Food Art

While I was growing up my mama always said "don't play with your food." My how times have changed. As a mom I try to make breakfast, lunch and dinner an enjoyable experience for Berk. She's not the best eater so I would say that I go above and beyond with allowing her to play with her food and making eating fun! This past week we had a cold & rainy day so we had to stay in. I had seen on pinterest a couple pictures of yogurt art so I knew it was the perfect time!


           


Ingredients:
*  yogurt
*  food coloring (I used the basic 4 colors, but you can always turn this into a secondary color project!)
Note: I used Greek yogurt for added protein

Seperate yogurt into 4 small bowls, add a drop of food coloring and stir. I scoop the yogurt out onto Berk's highchair after mixing. 

Berkley absolutely loved this sensory/food art activity! Mama loved it even more because she had fun and had a little more protein added to her diet!

 

Towards the end I gave her a baking spatula to mimic a paint brush. This activity is definitely a keeper. We hope that you and your little ones enjoy it too!

weekends

Another weekend has come and gone :( I live for the weekends! Lazy Saturdays and family filled fun! Every now and then I empty the toy basket to keep Berk occupied for a couple minutes. When I start to turn the basket over her face lightens up like it's Christmas morning anyone else already thinking about Christmas?  

This picture is pretty special huh? Purse on shoulder and arm in the air. She loves putting things in her purse and taking them out. She has her own makeup brush, tube of lip gloss (just for pretend) and comb. She so big!

Saturday I clocked in my last long run before my half on Sunday. I love running, but hate training. On my last mile I decided to run after these two in our back yard. Ben kept yelling to run faster and Berk kept waving. I didn't know whether to scream at Ben because, obviously I was tired or to laugh at Berkley. The joys of being a wife & mom.

Can't leave you hanging without this cutie! I'm a sucker for festive pajamas and rainboots!

Being my mini me

Sunday mornings the devil is in full action. Seriously! It's always rush, rush. I have to look presentable, which means no yoga pants, and worry about Ben & Berkley too!

 I am TYPE A. I will not admit it.  I am always the first to rise and I don't stop until I am in the pew at church. On this certain Sunday morning it was as though God knocked on my heart. I was in the midst of putting my boots on I hear the shoes knock over in the closet  just another mess to clean up. Before I could zip up my last boot, Berkley came running into the bathroom with a pair of my shoes. She quietly sat down across from me and pretended to put my shoes on (insert heartbreak). At that moment, I stopped rushing, sat down and spent a mere minute helping my daughter put my shoes on. I screamed for me to grab the camera so that I could capture this unforgettable moment. 

It's funny how life can try to get in the way at times. I am DETERMINED to focus on my family & my faith. I can't get these moments back, I will savor them FOREVER. 

Meal Planning Monday

B is currently napping, clothes are in the washer and I am taking a few minutes to meal plan for the week! Here's what I came up with. Link are provided below to all of the recipes.

Monday: Chicken Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 4 cups rice, prepared
• ½ pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked (I recommend using slow cooker teriyaki chicken)
• 1 cup peas & carrots, frozen
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• ¼ cup soy sauce

Instructions

1. Prepare rice according to package instructions to yield 4 cups cooked rice.
2. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet on medium heat.
3. Add onion, garlic, peas, and carrots. Stir fry until tender.
4. Crack eggs into pan and scramble, mixing throughout vegetables.
5. Add rice, chicken, and soy sauce to pan. Stir in soy sauce and remove from heat.

tuesday: Chicken in a basil cream sauce

wednesDAY: Tomato Basil Parm soup

ThursDAY: BBQ Tacos

sunDAY: stew

Little Cowgirl

Years ago when my nieces were born, my parents bought a horse. My parents have had racing horses for as long as I can remember and wanted their love my dad's love of horses to rub off on them a little. Berkley is my "little cowgirl". She adores "Moose". She calls her horse by his name and other horses "horse". Such a smart baby. Now when she sees a real moose, I'm not sure what we will do!

 

We take a couple trips out to the stable a day so that she can see & feed him. She loves feeding her carrots because she can hold them by the end, unlike apples. She does not like feeding him apples, because he has to go straight to her hand. Yes this frightens me a little, but he is so wonderful with children.

After a visit, we normally go on a walk. By walk I mean our driveway. The one bad thing about living in a rural area, no walking trails :(

Berkley is in love with the movie Spirit. She screams at it for about a minute then it's on to playing!

