Kraft Ain't Got Nothin' On This Kid

As promised, Sous Chef Austin was back in the kitchen this week with his DS in hand to whip us up a meal! He picked American Mac-N- Cheese. He wanted only that for the meal, but after some nutritional guidance and education, he settled on it being a "side dish." It was from scratch, yummy and seriously better than anything out of a box! (And it counted for 75% of the calories at dinner... We added steamed broccoli and baked chicken to offset the contents of the mac-n-cheese.)

This week I had an extra helper in the kitchen! You can see in the pictures below a reason my dishwasher may not be able to hold up much longer!! Cooper is climbing EVERYTHING...steps, stairs, attic ladders, couches, table tops... if he thinks it looks fun and you turn head just long enough, then he jumps on the opportunity to see the world from a different height! His personality is blossoming everyday and I have officially given up hope that he will have Ragan's laid back, easy going temperament. :-)

To update about other things....our week has been nice. Austin started art lessons after school and is really pumped. Ragan is keeping the prisoners in check. Cooper is burning a million calories a minute due to his activity level. And Mom, well, she is surviving! She finally got the tubs holding the Christmas decor to the attic. This was after thinking they might just become a part of her permanent home decorations...kind of like the 5 enormous boxes in the computer room that are for the garage sale that has yet to take place! I think Goodwill may be the best alternative at this point.... but, if I hold out, I just might be able to make a few bucks if I get that garage sale together. And, hey, who couldn't use a few extra bucks?

By the way, our "family hiatus" (If you don't know what I am referring to, see previous blogs) has been extremely productive so far. We have been accomplishing so much and our family time has been quite unique. Austin went 2 weeks in this house with NO computer or video games and never even asked about it... that's HUGE. Aside from Wednesday nights being church night, we have been scheduling game night, movie night, cooking night, and "veg out" night, so, he hasn't had time to hide from us!! lol

We are looking forward to this weekend. Austin is having 3 friends from school....yes, I did say 3... come stay the night and I get to see my nieces and nephews at some point. So, hopefully, I will have some cute pics for the blog. So, until next time....hope you are enjoying your loves and life!

Making the flour/butter base...calorie free, of course.

Testing out the final product.

Austin's Mac-N-Cheese creation!

TROUBLE!!!!!

I never have this much fun doing the dishes!