Halloween

Let me start by saying...I love Halloween!!  I wish I could have cooler decorations, but I love seeing all the kids dressed up and creative costumes people come up with. Dave and I decided to dress up at the very last minute and I went as the crazy cat lady and he was jack and Coke. The good and bad thing about living in California is it was 84° on Halloween. We were all in shorts and tank tops and still sweating!  But. I guess it's better than 30° weather. 

Saturday morning our friends Tiffany, Joel, and their dog peanut came over to visit with Little man. T-man was in full Halloween spirit all day!  It was great to see them and catch up. After they left, we headed to my parents for family dinner and to celebrate MY BROTHERS ENGAGEMENT!!!!  He surprised us all my asking his girlfriend Saturday morning. We love her and are excited she will be part of the family. I'm looking forward to another wedding!  Halloween evening was crazy in my neighborhood!  Tons of people drive in and drop off their kids. It's crazy. But, the kiddos had fun and that's all that matters. 

Sunday I went for a quick run before we had family pictures at jc Penney. I'm so happy with how they turned out. We had to do little man's nine month pics, family pictures, and Christmas pictures all at once. T-man did awesome!!!  He wasn't so happy towards the end with the family pictures, but we have some great ones of him which excites me!  

Tiffany loving our little skeleton

T-man is so serious

Go boy peanut!

The boys

Life

Well, not too much has been going on the past week. Dave was traveling to Nashville this week and I was a single Mom. I actually feel like it's easier when he is out of town to take care of little man. Maybe it's because I don't have to worry about dinner planning, cleaning, and grocery shopping, I don't know. But, while he was gone my Dad and I headed to the cabin for 3 days. It was a nice mix of boring and relaxing. Little man was great and enjoyed climbing over everything and standing himself up!  We have a big boy on our hands now. A top tooth finally broke through and he's crawling all over the place and exploring everything!  

I made a new mom friend a few weeks ago that has been really awesome!  She lives around the corner and has a 2 year old and 6 month old. What's even better is she runs!  So we have been getting together a few mornings a week to run together and gossip. It's been so nice to have another stay at home mom so close who likes to run!  

Here are some pics from the cabin. 

Teaching little man about the Warriors!

Daddy kisses

Oh I forgot we had a little Halloween parade last weekend!  Nothing crazy, but it was great to get little man dressed up and see all the kids in the neighborhood. They handed out glow sticks and T-man loved his!  

Is it worth making your own pouches??

Today I went to Costco and picked up some organic food to make for Little man. Up until now, I have puréed all of his food and froze it into ice cube trays. But, I received a squeeze pouch maker at my baby shower and I decided it was time to try it out. 

This is the one I received. 

I bought some organic butternut squash and apples at Costco and decided that butternut squash, Apple, and couscous would make a good pouch. I steamed 7 apples and the 2lbs of butternut squash with 1/2 cup of couscous. I probably could have used more couscous, but that's all I had in the pantry. 

Apples all peeled and ready for steaming. 

Steaming the butternut squash. 

All blended up and ready for the pouches. 

Making the pouches. 

All finished and labeled. 

So here is the cost break down I figured out:

$4.93 bags

$5.49 apples

$4.99 butternut squash

$1.00 couscous. 

I made 17 pouches (between 3.5 - 4oz each) and each pouch cost me $.965 to make. If I had purchased the bags online for cheaper it would have dropped my price to $.895 per bag. Now, knowing that you can buy these pouches at the store from a $1 - $1.50 the big question is, is it worth it to make your own. 

Is it cheaper to make your own? - Yes

Is it worth the time it takes to make the pouches? - Depends on the person...

Busy busy...

Man, I feel like I need to keep up with this more often.  The remainder of the time Dave's parents were here was great. We went to the pool and just relaxed with them. Saturday morning Dave left to go help my brother move a bunch of his stuff into our spare bedroom. He'll be storing items there until his new house is ready. After we finished moving his item into the house, we headed to my sisters for the boys birthday party.  I had made the cupcakes and pretzels stick for the party and we helped her finish the set up once we got there. I don't have any pics from the party because I left my phone in the car. It was really fun and all the food was delicious!

