I'm excited for my first blog post about one of my New Year's resolutions. I feel like we cook the same thing over and over again, so this year I wanted to venture out and try some new things. This is a big step for me because I do not like to be in the kitchen or buy all the obscure ingredients at the store, so we will see how this goes. Here's what we were up to in January (and you can also follow along with my Pinterest board).
Pull Apart Coffee Cake
First up was an excuse to use up some Pillsbury biscuits I had. We've always like making something special for breakfast for Saturday mornings, so that's what we went for. Let's just say we should have went on a hike that afternoon to walk off this yummy cake.
Mini Pot Pies
Vegetables are one thing I eat the same thing of over and over again (I'm not a fan of many veggies), so it was nice to make something to incorporate some new vegetables and be able to disguise their flavors a bit. They were also a great way to get my one and a half year old to eat some meat!
Island Pork Tenderloin
I'm not quite sure why, but every time we try to bake pork or cook it in the crockpot, it comes out dry 8/10 times. Well this recipe solved all problems!! This was delicious and leftovers would be great on a salad we discovered when we did the P90X program (greens, cranberries, island pork and clementines).
Spinach Chocolate Chip Muffins
These were shared by a mom from my mom's group as a convenient toddler snack! Well they are that and quite addicting for an adult too, as they are so easy to grab and snack on. Me not being a chocolate person all the time, and with Carson making a mess when I heated these up, I'm excited to try different combinations with these muffins.
Carson: 20 Months
Saying that your "baby" is 20 months old makes it sound like you don't have that "baby" anymore, and really you don't! So what have we been up to the past month...it was another busy one for sure with all the holidays. Carson had lots of fun opening up Christmas presents. His favorite were the bags with tissue paper. Grammy, Grandpa and Uncle B came out before Christmas, and I had lots of fun playing with them. Then we went to Ft Collins for Christmas Eves, had Jack Stack for Christmas dinner/Reid's birthday, rode the Georgetown holiday train and had a playdate/sleep-over on New Year's Eve. PHEW! Late December also gave us our first snow and we tried sledding which Carson absolutely LOVED!
What else is new? I'm happy to report we are no longer reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" 50 times a day, and have moved on to the shape sorter. He loves this toy and can put all the shapes in by himself. He's even learned a few shape names in the process (pizza pie and circle are the main ones) and tries to say their names. We can clearly make out "gurcle" and he attempts to make words at the triangle, square and cross too. He still chats up a storm but we can't really make out anything. We are working on a few more signs and he now knows "help" and "please." It's sure better than him turning to us and making an "eh" sound whenever he's trying to ask us for something or figure something out. He loves giving me a hug and kiss when he goes "bye bye" for daycare (which he walks around saying right before he leaves) and he proudly says "dada" when Reid walks in the door from work.
We are starting a not fun phase at bedtime (and diaper changes) where he fights and screams every time he goes on the changing table, so hopefully this passes soon. But speaking of diaper changes we bought a potty for whenever that moment might be he wants to try and use it (I don't anticipate it being anytime soon). He is still doing well at daycare and has been doing lots of craft projects lately. Every day when I pick him up, the teacher says, "He had a good day, like always." The other day he was actually sitting down with all the kids and was watching a movie! He has his first chore around the house and that is to give Snyder his hip pills. I think it has really helped Snyder be more comfortable around Carson. Knowing he's a human that can give him things too, and not just a terror who hit/pets him and takes over his personal space, lol! But as I say every month, despite Carson's non-stop craziness making me exhausted by days end, he really is a sweet kid and we are so lucky to have a well-behaved child who eats well-rounded meals and sleeps like a champ. Until next month...
What else is new? I'm happy to report we are no longer reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" 50 times a day, and have moved on to the shape sorter. He loves this toy and can put all the shapes in by himself. He's even learned a few shape names in the process (pizza pie and circle are the main ones) and tries to say their names. We can clearly make out "gurcle" and he attempts to make words at the triangle, square and cross too. He still chats up a storm but we can't really make out anything. We are working on a few more signs and he now knows "help" and "please." It's sure better than him turning to us and making an "eh" sound whenever he's trying to ask us for something or figure something out. He loves giving me a hug and kiss when he goes "bye bye" for daycare (which he walks around saying right before he leaves) and he proudly says "dada" when Reid walks in the door from work.
