Introducing Pierce Olsen Romney...

Pierce Olsen Romney

September, 24th 7:10 pm

7 pounds 11.5 ounces

Practically perfect in every way!

 

To see this beautiful baby, click here!

Meal Planning

I like to cook. I'm not a gourmet, but my family thinks most things I make taste pretty good...however, it consumes a lot of my life and time between the planning, the shopping, the prepping and the cooking. I often feel like it's my full time job. So, when my cousin asked for ways to do it a little "smarter" I helped her brainstorm and have put the ideas into practice. It's working out great, and is so much less stressful, so I thought I'd share!

Step 1:  Have your family gather (maybe an FHE even) and list the meals they like to eat. Ideally shoot for about 25 meals (or just start with what you have). This is your "Master List."  These should be "go-to" things, and I like to organize it in types of food: Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Grilled, Soups Crockpot, Breakfast, etc.  If anyone would like a copy of my "master list" I'd be happy to send it your way. I'm also happy to send you some of my "staple" recipes.

Step 2: Plug these meals into your monthly or weekly calendar in a way that makes sense (not Mexican 6 nights in a row...). You can also have your family help you decide. A few tips:

• Don't put intensive meals all together...if you do, you know you won't make them night after night.
• We like leftovers, so on some dishes (enchiladas, lasagna, etc) I make sure we have enough for 2 nights.
• Cooking meat can be a hassle, so if we grill I'll put a few extra pieces on to use in another dish the next day.
• Each week there is one easy meal...maybe breakfast for dinner, grilled ham and cheese, or quesadillas...you know you will need one, so just plan on it.
• We often have people to our home on Sunday, so I make my biggest meal that day.
• In addition to splitting up cuisine, I like to switch up the meat from day to day and throw in one vegetarian meal each week or every other week.
• On busy nights, I like to have a soup, leftovers or a crock pot meal. I know which nights those are and I plan for it.

Step 3: Find some side dish staples. My kids love salad with ranch, so I always have lettuce and carrots on hand for an easy, healthy side dish. Find something your family likes and do the same. Having a salad also allows me to go easy on some of the fattier dishes I make (I have active, calorie burning boys) and fill up on greens if I need to. I'm also happy to cut up oranges or apples or watermelon if we need a boost of fruit or something extra to fill us up. It doesn't have to be fancy.

Step 4: Try something new! There are a variety of ways to get new, good recipes...blogs, pinterest, allrecipes.com. Once a week it's fun to try something different. If my family enjoys it and I didn't mind making it, it goes onto our master list and will be back in our rotation. Soon you should have plenty of meals to keep your family happy even if you start very small.

Step 5: Plan your menu and your shopping list and shop by the week. This saves money and time. Plus, it has allowed me to beef up my food storage with things we really use. For example, if you know you often cook with canned tomatoes or black beans, stock up on those things when they are on sale...you know you use them and you won't have to pay full price when you need them.

Step 6: Use leftovers wisely. I don't like food to go to waste, so here are a few ways we use up what we have:

Sandwiches: My family loves it when I add BBQ sauce and broil cheese over the top of left over meat (chicken, pork or beef) on the top of good bread. Experiment with toppings like grilled pineapple, coleslaw, or avocado.

Pasta: A little meat goes a long way in a pasta dish if you add lots of veggies.

Pizza: Find a good pizza crust and use any leftover meat in a creative way...like beef with red onions, and tomatoes or BBQ chicken pizza.

Stir-fry: Stir fry is easy and healthy and if you add lots of veggies no one notices how little meat is left.

Tacos: We like tacos with just about anything in the center. If I have leftover fish, this is about the only way to use it again.

Soups: Find your favorite soup recipe and add whatever meat you have left. Also great for using up ham, whcih can be a bit tricky beyond sandwiches.

Omlettes: At our house we love everything with eggs, so find a good meat/veggie/cheese combination that works for your family and have a double dose of protein.

Happy Cooking!! 

Papa Visits the Big House

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There are a few things you MUST do if you go to school at the University of Michigan. One thing is attend a football game at THE BIG HOUSE. The football stadium is the biggest college stadium in the coutry...setting a new record at 114,800. Every game is sold out and the stands are swimming with blue and maize. It's quite the experience. We've all had it...Mike, me and the boys and we all loved it. Go Blue!

