Christmas Eve!

I cannot believe it is already time for Christmas! Yay!! We are all very very excited in this house. Jordan finally understands the concept of Santa, so she keeps talking about him bringing presents. Ben has no idea, and that's ok, we're so caught up in Jordan's excitement.

Today will be spent baking on my part, and tomorrow cooking. Here's my menu plan (very non traditional!)

Christmas breakfast of french toast made with homemade bread, eggs, bacon.

Christmas dinner:
Samosas
Garlic naan
Chicken Tikka Masala
Lamb curry
Rice

Dessert:
cake
apple pie

And I have to make peanut butter cookies for Santa with Jordan today. We chose peanut butter because it is in abundance at our house, we have 4 containers of it!

Merry baking/cooking to you all!!

Mocha Latte

My mother in law recently sent us an espresso machine for christmas. We wanted one to try and break our Starbucks habit (spending more money than we should have... evil drive thrus!!). I think I am drinking more lattes than EVER now that my husband has perfected his technique and the recipe he found. He's almost at barista competition level, in my opinion.

Tonight he bought the peppermint syrup from Starbucks... heaven!

I would post more but I'm too hyped up on caffeine.... =)

Baby Mamas (Put a Sling On 'Em)

If you appreciate babywearing, you will like this video!

Grandma Ken

When we still lived in Pittsburgh, Grandpa rocked. He took Jordan outside to rake leaves, play with sticks, kick the soccer ball (which was really a volleyball but who in their right mind is going to correct a toddler??), and played blocks with her. He let her run around with her crayons and watch the movie cars over and over again. He was the COOLEST person in Jordan's mind.

But now Jordan sees Grandma more often. It is far easier for my mom to visit us alone than with my dad, so Jordan plays with Grandma, colors with Grandma, and bakes. I realized when we went back to Pittsburgh that Jordan kept calling my dad Grandma. She just cannot say Grandpa. We tried getting her to say Grandpa Ken, but it just came out as Grandma Ken. My dad suggested she call him Red Beard... only problem with that is his beard has not been red for years. So I asked Jordan to say White Beard... So she went from Grandpa to Grandma to White BEER.

Maybe we should try Papa Ken next?

First Snow of Winter

As you can see, we are now getting snow in Illinois! Very pretty but none of it stuck. Jordan was very upset. She wanted to play in the snow. We even bought snow boots today. Her first pair ever!! I'm sure the typical abundance of Midwest snow will make up for her disappointment over the next few months.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now that I am properly stuffed, I would like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

We spent the day at home, and had a lovely dinner with some of Dave's coworkers. It was very nice of them to invite us over! Tomorrow we leave early in the morning to fly to Pittsburgh where my parents, sister, brother in law, niece and nephew are waiting for us! I am so excited!!

Ben is such a lucky little dude, how many kids get to experience their first thanksgiving twice?? =)

Getting Ready For Holidays

Now that we exercise in the mall, Jordan has been seeing all the decorations and trees and decided we had to have our tree up. We complied. Here is our small, prelit, fake tree. I love it!! Still need to get some of our ornaments out of the shed.

My mom sent us a gingerbread house kit. I think that this might be a tradition we continue every year. Perhaps one day I'll be brave enough to make the gingerbread from scratch. This year we had to put up with melting the sugar and making the icing. Sugar was difficult. I had to "glue" back together some of the pieces that broke during transit. I was a bit annoyed and I messed up the roof. Chimney was omitted... We ate it while waiting for the sugar to solidify!




We sent Dave to the store three times. Time 1: m&ms; Time 2: more m&ms; Time 3: more powdered sugar for the icing. Jordan insisted that we use pink icing. It was cute. I didn't make the icing thick enough so we had to keep putting the house in the fridge before the icing and m&ms dripped off.


Finished product. It looks bad, but I'm so proud!!!

Another Unwelcomed Guest

I think our house is being hit by another illness... the dreaded cold! Baby is snotting and sounding like a coffee machine, and I just feel completely run down and my throat is sore. So far no fevers. Baby is clingier than normal. I can't tell is I am just tired because I pushed myself harder yesterday and baby is acting out because he could be getting teeth... or we're just getting a cold. Probably the latter. Or all 3.

