Hi Baby: 18 months

Hi baby girl,

Tonight I put you to bed with a tortilla. You ran to the pantry and grabbed a tortilla when I told you it was time for bed, probably thinking it would stall The inevitable. It didn't work. And you didn't hate it. You happily ate in bed, sang to your puppy and fell asleep. When did you become a little person?? With thoughts and reactions and decisions? Every day you are less a baby and more a little girl. 

You understand every word I say, and are now saying things like "here you go" and "that's mine". You know how to kneel down when we say prayers and you fold your arms and can make it almost a full minute before you start fidgeting. But you wait patiently and say "amen" right on cue. Seeing you kneel down and understand prayer time is so special for me. I hope you continue to grow up and understand there will always be a loving Heavenly Father listening. 

You call out "mommy!" whenever you need something. From getting out of the tub, to taking a big step over a snow pile. You yell "mommy" and hold out your hand. Even when I'm standing behind you, or you can't see me, you know I'll be there if you say my name. You're showing more of a preference for me compared to daddy right now. But you'll still only nap on dad's lap and not mine. God is fair that way. 

You must be having some kind of development jump because you've reverted back to carrying Dog everywhere, and even found your (now year old) binki and started sucking on it again. It's like your trying to sooth yourself into this next phase of life. I like it because that means more cuddles and loves for me! 

Your last 3 teeth are making their way up so you're eating preferences change from day to day, depending on how much your mouth hurts. You're obsessed with drinking water and just this last week I have started saying "no" because you just keep drinking it. I think at this point it's more of a soothing habit than a need. 

We went for a 45 minute walk today and you pushed your baby stroller up and down the sidewalk. Sometimes you would run. Sometimes you would try to run me over. You'd find a crack and follow it. You'd see your shadow and get distracted. You'd practice walking in the snow and need me to help you move things along. 

I never would have imagined 18 months ago that this is the kind of person you have turned into. That my baby is no longer a baby and that you walk/run more than you are held. You understand the world around you, and you're loving every minute. Thank you for filling my life with a love I will never be able to explain, and that only moms can understand. This last year and a half with you has been the most uneventful and yet life changing phase of my life. And I am so excited to see what's next. 

I love you baby girl. 

Xoxo 

Mom 

Happy Eating and a Month of Meals

90% of the meals we eat are homemade. What's my biggest secret? Meal planning. It saves us money, helps us eat healthier, and keeps the stress level way down.

If I'm able to write up the dinner menu for the week, write a shopping list for just those meals, and then stick to that list- it's an easy week. For the most part I'm usually able to do this 3 out of the 4 weeks each month. Without fail though, I miss a week and we always eat out, go to the grocery store multiple times, and stress out over dinner time.

I really can't say enough good things about making a meal plan! Especially when you're trying to have better eating habits. It's important to us to have family dinner together every night, so we've made it a priority in our lives. It's also important for us to eat healthy, so we don't eat pre-made meals out of boxes or bags. Of course sometimes Bart will have Mac & Cheese after work, or we'll enjoy chips and salsa for a snack, but for dinner- we have chosen not to eat that way. It's been almost 3 years since my diet had to drastically change, and I would say we have found a very realistic way for us as a family to eat.

Okay- so back to my love of meal plans. I did something awesome thing morning. Mckenzie woke up at 6 a.m. (typical) and as she played, I wrote down a long list of meals we eat regularly. And I did them by category. So this is what it looked like: 

chicken tacos
beef tacos
enchiladas
fish tacos
bean and cheese burritos
sausage soup
veggie soup
chili
grilled salmon
crispy fish
tuna patties
salmon and rice
chicken salad wraps
tuna salad wraps
grilled chicken sandwiches
spaghetti
pizza casserole
chef salad
fried rice
rice chicken bowls
hawaiian haystacks
chicken and green bean dish
baked potato bar
roast and veggies

It was easier for me to think of things when I thought of the category (tacos, soups, pasta, etc). After making this master list, I divided them out to each week. So Week 1 gets chicken tacos, Week 2 gets beef tacos, Week 3 gets enchiladas, etc. That way, we're getting a good balance of dishes each week. I was so happy with how it turned out! Here is what our 4 week menu looks like

Week 1                                 Week 2                                 Week 3                                 Week 4

Chicken Tacos                    beef tacos                           enchiladas                           fish tacos

