March Rewind
March started with a trip to Charlotte, NC to visit my dear friend Kristy and her family. Our kids are great friends and we had such a wonderful visit!
Sweet sibling love!
Savannah, James and Daniel. Daniel is such a happy boy! He’s giving James the sweetest smile!
Most mornings started with the pj-clad kids watching TV while Kristy and I struggled to wake up and get our coffee!
We had a fun time at the neighborhood park. James and Savy are such good friends!
I just love Caleb’s conductor hat!
Precious friends!
My bestie, Kristy, with her sweet daughter Savannah.
The boys
All too soon we were posing for “good-bye” pictures!
Can’t wait until our next visit!
Another exciting thing for us this month is that Nate got his hair chopped off. It was bittersweet to lose the baby curls but he looks so different now and so cute!
The boys in their hats (Nate still has long hair)
(He collided with a tree in Charlotte, which is where he got the gash on his forehead!)
I never get tired of “sleepy” pictures of the boys!
The boys got to spend some time with their grandparents in Spring Hill while Jim and I had some quality time here in Chattanooga. We got to go see The Hunger Games at the theater and Jim’s best friend Jon came to town for a few days. It was fun and restful weekend but we missed the boys like crazy!
Later in the month, my brother and his family came to Chattanooga for a visit. We had a blast taking them to the Creative Discovery Museum, the Aquarium and lots of fun places to eat. The boys were overjoyed to have their cousins Isaac and Autumn stay with us.
The cousins at the aquarium
My little niece Autumn. She just turned 1 and is so precious!
Isaac in front of a huge turtle shell. He really seemed to enjoy the aquarium!
Don’t you just want to eat her up? She’s such a doll!
James and Isaac are good buddies!
Happy Nate!
Love the blond hair!
We always take pictures by these penguins when we go to the aquarium!
Caged!
I got a great picture of the big Green Turtle that lives in the Ocean section at the Aquarium. He was right up to the window!
Sweet Autumn really enjoyed seeing the fish!
James just loved playing with Autumn!
It was a month full of friends and family!
February Rewind
It’s February 29th! Leap Day!
Here’s what we did this past month….
My boys have always loved The Hungry Little Caterpillar by Eric Carle so at least once a month we spend a day doing THLC crafts. These were some sticker boards that they made.
I wrote “Happy Valentine’s Day” on the white board side and James decided to copy it onto the black board side. He’s doing really well with his letters and he was so proud of himself!
One rainy February day we stayed in our pj’s all day and had fun at home. One of the things we did was make a hop scotch in the hall way. We have so many matchbox cars that we took them and used them to represent the different numbers on the hop scotch. The boys had so much fun counting them all out!
Nate was sick right before Valentine’s Day so we were home for a few days. I pulled a brand new Little Einsteins’ movie out as a treat and that was all it took to ignite a Little Einsteins craze around the house. I found some coloring sheets online and we cut those out and put them on paper plates to make puppets.
They even put the puppets on the couch with them when it was time to watch the DVD (again!).
Later in the month we were at my friend Amber’s house for a play date and she gave me some plastic Little Einsteins figures. I was going to save them but ended up giving them to the boys and they were ecstatic! They are constantly pretending to be June, Annie, Quincy and Leo. They run around the house humming classical songs and using terms like “Crescendo” and “Allegro”. It is so cute!
I went grocery shopping one Sunday afternoon and Jim decided to make the boys fire hoses out of some toilet paper rolls that I had saved. They had a blast running around the house in the fire man hats “spraying” things that were on fire. My husband is so creative!
It’s been a really fun month! I’m looking forward to March. The kids and I are headed to Charlotte, NC to visit some dear friends. Then later the boys get to go visit their grandparents in Spring Hill during their Spring Break. Plus my brother and his family are coming to Chattanooga at the end of the month to visit! Fun times ahead!
January Rewind
It’s February 29th and I thought I should probably catch up on our family happenings.
So here’s what we were up to way back in January!
