Meal Plan Mondays

So I guess that's what I am calling it these days. When Sunday rolls around I just don't have the gusto to plan our meals out AND make it to the grocery store. It's always way too crowded and they are always out of stuff so I wait until Monday. Ryan and I usually do something fun in the morning and then after nap time we head to Central Market to get food for the week. Ryan digs the carts with the cars on top and he also is a BIG fan of the balloons so it works out well. Plus CM always has a ton of yummy fruit and bread for him to snack on. Anyhow, here is what we are working with this week:

Monday: Chili-lime Tilpaia, Herbed Basamati Rice and Fresh Spinach.

Kevin and I were both pretty big fans - it was just what we needed after a weekend of not so healthy food. Kevin rated this guy a solid four starts.

Chili-Lime Tilapia (or any white flaky fish) Servings: 4 Time: 20 mins

Ingredients 6 tilapia fillets

1/4 cup olive oil 2 teaspoons lime juice 1 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions 1. Preheat oven to broil. 2. Place fillets in a baking dish. 3. Drizzle oil and lime juice on fillets. 4. Sprinkle with chili powder and salt. 5. Cook for about 10 minutes watching to make sure it doesn't overcook.

Herbed Basmati Rice Servings: 4-6 Time: 30 mins

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups basmati rice

3 cups chicken stock ( low sodium fat free) 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 teaspoons parsley

1 teaspoon dill, dried 1 tablespoon fresh scallions, white and green parts 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions 1. Combine rice, stock and butter in a saucepan. 2. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce the heat to low, stir once, and simmer for

15 minutes. 3. Add herbs, stir, cover and continue to cook for 5 more minutes.

Tuesday: Manicotti with Turkey Sausage and Mushrooms

Wednesday: Braised Beef Stroganoff

Thursday:  Halloween Party @ LCC

Friday: Dine out

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Boo Bags!

Today Ryan brought his teachers (he has three of them) some Halloween goodies! Yes, I realize he is only 15 months and he is only with these ladies for a total of 10 hours a week, but what can I say - I just love holidays.  I found these super cute felt halloween goodie bags at Target and thought they would be perfect to stuff with something fun.

I raided the Halloween aisle and ended up getting stuff for Halloween cupcakes - mix, icing and sprinkles and baking cups. All of his teachers have kids so I am sure it will be fun for them to bake with them. I also saw the cute little Halloween soap - who doesn't need soap? Then I threw some candy in there to top it off. I made cute little tags with some halloween card stock that I had and wrote a little note from Ryan. All in all it wasn't expensive just something a little Halloween-ey! Boo!

Jamaica Mon!

Kevin and I just got back (Sunday evening) from our first trip away from Ryan. Well, I guess MY first trip away from the little guy. I have never been away from him for more than 24hrs, so going away for four days was a BIG deal!

I was nervous leading up to the trip and really sad (especially when I realized our flight out Thursday was at 7am, so I wouldn't get to see R before we left for the airport) but I knew he was in good hands and would have so much fun with grandma, grandpa, Yia Yia and Papu. We are so fortunate to have our parents so close and that they were willing and able to help us out! They tag-teamed the weekend taking turns to watch the little guy.  I know they loved hanging with the little man - who wouldn't?!? I missed him SO much but we had an AMAZING time and am so glad we were able to celebrate Jessica & Johns wedding day with them!

And on to the pictures....here is Kevin and I before dinner the first night. We pulled the curtains (which  made a pretty cool backdrop) for a few pics.

The next morning we boarded a catamaran for a nice outing. Sounds nice and fancy, huh? Well, it was a really a booze cruise and it was wonderful. Don't let the weather fool you - that was about the most sunshine we received until the morning we left. 

We did a little snorkeling, a little drinking (ok, a lot), some dancing. We also stopped at Margartiaville and played on the 2-story slide and water trampoline - it was amazing. 

This is the slide - there is a pic below of me shooting out of it. Kevin said everyone came out all normal and then when I came out I was just crazy twisted - thats what I felt like too. goodness. 

Moving on...here we are at the rehearsal dinner that night. 

 And here we are before the wedding!

 Love my Mk!

 The boys

The view

 Walking down the aisle with her dad! Jessica looked beautiful!

Fun photo booth at the wedding! So Cute!

Jessica & John! Congrats!

 My J Bird!

All the ladies hanging out on the beach after the wedding!

And the boys! Why are they sitting and we are standing? Goodness!

And here are even more pics ( I have about 200 of them! yikes!) We had so much fun the entire weekend but it's probably a good thing we were only there for a short while - I don't think we could have made it any longer. We acted like we were back in college and boy oh boy is that hard on your body. I am so happy to be back in Dallas with my little man and not drinking. ok, so maybe a glass of wine tonight :)

Congrats again to Jessica & John! 

