Charlotte and Caroline's first playdate

Last night the Dixon's brought dinner over and stayed to enjoy it with us. This meant that Charlotte and Caroline got to have their first play date. I'm pretty sure that Caroline was disappointed since Charlotte slept in her pack and play the whole time but hopefully she knows that their play date's will become more fun as Charlotte gets older!

Thanks Kelly and Tripp for bringing us such a wonderful dinner and for the good company!

We also took Charlotte's first "growth" picture yesterday with one of her teddy bears. We didn't end up with any really large stuffed animals so she's going to outgrow her bear pretty soon is looks like but it will still be a good measure for how much she's grown! I still can't get over that our little girl is already a week old! Time definitely does pass so quickly!

First Bath and Update

So life as a new parent is like a whirlwind! I can't believe that our little girl is 1 week old today! Is all of time going to pass this quickly? I am barely having time to read all of my blogs and so blogging has taken a back seat to taking a nap. I'm hoping that eventually a nap won't be as important to me but for now it's pretty much the most important (and needed!) part of my day!

On Wednesday my Mom picked Luca up from camp for us where he's been since last Thursday. Luca loves camp because there he gets to swim in a baby pool and gets lots of attention during the day. But I know that he was excited to get home. How do I know? Well he woke me up by jumping on our bed and licking my face! It took him a little while to notice Charlotte but that was mostly because Jason was under strict instructions to take him and give him a bath as soon as he got into the house. Once he got finished with his bath we put Charlotte in her Boppy and let Luca sniff all over her so that he would become familiar with her. Here's a picture of that fateful meeting!

He has been really good with her. Her pack and play is right next to one of our chair's in our den that Luca loves to sleep on the back of. Now, he jumps up into the chair and looks into the pack and play whenever Charlotte is sleeping and starts squirming and making sounds. It's like he's checking to make sure that she's ok. On Wednesday night he got up with us every time we fed her but by last night he was over his concern and stayed in bed during each feeding. :) He's still a little unsure and we're trying to give him as much love and attention as we can, but he has shown no aggression or dislike of Charlotte and we are so thankful for that!

The other night we gave Charlotte her first sponge bath. Since her cord hasn't fallen off yet we couldn't give her a full bath but we wanted to wash her. She didn't really cry until we took too long with the bath. She was so cute because we have a sling for the bath that is mesh. But she's too little to stay upright on the sling so she eventually slides down where she's horizontal in sling! Here we are after her bath.

And here she is in her precious lamb hooded towel that Kelly's grandmother, Gomi, gave Charlotte.

For those of you who know, Charlotte struggled with jaundice when she came home from the hospital. Thankfully it was never bad enough to require the Bili bed but we had to go to the doctor twice this week to get her bilirubin levels checked. We were so impressed when she didn't even cry when they took her blood from her heels. She definitely didn't get that from her momma since I almost cry now when I get my finger pricked! We are so thankful that her levels are now decreasing and she is getting better.

Today we had an area photographer come to our house and take Charlotte's newborn photos. We had a good time and I can't wait to see the pictures! Erin said that she hoped to have a "sneak peek" on her blog by Sunday and told me that I could put those pictures on my blog so I'll definitely share once they are out!

I'm about to go and get ready because Charlotte and Caroline are having their first play date tonight! Kelly and Tripp are bringing us dinner and staying to enjoy it with us and we are so excited! We are so blessed to have so many great friends that have been bringing us yummy dinners since we got home. Thank you so much if you've brought us food or are bringing it in the coming days! It is so nice to not have to worry about finding something to eat for dinner right now and everything has brought such wonderful meals!

Who does she look like?

