Caramel Apple Pork Chops

* 4 (3/4 inch) thick pork chops

* 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

* 2 tablespoons brown sugar

* salt & pepper (for taste)

* 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

* 2 tart apples – peeled, cored and sliced

* 3 tablespoons pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C). Place a medium dish in the oven to warm.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brush chops lightly with oil and place in hot pan. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes,  turning occasionally, or until done. Transfer to the warm dish, and keep warm in the preheated oven.

3. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, salt and pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add butter to skillet, and stir in brown sugar mixture and apples. Cover and cook until apples are just tender. Remove apples with a slotted spoon and arrange on top of chops. Keep warm in the preheated oven.

4. Continue cooking sauce uncovered in skillet, until thickened slightly.

Spoon sauce over apples & chops. Sprinkle with pecans.

Today my chocolate covered peanut older sister, Tamara, took some of her nieces and nephews to the movie.  They are reading the series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”  Last Friday, the movie came out for book #1 (The Lightening Thief).  So the great Aunt that she is decided that who read the book could go see it with her.   My kids were so excited!

look at that good looking group

Lucas and I decided to have a date of our own.  After we dropped off Nolan, Jack, and Zoey, he and I went to Wendy’s and ordered Frosty’s, fries, and chicken nuggets. I ordered fries to dip into my frosty and he ordered chicken nuggets to dip into his frosty.  We sat and talked while we ate.  After that, we headed to ALDI’s to get a few groceries.  Lucas was so excited to put in the quarter, walk through the store and help fill up the cart, and I even let him choose a few items to buy.  I was happy I could walk through the grocery store without and children fighting!!

It was a great day with my boy.   I am so glad we could have this alone time together. For years he was the “baby” of the family and he loved that role. In a matter of 13 months I gave birth to 2 babies.  He was booted out from being “the baby” like that.  He probably didn’t even know what hit him.  Now he’s a middle child.  As some middle children say he stuck in the middle, feeling lost, alone and neglected..   I wanted to make sure he knew that even if we have had some craziness in our home this past 14 months I still love him and he’ll always be my favorite child named Lucas.

what a cute boy

I love you Lucas!  You are the best!!

When Zoey was a baby right from birth, Daniel would always sing her the song Rocky Raccoon by the Beatles.  It’s a “so not appropriate kid song” to sing but she loved it.  And we didn’t care if it wasn’t age appropriate.  When it was time for bed, Zoey wold get her blanket, climbed up on her daddy’s lap and he would sing the song to her.  This was every night. I wasn’t aloud to sing it either.  It was a daddy song.

Not only did her daddy know this song but so did Gpa Hill.  Gpa Hill was the one that taught it to her daddy after all and that was super cool!!  When we would go to Howell to visit Gma and Gpa and the family,  Grandpa Hill would always bust out his guitar before we left  and sing this song.  Zoey love it!  I wish I had a video of her listening to Gpa Hill sing this song to her.

Here’s the song.   Enjoy!

FLASHBACK

My sister Stephanie does this thing on her blog called Flashback Fridays. It’s pretty awesome so I am going to steal the idea and do it on my blog.

It’s quite simple.  It’s a memory of something.

For instance this week Stephanie blogged about when she Steve and Madeline lived in Manhattan. Steve was getting his MBA at Columbia.  Madeline was just 1 years old and they lived in this teeny-tiny apt. and walked every where.  Steve used to tell Madeline stories about a little girl living in NYC and going to Central Park everyday.  Madeline loved these stories and love the time she had with her father.  It was neat to read what Stephanie blogged about.

I have many memories, and great stories about Daniel, me and kids before my blogging days.  I wasn’t the best at my journal entries back then either.  These days I use my blog as a journal but many years ago I didn’t have it.  So I am going to try this out.

Thanks for coming up with this great idea sis!  I am so happy that I can copy the idea off of you…

For Valentines Day this year, Daniel bought me two pairs of earrings.  I was so excited to get them. I desperately needed some new ear candy.   They are perfect and I can’t wait for him to take me out on the town so I can show of the beauts!

Now the questions is which ones will I wear first. The all gold hoops or the gold and silver hoops….

Thanks hon- you are the best!

I had to change Berkley’s diaper as soon as we got back from taking Nolan and Lucas to school this morning. She decided that she would poop in the diaper that I had changed just before we took them to school. I get the kids back into the house, turn on the TV in hopes it might catch Drew attention (no such luck). I tell him I am going to get the diapers and wipes to change Berkley. He nods and says something to me but who knows what it was he said.

I get back to the family room with “the stuff”, sit down and Drew decides to tell me something (again I have no idea what he said). He then makes a mad dash down the hallway.  While I am changing the nasty thing, I am hearing all sorts of crash, bang, boom sounds, not to mention Drew yelling things to me.

I get up to put Berkley safely in her swing, walk down the hallway with the camera because I knew it was going to be something big–

Is this kid for real?

I had only let him run loose for a max of 3 minutes! This kid managed to pull out the stool, climb up and get the toothpaste, he took the  Kleenex box threw it on the ground only after he pulled out 50 Kleenex. My brush, and a bottle of baby shampoo that was on the edge of tub also on the floor.

The little bear and comics he brought into the bathroom from Nolan and Lucas’s room. Apparently before entering the bathroom he took a pit stop in their room.

He also chucked the two smaller tubs of toothpaste that Nolan and Lucas got from the dentist of Monday onto the floor.  You can see them in the picture below. I guess he was going for the “big” tub of toothpaste and did not to bother with the smaller ones. If you look at the counter you can see he was able to smear some toothpaste around a bit.

