Weight Watchers Macaroni and Cheese

I finally rejoined Weight Watchers to get rid of all the damage of being prego! Yes- a year later. Anywho, something had to be done. But we have tons of evil things lurking in our pantry that I refuse to throw away- so I'm making do for now. This little Weight Watchers recipe was easy enough- and I had everything on hand. I tweaked it a bit based on what I had:

Cook Macaroni Noodle (about 8-10oz)

In separate bowl combine:
Can of Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 to 3/4 cup light mayo
1/2 to 1/4 cup milk (milk and mayo together should equal 1 cup)
6 oz Pimientos
bag of cheese (should be low fat for weightwatchers)
Add peppers if you like them.

Mix noodle and mixture together and put in a casserole dish.

Mix together about 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, and a little cheese and a little salt...Pour on top of Macaroni.

Bake on 400 for 20-25 minutes.

Surprisingly- this was amazing! I added a bunch of ham to it- so it was perfect for an all in one meal. The Weight Watchers version is 7 points. I'm sure mine is a little different since I changed the mayo/milk amounts...and use bread crumbs instead of wheat crackers. I'm not a big macaroni fan, but this was so creamy and good. Big fan!

Oh yeah- if you made my Potato Soup- sorry for the misprint! It should have had smaller amounts of pepper and salt. I modified in the post! Hope you will try it again!

You Say Its My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me....Happy Birthday to Me...Here's a shot of my pink hair...I wish you could see it better!

Weekend Fun

Big weekend for us! Friday, we had Little P's 1st year appointment. She is still "Long and Lean." She's super tall and super skinny. (I'm just as shocked as you are!!). 97% on her height and 25-50% on her weight. But the best part about it was that she weighed enough to turn her car sear around! Hoot, hoot!

While she seemed to care less- I loved it! It was fun being able to see her while we were riding in the car! She didn't really know what was going on, but she warmed up to it!

As for the carseat...this was not my first choice- I prefer the gender neutral things...but I couldn't help but get a Britax carseat, in last years pattern for more than 50% off the price! So I sucked up the pink! 

Speaking of pink...another BIG part of this weekend was my new haircut...and I got pink highlights. YES...PINK!!!! I love them!!! Talk about sassy! I have to wait a couple of days to wash my hair, so I will take a picture when I wash it! It is so subtle, that you can barely tell unless you are looking- but man-I think they are so cool! 

Big Superbowl tonight. Not a huge sports fan, but I do love to watch the Superbowl...not for the game of course. I'm going to be fixing a few Weight Watchers items for gametime- and if they are good enough, I'll post! 

A Little Inspiration

I have a new photo inspiration for this year! Taking a monthly family photo! This will be quite an ordeal, since T hates having his picture taken. But what a fun result in 12 months! Along with it- I'll be writing a little about what we enjoyed doing or have done over the month. While I love telling the world about my life, this is really for me! A nice little memory book at the end of the year...so bare with me!

January  2010

We rang in the new year at home. P was in bed by 7 and T and I barely made it past 12. The highlight, other than ringing in another year with my love, was watching Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper!

January 5th, Little P walked! We were in the kitchen, she was in the pantry- I looked at her- and said "Your Daddy better get over here quick, cause you are going to walk." And sure enough- she did!

We got back on the weekend Pancake routine (we skipped December). We even stepped it up a notch with a little syrup!

T got a new job! Yippie! We are bummed that he isn't working from home anymore, but he is so much happier...which is the best part!

I made a few birthday party craft blunders, particularly spending hours and hours creating a banner that spelled YADHTRIB*YPPAH

Celebrated Little P's first trip around the sun! We celebrated with a small family party. We loved having almost all the cousins in tow.

Little P is quite the avid reader. She loves bringing us books and having us read. We do this for many hours of the day. (More to come on her favorite books).

We had a big snow storm (6 inches!). She loved walking in it when it was falling, but once it had accumulated, she was having no part of it. Loved it again once it had melted. (I've been taking her outside for "nature walks" lately. She loves being outside and picking things up off the ground!)

Keeping up...