It seems this year is far worse than all years past in terms of illnesses. Everyone's facebook status seems to involve colds, fevers, flus, or puke. Incidences of the dreaded man colds are on the rise too. ;) It scares me. Normally I am not a germ-a-phobe, but maybe I should be more careful? I have never been one to cancel a playdate because the other child has a runny nose... but maybe I should? Is natural selection mad at modern medical advancement and trying to get things under control by wiping some of us out?? This season scares me, it really does.

We will be boarding a plane in 15 days to visit family for Thanksgiving. God only knows what crazy illnesses will be floating around that airtight cabin of the airplane. EEK.

On a side note, this is my 250th post! GO ME!

Puke-a-rama

Now that the 24 hour stomach bug has gone through our house, I am finally getting our lives back in order. It started with my daughter on Monday, me on Thursday, and husband Friday night. Thank goodness my baby avoided the bug. I was sure he would catch it, seeing as how he was climbing all over his sister and clawing at her face Monday evening, but he was clear! Phew!!

So, a week has gone by and I am finally caught up on laundry. Meals are being cooked instead of bought from Subway or other quick/cheap places located on the street behind our house. Kids are enjoying playing with mommy instead of near mommy, and cleaning is nicely avoided as we all have energy to get out and have fun.

My Daughter's Hero

I already knew my husband was awesome. He provides for us, he is here to support us mentally and physically, he entertains us, and he loves us unconditionally. But this past Monday he showed his true colors... super hero dad!

Jordan got a 24 hour bug, not too long after I picked Dave up from work for lunch time. As I tried to clean Jordan up, I felt myself about to barf, so Dave cleaned her up and I drew her a bath. From that moment on, Dave took over puke cleaning up duties. He held her hair, comforted her with words and hugs, changed her clothes, etc. It was amazing. When she fell asleep on our living room floor at 7pm, Dave agreed he should be the one to sleep on the couch and help her if she threw up at night.

He was completely there for her in her time of need. How many dads would do that? Boy, did I win the husband jackpot with that wonderful man of mine!!

Self Punishment

Why do we do things to ourselves we know we will regret? Especially when it comes to food, I know what choices are the good ones and what are the bad, but I ignore myself. Then I am surprised when the numbers on the scale aren't going down. Insanity, I tell you!!

Tonight my husband was working. So I made Jordan a pb&j sandwich and myself some tuna helper. I got myself a serving and felt fine. I got another, felt a little yucky. And another... and another, until it was ALL GONE. 5 servings of tuna helper are currently in my tummy. I feel disgusting. Of course, I have no one to blame but myself.

I know better. I have been doing weight watchers since 2005. I know how to judge what is right and when to back off. Yet I still ate it ALL. I am hating myself (and how I feel) right now. One would think I have learned my lesson...but I doubt it. I suspect tuna helper will NOT be in my shopping cart for the next few weeks!

Tomorrow is another day....right?

Wordless Wednesday

Baby On The Move!

Mr. Ben has finally figured out crawling. Here he is doing one of his favorite things, chasing after the vacuum.

12 Step Program

I think I need to find the nearest 12 step program... for STARBUCKS. Seriously... I am addicted. It is so bad that sometimes I pay on my credit card so my husband doesn't know. Unfortunately, our budget will not allow for me to get Starbucks for about a month. How will I survive? What will happen to my body when I go cold turkey tomorrow? Who will be my sponsor and get me through this rough time???

Or better yet... who will send me a starbucks gift card ;)

Sugar Cookies

The entire family is having an off day today, so I thought sugar cookies were in order. I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but we just acquired quite a few cookie cutters, and I wanted to try one of them out. Jordan is into piggies at the moment, so I thought it was a perfect idea. Plus we only have pastel food coloring... I'm not sure the dinosaurs want to be pink or light blue =)

I used this recipe and they turned out pretty good. Definitely a keeper. here is the icing recipe. We got halloween pumpkin and kitty cookie cutters, so I think I need to get some orange and black food coloring. I could have been more creative, like melting chocolate to put on the feet to make them "messy piggies" or make eyes... but that would have required much more energy than I had today.

Edit to add.... since making the piggies we have made T-Rexs, Stegosauruses, black cats, and pumpkins! i'm all sugar cookied out!!!

