Phone Photo Dump

This is one of my favorite little blogging rituals that I haven't done lately.  This is all the random photos that don't really fit into a post.  These are also a peak at what I capture and send to Aaron throughout the day. 

 She was sneaky and got this out of P's valentines while I was doing laundry

 in an attempt to get him to eat we had a picnic in the kitchen...successful!

 She gets the soothie when she's teething

 The kids being super helpful during my after run stretch.

 I love them so completely.

 There has been a lot of this lately, more so from his sister.  I've come to the conclusion she is just a crier, she cries a ton.  Ce La Vie.

 A stud even in his sleep

 There has been a lot going on at work lately so we send Daddy play-by-plays to keep him in the loop.  P got to stay up late last night so Dad could see him before bed.  They were both pretty excited about it.

 I mentioned she's trouble, right?  We have a solution for this in the works, she's going to hate it. 

 Our Mommy-Daughter breakfast dates continue to be a big hit with the Lil' Miss. 

This was at Kneaders. 

 Post OJ Cheesier

 Preschool sensory activity.  I love his expression.  He does okay with messy, but he doesn't love it.

  Half for the kids, half for Mom and Dad.

 P.S.  I created a healthy version of our favorite pizza dough recipe.  Whole wheat and flaxseed meal and it's good!  Do you want me to post that? 

 He loves Chocolate Milk in a container.

 My parents and sister went on a cruise and I got this.  It saved me from a Mommy breakdown one afternoon.  Sometimes a girl just needs a little chocolate.  And this is some of the best!

 This was my obstacle during my last menu/shopping extravaganza planning. Good thing she's cute! 

 Every time we leave the gym, P begs for my protein shake.  I chug as much as I can before I can no longer refuse his polite "Please, drink.  Drink, Please Momma."  This day I had the nerve to ask for it back.  Yeah, he said no.

 Pretty dress.  It reminds me of one my Daddy brought me back from Johnston Island when he worked there. 

 This week I've caught the fun bug!  I can't stay in the house or do anything responsible.  It may have something to do with the long hours Aaron has been working.  So I've been taking the kids out during their happiest time of the day.  It gives me enough energy to deal with the extra time where I usually have some help.  This was at the Zoo today. 

 Tongue out just like Daddy.  I'm now the only one that doesn't flex my tongue when I'm concentrating in this house.

 We had an eye doctor visit that went way longer than we had planned yesterday.  So plan B came about.  We got some Chick-fil-a and had a picnic.  Priya shoveled the waffle fries hand over hand into her mouth.  She loves food.  Good thing she can't hold still at all.  P just cried when we had to leave this park.  Such sad tears.  

We read a few scripture verses together most days.  We haven't successfully implemented Daddy into scripture study (time of day conflict), but the kids and I try to do it on our own.  I caught him reading the Bible to Priya.  I couldn't understand anything except, "Jesus Christ".  It would pop up every few sentences.  Proud moment, but also a very humbling moment.  My sweet boy talks of "Jesus Christ" like he knows our Savior.  We all know he probably still remembers our Brother Jesus.   Porter has this unmistakable familiarity with the gospel.  I look in his eyes as we talk about the gospel with our children and just wonder, "What could you teach me, if you where able?" 

I'm crying, always a good time to stop.  Maybe I'll look at that homework assignment or lesson I need to get done or the next load of laundry.  I'm glad I put my kids first this morning and just bee-lined it for the Zoo.  Lucky us, we beat the spring break crowd.  My children will always come first and today was just another reminder of why they are worth procrastinating everything else for.  The rest of it will be here for me later, my kids...well they're only this age/stage/size today. 

We are happy, blessed and bursting with life here.  Hoping your season finds you happy too!

Conference Weekend

I feel like it's too late to be writing a blog post...but I just got home from a meeting and as I looked over my schedule for tomorrow this was really the only time to get it done.  All I could think was, "Grandma needs pictures of the kids."  So here we go :)  Love you Grandma!

We kicked off the weekend with a trip to the Zoo.  Aaron has and will be really busy at work for the next little bit.  We decided to have him work a little Saturday to allow some family time on Friday.  I asked with much enthusiasm to go to the Zoo.  It was perfect Zoo going weather!  I also weaseled my way into a membership, so I have a guest on my card if you every feel up for a trip you can be my guest! 

