Hey everyone!  I’m excited to get back to posting our Friday Favorites today!  I started doing this a long time ago, and then the whole going back to a full time job thing happened.  I haven’t had a lot of time since then.  But now that things have settled down a little, I am excited to share all the fun and favorite things around here with you!  If you want to check out the last one I did, click here.  So here are some things we’ve been loving lately:

#1
Brow Power Pencil This has been a favorite of mine for over a year now.  It fills in my eyebrows perfectly with a natural look!!  I use Universal Taupe.  I’m not good with the whole eyebrow thing, and I find it to be super easy to use.  Filling in eyebrows makes a huge difference!  It’s one of those little details that gives my make-up a finished look.

#2
Aerolatte Milk FrotherI love my little milk frother!  I got it as a present from my hubby a few years ago.  It helps me get my latte at home.  I just put a little milk in my coffee cup, heat it a few seconds in the microwave, and froth it.  Then I pour my coffee into the frothed milk.  You can even try to be fancy and make designs 🙂

#3
Father’s Day Fun

We got a great pic of my dad and my husband with some of the grandkids!  We had a really relaxing day swimming at my parent’s house and eating hotdogs and hamburgers.  Love days like that!!

#4

Beat the Parents

This game lived up to it’s name.  They did beat us!  They had so much fun too!  We played it the night of our little tropical storm.  Basically the parents get questions the kids know and vice versa.  I was super impressed with my kiddos and their skills!

#5

STS White Denim Shorts

Well that wraps up our Friday Favorites this week!  See you this weekend for our Weekly Family Meal Plan!

You can find more MAIN DISH RECIPES HERE.

You can find ALL RECIPES HERE.

For more ideas, follow me on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, AND PERISCOPE.

Get FREE recipes delivered to you by email:  SIGN UP HERE!

The post Friday Favorites #2 appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

I am so excited to share our first Disney cruise pictures with you!!  We had an absolute blast, and my kids will talk about this vacation for a long time to come for sure.  We were newbie cruisers, so we definitely learned a few things along the way.
As a first cruise, we did not want to do a 7-night, so we opted for the 4-night Bahamian cruise.  It had two ports of call:  Nassau and Castaway Cay.

We started off driving from Louisiana a few days before our sail date.  We made a two day trip out of it.  The day before the cruise we stayed in Port Canaveral, FL.  We hung out at the hotel pool a while, and then we decided to check out the beach nearby.  The kids were super excited!  Can you tell?

The next morning we were cruise ready and headed to the terminal!

Our shirts came from this Etsy shop 🙂
We stayed at the Radisson Resort at the Port in Port Canaveral, FL.  It had a huge pool, and it was a great place to stay before the cruise.

We were finally on the ship!!  It was so exciting!  We started off by just walking around and exploring.  We must have told the kids to slow down and let us catch up 100 times.  Grant has been watching Disney Cruise videos for the past year, so it was so neat to get to be there in person!  He was still watching one yesterday saying, “Hey!  We were right there, Mom!  We were right there!”

After we met a few characters, we went to check out the amazing Kids’ Club!

There is a nursery for kids under 3, which Landry went to a few times.  There is a charge for that one.  He did love all the toys in there.  It was just like a little daycare.  It made it really nice for us to enjoy some adult time one night.
The other kid’s area was the Kids Club which was without a doubt AWESOME!  Holy Cow!  They had a little open house on the first day, so we got to explore the whole thing.  Let me just start by saying the hand-washing station was super cool, and we were all impressed!  You stick your hands in this thing, and your hands get a little high-powered washing!  Grant thought it was so cool!
That club went on forever.  It was huge!  The kids loved going…begged to go!  You check them in and out.  You must have your key card and a password, and they know where the kids are at all times with the help of their Oceaneer bands.  I felt very comfortable about the whole process.

The first morning we arrived in Nassau.  We decided to try out the Atlantis Aquaventure waterpark excursion.  The grounds of this resort are gorgeous!  You get a nice little walk to see a lot of it when you are there.