Prayers Please

Even if you are not a prayer sort of person, please keep the Lerner family in your thoughts. For some unknown to us reason, they lost their precious daughter Brooke. I cannot imagine what they are going through. My heart goes out to this family and I pray that they get through this very difficult time in their lives.

Peanut butter cups

I got this recipe from my dear friend Sarah, I hope she doesn't mind me sharing. You are all going to get fat right along with me!! Thank you (and curse you) Sarah for this awesome recipe!!!

Peanut Butter Cups

12 mini cake liners
3/4 cup of chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter + 2 tbsp to add to the melted chocolate
1/4 of powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate. When smooth and fully melted, remove from the heat and stir in the 2 tbsp of peanut butter. Allow to cool until still liquid but not too hot. Place a heaping teaspoon in each cake liner, and swirl around a little to get some chocolate up the sides, making sure the bottom is completely coated (but not too thick, unless you like it that way). Place the chocolate covered liners in the fridge. (You should have a fair amount of chocolate left still, around half).

Meanwhile, stir together the peanut butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and salt. It should form a paste dry enough to handle and make into balls. Form twelve balls from the peanut butter paste (use it all), and flatten the balls into discs just smaller in diameter than the chocolate liners. The liners should be ready by now (it only takes 5 minutes for the chocolate to harden up enough), so take them out and place one peanut butter disc in each liner, making sure there is just enough space all around the disc for chocolate to cover it. Take the remaining chocolate (re-heat if necessary) and share between the 12 liners. Ensure no peanut butter is showing. Refrigerate the cups for at least 1 hour, then try not to eat all 12 at once, you'll regret it. =)

Summary Of Grandma Sandee's Visit

Grandma Sandee came to visit all the way from Pittsburgh. We were so excited to see her!

First we went to Lamb's Farm. We've been meaning to go since we moved here in March. Jordan got to pet goats, ride a train, go on a carousel.

She still talks about the BIG COW.

We went into Chicago the next day to see the dinosaur bones! Sue was very impressive.

Ben liked the water taxi the best.

Alice knew that Grandma was missing her own kitty cats, so she gave her some loving.

Grandma loves to go shopping when she visits, and who could resist matching jammies???

Jordan helped mommy make awesome 4 grain pancakes! Couldn't have done it without her.

Ben hanging out after a bath. We do bathe our kids occasionally.

We went apple picking one day. At first Jordan didn't think she could pick apples and kept telling us the trees were too high. But she loved to help daddy, and we did find some trees just the right height for her. She made sure Ben wasn't feeling left out.



We treated Grandma to an early birthday lunch.

We are so glad that grandma got to visit, but it was hard to say goodbye. Miss you!

Mom, Are You Sure We Are Related?

I was looking at photos of the kids tonight and I hadn't realized how DIFFERENT they look at the same age. These aren't the best photos to compare, but I am too tired to sift through hundreds of photos. Aside from the obvious SIZE difference, their heads and faces are shaped differently, Jordan's eyes are darker, Ben's hair is fuzzier and shorter, and their smiles are completely different. Ben already has two teeth, whereas Jordan kept her gummy smile for longer.

I wonder what other differences there will be in the years to come. I can't wait to find out and enjoy my children for their similarities and differences, whatever they may be!

Feline Fridays - Awesome Cat Video

My cats love to drink water out of the tub.... but nothing like this! I'm not sure how to efficiently link youtube videos to my blog yet, so if you know how, please tell me!!

Mad Crocodile Hunter Skills

I'm sorry Steve Irwin, but you were nothing when compared to my mad skills. No, I'm not risking my life multiple times a day... but changing an 8 month old baby boy's diaper could be just as difficult!

So maybe I am exaggerating just a tiny bit. TINY bit. But things have gotten quite difficult over here. Three things recently occurred to make changing baby boy diapers a big pain in my butt.

1. Poop is thick and sticks everywhere. Gotta love what eating purees and finger foods does to poop. YUCK.

2. Squirming. Ben actually fell off the changing pad a few weeks ago. Scared the crap out of me. I now have to do the "hold this tube of diaper creme" technique to try and distract him and keep him still. If he doesn't have anything new and exciting to play with that is not a toy, then he tries to wiggle himself off the table.

