Monday Menu & Pictures

Menu:
Monday- Costco pizza (we grabbed another one while the sale was still on, can't beat $6!)
Tuesday- grilled chicken w/o the grill and sweet potato fries
Wednesday- pasta
Thursday- dinner w/ dad?
Friday- Cornbread casserole
Saturday- pizza for M's party
Sunday- (M's bday) blueberry pancakes, eggs, ect...

On a side note, I did two chicken breasts in the crock pot with salsa and taco seasoning last week and it's lasted forever! We've had 2 dinners and one lunch with it as a family, and I had lunch with it again today, and there's still enough left for one more lunch for me. Definitely making that more often! It's a great way to make the meat go further. :)


To-Do's:
Monday- Grocery shopping, go through some bins
Tuesday-
Wednesday- small group
Thursday-
Friday- bring treat to M's school for her bday
Saturday- M's party
Sunday- M's birthday, family dinner here

Also need to finish going through some bins and go to the Dollar Store for party supplies (and figure out what all I'm doing for her party).


N decided that he wasn't going to nap at his regular time today, but he was in a good mood, so I ended up taking some pictures of him that I really like! I can't believe this little boy will be 18 months old soon.

N the Potato Head :)

Random Photos

Just some random pictures from the last week...

M and N watching the SNOW yesterday

R and M (R was about to get in the shower, hence the lack of shirt)

N loves hats!



I have these super cheesey storyboards of M and R eating ice cream cones for the first time. They're both hanging in the hallway, so I figured I better make one for N too. The sayings are corny, the storyboard style is not something I would do anymore, and I really don't like the font, but I like that all 3 match. lol
Here is N's from when we had ice cream on my birthday. He actually didn't scream, or even care that much about eating it, but he screams about everything else, and that was the only corny saying I could think of.

Here is R's, I don't know where the digital copy of M's is, which is odd because I made them at the same time. M's says "A cone of my own" though. See, corny. :)


I'll post a picture of all 3 once I get N's printed. :)

Luck of the Irish

I took down my Valentines decorations this week. I was planning on leaving them up through February, but on Wednesday night they started falling down, so I took that as a sign that it was time to switch them out.
I've been messing with my shelves for the last two days, and I now have one of them done. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on the other one yet. I'm thinking something more spring-y, but we shall see... Those things have a way of changing as I do them.
Anyway, here's the shelf that's done, I really like how it turned out. :)

I switched my Valentines subway art out for the St. Patty's Day version, and the book is another one I have from my childhood. I hadn't planned on using it, but when I was putting the Valentine's one away I saw this one and thought it would be fun up there. The only thing I bought for this project were the shamrocks. I found them at Michaels (after thinking I'd seen them at the Dollar store and then not being able to find them there). They were $1 for a bunch of 4 and I bought 2 bunches (I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with the rest). I borrowed the gold coins from my kids' Christmas candy (yes, we still have Christmas candy), and the gumballs are the same ones I've been using forever. My kids keep asking to eat them every time I switch them out, but they've been handled so much (and dropped on the floor) that I think they're for decoration only at this point.

I'm really having fun with these shelves, I like looking up there and seeing something fresh and new (and I like that I still have one surface that N can't get to).

Linking up for the first time. :)

Way Late Menu

Yes, I realize it's almost Friday, but I have a yummy menu this week, and I want to be sure I remember these ideas later. :) Matthew was off until today and I didn't have time to post before now.

