Fall Pics

A sampling of our fall pics taken by Lindsey Lissau.

First Belly Pic

First belly pic for those who have requested. Clearly I'm not at home. I'm in DC for a work trip and took this pic in my hotel room with my phone. I'm officially 14 weeks and 2 days along. The nausea is finally starting to subside a bit, thank goodness! Last week was rough, but these past three days have been good ones, so I'm hoping I'm over the hump!

The Name Game

Picking out names for your children. It's something that most girls do at a very young age and it's one of those things you just envision being such a fun process. And maybe for some couples it is, but not for the Nowlins. It's a very long, laborious and exhausting process. It's hours upon hours of me saying "what about X" and James saying "No." Over and over again. It took us months to settle on a name for Case, so I knew going into this process for baby #2 was going to be long and difficult.

There's just so much to consider when picking out a name....Will it stand the test of time? Is it too trendy? Is it too common? Is it too weird? Will other kids be inclined to make fun of it? I mean, it will be with them the rest of their lives. It's a lot of pressure people!

We actually settled on a girl name early on, right after I found out I was preggers. But boy names...ugh, maddening! So, last night I came across a boy name that I liked. It wasn't a new name. It's quite a common name and probably one I've passed by in my 60,000 baby names book a hundred times, but this time it just jumped out at me, so I wrote it down to propose to James. I was prepared for the worst, but what do you know....James liked it and just like that we both said, "Well, that's it then. We have our names." Eureka!!

So boy or girl we are prepared either way with names. Ahhhh.....feels good to have that done.Well first names at least. Now the quest begins for the perfect accompanying middle names. Wish us luck. Oh, and if your interested in the names we have settled on, they are Emery and Isaac . Only five more weeks until we find out the sex and will be able to refer to him or her by name. We can hardly wait!!

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Last night I made a new recipe that I got from Cooking Light via Twitter last week, Chicken Tamale Casserole. It was so super easy and quite tasty. For any readers out there that "don't cook," this one is for you. It's so so so easy and fast, especially if you boil your chicken and pull it a day ahead of time like I did. I whipped this up after work and we were sitting down to eat by 6:15 PM. Please check it on on the Cooking Light website and give it a try. If you have a taste for spicy foods, add some jalapenos to your batter with the first seven ingredients. It would add a good kick! This was just too easy and delicious not to share. And it's not that bad for you!

Cousins

Case loves his cousins. He's fortunate enough to have four of them (all boys), two of which came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. They were just here for the day, so we spent a few hours at the zoo followed by naps and dinner at the house.






We tried to get a good pic of all three boys, but it was difficult to say the least. This is the best one of the bunch! :)

Twinkle Twinkle

Fall Food. Makes. Me. Happy.

Fall. It's my favorite of all seasons for many reasons. One of which is the food that I break out as soon as the weather turns a bit chilly and the time has come. I actually love to cook. I've been feeling so sick these past few weeks I haven't done much cooking but the cool weather this weekend really got me in the mood and I whipped up our first batch of chicken and dumplings of the season and they really hit the spot. I got this recipe from a co-worker of mine several years ago. Thank you, Casey! It's nothing gourmet, you know me. It's simple, yet quite delicious.


What you'll need:

• 1 chicken
• 1 family sized can cream of chicken soup
• 1 package frozen dumplings (In my Kroger, these are with the frozen rolls - they look like big sticks of gum)
• salt
• pepper

Yep, that's it.

• So boil your chicken for about an hour until done and then remove from pot to cool off.
• I pour off about 2 cups of the broth that's left in the pot and set it aside in case I need it later.
• Then add the can of cream of chicken soup to the broth and stir. Bring to boil.
• Add in your dumplings. I usually break each one in half before throwing in.
• From there I just follow the dumpling package instructions - reduce heat, cover pot and let simmer for 45 minutes. Stirring occasionally to keep the dumps from sticking to the bottom.
• By the time it's been 45 minutes, the chicken should be cool enough to pull and add in.
• Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
• If you want soupier dumplings, you can add some of the broth you set aside back in, but I usually don't need it.
  

Like I said, simple, yet delicious and very comforting on a crisp fall night.