Meal Plan Monday

I have been planning out my meals the past few months, I just don't always make it to post on here. But here it is for this week:

Monday: homemade chili and corn chips

Tuesday: Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizza (we have been doing this just about every year we have been married). If I don't make it to Papa Murphy's after work we will substitute with Tacos

Wednesday: Benny's Cheesesteaks (I have a BOGO coupon). We are planning to drop of a meal to some friends, the Loechler's in Hilliard and then head to Benny's since it too is in Hilliard and is one of our favorite places to dine.  I am making Potato soup (Outback style) which I have NEVER done before so I am hoping that it turns out ok :) You can read about the Loechler's and their story and learn more about 22q11 here.

Thursday: Bucky and brocoli (aka venison) This was a staple growing up and thanks to my cousin Matt who supplied my mom with some venison we will be enjoying this delicacy. Hopefully my mom will be joining us for dinner :)

Friday: Crock pot roast, potatoes and carrots

Saturday: Thurman's located in German Village and movie night :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

If you are looking for more menu planning ideas head over here.

Mia's card table playhouse

I have to admit, I was very nervous about how this project would turn out, but I am very pleased with it! And Mia has spent many hours in it already! It made completely out of felt with multiple pieces that can be removed and reattached by Velcro. The total project cost me about $35 and took roughly 24 hours to complete. I looked into buying one but they were upwards of $150! I now know why, due to the massive amount of time it took to complete! I worked on it in the evenings after Mia had gone to bed. This is a great concept for us since we don't have alot of storage or open available play space. So whenever Mis (or mommy) is done with it we just fold up the playhouse and the card table and put them away! and I love how it turned out!

 All the flowers and leaves are removable for endless play. I put mesh on the window so that air would circulate but I didn't want Mia or the cats thinking they could use it as a door. By the way, the cats think I made this hideout for them :)

 The front: the mailbox has a flap with storage for mail and the door is attached at the top only for easy access for big and little people inside. Good thing too, because Patrick spent about 3 hours inside on Saturday playing house.

 The garden has 4 ears of corn (they were in Mia's room during naptime when this photo was taken) 2 carrots and 2 beets that can be placed in pouches in the dirt

 The apple tree has removable apples and leaves, Mia loves to 'pick the apples'

She also loves to read books to her babies in the playhouse, so much so, that she thought she needed to bring her chair into the playhouse!

I hope that you Christmas brings you much JOY and lots of LOVE as we celebrate JESUS' birthday!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Mia's 2nd Christmas

Mia got a kitchen from Gramie! She loves it and I am afraid that it is nicer then ours!

  Before the Chaos

 The only picture I got of Mia looking at the camera the whole morning! 

 A vacuum so she can start pulling her weight around the house!

 Veggies to cut and cook in the new kitchen

 Stocking stuffers

Aqua doodle, she kept asking us to draw circles!

As you begin your Christmas celebrations I hope you have a wonderful memory filled time with you family and loved ones! Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We celebrated Christmas as a family this past weekend as we are preparing to head out of town this weekend for Christmas.We have lots of pictures and videos to share, but I wanted to share this first video of Mia for Dad. This is Mia opening up Pop-pop's gifts! Thank you Mia Loves them!

Christmas time

I LOVE Christmas time! This year I really wanted to focus on what Christmas is really all about and try and spend more time dwelling on the gift God gave us in His Son and put the presents on the back burner. Here is one thing we are doing with Mia. It is called a Jesse tree. It is an Advent calendar that has pictures and a Bible reading and an application for each that. The idea behind it is to prepare your heart for the coming Messiah throughout the Advent season. I made a felt tree and hung it on the door. Each evening we the passage and Mia gets to climb onto a chair and put the ornament on the tree. She is loving being able to participate and even through she doesn't really understand all that we are saying, it reminds me how important it is to take time to reflect on God most Amazing gift. Here is a picture of our Jesse Tree:

 As we are in the midst of this Advent season, I hope you take the time to reflect on what God's gift through His Son means to you. What do you think Jesus would want for his birthday?

Why my house never seems to be totally clean

Mia decided to empty the box of Q-tips one day, just for the fun of it

She also emptied the napkin holder and then attempted to put them back where she got them

It was a valiant effort

Needless to say, my house will never be spotless, I have a child.

From the mouth of Mia

We now have a chatter box on our hands! Mia seems to be learning new words everyday and is quickly become a parrot! Here are a few of her specialties:

• counting to three
• naming animals in pictures books and saying what sound they make
• speaking in small sentences (i.e. This is mommy's phone, That's daddy, etc)
• Diego (she calls both cats Diego and she called a dog Diego today-we are still working on it)
• If we sing 'If your happy and you know shout hooray" she will throw her hands in the air and say "Hooray!"
• naming the family members from pictures on the fridge
• she talks constantly about her 2 friends at school Asher and Saschi
• can name her shoes, socks, and shirt; she can even out her own socks on!

Here is a video of her putting her socks on. I was so proud of her. We had been working on it for a few days and she just 'got it' one day and is has become her new obsession!

Here is a video of her saying sounds animals make!

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