Menu:
Monday- PB&J, cereal, microwave rice... (we got home from our trip at 7pm)
Tuesday- blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs with sausage and cheese (yum!)
Wednesday- out for my birthday :)
Thursday- crock pot salsa chicken, made into quesadillas
Friday- pesto pasta and...
Saturday- nachos with the rest of the chicken
Sunday- meatloaf and mashed potatoes

I won't bother with a to-do list for the week. We were gone until Monday night, Tuesday we did laundry, errands, and all the things that need to be done after a trip. Wednesday was my birthday and we just hung out most of the day. We went out for and early dinner and ice cream and then did some more hanging out. It was nice! Today I more than made up for not getting much done all week. I washed the sheets on our bed and remade it (the chore I hate most), washed a load of towels and got them put away, took down the Valentines decorations and started on the St. Patty's day ones, vacuumed my bedroom, helped M do a little cleaning in her's, exercised on the Wii Fit, cleaned both bathrooms (including dusting the shelves and light bulbs in my bathroom and taking everything out of the medicine cabnit to wipe it out, all MUCH needed!), and swept the floor a couple times, and did I mention the kids are out of school this week? I'm so glad dinner is in the crock pot tonight!
With gas up to $4 a gallon I don't think we'll be going anywhere tomorrow either, so I'm hoping I can be just as productive again, but we'll see... lol

Skiing

We went on our annual ski trip last weekend with Matthew's family. I didn't go last year because N was too little to leave, so I was really excited to go this year. For the first time since we've been doing this trip it was not warm and sunny. It was pretty much the exact opposite. Freezing cold and snowing. It was kind of cool to be up there when it was snowing, but it got old fast. I much prefer the sun when I ski, thankyouverymuch. We still had fun though.

The kids and I before we took them up on the bunny slope...

R tried snowboarding and he really wasn't that bad at it. He was so close to the ground that falling on his butt was no big deal at all, and he'd just pop right back up.


M did really well skiing down the bunny slope too, I think she really could have gotten the hang of it this year...


But, both our kids and their 2 cousins that are 6 months older than them all melted down very quickly. So much so that we decided we weren't bringing them back up there for a few years. lol I think it was just too cold for them this year. Add in the fact that really, they'd rather just play in the snow with their cousins anway. They just didn't want to work on getting better at something that was not easy.

I managed to make one run with Matthew before lunch, and it was so snowy that I couldn't see and got motion sick coming down the mountain. That sucked!
All 12 of us piled in the Excursion for lunch, and then I hung out with the younger kids at the lodge while everyone else got a little more skiing in.

It was a fun trip, but I hope next year the sun is shining when we go!

Monday Menu - Love Day

I'm sitting here feeling very loved this Valentines Day. I was just surprised with a date out tonight. Matthew had me get pizza (thinking it was for all of us), and arranged for a sitter so we could go out. I have no clue where we're going, but I don't even care. :)

Okay, onto the menu for the week:
Monday- pizza for the kids
Tuesday- meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Wednesday- breakfast
Thursday- twice baked potatoes and roasted broccoli (I'm telling you, this stuff is GOOD! and I'm usually not a big fan of broccoli)
Friday-Sunday- Redding... :)

To-do's:
Monday- grocery shopping (glad I got that done before this rain started!), M's class party, out :)
Tuesday-
Wednesday-
Thursday-
Friday- take the van in, early day for the kids, headed over the hill
Saturday- skiing :)
Sunday- ??

Other stuff...
*I need to go through the bin of winter clothes and make sure we all have everything we need and it's ready to go. It's looking like it's going to be a lot colder on the mountain this year than it has been in years past, so I want to make sure we'll all be warm enough.
*I also (still) need to call about softball for M.
*Make a trip to the Dollar store (I am loving that store for cheap decorating supplies lately)

Not too busy of a week, and it'll be a short week at that. Matthew took Friday off so we can leave as soon as the kids get out of school, which makes my week seem really short. :)

R made a special valentine for one of the girls in his class. I should have taken a picture, it was pretty cute. He drew hearts for her and everything. This is the same girl who he's kissed (ack!!) and says he's going to marry. I think that boy may give me some gray hairs, but the valentine is sure cute! :)

