Baby Names

With our first born, we had a ton of boy names we liked but then found out we were having a girl.   What to call her?  I, along with many teachers, found finding names harder if you have taught a particularly difficult child with a name you like.    Looking back, both my husband and I think that we were the ones to come up with our daughter's name.  It is Abigail but most often we call her Abby.   I love the story of Abigail in the bible and how she is such a model of beauty and wisdom.   Abby's middle name is Sophia which means wisdom in Greek.


Our second born is named Silas Anthony.   I've always loved the name Silas - again from the Bible.  This one I did have to persuade my husband on - he said it grew on him.  That is one perk of having 8 months for pregnancy (I say 8 months because I only go 8 months).   Anthony is a family middle name going back for several generations.

We want to have more kids and I don't want to feel locked in to having a bible name but I also don't want to have one child being the only one without a bible name.  What do you think?  Am I over thinking this?

Abby birthday part two

"How old are you?"

"Two!"

Ladybuggy....so cute

She knows what to do and is wanting to blow it out!

Great-Grandpa Bill helping Abby with the cake.  Trying to be dignified with a fork!

All the Mourreale cousins including brand new Melissa!

Abby is not at all interested in getting her picture taken.  She IS super interested in her new laptop - thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Chicken Pot Pie in the Crock Pot

For Christmas I received Make It Fast, Cook It Slow a cookbook by Stephanie O'Dea, the author of http://crockpot365.blogspot.com.   I love so many of these recipes!

So the original recipe is here.   My theory on most recipes is that they are suggestions.   So for this one, I changed and added based on what what is my fridge.   I got carried away (yet again) and so with all the veggies (corn, carrots, peas, mushrooms, real onions, celery), I doubled the amount of soup.  I also just used fresh thyme, a bit of sage,  and no other seasonings.   I did 1 1/2 amount of the biscuit mix.

Results:  It tasted excellent.  For me the crust topping was a bit weird on the texture.  Paul loved the crust.  Paul loved my chicken pot pie.  This from the man who said he doesn't like chicken pot pie (Who doesn't like chicken pot pie?)   Good thing he likes it because I have TONS and my kids aren't old enough to make a considerable dent in the food yet.   If I make it again, I think I will make my own "soup" - basically a white sauce with chicken base.   The canned soup was a bit salty in my opinion.

Blessed Beyond Measure

Truly delighted in God's blessings to me.
1)   Thankful for nice customer service people.  This morning at Safeway, I asked if they had ground lamb.  "No, we don't but we'd be happy to order it for you.  It'll be here tomorrow."   Thanks Safeway Meat Department.

2)   Thankful that Abby has made an excellent transition to the toddler bed.   She only got out of bed the first couple of times.  Today, when we got back from running errands, she just went in her room and climbed in bed for her nap.

3)   Thankful for God's provision to us through others.   One of our dining room table chairs broke this past week - the welding actually broke.   Anyway, we've been saving for awhile to get a new one and we were told today of a financial gift to our family that will allow us to get the new table.

4)   Ditto on number 1.   At World Market, where we want to get our table, we had such a sweet lady helping us.  The table which we want is on sale this week but not all of it is in stock.  She offered to give us a raincheck so that we could keep the sale price and wait until the table and chairs come in.   She even called several different stores to help us find what we were looking for.

5)  A lesson from our faithful God.   We don't make a lot of money and last month I was struggling to be obedient in tithing.   I know God has been faithful in the past and I was trusting Him to faithful again.   We gave our tithe and God blessed us in amazing ways!

Random Dozen 2

1. What was the last thing about which you procrastinated?
Cleaning the bathrooms....why does it take me so long to get around to it?  It's not really all that hard or time-consuming and it's SO NICE to have a clean bathroom so why can't I get my rear in gear?

2. How long does it take you to fall asleep, and do you sleep through the night?
I usually fall asleep within 5 minutes of getting into bed.  I can sleep through a lot but not since I've become a mother.   I am instantly awake to the cry of my babies.   With a 5 month-old, I am up at least 2x a night.

3. Which decade would you choose to exemplify your favorite fashion styles?
Oh, this is a tough one.  I feel like I don't have any fashion any more.

4. What is your personal best dish to feed a crowd?
I love to serve chicken curry but it can be tricky since many people don't like curry.  So...second is meatloaf...comfort food!!!

5. Are you an impulse shopper? What was the last thing you bought on impulse?
A little bit but only cheap stuff.  Like the plastic kid's chair I just got at the grocery store for $2.

6. What is one wish you have for your own funeral?
That the focus be on bringing glory to God.  I hope that my life points to Christ.

7. If it's true that joy is in found in the simple things in life, what does your joy look like today?
Forgiveness from my husband, a silly laugh and grin from my 5-month old son, a hug from my 2 year old daughter.

8. What is your favorite type of bread?
Homemade garlic and rosemary.

9. What trait do you fear developing the most? (Laziness, greediness, grumpiness, etc.)
I think laziness.   I feel tired from being with kids all day and so much of the time, I just want to "escape" by reading or doing nothing.

10. What trait would you like most to develop?
Compassion - to be able to really love others where they are at.

11. Which room in your house best reflects your personality? Why?
My living room....it's warm and inviting and is a hodge-podge of all kinds of decorating.  I feel like it reflects a lot of my life and having lived so many different places.

12. How do you maintain balance in your life regarding, work, family, church, other organizations and activities, and blogging?
I am still learning this...I try to only blog and be on the computer when my kids are sleeping or occupied.   We haven't been in our community long enough to get super-involved in other things but I know that I desire to keep a simple life and not be a taxi-driver.

Everybody loves a baby....

 Silas and Great-Grandma Sowler

 Silas, new cousin Melissa, and Grandma

 My favorite little guy!!!

 Silas and Uncle Don

 Silas and Karissa

Silas and Papa

Happy Birthday Abby!

This past weekend we went down to Tucson to celebrate Abby's birthday with family and friends.   I'll have to post more pictures later but this post is to chronicle Abby's ladybug cakes.   And so we begin with Abby and Mommy making batter and the best part of course is Abby getting to lick the beaters.

I baked the cake in a glass bowl to give the lady bug it's main shape.  We had extra batter so decided to go ahead and do two cakes - one was our trial and error cake  :)

The body and head of the lady bug.  We rounded off the cupcake so that it was flush to the main body.

The icing was a lot of fun too.  I don't think I quite got it thick enough but I was just making up the recipe on the spot (and we were running out of time).   I added whipped cream cheese, a bit of butter, some milk and powdered sugar.   For the red and black colors, I actually bought cake coloring from Michaels - I really wanted these colors to be strong.

Icing the cupcakes.   I realized Saturday morning that I had left my cake decorating kit back in Goodyear.  I tried to buy just the bags with the plastic nozzels but inadvertently bought parts for two different sets.   So we just had to make do.

The finished cupcakes!!

The finished cakes!!!  Can you tell which one was the trial one???   Thanks to my friend Karissa for all her decorating work.   The antennae are made out of black licorice.

Yup!  She loved it!