OUR WEEK LAST WEEK

 Things have been so busy for me lately that I haven't just done a post about the kids and what they been doing lately.  I feel so behind on blogging.  Here's a little peek into what our week looked like last week.  

We had school every day and I've been trying to find new things for Alanna and Liam to do to keep them busy while I'm working with Ruy or trying to get housework done.  Alanna and Liam both love playing with a container full of dried beans.  It can be messy when Alanna decides that throwing them across the kitchen is a good idea...but it keeps them occupied for a good 30 minutes!

Liam and Ruy are both doing so well in school.  I'm so proud of how hard they work each day. 

Alanna's new favorite thing is to play in the kitchen sink.  She spends about 30 minutes almost every day washing dishes and getting water all over the place. 

We go outside every day unless it's raining or below 35 degrees.  Jude has started using Alanna's swing and Alanna loves using the big girl swing.  Problem is we are short a swing.  I think we may have to update our playground this spring. 

 These two are either best buddies or having some serious screaming battles towards each other.  Liam likes to tell Alanna what to do all.day.long and she gets really tired of it.  But they love each other a lot.

We had a Valentine's Day party at my best friend's house with her and her four girls.  I forgot to take pictures of the kids but I did get pictures of the dessert :)

 All of the kids are totally in love with their baby brother.  Liam loves to sit and talk with him while I'm cooking.  He's a big helper keeping him happy.

It snowed one day last week and while I am not a fan of snow by any means, I did venture out in it with the kids to get some outside play time in. 

Ruy has loved using face paint since he was about four years old.  I love how creative he is.  

We all love our outside time and are really looking forward to warmer weather that is not too far away!  Yay! 

And this little girl loves her piggy.  She's so sweet and beautiful.  I'm pretty crazy about her.   

Well that's it for now.  I'm working on getting better at keeping up with the blog but I'm trying to balance so many things right now!  

Hope you all have a wonderful day and as always you can chat with me here on the blog or through my facebook & instagram.

JUDE 4 MONTHS

Jude turned four months old on February 11th.  I still have no idea how much he weighs since I haven't taken him in to the doctor since he was about a month old.  He has an appointment in a few weeks though so I'm excited to see how much weight he's gained and how tall he is.  He seems so much longer to me than my other babies were at his age.  Jude has such a sweet easy going personality.  He's happy pretty much all the time unless he's hungry or tired.  He has the biggest cutest smile that just completely melts my heart and his laugh is just the greatest.  He discovered his hands and keeps them in his mouth most of the time.  He is cutting teeth and I can see them about to break through.  He's not been sleeping well this past week and I feel so bad for him.  I can't wait for those teeth to just break through.  He loves when the kids talk to him and they just love holding him and trying to make him smile or laugh.  Liam is still asking me "why Jude had to be in my belly for so long and that he's so happy he finally came out!"  Ruy hates hearing him cry and will stop whatever he's doing and pick him up if I can't get to him at that moment.  I've found Liam holding him a few times and I try not to panic as I rush across the room to grab Jude before Liam drops him.  When I tell him he can not pick up Jude he says "But Jude is crying and I wanted to hold him!"  So glad he wants to take care of his brother but I could do without the minor heart attack.  Alanna got upset the other day at Liam and took it out on Jude by whacking a toy down on Jude's head.  He got his first "boo-boo".  But he survived with only a few tears.  Alanna is normally incredibly sweet to him.  She loves rubbing his face, kissing him, and calling him Jude Man like I do.  Nathan and I are so in love with everything about our little man.  His little ear that sticks out just slightly is still our favorite.  We love his little chubby thighs, and his double chin when he smiles really big.  We love how excited he gets when he sees either one of us and how adorable he looks with most of his hair fallen out.  Everything about him is just perfect and we are in no way in a hurry for him to grow up.  We're loving every moment of him being little and trying to soak in every moment.  

Happy Four Months Sweet Jude Man!  

We love you.

MENU MONDAY & OUR WEEKEND

It's been so cold here lately but the kids get so bored being stuck inside all day so even with the cold weather, we still go outside for at least thirty minutes to an hour.  I was trying to find something for us to do so I helped the kids collect a bunch of rocks in our yard and we made little "fire pits" and pretended we were roasting marshmallows and warming our hands.  It was fun and the kids thought it was so great.  It's awesome how such little simple things make kids so happy. 

