Cooking day

My sister and I decided to try our hands at Once a Month Cooking. It was a very long day of cooking but we are VERY much enjoying the fruits of our labor. It was about a 13 hour day that left my kitchen full of dishes but we learned a lot that will make our day shorter next time; when we first started neither of us really knew what was in store so we started out a little slow but once our eyes were opened to the task ahead of us we kicked it in gear and everything went a lot quicker. We had both babies (9 & 5 months old) to take care of throughout the day that also slowed us down a bit but as they get older and more interactive that will be less of an obstacle. We are so thankful that Brandon was off that day and entertained Jordan for a while after his test for school; it made a huge difference! We have our freezers stocked full of breakfasts, lunches & dinners for the entire month and only spent about $125 a piece! So not only are we saving ourselves a lot of time throughout the month but cooking this way is also saving money! If you are interested in trying OAMC out I suggest using Once a Month Mom to help you get started then once you are comfortable you can start incorporating your own family favorite recipes. She does all of the work for you; all you have to do is print, shop & cook! She picks all the recipes, doubles & quadruples, creates the grocery list (in a spreadsheet so all you have to do is type in the prices and it totals how much you spent making it easy to divide the cost in half with your partner), gives you an outline of everything you need to do on cooking day, and makes labels to attach to everything in the freezer so you know what to do the day you plan to eat that particular dish, plus when she is creating the menu she keeps in mind what is projected to be on sale that month. She does all this for FREE!

I didn't get any pictures of us during the day or the final product of all our food because we were in such a hurry by the time we finished but because I was not in such a hurry to clean up I was able to snap a few shots!

Please don't get intimidated by the pile of dishes. If you have a dishwasher the clean up is actually very easy. In about three runs of the dishwasher my counters were completely cleared and I was able to watch a movie in the mean time!

Halloween 2009

Some pictures from Jordan's first Halloween! I've never really been the type to get excited about Halloween. We never went trick or treating when I was growing up. Our church always held a fun event that we'd go to each year that I loved! My favorite activity was the cake walk, hands down. Least favorite: bobbing for apples. Anyway, especially since Jordan is too young to eat candy we didn't take her out to trick or treat or to any fall festivals at church but I did get her dressed up and took her to my work to show off.

Ok I know I've been gone for an extensive period of time and hopefully I will be back for good and stop taking these ridiculous breaks from blogging. I apologize for my absence! Anyway, today I am not sharing anything about our lives (although I've got plenty of new things/pictures to share!) but rather, I am posting something I recently read on a blog that stumbled across my path and really stood out to me. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did. It comes from Ordinary Days, Diapers & Dishes.

I do my best thinking in the shower. I've had tremendous spiritual growth in the shower. Seriously.

However, this week I needed to clean the shower. So I did.

Nonetheless, I still had a spiritual moment:


Me: "Man-o-mighty, if I would just clean this shower regularly it wouldn't get like this."

Holy Spirit: "It's kinda like your quiet time in the morning that hasn't been so regular."

Me: "Hmmm, I would be really embarrassed for anyone to see the INSIDE!"

Holy Spirit: "This is where you come clean. Keep cleaning. Don't fear judgement, you'll get there."

Me: "Okay, I'm really gonna start doing this more regularly, because it feels great to have a clean shower!"

Holy Spirit: "Come to me regularly also and you'll be refreshed!"

Me: " Oh, wait now I have to clean the soap scummed glass doors. Darn."

Holy Spirit: "It's also true that you should be transparent(just like your shower doors) so everyone can see how clean and made new I've made you."

Me: "Saweet"

Father, thank you for reaching me in the ordinariness (is that a word?) of today.

new camera

Can you believe this little girl is 8 months old now?!?! It blows me away!

We normally do not allow Jordan to even touch the cell phone. Today, however, we were talking to her Nana so I set the phone beside of her to play with our new camera while visiting. Little missy here took it upon herself to grab the phone and have her way with it. Needless to say, we had to cut the photo shoot short so I could confiscate the phone.

my FIRST giveaway!

And the winner is......Shannon Lee!! Congratulations Shannon!

I have been super excited about this since I first found out I'd been selected to do a giveaway by MyBlogSparkTM. They sent me a prize package of my own to try and now one of my lucky readers will get their very own prize package to enjoy! Are you ready to find out what it is?!

