Need some dinner ideas??

Check out this blog! One of Jason's friends, Marissa, started it pretty recently and we have been loving her recipes!!

The point of the blog is to show how it's easy to eat healthy and organic without spending a ridiculous amount of money. I love it because we are total food snobs. I love love love New Seasons and even when I was on food stamps, I refused to eat cheap gross food. But I am trying to spend a little less on groceries every month, and I love her blog because it gives us awesome dinner ideas that are relatively inexpensive, but still healthy and made from good stuff.

So far we've tried the squash and mole tacos (AMAZING! and don't skip the cotija!), the pork loin with cherry wine sauce, the albondigas soup, and tonight Ben and I made the crepes with blueberries (except we substituted raspberries because I had some in the freezer). So yummy!

Her blog has inspired me to try to plan our meals a little more in advance, too. We usually decide what we want for dinner a few hours ahead of time, head to the store and get what we want to make, and cook it. This requires going to the store basically every day. And it gets expensive.

It worked fine for us until recently, but lately I've decided it takes way too much time to make 6 or 7 grocery trips with a newborn and Ben and oh yeah the whole law school thing. So this week I went shopping on Sunday, and other than picking up some milk yesterday when we ran out I haven't been back to the store (for food, anyway). Amazing!! Last night I made tuna casserole from THINGS tHAT WERE ALREADY AT MY HOUSE! And I hadn't even planned it. I'm so proud. ha. Oh and last weekend we ate leftovers. Twice. Usually we are horrible about eating leftovers, we always mean to but once you've eaten something, its hard to be in the mood for it again for a while. Or at least it is for me. Also, I've been trying to force myself to get things at Fred Meyer when I can, except usually not meat. I have bought their organic chicken, but other than that I go to New Seasons for the meat.

Tomorrow is chicken and green chile enchiladas, and I'm going to try this again next week. I'm already thinking I need to try the butternut squash mac n cheese. and the chilaquiles.

Party Elves

I made these little elf dollies for Amelia for her first birthday, which was yesterday! I cannot believe she is already ONE!
I have never tried embroidering anything before. It was fun... but I'd rather knit. I saw this pattern from all sorts a few months ago and thought it was ridiculously cute. I think it's supposed to be for a pillow or wall hanging or something, but I thought it would be way more fun if I cut the elves out and turned them into fluffy little dolls. And of course I had to give the girl elf earrings, because Amelia loves sparkly pretty things. And I think they look like they are all dressed up for a birthday party with their little rainbow outfits!

The dolls:


The birthday girl:

Ooh I want to win!

My wonderful friend Ashley who I have known since kindergarten has a new blog for all the crafty things she does, with tutorials! And she is giving away the CUTEST tutu , slippers, and hairbow. I want it! Pick me Ashley, pick me! I will give it to Amelia. Can you believe that poor little girl has NO TUTUS?!?
Check out Ashley's blog... and this tutu! I love it.

Apparently Unicorns can breastfeed, too.

The other day we went out to dinner with my mom. The restaurant had paper tablecloths, so Ben got to draw on them. He and my mom drew a unicorn. And then they drew a baby unicorn. He was coloring them in, and he said that the big one was the mom. So of course she needed a boob to feed her baby! And he drew a (very realistic!) boob on the mommy unicorn. And a sling for her to carry the baby unicorn. The boob is pretty obvious, but the sling is that thing on her neck. I thought it was awesome. And hilarious.

sad!

Today was my first day of classes. I had constitutional law in the morning, which I took Liam to. He was awesome... he slept in the sling the whole time and just made cute little sleepy grunts. And my professor was super cool about me bringing him to class, which made me feel a lot better about bringing him! He said he's welcome even if he's disruptive. Ha. Hopefully he'll continue to be a sweet little quiet baby.

But then I had my night class... I was gone from 7:30-9:45, and Liam stayed with Jason. We thought it would go fine, he's been taking the bottle like a champ and since it was just a little more than 2 hours I figured Liam wouldn't even notice I was gone.

Nope.

He was SAD!!!! Jason said he cried the entire time, except for 10-15 minutes. He drank a full bottle, but he was not happy that I ditched him. Hearing that he was so sad about me being gone almost makes me want to drop out of law school and just stay home and cuddle him all day long. Almost, but not really. Because I know if I did I'd regret it a week later. Maybe even a day later. I think moms who stay home with the kids are awesome. But I don't want to be one of them. I'm totally glad that I get to be home with Liam (or in class with Liam!) all but 6 or 7 hours a week. I would be bummed if I had to work right now because he's so little. But I would seriously go nuts if I stayed home with kids all day every day. I adore my kids. I just need to be doing something else too. It definitely makes me a better parent. But tonight after I came home and Liam was sad, sad, sad, I just wanted to scoop him up and never leave again. I hope he gets better at this soon. Poor guy.

Ooh, blogging AGAIN!

Jason and Liam are napping.

So I'm blogging :)

I've been trying to make Liam wear the things I knit him when we go out. This one probably doesn't even fit him anymore! Here he is, sooooo happy to model it...


The cotton sweater (that gets fuzz all over everything....)


I didn't knit this. But how cute is he in it?? Ashley made it. He barely fit into it, but I wanted to at least get it on him once!


This is my favorite one. It's so soft and cuddly.

Wow, I suck at blogging these days....

I just realized I haven't posted anything in a while. Oh well.

Liam will be 4 weeks old on Wednesday :) He's getting so big! Last Tuesday he weighed 10lbs 6oz. He eats allllllll the time. And he's starting to look all chubby and cute. He's doing pretty good at sleeping... at least till around 3:30-4 am, and then he wants to be awake so he's all fussy for the rest of the night. We've been taking him around to see all Jason's relatives. All my family has left, except my mom. It was fun having everyone here but it's definitely nice to have the house back to ourselves.

Ben seems so ridiculously big now compared to Liam. He had an awesome christmas. He was so cute this year... he was really excited to make cookies for Santa, and to read the "christmas story" (Twas the Night Before Christmas) on christmas eve.

On christmas morning he got the new lightsabers that he asked Santa for, and also this awesome pedal race car.

The cutest thing ever though was when he saw the note that Santa left for him. We left it by the empty cookie plate, and when he read it he said "We can never throw this away!"


My whole family was in town for christmas and it was fun to have everyone together. I got everything I wanted (clothes, shoes, and makeup!). Ben's present to me was awesome. My dad took him to Home Depot for a kids workshop thing, and he made me a little easel picture stand thing. It was so funny to see his reaction when I opened it, and then put the christmas book on it. He said "Oh that's what you do with it!"
He had no idea what it was supposed to be for :) I love it.



Liam's present -


I made yummy cinnamon rolls for christmas morning breakfast...

With a baby strapped to me. Cause I'm awesome.


Dad and Uncle Dave made a snowman family with Ben. Including a snow unicorn.



christmas day dinner.... we still have leftover ham...


and one last christmas day picture. because he's so cute.....