Lemon-Garlic Turkey Breast

If you don't cook in a crockpot-you are crazy.  It is so easy, especially with the kids.  I can throw something in in the morning and it smells great all day, and then it is ready to go for Kevin and I to have dinner together once the kids are in bed.  I am constantly looking to find more crockpot receipes that I like and have minimal prep work, so I am thrilled that Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is starting a crockpot link up each week.  My one advice on crockpot cooking is invest in one that has a warmer feature--that way you can start it whenever in the morning and you don't have to worry about turning it off at a certain time, it goes go to warmer automatically which is perfect for me because I would hate to have spent all day slaving in the kitchen for dinner to be ruined :)  Here's a receipe that Kevin and I really like and it always sounds impressive when you can say that you made a turkey for dinner.

Lemon-Garlic Turkey Breast

3 lbs. turkey breast
1/2 cup lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. dried tarragon
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp. dried sage
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 cup white wine

Place the turkey breast in the Crock-Pot slow cooker.  In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, garlic, parsley, tarragon, rosemary, sage, salt, pepper and wine.  Pour the sauce over the turkey breast.  Cover; cook on Low 8 to 10 hours (or on High for 4 to 5 hours).  Slice before serving.  Makes 6 servings.

For those that do Weight Watchers--this is 6 points per serving.

Sorry I don't have a picture, but you know what turkey breast looks like.  I do though have a picture of one of my favorite people doing a little grocery shopping with her new grocery cart (granted we are in a mall and not the grocery store, but she just had to push the cart the second that we bought it.  I'm sure those actually trying to shop weren't as amused as I was, but oh well, when you have a happy toddler, you don't mess with it.)

 

Happy Cooking!

Steppin' Out Saturday-Bachelorette Party Edition

Saturday we celebrated my college girlfriend's bachelorette party.  She is from New Jersey, hence her nickname Jersey, and it was only fitting that she have a "Jersey Shore" themed bachelorette party.  Now, mind you, I have actually never seen the show (and I am actually quite proud of that fact), so I didn't know exactly what to wear to fit the part, so I just got a sundress for the night that I can actually use for when we go to Florida in a couple of weeks as well.  I was pretty pumped when I found this dress online at Banana Republic for 30% off and then I had $40 in gap dollars, so the dress ended up only costing me $40!!!!

I don't have a great picture of just me in the dress, so here's one with my friend Jill (and yes she is dressed for the Jersey Shore theme and no that is thankfully not a real tattoo )

We started out the night at Jersey's maid of honor's house for drinks, games and gifts.  Here's the bachelorette on her night out.

I wish I could have gotten a close up of her freshly painted "safety pink" nails and her smoky eyeshadow.  Mind you, Jersey had no idea what the theme of the night was going into it, so she was pretty suprised that she got to look this awesome for her big night out!!!! She was rocking the infamous "Zeus" necklack and she also did drink out of the chalice for the entire evening. 

After an interesting gift giving session, we headed out to dinner at Quartino.  This place is great for large groups, reasonably priced, and the food is always good. I have been here a couple of times and have never been disappointed.  They also have a private room that fits about 15 if you think that your party is going to get rowdy.  Our party was rowdy, we just chose to do it in the middle of the crowded restaurant as opposed to in a private room because what fun would that have been. 



I'm not exactly sure what is going on in this picture, but Jersey is marrying a cop, so you can kind of see her fake badge for the night.  Good thing she didn't try to citizen's arrest anyone.

After dinner, we were a little early for our next stop so we ended up being invited into "Snickers" by some lady who I'm pretty sure should have left around 4 (and it was now 9:30), to say she was overserved is an understatement.  But, Snickers ended up being a blast.  There was alot of singing and dancing to be had (even some dancing in the open air windows).  I as a mother of two did not partake in the dancing in the windows segment of the evening, but I sure as hell did take pictures of those that did :) 

This picture is funny to me, only because the three of us just all had babies within the past 4 months, so we weren't so much feeling the dance in the window thing, but you gotta be there to support your friends, right?

The night ended up at The Baton Lounge, which all I will say about that is, interesting.  I had to check out early because I am old and by 11:00, I was falling asleep at the show.  Plus knowing that my two little alarm clocks go off at 6 am does not make for fun mornings when you are out to late the night before.  I definitely had a good time though and it was so fun to see my college girlfriends.  We don't all get together too often anymore due to all being different places in the country and having crazy schedules, but when we do, it's always like old times (however, I will speak for myself in saying, I definitely can't hang like I used to.  Going out two nights in a row this weekend was definitely difficult for me, hence the back to the routine post from yesterday.) 

So, congrats Jersey!!!!  Can't wait to see you become a Mrs. in a couple of months in Jersey.  And no bachelorette party is complete without a picture in front of a fire engine with some firefighters, so here you go!

