Chicken Pitas

I guess I should follow along and post a recipe for Wed! :-) I've had a lot of people ask for the chicken pita recipe, and it is so absolutely simple and yummy, you guys will be surprised! I won't look so impressive anymore! haha

1-2 cans of white chicken chunks
brocoli, cauliflower, carrots & any other veggie you feel would taste good, chopped/diced
equal parts of mayo & ranch dressing
Pita pockets or tortillas work too

mix all together and just add mayo and dressing until you feel it's to the consistancy you like. That's it!!!

Random facts about James

He has really, great, soft hands
He HATES his hands to be dirty. I mean, he's totally freakish about it! He has to wash them immediately after eating
He doesn't let anyone touch his face, especially after he's washed it in the evening. (sometimes he'll let the babies or Lex, or me if I'm lucky!)
He gives the best massage you'll ever have
He is very thorough when he takes a shower, he never takes a quick one. He has to get every inch just perfectly, and in the same order!
He's just as thorough when he dries off!
He gets very cranky if he hasn't eaten
He has to get to family gatherings ON TIME bcuz he's worried all the food will be gone!
He has an obsession playing with hair. It started as a baby with his mom's and has now moved on to me!
He had bells palsy at the age of 23
He was a great football player but blew out his knee his senior yr in H.S.
His # was 51
He's had 3 knee surgeries
He has great legs!
He's taken gross anatomy
He was SO patient with Steven & really loved taking him under his wing.
He & Kaelsy talked almost every day when he was selling auto glass for us at U of Px
He is always trying to help people make $ and achieve their dreams
He has passed MANY kidney stones, one of which happened when we had only known each other for a month! He was puking in my bathroom ;-(
He HAS to have his back tickled at: the movies, church and at night
He has this laugh that he does when he farts & I make a huge deal about it, where he crinkles up his nose & kind of throws his head back...it's quite funny
He stayed in the hospital with me for 6 nights when the twins were born
He came to the hospital with me for 2 weeks while the twins stayed in the NICU, and did "Kangaroo Care" every day (where the babies are in just a diaper and you hold them on your bare chest covering them with your shirt)
He was adorable doing kangaroo care with his hairy chest, and the twins seemed to actually love it
He still made me feel beautiful and loved even when I was swollen like Mr. Stay puffed marshmallow man!
He LOVES to get the mail-It's like a kid at Christmas time! He can't wait to get through the door to open it up
He has a certain blanket that he sleeps with, it's one aunt Eileen made for our wedding. He has slept with it for 6 1/2 yrs!
He wants to buy a lamborghini
He loves the previews at the movies
He likes Ariel from the Little Mermaid
He loves pens- he collects them from wherever...the bank, work, appointments etc. He'll sometimes come home with 6-7 pens in his pocket!
He's very sentimental and documents everything with pictures.
He likes to cuddle when he's half asleep. He'll almost always reach for me :-)

Tag I'm it...

Ok, I guess I've been tagged. I'm the last of the bunch to do this, so hopefully I will sound original!

1. My bed is my favorite place on the planet!!! I LOVE to sleep, which is one reason I love my bed, but it is just SO comfortable. It is where I feel the most secure, the most peaceful (besides the temple of coarse) and the most happy. Strange, I know, but true. :-) It's almost like my security blanket in a way!

2. I love to sing. I almost always have a song in my head that I am singing, or humming to myself. I sing in the shower when no one is around and always sing in the car when I'm alone and sometimes even sing when I feel brave and other people are around! I am not the best at it, but I always wanted to be a singer. When I was 2 or 3 my mom said I would use anything I could find as a microphone and would sing all the time. I secretly envy people that can sing and dance. (i.e. Christina Aguilara sp?, anyone in the Pussycat Dolls, J.Lo., etc...)