A little fun with an Elmo hat we found at the bottom of our hats/scarves basket! It really hasn’t been that cold this winter. We had plenty of snow last year and this year…nada! So strange!
One of the few pictures of me with the kids! And this was at the beginning of January part of my “Before” pictures. I need to update my blog with my weight loss journey. 14.5 pounds down! Hooray!
The boys were so proud that they discovered that Nate could ride around on James’ back. They do this frequently now and it always cracks me up!
Jim started a new job in January and we got to meet his boss and family in Chattanooga for lunch and a trip to the aquarium. The kids became fast friends!
James is never one to miss an opportunity to hug a friend!
We went with some friends to a matinee showing of Beauty and the Beast at our local movie theater. It was dollar popcorn and drinks so the boys were so excited to get their very own bag of popcorn. They loved the movie and we had a blast! Plus I got to turn the movie ticket stub picture in to get points on Disney Rewards.
James doesn’t typically take naps now that he’s 5 but there are some days where it’s just all too much and he falls asleep. I try to always get those moments on camera since he’s so frequently in motion!
James is quite the artist! Our chalk board has gotten a ton of use lately. And the shiner on his eye? Little brother Nate decided he didn’t want James in his room so he slammed the door (along with the heavy baby gate) on James and the gate caught him in the eye. Fun times! (not!)
At the end of January, James got invited to a birthday party for one of his classmates from preschool. It happened to be one of his favorite classmates – Laney – and he was so excited to go! It was at the downtown YMCA. They have a great party room and the kids got to go swimming in the indoor pool. So fun!
We had to get our 4Runner fixed in January so one Saturday we took a family trip to pick up the car and run errands. Of course Starbucks was a given so here’s a cute picture of the boys waiting patiently for their chocolate milks.
Daddy and his boys – so cute!
James is drinking hot chocolate but he would totally drink my coffee if I let him! Takes after his mommy with his great taste in drinks.
My friend Amber told me about this great computer game at www.starfall.com. James loves it and it’s really helping him with his letters, letter sounds and numbers.
We have a great little park in our neighborhood so we go there frequently with our lunch. It was a little chilly that day but totally worth it to get out of the house. We haven’t had a really cold winter but it sure has been a rainy one!
I’m so thankful to be living in Signal Mountain during this time in our lives. Such fun times!
Yummy Recipes Made Recently at the Cowart House
So like most people I’ve started this year trying to make more healthy choices with my diet. While I totally get portion control, I still want to be eating something that tastes good despite it being healthy! I was browsing at the local library and came across the book “Everyday Paleo” by Sarah Fragoso. Just the pictures alone were making my mouth water so I checked it out.
I read the whole beginning which talks about the basis for the Paleo lifestyle (basically lots of meat, veggies and good fats – no cheese, grains etc.) That part was interesting but not sure if it’s totally for me and my family.** But the recipes…oh wow! They looked so good and not too much preparation or ingredients.
This week we tried two – Chicken Paleo Piccata and Puerto Rican Beef. Both were delicious and Jim and the boys ate them without complaint. Score!
Thought I would share the recipes here in case you’re like me and in need of some inspiration in the kitchen!
Chicken Paleo Piccata by Sarah Fragoso from “Everday Paleo”
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- 2 T organic butter or ghee
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 3 T extra virgin olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 green onions, diced
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- Juice from 1 lemon
- 3 T capers
- Butterfly the chicken breasts by cutting in half lengthwise
- Place butterflied chicken pieces in between two pieces of parchment paper and with the flat side of a meat mallet, gently pound the chicken until the meat is approximately 1/4 inch in thickness
- Cut the pounded pieces of chicken in half and set aside
- In a large saute pan heat the 2 T of butter or ghee over medium-high heat. While your pan is heating, lightly sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.
- Place chicken in hot skillet and cook on both sides for 3 –5 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle but still tender.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and add to the same pan the extra virgin olive oil, garlic and onions
- Using a wooden spoon, quickly saute the garlic and onions for 2 minutes, scraping any of the chicken drippings of the bottom of the pan.
