Canning.....Sorta

Usually every year at this time, I go over to my mom's house and we can homemade Jam. This year we didn't have any berries for Jam, talk about depressing  

But my mother did have some cherries that she wanted to can into pie filling to give away to her neighbors. So we did that instead. 

I don't actually have any pictures of that, 

but i do have lots of what the babies were up to the whole day.

On Monday's I was my nephew Eli, so he came with us to Grandma's. Well 

about ten minutes after he had been there, he got poopy all over his outfit. 

And he didn't have another one, so he got to wear one of Lizzy's. I always

carry an extra two or three for Lizzy because she tends to need them. Anywho, 

it ended up making Eli look like a little girl. So when his mom came to pick him up that

afternoon, we couldn't help but put a pretty bow on him. : ) He may be 

scared for life. 

 ( Sorry Todd, I know you didn't think it was 

too funny we dressed your son up like a girl.) 

                 Isn't he a cutie? Matty and Buddy are pretty cute too. 

       Lizzy thought it was hilarious that she got herself stuck under the chair. 

She never even cried about it when she couldn't get out. 

Lizzy once again getting herself stuck and reading a book while she is at it. 

Cousins

Lizzy with Addilyn who is about 3 weeks older then Lizzy

Lizzy with Adele, who is 2 weeks younger then Lizzy 

                            Lizzy with Elias who is about 4 months younger then Lizzy 

There will be many fun times ahead for these cousins. Oh and Lizzy looks huge in all of these pictures. 

Lizzy Look Alike

This is Lizzy and her cousin Abigail. I personally think they look alike. 

Although a little more so when Lizzy is smiling. 

Old Baby Stats

* Here are just some random stats that I never posted. Way old. Lizzy actually just turned 9 months yesterday.



Elizabeth 4 months: 

June 25th
    14lbs, 2oz
    25.75 inchea tall
    41.5cm, head

Elizabeth 6 months:

Aug 31
   16lbs 13oz
   27.5 inches tall

Happy 6 Months! 

 

Matthew 2 years 3 months

June 25th
   32 lbs 6oz
    38.5 inches tall
   49 cm, head

 

Family Date Night

* Its been awhile since i have posted family stuff, so im gonna be updating for the next couple of days, so everything is gonna be pretty old.

In October, when the weather was finally cooling down to wear you didn't want to die if you were outside, we decided to have a family date night. We  went to Skyline Park and brought Sonic with us. We ate and then let Matty play, while Lizzy ate the grass, bugs, whatever she could get her hands on. : ) Matty had fun running around like a wild man but he is still learning top play nice with others. : )

 Yes that is a onion ring........ She loved it. I didn't give it to her, i turned by back and she was eating it. I let her keep it. : )

Hottie. 

Yummy Yogurt

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

I love the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow, like seriously love it. I'm not a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz, which makes it kinda strange that i love this song so much, but i do. :) It is so relaxing, and if im having a bad day or a hard time, it makes me think that everything is going to be ok someday, even if its not today. When i was in high school and was having a bad day i used to play this song over and over again on the piano until i felt better, it always worked. I was listening to Jenny Oaks Baker's violin version of it tonight and decided that i needed to look up more versions on youtube, so here are some of my favorites!

Because you cant go wrong with IZ. I love this version.

Because I love Judy Garland's voice. Its so sad that her life was cut short and how sad her whole life was because she had an amazing voice.

I have never heard this version til tonight but i love Katharine McPhee's voice and it is a great rendition.

Josh Groban, Jackie Evancho.......just listen. :)


I tried to find Jenny Oaks Baker but i couldnt, shame. I think i have decided that since i cant find hers, IZ is my favorite rendition here.

5 min in Lizzy Life

Lizzy really likes food, but she loves food that her brother has left lying

 around and she gets to feed herself. 

Healthy Eating Ramblings.....

  


So the last little bit i have been thinking about the way im eating and so forth because I'm trying to lose Matty baby weight and Lizzy baby weight.  Really should have thought about that before i had baby number 2.... oh well.