There are a couple of beach areas you can visit while you are there too.  I thought that was pretty neat because you can knock out the waterpark and the beach on the same day.

I think the kids really enjoyed their day.  The not-so-lazy river was the hit of the day!  But my favorite…

…was the water slide that led to the shark tank!!!  Yes, the tube slide goes into a tank where sharks are all around you…and you go pretty slowly through that part.  It was very cool.  That’s Grant and I checking out the view!

So would I recommend the excursion?  I’m having trouble with that one.  It’s really expensive, and I don’t think my kids were old enough to take full advantage of all the slides.  I love a good waterpark, so I wish we could have done more for the money.  It seemed like before we knew it, it was time to go.  We probably only had about 3 or 4 hours in the park because we had to get back on the ship.  But in the end, I am glad I got to see Atlantis.  I’d like to go check the resort out more one day when everyone is a little older.

So that night we dinner at the Royal Palace restaurant.  We ate there two nights.  This was one of our waiters, Sam.  He was fabulous with the kids!!  They seriously talked about him all day long and couldn’t wait to see him at dinner!

Later that night, all the kids wanted to go the the Oceaneer Club, so we took advantage of our adult time, and checked out this nice Pink Champagne bar and walked around the ship a little.  All the other nights, we chose to go the shows, which were great!

So onto my favorite day!  Castaway Cay!
The ship docks right on the island, and you get to go at your leisure.  We wasted no time, and got right off the ship.  We took the tram and stopped at the second stop by the big water slide.

We bought the sand toys right on the island.  And the big kids loved the waterslide!

We did the stingray excursion that day.  The two little ones and I actually observed from the side, but it would be easy to take turns if you needed to do so.

The big kids really LOVED this!!  After getting to feed and touch the stingrays, they then got to snorkel with them!  It was very cool!  Olivia was not too excited at first, but by the end she was following them around 🙂

 So after a long day on the beach, we went back on the ship to get ready for this…

Pirate Night!!  And as you tell by our lovely family photo, someone was not happy.  She wanted to wear that Tinkerbell costume, but she was beyond exhausted that night.  That girl needs her sleep, and we were so busy the whole time.  She just wasn’t getting it.  We sat down to dinner with the meltdown continuing.  I finally talked her into going back to room to change into her t-shirt like the rest of us, and she was good after that.   Our t-shirts came from this Etsy shop.

The next day was our day at sea.  We got ready early for our Frozen character meet and greet.  Then we hung out by the pool a little.  I rode the Aquaduck slide with the big kids a few times.  Macy rode the other swirly slide.  Later, her and I went back up to the room so she could rest and I could start packing up.

This cruise was so fun!  And sometimes you were so tired, you fell asleep on your burger!  That night dinner was in Animator’s Palate, which was really cool.  But Landry couldn’t keep his little eyes open!

The next morning, we disembarked the ship and headed to…

…Disneyworld!  We went for a few days since our cruise was only a 4 night one.  I am glad we did it.  Macy Paige was 2 last time we went, and I was pregnant for Landry.  We kept it really simple only went to Magic Kingdom.
The gray t-shirts were from this Etsy shop.  I ordered the red monogram ones a long time ago on Groopdealz.
***And part of the Disney fun on the ship is decorating your stateroom door.  I ordered cute magnets for our doors at this Etsy shop.

Well that is it!!  It was a trip I know my kids will be talking about all year!  And since I love to travel, I am already starting to plan next year’s road trip!

To check out last year’s 11-Day Road Trip, click here.

For my recipe home page, click here.

Need a good idea for dinner?  Here are some of our quick and easy favorites.
15 Best Weeknight Dinner Recipes

The post Our First Disney Cruise appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

On Day 7, we left Moab, UT and headed to Vail, CO.  Let me start by saying I did my research pretty well for this trip, but there was one area where I failed miserably.  That would be the Vail/Breckenridge portion of the trip.  So I’ll explain how I should have planned better…

But first, let me just say that the stretch of I-70 heading into Vail and Breckenridge was the most beautiful stretch of road ever!  I had tears in my eyes thinking of how long we had planned this trip, and I was in awe that we were finally there doing it!  It was a great moment on the trip.

