baby's room... part 1

Kyle has been doing the ultimate "honey do" list! He has built me a bedroom, painted it and stained the floor... and he has done touch-ups to our old room, which is now the baby's room. We will finally be done today and I took the worst pictures EVER, but at least it is a bit of a visual of the baby's room for now. A lot of the fun details (like the shelves that Kyle is building) will come over time. We are at least comfortable that if the baby came today, we would be ready!

This is the horrible brownish/peachish color that covered every single inch of our apartment when we moved in... We never got around to painting the closet... nothing like some nesting to get it done... or have your husband get it done.

it's now grey with white trim... (I forgot to get a finished picture)

the little twin bed I will probably find myself crashing on after 2am feedings.. again, horrible picture and terrible lighting.. but I do love the bed.

His baby book and first toy plane

"little tiger" now has a permanent little home

We finally made the crib and we are excited for the bedding taht is coming from my sister.

Meal Planning.... and a very foggy brain

I have never really had to meal plan before. After years of watching my grandmother cook and shop, and helping, I was comfortable to just walk into the grocery store, remember what we need and plan on the go.

Well between being pregnant, wanting to eat healthy and well rounded, and just having a SUPER foggy brain lately, I have meal planned.

I'm not going to lie I was a little overwhelmed by it at first. I looked up a bunch of meal plans. They were super detailed, and a bunch of new recipes (which can be fun, but can also be scary) and just to start I felt like I had to re-stock my whole pantry... So I scratched the "follow a meal plan" and made my own.

I will probably get more detailed in time, but for the first go around, it goes something like this...

Week 1: Dinners (chicken themed)
Mon: Rotisserie chicken, veggie's, fruit salad (1 large Rotisserie chicken could last Kyle and I 3 meals)
Tues: use the left over Rotisserie chicken for a green chicken salad. (I like to add walnuts and apples or pears) with some garlic toast.
Wed: Use the Rotisserie chicken for some chicken tacos.
Thurs: Breakfast for dinner: Use the sauteed  veggies for omelets. Serve with Fruit
Friday: Rice and Veggie soup. I was able to use the left over veggies from the week to make a yummy soup and have almost no left overs!
Sat:  I must have bought a really large chicken because we still have a bit left. So I made grilled Chicken/Tomato/Pesto/Mozzarella sandwiches. YUMMY!!!
Sun: Sunday is usually a bit of a free for all. Kind of hard to plan. We might go to a friends house after church, or have people over... Sunday night is a snack night.

Week 2: Dinners (beef chemed)
Mon: Meatball subs
Tuesday: I use any of the left over mealballs add them to a pasta sauce and make meat sauce pasta with veggies.
Wed: Tostadas..
Thur: Wet beef bean and cheese burritos.
Fri: Good old fashioned Hamburgers
Sat: left overs

The theme makes it easy for me to just buy a couple of ingredients and make them last, and I end up buying a lot of good produce because you can cook up veggies in so many ways. I also like being able to use up everything that I buy. We end up with very few ingredients. 

We'll see how I do with time and a little practice.. I'm going to try and post the recipes of Kyle's favorites.

Side note on the whole foggy brain thing.. WOW I had no idea how clueless I could be. Kyle will ask me questions and I have the answer in my head, but the words are just so hard to get out... I hear this is normal.. but I still feel crazy. :) It has been very entertaining for Kyle.

Christmas 2013

Well I have been home for a week now and am just now feeling well enough to sit here and upload some pictures...

It was so great to get the chance to go home for the holidays, and to have Kyle be able to stay a little longer than we thought he would be able to! Flights were crazy over the holidays and so Kyle and I got some "date" time in at the airport restaurant waiting for our delayed flights.

 We had some great time playing in the snow... ok, I didn't really play in the snow, but I loved taking pictures of everyone who could participate. That's Katie doing snow angels, and Vanessa watching her.. Kyle played with the kids every chance he got (except when he was sick... have you figured out yet that everyone got sick?)

This might win the award for ugliest snowman ever.... but he was made with a lot of love, and an extra ball of snow (aren't snowmen only supposed to have 3?)

 These moments when we were all just together were my favorite. Judging by the look on Dad's face, they were his favorite too.

 Elijah got a super cool hair cut from grandad so that he could spike his hair with gel like Davy.

 Would you check those antlers out?! Yeah, my dad shot a huge elk with his bow.

 I think I can pretty safely say that these 4 people have had the biggest impact on my life. They are AMAZING examples of sacrificial love!

Just a little lunch date with Nana and Grandad to 5 guys....

I was glad to be headed home to Kyle and to get ready for the baby, but it was so hard to say goodbye. You would think it would get easier with time, but this was one of the harder times to leave.