Boring little post today...Lots of indoor play lately with all the snow and rain we've had...and frankly- I'm ready to be outside, enjoying the outdoors. I've gotten into a little bit of a rut, but maybe the fresh air will help!

My list of things I WANT to do growing faster than I can keep up, os I really need to figure out what I NEED to do! Otherwise I get very overwhelmed.  I've got to get back to my "simpler is better" motto! But man, its hard!

Blah blah...enough! It was a beautiful today and Little P and I  embraced the outdoors. A treasure hunt in the park, where we found a walnut, sticks, and mud! It was nice to be out and about- but even nicer that she is exploring the world on her feet.

Little P's Year in Photos

On the final installment of Little P's birthday bash, I wanted to share with you the photo book I did. I'm so proud of it...but it was a labor of love. I started when P was just 6 months old. I thought I would get a head start. Then once a month I would try to upload pictures to the software (more on that in a sec). By the time she was 9 months old, I had 30 pages done. Whew hew! But that was only the first 2 months of her life.

Come Christmas, it was crunch time. I worked night after night trying to finish it in time to get it printed and here for her party.

I used Blurb. Fantastic books! I love love love it! There were some quirks to the program and now, seeing it in person, I would do a couple of things differently...but I will try those things out on her "Year 2" album! Yes- I'm already trying to get that one going.


We displayed it for everyone to see at her party, and it got rave reviews. The highlight was when my friend, who doesn't get gaga over babies said to me "That is phenomenal...it gave me chills!" Ahhhh....so sweet!

The pictures don't do it justice...

Various pages....

Birthday Shirt

Ok- only 2 more birthday posts- I promise! This is a quickie!

Remember this vintage Paisley fabric I talked about several posts ago? I got it at an antique show (5 yards for $15...that's a deal!). Its a beautiful, colorful print. And I decided that every year, I would make Little P something from it.

Not only did I use it for some of the panels on the birthday banner, I also made her this "1" shirt. She wore this on her actual birthday- and was very cute! I never got a great picture of it- but here she is on her birthday!

Little Sweetie!

Birthday Posts Continued...The Dress and the Cake

Probably 2 of my favorite elements of Little P's 1st Birthday- her dress (thank you Gap Outlet!) and her cake (thank you Brandy!). Both were just perfect for her little personality!

Isn't it beautiful! (I blocked out P's name...that's what the white is at the bottom.) It was so wonderful...vanilla cake with chocolate chips and buttercream and fondant icing. YUMMY! 

The detail was just perfect...now...look how perfect it matches the dress! 

That is one of the cutest birthday girls I've ever seen! 

And this is the face of a little girl who just got a card with a cat on it! 

Wish List

I've come across some things that I really like- so thought I'd put them all in one place. Not to mention my birthday is coming up...hint hint!! Hehehe!

I've had my digital SLR for about 5 years. I got it free from this reward program we had at work. Its very outdated- and although I love it- I kinda long for the new Canon Rebel T1i! Its phenomenal! Not only is it 15 megapixels, it has video! Whew hew!

New Aluminum jelly roll pans. Getting rid of our toxic non-stick pans...and would love to replace with these Chicago Metallic Jelly Roll pans from SurlaTable

Been married for 10 years and have lost much of our Lenox Eternal Frosted flatware along the way. I'm down to only 5 spoons, 5 forks, 7 salad forks, 7 big forks, and 7 knives. You have to wonder where they all went?

This Chandelier is from Urban Outfitters. I love it! They have a large one and a small one! Both would be fabo!

The photo is from The Art of Lighting Fixtures 

I have actually saved the ticket stubs from every concert/big event I've ever been too- and would love to put them all together in a book! I even have movie stubs! This book is from Uncommon Goods. 

We got the Uncommon Goods catalog yesterday- and I just love these message birds! How fun would that be to leave your sweetie a little message in these fun birds every now and then?

Made with Love...Birthday Banner

Ever since I saw the dream banner on Soulemama's blog, I wanted to make a birthday banner for the little one. I wanted something special that I could pull out every year. I've been planning the layout, design, etc for quite a while...but like I normally do, procrastinated until 2 weeks before the birthday. But with that- it took 2 weeks to complete. I worked SOOOO hard on it.

