Recipes.....PLEASE!

I am in need of some new recipes these days. I have been trying to cook at least 4 days a week and I'm running out of good EASY recipes. I have realized since moving to Tulsa and working farther away from my home by the time I get home (around 5 or after) I don't feel like cooking and don't want to cook something that is going to take hours. So I'm in desperate need of some new recipes. Please, please, please send me your recipes....post them in a comment, or post them on your own blog. Please!

To get you motivated I will post one of my favorite EASY recipes. 

Crispy Parmesan Chicken

1 cup crushed saltine crackers (24 crackers)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

dash of garlic powder

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I usually only do 2 chicken breasts)

1 stick butter, melted

Combine crackers, parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a large ziploc bag. Dip chicken in melted butter and dredge in cracker mixture. Place in a flat baking dish. Drizzle with remaining butter and extra cracker mixture. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

This dish is so easy to make and is a quick clean up...its a great week night dish!

Babette's Snow Day Fun!

This is Babette's first experience with snow. She seems to love it! She has wanted to be outside more today than inside. She does this adorable hop/jump through the snow that I wish I could capture with the camera. Here are a few pictures of her first snow experience.

So I'm obsessed with my dog. At least I can admit it.

Worry Wart Here...

Okay, let me start out by saying that I am probably one of the biggest worriers EVER! This is a trait that I definitely inherited from my father. He might worry a little more than me...might...it's pretty close though. So why all the worry talk you ask?

Yesterday it was forecasted that freezing rain would begin falling in the Tulsa area around noon. And to my surprise it actually did! I was shocked the meteorologists hit it right on the nose this time. Well, I work in a small town outside of Tulsa in a pretty rural area. The only way to get to my school is to go up and down two very steep hills. So when the weather started the school was a buzz about what way to get out of there. This spun me into worry mode. By the time 3:30 had rolled around I was seriously a nervous wreck. I didn't want to leave. Quite frankly, I wanted my hubby or my daddy to come pick me up. But after defrosting my car and talking to Alec on the phone for a while I decided I could make it up the hill. Needless to say, all that worrying was for nothing. It wasn't terrible getting up the hill...it was very slick, but I made it. 

My drive usually takes about 22 minutes but yesterday it turned into an hour. I was actually surprised at how cautious MOST everyone was driving. Except for a select few who need to be taken off the streets altogether. Some people are just idiots in weather like this. By the time I got to Broken Arrow the roads weren't near as bad as they were in Sapulpa which made it easy for me to pull up into my steep driveway just fine. 

Now because I worry so much I had decided not to pick my dog up from my parents house (where she goes most every day I go to work). Instead I decided she would just spend the night and then we would get her today. So we made the journey to pick her up around noon today. On the way there the roads weren't to bad except in my parents neighborhood...seriously it was bad. But we made it there, picked her up, and headed back to BA. On the journey back the freezing rain/sleet had picked up and the streets seemed worse. When we finally got back we started pulling into our shoveled and salted driveway but couldn't make it up into the garage so Alec got out and shoveled a little more and put some more salt down then he tried again and was successful. My little civic is sitting pretty in the garage where it belongs and we are in for the night. All in all I think the civic took the streets on like a champ!

Here are a few quick pictures I took on our drive and a few from our front yard.

Views from the Creek Turnpike on the way to pick up Babette.

Iced over plants in our yard.

Stay warm!

Emerson's 1st Birthday!

I started this blog a few days ago and just now got around to finishing it. 

Last Saturday was my nieces 1st birthday. I have, for some reason, been designated as official family photographer. Normally I love the fact that I am the picture taker in the family but on this day I  was a bit nervous. When we got to Emerson's birthday party...my sister-in-law proceeded to tell me that she was not even going to get her camera out since I was there. What!!! It was her daughters first birthday and she wasn't going to take a single picture! Needless to say that made me a bit nervous and by the end of the party I was sweating bullets! I mean that is a lot of pressure. Although, I was nervous I think I got a few cute shots. But mainly Emerson seemed to be very interested in her older brother during the party so the majority of the pictures are of her smiling/looking his way. 

Here are a few pictures. I took over 200 so I had to pick my few favorites to post.

Ready to dig into those gifts!

More proof that girls love shoes, no matter what the age. This was the first gift she opened and she would not put them down the rest of the day. I love how she is looking so sweetly at her new squeakers.

The birthday girl on her new polka dotted chair.

See the shoes?

Alec's favorite picture.

Has everyone seen my new shoes yet???

She's on the move.

Pay attention to me! I'm the birthday girl!

A girls 1st birthday is just not complete without a tutu these days.

 Happy!

Sometimes it is just necessary to cut out the gigantic bows.

Her Birthday Princess hat.

Her little cake, hat, and bib.

The big cake for everyone else made by Emerson's mom.

She really loves cake.

I was going to upload a few more of her eating the cake. Then I decided you've probably seen enough and if you made it this far you are completely bored.

After her party we went to her 7 year old brothers basketball game which was fun/funny to watch. Man, some parents are a little to intense. I'm just saying.

6 AM Saturday Morning

Well its 6:00 Saturday morning and I can't sleep anymore. So since there is nothing on TV and I'm to tired to read I thought a blog would be appropriate. Although I really have nothing to blog about. Here is a picture of what I would rather be doing.

She really is sleeping even though her eye is open. We catch her like this a lot.

A view from above.

24...The Birthday, Not The Show

24.

Not the most exciting. Especially considering hardly any of my friends remembered it and only 1 of my coworkers did. 

But as sad as that sounds I did have a good birthday! My students made my day so special (they really know how to make a girl feel good) and I had a great dinner at one of my favorite restaurants with my family (oh and cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory....yum, yum)! My Hubby was wonderful and got me flowers and this floor lamp that I have been talking about for 3 years now. Then he took me to a fabulous restaurant on Saturday called Mahogany's. I have only been there 3 times so it was definitely a special treat!

Christmas Break

A little long and a little late, my Christmas Break (in a nutshell)...

On New Years Day my best friend Christiane came to Tulsa just to see me and we had a wonderful visit. We went to a movie (which I will not disclose because Christiane is a little embarrassed and doesn't want the whole blogger world to know her absolute love for this movie). Then we sat at Starbucks for a few hours just talking and catching up. Then it was off to my house for some black eyed peas and cornbread! She is such a blessing!

The day after Christmas some high school friends and their hubby's came to our house for a little get together. This seems to be turning into somewhat of a tradition. Its always nice to see old friends and catch up on life especially around the holiday season.

On Christmas Eve we had Christmas with Alec's family. It's always fun to watch our nephews open their gifts. While eating dinner all we heard was "can we open gifts yet?" they were so cute. This year was also very special because it was our nieces first Christmas. 

After gifts Avery and Kaleb decided to beat Alec up a bit...

Emerson loves cake

Such a happy girl

Her first Christmas gift

We had Christmas at my parents house on the 23rd. We had a great time. Although it was a bit sad because we thought my aunt, uncle, and cousins from Virginia were going to be coming but ended up that they couldn't. Then my Grammy decided to go spend Christmas with them in VA so it was pretty quiet around the Roberts household this Christmas. Button, button just wasn't the same. 

One of my beautiful gifts. My mom wraps some of the prettiest 

presents I've ever seen. 

I aspire to be like her some day.

Alec opening his new workbench

Searching for the pickle...My sis-in-law found it, again. 

Welp, maybe next year.

Me, mom, and my sis-in-law, Bekah

My brothers and I

Me and my Daddy