enchiladas

60 enchiladas to be exact.

I made 10 pans of 6 enchiladas for a total of 60 chicken enchiladas the other night. Why the heck would I do that? Well, let me tell you.

A friend of mine organized a group of 10 girls that were interested in doing a dinner swap. So, each person is responsible for making 1 meal and making 10 pans of it - one for each girl and one for themselves. We then get together at one of our houses and swap meals. So, you go home with 9 different meals you can stick in the freezer and use throughout the month - pretty handy huh?!

I usually plan for 4-5 meals per week my quick math tells me that will reduce the meals I will have to make by half - how awesome is that?!

Now this wasn't all fun and games. Of course the timing of this happened when Jimmy has been out of the country for 2 weeks for work. Which means I had to prepare 10 meals one night while occupying a 5 month old - not gonna happen! Luckily my mom was willing to come over and play with Lily while I worked on the enchiladas. It really wasn't as hard as it may sound aside from having to figure out how much ingredients I needed total and then how much ingredients to use in each pan so that you weren't starting skimpy to ensure you had enough by the last few pans and then find yourself having way more than you needed so stuffing those last few enchiladas clear full. This is where Jimmy would have come in handy:)

But - I figured it out and I must say, it was pretty successful. I have yet to actually try the enchiladas but I've made this receipe before so I am pretty confident that they will be tasty. Plus, I'm looking forward to the variety of meals in our freezer for the next month or so!

Another good thing about this group for me is that it's forcing me to expand my tastebuds a bit. I am sort of a picky eater and know what I like, therefore, I find myself making the same meals alot. So, this will allow us to enjoy some different stuff and my husband to get some red meat every now and then :)

fall fashion

I've been on a bit of a fashion kick lately. Maybe it's because I feel in between in sizes - not quite fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothes yet I will not continue to wear maternity clothes however, I don't want to buy all new as I hope to be in my old clothes soon. I also feel somewhat in between in my stage of life - I feel like I can't dress like a college student yet I want to know what's trendy, and then even though I know I'm a mom I don't quite fit the mom trend of high waisted pants and snowman jumpers. I fit somewhere in the middle of all that and have struggled lately to find things that look good, feel good, and are yet in style and appropriate for my age, life stage, and size. So I challenged myself to take a picture of myself dressed and ready everyday for a while. I did this for a few reasons 1. because I wanted to force myself to get ready every day as I feel that is so important for someone that works from home and stays at home with a little one. and 2. because sometimes you just need to see yourself in something to know that it's time to part ways with something because it's either too big, too small, or just isn't cute any more:)


Well I thought I'd share those photos with you all in case some of you are feeling similarly. I'm not sure all of these are great outfits - in fact I know they aren't but I thought maybe it'd help some of you get some ideas too. Or maybe it's just my "therapy" to tell myself that I'm not alone in this "in between" phase and you can still look good while there! :)

light blue sweater with ruffles and dark wash jeans worn with camel riding boots

went to a triathalon this day - black nike pants, nike yellow dri fit & purple puffy vest with out of control hair :)

jeggings with dolman sleeve top worn with camel boots

black mock neck 3/4 length shirt with dark washed jeans worn with leopard print flats

jeggings with cream and white stripped hoddie worn with camel boots

jeggings with graphic printed top and short sleeved open cardigan worn with white gladiator sandals

You probably noticed a trend of dark denim and my jeggings. I'm loving jeggings with loose fitted tops and my boots so far this fall and I think dark denim is slimming so that's why I'm living in them these days :) I recently bought several varations of the open cardigan that I'm excited to wear this fall too!

rolling over

Today I put Lily on her back with a few toys in the office, walked into our bedroom, and when I came back she was on her stomach! Apparently she now knows how to roll from her back to stomach too! Here's a video of her proud accomplishment (don't mind my annoying voice) :)

touch of fall

Generally speaking I'm not a seasonal decorator other than decorating for Christmas. I think my style is neutral enough that I don't need to constantly change it. That being said, I do like to switch thing up every now and then and swap out a few things around the house when the weather changes. So I did my "fall decorating" last week and this is what I came up with:


my wreath - i made this one using stuff from hobby lobby 



my "decorative" table - silly, we don't actually eat here but i like to keep it decorated pretty

berries in the windowsill - i swapped out my flowers for some fall follage and berries 
i put this together with things from hobby lobby

