A Day in the Life of Leo

I've got a funny collection of pictures to show you today.  

Lots of little moments that are a pretty accurate sneak peek into how Leo and I spend our days.  I devote a good chunk of my days to keeping Leo safe from Leo.  He's a busy guy.  He's about to turn 18 months old and he's got no shortage of personality.  Instead of snapping pictures all day long, I decided to take some pictures all week long.

Currently... Leo Loves...

Food - any snack size package of salty snacks,  Cheetos, Dum Dums and having his own drink to carry around.  He has a thermos like the big kids and it's his pride and joy.

Talking - so many new words/sounds every day.  He'll answer us when we ask him questions.

Running, being chased & climbing.

Doing everything himself

Cocomelon - he's mesmerized by those tunes.

Bath time.

A Day in the Life of Leo. 

He's almost always the first one up a little before 7:00am.

 This guy seems to want to make his own rules.  Do life on his terms.

He refuses to wear any real hats instead preferring to wear my favorite colander around the house.  And when his jams come on (baby Shark, Vacation, etc) - he raises his hands like this and flaps his arms.

He has a hard time hiding his true feelings when strangers talk to him.  He's a pretty serious guy when we are out and about.

We enjoy meals on the patios around town.  We usually split meals or muffins and he tries to steal sips of my ice coffee.

He naps hard every afternoon.

Leo loves to swing.  He also loves living near the airport.  He shouts "OOK!" for look at points up at the airplanes that fly by.

The penny horse at Meijer is a favorite treat.  He often throws a little fit when it's time to be done.

When we hop in the van he likes to try out the big kid's car seats first.

He never misses an opportunity to climb.  If that baby gate is open, you better believe that he'll be climbing.  Here's Leo brushing his teeth... with my toothbrush.  Gross.

All of our breakable pumpkins are up high and all the things within his reach are hoping to last all Fall.  He thinks my felt garland looks more like a jump rope.

Oftentimes he naps so hard that he's got a pillow or sheet print on his face :)

Leo invades the Barbie Dreamhouse.  Tiny bed for a not so tiny baby.

Sometimes I walk into the kitchen to find all kinds of stunts happening on my island.  We've moved the bar stools away from the island, but he's strong enough to move them wherever he wants.

When the big kids do their homework, I try to contain the toddler tornado.  He loves these Squiggies.

Step stools on wheels to get a little closer to his favorite show - Cocomelon.  Not safe.

Leo loves markers and crayons.  Despite my best efforts to hide them he finds them and chomps them in the blink of an eye.  I've never had a kid eat markers before.

He used to just like to look at pens, but now he's very into tattooing himself.

He likes to rearrange my stack of birch logs.

Having his own apple is one of his favorite treats.  Don't try to help him.

He cleans out cabinets and drawers often.  One day I'll channel this skill to be a helpful organizing skill.

Leo likes to run errands with me.

He's our most serious baby.

Leo loves to try on shoes.  He's gotten better at matching them and walking in them.

Leo loves the cats.  They are a little skeptical of all of his love.

Then 7:45pm rolls around and this guy is ready for bed.  He's caused enough chaos to wear himself out.

Leo, you are a wild man and we love you so much!!

Hawaiian Taco Bowls

We had some really delicious Hawaiian Taco Bowls over the weekend.  They were the perfect game day dinner to enjoy after the Notre Dame game on Saturday.  I couldn't wait to share the recipe with you today.  They're easy, you get to use your crockpot and you end up with lots of leftovers to enjoy all week long.  It's great because you can customize the toppings and ingredients to work for your family.

They turned out so pretty and tasted AMAZING!

Look at this drool worthy taco bowl!

 

Hawaiian Taco Bowl Ingredients:

1 20oz can pineapple chunks chopped and 10oz pineapple juice from that can

1 can Cannellini Beans drained

1 can Black Beans drained

1 small jar of your favorite salsa

salt and pepper

1 t garlic powder

1 green pepper diced

1 yellow onion diced

1 cup frozen corn

zest & juice of one lime

 

Toppings:

Romain lettuce

tomatoes

purple onions

fresh jalapenos (a million times better than canned)

shredded cheddar

sour cream

guacamole (if only one or two people at your house eat guac, you should buy the single serve cups)

salsa

tortilla chips

Put all of those ingredients in your crockpot for 4+ hours.  Let everything cook down and similar together.  Stir occasionally and it'll smell so good.

Figure out your protein - you could do shredded chicken, steak, pulled pork, etc.  We LOVE this Memphis Style Central Que BBQ.  We order it online and it comes in 1lb packages.  You boil the package for 15 minutes and serve.  It is amazing!  It tastes like authentic Southern BBQ and it couldn't be easier.  Kevin orders it from Gold Belly and has it delivered when they run specials or email him deal coupons.  It's a splurge item, but it's SO much cheaper than eating out at a restaurant with the 5 of us. You could also do your own pulled pork or shredded chicken in the crock pot.

