A Big Week

This week has been a busy one.  It was the first full week after break.  Will has basketball practice on Mondays and Wednesdays, Justin has Chinese class Mondays and Wednesdays, Caroline has gymnastics Thursday evenings, and Eric has gymnastics Friday mornings.  Between now and Mid-May Justin has 9 more all-day-long masters class on Saturdays with the Friday night before it too.  Busy!!

But also this week I found time to make some new recipes. 

My kitchen helper!

Homemade dairy free, chicken 3 cheese ravioli with a garlic butter parmesan sauce.  Made for Will!

I stopped buying loaf bread in October, I think.    This recipe is from my cousin Laura.  Thanks Laura, I love this bread!!

Made these pull apart orange rolls for Last Saturdays breakfast.

Made homemade lasagna the same day I made the ravioli, loaf bread, and homemade cinnamon bread.

Will can't have dairy and we have also eliminated beef and tomatoes.  Since doing that his stomach has stopped hurting and he is off in Prilosec!  He is still going to have a scope on MLK day and more allergy testing on Valentine's day.  The last time he had allergy testing done he was 3 so the doc wants to do it again.
Meal planning is more of a challenge but Will has always been so good with whatever I feed him.  He even told me my ravioli was better than a restaurants!!

Guess what I finally did?!

I finally turned all my blog posts into a book!  It has only taken me a few years to get this done.  I was struggling with Blurb and just couldn't figure it out and then did and went back to work on it again and couldn't find my book! UGH!!  So I googled blog to book and found another program and had my 2 books completed in a matter of 30 minutes.  Phew!  DONE!  Now onto other projects.

Suz and Graham gave us the coolest gift.  Can you see them hanging on the cabinet doors?  It's the states where we have lived!  Made from that states license plate.  How fun is that?!!  We love them.  We wrote the dates we lived in each state on the back.  6 states and this year we will add another.  Will is 6, but he hasn't lived in NC so only 5 for him!

Tried a new style.  Made a bow out of hair!  Her hair was too clean and the loop in the middle kept slipping out.

I was making room in my cabinets to add some of my new Christmas presents ( a bread machine,  a mandolin, and a fry daddy) and Eric thought I had made room for him to sit!

Leo

Meet Leo, our cat!!  He is a Maine Coon and about 16 lbs.  My mom is downsizing her pets and Justin finally agreed that we could have a cat. So when Mom and Pete drove to KS they brought Leo with them.

The cat LOVES Justin and will follow him around the house , after the kids are in bed!

He sits on Justin's desk while he does his homework.

And sleeps at Justin's feet.  Miles and the cat get along fine but Miles is a tad jealous when Leo gets to sleep in the bed, which is why he is on the bed.

Welcome to the family Leo!!

Bowling

Nana and Papa came to visit on the 27th for a few days.  While they were here we went bowling!  What fun we had, it was Eric's first time bowling and he enjoyed himself too.

Will wasn't too bad and had decent technique too!

Eric wanted to pick up all the balls.

Watching the screen after a strike.

Getting ready to bowl with his 6 lb ball.

Her technique wasn't as good but still somewhat effective!

Eric had a great nap after playing 3 rounds!

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve

On Christmas eve we ventured into downtown Kansas City, MO to go to the aquarium.  We had a great time and the kids enjoyed looking at all the fish.  It wasn't crowded and Eric was able to walk, instead of ride in the backpack.

Caroline and Grandpa before church.

The boys almost ready for church.

After church on Sunday

He was not afraid to touch anything in the touch pool.

Out for a walk.  There is still snow on the ground.  It hasn't melted and it's supposed to snow more tomorrow!!

Looking up through a bubble into a tank at the aquarium. 

Gone sledding!

It snowed Wednesday late night/early Thursday morning.  I'm not sure how much we got since the wind was blowing it around so much.  Some areas of our back yard you could see the grass and others were knee deep!  The snow is hanging around for now so this morning after breakfast we bundled everyone up and drove across post to find a big hill!  We had so much fun!!

I'm helping Eric get ready.  He LOVED sledding and he and I went more than anyone else.  We hogged one of the sleds.

Cheese!

Great hill for sledding!

We made it almost half way down like this!

Giving grandma and grandpa a big push!

Thanks for taking some great pictures Grandpa and Justin!