Dream Dinners

A friend of mine, Roxanne (Yara's mom), introduced me to Dream Dinners. She has been getting meals for her family there for a few months now and when they had us over last, we tasted one of the meals from there and really liked it. Not only was the food good, I LOVED the idea behind it. If you aren't familiar with this sort of thing, you go to the place one evening or weekend morning, during a scheduled session, and put together meals that you choose before hand from their monthly menu. They have stations set up with everything you need to put together the meals that you have chosen. The supplies (freezer bags, oven trays, etc.) are provided, they have the recipes printed and placed at each station, and cooking instruction labels for you to place on the bags once you have everything assembled. All of the ingredients are fresh (though meats and some of the veggies that might go in a recipe are frozen ahead of time) - nothing canned or packaged. You simply follow the instructions (how much of each ingredient you put in each container provided), slap a label on the bags and take the meals home and stick them in your freezer until you are ready to eat them. It is a brilliant idea!! Let me just share some of the other amazing things about this:

1) The meals come out to be about $4.00/serving.

2) You know exactly what you are having for dinner each night

3) Everything is prepared and ready to either go in the oven, on the stove or the grill

4) The meals are much healthier (and taste better) than anything you could get for the price you pay.

5) You end up eating meals that you never would have thought to cook or would have been able to cook without buying lots of ingredients you may never use again or spending a lot of time measuring...chopping...(you get the picture)...

6) AND, it is absolutely amazing how much time it saves!! The last two nights, Dylan and I have fed Madison, cooked supper, eaten, cleaned the kitchen, given Madison a bath and gotten her into her pjs in or a little under an hour and a half!! Don't ask me how it is possible...I still can't figure it out.

7) Finally, the food is GOOD!

As you can tell, I'm really excited that Roxanne introduced me to this. I'm sure there are a million other good things I could come up with to say about Dream Dinners. We've only been eating them two days and I can already tell you that it has changed things for us tremendously! I don't dread coming up with something for dinner now or just giving up and driving through somewhere on the way home, we don't spend a ton of time in the kitchen and can spend more time relaxing and playing with Madison... the list goes on.

Tonight we're having honey and herb grilled chicken breasts. The chicken marinated overnight (I didn't do anything but take it out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator). All we'll have to do is pour off the marinade, rub on the honey and olive oil that is provided, and put it on the grill.

Busy Bees

Wow - what a busy few days we have had! Not to mention how full our calendar is for the next couple of months!! Warm weather is just around the corner and we have lots of fun parties, trips and other events to look forward to! It's going to be a busy but fun spring and summer for sure.

I have a few new cute pictures to post, so I'll have to upload them to the computer tonight. In the meantime...

For those of you who don't know, Dylan recently joined an indoor soccer league and has games every Thursday night. Believe it or not, in the eight years that we have been together, until last Thursday, I had NEVER seen Dylan play soccer!! Isn't that crazy? Last Thursday was his second game and Madison and I got to go and watch him play (his first was a very late game so we didn't want to take Madison out)! Dylan says that the team is very unorganized and nothing like what he is used to, but regardless, I think he enjoys getting the exercise and getting to kick a soccer ball around again. I really enjoyed watching him play. As silly as it sounds, I totally had the feeling that I was admiring my "crush" playing his sport!! Since I had never seen him play, it made me feel like we were back in high school or something. Maybe you know the feeling I am talking about...?? Maybe not...but that's ok. ;o) Anyway, Madison wasn't going to risk missing a thing and kept her eyes wide open, watching everything around her the entire time we were there. As soon as we got in the car, she was out!

Last Friday Dylan and I took a personal day at work and spent the entire day together kind of as a late Valentine's celebration. We took Madison to day care in the morning, went out for breakfast, went to the mall (bought some clothes for Madison and a Jeep jogger so that we can run in the evenings), went to a matinee, got hot stone massages, picked up Madison, got a pizza and still made it home in time to catch the end of "The Wheel"! It was really a great day and was time that we needed to take together. We missed our baby girl though for sure.

THEN, we drove to Beaumont Saturday for a crawfish boil to celebrate Devin's birthday. Great crawfish; yucky weather!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our little Valentine on her first Valentine's Day.

By the way, I think I'm creating a monster. This morning when I pulled out the camera before leaving the house, she started squealing and flapping her arms with excitement!! I can't stop taking pictures though!! We'll figure out a way to balance it somehow later. :o)


Since Dylan just emailed and said that he received the Valentine package from Madison (which included the tile below, a small easel to hold it, some of his favorite snacks and some fun valentine treats - chocolate covered fortune cookies and chocolate covered sunflower seeds!), I can now share this picture... Not only did Madison and I go shopping for new clothes for her the other evening, we also made a stop at Firestone Pottery and made a Valentine for Dylan.

My Daddy dressed me

I am convinced this was just to see my reaction, but he won't admit to that. :o) I must admit though, I made a few adjustments before we left the house.

Besides the fact that this is just really cute and funny, I have to mention how much I love seeing Dylan care for Madison, get her dressed, feed her, etc. his way - something that I can't say I know much about myself! I love that Madison has us both and will experience things differently with mommy vs. how things might be with daddy and hope that she learns to appreciate those differences. I think it is something that many take for granted because they just don't know any different.

