Photo Round Up: February

Here's an assortment of photos from February. We've tried to stay busy, but safe in this wintery weather. Noah and I have both had the flu. Michael & Noah have both had strep. Noah finished out this last week of February with pink eye. Avery & Aaron have so far escaped unscathed. I'm praying it stays this way!

Here's to welcoming in March with open arms and a new set of busyness and also a much needed anticipated Spring Break!

Avery had a couple days where she wanted to wear "hairbows."  This was a day when we needed to show Aunt Bethany how pretty the hairband looked on Avery.  Aunt Bethany bought this hairband when she found out that Avery was on the way!

Avery has recently discovered Frozen so we've watched it a thousand times.  One day, I paused it so we could go to the library and grocery store and Noah thought Elsa froze the TV.

Avery is obsessed with brushing her "teef."  She loves to brush them, but then will smile so that I'll say "Oh wow! They're beautiful!"

I told her to stay away from our old Christmas tree box that I was going to throw away.  This is how I found her ten minutes later.

Noah and I battled out the flu together.

Michael has always been my reader rabbit.  He devours books and is always so excited to get a new one!

This was the set-up on the night before Valentine's Day!

Valentine's morning!  Noah and Avery were up first and both of them found their Skittles and Reese's heart right away!

Avery loved her little Princess dress-up set!

Michael got a new book and was already lost in the pages before school this day.

Noah got a Lego street sweeper that we put together that afternoon.  He LOVES it!

Avery found her brothers' stickers from school and they were both nice enough to let her have free reign with the sticker packs.

Avery and her trusty royal dog, Akuna.

I love it when the weather is nice enough for us to all play outside after school!  This was a rare day last week in between all of our days of down-pouring rain.

My oldest and me.  He is such a sweetie!

The two younger ones playing with slime or Playdoh.

One is reading for homework and one is listening.

She wanted to be Yoshi.  Immediately after putting this hat on her, she asked me if we could go look in the mee-row (Mirror). :)

He reads so much that he falls asleep while doing it.  I snapped this picture earlier this week.  I thought it was too cute to pass up!

She likes seeing herself in the selfie feature of the camera!

Noah used some balloons earlier this week to be police lights on top of his head.  He would then walk around our living room and kitchen making siren sounds. :)

We have watched a lot of "Doc McStuffins" lately and Avery was pretending to make this stuffed animal all better.

On Tuesday of this week, Avery got to go to Michael's school to have a picnic lunch with him.  So sweet!

That wraps up our February photo collection.  Hopefully March isn't met with as much sickness or rain!

Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba

Recipe: Kielbasa, peppers, and onions

One of the quickest weeknight meals we make is kielbasa, peppers, and onions.  Sometimes, we forget about this meal and once we bring it back into our rotation, we wonder how we ever forgot about it at all.

This is a recipe my mom and dad would make when I was growing up.  It's so easy and simple and Aaron loves it as much as I do.  With our kids, it's still hit or miss because of onions and our kids' semi-make-believe aversion to them based upon how they feel on any particular day. :)

Recipe:  Kielbasa, Peppers, and Onions

Ingredients:
-kielbasa (we buy the Hillshire Farm version)
-1 or 2 green bell peppers
-1 sweet onion
-sesame seeds
-egg noodles
-(butter for the pan)


Process:
-Start boiling a pot of water for the noodles.  When the water is rolling, drop in about a cup of noodles.  You'll serve the meat & veggie over the noodles or you can mix it all up together at the end.
-Cut the kielbasa on the bias.  We use the whole sausage roll but you can use half if you prefer.
-Add some butter to a skillet and bring it to medium-high heat.
-Chop the onion and bell pepper.
-If your skillet is big enough, you can add the sausage, peppers, and onions at the same time and cook until the onion is transparent.
-If your skillet is smaller, cook the sausage first until it's slightly charred and warmed all the way through (the Hillshire Farm brand comes pre-cooked).  Remove the meat from the heat and add in the veggies to the skillet and cook until the onions are transparent, then add the meat back to the skillet.
-When the pasta is done cooking, drain it, then return to the pot or you can add it straight to the skillet.
-Sprinkle sesame seeds all over the meat, veggies, and pasta.  This adds just the right finishing touch!