 No crowds!  It really was just what I was hoping...  Relaxing, breezy, fun, family time!

 Can you see her pointer finger?  She was in love with the red birds!

 Too much going on to look at the camera.

 Elephants!

 She was so interested.

 This is the sign for elephant.  Don't you just love that?!

 She's looking over at Porter as if to say, "Why are you running away, this is awesome?!"  Porter jumped so high when this Chimp (is it a chimp, guessing here?) was up close.  He wouldn't get close at all.

 Isn't this just a classic little boy moment?  Running his hand slowly down the fence... made my heart sing!

 

Right before we left he got to play in the water. 

Afterwards we went across the street to This Is The Place monument and had a picnic.  The weather was beautiful and Porter had a great time exploring the place. 

One of those brief moments where they are happy to play together, be siblings and it shows.  This makes me overwhelmed with emotion.  My children love each other so much.  However, they are so raw and real that they fight, wrestle and yell at each other already at this young age.  They are passionate kids, when we as a family create a situation where they successfully express love to each other...WOW!  In full discloser, the moment didn't last.  But it happened and there will be more of them!

After Aaron's run Friday we decided to pimp out his protein shake for our evening desert.  This was so ridiculously good it tasted just like a cookies and cream bar, but in ice cream shake form.  Delicious! 

Alright, let's get to Saturday... there is some no so pretty stuff about Saturday.  If you want to read about well behaved children and mothers during conference, just stop right here.  

I needed to complete a longer training run on Saturday.  I mentioned we decided to have Aaron work and listen to conference at his office, so I was on my own.  This meant I had to run at the gym, which I love, but it took longer than I hoped and I knew I'd miss the beginning of the first session...bummer...until I remembered the DVR and had it record.  We got home, I took care of Priya's naptime, showered, prepared snack (above) and got ready for conference. 

This is what happened when there was boring T.V. no listening going on.  I paused, bless my DVR, and set up our home so he couldn't hurt himself and have free roam of the place.  I was willing to clean up messes if it meant I got to listen.  He did his best to be destructive.  I was trying to just let it all roll off when I looked up to catch him discovering the cereal on the table.  I could see it on his face, I knew what was coming and yelled, "No Porter Stop!" which only egged him on...

We had to have a time out from each other.  He went to his room, while I finished conference.  An hour later we talked and tried again.  Funny thing...all the talks were about Children in that first session.  Really bad, ironic kind of moment.  Aaron and I watched the second session together after he came home.  Saturday conference makes for such a busy day for Priesthood holders. 

Today (Sunday) was a much better day.  We got together before the morning session and had a big breakfast with Aaron's siblings (his parents were out of town). 

Most of Aaron's siblings.  His sister Karli showed up and ruined the make-up free, pajama thing the rest of us girls had going on. 

These are whole wheat and have flaxseed meal in them.  Love delicious and healthy food!  

My children were so well behaved today.  Mostly because there were lots of people to be around and their Uncle Tyler was the coolest person ever in their eyes today.  It was nice.

 

 Tonights dinner (a pinterest dinner)  Aaron just told me it was picture worth so I snapped it.  It was also tasty.

Last but not least- we got to listen to Heavenly Father's prophets this weekend!  Such wonderful messages, so much to go back and study.  We were uplifted, touched and edified.  I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church and that these men/women do share the messages Heavenly Father wants us to hear.  I'm so grateful I got to listen!

p.s. Aaron is sleeping so if there are typo's you'll just have to deal until he can fix them.  Love ya!  Good night!

Shopping by the Month

I've been asked a few times lately..."You really only shop once a month?  How can you do that"... Yes we do and here's how we do it.

I decided to try the idea after talking about budgeting with friends and discussing a NPR broadcast that claimed shopping a month at a time supposedly saves enough money that people can pay off their debt.  Our only debt is student loans and we feel no pressing need to pay those off quickly, they don't hurt our credit at all and are very low interest.  But, extra money in the budget is always a good thing so I decided to try it. I researched and found this blog post here.  I based my planning off of her style and this is where homemade pizza night came from.  She made it sound like such a cheap and easy idea that we have just adopted it and enjoy it very much.

