photo-a-day: week 4

 

January 22: Brody looking so big in his tie that he wore to church that morning!

January 23: Jillian was hard at work at Brody’s tool table!

January 24: Snuggling with my girl before her afternoon nap! She was sleepy from a fun morning at Bible study!

January 25: We had our first of many play dates with Preslee Turner!  Jillian looks so big next to this sweet, petite girl!

January 26: Heading out the door for MDO! She looks so big!

January 27: Bowling with my family for my mom’s birthday!

January 28: Jillian, Josh and Brody hanging out while I shopped at a local store this weekend!

Our Friday in iPhone Pictures

Brody and I started our morning early snuggling on the couch and watching Play House Disney. Brody wore this mixing bowl on his head while we watched tv. He acted like this was a completely normal thing to wear on your head! :)

After Jillian woke-up, we all went into Brody’s room to play and read books for most of the morning. I read this Noah Ark’s hand-puppet board book to Jillian at least 20 times this morning. She loves it! These types of books are so cute and fun for little ones!

Jillian went down for a quick morning nap and I got my car packed with meals for our freezer meal swap. We ended up with 10 meals for this coming month. I’m excited about all the new recipes, and of course, I’m most excited about 10 nights off of cooking! I made Erin’s Bow Tie Fiesta Pasta and Joelen’s Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells for the swap. (I included the recipes at the bottom of this post.)

Around 10:30, I woke Jillian up from her nap and loaded the kids in the car. Jillian took a monster truck and a baby doll with her in the car today! Our rough and tough girly girl! :)

We swapped meals and then met Lisa, Sara, and their kids at Sam’s to eat lunch. Lisa is having her 3rd baby next Friday, so we enjoyed her last Friday out for a few weeks!

We made a stop at Target and then came home so the kiddos could nap.

Last night, we went to dinner and bowling with my family to celebrate my mom’s birthday.

My sweet guy and me!

I wore this purple shirt, jeans and leopard shoes and Brody told me several times that he didn’t like what I was wearing and that I needed to change clothes before we left the house. Nothing like a 3 year old’s honest opinion, even when you don’t ask for it. :)

Here are the recipes I used for the meal swap! Try them! They are both sooo good!

Bow Tie Fiesta
Recipe from Blue Eyed Bride

Ingredients:
8 ounces bow tie pasta
1 pound ground beef
½ onion, chopped
½ green bell pepper, chopped
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
Salt to taste
1 cup sour cream
1 cup salsa
½ cup sliced black olives
¼ cup sliced jalapenos (optional)
1 tomato, chopped
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:Cook the pasta using package directions and cooking for 7 minutes; drain. Brown the beef in a skillet, stirring until crumbly; drain. Add the onion and green pepper and mix well. Cook until the onion is tender, stirring constantly. Stir in the tomato sauce, chili powder, and salt. Combine the pasta, ground beef mixture, sour cream, salsa, black olives, jalapenos, and tomato in a bowl and mix well. Spoon into a 9×11-inch or 9×9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells
Recipe from What’s Cookin’, Chicago?

12-16 jumbo pasta shells
water for boiling pasta
4oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese + 1/4 cup for topping
3 tablespoons prepared pesto (homemade or store bought)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over high heat, boil water and prepare pasta shells as directed on package. Cook pasta shells only until al dente. The pasta will finish cooking when the dish is baked. Drain the pasta shells and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, except the 1/4 cup of cheese for the topping. Fill the pasta shells with the filling and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over filled shells.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake shells uncovered for 30 minutes or until shells are bubbling hot and cheese melts.

Have a great weekend!

Flashback Friday

I came across these pictures of Jillian on my computer recently. She had just turned 3 months old  and was looking oh-so-cute in her personalized little sister onesie on this particular day!

I wish I could just jump through the computer screen and snuggle this little baby girl! She is growing entirely too fast!

Happy Friday!

Rainy Day Fun

It was rainy and cold here yesterday! Thankfully, we didn’t have any plans for the day. I always look forward to Wednesdays because it is one of our only mornings at home during the week. The kids and I spent the entire day in our pajamas playing and hanging out!

We spent the majority of the morning in Jillian’s room cooking and baking with her play kitchen.

Brody had gotten out one of my cheese graters to use while he cooked. He pulled it apart and said, “Look Mom, it looks like a backhoe!” He was right! Creative little guy!

Working hard in his sister’s pink kitchen! :)

After cooking, Brody gave Jillian a stroller ride in her baby doll stroller! Ha!

Once Jillian went down for her morning nap, Brody and I put the ingredients for dinner in the crockpot!

Then, I did some laundry and Brody obsessively washed his hands for about 30 minutes. This is his new thing! He loves to wash his hands, fill the sink with water until it almost overflows, then play in the water. I have to stick my head in every minute or so to make sure there isn’t a flood in the bathroom!

After lunch, we had a special little visitor! Preslee came over with her momma for a little while for our first play date! Brody and Jillian loved having her at our house! Jillian really loves her and thinks she her own little baby doll! :) I have several more pictures to share, so I am going to do a separate post for them! How sweet are these 3 together?

That afternoon Brody was wearing his argyle socks (they obviously matched his jersey so well) and he suddenly came up to me crying. When I asked him what was wrong he said, “I don’t want to wear these socks anymore. These socks are lazy!!!'” I have no idea what he was talking about, but it sure was funny!