Halloween Decorations

One of the reasons why my blogging has dropped off recently is because I have been busy decorating for Halloween! I feel like my house is always "in the works" so I don't have any pictures to share yet. However, since it is October 4th (forgot to hit publish until now) I should hurry up and get them done so I can relax a bit (before I move on to my next holiday!)
Anyhow I finished a wreath today and actually took some pictures to share. Here is a picture of the original wreath that I created.  It was super easy to make but it did create quite a glitter mess when I was making that bow! Wowzers.

After a couple of weeks I decided I was over all that snazzy glitter. Plus every time we came in the front door Ryan would pull on the ribbon. 

I found a super cute wreath on Pinterest and decided to make it

It looks a little wonky in the picture but in person I think it looks normal.

You are suppose to hot glue the roses on but I just used T pins so that I could change them out for other holidays.

Happy Halloween! 

Arboretum fun

On Friday the Hale kiddos had the day off from school so we decided to join them for donuts and a trip to the arboretum!

At the donut shop all the kiddos sat together at one table. Ryan was tickled pink when he got to sit with the"big kids". He just sat there in awe watching them eat. It was so cute!

And we got an adorable picture of all the kiddos! I am sure Grandma is going to want a copy of this pic!

Ryan loved playing with the straw that was on the ground. 

Ryan LOVES Ethan. He lights up every time Ethan plays with him and gives him special attention. He was hugging on him and resting his head on him - so sweet!

TX OU Weekend Traditions

Back in the day I loved getting decked out in my burnt orange and cowboy boots, tailgating all day, goofing around at the fair and watching the game. About five years ago I realized it just wasn't my thing anymore. It was my first year living here in Dallas and I went to the game with all the boys. I missed having girlfriends around to talk to. I think I spent more time watching Bevo than I did the actual game (let's be honest, I probably did the same thing back in college).  We were winning by a lot (which I thought that meant we could go ahead and leave, you know, since we knew the outcome) and the boys were in no hurry to leave. And as we stood in the stands until the VERY end I thought to myself, yup I am definitely not doing this again....and I haven't regretted it since. Don't get me wrong, I love the longhorns but I love my new tradition more. Now instead of going to the game, all the wives go shopping! Hook-em!

This was the first year I was able to fully experience the tradition that my sister-in-law Sarah and her friend Amy started and it was so much fun! My new TX OU tradition now involves a babysitter, shopping all day, a martini lunch at Bistro N and dinner out somewhere fun! Oh and don't worry, Nordstrom's announces the game score every so often over the loud speaker (although I am not so sure we really wanted to know this year!). 


Our day was super fun (minus my iphone getting stolen) and we ended it with a fun dinner at Alma. We had a great time and I thought I would share some of my favorite Fall Finds!

1. Colored Jeans

As we were headed to the mall my friend Terra was telling me about the new Joe's Jeans that come in 55 different colors AND are super soft! Ummmm amazing!  I knew I would need to secure a pair of those! We found them at Nieman's but they only had a few colors. You can preorder a lot of the colors online (and they have free shipping). They are super comfortable and I am excited to wear my new fiery red jean! Thanks Terra!

2. Faux Fur

I saw this vest in Anthropologie back in August when I was shopping with my mom. I tried it on and thought it was super cute but it was just so darn hot outside I couldn't bring myself to make the purchase. Since then I had tried on a few different ones, but a lot are so puffy my head looks so tiny. I decided to go back and get this one and can't wait to wear it out!

3.  Silk Blouse

Love the Lucinda Silk Blouse at JCrew. It's super cute with jeans and skirts. I love that you can dress it up or down so it's a must for me this Fall. It was on sale so I ended up with two fun colors! Yay!

Still in the market for some peep-toe booties, metallic flats and a gold watch (I know rose and chocolate gold are the rage but I still want just regular gold!) and a few other items but my time was cut short when I realized my iphone was gone. What a sad sad day - I am so glad I uploaded the video of Ryan's first steps to facebook & YouTube or I would have been even more upset! 

All in all it was a super fun time with the girls!

Houston

This past weekend we headed down to Houston to see family AND to surprise MK for her 30th birthday! Kevin took Friday off so that we could drive down Thursday evening. We were hoping that driving at night would be better for the bug (and for us). It worked out well - he watched one little 30 minute show then was out for the rest of the ride. He woke up when we arrived to say hello to everyone and then went back down easily. Success!

The biggest news from the weekend was that Ryan started WALKING! I has a feeling that he was going to - he always seems to hit milestones when he is at Yia yia and Papu's house. Here is a link to the video I took! Ryan Walking

We had a great weekend hanging with everyone (Claire came in town too)! We took Ryan to the park a couple of times and he LOVED it! Here is a video from him sliding down a slide.

Saturday night we met friends for dinner at a place called El Gran Malo. After dinner we headed to a bar called Prohibition for MK's surprise party. It was so much fun hanging out with everyone! Here are a couple pictures we took before we left the house.

 We didn't head back to Dallas until Sunday evening (since it works so much better for Ryan) but it was much harder for us to drive back after a night out! We were both so tired but we made it! Here are a few pictures from Ryan swimming on Sunday.

Ryan LOVES Macy! They are so cute together. 

I have more pictures on my iphone that I will have to add to this post!