So we booked a condo at the Vail Raquet Club several months before the trip.  We knew we wanted to spend some time there and figured a condo would be a great way to relax.  I booked it through Expedia.  We stayed in a 2 bedroom, and we liked it.  It’s not the newest condo ever, but it was perfect for what we needed.  I loved the property too.  The Gore Creek runs right behind it and we could see a little waterfall in the mountains.  It was that perfect “mountain feel.”  And because it was the off season, the condo was pretty cheap.

This was Memorial Day weekend, and it was pretty darn cold for us!  See that pool picture.  It was cold, but they wanted to try swimming in the heated pool.  It was pretty warm as long as your whole body was in the water.  So needless to say, they didn’t swim long.  So we warmed up inside the cozy condo and cooked hot dogs and watched a movie.  It was a great night!  And I had big plans for the next day…but the weather did not want to cooperate very much.

We woke up with plans to walk around and explore the property around the condo.  And the kids wanted to find some snow!  We saw some across the street near the waterfall.  They were so excited!

We were FREEZING!  It was a pretty dreary day with off and on rain.  We kept hoping that sun would come out.

And here is the part I should have planned better.  I didn’t realize that we were going in an in-between season where the summer stuff wouldn’t be open yet.  I was really sad about the gondola ride being closed.  That was the one thing I was really looking forward to doing.  Next time, we will go a few weeks later when all the summer stuff opens.  Despite the dreary weather, I could see how beautiful Vail Villiage was!  I can’t wait to go back!

But despite the bad weather, my dear high school friend and her four girls came to meet us for lunch.  She lives in Colorado, and it has been 9 years since I’ve seen her.  We both have a few more kids since the last time we hung out!  We ate at a pizzeria in Vail Villiage and had some ice cream..in the freezing weather.  It was so good to see her!  It was definitely a highlight of my trip.  In fact, her family is one of the reasons I wanted to take my family on this road trip.  I went with them to drop her off at college when we were 18.  We stopped at many of the same locations on our road trip.  It brought back a lot of great memories!

The next day we woke up, packed up the van, and headed to see Breckenridge for the day.  Again, I had great plans for this day.  Even though the weather was prettier for sure, the summer fun park wasn’t open yet leaving this a destination we will have to visit again.  We did do one important thing however…

I knew we had to stop at Crepes a la Cart!  So we grabbed some lunch and headed to to the crepe stand.  I didn’t know it would be an hour wait, but I knew it would be worth it.  I got the Strawberry Cheesecake, and the kids got:  S’mores, Strawberry/White Chocolate, and Strawberry/Nutella.  I think the S’mores one was my favorite!  Next time, I want to try one of their savory crepes.

And Breckenridge sure was beautiful too!

We headed out and stopped at the breathtaking Hoosier Pass to take this picture.  Plus the kids wanted to play in the snow one last time.  As we traveled down south, we saw gorgeous country again.

At this point, we headed out and started making our way home.  We stopped in Trinidad, CO for a night and Fort Worth for a night.  That last day driving home was a little scary in the car.  None of those kiddos wanted to be in there.  We all just wanted to be alone…

Once we made it home that day, we all happily found something to do on our own, including the baby.  He must have sat and played with his toy trucks for hours.  And the look on his face, when he saw our house was priceless!!

Overall, it was the trip of a lifetime.  I cannot believe we did it!  My husband and I were pretty darn proud of ourselves.  The plan is to take another one, but we will wait a few years for that!  🙂

Thanks for following along on our trip too!  If you’d like watch, I made a quick video of all the fun too!  Click here to see it.

For Days 1-3, click here.
For Days 4-6, click here.

And if you need some supper ideas for the week, check out this week’s menu plan.

