Week 24

Here we are!  24 weeks along....well 24 weeks 5 days to be exact.  Friday I'll be 25 weeks!  I know you couldn't get by without knowing that detail.  Anyway.  Things are going splendidly with this pregnancy!  This little boy is QUITE a little mover!  I'm wondering if this is good news for after he is born.  Let me explain....when I was pregnant with Austin I specifically remember telling my sister that I didn't feel like he moved as much as the other two did.  She replied with this...and I quote..."Maybe this will actually be your calmer child."  Now, for any of you who know our little Austin, or have followed this blog since last summer-ish, you know that Austin is FAR from our "calm" child.  He is our one that is into ABSOLUTELY everything.  So, saying all that to say, maybe this baby is getting all his energy out now....just maybe.  Oh, but even if he's just getting started, I'm still thrilled to death to meet the little guy!  As far as how I feel...I feel great!  I'm still pretty comfortable doing most tasks.  As far as eating...I love it!  I've determined that food just tastes better when you're pregnant.  These days the Chinese craving has subsided some, and I now seem to want lots of Mexican-type foods, and lemonade pie (yes...lemonade pie...it's the best), and peanut butter bash sundaes from Dairy Queen.  The one thing I want soon is some Chili's chips and salsa.  Soon.  Very soon.  But anyway....I guess that's about it for now!  Three and a half more months!!

First Baseball Game of the Season

Saturday was Daniel's first T-ball game of the season.  He had been looking forward to it all week!  I still can't get over the difference 2 years has made in how much more focused he is on the game.  He took a lot of pride in carrying his bag....and who doesn't need a graham cracker for an extra boost of energy before a game?

 In the dugout...

 Third base...

 I think he was really excited to get a turn in the middle where the pitcher usually stands.  Those kids get the most action!

 What a hit!

 It ended up being really fun because one of our friends from church is on the blue team!  So Daniel and Abbey got to play against each other their first game.

 All in all, it was a really fun game.  I am really looking forward to the season!

What's been cookin' in the Heath household?

I haven't done a post in awhile about food, so I thought I would do that now.  Especially since food is so important to me these days.  :)  Here are a few new recipes I've tried recently...(some more recently than others)...
This was my copycat of the Chipotle burrito...Cilantro lime rice (I actually didn't have cilantro, so I used ground corriander instead...it's close to the same flavor), left-over roast beef, refried beans, guacomole, salsa, cheese....that's what I had on hand.  So naturally...it wasn't exactly Chipotle, but it hit the craving none-the-less.  This was thrown together with what I had on hand...I will try to make this again actually planning out my ingredients (since the closest Chipotle is 2 hours away).

 This is a Zucchini tot.  It was super yummy.  I got this one from Pinterest.  These were sooo good...they really tasted a lot like tater tots, but it has shredded zucchini and cheese in it.  Mmmm.

 This is another Pinterest find...Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken.  This was super yummy, and very easy, and required very minimal ingredients.  Definately will make this again!

 These are homemade baked chicken nuggets and homemade baked french fries (also Pinterest).  I love meals like this because they are easy and kid-friendly, but also healthy.  The nuggets were delish...even though I used regular breadcrumbs instead of panko breadcrumbs, and the fries were pretty much your classic baked fry, but I love those so I was pleased.

