Green Bean Tatertot Casserole

I hope everyone had a good weekend! They go by so fast it doesn't even feel like a weekend to me anymore. The weekend for us is when we do all our errands and grocery shopping. It's interesting walking through the stores and pretty much everyone has to stop and look into our double stroller as we walk by. Most people don't say anything, they just stare, it's a little strange. 

Today I have a nice, family-friendly meal idea. I've been posting desserts for a long time now, it's time to switch it up a bit! This tatertot casserole is super easy to make and it's also delicious. Your kids will love it! Actually, everyone will love it! It's the perfect easy meal when you have to make a quick dinner.

Green Bean Tatertot Casserole

• 1 pound Ground Beef
• 2 cans French Cut Green Beans
• 2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 pound bag Tatertots
• 8 ounces Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Brown the ground beef and season with spices to taste.

3. Add green beans and cream of mushroom soup to the meat, mix well and heat until bubbling.

4. Transfer the mixture to a 9x13 inch baking pan and smooth out.

5. Cover with tatertots.

6. Cover with cheddar cheese.

7. Cook in the oven until the cheese is melted and the mixture is bubbling on the edges.

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September Fitness Update

It's been awhile since I updated on my fitness progress. Sadly I haven't been able to work out quite as much as I wanted to this month. We just run out of time at the end of the day and on the rare occasion that everyone is taking a nap at once in the afternoon, I usually decide to take one as well. It seems like these boys are getting worse and not better as they get older as far as sleeping at night goes and little man has started waking up once or twice a night. It's very tiring!

So I came up with this quick and easy workout that I can do wherever we are even when everyone is awake still. I do it once or twice a day depending on how motivated I am. It's getting harder lately because little man thinks I am playing with him every time I try to do push ups or crunches and comes to jump on me! Once these boys start sleeping better at night and I'm not as tired, I'm hoping to be able to start doing more during their afternoon nap. For now I am focusing on doing this easy workout when I can and the elliptical when we have time in the evening. 

How about you? How did your fitness/workout plans go this past month? 

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15 Ways My Life Has Changed

The other day I was thinking about everything that has changed since I had children. Pretty much everything is different, of course, but I decided to come up with a list anyways. Can you believe I've only been a mother for 15 months and yet I have 3 kids? That sounds insane to me. Next month will be our 2 year anniversary, too. These past two years have been pretty crazy as far as changes go, that's for sure!

1. I spend more time picking out clothes for the kids than for myself. It is not unusual for me to forget to get dressed until right before my husband comes home from work in the afternoon!

2. My car goes for weeks on end without being started. (We don't have carseats for both vehicles and mine wouldn't work for all three anyways since one of the back doors is broken and doesn't open...someday soon I will get a new vehicle)

3. I don't mind picking someone else's nose (just my babies, let's not get too crazy here!).

4. I've pretty much forgotten how to interact with real life adults.

5. Three hours of sleep in a row sounds heavenly.

6. I get to be entertained on a daily basis by three cute little goofballs. Life was never this interesting before.

7. I don't really have anything in common with my friends who don't have children anymore.

8. The smallest things make me tear up. Especially anything having to do with children or babies.

9. I identify more with the parents than with the kids on TV shows and movies.

10. If I do actually get to sleep for a few hours in a row, I wake up and worry that something is wrong because I haven't heard anyone crying. 

11. Sometimes I miss my little boy when he goes to bed...that's probably really strange, isn't it?

12. I wonder every day how did I get so lucky.

13. Everything I do is planned around nap times. 

14. I would rather go to bed early and get more sleep than go anywhere on the weekends.

15. I have to wash out my "clean" plastic containers and measuring cups before using them because they are scattered all over the floor.

I'm sure I could go on and on but I think 15 is a good number. What are some things that have changed since you had kids?

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Mint Chocolate Brownies

Today I have another dessert to share with you. These Mint Chocolate Brownies are one of my favorite bars that I've made. I love mint chocolate anything! It's actually very similar to the Marble Cheesecake Brownies, except it's even easier to make because it uses a box brownie mix. 