Going on your own road trip?  Check this out!
20+ Road Trip Snack Ideas

The post Colorado Road Trip Days 7-11 appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

So for this part of the trip we stayed at my in-law’s house near Durango, CO.  This was nice since we had been staying in hotels the previous 2 nights.  It gave the kids a chance to run around and play since they live on several acres.  It was just what we needed!!

So on the morning of Day 4, Monday, we woke up and hung around their house a while before heading out to see the sights.  Today it was all about Durango and Four Corners!!  
We headed out to go walk around Main St.  We did a little shopping (notice the hats purchase) and found a little brewery to go get a bite to eat.  After that we stopped for some ice cream.

Now this wasn’t the kind of ice cream my kids are accustomed to getting.  It was artisan ice cream with different/natural flavors like lavender and ginger.  After that, we got in the car for about an hour and a half drive to the Four Corners Monument!

This has been on my bucket list since I learned about this as a child.  When we first started planning this trip and telling the kids about it, I told them how they could stand in four states at one time.  They thought this was so cool and couldn’t wait to try it out!

Now this little monument is in the middle of nowhere.  I don’t think I really expected that.  However, it was still super cool!
Our time here was very short and sweet.  I would have liked to have walked around a little more and explore the vendor booths set up all around it, but we had a 4 year old that seriously needed a nap.  Meltdowns and monuments are kind of awkward if you know what I mean.  So we got back in the car and called it a day.  We headed back to my in-laws house for a nice home-cooked supper!

So on Day 5, Tuesday, we woke up early and headed out for this:

We took a train ride from Durango to Silverton, CO.  It was an old steam-engine train, and it was one of the coolest experiences in my life! I’ll admit that I was a little scared since it was a 3 and a half hour ride and I have 4 kids.  I was also a little scared to get sick since I have pretty bad motion sickness.  But I couldn’t let this opportunity pass.  I took a dramamine, and it all worked out fine.

The tour guides were great, and we even got to walk back a few cars to visit the concession stand for some hot chocolate.  The kids loved it!  It was definitely worth it!

We stopped periodically so the train could get water 🙂

And this little guy slept most of the way, but woke up just in time to see some pretty sites.  He now thoroughly knows what a choo choo train is!

So we arrived in Silverton around lunch time.  It is a beautifully preserved in time little town reminiscent of the Old West…so very cool!

The town even has a few people dressed in the 1800’s attire.  We ate lunch at a saloon.  Afterwards we walked around and did a little more shopping.  I highly recommend this little excursion.  It was probably my favorite part of the entire vacation.  They do have the option to take the train back to Durango, but we chose to take the charter bus back.  It was quicker, and the kids passed out on the smooth ride home.  You also got to see different sites on the ride home, and it was just as beautiful.

The next day we woke up, said goodbyes, and headed out for Moab, UT.  I got the opportunity to go here 18 years ago with my friend and her family.  I have talked about it to my husband our entire relationship.  I couldn’t wait for the kids and him to see it.  It was a 2 hour drive from Durango.

We went to Arches National Park to see some of the most incredible, majestic sites on this Earth.  This park is HUGE y’all.

And the kids were very ready to do some hiking.  They had been talking about it for 5 days.

We definitely will make a trip back when everyone is older.  We knew we would be limited on what we could see with the little ones.  But they hung in there for a while.  They were very impressed with the Balanced Rock.
So the picture on the left above was a very sought after picture.  I have one of myself there 18 years ago.  I could not remember where in the park it was, but on our very last stop, we finally found it.  Now we had a few missing members here because the little ones were done at this point.  The big kids and I quickly walked to find this, and headed back to the van to head out.

It was time to swim a little before supper!  And supper plans were amazing!!

We ate at the Sunset Grill in Moab.  It’s on a little cliff where you can see the most beautiful sunset.  The kids enjoyed their frozen lemonades too!  It was a nice ending to great day!

And I had to snap this pic of hotel life…

So that was days 4-6!!  I can’t wait to show you the rest!  Thanks for visiting!!

For Days 1-3, click here.
For Days 7-11, click here.

