Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

This recipe has been floating around on social media lately. I jotted it down to give it a try and on Monday I decided to give it a whirl!

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken
 2lbs chicken, cubed
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce

1. Put all ingredients into crockpot and cook for 6-8hrs.

Easy right?!

I was "eh" about this recipe. I expected it to be a sweeter, thicker sauce like you see on the photo that pops up on your news feed. Not at all. I cooked mine on low and after about 4hrs, I could tell that the sauce was like water. So, I added some cornstarch to the sauce (maybe 3tbs?) and cranked it up to high for 2hrs to thicken it. That did the trick, but the sauce was not sweet to me at all.  All I could taste was the soy sauce, so I was a little disappointed in that. My chicken was pretty dry too so I think the cooking time is a little too long. I think next time I'll cut the soy sauce in half and keep the rest the same to see how that works out. We had it over brown rice, and I would do that again. It wasn't a total loss, but needs some tweaking for sure! And of course I forgot to get a picture of it!

Snow (Half) Day!

What a day today!

We had been getting alerts of a snow storm heading this way for today. They probably started that over the weekend. First it was a snow advisory, then a storm warning, then last night it changed to a blizzard warning.

I got up for work today and it was fine out-we only had a dusting of snow on the ground. The commute in was fine-there was hardly any traffic out. Every school district in the area closed because of the blizzard warning so it really was an easy drive in. I of course was dreading the drive home later that day. They were calling for around 20" of snow so by 5pm when I leave work it would be a long drive I feared.

When I got to work, my manager called my cell phone and informed me we were going to close our office at noon. I work for a doctor's office which is affiliated with a local hospital so we NEVER close. This was very rare!  Then I got a call that daycare was going to close at 1pm.

Of course we had patients cancelling left and right for the day, but had an ok morning.

I left work around 11:30am and the drive wasn't too bad. There was a lot of snow on the roadways, but again it was a ghost town so it didn't  take me very long to get to daycare and get home. On the radio they said our county was in a state of emergency and driving bans were put in place shortly after noon. On my way home, Gabe informed me that he was leaving work at 3pm.

We got home, Cassie went up for a nap and I decided Avery and I would have movie time! I made us some popcorn and she chose to watch "Tangled". Before the movie started, Gabe informed me he was leaving work now instead of 3.

So, Avery and I watched the movie and Gabe got home before it finished. Once it was done, we did lots of playing with her-stickers, coloring, etc.

Cassie woke up and we had an early dinner. Avery was asking about roasting marshmallows...I have no idea why. So our treat after dinner was roasted marshmallows. I made her a s'more too (she asked for one-again I have no idea how she knows about them!) but she wasn't really into it. She didn't like the fact that it was so gooey! And how do you roast marshmallows in the middle of winter? On the stovetop of course!

After dinner we did some more playing then it was time for the kids to head to bed.  It was really great having an unexpected half day home for all of us!

The snow kept up all evening and they say it's going to go until 5am or so....I have no idea how much we have out there or how much more is left to come.

All I do know?! This winter has sucked and I'm ready for it to be over!  Bring on Spring!!

My Heart Aches

My heart aches.

If you haven't read this story yet about Ben Sauer....you must.

I'm giving you warning that it's not a very happy story.

My heart just aches for this family.

Their little boy is a month older than Avery. Their baby is Cassandra's age. They are from a suburb extremely close to where I grew up.

I can't fathom the news they have received or how they are even dealing with it.

It blows my mind that one day your child is running around completely normal and within a few days you find out the most devastating news that you can possibly receive about your child.

And they appear to be handling it with such grace and optimism. I don't think I would. Of course you never know until you are put into that position, but I just can't imagine it.

Whether you pray or not, please keep this family in your thoughts. They need it.

And remember that every moment you have on this Earth is a gift.

Hug and kiss your loved ones. Tell them you love them. Enjoy the beauty in the small things (and large too!). Embrace every day as just that-a new day. Be thankful you have another day to spend living your life. 

Happy Birthday Carly!

Over the weekend we had a birthday party for our good friend, Carly! It's hard to believe she's 6 years old already!

They had a nice breakfast themed (and timed) party, which was definitely something I would consider in the future-who doesn't love good brunch food?!  We had fruit salad, doughnuts, breakfast pizza and bagels-yum!

After eating, it was present time!

Little Dylan was so cute-he kept squatting like this and trying to stand up!

And was very proud of what he was doing!

Go Dylan!!

Carly opening our present

After presents, it was cake time! For the cake, they had a huge doughnut made! Not many people actually ate cake since we already had doughnuts.

Cake was NOT made by Mom-it was bought from a doughnut shop!

Happy Birthday Carly!

After cake, Carly got one more surprise....a new guinea pig!!