It has been kind of a long night waking up with all three boys. I need to start some coffee! I have promised myself that I would be better about posting this week, since last week was kind of a lazy week as far as that goes. So here's to a more productive week! 

Mint Chocolate Brownies (adapted from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen)

• 1 box Family Size Chewy Brownie Mix
• Eggs, Oil and Water needed to prepare the mix
• 8 ounces Cream Cheese, room temperature
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Peppermint Extract
• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• Green Food Coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9x13 inch baking pan with non-stick spray.

2. In a large bowl, prepare the brownie mix according to the package and spread about 3/4 of the mixture into the bottom of the pan.

3. Mix the cream cheese, eggs, sugar and peppermint extract together in another bowl until smooth. Add some green food coloring.

4. Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the brownies. Spoon the remaining brownie mix on top of the cream cheese mixture randomly. With a knife, swirl the cream cheese and the brownie mix until marbled. 

5. Bake for about 40 minutes. Cool completely and then refrigerate until chilled. Cut the brownies and enjoy their delicious yumminess!

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We Have Our Bedroom Back!

Yay! Little man is walking! It's so cute to see him walking around the house by himself and getting better everyday at it. He just turned 15 months yesterday and it seems like he is growing up so fast. Having two little babies also helps make it seem like he is older than he really is sometimes. Plus he is such a big boy wearing 2T-3T shirts and 24 month pants and weighing almost 30 pounds.

This past weekend we decided to move the babies out of our room finally. We have a four bedroom house with two upstairs and two downstairs. We are in one upstairs and we have two cribs in the second one for the two babies but of course little man still has to sleep in one of them for awhile. He also wakes up too easily to sleep in the same room as them right now. 

So the first thing we tried was putting the two pack and plays downstairs in one of the rooms for the babies. That's what they have been sleeping in in our room anyways. This ended up not working out very well because going up and down the stairs in the middle of the night to keep giving them their pacifiers is no fun. I also couldn't hear them very well on the monitor we had down there. 

This wasn't working, so Monday night we decided to take one of the regular cribs apart and bring it downstairs for little man to sleep down there. Then the babies would share the second crib in the upstairs room for now. So far it seems to be working okay. Little man is still getting used to sleeping in a new room and the babies are still working on sleeping in their bed all night instead of the swings, but overall I think it will be a good arrangement. It's so nice to have our bedroom back again!

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Marble Cheesecake Brownies

You know anything with cheesecake AND brownies together is going to be delicious and these bars are no exception! They were so good and my husband ate about half the pan in one sitting. Good thing he's around to eat most of what I bake, I don't like having temptations sitting around all the time!

You definitely won't be disappointed if you make these yummy marble cheesecake brownies! The recipe makes an 8x8 inch pan of brownies, but you could double it and make a 9x13 pan as well. 

Marble Cheesecake Brownies (adapted from Just a Taste)

For the brownies:

• 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) Butter, melted
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon White Vinegar
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 Cup Flour

For the cheesecake:

• 8 ounce package Cream Cheese, softened
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 Egg

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and salt. Then add in the vinegar. 

3. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl and then add to the brownie batter.

4. Fold in the flour until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan leaving out 1/4 cup of batter for the topping.

5. Blend together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and egg. 

6. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the brownie batter in the pan and then top that with dollops of the remaining brownie batter. Use a sharp knife to swirl the cream cheese together with the brownie dollops. 

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes and let cool completely before cutting and serving.

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Mommy Moments Blog Hop

Hey mamas!
Welcome back for another great week of Mommy Moments Link Ups! Thank you for linking up and for spreading the word last week! We love all of the great posts!

 This week's most viewed link belongs to Gabrielle from MamaGab! Her post To The Discouraging Mom was one of my favorite posts that has ever been linked up here! I love Gabrielle's heart for her children even in the midst of chaos.

 I hope I always choose to encourage other mothers and not point out the negatives of motherhood. That's one of the whole goals of Mommy Moments...to encourage one another!

Our guest host this week is Stephanie from Dreams Turned To Plans! Make sure you stop by and follow along with her today!


Now it's time to link up your posts! All you have to do is...