Directions:
Make your rice.  Shred your meat.  Chop all the toppings.  Serve everything buffet style so each person can build their own Hawaiian Taco Bowl.  If your whole group loves all these ingredients, you could add your meat into the crock pot bean mixture.  I left the meat separate so that our kids would be able to enjoy it, too. 

The adults at our house wanted all the toppings and the kids wanted the pulled pork, rice, cheese, chips and salsa.  We still ate the same meal so I'm calling it a win :)  This was delicious the first night and we are really excited to eat this a couple more times this week.  If you chop your toppings in bulk the first time you have this meal, your leftovers will be so easy to pull together for lunches or dinners during the week.

Would your family enjoy these Hawaiian Taco Bowls??

Fall Friday Favorites

It's feeling like Fall in Indiana!!  The mornings and evenings are cool and the weather has been lovely.  I decorated for Fall, baked Fall things and had a great week.

Let me show you my favorite moments!

1. My DIY Fall Wreath

I made the prettiest Fall wreath for my front door.  Look at those pretty yellow pom pom flowers.  You can read all about it here.  What do you put on your front door for Fall?

2. I decorated the inside for Fall!  Neutrals + oranges and yellows.  Just a few pumpkins here and there and a one year old that is into everything.  Thoughts and prayers for my holiday decor this year.

3. Fall Baking!  I love this Fall M&M mix and pumpkin cookies.

4. School lunches - A peachy + orange theme one day this week.

5. Family Friendly Charcuterie!  I love making these for dinner.  Read all my tips and tricks here.  This is easily my family's favorite dinner.

6. These cute kittens love to greet us at the door when we get back home.  Penny & Pearl also love hanging out in our laundry baskets.

7. Look where I found Leo... in a tiny Barbie bed in the Barbie Dreamhouse.  Silly baby!

8. Fletcher came home from school and was so excited to try out a science experiment that he'd learned at school.  It's fun to see how much he's learning in kindergarten.

9. The local mom's group that I'm the President of was recently awarded big community grant from United Way to revitalize and improve our local Storywalk trail at a local park.  The board and I worked really hard writing this grant over the summer so we were very excited to win!  I posted our sign over the weekend and am excited to work on this project in the coming year.

10. I took the kids on a hike last weekend.  The weather was perfect and the kids loved exploring!  Leo was eager to keep up with the big kids.  Then he decided climbing was a little scary once he got up on the fallen tree :)

I hope you have a great weekend!  See you back here on Monday.

I'm linking up with Momfessionals

Family Friendly Charcuterie Boards

There are few things that I love more than putting together family friendly charcuterie boards.  I just love them!  They're so easy and such a fun way to use up all the little bits of food in the pantry and the fridge.

Today I'm going to talk to you about how to get started making your own boards at home.

I hope that my tips will give you a little boost of confidence to make a board for your family or friends.

Tip 1 // You don't actually have to have a wooden board - any big plate will work!  A tray, a cookie sheet, a large serving plate - Use whatever you have to make your boards.  We love a lazy susan wooden board and the most affordable places I've found to buy those is at TJMaxx.  They're around $20 and about double that price online.

Tip 2 // Start small on your menu at first if you A. aren't sure your family will love a charcuterie board and B. start with 3 or 4 meats and cheeses to find out what your family favorites are.  Start with basics - favorite lunch meat, basic salami, pepperoni and some kind of meat stick.  Then for cheeses do basics - any cheese you know your family enjoys and then try one or two new ones.  Once you figure out what they like, it'll be easier to plan your boards.  I also like to ask my family what they want on our boards and try to include things they request - fresh pineapple, a certain brand of salami or cheese cubes.

Tip 3 // Add in fruits and veggies your family loves.  Add one or two new ones to introduce them to new things.  Same strategy with salty snacks, nuts and dips.  I like to chop the fruits and veggies during nap time or in the evenings when the kids go to bed.  This really helps assembling the boards to be a quick process when everything is pre-chopped.

Tip 4 // Then go over some charcuterie ground rules - you only grab one thing at a time, you need to eat a variety of things (not all the strawberries or wiping out a whole stack of pepperoni) and enjoy picking out your own dinner.

Tip 5 // My last tip is: Shop at Aldi for your charcuterie boards.  It is wild how much cheaper their meats, cheeses, crackers, nuts, produce and holiday treats are.  You'll save yourself a lot of money at Aldi.  If you don't have an Aldi, Walmart is a nice back up option.

Here are a couple of our favorite family friendly charcuterie board dinners from this month.

I love to pair them with something warm like soft pretzels or a fresh loaf of crusty bread.

These are the easiest dinners - no dishes, very little clean up and a great variety of foods.

 

Family Friendly Board #1

Family Friendly Board #2

 

These charcuterie boards are great for family, friends, tailgating or sharing.

Do you have any charcuterie questions or hang ups that I can help you with???

Make Your Own Unique Fall Wreath

I was wandering through Hobby Lobby a week or two ago and noticed their Fall Florals were 40% off.  They had tons of pretty things - berries, branches, fall flowers, leaves and more.  I decided it was time for a Fall wreath refresh!  I like to lay out all of the options on the floor at hobby lobby and see how everything works together.  It can be really affordable to make your own wreath if you find your supplies on sale and if you repurpose things you already own.