Since Charlotte was born we've all been trying to figure out who Charlotte looks most like. From her ultrasound we felt like her nose was one that ran in my family on my Mom's side. But comparing all three of our baby pictures could have her looking like either one of us! Let me know who you think she looks like. It's funny hearing everyone's differing opinions. All I know is, we think that she's pretty much the cutest baby ever! :)

Recipe Wednesday - Spinach Dip

Hi everybody! My name is April and I am going to be sharing a quick and easy Spinach Dip recipe with you today. This is a dish that I made for the office baby shower I helped throw for Jennifer and she must have liked it because she invited me here today. :) I immediately accepted her invitation and am thrilled that I can help out during this busy time and allow her more time to just snuggle up with baby Charlotte.
So on to the good stuff! I got this recipe from a friend of mine and it is a favorite snack around my house. The good news is… it only requires three ingredients, three steps and no actual cooking. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
You will need the following:

16 oz. container of sour cream

Knorr’s dry vegetable soup mix

Chopped spinach -- I generally use a 14 oz. package

The first step is to thaw and drain your spinach. Then put all three ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly and serve! I usually pair mine with Wheat Thins but you can use whatever you like.

Day two at home

So we are now almost at mid-day of our second day at home. It has been so neat having Charlotte in our home. It seems almost surreal to finally have her here with us...until she's waking up again in the middle of the night and then it seems pretty real! :)

She is doing really well and we're about to venture out for our first doctor's appointment in a few hours. The doctors want to check her Billie Ruben levels to make sure that they are decreasing or aren't too high today so we're going back in this afternoon. Yesterday we had her in just her diaper in front of the window all day so hopefully that and a more stable and productive feeding schedule will have lowered her levels.

Last night she pretty much only want to be held by either Jason or I and didn't want to sleep by herself. We're hoping that if we have her sleeping only in the pack and play during the day that maybe she'll be able to do that tonight too. We're also planning on pulling out the big guns -- the swing and Boppy -- if that doesn't work!

Last night we had our immediate family (except Charlie who is out of town) over for dinner and so that they could spend some more time with Charlotte. Kevin's baseball tournament has finally ended so he and his girlfriend Stefanie got to come and meet Charlotte for the first time. Here are some pictures of them with her:

And for those of you who have been telling me how perfect her hair is with a bow at the top of the post is a picture of her in her "leaving the hospital" outfit yesterday with a bow in. I only left it in long enough for the picture because I felt like the bow was pulling on her hair a little too much but I hope to find some lighter ones to start using more frequently! :) You'll also notice that this is the sweet little dress that Jason bought just for Charlotte to wear home from the hospital. Her first gift picked out especially for her from her Daddy.

Now, off to try and take a nap before the next feeding and our road trip. Have a good day!

Charlotte Lee

Good morning from the hospital! We had a pretty good night last night and I feel so much better after getting some rest! Yesterday, little Charlotte Lee joined our world and I have to say that I think she's the most beautiful baby ever. And no, I'm not prejudiced at all! :) Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate them! I'll post more details about yesterday later because I don't want to forget anything but for now I thought I'd share a few photos. It appears that Jason and my family took over 350 pictures yesterday on our two digital cameras alone and almost everyone had their own camera also, so these are just a few of the pictures. Enjoy!

Bump Watch

So here's the succession of our little bump. It starts at week 11 and continues right up until tonight! I can't believe that tomorrow my bump is going to be a little girl!


Jason is going to try and tweet tomorrow and he'll have my phone too so I'll try and get him to tweet on mine also. If that fails though we'll try and post pictures as soon as we get a free minute, although I'm not sure when that will be!

Thank you so much for those of you praying for us and loving on us. All of your kind words and encouragement mean so much to us. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends surrounding us at such an exciting time!

Oh yeah, if you open the picture in a new window you might also notice that I got quite a bit of hair cut off this week. It's a little shorter than what I was planning but I really like it. Hopefully it will be super easy to take care of for these first few months!

It's almost baby time!

