An awesome birthday card I received last week from a dear friend!
This week was finally filled with some cooking after a long break last week due to all of the eating out for my birthday. I started things off with some PF Chang Chicken Lettuce Wraps. They were so so so good...even without the mushrooms (I decided to make these for myself of lunch one day but didn't want to run to the store for just one ingredient). I used this recipe but added some honey roasted peanuts to the top. Like I said...so, so, so yummy!
I also made a recipe from Gourmet Magazine that had me made a chipotle BBQ sauce and coat chicken drumsticks with it and then bake them in the oven. This was also super tasty especially once I added the "extras" as Tice and I referred to them as- cojita cheese, avocado, jasmine rice, extra sauce, and finally flour tortillas.
Then after enduring taking holiday pictures last night I decided this momma wasn't up for making dinner so we went out...more on those pictures below...
Like mother, like daughter...we love ranch dressing. She just kept sticking her fry in and sucking the dressing off.
This morning, per Sawyer's request I made a big batch of chicken and noodle soup. Here is the beginning of that delicious magic!
Now for the how our holiday pictures went down...
I put the kids down extra early for their naps yesterday at 12:30 PM so that they would wake up in plenty of time before our 4:30 PM start time. Needless to say Kinley was ready to go and up and happy by 3:30 so I thought "ok no problem- one down, one to go." But time was running out so Tice had to go in and wake up Sawyer who was still sleeping at 4. Waking him up from a nap is never ever a good idea if you need him to be in a good, happy mood once he is up. As soon as he was woken he was like a wild beast kicking and screaming while we not so gently (after many previous attempts) pushed him into his clothes. No amount of bribery would work, our normal go to's like chocolate pretzels and milk proved unhelpful.
Finally everyone was dressed and in the car but no one but me wanted to go do what we were about to do, including my 35 year old husband who kept asking me why we "were going through with this?". Needless to say, lifting everyone's spirits and trying to distract Sawyer from continuing to cry and kick and scream was futile. The cherry on top was that as soon as we arrived, Tice asked if I had Sawyer's shoes to which I replied "WHAT?" So there we were- cold, pressed for time (we needed to take the pictures before the sun went down), shoeless, and pissed off at one another. Thankfully my girlfriend who was taking the pictures has a son that is close to Sawyer's age so we tried to borrow his shoes but Sawyer kept kicking those off as soon as we put them on. I decided to give up and forget that we had a son during the shoot and just take some pictures with Kinley and Tice and hope that Sawyer decided he didn't want to be left out and come join. Finally Tice grabbed Sawyer and we took a couple with him but I can't wait to see them because I don't think we go ONE with all of us even looking at the camera at the same time let alone smiling.
Tice was about as well behaved and patience as the kids were so it should be fun to see what we end up with...until then Dani shared a couple pictures with me of the only two family members who weren't totally against or over getting our pictures taken...at least until she started to freeze to death- oops on my part for selecting an outfit that didn't provide any warmth for her at all. She looked a lot like Rudolph by the time we called it quits, about 15 minutes in...
Any ways...there is always vodka and next year to take away the sting!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
XO,
Bailey
