Parmesan Garlic Chicken

I've decided to start blogging again instead of hiding under a rock because some looney tune wants to talk crap about my kids on twitter (Hi Brittany!)

Anyways, I have decided to share a recipe from the other nights dinner that was a huge hit. So many people have asked for it so here it is...

Parmesan Garlic Chicken:

• 6 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Italian seasoning to sprinkle
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350, Sprinkle parmsean cheese on bottom of baking dish. Mix together the Parmesan cheese, seasoning and garlic in a large bowl. Wet chicken breasts, and roll in mixed mixture. Place in baking dish and bake 40 minutes. (depending on chicken thickness)

• Original recipe I tweaked was from: Life as a loft house; Parmesan Garlic Chicken

I served mine with steamed veggies, stuffing and mashed potatoes. My kid gobbled it right up, and my husband went back for seconds! It was a great meal.

Oops!!

I'm awful. How did I know this would happen.

I'm slacking, I have so much to write about yet -- no blog posts. Here I go:

Well, it's almost Christmas I have purchased a total of 5 gifts so far, and only 2 have been delivered. How wonderful. Hopefully this week, or next the rest show up or I'll have at least 1 sad child come Christmas morning. I decided to get a few of J2's gifts from the toys r us website because they have these great "Website exclusive" prices that are offered with $20 off shipping - - bad idea. Next year, I will be better prepared.

The puppies are all gone. They've all gone to wonderful families. I had a very hard time when Butterscotch the little girl runt left. She was the one we were originally going to keep, but I grew so attached to a little boy named Ace. So guess what? We kept him! I'm very happy with my decision but we still miss Butterscotch, and all the others. It was hard saying goodbye, I cuddled, hugged and loved them as I handed them over to their new owners. Hands down the hardest thing I've ever had to do - and am glad I won't have to do it ever again. 3 of them went to people I have contact with. 2 I have on facebook, the other worked with my husband so she emails.. which is really nice. The others we loved so much, and they promised to send us email updates. We'll see, I'm just so glad they will be loved and very well taken care of!

Say hello to Ace -- he is all ready for his 1st Christmas! :D

 

Lately I've been extremely unmotivated to do much. All I want to do is work, play with my kids and sleep. Crazy as it sounds, but we just got over the flu. Everyone except J1 and my husband had it. It was awful, The kids had it way worse... K had it worse than anyone. I have never seen her so sick. For kids who havent thrown up in years, it was awful. Poor J2 had it very mildly, but every time he threw up he said he was scared :(

Thankfully everyone is feeling somewhat better. I need to get out and start my Christmas shopping for real, hopefully this weekend. Talk about last minute right? it's the worst feeling ever. Next year, like every year I pledge to start MONTHS in advance.... ha.

Calling ALL Moms & Dads!!!

Do you use Cloth Diapers? Want to try them? Still a bit iffy? Don't worry! They are nothing to be scared of! I would like to invite you to something really fun and exciting! Tomorrow at NOON est My favorite brand of Cloth Diapers AppleCheeks is revealing their new Limited Edition color!

Now if you are new to cloth diapering, or haven't tried them yet I highly recommend AppleCheeks. A few posts down I tell you why. They are incredible diapers. The ladies also care about their customers and fans more than any other cloth diaper company I've ever seen. They go above and beyond for their customers, and when it comes to revealing new products and colors you can't compete with the ladies of AppleCheeks.

So I invite you to head on over to their YouTube Channel tomorrow at NOON eastern time and enjoy the fun! You won't be disappointed, we never are! :)

What color will it be?!? eeeeee!

Santa came REALLY early this year!

Its no secret I absolutely love AppleCheeks cloth diapers. Well, on November 29th they will be releasing their new limited edition colour and today it showed up at my door!

It feels like Santa came early! Having it here but not being able to open until release day will probably end up driving me nuts but I'm so excited its here and feel pretty lucky to be able to be one of the few to have my hands on it first and use it! I can't wait to get it on the bum!

So if you have children, and use cloth diapers you MUST catch the fun on the AppleCheeks website, Facebook and the AppleCheeks YouTube Channel on release day! Also, I have no idea what the colour is but its AppleCheeks so it will be great no matter what! So buy 1 or 2! Retailers will have it for sale that day, November 29th! You won't want to miss out on this!

I'm going to try to have a little fun myself on release day when I open the package. I have a few things I'm trying to work out, but not too sure how it will all play out. But, I'm super excited for this release. These ladies never disappoint when it comes to releases and videos!!

Who needs a nap?

Something we've been dealing with since last week - NAP TIME.

My 5 year old is in Senior Kindergarten and attends school all day, every day. Ever since starting school this year she has been a real menace at bedtime. There really isn't a nice way to put it, so menace is a good word I'll use. She would not go to bed, she would keep her sister up all hours of the night (they share a room) and she would even wake her two little brothers up who sleep upstairs too. The oldest is in his room in the basement oblivious to it all.