I am in absolute disbelief that this time tomorrow our baby girl will be here with us. How much fun is that?!?! This morning I didn't set an alarm and Luca and I slept until 10 which was heavenly. I know that my days of sleeping in are pretty much over so I wanted to take advantage of this one last morning that I had. Since I got up I've been on a roll cleaning and doing dishes and laundry. I've started moving bags that need to go into the car onto the dining room table so that I know where everything is and I don't forget something. Here's Charlotte's bag all packed and ready!

And yesterday Jason picked up the sugar cookies that I got made for those of you who visit us in the hospital. Kelly Stamps made sugar cookies to take to the hospital for Harper's arrival but I figured I didn't need the added stress of making cookies so I just got Rebecca Bibb to make them. I know from experience that her cookies are so yummy and they turned out so cute! Go and check out all of the other wonderful goodies that she makes!



To give those of you who might be visiting in the hospital a heads up I'm going to ask you to undertake a small art project. I had this idea that if I had some paper and markers and stickers that we would take a picture of Charlotte with those that visit us and the person visiting could write a short note or decorate the page for Charlotte. We would later add the picture of Charlotte and the visitor to the page and put it in Charlotte's baby book so that she'll have a record of everyone who came to visit her and, hopefully, some meaningful notes to always have as a keepsake. So, I'll have all of that out next to the cookies and I'm not too proud to shame you in to make a page just to get a cookie! :) However, you don't have to make a page, I just think it would be neat if everyone at least wrote their names on a page. But it's up to you!

Jason just got home (he took the afternoon off to help me finish getting ready) so I'm going to go work some more. We're going to take our final picture tonight of me in profile and I'll post the whole sequence tonight so that we can all see how large I've gotten! :)

Recipe Wednesday - Honey Bun Cake

No pictures with this one because I haven't made this cake in a while but it is truly heavenly and since I haven't shared a dessert with you in a while and because I'm rarely feeling up to cooking much less trying new recipes these days, I thought I'd share an oldie but goodie. Our first experience with this cake was right after we had bought our house. We had closed and spent the first weekend mooching off of our parents good natures by having them help us paint, pretty much the entire inside of the house. What troopers they were! :) And one day while we were there Jason's grandparents brought us lunch and with it this fantastic cake. It's super easy and oh so yummy! So enjoy!

Honey Bun Cake

Cake:
1 box Yellow Cake Mix (the kind with pudding in it)
4 eggs
2/3 c Vegetable Oil
1/3 c Water
1 8 oz carton Sour Cream
1/2 c Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 t Ground Cinnamon
2/3 c Chopped Pecans (optional, I don't use them because I'm not a huge fan of nuts in my sweets)

Glaze:
1 c Sifted Powdered Sugar
2 T Milk
1/2 t Vanilla Extract

1. Combine first five ingredients in a mixing bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Set aside.
2. Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans; set aside. Pour half of batter in a greased and floured 9x13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle half of the sugar mixture over batter. Repeat procedure. Gently swirl batter with knife.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven.
   
4. Combine all ingredients for the glaze. Beat at a medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
   
5. Drizzle glaze over cake, and cool. Cut in to squares.
   

Yields 15 to 18 servings

As most of you know we are planning on having Charlotte via a c-section on Friday. Therefore, I will be taking a few weeks off of Recipe Wednesday as I adjust to life as a new mother. A few friends have offered to pitch in and help and I have plans to set some posts up that will link you to some of my favorite recipes on the blogs that I read, but we probably won't have any recipes that I'm just trying for the first time for a while. :)

Life at our house

Needless to say things are a little crazy around our house these days. We're trying to not only ready the house and ourselves to bring home Charlotte next week but we're trying to finish up all of those "projects" that we've been wanting to do for a while but haven't gotten around to. So we've got a list of things that we want to get done that's about a mile long and only so many hours to do everything! And so yesterday was the perfect example of why you shouldn't try to get so many things done in such a short amount of time!

