It’s been over a month since my last peek into our week post… and boy do I have a lot to share!
For starters, we now have a big two-year old in our house 🙂
Simon is having so much fun with his new birthday toys, and he has fully embraced his role as “big brother”.
He constantly follows James around to make sure he doesn’t drop a toy, kick off a slipper, lose his pacifier, drool on his shirt, etc. Simon comes running up to me saying “mama, uh oh!” and then goes running back to James to show me what the problem is.
He has even gone so far as to run into the nursery, get a burp cloth, run back to James, and gently wipe up the tiny amount of drool. It is VERY cute! 🙂
We told Simon that after his birthday party he is a big boy, so he can’t have his pacifier as much — only when he’s sleeping, napping, or if he gets hurt. So far, it’s going pretty well!
I’m not one to care too much about this, but I do think it’s time to start limiting it a bit — especially since we’re hoping to do more with speech therapy this summer (and I know they will tell us that the pacifier has to go.)
Speaking of “birthday boys”… James is 8 months old TODAY!
As you can see by the photos below, he has recently turned into quite the little climber!
Although I know it’s a lot more work to have a mobile baby on the loose in the house again, my babies always seem to be happier once they can get around on their own — so I’m OK with it.
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Miss Nora has been busier than ever around the house.
She is making up games, stories, songs, doing crafts, making jewelry, riding her bike, roller skating, playing dress-up, helping me bake, and getting into all sorts of mischief with Simon (they really are starting to play quite nicely together!)
Nora had a fun Daddy and Me Night for her preschool class, she went on a special outing with my sister and my grandma, and she got to visit my other sister (who lives out of state) with my parents for a weekend. She was SOOOOOOO excited to stay in a hotel, go swimming, and be away from mom and dad “on her own”.
My mom told me that she cried a bit right before bed and asked for mom and dad (so she’s not quite as independent as she wants us to believe!)
It’s hard to believe that she only has 2 more months of 3-school left… and then she will officially be a preschooler!
Although I never ever thought we would send a child to 3-school, I’m very happy with our decision to send her. She was 100% ready, she needed to get out of the house and be with friends her own age, and I needed a little break from her each week too!
Life has been VERY low-key around our house the past couple of weeks… in fact, there was one week where I only put 30 miles on the van — and that was to bring Nora to school, get groceries, and go to church!
We’ve been home A LOT, enjoying the warmer weather, going for walks, and playing outside — I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t itching to get started on a little yard work!
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I’m super excited to be going to the Just Between Friends pre-sale tomorrow afternoon (the actual sale starts Wednesday for those of you living in the Grand Rapids, MI area).
If you’ve never been to a Just Between Friends (JBF) sale before, it’s basically like a MASSIVE garage sale all under one roof. I’m hoping to get a few new spring clothes for Nora and James — and maybe snag something for James’ birthday.
I went to the same sale this past Fall and got everything we needed for winter and all the kid Christmas gifts for such a fabulous deal — hopefully I’ll do just as well this time around!
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Some of you have asked me to share what I’m watching on Netflix — so I thought the Peek Into Our Week posts might be a good place to share that.
I am currently watching:
- Land Girls (really good!)
- Fuller House (not that great, but I will watch all 13 episodes because I loved Full House so much as a kid)
- Unlikely Animal Friends (we watch a little of this with the kids before bed each night)
I have recently finished watching the following:
- When Calls the Heart (season 1 was really good, season 2 wasn’t great, but I’ve heard good things for season 3. My parents are recording it for me on their DVR (Hallmark Channel and I’m planning to watch some of it over spring break)
- Fixer Upper (Dave and I plowed through all the episodes! I feel like Chip and Joanna are so endearing, I hope they are actually like that in “real life” and not just acting for the camera. Also, I LOVE their design style!)
- Call The Midwife (I actually finished this a couple months ago already, but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I can’t wait for the next season to make it to Netflix!)
- Mansfield Park (a movie based on the Jane Austen novel — it wasn’t great)
A few things on my “to watch” list:
- The Boy In Striped Pajamas
- Secrets of War
- Cooked
- Plant Pure Nation
- Becoming Jane
- The Railway Man
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I ordered some new kitchen towels form Grove.co (formerly ePantry)… and I LOVE them!
Not only are they red (my favorite kitchen color) but they are just the right size and thickness for my liking. I started with 4, but I will definitely be ordering a few more!
