12 Dinners in ONE day!

One of the greatest blessings in our family is that Kevin and I are able to work from home. One of the curses of having both of us work from home is that we don't get done with work til around 7pm on a good night. I've tried meal planning and doing dinners for lunch and lunch for dinners but it still took too much time. Between my daily activities and work, making dinner is the dreaded task I hate- as I make a messes to make dinner-finally get it on the table to eat and then I still have to clean it up and do dishes, by then its time to get Luke ready for bed, I never got a chance to relax in the evenings. On the nights I would decide to be lazy and we would get fast food, I always felt nasty from the greasy-fatty food.
Today I decided to take my meal planning to the next step. I pre-cooked 12 dinners ALL in one day! Although the mess was tremendous- it was ONE mess. Now I have 12 nights of dinners in my freezer ready to be warmed up-which take no more than 45 mins to warm up, unless they involve the crock pot. Our dinners include: Lasagna, BBQ Chicken w/ veggies (x2), Teriyaki Chicken, Homemade Mac and Cheese, Chicken Tortalini, Enchiladas, Orange Chicken, Cafe Rio Sweet pulled pork, Southwestern Chicken Wraps, and BBQ chicken Pizza. We'll see how it goes! If you have questions on how to start this for your family...I did do lots of planning for these 12 meals and am willing to share my recipes and advice.

BIG BOY!

Luke took his FIRST steps! We were both super lucky to witness Luke waddle through his first 4 steps as we were picking a movie for our movie night. I've been trying super hard to get him walking on camera like any other proud parent- however Luke refuses to walk to when the camera is rolling, so like also like any other proud parent I've been making sure he doesn't know I'm recording him. With the trickery of recording him comes the lack of a decent video-my apologies. Hopefully I will get one soon that will be blog-worthy.
I can't believe how big Luke is getting! He has 4 teeth -2 top, 2 bottom and another one on its way on the top. He's eating normal food-the only thing he isnt a fan of is tuna. He's such a fun little guy, I love how excited he gets with such simple things.

New Ride

After much deliberation and test drives...Kevin and I took our Audi Allroad and Kevin's Ram 3500 and traded them in for one muti- purpose vehicle that is functional, updated, safe, and of course family friendly. We chose the 2012 Dodge Durango Citadel because its ability to handle its own in the snow with the AWD and V8. We were also very pleased with still having the ability to towe if needs be as well as fit our growing family as it seats 7 (yes, that means that #2 will eventually come along).
We love all the high-tech features that are new to us as this is our first BRAND NEW car together. The Adaptive Cruse Control, blind spot indicators, back up camera and senors really make the transition from driving a sedan to a bigger SUV very smooth. I think Kevin's favorite feature is the "cooled" seats. I will admit having cooled seats especially in Arizona is a great selling point, we'll see if he's still as big of a fan of them when we move to Wyoming. I would have to say my favorite feature is the remote start. It will defiantly come in handy! All in all we are very excited and proud to have our first "grown up" vehicle.

My Smarty Pants of a Husband

This post is well overdue! We are publicly announcing that we will be headed to Laramie,Wyoming coming June 2012. Kevin has been accepted to the University of Wyoming's Pre-Pharmacy program. We are super excited for this new adventure. Kevin has worked very hard and is excited to be one step closer to being a Pharmacist. We will be heading from one extreme weather condition to another, but we are ready to leave the desert right as the summer hits.

Luke is 1!

Our little guy had his first birthday! I can't believe a year ago we held Luke for the first time...time flew by! Luke is a major fan of Mickey Mouse, so we had a little Micky Mouse party. I decided to try out my Christmas gift from Kevin and make Luke a fun Mickey themed cake. This was the first time I played with fondant and gum paste- I had a love/hate relationship with this cake during the entire process, but it was worth seeing Luke happy!
Luke loved opening his gifts! Like most 1 year olds he liked the stuff like boxes, wrapping paper, and his cards the most. He was excited for the Rockin' Mickey that kevin and I got him as well as another fun noise making toy from Kevin's mom.
When it came to eating cake-we had to practically beg Luke to start digging in. Luke is very mellow baby and his mannerism during cake time was no different, he was very calm and didn't make a mess (besides on himself) It was wonderful birthday full of happiness,giggles, and smiles-we couldn't ask for anything more!

Palm Springs Vacation

While Kevin was off for Christmas break we got the opportunity to take a week long vacation to Palm Springs. We stayed at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Villas-it was great to have an apartment style room, especially since we had Luke with us! We decided that since with Kevin's school schedule and our work schedules that we would take this week to relax. We didn't do too much during the week- but thats what we needed!
We did take an opportunity to go down to La Jolla (about 2 hours from Palm Springs) to go to the Birch Aquarium as well as to take Luke to the ocean for the first time. It was so much fun! We all had a blast, especially Luke! Luke was so mesmerized by all the fishies, he wanted to be up against the glass looking at all the fish.



After a fun time at the Aquarium, we went down the beach. Although it was a nice warm day, of course the California Ocean was't as warm. We took off Luke's pants, socks and shoes and let him play in the sand-he LOVED it!
Before driving back to Palm Springs, we stopped by the San Diego Temple. The San Diego Temple holds a special place in my heart as it was the temple that I was sealed to my family in. It was great to bring Kevin and Luke to a such a special place that helped me form a special testimony of Eternal Families.
By the time we got on the freeway-Luke was beat! I'm pretty sure he slept the entire 2 hour drive home!




Another fun day was when my Yaya and Papa Don came to Palm Springs for a visit. My grandparents only live about an hour from Palm Springs so it was great to see them! This was the first time my Yaya and Papa Don were able to meet Luke! We had a wonder time catching up and a wonderful yummy lunch!


It was a well-needed, great, relaxing week! Now its back to the grind!

Christmas Dinner: Homemade Tamales

This Christmas I decided to follow one of the traditions that I was raised with. Growing up we would have a traditional Christmas Eve dinner with tamales, some years they were homemade and others were store bought. I decided to channel my inner Maria and make homemade tamales by myself this year! Those who aren't a where of the tamale-making process...it is just that, a process. The entire process takes a good 3 days to complete. The first day is dedicated to cooking the meat, the second is full of mixing the seasoning and marinating the meat, and the third is the busiest day. The third day is full of soaking your corn husks, preparing the Masa, wrapping your tamales and steaming them.
For my first time making them alone (most of the time its done with many helpers), they were "ok." It was defiantly a learning process. The goo news is that they were edible...woo hoo! We had Kevins mom,sister, and brother over on Christmas night to enjoy in the tamale feast. The best part of dinner was of course the dessert! We got the Sprinkles Cupcake (best cupcakes EVER, founder of Sprinkles is a judge on the show Cupcake Wars) Mix and made red velvet and chocolate cupcakes....hmmmm, yummy!!