Jason has been waiting for months and months and I've been fairly excited also to get new phones. We decided that we were going to make the switch to AT&T and iPhone's because we felt like pretty much the only engineers we knew that didn't have some type of crack-berry. So a few weeks ago when we were at Best Buy we talked to the cell phone guys there and they told us how easy it would be to port our numbers and set up our new phones and all we had to do was come in on the day that our contract expired and they'd take care of it. Our contract expired yesterday so we made plans to meet for lunch at Best Buy and get it taken care of.

If you know much about cell phone contracts we had to cancel ours yesterday in order to not have to pay the remainder of the billing cycle. Since we're trying to be frugal with our money right now and we really wanted those iPhone's we were determined to take care of everything yesterday. So we sat down with the guy at Best Buy and after about 20 minutes he told us he couldn't help us because we were still under contract. I showed him our contract saying that we were no longer under contract but he said he couldn't do anything to help. I almost had a breakdown in Best Buy thinking about when else we could find time to do this and about the rest of the billing cycle etc. Trying to cheer me up, we went to lunch and then I met Mom to do a little more shopping at Babies R Us. Then I went home to wait until Jason could get off of work to go to the AT&T store.

In hindsight we should have gone there from the beginning. I now will advise everyone to ALWAYS go to the main store to do anything with cell phone's. They're just so tricky that really, only the people who really work there know how to do anything. We were in and out with two new iPhone's and ported numbers (and thus a cancelled precious contract) within 30 minutes. No muss, no fuss. Thank goodness that worked! So we headed home to make pizza for dinner, play with our new phones, and do other various tasks.

Got home, Jason put the sauce on the crust and then proceeded to tear our fridge apart looking for the mozzarella. We had planned to make pizza this week so of course we had mozzarella, right?!?! As it turned out we had mozzarella but in the form of the string cheese that I've been eating as a snack and not the shredded variety. This is the kind of day it was yesterday. :) So, we scavenged and took those string cheese sticks to the shredder and made our own shredded mozzarella. While we were shredding Jason told me that he thought this would make a good blog post. I mean, who shreds string cheese just to finish making their own pizza?? Apparently, we are those people.

In the end yesterday was a good day. The car seat and stroller are now in the car awaiting their installation later this morning. Our phones are now pretty much set up and accepting calls. We loved the season finale of How I Met Your Mother and were super excited yesterday to find out that Chuck has been picked up for another season so we know that even if we don't have time to watch Monday night TV in the fall we can record our favorite shows for later. And we got to mark quite a few things off of our to-do list which is getting shorter and shorter. I guess that's good since our time is dwindling also! So now I've got to go and get ready for the car seat installation and the manicure, pedicure, and cut and style that Jason so graciously talked me in to getting!

Sewing project

Being the uber-organized person that I am I imagine that in motherhood I'll still have everything in it's place and my diaper bag will be all nice and neat. I think I fail to remember that my purse isn't nice and neat and organized now and I don't have Charlotte to take care of but that's a different subject! :) So I really wanted a cute little fabric case to put Charlotte's wipes and diapers in in her diaper bag. I had it on my list of things to buy but when I got my monogram machine I got a set of quarter yards in super cute fabrics. So a few weeks ago I decided that I would try and make a case instead of buying one. Here are the fabrics from the quarter yard set that I got. Aren't they so fun?!?!


So I traced out a pattern on some card board based on dimensions that I swagged after measuring a travel wipes case and some diapers. And today I proceeded to try and make the case. Since I decided to make this the one thing that I struggled with was how to sew the inside lining to the outside fabric. When I cut out the first patterns I thought I had figured out how to do it but when I got to the point where I should have been able to turn the inside lining into the outside fabric I realized that I'd sewn them all together! I had, in effect, a very thin oven mitt! :)

And so I sat and rethought and tried again. And this time I got the steps right along with the pattern! Ta Da! Here it is:




Of course I'm too tired at this point to try and make any more but maybe tomorrow I'll have the energy to do that. I want to use the cute fabric for something!

