Sad Post

Well friends, as much as I hate to write this post, I'm going to be done blogging for awhile. I love doing this, but by holding off for awhile it is one less thing I have to worry about right now. Between being a mom of three active adventurous boys, a wife, house duties, and working full-time, this is one less thing to worry about for awhile. I have fallen behind on some of my everyday duties, so I thought this would ease the stress a little if I let one thing go for awhile.

I will be back, I'm just not sure when, and don't want to put a time limit on it until I feel I have more time.

Thanks for reading and following along! Until then.................................

Supper Menu

I decided I'm going to try something different this week for my supper menu post. I'm stuck on repeat!! I need some ideas on supper menus, so I'm asking for your help! Please post a family favorite dish.

I have a few stipulations though: A) my husband is a picky eater B) I also need kid friendly dishes.

I'm very excited to see your posts, and hoping you can help me get out of the "repeat" supper menu posts. I feel like I'm making the same dishes over and over. I love trying new dishes, it is just hard for me to find some dishes that I hope my husband will like and the kids will eat. Anyone else feel this way?

Thanks for your help friends!

Money Savings Monday

Tip #2

Some of you may find this gross, but we reuse our shower and bath towels before washing them again. We use them twice and then wash them. I know my mom finds this gross, but my theory is your clean when you get out, right? We each reuse our own towel, and don't worry if you stay at our house you will get a clean towel to shower with.  

This saves on doing probably two loads a week for us at our house. Brandon and I started doing this in college when we were scrounging around each week for quarters to do laundry. 

This money saving idea saves on water, laundry detergent, and electricity! Plus our time of doing and folding the laundry, score! Any less laundry we can do each the better! 

Supper Menu

Here is our supper menu for the upcoming week:

Sunday- Lasagna, garlic bread, and roasted broccoli and cauliflower

Monday- BLT's with chips fresh fruit

Tuesday- Pancakes and sausage

Wednesday- I work late, so Brandon will have to come up with a plan for supper

Thursday- Sloppy Joe's, onion rings, and corn. 

Friday- Frozen Pizza

Saturday- For the Memorial Weekend we have a family outing this day. Yay for three day weekends!

Money Savings Monday

So if you know me, you know I love to budget! Everything we buy is based off of a monthly budget Brandon and I have come up with. We revise our monthly budget every month based off of what we have coming up in the future.

I love sharing our money saving tips with people because I think I feel these days it is hard for families to save money and get ahead sometimes with all the expenses we have in life. I thought I would come with Money Savings Mondays and pass along some of the tips we use to help with our budget.

I would also enjoy to hear from you on what you do to help cut expenses. 

Tip #1:

This past weekend we had to travel and stay over night for a funeral, so one thing we do to help with our budget when we travel is we pack most of our own food. I don't usually pack meals because it is too hard to keep the food fresh sometimes. I have tried that, and I feel like we wasted more food that way, and then still had to pay for meals on top of what we packed. We pack a cooler with milk, juice boxes, water, and soda. We also pack a basket full of snacks for the kids and ourselves.

Packing our own food helps us, so when we stop for gas, we don't end up going into the convenient store and spending $15 extra dollars on food and drinks. We also don't go out to the vending machines at night during our hotel stay. We all know vending machines can suck our money right out of us! Another great reason we pack our food is it also helps our kids eat a little healthier on the road. I feel when we travel it is so easy to fill out mouths with a bunch of junk food, so packing our own food has helped with better food choices. We do pack some junk food, don't get me wrong, but I do like to throw in strawberries, grapes, blueberries, carrots, apples, or any other fruit and vegetables that are quick and handy for packing. My favorite junk food road item are Twizzlers! We do usually have to pack about 2 packs of Twizzlers on any road trip we go on since my love for Twizzlers has passed down to the boys and Brandon.

Supper Menu

Here is our meal plan for this week: 

Sunday: Taco in a bowl with chips and queso 

Monday- Brody and Brayden have their track meet so we will just come home and make a frozen pizza

Tuesday- I work late, so it will be Brandon's night to pick. I'm guessing scrambled eggs since we have an over abundance of eggs right now 😀

Wednesday- grilled pork chops with grilled vegetables 

Thursday- homemade mac and cheese with fish sticks 

Friday- eat out

Saturday- I've never made steak fajitas, so this is my something new this week that we are going to try out. I always get excited and nervous at the same time when I try new recipes. Excited for new things, but nervous they won't turn out. Then comes in the back up plan of peanut butter sandwiches! 

