DIY Baby Rice & Oatmeal

I didn't get to breastfeed Haidyn as long as I would have liked, so in part of my guilt I've made it my priority to make her food. It's important to me that I know what is going into her body to help her grow and thrive. I have a ton of rice stocked at home at all times, so why not make my own rice cereal? Also, I always have oatmeal so of course I made  her, her Oatmeal too! I don't spend extra money on her food because it's what I already have and use daily.

Ingredients: 

1. Rice - I use organic brown rice. 
2. Oatmeal

Directions: 

1. Take rice ( start with a 1/4 cup) and grind in a food processor. - I used our bullet. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Take oatmeal ( start with a 1/4 cup) and blend in a good processor. -used our bullet here too. 
3. ** Make sure that rice and oatmeal are ground fine enough for your little one. 
4. Place each of them into an air tight container and store. 
   

Directions to make rice cereal & oatmeal :

- 2 tablespoons : 1/2 cup water- 

1. Take 2 cups of water and bring to a boil,
2. Drop in 8 tablespoons of rice/oatmeal and mix thoroughly.
3. Place made rice/oatmeal into ice trays. - I used baby trays for this. 
4. Store these in the fridge. 
   

Ready made cereal/oatmeal will last a week. Make sure that you label it correctly in your fridge! 

Grown Up Pizza Bagels

My husband loves pizza bagels bites so much that I decided to make him real size ones. A box of these regularly costs us about $10.00( give or take  at Costco). Now, that I've made them for him they cost me about $5.00 for 12 pizza bagels.

Ingredients:

1. 1 bag of bagels
2. 1 pack of pepperonis
3. 1 jar of marinara sauce
4. 1 small bag of shredded cheese
5. Pizza seasoning

Directions: 

1. Lay out all bagels halves and layer with marinara sauce ( put a lot on there in case you are freezing them.)
   
2. Add cheese , pepperonis and top with seasonings. 
   
   
   
   
3. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes or freeze them ! 

Chicken Cheesesteaks

Here is a healthier version of the Philly Cheesesteaks everyone loves oh so much.

Ingredients: 

1. 2 chicken breasts cut into strips 
2. 1 small onion
3. 1 bell pepper, cut into strips
4. Swiss cheese 
5. 4 hoagie rolls ( we used hot dog wheat rolls)

Directions: 

1. Cut chicken into strips
   
   
   
   
   
2. Cut bell peppers and onions.
   
3. Saute onions and bell pepper in a pan on medium high heat. 
   
4. Add in chicken into the pan and cook thoroughly. 
   
5. In a baking dish, place rolls along side each other and add chicken mix. 
   
   
   
   
6. Top with Swiss cheese and broil until cheese is bubbly. 
   

#iLOVEMOMLIFE

 

I get the snooty looks from  the Mom's that read my blog when I pass them in the grocery store or in town all while they say , "Oh my god Jannine, you look soo good!" or "Oh my god, Jannine.. I don't know how you do that all!" ( INSERT MY EYE ROLL HERE) By now I'm use to it. At first, when I was adjusting to Mommy life I would take the latter comments offensively and bitch to Waymon about it. Waymon would always tell me to brush it off . Now, I take those comments in with a grain of salt and a glass of whatever alcoholic concoction Waymon decides to mix up.

Hey Bitchy Mom's, wanna know my secret? Get ready for it, here's my confession......  I don't do it all. I don't have this glamours life/secret of making it all look so easy. It's not easy. I struggle just as much as the next Mom. I didn't lose all of my baby weight when I wanted to. I don't get as much sleep as I'd like to. I don't always cook home cooked meals for my family. I don't clean my house as often as I should. Sometimes I get Haidyn out of her bed and let her cuddle with me in my bed so we can sleep an extra 10 minutes.  Sometimes I don't wash my hair when I really need to. And my work clothes always have a milk/food stains from Haidyn.  I'm normal just like everyone else in this world.

I've learned that having balance in life is much more important than doing it all.  Believe me, there's nothing more in this world I would rather be than Super Mom. Work all day and come home to be the perfect house wife, but I know that I will never be her. I can be the best Mom I know how to be. I do what I can, when I can for my sake as well as my family's . I learn more every day about life slowly,but surely. I don't pretend to be perfect. I don't pretend my kid is either. I just would rather focus on all of the good things that went right today than all of the thousand things that could have gone wrong. I don't have everything, I just make the most of everything that I do have. This life I'm living is exactly what I've always wanted and dreamed of.
I will never compare myself to other moms out there on who's better than whom. However, I will continuously seek help from other passionate Mom's out there willing to share there knowledge with me. I'm a Mom and I struggle daily to keep my sanity together and my hair in place. I've given up on my need to control everything and set aside my pride for this lifetime job. 

At the end of the day, all that I care about is that Haidyn is growing into a strong independent young woman and that I've shown her how much she's loved. So thank you condescending, uppity, eye rolling, judgmental, bitchy Moms out there for reassuring me that I'm doing exactly what I should be doing in this wonderful life I'm living as well as giving me an even thicker layer of skin.  

I love being a Mom. 

Haidyn 5 Months!

