Menu Week 1

Okay, so here's week one for our family. Everything is made from scratch unless otherwise noted! The new recipe this week is the Quinoa with grilled veggies and the Summertime Tilapia. I'm just going to cook the quinoa in chicken stock and grill a bunch of veggies marinaded in italian dressing. We'll see how it goes :)

Thursday: 

Turkey Burgers with whole wheat buns

                 Sweet Potato Fries (cooked for us, still frozen for the wild woman)

Green Beans

Friday: 

Black Bean Soup

Cornbread 

Salad

Saturday: 

Chicken Salads

               Regular Baked Fries or Sweet Potato

Sunday:

  Apple and Sage Pork Chops ( When I make this, Ben say's he'd eat it once a week :) )

 Scalloped Potatoes 

Broccoli or Salad

Monday: 

Marinaded Chicken (McCormick marinade packet)

Cooked Carrots

Brown Rice Pilaf (Near East)

Tuesday: 

Quinoa with grilled veggies

Wednesday: 

Turkey Enchiladas (Another big hit at our house)

Brown Rice

Spinach Salad

Thursday: 

Summertime Tilapia 

Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Side of Whole Wheat Pasta

NICU Nurse again and the best outfit ever!

Last week I had an interview with the hospital I worked at right after nursing school. It was the best experience a new nurse could have and I adored it. Not to mention, the people I had the privilege to work with made it the job I compared everything else to. There's no way I would go back to full time or even part time and they offer a Flex position that allows me to work 32hrs in 6wks. It's perfect. It's giving me the opportunity to keep up my skills, gain experience, make good money, and most importantly- still be home with my babies and take care of my man. I'll schedule my days to work when Ben has off so he can have time with the kiddos. Right now we're just planning on doing the 32hr in 6wks to see how it goes. The last thing we want to do is have my working take away from family time together and add more stress. While the money is great, our focus is for me to keep my skills up to date and gain some experience.

It went very well and hope to be starting soon! God is soo good and I'm super excited! Now if we can just get Judah to take the bottle a little better- we'll be golden!

It's a little bit of a drive, 2.5hrs away but I have my dearest friend that lives up there close to the hospital along with a handful of more great friends that would welcome some visitors for a few days. In the winter I think I'll try and clump all my days together for the 6wk period to avoid traveling in rough weather. It'll be a long 3 days but Ben and the kiddos will come up with me on one of Ben's weekend's off.

Anyways, I came to home to Audrey yelling from the top of the stairs "MOMMA I'M SOOOOO GLAD TO SEE YOU! YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL MOMMA" It was wonderful and made my heart just swell. Then I saw how she was dressed and my heart swelled even more and just made my day! haha Had to share it with you- truth, it's really the whole reason for this post :)

She had Judah's onesie on, backwards, with the tail tucked in. She dressed herself and was so proud. I think she looks fantastic, simply fantastic!!!

I had to convince her to untuck the tail so I could take a picture, she told me, "No Momma, I need to tuck my tail in..."

She's been dry all day for the past week or so, with some accidentes that were Momma's fault for forgetting to ask if she needed to use the potty when she was extremely focused on playing, but we're still wearing a diaper for naps. She had just woke up so she still had her diaper on. It was a busy day for Daddy and his two babies :)

Menu Planning Struggles...

Menu planning. I'll admit, I really enjoy it. What I don't enjoy is spending the time and effort into the week's planning of meals, getting to the store, becoming flustered and missing essential items to complete my meals! I'm learning to just slow down and relax, it's coming very slowly.

My goal for menu planning is keeping a strict budget and making healthy meals for my family. I know I'm not the only one out there that struggles with keeping a strick budget and healthy meals. I could very easily have a low budget and feed my family garbage. I just can't do it. I won't do it!!! We aren't 100% clean eaters but I'd say we're about 90%. I don't buy processed foods and cook as much as I possibly can from scratch. It's hard to do with a 2 1/2 yr old and a new baby and my man working long hours but I'm learning to work around it.

I'm going to try making dinners ahead of time for the days that Ben works. He doesn't get home until 1900 and trying to make a full meal with two little ones that eat early, both get tubs, nightly massages, books read, and to bed before 1930 is simply exhausting. I can't do it all and it's taken 2months to realize that.... I'm a slow learner- what can I say? That and an over achiever. Anyways, I've done a few trial runs and found that I'm more relaxed (along with my kiddos), and evenings are much more enjoyable.

