Meal Plan 8/9/16 BLAT Salad, Cajun Shrimp Boil and more

I'm going to send you to some of my favorite recipes this week. As I become more efficient and see how useful this is to people I'll write out my own recipes, add pictures, and get more creative with side dishes and maybe desserts!

Monday: The BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) Salad with honey mustard

http://cafedelites.com/2016/05/11/honey-mustard-chicken-avocado-bacon-salad/

Tuesday: Crockpot French Dip

http://www.letsdishrecipes.com/2013/12/slow-cooker-french-dip-sandwiches.html

*I like these better on a more chewy bread like ciabatta buns. Also, any one that has semi healthy sides that go with french dip I'd love to hear them! Then again maybe that defeats the purpose of a yummy, easy, crock pot comfort food...

Wednesday: Shrimp Boil

http://damndelicious.net/2015/08/26/shrimp-boil-foil-packets/?m

*This one can be cooked in a cake pan lined with tin foil, bake at 400*F for about 30 minutes, it'll be done when the potatoes are soft when you poke them with a fork. 

Thursday: Chicken Taco Salad

*I usually do ranch and Cholula hot sauce instead of their creamy dressing, and I get a rotisserie chicken and lightly sprinkle it with taco seasoning if I'm not feeling up to cooking chicken and making my own dressing.

Friday: PIZZA! (Next week I'll post the Nathan's Gourmet Pizza recipe so stay tuned! I fell in love with him over this one.)

Family in Arkansas

Lately when I have thought about blogging I push it to the side because it seems like I just wrote on here and I don't want to overload my friends, family, and the web with my life but when I finally did get on here to blog just now I realized I haven't written since February! Luckily I'm better at keeping up with my handwritten journal.
Some updates on us:
Nathan has been rocking it in his new job as an MLP (merchant leadership program) at Walmart and talks all fancy about merchandizing stuff, it's fun to go to the store with him because I can sneak stuff like ice cream in the cart while I ask him what all the numbers on the shelf label under the ice cream mean! He has also added swimming to his regular workout routine which has done fantastic things to his shoulders :)

Asher says all sorts of fancy words such as shoe, walk, tucker, baby, baby-sleeping, mom, dad, bampa, show (TV show), apple, water, keys, car, go; he quacks when he sees a duck, and makes awesome car noises, and roars for lions, alligators and cats... He is in size 3t! And size 7 shoe, and loves rotisserie chicken with a crazed animalistic passion that is only acceptable and adorable because he is a toddler. He stops to pick up any leaf or rock he sees and cries to go on walks and play in dirt. He has become awesome at playing with Miriam, until she has one of his toys which makes him turn, point his finger at her and say "no" very slowly and deliberately. We also found this awesome app called 'Endless Alphabet' it teaches the letter sounds and names, Asher has become very good at it. He sliced open his eyebrow with a spool of thread...still trying to figure out that one. Luckily a week later you can barely see it.

Miriam is rolling over, sitting up and moving! Chubby adorableness getting around on her own. She does an impressive army crawl. She is in 6/9 month clothes and she just turned 7 months on the fifth. She has the cutest laugh and twists in really crazy ways to keep an eye on Asher who should watch out once she starts really crawling, he will never be left in peace again! She is super giggly, and I think she might have a strawberry tint to her little locks that are finally growing. She loves toys with faces and will hold them really close and jabber at them for long periods of time, (relatively long, maybe 30 seconds.) and she eats baby food! And would eat anything we eat if I let her. She does shockingly well at staying clean too, you know, for a drooling, arm waving, enthusiastic giggler.

And Tucker and I are doing great. He is loving that it's warm so I leave the porch door open and he is able to soak in the sunshine, and make friends with stray cats that wander too close. Luckily none have made it in the house like they did last summer.
Now some highlights:
My wonderful Mom came to visit! We were able to relax and we found a zoo, and go shopping and eat good food. She had her first pedicure and loved it. Such a fantastic week.