Sausage soup                    veggie soup                           chili                                        spaghetti

Grilled salmon                   crispy fish                              tuna patties                        chef salad

Chicken salad wrap         chicken sandwich                  pizza casserole                  tuna salad wraps

Fried rice                             rice bowls                        Hawaiian haystacks         chicken & green beans

Potato bar                           bean burritos                     roast and veggies             salmon and rice

I don't include breakfast or lunch and leave one day for leftovers. We eat leftovers for lunch and something egg related most mornings for breakfast. I also don't worry about having several courses for each dinner. Most nights we don't have a side with our enchiladas or tacos. Sometimes we do. I don't let the thought of making sure I have a drink, side and dessert with every dinner stop me from making dinner in the first place. I try to have veggies with every meal, so if it's not included in the main dish we do our best to have a veggie side.  Our go-to meal is usually something Mexican because Bart can enjoy his flour tortillas while I use corn. Plus you can shove as much veggies and/or protein you want in them. Pasta is kind of a pain to cook because Bart gets the good stuff and I have to cook my GF noodles in a different pot.

We use brown rice, not white. I eat corn tortillas and Bart and Macs use flour. We cook with olive oil, not butter, and leave out the cream-of-whatever in the recipes. I would say the most indulgent menu item above would be the pizza casserole- but it's just SO good.  We also don't do dessert. Unless I'm on a baking kick- we don't keep goodies in the house. Mostly because I just get angry when Bart gets to eat them without me!

It's not perfect, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what a month worth of meals looks like. Not too bad right? After 3 years of fresh eating I have also become quite a good cook...so they all actually taste good too! Mckenzie will eat everything on this list, including the fish and soups. She's been fed real, fresh food since she was 6 months old and has never shown any kind of picky tendencies.

I don't know why I was so excited to share with you what our meals look like- but there you go! If you want any recipes... let me know :) Happy eating!

No TV Week and One Long Nap

I'm on a TV cleanse again this week. Whenever I get done binge watching a show, I feel bad about myself and a little pathetic. This time around I watched all 3 seasons of Elementary and as always I'm sad season 4 isn't available...yet.

It's amazing how productive I am when I'm not watching TV. I did still watch my Monday night Bachelor, and I'll watch TV with Bart at night before bed, but during the day and during Mckenzie's 2.5-3 hr siesta the TV is off. Which means my fridge got cleaned out, my 9 loads of laundry were finished. My work projects were started, completed and added on. I have 4 books on que and I'm leaving time to exercise. I still haven't found the time or desire to blog...but hey...I'm trying now.

I don't know why, I just haven't had anything to say on here lately. Life is just life is just life. All the same and wonderful. I've calmed down on my picture taking (sort of) so I don't really have 24024 pictures from each day to show off. Macs is still beautiful and smart and funny and we love her. She might not be talking yet, but we can completely communicate with her- and it's awesome.

Her current nap schedule though has completely destroyed any hope for me to have a social life. She now naps from noon-2:30 or 3pm every day. It's wonderful and I love being down to just one long nap! But it's also hard because now I'm stuck AT HOME from noon-3pm. Right when I could be grabbing lunch or meeting up with girlfriends. Nope. No longer. Thanks Kenz.

after she woke up from a 3.5 hour nap! I was so bored and happy she woke up. She...wasn't.

Speaking of one nap a day- should we talk about that?? I mean...she used to take 4-5 naps a day. No wonder my life was a living hell. Coordinating and dealing with so many naps and each nap affected the next naps and WHY ISN'T SHE SLEEPING TODAY?? Ugh. That sucked. Even just having two naps a day was hard because the afternoon nap was totally dependent on the morning nap. There was never a for sure nap time and length. I don't even want to think about how many moments I've spent worrying/thinking/planning/mothering nap time. I'm going to enjoy this before the next baby comes along (no, not pregnant).

I've been cooking dinner every night the last several weeks and I kind of love it?? I have grown to really enjoy cooking. I'm sure Bart wishes our meals had more meat, potatoes and pasta- but they're mostly veggies. But it's been awesome to learn new ways to make healthy food taste good. I've been playing around and experimenting in the kitchen and I'm finally to the point where I can throw something together and create a taste combo that is so good- without a recipe.

mmmm cookies!

