And if I’m being real honest here, I have been a terrible mom most of the time. I’ve been lazy, short tempered, and no fun. I would wake up at the crack of dawn with Rory and just pray that naptime would come quickly. Basically wishing my life away!

On Sunday I was really encouraged at church and decided that the funk had to be over. I was done with feeling like crap and making everyone else in my family feel that way too.

Needless to say, this week has been amazing.

I decided to try Rory on a new schedule this week to see if it helped her at night. I’m making her only take one nap a day instead of two and keeping her up past 8. So far its been much better. And she slept until 6:30 this morning!

The other big change in me is I’ve been intentional with Rory. We have done art projects and played fun games and sang silly songs over and over.

And since it takes Ryder up to 3 hours to finish a 3 oz bottle I have been removing all “no”objects from the room before I start to feed and I’ve been setting out her favorite toys and putting on a fun movie. This has helped our days TREMENDOUSLY! Rory has been so happy and fun. She hasn’t had anger problems and has been “helping” me clean her toys up and “helping” me with Ryder. Its been so fun!

I mean, of course she still is a Stinker…

But she hasn’t gotten into nearly as much trouble or acting out like she was. Like they say- negative attention is better than no attention so they will do anything for it!

And instead of trying to nap as soon as they both are asleep (which never happens), I’ve been using naptimes to be productive. Like CLEAN or COOK. I mean… who would have ever thought?! ha!

In fact, this week I have cooked 3 out of 3 days. Y’all. This is a big stinkin’ deal. I haven’t cooked in FOREVER! My crockpot has become my best friend and lifesaver!

Last night I cooked Bacon Ranch Chicken from the new website Crock Pot Girls. It was so so good! And as a side I made THE BEST CORN EVER. Seriously. And oh so easy! I’m also linking up with Kelly’s Korner Crockpotalooza!

Bacon Ranch Chicken: (sorry I didn’t take any pics)

Now I made mine with garlic powder, fat free sour cream and turkey bacon bits. It was wonderful!

And seriously- go make this corn TONIGHT!

BEST CORN EVER:

• 6 whole Pieces Corn On The Cob
• 1 cup Milk, Try To Use Whole Milk
• ⅓ cups Sugar
• ½ sticks Butter

Fill a large pot half-full with water, making sure it’s enough water to cover the corn (don’t put the corn in yet). Do not salt the water! I repeat, salting the water draws out the moisture of the corn kernel and makes it bitter!

Add the milk, sugar, and butter. Bring to a boil, then add in corn cobs. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow to cook for 8-10 minutes, or just until tender. Try not to overcook it or it will become tough and have the appearance of the stuff you find in bird seed! Remove from water and serve with butter and salt to taste.

Needless to say, we’ve had a great week! And I feel like a new woman. How do you spend your days at home? I’d love some ideas!

Oh, and Ryder says “hi” too!

they adore eachother

Remember how I told you all we were going to have a “staycation”??? Well that didn’t really work out. Andy, I REPEAT, Andy decided he wanted to go shopping in Sherman on Saturday. I tried to protest, but it didn’t work (thats my story and I’m sticking to it!). Andy dressed Rory (he does most Saturdays) and she looked so cute!

Those tennis shoes! That booty! She’s just so cute, if I do say so myself!

Rory held on to her toy all day, even during naps. Target wore her out.

After church yesterday we did come home, change into our pajamas, and did nothing all day. It was so nice. One day soon we are going to do that the entire weekend… maybe. Then we decided to try out some pictures for Rory’s six month post coming this Friday! Well. I got a really cute video of it, but pictures? Not so much. Here’s the best picture I got.

Rory obviously needs to have a “talking to” about modesty! ha! She’s at this point where everything around her is so much more fun and interesting and she just does not care to sit and smile for the camera. This is obviously frustrating for me. Sigh.

The only other happening around here this weekend was Andy’s doctor appointment on Friday. He had to go have a mole removed and let me tell you, he got butchered! He thought he only got three or four stitches and was doing all kinds of stuff around the house Friday afternoon, then I noticed blood all down his back. Come to find out, no, he has about 14 stitches and its bothering him so bad.

Bless his heart, but can we not all agree that men are the BIGGEST babies EVER when they are uncomfortable in any way?!!!! I said to him at one point, “honey, I just got done pushing a baby out, my sympathy level is REAL low”. But seriously. I did just have a baby… yes its been six months, but with all my problems with it, its going to take quite some time to forget! Not to mention the gallbladder thing which is about 302932 times worse than labor. No joke. Don’t worry, I babied him all weekend and changed his bandage, etc, but I told him that 3 days of it was about all I could do at this point in my life. HA! Lets also agree that I’m the WORST wife in the world. When it comes to this, I’m okay with it right now. ha!

Chocolate Croissants

Ingredients: 1 package (8 oz.) refrigerated quick crescent dinner rolls 24 HERSHEY’S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates or HERSHEY’S HUGS Brand Chocolates Powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Separate dough into 8 triangles. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

2. Place 2 chocolates at wide end of each triangle; place an additional chocolate on top of other two pieces. Starting at wide end, roll to opposite point; pinch edges to seal. Place rolls, pointed side down, on ungreased cookie sheet. Curve into crescent shape. (It works best with two Hugs and one Kiss- the Hugs melt much better!)

3. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; sift with powdered sugar. Serve warm. 8 crescents.

Note: Leftover crescents can be reheated in microwave for a few seconds.

Ingredients:

1 10 3/4 -ounce can cream of chicken soup
1 10 3/4 -ounce can cheddar cheese soup
1 10 3/4 -ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 10-ounce can tomatoes
1 whole chicken, cooked, boned, and chopped or 4 cups leftover cooked chicken (Note: I just used chicken breasts and boiled them and seasoned the water with pepper and a little salt)
11 1/2-ounce package flour tortillas
2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together the three kinds of soup and the tomatoes. Stir in the chicken.

In a greased 13 x 9- inch pan, layer the tortillas and the chicken mixture, beginning and ending with tortillas. Sprinkle the cheese over the casserole and bake for 30 minutes.

Servings: 8 servings
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 30 min

ENJOY!

“Krystal” Burgers

What you need:

• 1 lb ground beef
• two cans of croissants
• mustard
• pickle relish
• chopped onions (frozen are fine)
• cheese (I used shredded cheddar, whatever you want to use is fine)
• Note- if you don’t like onions or pickles, you can make this dish without. I’ve had it both ways and its great either way! The cheese is optional too, but we LOVE cheese in our family so that is a must for us!

Directions:

• Brown meat. Drain.
• If you are using frozen onions, pop them in a skillet and heat them up/cook through a little.
• Spray/grease a square or rectangle pan. Preheat oven according to directions on croissant package. (Don’t have any in my fridge to tell you, sorry!)
• Roll out one can of croissants on bottom of pan.
• On top of croissant bottom, spread out the browned meat.
• Evenly spread out your pickles/relish and onions.
• On top of that put desired amount of mustard.
• Put on desired amount of cheese.
• Roll out second can of croissants on top.
• Bake according to croissant directions- its not long, about 10 minutes or so just to heat everything through.
• Cut into small squares and serve.

I promise they taste just like Krystal burgers! And I will say that I didn’t feel as yucky after eating this than I did the one time I actually ate real Krystal burgers! My mom made these when she was here after Rory was born, so thats where I got the recipe from.

Let me know if you make it and how you liked it!