It seems like a lot of people i know have been changing up how they have been eating or people i know have just always been better at eating healthy. Whenever I look at these plans on eating whole foods or clean eating or this or that, i always feel so overwhellmed, like how do people do it? I barely get meals on the table and i love to cook. There just isn't enough time in the day to do it all. I admit that i could be a little better organized, but im working on that. And not only does eating healthy take a little bit of extra time, it is sooooo expensive.

  I was looking at this meal plan that this whole foods website offered, it had all three meals plus a snack on it. It also had shopping lists and what not. The total price on this meal plan for ONE week was 167.00! Are you kidding me?! There is no freakin way i could afford to spend that much money on food in one week. That is a whole months grocery budget of us. That in and of itself made me want to give up, why bother when I cant even afford it?

   Then i found this website , http://www.thegraciouspantry.com I found it this morning actually. It gives you really easy baby steps on how to change the way you eat and so forth and have it be affordable  I'm gonna give it a try. Its not gonna happen all at once or even very quickly because i have babies and a husband and a house and well all of those other things that people who have super awesome blogs obviously don't. :) ha ha jk. So I'm not saying that I am cutting anything out completly because that would be a lie. When a oreo is looking me in the face, I cant say no. But im gonna try to eat healthier, make my own homemade oreos. ha ha ha

   I'm gonna start trying to go to this farmers market that i have heard of that happens on Thursday nights at....cant remember the name of the farm right now, and get some local veggies and dairy and start out that way.

   If anyone has any advice or yummy recipes for veggies or fruit, let me know. Because honestly I could give you a billion different recipes for things containing chocolate ( i should have gone to pastry school )  but i have no idea how to cook 95% of veggies. There is a reason why the sign in my kitchen says always serving chocolate, because I am and always will be. I just need to add some carrots to the mix. : )

Huh?

I found Matty sleeping like this the other night......That can not be comfortable. I moved him after i took a couple of pictures, which amazingly he slept through. 

My new favorite Breakfast

This is seriously so Delicious and so easy. You prep it the night before, stick it in your fridge, the next morning just pop it in your oven, and in thirty minutes, deliciousness. The first morning i popped it in the oven and then went back to bed. After about twenty minutes Nick woke up and was like what is that amazing smell? I said it was breakfast. He was like yum. It literally smelled like an apple crisp, but without the apples. Just the yummy stuff on top. But it doesn't look like that, so don't be surprised when it comes out looking more like a oatmeal bar.

Freezer Friendly Baked Oatmeal 

• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup raw sugar (or brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk
• 3 cups oats (regular or quick oats)

Beat eggs, sugar and butter together. Mix in baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.

Stir in milk and oats. Pour into a greased 9×13 foil pan or baking dish and cover well. (Can use a Ziploc freezer bag, if freezing). Freeze.

To serve: Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, until set in the middle. Serve warm with milk. (We like to sprinkle sugar on top before pouring the milk on.)

If you want to serve it without freezing it first, let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and then bake it at 350 degrees for 35-45minutes in the morning.

Serves 6-8.

Obviously i didn't freeze mine, but you could if you wanted to make a couple of batches. Or split them into smaller pie pans. 

I found that putting brown sugar on top right when its warm and then ice cream or milk on it is the best way to go. Next time i'm gonna try putting chocolate chips or apples in it. Depends on how i feel the night before. : ) 

Oh and this is lovely heated up later too. I just covered the left overs and put in the fridge. Then when i wanted a snack or breakfast the next day, i sprinkled with brown sugar and microwaved it. Seriously Delicious. 

Its hot outside

It has been so flippin hot outside lately.....like beyond humanly hot, 115 degrees, breaking record heat. Why do we live here? I ask myself that almost everyday, sometimes every hour. A couple weeks ago I got a little pool on clearance from wal mart.  Matty loves to play in it, and occasionally Lizzy and I will go out and join him. But only occasionally. : )

Two little bugs