Ragu

So I was chosen on my favorite #crowdtap to sample a whole bottle of Ragu Pasta Sauce for free!
I'll be completely honest and say we are a prego family through and through. So as much as I wanted to get a traditional sauce and compare I was feeling up for something completely different and grabbed a jar of Alfrado! I was super excited, since I LOVE me some alfrado pasta!

I chunked some chicken and sauteed it in a pan until it was cooked through. Meanwhile I cooked some pasta, and drained it when it was done. I dumped some of the alfrado sauce in a pan and chopped up some fresh broccoli and put it in the pan with the chicken. I heated it up and added the pasta! Everybody loved it and asked for more! Thanks #RaguSauceMasters we had an amazing #NewTraDish and #crowdtap!!!!

Traditions.............

So in catching up in all my blog reading lately one of my favorite topics is how you and your family celebrate Christmas and the Birth of our Savior. My other favorites are when people post pictures of all thier Christmas decorations. I found a picture of our tree all decorated from last year, of course I don't have one this year as I don't have a house. So my tree, stockings, nativity scene, and beautiful wreath are all packed away until Next November :( I am seriously considering having Christmas in like July or August just so I get my stuff out and decorate and take pictures (and having my OWN kitchen w/ all my bake/cookwear and baking Holiday goodies!). But I don't suppose 95 degree Nebraska weather will be very festive huh? I digress..........so I'll go on and on about my family and our wonderful Christmas traditions.

This honestly is my favorite time of year. I LOVE it. I start at the beginning of November by listening to some great local radio stations that play Christmas music 24/7 until December 26th. It's so great! I love going to the stores and seeing garland and trees up with red bows. Oh it puts me in a great mood and motivates me to shop early and get everything out of the way so I can enjoy it. I LOVE decorating, putting up the tree, silvery candles, pine cones, oh I love it all! One of my favorite things in this season to do is to go around various neighborhoods and look at Christmas lights while playing Manheim Steamroller on the car cd player. Seriously it's like the greatest thing ever. My Dad used to do it to us when we were little and you better believe I am going to drag my kids out in their jammies and do it to them to! Steve hasn't quite caught on to this Becky Tradition but we'll get him there no worries!

So on to actual Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Now first of all you must know that Christmas Eve is one of the greatest days EVER of all time. Why you ask? Because that is the day my Daddy was born. He hates this. More then the plague. Growing up as a child he got the shaft and would get Christmas presents wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper that people would try to pass off as Birthday presents. This did NOT go over well. I specifically remember him telling us that his Grandma would send him socks, underwear and t-shirts every single year from California for his Birthday/Christmas present combined. So if we're feeling extra feisty one year somebody will buy him some socks and underwear. It's pretty hilarious to see the expression on his face. Anyways, so it's a VERY big deal we get him separate presents wrapped in BIRTHDAY wrapping paper nothing even slightly resembling Christmas wrapping :) We celebrate his Birthday in the afternoon and give him presents and do whatever he requests. lol he can be quite demanding! Anyways, then Christmas eve night is our BIG family Christmas night. It's super fun and special! We usually go to somebody's church (my parents go to a different church then me and my sis and brother) for the Christmas Eve candle lit service which I just LOVE. Nothing says Christmas like praising God with our voices of praise! It usually makes me cry (I am such a freaking emotional person even non pregnant) and puts me in such a great mood! Then we go home and have Mommy's home made cream of potato soup. Oh my it's amazing. I think if there were one year we didn't have it I would cry my eyes out. It's been our staple Christmas Eve food for over 20 years. I love it! The fixins' with the soup can change but the soup MUST be present. Even my extra super picky Hubby is in love w/ Mommy's potato soup! Lately the fixings have been a scrumptious jello salad, relish trey, and ham sandwiches. Oh my it's so amazing! Add the welch's sparkling grape juice and call me good to go! I LOVE it! Probably the best and my most favorite night of food all year. Seriously people. So we eat and shove our faces, by low lighting and candles mind you, I LOVE it. And then we all help clean up quickly so we can go and open all our presents! It's fun usually Dad puts on the ugly ol Santa hat and hands out the gifts. It always starts of one person at a time going and everybody else watches but after a couple minutes we get tired of that and we're all opening things at the same time. But I LOVE it cuz Dad always wants to know what everybody gets (it's so great, he bought it less then 2 weeks ago, wrapped it and has already forgotten what it is. Seriously cracks us up he has to see what your opening and wants to know what it is like he hasn't seen it before. Then maybe he will remember it's so cute I love how excited he gets it totally wears off on us kids). It's pretty fun. After presents we hang out and gather up all the trash and play/look at all our great loot!

