Date Night Sentimentality

Lauren and Tyler went to Z and G's house for the afternoon.

Since they were in good hands and having fun with their friends, Matt and I decided to take advantage and Just Hang Out.

It was chilly yet sunny so we/I decided (and he agreed) to walk the nearby 10k path.  Later we had dinner at a fantastic restaurant.

I had a great time hanging out with just Matt and it had me thinking of other times "hanging out with just Matt."

Christmas 2000

(the last Christmas before our wedding)

July, 2001

(There's no helmet law in Idaho.)

Matt and I in 2008.

Through thick and thin he's my best friend and favorite date night partner.

And since I'm being all sentimental (and looking through old pictures) here are a couple of bonus pics for you all.

Me, 2001, all done up with eye-liner and lip-liner

and super long hair.

Lauren and Tyler

Look at my cute babies back in Feb. 2009.

(DO NOT tell Tyler I posted this picture...but isn't he just darling?) 

I could go on forever but I'll spare you the rest of my trek down Sentimental Lane.

Happy Saturday to you all.

Accidental Video Montage

I am getting old and/or technology is getting away from me!

So anyway...

Today I was taking pictures of our dinner:

Garlic Lime Marinated Pork Chops with Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice and green beans on the side.

the grown-up plate

the kid plate

Dinner was great.  The pork chops were a bit over-seasoned but cut the seasonings in half and they would be delish.

It wasn't until after dinner that Things Got Weird.

Matt, for the past week, has been working on Tyler's Pinewood Derby car for Boy Scouts.

He suggested that I take some photos of him working on the car to put on the blog.

...To show his anal retentiveness attention to detail...

Great idea.  So down to the basement I went to snap a bunch of pictures of Matt working on the car. 

After the photo shoot I down-loaded the pictures to the computer and to my surprise noticed a

VIDEO MONTGAGE.

(but I didn't take any video!)

Here is the accidental video montage:

Somehow my camera recorded video while I was taking pictures.

How did this happen?

What setting did I accidentally set on my camera?

Are aliens watching me?

Please tell me what happened because I'm feeling kind of old right now and that technology has gotten away from me.

#hashtag Our Life Right Now

I'm not on Twitter yet but I hear everyone is #hashtagging#.

#So #why #can't #I?

Want to know what we are doing right now?

Well this very minute Tyler is at his Cub Scout Pack Meeting but earlier he was glued to the news.

Snow is heading to parts of Georgia.

Unfortunately for Tyler (and all the kids at his elementary school) it won't head to our part of Georgia and school will still be in session tomorrow.

#no snow

While Tyler is at his Pack Meeting, Lauren is using a 20 minute screen-time to watch an episode of her latest favorite YouTube show.

The Happy Family Show

This particular episode can be found HERE.

#Barbies

Since I've posted our dinner for the past couple of nights:

Dinner tonight was Pesto Pasta for the kiddos (penne pasta tossed with jarred pesto and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan cheese) and left-overs for Matt and I.  #Nuthin' special.

Love Tester & Turkey Lasagna

After school today Z and G came over to play with my L and T.

Z and G are a sister and brother pair as are my L and T.

They are all fast friends.

(I haven't asked permission from Z and G's parents to put them on the blog.)

Anyway...after playing on the trampoline, playing house, playing hide and seek...they finally asked to do a screen time.  The boys set the 20 minutes on the timer and hooked up their tablets to play MineCraft (of course,) but the girls chose to play on the computer.

I'm glad we have the computers set up right in the kitchen so I can ALWAYS see what they are up to.

Today they were up to the Love Tester.

You enter your name and the name of another person to see your percent match.

Both L and Z typed in the same boy's name from their class and actually yay'd and boo'd when their percentage did or didn't turn out right.   (I'm withholding said boys name because I'm baffled these girls are already paying attention to a boy.  Don't those boys still have cooties!!)

They also typed in the name of every friend they could think of.

Lauren was particularly proud of the match between her brother Tyler and her good friend Tera.

So much so she took my camera and snapped a picture.

(for reference: "Matt" and "Christine" only yielded a 70% match)

For dinner tonight we had the Turkey Lasagna from my 1000 Lowfat Recipes Cookbook.  It was only 6 WW pts.+ per serving and so tasty.  

Matt, Myself, Lauren, Tyler and Z loved it but G said he "wasn't a fan of lasagna."  He did, however, eat two bites so he could get another serving of garlic bread.

That little Turkey!

Healthy Healthy Healthy

I don't make New Year's resolutions because I don't like people telling me what to do.

