#13

Weekly Belly Pictures

week 21

This week I didn't remember about the pictures until Kiera was already in bed, but Dylan joined in on the fun and loved posing with "his" baby. Cute story from Monday; we were heading into the grocery store after stopping at Starbucks and I said something to Ben about my stomach hurting- Dylan looked at me all serious and said, "Mommy, drink the coffee and eat your little cake -it'll make the baby feel better." and as if that wasn't cute enough he then stopped, turned, looked at me and said - "When your tummy hurts real bad you will go the hospital and then have the baby! And then 'g' baby can come home!"

Just proves that kid's really take the things they read in books to heart.

#44

Monthly yard maintenance on the 3rd Sunday of every month

This Sunday we decided to tackle those HUGE bushes that were taking over the front of our house and attacking people who tried to walk to the door. The work was hard, but the results were astonishing. Our house no longer looks like a jungle and there is much more light in the front room now. Ben even took things a step further and cut parts of a bush in the backyard that was covering a sprinkler head, while I weeded out the front lawn and trimmed the flowers. Special shout-out to Dylan for putting all the "trees" in the green waste can.

#9 and #62

Continue weekly date night with Ben

Get a Refresher in driving a stick

Date night with Ben is a continued success. This time we allowed Lily and Matthew to double with us and took them to a favorite place of ours - 'The Melting Pot." After a filling dinner with the Bairds and company, we still managed to find room for dessert, and not just any dessert but the king of desserts - chocolate fondue! We decided to get two different fondues - the Yin&Yang with dark and white chocolates (yumm! will def. be getting this again!) and the 'original' which includes disgusting amounts of peanut butter (I stuck with the aforementioned fondue). Everyone else claimed to be stuffed when dinner was done, but I felt like we were just beginning! I was absolutely starving! I guess that baby hunger is finally kicking in - uh oh... we'll have to see how that progresses with the belly pictures over the next few weeks.

We had borrowed Peter's little white honda so after dropping Lily off at the house Ben attempted to refresh my stick-shift memory. Let's just say the results were not pretty. After about 25 stall outs and a few trips around the complex (some successful!) we decided it was time to head home. Maybe next time I will make it out of 1st gear!

#38

create personal accounts for me and Ben
one down (me)! one to go(ben)... now, only to put some money in there.... hmm..

#3

1 hr of solo mom time per kid per week
Dylan and Kiera both got more than an hour of kid and mom time this week - lucky kids! Kiera, unfortunately, chose to spend most of her time whining and asking to be picked up, eat, or sit in my lap... most of our alone time ended up looking something like the picture on the left. oh well - she seemed to enjoy it!



As for Dylan, well he has been such a good boy lately that we have been letting him stay up late and spend those extra moments with us. On Sunday we put Kiera down at the b-gparents and took Dylan to Starbucks, the train museum, on a train ride, and then to the candy store. Dylan thought it was just about the most awesome thing ever. Then we spent some time together riding bikes in the backyard. He is one happy little boy :)

#40 and #41

Make a 2 week meal-plan for 2 months
Grocery Shop every 2 weeks for 2 months
There are 2 things I hope to accomplish with these goals. 1) always have food at home - thereby not having to go to the store every day and not being tempted to eat out. 2) save money - not eating out and not picking up random stuff at the store on those extra trips. On an average month we spend $600 on groceries and another $150 on eating on. Yesterday I went grocery shopping with my 2 week meal-plan in hand. I spent a total of $200 on groceries... if this plan works out it should save us about $300 a month (leaving room for a few lunches out). I also noticed that having a meal-plan in hand kept me from tossing random stuff into the cart thereby saving even more money!

Here is the meal plan for the next 2 weeks:
Mon – Homemade Spaghetti
Tues- Stir Fry and Rice
Wed- Leftover Spaghetti
Thurs-Dinner @ Ben’s Folks
Fri- Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas
Sat- Steak & Potatoes
Sun- Pork Chops & Rice

Mon- Chicken Parmigana
Tues- leftovers
Wed- Fried Chicken & Scalloped Potatoes
Thurs-Dinner @ Ben’s Folks
Fri- 4 cheese Manicotti
Sat- Stir Fry and Rice Sun- Tacos

#75

Take a Family Camping Trip Once a Year

On Friday we took off for our 1 night family camping adventure. We weren't sure how the kids would take to camping so we thought 1 night was perfect for the 1st time (well, Dylan went we he was 2 months old, but we decided that didn't count). We headed out to New Hogan Lake which is only about an hour from our house. Jesse and Tim joined us for the trip (enticed by the 18 hole disc-golf course).

All in all the trip was a major sucess! Dylan was instantly thrilled that we were in "the wild" and wanted to hike, explore, find firewood - you name it, he tried it! Our little nervous/fearful child was no where in sight! As soon as we started setting up the tents I explained to him how we would be sleeping in them and he loved the idea! He was so pumped he even tried them out while we were still setting up.He also ate his 1st smore and crossed the street by himself for the 1st time (under watchful supervision & it being a street no one drove on!).

The only bummer was that the camera battery died the night we got there. The non-photographed festivites included, you guessed it - 18 holes of disc-golf! Me and the kids joined the "men" on the

1st 12 holes, but then decided to go explore the lake... Dylan even walked in the water all the way up to his knees... I was so proud of my boy! His social-skills and exploration have really improved since starting his new school. As we were getting ready to head out he looked at me and said, "Thanks mom for taking me camping in the wild and walking in the water with me... maybe tomorrow lets buy a boat!" Gotta love him.

You can see the entire camping adventure here on my web album