Wednesday, February 8

Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins

I'm always looking for good breakfast foods that are fairly quick & simple, since my kids want to eat when they get up.
Like.Right.Now. 
And Andrew needs to get out the door.
Like.5.Minutes.Ago.
We like this recipe, it's tasty, healthy & filling. They make great snacks as well!


Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins
  • 1 cup quick-cooking oats
  • 1 cup buttermilk (add 1 tbsp. of lemon juice to regular milk and let it sit for 5 minutes, if you don't have buttermilk on hand.)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup apple sauce
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (whole wheat flour also works)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
In a bowl, soak oats in buttermilk for 15 minutes. Stir in egg, sugar and apple sauce. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into oat mixture just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees F for 16-18 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.              

Monday, February 6

the world according to Graham..........

I had seen on Pinterest this list of 20 question to ask your kids each year on their birthday. I look forward to seeing how their answers change (or not!) each year.

Graham: 3rd birthday - 2012

1. What is your favorite color? Red (yes, red shirt, red shorts, red pants……..!)
2. What is your favorite toy? trucks

3. What is your favorite fruit? mango (actually I think blueberries or clementines are his favorite, but it’s funny that he answered this!)
4. What is your favorite tv show? Curious George

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Oatmeal (he actually eats this for breakfast almost every day, but not usually lunch. J)
6. What is your favorite outfit? Shorts (yep, he’d like to wear them every day)

7. What is your favorite game? Frog game ( Pop Goes Froggio, a matching game and you jump on the lily pad launcher and it pops a frog up in the air. He loves it and it’s perfect for his age.)
8. What is your favorite snack? cheerios

9. What is your favorite animal? B (his lovey he sleeps with)
10. What is your favorite song? Away in a manger (though right now we have to sing rolled away and b-i-b-l-e every night)

11. What is your favorite book? I like to see pictures in ALL the books
12. Who is your best friend? Owen (ok, he hasn’t seen this friend in over 6 months, and I know he has some other besties, but this was his answer!)

13. What is your favorite cereal? cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike

15. What is your favorite drink? juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Saturday (because daddy is home, I guess this is always a holiday J)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Daddy
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? oatmeal & yogurt

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cake
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Soccer player and wear shorts


Friday, February 3

graham turns 3!

3 years ago today, our world changed completely as we entered the world of being parents.
What a full 3 years of learning it has been.
Only to be continued, I am sure.
Our little ragamuffin keeps us hopping. =)
He recently has become very opinionated on what he wants to wear.
Oh bummer, I was not looking forward to this day. :)
Usually it's either a baseball shirt or football pajamas (which he would wear 24/7 if I let him.)
There are a lot of funnies that happen in the 2 yr. old stage!
The things that come out of his mouth continually crack us up.
Just tonight he told me "your hair looks pretty, mom."
Some of my favorite phrases are.....
do it myself (yeah, we hear that a lot.)
I already told you that! (like, duh, mom.)
me said that. (still working on how "I" works)
love you too! (he says the too even when he says it first.) love that.
Mom, I have to ask you a question. (this is a frequent stalling technique at bedtime.)
WHY? (ok, this is not really a favorite. but it gets said a lot. I mean, a lot.)
He is one passionate boy. The things he loves he goes at 110%.
If he's going to play with stuffed animals, 15 is always better.
He has a new-found love for dinosaurs.
But he loves playing with anything that involves animals.
LOVES being outside. and with his daddy.
sports, sports and more sports.
Lots of funnies this year, but also a year with lots of struggles.
Oh the stubborn will of 2 yr. old. wow. Truthfully, it is exhausting.  
But we have lot of moments where the sweetness still comes through and we know there is hope in consistency and perseverance.
The bane of my existence............potty training.
 *&^$##%&**(* that about sums it up.
In the recent months he has simply decided that peeing his pants is a satisfactory alternative when it's too much effort to get to the bathroom.
Really? After being trained for almost a year?
We have done rewards, discipline, taken away favorite toys, and even put him back in diapers occasionally.
Nope. He doesn't care.
Though he VERY much dislikes being back in dipes and that usually motivates him a little.
I am so tired of changing wet clothes. Especially when I know he is fully trained.
Moment of truth: he almost always stays completely dry when we're away from home. Even on 5 hour car rides.
Yeah, we know he knows. Stinker!
2 words sum up my entire year:
potty training & nursing.
Did I do anything else? AGH!
The highlight of his year might have been going to Piratefest.
He's been telling me for weeks that all he wants for his birthday is a real-size bat.
He believes he is WAY past his little one.
Good thing his mommy & daddy are always one step ahead. =)

