Totally worth it

On Wednesday after waking up at 12:30, 3:30, and then 6:00 I thought for sure Tristan would nurse and fall back to sleep for another hour or two...Nope! He was ready to play at 6am and did not want to take a nap or nurse. I was a little frustrated so I groggily made a pot of coffee (makes everything better at 6am!) After I fixed my cup of coffee I sat down in the floor to watch Tristan play while I drank my much needed caffeine. Before I knew it Tristan was scooting towards me and when he reached my leg he held on and rested his little chin on me. Luckily the camera was sitting right on the table so I was able to get a few pictures before he went back to playing. It was like he knew mommy needed a little cuddle at 6am. His personality is so sweet, it makes even late nights and early mornings totally worth it!

scrumptious squash casserole

Squash casserole is one of my favorite summer dishes. This week I found yellow squash on sale for 79cents a pound, so squash casserole went on our menu! This recipe is easy and delicious, but know it is not really a low calorie dish :) I adapted this dish from my moms recipe which is amazing. I wasn't sure her exact process but i knew all the ingredients. Here is how I put it together and it ended up tasting great! You can also add cheese to it if you like, but I like it without.

4-5 small or medium yellow squash washed and cut into slices or cubes
1/2 large onion diced
1 bag herb seasoned stuffing mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup chicken broth (home made or low sodium)
80z sour cream
salt and pepper

First saute your onions and squash in a large non stick skillet until they start to turn soft. Once they are getting soft add 1/2 stick butter and salt and pepper to taste. Next mix soup, chicken broth, sour cream and 1/2 stick melted butter together in bowl. Add the bag of stuffing mix and mix well. If it is too thick and you need to add more chicken broth you can do so(if you add too much liquid you can add an egg or two to help it set up as it bakes). It should be a thick mush consistency, but not too dry. Mix this with your squash and onions and add to a large glass casserole dish and sprinkle with pepper. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 20-25min or until golden brown.

Grumpy Pants

The past two days Tristan has been super grumpy! There seems to be no cause for his grumpiness which is strange to me. He will be happy for a few minutes playing on the floor with his mirror and toys then he starts crying. He will be happy in his jumper for a few minutes... then starts crying. I keep changing his diaper and nursing him thinking maybe that will make him feel better, but it doesn't work. He won't nurse well so I know he is hungry but he won't take a bottle or baby food either. Last night he devoured some sweet potatoes and today he wouldn't touch them (I tried three separate times). He has no fever and no gas (although I did give him gas drops just in case). He has been drooling a lot so I thought maybe it is teething, but I see no signs of teeth. hmmmm. I bought him three new teethers at Target yesterday but he is not too interested in them. He napped for three hours this morning and is now napping again. Maybe he is just tired? who knows. I was able to keep him happy for about 40minutes earlier today by sitting in front of the big sliding glass door and reading books to him while he sat on my lap and looked outside. I'm not sure why is so grumpy, maybe something will happen soon to let me know why he is having these bad days. I sure hope I can figure out how to make him happy soon because it is wearing me out. We are going swimming this evening before dinner, he LOVES swimming so maybe that will work for awhile. :)

perfect side

Since I am on a budget I often find myself bored with the same old vegetables out of a bag or can as a side dish to our meals. I like to make balanced meals, but does that mean you always have to have the same old frozen or canned vegetables? No! One of our favorite vegi dishes is great for you and doesn't break the bank at all. Here it is:

Roasted Vegi's

4 carrots- peeled and chopped into chunky pieces

2 medium sized red potatoes- chopped into chunks

1 large sweet potato- peeled and chopped

optional: 1 onion peeled and chopped into large chunks

4 cloves of garlic peeled and left whole

You want to make sure your vegi's are all chopped to about the same size so they cook evenly, Then simply toss your vegi's in enough oil to coat them so they don't stick to your pan and they get a nice golden color to them as they roast. The two must have spices for this dish are celery salt and pepper, but you can also doctor it up with whatever herbs and seasonings you like. Some extra add ins we have done are:

rotisserie chicken spice

seasoning salt

thyme

oregano

Roast on a cookie sheet, glass pan, or (my favorite) a cast iron skillet. Roast at 350 or 400 until soft and slightly golden. Stir after first 20-30 min to insure even cooking. Yum!

Ear Surgery

The surgery to remove the growth on Tristans ear went very well yesterday. We were originally scheduled to go in on the 31st but they moved us up to an earlier appointment which was fine, but it meant that I had to go to the hospital alone. I convinced myself it was okay and I could do it on my own just fine. However, by the time Jake got home from work yesterday I was a ball of nerves. Never again will I take my little one to have surgery without having Jake with me! Luckily Tristan had no problems with the anesthesia or pain meds, but it did take him a very long time to wake up from the anesthesia and now he has a hoarse throat and raspy cough from the tube they put down him. It makes me so nervous every time he touches his ear or rolls over onto it. It doesn't seem to bother him to touch it, but it makes me cringe so I broke out the little newborn mittens and put one on his hand because he kept grabbing his ear and stitches. The surgeon sewed a little roll of gauze onto Tristan's ear which they will remove tomorrow morning. I am hoping that the removal of the gauze doesn't cause him too much pain and that the stitches under it look okay!

Triple coupon week!

Thats right, Harris Teeter is doing triple coupons this week! Coupons with a face value up to 99 cents will triple at the register. A few good deals I found were:

McCormick spices- several of them are bogo this week and combined with a .75 coupon they are free! (luckily I had two of these saved from several weeks ago!)

Huggies and Pampers Wipes- huggies were 1.99 and pampers were 1.79 after coupon (not too bad)

Kikkoman soy sauce-1.15after coupon

planters nut snack bars-1.24 after coupon

Jello pudding, yoplait yogurt, frenchs mustard and Worcestershire, luigi frozen ices, texas toast, and duncan hines brownies are also all good deals if you have your coupons! Another good deal is crest prohealth rinse which is on sale this week so combined with the coupon you can save a good deal on this expensive product. Also, 12packs of soda are buy 2 get 3 free! I have five 12 packs in the car just waiting on jake to get home to help carry them up 3 flights of stairs :) All in all I spent $64.24 and saved 61.14! I did have some items in my cart that I had no coupons for (milk, produce, dishwasher detergent,tortilla chips) If I didn't have those items I would have spent less.

The Third Floor

On Saturday we moved into our new place! The new one bedroom is a big difference from the 2bed, 2bath town home we were in. However, I have not had one moment of sadness about moving into the smaller place. I am just so thankful to have a clean start where I am forced to get everything organized and clean! We have been blessed with so many things but still found a lot of things that we just dont need to get rid of at our family yard sale in a few weeks. I am hoping to get enough money for a bouncy seat for Tristan and maybe a night out for me and jake (they are re-releasing lord of the rings extended version in theaters and we really want to go see them!) The new place has a large living/dining area which is actually bigger than the living area in our old town home. We also have a covered deck, so we put our table and chairs outside and put Tristans changing table/dresser inside where the dining room normally would be. It may sound weird, but it actually looks pretty good and last night we ate dinner on the deck and Jake said it reminded him of the beach. Even though I really like our new place I am hoping that by the time Tristan starts running around we have a bigger place for him. We may be moving out of state but won't know for sure for awhile. If there is any news on that I will be sure to post it!