Benny Keith Turns 1

This past year has been such a blessing for our family! I had bittersweet emotions celebrating this little child's birthday. I've been so happy to watch him grow this year, and watching how much love his big brothers have for him. However, at the same time, I was brought to tears at how fast the year as has gone and realizing he is not a little baby anymore. Such bittersweet emotions each time my child has a birthday.

Here are some pictures from Benny's birthday celebrations.

This is the gift I give to my boys for their first birthday. I create a picture book of their first year. I was not good at doing baby books, and keeping track of when their first tooth came in, or what the first food was they ate---so I do a 12x12 picture book of the first year. Brody and Brayden have loved looking back on their "First Year Book".

Here are the birthday celebration photos:

The Cousins

My Birthday Buddy

Daddy diving into the cake

2nd Birthday Celebration

The theme: Little Man-- so mustaches were a must!

Where Did The Time Go?

Wow! I didn't realize it has been since March since I have last posted! Where has the time gone? So much has happened since the last time I posted, and so many big events! First of all Benny Keith turned 1 a few weeks after I posted!! I can't believe how fast that year went! The years keep just keep going faster and faster! Since Benny and I share a birthday, that also means I turned another year older--the big 3.0.!! Yikes!! Time really needs to slow down! I feel like the last 10 years just flew by!

Since I have last posted, Brandon has been busy building us a new dinning room table which got done just in time for Mother's Day this past weekend. I'm so excited and so lucky to have a great guy build this table for me! I wanted a new table to fit our growing family, but yet I didn't want to pay for a new table. I saw an idea, and Brandon put it into reality for us! I heard the word "no" a few times, but then all of a sudden he said we were going to Menard's to pick up wood so he can start on that table I was asking for! I sure am spoiled! 

I'm so excited to get everyone caught up to speed on our busy little life! I will get blogging!

Our New Family Adventure

Our new family adventure this past week was adding urban backyard egg laying chickens. We did this for many reasons, we feel it is important that the boys learn where their food comes from and the hard work that it involved. Another reason is because the boys can't have pets inside due to their allergies and asthma, and lastly, the boys can earn some money and take responsibility by selling their fresh farm eggs! We have had the chickens now for a week and we are totally in love them! I also have to add in there, I am no longer the outnumbered female in the house--there are actually 5 females to 4 males in our household now. I guess the females now rule the roost! :)

Brown Chicken- Margo, Black Chicken- Lily, White Chickens- Susie and Ruth

Our first egg! Brayden was so excited!

After two days of having the chickens, Brandon decided to add on to their hen house for more room. He loves his ladies!

Our little egg nook!

Supper Menu

This week was pretty easy to plan out since we will be celebrating Easter this weekend.

Monday- grilled pork chops, Parmesan asparagus, buns 

Tuesday- I work late so I'm sure Brandon will make a gourmet meal for the boys, frozen pizza

Wednesday- spaghetti, roasted broccoli and garlic bread

Thursday- biscuits and gravy with fresh fruit (we actually had something come last week the night we were supposed to eat it) 

Friday- Caseys pizza take out

Saturday- we have one Easter celebration 

Sunday- we have our second Easter celebration 

We hope everyone has a great Easter celebration!

"He is not here; for he is RISEN as he said" Matthew 28:6

Laundry Room Remodel

We live in a split level house, and the main door we use to go in and out of the house is very crowded when five people are trying to leave in the mornings or come home in the evenings. Plus when you add in a pile of shoes on top of that you are constantly stubbing your toes or tripping over items. This chaos was driving me nuts, so since we had spring break this week, I decided our laundry room was going to get a face lift and become a mudroom. This will will now be the place were people can enter/exit our house and have plenty of room to put on their coat and shoes. I'm very excited about this and how it turned out! I know, it apparently doesn't have to be much to get me excited! Just a nice sense of being organized is a great feeling!

Also, since I'm all about our budget, I gave myself a $100 budget. After paint, rugs, storage organization, and wall hangings, I came in under budget at $89! I was pretty proud of that because I thought it was going to cost more. Brandon does want to add in a storage component for dirty laundry, but that is going to have to come out of another month's budget since the units we priced are about $200.

I painted the trim white, took down some old cabinets and added coat hooks, painted the walls and brick, reorganized shelves and the clutter, adding some floor coverings, and then hung up some wall hangings to add in a homey touch.

Here are the before and after pictures! 

Before Pictures

After Pictures

Supper Menu

Last week we had a lot of things come up, so what I had planned we didn't get to eat. It may seem like a repeat, but we didn't get to actually eat most of the planned meals. 