LENGTH: 25 inches

LIKES: 

-Eating her new foods! She loves sweet potatoes and bananas.
-Putting EVERYTHING in her mouth ( I know it won't be the end of this...)
-Giving kisses. She will grab your face to give you a kiss,
-Looking at herself in the mirror. She'll talk to herself. (Conceited little thing ;) )
-Waking up Daddy up on the weekends. She will talk and scratch him until he wake up.
-Trying to crawl. She will kick her legs so hard!
-Trying to feed herself.

DISLIKES: 

-Bedtime. She will cry and whine as soon as we lay her down for bed. She gets sad that she's not up with us.
-Sitting in a high chair. She wants to sit with everyone else.
-Hearing the blender when Mommy makes her rice cereal.
-Trying to crawl. She's so mad that she can't crawl haha!
-Sitting in her Bumbo properly, she has to be turned to the side in it. Don't ask me how she does it, she just does.

MILESTONES: 

-ROLLING OVER!!! I was jumping and screaming when she did it.
-Playing with her feet
-Blowing raspberries at everyone.
-Waving toys around

EVENTS:

-The Great Reno Balloon Race
-Hiking Mount Rose w/ family
-Meeting cousins!
-Rib Cook-off
-Tseya's 10th bday!
-Eating fruits/veggies
-Second visit at Arrow!

Month 4 Favorites!

Another round of favorites! Haidyn is becoming more and more active, Her favorite things are the things that right now she be without. 

1. Skip Hop Activity Mat- She loves to explore the mat while she's on her tummy or if she's just laying there. The mat is great at keeping her entertained. 
2. Avent 9oz bottles- Now that she's beginning to eat more we had to ditch the 4 oz bottle and upgrade to a bottle that can hold more. We chose the Avent because of the design of the nipple ( what she's use to) and because she can easily hold the bottle alone. 
3. Bumbo seat w/Tray- She's trying to learn how to sit and to eat solid foods, so this seat duo helped us tons. Without the tray she could sit on the counter, table or the floor to hang out and just explore/Facetime with Uncle Jon. She really enjoys finding her feet too! With the tray, we put toys in front of her so that she can play with them or use it as a high chair for her to eat. 
4. Lamaze Dinosaur- She's a sucker for anything that will hang and dangle in her car seat or stroller. We named our little dinosaur Reptar! We chose it because of all the activities that can be done with him, plus she loves his tail. 
5. First Stars Cookbook- She will not go anywhere without this cookbook. She is very attached to it because of the noisey material of the book and the teethers on it.  It is really cute that she has to "read it" everyday. Waymon teases her that she better be good at cooking the foods in there because she reads it everyday . 
6. Activity Balls- Once you lay her on the floor she will go through great lengths to find this toy. I think it's because of all the bright colors. It's such a simple toy that she loves. 
7. Skip Hop Stroller Organizer- This one is for me. :) Since my stroller didn't come with an attachment like this I had to buy one. It wasn't a downside of the stroller at all. Britax does carry this organizer, but I liked Skip Hop's better. There is so much room in it that I don't know what to do with it all. 
8. Ergo Baby Carrier- This was given to us by my cousin Ellie. We don't go out without this carrier. It has space for all of my things and holds babies up to 30 lbs facing you! 

Week in Pictures: The Great Balloon Race

I've lived in Nevada for 12 years now and I've never been to the Balloon Races, until today. I can't tell you why I haven't, but I know that I'm so glad that I got to share my first time with baby girl this morning. I now understand why people go crazy for this even year after year.

We woke up this morning at 3:00 am to get ready and get the car packed to go. I felt awful waking Haidyn up at 3:50 am, but she was surprisingly willing to get up easy. She had no complaints as if she knew exactly where we were going. ( I love that she's a morning person - like me!) We bundled her up and headed out with Stacy to get to Rancho San Rafael Park before 4:30 am. 

Haidyn was thrilled to hear everyone cheering, the music and the count down for the Glow Show. We each picked our favorite balloon while Haidyn did some cheering herself.

Next, Dawn Patrol lit up the beautiful Nevada skies. Haidyn at this point was tuckered out to even care about the lights. I, on the other hand, was too excited at this point for all the balloons to keep still. Thank you 3:00 am coffee! 

We were told that the other balloons weren't going to be up until 7:00 am, so we waited around until we got kicked out of our spot by the volunteers. Damn you chili pepper balloon!

 Getting kicked out of our spot allowed us to enjoy all of the other balloons up close and personal.

We also met "High Kitty". Haidyn was awake for this and she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the giant cat. She also didn't mind seeing all of the other colorful balloons fly up. 

We missed Darth Vader ( Waymon's balloon choice), but we did see him fly up! That balloon by the way is ridiculously cool.  

Waymon and Stace posed up together like they liked each other.  

Two seconds later, we were playing selfie queens with our favorite balloon of the day. :)

We checked out the little tents around the venue. Our favorite was watching all of the little kids roll around in giant bubbles. haha Oh man, I could watch them all day.

We headed out of the park around 9:00 am to head home. Now, our first Balloon Race is in the books! I can't wait for next year.