Turkey Meatball Panini

Thanks to Amanda for this awesome meal inspiration... we loved it, especially since the idea is so easy to tweak for individual tastes while still being healthy and low cal.
What you need:
Artisan bread, sliced in long skinny slices (I picked up asiago peppercorn sourdough at Trader Joes but really anything 100 calories a slice or less would be great if your cal counting)
Trader Joes turkey meatballs prepared and sliced in half
Laughing Cow Light Garlic and Herb cheese wedges (about 1 per sandwich)
Tomato sauce of your choice
I used the laughing cow cheese on both sides of the bread, layered on about 2 turkey meatballs per sandwich (or as much as I could fit) then I poured some tomato sauce over them then put on the top slice. I used my LeCrueset square grill pan to "panini press" the sandwiches -- I used a heavy Calphalon jelly roll style pan weighted down with a large round LeCrueset roasting pot with lid to do the pressing-- if you have a panini press that would obviously be the route to go but our set up worked great!
Other options to put on the sandwich depending on your taste would be olive tapenade, sundried tomatoes, pepper jack cheese, roasted garlic, grilled onions.... the sky is the limit with personalizing this one! I got a great response from the fam on this one too; Jim and Mackenzie (who was over for a walk and dinner) both loved it AND Jim said he could eat it twice a week! That's a huge stamp of approval in this house. :) If you give this a try, leave a comment as I'd love to hear how it turns out!

LOVE Trader Joes Stirfry Veggie Mix

So easy, yummy and affordable especially with extra firm tofu! Nom nom nom as Hadley says :)
If you have a moment please check out my norwex site www.brittneyrenneberg.norwex.biz
Happy Thursday!!

Super warm Spring... we love it!

It's so nice and unseasonably warm here in the typically frozen still north country. We're loving being outside despite my abundance of unfortunate outdoor allergies and taking walks around our area or down to Lake Harriet is so nice. I really love being able to hang out with Hadley while exercising during the day! If I didn't stay home I wouldn't get to do this type of thing so I'm super thankful to be home with my girl and even the doggies although they can be more demanding than the babe some days.
We walked with Mackenzie yesterday and she thought walking around Lake Harriet was pretty fun so hopefully she'll join us more often now that it's so nice.

Another awesome BabyGizmo.com giveaway!

Check it out and enter to win (for us if not for yourself)! http://blog.babygizmo.com/2012/03/baby-gizmo-youtube-giveaway-extravaganza-day-16-baby-jogger-city-elite-stroller/
In other news, I'm seriously allergic to MOLD -wonderful- as well as reactively allergic to grass, maple, oak, elm, pine and ragweed. :( Not fun especially since we have at least a bit of all of those things right in our yard.

Travel learnings with an older infant

Our travel experience with an almost 12 month old was educational for us as parents! I had traveled by myself with Hadley when she was six months old and that had been a breeze as she was very portable. At six months she loved being toted in her infant seat, riding in her stroller and being strapped in her Ergo carrier. Now that she's army crawling and rolling around everywhere it's much more difficult to be on the go with her since she wants to do her own baby things. She still loves stroller rides but isn't as fond of riding in the Ergo carrier for extended amounts of time-- except on the plane where that carrier was a lifesaver!! Now that she rides in a Diono RXT car seat we couldn't have her fall asleep and bring her inside as we had before with the infant seat so all of our activities had to be planned around nap times to ensure a happy baby. Something that was easier this time was less feedings although she was eating solids this time which was more complicated than I'd imagined away from home. She ate lots of Ella's Kitchen squeeze packs plus a bit of whatever we had at meals and she did great but with only two teeth her options are pretty limited so we can't wait for a fuller set of chompers to give us a broader range of munchies for her.
The best items that we took with us this time were the Ergo carrier (only for the plane) and the MamaDoo mattress topper for the pack n play to make a thick and comfortable place for her to sleep. I'm also very happy that we brought our Diono RXT car seat instead of our lighter Britax Roundabout 50 since the Diono is so much easier and compact to sit beside. Since we drove to Longboat Key from Orlando, it was nice to be able to comfortably ride beside her.
I wish we would have taken our Uppababy Vista instead of the Baby Jogger City Mini since we missed the super extension of the UV shade on the Uppababy in the intense Florida sun.
Taking a young baby (under 9 months) to Disney World would be easier than taking a more active older baby since there were few places for her to get out and definitely no where for her to crawl/roll. We went to Epcot and it was so much fun for us but had my grandparents meet us there later in the afternoon so that we could all be there for dinner and a few rides together without the baby being "chained" to her stroller all day long. That was special to our situation though since my grandparents have annual passes to WDW so they can come/go as try please while regular tickets are $90 per adult and $86 for children 3-9. **This makes it easier for me to understand why soapy people there had seemingly unentertained little ones along since the price for a child 3 or older could be cost prohibitive for multiple child families on any type of budget on a multiple day Disney vacation. We think that Hadley will enjoy Magic Kingdom when she's closer to 3 or 4 since kids really need some semblance to stamina in order to make it a whole day in the park and obviously you're not going to pay those ticket prices if you don't plan to stay all day.
Overall we had a ton of fun but for future reference I wanted to make sure we recorded all of our notes! :)

Back from vacation, celebrating 3/19 and a Cybex giveaway to check out!