Reality of a SAHM

 When I first found out that I was pregnant we were beyond thrilled! I have always loved children, which is why I decided to become a teacher. We found out that we were pregnant in my 2nd year of teaching Kindergarten and I taught throughout the entire year. I was due in July and finished out the year strong tired. Ben and I had a couple conversations throughout my pregnancy about returning to work once we moved back to my home town and I was all for it. After all, I had heard too many stories of SAHM depression, exhaustion, etc. At that moment in my life I said, "Berk will be fine in a daycare, most kids do it", " I just love teaching", "I know that I will need a break".

 Before continuing I know at this point someone has something negative to say. It's ok, it's life. I understand that everyone isn't the same. I applaud WAHM and working moms. I mean seriously that is one of the reasons I chose to stay home, because you guys are like superwoman! 8-5 job, house cleaned, laundry folded, dinner cooked, etc.

 Back to my story... I had every intention of going back to work when the year started in August. Berkley was 8 weeks old which is the normal maternity leave, and I thought by then everything would be set. I started out in August and gave my notice of leaving in late September. I was stressed out to the max. Pumping every 2 hours, calling to make sure Berkley was eating properly, functioning on 4 hrs of sleep, etc. If you are a mom reading this then you may or may have not gone through this. Again this is my story. I was drained by the time I got home!

These some of the reasons we decided that maybe it would work better if I were at home with Berkley. Those reasons aren't the main reason though. The main reason I decided to become a SAHM was so that I...
( it is so tempting to google "why be a stay at home mom" so that this sounds so professional but I'm not) 

~watch her grow
~love her
~teach her about the love of Christ
~help spark her curosity 
~explore with her
~learn more about her
~read her favorite book 10 times,
~allow her to play freely,
~let her ride the vaccum as I use it
~have dance parties 
~push her in her baby doll stroller
~pick flowers with her
~take her to the library
~play dates
~sitting on the floor in the bathroom helping her imitate mommy with the hair brush and makeup brushes
~thousands of kisses & hugs
~playing games

If you think being a SAHM is about having a clean house, being well dressed, having a gourmet meal for dinner and spending hours at the gym it's safe to say that you are WRONG. My house is a mess  learning environment right now, I haven't thought about dinner yet and if I do it's probably going to be a crock pot kind of day, I don't have a gym membership and if I do workout it's at home for about 30 minutes, if I am lucky! This is my reality & I LOVE IT.

Five on Friday

[ONE]

It's Friday....WHOOP WHOOP! I am beyond thrilled to be traveling with a groups of women from my church to the "Women of Faith" conference this weekend! I sure am going to miss my Ben & Berk.

[TWO]

We are loving this beanbags! I used them in my kindergarten classroom and brought them out a couple weeks ago! We have been working on our color words & color sorting. If you have an older toddler you can use them to practice the upper & lowercase letter!

                       [THREE]

If you haven't noticed yet, I am a lover of holidays and having a little girl only makes them a little more festive! I saw this witch hat over on Etsy and fell in love! Marie was so sweet & so wonderful to work with! You must visit her shop ASAP!

                          [FOUR]

I made a Tomato,Basil & Parmesan Frittata earlier this week and it rocked! I've made it a couple times and it never disappoints! 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

You'll need:
8 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/2 c chopped prosciutto {or if your fridge is really fancy like mine, chopped ham}
1/2 c grated parmesean
1/2 c halved cherry tomatoes {though I like to use a whole cup because Everett digs these when they're cooked}
1/4 c fresh basil {It has to be fresh for this one, the dried basil just floats on the top}
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Whisk eggs and milk together in a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until evenly mixed. Spray pie dish with cooking oil, and pour the ingredients into the dish. Cook 25-35 minutes. 

                [FIVE]

 Looking back on our 1st pumpkin patch visit with Berk last year is making me so sad! Seriously I can't remember how tiny she was!

15 month update

B turned 15 months old on the 1st so I am a little late with the update, but better late than never right? I always feel like I am forgetting some things so I've started writing the post over a couple of days! Berk is growing up on us....she's little miss i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t (makes me think about Destiny's Child) ha.    

