Easy Peasy Quiche

This is a recipe that is perfect for leftovers. I just kind of threw in what I had and will write down the approximate, so yours might look different. Set your oven to 350.

You will need:

Some eggs. You can certainly use more. I only had three. I wouldn't recommend any less than three. Salt and pepper those bad boys up.

Cooked spinach. Be sure to drain it. I think I have about 12 oz. here. It can be frozen, canned, or cooked yourself in a steamer. I just don't think fresh leaves would work well.

Whisk your eggs real well. Or, as Audrey says since I make the pumpkin spice cake with a whisk, "pumpkin eggs" real well.

Put your pie crust in your pan.

Smash up about a cup of croutons, or whatever is left of what you have, and place it in the bottom.

Place the spinach on top the croutons. Layer about a cup or so of cheese on top of the spinach. I forgot to take a picture of it.

Layer meat of your choice in. This is perfect for that leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Put about a cup, or whatever you have left, of shredded cheese on top of that.

Pour your eggs on top.

Bake it for 45 minutes.

And enjoy. You can tell where my eggs decided to congregate. That's why I'd recommend no less than three eggs. There's a little love spread around, but then there's those two big hunks.

My husband LOVED this. In fact, he's been reading over my shoulder how to make it. Happy baking!

Safari of Lights

Sunday night we headed on down to the zoo for their Safari of Lights preview night. Now, I know it shows in the pictures, but we were EXHAUSTED. So, please don't hold that against me. Yeah, I look rough. Audrey had a bit of a runny nose and didn't sleep at all the night before and woke up early Sunday morning. Couple that with the fact that she didn't think she needed to nap any more than the short amount of time she fell asleep in church mean we didn't really get much sleep - she wouldn't let us have an afternoon nap! I swear we all enjoyed ourselves and had a great time. It just might not translate in pictures. Dolly, however, looks quite rested. Ah, to be plastic with permanently perky features. There's the disclaimer. ;)

Here's little miss checking out the lights. I'm big on baby wearing and carrying little ones. However, being pregnant makes that harder and harder, and she actually likes going in her umbrella stroller. I don't think I'd ever get her in the big travel system, but she cruises in her little one. And, yes, we were that bundled up. And, yes, it was only 60 degrees. There were people there with scarves and gloves, so we weren't the only wimpy ones.

There's my tired princess. She was actually telling me about the lights here. She hand gestures just like her mommy.

With Honey in front of the carousel of lights. This was when we first walked in.

And here she is in front of the garden set up. She saw all the bugs and was talking buggy to them saying "Bzzzzzzzzzzzz" over and over again. I'm not sure what she was telling them or if they understood her, but I'm sure at least she knew.

Peacocks. Oh, yes, I am that mom. I took pictures of her in front of every display that she liked.

Noah's Ark. I thought it was cute that they didn't go overboard with Santa stuff. Plus, it's a zoo... they have two of everything anyway!

Checking out the snowman. She LOVES snowmen for some reason. It's not that we have snow here often. Heck, it was in the 70s with 100% humidity today. But, it has snowed 3 times since she's existed - which is a miracle for us. It snowed the day I started my third trimester. It snowed for her first Christmas season, and it snowed on her birthday. Maybe she has a thing with snow.

In the petting zoo. The animals didn't like us because we hadn't picked up our free popcorn yet and they weren't getting any. We were snubbed. See that dirty look the sheep is giving us?

Here we are in front of the nativity. It's not the best shot because there were a lot of people here, and I didn't want them in my picture. Audrey LOVED it. The entire night she wanted to go back and see "the baby Jesus" and wanted me to pull up this picture on my camera of "the baby Jesus." Today at nap time, she said "Ni-night the baby Jesus." It is stinking ADORABLE. So, since seeing the nativity, everything has been about the baby Jesus. In prayer meeting at church tonight she was saying "I love you, Jesus! I love you, the baby Jesus!" It makes me smile just thinking about it.

"Llama, Mama! Llama, Mama!" Now, she could have either been calling my attention to the llamas, or calling me one. I choose the former. And, as you can see, we got snubbed here too coz of our lack of popcorn.

Hanging with Honey waiting for the train ride. We love this train. It goes through the open area where they keep all the African wildlife. Audrey is a huge fan, too. We ride it every time we go to the zoo. She cried the one day it was closed for maintenance.

With me and Tony. No, my husband doesn't know how to use the zoom function on the little camera. And, yes, I know I look two steps away from death at this point. Like I said, I promise we had a blast.