3. I have always wanted to do one of two things in life: become a doctor (an obstetrician or a brain surgeon, random I know..& no! this doesn't have anything to do with my obsession with Dr. McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy) or a defense attorney. I have always said I would go to Harvard. I have talked about this since I was quite young. I may end up doing this someday when my kids are grown, who knows! I haven't decided yet which one I will be when I grow up! haha

4. I am one of the most touchy feely people you can ever imagine. I LOVE hugs, holding hands, kisses, locking arms, cuddling...you name it! I absolutely am in heaven having twins. There is nothing better than to be able to just goober all over your baby! The beauty of having twins is that when one of them gets so sick of you gooing all over them, you have another one to goo on! Isn't that great?! I bet you are all jealous. When I go to sleep, I stick my hand in James' arm sleeve...just for human contact while I fall asleep. You are really going to think I'm strange now! haha... Anyways, being affectionate is VERY important to me.

5. I danced for 15 years, since I was 3 years old. That's almost half my life! I have always loved music and dancing and can actually almost feel the rhythm running through my blood. I think I may get back into it, just for fun. I miss being flexible and toned and just being able to move my body the way I want without looking retarded! I guess that's what 5 kids will do to ya, and also being out of it for 15 yrs doesn't help either! Which kind of leads me to my # 6

6. I am extremely competitive!! I may not show this side of me, but believe me, it's definitely there! I loved competing with dance. It was something that I really enjoyed doing and it was such a rush to be up on stage competing against other people & performing for an audience. I did group dances as well as solos and duets. I actually did a solo once where I sprained my ankle when I landed wrong doing a leap and was in so much pain I sort of blacked out but kept on dancing. I didn't remember a single step to the rest of my dance, but apparently improvised and finished the dance. The second the dance was over and I went to go off the stage I couldn't walk one more step on my ankle. I was competing against another girl from my studio and I actually took 1st place! I actually felt really bad because I had beat the other girl from my studio, but was happy at the same time! I think I get this trait from my dad. We cannot play cards with him, he is so annoyingly competitive! If he looses, he still says, "I won in my mind!", which totally takes away from your victory. I am competitive with my children too. With Blake's football games, I get so nervous because I want them to win. Tori's dance competitions are both torture and fun at the same time. James and I cannot play games together for this reason. We are both too competitive! Now with that being said, I am NOT a poor looser. I am very competitive, but I am a good sport about loosing and won't pout (for too long anyways!)

7. I want to be on Oprah. I, like Aleia, haven't decided what my life's' purpose is yet. I want a passion, something that I can put my heart and energy into and actually make a difference in this world. Then I want to be on Oprah. I know this sounds like I am copying Aleia, but I read hers and thought, "that's exactly what I think about every day!" I have a few ideas about things I would like to do:

Open a homeless shelter

Run a rehab facility, either for substance abuse or mental illness. A good, quality one for people that can't necessarily afford it or don't have insurance, because there is such a lack of them for people like this.

Open an adoption agency or a baby rescue agency. I saw this on Oprah the other day in her show called "Cheers to you". A lady had opened an agency, or more like an 800 # type of deal where women could call if they were pregnant and didn't know what to do with their babies. It would save the children who may have otherwise been put in a dumpster or left somewhere because the mothers didn't know what to do with them and panicked.

Do some sort of make a wish program or some cool facility for children with cancer.

Open a domestic violence shelter for women & children.
Anyways, it's not just about being on Oprah of coarse, I really do want to help people in some way and want to feel good about leaving this life knowing that I made a difference! I love being a mother of coarse, but I feel like there's something else that I need to be doing as well. I hope I figure it out soon!

8. I am extremely unorganized. WOW!!! What a surprise you're saying? I know, I know. I'm shocking most of you out there. But really, seriously...I hate to clean! I hate doing laundry (or actually folding it and putting it away), I hate picking things up that other people have left out, I always have clutter on the counters, especially in my bathroom. I have this "collection" of books, papers, magazines, you name it, on my side of the bed that really drives James insane! I always have clothes laying on the floor in my closet, I just really hate to hang them up or put them in my drawers! I hate filing papers or organizing my cupboards or closets. I guess it's because I'm a little A.D.D., so when I sit in an area that is a little disorganized I just freak out. It's like my mind literally can't handle all the chaos that I see and I just freeze and zone out! I could really use people like Meagan or my sister on a regular basis to just keep my house organized! (hint hint!)With that being said, I LOVE to make lists! I have notebook after notebook of lists to help me get organized, but never actually make it past making the list. I purposely buy really cool notebooks (I have a sort of obsession with this) and really cool pens to make my lists (also an obsession) and have so many lists I couldn't even begin to count. This is all part of my "collection" on the side of my bed!

