A few quick updates!

I've been slacking on the blogging lately.  Here's what we've been up to lately.

Hadley turned 17 months this week.  She is getting SO fun and SO big!  She's about 26 pounds, happy most of the time, "talking" more these days, and loves Elmo (or "Melmo" as she calls him).  She thinks he lives in our iPad because whenever she sees the iPad, she saids "Melmo?!"  Its precious!  She is still very much into books and loves to color in her coloring books.  We had great weather last weekend and took her to the zoo and she seemed to really enjoy it.  We bought a membership so we can enjoy the zoo anytime we want which I'm really excited about!  I think we have a great zoo here in Knoxville!

I've started running at night since I can't work out at lunch anymore, and I try to go to Zumba twice a week as well.  I've never been a runner, but I've actually really started to enjoy it.  The weather has been mild here so that has definitely helped!  I have noticed knee pain with all the running, so I think I need to get some new kicks.

We've been at houses again for the past month or two.  I know.  We get the itch this time every year to move!  Well, we found an amazing house about a month ago and put an offer on it around the 3rd day it was on the market.  We were not the only people that loved the house - 3 other offers rolled in THE SAME DAY.  Long story short, we didn't get the house, and we were crushed.  I cried.  On more than one occasion about losing this house.

We started looking again and found another wonderful home this past weekend and we have a contract on this house!  We are putting our house on the market early next week and are praying that God will bring the right buyers to our house and that we can sell our house fairly quickly.  We close on the new place May 15th!

Justin's 30th Gatlinburg Style

Last weekend we celebrated Justin's 30th birthday in Gatlinburg.  His wife, Cara, did a great job in surprising him!  There were 9 adults and 6 kids (all under 5 years old).  We had a wonderful time - here are a few pictures of the festivities.

This is why you don't put liquid dish soap in a dishwasher!

Recipes lately

I wanted to post of some recent recipe finds that we have really liked.  The first is a 5 ingredient parmesan crusted tilapia (sooo easy, perfect for a weeknight dinner) and the second is a crockpot chicken and rice soup that I tried to lighten up a bit.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Ingredients: 
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons paprika
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
4 tilapia fillets
1 lemon, cut into wedges


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a shallow dish, combine the cheese with the paprika and parsley and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle the fish with olive oil and dredge in the cheese mixture.  Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until the fish is opaque in the thickest part, 10 to 12 minutes.  Serve the fish with the lemon wedges and your favorite side dishes.

Crockpot Chicken and Rice Soup

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

2-3 chicken breasts

1 package Rice-a-Roni long grain and wild rice

Salt and Pepper

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1 cup half and half

1 cup milk

1 cups diced carrots

1 diced onion

1 cup diced celery

Directions:

Put the broth, water, chicken, rice and the seasoning packet, celery, onion, and carrots in the crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours (or on high for 4 hours).  Once the chicken is tender, shred and return to the crockpot.

At the end of the cooking time, in a small bowl mix the salt, pepper, and flour.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Stir in flour mixture a little at a time to form a roux.  Then whisk in the half and half and milk, a little at a time, into the roux until mixed completely and smooth.  Then add this mixture to the crockpot and cook on low another 20 or so minutes.