Our Weekly Menu Plan
SUNDAY:
- Leftovers for lunch
- Dinner at church at night
- Lots of leftover birthday cake 🙂
MONDAY:
- Pizza Pasta from the freezer
- Garlic bread
- Broccoli and Cauliflower
- Brownies
TUESDAY:
- Sweet and Sour Pork
- Cheesy Mashed Potato Casserole
- Green Beans
- Corn
- Reese Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
WEDNESDAY:
- Chicken Quesadillas
- Chips and Mango salsa (it’s amazing… and from Costco!)
THURSDAY:
- Leftover pork, potatoes, and veggies from Tuesday night
FRIDAY:
- Brat Burgers on the grill
- Baked Beans
- Green Beans
- Fruit
- Ice Cream
SATURDAY:
- Dinner at Dave’s parent’s house
We survived Daylight Savings and even made it to church on time Sunday morning (I hate knowing that I “lose” an hour!)
Only a little over 2 weeks until Spring Break, and then we’ll have Dave home for a whole week — I’m already making a list for him 🙂
Summer says
I immediately noticed that Simon looked different! He looks so cute without the pacifier! Great job! A little logic works even at two!
Dawn says
Loved all the pics!!
A question I have wondered about for a while- since you make some type of dessert almost every night, do you have leftovers of it for lunch? Or do you just make a small batch, enough for the one meal?
Andrea says
Thanks Dawn,
As for the dessert — I do some type of baking 4-5 times a week (but a lot of it goes in the freezer). We also do eat cookies and brownies for snacks throughout the day, Dave takes them in his lunch, we have them for a bedtime snack, etc. etc. I’m not sure if this is normal or not, but we usually have 3 or 4 different baked goods in our pantry at all time — some type of cookie, some type of bar, some type of pie or cake, some type of quick bread or muffin, etc. (we like snacks!)
Also, usually any time I bake bread or muffins we end up giving some of it away, and we also seem to have lots of random family and friends stop over — and they are always more than willing to take a couple cookies off our hands 🙂
Leanne says
Someone commented on Downton Abbey! its a WONDERFUL show… and I am desperately looking for something as great to follow it… if you like British shows, Foyle’s War is also excellent… great characters and it takes place in WWII… but, I really think you would LOVE “The Great British Baking Show”… you can see Seasons 1 and 2 for free here http://www.pbs.org/show/great-british-baking-show/episodes/
I’m not sure when season 2 will come to Netflix or Amazon…but Season 1 is great even if that’s all you get to watch!
Jen says
Ohhh I loved The Great British Baking Show!!!! And the US holiday baking show that was similar was fabulous too!! And I love Foyle’s War as well!!
Be sure to check out Doc Martin as well!!
Jane says
What a full family life you have! How exciting for Nora to go away! I don’t know if any of my kids would have done that! (I KNOW my parents would not have taken my kids! Mom said she wasn’t babysitting after raising 6 kids of her own….but they did do many special things with my kids. And my kids have a lot of special memories of those times – esp. now that my dad is gone.) I will be curious if/how you like Becoming Jane (one of my fav movies!) But I liked Mansfield Park, too!
Andrea says
haha — thanks for saying “FULL” instead of “BUSY”. I don’t feel busy (we just sit at home) but I will say that I don’t have much “free time” these days 🙂
Also, I always joke with my mom about the fact that the grandparents today seem to do SO much more with their grandkids than in the past. I never, ever did anything like this with my grandparents (and they were really “involved” grandparents). It’s probably because Nora is the oldest grandchild (and my 3 kids are the only grandchildren right now). Both Dave and my parents are very good to our children!
Shelly says
Love the peeks into your week!!
I didn’t know Simon was in speech therapy. As an SLP, I can definitely say they’ll say to ditch the paci…good job preparing ahead mama
And, Chip and Joanna are like that in “real life”
Shelly says
My emoticons all disappeared from my comment above when I hit send 🙁
Andrea says
we are in a very “preliminary” phase of speech therapy. It’s a free program through our county and they don’t do much. However, now that he’s officially 2, they can refer us to other, more aggressive programs. We will likely enrol in one of those this summer when Dave is home (unless, of course, Simon magically starts talking before then!)
Leslie H. says
Okay, this is a snoopy and trivial question, but is Nora holding a toy boxer dog in her hand in your family picture? I would like one for my grandma toy box so I was wondering if you could direct me as to where to purchase one.
Thanks!