Ok, did I bore you to death? Boy, I am really trying to make up for lost time in the past 6 months! It will take you all a year to read everything! haha!

U-unique talent

I guess I forgot that I kind of do have a talent, although it may not be unique or the best talent to have!
I can drive, text on my cell phone, talk to whoever is in the car with me, make a bottle and put on my makeup all at the same time! haha

A-Z

A-Z Nicole!

A-age: 32 (uggh)
B-bed size King: (couldn't have anything less!)
C-chore I hate to do: mopping
D-dessert I love: chocolate lava cake
E-essential to start the day: watching about 5 minutes of t.v. (sad hu?)
F-Favorite actor(s): BRAD PITT, George Clooney, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Patrick Dempsey
G-Gold or Silver: Gold (but it has to be white!)
H-Height: 5'9"
I-instruments: I can plunk at the piano, flute in high school
J-Job title: MOM, housekeeper, chef, taxi, counselor, tutor, cheerleader, nurse
K-Kids: Blake, Victoria, Alexis, Sienna, Kaelsy
L-Living arrangements: 6 bedrooms, office, 4500 sq ft of mess!
M-month: December, I LOVE Christmas
N-Nickname: Nic (no pun intended), foofee (when I was little)
O-Overnite hosp stay: Unfortunately I had 3 while pregnant with the twins aside from the delivery :-(
P-Phobia: spiders, water/drowning, hard candy/choking, spit (like meagan!)
Q-Quotes: Life is not measured by the amount of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breathe away.
R-right or left handed: Right
S-Siblings: 2, Denise & Dar
T-Tatoo: Am I the only one here that has any?? I have 3. If you don't know where they are, GOOD!
U:Unique Talent: Hmmm, I don't really have any!
V-Veggie I hate: not a fan of brussel sprouts
W-Worst habit: Do I have to pick just one? James would say leaving my stuff out all over the floor & counters!
X-part of body I would xerox: my foot (everyone else said hand!)
Y-Yummy food I make: everyone seems to like my guacamole or chicken pitas
Z-Zodiac sign: Pices

Tori's dance competition

Here's a video of Victoria's dance competition from a few months ago. It's really, really hard to see, so sorry about the quality! It's all I have for now! She is usually in the front, on the right side or in the middle.

Back to life

Ok everyone! I feel like I have been in a bubble for the last 6 months!! I am finally ready to re-enter the wonderful world of blogging. I feel like I have been missing out on so much! You guys have started all these fun, new things...fill me in on the latest would ya?!

Ok, for starters I guess I will write a bit about what has been going on the last few months...

We have had 2 miscarriages, one round of plastic surgery (yea for Nicole & thank you to Meagan for helping!), two little twins that have turned into "monsters", lots and lots of dance competitions & practices (Tori gets Golds!), football games & practices (Blake scores a touchdown!), James starting a "new" profession & training (insurance), one trip to Boston, Nicole turns 32 (UUUGGGHHH), Blake turns 13 (AAHHHHH), plans for starting our new house, plans for starting new townhouses in Springerville and one form of illness or another spreading throughout our nice family of 7!! Doesn't that sound fun? Aren't you jealous???? haha
I don't know if I have any pictures uploaded yet, I have been REALLY bad about taking them since we have been so busy. I will work on that and also work on updating my blog since I have to compete with everyones high tech ones now! Fill me in on all the fun and please check back as I will be keeping up on my blog from now on!
Hope everyones doing well and healthy and happy :-)

Blake's new "Do"

What do you think of Blake's new do? Do you think he'll get some cute chicks with this???? We're hoping NOT!