won a baseball, he was pretty excited.
Before he went, all he could talk about was playing ball with "the green birdie".
I figured there was little chance, but whaddya know?
The nice mascot did take a few minutes to play catch with him.
Graham's year was officially made.
JOY.
One recent awesome development, is his ability to sit and do activities for longer periods of time. He loves to color, cut paper (this makes a mess, but when he'll sit there for an hour, I'm not complaining :), play games (connect four was probably the best 25 cents we ever spent at a garage sale!), or today, 2 clips and a ladle kept him occupied for a good 20 minutes (who knew?!).
A friend had told me that little boy's energy seems to peak about 2.5.
Like they are literally bouncing off the walls. Yep, been there.
We still have those days, but they do seem a lot less frequent!
I enjoy taking him on short errands now.
He loves to "help".
{We don't normally buy 6 bags of chips, but they were Riceworks for a HouseParty.}
Oh the siblings.
 Really what G needs is a twin.
He was so excited when Eden learned to walk because he thought now she could play at his level.
She's not so in to his wrestling moves.
But most of the time he is pretty sweet to her!
He loves playing on the computer. pbskids has lots of fun games.
Oh what a year it's been.
Full of a LOT of great memories.
And since I've just about given up on trying to scrapbook, I hope he will be able to read this someday. :)
You, my first-born son, will always hold a great big piece of my heart.
 
He lives for socializing. Nothing makes him more happy than to get to play with his friends.
When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday?
Go on a playdate!
He loves reading books.
Loves playing daddy's drum and mommy's piano.
He loves life and loves doing anything that involves going somewhere - even a simple errand.
Just about officially dropping his nap - agh!
We discovered that when he took a nap, when 7pm rolled around, he was not even close to being tired. So for naptime now, I play a CD that's an hour or so long and he sits in his bed reading books. It's not as much of a break as I might like, :) but it's still there at least!
I am thankful that he does stay in his bed quietly so far.
*
You're 3 years old, on February 3rd.
There are times your strong will overwhelms us.
And then, a sweet, sweet moment comes and you melt our hearts.
Again and again.
We love you to the moon and back.
A very happy golden birthday to you, Graham Owen!

Tuesday, January 31

a comfy little rosebud

I get a lot of magazines and rarely have time to page through them. This day I did happen to pick up the LL Bean catalog to briefly browse. And there I found a $10 coupon + free shipping!
So as soon as I had the chance I popped over to my computer to see if there were any good clearance finds. I happened upon these cuties (I'd been without slippers for a year now).
After my coupon, I only had to pay $2.99. I call that a bargain.

Saturday, January 28

*Look who's Thir-tay*

A very happy birthday to the man of our house -
the big 3-0!
I think one word sums up a lot of this past year - dad.
It consumes most of our life right now!
And let me say what a good dad he is.
His kids adore him and he is never one to avoid potty-training, diaper changes, changing the trash, cleaning and a hundred other things.
This year we added a child, moved, changed churches, his job changed locations..............
it was quite a year!
Here are some of my fave snapshots of the past year of him:
welcome babygirl.
Graham's first bowling experience. He randomly did the worm, no idea where that came from!
 I love our family walks, we do a lot of them!
 