We are starting a not fun phase at bedtime (and diaper changes) where he fights and screams every time he goes on the changing table, so hopefully this passes soon. But speaking of diaper changes we bought a potty for whenever that moment might be he wants to try and use it (I don't anticipate it being anytime soon). He is still doing well at daycare and has been doing lots of craft projects lately. Every day when I pick him up, the teacher says, "He had a good day, like always." The other day he was actually sitting down with all the kids and was watching a movie! He has his first chore around the house and that is to give Snyder his hip pills. I think it has really helped Snyder be more comfortable around Carson. Knowing he's a human that can give him things too, and not just a terror who hit/pets him and takes over his personal space, lol! But as I say every month, despite Carson's non-stop craziness making me exhausted by days end, he really is a sweet kid and we are so lucky to have a well-behaved child who eats well-rounded meals and sleeps like a champ. Until next month...
Happy New Years 2015!
Last night we rung in the new year with some new friends and Carson's first sleep over...well until midnight anyways! We headed over to a friends house for a playdate and snacks before putting the kids to bed, and then the adults enjoyed more goodies while playing Cards of Humanity and Telestrations. Not really being a "game" person, these two games were great (side note play Apples to Apples instead of Cards of Humanity for more "clean" language). But I think Telestrations had to be the ultimate winner! Remember when you were a kid and you told the person sitting next to you a word, and you went all the way around the circle to see if the word came back to you the same? Some of you may have called it "telephone," well this is played the exact same way but with drawing pictures on a dry-erase board. It was truly so much fun, who wants to get it for me as a birthday gift ;)
We went in to the night not planning on staying up until midnight but we got caught up in some fun games and we are glad we stayed out. And a special bonus, Carson slept til 9:30 the next day! Then on New Years day we were invited to another playdate and it was nice to get back out and see some moms from the moms group I joined. December kicked my butt with sickness!
So now time for "resolutions." I've never really been true to my past resolutions, so #1 on the list this year is to really, I mean REALLY, try hard! So here we go from there...
1. My MIL got me a sewing machine for Christmas so I would like to make at least 5 things by the end of the year as a starting point.
2. Keep a weekly workout journal/log. I have done this in the past, but always stopped once I did good for two weeks. Then naturally I get off track because I don't have that piece of paper keeping me accountable anymore.
3. To make one Pinterest/magazine recipe every two weeks. I ideally would like to do this once a week, but a goal of every other week seems more feasible.
And while I'm sure I could think of more, you never want to overwhelm yourself which ultimately sets you up for failure! So I'll finish the post with a few pictures of Carson wrapping up his 2014 with some snow. Happy New Years family and friends!
We went in to the night not planning on staying up until midnight but we got caught up in some fun games and we are glad we stayed out. And a special bonus, Carson slept til 9:30 the next day! Then on New Years day we were invited to another playdate and it was nice to get back out and see some moms from the moms group I joined. December kicked my butt with sickness!
So now time for "resolutions." I've never really been true to my past resolutions, so #1 on the list this year is to really, I mean REALLY, try hard! So here we go from there...
1. My MIL got me a sewing machine for Christmas so I would like to make at least 5 things by the end of the year as a starting point.
2. Keep a weekly workout journal/log. I have done this in the past, but always stopped once I did good for two weeks. Then naturally I get off track because I don't have that piece of paper keeping me accountable anymore.
3. To make one Pinterest/magazine recipe every two weeks. I ideally would like to do this once a week, but a goal of every other week seems more feasible.
And while I'm sure I could think of more, you never want to overwhelm yourself which ultimately sets you up for failure! So I'll finish the post with a few pictures of Carson wrapping up his 2014 with some snow. Happy New Years family and friends!