Soup Swap: Italian Sausage Tortellin and Potato Soup

Okay Holly, you convinced me so here you go! Great idea, thanks! The first recipe I got from a popular blog, "Big Mama." This may be one of my favorite soups ever, it is awesome and my kids love it, too!! The second came from a good friend of mine, Brooke. I hope you all enjoy them as the weather finally cools off!!

Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup

1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed (mild or spicy depending on your preference)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups beef stock
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup red wine
28 oz. can peeled tomatoes, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
8 oz. can tomato sauce
3 zucchini, chopped
8 ounces cheese tortellini
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tbs. chopped fresh parsley
Grated parmesan cheese for topping

Brown the sausage in a large pot. Drain all the grease except for 1 tablespoon, then add the onions and garlic and saute for 5 more minutes.

Add the beef stock, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the zucchini, tortellini, green bell pepper and parsley. Simmer until tortellini is cooked (about 8-10 minutes). Serve in bowls topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Potato Soup

8 cups frozen potatoes (cubed)
3 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups half and half
3 cans cream of chicken soup
24 oz. Velveeta cheese
bacon bits
chopped green onions
shredded cheddar

Bring all ingredients to a boil except soup and cheese. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the soup and return to a simmer. Add cheese and stir until melted. Top with green onions, shredded cheddar and bacon bits, if desired.

1 Month

So, this is a couple of weeks late, but here is Tripp at one month:

At his one month check-up he was 8 pounds and 14 ounces and 21 inches long. It is amazing that in 4 weeks he has gained 2 pounds 13 ounces and has grown an inch and a half!

The sisters are still in love and think they have a baby doll with which to play.

Daddy and his boy:

It's A Boy!!

Wow. I still cannot believe it. The girls were right! All along they have said it was a brother and here he is:

John Gwaltney Persons, III (Tripp) was born September 4, 2009 at 7:49 am. He weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce (a little guy!) and was 19 inches long.


I cannot tell you how thrilling it was to hear "It's a boy!" I will never forget that moment and I am so glad we did know the gender until then. Since we knew Lauren and Catherine's gender, I can say I've experienced both knowing and not knowing the sex. While knowing makes the planning fun, there is something to be said for the anticipation of the moment of birth.

John and I totally expected another girl. He and I were surprised to hear it was a boy. Long ago we had decided to carry on John's family name but we had not talked at all about what we would call him. It took us a couple of days to decide between Trey and Tripp (nicknames for third generation boys.) Does he look proud?



Because of the rampant spread of the H1N1 flu virus, the hospital has banned visitors under the age of 18. So, the girls did not get to meet Tripp until we were home. I missed seeing them, but luckily they are too young to really understand that they were missing out by not getting to visit us at the hospital. Here they are meeting their brother for the first time.


As you can see, Catherine was very concerned about his pacifier.

This cracks me up. Look at the expression on Tripp's face. He knows already to protect himself from his loving sister.


They think he is a baby doll. We use a LOT of hand sanitizer and are working on teaching them the proper way to hold him.






Lauren and Catherine are proud sisters, are very excited and love, love, love their little brother. We are so blessed and thank our Heavenly Father for the healthy new addition to our family.

Summer=flip flops

This cracks me up. Notice two things: Catherine puts her flops on the wrong foot, and she can't quite get the toe placement right. But hey, she gets them on herself and that is a start.
Little Miss Priss, Lauren, is so proud to show off her newly painted toes. She is so worried the polish will come off in the pool or bath. We love our flip flops.

It's Officially Over

.....my quest for my Masters in Education. I graduated as of last Saturday! I am so thankful to be DONE and back to my former life. I have missed my girls and missed having time to clean my house, go to the grocery store, get my hair cut, clean out closets, etc. Wait. I don't think I spent much time cleaning or organizing prior to my internship (but don't tell John!) I really have missed simple daily pleasures like blogging and taking my children to the park.

So, what now? I guess I'll have this baby and go from there. A lot of people have asked if I plan to teach immediately and the answer is, not yet. I would like to do some tutoring on the side, so if anyone knows of anybody looking for a qualified tutor, please pass on my name!

Here is some randomness for your day. John's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and he wanted chicken noodle soup and sandwiches for his birthday dinner. Seriously. That is all he wanted. I offered to cook him whatever he wanted or we could have gone out. But, he wanted soup and sandwiches. Oh, and he doesn't like sweets, so I really got off easy. I didn't bake him a cake or even a pie. But, the strawberries are delish right now, so I got stuff for strawberry shortcake. More for the girls and I than John! Anyway....I digress. We were eating our soup and sandwiches and this is what John found in his soup:


Yes, that is a bolt nestled within the noodles of his Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. A rather large bolt. Here's what I want to know: how exacly did this bolt make its way to our can of soup? Was it an integral part of the machine from which it came? Did this particular bolt cause the entire factory to halt production? Or, are there any other machinery parts floating around in cans of Campbell's soup? Did anyone realize a large bolt was missing from one of the machines at the Campbell's soup cannery? Just some random questions I have.

Our Little Ballerina

A few weeks ago Lauren's ballet school had a Christmas demonstration. The instructors are so sweet and patient with the young children. I was amazed at how much they had learned since they started in September. She's the one on the far right.



What was so amazing to me what this: each week I ask Lauren what see did in ballet that day. Usually, she says "we danced." I'll ask her to show me and she may put her hands above her head and twirl around, or do the little number below, but that's about all I get.


I'm not sure if she was ahead of or behind the rest of the class in the sequence of their dance in that picture.

Now, the lighting was bad for pictures since we were asked to abstain from flash photography. So most of our pictures were blurry. I mean, we wouldn't want to break anyone's concentration or worse, interfere with our little professional performance.


For the most part, they all held it pretty much together, as much as you would expect from any four year old. And, they were all precious. Each class danced to a song from The Nutcracker. Lauren's class was Marzipan, some were Gingerbread, others were the wind-up dolls. That class was especially cute. (Shout out to you, Susie!)

It was tons of fun to see all of our other little friends that are in the various classes. As you can see, Lauren and Ella Grace were really excited to see each other.

I mean really, really excited. Man, those girls LOVE each other. Aren't they sweet and cute?!!

Lauren's daddy and I were super proud of our little ballerina. And, of all of our friend's little girls. If they all performed this well for the Christmas demonstration, I can't wait to see what they'll do for the real-deal, full-out recital in May!

Couldn't Help Myself

I just had to post this picture:

As you can see, we have a couple of princesses in our household!