On Christmas day we're pretty lazy, we sleep in, don't get dressed until like noon and then eat a big meal. Honestly Christmas Day isn't a big deal for my Family we do everything mainly on Christmas Eve. Last year me and Steve stayed home and opened presents we got each other, ate some left overs and I think I made a nice dinner and we watched movies and took naps. It was lovely. Some years Mom will make a big ham lunch and we'll go over and sometimes she doesn't it all just depends. Is any of this making sense or am I all over the place?? Anyways, so yeah Christmas Eve is special and I LOVE it and I LOVE my family and being with them and I LOVE that we celebrate the Savior's Birth!! Being pregnant myself I can only imagine how Mary was feeling, in pain, cold, on a Donkey, and had to go to a smelly cold barn and deliver her Baby with only her Husband there for support and help. How scary! But seeing that Baby and knowing how special he was and still is made it all go away I'm sure :) I am so so thankful!

This year is going to be WAY different. I'm really sad. It turns out that my Mom has to WORK on Christmas Eve :*( This is a major deal. Ha. Not really she only has to work like 1/2 a shift and will be off by 7 but it's still sad. She has promised to make the potato soup and keep it on low on the stove so we can eat it before she gets home and then she will join us when she gets off work. Also it turns out that Brian's (BIL) family is getting together Christmas Eve and they are going to go over and celebrate with him. It's fine I will just miss Sissy and her Hubby Christmas Eve! So our night will start out with me, Steve, Dad, and Andy meeting at my church to see the Christmas program. I have been teaching a couple girls every Sunday night since Early September 3 Christmas songs. I am so proud of these girls and their beautiful voices singing praises to God. I LOVE it! I am sooooooo excited to see them up there in front of the whole sanctuary singing their voices out! It should be quite entertaining :) They are so cute. So after church the 4 of us will go home and eat and hopefully Mom will be home soon! Then I think we will just hang out and maybe watch tv or relax or wahtever! Then we will have a big lunch and open all the presents Christmas Day. This is weird to me but I am going with it cuz I want everybody to be there together when we do! I'm sure Steve will give me a present Christmas eve seeing as how the boy can not wait at all. LOL.

Another cool tradition we started last year was that each person in the family has to buy a $5 gift and wrap it. We each start out with a present in hand, doesn't matter what it is just 1 present for each person. Dad reads The Christmas Story from the Bible and every time he says a certain word like IT or AND (it has to be a common word not something weird that won't be said very often) and you pass the present to the person sitting to your right every time the word is said. By the end of the story you open your present! We had to fudge a little last year and switch so we didn't open what you bought. DUH. It's super fun and we laughed the entire time and got to hear the real Christmas story!

So yeah we're really not as traditional as I thought we were some things are flexible but we always make sure to be together and always eat our potato soup ;) I LOVE this time of year and hearing your stories. So tell me! Wither it was growing up, what you do w/ your spouse/kids now, if you get together with family it's all special and I love to know! I like stealing other people's ideas for our family as it grows I want to pass along some of these great things to our children and cherish the memories forever!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Our tree, stockings, and nativity scene in 2006. Blah HATE the bare white walls so boring! (also notice there is a missing tree skirt. Yeah the Dog chewed it up and I was NOT happy)

Tree in '07. More ornimates, a new tree, a SKIRT!, and lots of presents. Oh I miss it! I think next year I am going to do red instead of all the blue what do you think??

