Show Us Your Life - Cajun Chicken Pasta

One of my favorite blogs is Kelly's Korner and she always hosts 'Show Us Your Life Fridays.'  This weeks theme is Main Course recipes.  I am a cooking freak!  I love cooking!  I'm not a picky eater, but Brad and Lilly both are.  One of my personal favorite recipes is Cajun Chicken Pasta.  I worked at Chili's as a waitress in college and I always loved it there.  I found a recipe and kind of made it my own.  Personally, I think it's much better!

via allrecipes.com

Cajun Chicken Pasta
1/2 pound of penne pasta or the pasta of your choice
4 boneless chicken breasts halved, sliced into strips
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup of butter
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
-I also use mushrooms, but I don't really measure out how many I use!
-The original recipe also called for green onions, but I left them out!
3 cups of heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
-Parmesan cheese (I have used the shredded kind)
-I also have added diced tomatoes because I love them so much!

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain.
2. Meanwhile, place chicken and Cajun seasoning in a bowl, and toss to coat.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute chicken in butter until no longer pink and juices run clear, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add green and red bell peppers, sliced mushrooms; cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat, and stir in heavy cream. Season the sauce with basil, lemon pepper, salt, garlic powder and ground black pepper, and heat through.
4. In a large bowl, toss the pasta with the sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

--This recipe originally came from http://allrecipes.com, but I have kind of made it my own!  Hope you enjoy!

Trifecta...

Our sweet precious Lilly's surgery was this morning.  She had her tonsils, adnoids, and tubes put in her ears.  This was taken on the way to the surgery center...

Lookin' like know worries here!

We woke up about 7AM this morning and we had to be there about 8:15.  They took her back around 9:15.  Of course she got stickers, coloring books, etc.  She even had her best two stuffed animal pals with her!  She was still in good spirits at this point.  

She just looked too sweet with the hospital gown on her!  So so precious!  They finally took her back into surgery around 9:30-9:45 this morning.  After waiting about an hour, we were able to see our precious girl!  She did so so so good!  She was so brave!  When we got into recovery she was asleep.  They woke her up to give her something to drink and some pain meds.  It was a little scary at first, because I don't think she realized how bad her throat hurt.  They finally let us go home around 11:30 this morning.

Our sweet angel asleep in my lap on the way home!  She slept most of the day and we kept giving her gatorade.  She has done so so so so so well with recovering!  She finally woke up around 6ish and stayed up for a little while.  She had her second dose of meds around 8:30 this evening.  She was able to eat a little bit of ice cream and she is still drinking her gatorade.  She was even talking!  We are just so blessed that she had a wonderful surgery!  I hope everything continues to go well and keep our Lilly bug in your prayers!

On another note.. I got a good laugh out of her by doing this to Eddie.  He's wearing her hospital hat that she had on for surgery...

Finally..

I have been so busy lately!  I apologize for not updating sooner!  I've been trying to redesign my whole blog and I think now I have got the hang of it!  Here is my 23 week pregnancy update!  I can't believe I have 17 weeks to go!  It seems like yesterday I just found out that I was preggo!

via the bump

How Far Along? - I am 23 weeks, 4 days.. I've been so slack!

Weight gain/loss - So far total I have gained 13lbs.  I will find out how much more when I go to the doctor on Wednesday! ekk!

Maternity clothes? - Oh yes!  That's all I wear now

Stretch Marks? -  No, and I hope I don't get any either!!

Sleep? - Thank goodness I have been able to sleep so good!  I don't have to wake up about 4 times during the middle of the night.  I get my full 8 hours in!  And that makes me very happy.  I just know all of that will change here soon enough.

Food Cravings? - Goodness, I eat.... A LOT!  I crave a lot of sweets!  Good thing is though is that I am still eating fruits and veggies like crazy.  I also eat a lot of cereal, which I never ate before I got pregnant.  The same with the sweets.  I never ate ANY sweets before I got pregnant.

Gender? - Sweet Baby Boy... :)

Belly Button In/Out? - It's still in for now.. I don't think it will end up popping out

Movement? - ALL THE TIME!  He moves so much!  He is very active at night time.  I love feeling the baby kicks and flutters! :)

What I miss? - Hmm... my normal non hormonal self! :)

What I'm looking forward to? - Baby Showers!  And hopefully us getting into a new house soon so we can start on the nursery!

While I'm on baby talk.. 

We have decided to do the nursery in brown, green, and white.  We are going for a jungle theme.  I have found the bedding that I want.. 

 

via polkatotdesigns.com

 

And we have decided on the crib as well.

This week is going to be so so busy!  Our precious Lilly is having her tonsils out and tubes put in on Thursday!  So please say your prayers!  

Here's to a busy week ahead!  I'll try and keep everyone updated on everything else!  I have to get better at this blogging thing! :)

 

Easter & Babies

As most of you know... our precious baby revealed its identity last Tuesday.  I have been meaning to update, but have just been super busy with a new job.  Details to come at the end of the post.. :) Well if you don't already know.. our baby....

 is a precious baby BOY!!!  You are probably wondering what's up with the Easter eggs?  Well since we found out so close to Easter, I had decided to get blue, pink, and yellow Easter eggs and fill them with jelly beans.  This was going to be our way of telling Lilly if she was going to have a brother or a sister.  Brad and I hid the eggs throughout the house and when was done finding all of them she had to open the yellow eggs.  The yellow eggs had the jelly beans in them.

