Cornbread Dressing

Last night, I called my mom and asked her to email me her cornbread dressing recipe. I wanted to put it on here in case anyone wants to try it...I'd love to try it this year but I don't know when or how I will make it to the grocery store before we head up to NJ. Oh well...maybe I can make it for Christmas??
Here it is...
Dressing (roasting or baking chicken)
courtesy of my mom, Becky-
Ingredients:

2 pkgs. yellow cornbread mix (not the sweet kind)
2 slices of bread
1 white onion
1 bunch of green onions
1 bunch of celery
2 eggs
chicken broth (2 cans)
salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, sage seasoning

Boil a chicken or boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Bake pan of cornbread.  After cornbread is cooled, crumble it up. You can also add a couple of pieces of bread to the crumbled up cornbread.  Put bread mixture in a big bowl. Add 2 raw eggs to the bread mixture.  Add 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper, and add poultry seasoning and sage to taste (it calls for 1 tsp. of each of these but I don't put hardly any sage).  Stir this mixture up well.  TASTE! In a separate pan or skillet, saute 1/2 cup to 1 cup celery, 1 bunch of green onions (including tops), 1 white onion, all chopped up, in chicken broth.  Add this mixture (broth and sauteed vegetables) to your big bowl of crumbled up cornbread mixture.  Also, cut up some pieces of chicken and add to mixture.  STIR this up real good. 
Put this whole mixture into a casserole dish that has been sprayed with PAM.  Lay some pieces of chicken on top & bake on 250 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs.

Thanksgiving is Almost Here!

I love Thanksgiving and I am so glad it's almost here! We are headed up to NJ to visit with E's family. We can't wait....they love Miss A so much and we know they will love Baby F just as much!
I just posted a pic of the two of my kiddos as the blog header...they were both laying on the floor yesterday and Miss A was just staring at him...so cute!

Here are some other random photos from this past week:
Miss A squeezed herself into the basket under the BOB stroller-

Miss A sitting in the bouncy seat...she thinks she still fits in all these baby items-

We had our former neighbors over this past Saturday and they brought their 4 boys...we managed to get a photo of all of our children together and the other mom (Amy) and I were able to get in the shot with the babies-

  

Miss A getting ready to cook-

 

Miss A chattin' on the classic chatter telephone-

Pics of Baby F's room (which was once a guest room)...the stripes were painted by E and the words were done by his mom. The Dr. Seuss framed pics were pictures copied from books we checked out from the library and framed by E-

 

Our little Jets fan sportin' the other 2 onesies his grandpapa sent him:

What would the caption for this one be? It would have something to do with making a touchdown...maybe "And it's good!!"

 

Trying to get a good photo of the two of them but F wasn't taking too kindly to being put in his big sister's lap and Miss A was much more interested in what was on TV-

Pics and a Playdate

We went to our friend-L's house last week when I desperately needed to get out of the house. Our friend lives about 30 minutes away so it was a nice drive. (Once I load the car with two kiddos, I want to drive for a while before I have to unload them again! Anyone else feel this way??) So, we went out for a playdate and Miss A got to see her "cosmic twin", Z, who was born the same day as Miss A. Baby F got to see Baby K who is now 5 months old! Here are some cute photos that L snapped while we were there-

Here's Baby F (left)and Baby K(right)(notice their striped shirts and babylegs...we did not plan that)-

 

Miss A and Z...Miss A is wearing Z's rainboots...she definitely needs a pair of those with all the rain we've been getting lately! Do you think she's telling him not to be upset that she plans on keeping those rainboots?

 

Looking out the window...such a sweet photo...

This and that...

I took F to the doctor last week for the continuation of his colic and because of a little bump under his belly button. The bump is a small hernia and the doc says it will go away when he starts sitting up. He weighed 10 pounds, 3.5 ounces!! I was so happy! But I did ask the doc about the supposed 90th percentile that the other doc said he was in for weight. Well...it turns out that the other doc charted him on the wrong side of the chart! I knew it! He's actually in the 25th percentile for weight...now that's more like it. I didn't think he looked like a 90th percentile weight baby and well the numbers just didn't make sense.

Right now Miss A is crying because she is supposed to be taking a nap but is refusing...I've already been in her room twice and both times she asked to go potty. One of the times she actually did potty.  We've been doing this for an hour now...so as I wait for her to fall asleep...what better time than to blog? (F.J. is sleeping right beside me right now so 1 out of 2, ain't bad!)

I am adding some random pics that I've taken lately-
Miss A does not seem to know that this swing is for her baby brother and that she no longer fits the weight requirements...the other day she went in to the laundry room and when I went in, this is where I found her-

When big sis isn't holding down the swing, F seems to enjoy it a little-

 He also seems to tolerate the bouncy seat at times too...even when his sister is bringing him measuring cups to play with in his seat-

But he also has his limits-

My wonderful Aunt Marilyn sent a gift for our baby boy and a couple of things for Miss A and us. Below you will see the cute handmade dolls for Miss A and F.J. and the other cute monogrammed onesie, burp cloth, and bib for F.J. These were all made at The Monogram Pear-the link to their blog is in my blog roll.