In a Charlotte update she's moving around like crazy. I rarely feel her kick any more (maybe a few times a day), I just feel her move. Feel her head or arms or elbows sticking out of me and moving all around. It's a strange feeling but the stranger feeling is knowing that this time next week I won't be feeling her squirm around inside of me but will have her in my arms! These 38 weeks have flown by and I can't believe that she's about to be here. With the temperature's rising I am so thankful that our doctor is going out of town the week of Charlotte's due date so that we can have her early. I feel for those of you due in July or later for having to endure the heat! My to-do list is getting shorter and shorter and pretty much all that's left are things that I can't do until the end -- like finish packing my bag and doing the final cleaning before we leave to go to the hospital. I'm doubting that Jason will be Twittering as much on Friday as we were anticipating with a longer labor but in case you want to be kept up to date as much as he has time for you can follow him on Twitter. You can either click on my profile and then find him in my "following" list or you can go to his profile and follow him. You can get updates on your phone or you can just check it online.

Now I'm going to fix some dinner! Have a good week!

Maternity Leave Day 1

My boss is extremely nice and decided to approve my requested last day before maternity leave as yesterday. This made me so thankful because of numerous reasons. First, you don' realize how much energy it takes to devote an acceptable amount of energy into your work. By mid day I would be exhausted and would still have half a day of work left! And I never wanted to do something half way so I would just work harder which would make me more tired. A vicious cycle! Second, it was hard to not think about all of the things that I want to get done before Charlotte arrives while I worked. Things that could definitely go undone, but I would rather they not. Like stocking the freezer and cleaning up the house. So, I'm so thankful that Prathima let me take some time off before Charlotte arrives so that I can concentrate on resting and finishing up my to do list.

So today is day one of maternity leave. I wish I could have caught up on some sleep immediately but we had our weekly doctor's appointment this morning so I had to get up earlier than I do on a usual work day! Everything at our appointment was good and we're still on for a May 22nd c-section. I'm now sitting here blogging as I write out my goal list of things to accomplish today. And believe me, taking a nap is on the list! :) I tweeted last night that it feels like summer and it does. But I do know that my summer is going to last roughly 9 days before things get crazy again. I am so looking forward to meeting Charlotte in person!

Happy Wednesday!

Recipe Wednesday - Cheesy Pork Chop Casserole

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com and it is so good.  I would guess that this would be just as good with chicken as it is with pork.  It's a very easy recipe!  Enjoy!

Cheesy Pork Chop Casserole

Serves 4

4 potatoes, peeled and sliced

4 thick cut boneless pork chops

1 10.75 oz can condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup

1 10.5 can condensed French Onion soup

1 8 oz package shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with sliced potatoes.  Arrange the pork chops on top of the potatoes.
3. In a bowl, stir together the cheddar cheese and French Onion soups. Pour the soup over the pork chops. 
4. Cover and bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees.
5. Sprinkle pork chops with Monterrey Jack cheese and serve.

Link your recipe posts with Mr. Linky below!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Today is my best friend Kelly's birthday. Hopefully she's enjoying a day in the sun at the beach instead of another day of rain like we're having here! I am so blessed to have Kelly in my life. She is a great friend and she means so much to me! I thought that I'd list a few things about Kelly so that you can see what makes her so special.

1. She is a GREAT Mom! She loves Caroline so much and would do anything for her. She misses her like crazy when we go out of town, but she never lets missing Caroline get in the way of her having some grown-up time. I am so thankful that I've had Kelly here to guide me through this pregnancy and that she'll be there to help me out with Charlotte. I've already learned so much about being a mom from Kelly and I can't wait to learn even more!

2. She is an amazing wife. Tripp, I'm sure, knows how lucky he is but he definitely got a catch with Kelly. She blows me away with all that she does around the house and for her family. We have very different personalities when it comes to who is responsible for what around the house, but all I can say is that Tripp has it made! :)

3. She is so competitive and loves playing...well, just about anything! This makes times when we get together so much fun. Whether we're all playing Puerto Rico (go look up the board game and buy it -- it's so much fun!) or Catchphrase or Cranium we are all laughing our heads off and having a great time. And while Kelly is super competitive she doesn't ever take it too far and can get over a game really quickly. Well, now that I think about it, maybe not the first game of Puerto Rico that she ever played since I'm pretty sure that I've heard at least five times that SHE BEAT TRIPP and we weren't even there!