Saturday night we decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum but when we were on our way, we realized that it was closed.  So we took the kids to the Sugar Shack instead.  I had never been there but everyone says they are amazing.  They were right.  Their donuts are ridiculously good.  The kids loved the lights and paper snowflakes that were hanging up and got so excited to see all the donuts.  Liam wanted sprinkles sprinkles sprinkles.  And Alanna saw the pink frosting and wanted that right away.  Ruy was gone this weekend and we were sad he had to miss out on the fun family night but we plan on taking the kids back soon.  Nathan and I got a blueberry donut and then I shared a hot chocolate with the kids.  I poured the kids' hot chocolate into their own little cups and they loved it!  

Sunday was Valentine's Day.  We don't ever really go big or anything for Valentine's Day with the kids but Nathan bought them a big bag of M&Ms, a toy and Alanna and I flowers.  We went to church and then spent the rest of the day at home playing with the kids and meal prepping.  It was a good day.  

Meal prepping always makes such a big difference to how the week flows.  I did something a little different this time and made almost all of our breakfasts for the week.  I made a double batch of the protein muffins, banana cake, and giant blueberry pancake.  I also sliced up a bunch of ham for our salads and kids' lunches.  I made hard-boiled eggs, taco salad, and Nathan grilled up a bunch of chicken for our meals.  It took about two hours to do all of that but it's so worth it to have the rest of the week with less time in the kitchen.  

We went to Aldi this weekend for our grocery shopping.  It was about 20 degrees here so I only wanted to go to one store and to get in and out as fast as possible.  Got to love Aldi :)  

Here's our Menu for the week:

Saturday:

Breakfast:  Me: Shake Kids: Toast & bananas

Lunch: Chick-Fil-A (Cheat)

Dinner:  Leftover Pizza (E)

Sunday:

Breakfast: Me & Hubby Fried eggs & yogurt w/berries (S) Kids: Yogurt w/ PB & chocolate chips

Lunch: Spaghetti w/ turkey over troodles from the THM cookbook page 222 (E) Kids: Spaghetti over whole wheat pasta.

Dinner: Me: Leftovers (Crossover) Kids: PB & Jelly, fruit

Monday: 

Breakfast: Banana Cake from the THM cookbook page 298(E)

Lunch: Me & Hubby, Chef Salad (ham, cheese, tomatoes, eggs, cucumber, ranch dressing) (S) Kids: Sliced ham, fruit, whole wheat crackers)

Dinner:  Turkey Burgers, Sweet Potatos with cinnamon & sweet blend , baked green beans (E)

Tuesday: *Field Trip

Breakfast:  Protein Muffins from the original book page 221  (S)

Lunch: Me & Hubby, Taco Salad  (E) (without the chips) Kids: Turkey pepperoni, sliced ham, fruit, whole wheat crackers.

Dinner:  White Chicken Chili from the THM cookbook page 37 (E)

 Wednesday:

Breakfast:  Giant Blueberry Pancake from the THM cookbook page 261 (E)

Lunch:  Me & Hubby, Honey Mustard Salad w/ grilled Chicken (S) Honey mustard dressing from the THM cookbook page 468 Kids:  PB & Jelly, fruit

Dinner:  Grilled Chicken Tacos (E or S depending on the toppings)

*Chicken marinated in seasons from the THM cookbook page 53.

 Thursday: 

Breakfast:  Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal (Crossover)

Lunch:  Me & Hubby, Leftover Honey Mustard Salad (S), Kids:  Chicken dipped in honey mustard or honey, fruit, & veggies.

Dinner:  Chicken Pot Pie from the THM cookbook page 137 (S)

Friday:

Breakfast:  Leftover Protein Muffins (S)

Lunch:  Me & Hubby Leftover Taco Salad (E) Kids: Tacos

Dinner: Homemade Pizza (E)

Snacks for me are usually cottage berry whip, cheesecake berry crunch, peanuts, cheese, yogurt with fruit, yogurt with peanut butter and sugar free chocolate chips, tea, shakes.  I'm not very good at snacking on vegetables unless it's a sweet potato.  I try to get my veggies in at lunch with a salad or with dinner as a side or salad. 

