Tuesday, June 23, 2009

My baby girl


When you are raising the most beautiful 2 year old possible..and you've spend nearly every one of her days with her...it is the weirdest feeling to be apart for 6 days. Hope she is enjoying this special time with both sets of her grandparents. I'm trying to enjoy myself :)




Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Peach Crisp and Baked Oatmeal


We tried a few new recipes at the lake the past weekend that were a hit. Cousin Brad said, "this is the best breakfast I've had at the lake this summer!" That was in reference to the baked oatmeal. And the Peach Crisp was a hit too! Both recipes are free of refined sugars and flours.


Peach or Apple Crisp

1/4 c maple syrup or honey
2 T. tapioca starch or arrowroot flour
4 c. sliced peaches or apples

Topping:
3/4 c. oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c. shredded unsweetened coconut
1/4 c. melted butter

Mix together sweetener and starch,, pour over fruit and mix thoroughly. Put in square glass pan. Combine topping ingredients and put on fruit. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes. (We doubled this and used a 13x9 pan and used half maple syrup and half honey)


Baked Oatmeal

6 c organic rolled oats
1 cup honey
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
5 cups raw milk (more if you use it to soak oats too)
2/3 c coconut oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten

In a bowl combine rolled oats and raw milk or plain yogurt. Use enough to get all the oats wet. Soak overnight up to 24 hours on the counter.

In a large bowl, combine rest of ingredients. Then mix together with oats/milk/yogurt mixture. Pour into greased 9x13 baking pan.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 35-45 minutes.

Serve with additional milk, yogurt, butter, maple syrup, fresh fruit or whipped cream as needed.

I also like to add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and/or pumpkin pie spice before baking!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Jack Laughing

Well, we spent another weekend at the lake. Jack just thought cornhole was the funniest game ever!! Sorry for the video being sideways...it took waaaaaay too long to upload for me to have any interest in fixing it!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Swimming

Swimming has become a daily afternoon activity! Now that it is warm enough, we fill up the pool each morning to have a nice warm pool of water for the kids to play in. Jack LOVES splashing around in the water. And even though there are only a few inches of water in the pool, all of the neighbor kids manage to end up soaked, yet still fully clothed. Who new a baby pool could be so much fun for kids of all ages :)




















Monday, June 8, 2009

Big Girl Fort




Well, Soraya has officially moved out of the crib. After a recent visit to Papa's Lake House, where she slept in a bunk bed with a railing, she moved in to her own bunk bed aka "fort." She has done wonderfully. I wanted to wait until she was old enough to have a discussion about staying in bed. She is such a great sleeper that I didn't want to loose those 11 hour nights and 3 hour naps! So, I just told her if she needs me to yell and I will come and check on her. When she wakes up and is ready to get up, yell and I will come get her. It's been a week no and the plan has worked like a dream! We haven't lost any sleep with the move, which is always a good thing :) So here are some pictures of her in her "fort." She has sooooo many toys in there its a wonder that there is any room left for her! Oh yeah, we have had one mishap. She fell out of bed at the foot of the bed as there is no railing there. She fell on some toys, one being a bucket of beads which was quite load at 1:30 in the morning. It startled me awake and the first the first thing I saw was Chad running out the door, man he is quick! She wasn't hurt but she was scared and didn't want to get back in, she said "Raya awake! Go downstairs!" But we showed her how we made a pillow baracade so tha it wouldn't happen again, got her some milk and sat on the potty and then she climbed in like a champ and went right back to sleep without a peep the rest of the night. She didn't even mention it in the morning, so I'm not even sure if she remembers it.

Oh, and one more funny story! The next night, I forgot to turn her fan on for background noise. So when Jack started crying for me to come and get him in the morning, as I walked by Soraya's room she was yelling, "Don't wake me up Bj! Don't wake me up!"
Too funny...






Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Opposites


So my kids seem to be opposite in everything! From teething symptoms to sleep needs to staying or leaving...they can't ever get it in sync! And one more thing to add to the list is dogs! Jack LOVES dogs! He was around my sisters dogs for a few days last month and ever since he squeals everytime he seees one! Soraya on the other hand is...well...scared of dogs. She got ran over by a huge st. bernard/lab mix. She was just minding her own business and this huge dog, Cody, started chasing another dog and just plowed right into her full steam. She had quite the black eye from her head hitting the concrete first. That was just a bit over a year ago. So at first she was deathly affraid of any and all dogs. Now she just starts out a bit jumpy and reserved around them, but is getting better every day. She really likes the idea of dogs though. Here is Jack checking out my sister's dogs at the Lake over the weekend.


Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Happy Retirement Papa Gene!!

Well, I've been told by a number of people that I've been blog slacking :) So I am trying to get back in the habit. We were out of town for a long weekend at the lake house so I have tons of pictures! I'm going to split them up into smaller posts though... The main reason for our trip was to celebrate Papa Gene's retirement from Honda! Today is his first full day of retirement...yipee Papa Gene! We, along with Chad's brother and his wife threw a little celebration for him so here are a few pictures from the event. Soraya was pretty wound up at the event...she is starting to shed her shyness around people she doesn't know. So she had a good time. Jack didn't nap too well that day, so he was a party pooper off and on...but all in all it was a good time. Papa Tom and Grandma Marj, left the party when it was bedtime for the kids so that Chad and I could stay longer and enjoy ourselves and assist in the clean-up. Also, a big congrats to Chad's cousin Laura and her husband Joe on their pregnancy! This was exciting news to me. Chad knew...but of course forgot to tell me :)