Five new layouts!

Flower show in Richmond with Brody and Annabelle.

Sledding on the snowpile in our street after the blizzard.

Blizzard 2010

Random face pics of Brody!

Cascades Fun Run!

Bright and early Saturday morning we went across the street for the Cascades fun run!  The fun run is only .911 miles but there is a 10K as well.  Travis and his friends Kelly and Neena wanted to run this year so guess who had to run with them....yep....me--the non-runner.  It's crazy though since I go to the gym 6 days a week and do a lot of high impact cardio but this run that was less than a mile was killing me!  I was huffing and puffing the whole way!  lol  Thankfully we all finished in one piece and lived to tell the tale.  :)  Here are some pictures.

Travis and Kelly

Best buds--though I wonder how they will feel about it when they are teenagers.  :)

The Everett family getting ready to run the 10K

A little iPhone action before the race

Travis and the Chick fil a cow

Brody is ready to race!

L to R Drew, Neena, Kelly and Travis

Showing off their cows and finisher medals

Brody and Annabelle getting in on the action

And....he's off!

Annabelle was putting her juice cup in the bag--so smart!  :)

Yikes it's a shark!

Our menu May 30-June 4

Monday-  Grill out
Tuesday-  Dreamy Butternut Chicken Foil Pack  
Wednesday- Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
Thursday-  Pepperoni Poppin Veggie Calzones  Find it HERE
Friday-  Out for Travis' birthday dinner
Saturday- FFY night

Hungry Girl recipes are in BOLD and are linked if available.  Have a great week!

Travis passed his test!

I can't tell you how relieved I was when I saw his name on the black belt test "pass list". All of that stress and money well spent? ;). He worked so hard the week of the test perfecting his creative form and creative kicking routines. On Monday his form didn't look great and he kept forgetting part of it but by the end of the week it looked sharp and solid!

It was roughly 2 years ago that he started TKD as a 4 year old white belt--it's just crazy how fast the past 2 years have gone!  He gets his new belt on the 11th and he is so excited!

First day of his white belt class!

From this years Championship. Look at home much bigger he looks!  Now I need him to re-create the pose above when he gets his black belt.  :)

Seeing this......

................makes me want to stop time and never let him grow up!  How cute is this face?

Hungry Girl's No-nonsense Nacho Lettuce Cups

I really liked this recipe.  Evan said it was "just alright" for him (quoting Randy Jackson-lol).  He ate it all but wasn't thrilled with it.  It could be because the portion was a little on the small side compared to other Hungry Girl recipes.  Travis had eaten a Happy Meal before his t-ball game so he didn't have any--he loves tacos though so he probably would have liked it served with chips instead of "salad" which is what he said I was having.

Each "lettuce cup" is supposed to have 2 tablespoons of the nacho stuff in it.  Evan had his with tortilla chips and I have no idea how much he put on them.  I spooned mine out on romaine lettuce leaves and topped them with fresh tomatoes and fat free sour cream.  I think they tasted delicious and for once looked a lot like they were supposed to!  :)

Hungry Girl's Nacho-rific Stuffed Chicken

People.....this recipe is a WINNER!  It tasted delicious and everyone in the family ate it.  Yes the picky 6 year old ATE IT UP!  As an added bonus it was pretty easy to make and didn't taste like it was supposed to be good for you.  Sometimes these recipes have been tasty but you can tell a lot of the fat etc has been taken out of the recipe.  Not this one!  :)  I will say I made a few tweaks as always.  One was on purpose and the other was on accident.  My tweak that I made on purpose was using 2% milk cheddar cheese instead of fat free.  This was because 1-fat free cheese often tasted awful  2-fat free cheese is a lot more money and 3- I can never seem to find the fat free cheese anyway!  The recipe called for 1/4 cup of cheese so it did add 45 calories to the ENTIRE recipe and 6 grams of fat to the recipe but I think in the grand scheme it's ok.  The other tweak was on accident.  The recipe calls for low fat baked tortilla chips and bran cereal as a coating on the chicken.  I forgot to buy the bran cereal-oops-so I just used a few more baked tortilla chips.  The calorie count on this tweak was pretty much the same.  You can find the recipe I used HERE.

