Healthy Choices Baked Entrees.....YUM!

So, here is another awesome opportunity I received from Crowdtap!  (If you haven't joined up, you need to get right on that!)

Crowdtap recently gave the opportunity for me and my friends to try the new Healthy Choice Baked Entrees with a $1.00 coupon!

There were so many choices, that I couldn't decide on just one, so I ended up getting two!

The first one I tried was the Chicken & Rice Cheddar Bake.  It was sooooo good!  Portion size is just right for lunch and it did not take long to fix at all.  Just 3 to 4 minutes and you are ready to dig in.  Now, I will say that I'm kind of leary of the chicken that most of these microwave meals have in them because they usually contain so much fat.  Nothing worse than chicken fat!  The Chicken & Rice Cheddar Bake chicken did not contain much fat.  I found one piece, but I consider that lucky for me!  I would definitely recommend this meal and will purchase it again.

The second one I tried was the Roasted Chicken and Potatoes meal.  I loved this one!!  Of course, I am a meat and potatoes kind of girl!  Potatoes are one of my all time favorite foods.  The herb sauce was very good.  With this one, I did not get any chicken fat at all!  Score!  I will be buying this one as well.

I am very impressed by the calorie count in both of these.  Now, I love Healthy Choice meals.  However, my favorite ones usually have over 350 calories in them.  I dig the Healthy Choice Panini sandwiches and they have 360 calories.  These to Baked Entrees were both UNDER 300 CALORIES!  Yay!  The Chicken & Rice Cheddar Bake had 220 calories and the Roasted Chicken and Potatoes only had 180! 

Now, that is a healthy and yummy choice for lunch!  Thank you to Crowdtap and Healthy Choices for the $1.00 off coupon! 

Gotta love Old Navy sweaters!!!

I am proud to say that I am part of the Old Navy Style Council on Crowdtap! 

They regularly have chances to try out their new styles.  I have tried for several of these Sample & Shares, but have never been chosen.

Recently, Old Navy had a Sample & Share for sweaters.  I decided to try for it and much to my surprise I was chosen!  I was super excited to get the chance to participate in this event!

With this Sample & Share, I received one coupon for a free sweater for myself and one coupon for a free sweater for a friend.  So awesome!!

My BFF Edie was the lucky recipient!  We met up one night at the local ON and had tons of fun!!

Here is Edie showing off the sweater that we named "Foxy Lady"!

We each picked out several sweaters to try on and headed to the dressing rooms! 

I tried on 4 different colors of the same sweater.  My favorite was the hot pink!  The off white sweater kind of threw me for a loop, though.  All of these sweaters were the same size.  The blue, pink and green fit me fine, but the off white hung on my like a potato sack.  Not to sure what was going on there!

 

Edie tried on several, but the two below were her favorites!

 



After MUCH deliberation....here are the winners!

 

 

Thank you Old Navy for giving me this wonderful opportunity!  Me & Edie had so much fun and positively LOVE our new sweaters!!  :)

Wow!

I can't believe that Mr W is almost 11 months old!  Where has the time gone?  He is doing so good and he sure does love his Mama!  I admit it, I have spoiled him so much!  He cries as soon as I leave the room and turns it off when I pick him back up.  Right now, I love that.  It is like I know I am his world.  I know it will not be like that forever.  I just can't get over how fast the time has flown by. 

We are about to come up on his first Christmas.  Wow!  Is he going to be a mess or what?!  He isn't walking yet, but he might be by Christmas.  He likes to hold on to things and walk, just not without support.  He is getting in to everything and it is really funny.  If you get on to him for getting in to something that he is not supposed to be in, he just looks at you with this look on his face, like "What?".  You can't help but smile at him. 

I hope that during the hustle and bustle of the holidays, that we can all slow down and take the time to really enjoy the time with our families.  Before you blink, some of them could be grown up and some could be gone.  Enjoy the time you have with everyone!

7 months old!

Mr. W is now 7 months old!! 

I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown by.  :(  Pretty soon, he will not be a baby any longer and will not need me as much.  Double :(

Mr. W can say "Mama"!  How awesome is that!  Just makes my heart smile every time I hear it!  I can also rub it in the face of Daddy, that he said "Mama" first!  I know, I know, that is not a nice thing to do, but admit it.....you would do it, too!  :)

My boy is not into the crawling thing yet.  He is rolling and about to start scooting, but no crawling.  I am trying to be patient about it, but there are some of his little friends that have beaten him on that.  No comparing...that is a rule, but I can't hardly abide by it!  It's ok, though.  I am so proud of all of his accomplishments!  He is the sweetest boy ever! 