....I mean....I really don't have anything to write!! It's so sad. I thought about just getting rid of my blog, but I feel like all my thoughts and opinions might come back if/when I have another baby?? Maybe? Who knows. It's not that I don't have opinions and that things don't irritate me anymore, I just feel like I've grown up a little bit and now it's weird to voice those opinions/complaints all the time. Does that make sense? *sigh* Apparently I'm becoming old and proper and polite and stuff. Gross.

2015: year of living

I'm calling 2015 our year of "life"

Nothing major happened 

No life altering changes happened. 

We worked the same jobs and did all the same things. 

Our daughter changed and grew, but again, nothing too crazy. 

We just lived. 

And I loved every minute of it. I found complete satisfaction in my role as a wife and mother. We lived our life as a genuinely happy family. 

Looking back at past years there always seemed to be a big, life changing event. I always had a check list of stuff that happened by December 31. 

But 2015 was different, and I've never felt so content looking back on the year. I loved just living my typical life. After spending a week on Mexico beaches I have never felt more desire to go back home and hang out with my baby on the floor of my living room. 

Our days consisted of the same thing all year long. Work in the early morning. Be with my baby in the afternoon and evening. That's it. Sure there was running and cooking and quick trips and first steps taken. Food thrown on the floor. The same toys picked up 397 times a day. There were bath times and story times. The beautiful spring, summer and fall weather allowed for multiple walks per day. Fall Friday nights were spent on bleachers and yelling "Go Kearns". Non-football nights were spent on the couch. Binge watching TV and just being together. 

That's what I did in 2015. Doesn't it sound wonderfully normal?? It was. It was a perfect, typical year. 

I don't know what 2016 will bring. Maybe a checklist of changes. Maybe not. 

Happy New Year! 

Mexican beaches and fruity beverages

You guys. Maybe I need to have another baby just so I have something to blog about again? What do you think? 

Life is just rolling right along. Not much to update, and yet funny things happen everyday. Mckenzie is goofy all day, every day. 

Bart and I spent 6 days in Playa del Carmen last week. It was amazing! I have never been on a beach vacation like that. You should have seen my suitcase. Chuck full of stuff I never needed to bring. I spent all day in a swimsuit and only changed for dinner. I never did my hair and never wore makeup. It was pretty fabulous. 

The all inclusive resort was definitely a new way to vacation. Go to the beach. Eat lots of food. Drink lots of fruity beverages. Eat some more. Nap by that beach. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. Honestly we didn't know if we should be bored or relaxed. Our second day there we went snorkeling, rode on ATVs and speed boats and spent the day enjoying the sun. It was my first time snorkeling and I loved it. It's very peaceful looking down into the ocean. At one point we were being swarmed by jelly fish so we had to employ some evasive maneuvers. The water is so crystal clear blue and WARM. Every time we got into the water I couldn't believe how amazing it was. 

On our last day before coming home we took a ferry to Cozumel island. We rented a scooter and scoot-scooted our way around the island. We stopped at another amazing beach and sipped on pina coladas. Later we stopped at this authentic Mexican restaurant right by the beach and had the best food of the whole trip! Fresh fajitas straight from Mexico. Mmmmmm. 

It was so fun to spend 6 full days alone with Bart. But on day 4 I really missed Mckenzie. Of course I missed her everyday, but on Saturday I hysterically cried several times just thinking about her. It wasn't the kind of vacation that she (or us) would have enjoyed if she had been there, but we still wanted her there. Something just doesn't feel right when someone is missing! The 14+ hrs of travel days confirmed to me that it's good she didn't come with us. But next family vaca- she's coming! 

S%$@ Bart Says

B- Because most mothers want their child suckling the teet at all times 

M- Guess what size my pants were that I bought today? 

B- Size -

M- Nope. Size - 

B- Have you ever been a size -?

M- Not for a long time. 

B- So is it just some random brand that makes people feel better about themselves because of how they size it? 

B- I need to start exercising. I went up the stairs and thought "son of a bitch" 

*talking about the red cup scandal*

B- I'm sure there were people like this out there before Facebook, but now we have to listen to them. 

B- Ya wanna know what the worst shows are? 

1. The Voice

2. American Idol

3. How I Think You Should Dance 

*talking to Mckenzie* 

B- Don't destroy books. We aren't in the business of destroying books. You aren't a Nazi.