Day 1: bought material (which was time consuming in and of itself-making those kind of decisions is always hard for me!). I kinda guessed on my dimensions- and bought material based on that:

A) 14 different panels...HAPPY*BIRTHDAY

1) 1/4 yard of 4 different fabrics with a 1/2 yard of a 5th fabric for the letters.

2) 1 package of double wide bias/hem tape

3) Sew Witchery...which I didn't use

Day 2: Decided I wanted to make it double sided with a different fabric scheme on the back so we could use it both ways, depending on the birthday decor year to year! Brilliant- right?

Day 3: Too busy to think about it!

Day 4: Back to the fabric store for more material for side 2. Good thing I made this decision because I didn't have enough material for just one side if I wanted it to look decent!

A) Again- enough for 14 more panels....using same dimensions above

Day 7/8: (This is the Sat/Sun before the party). Made a mess of three rooms in the house...cutting out triangles and letters.

A) Triangles were cut 8x11. I wanted 7inch triangles...so that left a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

B) Letters were 4x3. I was very systematic in the beginning, but then just freehanded it. It was easier that way. I ended up cutting up 3 sets of letters...my hands were so cramped up by the end of that!

Day 9: Sewed each letter onto each panel. EEK- that was a task. My fantastically gifted sewing mother even helped out with doing 1/2 the letters.

Day 10: Continued sewing letters.

Day 11: Meticulously pinned the panels together to sew. Ironed, pinned, the worked. Made sure they were perfect. This took quite a while. I was so METICULOUS about it! Then meticulously sewed each panel (inside out so they would look good with the seams on the inside_

Then I sewed the panels into the double wide bias tape. This was so fun- cause I saw it coming together.

Then voila....it was done! This took all day mind you...and Little P was funny helping me!

Before T got home from work, I hung the banner. WHEW HEW! It looked SO good!!

Day before the party...Day 12...I couldn't sleep so I got up in the middle of the night to piddle around. I decided to hang the banner between the 2 columns in our kitchen. It looked ok...I liked it better on the windows.

So I got down off the counter and looked at the back of the banner- which I hadn't done before- the red color scheme side. Then I took a second glance. Guess what it said?

YADHTRIB*YPPAH

Yes- that is Happy Birthday backwards. Instead of sewing the H and the Y together- I sewed both H's together, and so on...I was so meticulous about it too! Making sure the right letters were paired with the right letters! I even told my mother about making sure the Y and H were together! It was the plan the whole time!

So I laughed hysterically- woke T up to tell him. Laughed so hard that I started crying...then the crying turned into a real cry because I was so upset that I had worked so hard on it and messed it up!

I'm not even posting pictures of the wrong side- its too embarrassing...but it was quite funny! Everyone says I should leave it like that instead of fixing it...I'm not so sure- but it is hysterical!

Material: $21.17

Time: 11 days

Laugh I got from seeing Happy Birthday Backwards....PRICELESS!

Here's the good side!

Happy Birthday Little P!

What an unbelievable year! Little P certainly changed our lives...and we have been loving every minute of it! Even the minutes when I was thinking- wow- this is a little overwhelming!

She is probably the most precious little thing I've ever seen! She has the most amazing budding personality. She's smart as the dickens. And makes me laugh every single day! And I'm so happy to be her Mama!

Here is a very SMALL snippet of Little P over the year...

Birthday Weekend

Yesterday was Little P's 1st birthday party!! In-laws, cousins, and sister/ brother-in law all came in for the occasion! It was quite the fun time. Little P walked around all over the place (yep- walked- she started using that as her official full time mode of transportation a few days ago), smiled at everyone, ate the crap out of some cake, and ate chicken nuggets! T says it isn't a party until the Chick Fil A nugget tray gets opened!!!

It was quite a fun day with many great memories and special visitors...and many special touches. I'm gonna blog this week about all the "special" touches, like her cake (oh my gosh!), the dress! (I want one!), her 1st year in photos (owww!) and the hilarious goings on about her birthday banner! (I worked on it for 2 weeks!)

In the meantime- here is a quick photo of her!