Rainy Weekend

It rained all.weekend.long here, but we still had a blast! Friday was the only nice day, and we took our friends to the state park about half an hour away. We didn't have to pay since it was after hours, and we enjoyed our picnic dinner and playing on the beach. Carter wasn't too sure about the sand at first, but by the time we left she was a fan.

Saturday was really rainy and just miserable outside, so our little family went with my friend and her daughter to Wegmans for lunch. They had a guy doing balloon animals there, and we got the coolest dog! These were not your standard balloon animals. We then went to the Explore and More Museum. We have free passes at the library, so it was an inexpensive trip and it was the neatest place! Even though Carter is still really little she had a great time. I see us going there a lot more in the future. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Carter or my husband!

Sunday we laid low and got caught up on things around the house, including making our menu for this week!

Monday: Leftover meatball casserole
Tuesday: Spaghetti
Wednesday: hot dog fundraiser at the library
Thursday: Beef burritos
Friday: Grilled cheese and apples
Saturday: Mini Mushroom and Swiss Quinoa Cups

One Month Later...

I didn't intend to be away a month when I announced we were moving, but between trying to get settled and attending my brother's wedding that both my husband and I stood up in, it's been a busy few weeks! I'm hoping to post again with some sort of regularity and hopefully include some regular weekly posts!

We've been busy the past few weeks...

Carter turned 9 months old!

One of the things we lost in the move was her 9 month iron on (I put it in a "safe" place!) so I had to get a little creative.


We had a girls day out with our best buds!

We went to a new mexican restaurant and Carter was very well behaved! Considering it was 3 adults and 2 kiddos we managed to actually enjoy most of our meal. Win!

We went to a local festival and Carter got to pet some animals (though she had more fun trying to climb the cages...)

Carter and Elliot (the cat) have become fast friends now that she is very mobile. He is so tolerant!

Wedding weekend! I have SO many photos, so I'll just share some of my favorites:

The day after the wedding the families got together for a little barbecue before we drove the 5 hours home. Carter made a new friend in Callie, my sister in laws dog!

Now that the weather is a bit nicer bedtime has been a bit flexible- this night she was CRAZY hyper so I let her stay up an extra 15 minutes to tire herself out.

There have also been plenty of walks and park playing!

And most recently, we celebrated Father's Day with our favorite guys!

My dad, the hubs and Carter, and my father in law. Carter really was happy to be with them, I promise!

And now onto our menu for the week! We've started planning out lunches AND dinners to try and avoid the 10pm scramble to find something for lunch..

Monday: Leftover sub for Zach, veggies and hard boiled egg for me, leftover crockpot BBQ chicken for dinner

Tuesday: Chicken salad wrap for lunches, YOYO for dinner (you're on your own)

Wednesday: leftover BBQ chicken for lunches, breakfast food for dinner

Thursday: Soup for Zach, TBD for me (my day off) and some sort of casserole for dinner

Friday: salads for lunches, fish and veggies for dinner

I'm hoping to do some baking too, but I have to finish off the cherry blueberry pie bars I made for Father's Day first ;)

Sun Shiny Weekend and a Menu

It was a beautiful weekend and we had a lot of time outside to enjoy it! Friday we took Carter to the park and met up with our friends Sara and Madison. Carter hadn't been to the park before, and we discovered she could care less about slides, but loved the swing!

Best buds!

Isn't that a great photo? My friend Sara took it and I just love it :)

Saturday we all enjoyed breakfast on the porch. 

We cleaned the house, ran a few errands, and worked outside while it was still light out.

We also went on a walk!

The sunglasses lasted all of 15 seconds, but they were cute :)

Here's our week's eats:

Monday: Hot dogs and salads

Tuesday: Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Wednesday: Lefovers

Thursday: Asparagus Pesto Pasta

Friday: Leftovers/eat out

Saturday: Homemade pizza and tater tots

Baking: I'll definitely be baking apple pie bars for my (almost) sister-in-laws bridal shower this weekend. I'm not sure if I'll make anything else. Last week I made flourless peanut butter brownies and they were to die for!

