Tatertot casserole

While it may not be the healthiest meal tatertot casserole has became a regular meal in our household. One of few things I've found that everyone likes and very simple to make. The kids almost always asks for seconds of it!

Here's how to make it, you'll need:
1-2 eggs
Bacon
Tatertots
Milk
Shredded cheese
9x13 or similar size pan

-and whatever else youd like to add.

Ahead of time, can be day or two ahead or just a couple hours before making it. Cook up bacon however you normally would. You can cook however much you want, we normally do about 8 pieces and we oven fry it. Once cooled crumble the bacon.

To make the casserole preheat oven to 375.

Layer bacon crumbles, cheese and tatertots in whatever order youd like and can add whatever else too. Some people like to add breakfast sausage or ground beef.

When youre done layering it all mix 1-2 eggs depending on your preference with about half a cup of milk in a cup. We dont like egg much so we only use 1. Once mixed pour over top of tatertot casserole and place in oven at 375 for 25-35 minutes. Ovens vary so legnth to cook may too. Its one when the egg mix is all cooked and cheese is all melted.

Hope your family enjoys it as much as ours does!

-Faith, Hope, Love & Autism

The best birthday gift possible!

Today I turned 23, and received the best birthday gift possible. A diagnoses for Ivan! While some parents would really dread hearing the words "Your son has autism", I pretty much did a silent little happy dance. We've known for the past almost two years that something was 'off' with Ivan. We even had his hearing tested at about 8 months because he wasn't responding to us saying his name or any loud noise, or look at us when we entered the room as well as he was far behind on some of the things he should of been doing at that age.

It wasn't until talking to some friends with kids similar in age to him that we really realized that he was pretty behind on speech and social skills. During the fall of this past year (2014) we had his speech evaluated by the local ISD (school district) and came to find out that although he was 30 months old at the time his speech was only at about 14 months with roughly 20 words and a couple 2 word phrases. Currently at 33 months his speech has increased a bit and he's up to bout 25-30 words and using more 2-3 word phrases as well as is starting to sing along with songs a bit! We recently moved into  new place and the move was a great move for him, I never thought he'd benefit so much from it, but since moving his speech and behavior in general has been a lot better.

From what we learned today at Ivan's appointment is that now with the Autism diagnoses they are submitting paperwork for insurance to approve which they've never had an insurance deny and then Ivan will be evaluated again but this time by a behavior therapist which will help figure out what kind of  therapies he will benefit from and how many hours a week. We were told anywhere from 5-20 hours a week is pretty average and that he will be getting speech and play therapy for sure which will help with obviously speech but also social behaviors.

So yeah, probably the best gift possible for an overly stressed out mom who's sick and tired of fighting with doctors.

-Faith, hope, love & autism.