I'm going to get crazy about it and see how it works. It's a little tricky with the days Ben works one week, he's off the next and every other weekend he works Friday through Sunday- but it's going to happen. One of my hangups is finding healthy, fast, easy meals for those days. I'm going to make a pact to use my crockpot more, even though I hate cleaning it, just hate it!

When I menu plan, I like to have 1 night of no meat (pasta or vegetarian), 1 night of fish, trying to do a night of either quinoa or beans, and the rest turkey, pork, and chicken. I'll do red meat here and there but try not to have it more than 2-3times a month. I really enjoy cooking and Ben is super supportive of me trying all kinds of new recipes. I do have some staples that get made over and over again. Cooking magazines and cook books make me so very happy- I can't help it. When we have a forever house there will be bookshelves in my kitchen displaying a vast collection of cook books... thank God dreams are free huh?

Anyways, I thought maybe if I held myself accountable to this and display it- I'll be very motivated! Sooo I'm going to try and put up our menu plan for the week and keep some updates on it... we'll see...

I'm going to try and work it out tonight and hopefully have it up later on.

Judah's first big car trip!

We got the okay from the cardiologist to take Judah on a trip! She said as long as he stays away from crowds and we enforced hand washing- a trip home would be fine. I felt bad leaving Ben, but he was on call and had a conference the following weekend so it worked out great for us to go home. He drove with us 1/2 way and met my Mom to switch cars.As we waited a few minutes for my Mom to come, I fed Judah while Ben chased the wild woman around, getting some of her never-ending energy out :)

We stopped again about 2 hours later to feed Judah at a really nice rest stop on I-80. My Mom and the wild woman picked acorns... that are still in the van... and climbed rock piles. I know for a fact I'm not ready to do the 6hr drive myself, it was a blessing that Mom could come 1/2 way for both legs of the trip. Anyways, Judah finished eating and while Meemin watched the kiddos I ran inside for a bathroom break. Only then did I notice a small sign, written in pen on the side of the door- "WARNING, RATTLESNAKE SPOTTED IN REST AREA!! DO NOT LET CHILDREN OR PETS IN GRASS OR GRAVEL PILES".  You would think that the sign would be posted where you could easily see it, in multiple locations- nope. Now that I think about it, I should have ran back and taken a picture of it...Thank you Jesus that the rattlesnake stayed away while Audrey rolled, climbed, and ran all over it's area. ugh.

The rest of the drive home went very well.  Judah slept the whole time and the wild woman did fantastic! I'm praying that Judah continues to love sleeping in the car unlike someone else...

2 Months Old!!

Okay he's 2 1/2 months old but better late than never! We were home visiting when Judah cub turned 2 months so I'll blame it on that :)

Sleep:

Two night after Judah turned 2months he slept 8 hours.... and has yet to do it again! :) He'll do anywhere from 2 1/2hrs and 6 1/2hrs. He's such a fantastic napper during the day and we've got our night time routine down pretty well. We eat our dinner, play a little bit while we clean up dinner, eat,  go get our tub, massage with lotion and scar care, read some books, eat again, rock a little bit or snuggle, then it's off to sleep anywhere from 1900-2030.

Eating:

Judah loves to eat, surprise surprise! He eats about ever 2-3.5 hrs but sometimes it's every 1.5... he's a growing boy! He really doesn't like the bottle. He'll take it if he has to but only after some protest. 

Growth:

He's growing so much! He's in the 85th percentile for both height and weight! At the beginning of the month he weighted 13.2 lbs, yesterday he weighted 14.5 lbs. He's now 24.6 inches, a difference of over an inch from the beginning of the month! He's almost completely out of 3mon clothes, some onesies still fit but it won't be long! Can't believe how he's grown!!! 

Development:

Judah is a pro at holding his head up, pushing with his feet and arching his back-almost like a mini back bend, following voices, talking and hollerin', smiling, sucking on his hands (he's sooo close to finding them with his eyes, one of my favorite), and wants to belly laugh sooo bad- it's the greatest!! He gets so excited when we sign and try's to sign along with his coos.  He hates, hates, hates tummy time- it's the worst haha but we try and do a few minutes at a time all though out the day.

