420 months old & 29 months old

This weekend was spent celebrating my hubby's birthday with food, friends & fun at our house.

Yesterday was Mike's thirty-fifth birthday, happy birthday, Mike!!  It's hard to believe I've known the guy since we were sixteen years old!!!

Unfortunately, as the celebrations were winding down, this little chicky fell suddenly ill.  When she woke up from her nap with a nearly 103 degree fever, I made the decision to call off work & nurse my girl back to good health today.  She woke up very sad, miserable & feverish this morning, but after the ibuprofen kicked in, she was a new girl, thank goodness!

She loves her pockets!

It's amazing what a teaspoon of medicine can do!  My girl is 29 months old today!!  I haven't done an update on Reese lately, so what has she been up to these days? 

Reese is still a very feisty, strong-willed little girl & she doesn't take anything from anybody!  But she is also incredibly sweet & loving.  When she found out I was feeling sick last week, she came up to me, kissed my arm & said, "I'm so sorry that you're sick, Mommy!"  Her vocabulary is amazing & she speaks in full sentences with no issues.  We have full blown conversations; sometimes I can't understand what she's saying, but eventually I get it.   She wears size 2-4T clothes but the 2T is a bit snug, so at this point, I only buy 4T so we can get more bang for our buck.  She's in size five diapers, has no desire to use the potty whatsoever & I'm just hoping to have her potty trained by 3!  Reese wears size 6-7 shoes & weighs around 32#.  Her favorite foods are waffles with peanut butter & honey, cheese & especially grapes.

Her favorite things in the world are Disney princesses & Minnie Mouse.  As I type this, we're watching her favorite movie, Tangled.  She loves, loves, loves Frozen too & belts out the songs from the movie.  Reese is such a little Mommy & adores taking care of her baby dolls, pushing them around the house in their strollers.  When I vacuum, she pushes her Minnie vacuum around with me.  When I dust, she grabs a baby wipe & cleans along side me too.  She has gotten so much more laid back & I can get the house cleaned & work on other projects when she's home with me... very different from a year ago!  Reese is still an awesome sleeper, takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon & sleeps 12 hours at night, thank goodness!  She's my little girlfriend & I positively love spending time with her.  I am so lucky to be her mommy!

Cheesy Crunch Panko Crusted Fish. Super healthy, super fast!

Many of our weekday meals involve very simple ingredients which are healthy & makes dinner uncomplicated.  The last thing I have time for at the end of a hectic day is a tedious dinner!  Last week I made baked fish with a cheesy, panko breadcrumb topping that literally took less than twenty minutes from start to finish.  For some reason, I used to rarely cook fish, but lately we've been doing a lot of it since it cooks so quickly & it's so healthy. I pick up any frozen fish that's mild in flavor, light & flaky.  I'm trying to be more open to salmon but after a couple of super fishy bites I've taken, I've been avoiding it.  But, I'll get there!

Recently I stumbled across swai fillets which is an Asian, white, flaky fish that has a mild, sweet flavor.  Not only is it yummy, but it's super affordable at around $3.99 a pound.  I buy it frozen from Target & as I'm putting groceries away or busying myself with something quick, I thaw it under running water in the sink.  Serve it with some rice & steamer veggies & you've got a super healthy meal in less than thirty minutes.  Each 4oz fillet is only 100 calories & 21g of protein.  Um, yes please!

Cheesy Crunch Panko Crusted Fish

4oz swai fillets
Panko breadcrumbs
Sharp shredded cheddar cheese
Olive oil
Salt
Garlic powder
Lemon pepper

Spray a baking pan with non-stick cooking spray & preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brush both sides of fish fillet with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, lemon pepper & garlic powder.  Mix equal amounts of panko breadcrumbs & cheese (amount will depend on number of fillets used), moisten breadcrumb/cheese mixture a with small drizzle of olive oil & sprinkle over fish.  Bake for 10-14 minutes.  Serve with plenty of lemon wedges & enjoy!

We recently ordered this rice cooker from Amazon & I absolutely love it.  It cooks rice perfectly, can steam vegetables in a basket above the rice while it cooks & even has a delay timer.  The timer is awesome on Crock Pot nights since it's ready to go when we walk through the door from work.  I love it when I can find dinners that are inexpensive, fast, healthy & no-brainers since weekdays can be complicated enough!

Is there no end to their madness?!?

It's only Tuesday & I'm already beat from this week!!!  The kids have been particularly ornery & have been fighting for what feels like constantly & I'm particularly short-tempered.  Not a good combo.  Does anyone else with multiple kids sometimes feel like the yelling, arguing & crying is never ending?