(even myself!)

So two weeks before the end of the year (since I don't make New Year Resolutions) I decided I wanted to lose some weight and went to the nearest Weight Watcher's meeting.

I'm happy to report that in 4 weeks (and 2 Bunkos & 1 New Year's Eve party) I'm down 8 pounds!

It's a slow process but after the first week of hunger pains and relearning serving sizes it hasn't been too hard to follow the plan.

I've always cooked almost all of our dinners (we only go out to eat once or twice per month.) 

So a simple change was to incorporate Weight Watchers friendly recipes for dinner.

My favorite places:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/

http://www.laaloosh.com/

http://www.emilybites.com/

(If you know of others please send them my way.)

 This week, along with my favorite healthy dinner websites, I'm using my 1,000 Low-fat Recipes cookbook. (Thanks for the hand-me-down Mom!)

Tonight's dinner:

Chicken Pot Pie (9 points #)

and:

Cauliflower Steaks (1 pts #)

I wanted to use this recipe but I didn't have the Greek yogurt to make the sauce.

Everyone liked it!

Matt, Lauren and I ate everything. Matt even exclaimed a "YuMM" during the meal.

Tyler ate all of his cauliflower steak and most of his Chicken Pot Pie.  He recently decided he doesn't like peas (probably because his Daddy has mentioned in the past that he doesn't like peas) so he left them on his plate.

I'm glad I have a husband who values family time and a home-cooked meal.

I'm glad my children are growing up with a nightly home-cooked family dinner.

And I'm glad I have a family who will try just about anything I make.

...even if it's my WW friendly, Healthy, Healthy, Healthy recipes...

PS.

The downside of cooking meals at home:

Dirty Dishes

Lucky for me, Matt will wash any dish I leave behind after cooking dinner.

Lucky for him, I try to wash them as I go.

I washed the prep dishes pictured above but Matt washed the casserole/dinner dishes.

I think we make a great team!

Dino Digs

Tyler received a Dino Digs set for Christmas from PaPa and MeMa.

Since it was warm outside (upper 60s the past few days) Tyler decided it was a perfect time to get to work on it.

He underestimated the amount of work it would take to carefully dig out the dinosaur bones.

Eventually he got tired so he gave his sister a turn.

 (I love this picture of Lauren with the sucker in her mouth.)

When Lauren got tired the task was handed over to Daddy.

ooh, I think I see something dino-bony

Matt didn't make it much farther but after school the next day Tyler headed right back out to work on his Dino Dig site.

He didn't finish but temps are supposed to be in the 70s throughout the weekend (I love Winters in the South!) so I'm sure he'll make some progress.

Dino Digs thoughts so far:

I love it and highly recommend it.  I like that it takes work to reach the bones.  The rock/sand goes everywhere so be sure to wear your safety glasses and use it outside.

We Have Another READER!

It seems like Lauren has always loved to read.

Her favorite game as a toddler was to go find a book and have me read it to her.

We played this game over and over and over and over and over.

She currently reads at a 4.1 - 6.3 grade level and leads her classroom in AR points.

But this post isn't about her.

It seemed to me that Tyler kind of struggled with his reading.

It was like pulling teeth time-consuming to help him sound out words.

We often got frustrated with one another just trying to make the different sounds blend into words.

...until about two weeks ago...

We went to the library to pick out some books for Christmas vacation.  I had a list of books for Lauren but I had Tyler look through the 1st-grade-level books to pick out something that caught his eye.  (I didn't want to pressure him to read but just encourage it.)

He pulled out "We Are in a Book" by Mo Willems

(an Elephant & Piggie book)

We went to a table at the library to read it to make sure he wanted to check it out.

Well, he read it to me and boy did he read it well.  (Thank you Mrs. First Grade Teacher!!)  We both cracked up at the book and then he asked, ASKED! to go find another Elephant & Piggie book to read.

He read me another Elephant & Piggie book and then we returned the two we read and checked out two more to read at home.

Back home he read them over and over.

Last week he mentioned "We Are in a Book" and how he wanted to read it to Daddy because he thought he would like it.  He asked, ASKED!! if I would bring him to the library to check it out.

(say no more my son!)

He wasn't with me but the next day I went by the library and checked out "We Are in a Book" and all the other Elephant & Piggie books available.

He has not stopped reading them!

 Here he is tonight reading "We Are in a Book" to Daddy.

(I added a fake straw hat because Matt didn't brush his hair today.) wink

I am in love with Elephant & Piggie books right now. 

Tyler and I highly recommend them to your 4-7 year-old readers.