- Add the wine, chicken stock, lemon juice and capers and bring to a simmer for 3 – 5 minutes.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve immediately.
I served chicken with a side of this roasted broccoli. Delicious!
Puerto Rican Beef by Sarah Fragoso from “Everyday Paleo”
- 1 pound ground beef (I used ground turkey since I had it on hand)
- 1/2 each green, red and yellow bell pepper, sliced
- 1 white onion, sliced
- 3 T extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 T ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 T turmeric powder
- 1 T dried oregano
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 bunch of kale, chopped (NOTE – I used 5 leaves because a bunch is too much for me)
- 1/2 cup pimento-stuffed green olives (I chopped mine)
- 3 sweet potatoes
- 1 ripe avocado
- In a large skillet brown the ground beef.
- Add the bell peppers, onion, and extra virgin olive oil and saute until the onions and peppers are tender.
- Add all the spices and mix well.
- Add the kale and green olives; continue cooking, stirring often until the kale is tender (about 4 – 5 minutes)
- Serve over mashed sweet potatoes with a side of sliced avocado.
She recommends cooking the sweet potatoes in a pressure cooker***. I don’t have one but I did have some frozen mashed sweet potatoes in the freezer leftover from Thanksgiving so I thawed those out and heated them in a dish in the oven. Then I just poured all the goodness from the skillet over the top of them. It was a really delicious meal!
**I have to say that her weight loss in a 6 month time frame was pretty amazing. She has a before and after picture that was pretty incredible.
***After reading several of the recipes in this book my desire for a pressure cooker has increased exponentially!
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PS – I’m still keeping this blog to post about all my personal and family ramblings and also tons of cute pictures of my kids!
December Rewind
Well December has come and gone and we’re in to the cold and blustery winter of January. Take a look at some fun Cowart family moments from December:
We started doing some Advent activities. And although we didn’t finish, I got some great ideas for next year and am going to make an effort to get started sooner.
Yet another trip to the TN Aquarium. That’s always a popular place for us but especially when it’s too cold or wet to play outside.
Nate in serious need of a haircut!
We went to Nashville to celebrate Gigi’s (Jim’s mom) birthday.
Grandpa and Gigi came up to see James in his preschool Christmas program. Nate is sitting on Grandpa’s lap praying.
James was a shepherd in the Christmas program. He had so much fun! The songs they learned were really cute too. His friend, Laney, is the angel behind him. According to recent pictures he’s drawn, Laney has become a part of our family!
James had a birthday party with his friends at Pump It Up. Everyone had a great time!
Nate is fearless!
Found the recipe for this Popcorn Cake on Pinterest. It was so good and so easy to make! I’m glad I decided to do this instead of cupcakes! James’ two favorites are pretzels and m&m’s and this had both!
I still can’t believe my baby is FIVE!
Grandpa, Gigi, Uncle Wayne and Aunt Laura came to our house for Christmas Eve.
James was in charge of passing out the gifts.
Aunt Laura was excited about her gift.
This is a Christmas tradition for Jim!
On Christmas Day we celebrated with Pops and Mimi. The boys’ big gift from Dad and Mom was a Chuggington double decker roundhouse for their trains. They were very excited!
James was kind enough to tell Pops about the mug that was inside the present he handed him. So much for surprises!
My brothers and I all went in together to get my Dad an iPad. He was thrilled!
We had a wonderful Christmas.
Jim’s sister Lisa and her children, Gabrielle and Zachary, came up to spend New Year’s with us. We had a great time talking, playing cards, looking at books and watching movies together.
2011 has been a good year and I’m looking forward to all that’s in store for us in 2012!
More Interview Fun!
So Kelly joined my Interview Game (started over at Amy’s Blog) and I responded to her post so now I have 5 more questions to answer!
1) If you could erase one bit of pop culture from the world, what would it be?
Anything related to the Kardashians. Not the people, themselves – I don’t with them harm. I just don’t want to see anything about their lives in any sort of media outlet.
