Our Little Family Easter

We had a wonderful Easter spent at home this year just the three of us. I did a few little extras to make the day special.

After William woke up and found his Easter basket. We had a fun breakfast which included these cute cinna-bunnies. Pinterest inspired of course.

It was predicted to rain all day but we caught a break! We were able to do a little egg hunt outside before the huge storm hit.

We finished or evening with a traditional ham dinner and of course dessert! I made a scrumptious carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting. It was delicious! 

 

We hope everyone had a Lovely Easter!

Dinner for 1 & 1/2!

So I don't know about a lot of other moms out there but when my husband is out of town on business I struggle to think of ideas for dinner. I'm so used to cooking a large meal every night that I honestly get stuck on what to do for just myself and one little person. I don't like resorting to pizza, or instant dinners. Plus let's be honest we have all cooked breakfast for dinner in these situations. But I can't do that every night. So I need other alternatives.

I have lunches and breakfast down packed for just the two of us. But thinking of cooking dinner for just us and dirtying pots... blah blah..(excuses I know) I get turned off the idea quickly. I know some folks would just cook a big meal and have leftovers. But people who know me already can tell you I am not a leftovers person. Sorry just not a fan.

But I do have one good go to meal I want to share. It's one pot and takes probably less than 15 minutes to make. And my kid loves it! You could easily make it for more people if you wanted. 

Creamy Lemon Chicken Fettuccine with Spinach

Ingredients :- 1 large chicken breast
-  Olive oil ( just a drizzle) to cook chicken
- 2 handfuls of spinach
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon of flour
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 2 tablespoons of cream cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon of lemon pepper (or a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a dash of pepper)
- 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
- Approximately 3 oz of pasta

First heat up a skillet and dice chicken. Then cook chicken in a drizzle of olive oil. Next add butter and flour to pot. Let them combine into a paste. Add in your chicken broth.Stir until flour is dissolved. Easy next step. Dump all other ingredients in. Pasta will cook in the sauce! Cover let simmer until pasta is tender and sauce thickens. That's it! Plus it tastes sooo good. Dinner for 1 and 1/2 done. With easy clean up. 

Please share some other easy meals you cook for just yourself or those like me 1 & 1/2. I really would love to know and add to my repertoire. 

We Rode The Train

Saturday morning my husband told me after breakfast he had a surprise for us. Mostly for William but fun for the whole family. We got ready to go out for the day packed some snacks and headed out.

On our way he told me he found a really cool train ride up in Portland. A work colleague told him about it and knew our son loved trains.

William and I rode the Amtrak over a year ago to see family. He liked it but this was before he was really into Thomas & Friends and it was a Red Eye type journey so he slept the whole way. This time we knew he was going to be super excited and amazed!

We ended up at the Oregon Pacific Railroad Heritage Center in Portland near the OMSI. Now these were not like the present day passenger trains. These engines were very old and nothing like the Amtrak or Transit trains we had rode before. These were working Diesel and Steam trains! 

We had about an hour to explore the center before our ride. Inside we found four enormous engines, three stream locomotives and one diesel engine. 

All were still working engines and the center itself was a working repair and fabrication shop. One of the 3 stream locomotives was being worked on right in front of us visitors. We got to see inside the massive cab of the impressive 700 locomotive, which during December is used as the well known Polar Express in the area.

You can see in the pictures just how big these machines are. Some of the wheels are literally over 6 feet high. 

At first William was in shock and a bit terrified of the engines. I don't think his little brain could wrap around the fact that they were actually in front of him and not on TV. That and he definitely was amazed by how huge they are. But after some time walking around he warmed up and was super excited to be near his beloved trains. He even started to say they were the Thomas and Friends Engines, Hiro, Skarloey, Spencer, Diesel and Salty. 

Finally our turn to board the train came. The conductor noticed how into this experience William was and picked us to ride in a special place on the train. We were one of two families to ride up in the Cupola of the Caboose. This is where the conductors themselves would ride. Up in the Cupola we got a 360 view of the sights not just out the left or right windows. 

We had a fun 45 minute ride along the river. The cool part was that all this was only $5 per person! The museum is free and it's all non-prophet. Your $5 actually goes just to the maintenance and upkeep of the trains and center. It's run by volunteers who are all around to help and answer questions and give cool info. The train rides are every hour after noon until 4:30 every Saturday. This just happened to be the first weekend it began. The train runs from January until November. I'm sure I'm missing more information. So check out their website HERE

I would totally recommend this for all train lovers and families. It was honestly one of the best family adventures we have been on!

I Know It's Been Awhile....

I know it's been awhile...

A lot has been going on! Now that life is settling down I can get back to blogging. But first let me give everyone a brief update on our family and the past 6 months. 

Right around the time of my last post. Brandon found out he got a promotion and we would be relocating again. It was a very exciting move. So after planning and executing our big move. We have settled in beautiful Eugene, Oregon. At the same time we ended up buying a new car! Yikes! That one came to us completely unexpected but worked out great for us. 

We have had a lot of visitors and family coming to visit, staying for vacations or holidays. It has been wonderful, but has kept me very busy. We celebrated William's Second Birthday, his first trip to the beach, his first time trick or treating and first visit to Santa! Here are a few pics from the last few months. Hope you enjoy. Talk/write to you all soon!

Happy New Year!