Cooking at Home

Since moving, it's been all too easy for us to just go grab food for dinner. Not only does this get expensive.. it's not good for us. :( Feeling bloated and yucky is not worth the simplicity. Sorry Pei Wei, Whataburger, Chick-fil-a, Burger King, Jet's Pizza..  you won't be seeing us so often. I made a conscious effort to make a plan and a list of grocery items for three make-at-home meals this week. I didn't want to get to ambitious on our first week of eating at home. :) Hoping to work up to like 6 meals a week at home.

I went to Pinterest for all three of these.

Tuesday night we tried Dr. Pepper Chili.

(her chili!)

My chili! I only omitted the onion (don't judge me!). And, I accidentally grabbed a can of adobo sauce with NO chipotles in it. :( So, I just used three Tablespoons of adobo sauce instead of 1 T and 2 chipotles. Still good. This Chili was so tasty! Very tomatoey, and the Dr. Pepper made it perfectly sweet! Glad there were leftovers! 

Wednesday night, we tried Chicken Enchiladas with Avocado Cream Sauce.

(That's her photo, not mine!!)

I was not crazy about this, unfortunately. I left out the onions. Hector said this is why it lacked flavor. The sauce needed more salt, for sure. And, on the recipe, she doesn't specify how many rotisserie chickens to use, I used one, and was lacking about 3/4 of the chicken necessary. :-/ I don't think I let mine cook long enough.. because the tortillas came out kinda gummy... ya know? Or maybe it was because Hector poured WAY too much of the avocado sauce on top before baking, that they never stood a chance. Regardless, don't think I'll be making these again. A lot of steps for bland, gummy enchiladas. (TO ME.) If I followed her recipe more closely, I'm sure they'd be ok. 

And tonight, we're having this. Sweet and Spicy Chicken.

(Her pic)

Can't wait for this one. I'm a meat and potato girl at heart! 

Yay for eating at home three nights in a row!

Love Day 2013

This Valentine's Day was our Cohen's third V-day. Also, this was my first time to basically spend it alone with him, since Hector was working this year. Kinda weird, not gonna lie. Anyways, I wanted to make it special for him. I want holidays and birthdays for our kids to always be special, that's how I want them to remember them. I know my parents always gave us something on V-day (still do!), so I make sure we do the same for Cohen.

Do you do any special traditions on Valentine's Day??

Here is how our day went....

Coco's surprises waiting on him!!

He woke up kind of grumpy (not how I'd imagined...) so we started off with Chocolate!

See what I mean??

One of his goodies, a Lightning McQueen t-shirt!

His cards! Totally got this idea from Emily Anderson, over at the anderson crew.

I tried first to make pink pancakes. I didn't have red food coloring. Then I thought, red sprinkles would be cute! But they melted in the batter and turned it kinda pinkish (win??). Then I just sprinkled the pancakes with multi-color nonpareil sprinkles while they were in the pan. This would've been beautiful if I hadn't over-cooked the pancakes. BUTYOUKNOWWHAT? Cohen ate every bite. I hope you can tell that I cut them out with my heart cookie cutter. It's important.

Checking out the crazy pancakes!

What is Valentine's Day without flowers?? (bla bla bla) We already had these. ;)

He wanted to wear "Queen" immediately, so we changed. Then I tried to get cute pics with the bunting in the background. He wouldn't stop watching Cars long enough to pay attention to me. True Love.

I'll scrapbook this one day (I swear.). 

C-ars lover!

O-beys mommy and daddy--mostly!

H-appy all the time!

E-nergetic! (understatement)

N-ice to everyone he meets!

His cute (kinda weird) Love Cup with a crazy straw.

Then we made Daddy a Valentine!

Easily distracted.

Then we had a love lesson about Jesus. 

Um, he almost stayed in the lines!

Minimal, but Daddy loved it. :)

I can tell that Valentine's Day will never be about just us (me and Hector). And I kind of don't want it to be. I want it to be us and our children, showing each other how much we love each other. I'm not a fancy girl, I don't need 2 dozen roses, expensive champagne, and a $100 meal at an overly busy restaurant. Our $14.99 bunch of flowers from Target, $13 bottle of our favorite Moscato, and take out food from Market Street was perfectly sufficient for us. 

"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

My big 2 year old!

Our "little" guy turned two just over a month ago! We had a fun little Texas Ranger's Baseball party for him. It was much more scaled down than first birthday, but that's ok. We were about to be moving and didn't want anything that cost a crazy amount. And our apartment isn't the biggest place!

The Concession Stand! 

Rangers!

His Cake (I made it and Mom helped me frost it!)

Found these at Party City!

Everybody signed the baseball--What a great memory! 

Cousin Alysse got to come! 

This little boy snuck up and ate more cake after his guests had left!

One of his favorite gifts from us was his first Thomas and Friends track set! He loves it!

It was such a wonderful night. We served hot dogs and chips. We had all the concession stand goodies: popcorn, Cracker Jacks, Baby Ruth's, Snickers, Reese's, and Big League Chew!! I made some little yogurt and fruit parfaits for a healthier option, then of course there was cake. :) Our little birthday boy was so happy! We're so thankful for everyone who came over--The Allen's, The Cole's, The Ray's, The Buxton's, Uncle Josh, Roland&Jordan&Alysse, and of course Granna and Pop!! 

Cohen at 2 

Favorite snack: Gummies

Favorite drink: mama's "Peppers" (Dr. Pepper) (He doesn't get much, and not often!!)

Favorite toy: cars!

Favorite movie: Cars!

Favorite tv show: Caillou or Thomas and Friends

Weight: 25#9.5oz

Height: 32.5 inches (2 feet, 8.5 inches)

He's such a sweet, sweet boy. He is getting head strong now, though. Learned to say, "No!" "Mine!" "I don't want it!" But he also will grab the car keys, come up to us, pucker his lips and say "Kiss, kiss" and then walk to the door and say "See ya later! Be careful!" He loves to watch the show, Caillou. He asks for it by pointing at the TV and saying "Caillou?? Wosie?? Gibbert??"Which of course is Caillou, Rosie (his sister) and Gilbert (their cat). I think it's precious even though I don't love the show. He's a great kid. Makes us laugh and smile everyday. We love Coco!!!

Also, a special shout out to Jackie and Patrick who came to Cohen's party.. She was 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant.. and she went into labor that night, after the party! Wow! So Little Colton Ray was born the next day, sharing birthday with sweet Cohen! Such a great day!