Omaha Zoo

A few weeks ago we took a little family vacation to Omaha, NE to visit their Children's Museum and the Omaha Zoo! The kids had a blast! Especially Emery. Here are some pics from the zoo.

 We got to use our new wagon for the first time. The kids and all our stuff fit perfectly!

 Dave and Campbell watching the monkeys. They were very active and very loud that day.

 Emery and I with the monkeys.

 Campbell was very tired but was a very good sport walking around the zoo.

 Emery and Dave on the bridge in the rainforest. It was very cool.

The aquarium was closed for repairs (super bummed) but that didn't stop us from taking some penguin pics.

Hectic Life

Ah, my life has been so hectic lately! I have missed/forgotten so much crap just from life. Completely missed Campbells 6 month check up, now he wont get his shots till next month. I have been losing keys, cell phones, and garage door openers everywhere! And stuff isn't slowing down any time soon. Listen to Saturday the 31st of March. 9am is an Easter egg hunt with my Dad and Denise. 12pm Emery's first soccer game. 2pm my best friends sons 1st birthday party in Marshall, MO. I'm tired just writing all of it! I even took a whole week off work last week, still sent the kids to daycare, thinking I would just rest and get myself back together, but that didn't happen. I worked my tail end off every day, either outside the house, or inside cleaning stuff. I really have a lot more to say, but it's 11pm and I have to work tomorrow. The one thing I am REALLY looking forward to this week, I'm going to see the Hunger Games Thursday at Midnight (okay technically Friday) with my friend. I CAN'T WAIT!!

Loose Park

I had a photo shoot in Loose Park last Sunday for a senior. Dave decided to bring the kids along to play at the park while I worked. After I was done, the kids were still awake and in a good mood so we decided to have a little impromptu photo session with them. Here are a few of the shots. You can find a few more plus the senior pics I took on BirchLane Photography.

Spring Break

I decided to have my own little spring break this week. The great part about it is, both kids are still going to daycare while I stay home and kick my feet up. Okay kicking my feet up is on the agenda, but it has not happened yet. I have been way too busy. Dave and I took the kids to Omaha to the Zoo and then yesterday I was like a mad woman doing stuff outside. You should have seen me. I raked tons of leaves out of the bushes, I got out the electric trimmer and trimmed all the bushes around the house! That was actually a lot of fun. Some of the bushes still look a little crazy though, I think I got a little carried away. I hauled away 2 truck loads of leaves to the farm ALL BY MYSELF! Today, I'm going to mow the yard. Not that it really needs it, but to get those crazy leaves out of my sight and to just kinda even out the grass. I may try to put together the leaf vac and get back into the wooded part of the yard to get all those leaves out, but we'll see because I have shopping on my agenda today! And I love to shop! Ok the shopping is not really the good kind of shopping where I go out with no purpose and buy on will, I actually need some khaki capris for work, and some comfy flats possibly (Toms?) and Campbell needs short sleeved onsies for this nice hot weather we are getting. We need hand soap too. So I guess I'll get to mowin so I can be done by the time the stores open, because I only have so much time until I have to go workout at 3:45 and then pick up Camp, then it's dinner, play outside and bedtime.

I'll post pics of Omaha maybe later tonight when I have some down time.

Making My Own Baby Food......Loving It

So I am obviously not the "greenest" person in the world, but I have decided to try my hand at making Campbell his own baby food. I have decided to do this for two reason. #1 It is much cheaper that buying all that other stuff and #2 I know when the food was made and I know it's the healthiest it can be.  Plus there is just this ultra good feeling when your doing it. So I thought I would kinda share the process a little bit for my other Mommy friends out there that want to try this. Though I highly recommend reading this lady's blog as well. She is the one who inspired me. You can find her here.

 Here are all the fruits and veggies I bought to start Campbell out with. Some Zucchini, Pears, Apples, Yams, Squash and Brown Rice. We are currently feeding Campbell the Zucchini but he has tried carrots and Yams before. They say to start with the veggies first and then towards 8 months or so in introduce the fruits. But I'm going to go ahead and make some fruit because it will stay good in the freezer for 3 months.

 Here is my Zucchini all done and pureed and in my silicone ice trays ready to freeze. I love these ice cube trays! They are perfect 1oz. servings and are so easy to get the food out AS LONG as you don't keep the food in them for more than a few days. When the food in them is done freezing (I usually will freeze over night for for an afternoon) pop it out and put it in labeled baggies like you see below. You can find the trays here.

 Here are my green beans! Do you see how nice and bright green they are and not that pasty olive green color that you see in the baby food jars?! That's because mine are super healthy!

I bought this book on amazon here and as well as this super helpful spatula here. You CAN NOT get the food in the ice cube trays efficiently without this spatula! And I love this cookbook because it's not just "peaches" or "sweet potatoes". It's fun things like green beans w/ mint and roasted red peppers with goat cheese. And it goes all the way up to 18 months and the unique ways you can make healthy toddler food.

So anyway, there you have it. Buy it, Wash it, Steam it, Puree it, Cube it, Freeze it, and Bag it. I love making baby food!!!

Fritz's

We went to Fritz's in Crown Center for the first time ever with the kids. Emery LOVED it! She loved it! She kept yelling every time a train would come out (Thankfully it was not very busy that night). This will def. be a special place we take Emery. Here are some pics of the event.