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{Chicken Soup For The..........}

Personally, I think CFA's chicken noodle soup has magical powers.  There is just something about it...especially when you're sick.  It instantly makes me feel warm and cozy and BETTER!  I have never found a recipe that could replicate that wonderful goodness, until now.  While it's not the original, I think I like it just as much.  I found the recipe on allrecipe.com, and spruced it up Burtch style, and I think it turned out great!  Here's what we did:

4 cups of chopped chicken
1 cup of chopped celery
1/2 cup of chopped carrots
1/2 cup of chopped onions
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1/4 cup of butter
9 cubes of chicken bouillon
1/2 teaspoon of dried marjoram
3/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
12 cups of water
12 ounces of egg noodles

1) Brown chicken and chop
2) In a large stock pot, saute the onions, celery and carrots in the butter
3) Add chicken, water, bouillon cubes, and all spices. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low for 1.5 hours.  Stir occasionally.
4) Add frozen peas and noodles.  Cover and simmer for 10-15 more minutes.

Then you're ready to eat up!  Enjoy!
Posted by Brittany Burtch at 6:44 PM 0 comments 

{You And The Butterfly}

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿My Grandma Clark wrote this poem for my Mom when she was little.  She came up with a little melody, and used to sing it to me at night when I would spend the night at her house.  I love it dearly, and it is one of my most prized memories.  Every time I hum the melody, I think of her.  I can hear her singing it as I type this.  I love her and miss her dearly!

Posted by Brittany Burtch at 4:33 AM 0 comments 


{What I Love Wednesday} Photography Edition

In honor of my BIG photography weekend ahead, I an doing a WIW photography style.  These are some of my favorite Pinterest finds (click on the image to see the original source):﻿

I hope you enjoyed my favs!  If you want to check me out on Pinterest, please click HERE.  Happy Wednesday!
Posted by Brittany Burtch at 4:45 AM 0 comments 

{Weekend Recap}

I have found that I am not great at keeping up with this blog.  That is sort of my theme for 2012...finish what you start!  And I am finding that I start A LOT of things, and pretty much make excuses for not finishing them.  So, on to a new year and with a new word in mind...COMPLETION!

With that being said, here is my weekend update for 1/13-1/15/2012: We typically do not eat out...EVER!  And there is very good reason for that, which sadly doesn't include the fact that homemade meals are always better for you.  And that reason is....(wait for it)...my sweet, loving, well behaved little angel, Colton!  With this little guy, we are walking in foreign territory.  Hayden has always been a super laid back, along for the ride type of child.  At 3 weeks old, he tagged along with Kevin and I to the Highlands Festival and slept through an entire outdoor concert.  We basically did not change our lives, except for our sleeping patterns, which really wasn't that bad since he slept through the night at 6 weeks.  We had it pretty darn easy with that kid...and we had no clue!  As long as we had a container of cherry tomatoes ready to go, we could eat at any restaurant we wanted to without worry of a meltdown.  Colton...not so much!  Kevin's Mom dubbed Colt "Homeboy".  Within 15 minutes of leaving the house, you can almost guarantee that he will start asking to go home.  This is a little tricky and I am conflicted as to how I should feel about this.  On one side, it makes my heart happy that he loves being at home so much.  Selfishly, I think that we must be doing something right for the kid to prefer home to Disney World.  On the other hand, the love of all things home makes it incredibly difficult to take him anywhere.  You see, Colton is not the sit back and chill kinda kid.  He learned early on that if he wanted something, he was going to have to fight (primarily Hayden) for it.  And he does....oh boy, he does!  Because of all of this, we rarely venture out of the house for dinner.  Most of the time, we stay safely at home and cook, which is more economical...and let's face it...I could use all the practice I can get!  However, every now and then, Kevin and I get what we like to call "Restaurant Amnesia":

Restaurant Amnesia  (rɛstərənt/ or /ˈrɛstərɒnt/; French: [ʁɛs.tɔ.ʁɑ̃])(from Greek Ἀμνησία) is a condition in which one's memory of the previous nightmare (ish) dining experience is lost, including toddler meltdown which resulted in high pitched screaming, food throwing, and rolling on the floor of said restaurant.

So was the case on Friday.  We ventured out to Chilli's.  But, to our surprise, the boy was an ANGEL!!!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!!!  He was super happy, except when we ran out of chips and queso, which was promptly replaced by a corndog.  He scarfed down his food, smiled, and bounced to the music that was playing.  I know to most, this sounds like a small win.  But in the Burtch Household, this is a miracle...a true family milestone.  It was the most glorious dinner out on the town, even if it was just Chilli's and the service was horrible.  I can certainly look past those things, and will take away our very first stress free restaurant dinner with our Little C. Yay!!! It's soccer time again...and I'm super excited!  We signed Hayden up again for the Under 6 Academy of Excellence at the Henry County Soccer Association.  If you live in Henry County and have a little one who wants to learn real soccer skills, not just chase after a ball, then this is the place to go.  The coaches and instructors are top notch, and they make it so much fun for the kids, that they don't even realize how much they are learning.