1. Follow Host: The Life Of Faith 

 Co-Hosts: The Not Quite Military Wife, Beautiful Family Affairs and The Mrs. 
Guest Host: Dreams Turned To Plans

2. Link up your post!
Post can include anything related to mommy-hood, children, homemaking, pregnancy etc. If you aren't a mom yet, feel free to link up your preparation for motherhood, your journey as you try to conceive, or even a post that would be encouraging to the other moms in the party!

3. Add the Mommy Moments button to your post or blog so everyone knows where you are linking up!

4. Explore some of the other posts in the link-up and say hello to some new blog friends! 

5. Tweet or Share the link up on Facebook so we can all make even more friends!

Tweet

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P.S. We will be having a new guest host every week! Want to be a guest host of the Mommy Moments Blog Hop? Send Faith a message at farmprincess14{at}gmail{dot}com. We would love to have you!

What is Baby-led Weaning?

 

I’ve been reading a lot about Baby-led Weaning (BLW) lately and I wasn’t really sure what it was. So I decided to do some research to see if it’s something we might want to do with our boys.

So what exactly is Baby-led Weaning? Basically it is skipping the pureed foods and not feeding your baby with a spoon. From what I understand, you offer your baby soft-cooked, age appropriate foods and your baby feeds himself. The baby is in control of what he eats and you don’t put the food in his mouth.

From what I’ve read it works for some people but not for others, just like anything else of course. With my first little boy we started with cereals and purees and he has never been a picky eater (yet) and it has worked just fine. He is just now learning how to feed himself more, so that’s been nice.

My little man when he first tried out his high-chair. He is such a cutie!

One advantage to BLW would be not having to guess or wonder if the baby is done eating or what they are doing. With Jaden, I never know if he is turning his head from the spoon because he is full or because he’s just being difficult (he can be a very stubborn boy, I think he gets that from his mother). With BLW the baby supposedly will only eat what they need to and no more. That is why you do not place food into their mouth for them with this approach.

Other advantages to using BLW that I can see: 

• It will be easier at meal times than trying to spoon feed two babies at once. 
• Easier and cheaper than buying pureed baby food (although I plan on making it myself this time around). 
• It is said to prevent weight problems by giving the baby complete control over the amount of food he eats. 
• The babies will learn independence and be able to explore lots of textures and flavors at an earlier age. 

Some disadvantages: 

• It sounds like it will be extremely messy at meal times for everyone. 
• A lot of food would probably end up being thrown away and wasted. 
• It will take them a long time to eat by themselves, it would be quicker to spoon-feed. 

Babies are ready to start eating solid foods when they start showing these signs, generally this happens around six months: 

• They start showing interest in what you are eating at meal times. 
• They can sit without support. 
• They lose the tongue-thrust reflex. 
• They are ready and able to chew, even if they don’t have teeth. 
• They can pick up items with thumb and forefinger. 

Have any of you used this method for your babies? How has it worked for you? At the moment I’m thinking that we will use kind of a combination. I’ll probably give them some cereals and purees along with other foods as well. I do want them to learn to feed themselves sooner, so maybe I will just give it to them and let them figure out what to do, and be prepared to clean up huge messes! I guess I will see what happens. We still have a few more months before they will be ready, but you know how fast time flies…

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What's Your Personality?

This writing prompt is from Blogtember, even though I'm not really doing all of them, just the ones I find interesting...and technically it's the one from yesterday. It's all about psychology and personality. I absolutley love psychology. They were my favorite classes in college, especially the abnormal psychology ones. It's fascinating to me. 

The prompt was to take the Myers-Briggs personality test and write about the results. Well, I've taken it before, and I've always been surprised at how accurate the results are. At least they are for me. What about you? Have you found them to be pretty accurate?

ISTJ is what my personality type is according to this test. Almost everything I read about this type is pretty much spot-on. Here are some of the things I've read about ISTJ's:

"ISTJs are quiet and reserved individuals who are interested in security and peaceful living. They have a strongly-felt internal sense of duty, which lends them a serious air and the motivation to follow through on tasks. Organized and methodical in their approach, they can generally succeed at any task which they undertake."