Let's get started!

 

My old Fall wreath was a DIY sunflower wreath.  I loved it, but the sun was hard on it after a couple of Fall seasons.  Time to refresh the old and make it new again.

I started by removing everything from the grape vine wreath.  I threw away everything that was badly faded and then saved a few things to try to use again in my new wreath.

Begin with an empty wreath and maybe browse Pinterest for some wreath inspiration.

Then, add in one layer at a time.  Grapevine wreaths are great because you can weave floral picks into them without having to use much hot glue.  TIP: Take off price tags as you go instead of removing price tags from everything at the start.  You may end up with extra floral and if you've removed the tags you can't return them.

 Keep adding in layers.  I like to cut apart the florals and weave the wired stems into the grapevine.  If it won't stay in place securely, then I will add in some hot glue to make sure it doesn't go anywhere.

Until things look about how you want them.

Hang it on your door - try it out a few different ways to see which side looks best on top.  Also adjust the floral picks until everything is balanced nicely.

Voila!  A new and improved Fall wreath!  I love making unique things for my home that no one else has.  I just love all the different colors, textures and those mustard yellow flower balls.  It looks great on my front door, too.  I ended up with three extra stems and made an arrangement to go in my family room for Fall.

What's on your front door for Fall??

Money Saving Monday

Happy Monday!  I've got another round of money saving tips for you.  Some may be things you already do, but hopefully you'll find a few new ways to save money from my tips today.

1. Make Your Coffee At Home

Iced coffee is my favorite year round.  I just love it!  These are my favorite combos - Unsweetened Cold Brew & International Delight Mocha Light.  I love to mix the two.  It costs me $7.84 for these two and it lasts me for at least a week.  If I were to go through a drive thru for coffee every day it would easily cost me $3-5 a day.  This is a huge way to save!

My husband love hot coffee so he has a Keurig at home and in his office to make his own coffee.  He also asks for Starbucks gift cards anytime people ask him for gift ideas.  The he adds them to his reward card.

 

2. Swap Name Brands for Store Brands

This one takes a little work.  You've got to spend a little time trying out the store brand versions of your favorite foods in order to know if you've got a good dupe.  My favorite store brands are at Aldi, Great Value at Walmart and Members Mark at Sams.

I'll give you a quick example of how this saves us lots of money.  My kids love chocolate ice cream.  It's anywhere from $3.48-$7.24 for a container of name brand chocolate ice cream at Walmart.  Those prices add up!  I tried the Aldi brand chocolate ice cream recently as well as the Great Value chocolate ice cream.  My kids loved both and the container only costs $1.89 at Aldi and $1.97 at Walmart.

We also love store brand cheeses, tons of Aldi brand things like pasta, pasta sauce, produce and meats.  Almost everything at Aldi is cheaper.  I love Peter Pan Peanut Butter.  It was hard to find for a while so I switched to this Peanut Delight Creamy PB.  It's $2.14 at my Aldi.  The same size Peter Pan would cost $4.68.  Give me half price peanut butter anytime.  I've seen it get marked down to as low as $1.99 so I stock up when it's that low.  

If you can't eat or really do not like the store brand version of an item, you can return them for full refunds.  I would definitely take the time to make these returns if you are committed to saving money by switching out products.  It's not embarrassing to say - we just did not like the store brand of this item.

 

3. Sell on Your Local Marketplaces

I sell items my kids have outgrown or things that I no longer use on my local mom's group Facebook market page.  I keep a pile in our bonus room of things to sell and when the pile gets big enough, I list the whole thing.  It feels so good to get rid of things that are in the way and earn some extra cash. 

 

4. Look for the Freebies on Ibotta

This week I got a free tube of lipstick with my grocery pick up order!  Revlon Super Lustrous Moisturizing Lipstick - Cream finish - 435 Love That Pink.  It was $4.98 and the rebate was $5.  There were 20+ shades to pick from and I have been happy with it already.  Yay for freebies.  I've seen deals for free notebooks during back to school time and free cereals when a new flavor was released.

They also offer coupons on seasonal things like this Land O Lakes cinnamon butter.  It's not free, but I'll take $0.50 a yummy seasonal treat. 

If you're new to Ibotta - check out this post to see how to sign up with my referral code.

5. Buy Things in Bulk

Not everything that Sams sells in bulk is a great deal.  Remind yourself of that every time you are tempted to stock up on everything there.  These are the bulk items that are a good deal for us:

Hand soap

Kitty litter

Bread

Gardettos/Chex Mix

Chocolate Chips

Baking Ingredients

Dukes Sausage Links

French Toast Sticks

Mixed Nuts

Trail Mix

Trash Bags

Toilet Paper

Paper Towels

Puffs Plus

Keurig Coffee Pods (They're $7 off a box this month!!)

Contact Solution

Allergy Meds

Happy Deal Hunting!!