And that's it for this week!  If you have any questions or comments please leave them below or you can chat with me on my Personal Facebook or my Blog Facebook  & Instagram. 

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MENU MONDAY & OUR WEEKEND

Happy Happy Monday everyone!  I'm sitting here feeling pretty great tonight.  I've been working out again for over a month and I must say, it's amazing.  I'm so happy that I got back into working out.  Every morning I'm tired when my alarm goes off but I just get up and push play and then once I hit play I'm like "yes this is awesome!"  Seriously...P90x3 is awesome.  

Our weekend was pretty low key as usual.  I worked out Friday and then we went grocery shopping in the morning on Friday instead of Saturday because my in-laws came up to visit on Saturday.  We had such a great time with them.  They treated us to Qdoba for lunch and I was good and got a burrito bowl instead of a burrito.  My goodness not eating that tortilla shell makes a world of difference.  I left there totally full and satisfied but without a complete and terrible stomach ache from the shell! Winning!!!  I did eat about 8 chips but that is like a record low for me.  Normally I could eat a whole basket by myself :)  But I was good.  After lunch we took the kids to an awesome park and then went home and just hung out the rest of the evening.  

 Sunday was church and then the rest of the day at home.  Somehow though, I totally forgot to meal prep on Sunday and I was feeling the effects of it today.  It's not fun to be cooking up turkey for your taco salad at 11am when all of your kids need you at the same time :/   Oh funny story...I got a little stressed out Sunday evening because my husband was at the fire station and Jude, Liam, and Alanna were all crying and Ruy needed help with something and I was just feeling a little stretched.  I started to want to "stress eat" and kept munching on things.  Then I started thinking "it's kind of hard to stress eat when you only have healthy things to eat in your house!" haha.  Trim Healthy Mama For Life!!! 

Well that's about it for our weekend.  Here's our menu & like always, if you have any questions or see something labeled wrong, please let me know!  

You can leave a comment below or we can chat on Facebook & Instagram! 

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Cheesecake Berry Crunch

 Saturday:

Breakfast:  Banana Cake from the THM cookbook page  (E) 

*We enjoyed ours as a crossover with peanut butter on top

Lunch:  Qdoba (treat from my in-laws) I had a burrito bowl (Crossover) & I cheated and had about 8 chip.

Dinner:  Homemade mac&cheese, baked green beans, cinnamon apples (S with S helper from the few apple slices I had)

Sunday:

Breakfast:  Scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, blueberries,  turkey bacon (S)

Lunch:  Alfredo from the THM cookbook page 

*We had shrimp in ours instead of chicken

Dinner: Leftover Banana Cake (E)

Monday:

Breakfast:  Me: Shake  Kids & my husband, Raspberry Muffins from the THM cookbook page 285 

*I'm making these with blueberries 

Snack: Me & kids:  Shake

Lunch:  Me & my husband: Taco Salad (E) Kids: Tacos

Snack: Me: Cheesecake Berry Crunch from the THM cookbook page 353 (S) Kids: Popcorn, apple slices

Dinner:  Bangin' Ranch Drums (only I'm using chicken breasts) from the THM cookbook page 162, salad. (S)

Tuesday:  

Breakfast:  Scrambled Eggs, fruit, turkey bacon (S)

Snack:  Me: Shake Kids: Goldfish

Lunch:  At a friends house for a Valentine's Day party

Snack: At friend's house. 

Dinner:  Chicken Parmy from the THM cookbook page 161 & asparagus (S)  

Wednesday:

Breakfast:   Giant Blueberry Pancake from the THM cookbook page  (E)

Snack: Shake Kids: Trail Mix

Lunch:  me & my husband, Greek Salad from the THM cookbook page 183 (S)  Kids:  PB & Jelly, yogurt & peanutbutter

Snack: Me: Greek yogurt w/ peanut butter & sugar free chocolate chips (S) Kids:  popcorn & apple slices

Dinner:  Leftover Taco Salad & Tacos (E)

Thursday:  

Breakfast: Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal (Crossover)