3. He grabs at his junk. Seriously people, is this ingrained into men at this early of an age? The second that diaper is off his hand is down there grabbing away.

Now, combine all 3 factors... poop all over, squirmy baby, and junk grabbing. If one of these is not taken care of immediately, there is no way the diaper will be changed without chaos. And this happens multiple times a day. JOY.

Apple Bread

I love Autumn. Not just because the weather turns cooler and the leaves are really pretty, but also because of the recipes. I love cooking and baking with apples. Here's a new recipe i found and adapted to make it a little bit healthier (ha!!). I didn't realize until AFTER we started making it that the recipe makes two loaves, so I froze the other. It tastes super good toasted with some butter!


Bread:
2-3 Large apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
4 large eggs
1 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar

Topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two bread loaf pans. In a large bowl beat eggs until fluffy. Add applesauce. Add vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until mixed. Add flour and sugar until well blended. Turn mixer to high and beat mixture is smooth and thick. Add apple pieces and mix by hand so the apple pieces do not break. Spoon batter into the pans. Combine topping ingredients in a medium bowl, mixing with fork or hands. Spread over each loaf. Bake for an hour or until middle of the loaf is firm.

Some Updates

I haven't been a very good blogger lately, just posting lots of photos (which isn't necessarily bad...right??). So I thought I would tell you all what is going on currently in our lives.

Mr. Man (aka, Ben) - Is the proud owner of two bottom baby teeth. They have made him fairly crabby, but he's a trooper! He still does not sleep through the night, but will go to bed at 6pm and wake 2x before morning. He seems to think 5am is a great time to start the morning, I have been trying to convince him otherwise. Still no crawling, though he has discovered how to get onto his hand and knees for brief moments. Ben likes to eat... mostly purees that are orange or white. He's not a fan of green. He can now eat bananas and carrots with his fingers, instead of pureed. He'll jump through hoops to get some Puffs.

Jordan - growing and talking more every day. I love hearing the new things she says every day. She is such a sponge. She still refuses any form of potty training. It makes me sad and frustrated, but she is a stubborn girl. No idea where she got that from!! She ate broccoli tonight at dinner... without us making her. GASP! She still loves her trains, and now also loves her animal figurines, especially her new turtle. Thank you Grandma Luisa!!

Hubby - same as usual. He has a promotional exam next week. Fingers crossed!!!

Me - Now that everyone's cold is gone I'm much happier. Work is going well, just a few hours a week seems to be all I can handle! I am still cooking and baking, trying new recipes. I found a recipe for apple bread today I am dying to try but Dave won't let me (he has to lose some weight for work). WAAAAAAAAH!

My mom will be here next week and is staying for a week. I am so excited!!! Can't wait to see you, mom!

I SEE YOU!

Last Saturday I SWORE I saw evidence of two teeth coming in, but so far only one has cut through the gum this far. I suspect the mate is on it's way. After a week of him working on it, I now feel the tooth when nursing. I hope he doesn't start to bite!

Toddler's First Computer Game

I'm so NOT a computer game/video game person. I rarely win at Mario Kart. I cannot understand the controls enough to play any video game except tetris. Once I bought a Spongebob CD-Rom thinking I would be able to play the game since it was geared towards children... Dave had to win it for me because I got stuck near the beginning. Gosh darn if my children will have my same handicap!

During a seemingly innocent trip to Office Depot for a desk calendar Wednesday, we found a game geared toward our precious toddler. As if it were engrained in her from her dad's genes, she was immediately drawn to it and insisted on having it, she was even willing to put the HUGE Dora coloring pad back on the shelf so long as she could get this game.

This is our daughter playing her new Sesame Street "Learn, Play, & Grow" game. I think she *might* like it...

Sick Days

We officially all got sick. It is bizarre how this cold affected all of us differently. Here are the kids sitting watching tv because mommy is too tired to do anything else. Jordan has been wearing those pjs for 2 days now. Ben has new pjs only because he seems to like to pee out of his diaper almost every morning.


Poor Ben. This is him AFTER I cleaned the snot off his face this morning. He's still quite drooly because he can't breathe well out of his nose.


Jordan comfy watching more tv....

All I Want For Christmas....