Here's a few other meals I've made recently that I didn't have pictures for...
-Cheesy chicken and rice...this is a Pinterest find.  It was done in the crockpot and was super easy and cheap.  I'll definitely make this again.
-Baked "fried" Chicken....this was soooooo yummy (Pinterest).  The flavor of the breading is amazing.  It also requires ingredients I usually have on hand anyway.  This will definitely be my "go-to" chicken dish when all I have is chicken and I don't know what to do with it.
-Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes...This is not a Pinterest find, but instead came out of one of my Betty Crocker cookbooks.  I have officially found the best meatloaf recipe ever.  Let me know if you want it...it's sooo good.  And the potatoes are pretty yummy too. The secret to good mashed potatoes is...butter.  My theory...the potatoes are still healthy...you're just adding the unhealthy butter to it...but it doesn't mean you're not getting the nutrients from the potatoes, right?  Well, that's what I tell myself when I really want something tasty....like butter.  :)
-Tacos...my kids love 'em...so we've been killing it with the tacos lately.  Plus..you can buy "great value" brand taco shells for $1 a box (12 ct.), so we either cook up some ground beef or chicken with some taco seasoning ($.30 a pack)...add some fixins' and there you have it!  A cheap meal the kids (and parents for that matter) will love.
-Oh, and I did make some white beans with that left over Easter ham.  Crock pot, dried beans, ham and ham bone, salt, pepper, a tablespoon of bacon fat...oh yum.  Throw some homemade sweet cormbread muffins with it and there you have a good ole' southern dinner.
And last, but certainly not least I will share my Pinterest dessert that I've recently tried.  I had it at a friend's house and LOVED it, so I made a few recently for a dinner at church...ok, so here goes...LEMONADE PIE.  I've told you how I love lemonade lately.  So this....was amazing!  Frozen lemonade concentrate, sweetened condensed milk, cool whip, a graham cracker pie crust...I mean really folks...Y-U-M!
So there you have it...the Heath menu lately.  We've been trying to go cheap, easy, and healthy around here.  Ok, so not every recipe is exactly what I would call "healthy", but most are (we usually throw in some stir-fried broccoli, green beans, or raw carrots in there with some of those dishes too).  Anyway...I know you've been dying to know what we've had for dinner, so there you have it!

Baseball Time!

 Well it's that time of year again....baseball time!  Daniel is back to playing little league t-ball this year!  I love it.  This will be his last year in t-ball.  So far we've just been practicing, but I still love watching it...

He didn't play last year, so it's he's REALLY improved his game in 2 years.  He's much more into the game and he's really good!  (Not that I'm biased or anything...).  Anyway...I'm excited about being a baseball mom again this year.  I think the first game is next week!

DC

Alright seriously, people....I need to figure out a quicker way to blog or I'm never going to keep up with this thing. Ok, so on with the post. My in-laws came to visit us last week. We were super excited to have them visit. Thursday we decided to make a trip to Washington DC. I have never been to DC before, so I was really excited to see it. It takes us about 3 hours to get there from our house, so we got an early start. Just a heads up....don't go to DC if there's a baseball game. We drove around the suburbs for somewhere between 2 to 3 hours trying to find a Metro station with open parking spaces so we could ride into the city. So our plan to get there around 10am didn't quite work...we got there around 1pm instead. But, after that adventure the day turned out to be pretty fun. We, of course, got no where near close to seeing everything, but we got to see some of the Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum, and theAmerican History Museum....and got to see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the WW2 Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial. We walked approximately 6 miles and had no strollers. A stroller would have made the walking a little more enjoyable with the 3 kiddies, but I must say, for them doing THAT much walking, they did very well. All in all, it was a fun day. Here's some highlights...(WARNING...LOTS of pictures)...

Austin took a little nap...he took half of it on Pappy, and half of it on Daddy...

On the Metro (that we finally found parking to be able to ride on)...

Daniel wasn't really asleep, but he wanted to mimic Pappy's every move...

I loved this picture with the Washington Monument in the background...

And here would be the kids about 3 minutes after we ate dinner (at Longhorn I might add...oh, yum)...

They were worn out! All in all, they did great with all that walking. My hips and legs did hurt for about 3 days following our adventure, but it was worth it. We plan to make lots of day trips to DC so we can eventually see everything!

Lily's First Surgery

About this time last year, Austin had surgery to put tubes in his ears and Daniel had surgery to get his tonsils and adnoids removed. Well, Thursday, around a year later, Lily had her first surgery. Her surgery was to have some dental work done. Back in October, right before we moved, we went and had our teeth cleaned. Well, we discovered that Daniel and Lily had cavities! Well, then we moved very soon after. So we quickly found a dentist and he got to work filling their cavities. Well, Lily had a very deep cavitiy...deeper than he realized. So as he was filling the cavitiy and going deeper and deeper to clean it out little Lily girl started getting pretty uncomfortable. So he filled it temporarily and recommended her to a pediatric dentist. She recommended we put her to sleep to fill it and while she was asleep she went ahead and filled her other smaller ones. This couldn't happen until last week. So this past Thursday, 6 months after finding the cavities, we headed to the hospital for Lily to have her mouth worked on. She was SOOO good! We had to be there at 9:30am, for her surgery at 11:30am and she couldn't eat or drink anything all day! But she handled it pretty good!
We brought a bunch of books, and they gave her a coloring book...