 

This was right before she started to look...

Trying to find all of the eggs!  With a little help from Eddie!

Opening.. not quite there yet...

SO excited that she is going to have a baby brother!!! :)

Of course after my doctor's appointment last Tuesday, I had to start registering.  And I did buy him an outift.  I swore to myself that I wouldn't buy the baby anything until I knew what he/she was.

LOVE it!!!! 

So does baby have a name?  Why yes.. after much deliberation and after changing our minds thousands of times... Baby's name will be Bradford Russell, II "Brady."  Named after his daddy.  We were wondering what we could call him so it wouldn't be confusing with Brad.  Lilly thought of Brady! 

What's this new job you speak of?  Well..

It doesn't pay much..

I have my work cut out for me.. 

It's no 8 hour job.. 

I get to stay with this sweet face EVERY day...

So yes, I have joined the SAHM (or stepmommy) club.  I love it!!!  We decided that this would work out so much better for us right now!  I think we made the right choice!!! :) 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  I will do my normal pregnancy update tomorrow!

Things I'm LOVING....

1 - We find out tomorrow if gummy bear is a boy or a girl!  I CANNOT WAIT!! :)

2 - YUM!  I am addicted!!

3 - I got one of these for lunch today, and they are the best!  I'm so happy Zaxby's brought back the birthday cake milkshake.  If you have not had one, get one!

 4 - Old Navy Maternity!  This has been a saving grace!  I cannot fit into my normal pants anymore!  I finally went and got some maternity clothes from Old Navy! :)  I'm also loving the fact that Forever21 has maternity clothes too!

5 - The only picture on my computer that I could find of my daddy!  My daddy is doing so amazing after his surgery!  He is now home!  He's able to eat, walk, talk well.  I'm just glad he is back to his old self again!  Prayers are working.

6 - And of course my wonderful sisters!  I love them!  I don't know where I would be without them! This is the only picture I had of all three of us!  This is from a LONG time ago!!

So tell me... what are you LOVING?! :)

19 Weeks!

I've been kinda slack in posting about my little gummy bear, but here is what my belly looked like at 14 weeks and again at 18 weeks.  You can see the difference!

How far along?  19 weeks
Weight gain/loss: So far, it's about 8 pounds.  I know that I have gained more.  I eat all the time. 

Maternity clothes?   All I wear now is stretchy pants.  I have finally out grown my other pants! 

Stretch marks?  Nope! :) 

Sleep?  It's getting a whole lot better than it was.  I used to wake up about 3 times during the night.  But right now I wake up at least once.

Best moment last week?  Feeling the baby kick and the baby move!!  And FINALLY picking out names for the baby.  We have gone back and forth on soooo many! 

Food cravings:  I eat sweets all the time.  I LOVE pretzel m&ms.  I love fruit!  Anything sweet. 

Gender?  We find out Tuesday!!!!! YAY!!!!! 

Belly button in or out? Still in! 

Movement? Yes!  I am feeling the baby quite frequently now!  Makes me happy! 

What I miss? My normal self.  My hormones have been CRAZY!  I'm up and down it seems like.  Kinda stressful!

What I'm looking forward to: Finding out the gender on Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!! :) 

**Please still keep my dad in your prayers!  He is making progress, but prayers are still needed! 

That Awful Awful Word...

I know I've been kinda slack in my blogging, but I promise promise promise to get better about it.  I have had a bunch of stuff go on in this past month.  I will do my pregnancy updates later, but this post is going to be a bit different.

Everyone is aware of this word.  Cancer.  No one likes it.  Everyone hates it.  I'm sure everyone has known someone with cancer.  My grandfather died from lung cancer when I was 11.  That killed me.  But you never think it could happen to one of your own parents.  My dad has recently been diagnosed with renal cancer.  This has killed me.  My dad is one of the few people that has always been in my life and has never let me down.  He has been my rock since I was born.  When I got that dreaded phone call from my mom, I just fell apart.  At that point, I didn't know the severity of it.  I just saw my world come crashing down.  The cancer was in his right kidney and the only way to tame it or get "rid" of it was to take the kidney out.  The good news about this is that they didn't think the cancer had spread anywhere else.  I'm so glad that they caught it early enough and that he has had regular check-ups with his doctor. 

So, as of yesterday my dad only has one kidney.  He had his surgery and everything went great.  They will be sending the kidney to the pathologist to look at the tumor.  They said no obvious cancer has spread anywhere else.  This is good news right?  Why do I keep worrying?  My dad is a complete rockstar (as my sister says).  He never gets sick.  But I guess it always happens to the ones that never get sick. 

I will continue to update about this and my pregnancy updates will return!  I promise!  I am no longer on hiatus.  I have returned.