What's for dinner??

I always find myself scrambling last minute trying to put together dinner. Usually I am so busy figuring out what Olivia's eating all day (2 meals + 3 snacks). Which has been more challenging lately since she has been only wanting fruit (her favs are blueberries! grapes! melon! strawberries!) and occasionally scrambled eggs. Tonight wasn't much different I had pulled out chicken in the morning but hadn't given what to do with it another thought. Lucky for me I got inspired and dinner turned out delish (gotta love that!)

Tomato Alfredo (w/ a twist)

* 1 lb pasta (I like bow tie)
*4-5 oz cream cheese (half a package)
* minced garlic (I eyeball a few tsp)
* 2 tbsp butter
* 1 can (14.5oz) diced or stewed tomatoes
* 1 cup Parmesan
Tonight I added:
* 1/4 medium onion, diced
* 1/2 cup sharp chedder cheese, shredded

1. Cook pasta (according to package) drain.
2. In sauce pan, melt butter, add garlic & onions. Saute until clear and soft.
3. Add tomatoes (I do this first because the tomatoes can boil and cook down). Cover and let heat until tomatoes have softened. Lower heat.
4. Add cream cheese. (I usually slice/cube it that way it melts easily) Keep stirring while it melts.
5. Once blended together add Parmesan (and chedder) stir until combined.
6. Pour over pasta. Toss!

Definitely a fav in our house (even with my picky eater!)

Baked Chicken w/ Tomatos & Spinach

This was somewhat of an improv version of a recipe I found. We enjoyed it - although I plan on tweaking a few more things for next time.

* 4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
* 2 eggs
* bread crumbs
* olive oil
* 3 roma tomatoes, sliced
* baby spinach
* sliced mushrooms
* mozzarella cheese
* 1 cup white wine or chicken broth

1. Heat olive oil in skillet on high. Heat oven 350 degrees.
2. Dip each chicken breast in bread crumbs, then egg, then bread crumbs. Place in skillet cook 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove and place into (greased) baking dish. Do for each breast.
3. Place spinach, tomato slices, mushrooms over chicken breast. Top with mozzarella.
4. Pour wine/broth.
5. Bake for 20 minutes until chicken is cooked through and cheese is bubbly.

My notes: I think next time I'll add a little tomato sauce over the top for some extra flavor.

Granola.

I have this amazing granola recipe (fresh off the cooking channel of course) and I realized I haven't made any in forever. It's so easy, especially since I usually have all the ingredients on hand. Great to dump in some yogurt or on some ice cream :)

* 3 cups oatmeal (I use Old Fashion)
* 1 cup slivered almonds
* 3 tbsp butter
* 2/3 cup honey
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 1/2 cup dried fruit (I buy the packages with the blend of cranberries, blueberries..)

^ Preheat 350 degrees.
^ Grease 9x13 baking dish.
^ Toss oatmeal and almonds on a baking sheet and place in oven for 10 minutes. Remove.
^ Reduce heat to 300 degrees.
^ In small saucepan combine butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Bring to boil.
^ Dump oatmeal mix in a mixing bowl and top with butter mixture. Combine well. Add fruit.
^ Put in baking dish, pressing down the mixture evenly.
^ Bake 25 minutes.

Happy FEET!!

Lately the only shoes I have been putting on Olivia are little sandals and I happened to notice that when she's outside playing with other kids (best walking encouragement ever) that she didn't seem very sturdy. I decided to make the trip to Stride Rite and check out these "walking" shoes I have heard so much about. Not surprisingly Olivia cried when the girl measured each of her feet for her new shoes.

I can hardly believe that these little feet-sies (only the size of my pinkie)

(mildly horrified that this is the best picture I could find)

Have turned into these freshly polished little piggies!

Olivia is the proud owner of these new tenn-ies. I hate to admit it but Alex and I were in the store for a while compromising on shoe choice. So darling (just a smidge to big). I will have to post a picture of her cruising soon (you know.. when she decides to really WALK!)

1st Day of SUMMER!!

To celebrate the day Kacy and I packed these two munchkins up and headed to the beach!


After a few delays we finally ended up in Oceanside.


This Mama was super excited to get Olivia's feet wet. She definitely liked it but was a little nervous when the water pulled her in. After a few waves or so she decided she liked it better from Mama's arms (leaning toward the sand of course and putting her little hands in the water).


Just the two cutest blondies on the beach today :)


I can't say positively if Olivia was helping build a sand castle or shoveling more sand into her mouth! This girl loves sand.


This bug definitely enjoyed the beach. We will have to head back soon :)

Happy Father's Day!

Since it has been a few years since I have been home in June I was so excited to be able to spend Father's Day with my Dad this year. Olivia and I were a little bummed that Dada (not to be confused with Grandpa) had to work in the morning. Although it is hard to be down with this little lady running around.


When Alex finally did get home we shamelessly put him to work! Hey, we were starving. Looks like he enjoyed cooking for us and the food was delicious :)


My Dad, Mike and I (a little dressed down) enjoying this beautiful day.


Sleepy bug finally woke up from her afternoon nap and was thrilled to find Dada home.


The men of the day.

Just a little family photo op. (Too bad I didn't realize I was holding Olivia's dress up).

Temecula!