Then we discovered a drawer under her little table that would slide open on both sides. So what did we do? We mailed things back and forth to each other...

We waited and waited in her little out-patient room. But we stayed very entertained. We didn't even realize we had a tv until about 20 minutes before they took her back! Around 11:45am they finally came to get her and her surgery started around 12ish. Then that took about an hour and a half. When they brought her back to me she was sound asleep...

She stayed that way for about 2 hours! Then she finally woke up and was HUNGRY! They gave her 2 popcicles...

And then we were able to go home (well actually to McD's for chicken nuggets for the starving girl)....around 4pm! What a day! But I must say, it was quite relaxing to me! Most of my time was spent reading, eating lunch, watching Food Network, and most importantly....sitting!! And Lily did just great! We had a good ole' time together! And now we are working harder than ever to keep these kiddos from getting more cavities! Below I've included a funny video of Lily practicing falling asleep with the mask....that I might add, they let her take home!! Enjoy!

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter everyone! This Easter was a little different for us. This is the first year we haven't lived by either one of our families. Usually after Easter Sunday services we spend the afternoon with grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles...the whole gang. But this year it was just the 5 (or should I say 6) of us. We missed everyone, but we still had a good ole' time! This Easter season was also different for us becuase we had a lot of events leading up to Easter Sunday at church. Thursday night we had the Living Last Supper...
Jason played the disciple Andrew. Basically it was a play picturing the last supper, and each disciple got up and explained a little about their character. It was neat. Then Friday evening we had a Tenebrae service. I had never been to anything like this before. It was a very solemn service consisting of readings about the crucifixion and somber songs. It was focused on the death of Christ. And then Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids and of course Sunday morning worshipping and celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior and Lord. It was a busy week, but I really enjoyed it! I liked how each event of the week closely mirrored the time-frame of events that happened over 2,000 years ago. Sunday our pastor preached from 1 Corinthians 15 about how had Christ not risen from the dead, our faith, our religion, our preaching would be in vain. Basically our lives would be lived for nothing. The resurrection is everything! Praise God that we serve a risen Savior who has defeated death and the grave!! Here's a family pic of us all dressed in our Easter attire...

Before church we let the kids open their little Easter gifts. We never do much, just a small toy and some candy, but they get excited. I have pictures but forgot they were on our camera. So you may get a random post containing those pics (adding pics after I've started writing the post is a pain). Anyway...so after church we got home and I fixed us a fairly classic Easter dinner...ham, potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, and biscuits. (please excuse the half-eaten biscuit...I was hungry)...

We had a brief rest time (Jason was up around 5am for our church's sunrise service which by the way I really wish we had made it too...maybe next year I'll brave waking the kids up that early)....and then we dyed eggs...

I got 5 koolaid packets and we used those to dye the eggs rather than the kits. I got 5 packets for $1, so it was much cheaper. I only had 6 white eggs left and the rest were brown. The white of course were much prettier colors, but the kids still had fun none-the-less. Here's what we came up with...(oh, and the kids had to write their names on the ones they dyed)

Then they decided they wanted to hide the ones they made for us to find and of course we would hide the plastic candy-filled ones for them to find. So here they are hiding from us (I peeked to get a picture...I'm just glad I didn't get caught)...

And here's what we got! It was so funny finding them. Usually we would find them in sets of 3. I hope you especially enjoy the grease stains on the belly of my favorite sweatshirt...

So then of course we hid their eggs and here they are finding them...

After the hunt...

And of course....going through and finding the candy...

It ended up being such a fun day full of worshipping, good food, and family fun. Oh...and for our memory I'm going to share a little dialogue that took place between Jason and Lily after church yesterday. Jason asked Lily what she learned in children's church. She replied.."The bad guys put sharp things on Jesus' head. And put nails in His hands and feet. Then they made him carry the cross and then wrapped him in a sheet and put him in a cave." Then Jason asks.."What happened next?" Lily replies..."We colored." I cracked up when I heard that. Of course I know she learned about the resurrection too, because on a different occasion she told me, but still...that was too funny! I hope you all had a great Sunday celebrating the resurrection of our Lord as well!