NINE months old!!!

Reed, you are three months away from being 1. My heart is sad. It feels like your little life is zooming by before my eyes and as much as I want to put on the brakes, it’s not happening! You are growing SO fast!

• You are crawling in your funny way. You mainly do it on your belly, though you sometimes push yourself up. You can go all over the house.
• You wave bye-bye. It’s so cute.
• You are eating more meals of table food. You love green beans. You also like turkey, cheese, and pretty much anything we’ve given you. You did not like avocado.
• You have decided you don’t like naps. We pretty much fight naptime every single day.
• You have started letting go when you stand up, trying to balance. You want to walk.
• You wear size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes.
• You eat 3 meals a day and still have 4 7 oz bottles each day. Some days you only have 3.
• We’ve made lots of trips this past month and you’ve been so good on all of them. We love that we can take you places!
• Your laugh is the cutest thing!
• You don’t like to play in your bed when you wake up. You cry until we get you. When you see us walk in your room, you laugh & cry at the same time.
• When we get you up in the morning and carry you out of your room, you raise your arm like an opera singer. You do that when you see people too. It’s so funny! 

 
We love you to the moon and back!!!!

Independence Day Celebration!!!

We had such a wonderful day celebrating America!!! We went to a mid-morning church service to spend some time reflecting and praying for our country!  

After Reed had a nap, we hit up the pool! A friend of mine from work was out of town and has offered her pool for use many times, so we took advantage of it!! ALL of us had such a great time! 

Someone was WORN out after a while and took a nap in the shade while we swam.        

The kids were ready for naps after swimming. We went to a cookout at my parents’ after nap time. We didn’t see Ava almost the whole time we were there b/c she was so busy playing with my cousins so it was a good thing we attempted some pictures before everyone else arrived!

Ava and Uncle Nick!   

We didn’t go watch fireworks because Reed just couldn’t stay up late enough. He was so tired and asleep long before dark. So we just enjoyed a quiet evening at home, and ended the night with some yummy homemade apple dumplings!

And the winner of the Pampered Chef giveaway is Angie!!!

Email me please at efamilyblog at gmail dot com and I will get you set up!

Recipe Testing via Pinterest

One of everyone’s favorite things to do on Pinterest is drool over all the yummy looking food! Since the beginning of the year we have really attempted to cut down our eating out, thus looking for new and yummy recipes. I thought I’d do a post of some of the recipes we have tried and whether they were hit or misses!

 

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps via Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

 

The flavor of these and the ingredients were very good! However, it was much easier to just make them as quesadillas instead of wraps.

 

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos via gimme some ovenLOVED these! Such good flavor and such an easy, light meal! And cooking in the crock pot – yes please!!!

 

 

 Honey Butter Pork Tenderloin via Momma Hen’s Kitchen This was a hit too.. would have been even better if I hadn’t grabbed the hot pan handle with no oven mitt. OUCH! But the pork was great – serve up with some salad and steamed veggies – great meal!

 

 

Dried Strawberries via The Worldwide Gourmet Oh, I had high hopes for these. And they turned out in a big, fat fail! I have no idea if I did something wrong but they never got dry. So disappointing.

 

Baked Club Pinwheels via Plain Chicken We LOVE these! These are a regular on our dinner rotation now. We only use ham and turkey, or just one of them and they are still so good. And talk about easy. Prep done in about 3 minutes and dinner done in 20.

 

Baked Fried Chicken via Our Life Uncommon This didn’t turn out so well. It never got crispy like the picture. I think part of the problem was that I was trying to cut the calories so I omitted using the 1/2 stick of butter and instead put them on a cookie sheet to bake. I think they would have been good if I’d followed the recipe so we may try again.

 

Seasoned Roasted Potatoes via Iowa Girl Eats Oh this is so good! And so easy! I’ll eat one of these for lunch with some steamed brocooli. It takes a baked potato up a notch without the cheese, sour cream, etc.

 

Skinny Skillet Lasagna via The Realistic Nutritionist All of us liked this a LOT! However, I made a few changes. We just used one can of the diced tomatoes. Also, my family isn’t big fan of the chunky tomatoes so I put it in the food processor and pureed it to a sauce. The only negative was that the noodles didn’t really hold the sauce well so there was a big pile of sauce left. The next we make this, we plan to use some smaller noodles that will help with that problem.

 

Queso Blanco via Pennies on a Platter Can you say yum? This is GOOD. One of our favorite meals is homemade mexican – fajitas, spanish rice and this. I’ve tweaked it a bit – I use more of the jalapenos and omit the diced chiles. I also add a little cayenne pepper for some heat as well as a dash of garlic salt. Zach told me the last time that this is better than what you get at a mexican restaurant!

 

 

And just a few desserts!!

 

 

Caramel Brownies via Annie’s Eats Oh.my.word. Were these ever good! I made them last football season and they were a hit! I even used a brownie mix and they were to die for! RUN and Make them. But make sure you have somewhere to take them!

 

Carmelitas via Lulu the BakerThis was another recipe that disappointed me. I made these for a ffundraise at Ava’s school. For me, they fell a little flat. The picture looked better than they tasted.

 

 

What recipes have you tried and loved?? Or which ones should I avoid????

Family Photos!!

A couple of months ago we had Reed’s 6 month photos taken and we also got some family photos! I adore how they turned out. All photos courtesy of Jessica Meinardus Photography. I apologize in advance for so many pictures but I seriously couldn’t pick favorites!

   

Also, tomorrow is the last day to enter my giveaway. Go here for details!!

Project 366: Week 26