Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our sweet pea!

Fall Family Fun!

Fall is my favorite time of year. This year, the weather has been unbelieveable! It has been so warm and wonderful. We have had a ton of fun being outdoors in this gorgeous weather. A few weeks ago, on a great weather day we took baby Steven to his first pumpkin patch! We went with Steve's family and my friend Julie and her son, Jake to Pumpkinland at Theis Farm. It was huge! We had a great time.

There was this huge spider in the middle of the big playground but you couldn't climb on it! How lame! Poor Willow, she looks so dissapointed to not be able to play on the big spider.



This was Steven's first hay experience and I think he liked it. He was pretty fascinated with touching it while I was trying to take his picture. Pretty understandable though, hay does have a weird texture. ;)

Here is Julie's son, Jacob with Steven. Aren't our babies so cute! Its sort of crazy that we are old enough to have kids...weird!

Steven is really into touching faces. Grandpa is happy to oblige.

Aw! Willow loves to play with her little "brother". Jordan asked Willow if she wanted a baby sister or brother and Willow said she already had a baby brother! How cute!

Mommy and baby enjoying some cuddly pumpkin time. Love it!



So glad we were able to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Riegerix.

Julie and me with our baby boys! So cute. I was so glad they were able to come with us. We all had a great time!



Couponing Update and Awesome Target Haul

My enthusiasm has been waning for couponing lately. I still do it but I've started to find it really time consuming and not that much of a pay off. The first month I did it, I cut out every-stinking-coupon and that was a huge waste of time! I ended up taking out all the coupons from my binder the next month and that really sucked! So I'm not doing it that way again....I have devised what I think is a better system and it seems to be working so far.

I've also been frustrated in general with the lack of great deals in our area. Like I mentioned before, Schnucks only doubles coupons $.40 and lower so it makes it really hard! They only double 15 coupons per transaction too. Plus we are paying for papers every month. But anyways, last week some really great deals came up at Target and it totally renewed my excitement about couponing! I was able to score an awesome haul with not too much prep time. So I think my new system works!

So at Target this week I saved 59%! Can you believe it!?! That is so awesome for me. I got some great deals. I was proud of myself. The transaction would have been $106.74, but with coupons it was only $44.47! Check out this receipt!

So for $44.47 I got:
8 Bottles of Dove Shampoo/Conditioner
8 Bottles of Panetene Shampoo/Conditioner
4 Tubes of Crest 3D White Toothpaste
1 Rimmell Eyeshadow
2 Sally Hanson Nail Polish Colors
4 Packs of Extra Gum

AND! I got 2 gift cards for $5 each. (But they don't let you use those on that transaction, darn!)

This was my favorite part of the receipt:

Isn't that great! I'm proud of myself. I hope I can find more great deals like this! And I think we are good on shampoo for a while...lol

Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups Recipe Review

Well, friends, I am sad to say I think the vegetarian thing is over. It has turned into more of a general effort of eating more fruits and vegetables. I am doing really good on that! I have been trying to make more vegetarian meals for us, but I'm just not sticking to a strict diet. In that spirit, I made a really yummy recipe this week.

It was Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups. I got the recipe here. It is a really neat blog with all kinds of "skinny" recipes. This recipe was pretty easy to make too. I made a few minor changes to the recipe. I used whole wheat lasagna noodles and cottage cheese (with a little mozzarella mixed in) instead of the ricotta cheese for the stuffing. Here is the modified recipe I used:

Ingredients:

9 lasagna noodles cooked and patted dry

10oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained

15oz cottage cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Mozzarella cheese

1 egg

32 oz marinara sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine spinach, cottage cheese, 1/2 mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and egg in a medium bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Set that aside. Ladle marinara sauce to cover bottom of 9x12 baking dish.

Place cooked lasagna noodles on wax paper on counter. Take a good size spoonful of the cheese mixture and spread evenly over each lasagna noodle. Carefully roll each noodle up and place seam side down on backing dish.

Ladle sauce over noodles in dish and top each dish with a little mozzarella cheese. Place foil over baking dish and bake in over for about 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for the last 5 minutes to brown cheese slightly.