Watching the people get into the train cars ahead of us. She was doing some serious people watching.

Wrapped up in her blanket/princess cape. It got really chilly quickly. Yes, we're wimps.

Eating Honey's popcorn. We had a very nice unhealthy dinner out with our popcorn, our soybean burgers (my hubby had a chili dog with extra chili - yuck) and drinks. Audrey had juice, but I let her pretend to drink my sprite.

And that concludes our evening. We drove home, got the baby a bath, put her to sleep and cuddled. It was a Sunday and I didn't do any work. I'm really liking that. Granted, I have to make up for it during the week, but it's really nice to have that family time.

Where Has The Time Gone?

It seems like it was JUST Halloween, and now Thanksgiving passed and all of our Christmas stuff is up. Last night we went to the zoo for their Safari of Lights program. The reason we went last night instead of closer to Christmas was that it was free...well, free for members. We are members of the zoo, which is a fabulous thing. The tickets pay for themselves in about 2 or 3 visits, we get discounted tickets to their limited time events, like the Boo at the Zoo, and for their long-running events they have preview nights where we get to go in for free.

And that's what last night was. Not only did we get in for free, but we got popcorn and drinks free as well. They even discounted their concession stand prices for the event. Hot cocoa was only $1 and soy bean burgers were only $2, it was great. Well, not so great if you have food allergies. Audrey and I are allergic to cow's milk (but certain dairy items like butter we can handle in small doses, so the popcorn wasn't too bad. I doubt they even used real butter, anyway) and Audrey is sensitive to carrots, corn (of all things!) and some wheat products. That's why I bake all of our breads at home. I know what type of flour to buy that makes everyone alright. I do have a sensitivity to soy, but I only get those burgers once in a blue moon.

I highly recommend checking out the zoo near you for stuff like that. Granted, it's only 30ish minutes away from us so we can go frequently. But not only are zoos family friendly, but they're educational as well... which makes them perfect in my book.

I'll post pictures when I get to the back computer tonight. That'll be after prayer and after editing. And I also have to make time to prepare a Sunday School lesson in there too. My husband and I were informed yesterday that we're teaching the teenagers this coming Sunday. We had no idea, but we're gonna give it a go. The good thing about the SS program at the new church is they have a select group of teachers. It's divided into couples per Sunday so that the kids get a male and a female influence in their lives. And each could only goes once a month so there is no wearing people out. That is so nice.

At our old church, we were the youth leaders, the Sunday School teachers, as well as a million other things and had to do it every.single.Sunday. Not that we didn't absolutely love it and love working for God, but it does wear a person out trying to get parents all week to bring their kids to Sunday School, preparing a lesson when you have no idea if any one is coming, getting there early to prepare and pray, and then having kids walk in 10 minutes before class ends because the parents forgot what time everything started.

Now we are the kick start leaders and teach the first Sunday of every month (pressure!) but then don't have to teach until the next month. It'll be nice to get to teach as well as get a break!

That's not the only news that happened at church. My husband was definitely called out from the pulpit. Not in a bad way at all. The pastor was talking about the five-fold ministry plan that is laid out in the Bible and about the importance of preachers and teachers in developing the church. He then proclaimed "Do you think it's a coincidence that the Lord brought this man of God (points to husband) when we're experiencing great growth and are expanding our building?!" *Cue everyone turning and looking at us as I wipe my girl's runny nose* It's a good thing, and it is very exciting to know that God is going to use us there. However, had I known he was going to do that, I would have smiled and wiped the sneeze juice off of my own face (since my daughter loves me enough to sneeze at me mid-kiss sometimes)!

I swear it was just yesterday that God called us there and we were having the initial discussions with the pastor and praying about going there. And now we're actually starting to work there. I can't wait to see how my husband gets to help people. He's so knowledgeable and I'm honored to be a part of this with him.

But, anyway, where has the time gone?! Three weekends until Christmas! What? If the client's baby is born this week, I'll have a newborn session on Saturday (if not, it's a work day), then a wedding next week, then preparing for the holidays, and then it'll be time for New Years. Eek!

Am I the only one who is amazed at how quickly everything is happening and time is going by?

Our Stockings and Advent Calendar

Friday my husband worked all day, so it was just me and Audrey hanging out (and Tony too, of course). When he got back, we put up our stockings and our Advent calendar.

This is my husband's stocking. We hung everything from the same twine that held our Thanksgiving leaves.

This is Audrey's stocking. Would you believe she took this picture herself? Not to bad for a 21 month old.

Here they are hung side-by-side. I took pictures of the progress.

