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"

🎄almost Christmas

Hello everyone
I've been away from blogging for a bit because my husband took me to  Branson, Missouri for 5 days to celebrate my birthday.  We had a good time and saw several Christmas shows.  The weather turned bitter cold and it kept us from doing much shopping or sightseeing but it was still a nice, relaxing trip.
This is the only photo I took, looking out our condo's patio door.

Taking a trip so close to Christmas was not the best timing with all that we still need to do.  But the necessary things will get done, one way or another.  

Today, this little guy is with us along with sister and 2 cousins.  

Yep, that's his personality showing there 😃

Yesterday, we did a big shopping trip to the commissary where we usually stock up. 

So last night, I wrote out a to do list. 

A few things I managed before the children arrived

I'll be back to blogging either after Christmas or New Years.  

Merry Christmas everyone  😬

Halfway through December

Good morning everyone.  Christmas decorations here are very simple, partly because it just appeals to me and partly because our two 1 1/2 year old grandchildren are very busy, if you know what I mean 😱

Our table top tree is decorated with lots of clear light and the Chrismon ornaments stitched by my mom.  

We had a spur of the moment cousin sleepover this weekend.  I had easy meals on hand to serve but needed some fruit.  

So I made a simple winter fruit salad with ingredients already in our fridge- diced red grapes, clementine sections and an Ambrosia apple sliced very thin.  It was really good too! 

These 4 having supper.  After they ate, each one got a shower and then we moved on to this fun activity.

My daughter sent over a box of  cookie dough play dough she had bought from a fundraiser.  

The grands really had fun making lots of colorful cookies.  

I was amazed how good they tasted.  

While the kiddos made their creations, I put all the clothes they wore to our house in the washer and dryer.  

Then I laid them back out so dressing the next morning was very easy.  I keep clothes here but this was much easier than trying to match up 4 outfits from the toy room closet.  

One trip to CVS after church on Sunday - I used $15 extracarebucks, some CVS app and redbox coupons and 3 manufacturers coupons.  I spent $2.76 for 2 Charmin, 2 granola bars, 1 shave cream and 1 makeup face wipes.  And I got back $5 extracarebucks for my next trip.