Snack: Shake

Lunch:  me & my husband, Honey Mustard(from the cookbook page  ) Chicken & Bacon Salads (S),  Kids:  Chicken Nuggets, fruit

Snack: Me:  Banana Pudding from the THM cookbook page 354 (E) Kids: Goldfish, fruit

Dinner:  Cheeseburger Pie from the THM cookbook page 149 (S)

Friday:

Breakfast: Ham & Cheese Omelets, (S)

Snack: Me & kids, Shake 

Lunch:  Ham & cheese quesadillas, fruit (S)

Snack:  Cottage Berry Whip from the THM cookbook page 374 (FP)

Dinner:  Homemade Pizza, salad (E)

MENU MONDAY

This weekend went by so fast.  I was kind of looking forward to my two day break from working out and getting to sleep in a bit but really I should have just gotten up and worked out.  All the kids got up way earlier than they normally do and I was up early both days anyway.  Then I spent the whole day like "I wish I had just worked out."  It's funny how after a month of something it starts to become so routine and your body craves it!  Oh, if you don't follow me on instagram or facebook you may not know that I started working out again.  I need to do a whole post about all of that but since starting to workout, I've had to go to bed earlier and that takes away from my time being able to blog.  I have so very many things I want to blog about but right now it's hard to find time to get it all done. I will try to work on that this week though. 

Our weekend was pretty low key.  Friday night we were at home, Saturday was our normal grocery shopping trip and Sunday was church and then we stayed home the rest of the day.  I ended it pretty exhausted though because the kids were up way more than normal both Friday and Saturday night.  A few good things that happened over the weekend. 

  #1. The weather was really nice. 

 

 

 #2. One of my really good friends bought me this most beautiful headband!!! I love it!

  #3.  I was so happy to go to church.  We had to miss last week because of the snow and I'm always so sad to miss church.  #4. The snow almost completely melted! 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!  

Here's my menu:

Saturday:  

Breakfast:  Me: Shake (E)  Kids: Homemade Yogurt with peanut butter

Lunch:  Turkey Pepperoni, cheese, apple slices with 1tsp of peanut butter (E)

Dinner:  Turkey & Black Bean Chili (E)

Sunday:  

Breakfast:  Me: Chocolate Shake Kids: Cereal

Lunch:  Leftover Chili (E)

Dinner: Scrambled eggs (S)
*I realize this is a super boring dinner but after 2 hours meal prepping and cleaning the kitchen Sunday afternoon, I made a really super easy dinner.

Monday:  

Breakfast:  Apple Crumble with warm almond milk poured on top (E) page 338

Lunch:  Homemade Mac & Cheese, green beans, ham (S)

Dinner:  Spaghetti over zuchini noodles from the THM cookbook page 222

Tuesday: 

Breakfast:  Scrambled eggs with strawberry cottage berry whip(S)

Lunch:  Me: Chef Salad, fruit (S) Kids: Ham & Cheese quesadillas dipped in leftover spaghetti sauce, fruit

Dinner:  Grilled chicken and shrimp fajitas (S)

*I use the spices from the THM cookbook page 53 but instead of using the crock pot, we grilled our met and veggies and OH MY it is amazing!

Wednesday:  

Breakfast:  Giant Blueberry Pancake from the THM cookbook page 261

Lunch:  Greek Salad from the THM cookbook page  183  (S)  Kids:  PB & Jelly, go-gurt,

Dinner:  Sweet Potato Oat Soup from the THM cookbook page 102

Thursday: 

Breakfast:  Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal (Crossover)

Lunch:  Leftover Greek Salad from the THM cook book page 183 (S) Kids:  Mac & Cheese, cinnamon apples.

Dinner:  Baked chicken, baked radishes, green fries from the THM cookbook page 218.

*I'm obsessed with the green fries.  My husband and kids didn't like them baked until they were brown so I cooked them until they were soft and slightly crunchy.  The whole family loves them. 

Friday:

Breakfast:  Protein Muffins from the original THM book page 221 (S)

Lunch:  Sweet Potato Bar from the THM cookbook page 166 (E) Kids:  Leftover grilled chicken & sweet potatoes with cinnamon, butter, and truvia.

Dinner:  Homemade pizza & salad (E)

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or you can chat with me on Facebook & Instagram.