Smoothie Sailing

Image by elana's pantry via Flickr

Just a quick something funny. I made myself a smoothie for breakfast: mango, banana, raspberry, carrot, celery, soy milk and honey. As I was drinking it, Marin made her "uhh, uhhhh, uhhh" sound, meaning "I want some!" So, I gave her a sip and she was hooked! She never knew she was drinking vegetables, funny girl. Gotta love the smoothie.

Thanksgiving Surprise

Wow, where did the weekend go? Thanksgiving has come and go and now we are fast on our way to Christmas already?! Kris and I had planned to spend the Thanksgiving with just ourselves, some homemade deep dish pizza and root beer floats, but we had a last minute change of plans :) Kris's family decided to come down for a super quick visit and a Thanksigiving feast, so Wednesday night, Kris and I scrambled to find a turkey and were up all night cooking some great food. We had SO MUCH FUN staying up chatting and making food, it was great. And, if I may say so myself, the food turned out AMAZING! We had a delicious, juicy turkey, garlic mashed potatos, cranberry apple stuffing, golden onion gravy, pumpkin cheescake, and Kris's sister made some delicious rolls with raspberry butter and cranberry sauce. We hadn't planned a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it was I think the best I've ever had (or made!). And I got a some kitchen bling from my crazy and wonderful husband. He bought me a ceramic dutch oven, bright red and beautiful, I have been wanting one of those for a looong time. Plus, I got a roasting pan with rack to make our turkey, it worked perfectly, and I felt uber spoiled! If you are interested in my Thanksgiving recipes, just stay tuned, I'll be posting them later :) Although the visit was short, we were so happy to see family and Marin got to spend all day Friday with her Bestamor.

Here are a few of our pictures:

Marin with her Bestamor. Marin looks a little stunned, it was getting a bit late ;)

Marin ith Aunt Melodie, Kris's sister. I just HAVE to say how proud I am of Melodie, she played two of her amazing songs for us, and shared some good news about her new producer and we are so happy for her! She has worked so hard!

Marin and Uncle Sam. It was funny how unsure Marin was of Sam when they first arrived, she just stood there and looked at him, by the end of the night, they were laughing and playing together, she had a great time.

I was going to take pictures of our amazing Thanksgiving feast, but I couldn't find our camera charger until we broke out the cheesecake, so it's the only picture I have. Take a look at this bad boy, eh?! AMAZING! I made a chocolate ganache to go over the top, and the cheesecake was out of this world, sooooo good. It looks professional, no? Just think that the rest of the meal looked just as good.

Come to mama, oh yeah, my brand new ceramic dutch oven, I am in LOVE!

Such a great Thanksgiving. Work over the weekend was TOUGH though, man! I had some busy busy patients and they kept me running and the stress level high. I also had a "first"! I was starting an IV on a kid, and the mom passed out on me, right down on the floor! Yikes! Poor thing, I felt bad for her, but she was fine, I had someone walk her back to her room, and she was ok. I can tell you though, I was glad to be DONE with work! I missed my family.

Healthy Oatcakes DuJour

Wonderful Delicious Oatcakes

*Grind up oats (not instant or quick-cooking) in cuisinart until you have a flour. It only takes 20-30 seconds or so.

Combine:
-2 C. oat flour
-2 eggs
-2 tsp baking powder
-4 Tbs honey
-1& 1/2 C milk
-2/3 C applesauce or canned pumpkin (mmmmm!)
-dash of salt

*Let stand for 10 minutes until mixture is thick.
*Spoon onto griddle at med heat and cook until golden and delicious!
TIP: These pancakes are VERY filling and thick, so make small ones about 4" in diameter.
*This recipe should make about 6 pancakes.

Holiday Spirit

Last night after I put Marin to bed, I turned on the radio to the station playing christmas classics, plugged in the christmas lights on our entry-way, turned on the fireplace and let myself inhale the holiday spirit. I opened up a can of pumpkin and made some delicious chocolate chip pumpkin cookies to give out to my visiting teaching ladies today. It was wonderful to be in the kitchen smelling the cinnamon and pumpkin wafting from the oven, listening to Christmas jazz and seeing the fire in the fireplace. *Inhale* and release *ahhhhhhhhhh* :) I love this time of year, and I wish we could all be as happy and giving as we are during these wonderful months.

