Ryan: Nine

Happy 9th Birthday Ryan!

I can't believe you are so close to double digits. Or as my sister told me, halfway to 18! (This makes me want to cry)

I went back and read my intro paragraph to your 8-year blog post....and I would say 1 year later it still describes you perfectly!!  "At 8 years old you seem to be half sweet little boy and half teenager! On the one hand, you still call me "Mommy" and love when I crawl on top of your bunk bed to snuggle with you. On the other hand, you have the attitude of a 14-year-old and throw up your hands in anger at me nearly every day."

Still call me Mommy? yep. Still have the attitude of a teenager? yep. And still like when I lie next to you and give you my undivided attention? yep

You still do not enjoy school, and do just the bare minimum to get by. However, you are doing well in every subject (especially math) and you really love your teacher! 

You are very sensitive to the way others treat you, and this includes the boys at school. I pray you can find a few really special, kind friends, and stick with them throughout your childhood. After school you always want to play outside, whether it's on our backyard swings, basketball out front, or running down the street to play with the neighbor friends. 

We are in the middle of baseball season right now and you are really blossoming into a great player! The coach says you're one of the best kids on the team at fielding the ball, and you're definitely the fastest runner. On the flip side, you love playing Nintendo on the weekends, and any sort of junk food is still your favorite.

A few words to describe you: Cool, Unorganized, Homebody, Handsome, Indifferent, Goofy, Argumentative, Athletic, Competitive, Sweet

You are especially sweet with your brother Andrew. I can count on you to watch him for a few minutes at a time, and you are always gentle and kind with him. You are most competitive with Lucas, and the two of you still argue and fight a lot. This year Jenna started to annoy you a little bit, and I've been noticing the two of you at odds a lot more lately.

You love comparing your feet with mine, or how long our body is....and you always comment on how you're almost as big as me. Someday I hope you're bigger!

You declined a friend party this year, and instead chose 1 friend to take out to dinner and mini golf.

Then yesterday we had a family party at our house.

You requested a very specific cake and I did my best to deliver. White cake with a layer of (organic) oreos, homemade chocolate buttercream frosting, topped with homemade whipped cream and a rim of oreos around the edge.

We snacked and played and then you received the most wonderful presents. A new baseball glove, a magic set, a chess set, batting cage, and an electric scooter. All pretty much a dream come true for a 9-year old boy.

Ryan, I pray so many blessings into your 9-year old and future life. I pray you would grow into the strong man God created you to be, and I thank him for entrusting us to raise you. You are such an important part of our family and we love watching you grow up. I love you Ry-Ry!

Dinners 4/15 - 4/25

This made me laugh out loud. Sometimes even those of us who love meal planning and cooking are just WORN OUT by the end of the week. Can anyone else relate to this?

I started snapping photos of our dinners last week and ended up with a lot! Hopefully one of these inspires you to try something new for dinner soon. Which is your favorite?

One thing to note: I've been trying my best to avoid wheat for a few weeks to see if it helps alleviate my frequent headaches. So except for maybe 1 night, everything here should be wheat-free.

MONDAY: Whole Chicken, Quinoa w/ Parmesan, Asparagus

I used the 100 Days of Real Food recipe for The Best Whole Chicken in a Crockpot. It's super easy and the chicken always turns out tender and flavorful.

The bonus is the amazing homemade chicken broth that you get the next day! Simply keep the chicken carcass in the crockpot, fill with water, and toss in whatever veggies or spices you please. I usually add carrots, celery, garlic, onion skins, etc. Cook on low overnight and wake up to this!

After our chicken dinner one of the kids had the idea to roast marshmallows in the fireplace, since it was kind of a cold rainy day.

 Andrew watched us for a few minutes, then ran to the cupboard and brought out toothpicks. He put his marshmallows on them and then asked to cook them. He is so funny.

 It was a fun experiment!

TUESDAY: Pot Roast with Potatoes and Onions, Salad

 I cooked the meal with potatoes and onions in my dutch oven for a few hours and it turned out great. On the side I had a simple salad made with iceburg lettuce. I'm trying to get my kids used to eating salad, so I'm easing them in to it with iceburg. Jenna tried it and ate it, so that's progress.