Baby Food Blues

Mr. W is almost 4 months old!  I have tried to start introducing baby food to him.  It is not going that good! 

I am very frustrated because when my daughter was starting out on baby food, Gerber had rice cereal in baby food jars.  She would eat those, but she would not eat the rice cereal that you have to mix.

Apparently, Mr. W is going to be the same way!  Only problem is that now they do not seem to make those handy dandy jars of cereal!  What the heck?! 

I did find a pouch of Bananas, Apricots and Brown Rice at Target.  The brand is Ella's.  I gave it to Mr. W, but he was pretty mad at the time, so it didn't go all that well.  I put the pouch in the refrigerator, per the instructions and the next day I tried to feed it to him again.  That time around the food was too cold.  According to the directions on the pouch, you just place the pouch in a cup of hot water.  You are not supposed to put it in the microwave.  I guess I just didn't have it in the cup long enough.  I ended up throwing the rest away (it is only good for 48 hours after opening). 

Yesterday, I tried mixing the powdered rice cereal per the instructions and then added banana baby food to it.  That didn't go all that well either.  I ended up with some in my eye!  Mr. W decided to spit it out and it went flying every where!  Eww! 

I guess I am just trying to rush him into eating food.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want him to grow up fast on me, but I do wish I could get him to eat.  I know it just takes time. 

Patience, patience, patience. 

That is something I will have to work on. 

So, Mr. W and I will just have to get used to the baby food thing together!  :)

Sleep?

 

Sleep?  What is that?  I don't think that exists any more! 

It is amazing that parents survive and actually are able to care for their children!  We get by on much less sleep than we used to!  I can remember once when my daughter was with us, that I accidentally put hand soap on my toothbrush instead of toothpase.  That pump was a little to handy!  At least I caught it before I tried to brush my teeth!  I sure did have a clean toothbrush after that!

When we brought Mr. W home from the hospital, we were very lucky that we only had to get up once a night with him.  We would give him his last bottle around 10 or 10:30 and then we'd have have to get back up around 1:30 or 2.  As time has gone by, he has extended that wake up time a little each month.  He is almost 4 months old and as long as that pesky teeth cutting doesn't interfere, we get to sleep in till somewhere in between 5 and 6.  That is awesome at our house! 

The teething does create issues in the wee hours of the morning!  Most mornings we have to get up around 4 with him.  That is not fun!  Especially considering the fact that I was just getting used to sleep again!

Oh well, I know it will return eventually, but until then......I MISS YOU SLEEP!!!!  :)

Turning 33

Today is my birthday! 

I am 33 years old.  I can not believe that!  It seems like just yesterday I was in high school.  My how time flies. 

You know the gravity of my age hits me when I hear songs on the classic radio station that I grew up listening to!  Also, my niece, who was 4 years old when I met her, is now 17!  She will be a Senior in high school next year!  Good grief! 

When I was born.....there were no CD's, no MP3 players, no iPhones, no iPods, no iPads or even laptop computers.  Heck, there weren't too many computers and they are dinosaurs today!  Can you imagine....no iPhones!  What in the world?!  How did people survive?!  That phone is like an attachment to my arm!  It is almost like the end of the world when I don't have it with me!

I really don't feel all that old!  Haha!  I know that 33 is not old.  It just amazes me how times change so quickly! 

I have been through a lot in my 33 years.  I have graduated high school; met my hubby and got married; graduated college; had a beautiful little girl and then 3 years later, buried that sweet child; went through a tough time for quite a while after that....it is still tough dealing with her loss; had my sweet baby boy & pray every single day that he out lives me. 

Life goes on.  It has been fun and not so fun.  I thank God in Heaven for the 33 years I've been on this earth.  I plan to be around for a lot longer and hopefully, the Lord agrees with that plan! 

So....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!  :)

Eek! Mr. W is cutting 6 teeth!

My 3 month old son, Mr. W, is cutting 6 teeth! Yes, you read that right.......6!! It is not a fun time for him! He hasn't run a fever with it yet, but it could still happen. It's really hard to watch him hurt like that and not be able to do much for him. Hopefully, he will get some relief soon! I know the hubby and I were getting used to being able to sleep through the night again & then the teething began! 3 a.m. Is not a happy time to be up!