Enjoy!

The Roll Ups turned out really well! Steve said they were delicious. I enjoyed them too.  See how yummy they looked! (You can tell they are good because half the pan was gone before I remembered to take a picture!) ha ha!

This recipe went over really well at our house. The leftovers are even gone, so you know that's a good one! 

Apple Picking!

We recently took a trip to Eckert's in Belleville with Grandma and Grandpa Gooden. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time. Steven was mostly oblivious but I think he liked it. I hope we can make it a fall tradition!

On the tractor ride to the apple fields. Steven had a little hat on to block the sun. Pretty cute that him and Grandpa are both sporting their Cardinals hats! Go Cards!

Steven and Daddy by an apple tree. It was both of their first times apple picking. 

Grandma Peggy let Steven suck on her apple. At first he wasn't sure what to think!

But once he sucked on the apple, he really liked it! He actually whined a little when we took it away. Ha ha! We made a lot of apple sauce from the apples we picked that day. I hope he can enjoy it soon!

The sun was bright that day! We had such a great time! Thanks for sharing the day with us, Grandma and Grandpa Gooden! I hope we can do it again next year. 

Baby Led Weaning

With our little guy being 5 1/2 months old (already!) we have been gearing up to start solids. There's a lot of opinions about this subject and age old wisdom (and lots of people we know) started their kids on cereal, then purees or baby food a few weeks later. We thought about going that route, but after we did some research online and talked to a few friends we decided that Baby Led Weaning (BLW) might be the way to go for our family. I hope Steven is excited about broccoli as this little cutie!

The general idea behind BLW is that at 6 months babies are at the developmental age to start foods and just like with crawling, walking, etc. eating is not something you have to teach them to do. They are able to teach themselves. Basically, baby is making the decision to start solids, and what to eat, not the parents. (Spoon feeding can be thought of as parent-led weaning). Baby is able to explore and enjoy food on their own terms and eventually they begin to feed themselves and get some of their nourishment that way. With BLW it is important to continue nursing on demand to make sure baby gets everything he needs until he is able to feed himself and get more of his daily nutrients from solid food.

The major benefits of BLW are:

• Baby is allowed to start on solids at their own pace for their development encouraging confidence and independence
• Helps baby develop eye hand coordination and dexterity
• Allows baby to eat as much as he needs on his own time, developing good eating habits
• Makes picky eaters and meal time battles less likely as there is no pressure to eat
• Allows babies to explore taste, texture and smell of a variety of foods which lets them have a wider food palet
• Baby is a part of the family during mealtimes, eating right alongside mom and dad and often what mom and dad are eating

So after hearing about all these benefits, we were really interested and thought this might be the right choice for our family. So we ordered the Baby Led Weaning book to find out what this was all about.

It was a really informative book and after reading it, we felt this was a good option for our family. So when we thought about how to start with BLW, this book provided some great ideas. Basically you eat healthy foods and baby can eat them too. You don't need to puree or prepare the foods you are eating in a special way, except for maybe overcooking their veggies a bit to make them easier to gum down without teeth (but still firm enough for them to hold). Basically you give them a bit of what you are eating and let them go to town. You don't encourage or discourage them, you don't try to feed them or anything. Just let them explore and discover food on their own. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well we have a few friends who have tried this approach and its worked great for them. Here is an article about a family that also tried BLW and had great success. There are more resources are BLW here, here and here.

So we are really excited to try BLW with Steven very soon. We know this might not be the best choice for every family and we are in no way experts, but we are hoping this is the right choice for our family and we will keep you updated as to our progress with solids.

Baked Tilapia Recipe Review

So in the spirit of cooking healthy, I tried out this this recipe for Baked Tilapia. It was super yummy!! And pretty!

Here is the modified version of the recipe that I used:

1/4 cup pasta sauce
EVOO
4 or 5 good size Tilapia Filets
1 Onion sliced
2-3 Peppers sliced (I used red, yellow, and green)
Butter

In a bowl mix the pasta sauce and any other spices you might like to use with some EVOO. Spread some more EVOO on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Arrange the tilapia filets on the baking dish and place a spoonful of the sauce on each filet. Arrange pepper and onion slices around the filets. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 mins. For the last 2 minutes place a tiny amount of butter on each filet and broil.