Joe and Autumn and their family, as well as mom and dad Childs, came up which made for an awesome conference weekend, also full of great food and company!
Jill came out (whew! Good thing we really like all our family!) for a short trip but again, full of girl's nights out eating and shopping, being baby free! (Thank you so much for that Nathan and Jason.) I'm glad I have my sister as my friend.

We had our third year anniversary!!!  Three years, three states, three jobs, two babies, four apartments, one dog, and I have sincerely never been happier.
And the day before our anniversary Nathan bought me a house! Well, we bought a house, but it's much more exciting to say he got it for me for our anniversary right?! It was crazy, we've been looking at houses online, on our own, and with a Realtor for weeks and had found a couple we like but nothing we both absolutely loved. So we started expanding a little out of our desired location and BAM! April 11th we walk through this house that was perfect. Something about it just hit all the feel good spots we had been looking for. We decide to sleep on it. Then then next morning (Jill was here poor lady had to deal with all our stress and uncertainties) we wake up really wanting to put in an offer so we ask for all sorts of crazy stuff (it's new construction so blinds, sod, to pick the flooring, and a fence mostly) and think we have a couple days. Nope! Two hours later the builder counters basically accepting everything so Saturday we walk through the house again to make sure we still like it and sign a contract! Months later and I still like it m ore every time we walk through. And Nathan also surprised me with flowers and chocolates :)

We were supposed to close on the house a couple weeks ago so again we had family in town! Phil, Maren, Ben and his girls and Mom and Dad Childs. We went fishing and explored all over, Devil's Den and Roaring River. I'm almost glad we were able to relax with them instead of stressing while moving.

All in all we have come to love it here in Arkansas, the weather is great, the people are great, its beautiful and for now its a great home for our little family.

Simple Joys

2014! What a  wonderful year, I can feel it. Already we have new friends, a new baby, job, dreams. I can't wait for every new day to start even if its to look forward to nap time in the afternoon.

A project I have been working on is piecing together a nursery from all the girly things I've been collecting since we found out Miriam would not be our Gideon. Nathan is amazing in accepting the femininess of that part of the house (I think he secretly likes it, or at least doesn't mind it as much as he thought he would.)

Asher was awesome and helped wrap the wreath, Nathan surprised me in the hospital when Miriam was born with the roses (there were a dozen and they were the most beautiful I've seen.) The canopy I found at a yard sale, the crib was a blessed hand-me-down. 

The picture my grandma Allen painted, I white washed the frame and it really made the flowers pop! I am grateful she was willing to share her talents with me and my little girl. The sign my friends made for my baby shower, its burlap and lace my two favorite things! And the dresser, another blessed hand-me-down.

Miriam slept in her crib for the first time and slept from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am. It was blissfully bitter sweet, I fully enjoyed sleeping yet I was reminded what I've been missing out on for the past at least six months. Worth it though, I mean, look at that face.

Some more updates of her chunkyness: 

This is her first time being willing to sit in the bumbo without Asher entertaining her.

Thanks Aunt Sarah for the cute new outfit! I can't believe she is out of her 3 month clothes! (This one is a 6 month and look at those full leggings! And three rolls in the arms, come on.)

She was watching me do laundry after she threw up all over the bed, seriously all over it. Pillows, duvet, sheets, me. Awesome. I love doing laundry. No, that last part was a joke. But I love her.

She will officially be three months tomorrow and, like most things, it has gone very fast and at the same time it seems she has always been with us.

Time for my boy's update! 

Asher is now sleeping in a toddler bed and his transition was practically seamless! It took one night of me laying on the floor next to him and putting him in every time he woke up and wanted to get out. Now its extra good for us because he can wake up and play until he is ready to come out instead of crying from boredom or being stuck in his crib. It also makes it so I have to keep his room clean... He carries this blanket and bunny and cup around the house with him when ever he wants to cuddle or watch a show. And when we tell him to go to bed he searches the house till he finds it all then crawls on his bed waiting for a story.

