Our Weekend :)

We started our weekend Friday night with some super amazing people. We went to a cook out at our friends house and hung out, talked, watched movies, and just had a good ole time with them and another family that we adore! They have a daughter baby boy's age and she is literally the only baby he will give the time of day! It is so weird and so cute!! We got some really cute pics of them together but out of respect of our friends will not post the pics without their permission. If you're close family I already sent you some so check your emails!

The next day our friends with the baby girl came over and had lunch with us. I made a simple light lunch and it was yummy and everyone enjoyed it. I made a garden fresh pasta salad with cherry tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, cucumber, brocoli, diced pepperoni, parmesan cheese, red pepper Italian dressing adn rotini noodles. It was so yummy! We had little ham and swiss sandwiches on rolls and this super easy and light and fluffy pineapple salad. It has crushed pineapples that you let the marshmallows soak up the juices and then you fold in some cool whip. Its so simple yet so yummy! The babies talked and it was fun to watch their little girls mind work. She figured out how to get the toy off the toy bar and couldn't reach the other one so unhooked one side of the toy bar so it could be lowered! She is only four months old by the way but her reasoning skills are amazing!! We were pretty lazy the rest of the day, but it was a great weekend!

As many of you know I cloth diaper and I love it. We do it cause its great for our son and also great for the environment so its a win win, but its hard to find diapers that are worth using and I thought I had done well. I have read everything I can get my hands on, joined forums to get opinions and well I got some crappy diapers. It was my fault. I should have known better than to order facotry seconds, but I did because it was a great deal! (Although I have heard its not just the factory seconds) These are the Nubunz (http://www.nubunz.com/) and I wasn't thrilled with them anyways because my baby boy pees right through them and are just not a good day to day diaper and definitely not a nap time or over night diaper! But now recently they PUL has been separating (we've only been using them 2 months) and ripping making them absolutely useless! I do have my Kawaii diapers that I LOVE, but this is making my stash go down more than I like! (Kawaii diapers can be found at http://www.theluvyourbaby.com/ and I can seriously say we LOVE these) I did have a super nice Mama give us some Bum Genius all in ones and pockets and those are way expensive compared to the Kawaii brand ones and not even as good! I wouldn't recommend those to anyone either. Most pics that you see of our little one you'll see him in the Kawaii brand ones. On Sunday another awesome Mama gave me a few more diapers and I'm really excited to try them. One brand is Gro Baby diapers and they are like this hybrid diaper that has a cloth insert and when you go out you can use a disposable insert (which she gave us two diapers, cloth inserts, and a box of disposable ones!!). These look like they could be our out and about diaper and I'm considering buying an extra diaper or two! She also gave me a Goodmama diaper and I'm so excited to try that one! It is so cute and soft and plush and oh how I wish I could afford more of those ones just beause I love the way it feels LOL. Hopefully it works well on my little ones bum! She also gave me another diaper I have never heard of but it is definitely interesting. I'm going to try one on my little man after his nap today! They are called Hiney Lineys (http://www.hineylineys.com/) and they are a pocket diaper (which I'm obsessed with pocket diapers) and can be reused you just take the insert and liner out and replace them.  Thank you mamas for giving us diapers to try! If any of you have cloth diapers that need a new home and you're wanting to giveaway/sell for an affordable price let me know! I am looking to replace my Nubunz  as they tear and have almost reached my diaper budget (we're seriously on a tight budget) so anything would help! Plus I LOVE learning about new diapers! Who know there were like thousands of them out there!!!!

I am getting my Gro Baby diaper from amazon through gift cards I earned through swagbucks! Just thought I'd share that little bit of info as well LOL, so with that extra diaper I'm not using any of my budget but getting it for free!

Randomness

1. I know I told ya'll that I entered a contest to win a surprise piece of beautiful jewelry from Stella & Dot that Mrs. Sergeant is selling and was hosting the giveaway. Well I finally got my piece of jewelry in the mail! It is so cute! I LOVE it!

 

I was so surprised when it came in the mail because I had forgot all about it and the hubby is the one who picks it up from the post office so he walked in the house and was like what are you ordering now?!?! I was like ummm...nothing that I can remember?!?! LOL. THANK YOU MRS. SERGEANT FOR THE GORGEOUS PIECE OF JEWELRY!!!

2. I made my first White Chili recipe and it was actually pretty gosh darn good. I was really surprised considering the recipe I decided to try had cinnamon in it! I know weird right...well I was a bit scared so only added half of what the recipe called for which was a good call otherwise I think it would have been too strong! My hubby absolutely loved it though so that is always a good sign (he even took leftovers to work for lunch!) and we had some guests over and they loved it as well. So this recipe is def a keeper! I'll post it here and also on my recipe blog Recipes to Live By.

White Chili with Ground Turkey

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
• 2 (4 ounce) cans canned green chile peppers, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ground cayenne pepper to taste
• ground white pepper to taste
• 3 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

 

Directions:

1. In a large pot over medium heat, combine the onion, garlic and ground turkey and saute for 10 minutes, or until turkey is well browned. Add the chile peppers, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, cayenne pepper to taste and white pepper to taste and saute for 5 more minutes.

2. Add two cans of the beans and the chicken broth to the pot. Take the third can of beans and puree them in a blender or food processor. Add this to the pot along with the cheese. Stir well and simmer for 10 minutes, allowing the cheese to melt.


I served it with a sweet corn bread yum! It was a hit and will be made again in the future!

3. Baby boy had his 4 month check up and it was all good news! The doctors and nurses loved his as usual and everyone said he was the happiest baby they have ever seen (so that was so neat to hear considering he was actually grumpy and needed a nap! So  I guess his grumpy really isn't that bad LOL). He is in the 82% for his age...is about 25 inches long and about 17 lbs! Such a big boy! They told us we are doing great by him and to keep doing what we are doing! He is already eating solids. He loves green beans, pears, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, and peaches, so far and doesn't care for bananas but I think its cause of whatever they add to the bananas to make them gooey...so I think I'm going to start making his baby food fresh every morning when I get our meals done. He is also talking like crazy! It is so freaking cute, seriously words cannot describe how freaking cute he sounds. The hubby and I can literally sit here and listen to him all day! He also loves books and being read to and will just sit there and stare at the book and listen to whatever you have to say about the page so cute!

4. We are also going on a day trip later this month so excited, so stay tuned for those pics! If you haven't already go look at baby boy's photo shot and the day we spent in Fregona!