Monday- Honey garlic chicken with carrots and green beans 

Tuesday- Mississippi roast with homemade onion rings and strawberries 

Wednesday- Fettuccine Alfredo with garlic bread and peas 

Thursday- Biscuits and gravy with fresh fruit 

Friday- eat out

Saturday- Lasagna with roasted broccoli and garlic bread 

Sunday- it's Palm Sunday so my dad is bringing down turkey dinners from the Knights of Columbus 

Supper Menu

So I hate to admit this, but I still have not made it to the store! I know I'm shocked too!!! It's been two weeks without grocery shopping! We are down to just condiments and shredded cheese in the refrigerator.. Maybe an apple and an orange left. My plan is to make it to the store tomorrow, and here is what I have planned for the week: 

Monday-- we ate whatever we could find to call our "supper" 

Tuesday- grilled cheeseburgers, French fries and fresh pineapple 

Wednesday- grilled chicken with wild rice and peas 

Thursday- I work late, so I'm guessing Brandon will make a frozen pizza

Friday- pancakes, sausage and fruit 

Saturday- eating out 

Sunday- Mississippi roast with homemade onion rings and fresh fruit 

Supper Menu

So I have to be honest, I haven't posted yet because we have not had time to go grocery shopping. Last weekend was very busy for us, and we never made it to the store. We are living on whatever we have in the freezer and cupboards this week. Great way to use up what we have I guess! 

Monday- I worked late so it was up to Brandon

Tuesday- homemade fried rice with sesame chicken

Wednesday- cheeseburgers with homemade onion rings and pineapple 

Thursday- pancakes, sausage and oranges 

Friday- enchiladas with chips and cheese 

Saturday and Sunday- we will be out of town at a wedding 

Banana Muffins

This month of February has brought a few snow days, which means no school and no work! On one of the snow days the boys and I tried a new recipe. We made banana muffins! Our bananas were starting to go bad, so we thought we would be resourceful and make muffins out of them. On that note, we saw that our blueberries were going bad too, so we added them into the mix! They turned out well, and we have made them once a week since then!

My boys (especially Brayden) are notorious for wasting food. They will ask for something to eat, take a few bites, and then throw it in the garbage--then on top of that ask for another snack! I know they are kids, but wasting food is expensive, and I feel terrible throwing food away knowing there are others out there not knowing where their next meal may come from. This is a bother to both Brandon and I, so we have been teaching the boys not to waste food. I wanted to lead by example, so rather than throwing our bananas and blueberries away, we used them up by making something new!

Here is the recipe to our delicious muffins!

• 3 ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg 
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• add blueberries just because :)  

Mash bananas in a mixing bowl. Add sugar and egg. Add butter. Stir. Add baking soda, baking powder, and flour. Stir. I added my blueberries last so they didn't get mashed.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, eat and enjoy! 

These also freeze well! :)

Supper Menu

Last week I tried posting our supper menu, but when I went to go upload it our internet was not working. Then I spaced it off. It would have been a pretty boring menu anyway. We had something going on every night of the week! We pretty much ate sandwiches and cereal. Terrible, I know! But sometimes that's the way it works. This week's menu is a little different, a little more structured and little more nutritious.

Sunday- Lasagna, broccoli and garlic bread

Monday- Sesame chicken and rice 

Tuesday- Enchiladas, chips and queso 

Wednesday- I work late so it's up to Brandon

Thursday- I work late again so another night up to Brandon

Friday- Grilled hamburgers, mixed veggies and chips 

Saturday- we have my niece's first birthday party to attend 

Growing too Fast!

I love watching this happy little guy grow everyday and learn new things; however, it makes me sad at how fast time is flying! I can't believe he will be 10 months old tomorrow!!! He is such a sweetie and is always smiling! He is definitely a goer. He loves sneaking off and getting into things he knows he is not supposed to. Lately he has been unplugging our internet and thinks it is hilarious. We even put up a barricade, and yet some how he managed to unplug it. Such a stinker!

 It's funny how quickly you forget about baby proofing your house! In this house, we haven't had a baby, so nothing has been baby proofed. I think every day we find something new that needs to be "Benny Proofed."

My Little Cowboys!

A few short weeks ago, Brandon's parents got the boys cowboy outfits- Cowboys hats, plaid shirts, Wrangler jeans, belt buckles, and cowboy boots. These two have worn these outfits every chance they get and have worn their cowboy boots everyday since then! These were just too cute not to share!

