Week #4 {2015}

Sunday: Click {here} to read how we continued having fun with my sister, brother in law and niece in town.  

Monday: Click {here} to read about the worst moment this week {saying goodbye to the Galla-Rini's}.

Tuesday: Back to our regular schedule, the big kids went to school and Ry and I went to mom2mom. He LOVES to go and play with his "bends" {friends}. My small group finished a little early and I got to see Ry sitting on his circle mat listening to a story.  

When he saw me, he smiled and waved, then looked to his teacher to get permission to leave.  I was impressed. His teachers are awesome.

~

When we got home I realized that I wore white and cream together.  Awesome.

Oh and notice my nails?!?!?  They are a different color from last week.  Can you believe it?  I actually painted them again!  

I read an amazing tip and it totally works for moms who, even if they COULD find time to paint their nails, don't have time to let them dry. Are you ready for it?

When you know you are going to be driving some place that is at least 15 minutes away, plan to leave the house 10 minutes early.  Get the kid(s) in the car.  Buckle them in, buckle yourself in, start the car and then paint your nails.  Now your nails have time to dry as your driving!  Genius, right? Just make sure that you are actually ready to drive off.  I forgot something and had to get out of the car {and re-buckle} with wet nails. It kinda defeated the purpose. Doh!

~

Wednesday: Yes.  He really was doing this.  Crazy kid.

Thursday: He fell asleep and I couldn't help but take a picture.  Tongue out and everything.

Friday: Dylan came downstairs and made breakfast for all 3 kids all on his own.  I was impressed.

It also happened to be the 100th day of school!

I poured Ry some Froot Loops and showed him how to sort them by color. 

{And yes, it is spelled "froot", not "fruit" - go look at a box! Crazy, right?}

He not only sorted them, but he also lined them up.

Right before nap time, he gets active.  Im guessing he's trying to keep himself up?  Today he was rolling around wrapped up in blankets.

And we decided to try all the latest trends.  Pattern mixing {camo & blues clues} & mustaches.

P.S. Ry has a mustache band-aid on because his head was healing from hitting his head and his scab fell off. Boo!

~

We finished up the day with Friday Family Movie Night {my favorite}.

Then as we {Chris and I} were going to bed, we noticed this . . . hummmm, wonder what tomorrow will look like!

Saturday:  Looks like the snow continued through the night and we woke up to this! Click {here} to see more pics and an adorable video of our snow fun!

Saturday mornings are cleaning day and the kids have to clean their rooms.  Ry went and made his bed and he was SO proud of himself . . . I was too!

We went to Dylan's taekwondo practice and Ry took 103,789 photos of his class.

And he actually got a few good pics of Dylan stretching {Man he is flexible!}.

And then my favorite photo . . . the inside of his nose.

After class Dylan got his hair cut.  And I think he looks spiffy!

I can't believe we are 4 weeks into 2015.  Time sure does fly by!

Duke's Chicken Salad {recipe}

Awhile ago I saw a commercial for Duke's mayonnaise that featured a yummy looking chicken salad, and I am a sucker for a good chicken salad.

I had also heard that you can shred chicken in a KitchenAid mixer. So I decided to test both of these out!

I put frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a pan (seasoned with salt and pepper), covered with a lid and cooked on medium for 25 minutes. I put the hot chicken in my mixer, with the paddle attachment and turned it on. Less than 30 seconds later it was done and it was perfect.

I cannot believe I waited so long to try this out. I will NEVER shred chicken by hand again (well at least as long as I can help it)!

I used the chicken in the Duke's Chicken Salad and it was excellent! You can click {here} to search for the recipe called "Duke's Chicken Salad" (there is no direct link.) or follow the recipe below (I halved the recipe for our family and it was just enough.)

Duke's Chicken Salad

for the dressing

1/2 cup Duke's mayonnaise 

1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar

1/2 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon poppy seeds

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

salt to taste

for the salad

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1/2 cup diced celery

1/4 cup sliced green onion

1/2 cup diced red apple

1/2 cup grape halves

1/8 cup chopped pecans

Mix the ingredients for the dressing together. Add in the chicken, celery, onion, apple and grapes.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes then serve on your favorite bread.

This is not a great picture, but here's how I ate it.

