Recap

Ready - Set - Photo! Here's a pictorial mini recap of us...enjoy. 

It's winter...winter means snow...snow with kids means playing outside....they love it:) I'm not a huge cold weather fan so I'm the mom out there with 20 layers on and waddling around! Hey - at least I'm out there!

So, we've established it's winter already. We obviously need hats in the winter. My boys like to pick out yarn and then I make them hats! It warms my heart to see their excitement when they are complete...it's the little things right? 

In other news - this baby is CrAzY! Always into something and making us laugh (or pull our hairs out...totally dependent on my mood) 

Good thing he's so stinkin' cute - cause he's always into mischief! 

My smiley baby...he's a charmer and he knows it! 

We're homeschooling E and J - E in the big Kindergarten and J is rocking preschool. I looked the other day and we're already over halfway done! How did that happen? Not to sure...I feel like I blinked in September and now it's almost February. I'm pleased to say we've stayed on track with our curriculum and are actually AHEAD of schedule! Woot. Translation: Summer Break will be visiting early this year - total score. 

My big boys are rockstars with school - both are super smart (I'm sure I'm biased but what mom isn't...) E is reading well and excelling in math! J has his letters mastered and conquering all the other fun preschool concepts! Oh academia how I love thee....for reals. :) 

Speaking of my students - Mr. J turned the BIG FOUR over Christmas break! He's my Christmas baby (12/27) and I always strive to make his birthday extra special since it's packed right in with all the Holiday ho-ha's. He loved his special cake with his fave berries on top! 

SEVEN years ago right now...I was probably freaking out about some tiny details for my soon-to-be wedding! I've been married to this stud for SEVEN years this Monday - when planning our wedding and looking at dates I discovered the perfect date...02-04-06. Inner math geek (who am I kidding - OUTer math geek) was so stoked for this date! Easy to remember, all even numbers, blah blah blah. 

Aren't we cute? Awwhh. 

My hair is long and I dip dyed my tips purple and loved it -- sadly this was like 2 months ago so I have since trimmed off almost all of it....translation: I better go get some more dye and do it again. Obviously. I've taken on the hobby (or rather necessity) of trimming my bangs and hairs...I've even tackled layers and they weren't horrible! I won't claim they're good but I'm totally cool with non-horrible. HA! It's a way I can help the budget - plus I feel so empowered with those sheers...

So, there's a mini-recap. Have fun? I did. 

In other news: I've had 3 people tell me that my last post (menu plans) actually helped them! Hooray - it wasn't a total waste of time! Stay tuned for this weeks menu plans...that reminds me I better go start dinner for tonight. 

Food in Review (week 1)

Here's my menu plan that we just finished eating this week - enjoy!

*Disclaimer: I don't always make everything from scratch. Sometimes we eat pizza. Whew. Glad I got that cleared up* 

Saturday: Pumpkin Pancakes with Bacon

Using this MIX - can't get much easier! Add some whipped cream on top...Mmmm

photo from amazon website 

Sunday: Fiesta Lime Rice Stuffed Peppers

Thank you Pinterest. I get a lot of my recipes from there. Here's the delicious insides that I put in par-boiled green peppers for dinner. 

photo from recipe website 

Monday: Basic Chili with Cornbread

I don't have a link or pic for this...it's waaay too easy. 

Ground Beef+Crushed Tomatoes+Red Beans+Onions+cumin/chili powder/garlic+CROCK POT = Dinner is served. 

I went ALL fancy and threw some shredded cheese in my cornbread muffin batter - boom. 

Tuesday: Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake

I've been meaning to try this one from my Pinterest board for a while - I'm glad I finally did! Yummy. Here's the recipe - do it. 

photo from recipe website 

Wednesday: Sausage Pizza Bake

This is one of those go-to deals for me...super easy...super cheap...crowd pleaser. This time I browned up some mild Italian sausage in place of the pepperoni and added in black olives. ENJOY!

Thursday: Quinoa and White Bean Fritters with Broccoli 

Oh. My. Word. These were AWESOME! Seriously. So stinkin' healthy (well, minus the frying in oil part) and sooo yummy! Here's the basic recipe - I changed up the seasonings a bit and used regular flour - still PERFECT. Perfect I tell ya! 

photo from recipe website 

Friday: Take and Bake Pizza

Don't act surprised...I already warned you I don't cook every night! Thank you Target for your deli-take-and-bake goodness. It saved me some time:) 

Saturday: Quinoa Fried 'Rice' and Egg Rolls

I had some leftover cooked Quinoa from the fritters so I made some fried 'rice' of sorts...sans rice. It actually worked out pretty well! All my kids and hubby gobbled it up - always a good sign. Great way to use up leftover Quinoa! Here's the link for that basic recipe. I tend to add my own flare to things - so should you. 

photo from recipe website 

And that brings us current - it's Saturday night and I have my menu set for next week. Lots of goodies on there! 

I didn't even think of treats - I bake a lot...maybe I should add those too? This past week I made pumpkin muffins, banana bread, cream-of-wheat cookie bars (score!) and jello fruit snacks (fail.) 

Maybe I'll add those recipes in sometime...food for thought...ha I'm witty....or tired....you decide. 

Bloggin' Back Burner...

So...as you may have guessed blogging took a little time off from my priority list the past few months - ahem - almost year. Ah well. Life goes on. I'm sure you weren't crying at your computer screens at the lack of new reading material.

Anywho - I figure now is a great time to get back into it. I always enjoy a stroll down memory lane and this blog is a great place to do that.