2) Favorite Christmas movie?
White Christmas – Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. It’s a classic!
3) If you could make everyone read one book/watch one movie/TV show, what would it be?
Book – Divergent and The Scorpio Races (sorry I couldn’t pick just one!)
Movie – I’m pretty obsessed with the latest remake of Jane Eyre right now. So good! And I loved The Help which is so popular that most people really should have already seen it. If not, what are you waiting for? It’s out on DVD!!
TV Show – I really love The Walking Dead. It seem pretty popular but I still know people who aren’t watching and I think, “Why? Doesn’t everyone want to see zombies disemboweling people?” But seriously – it’s a great show.
4) Favorite Easter candy: Peeps or Cadbury Crème Eggs?
That’s really tough because I love both but chocolate always wins out so Cadbury Crème Eggs it is!*
5) Favorite author?
Oh, Kelly! What are you thinking? Might as well ask for my favorite book!
So far everything I’ve read by Harlan Coben I have loved so he’s definitely up there. How’s that for an answer?!?
*Funny story about my younger brother and Cadbury Creme Eggs(we were maybe 8 and 9 at the time?) – At Easter dinner we were sitting at the table with my parents and little brother about to enjoy dessert (A Cadbury Creme Egg). We each had one on our plate in front of us. Daniel did something that required my Dad to speak to him firmly and it made Daniel mad so he did one of those over dramatic sighs and put his head down on his plate in a show of ignoring my Dad. And yep, you guessed it! When he lifted his head back up, his Cadbury Creme Egg was smashed onto his forehead. Well it completely broke the tension at the table as we all howled with laughter about it. I’m pretty sure Daniel was a good sport about it and I think he ate the egg anyways!
The Interview Game
I ran across this on My Friend Amy’s blog. It sounded really fun so I decided to give it a try!
Here’s a quick run down on how to play and her original post here:
Amy sent me 5 questions so without further ado…….The Interview Game!
1) If you could read one book again for the first time what would it be?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – Absolutely love the series! Can’t wait to see the movie in March 2012
2) Do you finish every book you start or do you abandon without reservation?
Very rarely do I abandon a book. I usually feel duty-bound to finish it even if it’s horrible. Thankfully I don’t have many times where I pick up an awful book because I get such great recommendations from friends, bloggers etc.
3) Would you rather survive the zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion?
Such a tough one because I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead and Falling Skies TV shows, which depict a zombie apocalypse and alien invasion respectively. I think because of my weak stomach, I’d have to go with alien invasion. I couldn’t handle all the guts and gore that would surely come with a zombie apocalypse!
4) What book are you most looking forward to in 2012?
That would definitely be Insurgent by Veronica Roth, due out in May 2012. I loved Divergent and can’t wait to see what happens to Tris and company!
5) What song to do you wish you never had to hear again?
Santa, Baby – in any form. I don’t care who sings it/covers it etc. One of the most annoying songs ever!
Great questions, Amy!
Now leave me a comment if you want me to interview you! Don’t worry – no invasive or overly personal questions! This is supposed to be fun! 
Cowart Family Advent Days #1 #2 and #3
We’re starting a few days late but better late than never, right?? Today we’re going to do an Advent activity at breakfast, lunch and dinner so we can catch up!
I got this idea from my friend Amber (aka This Mommy Cooks) and I’ve loved her daily blog posts about how she and her family are celebrating the Christmas season.
Day 1 – at breakfast today
Today’s Truth is “God Loves Us”
Our Scripture Verse today is John 3:16 and our Daily Reminder is a heart.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not die but have eternal life.”
This is great reminder for the kids because we learned this memory verse earlier this year.
We made heart ornaments to hang on our Christmas tree. The boys had a blast doing this simple craft. After we hung them on the tree, we talked more about what it means to love one another because God loves us so much. They both told me one thing they would do today to show love to each other. James said “I will not fight with Nate.” and Nate said, “I will not hurt James.” This is great because we’ve been dealing with a lot of fighting (just arguing etc. ) and also some hitting (pushing etc.) between the two of them and it’s nice to know that our corrections have at least made it apparent that this isn’t loving behavior.