"ISTJs are very loyal, faithful, and dependable. They place great importance on honesty and integrity."

"ISTJs are likely to be uncomfortable expressing affection and emotion to others. However, their strong sense of duty and the ability to see what needs to be done in any situation usually allows them to overcome their natural reservations, and they are usually quite supporting and caring individuals with the people that they love."

"ISTJs usually have a great sense of space and function, and artistic appreciation. They are acutely aware of their senses, and want to be in surroundings which fit their need for structure, order, and beauty."  

(From personalitypage.com) 

"They rely on their past experience to guide them, and are most comfortable in familiar surroundings."
"They are usually more enthusiastic about sharing factual information than exploring abstract concepts or unproven ideas."

"They are practical and no-nonsense, and rarely call attention to themselves."

"Resoundingly logical and can be stubborn once they've decided on the best course of action."

"They usually like things done their way. Often the "proper" course of action is self-evident to the ISTJ, who may have little patience with unconventional approaches."

(From knowyourtype.com)

All of these quotes describe me very well. I am reserved, people probably think I am a bit stuck up at first, but that is far from the truth. I am very dependable and loyal with a huge sense of duty. I always have to follow the rules. I hate being late for anything. I have a very hard time expressing my feelings out loud, but that doesn't mean I don't have strong feelings. I am stubborn, especially when I think my way is the "right" way to do something (just ask my husband about that one!). I have a very strong sense of right and wrong. I am always very aware of other people's feelings and I have a fantastic memory for detail.

I did read something about speculation on Sheldon Cooper's (from the Big Bang Theory) personality type and how they believe that ISTJ would be accurate for him.  The funny thing is I was just telling my husband the other day that sometimes he reminds me of myself. Sadly, I am not nearly as smart as he is. 

Some other fictional characters that can be classified as an ISTJ personality type:

• Bruce Wayne (Batman)
• Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh)
• Darth Vader (Star Wars)
• Puddleglum (Chronicles of Narnia)
• Adrian Monk (Monk)
• Dana Scully (X-Files)

P.S. Guess what!? This is my 100th post! How exciting it that!

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Best Pumpkin Bread Ever

I have been on a baking kick these last couple of weeks. I've decided it's my new favorite thing to do. Last week I wrote about my Chocolate Butterscotch Banana Bread, which was awesome by the way. This week I'm posting the most delicious pumpkin bread I've ever had and it's really super easy to make. I must admit that I haven't had very many pumpkin breads before, but even if I had, I'm guessing this would still be the best. 

You might remember some of my posts where I admitted to being a big nerd/geek such as my Geek edition of things I love or my little man's birth story where I wrote about playing World of Warcraft when my water broke. Well, I haven't really had any inclination (or time) to play this year, but here's my confession: I activated my account again this past weekend. I know, I know, it's probably a bad idea and I really don't have that much time to play games, but I'm sure I can find some somewhere...

This past weekend I also got a food processor! It was pretty exciting, I was finally able to grate up my zucchini. I had tried to do it in my blender, but apparently that doesn't work all that well...I learned something new for the day. Now I can try some new zucchini recipes! Now back to the real reason for this post: the recipe for the best pumpkin bread ever (adapted from That Skinny Chick Can Bake).

Best Pumpkin Bread Ever

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of pumpkin
• 1 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon of allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon 
• 1/3 cup of water

1. Combine the sugar and oil and then add the rest of the ingredients in order. 

2. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. 

See what I mean, super easy to make and even better to eat!

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Update on My Babies (Two Months)

My little boys are growing like weeds! Well, technically they are still very small for their age, but they are much bigger than when they were born. They are still wearing a few newborn sized clothes, but are fitting nicely into 0-3 months finally. They are also wearing size 1 diapers. So far we haven't had to buy any diapers for them because of what we had leftover from little man and from what people gave us, which is awesome (since we still have to buy diapers for little man).

At their two month checkup they weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and 9 pounds 10 ounces. They are still around the 5th percentile for height but I'm not sure what the inches were. Pumping is still going great (although I hate it). I am pumping every 4-5 hours and still getting enough that I can freeze some every day. Which surprises me since they eat every 2-3 hours during the day. At night they generally sleep 4-5 hours. Usually one of them wakes up twice during the night and the other one wakes up once. But they do like to wake up bright and early at 530 every morning just like their older brother used to do.