We're back and I'm busy cleaning up and doing laundry. Once everything is a bit more settled I want to share some travel with baby insights and share some fun details from the time we spent in Forida.
It's Hadley, Mackenzie and Peggy's birthday today so Happy Birthday to all of those wonderful ladies!! :)
If you're interested in cool baby giveaways, check out the giveaway on babygizmo.com which is a Cybex Aton seat today... so cool! http://blog.babygizmo.com/2012/03/baby-gizmo-youtube-giveaway-extravaganza-cybex-aton/
Funny tidbit, I went to the local FedEx office this morning to pickup a package that arrived while we'd been away and I saw TURKEYS lots and lots of turkeys (like a dozen or so females and two males) it was hilarious.

Hadley has been to the beach :)

She did so great even though she didn't love the sand at first and she got to have some fun with her sweet cousin too!

Vacation

We're off to Longboat Key and Windermere! Our flight was delayed over 2 hours so we ended up with a very sleepy baby but we are happy to be enjoying some tropical weather.

Party Success!

We had so much fun! :)

The birthday girl with mama and daddy

With auntie Peggy and uncle Chris

With grandma and grandpa R

With her birthday BOB! from gigi and papa M

With her mama and gigi

With mama, auntie Mackenzie and gigi

The CUTEST bird cake EVER!

SMASH CAKE = Best part of a first birthday!

Unwrapping gifts with daddy

Walking with grandpa R while papa M watches :)

Tulle wreath I crafted for my girl

With daddy and grandpa

The birthday girl having some lunch!

Party favors

The food spread and all of the bird rug pics from months 1-11!!

Happy {almost} birthday my love!

Almost party time

We're in full on pre-party mode for tomorrow! I've currently got 12 pounds of meat cooking in a HUGE electric slow cooker (thanks to Peggy and Chris for lending it to us!) and all of the cheeses are sliced plus all of the tortilla rollups are ready for slicing in the morning. I'm also busy watching one of my friend's little girls and she's about six months younger than Hadley so I've got a full plate today. Hads was super jealous of the baby all morning which was unusual (she's usually indifferent which has been great) but I guess now she's decided that she does NOT want to share her mommy. Oh geez! ;)

Busy busy

Today we have baby story time at the library and then auntie Mackenzie is spending the day helping us get ready for this weekend. All of our prep will be worth it for the party and vacation!! Here's a preview of what's to come :)

Hadley's Room

We've finally finished Hadley's new room to a point where I'm happy enough with it for everyone to see it at her party on Saturday. The "before" shot is how it looked less than two weeks ago (NASTY right?! We had already started tearing apart the guest room when I took the picture so it's not 100% accurate on how the room looked but it was never cute) and the "after" shots are how it looks right this minute. Enjoy! I'll just be decorating for the party.... thank goodness it's only Wednesday!

Party inspiration and MENU!

Jalepeno Mint Jelly on Cream Cheese with crackers

Cheese platter

Tortilla Roll-ups

BBQ sandwiches with ruffle chips ;) personal fave!

BIRTHDAY CAKE!!

Birthday party prep, etc.

We're busy here getting ready for Hadley's birthday party this coming Saturday. We're having her party 9 days before her actual birthday since spring break falls during the week of the 19th so we decided to celebrate early to make sure we get to include everyone. We are also finishing the decor and organization in Hadley's new bedroom before the party so yeah we're all really busy around here.

Hadley is army crawling around, rolling to things, clapping and dancing! It's so cute to watch her each day but I still can't believe it's been almost a whole year of HADLEY :) she really has made being a mom beyond what I would have ever imagined. Love her!

Back to party prep!!! **And we can't wait for our upcoming trip to Orlando and Longboat Key! Yay ;)

Closets COMPLETE!

The closets in our bedroom are complete! Not only does it look better but it's so much more functional which is really the best part and the main reason that this project was tackled in the first place. My side isn't completely decked out yet since I still need one more hanging bar but seriously it's so awesome to be able to have more functional storage space. Now that our closets are complete we're already on to our next project... turning what was our guest bedroom into Hadley's "big girl" room so that we can reclaim what has been her nursery as our office! It's a wee bit sad to move her for sentimental reasons but for her to have more space is so worth it. I'll add progress pictures once we've moved furniture around since completing the room is going to have to be done in phases for sure!