Can you guess what Avery's been asking for on a daily basis now?!

Happy 6th Birthday Carly! We had a fun time at your party!!

Cough

We've had an annoyance in this house for the past few months....a cough.

A cough that happens overnight and keeps most of us awake.

It hasn't been fun.

This goes back all the way to November. Cassandra started with this cough overnight that went on for weeks. During the day she was pretty well-would maybe cough sporadically here and there, but nothing major. Overnight? Different story. She'd be up anywhere from a half hour to over 2 hours just straight coughing.  Nothing helped her-Vicks baby rub, humidifier, baby cough syrup, steamy bathrooms, cold air. After about 2 weeks of this, we took her to the docs.  They had us try allergy meds with her for a week...no improvement. Back to the docs she went and they (a different doctor) gave us Amoxicillin. It seemed to work, but a few days after she stopped taking it, the cough slowly came back.

Pretty much right after the holidays, it came back in full force. Up every night with these coughing fits/attacks. She went to her 2 year appointment at the end of January and at that point had been coughing every night for a good 3 weeks. I was hoping her pediatrician would do something for us...and he did! We were sent home with a nebulizer and an Rx for Albuterol to try during her attacks.  I was so thankful that we had something else to try with her!

Of course the first few nights we have the nebulizer, Cassandra didn't cough (go figure)! But a few days later, it started up again. So, overnight I went in and gave her a treatment. It seemed to help-she fell back asleep and was good the rest of the night. The next few nights she coughed again and these times the treatments did nothing for her. She still continued to cough.

I called her doctor after about a week of trying it and told him it wasn't helping. He referred us to an allergist at this point.  So I call the allergist (on a Tuesday) and can't get her in for a MONTH! The thought of being awake every night for a month was torturous to me.

Well, things got really bad for her. Tuesday night (the day we called the allergist) she was up for almost 6 hours overnight coughing! Which means so were we! Wednesday and Thursday nights were really bad too-she was up way longer than her usual 30min-2hr time frame. So, Friday I called the allergist and told them what was going on. And?  They got me in THAT day! I was so relieved!!

 I take her to the appointment and tell the doctor what's been happening. He said the 3 main reasons for coughing at her age is allergies, asthma, and reflux. They decided that she should have a skin test done for allergies (cue my panic!). And they were doing it right then and there!  Cassandra did SO well though-they got the first 2 strips done before she realized what was happening and only cried for less than a minute. She was a trooper. And....everything came out negative. No allergies. And you'd think if it was asthma, the nebulizer would have helped. And if it's reflux, why doesn't it happen at naptime when she's lying flat? Hmmmm.

So, the allergist decided that he wants to treat her for both allergies and asthma. So she got put on Singulair and Nasonex for the next month to see what happens. If it helps, she might stay on them awhile. If it doesn't, then we either try upping the dose or we try treating reflux and see what happens. At least we have a game plan at this point.

I'm happy to say that the allergist appointment was 2 weeks ago now. Cassandra is a champ at taking her Singulair-it's a chewable tablet and she actually asks for it most days! The Nasonex is a different story. The first few days it was a struggle-Gabe holding her down, me spraying up her nose. But after a few days, she just stood there and would let me do it. So, it's getting better! 

And the coughing?! It's improving. She has had a night here and there where she coughs for maybe 20 minutes, but that's it!  The strange thing is that in November 2012, she had something similar happen but it only lasted a few weeks-not a few months. So I don't know if the cough is going away just because it's going away, or if the medicine is truly helping her. I'm hoping this isn't a "thing" we go through every year that's for sure. However, I'm happy that currently we are all back to getting some sleep and the coughing has subsided for now.

Yoga

At the girls' daycare, they do yoga with the kids every day.

Well...this little one has been showing off her moves lately.

And?

It's freakin' adorable!

Down Dog

No idea what this is called but she does it constantly!

Mountain

Don't you agree?!

Snow Ice Cream!

I have seen this idea floating around online and knew I wanted to eventually try it with the kids.

I bought the stuff I needed at the store a few weeks ago and was just waiting for a good amount of fresh snow.

Mother Nature came through for us today so when Gabe got home and after we had dinner, it was time to make snow ice cream!

I've never made this before so I was a little skeptical....snow ice cream?!

Recipe
8-10 cups of fresh snow
1 small can sweetened condensed milk
1tsp vanilla extract

Gabe and Avery went out to collect the snow for us....

Then you just pour on the milk and vanilla and stir away!

Put it in some bowls and add whatever topping you desire (the kids went with rainbow sprinkles) and eat it!

Thumbs up!

I have to say it turned out pretty good. I didn't eat a bowl of it, but we all tried some and it was pretty tasty! The kids gobbled it up of course! I'm sure this will be on the list of things to do in the winter!