Our First Family Vacation!

Tom and I honeymooned in Marco Island 4 years ago. We celebrated our anniversary on the island again--but with this time, 2 spunky toddler boys and a spunky baby-in-the-belly. Let me tell you, Henry IS SPUNKY! He kicks, punches and wiggles with such FORCE! Way more than Briggy and Ollie did. And Ollie was a toughie!

We stayed at my parents condo on the island for 10 days! {plus another four days of driving!} so we had a long time to relax and hang out in the sun. The boys loved being in the pool, especially Briggy. With floaties or his little vest he was able to have freedom to swim and he thought he was BIG MAN ON ISLAND! In fact, he referred to Marco as "Briggy's Island" He is such a character! Ollie had one of those super hero-foam suits, but he didnt like it--he had to be in a floaty boat in order to be happy....which was fine with me, it seemed a lot safer.














If we werent at the pool, the boys were napping, at the beach or at the beach playground. It was very low-key, and I loved it. Im not one to visit and have a million mini trips planned in a vacation. That just seems so stressful to me. When they get a little bit older, we'll drive up to Disney, but for now---the pool and beach was heaven on earth for them!














The day we planned on leaving, Tom's brother and his family were actually FLYING INTO MARCO! what a crazy coincidence! So of course we stayed an extra day to visit with their fun family. It was Briggy and Ollie's first time meeting their cousins and Auntie Devon {although Briggy has been refering to her as Auntie Daisy since we've been home!} And it was our first time to meet cute little Dominic!
The boys had such a fun time with them, its a shame we all live so far away. Ah! It breaks my heart. Families should be on the same street as far as I'm concerned! I know Devon got some great shots of the kids, I got a few at the pool. Briggy has been talking about his "friends: Marcus, Sariah and Dominic" A LOT! in fact, the entire drive home he kept telling me he wanted his friends over at "2019" {our address}

Here are all the fun pics!

June Meal Plan

Honestly, this pregnancy has really affected my domestic skills. I would much rather skip dinner {and eat a candy bar} and just lay with my feet up by the end of the evening when tom gets home, and a real honest-to-goodness meal has been far and few between. Ive been feeling pretty guilty. One thing I have never been very good at is getting meals organized in advance, but that is my goal so lets see how it goes! Im also going to be preparing quite a few freezer meals come august so when Henry arrives we have go-to meals already prepared.

PS-we are not fancy schmancy people. our taste buds are not cultured. We like casseroles and ramen. So if your thing is 3 course meals this is not for you!

{Im starting on Sunday, June 5th because thats the first full week we are back from vacation}

June 5- Taco salad
June 6- Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken
June 7- Brown Rice and Summer Veggies [this is from our fat-smash diet days. I saute tons of zucchini, onions, pepper, mix in black beans and diced tomatoes. Its really healthy and filling, so we are eating it every tuesday--adding chicken to it is yummy too, but we need a couple vegetarian days thrown in!}
June 8- Omlettes {Wed. is breakfast for dinner night}
June 9- Pepperoni Pasta salad {Thursday is Italian night}
June 10- Spicy Summer Soup {another fat-smash recipe. Pretty much all the same vegetables, i usually add corn too...and I make a tomato-based soup--and add a lot of spices to it}
June 11- Layered Salad, homemade bread, No-bake chocolate peanut butter cookies {sat. is dessert night}
June 12- Chicken and Black Bean Quesadillas with chipotle dipping sauce
June 13- Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf
June 14- Brown rice and veggies
June 15- Pancakes and sausage
June 16- Toms Tuna and Pea suprize {I have enrichment, so he gets to eat his favorite nasty concoction--penne, alfredo, peas and tuna. gag.}
June 17- Homemade pizza
June 18- Hamburger/Hot dog, Baked beans, Potato salad, Watermelon, Cheesecake
June 19- Steak, Homemade Cheddar Bacon bread, corn on the cob, salad {Daddy's pick}
June 20- BBQ-Ranch Chicken salad and homemade dinner rolls
June 21- Brown Rice and Veggies
June 22- Breakfast Casserole and fruit salad
June 23- Spaghetti and Meatballs, salad and olive garden bread sticksJune 24- Spicy Summer Soup
June 25- Grilled Chicken/BBQ sauce sweet potato fries and strawberry shortcake
June 26- Baked Mac and Cheese, Green Beans
June 27- Turkey and Swiss Pannini's
June 28- Brown rice and veggies
June 29- French Toast and bacon
June 30- Chicken Parmasean/pasta/salad

lets see how well I do sticking to a plan! hope you like the recipes, every recipe ive made from jamiecooksitup has been AWESOME!

