Dinner is served

One of my new years resolutions is to cook better meals for our family. I was getting tired of 4pm rolling around every day and the same question would come up every day. What's for dinner? Depending on the day and my mood we would go for simple and easy or what will the kids actually eat so we can enjoy dinner.

Well that needed to change. So I will now be meal planning for the week on Saturday or Sunday and then grocery shopping for food for the week. So far this week has been going great. I even got Alan to eat leftovers tonight! Now that is an accomplishment in and of itself!

Last night I made chicken noodle soup from scratch. It was delicious! I didn't use all of the chicken in the soup though. So tonight I made chicken and gravy over biscuits. Alan is really into making breads and things so he made the biscuits and I made the rest. The kids are horrible eaters when it come to dinner time. I am tired of it. The past 2 nights they had something that went with dinner that they like but only a little of it. If they want more of that item they must try something else from their plate. So far the only one who has done this is Levi. But He ate chicken noodle soup last night and chicken and gravy and corn tonight. I call that a win in my book!

My photo for today is our dinner. The cranberry sauce is the one thing on their plate that all 3 ate. Paige ate a biscuit or two that hadn't touched chicken and Levi ate biscuits, some chicken, and some corn.

Mmmm makes me want some more! Hopefully I will keep up with this resolution and all 3 kids will be eating new things in no time! Tomorrow night is cheesy ham and potato casserole. Yummy!

Day 2!

Woo hoo I got 2 days in a row! I am on a roll! Hahaha. I wasn't sure what I was going to photograph today. I don't want to do every photo of my kids (even though they are my favorite subjects). Eventually I will find something else to photograph but today the picture presented itself.

 Alan and I got a rare night out together last night. We went out to dinner and then the mall to use some gift certificates. We ended our night at Barnes and Noble. The kids got a gift card for their birthday and I wanted to look at some books for them. We ended up getting a few books. 2 of them were Christmas at 50% off. Score!

After work today while I was cooking dinner I look out into the living room and see this.....

Alan reading a book and all 3 kids actually sitting still for it! Although I must admit they are getting better at sitting through books....however there is usually someone pushing or poking or running away. I love that they are all snuggled together on the couch reading stories. And who cares if Christmas is over. Rudolph is still a great story!

Happy New Year!

It is officially 2013! We had a great year 2012 and I hope 2013 brings as much fun and happiness as 2012 did. To jump start 2013 I decided to take on a challenge. A 365 challenge where I take a picture every day of 2013. Taking the pictures won't be a problem with me I don't think but I also want to post them on the blog. I hope that will keep me on my toes and keep the blog up and running!

So for my first picture in 2013 I took a picture of the kids getting ready to play their new cootie board game they got from Aunt Stephanie. They got a bunch of board games for Christmas and they are having a blast playing games. We play a game or 4 every day!

Here they are patiently waiting to play. It took me a while to free all the little plastic pieces from their plastic homes but here it is all set up and ready to go! It is different then the cootie I used to play as a kid. There are 4 different eyes, ears/hats, mouths, and feet! When I played they were all the same just the color of the bug was different. They are cute. We played the right way to start but then they started to get a little impatient and just wanted to build their bugs so after every roll, no matter what number they got, they picked a piece. Eventually I am sure we will play the right way all the way through but we are getting used to board games and taking turns so I think we had a good first game!

Our finished bugs! Yay!

And now we play with our bugs. I love that they are now old enough for board games. I love to play board games so this is right up my ally. We still have many more games we have to try. They tend to keep going back to the first couple that we have played. Their absolute favorite game right now is  Jake and the Neverland Pirates game Who shook Hook. It is really and they love to play it!

Our first day of 2013 is going great so far. I hope it will be a great year. Happy New Year! :)

It's December!

24 more days till Christmas! Not only is Christmas my absolute favorite holiday, from the lights to the music and everything else in between, this year the kids are really getting into it and very excited. We have been talking about Santa and lights and all the fun things to come. We got them their first Advent calenders this year.

Of course the are Disney. :) They have the kids new found love in them as well. Chocolate.

Paige having a taste of her chocolate.

Mommy helping Levi open his first day.

He is excited to see what is inside!

Nathan looking to see what is on his chocolate.

I am not sure they quite understand the concept of the advent calender yet. I hope that by the time Christmas is here they will understand. We shall see.

Later in the afternoon, after nap, we decided to go to Perkasie's tree lighting ceremony. They make a big to do with lights ad live music and all sorts of places to shop and such. The kids were very excited to see Santa come. He comes in to light the tree.

Alan and the kids in front of the unlit tree. Paige was trying to crouch down like Daddy.