Linking up to Mandy

A new routine

This past week and weekend have not been so great in terms of weightloss.  Now, they have been great in that I have had family and friends and fun things going on, but it has definitely been a week that got us out of our routine, eating out a lot, and not exercising enough.  So this week, it is time to get back on track, back to the routine of things, and overall back to making some healthier choices.

While I love to have fun things to do, I also really love routines.  My body thrives on routine, to the point where Kevin makes fun of me becuase I do much better going to bed at 9 each night, even on the weekends.  I have always been that way, and I know that about myself, so when I start getting out of my routine, my body just does not respond well.  I am also starting to notice that trait in Kiley.  Last week, we had a couple of rough days and I am pretty sure that it was because she was out of her routine as well.  She didn't have great naps all week and I think that we tried to fit in too many things that are just not activities for toddlers these days (i.e. shopping). And now that Ella is almost 4 months (I know, I don't know how she is getting so old, so fast), she is starting to develop her own routine which is throwing off the routine that I had for Kiley.  So, with fall starting, and now two kids schedules to figure out instead of one, we are re-thinking our old routines and having to develop new ones.  New ones that will mean more time spent at home instead of going to classes and playgroups, but I have come to be ok with that.  It means more time for my girls to get to play together and for me to enjoy watching them grow instead of constantly being on the go.  I have struggled with this becuase I felt that Kiley might be missing out on something by not being able to go to classes every day, but soon enough, she will be in school and I will miss these days of just being able to play at home.  So, I am going to embrace this time of being able to develop our new routine of going to the gym in the morning and staying home in the afternoons to enjoy moments like these.  This is the first video I have that have Kiley and Ella somewhat playing together, with Ella kind of looking like she is enjoying it. 

So, with today being Monday, I am resolving to get myself back on track with my eating and back to my routine.  I am glad that we have a couple weekends coming up with absolutely no plans, so I can really focus on eating well, working out, and sticking to the routine.

And if you didn't believe me about Ella getting so big these days.  Here are a few recent pics of the little lady.  She is starting to look like a little person to me now and starting to develop her own personality (and sleeping through the night, 6-6 baby!!!!). 

So happy!



Ella and Grandma



Kiley ready for her workout!


 

Have a great Monday!  Here's to a new week and new routines.

Happy Birthday Kevin!

We have been celebrating Kevin's birthday all week long, and his actual day is finally here.  We have been busy this week making birthday signs,

baking cupcakes,

shopping til' we dropped for presents,

signing cards and hanging up the birthday banner to get ready for his big day.

Kiley and Ella even made Dad a special Birthday video.





Last night, Kevin and I got to enjoy a nice dinner out and drinks afterwards with friends. 

And today, we are doing whatever Kevin would like to do (which may be sleeping for him and trying to keep the girls quiet so daddy can sleep for me). 

Happy Birthday Kevin/Daddy!  We love you so much and hope you have had a great week and have an even better day. 



Show Us Your Life-Baby Shower Ideas

I'm linking up over at Kelly's Korner again today for her Show Us Your Life post of the week.  This week's topic is Baby Shower Ideas

Let me just start off by saying I had the worst luck with my baby showers.  I have the sweetest family and friends who have thrown me beautiful showers and sprinkles (or at least planned to have them). For those that don't know, both of my girls were born 5 and a half weeks early.   My showers for Kiley were planned for when I was 34 weeks pregnant.  My friends threw me one on that Saturday and my sister and mom threw me one on Sunday.  That Thursday before my big shower weekend, my blood pressure got pretty high and I was admitted to the hospital for monitoring.  Luckily though, I was able to get released Saturday morning, and was able to make it to the showers, but on bed rest.  I am really thankful that I was able to make it and I got so many wonderful gifts for Kiley.  I swear I didn't have to buy clothes for Kiley until she was like a year old.  My friends at work had also planned to throw me a shower, however, I had Kiley a week before the planned shower and was gone on maternity leave, so I never actually had that one. 

With the sprinkle that was planned for Ella, my friends tried to plan ahead (and even moved the date up after we thought that I might go even earlier than anticipated).  It was a suprise sprinkle, which was so sweet of them, but what do you know, I came down with bronchitis three days before it.  As part of the suprise, Kevin's job was to get me there.  So when he suggested we go to brunch on that Sunday (while I am hacking up a lung), I knew something was up so it wasn't much of a suprise anymore that something was planned, but all of the details remained unknown to me so that was a success.

I had an awesome time at all of my showers and sprinkle, but they definitely didn't go exactly as planned, but then again, nothing with my pregnancies went exactly as planned.  So is life, I guess. 

