An Apple a Day

I find myself with uneaten and {almost} too old to eat apples again. I do this every few weeks. I go to the store and insist on buying a few apples so that I will have a healthy snack to grab instead of going for cookies or ice cream. Well, suprise suprise....the apples sit in our fruit bowl and slowly get softer and older...and I only like nice crisp apples!

After a few weeks of walking past the fruit bowl, I decide I really should make something with the apples and not waste them completely. I search allrecipes.com {my favorite website for recipes} and find the best apple recipe to make with whatever ingredients I happen to have on hand.

This weeks apple adventure is Warm Apple Pockets.

3 sweet apples -- peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 (15 ounce) package prepared, unbaked pie crust, thawed
milk
1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a bowl, toss apple slices together with sugar, flour, salt, apple pie spice, and vanilla extract until evenly coated.
3. Lay pie dough flat on a lightly greased baking sheet. Pile apples on one side of dough, leaving a 1 inch border. Brush border and opposite half side of dough with milk. Fold dough over apples, being careful not to over-stuff or the dough will tear. Fold over edges and pinch together to seal. Cut several small slits in the top of the pocket with a sharp knife, then brush top with beaten egg.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until flakey and golden brown. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

I just happened to have a pie crust in the fridge....and I always have the other ingredients on hand...except maybe the eggs {which can be left out without changing the taste too much}. I followed the recipe with the exception of adding a little bit of brown sugar and using cinammon instead of apple pie spice.

Topped with a {generous} dollop of whipped topping, and you have a SUPER yummy dessert {and no wasted uneaten apples}!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

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I have NOT been in a big time funk for the past few weeks. The stress of all our activities {sadly church activities are the most stressful right now...but that is a whole post in itself!} has NOT been getting to me...and I do NOT feel like I need a huge vacation from reality right now! I would NOT love to be going out of town with Jason next week....just so I could get a little break from the daily routine!

Despite the funk....I did NOT have a great time Friday night with my GIRLS! I do NOT love Girl's Night Out, and it did NOT make me feel just a little a whole lot better! I also did NOT have a great time shopping on Saturday with my friend Mandy! I am NOT completely thankful that my hubby watched all three boys all night Friday and most of the day Saturday so I could have some girl time!

We did NOT spend the entire weekend listening to it rain and rain and rain and rain and rain {I think you get the point}! It is NOT raining as I am typing this either! Because it did NOT rain all weekend, Henry and Grant did NOT play their first soccer game of the season in the rain and they did NOT get soaking wet! I did NOT get soaking wet too while watching the game....because I would have been smart enough to just stay home with Eli!

I am NOT loving my new car and I have NOT already put over 500 miles on it in less than two weeks. I do NOT run the roads way too much. I did NOT have to go into town four times this week {twice for doctor appointments and twice shopping} which is probably why I do NOT already have so many miles on my new car!

I did NOT tell myself at least three times this week that I was going to start back on Weight Watchers so that I can try and get rid of this extra weight! I did NOT decide it was time to get serious because my doctor is finally letting me decrease my steroids...hopefully meaning that I won't be starving all the time! After deciding to get serious about my diet, I did NOT go and buy ice cream twice this week {because stress overrides serious dieting for me all the time}!

What's For Dinner?

BURRITOS!

We LOVE Mexican food at our house....tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos....my boys will eat any and all of it!
I made burritos for dinner earlier this week and changed up a few things from our normal recipe to make them SUPER yummy.
I started with 3/4 lbs of 93% lean ground beef, and I added one taco seasoning package, one can of fat free refried beans, and one can of black beans {I almost added in a can of corn too...but I didn't want to change too much too fast}. I stirred it all together with a little water and let it cook for about 20 minutes. Then all you have to do is warm up your tortillas and add whatever toppings you like!
YUMMY!

BURRITOS!

Preschool & One Year Old Checkup

Grant started preschool on Tuesday, and he is already having a great time. We really like his teacher, Ms. Tracy, and we can't wait to see what all he learns this year!

Grant ready for his first day of preschool!

After Grant's first day of preschool, we headed to town for lunch with my mom and then to Eli's one year old check up. Eli weighed 26 pounds and he was 32 inches long: both put him in the 90% for his age! Eli is a lot bigger than Henry and Grant were at their one year old check ups {Henry weighed 22 pounds and was 30 inches Grant weighed 22.5 pounds and was 31 inches}! I think Eli is going to be a big boy...his big brothers better watch out!

Wordless Wednesday: New Wheels

For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 Minutes for Mom!

Attempted Organization

This is my attempt at making a family calendar to organize our SUPER busy lives. I figured with Henry starting school and Grant starting preschool plus soccer season starting back up, I definitely needed a place to keep track of when and where we needed to be. I picked up a SUPER organized Dry Erase/Magnetic calendar from Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. I decided to organize it even more by making color coded magnets for each day of the month. I printed out the numbers 1-31 on blue, green, and orange paper and used my circle cutter to cut out all the numbers into nice perfect circles. This way they would fit just right on the back of the glass beads without having to cut eat number out by hand.

I did every third number in blue {1,4, 7 ect} and did the same with the green and orange. I did that so each of my three boys would have certain days that would be theirs. If a chore needs to be done or if something special is going on, if it is their color day {Henry is blue, Grant is green, and Eli is orange} on the calendar then they are the one responsible for it. This probably won't be used for a while...at least not until the boys get a little older....but I figured I might as well go ahead and make it as organized as possible while I was doing it!

These glass beads from the floral section were just the right size to make date markers for the calendar.

This was my first time to use Modge Podge and I will definitely be using it again!

Here are the beads and the paper after I coated them with the Modge Podge. And these are the magnets that I put on the back of the beads once they were all dry.

The {almost} finished calendar...all nice and organized {for now}! I am thinking about attaching some clothes pins to the bottom of the calendar so I can clip appointment reminders and small notes to it. But until then, our family calendar is up and running and hopefully it will keep us SUPER organized!

Party Time

The Birthday Boy!

SUPER cute cupcake cake!

Party favors for the kiddos. Rice Krispy Cupcakes.

Bowl full of party favorsSUPER cute plates and napkins

Eli's birthday balloons
Opening presents with daddy and Henry.

Eli with his smash cake that he would only touch with one finger at a time!

SUPER cute big boy!

Yummy!

Happy Birthday Eli!

My little guy is offically one year old today!

Photo Story Friday: One Last Hurrah!

Yesterday, my friend Karen and I took Grant, Eli, and her little girl Lana to Chuck E Cheese for one last hurrah before Grant and Lana both start preschool on Tuesday. We had a ton of fun and after our last trip to CEC {with 6 kids} this one seemed like a piece of cake! It is amazing how much easier it is to deal with 3 kiddos as opposed to 6!

Grant and Lana had a great time playing games and they both ended up with almost 250 tickets...which is a lot considering last time each kid ended up with about 20!

Here are some pics of our SUPER fun day at Chuck E Cheese! Eli wasn't too impressed with Chuck E!
And Grant hid under the table pretending he was scared!
Grant playing a game...
and riding on a ride!

Eli had fun {sort of} on the train!

And they both loved playing basketball.

We all had a great time, and now we are looking forward to starting preschool on Tuesday!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Yuck

THIS is what happens when you give Eli a handful of cheese bunnies and assume that he will put them in his mouth one at a time!

I will have to keep this in mind in the future.

{Sorry for the gross picture....it's just chewed up cheese bunnies though!}