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GOOD NEWS: COUPLE HEARS LATE SON’S HEARTBEAT AT THEIR WEDDING

A Texas couple recently got married and the most heartwarming gift came from someone they had never met, but had a close bond with.

Monica and Dean Berckenhoff tied the knot in a small ceremony with their close friends and family, including two of their three kids.

Sadly, their oldest son Colton, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 11, couldn’t be there — or so they thought.

Travis Stufflebean, a 28-year-old man who was the recipient of Colton’s donated heart, surprised the couple at their wedding and brought along a stethoscope so that they could hear his beating heart again.

The couple had never actually met Stufflebean before, but they instantly felt close to him — especially when he told them, “To me, this is just a temporary heart. I’m just borrowing it. To me this is where it belongs, with this wonderful and awesome family.” (People)

{Katie’s Kitchen} Stuffed Peppers

Brought to you by Catoctin Mountain Orchard 

If you want the best peppers head over to Catoctin Mountain Orchard for their fresh picked peppers. I got three green peppers the other day and used them in this recipe to make delicious stuffed peppers. They just taste and smell so much better when they’re fresh.

This recipe was given to me by a co-worker, I normally use a little bit of a different recipe, but now I LOVE this version.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Start out cooking Zatarains rice (Cajun style) according to the directions on the back. This will be added to your meat mixture in a few minutes. You will only need about 2 cups.

Cook your ground beef until browned, add onion and cook until soft. Drain off fat. Then, season your meat with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add in a cup of tomato sauce. I always like to add in diced tomatoes, too.

Add 2 cups of rice to your meat mixture and allow it to simmer for a few minutes.

Slice the tops off of your peppers and place them into a baking dish, I always use my dutch oven. Then, scoop out your rice/meat mixture and fill up your peppers a little more than halfway.

Pour extra tomato sauce over the peppers and a little in the bottom of the baking dish. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

Uncover, add your favorite cheese on top and cook for another 15 minutes.

YUM!

Ingredients:

-1lb. ground beef

-2 cups of Zatarains Cajun Style rice

-1 small onion chopped

-2 cups of tomato sauce

-1 can of diced tomatoes

– 1/2 cup of cheese

{Katie’s Baby Blog} 8 Month Photo Shoot…Extremely Hard to Do!

Getting an 8 month old to sit still is NOT an easy task.

Now, that she’s trying to crawl the last thing she wants to do is sit pretty for a picture after Mommy gets her all dressed up.

I posted pics to my facebook and instagram (@katieryan5234), but I’ll give you a little behind the scenes of the “real life” photo shoot we went through to get the “good” pictures 🙂

I can’t imagine how hard it’ll be when she can walk!

Photos of her not wanting to sit still….

….okay, I admit, they’re all still pretty cute!!

These are my favorites…

<3 Katie Ryan (and Lily)

It’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood!

As you may know, I was born an raised in Pittsburgh, PA….I, along with many of you, grew up watching Mr. Rogers…. Mr Roger’s Neigborhood was filmed at WQED, the PBS TV station in Pittsburgh. When I was a kid, I thought it was a local program and didn’t realize exactly how big of a deal Fred Rogers was…. As I got older, it was apparent that not only was Mr Rogers helping kids in the Burgh, it was world wide!…. We’d see Mr. Rogers and his cast of characters all over town. Mr McFeely, Joe Negri and more…. When I found out that one of my favorite actors, Tom Hanks, would be portraying Mr Rogers, I was excited! Now that the trailer for the film is out…. I CANNOT WAIT to see this movie! – Brian Mo

Bottle Cap Challenge: Brian Kelley of FGL

The Bottle Cap Challenge has taken the world by storm! Typically you only see the successful attempts getting posted on social media but Brian Kelley of FGL took a different approach. Have you tried the Bottle Cap Challenge?Check it out:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Think I’ll keep my day job @oldcampwhiskey LOL #bottlecapchallenge @ernestk615 you’re up next with the challenge!!

A post shared by Brian Kelley (@briankelley) on

{Katie’s Baby Blog} Lily’s 8 Month Update!

Eight months already?! I’m pretty much starting to think about Lily’s first birthday, now that I’ve realized just how fast this first year is flying by.

Crawling is the biggest challenge this month. Not so much for Tim and I, but definitely for Lily! She wants to crawl SO bad and gets very frustrated that she just can’t reach THAT toy RIGHT THERE by herself! She is so so close. Close enough that we started putting cabinet locks on the doors in the kitchen because I know she is going to get into everything the second she figures it out. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth and will reach her little arms out and then belly flops and lets out a mad little growl.

Oh yes, she growls. It’s hilarious! I’ll have to catch it on video and share it for you guys! Sometimes ill get a growl in my Instagram stories, if you follow those.

Other than crawling and growling, she also thinks it’s funny to spit her food out all over herself when shes done eating and makes a huge mess. Normal baby stuff, I know, but she likes to trick me into thinking she’s not done eating and will say “Mama!” so I give her another bite and she just spits it right back out and smiles 🙂 I’m not going to lie…It’s pretty cute.

Other than that, she is obsessed with her books and will stare at the book shelves on the wall in her room; letting me know she wants me to read one or let her look at it. She also likes to try to eat them, so I have to take the soggy board book away from her after a few minutes.

Last weekend we also hit a milestone! Tim (my husband) was on Daddy duty for 3 days while I was at the beach for my best friends bachelorette party! He did have help from my parents when he needed it, but he did a great job!! I know it was hard at times, but he definitely had fun and by the time I got home Lily was reaching for her Daddy more than Mommy <3

Next month, Lily has her 9 month doctor check up appointment. I’m guessing right now we are getting close to 18 pounds, definitely growing out of her 9 month clothes quickly! I did manage to snag a few deals on 12 month clothes during Amazon Prime days earlier this week, but they look SO big!! So, I think we are stuck in the ‘in-between sizes’ stage for now.

<3 Katie Ryan

 

 

{Katie’s Kitchen} Huevos Rancheros Breakfast Tostadas

Brought to you by Catoctin Mountain Orchard 

I haven’t done a breakfast recipe in a while, and funny enough, when I made this recipe, we ate it for dinner!

Huevos Racheros is delicious in all of its forms. You can make a casserole, a big bowl full of goodness or everything piled high on a toasted tortilla.

We decided to use Charras Tostadas! This recipe is so easy because you really don’t have to do much cooking at all.

In a sauce pan heat up your refried beans. Then, cook your “Dippy eggs” as I like to call them, or fried egg anyway you like it.

Prepare to top your breakfast meal by slicing you avocado and tomatoes.

Once your eggs and beans are finished, you can start piling up your delicious, but messy tostada, any way you like!

We did: tostada, a thin layer of refried beans, egg, avocado and cherry tomatoes with your favorite salsa and feta cheese sprinkled on top. Then add a little squeeze of fresh lime juice for flavor.

Salsa verde is another great choice for salsa on top. YUM!

Ingredients:

-Charra Tostadas

-Egg (we used one for each tostada

-refriend or black beans

– avocado

-cherry/grape tomatoes

-salsa

-feta cheese

-fresh lime juice

 

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