Priya decided my list looked tasty so this is a little beat up.

I fold a paper into sections, whatever works.  Then I put a food type/category at the top of each section.  Mexican, Oriental, American, Italian, Crock-pot, Easy, Pizza night is just assumed in planning. Note:  I also have dessert and make ahead breakfast categories on the back of this sheet. I fill in 4-5 recipes under each category.  I don't plan for every day of the month because we always have dinner dates, dinners at the neighbors and our parents that come up so I leave a little room so I'm not over buying.  I do a lot of work and research in planning our menus because we don't repeat meals very often...maybe every 4-6 months we'll repeat a meal which is a lot of work, but we love variety around here.   This concept could so easily be simplified by sticking to a few favorites and repeating, but that doesn't work for us.   We make one dessert a week usually on Fridays to go along with our pizza.  The make ahead breakfasts are of my sanity.  I love that I don't have to think when I'm groggy in the mornings and the kids still get a nutritious breakfast, so lovely!

From my menu I gather my recipes, review our pantry inventory and compile a shopping list.  I have a template that is organized isle by isle of the grocery store we shop at.  I drive 30 minutes to shop at a WinCo store because we save so much money shopping their bulk items.  My list are always typed up with as much detail on the item as I can think of.  This is because my husband helps me do the shopping and if I don't write down what I'm wanting he's more likely to get what I want. ;)  The more description the better!  

The shopping trip is really the worst part of the whole thing.  We take 2 cars, we each take a cart, a kid, and half of the list.  Even spliting it up we're there an hour to 2 depending on the kid's behavior.  Then you go to check out and one way the store keeps their cost down is by having you bag your own groceries.  It's a little crazy with 2 cranky kids and oodles of groceries.  By the time we're headed home I'm exhausted.  Aaron is usually a dear and suggests picking up dinner that night.  Love that man!  

Aaron does have to stop for milk and produce on his way home sometimes because produce doesn't keep and we fly through milk.

 

This is the explosion of groceries after our last trip.  We put away groceries and store anything we can in the basement.  The other thing I do is freeze ANYTHING I can.  I always have 6 loafs of bread in the freezer, 4 packages of tortillas, hamburger buns, and English muffins.  Then a ton of meat.  I watch grocery ads for cheap meat, it's worth stocking up when it's a good price. 

 

 The kids play with anything they can reach 

 bulk is our friend and saves us so much cash

 It's always a long day because the last thing I do is any and all prep work.  Buying a roast is cheaper and you get better meat for stew if you cut it up yourself... see what I'm getting at.  A whole chicken is cheaper than boneless skinless breasts ect.  Buy in bulk and do the work yourself.  So I cut up and package meat in 1lb baggies.  The picture above is tofu I cut up (a favorite snack of P's-- satte it in butter and garlic salt, it's good!) this save me so much time.  I pull all the grapes off the vine and put handfuls into snack baggies.  Same with cucumber slices and carrots.  

 Then I put it in a basket.  My kids are more likely to eat healthy snacks if there are lots of option and they can see and choose for themselves. 

This is what you'd find in this basket:

• carrot slices
• cucumber slices
• grapes
• raisins
• kiwi
• apples
• oranges
• tofu
• string cheese

I keep another basket on our counter with:

• teddy grahams
• gold fish
• cookies
• mini rice cakes
•   ritz crackers
• graham crackers
• fruit snacks 
• drink flavor packets
• dried fruit

These I make sure to package in 100 calorie serving sizes.

Now, why would you want to put yourself through this 24 hours of work and sometimes painful misery (a.k.a. Priya screaming at the supermarket).  

1. It has taken away 1/4 of our grocery budget.
2. I know we're saving on gas by not making as many trips to the store, but haven't bothered to add it up. 
3. When you're temped to just eat out it's hard to justify because you KNOW you have everything you need for a meal.  A much more affordable meal. 
4. You only have to live through one shopping trip with the kids a month. 
5. There's a plan and a list.  I adore both of these and love crossing meals off our menu.

You asked... now you know.  It works for us at this time in our lives.  Happy Wednesday!