Are you ready for some football??

So I realize this post will be boring for the minus 3 readers I have but I want to write these things down and post pictures before my scrambled pregnant brain forgets it all. Ha.
On Oct 25th I had the utmost pleasure of getting to experience a Husker Football game. Oh my y'all do NOT understand how red my blood is and how much I love this football team. Ha it's pretty pathetic actually. Back in the day when I was a cute lil teenager (and even pre teen) I would cover my cheeks in husker rub on tattoos, put on my #21 (I won't tell you who #21 was but my was he beautiful, still is actually) anywho, I would get my pom poms (don't judge) and watch the football game. My trademark was to see how much I could eat through out the entire game. I remember Oranges were always a staple for some reason. Maybe the Orange Bowl had something to do w/ it? Who knows. Anyway I am way off track back to last month.........seriously a month ago feels like last weekend!!!
I piled Brother Andy, Sister Natalie and her Hubby in my Monica (my vehicle a whole 'nother post) and drove the crazy 45 minutes to Lincoln. Found our lot for FREE parking (I have connections don't ask it might not be legal but I have yet to get caught! HA!) and walked the long walk to the stadium. Oh my I love the sights, smells, people on a Husker Football Saturday. It's the greatest thing ever!!! After my sister won some free loot from a local radio station we got to the stadium and waited in line to be let in the stadium. I hadn't been to a regular season game in about 9 years and how I missed it! The Stadium had changed a lot over the last couple years. New big screens, new seats, oh it was so beautiful to me! It was a GORGEOUS day and me and Andy sure enjoyed our awesome seats right under the uprights. It was awesome! Of course I ate my red hot dog and people watched and played attention to the game a lil ;) It was a great day and I hope to carry on the tradition that is Husker Nation with my children! Thanks for going Brother it was a great day!
Of course the game was followed by a DELICIOUS meal at DaVinci's. Yum!

Here are some highlights in picture with an explanation cuz there are of course no action shots of the game just the crazy weirdos that sat by us! Ha. So entertaining I must say.

A cool view of the stadium but honestly if I was blooger/computer/picture savvy I would put arrows pointing to Sister Natalie and Hubby :( sad you'll just have to believe me that they are sitting there somewhere holding a balloon and wearing red. HaAwesome new screens. Woohoo we're big time now!
The most awesomest band EVER
Cheerleaders, band and sea of Red screaming for their team about to come out of the "Tunnel walk" so so awesome you just HAVE to be there to understandA huge banner the crowd waves as the team comes out on the field. So awesome but hard to read
Brother bein cheesyAgain if I was cool I would point out what is so exciting in this pic but there is a boy wearing a "CornHead" and he has a huge feather stuck in the top. Not sure why but we found this to be VERY humorous
The GREATEST part of my day. (well, after the fact that he Huskers won, had DaVinci's and a Caramel Apple) This man showed up in his tan fishing hat, yellow coat and put ear plugs in. WTF? He sat there for the entire game and showed no emotion what-so-ever. It was even more greater (not proper grammar. Don't judge) was when his weird wife showed up and they ate oranges. Who eats oranges AT a game? Peel on the bleachers and everything! Soooooo weird yet soooooooooo entertaining. Me and Brother were DYING laughing.

We ran into the band walking in the street when we were on the way back to our car. It was pretty awesome to be that close to them! Love them!!!!

So all in all it was a fantastic day I know I will never forget! I hope my Bean enjoyed the game in utero and feeling crazy Mom jumping and screaming like a mad woman :) Love me some Huskers!

An oldie but a goody

So I was cleaning off my myspace blog page and I came across this old one. I wrote it when I was a Nanny 2 jobs ago :( Miss that job NOT the family. Ha. Anywho edited it a little b/c of certin content (email me for ? on that if you wish) So anyways ode to Becky and her beef stew expierances:
**Side note #1- for refrences purposes this was written last March before we were married.

