Life in God's Country

Italy

2012-02-09T14:49:00.003-06:00

Many of you know we went to Italy on our honeymoon. We loved our week there and would love to go back.

However, that was a bit out of my price range when I started planning a date. So I settled on this idea I found at The Dating Divas.

After we dropped the girls off at my parents' house, Phillip and I went back home to make calzones. We've made them before, but I think they were the best we've ever made. Maybe because we used more meats than we've ever done. They were so yummy and filled our plates and tummies!

While those were baking, we finished mixing up the strawberry gelato and got the ice cream freezer going.

After supper, we retreated to the living room for our Italian "foreign film." We watched "The Italian Job." There's a long-standing joke that I can't stay awake to watch that movie. Ok, so it's not really a joke. I think we've watched it five or six times and I've seen all of it one or two times! But I made it through this time because we took a break to get gelato in the middle. Pure deliciousness!

If you need some date night inspiration, I highly recommend The Dating Divas!

13 months

2012-01-20T08:53:00.000-06:00

13 months. Is that really right? This last month has flown by!

At 13 months, Anna weighs 18.4 pounds (a gain of 2.4 pounds in 1 month!). She has started eating table food most of the time, but we still have to feed her messy things like applesauce & yogurt. Yep, you read that right, we started her on yogurt this week and haven't seen any major issues with the milk! Yea!!! I guess her little tummy just wasn't ready for milk a year ago but is okay with it now. She will eat many meats and most fruits. I'm still working on getting veggies back into her diet since I stopped spoon feeding them to her.

She's running all over the place and loves to be chased. She also loves peek-a-boo and her bunny blanket that she sleeps with.

She sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes 1-2 naps during the day for a total of 2-4 hours.

~~~~~~~~~~

Emily (3 1/2) runs all over the place and never stops talking. She's really enjoying preschool and making friends. She loves watching Little Einsteins, but will still watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Word World when we force her to (it doesn't take much convincing, usually!). She weighs about 30 pounds and seems like she hardly eats anything. She tries my patience, but makes us laugh quite often too!

Guest Post

2011-12-30T21:05:00.000-06:00

Check out my guest post on Money Saving Mom. I might have posted this sooner, but I didn't want to spoil the Christmas gift for my sister!

One Year Old!

2011-12-22T20:06:00.000-06:00

I can't believe Anna is one year old. It seems like she just joined us, but it also seems like she's been with us forever. Unfortunately, she was not able to enjoy her birthday much. From last Thursday to Tuesday, she had fevers ranging from 100 to 103.7. Yikes! No known cause, just made her more cuddly and less likely to eat. I'm trying to get her started on solid foods again today. We'll see.

At her appointment on Tuesday (check up, but also to see about her fevers), she weighed 16 pounds and was 28.5". A little peanut to be sure, but happy as all get out! (Well, unless she has a fever!)

To celebrate her birthday, we had family over and I made the traditional lamb cake. (Everyone as far back as at least my mom and aunt (and maybe their cousins) have had a lamb cake for their first birthday. Sure makes picking a theme easy!) Anna wouldn't even touch the cake, much less eat any. But, she did enjoy unwrapping the presents.

52 weeks

2011-12-18T19:04:00.002-06:00

Anna's in her pjs, as she has been most of the day. Since Thursday, she's had a fever of 100 or higher (up to 102.5 this afternoon). While I love the cuddles I'm getting, I hate that she has fever. I think it's just from teething because she's mostly acting normal, though not eating normal. We had her birthday party yesterday (post coming!) and she just didn't enjoy it as she should have. :-( Hopefully this will be over soon!

I'll post her 1 year stats after her doctor appointment on Wednesday.

51 weeks

2011-12-11T14:50:00.001-06:00

Is that right? 51 weeks? Anna still seems so much like a baby. But, she's walking now! (Need to get some better shoes for her...her feet are smaller than Emily's were when she started walking!)

Speaking of walking, she got her first walking injury today. At church, she fell and cut her eye. But, she was a trooper. I'm not sure she even cried! It doesn't look too bad now. Just a little red and a little swollen. Hopefully, since we got ice on it pretty quick, that's all it will be! (Of course, this happened just days before all her 1 year pictures! Oh, well!)

She's starting to eat table foods, but we still spoon feed her cereal and other veggies & fruits (with meat mixed in!). I guess it's time to start feeding her breakfast! Until now, she's just had cheerios, if she's even awake for breakfast since she's still nursing. But, I'll try to find something (maybe baked oatmeal?) that she can feed herself. (Nutrigrain bars were great for Emily, but they have milk in them. I have found some recipes online to try, though.)

And, I wanted to include Emily in this post, too! She's such a good big sister. She really looks out for Anna and lets me know when Anna's getting into something she shouldn't. Such a helper!

50 weeks and other stuff

2011-12-03T20:25:00.001-06:00

Anna continues to take more and more steps. I think she'll be walking by her birthday. She's had a few stomach issues lately leading me to think she has an issue with large quantities of grapes. No big surprise...Emily did too.

Friday night, Highland had a Mother & Daughter Mad Hatter Tea Party. Emily and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had tea party food (she loved the cupcake that said "Eat Me"), made hats, painted tea cups and Emily painted our fingernails (mine & hers!). Then we got to watch a little of Alice in Wonderland, but I think she wasn't quite ready for that yet. Maybe next year.

Saturday morning, we went to Breakfast with Santa at Westgate Church of Christ where Robert & Lauren go. As you can see, I got a picture of the girls with Santa. :-) Typical! But, I also got 2 great pictures of the girls and Emily made frames for them to go in on the tree.

Mom and I spent a couple hours yesterday getting food and the house ready for our annual Christmas party. It's nice to be able to share that responsibility!

Tonight we're off to a Christmas program at the Paramount. I can't wait to see what Brandon has put together!

49 weeks

2011-12-01T13:48:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving was so much fun that I forgot to post Anna's picture. And, somewhere in there, Anna cut a tooth that I just found today! No wonder she's been grumpy! She's starting to take more steps at a time. She may be walking by her first birthday, in just a couple weeks. Wow!

This picture shows her new thing...holding out her hand to you. So cute!

48 weeks

2011-11-21T20:12:00.001-06:00

So here we are on Monday again. :-) But, I actually have something new from the post about Anna's 11 month birthday. She's been very drooly for awhile now and FINALLY, her upper right incisor popped through! Yea! But, that meant for a very unhappy girl Saturday night and Sunday. We all took 2-3 hour naps yesterday and it was wonderful. When Anna woke up (when this picture was taken), though, she was (and still has been) clingy and a bit grumpy. I guess I can't really blame her.

Back in January, we received a box of goodies from my good friend Laurie. In the box were 2 sets of 12 month and 4T pajamas (2 sets each). I finally broke them out tonight. So, Laurie (I know you're reading!), the girls say thank you!!!

11 months

2011-11-19T16:45:00.001-06:00