The post Colorado Road Trip Days 4-6 appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

And before we get to more pictures, months before the trip, I wanted to prepare the kids and help them learn their states.  So I downloaded a few great apps on their iPads.  Our favorites were:  Shake the States and Stack the States.  The play them ALL THE TIME!!  They can really learn so much geography from these two games.

We drove a little over 7 hours the first day.  We found a great rest area in Texas with a nice little park to play and eat lunch.  We had kind of mapped that out the night before knowing the first day would be tough on our two little ones.  
So after we ate and played a little while, we hopped back in the car and landed in Witchita Falls, TX for our first night.  There wasn’t a pool at the hotel…BOO!  So we went bowling instead 🙂  The kids had a great time that night because this bowling alley had laser bowling.  You can’t tell on that picture above, but they did turn out the lights later.  The next morning we woke up early and headed out to Santa Fe, NM!!

It was exciting to make it through Texas…FINALLY!  I think the kids now really understand how big Texas is.  We stayed at the Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza.  It was a beautiful hotel with a great big pool area.  However it was quite cold outside for us.  The kids still swam a little, but it wasn’t for very long.

We headed out for supper right near the hotel, and kind of walked around a bit to burn more of that energy!

We decided to eat at a restaurant right behind our hotel called Casa Chimayo.  It was so cool!!  I had no idea that we would be walking into this little jewel at all!  And “little” is an appropriate word to describe it.  When we got there, we saw a sign that it had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives!  I was so excited!!

I ordered the Blue Corn Enchiladas.  It was good, and it had a great atmosphere!

The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast, and headed out for church.  This picture is in front of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.  It is a beautiful church built in 1887.

The kiddos were quite wired before going in the church.  I blame it on two days of sitting in a car.  But as soon as mass started (after a few prayers from my husband and I), they got amazingly calm.  It was quite nice for sure!

We also walked around a bit.  I told the kids to take a picture on these steps and this is what I got.  I swear I did not pose them at all.  Aren’t they little professionals?  I love this picture.  And that #3…she’s a mess!

Santa Fe is so beautiful!  I’m so glad we were able to stop there!

We headed out around lunch time!  We were on our way to Colorado!  This drive was so beautiful.  To see the land change, was just amazing!!!

Our next little stop was in Pagosa Springs, CO.  This was a totally planned stop for sure!  I love this little town!!  My only regret was that it was on a Sunday, so not everything was open.  We found a little place to eat and then we walked around.
There are hot springs everywhere.  It is so cool!  The San Juan River that runs through the town is cold, and the hot springs were….well…hot.  It was such a neat contrast.  The town has grown quite a bit since I visited 18 years ago.  See all those people in those little hot springs?  Very cool!

Afterwards, we headed out to my husband’s parents house outside of Durango, CO.  It was nice to have destination where the kids could burn some of that energy and play outside some more!

So that was Days 1-3!!  Tomorrow, I’ll be back with a recipe, and then on Wednesday, I’ll recap a little more of the trip!  My favorite part is yet to come!!

For Days 4-6, click here.
For Days 7-11, click here.

And if you are hungry, we had this for supper last night.  It was always a regular in our house, but for some reason I haven’t made it in a while.  The kids scraped their plates clean!!

You can find more MAIN DISH RECIPES HERE.

You can find ALL RECIPES HERE.

For more ideas, follow me on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, AND PERISCOPE.

Get FREE recipes delivered to you by email: SIGN UP HERE!

The post Colorado Road Trip Days 1-3 appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

So here’s a look at what’s been going on around here this past month!

My husband and I went to our Mardi Gras Krewe Cocktail Party.  We don’t get many nights out so when we get to go somewhere, it is always really special.  We had a great time!

Last weekend, we headed to a cheer competition on my birthday.  Instead of going with my husband and the rest of the kids, we went with my mom, sister, my nephew, and niece.  We had a great time and ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  They surprised me with a little candle and song!  I picked the coconut and pecan one, and Olivia picked the red velvet one.  They are huge!  Normally we share them, but we each got a slice on this day.

And our team did great at the competition!!  The girls got 1st and High Point Champs!!

