I finally found time!

I finally found time to get some scrapbooking done. I did a few pages Friday night and one yesterday during Allison's awesome 2 hour nap! =) They are all done except for a little bit of journaling! So much fun... I really should do more of this!

8 Months Old

I just can't believe how fast my little girl is growing! She is so much fun and so interested in everything she sees around her. It is so much fun to see her little personality come through as she continues to grow. It is amazing how much she has changed my life, and how I can't even begin to imagine my life without her. Here are a few photos we took of our big little Miss Allison yesterday at the BYU botony pond.

First spaghetti

Allison tried her first taste of "real" food... she had leftover spaghetti for lunch yesterday.

I think she liked it! =)

My weekend project...

I used to think that some of the things people did for their babies were crazy, but that was before I had one. For example, I used to think that making your own baby food was crazy. Why would you do that? Gerber really isn't that expensive, is it? Well... yes and no. Its not really too expensive until you've suddenly got a child that can eat through $15 of baby food in 10 days. Then is suddenly seems to much more expensive.

I've been thinking for a while about just biting the bullet and making my own baby food and I finally just did it. Let me tell you, it was a lot more fun, a lot less crazy and so much cheaper than I expected! Check out my freezer door!


I made (bottom shelf from left to right) peas, green beans, garden veggie, carrots, spiced winter squash, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and (topd shelf left to right) melon, banana, blueberry sweet potato pie (blueberries, sweet potatos cinnimon and plain yogurt), peach apricot, peach and apricot baby food cubes. The melon and banana are just diced and ready to thaw and smash before serving (or dice smaller for finger food) and the apricto isn't in cubes (apricots don't really freeze, they get soft set). I also have some apricot winter squash still in the ice cube tray, and blueberries and mangos to deal with. I'd really like to try an apple-peach-mango combo for Allison. Most of my recipes I found at Wholesome Baby Food. Great resourse with tons of information on how to make it, what tools you need, when to introduce what foods, TONS of nutritional info and lots of fun "recipes" and combinations to try.


For most of my foods to make my life easier I bought (on sale!) 1 pound packages of frozen fruit or veggies. So easy to quickly steam or boil, then puree with added liquid in my blender. The only "tool" I had to buy was more ice cube trays, which I found 3/$1 at dollar tree. All in all, I really enjoyed doing what I used to think was crazy. =) If you've ever thought about making your own baby food, I would totally recommend it (but maybe only if you have a dishwasher... it makes a pretty good mess of dishes).

Its official...

I've decided that it can be official. It happened before today, but I didn't want to jinx it by blogging about it too soon.

Allison is sleeping through the night. Like really truly totally sleeping through the night. She goes to bed at 7 pm every night (thank you black out drapes) and sleeps all night long with no wakings until about 6:30 am... and it is WONDERFUL!!! Sure, sometimes she does wake up in the middle of the night or early morning (last night it was 4:30, last Saturday is was midnight) but she requires not attention from me or Brian to put herself back to sleep very quickly. For mommy, 8 predictable hours of sleep a night (10 to 6... we go to bed early!) is amazing, and even though its not my pre-baby preferred 10 hours, I love it! =)

On a related note, Allison's nap schedule it also finally a real, reliable schedule. I love having a schedules baby!

Black-Out Drapes

Last Monday, it became imperative that I find and purchase a set (or two) of black out drapes immediately. You see, last Sunday we all had the joyous opprotunity to set our clocks forward, lose an hour of sleep and enjoy more light in our evening hours. Sounds well and good, right? I used to think so too. Then I consulted my daughter.

You see, Allison's bedtime is 7 pm. Allison also has a beautiful, 6 foot long window in her bedroom. It spans the almost the whole wall... the whole western facing wall. As you can probably guess, Allison let me know, very loudly, that it was completely unacceptable for her to be put to bed while it was still so light outside, regardless of what the clock said.


Now, black out drapes are pretty prohibitively expensive, but I found a solution... I made mine (and yes, they actually do work)! I found some cute fabric (at the amazing price of $3/yard) and black-out drapery lining fabric (just $5/yard!) at Home Fabrics in Orem. So for $25 and a mere 5 hours of my time, Allison now has some pretty cute black out drapes... what a steal! Not my best construction efforts and I'll probably make some alterations to them eventually, but for now, I love them! Maybe, just maybe, this project will jump start me and I'll actually get the living room drapes and pillow made. I only bought the fabric 2 years ago...

Visit from Emma (and Katie)

My sister-in-law Katie is in town and staying with us this week, so Allison got to spend some time with her cousin, Emma. Emma's just 5 days older and they LOVE hanging out together. Take a look for yourself!

Tagged!

My awesome sister-in-law Ashleigh tagged me (my first tag!). Here goes!