Weekly Supper Menu

Here is our weekly supper menu for this week!

Monday- Tacos, chips, and salsa

Tuesday- Homemade waffles, sausage, and fruit

Wednesday- Spaghetti, garlic bread, and peas

Thursday- This night is up to Brandon since I work late

Friday- Grilled cheese with tomato soup

Saturday- Chili and cinnamon rolls

Sunday- Since it's Valentine's Day we will do our traditional heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's!

Menu for the week: Feb 1-6

So this week is very busy for us, so it was an easy menu week for me to plan, and very little grocery shopping this weekend! It will be a very simple plan this week because Brandon and I rotate working the evenings this week. 

Monday- since it will just be the boys and I Monday evening, I asked them what they wanted and they said cereal! So cereal it is!! Easy enough! 

Tuesday- it will just be Brandon and the boys so that's up to them. 

Wednesday- Fish, broccoli and cauliflower with a little cheese along with fruit 

Thursday- pancakes, eggs and sausage (we actually didn't have it last week because something came up on the night we were supposed to eat it)

Friday- eat out

Saturday- we both have to work on Saturday so we will be eating at the cafeteria at work! 

Menu for this week

Here is our menu for this week:

Monday- Beef enchiladas and chips with cheese

Tuesday- Grilled ham and cheese, peas, and chips

Wednesday- Spaghetti, green beans, and garlic bread

Thursday- Brandon's night to cook for the boys

Friday- Blueberry pancakes, eggs, and sausage

Saturday-
Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich, pineapple, and chips
Supper: Sesame chicken and rice (the recipe on last week's blog was so good, we want it again!)

Have a great week!!!

New Recipe!

Here are two new recipes we have tried this week, Cheeseburger Cups and homemade Sesame Chicken. These two recipes were Brandon and kid approved!! Win win!




Cheeseburger Cups:

Found this on a FaceBook post from Tasty! 

1 pound hamburger 

1/2 cups of ketchup 

1 tbsp mustard 

2 tbsp brown sugar

Refrigerated biscuits 

Sliced cheese 

Toppings of choice

Brown the hamburger, drain.

Mix the ketchup, mustard and brown sugar in with the hamburger. 

Put the biscuits in a muffin tin, and spread them around in the tin so they make a little cup. 

Add the hamburger and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Add the cheese to the top and bake an additional 5 minutes. Add your toppings of choice and eat!

I added spinach and tomatoes with mine but the boys and Brandon just ate theirs with the cheese. 

Also, a good note to add, is that they heat up well for lunch left-overs!

Sesame Chicken:

I found a few different recipes online, so I combined them and made it with the ingredients we like.

2 chicken breast cut into cubes

1 cup of rice

3 tbsp. of honey

tsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. of soy sauce

1 tbsp. of garlic

(I apologize if you follow this recipe-- since I tweaked a bunch of recipes I can't quite remember how much I used--so I just kept tasting it to my flavor, oppps!)

Mix the honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, and garlic in a bowl. Add to a baking a dish along with the slices of chicken. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes and serve over rice. I baked my chicken a little longer because Brandon likes it to be a little crispy. Eat and enjoy!

Weekly Menu

Each week I love planning out our menu for many reasons:

a) Keeps me organized
b) Saves us money on our grocery bill or eating out
c) I know when I get home what we are making for supper and we don't have to scramble, so it saves us time and stress of wondering what to cook
d) Planning the meals ahead of time allows more time to try new recipes
e) Provides left overs for lunch the next day

Here is our menu for this week:

Sunday:
 - Cinnamon French Toast Bake *New Recipe
- Sweet and Sour Chicken with brown rice *New Chicken Recipe
[ We usually only eat two meals on Sunday, brunch and supper since the older boys go to Sunday School]

Monday:
- Cheeseburger bites with french fries *New Recipe

Tuesday:
-BLT's with chips

Wednesday:
-Biscuits and gravy with a side of fruit [we do breakfast one night, which is probably my favorite night!]

Thursday:
-Frozen pizza [I will be at work, so this is something simple Brandon can make with the boys]

Friday:
-Take out [to help save on our monthly budget, we only eat out one night a week for a budget of $25. And when I say eat out, I mean bring it home. Three little kids in a restaurant do not mix well together]

Saturday:
-Cinnamon bites
-Tacos with chips and salsa
-Baked chicken breast with roasted garlic broccoli and a dinner roll

This week we are able to try three new recipes, so I'm very excited to see how they turn out. Lately, I have been bored with what we cook/eat. I feel like I'm always making the same food over and over, so Brandon and I found some new recipes to try through Facebook and Pinterest. I will let you know if they are any good!