This week I'm linking up with Motivation Monday and orgjunkie.com

Spring Weather and Our Menu

This weekend was the first peek of spring weather, and it was so nice! Today is even more beautiful, and it kills me that I have to work all day :)

Carter thoroughly enjoyed her lunch on Saturday, which was avocado, sweet potato, and banana. She also had some baby puffs, as you can see ;)

After that meal her pjs were trashed, so we played in a blanket for a while before getting dressed for the day :)

We also went for a family walk and enjoyed subs and wings from the pizzeria for dinner (the adults, not Carter!)

Sunday was the usual busyness of church, work, and small group. Only 1 more Sunday and then I wont work on weekends for the summer. I don't mind working Sundays, but once the weather gets nice its always hard to go into work for a few hours!

Here's what our menu looks like this week:

Monday: hot dogs on the grill and corn

Tuesday: hotdogs and green beans

Wednesday: Roast Beef dipped Sandwiches and salads

Thursday: Leftovers (repurpose the beef?)

Friday: Tacos

Saturday: Quesadillas

This week I'm baking Flourless Fudgy Peanut Butter Bars. They look yummy!

Linking up with Motivation Monday and orgjunkie.com 

Easter Weekend and Weekly Menu

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! Ours was really nice despite the snow (yes, snow!) that we had all weekend. I feel bad for everyone who was doing egg hunts!

I had Friday off, and spent the day running errands and snuggling the wee beast (Carter). We had dinner with my parents for Zach's birthday which consisted of pizza and wings and leftover desserts. It was nice not to have to cook!

Saturday we hung out around the house, did some chores, and rearranged our living room. We have a fairly large living room with three ways to enter/exit, so it can be kind of challenging to get all the furniture in there so that it's functional and looks ok. I'm not sure if we will keep it the way it is now or not- we need to bring the elliptical back up from the basement and go from there. We played a lot with Carter, who seemed to love having both of us home!

We also babysat for our friends Saturday night! Their daughter is a few months older than Carter, and they always have a good time playing. She has started cruising so she was tons of fun!

Normally we go to the Sunrise Easter service which is held outdoors, but due to the time (6:30am) and the weather (30 degrees) we decided that with Carter that wasn't the best option. We ended up going to our usual service and man, it was packed! They had to keep pulling out folding chairs to accommodate everyone, which I guess is a good problem to have.

Easter dinner was at my in-laws, and my parents were invited too so it was a one-stop day for us. Can I tell you how nice it is that my in-laws and parents are friends? My parents stayed later than we did! Dinner was yummy and everyone was happy to let Carter entertain them. My mom set up a mini photo shoot and Carter lasted about 2 minutes before she was over it ;) We did get a few cute photos though!

Our eats this week will look like this:

Monday: Leftover pizza and tater tots

Tuesday: Leftover Easter dinner

Wednesday: Salmon and broccoli

Thursday: the hubs requested deviled eggs and we will probably have something else too

Friday: Hot dogs and a side

Jury's still out on whether or not I will bake this week. We've had a lot of desserts in the house, and I think a few days without would be a good thing!

Linking up with orgjunkie.com today!

Birthday Weekend and This Week's Eats

Saturday was the hub's birthday, so this weekend was all about him! He didn't want to do anything fancy, so it ended up being a low key weekend. Saturday we hung out around the house and I mostly watched Carter so the hubs could get to some vinyl graphics jobs he had. I don't know if I have mentioned this, but he has been designing and making vinyl graphics for a few months now and I think he does a great job! We actually put some on his truck Saturday afternoon:

Nice, right?

I also baked the requested birthday dessert, which was a cheesecake. I haven't made a completely-from-scratch cheesecake in a long time, so I borrowed a spring-form pan and whipped that up. It turned out great! Here's the recipe I used.

My parents offered to watch Carter so we could have a little birthday time without her, so once they picked her up we ordered some Chinese (again, the hub's pick) and finally got around to watching the first few episodes of season 4 of Game of Thrones. I've had it home from the library for a week, but they're just a little longer than normal TV shows so it seems like we never have time for them.

