What's Cooking: Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Ever heard of Pinterest? I've mentioned it a few times and really like the site. There are so many unique craft ideas and recipes I would never think to google. Last night I decided to look at recently pinned recipes and saw this one for Creamy Chicken Taquitos. I'm not a big pinner, and only try to pin things I am likely to try out. This recipe was something I had to try out as soon as possible.

Modifications/Substitutions: I didn't use cumin or green onions. Instead of fresh cilantro, I used dried oregano leaves.

Ease: This was so easy to make. I especially liked the fact that these were baked, rather than fried. The hardest part about making the meal was dealing with my two older girls who kept coming into the kitchen. This recipe gets 4.5 stars for ease.


Affordability: This recipe was pretty affordable. Like always the chicken was on sale. Other ingredients were affordable as well - 4.5 stars.

Taste: Jonathan and I loved these. They made for a perfect treat to eat while watching football. We gave it 5 stars for taste.

Family-Friendly: One reason I wanted to try this recipe was because I was convinced that the girls would love it and eat it up. I was wrong. We really had to push them to eat theirs for some reason, and they didn't finish. Abigail told me she thought it was too spicy. Maybe I would use some cheese other than pepper jack. For our girls though and the way I made them, I'm afraid this recipe will only get 2 stars.

Photo Fridays 01.20.12

I cannot believe it is Friday already and that a whole week has gone by since I've made a post.

Lily has been smiling a lot lately, but now I have actual digital evidence. She's pretty generous with her smiles, but gives most of them to her big sister Abigail. Quite often Lily will smile at Abigail, who then bends over laughing like it's the funnies thing ever. Then Lily will smile again and Abigail laughs even harder. So here she is, our smiling Lily:

Photo Fridays 01.13.12

Lily is now two months old. I feel like it should be more like three months, because the past few weeks haven't flown by like I expected them to.

Lily gives us lots of smiles. She'll smile just about every time Abigail shows up. She gives me her biggest smiles in the middle of the night when she should be sleeping.

She's also cooing now. I love some of the sounds that come out of her cute little mouth. She likes to talk sometimes in the middle of the night too-when she should be sleeping :-)

Here's our growing baby, now an ancient two months old:

Kind of, but not Really

Today has been a laid back day so far. I decided to have a little fun with Abigail's hair and gave her pigtails since it has been a while.

So Sarah wouldn't feel left out I thought I would attempt to give her pigtails as well. The hair in the back of her hair is growing nicely. The hair on the top though? Not so much. I managed two pigtails in the back, then Abigail suggested I put one on top. So, I can kind of put Sarah's hair up, but not really.

It's funny because when I was finally able to put Abigail's hair up I had to leave her hair in the back down because it wasn't long enough. I guess Sarah just wants to be different.

Our LIttle Gymnast

The other day there was a gymnast being interviewed on TV. I got the girls attention to watch footage of the gymnast doing her floor exercise and they were pretty impressed. The next thing I know, Sarah is doing her own gymnastics. Last night I got her to perform on camera so I could share with you all:

Bedtime Routine

We've had a pretty solid, consistent bedtime routine since Abigail went to sleep on her own. Over time we've tweaked it here and there. When Abigail started sleeping in a big girl bed it became apparent that we needed to lay down some ground rules. We reminded Abigail of the rules as part of our bedtime routine. It got to the point where she was able to recite them:

1. Cup on shelf (so we wouldn't have to search for it)
   
2. Stay in bed
3. Keep your jammies on (yes, we had to make this a rule)
   
4. Go to sleep
5. We love you (not really a rule, but something fun to say after all the rules)

Over time we didn't have to remind her anymore because she was actually following the rules. Well, now that Sarah has been in her big girl bed, we've found that the rules need to come back. The big rules she's challenging are numbers 2 and 3.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Tonight I went in to check on the girls and found that Sarah broke rule #2, but was quiet enough so we weren't aware of her offense until she obeyed rule #4. I didn't find her in her bed, but soon spotted her. I was reminded of a scene from The Wizard of Oz (when Dorothy discovers that her house ended up on the Wicked Witch of the East).

Sarah got out of bed and went into the little castle tent we bought the girls recently. She fell asleep on one of their Build-a-Bear beds. So funny and cute.

Going from Two to Three? Piece of Cake!

Some people might tell you that going from zero to one child is the hardest transition to handle.

After that going from one kid to two kids isn't that bad.

Going from two kids to three is much easier. I had a hard time thinking this was possible, but I get it now.Sure, we have one more mouth to feed, one more wardrobe to wash, one more body to clean, etc. Plus it takes us much longer to get out of the house. And, we haven't reached this point yet, but soon Lily will be making a mess of the place with her toys like her older sisters do (sometimes I wonder why I even clean in the first place). But, I've found going from two girls to three hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Here's why:

• I know what to expect now. I'm sure Lily is winding up her curve-ball pitch, but for the most part nothing has come as a surprise to me and Jonathan yet.

• I've loosened up a bit. I know a lot of parents do this with each subsequent child. With the first a couple may take weeks before making their first outing, then maybe a few days with their second. With Lily, we went straight to my parents' from the hospital (sure we had to get the girls, but we didn't wait much longer before heading out of the house). Also, with Lily throwing up once a day (or even more sometimes), I don't freak out as much. Sarah went through the same thing (see bullet above) and I don't worry about her getting what she needs because she is gaining weight and produces plenty of output. I can still be a bit uptight when it comes to caring for the girls (especially when we aren't at home), but I think I'm much better.

• Two out of three still nap. Sarah will give me a nice 1-2 hour afternoon nap while Lily naps maybe 3-6 hours throughout the day. So, I really don't spend much of my day taking care of the needs of three girls at once. I know this will change, but as Lily gets older she won't be quite as needy (she likes to spend a lot of time in our arms when she's awake).

• The older ones play independently. I spent a lot of this morning tending to Lily because of feeding, spitting up, changing, and feeding some more. Abigail and Sarah spent most of that time in their room playing. It was hard doing this for Sarah when Abigail was the only other one. Abigail would get into trouble because there was no one to play with (see Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C).

So by no means am I saying having three girls under the age of 3 1/2 is easy, I'm just saying it isn't as crazy and overwhelming as I thought it would be.