Can it really have been 11 months? I mean, it feels like Anna's been with us forever, but she's still my baby (I know, she always will be!). She'll be walking soon and she's starting to wear some clothes that make her look big, not like a baby. :-( (Yes, I know I'm the one dressing her...but these are the clothes I have!)

Some fun pictures...(notice Anna's mohawk in the one on the left!)

Yesterday, Emily and I had some one on one time and it was great. The Abilene Zoo has a preschool class once a month for 3 and 4 year olds. Emily and I learned about bears yesterday and got to see the bears at the zoo after learning what they eat and how they get their food. Such fun. I look forward to more of these classes with her.

47 Weeks

2011-11-14T20:15:00.001-06:00

Two pictures of our cutie today. Not much has changed in the last week. Anna is starting to feed herself, though, when I can come up with good finger foods. Grapes have been wonderful and, so far, she doesn't have the same unpleasant side effect that Emily had after eating them.

I can't believe she'll be 11 months on Saturday! I'll post her stats then!

46 weeks

2011-11-06T20:23:00.001-06:00

This week has been big for us.

Anna has taken several unassisted steps and will walk anywhere you'll guide her on your fingers. She's so close to walking by herself. Possibly by Thanksgiving!

Emily is now diaper-free! She'd been dry overnight for a couple weeks so we decided it was time to try panties at night. After one wet morning, she's been dry ever since. We do, however, take her to potty just before we go to bed, just to make sure! She's even woken me up in the middle of the night to take her to potty. So exciting!!

45 weeks, Halloween

2011-10-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

I'll start with today's picture, then back up a bit to tell you a little about what we've been up to. At 45 weeks, Anna is very close to walking. Yikes! She took a step or two today (unassisted), but you might argue that she was falling forward and caught herself with her foot. (Wait, isn't that what walking really is?) Anyway, it won't be long. She still only has 2 teeth, but uses those to gnaw Cheerios, bananas and (cooked) carrots.

Last Thursday was the Costume Parade at Emily's preschool. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was kind of like a Trunk or Treat in the atrium of the church. What fun! Emily's class was one of the last ones to go so we had to wait a while to see our little frog. As you can see from the pictures, she was a bit stoic. She hardly looked at us and never smiled!

at home before school

Anna was the pre-show!

I think she was just overwhelmed with it all!

Saturday, we headed to the ACU football game. The girls dressed in their matching purple shirts (probably for the only time, since Anna's is a 6 month and she wears 9 months!). They enjoyed hanging out with Grandpa & Pearlie.

Then, Saturday night we headed out to a Trunk or Treat. This one had games (Emily wanted nothing to do with them) and trunks (much more her style!), a candy apple tree where you could make a caramel apple and decorate it with sprinkles (see picture), stew & cornbread and a photo setup where they took our picture and should be emailing it to us. The picture was really cute and I'll post it when I get it.

Tonight was the Trunk or Treat at Highland. Unfortunately, my camera stayed home. My dad got a couple pictures and I got a couple videos, but they're really not all that exciting. Emily was much braver this year and actually walked up to the cars to get candy! One more night of trick or treating tomorrow night (at Granddaddy's place) then we'll settle in and enjoy the candy for the next few months!

44 weeks & a Weekend Visit

2011-10-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

I'm late in posting because we took a weekend trip.

Friday night, we headed to Austin to visit our good friends, Kevin, Kellie & Jake. We arrived in time for spaghetti and garlic bread. Yummy! (Kellie went out of her way to make sure I had stuff to eat this weekend too!) We got the kids ready for bed and visited a little before heading to bed.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed to a local garden center to look at their pumpkin display, petting zoo, bounce houses and, of course, candy. Emily enjoyed looking at the animals but wanted nothing to do with actually touching them. No biggie. Just means we didn't have to use hand sanitizer! Jake was fired up about the bounce houses. Guess who wasn't! Emily said she wanted to watch "him" in there. So, we stood off to the side and watched. After a little while of that, we went and picked out pumpkins to take home. Emily & Jake picked theirs out immediately. Easiest decision Emily's made in a long time!

We went to Cheddar's for lunch. It was beyond time for lunch and the kids (all three of them) let us know! We finally got some food in everyone (even me, though it was made a bit more difficult by the fact that Cheddar's doesn't have an allergen menu).

We headed home for naps and everyone crashed for a while! Then, it was time to play baseball in the front yard. Everyone had a great time and we got to see just how well Jake (at almost 3) can hit the ball!

The boys cooked fajitas for supper, then we carved the pumpkins. Having not done that since probably middle school and certainly never by myself, I let Phillip follow Kevin's lead on this. (I did take mental notes so we can do it next year though). The kids really enjoyed watching and helping when they could. They turned out great. (Yes, they actually got carved. Unfortunately, my camera battery died after this picture, so I'll have to get the rest from Kellie. I'll post the family picture we got with the pumpkins later.)

Sunday was church (where we saw one of our employees!) then lunch at Pei Wei (yea for Honey Seared Chicken being dairy-free!). The drive home was a bit longer than the drive down there. I think everyone was just ready to be home and was cranky because of it. But, we made it home and got settled and ready to hit the busy week ahead of us (amazingly, one of the busiest weeks we've had in a while!).