 This was one of A's favorite moments, because G never falls asleep on us anymore.
He was having a very sick day. :(

these 2 photos: onewaystreetproduction 
 Through my Momtourage connections, we got to enjoy a lot of fun experiences this year.
This one was date night: Cirque du Soleil
 running his first 5k
in Minneapolis, which will always be a special city for us.
(We got engaged & married there.) 



Baseball has become a big part of our life this year, thanks to a little boy's slight obsession.
We both love going to the games with G! 
 uh-huh
They love doing the Home Depot workshops together each month 
 Riding the Gateway Clipper paddle ship
vacay in OBX, North Carolina
also a place we love! 
4th of July, where Graham decided to become slightly terrorized by fireworks....which still continues! 
My sister was taking these and the idea was to get both kids in the background, but they kept moving out of the shot!  
 We are so thankful for now having a backyard and spent a lot of time there.
We can't wait for the warmer temps to come back!
Apparently they also spend a lot of time jumping. :) 
Boys weekend!
 This girl lights up when daddy comes home each day!
more baseball!
Happy 30th birthday, dear hubs.
Thanks for working so hard for us, for making our family time special and for all the help you give me.
Thanks for serving others continually, sometimes you rarely get to stop.
I am excited about what this next year holds for us.
(let's try to make it a little more uneventful.)  =)

Thursday, January 26

while mom's away, the kids play!

Eden & I had a great trip to see my family. E did awesome on the airplanes, praise God.
After one flight, someone in front of us stood up & said, I didn't even know there was a baby on this flight!
That is what I like to hear!
I have found with a small child that my favorite spot to sit is in the very last row, on the aisle. It's loudest back there, you bother the least amount of people, and you can easily stand in the galley & rock them if needed.
Thankfully, when people see a baby they avoid sitting by you at.all.costs. :)
So we had an empty middle seat for all 4 of our flights! I will say it's exhausting though! Keeping little one entertained when her attention span is appr. 30 seconds makes for a lot of juggling. And unfotunately, she was not interested in sleeping! My arms were so sore after holding her for about 4 hours straight!
But all in all, I couldn't be more thankful for smooth travel.
In the airport in Minne
It was fun to spend the weekend with just my girl! 
I am so thankful to Andrew for allowing me to go!
 It was his first weekend by himself with Graham, and he was a great superdad!
Also, very thankful that his job allows him to work from home when needed, so we only needed to impose on our neighbor for one morning of childcare.
We had a great snow, so they were thrilled to spend some sled time!
Andrew's makeshift firepit (also doubles as a grill). :)  
 Sledding with his friend Avalon!
 haircut 
 Fun Fore All is a fun family center with tons to do.
This is a 4-story sets of tunnels & mazes with big guns that shoot nerf balls.
Basically a boy's dream. :) 
 Must be nap time. :)
 Popcorn & movie night
"mall park" as we call them
 
hanging out at IKEA, what? you went there without me?! 
And Andrew admitted....he snapped this picture because G DID wear this sweatshirt for 3 straight days. :)
So all in all, they had a FUN boys weekend!
Graham did have a couple of nights where he was having a hard time with missing me.
I talked to him on the phone one day and he asked me when I was going to come back to earth.
Apparently he had this vision that we were circling in an airplane all weekend.
He asked Andrew if they should bring rope to the airport to help us get down from the plane.
I can see how that would make sense in his little head. :)
And the moment of being reunited......................
oh my.
it was seriously a chariots of fire moment.
How we wished we had it on video.
He spotted me a ways down in the airport. He had a bouquet of flowers in one hand and was running as fast as he could, weaving in & out of people, shouting mom, mom, with the hugest smile on his face. He leaped into my arms & gave me the hugest bear hug ever.
That child knows how to be a welcome committee!
 Probably will be one of my sweetest memories.
I've never had so many hugs & I love you's the rest of the night!
So it's very good to be home.