Is my baby's two front teeth!!! Yesterday Ben's first teeth cut through. He is now the proud owner of two bottom teeth. I cannot believe it! No more gummy smiles. *sob* How can he be growing up so fast? He turns 8 months old at the end of next week, time is flying by so so fast.

Another first for Ben, he has his first cold. Dave was so nice to share it with Ben and I. My poor baby boy was a furnace today, motrin is finally helping him. I feel so helpless when he's all sniffly and grumpy.

Star Pie

My mom recently got me a pocket pie mold from William Sonoma. I finally tried it tonight and it is SO CUTE!! You can use any fruit filling in them and I am totally in love with them. Now I want to buy the heart shaped mold (thankfully my birthday is coming up soon!).

A friend asked me for the recipe, however I sort of made up how I did the filling... so here's my best guess. The little pies taste so good and are much easier than having to make a huge pie.

EDIT: I just thought this morning, after posting the recipe, that you either want to cut the fruit filling in half or double the pie crust recipe. I had lots of the fruit left over, so next time I will be making double the crust so I can have 12 pies.

Makes 6 mini pies.

Crust:
Place 1 tsp salt, 1 1/3 cup flour, and 1 stick cold butter cut into 1 inch pieces into a food processor (I use a mini food processor as it is just the right size). Process for 8-10 seconds or until mixture has the consistency of coarse meal. Pour cold water into the mixture while processing (about 1 Tbsp at a time) until dough begins to form into a ball. Turn out onto wax paper and shape into a flattened disk. refrigerate immediately.

Prepare 2 cups fruit into a medium mixing bowl. Wash and chop as necessary (can use any fruit). Add 1/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp to the fruit. Mix thoroughly and let sit for 15 minutes.

While fruit is sitting, take dough out and soften to room temperature. Roll on lightly floured surface to 1/8-1/10" thickness. Cut dough with the mold. Place one cut out in the mold, spool 1 Tbsp of filling onto the dough, then place another cutout on top. Press mold until the two pieces are securely together. Place the mini pies on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Place sheet in freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Bake pies for 20 minutes, until crust is lightly brown and center is bubbling. Cool on wire rack.


I made my pie with raspberry as that's what fruit we had in the fridge that needed to be used up the soonest. If I were making apple I would add cinnamon to the sugar/corn starch mixture. I'll probably make apple next!!

another EDIT: WW points are 6 per pie.

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

I have perfected my whole wheat dough recipe... so here it is!! Makes 2 pizza crusts.

Combine in a mixer:
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/3 cup warm milk.

Let sit for 5 minutes until yeast is dissolved.

Add:
3-4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ and/or flax seed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar

Mix for a few minutes. Knead for about 10 minutes either by hand or using a dough hook. until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in a bowl lightly coated with butter or olive oil (I use whatever is lowest calories!), turn once to coat the dough. Cover until doubled in bulk, 1.5 hours.

Preheat oven to 475 F. Grease two baking sheets with spray and dust with cornmeal.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. Roll into a ball and let rest for 15 minutes, covering loosely with plastic wrap. Flatten each dough ball on a lightly floured surface until it is a 12" round. Place on the baking sheet. Lift edges and brush a little olive oil on the dough. Let dough sit for 10 minutes then top and bake for 12 minutes on lowest rack.


I made a chicken alfredo pizza. It was DELICIOUS!!! Here's what I did:

After brushing with olive oil I sprinkled some garlic powder and italian seasonings on the dough. Then I put the following toppings on:
1/2 cup alfredo sauce
1 cup thawed, drained spinach
chicken breast
3/4 cup low fat mozzarella
sprinkled with parmesan cheese

If you do weight watchers, the dough for one pizza is 16 points total. The alfredo pizza was 6 points for 1/4 of a pizza.

Perfecting Back Carry

I never could get the hang of wearing Jordan on my back, but then again, I never tried very hard. Thank goodness I figured it out quickly with Ben because I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't carry him!

Feline Fridays

Happy 4 year adoptive birthday, Alice!



4 years ago we took a chance at getting another kitty, hoping Royboy would take to her. I think she did, and I am so very very glad. Sorry Alice that you went from our little spoiled kitty princess to being put a bit on the back burner by kids. We still love you!!