Caught Red Handed.... Strawberry Theives

When you were little, did you ever have the saying, "Pretty please with cherries on top?" 

For our family it's pretty please with Strawberries on top.

We LOVE Strawberries!

I frequently get asked if THRIVE is actually good.  I tell people yes, we are creating a whole new generation of closet eaters and that's no lie.

Here are the pics of the little duo who figured out how to work together to get this can off of a tall shelf and huddle in a corner to start devouring as fast as they could.

Little Stinkers!

On a related note, did you see that the Whole Strawberries are on sale this month?  Yay! I love Strawberries.... yes, I know that is obvious by now.  Here are some of the ways our family uses strawberries:

We top our Banana French Toast with Strawberries.
We love Granola with lots of Strawberries, Blueberries and Pears.
Brianna's Greek Yogurt Strawberry Bread is Fabulous.

And lest you think Strawberry Theiving is a one time offense for these girls, think again.

I had been preparing to hydrate some strawberries to top my french toast

and told my daughter she could have 1. 

1!

Here's the evidence she left behind.

 
 Question of the Day: What do your kiddos sneak when you're being productive around the house?

Hello Everyone!

Hello!       I am so excited to be here!!!

Perhaps we should start with an introduction.....

My name is Meilea Hester and I just joined the Shelf Reliance Mom team along with my sweet husband Terry. I am new to the Team, but I am not new to the benefits of using THRIVE food.

My husband Terry, Myself, and our little one Noah 

 Our lives have been crazy for the past 2.5 years and we have had several twist and turns and bumps in the road. Me and my husband both graduated and found jobs (YAY!), and lost them due to the economy. We also purchased our first home, which is awesome, but it has been a crazy ride!

Most importantly we added the best part of our crazy little life, our 1 year old son Noah!!

My cute little bug just destroying his birthday cake!! He LOVED it!!!

Our lives have changed so much since he came to us just over a year ago. We live for this kid! I think that this was the major motivation for us to want to be self reliant, and what lead us to THRIVE.

I want to be able to provide my family with good, delicious, and nutritious food...no matter what life brings!!

I am hoping that I can help showcase just how amazing these foods are and what they can bring to your life! For now, let's enjoy the ride!



Hey!

Hey everybody!! My name is Brianna and this is my very first post for Shelf Reliance Mom. I am super excited to be joining Tiffany! I just thought for my first post that I would do a little write up about me and some odd but hopefully fun facts about me.

This is my little family. It's from 2 Christmases ago...as in 2011. We're a little behind. Pretty sad that this is the most recent family photo...

A lot has changed since this photo was taken. Jaxon had his first and second birthday. Jacob has a new job. We bought our first house (scary and exciting!). 6 months after this picture was taken I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. We're also expecting our second baby!

Part of the reason I'm excited to be joining Tiffany is because I am always looking for ways to be more self reliant, feed my family good food, and control my diabetes. I hope that I'll be able to share what I learn with you and that in turn we can help each other! So to conclude my first post I wanted to share 10 facts about myself with you.

1. I love making lists.
2. I use exclamation marks A LOT.
3. I don't have a favorite color. How can you pick just one?
4. I am addicted to Hulu and Netflix.
5. Once I get into a book I have to finish it and will spend every spare minute reading.
6. I sleep a lot. I'm talking at least 8 hours a night and usually a nap during the day, but hey I'm pregnant!
7. I practically live at Target.
8. I love having a clean and organized house, but it rarely is.
9. I pretty much live in my pajamas and only get dressed when I absolutely have to leave the house.
10. Diet Dr. Pepper is heaven sent.

Welcoming in my good friend Brianna

Meet Brianna

My beautiful friend, Brianna.

I apologize that I have not been up to snuff on my posts but with the help of my friend, Brianna, we should be rocking and rolling with a much smoother journey here on out. I am so excited for you to meet her and see the things she will be bringing to the table.  Is anyone interested in Diabetes friendly meals once a month... I thought so! She will be doing some introductory posts to help you get to know her more soon so stay tuned.

Life Changes
While some of the news is happy and some of it is sad, all of the "challenges" being thrown our way these past few months will make us stronger.  I won't bore you with all of the details, but here are the two most important life changes we are currently experiencing:

Courtesy of http://www.freeclipartnow.com

We found out that we will be having another baby in June of this year- Woohoo!  This little booger has kept me pretty sick this pregnancy but we are getting excited for the ultrasound in only 1 week!

Photos of our cuties taken by the very talented
Melissa Dean at Sweet Spot Photography

Some sad news is that my sister has hit a bumpy patch in the road and she and her kids have moved in with us.  We are happy to have them with us and are learning new ways every day how to get life's necessities for as cheap as possible. We unexpectedly potty trained little Laylah lou the first week she arrived and she is down to only wearing diapers at night (which she occasionally keeps dry- win!)

Me (on left) and my sweet sister

Recipes Coming
I am cooking from my food storage more than ever and if I can find my camera's battery charger, I will start getting some pictures and recipes up in no time.  Although she already looked fantastic before moving here, the lack of eating out and increase of eating back to the basics food storage allowed my sister to lose 7 lbs in 2 weeks.  I tell her its unfair that I'm pregnant and required to gain weight while I watch her get all skinny!  Anywho... cooking with more grains, veggies and fruit, less meat and processed food really works. Who knew?!

By the way, my hubby tells me not to tell people this because it makes it sound like I'm a horrible cook, so if your thoughts of hoping to score good recipes are now crushed because you might lose weight in the act of eating them, sorry!

For links to some of my new favorite websites or oldies but goodies I've discovered as I've commenced back upon my old couponing ways and more homemade based food calendar, stay tuned for more upcoming posts.

Thanks for stopping by!


Question of the Day:
What are your favorite comfort food recipes that you'd love to see turned into THRIVE-ing meals?