Trophy Madness

So, my dad emailed me yesterday morning to tell me that the Giants world series trophy was going to be in town that afternoon. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to see, so we all got on our Giants gear, grabbed Matthew's stuff, and headed over there. Let me just say, it was a ZOO down there!! The news said over 1000 people showed up (and apparently we were on the news, in the background getting out picture taken during the live broadcast). It was crazy!! But, I figured we were already there, so we might as well go get in line. The line was right on the water and the wind was blowing (someone in line checked the weather on their phone and said it was 31 mph, crazy!). We waited for over an hour before we got to go in and sneak a little peek at the trophy. I was able to snap one quick picture in between other people getting their photo with it, and then we got a very quick family photo snapped, and then we were out of there. We got home and Matthew and I both said we forgot to even look at it up close. lol I still think it was a really cool experience, and it was fun to see so many dedicated (er... crazy) fans out there. The kids all did amazing even though they were freezing, and I'm sure the older two will always remember it.
Here are the pictures we got...

Waiting in line... this was probably about 1/2 way through, it occurred to me that I may want to scrap about this so I snapped a quick picture. :)

My quick snap of the trophy. :)

I bought the digital file so I could make as many copies as I want and use it online (and re-crop it, they took the dang thing crooked!). :)

I'm sure they're making tons of money taking this thing all over the place. I don't know who would stand in line that long and not at least buy a print.

Monday Menu

Menu:
Monday- (Matthew's birthday) chicken casserole
Tuesday- take-n-bake pizza
Wednesday- taco cornbread casserole
Thursday- pesto chicken with sun dried tomatoes and pasta (thanks Misty!!)
Friday- mac-n-cheese for the kids, out for us
Saturday- ?
Sunday-fettucini alfredo with chicken and roasted broccoli (seriously, the best broccoli I've ever had!!)

To-do's
Monday- grocery shopping, post office, call about softball for M, Matthew's birthday :)
Tuesday-
Wednesday-
Thursday- 100 day at school, R's class at 12:30
Friday- Dance for M, kids night @ church, dinner out, and drop off baby gift
Saturday- FIL's??
Sunday- church, costco (pick up M's invites)

Other:
Take M's birthday invite photos
Make invites & upload to Costco
Target run
Drop off R's t-ball registration

February is always INSANE for us. First, there are a ton of birthdays this month (SIL's, Matthew's, niece's, mine, and MIL's), and M's is just 6 days into March, so all the planning has to be done this month too. We always go skiing with Matthew's family and celebrate all the feb/march birthdays over break, and then there's Superbowl, Valentines Day, 100 day at school (which is just as big a deal as Valentine's day), registration for spring sports, and we're working with the shortest month in the year to start with. We know by now that when we hit the 1st of the month it's just going to be crazy until after M's birthday. It's all fun stuff, but I think we might be busier this month than we are in December (maybe, last December was pretty crazy with the play and dance...).

A bunch of pictures!

I put these all on FB too, but I want to try to keep my blog going, if nothing else so I have something more than FB to look back at. :)
Just a bunch of random pictures from the last few days...

M doing art, both kids LOVE art and spend a good bit of time at their desk. I'm so glad we went ahead and built this!

Here is the (almost) completed desk/shelves set-up. We just need to do some touch up on the trim and get a shelf for under the desk. I also want to find something to put on top of the shelves, but that's a whole other post. :)

R and N playing blocks. N was so cute. He REALLY wanted to knock down the blocks as soon as we would stack two together, but he was good about waiting if we told him too. Every time we'd tell him to wait he'd scrunch his shoulders up and put his head to the side. It was super cute. :)





N tried to put on M's backpack, so I got out the old one R used for preschool. He loved wearing it around the house.

I love these boys. :)


M loves to read!

Etsy Love

Just thought it would be fun to do a little post on some Etsy things I'm loving these days. :)

I'm LOVING this necklace (and this one, and this matching bracelet). How stinking cute are those??

I think these prints are super cute too!

(from Whimsy Studios)

There are so many cute things out there! What are some of your favorites?