Here is my plate before I ate it ALL!  I served brown rice on the side with a little bit of taco sauce.  The rice btw was the "steamfresh" frozen kind and it was pretty good considering I made it in less than 4 minutes!

Our menu May 22-28

Sunday-  Grill out
Monday-  Dinner out somewhere...
Tuesday-  Nacho-rific stuffed chicken    find it HERE
Wednesday-  No-nonsense Nacho lettuce cups
Thursday-  Warm Asian chicken salad 
Friday-  Cheesy salsa tuna burgers      find it HERE
Saturday-  Spaghetti and meatballs

Hungry Girl recipes are in BOLD and links are provided when they are available.  I did 2 Mexican meals back to back so I could use up all of the fat free refried beans from the stuffed chicken.  Waste not want not--right?

Pictures from yesterday's black belt test

Waiting for the 3 1/2 hour test to begin!

Listening to one of the Masters.

Form

More form

Watching the Junior Tigers do their form.

Goofing off in his sparring gear.

Stay-puff marshmallow boy.

Happy to be done!

Board breaking video

I should have added this one to the other post but this is his board breaking part of the test.  The 3 techniques he does are 1)  Hammer fist  2)  Jumping front snap kick and 3) Tornado kick.  His tornado kick looked MUCH better than it did about a month ago.  Back then he fell over almost every time he did it at the end--too much momentum maybe.

Two form videos from Travis' black belt test

The video on the top is the newest form he had to learn for this test.  The official name for it is Tae Geuk Pal Jong I think.  This is the form he did at the Championship a few weeks back but he wasn't as confident with it as he is now. 

The second video is his "creative form" that he had to make up on his own and memorize it.   I had heard the kids all get their form changed right before the test by the masters but for some reason (stroke of luck?) Travis' was never changed.  This is the exact form he crafted on his own.  He is CRAZY sharp in his movements.  Lots of "uniform sounds" and the occasional pop of an elbow.  lol

My futile attempts to get a picture of Brody and Tigger together--Tigger ends up in only one picture!

Hungry Girl's Girfredo White Lasagne

As a reminder I got this one from her website HERE.  I made it last night for dinner and personally I LOVED it.  That's probably because I love alfredo sauce, fresh zucchini and pasta.  Evan said it was ok but that is probably because he isn't a fan of zucchini and prefers red sauce to alfredo any day.  Travis had one "no thank you bite" and then moved on to something from Chef Boyardee.  ;)  The only tweaks I made to the recipe were (as always) I didn't use mushrooms, I added some turkey meatballs (cut up) on Evan and Travis' side and I put some extra minced garlic on the top layer-I thought it needed a little more.  It was even good when I reheated it for lunch today.  The calorie breakdown claims to be 290 calories for 1/4th of the lasagne--considering it's cooked in a 8x8 pan that is a pretty good size!  I hope you enjoy it too if you try it!

On the side I had a 110 calorie Thomas' plain bagel thin

Today's t-ball game-pics and video

Getting ready to bat!

Here comes a BIG SWING!

6 more layouts! I love my new spot to scrap!

I had forgotten to put his tball pics on an earlier page so it went with the Christmas pic.  Oh well-tball ended in early November-lol.

New Year's neighborhood progressive dinner and big brother!

Sledding/snow

Testing for and getting a blue belt!

Sleeping and awake pics from Month 1

More great big brother pics on the left and Travis made a fort he was trying to keep Dexter out of on the right.

A new staple around here

I love, love, love this tzatzski sauce!  Thankfully it's pretty cheap at Costco in a giant container.  One tablespoon is 25 calories and it a great dip for celery and carrots or it can be used as a condiment instead of mayonaise!  I love it on chicken and Boca burgers too!  The only issue is that I go through it pretty fast.  One of these containers lasts maybe a week around here between dipping and using it on burgers.  If you haven't tried it yet you should!

