Molly Jane

We are now a family of five! Molly Jane was born on Friday, July 17. She weighed 8lb 11 oz and was 21 inches long. She is a very easy baby (I'm probably jinxing myself) to have around. She sleeps pretty much all day and night. This can be a problem with getting feedings in, but she seems to be eating better everyday. She has the cutest, chubbiest cheeks I've ever seen. It was funny because in the operating room the first thing the nurses and doctors said was, "Look at the cheeks on her." When she was born Andy and I thought she looked exactly like Abby did, but slowly I am seeing more and more of Layne in her. It will be fun to see her personality develop in the upcoming months.
The girls (Layne and Abby) love her already and fight (literally) over who gets to hold her. The newness of her is waring off, thank goodness and now only ask to hold her like 10 times a day. Layne and Abby had a lot of fun the past week because they got to sleep at both sets of grandparent's house and my sister's house. They also spent three nights at my parent's cottage, so they were very spoiled. It will be interesting to see how this next week will be at home with me and the girls. Hopefully I can keep the older ones entertained while trying to recover from my c-section and take care of a newborn.

Funny (Possibly inappropriate) Layne Saying

Layne loves to match things. She loves to match other people, which is why she would match Abby everyday if possible. Well, yesterday I was changing my niece's diaper and Layne came over to "check things out." When I took the wet diaper off Layne's got a huge smile on her face and said, "Look mom! Gracie's privates match mine!" I just looked at her and was thinking, "You've got to be kidding me! You see me change Abby's diapers everyday and you have never mentioned that before." She was so proud though, so I told her that she was right. Grace is a girl, so Grace's private parts are going to look like hers. She thought that was the neatest thing and was happy with that answer (thank goodness).
**Like I said in the title, it may be a little inappropriate, but I had to share. Sorry if I offended anyone.

Banana Bread Recipe

This is the best banana bread recipe that I have ever made. I got it from my mom.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas mashed ***
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbs. HOT water
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mashed bananas. Dissolve baking soda and HOT water. Add to banana mixture. Add flour salt and vanilla to banana mixture. Pour into greased and floured bread pans (I either make 2 regular size pans or 4 mini loaves). Bake 35-40 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, remove and cool on wire rack.

- *** I usually freeze the bananas when they are going bad. They thaw out great and make a great banana bread
- I usually use a pampered chef bread pan (stoneware), so it takes the bread closer to an hour to bake.

Freezer Recipes

A couple of weeks ago I posted freezer recipes that I had hoped to make before the baby was born. Well, with all the problems I had from my previous blog, they got erased. I think that I'll try posting them again because I have had a couple of people ask for the recipes. Currently I have 9 meals frozen and about 10 cups of chicken marinated, grilled, cut up and frozen. I make all of my dishes in an 8x8 foil lined pan, so I usually get 2 8x8 pans per recipes. Then I freeze the meal. Once it is frozen I take it out of the pan and wrap plastic wrap around the meal and place in a freezer bag. This makes is very easy because everything is labeled, it doesn't take up a lot of space, and will make easy clean up when we do eat the meal.

2x chicken spaghetti

2x stuffed shells - DONE

2x chicken enchiladas - DONE

2x Brown bag burritos - DONE

2x Breakfast hot pockets

3 lbs taco meat

3 lbs hamburger meat

26 cups of chicken, cooked and cut up ( I marinated 1/3with Italian Seasoning, 1/3 with soy sauce, veg. oil, and parsley, and 1/3 with salt, pepper, lemon pepper and olive oil) - 10 CUPS DONE

lasagna (Don't really have a recipe, just throw things together) - DONE

Pumpkin bread (use recipe from can)

Banana bread (Recipe to come)

Blueberry muffins (Recipe to come)

Whole Wheat Waffles

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies

*picture taken from www.sheldonrachel.blogspot.com