Merry Christmas!!

Happy Holidays to you and your family!! 

Taking a Holiday Blog break. 

See you in 2018!!

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Children's Festival at Church

These Huebel girls would love decorating cookies any place, any where. Which is also why it was a bit ironic this morning when the dentist told me that Claire's enamel isn't the strongest and to limit the sweets. Yeah ok Ms. Dentist Lady- You try keeping the frosting away from these littles. 

So many "taste tests" going on

Meltdown when Mom said Claire couldn't eat the cookies till after dinner. 

Pop Pop moved in to "help" do some taste tests of his own, specifically on the cinnamon gum drops.

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Recipe Finder

My favorite place to find new recipes is Foodgawker.com because it's all about the pictures. You can basically eat with your eyes and let them decide what looks good enough to actually make yourself. Tonight we made "one pot Cilantro Lime Chicken and Rice", which I found on this website. It got a thumbs up from the whole family, except for Paige, who just wanted more mandarin oranges. She did pick the black beans out and eat them, so I'm calling it a winner. I didn't get any pictures so follow the link above to eat with your eyes, then make it yourself!

One Pot Lime Chicken and Rice

One Pot Lime Chicken and Rice – healthy and filling meal with rice, beans and flavor-packed chicken thighs cooked in one pan. Easy weeknight dinner; comes ready in less than 45 minutes!

Ingredients

Chicken Thighs Marinate 

• ¼ cup canola oil
• 2 1/2 -3 pound chicken thighs (about 5-6 pieces)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
• ½ Tablespoon lime juice (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 -1 Teaspoon minced garlic 
• 2 tablespoons Adobo seasoning or your favorite chicken seasoning 

Chicken and Rice 

• ½ medium onion , diced
• ½ jalapenos pepper , diced
• 2 small bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon cumin spice
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2-3 garlic clove , minced
• 2 cups uncooked long grain rice
• 3-4 . Tablespoons fresh cilantro , chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth or water
• 1/2 Tablespoon Lime Juice 
• 1 lime grated zest 
• 15.5 oz black beans , rinsed and drained
• Cilantro and lime Slices (for garnish)
• 1 Teaspoon White pepper 
• Salt to taste 
• 2 cups Frozen Peas 

Instructions

1. Wash chicken thighs For faster cooking, make a ½ ” slit into chicken thigh meat on either side of the chicken, then wipe with a paper towel. Season with salt (about 1 ½ teaspoons).  Sprinkle lime juice on chicken, followed by garlic  
2. Generously rub both sides with adobo spice blend. Or your favorite spice mix. If desired this can be done hour before to let it marinate .
3. Place chicken skin side up in a skillet/Dutch oven or oven safe pot/pan for about 3 minutes each. Be very careful with the chicken, it shouldn’t burn. Remove from the pan and set aside.
4. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Meanwhile, place the rice into a large bowl, cover with cold water and use your hands to wash the grains. Tip the water out, then repeat twice until the water runs clear.
6. Wipe the same pan with paper towel or napkin to remove any burns from pan. If not visible burns proceed with the next step .
7. Add about 2 tablespoons oil or more, followed by onions, jalapenos, cumin, paprika, and bay leaf .Sauté until soft but not golden, about 2-3 minutes. Then add garlic and stir for another minute.
8. Next, add rice, stir for about a minute , then pour over chicken stock/broth ,lime juice, grated lime zest, and beans. Season with white pepper  and  salt   to taste.
9. Add the chicken back to the pan, with it's juice. 

   Place in the oven and cook for about 30- 35 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.
10. Remove, let it cool and serve, garnish with slices of lime and cilantro

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Full Tummy

I took the girls on a pre-dinner run in the double BOB this evening. Paige was munching on Puffs and Claire was taking in the world, with a non-stop commentary. We pass a lady going the opposite direction and while still at a questionable hearing distance Claire says, "Mommy her tummy is really full. That lady that just walked by has a really full tummy"... !!!

I mean what can a mommy even say? This girl...

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White Flag

Paci Update: We waved the white flag of surrender at 4:30 AM after waking up with Paige at least 10 times last night. Not weaning Paige off the Paci this week...

I baked some Christmas cookies with my little boos last week. Surprisingly, Claire didn't try to eat any of the cookie dough after I told her there's raw eggs in it and that raw eggs come from a chickens bum.

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Paci

Y'all it's Night #1 with no Paci for Paige. It could be a rough night with little P, but Claire Bear is having a slumber party at Granna's so we figured we should give it a go. It's 10:30 and we've had to go settle P three times already. Any bets on the final count in the morning?