When they wake up in the middle of the night, one of them usually does not want to go back to sleep. So we usually end up moving out to the living room so that they can sleep in their swings and I can sleep on the couch. I hope they get better about this soon because I don't want them to get in the habit of sleeping in the swings too much. We hope to get them moved to their own room downstairs soon because then we will all sleep a little better I think.

Little man will be 15 months old this month, so he will have his checkup soon too. We will get to find out exactly how much he weighs and how tall he is. Last time we checked he was close to 30 pounds. He's still not walking on his own yet, only when we sit right by him and have him walk between us. He does walk on his knees everywhere, which seems like a lot more work to me.

Here's some cute pictures from the last couple of weeks. If you follow me on Instagram you've probably seen most of them already. I still don't know how we got such adorable little boys!

We were able to take a family picture for the first time since the boys were born:

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It's Almost Grandparent's Day! (Free Printable)

Last year I forgot all about Grandparent's Day, which is too bad since it was my parent's first time being grandparents. It is coming up this Sunday, September 8th if you are wondering when it is this year. I know it's not as huge a deal as Mother's or Father's Day, but it's kind of nice to recognize them, especially when they are as helpful as ours are!

To celebrate our wonderful grandparents, I made a cute print that will be available to download for free! Three different color combinations and they are all 5x7 inches so they can be easily framed. Let me know what you think of them! What is everyone else doing for Grandparent's Day this year?

Green Print

Orange Print

(See what it looks like in a frame)
 Blue Print

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Fall Organizing Goals

 Can you believe it's already September!? The year sure is flying by. Before you know it Christmas will be here! Since it is a new month and a new season, it's a good time for a fresh start on some things. I have come up with a list of goals for September and a big part of the list involves organization.

We moved into our house a little over a year ago and I was 9 months pregnant at the time so we barely got everything unpacked before we brought our little boy home. This year, of course we had two more babies to bring home, so I still have lots of organizing I've been wanting to do but haven't had a chance to yet. We are doing pretty good this past month, building a new shed and organizing the garage and part of the laundry room. 

Our house isn't messy or anything, most of the things I need to take care of are inside closets and downstairs. Nobody really goes downstairs at all except to workout or take care of the cats so it is easy to not even think about stuff that needs to be done. But we have a bedroom for little man that needs to be organized, a closet full of unpacked boxes that I need to go through and I'm going to turn our game closet under the stairs into a pantry because we need one badly. 

Here's a list of places I need to work on:

• kitchen drawers
• kitchen cupboards
• closet in the office
• under the stairs storage area
• turn the game closet into a pantry
• main bathroom
• laundry room
• little man's downstairs bedroom
• linen closet
• paperwork/file box

I hope to get at least two of them done this month. I'll be sharing before and after pictures as I get them done. What about you? How do you stay organized at home? What are some of your goals this month?

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Chocolate Butterscotch Banana Bread

I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday weekend! My family was able to come visit and see the boys for a couple of days, so that was a lot of fun. We even got to have a bonfire last night, although the babies weren't cooperating so I didn't get to go outside, but that's ok. They also insisted on waking up at 5am this morning - silly boys.

This week I have a recipe for some delicious banana bread. It was my first time ever making banana bread and it turned out great. My husband even said it was the best he's ever tasted! I have decided that I really love baking stuff, the only problem with that is we are the only two around to eat everything once I make it. I'm going to have to start finding people to give half of it to I think...

Chocolate Butterscotch Banana Bread (adapted from Unconventional Mommy Tails)

• 2 to 3 over-ripe bananas
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter-melted
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a bread pan with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Mix together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and sugar) in a large bowl.

3. Mash up your bananas in a medium bowl.

4. Mix in eggs, vanilla and melted butter with your mashed bananas.

5. Add the banana mixture to your dry ingredients and combine.

6. Fold in your chocolate and butterscotch chips.

7. Pour into your bread pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

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