As I was setting up the new pantry, this one decided to climb in the boxes and make himself a little bed!  It was so cute!  And that blanket…we have about 5 of those.  They are his favorite things in the world.  He never took a pacifier, but he runs to go get any and all the blankets when he is upset or tired.

So our youngest one likes to throw…EVERYTHING.  And he has a pretty good arm.  He threw a toy and hit his sister in the head.  I told him he had to come give her a hug to say he was sorry.  And he listened and stayed like this for the longest time!

And this week, we celebrated the 100th day of school!  So the tradition is to dress like they are 100.  Normally, we just buy the white or gray hairspray paint, but I waited until the last minute to go buy it.  Of course, they were out of it, so I bought a few hair pieces instead.  My mom had the gown and took it up in the back for her.  It was so hysterical to see them dressed like that!  They proceeded to make up several skits about being old people together 🙂

Well that’s the Diary Dailies for right now.  I’ll be back tomorrow with a menu plan for the upcoming week!

The post Diary Dailies #2 appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

So here’s a look at what’s been going on around here this past month!

My oldest daughter is on a competitive cheer team.  She cheers at the “Mini” level, and she loves it.  They are so cute, so we love going to competitions to watch them perform!  We have another one coming up in a few weeks.

Macy Paige had her first program at preschool!  I got a little emotional and wondered how she got so big so fast.  I feel like life has been sooooo busy since she was born.  It’s so true what they say!  Going from two to three children totally changed our world!  When Mr. #4 arrived, he just blended in with the rest of the chaos!  #truth

Speaking of #4, Landry is at the cutest age!  Pardon the mouth with food on the left picture, but I just love that bright, sweet face.  In the next photo, he was playing so quietly in the pantry, I knew he had to have gotten into something.  Sure enough, he had found a candy on the floor!

And he just adores his big sister!

These 4 had a great Christmas!  Notice we are now into “bunny ears” around here too 🙂

And they also had a wonderful Christmas vacation!  We played Uno Attack, and they jumped on the new trampoline.  Notice Batman was there too!  And just a little side note on the trampoline.  This is our 2nd one to have because the first one got mangled from the weather one day.  We haven’t had one in a few years, so they were ecstatic.  They played on that thing all day everyday during the break.  And when they’d come inside, they were exhausted.  There was nothing that made this momma happier than to hear sounds of laughter of children happily playing (and not fighting 🙂 ) and then coming inside pooped!

And this picture right here is a sneak peek of something that has been a year in the making in our home!!!!  We added on a butler’s pantry with a built-in desk area!  I desperately needed storage.  More pics to come once it is finally finished.

So that’s it for this edition of Diary Dailies!  Hope you all have a great day!  I’ll be back tomorrow with the Weekly Family Meal Plan.

The post Diary Dailies #1 appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!

The post Merry Christmas 2015 appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

The post Merry Christmas appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.

Today I’m going to share a little behind the scenes with you.  I know I always love reading these kinds of posts from my favorite bloggers.  I love seeing what their day is like.  My life is currently in a major transition!  I have worked since high school.  I was a teacher for 9 years.  I was always off during holidays and for summer, but other than that, I was a working mom.  I am still adjusting to not working.  I’ve always wanted to stay home with my kids, and I feel VERY blessed to be able to do so, but I am still adjusting to this new routine.  New routine, new baby, 2 year old, resistant potty trainer, breastfeeding, home all day….let’s just say it’s different for me.

So here you go…a peek into my life on a typical Monday…

My day starts out really early quite often.  It all depends on how late my little guy likes to sleep.  On this day he chose this time.  I could have used about another hour!

And so that’s what I did…I feel asleep for a little longer after I fed him.

Then I fixed a cup of coffee…don’t you just love my coffee cup.  I got them for Christmas.  They are from Dillards.

Before getting ready, I check my emails and my blog.

Say some prayers and then I go get ready before waking up the kids.

At 6:30, I go wake up my kids.

