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 :-)