Try this out and let me know what you think!

Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba

Little Valentine's Day Touches

Every holiday is automatically ramped up in excitement when viewed through the eyes of a little kid.  Add in school Valentine's parties or special snacks, and you've got yourself some excited kiddos!  Any chance I can take to make the holidays (and even some "regular" days) fun and interesting and memorable to my kids is certainly a heart-cry of mine.

Several years ago, before my boys were old enough to remember Valentine's Day, I bought these little felt envelopes from the Target Dollar Spot and on a whim I bought the only pink felt envelope that Target had.  At that time, we had no plans to have a third child anywhere in the near future.  It was about two years after that when Avery was born and I knew I'd get to put that sweet little pink felt envelope to use!  So now each year on Valentine's Day, I stick a little prize and/or candy into the envelopes for each of my kids. They get so excited about it and it's just something extra special to remind them how very very loved they are.  This year, I grabbed some simple candies a few weeks ago and Aaron & I were able to pick up some little gifts for each kiddo earlier this week that I'll stick into their envelopes tonight so that they're ready in the morning for the kids to see as soon as they walk into the living room!

This year, each kiddo will get a Reese's peanut butter cup shaped heart and a little plastic heart filled with Skittles.  These are candies that each of my kids can easily eat and since all the candies are the same, then I eliminate the potential bickering of "I wanted to have that candy instead!" :)

Michael has been begging us for the latest "Dog Man" book, so his wish is coming true and he will receive the book "Fetch-22" in addition to his little candies.

Noah will receive a little street sweeper Lego set that he can build over the weekend. It's so super cute and it comes with a little trash-can and some Lego "trash" (ie, a banana and some random little Legos that are supposed to resemble trash).  He received several little Lego sets at his birthday party and he's really good at putting them mostly together on his own.  This little street sweeper set will be right up his alley.

Avery has recently become obsessed with the Frozen movie and will break into the song "Let it Go" at random intervals.  :)  We decided that since she's getting to the age of dress up and liking all things princess, etc., that she should have one of those little princess dress up kits with the plastic high-heel shoes, little crown, and Tiara.  We chose to get her a Cinderella set since she's seen the movie and liked it, and also because this set was light blue and she can pretend that it's a "Frozen" set if she wants to.

I'm SO PUMPED for the kids to see their little gifts tomorrow!  I almost gave all the gifts to them on Monday night when I got them just because I was so excited about them!  My parents always had some small gift for my brothers and me-- a little chocolate heart box or game we could play. It's so much fun getting to do similar things for my own kids.

In addition to these little gifts, I have also tried to add in some extra fun to our home this past week.

I hung up a little "XOXO" garland on our mantle and displayed a little string-art heart that one of the boys made at a Home Depot craft day.  I also changed out my Season's Changing Wreath to showcase the February felt flowers and banner.  On our coat closet, I hung up my Valentine's foam-heart craft.  All of these little touches were noticed by my kiddos and it makes them feel like our home is extra cozy and festive.

Earlier this week, I made a brownie pudding trifle.  This is hands-down my favorite dessert and I'm not sure why it took me so long to bring it back into rotation.  I chose sugar free pudding mix to make it a little easier on the carbs.

I made my own homemade brownies, let them cool, then sliced them up into one-inch squares.  While the brownies baked, I whipped up the pudding mix-- I chose Chocolate Fudge, but the white chocolate pudding is also really good. Once the brownies were cooled and the pudding was set, I layered brownie pieces, a few big spoonfuls of pudding, and some thawed Cool Whip into a glass bowl.  I repeated the layers three times then added a few chocolate chips to the top.  The boys were super super excited the whole time I was making the dessert.  We talked about what a trifle was and both of them helped me mix different items at different stages.  That night after dinner, we each got to have a bowlful (in the living room no less!) while watching "The Princess Bride."  Believe it or not, that was my first time watching it all the way through.  Aaron was shocked when I told me I hadn't seen it, so we rented it from our library and decided that it was going to be perfect when paired with the trifle.

All three kiddos got to have some leftover trifle yesterday after school which they loved.

These little touches and additions to our home or routine just help make holidays all the more festive and memorable and I'm overly excited to do these things for my kiddos!

Happy early Valentine's Day!

Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba