Freezer cooking- Meal 2- Chicken Noodle Soup

No recipe for this one, as it was just thrown together from what I had! Thanks Nanny for the Tupperware :) When she moved here she thinned down her kitchen stuff, and I got these bowls. Pretty great for this soup!

I guess she really is coming!

 Not now, obviously. But in my giant nesting phase of the last month, I have begun to realize that there is actually going to be a newborn in this house in the next 3 months! Someone asked my mom the other day, "when is the baby due?" and I heard her say "after Christmas". Which for some reason made it seem a little closer than I thought!

 Newborn cloth diapers. Prepped and ready for a tiny new tushie!

Tiny pink newborn size clothes!













0-3 month clothes! All washed and ready. Olivia did a lot of helping put these away. Hence why it took a month.....

Vintage Friday

2 years ago this month!!! Um, was she this small ever??! Oh yeah. Also funny the way 2 years later you look at baby pictures and think how cute and sweet they were. Then you remember that you hadn't slept in 4 months, your house was a wreck, you were taking Zoloft and you spent most of your time holding a napping baby that wouldn't lay down..... :) I love mom-nesia! Thank goodness for it, otherwise no one would ever have more kids!


And something I am working on---- a family tree! I am going to put this in the hallway upstairs outside of the girls' rooms.

Should look something like this. But not. No red leaves or black trunk. I am thinking no leaves, and light brown trunk. It will be on chocolate brown background. I'm going to paint it, cause I just can't see buying the decal for $50 or more. I am excited! Gotta get pictures from the whole fam-damily now! Working on that!

Halloween!

Olivia was none too thrilled about dressing up, but we managed to get her in the basics of her costume. She actually did get the concept of Trick or Treating, and didn't even really care about the candy, thank goodness! She did have one breakdown cause she wanted M&Ms, so we let her, and she was very happy for the duration.

Note the lovely face in her pjs that night! She was tiiiiiired

Olivia's Fall Photo shoot!

 Thanks to friend Melessa, we got some great pictures of Olivia the other day, in the prettiest leaves! Oh and that's Ava, at 26 weeks :) Enjoy!

Freezer cooking- Meal 1- Skillet lasagna

So on the spur of the moment, I decided to make this recipe for dinner tonight. On another spur of the moment, I decided to make 6 of them... well, I actually tripled the recipe, and made 6 meals for us. One for tonight, 5 for the freezer. 

Changes I made to the recipe- used 2 lbs ground beef, 1 pound mild Italian sausage. I sauteed them in garlic as well. I also used mostly cottage cheese instead of sour cream. I don't know why, I just did. I also added a bit more seasoning than the recipe called for.

Thank goodness for my Food Saver! See the finished product in the 2nd picture. It won't take up much room in my deep freezer!

I also did this for SUPER CHEAP! I figure on 4 servings per meal. (Actually, I know it will be more than that, but for the sake of argument here.)

The total cost is $.99 cents a serving!

I also did use the "healthier" stuff when making this, as I always try to do. Veggie sauce (no funky ingredients in this brand. No corn syrup, or dyes). I used Laura's Lean Beef. I used the Target brand of their multi grain pasta. I was happy and surprised to see that it even had flax in it! And nothing else weird either. Otherwise, there is a good bit of cheese..... :)

And it only took about 45 minutes to put the whole thing together. Olivia spent most of that time doing this:

Stay tuned for more! I am going to try to do a couple every now and again. For those lazy nights as I get into my 3rd trimester, and it's cold outside. Then hopefully I will still have stuff left when Ava comes. Cause we all know how much cooking will get done with a newborn and a 2 year old....

It's beginning to look a lot like

Christmas! Ok, not really, but the time is coming. And with baby Ava on the way, I am getting a jump on everything this year. I really need to think of a super cute idea for our Christmas cards. Every year we get them from Shutterfly, and we always love them! Super affordable, and always really cute.

Anyone have any great ideas? Keeping in mind I will be as big as a house, and Olivia will be um, well, 2. And hating having her picture taken....

If you blog, blog about Shutterfly, share it with them, and you can get 50 free holiday cards!! Who can pass that up!