This dish is super simple and comes out looking and tasting great! Steve and I both really liked it. I'm sure you could put other veggies like carrots or zucchini in and it would taste great too. I am definitely makin this one again!

Book Review: Catching Fire

I just finished an awesome book, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It is the sequel to the Hunger Games book I reviewed here.

It is a super great book and I really enjoyed it. Being a sequel, I wasn't sure what to think but this book was so great! I almost liked it better than the first book. It has a lot of surprises and twists in the plot that keep you on the edge of your seat. It also further develops the characters and relationships between characters which was really enjoyable as well. I don't want to tell you anything about the plot, because I don't want to give it away but its definitely worth reading. I can't wait to read the 3rd book of this series!

First Trip to the Zoo

We have been having some amazing weather lately! Its October and we are having gorgeous, sunny days with highs in the 80s! So we took advantage last weekend and took Steven for his first trip to the St. Louis Zoo. It was such a fun day for the whole family. Steven had a great time making crazy faces looking at the animals. Steve and I had fun too! We will have to go again soon!

Since it was such a beautiful day there were a ton of animals out! We got to see lots of baby animals too! Here is the baby elephant we saw. So cute!

Here's my big baby!

Taking a little break from all the zoo fun to chill out!

Just monkeyin' around...

We walked up minutes after this baby was born. How crazy is that!??!

The giraffes are so graceful. I could watch them walk around all day. It was a great day to see animals out!

It was a great day together. So glad we got to take advantage of this gorgeous weather and take Steven to the zoo for the first time.

Baby Steven's First Year..Five Months

Happy five months of life, baby boy! Can't believe its here already.  Look at how big you've gotten!

This past month you have just been growing and changing everyday it seems like. You are such a joy to our lives and we feel so lucky to be your parents, Steven.

This month you really started to get into reading books, which makes mommy so happy. You will sit while we read a book to you and look at the pages intently. You also sometimes make sounds along with us when we are reading which makes us think you want to read too! This month when we read and you sit on mommy's lap you've started craning your neck to the side to get a view of who is reading to you. When I look back at you, you smile big and that melts mommy's heart!

Probably your biggest accomplishment this month has been rolling over. You have been trying to figure it out for a while and may have managed to roll over a time or two before but this month you were off to the races! In the beginning of the month, I think you really surprised yourself when you rolled over for the first time. You can see that video here. One night you just decided it was time I guess because you kept trying and finally did it! Here you are during one of your first attempts, still trying to figure it out.

Now that we are at the end of the month you are a rolling over pro. Every time we set you down on your stomach you roll right over, both ways. We are so proud of you, boo!

Since you are so into the world around you now, you have really taken an interest in your toys. You will really play with things for a while now and check them out. We got you this light up ball and you just love it. You are so cute now, you will squeal really loud when you are happy. Adorable.

This month marks the start of football season. You got to celebrate it with your Dad and Grandpa Gooden watching the Rams game! Don't you look the part!

You have such a personality now, little man. You have started imitating our faces we make at you. You picked up this face from somewhere and make it all the time now. We call it your stink face! Too funny!

Another fun thing you have discovered this month is splashing in the bathtub. Its super cute to watch you figure out how to splash and squeal when you do. So adorable!

So 5 months old already, buddy. You are reaching out for things, rolling over, squealing when you are happy, really getting into your toys, splashing in the bathtub and making some pretty crazy faces. You are such a joy everyday, baby boy. We love you so much!

Rolling Over!

Houston, we are rolling over! Can't believe I got one of his very first roll overs on video! Check it out:

He actually did this weeks ago but I couldnt get this stupid video to upload! Oh well, so proud anyway!

