Jalapeno Popper Chicken Breast

This came out really good  But our families 1 suggestion would be to make more of the filling, it could use being a little more stuffed.

Ingredients: 

• 6 slices center cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 jalapeños, chopped (remove seeds for milder)
• 4 oz , Neufchatel Cheese softened
• 3 oz shredded cheddar
• 3 oz  shredded cheddar jack 
• 2 tbsp chopped scallions
• 2 skinless chicken breast pounded to 1/4 inch thick
• 1/2 cup Italian seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs
• Emeril's Essence 
• 1 1/2 juicy limes, juice of
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Pound out chicken breast to 1/4 inch thickness.  I just made this dinner for two you could easily make it for more just use more chicken breast and a lot more stuffing.  Or you could make smaller portions by using cutlets.  Neither my husband or I could finish the dinner.  Leftovers were just as good.

Mix the jalapenos, all three cheeses and scallions together.

Divide the filling and spread it evenly over the two breasts.  And remember my suggestion make more, use more.

Roll it up starting at one end semi tight but not stretching it our you probably will rip the chicken since it has been pounded thin.

Mix the olive oil and lime juice and pour over the chicken letting drip into your cooking pan.  I think I used a little more olive oil on the pan too before I put the chicken breast down.

Cover withe the bread crumbs.  I poured them on top but it you want you could also roll the rolled up chicken breast in the bread crumbs.  Then sprinkle essence over top to your liking   or you could add the essence to the bread crumbs in the first place and apply it that way.  There is no measurement just to what you prefer.  I just sprinkled along the top.

Place in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes or until done.

Pair up with you favorite side.  I used black beans and rice topped with cheese and salsa, very good.  it all was good.

lucky 13

Spring Break for the boys ended today, mine ended last Monday.  I was so very glad to send them back to school.  They have been home for 13 days.  It was nice having all the kids here but it was pretty stressful too.  I know 13 days does not sound like much and is certainly less than summer but the situations were different this time.  We had 2 freak snow storms days apart.  The first was not too much but yesterdays was huge.  We woke up to 7+ inches and it continued to snow all day but as it kept coming down it melted upon itself.  I would hate to have seen how many feet it would have been if it were in the cold winter.

These pictures were from the smaller snow storm from before Faiths birthday.

After I uploaded the pictures from her birthday my camera fell hard.  Shattering the lense and it got  bent up. My camera was out of commission and for someone who takes a billions of pictures that was tough.  We did get it fixed enough for now.  So I do have it again :) !!

I have been so busy, like that is anything new, but with all of us trapped inside the house for days left me with a lot more work than expected.  All of us were tripping over each other.  Since the big boys were home the babies would not nap and everyone's sleep schedule was off.  Plus their dad works nights and can I tell you how hard it was to keep these 5 quite during the day so he could sleep?  And I still had school to work on.  We tried to spring clean.



And got rid of bags of broken toys, others that were missing parts or chewed up.  We still have so so much to do.  I have been going through the kids clothes I gave away to clothes boxes and friends garbage bags full of clothes they have outgrown.  But with all we gave away I realized there is stuff we need and still no place to put it.

With the weather so cold I had to go out and buy the kids more clothes for Easter.  Shirts, tights and shoes for the girls to wear under  there outfits.  I had to buy the boys pants instead of the shorts I had planed on.  And then the worst picture experience of my life.  Horrible horrible horrible.



I will not even write about it because I do not want to relive it.  I will just do it my self once the weather is warm and I can snap some Easter pictures with the flowers coming out.

But speaking of Easter with the kids home, our house completely disheveled and the many papers I had to write I had not put to much thought into Easter but it is now upon us.  I am trying to plan now and it is SLOWLY coming along I sure hope I can pull it all together.

She is 2!

Way to go Faithy you have surivied your first two years with this crazy family.  And you have turned out surprisingly well.  Better than well Fantastic.  You are the prettiest girl, the sweetest thing, so easy to love love, absolutely the most wonderful, precious gift we could imagine.  You are the big sister and oldest daughter, you are a little sister and our first girl.  We all prayed for you for so long, we all wanted you so very much, we still do.

We woke up to a frigid morning.  But at least there was no snow or rain.  The older two boys spent the night out at a friends so they were not home to celebrate.  This was a big deal.  I kept singing "happy happy birthday to you"  and Smiley would scream no you can't sing that till my brothers are back.  I kept singing when he was not around.  She saw a pile of presents they were pink with pearls and crowns and said princess, she knew they were for her and would scream then too because she wanted them.  With all the screaming I decided lets go get the boys and start celebrating.



She was all to excitied to go and knew the day was about here.  We all kept calling her birthday princess, and by now she knows what a birthday is.  It means cake and presents.



The kids love going out for Chinise food so we got our brothers back and headed over there.