Doesn't Cam just look precious in Reese's fuschia polka dot Minnie dress?!  Actually, after I took this picture yesterday, I felt like they would start saying, Danny, come play with us.  Forever & ever & ever...  If you've seen The Shining, you know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, Cam wasn't wearing this dress because he actually likes it, he only wanted to wear it because he was certain that his sister would shriek, Noooo! That's MY dress!!! And that's exactly what she did. That's basically his MO these day; how to make his sister mad. Sigh.

It's exceptionally rare that Reese & I have an outing to ourselves so last Wednesday we hit the road & headed to Busch Gardens to take advantage of our season passes.

We had so much fun together & I realized just how cooperative & pleasant my Reese Cakes is when she's not being harassed by her big brother!  ;o)

A lady was nice enough to take our picture!

We had an awesome weekend since my parents came up Friday night so they could watch Cam play t-ball on Saturday morning.  They brought Cam's BFF, Mikayla & they all had an absolute blast together.  We watched Frozen at least three times.  I love that movie!

I've been a bit of a decorating rut & feeling overwhelmed every time I hit a store to browse around.  My mom & I hit Home Goods on Saturday & I had so many ideas whirring in my head that it was straight up overwhelming.  Not to mention that everything costs so damn much.  If only money wasn't an object!!  I did snag these three turquoise lanterns & wooden tray & I must say that they look absolutely magical when it's dark & they're shimmering in candlelight.  It's the little things that make me happy!

Speaking of ruts, I've been eating like garbage lately & the scale does not lie since I've gained nearly five pounds.. yikes!  Time to reel it in.  Many people don't agree with weighing themselves often, but it definitely works for me since I'd rather nip three or five pounds in the bud vs. ten or fifteen.

Time to cut out the nightly glass of wine with dinner or occasional Thursday night margarita that Mike whips up!  That's a good 250+ calories (more with the margarita) that I cannot afford.  With the glass of red wine often comes a hankering for some cheese or a piece of dark chocolate.  Now it's time to lock it up & have a mug of tea or allow myself a piece of fruit if I'm feeling like a nighttime snack.  I like having a big bowl of fruit out anyway since it looks pretty & Reese adores fruit.  Wouldn't it be nice if we could just eat whatever we wanted & not gain weight.  That would be nearly as fun as shopping if money was no object.. one can dream!

Beach bound, baby!

Last weekend a huge group of us hit the beach for a full day of fun in the sun & we had an absolute blast!!

Living in Florida definitely has its perks, one being a hop, skip & a jump away from some of the most beautiful beaches in the U.S.  We hit Sand Key Beach which is right next to Clearwater.  Since it's spring break, we couldn't stand the idea of fighting with the massive crowds.

I wanted Reese to wear a swim shirt to better protect herself from the sun, but she was insistent on wearing her princess tankini over it!  Initially she fought me tooth & nail, saying she wanted to wear her princess nightgown & then it changed to her princess ballgown until she finally settled on the tankini.  This stubborn girl is gaga for the princesses!  Oh, and I certainly couldn't zip her swim coverup since that would cover up the almighty princess!!!

Who's excited for the beach?  This hairy guy!

We set up camp a little after 10am & stayed until about 7pm, it was a awesome!

 The water was turquoise blue & beautiful to gaze out over as we sipped the strawberry mango mojitos I whipped up for the adults!

Brooks is such a cutie!

The kids had a blast getting buried in the sand...

See?

Uh oh, sand in the face while you're without the use of arms isn't such fun!

 

 Hahaha, this picture cracks me up!

 So funny, yet so sad at the same time!  Okay, time to yank em outta there!

Samantha's turn!

Unfortunately, when you're in the sun all day long, you're bound to get burned!  As diligent as we were protecting the kids, we were not for ourselves!  The back of my legs were scorched & Mike's back is fire engine red.. I crack up every time I glance at his back! But, we had a blast, so it was worth it!

I've got myself a t-baller!

Cam had his second t-ball game this past weekend & he's still smitten with the game which is so fun to watch!

His coaches are awesome & they even put their names on the jerseys which none of the other teams have. 

Cam's a lefty so he's trying out the switch hitting thing & seeing which way he prefers & thus far it's lefty.  I'm so happy to see him having such a blast playing.  He crawled into bed with us Friday morning, claiming to have had a bad dream, which he never does, and he thought it was game day.  I said, "nope, unfortunately it's Friday & we have to go to work & you have to go to school!"

Little Reesey is the best cheerleader & loves eating snacks non-stop rooting her brother on from the sidelines!