And mine joins in. The red and white ones are hand made. I got them from an adorable shop downtown. They were actually supposed to be priced $30 each, but on one of them the tag was mislabeled, so the owner gave them to me for $10 a piece. You can't beat that with a stick. They only had two, so we got Audrey a cream one to match. Next year I'm gonna go back and see if they have two more in a similar style for her and Tony. I absolutely love them. MUCH better than the stockings that we had since we were dating that they replaced.

Here's my husband hanging up the cats' stockings. They have the same stockings that we used to have. The $1 stocking with the fur that falls off and the names written in cheap glitter glue. He refuses to let me buy them new stockings.

Here's a close up, with a stocking for Mike as well. He's an honorary member of the kitty clan. He's so well known in this house, Audrey knows his name, what animal he is, and what sound he makes. If we're out and she sees someone with LSU stuff on, she shouts "Hi, Mike the Tiger! ROAR!" It's adorable.

This is what my monkey child did while my husband hung stuff. They say girls are more calm than boys. If this is true, then Tony will be on top of the tv. Oy. But it'll be fun to watch my monkey children play together.

Here's my husband hanging our snowflakes for our Advent calendar. No, he's not standing on anything. He is really tall. And I was sitting down on the couch, although that didn't put me THAT much shorter than when I stand up.

Almost done with all of the snowflakes.

When he finished hanging the snowflakes, I hung up the cards I made. Each card has the day of December it is on the front and a Scripture on the back. I did the birth of Jesus in Luke. I started when Gabriel came to Mary, skipped through Mary's visit to Elizabeth, picked back up at the census, and ended when the shepherds worshiped the Lord. 24 in all.

That's what it looks like from the other side. There's all the verses.

That's what they look like all hung up with our stockings on either side. I really like how it turned out. What we're going to do is flip the card over for each day as we read the verses. And that way, on Christmas Eve, we would have read the story of Jesus's birth to our little family. Can't get better than that. And the total cost was $8, and that was for the snow flakes. The cards, the twine and the clothespins I had on hand. Not to bad considering we're going to keep them and do it every year. We might incorporate other aspects, but I like the tradition of it and keeping the time about the birth of our Lord and not the presents under the tree.

Are you doing any Advent/countdown/special things this year to celebrate Christmas?

Oh, and by the way, I really wish people would not get so huffy about the whole CHRISTmas vs. Xmas thing. If they'd do their research, they would realize that Xmas is a completely CHRISTian thing. The "X" is the Greek letter for Chi, which is the first letter in Christ. It was used similarly to the fish symbol by the early church to speak of Christ without persecution in public. The "mas" comes from Latin in the old church deriving from an actual mass celebration. So it really was an abbreviated way to write Christmas and denote a celebration of Christ in the early days. It's nice to think of how despite how much man tries to dismiss the Lord and remove Him, He is still very much the center of everything. *Stepping off of soap box now*

Our Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a nice day, for the most part. We slept in a bit, watched Elmo's Being Green (or as Audrey calls it "Elmo Greens"), and had breakfast as a family. I decided that I would bake something for Thanksgiving to bring to my husband's aunt's house where everyone was meeting. But, I didn't want to bring my good baking stuff since I figured it would get lost and never return. So we picked up some cheap foil cake pans at the local store the night before. I was making pumpkin spice cake, which I made before (so good) with a chocolate ganache.

Here is my assistant enjoying the pumpkin flavored whisk. Honey got the spatula and didn't look nearly as cute with his bed hair so he didn't get his picture taken.

She's too cute. And she didn't get any mix on the chair... even though she got it all over herself.

So here's how my cakes baked in those cheap foil pans turned out...

They both fell! Not because of too much air in the batter. Not because the heat in the oven was too low. Not because they were jostled too much. Nope. They fell because those cheap-o pans didn't circulate the heat and the inside wasn't cooked. Reasons why it's the pans' fault: They cooked for more than the needed amount of time, I've cooked it before without an issue in my own pans, the edges were about to burn. Who wants black edges and a barely cooked inside?Lesson 1: Don't buy the cheap-o pans from the local store. They will fail you.

So what did I do?

I destroyed it. Well, I ripped off the cooked portion, tore it up, and turned it into a trifle. We didn't have any cream at the house, so we picked some up on the way to the dinner. I just layered it in. I forgot to take a picture of it afterwards.

Lesson 2: Make trifles from uncooked cakes. Or lemonade from lemons. Your choice.