So I haven't really had much of chance to update since the move to Temecula but we are doing great. Loving the cooler weather. We have been busy catching up with a few old friends, playing at the pool and taking daily walks enjoying this beautiful city. These 2 girls are loving California :)

Olivia is ONE!

On Thursday, May 13 my little Olivia turned 1! As excited as we were to celebrate, it is bittersweet realizing how quickly time goes by. We woke up to this happy bug on her birthday:


Spent the morning opening presents, and playing with balloons. Later that day we went to the park and to feed the ducks. Olivia pointed out all the ducks for us and even tried "talking" to them!


We made our way to The Picture People over the weekend to fit in some 1 year old birthday pictures. We had a great photographer that Olivia really responded to and her pictures came out great! It was so hard to choose with this cute girl hamming it up in all the pictures.


Brianna, our photographer gave her this "play" cupcake. Olivia dropped it a few times before figuring out how to hold on to it and "crunch" the only thing more classic than this picture was the face she made when she realized her cupcake was rock hard!


Just love this one. She looks like she's not quite sure what to do!


On Saturday, May 15th we had her birthday party. My parents were so great to come down. They helped us so much with Olivia so we could get everything together and ready.

Mama and the birthday girl!


We huddled most of the guests outside to get a picture of everyone! For some reason none of the guys ended up in the picture and neither did Grandma and Grandpa!


The babies were so cute and all the same age: Emily (9mo), Lauryn (11mo), Lily (10mo), Olivia (12mo), Ashton (12mo), Kyra (2) and Jazmyn (10mo). We are missing Ruby (2), Amelia (2) and Avery (4mo) in this picture.


Olivia decided not to dig in to her smash cake. She did enjoy everyone singing happy birthday to her (sat perfectly with a smile on her face!) She poked at her cake and tasted little bites but in the end my girly-girl decided not to get messy.


Presents with lots of crinkly tissue paper are Olivia's dream come true! She has fun digging through the paper while Mama sorted through toys, and clothes. My friend Amanda had this made for Olivia's room and I absolutely love it. It was so thoughtful of her to plan out her gift ahead of time and I know it is something Olivia will have for years to come.

One last post before we hit 1 YEAR!

This will be the final post before Olivia's birthday. I can hardly believe it has been a year already! Although I am a tiny bit sad to leave the baby year behind, Olivia is and has more and more fun everyday that I barely have time to think about it :) Here are a few pictures from the last month:


Adventurers with mac and cheese.


Getting ready for a big girl seat! Even though she is still rear facing we switched her into the convertible seat.

She loves her Sammie!

She is working on taking steps on her own..

Checking out the pool. She was so cute splashing her little feet in the water.

Love this bug!

She had so much fun with Dad in the pool! Alex tore a muscle in his arm so he was mostly there to sit in the spa but this cute girl kept trying to crawl over to him. How could he resist??

A little catching up!

I am so guilty of being a bad blogger :( I don't know where the time goes. Olivia is 11 months tomorrow, yes, that means my baby is almost a toddler! We have been doing as much as we can since the weather is finally nice. I'm busy planning a FIRST birthday party and gearing up for our move to Temecula!

Alright so we are working a bit backwards with the pictures:


Aunty Shann was in town and we were thrilled to see her even if it was just for a few hours :)
1st EASTER! I don't think she knew quite what to think. She started to pull the pink grass out strand by strand and eventually dumped her whole basket upside down!
A baby basket for our baby girl!
My blue eyed wonder :) Getting more fun all the time!
We went and visited the Easter bunny at the mall and (surprise!) she didn't cry! She actually loved him, while we were waiting in line he would get up and dance and she would get so excited! I didn't know if it would last when she sat on his lap but as you can see she was all smiles and giggles for a perfect picture :)

Alexia and Erica, who we did not get a picture with :( came to see us in Tucson! Great for me because it has been too long since I've been able to spend time with them.

We spent 9 days in Temecula in March. It was a great trip the weather was great and we spent some much loved time with Grandma and Grandpa. We got to take Olivia swimming for her 1st time this year and thank to my waterproof camera we got some pictures.

She absolutely loves the swing at the park and we went almost everyday. It was super easy since there is a park just up the street from Grandma & Grandpa's. Another reason we love Temecula and can't wait to move back!

AHHH yes, the weather was so beautiful we got to take a trip to the beach. We even dipped her little toes in the ocean. (Although the water was pretty cold) She did enjoy the sand and put quite a bit of it in her mouth!

Since we live in Tucson Olivia doesn't spend much time in the grass. (There is just not that much grass to play in) Well we put her down at the park and she cried and kept trying to pick up her feet out of it! Ha. She fared better this time but I still couldn't get her to crawl around.

I know, I know I haven't posted pictures in forever. I have 2 (yes, 2!) very good reasons: my camera has (finally) decided to stop working and iphoto has apparently decided it does not want to upload pictures from Alex's camera. Good news is that I am getting a new camera this week.. I think I'm going with one of those Olympus Stylus Tough models. While I would love something that takes amazing pictures; given my past with cameras I decided (*sigh*) to go with something less expensive and much more durable for now.

Another short video! Sorry they're always so short - I always end up taking them with my phone because I never know where the video camera is (or it is drained).