pound!
Aly was so excited to do the egg hunt! She was a big helper too! She made sure to show the smaller kids where all the eggs were hidden.
Here are Meghann's kids Landon and Bailey. They both had lots of fun too! Landon won the most money and the special prize of a big Easter bunny!

Six Flags Day Adventure!

On Thursday a friend of mine offered me three free tickets to go to Six Flags plus a discount code to get our last ticket for only $20. The catch was the free tickets were only good for Friday. So, we decided to be totally spontaneous and take the girls! We were so happy Daddy was able to get the day off from work last minute! The last time we had been to Six Flags KK was two months old and Aly was two years old. It was with hubby's work picnic. The girls were a little too small to really enjoy it!



The picture of Aly on the left is the first picture of the day that I took. The second picture was later in the day. Can you tell a difference? I had her hair in a cute pony tail with a ribbon, but of course, she took it out shortly after we got there! I think I am going to end up with three girls that don't like their hair done!



The swing ride was the first ride of the day. Poor KK was just barely under an inch short to ride the ride alone so Daddy had to ride with her. He went on all the rides with her that required 42 inches or higher. I think she must be around 41 1/2 inches tall with shoes on! Mommy didn't ride a single ride since I am 7 months pregnant and couldn't!
The girls loved going on the kiddie roller coaster. It was the longest line we stood in though. This was Aly's first time riding all by herself on a roller coaster. She was a bit nervous at first but was so proud of herself for doing it! KK was Daddy's little buddy all day. It was so cute!

The roller coaster went around twice. After the first time around it made an abrupt stop! This picture was right as the coaster was making its stop! Look at the smiles on their faces, they sure were having fun!

We loved visiting the Butterfly Garden. They have really improved it in the last four years since we had been there. It was so beautiful and had amazing butterflies in it! We loved it!
Here were two of our favorite butterflies that we saw. The one on the left was as big as my hand! It was so cool! It was very colorful!
KK's favorite thing to do was the Dolphin show! She loved watching them jump out of the water. I think it was her first time seeing dolphins.
We were able to sit in the third row. When the dolphin swam by splashing the crowd with its tail we only got our feet and legs wet! The kids thought it was funny!

They had quite a few water features for the kids to play in. Good thing my friend told me to pack a towel and swimsuit for the girls! They had so much fun running around getting wet! Aly liked to be silly posing for the camera.


They had little kiddie swings that KK was tall enough to go on by herself! The swings went so slow I was surprised the girls like riding them. They rode them two times in a row!
One of the last rides they did was the spinning tree house. Daddy made the ride spin so fast!
We had a great day and were so happy to visit the park. Due to the new baby we probably won't go again for quite awhile. Besides, we still love Disneyland the best! Nothing can compare to Disneyland!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Aly's Abraham Test and Unit

A few days ago Aly brought back a unit and test she took on Abraham Lincoln. This year Aly was placed in the 1/2 combination class and her teacher has been having her do the second grade curriculum all year. I was so amazed to see this test and unit come home. Wow, she did such a good job! I am so proud of the work she is doing.



Here are a few of the pages she did in her unit. She did a compare and contrast page as well as a web. She got an A on her unit work.



Here are the first two pages of her test. She got an A on her test too! Way to go!



Here is the last page of her test. I am so proud of her work. This is definitely going in her file folder as a keepsake!

Hopefully next year she won't be too bored in second grade. Her teacher said she didn't know what would happen next year as far as if she would have to do second grade curriculum again depending on which teacher she got. For now we just have to take it a year at a time.

Poems and Writing


Aly wrote a poem for us. It says:
Violets are blue
Roses are red
You are so cute
You should be in your bed

I thought that was pretty cute!



KK wrote us a letter. It says:

I like cats and dogs. I love Mommy Daddy.

It is so much fun to watch her learning how to write and spell. She is getting so good at it!

KK's Family Drawing



KK drew a family picture. I just love her drawing of me. Pretty easy to tell huh? I like it that I am the biggest in the family....funny thing is she drew herself bigger than Aly too!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Chocolate Bunnies

Last week Aly was on spring break from school so we decided to go to the Fudge Factory with our playgroup and decorate chocolate bunnies! We had a good size group of 8 kids show up. They all had a great time! It was fun to watch them decorate their bunnies and see what was most important to them. Here are Aly and KK's bunnies. Can you guess who made which ones?



There is so much candy on the second one I don't know how you would even enjoy the chocolate!



The girls enjoying decorating their bunnies!



Here are some of the children that went with us for playgroup to decorate the bunnies. Ic ouldn't fit all 8 kids in the picture. After they were all done we let them go outside and try to run their sugar high off on the grass. I am pretty sure the girls will remember this one and ask to do it again next Easter!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Playin in a box

I thought the Grandma's would like this video! The girls loved playing in a cardboard box!

Easter videos

Let's see what the easter bunny brought us!

Egg hunt part 1.

Egg hunt part 2