Meal Plan Monday!! 2/4/13

Ok, first attempt at posting a meal plan.  I've been meal planning off and on for a little over a year.  Honestly we're not always so good at sticking to it - either what I planned doesn't sound good, we're missing ingredients (good planning, Heather...) or I just get lazy.  Time to STOP that! 

Monday-  Italian Sausages, Peppers and Penne

Tuesday-  Sweet Chili marinated chicken, homemade mac & cheese, peas

Wednesday-  Scrambled eggs, bacon, berries and biscuits

Thursday- Chicken, Avocado, Bacon Quesdillas, veggies & dip

Friday-  Pizza  (family movie night!)

Saturday-  Out!! 

Sunday-  Cheeseburgers, fries, veggies & dip

Breakfasts-  pancakes, waffles, eggs, bananas, strawberries, blueberry muffins, smoothies

Lunches-  pb&j, cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese, hot dogs, fruit, carrots, ants on a log, yogurt, etc

For real this time...

Ok, I tried (and failed!) to start writing down snippits from our day to day life last September.  I managed a measely 2 published posts and 2 drafts... Way to commit, Heather!  I'm going to try again. I want to become more accountable to myself, more productive and like I said back in September, I really just want a place to remember all the awesome things Tato and Wally do and say!

I'd like to get back to meal planning and really work on expanding Wally's limited tastes.  So, on Mondays I'm going to post our weekly meal plans.  Let's call it... 'Meal Plan Monday!'  Super clever, right??  Hopefully this will lead to more adventurous meals, smaller grocery bills, and more well-rounded eating habits! 

I've been running fairly consistently for almost a year.  I definitely have good weeks (warm weather and healthy kids!) and bad weeks (freezing cold - hello central new york in winter!! and sick kids). So, I not only feel better during my 'good' weeks, but our days run a lot smoother, too.  So, maybe I'll try and work weekly updates on my workouts into the blog, too.  Goals - workout 5 days a week, workout videos or xbox kinect on days when I can't run, and run a half marathon sometime this year. 

I love taking pictures of my boys... but I still haven't taken the time to learn how to use our DSLR camera.  I really want to work on my photography knowledge.  So I'm sure I will post tons of pics as I explore our world through our Nikon D600.

Long story short - I need to turn the tv off, get up off the couch and start doing more with my days.  I'm in a rut and I'm hoping this here blog can get me out of it! 

Wally's pre-birthday birthday party

With Maamaw & Bampa in town just 10 short days before Wally turns 2 we decided we should do a mini birthday party for him.  See, we don't live near any family so our kiddos always just get to celebrate with Mom & Dad... So when the opportunity arose for him to celebrate with 2 of his most favorite people we had to capitalize!  Maamaw brought us a sesame street mini cake pan so I got to work on creating cute mini cakes in all our favs - Elmo, Ernie, Oscar and Cookie Monster.  After laboring away for 2 hours during naptime the cakes were ready!  

 

Now side note - we're not in to big birthday celebrations for little guys. I love, love seeing what others do on pinterest and blogs, but it just isn't something we do. We like intimate, low cost affairs. So, for Wally we were just doing cake, presents, grilling up some burgers and hanging out. Literally 1 minute after I took the above picture Tato came up to me and told me he didn't feel too good and then puked all over the kitchen floor and then the bathroom.  Yikes!  So, we got all that cleaned up, made him a little couch bed, changed clothes and regrouped. 

 

By now Wally was  awake, so I went to get him and decided the party must go on!  I didn't slave away on those cakes for nothing!!  After torturing Wally for a few minutes as we tried to get a decent, non-blurry pic (didn't happen), we finally let him dive in to the presents.



He was super excited to get a Little People Woody & RC along with Buzz & a rocket ship from Maamaw and Bampa!  They also got him that awesome toy box... but he couldn't care less about that once he opened the toys.  Next up - cake! 

He waited so patiently while I got everything set up.  Poor Tato was stuck on the couch... but he was happy because he had a free pass to watch tv all afternoon!

Sesame Street cakes turned out delicious!  Definitely would have been a lot more fun if Tato wasn't sick, but we made the best of it and I'm so happy that Wally got to celebrate with his grandparents!!   I totally failed at getting a decent picture of Colin with his grandparents - but did get this one of them watching Dora!

Oh, and don't think Tato was left out of the fun Sesame Street cakes - we saved him Oscar ;-)

While no one ever wants their kids to be sick, it was nice getting so many snuggles with Tato.  He let me rock him to sleep and I haven't done that in probably 2 1/2 years.  He was better by morning, thank goodness! 

A place to remember stuff.

Let's face it, having babies has rendered my brain useless.  They have killed my ability to remember anything.  Did I shut the garage door?  Is the dog still outside?  Am I wearing matching shoes?  Who knows...  Obviously this blog won't help with those questions, but maybe it'll help with remembering the cute things the boys say and the fun things we do together.  So, what the heck, let's give it a shot!

I'm planning to write about our day to day happenings, my cooking attempts, organizing projects, DIY fun, and the crazy things that come out of Tato and Wally's mouths. 

I will leave you with a funny from Tato -

Yesterday Tato and Wally were playing in Tato's room (I obviously was eavesdropping via monitor) and Wally was asking about Maamaw and Bampa.  Maamaw and Bampa (my parents) had just left a few hours earlier to head back to St. Louis.  Tato's response - "Colin, Bampa had to go home so he can work to pay Maamaw's bills and take us to Disney World again!"  Wally - "Oh, YAY!"