When we lived in Illinois, we would walk around the neighborhoods & admire the little families watching their kids play soccer or baseball & talk about how we hope one day that would be us & here we are! We're so lucky! 

And we can't forget that today is St. Patrick's Day!!  The weather was positively miserable today, raining & storming the entire day, but we were lucky enough to have awesome weather for an Irish fest we spent the afternoon at yesterday!

St Paddy's Day wouldn't be complete for me without a green beer or a Guiness (which I just so happen to be sipping as I type this).

BFFs sharing a water!

The kids had an absolute blast jumping like little beans in the bounce house & skipping their naps!  We ended the day with pizza & wings at Matt & Kelly's & I unfortunately woke up sick as can be at around midnight.  Apparently fatty, mega-spicy wings on my wimpy system was a no-go.  I ended up waking Mike because I seriously thought I was going to pass out which never ever happens to me.  It was awful!  I ended up finally falling back to sleep & had to drag my weak, tired body out of bed & to work.  Other than being tired, I'm completely myself today, thank goodness.

The kiddos will be wishing Grammy a very happy birthday tomorrow!  Unfortunately we won't be able to spend the day with her, but next time she comes to Florida, we'll celebrate!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!   May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks. May your heart be as light as a song. May each day bring you bright, happy hours that stay with you all the year long.

Recent happenings

Things have calmed down around here now that my coworker is back from her medical leave, thank goodness!  It's been hard for me to transition back to normal pace since I was in ultra hyper drive the entire month of February... I'm finding I'm actually even a little bored lately!  Speaking of work, today is Registered Dietitian Day, so Happy RD day to all my fellow dietitian friends out there!  We have a lot of education & don't get a lot of recognition or pay for it, so here's to us being celebrated for the day! 

This is what I look like the majority of the week!  Since I'm off today, my work was nice enough to celebrate yesterday so I could be a part of it so we were treated to Starbucks & whatever we wanted for breakfast.

Daylight Saving Time has thrown us for a major loop as I'm sure it has others with small kids too.  "But, Mommy, it's light outside, we don't have to go to bed yet!!!!"  Um, yes you do, now get in your room & put a sock in it!  Ha.  But, we have been enjoying the extra hour in the evening, playing out back, feeding the ducks or just talking on the patio after the kids have gone to bed.

The weather has been spectacular so we're taking advantage of that too since it'll be a humid swampland in about a month or so.  YUCK.  Florida's summers are not my cup of tea!  But neither are Illinois' winters, so I guess I'm just impossible to please.  Perhaps I need to just move to San Diego where the average daily temp is 70.5 degrees.  Yes, please!

I put this pic of Reese picking flowers on Instagram & my friend Lesli commented that she's glad she isn't the only one that has kids running around in undies or without pants altogether.  Nope, my kids, especially when still in diapers & potty training, barely ever have pants on when we're home!  Who's got time for that nonsense?!  ;o)  We've been pretty lackadaisical about potty training with baby #2, just like we've been more laid back about most everything.  Oh, you want more fruit snacks?  You'll stay out of my hair for another five minutes?  Sure, have more fruit snacks!!  Ha, ha.  But, now we're starting to get more serious about potty training by putting her on the potty much more often & even breaking out the princess undies she got at Christmas.  I keep telling her, "don't pee on the princess!"  Unfortunately, Rapunzel was peed on last night, poor gal.

I took this picture Saturday morning after Cameron's first t-ball game which he positively adored!  We had him in soccer last year & he was not at all a fan, but with t-ball he was smiling ear to ear the entire game & we never had to push him out on the field since he happily ran out there himself.  After the game, I put this picture on FB & commented that my kids don't go more than four minutes without asking for something All. Day. Long.  It's the truth, the requests never end!  Being a parent surely takes a lot of patience & work, but I sure do love it!  Sometimes I wonder how stay-at-home moms do it all day, every day without losing it!

Since I barely blogged last month, I never put the pictures from our family weekend to Sarasota.

Cam is in seventh heaven when we're with his cousins & you can always find him with his partner in crime, Mikayla! 

And Maddy is always so sweet with Reese.  One time, they spent a few days together while the parents got a break & my mom overheard her tell Reese, "you can call me Mama!"  Ha, ha!

My gal pal is home with me today & we'll be picking her brother up after pre-K this afternoon.  I miss being able to keep Cam out of "school" whenever I want like I used to when he was just in daycare, but I'm glad to be having more one on one time with Reese.

I was talking with Mike this weekend about how much we love this age... she's still a baby but getting to be such a big girl & just says & does the cutest things.  The drama, tears & fits over the smallest things?  Not so much!

Anyway, hope you're all having a great week so far!!