I still plan to put some pumpkins on the porch but that's about it. I also planted 2 purple mums in place of my green plants on the porch - I really love the purple. I also found these neat holiday art pieces on a website the other day that I thought were really cute and I may attempt to recreate with some paint and a canvas if I get some time - aren't they cute!

downstairs

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of our basement. When we first moved in we had nothing down here because we had no furniture and no workout equipment. But, after writing a fat check we have a furnished basement! I love having the exercise stuff right in our home because it gives me no excuse for not doing it - even if that means waiting until Jimmy gets home and/or Lily is asleep for the day to get it in! I also really like having the music room downstairs because it gives him his space to jam out as loud as he wants without bugging anyone :), and the storage in this house is great - it's nice to have lots of places for extra "stuff" in the house so you're not always heading to the garage and grabbing the ladder when you need something.

Here's some pictures.



right as you come down the stairs - a leather sectional facing our TV on the wall



our exercise equipment

storage space under the stairs that i plan to make into a play area when lily gets bigger

the music room / jimmy's "man cave"

bathroom

another storage space off the main room

bubbles

Lily's latest trick.

trip to denver

This past weekend we made the long trek to Denver, CO to spend the weekend with my sister and her family. My nephew was being dedicated on Sunday so we wanted to join them for the special occasion.

We left Cedar Falls with my parents about 8pm on Thursday night. Our plan was to drive as far as we could before getting too tired since Lily was sleeping. We got to Lincoln, NE about 1am and decided to call it quits. We stayed in a lovely hotel called the Settle Inn right off the interstate and crashed before hitting the road the next day. We hit the road about 9am for the last 7 hours of the drive. Lily did great in the car - she slept a lot of the time and I had plenty of toys to keep her occupied. I also brought along the portable DVD player because she recently has enjoyed watching her "Praise Baby" DVDs so I thought maybe that would tie her over if she got fussy - and that it did. Here's a shot of her zoning out to her worship DVD :)

in the car with grandma

watching her "movie"

We rolled into Denver about 4pm Friday afternoon and enjoyed some time just hanging out - Kirsten made a yummy dinner and we crashed pretty early.

Saturday morning my mom, dad and I had a 11 mile run so we went to a park close to their house that we knew was relatively flat and was a 1 mile loop. 11 laps got a little redundent but the elevation didn't bother us as much as we thought it might and overall it was a pretty good run! 11 miles is the furthest we've gone in our training so far (12 miles this Saturday)and it's the most I've run in over a year so I was pretty proud of myself! After our run we headed back to their house and enjoyed some pumpkin pancakes before getting ready to head to the mountains. Saturday afternoon we went for a little hike in the mountains to look at the Aspens as they are already turning colors for fall - so pretty! We ended the day with a Target run, pizza, and a movie.

lily & jimmy

ivan & his boys

views on our hike

we told asher to pose and this is what we got :)

all tuckered out

Then Sunday we were off to church in the morning to witness Sam's dedication that actually turned into a baptism - oops! Enjoyed lunch back at my sister's with Ivan's (my brother in law) parents too and then an afternoon of hanging out and playing outside. The weather was awesome all weekend! Sunday night we had planned to meet up with Jimmy's aunt, uncle, and cousins for dinner since they live in Colorado Springs and hadn't met Lily yet. So we drove about 30 minutes to meet them for dinner and hangout a bit. It's always good to see them and we wish we all lived closer because we really enjoy our time with their family. They loved Lily to pieces and are anxious to see her (and us) again this summer when Jimmy's little sister gets married. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of their meeting!

sam's dedication

lily & jimmy watching football

asher loved to "play" with lily

our attempts at a cousins pic

Then Monday was back in the car for the long trek back to Iowa! We did the whole drive in one day and weren't sure how Lily would do but she did great. She only got fussy a few times and we never really stopped because of her - it was always because someone needed the bathroom, or lunch time, etc. So that was good! We also made a stop in Des Moines to meet up with my little sister and brother in law for dinner because it was my sister's birthday. It was nice to get out of the car for an hour or so and spend some time with them celebrating her birthday too!

It was a fun trip. We weren't sure how Lily would do driving that far but she did great and it's always so fun to visit them in Denver. Of course it's always hard to say good bye and get back into our routine after being gone for a few days but it's always worth it! Fortunately we don't have to wait long to see them again because we are heading to San Diego just after Christmas this year and in the words of Asher "don't worry, we will play in California"