Hungry Girl's Funkadelic Chili Mac

Yes that is the actual title of the dish.  :)  We had this for dinner last night and it was a huge hit!  Evan had seconds, I finished my serving and Travis finished almost all of his (and didn't even complain about all of the veggies!).  It was really easy to make-total time was maybe 30 minutes but that is because I chop veggies very slowly.  I don't think anyone realized it was made with Boca meatless crumbles.  You can make it with meat or turkey but that will change the calories/fat of course.  Of course I left out the mushrooms and we served it with 2% cheddar cheese and fat free sour cream.  The only thing I would change to the recipe is I think it needs more chili powder.  Next time I will add a lot more--it wasn't spicy at all and we generally eat spicy chili.  We will definitely make this again--it was really good!  I will be eating it for lunch in a bit.  :)  Here is my bowl before I put my cheese and sour cream on it and here is the link http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/1588 .

I don't think he blinks......

when Thomas is on.....you be the judge.  :)

I tried to take nice/cute pics of the boys this morning and I got this.....classic

Stressing out

I know it's silly but I am completely stressed out about Travis' black belt test that is this Saturday.  Maybe it's because I want him to pass, maybe it's because I want him to enjoy the process but just maybe it's the $450 test application fee you have to plunk down to take the test.  Just maybe.  Just to give some perspective most of the belt tests are $45 and there are 2 that are higher.  Semi black belt which he got back in December was $175 and black belt which is this weekend and that crazy amount of $450.  Ugh.  Just writing that stressed me out a little bit. 

They had the seminar last weekend that is kind of like a pre-test and Travis passed that.  This was great news considering he froze when it was time to do his creative form (14 hand movements he made up on his own that he had to memorize).  Thankfully they gave him time to cool down and when he was given another chance he did fine.  His other forms, kicking technique, home rules and student creed are all almost perfect so that's a good thing.  Hopefully he doesn't freeze during his form on Saturday! 

Expect videos and pictures from Saturday's 3 1/2 hour test later this weekend!  (the length of the test also makes me nervous/stressed since Travis has trouble concentrating and focusing on anything that long!)

Our menu for May 15-21

Sunday-  Neighborhood block party--who knows what we will have :)
Monday-  Spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday- Turkey and Zucchini burgers http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/05/turkey-burgers-with-zucchini.html
Wednesday-  Funkadelic Chili Mac--from 300 under 300
Thursday- Hungry Girlfredo White Lasagna http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/show/1952
Friday-  Planning on going to FNL--whatever they are serving ;)
Saturday-  Pizza--Travis has his TKD black belt test from 4:30-8pm

Hungry Girl recipes are in BOLD and recipes are linked when a link is available.

Look who conquered the bridge!

Good advice if you are trying to lose weight......

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/10-easy-tips-for-summer-weight-loss-2482667/#photoViewer=1

http://health.yahoo.net/articles/fitness/8-fitness-secrets-to-steal-from-boys

Fun at the playground

Travis had 3 t-ball games scheduled this week and yesterday was game 2 against the Pirates.  Unfortunately since Evan is gone I spent most of my time with Brody on the playground that is right next to the field.  I say "unfortunately" only because I enjoy watching Travis play and I feel badly when there isn't one of us watching him.  I did get to see him bat both times--both went out to center field and one hit the pitcher in the arm on the way out there-oops.  I saw a few plays in the field but that was when he was playing on the other team-they had only 5 kids show up for the game so Travis and a few other Tigers played both sides. I don't think the Pirates will ask him to play with them again though because any ball within about 10 feet of his was snatched up and the tag to the base was made.  ;)  So with all that going on Brody and I were on the playground.  I got a few cute pics of him which is hard since I had to hold him on this thing with one hand and take the picture with the other.  He doesn't smile on command like Travis does (and always has) but if he's having a good time you will know. :)