Well, last week she mentioned she slept in class! I didn't think anything of it I figured she was just playing around and I was like "haha ok!" and she said it again, so I was like what do you mean? She said "I fell asleep in class" so I immediately told her bedtimes would be earlier as I thought it was because of this NO GOING TO SLEEP AT NIGHT! I figured she was just laying her head down on her desk or something because she wouldn't tell me any details.

The next day my oldest comes home and tells me he walked by her classroom and the lights were off and all the kids were asleep...

WHAT?

I couldn't believe it. So I took her to school the next morning, waited to talk to her teacher and let her know that basically she has helped create a monster and she is absolutely not allowed to nap! Her teacher wasn't very receptive. She really didn't even seem to care what I was saying. She said "Well we do have quite rest time!" I said that was fine but she is NOT allowed to nap.

She hasn't since and we once again have our sweet little girl back at bedtime. THANK YOU!

But -- now we have a whole new issue. The teacher let her read a book during the 1st naptime she had to sit out, but another teacher took it away because other students didn't want to nap they wanted to read too (gee, I wonder why!) so she was made to sit at a table in the dark doing nothing. This wasn't ok with me. So my husband had been taking them to/from school so he talked with the vice principal shared our concerns and he agreed, and said she could read or go on computer while others "rested".

Well, that's yet to happen. She has every single day since been made to just sit in the dark. My husband went back today to speak with the actual principal as I know if I do, it wont be good and I've had to deal with that principal - and called the school board, and superintendent and had meetings with them all last year in regards to issues with my oldest son, bullying and them not doing a darn thing about it - so it just wouldn't have been good. Of course, she was in meetings "all day" so hes doing back in the am to talk to her. If he can't, Mama bear is going in.

Neither of my other 2 kids were made to nap. I don't see why this is even allowed? At 5 years old giving kids a nap time in the afternoon would only cause issues. Seems a little weird to me when I send my child to school to learn, not sleep! I understand they are going to school full day now, but aren't they suppose to be getting these kids ready for gr 1? There isn't a nap time in grade 1!

Another parent told me her daughter confessed to her that they do have nap time too, and she isn't happy at all. I don't know who came up with giving 4 and 5 year olds naps in the afternoon instead of teaching them but its rather silly if you ask me, and if its "part" of the school - they should at least tell the parents, or ask them. Give options to those who can't nap. Wouldn't you agree?

"You DON'T throw away your baby's diapers?"

As a lot of you may know I am a huge cloth diaper fan. Mainly, AppleCheeks. I get a lot of questions as to why I like them so much, why I won't use any other brand of diaper and what makes these diapers #1 in my eyes. So I figured I'd do a review and basically answer all these questions.

1. Fit - AppleCheeks 2 size envelope cover.

Size 1's fit babies approx. 7lbs-20lbs / Size 2's fit babies approx. 18lbs-40lbs.

The generous and longer lasting fit made in two sizes help ensure a good, snug fit on babies of all ages. The 2 rows of snaps allow proper fit at legs and waist, and help ensure no leaks!

2. Envelope Opening - Middle of diaper!

This means you do not have to touch dirty inserts. They agitate out themselves in the wash! Making this diaper easy to use, and a favorite among daddies!

3. Colors - Regular Line up and Exciting Limited Editions!

AppleCheeks offers diapers in a range of beautiful covers to appeal to everyone! They even make colors that are limited edition to add something special to your stash!

4. Pocket or AI2 Style

You can use AppleCheeks as a pocket diaper by stuffing the insert inside the opening, or you can lay the insert ontop of the fleece to use as an ai2.

5. Inserts! Bamboo & Stay Dry Microterry.

AppleCheeks inserts are incredible. Made from soft ultra-soft 70% rayon from bamboo/30% organic cotton or stay dry microterry!

Both of which can be used while either stuffing or laying ontop as ai2.

6. Customer Service

Hands down AppleCheeks has the best customer service for any Cloth Diaper company I've ever dealt with. Their customer service is second to none. If you ever have a question the ladies of AppleCheeks are there to answer. If you ever have a problem? No problem - they will help solve it! Not only do these ladies make the best diaper system around, they are both super involved in everything to do with their company including their customers. I don't know about you but having a company that not only cares about their products and stands behind them 100% but caring about their customers as much as these ladies do says a lot to me, and I value that in any company.

My Experience:

I was a little late to the cloth diapering party. But, better late than never right? I started in August 2011. I asked twitter and facebook friends what brands they used, and why. I didn't do any  research other than just asking before I splurged and bought $300 worth of cheap ($6) diapers. After my order had arrived, wrong, (got sent a few training pants instead of regular diapers) and contacting customer service I didn't really get told much other than "Sorry, but you can use them eventually right?" which is true but I was diapering a 3 month old, and 2 year old.. I had a bit to wait for training pants and needed diapers NOW.