Then we prayed together and thanked God for sending His Son for us and asked that He would help us to love each other today. Now of course the boys have been challenged on their resolution today but we’ve just been reminding each other to be loving and asking God for His help. Later Nate volunteered to share one of his precious Lightning McQueen cars with James, all without being prompted!
Day 2 – at today’s lunch
Today’s Truth is “Why Jesus Needed to Come” and our Daily Reminder is Apple.
Scripture Reading is Genesis 3:6 – 8
This is the story of Eve being tempted by the serpent in the garden of Eden. She eats fruit from the tree that God expressly told them not to eat from. Sin entered the world when woman and man disobeyed God thus we had need of a savior.
We took a picnic lunch to our neighborhood park and read this Bible story before we ate. Normally I would have given them each an apple with their lunch for our reminder but we did applesauce because James just vomited up apples less than 24 hours ago at a restaurant we were about to patronize. Yep – that was not fun. I’m not sure he’ll eat apples again any time soon.
While we were eating James said, “Hey Mom! I want to tell God something.” Then he looked around and said “God we’re eating applesauce.” I thought that was really cute and asked him if he wanted to tell God why we are eating applesauce. So I had a chance to reinforce the story a bit and soon they were off to play at the playground.
They had so much fun and I was overhearing them talking about sharing and being kind to each other. That totally warmed me heart! Yes! They are hearing what I’m saying! (you never know on some days!) Nate let James push him on the swing (something he normally doesn’t want to do) and they had a blast playing in the leaves with one another.
Nate saw me reading a book and wanted to read too so he grabbed our children’s Bible and sat down next to the playground for a good 6 or 7 minutes thumbing through the pages and pointing out pictures that he knew. I had to record it with my camera because his little commentary on each thing was just so cute!
Day 3 – while eating dinner with Daddy
Today’s Truth is ““The World Was in Darkness and Needed God’s Light” and the Daily Reminder is a candle.
Scripture reading – Isaiah 60:1 – 3 (I read this slowly from my Bible since it’s not in the children’s Bible we have. I may look at reading from The Message translation for future Old Testament verses, but the kids really enjoyed seeing Mommy’s Bible!)
We basically recapped the day over a candle light dinner and read this scripture and talked about it together. It was fun to hear the kids tell Daddy everything we had done together today. The candles were just votives that I put inside some bowls with coffee beans. The boys think it’s hilarious and keep telling me that the candles are hiding in the coffee beans!
November Rewind
November (my favorite month of the year) FLEW by this year! We had gorgeous weather up on the mountain and had so much fun with Nate’s birthday, preschool, playing outside, trips to the Creative Discovery Museum, Thanksgiving at home and our first SNOW!
Nate’s preschool class made Indian hats. He didn’t want to take it off!
I made these monkey cupcakes for Nate’s Curious George birthday party.
The birthday boy took a nap before his party. Grandpa woke him up and brought him out to see all his guests.
I promise I haven’t had anything to drink! Just having a blast at the party!
My cute niece Autumn and sister in law, Elizabeth.
My nephew Isaac
Jim having fun with the Kinex toys.
The boys are ready to go to church.
Love these hats!
Fun at the Creative Discovery Museum!
We had our first snow of the season on November 29th (my birthday!). Jim had the day off so he took the boys outside to play while I slept in!
My birthday was great! I got to spend the day hanging at Starbucks and even got to take a nap. We had a sitter scheduled and dinner reservations but because of the weather she had to cancel. Thankfully a good friend volunteered to watch the boys at her house so we could still go to dinner. It was so nice and relaxing! Boccaccia is the best Italian I’ve ever had!
This was our first year spending a holiday alone with just our little family. It was a lot of fun just being together, but I’m looking forward to having some family come and spend Christmas here with us on the mountain!
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