Lexie's Recital, Christmas chaos

Lexie & Faith had their Christmas dance recital on Dec 16th. They did so good! Lexie was in 3 dances this year. She probably needed a little bit more practice, but did good for her first time doing more than one dance! We had the Longhurst Christmas party at Josh and Meagan's after, which is always fun. Everyone has a great sense of humor, and it's always fun to play the white elephant gift game. They took a picture of all the babies and then all of the kids (under 12), which was pretty amazing. I didn't realize how many kids there were, and they weren't all even there!

Getting ready for Christmas is always crazy. I hate shopping (yes, I know you're all shocked) and get so stressed out about what to even get kids that have everything. I hate crowds and never plan very well. (except for last year when I did all my shopping online in October while I was on bedrest!) Anyway, I'm about done, just a few more gift certificates and we'll be set. Blake and Tori leave on Sunday around 4, so that kind of stinks. We'll get together with my family on Sat and then do our little family on Sun before they leave. We'll miss everyone in Eagar. It's just hard to go up sometimes and have to come back the next day. I haven't been feeling well for quite some time, so that doesn't help either. It's hard, when you get to a certain age, it's kind of nice to have Christmas at your own house and be able to relax and let the kids enjoy their presents. It's ok to celebrate Christmas on a different day! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and stuffs themselves crazy with cookies and whatever else you have baked (or been given!) I have been trying out some new recipes, which I'm so excited about. I have NEVER been able to bake worth crap, so the things I've made this week have actually turned out decent and I couldn't be happier! I made fudge, gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies so far. And lots of muffins for the kids. Anyway, enough rambling...I'll put up some pictures when Christmas is over!

Random thoughts...

I forgot to say that the second picture of Sienna here is of her looking at Kaelsy when she was wailing about not liking her cake! It was quite funny!
Is anyone done Christmas shopping yet? Is anyone else having a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year? I haven't even started shopping and I'm feeling really overwhelmed. I have been sick with this cold/cough for like 3 weeks now, it's getting old. I just feel tired all the time! (hu, maybe it's because I have 5 kids?) I don't know how Heather does it...her kids are alot closer in age than mine are and she's brave enough to have 3 more join their family!
Blake has his first band concert tonight. He plays the trumpet. Should be interesting...from the way he plays at home, oh boy, are we in for some night! haha. I'll take a picture if I remember! Lexie's Christmas dance recital is this Sat. She is doing 3 dances in it. I'm quite excited and a little nervous, that's a lot to remember for her age! She just added a hip hop class and a private lesson, so now she'll do 4 dances in the June recital. She really loves dance. She is quite the natural at it too.
More later!

Sienna's taste

Sienna wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake, I don't think they realized that they could eat it! Neither of them liked the feel of the frosting on their hands.

The cake drama

Ready...set...go!
Ok, Kaelsy is really not into this...
Now she's REALLY mad!
Finally she gets a taste of the chocolate and settles down!

The big 1st birthday bash

Guess Kaelsy didn't feel like wearing the cute hat Sariah made!
time to loose the clothes and eat some cake!

Best Sisters
Lexie's snow angel
Lexie & the beautiful Cascade Lake
Twins playing peek-a-boo

More pics

The girls decided to do "makeovers" for James & Grandpa. Papa with his girls...Lexie and her new friends...& Tori and her constant companion for the week!

Turkey day & Bday pics

Lexie and her first snowball (I think it's her first?), best cousins Tori & Whitley, the snowman & Blake & his new friend having a snowball fight! My only regret is that we didn't get the twins in the snow. It was just so cold!!! The Phoenix weather has really thinned my blood. And to think, I'm a true blooded Minnesotan! (can you hear the accent?)