When Papa heard about the first ever night game at the stadium against rival Notre Dame he braved ridiculous ticket prices and a Southern California power outage to make it to Ann  Arbor.Even if he was only here for 36 hours we took advantage of every minute of his fun, supportive and vibrant personality. 

He got to watch all 3 boys play soccer, he got to ordain Mike to the high priesthood in our church since he now serves in our ward bishopric, he took us out to a great lunch, he hunted for snakes and frogs in the forest with the boys (the highlight of their life)...and...

He went to his first Michigan football game...and it was a crazy great one with an unbelieveable ending. It will go down in the history books and Mike and Rick were there!

We love you Papa. Can't wait to see you again!

The End of Summer...South Haven, MI and Wild Animal Park, OH

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In an effort to take in every last drop of summer and our Michigan experience, we decided to make it to the Lake Michigan beach one more time...this time in a tiny little town called South Haven. It was a nice, relaxing day. The water wasn't quite as clear, but the sand was soft and plentiful and there was a playground on the beach and a fun pier to walk along. Plus a quaint little mainstreet where we got delicious orange, lime and lemone ade and a burger before the drive home.















Our coolest sighting? The pirate ship!

Isn't this harbor fantastic? It was quite the picturesque town.

My least favorite excursion? The Wild Animal Park way outside Toledo, OH. The kids and Mike thought it was just fantastic to have dirty, stinky animals stick their heads into your car and eat out of your hand, lick your face, slobber on your window. So gross. I sat in the back. I was thinking it might be more like the San Diego park, but no such luck...and no tigers or lions either. On the upside the kids thought it was super cool.

Other than our fun excursions, the kids have been in heaven being home! They loved being back on their bikes, riding trails, and seeing friends, but what has really completed their life? Searching for animals!!! We've now had about a million frogs, toads, snakes and crayfish as pets (I let them stay in our yard for 24 hours, then we have to let them free) and we spend a ridiculous amount of time at the creek. It truly is boy heaven here. I'm thinking for our next move, we definitely need to be close to a forest again.

With the boys so happily busy, Mike and I have accomplished basically everything we needed to do to get the house ready for this new baby boy...bunkbed buying, room arranging, crib building, clothes washing, and I think we are almost totally ready anytime. So grateful to have a little free time with Mike and SO glad he can't stand to sit still. He was such a worker the entire 3 weeks and I was amazed at all we (or he) got done, especially while I was doing tons of stuff for my new job. It was great. Now, school has started and we only have a few weeks before this baby will be here. We can't wait!!

Summertime in Northern Michigan

We got some fantastic photos on our trip...to see the full post, click here!  

 

Kid Rock knew what he was talking about when he sang lyrics about summertime in Northern Michigan. It's beautiful and we tried our best to take advantage of all the fun before the craziness of school and real life starts again. We headed first to a place voted as one of the most beautiful places in the country...

Sleeping Bear Dunes Beach

We were competely shocked by the beauty of Lake Michigan. The water was cold but clear as the Carribbean. We had a wonderful afternoon soaking in the hot sunshine, cool water and soft sand.





Pretty amazing huh?

 Hiking the dunes
The boys were awesome hikers and made it to the top of the second huge sand dune...it's a real natural wonder to see the mountains of sand, then look back over the gorgeous lake. Running down was especially fun.



Traverse City
After the day at Sleeping Bear Dunes we headed to Traverse City to check it out. It was awesome! We got to stay in the coolest hotel that the boys adored...swimming, fitness room, restaurant, great pool and hot tub, king size beds, super cool shower, 3 flat screen TVs....it might have been the highlight for them.

Lighthouse
There are lots of lighthouses on the penninsula, but this was the only one close enought to see. It was kind of small, but still pretty cool.

 Old Mission Store
There was a really fun, old store we got to stop by and check out. They had all kinds of sundry items, candy, old guns, bows and arrows. It was a cool stop.

 Blueberry Picking
We found a blueberry farm that had full bushes and the boys loved helped picking blueberries and we all loved eating them. Yum!!!

 Jet Skiis
When the clouds cleared, we got back onto the lake....this time with jet skiis. It was the boys first time and they loved it!

It was one of our favorite Michigan spots as a family. The perfect mix of everything and the boys were so fun and so good. This stage has been amazing for taking advantage of lots of fun things. I just adore them all!!