She surprisingly did not eat that much.  She is normally such a big eater and the biggest salad lover.  If she sees that you have one she will scream and fuss till she get some.  I think she was holding off for cake.



Evan was originally in this one too but he was making stupid faces so I cropped him out.  The boys were happy to celebrate Faith's birthday but also wanted to be over playing with their friends.  Trust me I know well after the hours of hearing about it.

Lunch was awesome.  And you know what we had 3 diffrent people come up and tell us how good our kids were!!!  They were the only kids there and the resturant was full of seniors and adults who went out and I am sure wanted to have a dinner in peace.  In walks a family of 7 with 5 young kids.  I bet they were thinking oh great.  But even with Evan's faces they were complimenting us.  Wow that never happens.

And before people had the chance to change their mind we went home for the cake.

Another birthday another cake, yes we are getting pretty sick of cake not to meantion the weight I had wanted to lose for Easter I have actually been gaining weight.  Ugh March.



She is still into Dora so we had a buch of Dora themed things for her.  She loved it.





I had asked them to add more pink and purple to the cake instead of Doras orange, yellow, blue and purple.  I think I made a mistake.  Oh well it was still a good cake and Faithy loved it.



Gracie especially loved it.  She is impossible with real food nowdays.  If she sees it she wants it and puts up a fight for it.  And when it cokes to cake she is a monster.  We gave her a piece she quickly ate it and then she climbed out of her high chair no surprise there, and got Faith's cake!





These two have been becoming playmates and it is so cute. Faith can't say Gracie yet so she calls her baby.  Not only have they started playing but they started fighting and competing, I will write about it all soon.

She got so many nice presents.  Thank you Grandparents.





I gave her a cd player that has been playing non stop.  I am glad she like it but...  I also got her a makeup set of her very own.  She always want to wear my makeup and is fasinated with putting it on.  I have put up the many pictures of her own attempts on her and her sister with marker.  Now she has her own Dora set so we can do it together.



We have also been covered in stickers for the last day.  She knows all their names it is so cute.



But she got a tea set from Mrs Ginny, Grandma, and we have tea partys all day long.





She love pouring and serving.  She pretends to do it just like I make it.  She calls it cuppy.  I know she is trying to say coffee but it comes out in her baby voice cuppy.

Dad is not exempt from her cuppy parties too.







At Christmas I had got the girls a playhouse but there was much stuff then I held it back.  I decided to give it to Faith for her birthday instead.  It was a bear to build!  But it was worth it.  She is really enjoys it and it is the perfect place to play cuppy.





with baby

Her last day to be one!

For two years I have know this day was coming, it does not make it any easier. My oldest daughter my first princess tomorrow is turning two.



It is bitter sweet.  I would not want her to not be growing but she is no longer a tiny baby.



I guess I have not really though of her in a tiny baby since in quite a while but she is still a little girl.  One that has her own opinions, taste, personality, sweetness.  She is wonderful.  I could not love my pretty princess more.



However I still would not go out bike ridding with her today.  It is SO very cold and very windy.  It snowed a little, nothing stuck.  What a start to spring.

Pepas glasses

Ah little one stole his grandfathers glasses.



He is our dear boy.

Our photo bomber.

Doing the Dishes

Oh my goodness with all these kids home the house is even messier than normal.  The fridge is always empty and they are still hungry.  And the dishes oh my are there a lot of dishes.  I am easily doing 2 large loads a day and some by hand.  At least I have the cutest helper.



Who could use a good washing too ;)





I might have complained about the cost of the dish washer but I am so thankful.  I couldn't imagine going back to washing 7 peoples dishes along with all the pots, pans, and bottles by hand anymore.

My BIRTHDAY!

Spring break continues not only for me but for the boys too.  They are on spring break for nearly 2 weeks!  But lucky for me they were home for my birthday.

Yes 1 more year older.  I don't really care I am not that old.  I am not 20, wouldn't want to be.  I am still in my early 30's, I might stay here for a while. Although I would not mind being in my late 20's but I no longer look the part.  Especially with my ever growing kids hanging off me.  They are getting so big I am waiting for people to mistake me for their older sister instead of their mom.  Not likely to happen until I get some sleep.

My birthday was Thursday.  It turned out to be a pretty good day.  I woke up sick...again.  I woke up three times through the night with my eyes so heavily crusted over I could not open them.  My mom told me she had trouble with this too this week after the kids visited and the tiny team did too have trouble with it after we came back form there and now it was my turn.  I started feeling it Wednesday night it hurt so bad.  My eyes throbbed.  My head throbbed.  I held wash clothes to my eyes and wiped out the goop that was forming.  I knew what was in-store   I hope the babies never felt this bad and sorry my mom did.  However it worked a little in my favor.  When we got home from church Wednesday night we watched a movie of MY choice, all of us!  (Except Evan who went to bed mad because he did not want to be around the tiny team, UGH)

I chose We bought a Zoo!