On Sunday we decided to paint the stairwell in the house. The previous owners had painted almost all of the house, but randomly left 3 walls on the stairwell white. So, we finally painted it and it looks soo much better!  Now I just need to buy some picture frames and finish the wall with a family picture wall.  Later in the evening the neighbor kids came over to play with little man and we all went for a walk together. The kids are 6 and 11 and are super cute and sweet with little man. They call him their baby and ask if he can spend the night. 

Yesterday, I did a Pinterest craft with little man to gift to the grandparents and for us. It was a fun little craft, but took me forever to stencil all the lettering. Oh well it's worth it. We also hit the pool with Papa. Got to love that it's mid October and still 95° out!  I'm so ready for some fall weather. 

 

Here are some pics from the past week:

Grandma and Grandpa 

Pool time!

The only pic I have from the bday party with Uncle Mikee. 

Pool time with Papa

Mommy and baby yoga!

Pinterest craft.

Family and baby yoga!

The past few days have been quite busy! Dave's parents arrived Saturday afternoon from New Jersey for a week long visit. I'm so thankful that little man has all four of his grandparents. I grew up with only 1 grandparent, I have always wanted my own kids to be close with their grandparents. On Sunday we had my whole family over for dinner as well. 10 adults and 3 children. Thankfully, the weather here has cooled down and we were all able to eat outside. The dinner I made was okay, but my desserts were delicious!  I made my go to Paula Deen pumpkin cheesecake (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe.html) and a new recipe called chocolate lasagna. They were delicious!  

Today I tried out a mommy and me yoga with my girlfriend and her 4 month baby girl. It started at 10am and we walked in at 9:58 and there was no one there...so we basically had a private yoga session. It was fun to be able to do some yoga while having little man next to me. We did some moves together, but he mostly just sat and played with some blocks. Both babies did great and we will be going back for some more yoga!  

We also had to drop little man's crib on Monday night. He's started to climb up his bumpers. He's just getting so big!!

Everyone eating dinner

Little man and his grandparents!

Grandma and Grandpa playing with little guy. 

Climbing up. 

Pumpkin patch time!

This week has been a quiet, but crazy week. My in-laws arrive today and will be staying with us for the week. I have spent all week cleaning, shopping, and preparing for their stay. Little man has also been off his normal schedule this whole week, which had thrown me for a loop a bit. I know I can be quite strict with his schedule, but now that he's been off I have come to appreciate my nice scheduled baby who sleeps until 9am usually!

Yesterday was our big outing for the week to the pumpkin patch with my sister and her kiddos.  What a great time!  It was great how much the pumpkin patch had to offer for the kiddos and you only needed to pay for the pumpkins. 

We did a corn maze, fort maze, fed some  goats and lambs, climbed hay bails, and rode a little train. It was a great time and the kids really enjoyed themselves. 

Little man and I outside the corn maze (really more of a construction fence maze)

Managed to get everyone looking at the camera

Little man with his pumpkin that his cousin picked out

Petting the sheep

The kiddos

Now it's time to stuff some diapers, make a pumpkin cheesecake, and clean the very last bit of the house before company arrives. More later!!

3 years later...

I remember starting a blog 3 years ago, but I couldn't remember what website I used or what I had written.  Now, 3 years later I've been debating about starting another blog only to log into my g-mail account and find this one.  So...I figure why not add to it.

A little update about me I am now married, have an almost 8 month old son, a dog, 2 cats, and have officially "retired" from the workforce and I'm now a stay at home Mom.  I still continue to train and run 1/2 marathons.  I just completed my first one post baby 3 days ago.  The race went okay.  Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I finished :)

As for being a stay at home Mom, I don't consider myself to be "granola" but I do use cloth diapers and I have been making all of my own baby food.  I know some people may consider this to be granola, but those who really know me would just tell you I'm cheap!  I try to save money in every way possible and those 2 things are HUGE money savers in the baby world!  Anything that was going to help me to stay at home with the munchkin was worth doing in my mind.

I'm hoping I can get into the routine of blogging on the regular and be able to basically keep an online diary. Hopefully I don't bore you guys.

More later :)