I don't have a lot of ideas because I haven't planned a baby shower for anyone yet, but a couple things that I have done or seen done that I like are. . .

1.  Thank you gifts
I had 5 girlfriends that went in on planning one of my showers and 2 that kind of "took the lead"  For all 5 girls, I got them personalized note sets. That looked like this

I got them from Swoozie's.  This is a great site that has a lot of fun personalized stuff with pretty good prices and they shipped really quickly as well.  The fun thing was that they have different styles to choose from so I was able to pick a style and font that I thought fit each girls personality.

For the two girls that took the lead on planning, I also got them gift certificates to Mario Tricoci so that they could enjoy some pampering. 

My mom and sister threw my second shower.  I wanted something special for them for all the love and support that they had given me through my pregnancy and when I found this necklace.


It's from Red Envelope which is another store that I really like.  They have quick shipping, plus they have a lot of jewelry that you can personalize with the receipent's birthstone, name, etc.  I liked this necklace because for us it symbolized Kiley entering the world and becoming the third generation of our immediate family. 

2.  Books

A fun gift that my friend Jill always gives at baby showers is a fun basket filled with some of her favorite childhood books. 

I think that this is a really cute idea because you can never have enough books. 

Another cute idea that I have heard of, especially for a shower that is out of town and you don't want to have to ship a lot of stuff back, is to have a book shower where everyone brings their favorite childhood book.  This would be fun to do for a sprinkle as well, since most of the time, you don't really need a lot of stuff for a 2nd or later baby, but usually most people want to bring something. 

3.  Onesies

A gift that I thought would be cute but I haven't actually given yet is to buy 12 onesies for the first year and then the month onesie stickers to put on them to take pictures each month.  I bought some of these

 for Kiley from this etsy site http://www.etsy.com/shop/pickysticky.  Granted I only took the pictures for the first 4 months (I was bad about this), but I have seen people do really cute things with these pictures as decor for 1st birthdays. 

How cute is this little peanut of mine

So those are my ideas- nothing mindblowing by any means.  I am pretty tired today after a busy week with Grandma in town and I have a really busy weekend ahead of me so I need to take a nap when Kiley is napping to gear up for it.  Tomorrow is Kevin's birthday and then I have Jersey's Bachelorette party tomorrow evening.   While I love busy weekends and seeing friends, I am also looking forward to having a couple of weekends coming up that we have nothing planned. 

Happy Friday and be safe if you are on the East Coast.  Kevin and I took an awesome trip to the Outer Banks a couple of summers ago so it is near and dear to my heart, so I hope Irene doesn't cause too much destruction. 



"I'm Going to Love You Through it"

I have been inspired to run my first 5K on September 24th, 2011 in honor of my mom, my Aunt Nancy and Kevin's Aunt Sue.  They are all amazing women that have battled breast cancer and I am so thankful that they fought hard against it and are still with us today.  I recently came across this video by Martina McBride of her new song "I'm Going to Love You Through It." 

It's really hard for me to put into words how much this song touches me, but all I can say to those in my family that have battled this deadly disease is-thank you.  Thank you for fighting so hard that you are still with us today.  Thank you for enduring painful treatments and procedures even though I am sure that at times it was the last thing that you wanted to do.  Thank you for being strong and looking cancer in the face and not backing down.  Thank you for your courage.  Thank you for making me one of the lucky ones that didn't have to say good bye. Thank you for being a living part of my daughters' lives and not a picture that I have to show them and explain to them who those amazing women were.  I can't thank you enough and tell you enough how much I love each of you and how grateful that I am for you to still be here today. 

So, with that, on September 24th, I will do something that I haven't done before in support and honor of my family.  I will run on behalf of you as a survivor.  Granted, I may not run fast and I may have to walk a little bit because if you know me, you know that I am not a runner.  But, it's the least that I can do to support you for being such fighters. 

If you would like to support me in this endeavor-I am looking for either a.  people to run with me or b. people to donate to the cause. I am hoping to raise $300 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  You can click on the link below which will take you to my personal page and then click on donate to Natalie. 

http://www.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/HIL_ChicagolandAreaAffiliate?px=10492348&pg=personal&fr_id=2250

I know that I am short on time to raise my money, but with two kiddos everything is a little rushed, but I am used to it and I know that I can do it.  Can you help me reach my goal?

Now, I am off to the gym to keep up my training :)  Have a great Thursday!

Kiley's favorite toys!

I don't have a lot of time to write today as Grandma is in town and we have lots of fun to have, but I just wanted to share a few pictures and videos of Kiley playing with her favorite toy(s). 

I have not found a single toy that keeps Kiley entertained more than . . .

The dogs! 

You want proof, here it is. . .



This is my absolute favorite picture of Kiley and Madison.  I love Madison's look in this picture.  Priceless.