We blessed Berkley on Sunday Feb 14th.   I thought it was pretty cool to be able to bless her on Valentines Day.  The day was good. Actually it was a great day!!

After the blessing, we had the family over for lunch.  We made it as simple as possible having sandwiches and items that they all volunteered to bring.  I sent them an email letting every one know I wanted to make it as simple as possible.  Having little to no sleep at night, I wasn’t going to try and have a fancy smancy luncheon.

When we all arrived at my house I let everyone know NOT to change from their Sunday clothes to street clothes until after taking a few photos.  I called our neighbor and asked if he could come down and take a few snapshots for us.  He came down pretty quickly, only to arrive in our house with craziness all around.   There were a grand total 24 people in our living room.  And of course ,they all had to be talking with the exception of Berkley.  It was loud, very loud.  I was trying to talk to him and tell him, who was with who, but I am not sure he could even hear me.  I am sure he thought” Holy Cow, this is a great form of birth control” .

We all gathered around the love seat and he started snapping photos.  There was a total of 3 camera and we wanted him to take 3 pictures from each camera.  He started snapping like crazy and bailed, going back to his nice quiet house.  I am sure he told his wife Karen about what he had just witness.  To be a fly on their wall when he told her what he just had been a part of, would’ve been priceless.

berkley blessing day

berkley blessing silly's all around

After Dan left, we took a few family photos.  And then headed to the kitchen to finish up making and setting out lunch and digging in to the food. We then made our way into the family room where we talked and eventually turned on the Olympics and watch that while the children ran around the house like chickens with their heads cut off!  It was loud,  but any event with my family is usually loud. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even through all the craziness, it was nice to have the family over for the afternoon and photos of Berkley’s on her very special day.

Yesterday I took Berkley and Drew to the doctor for appointments. Drew had his 15 month check-up and Berkley had her 2 month check-up. The older 4 were all off school so I had Zoey babysit. I have to admit I wished that Jack were old enough and responsible enough to watch Nolan and Lucas so I could have Zoey come along and help me out. I knew both were going to get shots and holding them was going to be hard. She stayed home of course and I braved the cold weather with two babies. As you can see I survived.

BUT I need to get this blog entry typed ASAP because Berkley is screaming at me.

Berkley

9 lbs. 4oz.
22 3/4″
? head circum.
I thought it was going to be written down on the stuff they gave me but it wasn’t.

She is drinking 3-4oz. every 2 hours all day all night. She does not sleep through the night yet and I am having a hard time with that. All my boys were sleeping 7-8 hours by 6 weeks. She sleeps all of her long stretches during the daytime hours. If she’s cranky at all, it’s between 10pm-6am. It sucks, it sucks bad. When I go to bed I do not want to be awaken for any reason. I need 8-9 hours to function like a normal human being. Daniel is really good about getting up in the night with her. Other than not agreeing on her sleeping habits and when she wants to be moody, B is a great baby. She has started to smile at us. It takes a lot of us working at it but she does. She is still sleeping in our room at the foot of the bed in the pack n play. We are just not ready to have her get up in the night and wake Drew up. He’s a super light sleeper. It hard enough having her up in the middle of the night, if I had two babies I just might want to shoot myself or go completely insane!!!

Drew

22 lbs
31 ”
? head
Again I didn’t write it down nor did I hear what they said because Berkley was crying.

I figured if they thought it was abnormally large or small they would let me know.

Drew says mama, dada, whispers tata (I don’t know why he whispers it), Lisa, Zoey, baba, which means multiple things. He yells Jack from the top of the basement stairs. I guess I yell for Jack a lot at the top of the stairs so he thinks that’s how you say Jack.  Just today he said Jacob when he saw his cousin Jacob.  He nods his head meaning yes. He talks all the time. I have no idea what he says but I do talk back to him.  He loves to brush his teeth.  He loves his baby sister.  He’s a great sleeper, sleeping from 7pm-7am.  In the day time he naps from 12:-1pm— 3′ish everyday.  When Daniel leaves for work, he and I go to the front window and he says “Bye Bye” while waving. When Zoey walks in from school, he’s very excited to see her.  He wants to play and she does, even if she has a ton of homework.  He loves, loves, loves his blanket. He can’t says blanket but he can say “kiki” meaning blanket.

Drew is such a fun kid.  I love it that he talks to me and I know that he loves it that I talk back.  This might be my favorite age of a child.  I love how he is so fun. Don’t get me wrong, he is definitely very tiring and every day I am beat by 8pm, but it fun.

Drew’s quite the active child.  At the end of the day, I am exhausted from him.  I count down till his nap time because I know that’s a break for me. I actually get to sit and love on Miss Berkley.  When he’s awake I pretty follow him.  He’s not quite yet into playing with his toys only dumping and moving onto the next thing to dump out.  He doesn’t watch TV.  I do put on Elmo every morning and sometimes he’ll glance at the screen. I don’t seem to get anything done these day but clean up messes from him. I wouldn’t change him for a single moment.  He keeps me on my toes and I love it!

My days are long but my kids are growing up faster than I would like. Some days I wish I could freeze time and have them be their ages forever.  Just freeze the clock, make the world go away and just be the 8 of us.

That’s not to much to ask, is it?

Tamara and Berkley.

We were at one of Zoey’s basketball games a few weeks ago and Tamara was helping me out with the kids.  She spent a good part of her time chasing Drew around a very crowded over-flow. She was finally able to get her hands on Berkley, sit and take a rest.  Thanks Tamara.  You are a great aunt to my kids, sister, and of course a great chocolate covered peanut!!