After Josh got home from work, we ate chicken taco rice bowls, which was my easy crockpot meal from earlier in the day! I included the recipe at the bottom of this post. It was so easy and SOOO good! I found the recipe on my friend, Amy’s blog, and she found the recipe here!

Josh and I ended our night at small group! My friend, Holly, made these amazing Snickers surprise cupcakes. They were seriously so good and such a great way to end a fun, easy day!

Taco Chicken Rice Bowl

1.5 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts

16 oz. jar salsa

1 can ranch style black beans (I had regular ranch style beans, so I just used those instead)

1/2lb frozen corn (I forgot to buy this, but will definitely add it next time)

1 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tbsp cumin

1/2 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp salt

STEP 1: Add all ingredients to the slow cooker along with 1/4 cup of water (for good measure). Give everything a good stir and make sure the chicken is covered in the mixture.
STEP 2: Secure the lid on your slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hrs.
STEP 3: Near the end of the cooking time, cook two cups of rice according to the package directions.
STEP 4: After 8 hours of cooking, carefully remove the lid of the slow cooker. Stir with a fork to shred the chicken (it should be super tender and will shred easily). Build the taco bowls by placing rice on the bottom, then the taco chicken mix, shredded cheese and fresh cilantro.

Hope you all have a great day!

Happy Birthday, GiGi!

Yesterday was my sweet mom’s birthday! Because of work and kids, we decided to not go out and celebrate until this weekend, so we just had a little cake party at our house last night with my parents, and Jill and Brandon.

I thought the cake turned out super cute. I love red and turquoise together!

Cake table!

Brody loves birthdays and thinks everyone else’s birthday is another chance for him to blow out the candles! :)

Jill, Jillian and mom

Cute girl!

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

photo-a-day: week 3

I’m a little behind, but better late than never!!  A few of you asked how I do these pictures as polaroids. I did a post on how to do this last January when I did one whole week of these pictures, then quit! Ha! You can read it here!

January 15: Brody fell asleep playing with his toys in his room that night.

January 16: Brody and I went to see “Beauty and The Beast” with a few friends. He wasn’t too sure about the beast, but he was really happy at the end when the Beast turned out to be nice.

January 17: We went to Bible study at church and then came home to relax and do things around the house the rest of the afternoon. Brody wanted to cuddle on the couch. I never turn down an opportunity like that with our busy 3 year old!

January 18: Wednesday are our day at home! I love it and look forward to it each week. The kids stayed in their pajamas most of the day and even watched a DVD together in Brody’s room. This sweet moment lasted for approximately 45 seconds. :)

January 19: The weather was so nice and warm that we delayed afternoon naps after MDO and enjoyed some time outside!

January 20: We spent the morning at playgroup, then met some small group friends for lunch! Jillian rocked her ruffled shirt and cardi that day! :)

January 21: Josh went to coffee early with a couple of friends from church, then came home and snuggled and read to Jillian! She has him around her little finger! :)

Afternoon Fun

It’s been unseasonably warm this past week! To be honest, it hasn’t really felt like winter all month…which I’m totally ok with! :) We are loving the warmer temperatures and so thankful we have been able to get out and do things that we usually never get to do in January!

I picked the kids up from MDO on Thursday and it was almost 60 degrees outside, so we ran by Sonic to get some ice cream ( a reward for Brody for something he had done the day before), came home, changed into play clothes, and headed outside. It was actually the kids’ naptime, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of the 3 of us not enjoying the beautiful weather. Sometimes you just have to be flexible, and this was one of those days! :)

Little sister benefited from Brody’s reward!

She has gotten SO good at using spoons and forks when eating! She loved getting to practice her skills with the ice cream!

This was Jillian’s first time to really play outside! We haven’t played outside since the fall and she wasn’t walking then, so she usually sat on a blanket or in her exersaucer. It was so fun getting to watch her run around the yard and play with all of Brody’s toys.

I think we will need to get a second car before the spring! They both love this thing so much!

Driving! She kept cutting her eyes back like this to make sure Brody wasn’t coming after her. Story of her life! :)

Brody decided he needed to bring out almost all the toys in his room to play with outside. This was super fun to take back inside! :)

Hope you have a great weekend!

Sleep Where You Fall

Josh or I always go into the kids' rooms before we go to bed to check on them. When I peeked opened Brody's door Sunday night and looked in his bed to check on him, I quickly realized he wasn't there. I looked over to the right and found him curled-up in front of his tool table. He had apparently gotten out of bed to play and had fallen alseep on the floor!

The next night, we went to check on him before going to bed and found him on the floor asleep right by his bed. He had been playing again and hadn't quite made it to the bed before falling asleep!

I went to check on him Tuesday night, expecting to find him in the floor again, but he was asleep right where he was when we left his room earlier in the night. (I absolutely love to watch my sweet kids sleep. There is nothing sweeter to me as a mom!)

Josh went to check on Brody last night before bed and this is what he found! Seriously, how can that even be comfortable? :)

We have loved our new nightly adventure this week of finding out where Brody falls asleep! He's soooo quiet once he goes to bed that we never know if he is up playing or if he is already asleep! We just love this funny boy!