This would be fabulous on a croissant. Yum!

Thursday & Friday

Thursday my in-laws were coming up to stay for the weekend . . .
So I cleaned up the apartment and then had to take pictures of how good it looked.  =)

If you look closely in the crib, you will see Rylan.

"What's he doing?" you ask?  Oh, just some downward dogs before naptime.

Crazy guy.
~
There is a Race for the Cure coming up this Saturday by Chris' work.
I had to snap a picture of all the cases of water bottles sitting on the side of the road.

They will be sitting there for 2 more days . . . and probably NONE of them will be stolen.
{That would NEVER happen back home in California.}
~
We went to the kids Parent Teacher Conferences and Payton's teacher showed us the FUNNIEST thing ever.
She was telling us that Payton spells phonetically, really well and then showed us this picture she took of one of Payton's papers.

It says "I hear with my ears.  I can hear ______".
Payton wrote "sex".
She called Payton up and asked what she wrote and Payton replied "snakes".
She had phonetically wrote "snex" and forgot the "n".
Makes sense, now right?
And yes, she took a picture to show all of her co-workers and friends.
=)

Friday while the kids were at school and Chris was at work Craig, Sasha, Rylan and I went driving around and looking at different areas then went to Trader Joe's (about 20 minutes away from me).

I was happy to find out that it is HUGE!

It's the biggest Trader Joe's that I have ever been into . . .  Which was a good thing because it was crowded!

Seriously, can he get any more scrumptious?

~
I've seen this trick all over Pinterest, and guess what?  It really works!

Place a wooden spoon over a boiling pot of water and it won't overflow.
It looks like it might, but it doesn't.
This is going to help me out SO much.
~
Rylan LOVED J's Mac & Cheese.

Notice his knees are tucked up to his chest?

Kids Shampoo

This post should actually be titled "Duh!".  As in, "I can't believe I didn't figure that out before!".  I've had "Duh!" moments before, especially now that there is Pinterest.  But the best story for me was when a friend was making lunch for our kids (Dylan was a toddler) and she pulled out a bag of frozen vegetables, only cooked 1/4 of the bag (as much as the kids would eat) and put the rest back in the freezer...  Why I had assumed that I had to cook the WHOLE bag at one time - I don't know.  But it made serving veggies at lunch and dinner so much easier.  Duh!  I can't believe I didn't figure that out before!

The reverse also happened when I showed the same friend that you can put the kids cup straws on the tines in the dishwasher instead of putting them in the silverware holder (where they always seem to fall thru and get lost).  She thought the same thing - Duh!  I can't believe I didn't figure that out before!

So now onto present day.  How many times have you bought a brand new bottle of kids shampoo, only to discover that during bath time they have squeezed the ENTIRE bottle into their bath because they wanted more bubbles????  Oh, it's only my kids?  Great. Well this has been happening a lot lately - from both Payton AND Dylan.  I made them buy a replacement bottle with their own money but they still did it.

My "Duh!  I can't believe I didn't figure that out before!" moment came when I bought a new bottle of hand soap and was about to throw away the old one.  {Yes, I know I need to buy the refill package but I can't stomach paying $10 for a huge bottle of soap.}  Anyway, I digress.

Maybe...just MAYBE it would be harder to waste the shampoo when it is in a pump bottle???  So I took some Goo Gone, wiped off the label, rinsed out the bottle and filled it with the kids shampoo.  Wha-la!  

Yes, I realize that they COULD still pump all the shampoo out.  Or twist the cap off and pour it out.  But it seems to be working for us.  It's fun for them and Payton can easily get it out herself, without trying to hold a heavy (and wet) bottle.

See she likes it!

Do you have any "Duh!  I can't believe I didn't figure that out before!" moments that you would like to share???  If so, leave a comment!

Bananas - Tip

Have I got a tip for you...  We eat a lot of bananas in our house and the problem with bananas is that they go bad SOOOOO quickly.  I've tried a lot of different ideas to make them last longer.  For awhile I was using Debbie Meyer Green Bags.  Although they work good, it looked bad to have a green bag of bananas sitting on the counter.  I was so excited to stumble across this tip.  

When you get home from the market, take the bananas apart.  

That's it!  Easy right?  When they are left in a bunch, they ripen quicker.  Try it.  It works!