In an effort to capture this day, Auds and I took a picture together. My little camera has a pull out screen so you can look at yourself for self-portraits. That's what she's looking at in this picture. I look as tired as all get out, so please excuse that. She looks cute though, even if she isn't looking at the camera.

Can you guess who got the baby ready? If you guessed my husband by the looks of the unbrushed hair and the pumpkin batter still on her face, you'd be correct!

Here she is with her best friend Dolly.

And that's the extent of the pictures I took. I completely forgot that I brought my camera with me when we got there. Audrey was adorable eating her dinner... and I didn't take a picture. She was adorable stealing her cousin's toy trucks... and I didn't take a picture. She was adorable stealing the dog's toys... and I didn't take a picture. Oh well. We had a good time with my husband's side of the family eating, talking, watching our team win the game.

Then it was time to visit my husband's father. He's in a nursing home because he has had serious brain issues (his brain bled and caused his brain to collapse) that have left him in need of 24-7 care. Usually it's not so bad visiting him. He asks the same questions over and over and over and over and over.... but it's livable, if slightly frustrating. That wasn't the bad part of his visit. No, his roommate decided that our visit was the perfect time to engage in... well... some "personal time" if you can fill in the rest. I am still traumatized. His roommate is also not fully there and probably didn't even realize that there was company. Not to mention the fact that my father-in-law decided to decorate his side of the room with his underpants. *sigh*

But, aside from my trauma that will leave me unable to visit him in his room again (outside is fine, the dining hall is okay, the room with the big tv and Wii for old people is perfect, just never his room) we had a nice evening. Audrey passed out in the car and slept until the next morning. She's not used to such rich food. But it was adorable. I probably should have taken a picture of that... but I forgot. :)

Our Final Thanks... Well, er... This Particular Project

I've been writing about our Thanksgiving project of writing something that we're thankful for on a leaf each day. Well, we ran out of leaves today, on Thanksgiving Eve. The store had no more, so we just decided to call it a finished project.

Here they are all hung up. They'll only be up there until tomorrow. Tomorrow we're taking it down to put up our stockings and our advent calendar.

Here's the rest of our leaves:

Day 16, Mercy. Coz well, we all need mercy.

Day 17, Joy. Life would be very, very dull without it.

Day 18, Peace. There's something about having peace in this crazy world we live in that is so comforting. Imagine living as a paranoid schizophrenic all the time - I'd imagine, not fun.

Day 19, Our Home. Ironically, this was the day that the opportunity for the new house came about. Ha! How's that for timing. But we are very thankful that we have not only a beautiful house, but a safe shelter. So many people don't have that.

Day 20, Blessings. This was written in relation to the new house coming about. We see it as a huge blessing that we'll be able to have a place with a big yard to fit all our kids in. We're going to see the house on the 4th, I'll see if the current owners will let me take pictures so I can figure out how I'm going to decorate it.

Day 21, Health. Even though I'm still getting sick and love to complain to my husband about how I feel like doggy do-do, I am not even close to how sick some people get. I have my health and a healthy daughter and healthy son. Oh, yeah, and healthy husband. It doesn't get better than that.

Day 22, Future. We have a bright future promised in the Lord, whatever it contains. That's a nice promise right there.

Day 23, Truth. We know the truth that our Lord is God. So many people are walking around miserable and don't know Him. I am so thankful for the relationship that my family and I are able to have with Him.

Day 24, Forgiveness. Both from God and from each other, this is a big one. I know I feel awful when I say something that hurts someone. Likewise I feel awful when I'm the one who has to forgive. But, we are able to forgive our debts just as our debts are forgiven. That's quite a burden lifted.

So what are you doing for Thanksgiving? We're cooking some pumpkin spice cakes with chocolate ganache and going to spend time with my husband's family. After the packed day there, we'll come home and do stockings and our Advent calendar. And eat on left over turkey for years.

I Caved

Initially, I wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas. Actually, I wanted to wait until it was really DECEMBER. That, however didn't happen. See, our Thankful project only came with 24 leaves... which brought us til today. The store had no more. We have a packed day tomorrow, my husband is working Friday, I have a photo shoot on Saturday, church on Sunday followed by the Christmas thing at the zoo, prayer meeting Monday, church on Tuesday... photos to edit, the house to go look at, weddings to shoot, etc., etc..... I could go on and on. At that rate, we wouldn't really get around to putting up our stuff until right before Christmas. Which, I know some people who do that. I, however, really like to look at the pretty stuff.