On another note, when Ross took Claire's to Granna's house today they went by all the refineries in east houston and Claire says, "Daddy look at those volcanoes!" referring to the "steam" billowing out of the distillation columns. Guess we need to go to Hawaii again to show Claire what a volcano really looks like... :)

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Happy Holidays

These holiday munchkins are getting big!

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Gaming

Can you tell what's going on this picture? (Hint, ignore the naked 3 year old with bat girl undies)

First Video Game with Daddy! Paige kind of loved it.

So special!

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Peek-A-Boo

It was a triple digit question day at the ranch a few weekends ago. :)

"Daddy it's like a fort!"

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Ross's Mini

Being somewhere like the ranch and "seeing" it for the first time through a toddlers eyes is so special. "What do you mean there's no bathtub?!" "Where do cactus come from?" "Why is trixity (she meant electricity) important?" "I want to find a fox, come on mom let's go" "Dad, I think the deer are hiding"

Another funny story-  we were all cruising along in the side by side after our evening hunt (aka sitting in the deer blind together) and it was fairly cool outside. I look over and Claire's eyes are watering from the combination of speed and cold air. When we come to a stop I ask Claire if that was fun and she says "I think I'm very sad. My eyes are crying". She'd never experienced tears for any other reason than being sad.

:) great memories.

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Claire's First Ranch Trip

We took Claire to the ranch last week for the first time. we departed a bit later than planned so we could get Paige Renae into the doctor. But then we left baby girl at the house with Granna and our 3-day adventure with Claire started.

Brief summary:
*Claire gets car sick. very car sick. we think it's from staring at the iPad.
*Claire thoroughly enjoyed the lack of a bathroom. She's been telling her teachers and the other kids in the class all about it this week.
*Claire is afraid of cactus
*S'mores might be Claire's new favorite dessert
*Driving the "tractor" (side by side/ 4 wheeler) is fun
*we quietly sat in a deer blind and when we finally saw a deer Claire poked her hand out the window and said "hi mr deer, what you doing?"

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours! We had beautiful weather and great fellowship with lots of family. Somehow we managed to pull off a family picture in the front yard :)

Cousins!

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Scissors

My last blog post was a week ago... what?! My thanksgiving day resolution is trying to devote additional time to blog content, which has been lacking lately due to a) work and b) little girls and c) adobe photo editing software changes. Maybe a new lens is just the motivation I need... :)

Gigi bought Claire a Melissa & Doug "My First Scissors" book. However, neither of us realized how hard it is to teach a little Lefty when you're right handed.

Cutting out a pumpkin together.

Meanwhile I was trying to figure out why the lights in the kitchen kept flickering and I turned around to this...

The antics with these two...

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First Braid

Daddy braided Claire’s hair today!!!! 

French braid next week ross? :)

Cuties. 

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Moms make-up

It was only a matter of time...

Claire saw an opportune window while Mom was out of town; capitalizing on Daddy running around trying to prevent baby sister from putting everything in her mouth. 

“Daddy, look how boo-tifull I am?!”

What makes me smile is that Claire chose the teal eyeliner she watched me put on this morning. I mean she almost nailed it :) 

Love. 

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Words

At dinner Paige used sign language to ask for “mo” and then said “thank you” when we gave her more. What a big girl!

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Movember

Lots of work travel this month y’all, so bear with me!

Paige is starting to say so many words! Momma, bubbles, thank you, night night, bye bye, more, ball, snack, dada... she tries to copy big sister all the time too :)

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Pumpkin Patch

These girls picked some pumpkins for us last weekend. Paige was more concerned with her snacks, but teething is hard...

Did you notice the matching tights? :)

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Trick or Treat!

It was pouring rain this Halloween, so it definitely made things interesting. Princess Ana didn't want to show up for Halloween so we made a quick divert to becoming a ballerina instead. Paige loved her ballerina outfit because she didn't realize she was "dressed up" at all. Big sister was totally in Halloween mode. "It's Elsa Day!"

Rain let up for a picture. Look at P in the back. She didn't get any candy in her bag, but she was having so much fun!

Best neighbor friends, even in a downpour. Elsa, Snow White, and Batman held hands the whole time.

Happy Halloween!

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No telling

Based on the fall festival parade at the girls school on Friday, there's no telling what Halloween is going to look like.

One of my girls is sooo happy playing dress up and the other is too mad to dress up. 

Not sure if Paige is going to be able to handle her Ana costume tomorrow.

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