What's his name? Brian Trevor

How long have you been married? 3 years, and 10 months tomorrow

How long did you date? Define "date". I guess we dated for 6 or 8 weeks before his mission. We were engaged just about the second I got home from BYU for Christmas 3 weeks after he got home from his mission.

How old is he? 25

Who eats more? depends on the time of day and what we're eating. I think he probably eats more (that boy can pack it away) but he also eats much slower.

Who said, "I love you," first? Brian did. My response? a kiss and a "goodnight" (that didn't go over too well...)

Who is taller? Brian, unless I'm in heals and he's barefoot

Who sings better? I do.

Who is smarter? Brian. I would NEVER survive getting 2 degrees in physics.

Who's temper is worse? Mine, definantly. I'm much more likely to fly off the handle.

Who does the laundry? We both do. Depends on who has time when it needs to be done. I usually do the folding during afternoon naptime though.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you are looking at it, I do. And he steals covers...

Who pays the bills? Most of them are set up to auto-debit, but I hold the check book so I guess I do.

Who mows the lawn? Maybe someday we'll have a lawn to mow...

Who cooks dinner? I do. Brian does the dishes though (that was part of our deal when we got married... I HATE dishes)

Who drives when you are together? Usually Brian, but sometimes I do.

Who is more stubborn? Probably me again.

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Probably Brian. Like I said... I'm stubborn!

Whose parents do you see the most? Mine, I guess. Brian's will be on a misson (again) come June.

Who has more friends? Brian see his friends more often (they live closer), but I've made friends with his friends wives, which is nice... we both get to feel like we have friends.

Who has more siblings? Brian has 4, I have 3

Who wears the pants? we both do. We try really hard to make all of our big decisions together.

I tag Ginger, April, Jamie and Jerilyn!

Yummy Ravioli Bake

I contribute to The Mother's Lounge blog. At the beginning of the month there are a lot of menu plans that go up. Thats actually where I got the inspiration to start doing monthly menus myself. A few days ago Krystal posted her March menu along with a yummy looking recipe that I tried last night. Ravioli bake... mmmm. My recipe is a little modified from her original to fit our tastes better. Here's the recipe I used...

1 package (25 oz ish) frozen ravioli (I used a meat filled on... Brian is anti-cheese-filled ravioli)
1 jar or can of spaghetti sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese (optional... I mixed ricotta in with the mozzarella)
1/4 cup

Spray the bottom of a largeish baking dish (7"x 10" or 9"x 13") with non stick spray. Scoop 3/4 cup spaghetti sauce onto the bottom of the dish and spread. Place half of the ravioli, half of the remaining tomato sauce and half of the cheese in layers in the pan. Repeat the layers a second time in the pan. Top with parmesan cheese. Cover with tin foil and bake at 400* for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15-20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This turned out so yummy! You can check our Krystal's original recipe here. The recipe is near the bottom of the post.

Ribbon Organizer!

I have tons of ribbon. I kind of collect it... I love pretty ribbons and I use them in my scrapbooking and to make hair bows for Miss Allison. I am always on the look out for cute ribbon at a great price. The problem with that is organization. Last month while I was busy flinging and organizing I realized I needed an organized storage solution for my ribbons. I found one. My inspiration came from this article at Real Simple Magazine, then I modified to fit my personality better. This is what I came up with.

I found the box at Michaels (craft storage boxes for $2.39!), poked holes in it and fitted it with large eyelets. Most eyelets now have the end of a ribbon spool poking out. Easy to see what I have, easy to use and ORGANIZED!!! Yeah!

Who needs toys...

when you've got feet?!?

Mmmm... yummy!!!

March at the Thornock's

March first already (how on Earth did that happen?!?). Here's what the Thornock's are having for dinner this month.
1 - Sauteed Sandwiches
2 - Louisana Red Beans and Rice (never actually manged it last month...)
3 - Chicken Enchiladas
4 - Ginger Beef Stir Fry
5 - Chicken Creole (again, didn't make it... ran out of my ingredients)
6 - Lasagna
7 - Pita Pizzas
8 - Left Overs
9 - Orange Thyme Chicken
10 - Tacos
11 - Pork Chops
12 - Oven BBQ Chicken
13 - Haystacks
14 - Frozen Pizza
15 - Burgers and Fries
16 - Chili
17 - Fajitas
18 - Porcupine Meatballs
19 - Pork & Pineapple Veggies (Brian loves this)
20 - Spaghetti
21 - Papa Murphey's Pizza
22 - Chicken Tortilla Soup
23 - Salsa Chicken
24 - Mormon Mommy Casserole
25 - Chicken Pockets
26 - Parmesan Chicken
27 - Steak
28 - Yummy homemade pizza
29 - Left overs
30 - not quite sure yet...
31 - Nachos