I had this crazy idea (wait for it....it's CrAzY!) -- I spend a lot of my time with food...menu planning, grocery lists, food shopping, food prep, food consumption (yum) and food clean-up (bleh.)

I'm going to (try to) record my meals and link to the recipes that I feed my crew with. That way if I'm ever in a rut for menu planning I can look back a few weeks and *tA-Da!* I have them at my fingertips! Clever eh? I thought so.

Plus, I LoVe to see what other mama's feed their families -- so maybe my listing will start a domino effect and I can stalk - I mean observe - other meal plans too....deal? deal.

a few pics...

here are those promised pics I told you about - granted most of them are horrible quality camera pics but come on...can't be too picky!

Remember that race I told you about? Well, here's our post-race pic! We were at the start line (with the over 8,000 other runners!) and realized we didn't take a pre-race pic...oops. So you get the sweaty, endorphins, post-race look:) After 7k we were all still smiling and wanted to do it again!

It was such a blast! We had fun wearing lots of green and glitter - and ran past two Irish bands that cheered us on with great music! Definitely on my to-do list for next year again.

I've recently discovered Pinterest. Love. It is such a wealth of information and ideas! The other night we made donuts and donut holes. Recipe courtesy of Pinterest:)

And a post can't be complete without an adorable shot of my littlest man. This was from a month ago but you get the idea of the cuteness that is happening with him...

Six months really?

Happy St. Patrick's day!!!

My baby is SIX months today! Oy. Time is flying...I feel like a broken record saying that so much but it's oh so true.

Like how I haven't blogged in like two months? Yeah I'm cool like that. I seem to remember when Judah was around 4-6 monthish not blogging much either:)

I'm going to try and blog more. Write down all those cute things my boys do and I want to remember...hold me to that k? K. Deal.

So, I've been meaning to document Judah's and Isaac's last doctors visit stats - here they are for your reading pleasure.

Judah (from his three yr check)

Height - 2'11.25" (3.97%)

Weight-28 lb (17.52%)

Isaac (from his FOUR month appt...he's now six months!)

Height-1'11.5" (4.97%)

Weight-12 lb 1 oz (3.77%)

HC - 40.6 cm (10.67%)

I need to set mr. Isaac's six month appointment soon, I'm excited to see how much he's grown in the past two months!

I want to show you how cute my kids are but I'm having issues adding them...hopefully we can create some picture-posts for ya soon.

In other news I ran my first 7k this morning! It was so fun - I set a goal for myself to run at a pace of 10 min/mile and I beat it! I ran at a 9.56min/mile (I am fully aware that it's only a 4 sec difference but it was still FASTER than my goal so I'm claiming it!)

Hopefully I can find more time to update this and record all the cute things (and boring stats) from my family!

Judah's 3!

My dear Judah is THREE years old! Yesterday was his birthday - I can still clearly remember the day he was born and the time that followed...my little man was born 4 weeks early and spent 9 days in NICU. It's hard to believe that was THREE years ago!

Since his birthday is right after Christmas (the 27th sneaks up fast) we tend to keep his actual birthday low-key and spread out his celebrations after Christmas. He has a birthday party this Sunday and another one next Saturday. Lucky kid - he gets four weekends with presents (two for Christmas and two for his birthday!)

On Monday (day after Christmas, day before his birthday) Joe and I went shopping for his present. A few weeks ago Ethan made a pop-up book for Judah and had it wrapped and hidden under the table - he was so excited to give it to him!

Here's Ethan proudly showing Judah his gift - I wished I would've thought to record their interactions; it was ADORABLE.

Ethan: Judah, I made you a pop-up book!

Judah: Thank you Ethan!

Ethan: You're welcome.

Seriously.
Joe and I wrapped our gift in a Captain America bag - Judah loves the bag almost as much as the gift. Simple things right?
We got him a Green Lantern Jet and Action Figure - he LOVES it.
We also found a 'Golden Books' book about Super-Heros! Score! I think I've read it to him about 100 times so far.
After a relatively normal day we went out as a family to IHOP for a special birthday dinner! Yum! Judah was so excited and acted all big-boy while ordering his food. I love that IHOP puts their kids meal options in picture form on their kids coloring page - GENIUS. Why don't other places do that? It was so simple to have the kids look at the pictures and choose from that. The boys even had ice cream sundaes as a special birthday dessert:)

We had a wonderful birthday-day as a family!

Check out his 2nd birthday here

Check out his 1st birthday here

*I was reading through my older posts and in one of them I have 8 days in NICU and the other 9 days...when do you start counting...the day he was born or the next day? He was born Saturday and discharged the following Sunday (you count Saturday it's 9 days, don't count Saturday it's 8)

Snowless Christmas?

It appears that we may have a snowless Christmas this year (granted I can't recall the last time I watched the weather forecast...but there's no snow on the ground and Christmas is this weekend!)

Remember our HUGE snowstorm last year? I do. And for some reason this year I'm not loving the idea of that MUCH snow...maybe it's because I now have THREE kiddos to haul through it if I venture out. It's fun to play in but not so fun to drive in.

We had some snow a while ago (which obviously melted) and the boys had a ball in it. So, I guess for their sake maybe (just maybe) I'll wish for snow this winter....too bad it's inevitable! Here's some super cute pics of them enjoying the little bit of whiteness we've received this year...

Aren't those mini-snowmen adorable? Yep. I guess I'll embrace the silver lining of winter snow and think of all the cute snowmen and snow angels my kids will make. Way to go me!

We're getting ready for a fun-family-filled Christmas weekend; there will be lots of delicious food and fabulous company! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend:)