The last day on 2016

Hello everyone, 

All the Christmas decorations have been packed up and stored away for next year. 

But we didn't take down our 4 foot tree.  It is now decorated with winter themed things.  Come February, we will switch it to heart decorations. 

Mostly we enjoy the twinkle lights early in the morning or in the evening.  

every New Years, we display this New Years baby statue that I bought at a thrift store years ago. 

Last year I thought the statue resembled our grandson but this year, as JJ has grown, I think JJ and the statue are almost twins,  😍

I'm so glad I bought that funny little boy statue years ago but I never dreamed he looked like my future grandchild,  

From the new meal plan, for last nights supper we had "pork chop and potato casserole" from Allrecipes.com, with green beans, green salad and rolls left from Christmas.  

Grandsons Braeden and Gavin were here for this meal.  

Tonight's supper was soft beef tacos.  I cooked about 4.5 pounds of ground beef and seasoned it all with homemade taco seasoning,  Thr extra went in the freezer in meal size containers for future meals, especially when we need something in a hurry.  

The Oklahoma sunset was especially pink and pretty last night.  

We have a new calendar but it didn't have holes for  hanging in the top.  So I added a binder clip and that should hold it just fine.

I am sure blessed with cute grandchildren ❤️

Happy 2017 everyone.  

babies, packing up, meal plans and a puppy

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season.  We sure did. 
With all the little grands buzzing around,  everything is exciting and fun. 
This is our youngest, baby RJ, 5 months old.  He is quite a little charmer

Now it is time to get our home back in shape and clean again. 

I did so many loads of laundry today and cleaned floors.  My husband packed up the outdoor decorations and I've gathered up the decorations used in the house to pack them away.  I didn't put our very many this year.

The circles under baby Jesus are 3 plastic canvas coasters.  I know when I put them out, there were 5. 

Oh where could the other 2 be? 

It that time of year when everyone makes resolutions.  I'm not sure I'm making any but I do want to get back to living more organized.  One of the main areas is meal planning and preparation. 

We've stocked our kitchen with 2 recent commissary trips and I worked today organizing the pantry and freezer. 

Below is tonight's supper while I prepared it - a salad big enough for 2 nights

- and salmon patties ready to be mixed together and sautéed.   

the tomatoes on the salad are the multi color grape size ones.  They are kind of ugly but taste almost like fresh picked home grown tomatoes. 

Below is our January menu- I don't think I will need to cook all these meals and I will just cook them as needed and as they sound good.  But I have all the ingredients to prepare every one  except for needing bell peppers for 1.  Some are recipes I just know and some are recipes I have pinned under cooking on Pinterest. 

my plan is to look at this list often and plan ahead and cook these yummy meals as much as possible. 

We are getting a new puppy!  She is a boxer-bloodhound mix and in a shelter right now.  We will pick her up next week after she is all fixed and such. 

She looks like a sweetheart to me! 
We haven't had a pet since we lost our precious Theo 4 years ago but we are ready and anxious for one now.  He was just the best dog that did everything we did and went everywhere with us. 
So I hope this puppy will be up for our busy home and all the love she will get from her 8 new cousins
I think we are going to name her "Mabel"