It was warm enough the other day to play outside in the dirt, so of course we had to! Then this mom wasn't paying attention and let him eat lunch with dirt all over. A little extra crunch never hurt anyone.

He was imitating my facial expressions in the reverse view of the camera. It was the high light of that day since the rest of the time one or the other baby was screaming, kicking, pooping, hungry, tired, or into something. But I'll always just remember him laughing while looking at my face.

We made Asher a box full of rice and beans and toys, I thought it would be a fun indoor sandbox but since he seems to find it wherever I put it and can open it himself its turned more into a sand and bean hurricane on a daily basis. 

The new favorite snack is dry ramen, I didn't show it to him , he figured it out on his own. I think its gross but it keeps him happy and there are worse things.

We finally did it! The first Razorbacks paraphernalia we ever bought. I think its cute, Nathan is still strong with his sport team loyalties but he says its okay to maybe start adding the Razorbacks since we are hoping to live here for a while. 

We have been struggling staying healthy, Asher has had the stomach flu a couple times in the last month, Asher Miriam and I all had it last Friday, Nathan was up all night taking care of us, and now he has it again! Hopefully its the last time, or we might not leave the house again until Spring!

Nathan started his job in the Merchant Leadership Program (MLP) at corporate Wal-Mart and so far has come home happy and seems to be enjoying himself. He is learning all sorts of cool things about the store, such as shelving technique, pricing, how they decide on what products, sales, what buyers they focus on, different things that are placed to draw people to other things. And it totally works. 

He also got a new calling, adviser in the Priest quorum. His dream calling! He is over a couple of the boys and I love watching him interact with them at church. Except when he teaches in some obscure room that is impossible to find. And during Relief Society, and the little one wakes up grumpy, and the big one wont go to nursery and is crying as loud as he can for his dad...Which is what happened last Sunday. Speaking of church adventures, yesterday it snowed and they don't have any plows and two semi trucks slid off the road in front of us blocking traffic, luckily there was another way to our apartment. Nathan even had to push me out of a snow drift on the way home (heels and pushing in the snow and crying babies don't all go together. Actually they totally did for me yesterday but they shouldn't :)

Last thought: I have been wondering lately how it is so hard but when I look into the faces of my little family there is peace and everything is still and good. And how I don't love Miriam more than Asher, but there is exponentially more love in my heart for all these tiny hands that hold my fingers, and the perfect sized hands of Nathan's that tenderly care for me in every way, than ever before. And I realized it is partly because of the love they have for each other, even my babies who don't seem old enough to understand. And partly because I am reminded exponentially more often to be selfless, patient, and kind. I don't always make it to the right response, but the reminder is there. And the joy comes. And I know this is my greatest blessing. This is part of God's plan for me, to love the people that come into my life in a way that I will understand the feelings He has for them as His children. I would be lost without my sweet family, and with out the gospel I will loose them. I am grateful for the testimony I have. 

Now I'm off to clean my house so when the chitlins wake up we can go pull it apart again!

Cute kids

Having two children is hard, infants are especially hard for me. Luckily, our society is in the habit of capturing the cute and precious moments of babies more than the hard, emotionally and physically taxing moments. (One of the reasons I think I stress out so much when it does get hard, so when I look back all the dark times are literally blocked out.) Here is a little tribute to those good moments that make us think we are sane when we decide we want another one.

Maybe I shouldn't, but sometimes I like to just watch her cry. Infants have impressive lungs, and when they cry it seems to me I can see this big spirit stuck and straining in a tiny body. It weirdly reminds me how fresh she is from Heaven and the precious responsibility I have. Unless its 3 in the morning...then Heaven doesn't really cross my mind.

Asher recently discovered he gets lots of hugs when he finds his nose.

His new "that was so hilarious I'm going to raise and flare everything on my face" look.

He didn't want in a picture until we told him to stay out.

Got in but can't get out. Muahahaha

She found my favorite place and person to cuddle. 

Then there is this which sums it up. All of these happened to me today, except being peed on, missed that one, and I got bit on the face instead of while nursing :)