Nathan at 3.5 & Kyle at 6

Nathan is 3.5 years old and calls pennies circus money because the Union shield on the back looks like a circus tent to him! He calls dalmatians fire truck dogs. His favorite story is "Jack and the Beanstalk." When he asks me for a snack he asks for it by shape....eg "I want a cookie that is a circle." "Can I have a snack shaped like a door?" It took me a while, but this is Club crackers!

Kyle's birthday was yesterday. He has been asking since Christmas, "How many days until my birthday?" He was very excited! Kyle had a great birthday and enjoyed every aspect of the day! This morning he almost cried because it wasn't his birthday anymore and he has to wait 365 days until his next birthday.

I have found "The Answer"

I have found "the answer" to all of my problems! What is it, you ask...Meal Planning.

I am a working mother of two small boys and have a husband all of whom want to eat dinner every night. (Who knew?)The boys would be happy with cookies or any other junk food, but since I want to be a “good” mom, that’s not going to happen. So what can I do to ensure we get healthy food for dinner? Do a web search and the answer is “meal planning.” Apparently this is the solution to many of our problems (good to know, right). So how does a busy mom of small kids go about meal planning when I don’t have 4 to 5 hours to prep numerous meals on some day during the week?

Bring in the slow-cooker, aka crock-pot! This little appliance may well become my best friend. A few weeks ago I made pulled chicken (Chicken, BBQ Sauce, and some broth). This lasted us for 3 dinners and 2 lunches, but we tired of pulled chicken sandwiches before we were out of chicken. So…I needed to find more versatile recipes that we could eat for several days, but not eat the same thing every day.

I decided to cook some chicken up in the crock-pot with some chicken broth and half a package of make your own dressing mix (you can use ranch or Italian), then shred the chicken. I froze it in quart freezer bags to use to make the following recipes:

1 Chicken Quesadillas

2 Buffalo Chicken Pizza (Cheese Pizza for the boys)

3 Sloppy Chicken Joes

4 Chicken Enchiladas

5 BBQ Chicken Wraps

6 Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

7 Chicken Tacos

8 Pesto Chicken Club Wrap

Now I have several healthy meal options for busy nights! This will work so much better than Pulled Chicken Sandwiches for 5 meals!

I think I will try Freezer Cooking next to add some variety to our meals.

Nathan at 3

Last night, Nathan was chasing Kyle around the kitchen saying "I want it, I want it." Kyle had a blue sword. He and Nathan had been play fighting; Nathan's red sword had been left in the living room. I stopped Nathan and asked what he wanted. Of course, he wanted the blue sword. I asked him why. His answer was simple, "because Kyle has it."

Kid Quote

Yesterday Kyle woke up and said, "Mommy, my eyebrows hurt." My sweet 5 year old had his first headache! Poor kid.

April 24, 2012

Nathan tried to take his first step at daycare today!!

Nathan is really fast!

Nathan can make it half way up the stairs in less than 10 seconds!

Nathan 7mos

Nathan's crawling. We're in trouble now!

Nathan 6 1/2 months

Nathan took two crawl motions forward today, twice! He'll be crawling before we know it!

Christmas 2011

Christmas was wonderful! It was Nathan's first Christmas and the first year Kyle really understood what to do. Jay and I had a lot of fun with the boys. We had a great time with Jay's family then went to the Houston area to visit my family. We drove up to Galveston and showed the boys the ocean and beach. Kyle enjoyed running away from the tide and Nathan enjoyed looking out at the water.

Nathan at 6 mos

Nathan pulled himself up to a sitting position! He is getting to be such a big boy!