A little out of focus but you can see that right sided dimple!!!!

 Sleepy boy!!

Sweeet lil' feet!

Uncle Jacey, Aunt Nanaa, and Roadie visit

The end of July, my brother and sister-in-law, and puppy nephew drove out to spend time loving on our babies. I know 5 hours isn't an awful long drive but, it just meant so much to Ben and I that they packed up and drove all that way to see their niece and newest nephew.

To say that they wild woman was excited would be such an understatement!!!! She was beside herself!! It really was a great weekend! We just hung out, played, and caught up. I have been blessed with such a great family, spending time with them is a blessing to me.

Their dog, Rotor (aka-Roadie), came along too! He's such a good boy and puts up with an awful lot! haha He got lots of Auddy lovin' while he was here, I can only imagine how happy he was to get back to his house :)

 It was such a hot weekend... even though the electric bill is a cause for panic- I'm so thankful for central air!

 That water table, a gift from Jason and Jena for Aud's 2nd birthday, has been played with so much! Such a great gift for any kiddo!

Rotor... aka Roadie.

 The weekend went by way too quickly. The last day the were here, we drove about 1.5 hours to meet our sister at Longwood Gardens, where she's worked this past season. We'd never been there and were excited to get the tour! It was awesome! If we lived closer, we'd get a season pass- the wild woman had the time of her life! She ran EVERYwhere!

She only picked one flower and played in 2 ponds- we were proud! 

They also had the best children's garden where she could play in the fountains that were just her size, run up and down ramps and little kiddo sized walk ways, it was great. The outside gardens were fantastic! I just marveled at all the beautiful displays and plants!

 Yes, she's drinking the dirty fountain water...

One of the garden's volunteers said he looked like Nemo in this outfit! :)

 She's such a Daddy's girl!!

Amazing huh??

 I love the red cone flowers!!

 Wild woman with her Nellie-Bellie

Melts my heart!

Poor wild woman, while she was running through the gardens, marveling at something instead of watching where she was running- she ran straight through a rose bush... She was okay after some cleaning up poor girl! She was sleeping before we pulled out of the parking spot. Great family day!!

Big Cardiologist Appointment

     Yesterday Judahcub and I spent the day at CHOP for his big cardiologist appointment. Ben was off and stayed home with the wild woman since the appointment was going to be most of the day in and out of tests. He had to get an ECHO and EKG done before meeting with the cardiologist. He did so fantastic. Barely and fuss out of him!

Two days ago he started cooing and everyday he builds on it, I absolutely love it. He loves when you get close to his face and talk to him. Well... thats not entirely true.. He does not like when Audrey get 3mm away from his face and talks at normal wild woman volume :) I had him repeating after me for about 10 minutes yesterday, it was so much fun. His smile is so big, he just can't smile with his lips- he wiggles his head and body around whenever he smiles haha it's sooo funny! He really was practicing yesterday, he kept cooing at the doctors and nurses while they were doing vitals, assessments, and tests.

The ECHO went well, so well Judahcub fell asleep 15 minutes into it :). The EKG was a breeze, even with him kicking and playing as hard as he was. When the fellow came into to talk about the ECHO, I was a little surprised at the results. His PFO was a little leaky along with his mitral and pulmonary valves. They weren't concerned with this,  they said it was to be expected and everything with the repair looked beautiful. The narrowing on his pulmonary artery (which used to be his aorta) looked okay. It's not causing any back pressure or causing the right ventricle to be enlarged. There is actually two area's of narrowing but it's something that will be followed very closely. 

After we spoke with the fellow, the attending came in. She's the one who has been following Judah since we started coming to CHOP in April. I talked with her and she was very pleased with Judah's progress. We go back again in 4 months for another ECHO and EKG. I really really like the team of doctors they we see and how great they are at what they do. They both stressed keeping him away from large groups of people and crowds for a little while longer, at least until after his 2 month immunizations and strick hand washing for anyone who comes in contact with him.

We have been so blessed and thank God for everything He done, doing, and will do in Judah's life!! Can't believe our little man is 13.2 lbs- up almost 3.5lbs from birth, and 23inchs long- up 2.4inches from birth!!! Grow Judahcub grow!!! The cooing and smiling just melts me!!