 While walking around we found some plastic Santa's and snowmen. I asked the kids if they wanted to get their picture taken. Alan decided to take a picture of me with the kids when someone asked if we wanted them to take a picture for us. They did a great job! We have so few of the 5 of us together. I am so happy we got this picture.

We scoped out and got the perfect spot to see Santa arrive as well as the tree being lit. Here we are waiting for him to come!

Santa is here! He came to town on a cherry picker! They had everyone sing Santa Claus is coming to town. It was really neat hearing everyone sing all together.

Getting ready to light the tree.

Going up!

 Counting down to light the tree.

Hooray! The tree is lit!

After lighting the tree Santa Threw candy canes for everyone to catch. The family next to us were old hats at this and were smart and brought their own. They were very nice and gave some to use so that our kids could get some too.

Paige with her candy cane.

When we got home we decided some hot chocolate to warm us up.

With marshmallows!

Levi enjoying his hot chocolate.

Nathan likes it!

Paige thinks it's good!

A perfect way to end our night. Let's hope the rest of December is just as good! :)

Roar!

Turkey day take 2

The day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) Grandma, Pepaw, and Great Grandma came down for a visit. I of course had to work that morning. I actually enjoy working Black Friday. I keep busy and it is fun to watch all the people out and about. After work I got to do a little shopping and actually got what I want and didn't have to be at the stores at crazy hours to get it! Score! Our visitors arrived later that afternoon. We were going to have our own Thanksgiving the next evening. My first ever Thanksgiving that I cooked! Ah!

I picked up our Turkey at Giant the previous Sunday. It was a little 11 pounder. Perfect for our little Thanksgiving. I used my Giant points so it was free. Gotta love a good deal! The kids each took a turn holding our turkey.

Helping Mommy clean for our company. I figure I need to have them help while they still think it is fun and no bribery is needed. I know some day it will be like pulling teeth to get them to help clean. Fortunately I have proof that they used to willingly help me!

Nathan decided to try on Pepaw's boots. A little big but who knows.....he may grow into them some day!

Of course one boy can't do something without the other needing to do it as well. Levi attempting to walk in Pepaw's boots. He didn't make it very far. I think they may go back to just walking around in my shoes instead. lol.

Saturday afternoon we are relaxing a little after shopping the morning away. They brought down an entertainment unit for us that was left to us by Alan's other Grandmother. That will be a whole different post though so stay tuned!

While the trio napped Daddy and Pepaw put together the entertainment unit. Grandma, and Great Grandma looked at photo albums of our first months with the trio. How time has flown!

Watching some tv on our "new" tv according to the kids!

Great Grandma having a snuggle with Paige :)

Alan carving our Turkey. The rest of dinner is cooking on the stove. Yum!

Aunt Stephanie stopped by to say hi. She got a back massage of hot wheels cars. Lucky girl!

The kiddie table at dinner. I made Mac and Cheese for the kids. Not because it is a Thanksgiving food but because I wanted to eat my dinner somewhat in peace. Since the kids don't really care for meat, or mashed potatoes, or really any Thanksgiving foods mac and cheese it was! They do eat corn bread though so they had some of that too.

The adult table full of yummy goodness.

Here we are all crammed together.

We had a great time with our visit. I also must say that I think for my first Thanksgiving it came out pretty good. The food tasted good. I wouldn't mind doing it again sometime. Perhaps next year we will do it again!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We have just gotten home from a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. I am extremely full and ready for the turkey coma to take full affect. I see my bed in the near future! We had a casual day today which consisted of playing with kids, cleaning, laundry, and Alan worked on our roof some. After the kids napped we headed to Grammy and Pop-pop's house for dinner. Yum.

This would be the kiddie table. I gave them a little of everything. They ate Their corn bread, their cranberry sauce, and that's about it. Levi tried the mashed potatoes and a bite of turkey but that is about it. After that the commenced with being noisy and playing with everything they could find. Eating with 3 toddlers is fun! (insert sarcastic tone here) lol

 Here is the adult table. This year Thanksgiving is with the other side of the family for most of us and Christmas is with the whole extended family. Dinner was great with some good company and fun conversation.

 During clean up the kids and Daddy were playing with a box. Isn't this a nice package they brought me?

And then came another one.

And here is a little girl in a box. We made sure we all had a turn. We ended the night with a really good "pumpkin cake" that my cousin Jamie made from a recipe she found on Pinterest. It was so good! Then Jammies and home to bed.

I am so thankful for my family. I don't know where I would be without them. I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving and are recovering from the turkey coma nicely. If you are shopping tomorrow on good Friday good luck and be safe. I will be at work watching all the crazies out shopping!