Sunday we did our usual church and work routine, but Zach's afternoon was a little different. His birthday gift was a massage, so he enjoyed that while I was at work. My in-laws came over to watch Carter for us, and they joined us for dinner after we all got home. Spaghetti and meatballs was the requested meal for Sunday night, and we enjoyed that with more cheesecake.

My mother in law, the hubs, and Diesel the dog

We had a lot of good food this weekend, and that means leftovers! Here's our plan for this week:

Monday: leftovers
Tuesday: Greek Yogurt Waffles
Wednesday: Fish and veggies
Thursday: Eat out
Friday: Pizza and wings with my parents
Saturday: Cheesy Tex Mex Chicken

I'll also be doing some baking for Zach to take into work this week. More on that later!

Lastly, a Carter photo from this weekend. She has not been a happy camper lately- we are SO close to her first tooth (teeth?) breaking through, and she has been miserable off and on for the past 2-3 weeks. She skipped a nap entirely on Saturday, and I wore her in the Moby so I could get some things done and she could be calm. She loves that thing!

Linking up with Motivation Monday today!

Sleepy Weekend and Weekly Menu

We're all a bit sleepy over here. Carter, who is an awesome sleeper, has started waking up in the middle of the night. I'm guessing it is due to teething, because nothing really seems to calm her down except cuddles and in a few rare instances, Tylenol. Hoping her first tooth (teeth) break through soon!

Other than a lack of sleep, we didn't do much this weekend. We visited with some family, I worked, and we got some things done around the house. Honestly, we were kinda tired to try to do anything too wild and crazy! But here's our plan for eats this week:

Sunday: Small group
Monday: La Vias pizzeria (assorted sub for me!)
Tuesday: Sausage and shrimp with rice
Wednesday: Left overs/fend for yourself!
Thursday: BBQ pulled chicken in the crock pot with veggies
Friday: Deviled eggs, steak, and asparagus
Saturday: Take out for the hubs birthday!

I will probably bake something for Saturday, but I'm not sure what yet. Part of me wants to surprise the hubs, but in all honesty I should probably just ask him what he wants :)

Lastly, Carter is 7 months today! Her first year is more than half over, and even though I can't believe how fast it's going, she's so much fun now that I don't wish for her to be little again :) Not much anyway!

Linking up with Motivation Monday

Weekend, Menu, and Knitting

This weekend we took our first road trip with Carter! I was apprehensive about it, but thanks to some good planning and a good natured baby it actually went pretty well. We drove about 5 hours to see my brother and soon to be sister-in-law near Albany, NY. Our plan was to mostly drive during Carter's usual nap times since she falls asleep really easily in the car.

The weather was pretty nice on the way out and we made it by dinner time on Friday. Saturday we mostly hung out at my brother's apartment and played cards. We ordered Chinese from the restaurant in the plaza near my brother's apartment and the five of us walked to get it.

(Thanks to Amy for the photo!)

We left early Sunday morning to make the drive back, which due to weather and a crankier baby was not as nice as the ride out, but we made decent time and were glad to have the evening to get ready for the coming week. Speaking of this week, here's what our menu looks like!

Monday: Stuffed chicken breasts and green beans
Tuesday: Alfredo pasta with scallops and broccoli
Wednesday: Tuna melts
Thursday: Salmon and broccoli cheese soup
Friday: Roasted garlic and chicken pizza
Saturday: Eggs in hash brown cups and leftovers for lunch/dinner

I'm not sure if I will bake this weekend. I have some bananas that need to be used up, but I may freeze them instead.

Lastly, I have knitting progress! Thanks to making sure I take some time for myself and car knitting time, I'm slowly gaining ground with the blanket. Here are the finished squares:

I'm making 25 total, and may do an applied i-cord on the edge, so there's still lots to go but I'm feeling more optimistic that I will finish in time.

I'm linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along today.

Menu and a (half) birthday!

This weekend was full of fun, even though winter seems like it will never end. Saturday the temps were above freezing (seriously, when did that become warm!?) so we packed up the baby and headed to buy a carseat. Carter still fits in her infant car seat, and probably will until she is about a year old, but Babies R Us was running a killer sale and we ended up saving over $100 on her convertible car seat. Score!

After our shopping trip we went to Wegmans for a late lunch. Carter was more interested in the paper...