The kids and I had seen this before but only once and their dad had never seen it.  I liked it and had been wanting to watch it again but could never find the time.  It was nice all six of us squished, cuddled on to the couch watching it.

However this time the son in the story shocked me as a resemblance to my son by his hair.  My oldest has been growing his hair out because he does not want his head to be cold this winter, but really he likes it, a lot.  It has been an on going mild struggle with him and the up keep of such long hair on a boy.  We ask him to cut it a few times a week in the morning as we get him ready and off to school but he never wants to.  We have resigned to the pick your battle mentality with it.  After all it is his hair and he likes it.  We just wish it could be trimmed a bit neater.





But this boy could be a big brother of our son.  Can you recognize him elsewhere?  I did not know myself until I looked him up online to get these pictures but he also stars in another movie that is a favorite of mine.  War Horse.  It is an amazing, great, wonderful, just great movie, I loved it!  His name is Colin Ford and he co stars next to a horse in that movies, a few years later.



I strongly suggest you see both.

Anyways, how my painful conjunctive eye problem helped.... every time Gregory said mom are you crying, Again?  I kept replying no, no, it is this eye problem it hurts and its blah blah blah is all he heard and forgot about me crying till the next time.  But I caught him once or twice too.

It made for a late night but that also made for a late morning we all slept in till 8:30!  Hooray that never happens.  It was nice even if I ended up sleeping on the couch because to many kids kept coming in my bed throughout the night as they crowed me out.


I had to go get a new license.  I was not looking forward to it.  Who wants to deal with the DMV or MVA or whatever your state calls it.  I am not sure what PA calls it I think DOL.  I don't know I just know no matter what state you are in they are full of long lines, red tape, and a bunch of paper work.  In PA luckily you renew your licence on line but you have to make an appearance at the photo center to have your new picture took and id verified.  So don't you think it blew my mind when I walked into the center was first in line, seen right away and walked out of there with the whole thing taking no more than 10 minutes!  Unheard of!  There was still a long line for other service but those were not the lines I had to be in, YEAH.

I walked out to the piece of junk rental car I had.  It was a small thing, 4 doors little options, no feeling of security when driving.  I am so very thankful for my big and massive car, suv, and monster truck.  When you drive my vehicles you feel safe you feel like there is substance around you.  I know if I was to get into an accident against this little car it would be over for the car and probably the occupients   This car might not cost much but it is not worth anything, I would never get one for my kids.  In saying that they probably will all end up with convertibles and motorcycles.  However I put $10 in and was amazed! That is a powerful swaying point.  Especially compared to my 12 mpg truck.

Next I went shopping my dear friend Erica.  This is a treat.  I hate going out lately but it was very nice to go out with her and two of her girls.  Mine were all home.  That made it nice too.  Most of the reason I hate going out anymore is all 5 of mine are in car seats of some sort and it takes forever to load them in and out of cars, agh the frustration.  Yes my oldest are 9 and 8 but they still have boaster seats they are a mear 55 pounds.  They are the easiest though.  The rest are in infant seats, and 5 point harness   It was fun and uplifting and so nice to not worry what my kids are pulling down or getting into.  I could step back and laugh at her as hers were doing that.  I forget how much I like adult girl friend time.

And who is going to believe this one but... after I left her and the girls I went to the auto body shop to pick  up my truck and be rid of this crappy caviler.  It was so nice to be safe again.  I was a little distracted when I picked up the truck because I had coffee cups and shopping bags filling my arms I exchanged keys with the lady at the counter and just left, she was a bit distracted too.  It was not till I was almost home that I realized I forgot to pay.  Once home Jay called and the owner who said nope there is no charge don't worry about it!!  Really!  He had fixed our truck for free.  I couldn't believe it, who does that?  What a sweet soul.  It was not a birthday treat, he did not know it was my birthday, he was just kind and I am so thankful.

From then on my birthday went normal as any birthday would expect to be, kids, cake, ice cream, dinner and some presents.  It was a nice day.





Gracie was into the cake :)

Something in the works

Spring Break day 2.  Pretty much as normal as it gets.

But I did one thing super special....

                                               I got us tickets to the circus!

It has been a while since we went.  So long that I had only 2 boys and 1 niece.



These three at the time were 3, 4 and 5.



Tiny little kids.

I remember it being a little long for them but a lot of fun.



Just see how much they loved it!  Actually those jacket weigh so much.  At this point the jackets might have been heavier than the kids.  Plus it was the end of May and so very hot.  They were a bit uncomfortable.

But not as uncomfortable as me who would deliver our sweet Smiley only 14 days later.



SO we have 3 this time that the circus will be new for and I bet they are going to LOVE it!



I bet the older ones will appreciate it again.  I am excited.





Only 2 more months....