Thanksgiving, twins 1st birthday and so on

Well, looks like I have a ton to catch up on! I haven't even dowloaded our pictures from Thanksgiving yet...life is always so crazy busy.
We went to Cascade, Idaho for Thanksgiving. We left on Monday and came home the next Monday. It was like a 19 hr drive each way. A lot more than I bargained for! With 5 kids in the car, were we CRAZY???? Anyway, Andy's family has a cabin up there and so part of his family came and Connie & Homer and Sariah & Andy and our family. There were so many kids in that cabin! It was so fun for all of the kids. Even Blake, who normally doesn't have anyone even near his age to hang out with, had quite a few boys to play with all week. All of Andy's family cooks, and they are FANTASTIC cooks I should add, so we had NO shortage of food the entire week. Everything was home made and wonderful. There were so many pies I didn't even know where to start! The twins had their 1st Birthday on Thanksgiving. I will put some pics up tomorrow. Sienna was so so on eating her cake, but Kaelsy wanted no part of it. It was like she was scared of it! She's usually the little piggy too, so I was surprised that she didn't demolish it. I'm so sad that they're 1 now. My little babies are growing up...
They both have ear infections now and need breathing treatments for their coughs/weezing. Lexie is on treatments now too. She has had asthma problems since she was a baby, only when she gets sick luckily. Hopefully she won't have problems when she dances or in gym class or running etc when she's older. I don't think she will. Anyway, we're having lots of fun here with all these sick kids! More tomorrow...

Victoria's 1st competition

Tori had her first dance competition for the year. They did really good and took 1st place. Now, apparantly a lot of groups took 1st in their category...they go off of how many points you get and then place you in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on. So out of like 5 groups, 4 of them took 1st! Kind of different from when I was growing up and competing. Tori has been taking 6 one hour classes per week PLUS an hour and a half of private instruction once a week to get her technique down. She has improved SO much in the last two months, I can't wait to see how she is by the end of the year! Here's a few pics from her competition and a pic of Lexie's "thanksgiving" outfit from pre-school. (that's what she called it)

The last few weeks haven't been buckets of fun, but I guess that comes with the territory (of having 5 kids and a busy schedule!). I ended up getting pretty sick for over a week, then the twins and Lexie have colds/coughs and Tori was sick for a day too. We are supposed to be going to Idaho this next week, so hopefully everyone is better by Monday morning! UGH, I don't know...thinking about being in the car with these stinkers for 16-17 hrs isn't sounding real appealing right now! No, seriously...it should be fun. I can't wait to see my new nephew, Tanner, and visit with Sariah and her family. I wish we lived closer.

Tori got straight A's on her progress report. She got straight A's on her report card last quarter. I keep forgetting to ask Blake for his report...must not be too good if he hasn't offered it up! haha

Sienna just started shaking her head no, and she'll do it over and over and over with the straightest face! It's hilarious. She has been taking quite a few steps on her own, she just looks so adorable when she's doing it, with her arms stretched out in front of her. She just needs a tad bit more confidence, because she's already got the balance down. I can't believe they're going to be one this week. They still seem like babies to me. Kaelsy has started throwing "fits" and is quite fiesty! If she has something in her mouth and I start digging around, she'll get really mad and push my hand away, arch her back and then spaz out and try to bite me! I swear, she thinks she's a boy sometimes. It's so fun to watch them develope and grow and interact with each other. I could just sit and watch them all day!

More Halloween pics

Happy Halloween

The pics from left to right...
Kaelsy & Sienna, the "ducks" fighting with Kaelsy on top, Lexie as cinderella, Kaelsy with her pumpkin and Sienna with hers. James made the pumpkins with the tooth on the correct side for each of the twins. They both only have one tooth on top and they are on opposite sides of each other. Kind of funny. Maybe they will turn out to be what they call "mirror twins". They are identical, but one would be left handed, one would be right, one would have a freckle or something on one side, the other twin would have one on the opposite etc. The kids had a lot of fun for halloween. We carved pumpkins the night before and that night we took the girls out. Blake didn't dress up because none of his friends did. He came out with us for a bit and then went to a friends to hang out and they went through the neighborhood and got some candy without even dressing up! Tori was a "spider countess"...which we're still not really sure what that is! The twins had fun trick or treating. We had them in their double stroller, the side by side one, and they had death grips on their buckets and were digging around to see what they got! They've never had candy before, but they sure seemed to know that whatever was in their bucket was fantastic! We gave them each a sucker when we got home and they were in heaven!! They were the hit of the neighborhood, all 4 of our beautiful girls. (I am allowed to say that right, even though they are my kids???)