Christmas Cards

Picture cards have pretty much taken over the Christmas scene. I love it. I love to see family pictures, pictures of couples, pictures of pets. I love displaying the cards, it helped put me in the Christmas spirit every time I saw them. The cards were one of the last things to come down and I just couldn't throw them away. So they sat in a stack on the buffet for the past few weeks. Until I stumbled across an idea on Pinterest.
I turned them into Christmas card book.















It was super easy. punched two holes in each card and put a ring through it. I plan to do it every year and create a year book of Christmas cards :)

Sandals, Coffee and Benjamin :)

This is probably going to be a pretty random post, just warning ya.

I have to share some adorable sandals I just found last weekend.
Mom and I walked around the mall just to hang out and spend some time together last weekend. I wasn't really looking for anything but when I saw these cuties I had to have them :)


















Picture from CharelotteRusse.com
I feel like they belong in a J.Crew Catalog. Not from Charelotte Russe at $17.50. I seriously can't wait to wear them! And with the way the weather has been lately I probably won't have to wait long.

Also, I'm probably a little behind on this but I just tried the peppermint mocha frappuccino from Starbucks this morning. And Holy Cow, it was Amazing!



















picture from Starbucks.com
A Grande size with non fat milk and no whipped cream is 4 points. Yes, I'm sort of back to tracking and counting points again. I mean c'mon. We're in February folks, that gives me what - about 4 to 5 months before swim suit season. Can we say SCARY!?!
So I'm back to watching what I eat and I started Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. It's how I lost almost 30lbs before the wedding so I'm hoping I can stick with it again. Wish me luck!

And here's my new favorite picture of Benjamin right now.















See I told you, a pretty random post! :)

Menu Planning

We started planning out our meals for the week on Sunday and making one trip to the grocery store for everything we'd need for the next 5-7 days. This will be the third week we've done it and let me tell ya...It's made a HUGE difference in our week nights.
I used to go to the grocery store multiple times a week and it was so draining. I only get a few hours with Benjamin Mon-Fri after work before he goes to bed and the last thing I want to do is spend that time at the store.
It's made things so much less stressful, plus I've been finding new recipes and trying them out (at least 1-2 new meals a week)

Our Menu for this week

• Tacos (which Benjamin tore up last night. I was surprised, he ate the whole taco shell and everything inside)
• Chicken, Rice and Broccoli Bowl (I'm using a new recipe for this one)
  
• Meatloaf, roasted sweet potatoes and Broccoli
• Chicken skewers with grilled peppers

I only have four meals this week b/c it never fails, there's always one night we end up doing something simple like a sandwich or cereal for dinner.

I'm looking for more suggestions. If you've got a favorite recipe-please pass it on. Anything that's appropriate for a week night dinner and somewhat on the healthy side. Just leave a comment on this post with the recipe or the link :)

And just b/c a post without a picture is sad, here's a picture from last weeks menu














It's Tilapia, roasted asparagus and potatoes.

Unfortunately, we've realized David has developed a fish allergy so it'll prob. be a while before I make fish again.

Mr. Bean

What does two bags of dry beans get you?

20 whole minutes of play time!






























I still can't believe it. Anything that keeps Benjamin's attention for more than 5 minutes is a success in my opinion :)

Chicken Soup w/Barley

Have you ever cooked barley before?
Is it weird that I was excited about it? I've never made it before and to be completely honest I thought barley was a spice. Oooops!
We had a Chili/Soup cook off at work a couple of months ago and Barley soup was entered in the contest and it was AMAZING!!

So I decided to make it for dinner tonight.

I'm pretty mad I forgot to take nicer pictures, I only remembered after I put it in the leftover container














Clink Here for the recipe I used.
David added some corn and green beans to it after it was done simmering for an hour because he wanted to add more color and veggies.
It was really really good! A + and perfect for winter dinners :)

Finger Paint = Epic Fail

I had grand plans for Benjamin last weekend. We went shopping for poster board and finger paint. I envisioned him making master piece after master piece but that was far from what actually happened.
First, we had to come home and put him down for a nap. I guess shopping just sucked the energy right out of him. While he was sleeping I prepped his little table. I taped the poster board down, laid a towel under the table and put a trash bag over his chair, I was ready to go. But I had to wait for not one, not two but THREE hours later for him to wake up. I kept asking David-should I go wake him up? He always replied...Uh-no, I don't think so.
Finally at 6:30pm he woke up and we brought him out to become the little Picasso I knew he could be.

Here he is with the paint after 3 seconds
Notice the mouth hanging wide open. Anytime he tries to focus on something, the mouth is wide open. It's so cute!














And here we are 5 seconds in...finger in the mouth














I tried to show him how to do it, but as you can see he clearly wasn't interested














But don't worry, I haven't given up hope yet on my little artist. We'll try it again soon :)

Toy Box

It was recently brought to my attention that I never gave David the full credit that he deserves on the amazing toy box that he made WITH HIS OWN TWO HANDS :) I really thought I had posted something about it already. I even got out of bed last night around 12:30am and pulled up the blog to double check b/c I was just so sure that I already posted about it and couldn't stop thinking about it (yes, I am that crazy). But Nope, I was sadly mistaken. There wasn't a toy box post to be found :(

So here we go...The making of Benjamin's Toy Box

The Frame















And with the floor and side boards















A peak inside. This thing is solid, David and I both jumped up and down and it didn't budge at all. This sucker is going to be around for a long time. It needed to be sturdy because Benjamin is a full blown destroyer. He LOVES to bang on things. He'll take whatever he can get his chubby little baby fingers on and just pound away. I think we might have a drummer on our hands.














And the thing that melted my heart the most...
That sweet little note David wrote inside. "Merry Christmas 2011, Love Dad" Seriously, Adorable!














David debating on whether to stain the box or paint it. I'm SO happy he decided to stain it. I just love the color!














Benjamin checking out his toy box Christmas morning. I think he Loves it :)














I'm so proud of David, he did such a great job. And it was so cute to see how much fun he had building it. Now he's talking about building a desk for me. Heck Yeah! :)