A couple firsts

A couple of weeks ago, we moved Madison from her baby tub to the big tub. She can probably sit up in her baby tub now (as opposed to laying in it because she would no longer fit that way), but it was becoming a chore to fill it, lift it full of water to move it to a flat, safe place and clean up afterwards. Her baby tub had a mesh thingy that went inside it that she could lay on, so we just used that in the big bath tub...until last weekend. Dylan gave her a bath and called me in to take some pictures of our baby girl sitting up and playing in the big girl tub! We still plan to get some nonstick stuff for the bottom of the tub, but she did great and absolutely loved sitting in the water playing with the toys!

Oh...and the baby towels aren't big enough anymore either. I can't wait to go towel shopping for some fun bright colored "big girl" towels for Madison! In the meantime, she got to use a big one of ours.

We also introduced Madison to biter biscuits this past weekend. I didn' t know how she would do, but she loved it and it kept her occupied for a bit in her high chair after she ate dinner (she usually fusses to get out as soon as she is done!). Of course, we just about had to get a hose to clean up afterwards, but it was worth it! It was so cute to see her hold something in her little hand and try and feed herself.

What a convenient bib! I looked over at her and she no longer had the biscuit in her hand, so I looked down in her highchair and on the floor...she had a better idea in mind. ;o)

The cutest little hat

Madison's Great Nana (Dylan's Nana) knitted this adorable hat for her. Not only is it just too cute, it is really special that it was handmade. The detail is incredible! Madison loves it. :o) Thanks so much!!

Check her out...

6 months

The changes that take place in just 6 months... :o)

Madison had her 6 month well exam Monday. Poor baby got more shots on top of dealing with sensitive gums. :o( Now that she is paying much more attention to what is going on, it was so much harder for me to watch her get the shots than ever before. She held on to me so tight and cried and cried with her face buried on my shoulder for what seemed like forever. I wanted to cry right along with her. She has a tiny little bruise on one thigh where she got stuck too. :o( She did well afterwards though, as she always does. No fever and no reaction otherwise, so that's good!

On a lighter note, she weighs 15 lbs 2 ounces and is 27 1/4 inches long. She is in the 21st % for her weight, so 80% of babies her age weigh more....and is in the 90th % for length; 90% of babies her age are shorter! I knew there had to be a reason that she outgrew everything she owns overnight!! :o) ...we had fun shopping for new clothes.

So, what's new with Madison?

She's begun babbling - we've heard "daadaa", "baabaa" and "maamaa"! She's also beginning to let out some very high pitch squeals!!

She really wants to move!! When sitting, she puts her feet back (with her legs in a "W" position) and rocks forward to where she is almost up on her knees, but normally comes down on her tummy. If there is anything within her reach when she does this, she tries to pull up on it from a sitting position.

Here's a few pictures of her playing in her new "big girl" jeans before leaving for daycare yesterday morning.

Great American Baby Photo Contest!

The baby with the most votes each month wins $2,500! Click on the link below to vote for Madison (can vote once a day)!!

https://www.greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index.aspx?referid=EmailFriends&p=341057&x=.JPG

Thank you!! :o)

Madison goes to Galveston

This past weekend, Dylan, Madison and I took a break from the housework and headed to Galveston for some R&R and family time. We were up at 5:45 a.m. Saturday morning (because that is just what people do, right?) so instead of going back to sleep, we got packed and headed out so that we could enjoy the whole day in Galveston. I must go back and mention that this would not have been possible if it wasn't for our momma's (Mona and Sherry). The two crazy ladies broke into our house and cleaned from top to bottom and even did our laundry so that we would not have all of that to do before leaving for the weekend (or come back to a mess on Sunday!). It was such a pleasant surprise to come home Friday afternoon to a clean, fresh smelling house, go to bed early and get up early and head out for our weekend in Galveston. We can't thank you two enough! You are welcome anytime. ;o)

The weather was absolutely gorgeous on Saturday!! We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was warm (we were almost hot!) and sunny with the clearest blue sky. It was the last weekend of Mardi Gras in Galveston so we went down to the Strand after having lunch at Tortuga's mexican restaurant (fried ice cream - YUM!) and caught a short parade. I had never been to Mardi Gras anywhere and know that things can get wild at night, but there were so many families with babies and small children down there that afternoon. There were clowns making balloon thingys for kids and lots of bead throwing, as you can imagine. Of course, we still got to see some of the interesting (and maybe not so tasteful) costumes that some of the avid Mardi Gras-ers had on, but hey, that just adds a whole new dimension to "people watching", which I love to do anyway! :o)

We left the strand late afternoon, bought a couple of movies and headed to the condo. I think we went to bed around 8 p.m.! ...well, not for long though, Madison had a rough night - probably her teeth again.

Anyway, we took our time getting up and ready Sunday, had a nice lunch and decided to get back home. Madison and I took a 2 hour nap Sunday afternoon and were up again and out the door for a Super Bowl party at a friend's house.

We really had a great weekend. Here are a few pics of Madison before we left the house Saturday and a few from Mardi Gras.