We are giving away a Wanchai Ferry stay-at-home prize pack that includes these adorable placemats, rice bowls & chopsticks (a set of two) along with coupons for FREE Wanchai Ferry frozen entrees! (I find them at Smith's a Kroger affiliate.)



I was very impressed with the entire kit...the food was wonderfully delicious and the placemats haven't yet left our table! We had some fun, ok, ok, I had some fun with the whole Asian themed dinner; Brandon thought I was a little goofy going all out the way I did.




Anyone is eligible to enter; all you have to do is leave a comment answering the following question.

What is your favorite Asian dish?

I will accept comments until Monday, October 5th at 8:00 am MST. I will use a random generator to choose the winner who will be announced later that same day. If you do not have a blog in which I can leave you a comment, please leave your email address with your answer so I have a way of contacting you if you are the winner. Thanks!

Some Jordan updates

Most excitingly - JORDAN SAYS MOMMA!!!!


We have been letting Jordan feed herself finger foods for a couple weeks now. She improves more and more each day (obviously) but it seems that since she knows she can do it herself she doesn't want any help. In other words, she quit eating from a spoon. She turns her head as far away from that spoon as possible and refuses to eat until we give her finger foods and let her feed herself. What an independant little stinker!

This is the very first time I had put Jordan's hair in a pony tail. Since then I have learned I can pin her hair back more stylishly. I was planning on showing a picture of the improvement but I couldn't get her to hold still!

Grocery fun!

I have been having a wonderful time becoming a couponer and getting fantastic deals! I can't help but share with all of you. I bought all of this for $40.21 saving $80.59; that's 66% savings!!!!!

Here is a list of everything I got in case anyone is curious:

Wanchai Ferry dinner kits x2
Natures Valley Nut Clusters x2
Natures Valley Granola Bars x5
Quaker Life cereal x2
Total cereal
Quaker instant oatmeal x2
SoBe Lifewater x2
SoBe Green Tea x6
A&H Baking Soda
Lentils
Grands Biscuits x2
Margarine
Always pads
Colgate toothpaste
Snickers Fudge candy bar
Yoplait Gogurt x4
Egg Roll Wrappers
Tofu
Nectarines x2
Toaster Strudels x2
Cabbage
Baby food jars x4
Bread x2

We have several healthy snack options to choose from and I've been able to make a weeks worth of meals combining the above with a few items we already have on hand. It's kind of neat because we've actually been able to get a few "treats" that we normally wouldn't buy but because I have been able to get them for free or even make a little money off them so we get to live a little more luxuriously. I have gotten a bunch of tips from Money Saving Mom. I definitely recommend giving her site a look if you are interested in saving lots of money on groceries & toiletries; she's very inspirational.

Just some pictures taken over the weekend

She's been sleeping like this lately. It makes me smile everytime.

Jordan is an outdoorsy girl already. It's really her favorite place to be. We walk to the post office every other day and she absolutely loves it. Here she is all ready for our walk today.

And with Daddy in the moutains (they were both putting their arms around each other). We stopped in the mountains outside of Missoula for a bit on our way back from Washington a couple of weeks ago. She got her diaper changed while we were there and really enjoyed grabbing the dry grass & dirt that was at her sides. The only pictures we took on our trip were a few in the mountains here or I would share more about it. (We traveled there for Brandon's cousin's wedding. It was a nice little vacation.)

Rolly Pollie

I have been waiting to share this news until we were able to get the video on here but I have a feeling that isn't going to be happening any time soon so I need to share before it's even older news than it already is. Jordan rolled over!!! She actually did it over a month ago...on July 6th she rolled from her back onto her belly and a few days later she rolled from her belly onto her back. It was really quit comical because my girl hates being on her tummy so when she learned how to roll she kept wanting to do it but she'd get really upset after she did because she'd realize she was on her stomach. It was a really good thing for her when she learned how to get back over. Now she's an ol' pro at rolling and has begun sitting up by herself. She still needs some padding around her because she does tip over at random but she's getting really good. She's about ready to start getting baths in the full tub instead of just her little one. AND she's also getting her first tooth! I just found it yesterday! She's doing really well with teething. If I hadn't felt inside her mouth I would not have even known yet that her tooth is coming through.