Fun and easy baby gift

Our friends, the Shipps, had a baby on Friday and this is what I made them as a gift. In Texas it's traditional to hang an elaborate decorated wreath on the door of the mom's labor room with the baby's stats on it. I didn't quite go that far with this diaper wreath, but I thought it would be cute nonetheless. Rachel Shipp is the photographer who took our pictures a couple of months back. You can view her website here. Also Rachel's husband is graduating from Baylor Law School next week! Oh how I can't wait to see that day!

Here is the finished product. Not bad for 2 hours work?

A close up view before I attached the ribbon.

Just for fun, a picture of Roxy in the sunlight.

It is NOT Illegal to Pick Bluebonnets

For those of you who do not live in Texas and wonder why it would be illegal to pick a flower, especially one growing in your own yard that you must mow (except in the summer when the grass dies)....and for those of you Texans who have been telling me that it is illegal to pick these flowers...

The Texas Department of Public Safety says it is NOT illegal.

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice. I am not an attorney. Believe whatever you want. Pick or don't pick as you see fit. I'm just posting a link to information that has been made available to the public.

Chicken Pot Pie

I got this recipe from watching the Rachael Ray show, you can find the original here. Even better than the taste is the cost, and I've provided the breakdown below. Obviously, your cost is going to differ if you shop somewhere other than an HEB.

Chicken Pot Pie

1 onion-$0.52
2 carrots- $0.36
3 stalks celery- $0.50
1 pkg Jumbo Flaky Biscuits- $1.09 (you can use whatever biscuits you like)
2 cups chicken stock- $0.99
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken- $1.16 (I used a rotisserie chicken I got on sale and divided among 3 meals)
3 tbsp flour
salt
pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp butter
(she uses garlic in this but I left it out)

Total cost:$4.62!

Cut up vegetables and saute in the butter and olive oil. Salt and pepper generously. After veggies have softened and smell really good, add the flour and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add the chicken stock and let come to a boil until thickened. Add in the cooked chicken. At this point you may want to add more salt and pepper. Pour mixture into 8x8 pan. Cover top with biscuits. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until biscuits are done.

Rachael Ray uses this as a freezer to oven meal, so in theory you could make 2 of these, freeze one, and use her directions for cooking it. Enjoy!

Ennis Bluebonnet Festival

Every year in Texas between March and when it gets so hot nothing can live the bluebonnets start cropping up. The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas and I'm not sure if it's illegal to pick them. My mother and her fiance Tony flew down to Dallas this weekend and we met up with them at the Ennis Bluebonnet Festival, which is about an hour and a half north of us. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating and it was drizzly and humid.


There are trails of bluebonnets that you can either drive or walk. Right after my mom took this picture of Erik and me she stepped in a huge fire ant hill and one foot was covered.

Gorgeous. This is the background on my computer now.

You see fields of these beautiful flowers along the highways and interstates. So pretty!

A New Addition

Guess who's getting a puppy? The Fuquas! I have been wanting a tri-colored male Pembroke Welsh Corgi FOREVER and I finally found one! A lady in Bryan, Texas (where Texas A & M is located) has a litter for sale and I found them on a pet website. Today I drove down there to see him and it was definitely worth the 4 hour total trip! They call him "Tater" at their house but that's not going to be his name when he gets to our home. He was born March 3rd and we're going to pick him up the first week of May. He's so calm and sweet. He let me hold him like a baby and he didn't even care! Here are some pictures of my new boy!

Eyes closed; not in a picture mood.


How can you not love that face? So mellow!


As you can tell I got my hair cut really short. I mean really, really short, especially in the back. I'll try to get a better picture this weekend at the Bluebonnet festival.

Don't come to the Fuqua's front door...

...Or you will be attacked by birds! Swallows make these mud nests in the crooks of the duplexes around here, specifically at the front doors. Once there are babies in the nests, it is illegal to destroy it. Swallows are migratory birds and annoying as they are, they're protected by law. I can't wait til the babies fly out of this nest so I can knock it down. Not only will they try to attack you at our front door, but they poop all over the front porch area. Yuck. This is the only shot I could get, as I was literally being attacked by one of the adult birds.

First Easter in Texas

I spent our first Easter Sunday here in Texas at work. Of course you guessed this, seeing as I have worked every major holiday since we moved. I was actually a little upset and depressed about it. Easter is a time of celebrating Christ's sacrifice on the Cross and spending time with family, and Erik had to go to church by himself. For the past 3 or so years I have spent Easter at Erik's grandmother's house with his family. This year we both missed everyone so much! It doesn't help that I also worked Good Friday, and Erik was off from school. It's ironic that I work at a Catholic hospital, and yet I don't get paid holiday pay for Easter Sunday. Hmpf.

Thank you to Erik's parents for thinking of us and sending us this sweet (literally) basket of cookies! They were so yummy!

A Must Read

Last week I read this book and literally could not put it down. Stephenie Meyer's (the author of the Twilight series, for the 2 of you who haven't read it yet) brother runs her website and recommended this book to her readers. I put it off for a while, as I had started the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series, so one day I finally requested it from the library and decided to try it out. Man, I wish it had a sequel that I could read right now. The book is listed under Teen Fiction, I think, but if you like Twilight you'll like this. The Hunger Games is about a girl in futuristic post-war American who participates in the Hunger Games put on every year by the Capitol. Basically 12 boys and 12 girls ( one from each district) battle it out in an arena as a way for the government to remind the people that rebellion will not be tolerated. I don't want to give too much away and there is so much more to the book than that. This book was so interesting I stayed up past eleven on nights when I had to work the next day! Read this book, and if you do leave a comment in this post.

Too funny

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