Everyone is ready to go by 7:20ish

Back at home it’s time for breakfast for my 2 year old.  Little man doesn’t eat solids yet.  I just set him in the highchair so I could cook breakfast.

She loves to help.  She and I are really getting in a groove of cooking together.

This is one of my favorite breakfasts:  Scrambled eggs in a toasted whole wheat pita with shredded cheese.

Time to feed little man.  I usually try to do some work at the computer during this time.  It all depends on my 2 year old.  Sometimes she can occupy herself with something and other times she will climb all over me.

Time to go back to sleep

She loves to play with her babies.

Time to unload the dishwasher and then I chat on the phone with my mom.

Then we had some “honey bun drama.”  She kept going to the pantry to get one and I kept putting them back up.

Washing, folding, putting up clothes…it never ends does it?
I can remember when I only washed like 3 loads a week!!  Now I pretty much run that thing 2 to 3 times a day!

Time to exercise!  I’ll admit that I’m not exactly the most motivated person when it comes to exercising.  I really want to love it, but I don’t.  I love how I feel, but that usually doesn’t help me.  My motivation right now…the last 10 pounds of pregnancy weight left to go!!

Time to feed little man again…

Next we went to the mall to go buy my oldest daughter some boots.  I don’t normally go to the mall, but I am really trying to get out of the house more.

We took a break and she played at the little kiddie playground at the mall, and then we ate lunch.

I also picked up these CUTE shoes at Dillard’s.  Christmas gift for my oldest.

Back at home and time for little man to eat again.  She watched Barney.  At this point, we did not have time for a nap.  I’m not big on skipping naps.  She really needs them.

We had a few minutes to make some muffins.

Asleep again…he really is a good baby!

Discovered crushed goldfish crumbs in the chair

Time to go get the big kids from school.  We only live a few minutes away.  I do not go wait in the long line like some parents.  I find going later only takes 10 minutes rather than sitting for an hour!

I had a few minutes before starting homework to snap some photos for the blog.

I  like to let them eat a snack and watch a show on the Ipad before we do homework.

Time to do homework!

After homework, I start looking over my 2nd graders math information.  We have started Common Core here in Louisiana.  It has proven to be quite a challenge and we have a ways to go with the delivery of it.  I am a former math teacher, and my daughter and I have spent hours on this stuff.  It is getting better, but I started out the year very displeased with the rapid pacing of the curriculum.

We went outside to play for a little while before supper.  Usually Monday nights are leftovers for supper, so I don’t have to cook.

Time to clean up after supper.  I had one not eat, so I left his food for him.  He can be very picky at times.   He eventually ate it.  If he had his way, he would eat mac and cheese every day.

Sleeping again…

Time for Cheer practice…my husband brought her.

Bath time…but somebody didn’t want to…

Time to feed little man again…

I’m really scared to leave him on the floor around my 2 year old!  Poor baby doesn’t get as much floor time as I would like…but we do what we can.

She brought him her bear and her blanket because she whacked him on the head right before this picture.  He’s going to be tough!

Time for books, brushing teeth, and bed

I think I pick up these blocks almost everyday.

And just for a funny…here’s how my husband found her the other night before we went to bed.  When she was supposed to be falling asleep, she got in her closet, played, and passed out on top of everything!

With my oldest, we write down things we are both grateful for in her journal.  We each write down three things from the day.  We are also preparing for her first reconciliation in November.  She will do this and in the Spring, she will receive her First Communion.

We try to give him at least one bottle a day.  I just pump right before he is ready to eat.

I check my blog, email, and sometimes work on a post or edit photos.

Time for bed…I’m exhausted!

I’m trying to read at night before I go to sleep.  I’m usually so tired, I don’t get very far.

Well that’s a look at my day.  Hope you enjoyed!

Make sure you click through and visit the rest of the bloggers giving you a glimpse into their world…

The Baker Mama

Diary of a Recipe Collector

House of Yumm

Or Whatever You Do

Sugar Dish Me

The Weary Chef

The post A Day in the Life of Me appeared first on Diary of A Recipe Collector.