WEDNESDAY: Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole, Cobb Salad

I originally planned on doing a big breakfast for dinner but it just sounded too heavy when it came time to cook. So I made the hash brown casserole I had planned on making, but instead of doing a bunch of bacon and eggs, I made a cobb salad.

THURSDAY: Chipotle

We were out late running errands so I grudgingly let us buy dinner. I have a really hard time doing this for some reason! I got a veggie burrito bowl.

FRIDAY: Salsa Chicken Tacos, Chips, Fruit

 I cooked salsa chicken in the crockpot all day and made it into simple tacos using corn tortillas, cheese, avocado, and tomatoes. I baked the extra corn tortillas into chips and served with a chipotle bean dip I found at Sprouts. We also had some grapes. (Ryan had a friend over and between the 2 of them they ate 10 tacos!)

SATURDAY: Fish, Rice, Broccoli

 This is a breaded fish I found at Target. I wasn't sure there would be enough, so I cooked a piece of salmon for myself. Ryan loved the fish sticks! I had some leftover quinoa so I ate that, but cooked white rice for everyone else.

SUNDAY: Spaghetti

Sunday we ate Easter lunch at my sister's house. When it came time for dinner that night, it was kind of a free-for-all at our house. I had made and frozen a lasagna earlier in the week, and had a little bit of the meat sauce leftover. So I cooked some noodles and ate them with the extra sauce, plus some parmesan and fresh parsley.

MONDAY: Turkey/Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, Garlic Bread, Salad

 I made a big batch of my Turkey and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers because I was taking dinner to a friend this night. Adam made yummy garlic bread and I stole some of the garlicky butter and put it on a piece of pumpernickel bread (wheat-free). It wasn't quite the same. We had a big salad on the side.

TUESDAY: Chicken Posole Soup

I used a recipe my Mom gave me for Posole Soup in the crockpot. It was pretty simple: chicken thighs, salsa verde, carrots, cumin, broth, Mexican tomatoes, and hominy. I subbed corn for the hominy, so it wasn't a true posole, but still tasty! I topped mine with some sour cream and made some homemade corn chips for dipping.

WEDNESDAY: Mujadarra

Have you ever heard of this? Mujadarra is a very simple vegetarian dish of lentils, brown rice, paprika, olive oil and carmelized onions. Just a few ingredients but really good flavor. Plus it's very healthy and full of fiber. I topped mine with some fresh tomatoes and took it to-go to eat at Ryan's baseball game.

THURSDAY: Steak, Potatoes, Broccoli/Cauliflower

Simple dinner of BBQ'd steak, steamed veggies, and steamed potatoes. I topped the potatoes with a little parmesan and dinner was served!

Easter Weekend 2019

Our Easter Weekend began on Saturday afternoon with some egg dyeing.

In hindsight I should have boiled a bunch more eggs, because it was over too quickly.

 The kids had a lot of fun though. Andrew in particular enjoyed dropping the eggs into the colors.

 Even my big almost-9-yr-old had fun. He made the best looking eggs.

After that we got all cleaned up and headed to the Easter Service at our church. Our church is big so they offer a few different services on Saturday and Sunday. I didn't want our Easter morning to be rushed and stressful, so Saturday service it was!

 Sunday morning we woke to see the Easter bunny had come!

 The kids each got a small gift and a little bit of candy.

 Then we (excluding Ryan and Lucas) enjoyed some beautiful boiled eggs for breakfast.

 Isn't this one pretty!?

 We changed and headed over to my sister's house. Jenna wanted to take a selfie:

 And then she insisted on taking a picture of me.

 They do an annual Easter egg hunt outside with some of the neighborhood kids.

 My kids were ready!

 The little kids got a minute head start.

 And then the bigger kids quickly caught up!

 I think Andrew's candy bag weighed as much as him!

 I forced Adam to take a picture and act like he likes me.

 My mom and sister. Aren't they beautiful?

 We ate a delicious ham lunch and then the kids played. Can you guess who built their play structure?

 Jan made a delicious cake for everyone.

 More play time.

Adam and I played Apples to Apples with Ava, Lucas and Ryan. I would like to note that we must have played 30 rounds and I never once won. Ha!

We ended our Easter at home reading this book with our kids. Our kind neighbors gave it to us, and it goes through the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ. Of course the ending is the best because Jesus rose and is alive!

Happy Easter to everyone!