So, thinking that it wouldn't get done soon because of our crazy schedule, I figured we'd break it out today. Thank you, Jessica and Bonnie for starting a crazy pregnant woman on a decorating spree today. I'm sure my husband will appreciate not having to do anything.

Here's what Audrey, Tony and I got into today:

This is our lovely window bench. It's the only storage in our house really. And it's handy. This is where all of our Christmas stuff is held in the off season.

It all fits nicely in there.

This is "Snow." That's what Audrey named him. He sits where the Fall pumpkin sat.

This is my giant bell... yes, it really has a little noise maker inside. I tried really hard not to let my noise maker know because that would lead to a lot of... well, noise.

That's my lop sided wreath. It's always been a little wonky. I'm not sure why. I'm gonna rotate it tomorrow. The little box up top actually opens to stick stuff in. Don't worry, no keys will go in there. I figured that'd be the first place people would look.

Here's my little angel with our trees. She has one, and I have one. She has one so she doesn't tear mine apart. And we do fake. Our allergies are too much to do real ones. The little one to the left that Auds inherited was my husband's and my first tree. We had it before we were even married. It stayed in my apartment when we were dating (we lived around the corner from each other) and he helped me pick out ornaments and decorate it. That's all we could afford at the time. We got the bigger one when we were first married, but couldn't part with the smaller one. We figured we'd make that the kiddie tree so that they could have their own. And that's where we are now.

Here is her tree decorated. All of the ornaments are plastic and from the Dollar Tree. They're probably loaded with lead and harmful chemicals, but I can't see spending a fortune on ornaments that are gonna get ripped off the tree and tossed around right now. As long as she keeps them out of her mouth, she'll be okay, right? At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Here she is checking it out. I made a point to decorate hers first so I could decorate mine without it getting trashed. We went over and over "This is Audrey's tree. These are for Audrey hands. The red ornaments are for baby hands."

She actually got the concept and would say "These for baby hands" before ripping them off the tree. At least they were her ornaments.

She has her good ornaments at the top of the tree where she can't reach them.

It took her a little while longer to grasp the concept that the rest of the ornaments were not for "baby hands." I wouldn't make such a big deal, except the ornaments for the big tree are glass. Glass ornaments in little hands = not a good combination. But, like a good mommy, I had to take a picture first.

So, I started holding the boxes of glass ornaments. And I looked behind me to find that she had taken all of the stockings out of the stocking bin, placed the bin on top of the window seat, climbed inside and started dancing. Again, I took a picture before getting her out. That bin is actually from my freshman year in college, that's why it has my name on it in paint marker. I never throw anything away.

Here is the big tree. It's top heavy, but that was to avoid "baby hands" from getting everything. Some of the ornaments I made, most of them are from when my husband and I were dating (those bows are at least 5 years old) and the little figurines were given to me by a friend of the family. At the end of the season, they had a few Christmas ornaments that didn't sell in their boutique. They didn't feel like stocking them in the back, so they gave them to me. Not a bad deal. Granted there's duplicates, but as long as they're on different sides of the tree, no one notices.

And once I took the bin away, this is what Audrey was up to. Balls everywhere. But they don't shatter, so I'm really not that upset. I figured it would be too hard for her to resist pretty shiny ornaments, so by giving her something of her very own, she wouldn't destroy my tree. And it gets her into the idea of decorating her own tree and having the designated kid tree.

Here the trees are side by side. I'm no Martha, but it doesn't look half bad considering the last time I bought ornaments was as a newlywed. I think it'd be sweet to hold on to them and when I'm old a grey be able to tell my grandchildren that I bought those ornaments when I was only dating their granddaddy.

Yes, I'm totally giving away what colors we bleed in this household. My grandmother bought these for me for a few years before a big storm hit and she was diagnosed with cancer. Even though they'll never make it onto my tree, I still have to display them. These are next to the tv this year.

I even updated my candle and candle topper on the opposite side of the tv. My house smells yummy right now.

I swapped out the pumpkins and acorns for candy canes that I had lying around. They didn't have any Christmas-y equivalent at the Dollar Tree, so candy canes it was.

I don't love them, but I don't hate them and I can't think of anything else to do right now, so they stay.

There's more yet to be done. We're going to take down our leaves and hang our stockings and advent calendar from the twine. We used to hang them with heavy stocking hangers from the top of the entertainment center. However, someone likes to close the doors a little too vigorously and I can see a horrible accident happening. I have a really cute idea for the advent calendar, too. I'm excited and hope it actually turns out as cute as it is looking in my head. There's also a little sign that I have yet to find a place to hang.

But, there it is, my holiday decorating for the most part.