Which she promptly tore 30 seconds after this photo. Sorry Wegmans! 

Sunday we did our usual church and work (for me) and then we had our small group over. We just started but I'm really enjoying getting together with this group!

Here are our eats for the week:

Sunday: Tacos with small group
Monday: taco leftovers
Tuesday: Fish, baked potatoes, and green beans
Wednesday: Cornbread chicken casserole (to use up the leftover cornbread!)
Thursday: Slow cooker broccoli cheese soup and cheesy italian quick bread
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: Shrimp quesadillas

As far as baking, I think I'll try these fudgy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars. They are calling to me! I might also make caramel apple pie bars as a pick me up for my dad who is having some minor surgery this week.

Lastly, photo overload! My baby girl is 6 months old today. I love this little ball of crazy so much, and everyday gets more fun! She sits on her own and eats everything we have put in front of her. No teeth and no crawling yet, but I don't think it will be long! Her favorite thing is the cat. Seriously! She loves him more than me or my husband. I'm pretty sure kitty will be her first word.

And a look at how she has changed!

Linking up with orgjunkie.com

Weekend and Menu

This weekend was a full one! Friday Carter and I joined our friends Sara and Maddie and had dinner at Wegmans and made a quick stop at Target. Honestly the weather has just been awful here, and we all just needed to get OUT! The hubs met up with us for dinner, and it was a fun little trip. It was also Carter's first time riding in a cart outside of her car seat. I think she needs to grow a bit more before she fits well ;)

Saturday I grabbed groceries and prepped lunches and cookies while the hubs took the baby to visit his parents.

We ended up going to the auto show in Buffalo with them later that day, and ate out at Outback. Did you guys know that Outback has click through seating online now? It adds you to the wait list so you don't have to wait as long once you get to the restaurant. You can also now pay at the table! Maybe its just been that long since we were last there, but we were surprised.

Sunday we did church, I went to work, then we had small group. Busy but good day! The hubs sent me this photo of Carter eating:

She loves her food!

Here's what our menu looks like this week:

Sunday: Pizza at small group
Monday: Pork loin and cheesy potato fries
Tuesday: Pizza and roasted broccoli
Wednesday: Egg Mushroom Kielbasa bake
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Leftovers or order in!

Small group is at our house this weekend, so I think we will do make your own tacos and maybe cornbread? And of course I will bake something... Maybe some of our favorite cookes?

Linking up with orgjunkie.com and Motivation Monday

Super Weekend and Menu

We had a great weekend here! I love when you can go into the work week satisfied with your weekend and looking forward to the next. Saturday we celebrated the birthday of a friend of ours, and it was a great night! I didn't take any photos (of course) but my brother and his fiance were in town and they watched Carter for us. Carter loves them!

Sunday we went to church then we geared up for the Superbowl.

Carter was very busy!

We got together at my parents house and it ended up being the four of us (well, five with Carter!) My brother and Amy left earlier than planned due to the snow storm we got yesterday and today, so even though we were sad to see them go we knew it was better that they left ahead of the storm.

We don't normally let Carter watch TV, but she did get to watch a few minutes of the Superbowl!

This was our spread for the big game:

I contributed bean dip and chicken wing dip in a bread bowl. We came home with leftovers of both dips, pizza, and wings, so lots of leftovers! In fact, we also have leftovers from the meal my brother made while they were babysitting, so I don't have to cook for a few days!

Here's what our week will look like:

Sunday: Superbowl food

Monday: Chicken Alfredo leftovers

Tuesday: pizza and wings leftovers

Wednesday: Leftovers or soup

Thursday: Slow cooker General Tso's Chicken over rice with broccoli

Friday: homemade pizza

For baking this week, I'm thinking about trying these Apple Crisp Muffins to have for breakfasts. I'm learning I need something quick these days!