4. She is so giving. Kelly will do anything for anyone. Be it her dedication to the girls that she teaches at church, to throwing an awesome baby shower, to taking food to friends in need, she is always there. She goes above and beyond what anyone would ever ask of her and she never, ever asks for anything in return. Her selflessness is amazing and something that I aspire to!

5. She loves shopping and shoes and clothes.....! This makes shopping days so much fun and I really appreciate someone who loves buying things as much as I do. Kelly is sometimes particular about what she will buy and what she won't (like her disappointment in outlet shopping which boggles my mind) but she will always make the outing an adventure! And this came in really handy when we took our maternity pictures since I borrowed all of her "trendy" necklaces since I only had one!

6. She is a great friend. Kelly is always there with a word of encouragement or something funny to make you laugh. She remembers to call and check on you when you're not feeling great. She rejoices with you when you have a praise and she lets you be upset when bad things happen. She is constant and caring and so much fun and I couldn't ask for a better friend!

Thank you, Kelly, for being such an awesome friend. Our family is very blessed to have you in our lives. Happy Birthday!

Head on over to Kelly's blog today to wish her Happy Birthday!

Update

Well, I apologize for being a little MIA this week. I've been busy at work trying to get everything done so that I can start maternity leave next Wednesday (yea!!) . Thankfully all of my big tasks that I was pressed to get done have been finished and now I'm just working on small tasks that come in new. I'll definitely be glad for a break come next Wednesday so that I can try and enjoy my sleep for the next week and a half and I can use the extra time to finish getting everything ready!

I've also been trying to get all of Charlotte's blankets and towels and clothes washed for her arrival. I've been told to expect to do a load of her laundry a day and thinking about how many loads it's taken me to get almost all of her 0-3 month outfits washed I can believe it! But it's been so much fun folding all of these cute little outfits and soft blankets. It's hard for me to believe that in two weeks and one day we'll have a little one occupying those tiny clothes!

My parents gave Jason and I our small pack and play that we're going to use in our room as a bassinet last weekend. So Jason put it up this week and we now have a cute pink bed in our room! So far Luca has ignored it but I'm not sure that his reaction will remain once he comes home and figures out that there is a live person in there! This weekend Jason is going to re-set up the larger pack and play in the den and put together Charlotte's swing. We have big plans to get out and get the other essential things that we must have before her arrival like waterproof pads for the changing pad and a car seat base for Jason's car. I made the appointment to get those installed today. I can only imagine how real this will all feel when we start driving around with a car seat in the back seat!

We had another weekly appointment yesterday and everything looked good. Charlotte was wide awake and kicking at the doppler when they were reading her heartbeat. The pro's of a having a scheduled c-section keep getting longer and longer since I was told that I wouldn't have to get checked for dilation again until the appointment immediately preceding the c-section. That made our appointment even better! :) And we did get a confirmed time. 8:30 AM on May 22nd. It really is nice for me since I'm such a planner to have a time set in stone. Of course, people keep saying that she could flip or come early and she could, but I'm doubting it!

Happy Thursday!

Recipe Wednesday - Pasta with Tomatoes and Sausage

I had never really thought of this as a recipe until I was thinking this week about some new things I could try or talk about in the weeks leading up to Charlotte's birth. It was then that I realized that just because I kind of throw it together doesn't necessarily mean that y'all wouldn't enjoy my haphazard attempt at cooking! So, here goes! This is super easy and is something that is different every time I make it. It is really good and you can make as much or as little as you want since you're controlling what you put into the sauce and how much pasta to make. You can also control how spicy or seasoned to make the sauce. This is something that you need to just experiment with to see how you like it best but I'll give you a general recipe.