                                           

Raining day picnic in the living room

                                       

 Daddy comes home from lunch and it's playtime! They love playing peek-a-boo

Says (I hope I'm not leaving anything out she's a talker)
mama
dada
Rambo (our dog)
dog
cat
yion (lion)
ish (goldfish)
boon (balloon)
ball
cow
moose (parent's horse)
horse
out (outside)
night (night night)
fower (flower)
ride
rock
light
hot
G (grandma)
papa
Lee (Aunt Lee)
no
eat
more
bar (granola bar)
yummy
done (all done)
red
blue
orange
yellow

Animal Sounds
Lion
Cow
Horse
Dog
Cat
Make fishy lips

Dislikes
Diaper changes
riding long distances
daddy leaving for work in the morning
being told no

Likes
Blueberries
putting on pretend makeup
brushing her teeth
going outside
riding the golfcart
feeding the horse
watering flowers
turning off lights using the light switch
Elmo
singing & dancing
Puzzles

Toddler Fashion

We have had many questions about where I got B's infinity scarf  pictured here on instagram. It's getting harder and harder to get a non blurry picture of this running munchkin! I love that this scarf can be slipped right over B's head. Unlike most scarves that are bulky around the neck, this scarf is kid-friendly!                        

Desiree over at littlebirdiesnest is amazing to work with! She is super sweet & went above and beyond to work with me on this scarf! Check out her Etsy shop and let her know that we sent you!

a lazy weekend recap

I loved everything about this weekend and I think Ben would agree. We had no to-do list! Rarely do we have weekends like this so we soaked every second up. Friday after Ben got home from work we took a little shopping trip. Berkley's feet are finally growing, we are in a size 4. I took advantage of Ben being in a great mood and scooped up these two pair of cute shoes

              Colorblock Ballet Flat

Mouse Ballet Flat

We are running with a group of friends for church in a 5 miler next weekend so we had a 5 mile run Saturday morning. I am on half marathon training so I ran 5 with Ben and Berk and then 3 on my own. After our run we walked around our local campus.

This weekend Berkley decided she would go into the refrigerator and grab her milk.  I just love this picture! 

Sunday was jam packed....seriously. We had church from 9-11am, home to let Berk nap, church picnic from 1:30-4:30, home to take quick baths, back at church from 6:15-8:45. Here is a picture of the couples 3 legged race. We raced against my sister and her husband and my sister in law and her husband. Trust me it is harder than it looks! I thought we were going to face plant with every step  hop we took.

Thanks for stopping by!

Citrus Lane Box Review

Before becoming pregnant, I had heard of monthly subscription boxes and decided to try one out. I tried out the Beauty Box. After a couple months of receiving products that I never used or never had time to use I cancelled my subscription. Great idea at first. After having Berk I started following all of my mommy blogging friends and noticed the Citrus Lane Box for kids. Skeptical at first based on my previous experience with subscription boxes, I just sat back and read the reviews. After months of contemplating I decided to jump on the Citrus Lane box subscription!  From the moment we opened it I knew it was going to be a good one. I seriously love everything in it! Read more below for our review of each individual item.

Here is a picture of our first box minus the book. You must realize that I love mail day so I opened the box in the car, Berkley saw the book, Berkley got the book and wouldn't put it down!

 Citrus Lane is a monthly gender and age specific subscription of fun goodies for your little one. 

Charley Harper ABCs ($9.95):  It’s a great book and the illustrations are amazing.  A classic for sure!

Babytime Playful Wash($3.83):  We love this wash an use it basically every day. We use this for our morning bath. For some reason I think the orange smells excites her and we don't want that at night!

Julep Nail Polish (It Girl – Coco) ($14): I recently became obsessed with nail polish! I think I buy a bottle every time I make a quick run to Walmart. I love this color, it came in time for Fall.

Happy Tot Super Toddler Bar    ($1.40): Berkley is in the finger food stage. She wants whatever is "handy and convenient". She loved this bar so much we had to buy more!

 Hape Push and Pull Zebra – I love this guy! This little zebra can be pushed (there’s a cut-out “handle” in the center) or pulled (there’s a string under the label). It rolls very easily on carpet, which is definitely a big plus. Another plus? It’s made with solid maple from sustainable forests and painted with non-toxic, child-safe paint. (Amazon Price: $14.98.)

 If you'd like to sign up for a box follow this link and you'll receive $10 off your order!

I was not compensated, or given any products for writing this review. I just wanted to share our experience and opinions about the service with other interested parties, like you!

National Fun Day

We have declared today as National Fun Day! The weather is gorgeous & Berkley can't get enough of it!


             

She finds Rambo's dog cage so interesting! 

 Playing with her beloved basketball...no she's not a tomboy! Need proof look at our previous post here

Please watch this. Now go play!