If anyone has some good recipes they want to share, I would love that! 

New Years

This year I spent New Year's with my three sweet crazy wild boys. I surprised Brandon with a trip to the Rose Bowl with his dad, so this was the first year Brandon and I have spent New Year's apart since we started dating 14 years ago!

The boys and I had a nice quiet evening at home building Legos, playing games, and dancing along with the crew on TV as the ball dropped.


My New Year's Resolutions I set for this year:
- On week nights- no house work or phone/social medias until 8 pm (unless the phone is used to record memories with the boys).

I noticed on some nights I would be on my phone while the boys were talking to me, or I was in rush to get the house work done. Well I decided to change that so I don't miss out on these precious moments I have with them. Right now, all three boys want to see me, and want to spend time with me. Well the older they get, I know that time is going to decrease as they will want to spend time with friends. They are growing up so quickly, and I don't want to miss out on these moments.

So I only use my phone if I need to record the memories we are making, or we only do house work if it is the boys' night to do chores.


We hope everyone has a happy healthy 2016!! Cheers!

Starting to building ALL the Lego's we own!!! [Or I should say Mom- is starting to building all the Lego's the boy's own ;)]

Getting ready for our slumber party with glow sticks Santa left for us!

Love these three boys so much and their smiles!!

Sledding

On the morning of Christmas Eve, it started snowing! The boys and I were so excited we couldn't wait to get out and start sledding! So after making monster cookies for Santa, we decided we'd hit the hills north of town for some sledding fun! It was so much fun, and such a great way to get in the Christmas spirit! Here are some action shots of our afternoon fun!



What pretty scenery!

Oh Christmas Tree

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is the tree- I love decorating my tree every year and seeing the presents all tucked in underneath it. The Christmas tree just adds that homey feeling to your house. :) This year, I was only able to decorate about 3/4 of my tree since we have an army crawler around the house. Benny loved getting into the presents and trying to pull the ornaments off of the tree. The older boys were very good about pulling him back once he got close to the presents. They were also very good about moving the ornaments higher and higher each week.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve night was spent at our home with our boys. This is is the first year we were able to spend Christmas Eve at our house, and it was so nice. We made homemade chicken noodle soup for supper, attended the 7 pm church service (which was a fantastic service), opened presents, and then waited for the arrival of Santa. It was a very nice night spent with my family. I love watching the magic of Christmas through the boys' eyes. Christmas as a parent with little kids is so much fun!

Our chicken noodle soup with bread!

Heading to church

Matching PJ's

My Gift

 I received an early Christmas present from my husband! A new heavy duty camera!! I'm so in love with it, and can't wait to figure out what all the buttons mean ;)

I have always been interested in photography since high school, so Brandon decided he was going to buy me a camera to capture our moments with our family and hopefully take pictures of other people and their families.

Here are a few snap shots I started working with, and I'm excited to capture more in the near future! 

Christmas Traditions!

I have to say the Christmas season is so much better being a mom. I love watching the magic of the season their my kids' eyes. Everything is so exciting to them and you can't help but smile. My favorite part of the season is carrying out our Christmas traditions we have developed with the boys. Here are some of our traditions we have molded to our family since Brody was born 5 years ago.


Our gingerbread house! May not be the prettiest, but we sure have a lot of fun making the mess!

For the past four years Zon the Elf has been traveling from the North Pole to our house to report to Santa about the boys' behavior. We get so excited every morning when we wake up to see what this mischievous elf is doing. In the picture below he was being held hostage by G.I. Joe's.

One of my favorite traditions... finding matching PJ's for the boys and I. My mission for next year is to try to get Brandon to partake in the fun :)

This is a tradition that I have carried on from my childhood to my boys. My Papa Keith would take us over to Dakota City to visit these lights, and I had so much fun making memories with him I wanted to pass it down to my kids. The night we went it was very cold, so Brody and I were the only ones to brave the cold weather.

Brody wanted to take a picture with Baby Jesus

 

Here is another tradition I carried out from my childhood onto my boys, the Advent Calendar. Each day the boys look forward to opening another little square to eat the little piece of chocolate inside and read the little story.  

And lastly, for the pat 4 years on Christmas Eve morning the boys and I spend quality time in the kitchen baking cookies for Santa. This year they picked Monster Cookies to make for Santa. I love spending time in the kitchen with these boys!

I'm very excited for next year's traditions because Benny will be able to participate in most of the activities.