So you start by finding your favorite type of sausage. Lately we've been using the packs of four sausage links that are "natural". With this recipe I used the Sweet Italian Sausage but you can use the Sun Dried Tomato sausage or Spicy sausage or whatever you prefer. Before I found these packs of sausage links I would use the Hillshire Farms sausage. Just find whatever kind of pre-cooked sausage you prefer and cut it up into slices. Like I said, it's precooked so you just have to make sure and get it warm enough but you don't have to worry about trulycooking cooking it.

While you're cutting up the sausage go ahead and put the pasta on to cook. Again, whatever you favorite type of noodles are will be fine. This time we used bowties. And cook it to whatever texture you prefer.

As the pasta starts to boil put the cut up sausage pieces into a skillet with some olive oil and start to cook them. At that point add at least one 14 1/2 oz can of tomatoes. You can get the diced tomatoes, crushed, whole....again, this is all about what you want! If you like your sauce chunkier then get bigger tomato pieces. Pour the whole can (juice and all) in with the sausage. Then add about 1 1/2 cans of Tomato Paste. This is going to make the sauce thicker. So if you like it thicker add both full cans. If you like it thinner either add the tomato paste and then add water or just don't add as much tomato paste. Stir around and bring the sauce to a simmer.

Now this is the fun part. When I'm buying tomatoes just to make this pasta I buy them with some spices already built in. Same with the tomato paste. But sometimes I make this spur of the moment and in those cases the tomatoes and tomato paste don't have anything in them. Regardless, the sauce is going to need more seasoning. And that's where your imagination comes in! Here's what I added tonight: garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano, and ground black pepper. Probably 1/2 teaspoon each of the garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper and 1 teaspoon each of the basil and oregano. Rosemary is also really good in the sauce as is anything else you want to throw in! Add some spices, stir it up and then taste the sauce and see what you think. The sauce is pretty thick so you aren't really going to over season unless you dump in tablespoons at a time of the seasoning.

Once the pasta gets done you drain it. Make sure the sauce has had at least a minute or two to simmer with your final spice combination. And then serve up the sauce over the pasta! Like I said, VERY simple and something that you can make up your own recipe to the sauce. It's a pretty straightforward recipe but here are some highlights.

Pasta with Tomatoes and Sausage

Your favorite type of pasta (amount depends on number of servings you want)

Your favorite type of fully cooked sausage (Sweet Italian, Sun Dried Tomato, Hickory Smoked...)

14 1/2 oz can of Diced Tomatoes

2 small cans of Tomato Paste

1/2 t Garlic Powder

1/2 t Onion Powder

1 t Basil

1 t Oregano

1/2 t Ground Black Pepper

Water to bring sauce to your preferred consistency

1. Boil pasta.

2. Cut up sausage into small pieces. Saute shortly in olive oil.

3. Add tomatoes and tomato paste to sausage and olive oil. Bring to a simmer.

4. Add spices as desired and water if needed to bring about desired consistency. Simmer.

5. Serve pasta with sauce on top.

Mr. Linky wasn't working every time I tried yesterday to set it up for this post so if you have a Recipe Wednesday post leave a comment with your post link so we can all check it out!

Sunday School Shower

On Sunday the women in our Sunday School class threw a shower for Charlotte.  It was so nice to get together with all of these wonderful women and celebrate Charlotte's upcoming arrival.  Nicole was so nice to have the shower at her house and it was lovely!  I wish I had taken a picture of all of the food that we had...you would have thought there were a lot more of us than there were based on how much food we had to choose from.  :)  And did you notice the cake?  It has an elephant on it!  SO CUTE!  The shower was wonderful and Charlotte got so many nice things.  Thank you everyone for your generous gifts and for putting together such a lovely shower!  We are very blessed to have made such good friends in our Sunday School class.