When I think about the 6 years that I have been married to Jamie it seems like such a long time and so much has changed for us. However, it is nothing compared to the 60 years that Jamie’s grandparents are sharing today. I can only hope that our life together is so richly blessed. Happy Anniversary you two, here’s to many, many more!
Unfortunately, I was wrong when I said that Charlie was teething… (well not completely wrong- the little guy is still working on his chompers) however, that wasn’t the reason for last weeks grumpy baby- a virus was. BOO!
Both boys have been sick now for almost a week with hand foot and mouth disease :( Just the name of it makes me wrinkle my nose up… It’s not fun- little guys with temperatures and tiny red bumps galore, not fun at all. We do however seem to be on the mend now- we’ve been temperature free now since Sunday (yay!!!), appetites are starting go back up a bit, the bumps are looking better and they are (knock on wood) sleeping through the night again (double yay!!!) Keep your fingers crossed for us that this is the end of it, having sick babies is not fun at all. And maybe, just maybe I will be able to get some of our recent photos up now that they are sleeping a little better- we have so much to share.
While we’ve been hanging a little closer to the house we have needed to be a little creative with our play and laundry baskets are always a good way to do that.
Happy hump day to ya!
Jay was with my Mom today. They went to the beach and, from what I understand, had a grand ole time. Charlie and I had a pretty great time ourselves. I had forgotten what it is like to have just one kiddo but it didn’t take me long to remember. I enjoyed every minute that we got together, just the two of us, today.
playing outside in the morning before it got scorching hot…
a few post-jammie photos, it got pretty warm out there even in the shade
enjoying some toys that were dug from the depths of the closet, especially since he didn’t have to share them with anyone…
evening swing at the park…
I was on a roll for awhile getting lots of things posted; however I think we are in the midst of teething right now. Which means that my normally super happy little one has been a little more needy lately and on top of that hasn’t taken a good afternoon nap (which is when I am productive ) in a good week or so… So while I have tons to share I don’t have a lot of time to post. Will be back when I can ;)
*Note- if you really aren’t interested in food and are here to see cute photos of our kiddos this is not the post for you. Feel free to skip this one- really this is just a way for me to brag share how creative I was with our fridge contents ;) Oh and by the way I am no chef or food blogger so these aren’t really recipes below- however, if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them…
After the shrimp boil we had a fair amount of food left over- a bunch of cooked potatoes, cooked corn, fresh corn, sausage and cooked shrimp. In order for it not to go to waste and for me (Jamie couldn’t care less if we ate anything different from day to day) to not get sick of eating the same thing every night 5 days in a row I got creative with our leftovers and this is what I came up with-
Grilled Sausages- Jamie grilled the sausages and sautéed a few of the leftover mushrooms to top them. I served this with baked oven fries– we used the cooked potatoes for this and they were delicious!! The boil spices gave the oven fries a little extra kick!
Shrimp Tacos- this was a wing-it recipe… I stuffed our tortillas with shrimp that I chopped into bite sized pieces and then topped that with Avocado Slaw (or at least that is what I am going to call it)
avocado slaw-
1/2 Chopped Purple Cabbage
2 tbsp fresh Lime Juice
1 avocado pitted and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Mix it all together and put it in tacos and top it with your favorite protein (we have used fried eggs, black beans and shrimp so far- all of which have been really good)
Shepherds Pie-
I caramelized one of our leftover onions, added that to cooked ground beef, threw in some cooked corn (cut from the husk), carrots from our co-op bounty that week, a can of tomato soup and topped it with mashed potatoes that I made from the leftover shrimp boil potatoes. The spices in the already cooked corn and potatoes added some zing to the pie and it was really yummy.
Thai Peanut Shrimp Pizza-
I chopped the last of the cooked shrimp, some green onion, purple cabbage and peanuts and then threw it all of a top of a pizza dough covered with a homemade thai peanut sauce (again a wing-it ‘recipe’) and swiss cheese. This was really tasty and we had enough for leftover pizza another night.
Hamburgers with charred (leftover) onions served with smashed potoes– a Pioneer Women recipe that is fantastic and a great use of already cooked potatoes.
I also plan to make red beans and rice with the last of the leftover sausage but that won’t be right away. Not sure I spent much less on our groceries this week but we sure didn’t let anything go to waste, so I consider that a win ;)
Aside from the 90 degree weather, another sure fire sign that summer is upon us is watermelon. I ate so much of it the summer I was pregnant with Jay that I haven’t wanted much of it the last two summers however I seem to have finally gotten my taste for it back.I have grabbed some the last few times that I was at publix and we even scored a huge one for just $3 when we were at the blackberry patch (yay!!) so we have been enjoying it out in the front after supper. I mean what could be a better end to the day then a super sticky kiddo covered in watermelon juice?
Charlie wanted a taste too…
So we gave him one ;)
Over the weekend we packed up the boys and headed to Pappy’s Patch, the place where we have picked strawberries this year and last, to take advantage of their last picking weekend. The strawberries were few and far between (the season is way past); however, our mission was blueberries. Sadly, not long after we arrived we realized that the blueberries were also pretty picked over. We did our best to get what we could, and we did get some delicious blueberries, but we were a little disappointed with our pickings. That was until a group of ladies suggested we check out the pick your own blackberry farm just down the road. I was sold at the word black… so we packed up the boys and headed off.
Man am I SO glad that we did!! The berries were/are delicious, they were super easy to pick (the bushes were thornless- AMAZING) and I found it much easier to do with Jay than strawberry or blueberry picking. The way the blackberry bushes grow make it easy for little ones to pick and the farm was set apart from the parking lot so I felt better about Jay just running around on his own.
We have been eating the berries by the handfuls every day since picking them but still have a whole bunch left so I am looking at either of these two recipes… probably both and if we still have some leftover then maybe some jam- we’ll see!
Blackberry Fool or Honey Yogurt Pops
Rows and rows of bushes with my sweet trio of guys down at the end
We are starting to reap the benefits of the garden we planted a few months ago- yay, yay, double yay!! Nothing beats supper fresh from the garden!
Tonight’s menu Tomato Basil Pizza- all basil and tomatoes from the garden- yum!
happy Monday to ya!
Our visit with the doctor went really well today- they said that Charlie looks great, is growing on track and even recommended a little something to mix with his pear juice to help with his ‘output’ issue. That last bit might be TMI but it’s super exciting news for us!
Here’s the stats and a few photos I took a couple days ago- love my super smily little guy!
Height- 25.5 inches (25%)
Weight- 17lbs 7oz (50%)
Head- 17 3/4 (75%)
He’s watching Jay in this photo… love how they adore each other ;)
and one of both my boys just because it makes me smile…
the perreault family 