Every night while Greg feeds the boys dinner, I do the dishes. Afterwards, we play with the boys until exactly 6:00. That's when I go upstairs, shut all the doors to the bedrooms, get out the boys pajamas, fill up their humidifiers (in the winter) turn on their white noise machines, get their books, pacifiers, and blankets ready to go. Then, I go in the bathroom and run the bath and get out their towels, lotion, washclothes and everything that I'll need after they get out of the bath. Greg then lets the boys climb up the stairs, we strip them down and throw them in the tub. They really love bath time and will usually play really good. We used to have toys in there, but their favorite thing was to throw them out of the tub, so we took them out. They just splash around in the water now and it entertains them just fine. Greg lets them play for a few minutes and I'll usually check the weather so I'll know what kind of pjs to put them in (long sleeves and pants, short sleeves and pants, etc) and then I'll check my email. After Greg lets them play a little bit, he'll start bathing one of them, when he's done, he hands that one off to me and I'll lay him on the changing pad on their sink and dry them off, put on their diaper, clean their ears, put on lotion, and brush their hair. Greg and I usually get done at the same time and we switch babies, he'll take the first one out in the hall way and put their pjs on them and I'll take the second one out of the tub and do the routine all over again. When I'm done, I'll hand him off to Greg and then clean up the bathroom real quick while Greg is putting on his pjs. Then, I come out and I take Carter into his room and Greg takes Evan into his room. We read them a few stories in the rocking chair and then put them in the crib. Greg always takes Evan and they always read "The Thinks You Can Think" and a couple of other short books. I always read Carter "Goodnight Moon" and "The Going to Bed Book", and I switch out the other 2 books that I read him on a regular basis, so he gets 4 short stories at night. The boys are so cute when we each take them into their own rooms at night, they will wave at each other and say "bye". When I come out of the bathroom from cleaning it up, a lot of the time, Carter will take my hand and start walking towards his room. I love that they know the drill. After we put the boys down, Greg and I will then go down and eat dinner. We've tried eating before the boys go to bed because it's important to us to sit down as a family and eat, but at this stage, it's just not going to happen. It's so much easier to eat after they go to bed, we like to be able to sit and enjoy our meal and talk. When the boys get older, we'll start eating before they go to bed. Most of the boys routines, like the time they get up, when they nap, what we do that day, varies so much from day to day depending on if its a weekday, what time they woke up that morning, if we have plans, but their bedtime routine is something that doesn't change, and I like having at least one thing we can count on being the same every day.
The boys coming up the stairs
Evan in the bath, happy boy.
The cute humidifier in Evan's room. Carter has an elephant one.
Evan's bedtime books
Carter's bedtime books. I was changing them out every couple nights but they each seem to have their favorites, so I've been sticking with the same books for a couple of weeks now.
The boys are always hyped up after getting their baths.
They both love to play with the light switch.
Wound up!!
Greg putting Carter's pjs.
You can't tell because the flash is on, but the lights are out and it is completely dark. Evan had just flipped the switch right before I took the picture.
Greg putting Evan's pjs on.
Carter hamming it up.
That table was in Carter's room back when it was my scrapbooking room. I took it out when I made it his bedroom. I wanted to keep it in the hallway for a couple of weeks to see if his new room was going to work out or if we were going to put him back into Evan's room. It's nice to have to put things on but it looks stupid. My mom is coming up in a few weeks, and one of the things on my to do list is to take it apart and put it up.
We also tried a new recipe tonight. It's called Taco Bowls, and I pinned it awhile ago and have been wanting to try it. It's a healthy recipe from a blog about eating on a budget (even better!) and it's supposed to be like Chipotle's Taco Bowls, and Chipotle is one of my favorite restaurants, so I knew I had to try this recipe. You cook it in the crock pot all day and then just make the rice right before you serve it. Instead of going with just plain white rice like the recipe calls for, I decided to go with the same type of rice they serve at Chipotle, cilantro lime rice. I used the recipe I found off of Skinnytaste. (I posted this recipe on before, you can find it here) I liked it, but Greg really liked it. With as easy and inexpensive as it was and healthy--we'll definitely have this again.
Here's the recipe.
Chicken Taco Bowls (Chipotle Style)
1.5 lbs chicken breasts
1 (16oz) jar salsa
1 can black beans, drained
1/2lb frozen corn
1 tbsp. chili powder
½ tbsp cumin
½ tbsp minced garlic
½ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp salt
Black pepper, to taste
2 cups dry rice
8oz shredded cheese
½ bunch cilantro (optional)
STEP 1: Add everything except the rice, cheese, and cilantro to the slow cooker along with 1/4 cup of water (for good measure). Give everything a good stir and make sure the chicken is covered in the mixture.
STEP 2: Secure the lid on your slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hrs.
STEP 3: Near the end of the cooking time, cook the two cups of rice according to the package directions (Bring the rice and 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium pot with a lid in place, as soon as it reaches a boil, reduced the heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving).
STEP 4: After 8 hours of cooking, carefully remove the lid of the slow cooker. Stir with a fork to shred the chicken (it should be super tender and will shred easily). Build the taco bowls by placing rice on the bottom, then the taco chicken mix, shredded cheese and fresh cilantro.
And because the picture on Pinterest makes it look so much more appetizing, here's that picture as well as a link the original recipe which breaks down the cost by ingredient.
STEP 1: Add everything except the rice, cheese, and cilantro to the slow cooker along with 1/4 cup of water (for good measure). Give everything a good stir and make sure the chicken is covered in the mixture.
STEP 2: Secure the lid on your slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hrs.
STEP 3: Near the end of the cooking time, cook the two cups of rice according to the package directions (Bring the rice and 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium pot with a lid in place, as soon as it reaches a boil, reduced the heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving).
STEP 4: After 8 hours of cooking, carefully remove the lid of the slow cooker. Stir with a fork to shred the chicken (it should be super tender and will shred easily). Build the taco bowls by placing rice on the bottom, then the taco chicken mix, shredded cheese and fresh cilantro.