Easter Weekend

Friday evening our ward's primary hosted an egg hunt and easter dinner. Briggy found quite a few eggs, Ollie just wanted to run around like a mad man :)







On Saturday we colored easter eggs. Tom was working, so it was just me with the boys--we missed daddy, but had fun! I didnt let Ollie touch the real eggs. I may be overly cautious, but his allergy to eggs is severe....and the other day he didnt even eat yogurt, but he rubbed some on his chest---and broke out with hives. Since he isnt even as highly allergic to milk as he is eggs....I just decided he'd be happy to color on plastic eggs---no hives :)






We visited friends on saturday night and got home really late. The Easter Bunny set things up super fast {Henry even got a few bathing supplies} and Daddy got beef jerky and a payday :)













I didnt hide the eggs, because I didnt want Ollie touching them....I have an appt. with Ollie at the allergist in June--we'll find out if he can eat eggs baked into things. That would be AWESOME!

The boys went to Church with Daddy and I stayed home. Ive been having the most dizzying-nasty migraines lately. I stayed up too late saturday night and didnt get much sleep, so Im guessing thats why it was more painful than normal. I think I slept in until 2pm. The OB just prescribed me some migraine medicine, so hopefully when a doozy hits, I'll still be able to feel like a human.
We had an Easter dinner Friday night, and since I didnt feel well on Sunday, we scrapped an Easter meal and Tom cooked burgers out on the grill.

Last but not least, little baby Henry is growing really well! After the ultra sound we learned he was absolutely perfect and that there was NO DENYING he was a Henry and not Matilda. My boys are not shy about showing off their goods---{as if Briggy running around the house naked all day wasnt a given} He was measuring at 8 oz :)
I can't believe I am only HALF WAY THROUGH the pregnancy! I guess thats a good thing though...I have a lot of cleaning, organzing and decorating to do before he arrives!

Easter Playgroup!

I try to host playgroups at my house around holidays so I have an excuse to have a "party" Briggy asks me constantly "Mommy, lets have a happy party!" My kids are hardcore partiers :)
Of course its nothing crazy, because its just a playgroup and my budget is always microscopic, but we make do and have fun!
This picture has everything in it except delicious cran-orange muffins my friend brought that went on the green bunny platter.




For the kids I made carrot-cake cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I know, not the traditional cream cheese route, but Brig's begged me for chocolate! Peep pops!!! These were so fun and easy. They are rice krispie treats dipped in white candy coating with peeps and sprinkles. I should have shown the back of the pop, the little bunny rear was on the other side! {here is a link to where I got the idea for the POPS!
I also filled carrot shaped plastic bags with cheetos. Yum. I saw this at http://sisterstuff.blogspot.com last year and loved the idea. I have also seen it done with gold fish a lot!







For the moms {but im sure the kids enjoyed some too!} I made mini cheese and bacon quiches {yummmmmmmmmmm!} and probably the coolest cupcake idea ever: I called it the "Breakfast Cupcake" but it was a pancake cupcake with maple buttercream frosting and I candied a few pieces of bacon with brown sugar {saw that idea on Paula Deen a few years back and have never been the same....literally, have you seen my waistline?} I got the recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs, BrownEyedBaker
I have to get the recipe from my friend Callie, because her muffins were wonderful. I love cranberry orange!!




It was a little rainy/misty, but the kids still gathered eggs and played in our backyard {whoops! no photos, i was too busy chasing my bunnies around!} But the kids will all have at least a few days supply of jelly beans handy {sorry moms!}

Before the Kiddies headed out, I wanted to take their pics with cute bunny ears and whiskers I printed out from FrogPrincePaperie
Do I have any with my children? No, of course not. They were covered from head to toe in sticky treats and mud from outside--Ill be taking some Easter Morning!









Next month I am planning a self-reliance enrichment activity, so no party deets...just some good car-kit info I'll post....but THEN! I we are hosting a BAY-BEE BONANZA enrichment activity for June. Currently we have 7 very pregnant ladies in our ward {mostly due in July, and a few late summer/early fall babies} so we are planning a super cute bumble bee shower for all the moms. I won a really neat giveaway last summer from BirdCrafts with bee printables and treats, so I will be able to use them! yea!