Okay, Miss A is not giving up this battle so I may have to wave the white flag and go in and get her and we may all three be napping all cuddled up soon!

Her Eyes and Our Little Jets Fan

The photo below was taken by a friend of ours at his house in September. I think it captures our little lady so well!

Below is a pic of our little man in one of the Jets onesies that his grandpapa (E's Dad) gave him-

How about a caption for this photo? If you leave a comment, please leave a caption for this one!

Our little man is still fussy at night but not for 3 hours. I've been nursing on just one side per feeding. I believe I have an oversupply and a fast let-down which has caused a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. After reading an article on La Leche League's website, it described exactly how F.J. acts when he nurses and afterwards. I've also been off dairy for over a week now. I am hoping by next weekend these differences will have helped! We weighed him last night and according to our scale, he weighs 11 pounds! I don't know how he gained 2 more pounds since last Monday but if I do have an oversupply-that could have something to do with it!

He's 1 Month Old Today!

 

(I give credit to my friend, Lesley at Swartz's Scribbles, for giving me the idea for taking F.J.'s photo with a month sign...she did this during her son-Rowan's first year.)

Our little man turned 1 month old today!!
He had an appointment this morning and here are his stats:
Weight-9 pounds, 2.5 ounces-90th percentile for weight
Height-20 1/2 inches-10-20th percentile for height
He's had a blocked eye duct since he was born and recently it's gotten "gunkier". I have to press on the corner of his eye a few times a day and the pediatrician prescribed an eye ointment for it. If it doesn't get better by the time he is 9 months old, he will be sent to an eye doctor and a 20-minute procedure will be done to open up the eye duct. The doc says it doesn't hurt though.

F.J. seems to have colic/gas/reflux too. From 8 till 11 each night, he is wide awake and usually fussy...sometimes VERY fussy...crying and pulling his legs up to his chest and squealing in pain at times. He also tends to cluster feed around this time. I started cutting out milk this past weekend from my diet to see if it would help. The pediatrician suggested I cut out milk and cheese for 2 weeks to see if it makes a difference. She also suggested nursing him on only one side, pumping on the other, and holding him upright for 20 minutes after each nursing. I've already been doing that last bit of info and it hasn't seemed to make much difference. I tried nursing him on one side today and he was able to go 3 hours before his next nursing which is great but this evening he's been cluster feeding while he's been fussy so I've had to offer both sides.
The nice thing about him cluster feeding is that for the past 3 nights, he's been able to go 4-5 hours before waking up to nurse so I've had 4-5 hour stretches of sleep!

The Halloween Post

A few pics from Halloween and a few days before...
Our four pumpkins at our door-

Our little bumblebee trying on her costume last week after we got it in the mail from my best friend in Shreveport, Ashley-

Yesterday, Miss A got a very late nap and when she awoke she was a mess! We tried feeding her dinner and she was just grumpy. She got even more upset when she realized that the trick or treaters were not staying when they rang our doorbell. She wanted everyone to stay and hang out at our house. So, what did we do to keep her happy while we passed out candy? We brought our laptop up from the basement and let her watch videos of Elmo and Sesame Street on www.kideos.com - a wonderful video site and is safe for kids.

 

 

(The hat that F is wearing above in the photo was given to us by our sweet neighbor, Danielle.)

Miss A taking candy from the bowl...

And making a separate stash of it on the floor in the kitchen-

 

Our little man had a little baby acne but as you can see in the close up below, it is starting to go away. He hasn't had any new spots come up in about 2 weeks.-

 

 Miss A got this LSU dress from her Papaw York (my stepdad) in Shreveport. She was wearing it with some LSU socks that my mom gave her. She had taken the socks off and then put them back on...does anything look wrong with this picture??

Below-Yesterday, one of my best friends here, Carrie, threw a small "Tea and See" for me to celebrate F.J.'s birth. This was going to be a high tea that was planned for October 3rd to celebrate the upcoming birth of our baby boy but it had to be moved to the 31st when my little man arrived the day before the tea (4 weeks early)! Here is a photo of the table-

And a photo of the ladies (I'm holding my little man and Maile is holding her 4 month old son)-

 

We had a very busy, wonderfully fun Halloween starting the day with a visit from E's sister, then the tea for me and then a nice evening at home handing out candy to trick or treaters. The weather was yucky here so I am glad we didn't decide to take Miss A out trick or treating this year. Next year, she will have a blast going door to door and our little man will be a year old-that's just crazy!
Tomorrow I have F.J.'s 1 month appointment...I can't believe he is 1 month old!! I will update with his stats tomorrow. Happy All Saints Day today! :-)