HAPPY (day-late) BIRTHDAY JUDAH

Yesterday was my littlest guy's 1st birthday! I can't believe Judah is already one...time flies! Since his birthday is so close to Christmas we did one party before Christmas and we're going to do another after. Here's a pic of Judah enjoying his cake at his first party (more messy faces to come at the next party I'm sure!!)

It boggles my mind how fast this year went! I feel like I was just in the hospital with this little guy. Last Christmas is a blur to me; Christmas Eve I went in for my normal 9 month midwife visit and left with the news that our baby would be born soon! ahhhh! (For those that don't know, they discovered I had a rare liver disease called Cholestasis and that paired with my gestational diabetes equaled needing to induce me 4 weeks early) - hospital visit on Christmas Eve, hospital visit Christmas day and then admitted the 26th, and Judah born the 27th! Then poor mr. Judah had pneumonia so we (me and Judah) got to stay in lovely NICU for 8 days. whew. What a way to start! But now, a year later, he is a happy-healthy-hyper one year old!! Praise God!

Here's some pictures of our sweet little guy in NICU:

I LOVE YOU JUDAH!

Menu Mania

Over the past 2 years (since Ethan was born and I became a stay-at-home-mama) I have taken in interest in cooking. I love to try new recipes and unique ingredients; but I also like to be frugal. One thing I have benefited from is menu planning - I plan out a handful of meals and then write my grocery list specifically for that. When I go grocery shopping from my list I see a great savings! I have all my ingredients for my meals and don't end up with random, mismatched items that sit in my cupboard for months! Yeah for saving money!

My new adventure is to (try) to blog what I am planning for the week (or so) of meals; I got this idea from a friend of mine, Heidi, who shares her menu every Monday. I have gotten many recipe ideas from her blog and hope to share some here with you!

Our next 5 meals:
Thai Turkey Meatballs/rice/pineapple
Italian Mini Meatloaves/bread
Sesame Noodles/veggies
Parmesan-Crusted Chicken/mashed potatoes
Baked Italian Mac-n-Cheese

I LOVE Rachael Ray and received more of her cookbooks and a subscription for her magazine this Christmas....I suspect a lot of my meals will be inspired by her! YUMO!

Hope you have a....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We've been enjoying lots of family time with each other
and our extended families; lots of great food; good laughs
and most importantly thanking God for sending His Son to earth to save us!
Thank you Jesus!

My Little Rock Star

My big boy jamming out on daddy's mandolin! Ethan loves music; he loves to listen to it, dance to it, play it, and sing to it! We have frequent 'jam' session in our bedroom with Ethan on the mandolin and daddy on the guitar.

What a rock star!

Winter Fun!

Winter is here! I wish I could be excited about the cold (I'm not) but I am excited to see my big boy Ethan play in the snow more this year. With Judah being born last December Ethan didn't get much of a chance to explore the wonderful, white, wintery bliss we call snow! After our first big snowfall I took Ethan out in the front yard..we lasted about 5 minutes...too cold. During those 5 minutes though we saw the plow clear our driveway, saw our breath and sat in a big pile of snow!
We then came in and enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate (which I later discovered make mr. Ethan VERY HYPER!)

Earlier this winter we made cookies with Grandma Mancuso and Ethan had so much fun! He really got into rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookie shapes.
He had so much fun we decided to make some more at home for our neighbors...by this batch of cookies he was a complete pro! Too much fun!
I love my little helper! He's getting to the age where he really can help:) And who doesn't mind tons of frosted sugar cookies around the house? yummy....
Those aprons really came in handy for all our flying flour! Oh how I love being a mommy:)

SUPERHEROES!

Here are my 2 favorite mini superheroes!

Ethan is our resident junior superman and Judah our resident mini batman;
together they keep this house safe from all toddler terrors!

And to top off our superhero home Daddy has a Batman shirt, Superman shirt and a Batman/Superman combo shirt - so he can double as either or both.
Whew. I'm glad we have so many heroes in this house! I feel so safe:)

Potty Train *choo choo

Hooray! Ethan is potty trained! He's been successfully in underwear day and night for a few weeks now - way to go man! We started about a month ago and my little super-man figured it out really fast; I like to say he trained himself. I just gave him the opportunity to go - every time I went (which if you know me - that's a lot!) I brought him with me and he would go. Pretty soon he was asking to go and now -BAM- my little man is potty trained! We had a few accidents (#2, BM's ...ewwww) but have conquered that hurdle now too! Woot woot! It's funny..Ethan refers to it (being potty trained) and a potty 'train' (choo choo)..I don't think he quite understands the different meanings to the same word.

Here's some pics of my crazy man showing off his underwear (and some of my jewelry and a sweet hat)Silly man...

It's really nice having Ethan potty trained. I love changing less diapers, I love not buying them all the time, I LOVE flushing the poopies down the toilet instead of cleaning them, and it makes Ethan look so cute (he looks so grown up without the diaper butt!) Plus, He LOVES IT! Added bonus for sure! I hoping mr. Ethan will pass on his enthusiasm for the potty to his little bro in a few years:)