Crazy February

I had every intention of being a great blogger this year...then February came along! We have been so busy this month with the fun and not so fun but we are happy to be home and back to our regular routines. Here is a quick recap of where we've been and what we have been up to:

We were lucky enough to get to spend a week in Salt Lake babysitting our very cute (and very crazy) nieces while their mom and dad were partying it up in Florida. Sadly we dealt with 2 cases of strep throat and a sick baby. The cutie on the right was our only well child for the whole week!

The day we got home from SLC my mom and cute sister Kelsi came down for a long weekend visit and to help with Little Miss E's 1st birthday bash. Sadly, Friday E was very sick so she had to go to the doctor an hour before the party began. The doc couldn't find anything wrong besides a high fever and a nasty cough. We, being the awesome parents we are, insisted that the show must go on. Here are pics from the super fun Polka Dot party we had. (Our only regret was that we couldn't invite everyone that we had on our wish list! If only our house were a little bit bigger!)

Here is the (very sick) birthday girl snuggling up with Auntie Shell.
Here is one of our few smile pics from the evening. I think she ate maybe a crumb of her cake...sad!
Luckily we had Grandma here to snuggle her for the rest of the weekend.
Cute, sick Valentine's girl.
Playing with her sweet Aunt Bekah. We were lucky enough to have Bek come visit from Canada. She stayed with us for two nights...just long enough to get a little shopping in for her little guy who will be coming in June! We are so excited for a new nephew!!!
Finally, after two weeks of fever and coughs and three trips to the doctor, E's doc decided that her lungs looked a little gunky. He decided it was pneumonia and gave her some antibiotics. After about a day on the meds, E was back to her feisty self. We are so happy that she is smiling, playing and eating again. We missed our crazy girl!!! Here she is sharing pizza, hot dog buns, and churros with mom and dad at Costco today...

Wow...now I just hope I can stay caught up!!!

Chile Relleno Casserole

I saw this on Good Things Utah this morning and thought it looked really yummy! I'll have to try this one soon.

Chile Relleno Casserole

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Weekly Menu

Whew, it has been a busy couple of weeks! It is nice to get back into my regular routine after all of the craziness. Steve found a cool website called TastyPlanner where I can keep track of my own recipes and weekly menus as well as search for the recipes of others. I will be linking to that one a lot from now on. Here is our menu for this week:

Sunday 21:
Chicken Pillows
Seasoned Green Beans
(frozen crunchy green beans are a yummy way to brighten winter meals)

Monday 22:
Company Casserole
Green Salad
French Bread

Tuesday 23:
Broccoli Cheese Soup
(I will probably play with the amounts in this recipe...I'll let you know how it goes.)
French Bread

Wednesday 24:
German Pancakes
Buttermilk Syrup
Orange Julius

Thursday 25:
Leftovers

Friday 26:
Homemade Pizza
This week I think I'll go easy and use a premade or canned crust. We may go with a homemade alfredo though.
Quick Yeast Breadsticks

Saturday 27:
Grilled Sandwiches
We basically make our sandwiches the same that we normally would, butter the outsides and then grill them in our George Foreman. This is a fun time to add yummy ingredients like avocado, sprouts, pepperocinis, or any other special sandwich toppings.

Sunday 28:
Thanksgiving in February
(Turkey is on sale this week.)
Roast Turkey Breast
Loaded Mashed Potatoes
Make mashed potatoes as you usually would then add whatever sounds good! We usually add (no these are NOT healthy) cream cheese, sour cream, butter, milk, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Montreal steak seasoning. Really you just add what sounds good until they taste good.
Stovetop Stuffing
Green Salad

I am sure many moms go through the nightly, weekly, monthly, etc. ritual of cleaning up their child's toys. Putting sets together and organizing. This article on the CNN website just shed all new light on this situation. It takes a minute to read, but it will make you laugh if you fit into this category.

Mom: Be Sane, Surrender to the Clutter

What a Wonderful Day!

Our little monkey girl turned 1 yesterday! I can't believe how quickly the last year has flown by. We have spent much of the last two days reminiscing about the day that this sweet girl joined our family.

Steve loves playing with E. Her squeals of delight are music to our ears!

Take a look at that silly grin!

Her special birthday breakfast of her favorite...OATMEAL! We also had another success, Little Miss actually CHOSE to drink her milk, rather than having it poured down her throat.

For dinner she had another favorite...spaghetti! I wish I had a video of her eating it. It is so funny to watch her try to get all of the noodles into her mouth.

We got a video of her being sung to. However, it was not a happy experience. I think it freaked her out and she screamed and screamed. Finally, once we picked her up and snuggled her, E was able to enjoy her birthday donut.

One Year Old Stats:
Weight: 19.6 lbs (25%)
Height: 29.25 in (60%)
Head Circ.: 46.5 cm (90%) Looks like she's a little top heavy :)

*Miss E cut her first molar (top left) this month.
*Loves to eat....most of the time
*Favorite foods: apple juice, orange juice, goldfish crackers, kiwi, oatmeal, bananas
*Loves to play peek a boo
*She is starting to understand what it means to be silly.
*E walks along the edge of the couch and with her walker.
*Miss E thinks she is one of the big kids whenever her cousins are around.
*She loves Sesame Street!
*She is finally starting to look at books without eating them.
*Church is now a huge chore for mom because E CANNOT sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. She will scream if we do not understand this.
*E is still a great sleeper: at least 12 hours at night and 2 daytime naps.
*E LOVES to make a mess...more on that to come.

No Menu...

This week Steve and I have the fun pleasure of babysitting our 3 sweet nieces. I think for this week we will wing our menu so we can adapt it to the needs/wants of the girls. Some of our ideas for easy kid food are: (recipes will have to come later)

Spaghetti
Tacos
Sweet Baked Chicken
Steak and Baked Potatoes
Crock Pot Pork Roast
Teriyaki Grilled Chicken
Chicken Chili