Linking up with Motivation Monday and orgjunkie.com

Work Weekend and Our Weekly Menu

This weekend I had a work meeting Saturday morning, and I had my usual shift on Sunday, so it wasn't our usual relaxing or fun weekend, but it wasn't bad either. Saturday evening we hung out at the house, and after the baby went to bed we tackled our bedroom. We hadn't cleaned in there much more than putting away clothes in a few months (I know!), and it was a good thing we did! Sunday morning I stretched my arms over my head and hit the ceiling fan (neither the hubs or I thought I was even tall enough to do that!?) and the fan threw my hand into the glass bulb over the light, and it hit the floor and shattered. It wasn't hard to clean up because the floor was clean, and surprisingly my hand was ok. Crazy!

Sunday was pretty uneventful, the usual church and work for me. We did go our to breakfast with friends, and another friend made and gifted us the cutest painting for Carter! I will have to share it soon. This morning was the first morning that I brought Carter to my mom's house rather than mom coming over to watch her, and it went pretty well! We ended up with time to spare, so we had a little dance party. Baby girl loves her music!

Please excuse the fuzzy photo. I took this with the front camera on my iPhone and this sucker needs to be upgraded! But I just love her smile :)

Here's our eating plan for the week:

Sunday: Greek takeout

Monday: Grilled pork chops and corn (made by the hubs!)

Tuesday: Beef and a side (hubs meal)

Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti and green beans

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Breakfast for dinner!

Saturday: celebrating my friend's birthday! We will be eating out at Famous Dave's :)

I will also be making a special dessert on Thursday for my friend's birthday. I'll have to share what I make after the weekend because I don't want to spoil the surprise!

For lunches we have been rocking the mason jar salads. Last week I made them all up on Sunday, but this week I wasn't quite so organized and ended up doing them the night before. Sometime soon I will have to write a post about our favorite mason jar salads!

Linking up with orgjunkie.com

A Full Weekend and a Menu

This weekend was really great- lots of time with friends and also some down time at home. I love when you can hit that balance! Friday evening we went up to our friends to help them set up a computer and watch a movie. Well, the movie never happened, but we had a good night anyway! Their daughter is a few months older than Carter, and the two always have fun together (and the adults love watching them!)

Saturday we hung around the house in the morning. Carter had her first taste of solids! We started with rice cereal, and you would have thought we were feeding her ice cream. She LOVED it! I was really surprised at how well she did. She also played in the snow for the first time since it was fairly warm and we had a lot of snow. She wasn't too sure about the snow itself but she seemed to like being pulled in the sled!

In the evening we went out with some friends for Five Guys and to watch American Sniper. My in-laws watched Carter for us, so it was like a group date night! I had a gift card for Five Guys, and I paid for our tickets online with my Paypal balance, so the only thing we paid for was our gas and movie snacks. Only thing better than a date night is an almost free one!

Sunday we went to church and I didn't have to work, so we had a nice afternoon just hanging out. We didn't have much food in the house, but our favorite pizzeria is closed for vacation right now, so we ordered pizza and wings from another spot in town. It definitely wasn't as good as our favorite, but I didn't have to cook! It was an early night to bed for all of us since we had two late nights in a row!

Today I have off for Martin Luther King Jr. day, so when it was Carter's first nap time I packed her up and we headed for the grocery store. Normally she sleeps for 45 minutes - 1 1/2 hours, so I knew I had enough time to grab what I needed. Wouldn't you know, the little stinker woke up as soon as we got to the grocery store!? She was really good actually, considering she only got 20 minutes of sleep.

She always falls asleep in the car (even when we don't want her to!) so I figured she would go back to sleep for a bit again on the drive home. Nope! She was awake the whole time! As I pulled onto our road she started to fall asleep, so I left her in her car seat and ran the groceries inside.

Our friends that we visited with on Friday have off on Mondays, so I texted to see if they were home and interested in a play date. When I got up there both babies were asleep, so my friends and I got to chat and catch up. Then it was all about the babies! They are so funny to watch.

Our menu this week is a little all over the place. I still have to grab a few things at the store near work, so nothing is set in stone yet.

Monday: French dip sandwiches
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: Taco salad
Thursday: Pizza Slab pie (this didn't happen last Friday!)
Friday: TBA!

I also plan to make up a few mason jar salads for lunches and maybe some puppy chow? I am trying to bake something every week and even though that isn't technically baking, it will satisfy my sweet tooth just the same!

Linking up with orgjunkie.com