Meal Prep Party

One of my CRHP sisters invited me to a Pampered Chef Freezer Meal Workshop this past Saturday. I had never been to one and was excited to attend. I invited my mom and sister to go with me. We bought the required spices beforehand through Pampered Chef and were given a grocery list of items to bring with us. In a little over 2 hours we made 10 full-size meals to be placed in the freezer for future use. And these were fabulous meals. Just some of the meals we prepped included: Chimichurri Steak, Chicken Caesar, Beef Enchilada Casserole, and Three Onion Brisket.

I'll admit that buying that much food in bulk made for a long shopping trip and a big bill, but when I realized that it was for ten gourmet meals, it was worth it and not that much more money than I would usually spend.

Our meal prep station set up for us. We left our food bags in another room and only brought the current meal ingredients to the meal prep station. 

Artichoke chicken ready to be sealed and put in the freezer

Our Pampered Chef spices ready for us

My TEN meals prepped and ready to go home

I still can't believe we did that in TWO HOURS!

I've got to say that after two hours we were exhausted. It was a lot of work and a lot on our feet. It was well worth the time and I'm glad I wore sneakers and brought my apron. 

I'm trying one of the meals this week as we have a crazy week. I'm also thinking of co-hosting a party with my mom during Spring Break to try more recipes from Pampered Chef!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning came and was met with sleepiness. Midnight Mass went until almost 2am and we became sleepy bunnies. 

We were just not ready to wake up before Daddy this morning.

Eli was so excited for his Cozy Coupe

He went straight for it and knew that it was his

He immediately wanted to be pushed around

We later took him on an afternoon walk to try out his new wheels

So happy!

You can see that the Little People on his Christmas train did not stay long on it.

He also received a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse couch that turned into a little lounging bed for the living room.

As you can see, the dogs loved it just as much as he did

We had to finally shove them off as they were completely taking over it

We had a relaxing Christmas morning and Facetimed with Chris' family to say, "Merry Christmas!" We had a great day in our pajamas snuggling up and enjoying each other's company.

Eli is 1

Our little Eli turned 1 a few weeks months ago. I can't believe Eli has been in our lives for a year now. He has changed our lives and continues to brighten our days.

It's amazing how fast he changed in the course of a year.

I took this picture the night before his birthday in hopes that I could keep him this way forever.

I tear up looking at this monthly photos

 One month

 Two months

 Three months

Four Months

 Five Months

 Six Months

 Seven Months

 Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

 Eleven Months

And finally....

12 months

At his 12 month check up he weighed 23 lbs. and is 29' tall. He is in the 50th percentile for both height and weight.

Eli Christmas PJ Pictures

The same photographer who took our Christmas pictures was also having Christmas PJ mini-session. I couldn't resist and signed Eli up. I love to see him run around in his Christmas PJs at home and wanted to get some pictures of him in them.

He wasn't too impressed with anything else, but these ornament balls. He wanted to pick them up and throw them everywhere.

I see a little bit of myself in these two pictures 

I love this little toot.

Christmas Pictures 2014

For our Christmas pictures this year, we went with a local photographer who was having a Christmas min-session. She did a fantastic job and spent the time getting Eli to smile and the dogs to look somewhat less mopey Basset Hound-ish.

This is, by far, my favorite father son picture.

Of course, we couldn't get that smile when I held him.

My boys and the dogs

I love my little family

It was so cold and Eli was grumpy, but we put on the Hot Dog song and got him to smile for a split second to capture this face that we love.

I just can't get over this cute, chubby, and happy face