Sweet Potato & Sausage Breakfast Casserole

I am a big fan of breakfast casseroles. Maybe it's only having the one pan to clean? Maybe it's everything I love about breakfasts in one bite? I'm not sure but this is a favorite! Plus I love that it was full of vegetables but my kids still ate it!

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato, diced (I liked smaller better)
• 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 lb sausage
• 3 mini sweet peppers
• 8 eggs
• 1/2 c almond milk
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• dash of salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Cook sweet potatoes in oil until they start to soften.
2. Add the zucchini and pepper and cook until all are softened.
3. Preheat oven to 350.
4. Spread vegetable mixture onto bottom of 9x13 baking dish.
5. Cook sausage in the same pan the vegetables were in.
6. When done, spread onto the sweet potato mixture and mix/spread around the pan.
7. Whisk eggs, milk, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in medium bowl.
8. Pour evenly over sausage mixture, stir to combine if needed.
9. Bake for 40 minutes, or until eggs are cooked.

March

Nate and I ran a 10k with Heaton and Laila the beginning of March. It was chilly and I wasn't as prepared as I'd hoped. The course was poorly marked so Nate missed a turn and didn't make it the full 6.2 miles. Heaton ran with me the whole way. And Laila smoked all of us since Nate DQ'd ;)

After the race I went to an event hosted by a family friend. The event was about positive thinking and daily habits. It was insightful. I even won a prize which was neat! I don't consider myself lucky but I do feel like this started a nice streak for me :)

We went all out and got to work painting the entire downstairs. My dad and Heaton came and helped one night and we finally felt like we made some progress.

The beginning of March things got real crazy because of COVID-19, coronavirus. A word we know all to well and it only brings up anxiety and negative emotions. First, school got cancelled, then church, then we were asked to shelter in place for 14 days, then we had to cancel our trip to Tucson that was planned for spring break, then Nate had to start working from home, then the state shut down, then masks...what a crazy time to be alive! So we killed some time by writing letters to people we love!

We had some nice days so the boys and I went out to Jump Creek with Opa, Katie, and the boys.

We also went on many nature walks around the ponds to collect rocks for painting, sticks, and leaves. These took a while because Mr. Independent wouldn't stay in the stroller.

Nate turned 35 on the 22nd! I made him a big breakfast and then we had family over for cake later on. I even made his favorite, ugly duckling cake (not my favorite). I must love him.

Nate cut his hair into a mohawk since he'd be teleworking and knew he wouldn't be seeing anyone for a while. Kade thought it was awesome and asked for one too.

Lastly, Nate got the boys model rockets to launch and they had fun building them and they we all had fun going to the park and launching them and chasing them down!

And more fun that was had.

February

Almost every Saturday since November, my mom took Spencer and some of his cousins to Bogus to ski. He started really enjoying it and getting good. In January, Kade started asking to go skiing. We finally worked out a night to take him and Spencer, got a babysitter for Gar and headed up the mountain. Kade LOVED it. He was adorable and just kept shrieking with joy! He even talked up into letting him do the chairlift. And is there anything cuter than a little tyke trying to walk in ski boots for the first time?! He definitely has an adventurous side!

We decided to tackle the boys bedroom with a new coat of paint next. Kade wanted to help any time we got the bucket of paint out. 

Nate and my dad signed up to ride the JDRF bike ride in November since it was going to be the Tour de Tucson, which Nate's always wanted to do.

We took the bike trailer out a few times. The little boys loved it, they even fell asleep in there a time or two.

Garrett had his second baby crawl contest! He started walking the week before for good. We tried anyway and he was adorable but stood up and walked about halfway through. He got to us first but the rules clearly stated that if the baby walked they'd be disqualified. But then the announcer announced his name as the winner! We were confused so we waited after and they did give the prize to the true winner but the people in charge were so nice and said they'd email us something as consolation (they never did). Still a fun opportunity and still the cutest baby there!

I took the little boys to a block building activity at the library. There were different stations with different types of blocks. They had fun stacking and building, and even tasting, the different types.

Our ward did another date night to the hockey game. We decided to do dinner with a group of friends and then everywhere had crazy waits so we ended up at Buffalo Wild Wings and were a little late to the game. Then of course we had to get overpriced dessert from the waitresses at the suite!

We made an almost weekly habit of going to the church gym and letting the kids run around. We invited friends and they played their hearts out for many nights!

My dad built this beautiful coat rack for me because I was tired of the pile of jackets and backpacks/bags! Since we'd been slowly painting one room at a time, I knew we'd eventually want to paint the wall behind where I wanted to hang the rack so I thought it made more sense to paint the wall first so we didn't have to hang everything twice. Turns out I can't just paint one wall and we went crazy and started painting the entire downstairs! What a feat!

Other cute pictures from the month.

Paleo Chicken Salad in a Jar

This was not only a delicious meal, but it was pretty too! The dressing certainly helped, since I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I made this these the day before and they were still good 24 hours later. I used enough ingredients for 2.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breasts
• 1/2 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 cucumber, chopped
• 1/4 red onion, sliced thin
• 2 stalks of kale
• 4 romaine lettuce leaves, torn
• 2 hard boiled eggs

Dressing Ingredients:

• 2 T honey mustard
• 1 T honey
• 1 T avocado oil
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 T lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a medium bowl.
2. Cook chicken until internal temp. reaches 165.
3. Transfer chicken to cutting board and cut into small cubes.
4. Pour dressing into bottom of mason jar.
5. Layer the rest of the ingredients; red onion, cucumber, tomato, egg, with lettuce and kale on top.
6. When ready to eat, pour salad out onto large plate, stir around and enjoy!

January

First thing New Years Day we went up to the mountains to go sledding in celebration of Porter's birthday! His grandparents live up there so we went sledding right next to their house. The boys were loving it and stayed out there for hours! It was a beautiful day! We then had pizza and cake which topped off the experience.

Garrett even took a turn on the sled!

Have I mentioned Garrett has been my hardest baby? January, when he was finally 8 months old, we finally turned a corner and things got a bit easier...probably because he was basically mobile by then! But we switched exclusively to formula and that seemed to really help. He started sleeping longer stretches at night, he didn't need held quite as often, and as I said he was trying to take steps so becoming very independent. I finally started to feel human again but I think I', still trying to catch up on sleep as I write this 7 month later...

We took the boys out for a night at Pojos and they loved it! I also might have enjoyed playing silly kid arcade games for tickets!

We entered Garrett into a Boise State Crawling contest at the half time of a basketball game. The week of the contest he decided crawling was for babies and started walking! I was so annoyed with Nate for encouraging him! ;) The night of the contest he was actually crawling, but took his sweet time getting started, I actually thought he won but another baby ended up being a little bit faster due to his slow start. He for sure won cutest baby though! ;)

We started painting the upstairs bathroom thinking we'd take it slow and paint one room at a time. If we had only known what was coming!

We started patching Spencer's eye in hopes of strengthening the weak eye. He was/is a good sport about it and luckily we were able to just do it after school until bedtime so he didn't have to feel uncomfortable about it.

On a nice day, Nate took Spencer fishing and I'm so glad they have that to bond over!