Winner

2011-10-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

It all starts with "Giveaway Winner" in the subject of the email. I love the giddy feeling I get when I see that. This time, it was an amber necklace from Mom's Milk Boutique. I had read about Baltic amber and the healing properties it has (see here), but I was skeptical and not willing to spend $20 on a necklace for Anna. (Yes, necklace FOR Anna!)

The necklace is beautiful and looks great on Anna. I've gotten many compliments on it already. So far, I haven't been able to tell much difference in Anna, but I think she's starting to get a few teeth in, so we'll see if she's calmer. Just thought I'd share!

10 months

2011-10-19T15:49:00.000-05:00

At 10 months, Anna is cruising and walking holding on to fingers (sometimes). She loves fruits, but doesn't particularly like veggies (though she will eat them). She devours Cheerios and just lights up when she see them (though I don't think she saw this one!)

She now weighs 16.5 pounds (5th percentile) and is 27.5" long (25th percentile). Long and lean!

42 & 43 weeks

2011-10-16T20:07:00.000-05:00

I was informed this weekend that I didn't post a picture last week. I took it. Really, I did! See? Oh wait, I took it but you didn't see it!

Okay, enough of that. You've already heard that! In the last two weeks, Anna has tried blueberries & a mixed cereal containing oats, amaranth & quinoa. She absolutely loves blueberries, just like Emily did. I just wish they weren't so messy!

Last Thursday was the second time we've opened for Artwalk. After we decided we'd be doing this regularly, I knew Anna needed to have a Bogie's shirt like the rest of us. So, I bought a pink onesie and some iron-on transfer paper and made her one. Cute, huh?

Anna has figured out how to climb up the stairs from the playroom to the dining room without stopping on the edge to be proud of herself. Unfortunately, that means she'll climb on anything else too. This afternoon, she climbed on our footstool and on to the couch. Guess the footstool needs to go away!

For some time now, she's loved dancing to Emily's Sit n Spin. Here's a little of what I get to see each day!

As I was cleaning up my pictures this afternoon, I came across some pictures from a birthday party we went to a month ago. Apparently, I had taken a series of pictures of both girls, just for fun. Here are the results.

Best Granola Bars Ever!

2011-10-07T15:44:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned before that I like granola bars, but can't buy any of the ones I like in the stores because of Anna's problems with dairy and peanuts. I had found a good recipe that worked okay a few times, but the more I changed it, the more problems I had with it.

Not too long ago, I found this recipe at Simple Organized Living and wanted to try it but was missing a few key ingredients. Well, I finally got them all yesterday and, having been out of granola bars for a week (grr!), decided it was time to try it. Oh, my goodness!! They are amazing!! I couldn't quite spread them out to fill the 9x13, so I may have to adjust the amounts, as I'd like to make a full pan each time. Other than that, it's definitely a keeper as is. One of the best things is that they are no-bake so they take much less time to prepare.

Chewy Granola Bars
1/2 C honey or corn syrup (I used about 1/8 C honey and the rest corn syrup because I don't always like the bitterness of honey, but it would be fine with more honey)
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C peanut butter (I used creamy SunButter)
2 C quick oats
2 C crispy rice cereal
1/4 C ground flax seed
1-2 T wheat germ (optional--I used 1 T)
1 C mix-ins (I used dark chocolate chips, but you could use dried fruits, nuts, seeds, etc.)

Lin a 9x13 pan with wax paper or grease it well.

Mix the oats, cereal, flax seed, wheat germ and mix-ins in a large bowl. (I used a 5qt bowl and it was about the right size.) In a small saucepan, mix honey or corn syrup and brown sugar. Cook over medium-high heat until sugar is completely dissolved, stirring constantly. (I wasn't sure exactly when to stop cooking it. The sugar appeared to dissolve very quickly, but I kept cooking it just to heat it all up because of the next step.) Remove from heat and quickly stir in peanut butter. Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients. Mix well. (I ended up using my hands to mix it all.)

Press mixture into prepared pan. (You can either use your hands or cover the mixture with wax paper and press down with a measuring cup.) Let cool and "firm up"--kind of like Rice Krispy Bars. Cut into bars and store in an air-tight container. (I lifted the wax paper and bars onto a cutting board and used a pastry cutter/scraper to cut them into 1.5"x4.5" bars. You can store them in the freezer in an air-tight container as well.)

40 & 41 weeks

2011-10-02T12:41:00.002-05:00

Apparently last week was busy. So busy, that I forgot to post the picture! I did take one, though!

Two weeks ago, Anna had a case of hives. I suspect it was from a couple of animal crackers I gave her that had been processed in a plant with peanuts. Unfortunately, to be sure, I'll have to give them to her again and possibly give her hives again. The upside is that they didn't really seem to bother her.

Friday, Anna, my mom & I took Emily to meet Aunt Jenni for the weekend. Emily had a great time yesterday (at least what I can tell from the pictures!) and I can't wait to hear all about it today when we go to get her. Here is one of my favorite pictures Jenni took from yesterday (with Emily's new friend Owl).

Pinterest challenge part 2

2011-09-27T15:49:00.001-05:00

Another project I did (and already told you about, but I wanted a clean post to link to) is this fun cake from Parents magazine. Lauren & I made it for our first MOPS meeting. Everyone loved the cake!