Book Review: The Help

I recently read the book "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. This book has been really popular lately due to the movie based on the book coming out. I do plan to see the movie but I usually always prefer the book. Although this movie looks pretty good too and I like a lot of the actors in it. Here is the movie poster:

When I first heard about this book, last year I discounted it thinking what I usually think about the "it" book of the moment that everyone is reading. That is usually a huge turnoff for me. But it almost always happens that I eventually give in and read the book that everyone is talking about and end up loving it. Man, am I stubborn!

Well this book was no different. When my co-worker said she had the book and would let me borrow it, I decided to go ahead and read it. It was actually really good. It ended up being one of those books that really makes you think. (Poor Steve I kept talking about it at home.) I really didn't anticipate the fact that the book was set during the civil rights movement and it would have a lot to do with that. This is a topic that I'm pretty passionate about so it really brought up a lot of emotions.

The book takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s and is written in 3 different perspectives, by an upper class young woman, Skeeter, and two black maids, Minny and Aibileen. It details the lives of these three women and their interactions with each other and everyone else in their community. It really goes into detail about the day to day life of a maid in Jackson at that time. The biggest thing that hit home for me was how close they were to the children they helped raise and also how close the children were to them. Aibileen is much more of a mother and caregiver to the child she is helping take care of than her own mother. But the reality of the situation was that the maids were employees and could be fired at any time. The author does a great job of detailing how delicate that connection was.

The author also did a great job discussing the racism that was present at that time. It was really interesting to see it displayed from the perspective of the maids. She often made the distinction that the white men who hated you would beat you up while the white women would make up a lie and therefore ruin your reputation and your ability to get a job and care for your family, etc which was much worse. Having not been alive at that time period, I really thought that relationship between black and whites at that time was interesting. It made me so sad to read about some of the horrible things people did to each other at that time.

But the really uplifting part about the book is that people are willing to stand up for the rights of others. Skeeter empathizes with Aibileen and the other maids, mostly because she was raised by a black maid and grew to love her. That part of the book is so heart warming. I won't give too many details because I want you to read it but its a really good story.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was sort of slow to get into but once the plot got going I was hooked. I would highly recommend reading it. It was one of those books that really makes you think and at the end I wanted more. I will definitely try to see the movie and hope it lives up to the book!

Veggie Lasagna Recipe Review

A recipe that I recently tried was a Veggie Lasagna recipe I got from Jordan. She and Kim made it for a family gathering and it was so yummy and packed full of veggies that I had to try it! I was nervous I wouldn't be able to do a good job, but man it was so good! The recipe is super easy too, its just time consuming. But the end result was totally worth it!

Look at how yummy it looks:

Veggie Lasagna ala Jordan and Kim

Ingredients:
Chopped veggies (I used zucchini, red/yellow peppers, shredded carrots, onions, garlic, mushrooms)
Fresh Spinach (I forgot to get this so I didn't put it in, but I'm sure it would be awesome.)
Your favorite marinara sauce (I used 2 jars of Ragu sauteed onions and garlic)
Lasagna noodles (boil or no boil, if you use noodles that need boiling obviously boil them first :)
Cottage Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
2 Eggs
Spices of your choosing (I used Thyme, Italian Seasoning, Oregano and Garlic Salt)

Directions:
Chop up all the veggies and saute them on medium low just to get some of the juice out and get them to a nice texture. Drain the liquid.
Mix together the cottage cheese, eggs and spices. Set aside.
Layer in baking pan:
Layer of marinara sauce
Layer of noodles
Layer of the cottage cheese mixture (spread evenly)
Layer of fresh spinach
Layer of all the veggies you sauteed
Layer of Mozzarella/Parmesan and any other cheese you like
Keep layering like that until you fill up the pan. It only took me 1 time through to fill mine up!
Cover with foil and bake in 350 oven for about 45 mins. Broil for the last few minutes to brown the top cheese.

This was so delicious I can't even say enough. It tastes awesome and has so many great veggies in it! You really can't taste the individual veggies, but they make such a great flavor and texture that it is just amazing. You don't even miss meat at all or the heavy cheese. The cottage cheese mixture is awesome in this too. It was delicious. I think the whole pan was gone in about 3 days at our house! ha! So yummy!! Thanks again for the recipe, Jordan and Kim! We will definitely be making this again!!