Leslie
Andrea says
haha — yes, she definitely is 🙂
we were at Dave’s parent’s house and his mom found that ceramic boxer dog for his Dad a few years ago (I don’t know where though) Dave had a boxer dog that looked exactly like that growing up 🙂
Leslie H. says
Ha!! I have a few ceramic boxers myself…as we have a boxer dog that we love. 🙂 I’m hoping to find a nice soft rubber one for my granddaughter to play with. If I ever do, I’ll let you know! 😉
Thanks!
Andrea says
yes, let me know if you find one!
Chris K in Wisconsin says
Love when you offer a peek into your week!! Fun! The kids are surely growing up. By the end of the summer they will have reached even more milestones. I am so happy you sent Nora to school this year for those few hours. I bet it did her ~ and all of you ~ much good. She just seems to have grown up and become much more independent over the school year.
Don’t you LOVE Costco’s mango salsa? It is really good to use when you bake fish, or chicken or pork chops, too.
Have you tried a hot dog at Costco yet? You could prob feed both Nora & Simon w/ just one of them! $1.50 for a hot dog and soft drink. Their slices of pizza are also wonderful! A really fun meal out a few times a year.
Have fun at your sale. Can’t wait to see all the bargains you score!
Andrea says
Thanks Chris,
I have not tried the Costco hot dogs yet — but we are actually thinking of going there Thursday night because we got a coupon for a free pizza! Dave can get home earlier that day, so we were thinking of heading to Costco to “shop around” and then getting a pizza for dinner.
And yes, we LOVE that mango salsa. They don’t sell any mango salsa at our Meijer (they used to, but haven’t carried it in a couple of years) so we were very excited to see it at Costco!
Chris K in Wisconsin says
Their pizzas are also fabulous! You will have lunch leftovers for sure!!
JoDi says
So cute as always! Love to peek into your week!
I’m a huge fan of Chip & Joanna too. Love their style and their partnership. They have such a sweet family, and Chip is so goofy funny. They’re just adorable together!
A friend loaned me The Boy in the Striped Pajamas back in December, and it was so good. I wasn’t really interested in watching it when she gave it to me, but I did because I’d promisd her I would, and I got hooked pretty quickly.
I recently watched Experimenter (really fascinating, especially after seeing The Boy in the Striped Pajamas not too long ago) and The Intern. Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro are two of my all-time favorite actors so I couldn’t wait to see The Intern, and it was great!
Janis says
Season 3 of When Calls the Heart is the best yet…..agree with you on Season 1 being really good and Season 2 not great…..based on that, you should really enjoy 3 !!
Andrea says
good — glad to hear. I’ll be looking forward to watching the first half of season 3 over Dave’s spring break 🙂
Evie says
Beautiful kid pics, as usual. Love seeing them grow. Simon seems to be changing fast right now!
Netflix goodies for you to check out
Before We Go (movie)
Man Up (movie)
Doc Martin (series)
Andrea says
Thanks Evie! I do actually have “Before We Go” saved to my list right now too — I’ll have to look into the other ones 🙂
Evie says
WHATEVER YOU DO, don’t miss the very end! 🙂
Andrea says
good to know — although I don’t usually make a habit of missing the ends of movies 🙂
Chris says
I watched Railway Man and Colin is awesome as is Nicole(who I’m not really a fan of). The content is really hard to watch in a lot of parts. But overall the movie was good.
Jen says
So glad you enjoyed “Call the Midwives” and “Land Girls”. If you enjoyed those, you would probably also enjoy “Doc Martin” and, of course, “Downton Abbey”. Also, check out “Home Fires” (much like “Land Girls” ) and “Indian Summers”. I loved both of those. “Mercy Street” is good too. Can you tell I watch a lot of British TV?? 🙂
Happy Monday!
Andrea says
Would you believe that I’ve never even seen one episode of Downton Abbey? I think I’m going to wait until the most recent season is on Netflix and then watch the entire thing from start to finish. Maybe some summer when Dave is home!
Christine @ The (mostly) Simple Life says
Your Netflix list is freaky-similar to mine! I’ve been wanting to try Land Girls. Mansfield Park was a huge let down compared to the book. We spent hours doing yard work this weekend in the nice weather! I’m very sore, but very glad we got started.
Andrea says
if you like (and dislike) the same shows I do, then I have a feeling you’ll really like Land Girls. I still have 4 or 5 more episodes to watch, but they’ve all been really good.
Brenda says
I recently (and then binge watched) Heartland on Netflix. They only had up to season 6. Its a show about a young lady who has a way with horses and about her family. Interesting stories, beautiful animals and family friendly. Now I just need to find seasons 7 through 8 the show I believe is going on or is on its 9th season(?) .