We also got to sign Colton up for their Parents & Tot's program.  He was beyond excited!  He will be the youngest in the league, as his birthday was the cut-off date.  But that's okay...he's probably bigger than most of the kids, so maybe that will make up for the age difference.  This was my conversation with him trying to explain what he will be doing:

Me: "Are you excited about playing soccer?"
C: "Yep!" (this is his new favorite word and has virtually replaced "yes" all together)
Me: "Are you going to play on a team like Bubba?"
C: "Yep! And Gran-Gran come see ME!  And Jim-Jim come see ME!  And Gammaw come see ME!  And Pop-Pop come see ME!  And Ashwee come see ME!  And Pop-Pop and BeBe come see ME!"

He basically ran down a list of every family member, saying that they were all going to come see HIM play too!  Everyone came to watch Hayden play, so naturally they would make the trip to watch him in his big-boy soccer debut.  No more standing on the sidelines for this little guy!  (If you're interested, HCSA will be conducting walk-up registration for the next couple of weekends.  Check them out on their website HERE and their FB page HERE.)

Saturday, I also got to spend a little Mommy/Hayden time.  I love getting to spend time with the babies one-on-one.  That time is so rare and so much fun, and I think they appreciate it as much as Kevin and I do.  I had the privilege of taking Hayden to the first Birthday Party we have been able to attend since moving to Atlanta.  His buddy, Noah, invited him to a big time party at Monkey Joes.  Oh boy was that fun...for the kids!  That place was a MAD HOUSE!  There were 5 parties going on all at one time.  Hayden and all of his friends were running around like crazy people, while all of us parents searched in a frenzy for them.  I wish I had taken photos of the parents' faces.  Sheer Panic!  It's like losing your child in a Wal-Mart, only instead of racks of clothes, it's 150 little people, all the same size scurrying around at warp speed.  Nuts!  On a more serious note, I do love watching my biggest baby have so much fun with his friends.  His little smile was just absolute joy and I am so glad I went with him.  It made my heart happy! This day was a BIG and EXCITING day for Kevin and I.  Totally unexpected too!  We attended a new church and loved it.  I'll share more on that in later post (kind of a long story).  I will say that we walked into the parking lot absolutely speechless and a bit overwhelmed at HOW GREAT OUR GOD REALLY IS!

Sunday evening, we spent with Mom, Jimmy Patrick and Daniel (and his girlfriend, Jamie).  She made a fabulous dinner of roast, green beans and homemade mac-n-cheese.  The boys just adore their grandparents.  I am so very grateful for all of them!  I am so glad they are getting to spend a little more time with my parents and their new little families.  We are so blessed to have such amazing new people in our lives.  Don't get me wrong, I miss Kevin's parents like crazy, and so do ALL of the boys.  Maybe, one day, we will all live in the same state.  Hey, a girl can dream...right?!?

This next week will be C-R-A-Z-Y!  Kevin has 3 interviews this week.  Yep...he's still pounding the pavement.  The new year has brought a ton of new opportunity in the job department.  He's still interviewing with some of the original companies, but there have been several others added to the mix that we're both very excited about!  I cannot wait to see what God has in store for him.  I know it's going to be big, and something that he is really going to love and enjoy.  Me...well, I (along with the family) am heading down to sunny and warm South Florida to shoot a maternity session and a wedding!   Eeeek!  Oh, and while we are down there, we will be signing the closing papers on our house!!!!!  God willing, we are supposed to close on January 27th.  Please join us in prayer that this closing goes smoother than our last attempt, and that we are able to hand over the keys next week without a hitch.

I hope you all have a VERY blessed week!!!!
Posted by Brittany Burtch at 6:58 AM 0 comments 


{Dream Home Dreamin'}

One thing I am really into is interior design.  Not that I am great at it, but I love looking at beautiful homes and spaces.  I have a list a mile long of design blogs I follow, and I watch HGTV religiously.  After watching Secrets From A Stylist, I decided that my style is "modern cabin chic".  I love stone and wood inside the home, and I am not a huge fan of things looking too new (outside of the kitchen and bathrooms - the 70's gold toilet I am currently dealing with is never okay).    That being said, you can probably imagine my squeal of excitement when I saw the new HGTV Dream Home on the tube.  Seriously, in the words of Ms. Zoe, I die!!!!  Here's a little look at my real life dream home  All photos courtesy of HGTV:


Pinterest has only fueled my madness!  You can check out my dream home pins HERE.  What does your dream home look like???  I would love to know!
Posted by Brittany Burtch at 10:48 AM 0 comments 



So, it's cold outside!  And I'm not sure my body has quite adjusted to the weather.  I'm pretty sure my body is in full on rebellion mode (I've been sick for the last month), since it was expecting Florida's perfect January weather.  I do miss this..... Posted by Brittany Burtch at 1:06 PM 0 comments Labels: Photo Love