So, I used what I had and while I liked how they weren't too bulky I did often have leaks. Double stuffing for nap time and bedtime wasn't fun. Neither one of my boys could even roll when they were double stuffed. The microfiber inserts included with the diapers although did the job, didn't do it well. The diapers left these horrible bright red "welt" type marks on both boys, even though both had different settings to fit their size. While normal "wrinkly" red marks are normal for cloth, welt marks are not.

Within a month I already had diapers falling apart. I had decided to try other brands out to see what I liked more so I could make the switch. I had about 5 different brands by the end of October and in that bunch was 1 AppleCheeks size 2 I had won during their Black Tie Affair. The bamboo insert was heavenly, I loved how the diaper fit and it was so trim! I decided that AppleCheeks was what I needed to be using. So, I decided to switch.

We are now 100% strictly AppleCheeks. We still have 2 in diapers, and we couldn't be happier with the trim fit, absorbent inserts and adorable colors/prints AppleCheeks has to offer! My husband even loves AppleCheeks and tells his friends all the time what we use. I'm so happy to not have to deal with leaks, red marks or terrible customer service.

People often complain about the prices, but from my own personal experience - you get what you pay for! It's definitely true when it comes to AppleCheeks. I don't think its anymore expensive when these diapers last a long time - it's better than paying $6 and having to replace before they even get through one child let alone onto child #2. Yes! You can use them for multiple children. I know diapers, and own diapers that have been used before. I even have a diaper that was one of the original colors that has since been discontinued and it looks as good as new! Also, I will point out because I know its talked about a lot - AppleCheeks has a sensational resale value. So when you are done with them, and aren't putting them away for more kids - sell them! You won't be sorry!

AppleCheeks also makes other amazing products that I highly recommend, Including:

• Storage sacs (aka Wet bags) - in sizes 1 and 2.
• All purpose storage sac 
• Gentle Cleansing solution (I cannot express how much I LOOOOVE this!)
• Flushable Liners
• Bamboo & Stay dry boosters
• Washable cloth nursing pads
• Plush washable wipes
• Washable swim diapers - in the 2 sized system as well!
• Waist extenders - have a chunkier toddler? a bigger child? no problem! waist extenders to the rescue!

Basically, everything they make is amazing! Very great quality products, made to last! I couldn't be happier with my decision to switch to cloth diapers and using AppleCheeks has made the choice all the more cute, and fun!

Interested in cloth diapers? Want to give AppleCheeks a try? Check out: http://applecheeks.com for more information!

Do you use Cloth Diapers? or AppleCheeks? Would you be interested in using cloth? why or why not? I'd love to hear from you! leave me your feedback on your favorite diapers!

The opinions expressed here are solely mine. I was not compensated in any way or asked to do this, these are my own thoughts and feelings. Have any questions regarding AppleCheeks or Cloth Diapering? comment away.... 

It's too early!

Every year after Halloween stores start to change things from Halloween to Christmas. This year it happened a little quickly if you ask me. I went into Walmart the day after Halloween and there was not one Halloween item left it was all Christmas! Those employees sure work fast!

Then the other day I went into Dollarama. Expecting to see what was left from Halloween displayed and perhaps some Christmas decor out on the shelves but that wasn't what I saw. Every Halloween item was again gone, and they had isles upon isles (2 plus shelves/hangers at the front) all full of Christmas items! I snapped this photo..

A little too soon if you ask me! I can see near the end of November but not the beginning. Keep in mind this is coming from the girl who usually has her tree up November 20/25th. I just feel like this whole year has gone by so quickly. I know I'm not even near ready for Christmas.

It's not that I don't want to start a new year or see if the world really is going to end in December - I'm just unprepared for Christmas! I have 5 kids and a husband to shop for, I've bought nothing! It's a stressful time as it is but then add the deadline of Christmas - this all just means its approaching, and approaching fast! NOT. READY.

So now I'm thinking, planning and utterly stressed to the max over how I've been so behind for another year, and have let myself wait until the last possible minute - because lets face it, to a lot of people even November 11th is the last possible minute! I promise myself every year I will start in the summer, or even September and I fail. Every single year. Hopefully I can get my butt in gear and start my shopping soon. Do you have any idea how hard it is to shop for 5 kids who are all so different, all into the complete opposite things? Que panic attack! Luckily, I can shop online for a few things - but then that is another stress because it's now November will most of the stuff even make it in time? With Canada post being so utterly slow, who knows!

I'm just glad we don't go anywhere for the holidays. It makes it a little easier seeing we don't have to buy for a ton of people, which we can't exactly afford to do after buying for 5 kids and then each other. I'll send out Christmas cards like I do every year and make our phone calls Christmas morning. Ha, if I remember.... Oy.