So as everybody knows I am a pretty domestic person. I am a full time nanny, meaning I have to care and clean up after 3 kids, 40+ hours a week. I clean the house, cook the meals, and wipe snotty noses (among wiping other things!). I love to clean, be organized, and cook and bake. I told Steve one day I am a horrible Fiancée I need to learn to cook better. I totally go for boxed things or even better frozen skillet things that you just brown on the stove top. But I can't like make a lasagna from scratch or anything. Of course he reassured me he LOVES my cooking and even brags to his co-workers about it! So I decided I was going to make him home-made-from-scratch beef stew. One of his favorite meals of all time. With dumplings even. So I go and I print the recipe off Betty crocker's website, go to the store and buy the special meet, bay leaves, carrots, stewed tomatoes, and red potatoes. Little did I know I needed to buy a pan. So I decide I am gonna make it one night, put it in the fridge over night, reheat it the next night and make the dumplings (it took 3 1/2 hours to bake so dinner wouldn't have been ready until after 9). Sounds good right? I start reading the recipe and it says to put it in a "dutch oven" wtf? Clearly something I did not own. (I had to ALSO look THAT up online and it's a big cast iron pot. I registered for one on Target! lol) So I decided I would use my handy dandy pasta pot cuz it looked similar to the picture of this "dutch oven" I saw on google. Of course it's me though and I did NOT pay attention to the fact that the lid had a plastic handle. Oops. The pot was in the oven at 325 degrees for 2 hours. I tried to open it to stir it and the pot holder melted to the lid. Oops! So I am cracking up and frantically call my Mom (who says I am retarded. Well she raised me!) and she said to take the lid off and put foil on it. So I did much better. So the lid is cooling and the stew is still cooking. So I decide I don't want to put it in the fridge w/ just foil (cuz God love him but knowing Steven he would SET something on top of the foil and it would end up in the stew. Seriously it would happen) on so I put the lid back on. NOT a smart idea Becky. Since it's a pasta pot it has a strainer in the lid (little holes) so you can dump the pot upside down over the sink and drain the water out of your spaghetti. It works GREAT for Spaghetti but not so great for beef stew in the oven for 3 1/2 hours. :( So since it's a strainer it has to lock in place. So I put it in the fridge w/ the handle melted lid and lock it. The next day I take it out to heat it on the stove top and make the dumplings. I can NOT get the lid off. The melted handle got to cold in the fridge and shrunk and fell off the top. So I have to jack it off with a fork in the strainer holes. Classic huh? Meanwhile I am trying to use my new MP3 player which I do NOT know how to use. Put the 2 together and you get me throwing silver wear across the kitchen stomping my foot like the 2 1/2 year old kid I nanny for saying f bombs every 2 seconds. LOL. It was quite amazing. So I get the lid off and go to heat it up. I end up burning the bottom of the stew so it smells like road kill on fire in our house. Lovely! The dumplings turned out awesome which was like the only thing edible at this point. Haha. So yeah then when I am trying to get out what parts of it I can to save for Steve and I come across a SCREW. Yes a SCREW was cooked in my beef stew. How amazing is that?? So yeah I guess it's canned beef stew for us for awhile :(
P.S The whole entire pot including the lid AND the seperate handle ended up in the trash. Now I have to registered for a fancy new pasta pot too! :(


***Side note #2- So since then I have attempted home-made-from-scratch-beef stew a couple times. The first couple times did not turn out much better then that one. One other time I decided I should make it in the crock pot. So I put everything together and then I didn't want it to cook to long so I waited until the last possible minute to turn it on before I walked out of the house for work, yeah forgot to turn it on. Oops. That rotten meat that sat there smelled good let me tell you. But I must admit I have made it and it did turn out amazing and the Hubby loved it. And they lived happily ever after!

Oh my.......

Oh how I love me some chocolty caramely brownie goodness. Doesn't get much better then this! Pass the water please (no milk for me).................