Stools

Livvy found out the use for stools, recently. She loves to go and get her stool and use it to get into drawers that are too high for her otherwise. This has opened up a whole new world to her. I caught her last week grabbing the stool and dragging it to the bathroom and using it to get the toothbrush and toothpaste in the bathroom and brushing her teeth. She is so excited that she can now get into the bathroom drawers. I will be investing in drawer locks in the very near future.

Good Eats

A few weeks ago a friend of mine blogged a picture of these yummy treats, I have been craving them ever since. So, here is my attempt of recreating her super yummy creations.
For lunch I had this:
Banana smothered with 3 TB. all natural, organic peanut butter- 4 pecans and 3 almonds chopped- and 3 TB Raisins. So filling and sooooo yummy.

Then for snack time today my kids enjoyed "bugs on logs". Thanks for sharing these great recipes.

Also, 2 new family favorites are 2 recipes that another friend shared on her blog. I have no pictures, but here are the recipes... give them a try, they are winners. We make both on a regular basis around here.

Blender Wheat Pancakes

1 C. Whole Wheat Berries

1 C. Milk (or 1 C. water and either 3 T non-instant dry powdered milk or 1/3 cup instant powdered milk)

2 Eggs (or 1/2 C. water and 2 T. powdered eggs)

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 1/2 tsp. Salt

2 T. Sugar

2 T. Oil (I actually use blended white bean puree. Much healthier-But that's a whole other blog entry...)

Combine wheat and milk in a blender and blend on highest speed for 4-5 minutes (don't worry, it won't hurt your blender, promise!) or until batter is smooth. I used to have a cheap blender and it took longer, but now I have a really nice blender and it only takes a minute or two. The most important thing is to make sure it is well blended so that you don't have little wheat chunks in your pancake. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour out batter into pancakes from the actual blender jar (only one thing to wash!) onto a hot greased or Pam prepared griddle or large frying pan. Cook; flipping pancakes when bubbles form. Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Pancakes

3/4 C. Wheat Flour

1/4 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1/4 C. Sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Salt

1/4 Chocolate Chips (often we leave these out to make them healthier)

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 T. Butter-or cooked beans in my case. :)

1 Egg

3/4 C. Milk

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Mix and pour onto a hot griddle sprayed with non-stick spray. Cook. Enjoy!

Thanks to my friends who share recipes... I LOVE trying out new recipes, especially healthy ones.

Yummy Whole Milk

For the past 4 or 5 months my family and I have been drinking whole milk as well as not eating anything that says "low fat" or "light". My husband was totally on board with this decision when I first started this new way of eating. We had both read the book "In Defense of Food" and decided that we needed to be eating "food". So we have been trying. But lately he has been really asking if it makes much difference, the whole milk verses the skim.... the "full fat" yogurt versus the "light".... here are the reasons I gave him for our continued drinking of whole milk.

1. Low-fat and fat-free diets do not help prevent heart disease, and science has now revealed that the link between saturated fat (long thought to be the cause of heart disease) and heart disease is tenuous at best.

2. Milk fat contains glycosphingolipids, types of fats linked to immune system health and cell metabolism.

3. Studies now show that eating saturated fat raises good cholesterol -- the kind of cholesterol you want and need in your body.

4. Our bodies cannot digest the protein or absorb the calcium from milk without the fat.
Vitamins A and D are also fat-soluble. So you can't absorb them from milk when all the fat has been skimmed off.

5. And last but definitely not least: healthy dietary fat will NOT make you fat. We've been taught for years that dietary fat is the root of all evil . But we need healthy fat in our diet for proper body composition and long-term weight maintenance.

So... if you have any questions... read the book "In Defense of Food". You will love it. I just started a new book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". I will let you know if it is a good read...

Go enjoy a nice cold glass of milk!!

Utah

We just got back from a fun trip to Utah... sadly we did not have much time to visit family, but we went with some friends to take them up to our cabin and do some snowmobiling. It was a really fun trip. There was so much snow, it was snowing most of the time we were there.
Our friends brought up 4 of their kids and the kids had so much fun together. As it was their first time to Utah we did get down to the city to see Temple Square, some of the Olympic sites and we even made it to my moms to take a shower (the water in our cabin was frozen).
This year Olivia is old enough to really enjoy the snow. She would run for her boots and coat any time that the door opened. No one was allowed outside without her. She loved it. She loved the snowmobiling and the sledding and just playing in the snow. All of the kids had a great time. Our neighbors also enjoyed it. They are from California originally and have lived here all of their lives and so the kids (and parents) were just in awe of the snow and how cold it really was!!! We had a great time.

Family Tree

Last Sunday Cami was sick, so we all stayed home from church (Travis has to be there a few hours early, so if I can't go, the kids can't go).
I decided to have a little lesson with the kids at home. We talked about Families and our extended families. Then I pulled out some paper and we put together a very "rough" family tree. But it was fun and we shared a lot of stories about Grandmas, and Grandpas and cousins. I heard about how Aunt Michelle is so nice that she will let Emee and Elee come visit us at the cabin, and how Aunt Ilesha gives all the candy my kids want.... but we also talked about stories from when I was a kid.We talked about traditions and things that we love about each other. It was very simple, but I felt like the kids learned more about families and why we want to be together forever.

Potty Training

Here is my littlest cupcake, and despite my protests, she has really been trying to potty train herself. Any time that she sees anyone going to the potty she immediately starts undressing because she feels that she should be going potty, also. And she does. She can keep her diaper dry all day long- Gloria was potty trained at 15 months, completely. No accidents, ever. I think that Livvy will meet her big sisters time line.

lost tooth

Grayson lost his tooth and got a black eye on the same day... the black eye was not too dark in this picture, but got a lot worse later on. He looked pretty beat up.
The night Gray lost his tooth he put it under his pillow, the next morning he woke up and the tooth was still there and he could not find his $$. He was very disappointed. Thankfully, daddy went upstairs and help Grayson find the money that the toothfairy hid inside of his pillowcase!! We think the tooth fairy was playing hide and seek with him and we think the tooth fairy let him keep his tooth because there has been a surplus of teeth this year!!
Ironically, a few days earlier, almost the exact same thing happened with Gloria... it seems our tooth fairy has a sense of humor (or maybe has a lot on her mind and is getting forgetful in her old age), either way, all's well that ends well!!