Marin I think is on the mend, she is still coughing up a lot of ....stuff, but I think it's on it's way out, so that makes me feel better. No mama likes to have a sick babe :(

And how could I forget....Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Wow! We had invited a few people over, but they were headed out of town, so it's just the three of us tomorrow. I was in the market last night looked at a turkey and thought to myself, "How are Kris and I going to eat all that?!". I therefore decided that this year, instead of turkey, we would be having a ....traditional Thanksgiving deep dish pizza! I make a killer deep dish pizza, and there were nooooo complaints from my hubby, he loves all things pizza of course (what guy doesn't, eh?). Maybe if we have company over, I'll go all out and make a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, actually, two years ago I made some cornish game hens with all the trimmings, but this year, there's really no need :)

Marin mauling the dog. The only reason I keep that naughty dog is because she is so blasted good with the baby. Marin squishes and pokes and stands and sits all over that dog and Mollie just takes it.

Little Triumphs

I have a few moments while the babes sleep to make mention of my morning triumph. I have been trying to cut back on the amount of wheat products our family eats, in particular Marin. She, like her mama, loves all things carbohydrates and unfortunately, that sometimes gets in the way of eating other things. It has also lead Marin to have a rather yeasty diaper area, so I got myself to thinking! Since Marin is not a big oatmeal fan, I thought, what if I made pancakes out of oatmeal that I grind into flour? Marin loooooves pancakes, so this morning, I dumped some oatmeal into my cuisinart and ground it up fairly easily into a flour like consistency. Then I threw in some baking powder, an egg, some applesauce, milk, stirred and I was in business. I wasn't sure if the batter would set, but I am telling you, the pancakes came out absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I was amazed and just delighted. Not only did they turn out and look pretty, but they were darn tasty too! What did Marin think? She gobbled them right down! Yessss! I just grinned at Marin while she ate them and nuzzled her cheek and whispered "You'll never know!", into her ear. Little triumphs make me smile, now that I'm a mom, it's hard to feel like I'm making any headway, but this morning.....I won ;)

Found Marbles!

I have been recouperating this past week and missed work both days, Friday and Saturday, but I am feeling much better now. Marin's cold, on the other hand is in full swing. Poor baby is all congested and draining and coughing. Although she's usually pretty spunky even when she's not feeling well, I can tell she's not 100%.

These past few days, Marin has really been experimenting with words, she now say's the kitty's name, Sadie (well, it sounds like Sa-eeee), and down, phone, she tries to say flower but it sounds like wow. She also says "all done" when she's done with her meal. It's funny to see how she watches my mouth when I say words.

Saturday night, I made some pretty yummy almond chocolate chip shortbread cookies for my Young Women on Sunday. I love making new fun things in the kitchen , but I have to give my goodies away, otherwise I eat them myself! Check the out!

Kris found some marbles at Wal Mart and bought them for like, 5 bucks, he LOVES marbles and it's fun to play marbles together. Marin thinks they are the coolest thing. She loves to bring the bottle of marbles over to me and beg to have me play marbles with her, such a funny girl :)

Daddy and Marin playing with the marbles together.

Here daddy, this one's for you!

I am off to get Marin into a hot shower, hopefully to clean her out a bit, have a wonderful day!

Why I Like Sappy Love Movies

I have determined, after 3 years of marriage, 1 cat, 1 baby and 1 dog, that marriage is hard. It requires a lot of patience, talking and compromise, and occasionally, a reminder of why we fell in love. As many couples who have been married even longer may be able to attest, after a while, you get.....comfortable in the realtionship you have with your spouse. This can be a blessing and a curse all at the same time. The comfort and deep love you craved at the beginning and now have, makes you desire the excitement and passion you had at the beginning of your marriage. Ahh the eternal marital conundrum, this little problem leads many marriages to the grave and leaves spouses....alone. THIS....is why I have finally admitted to myself before God and his witnesses, that I like sappy love movies. While I love my husband more now than ever, it's great to have a reminder of those feelings I had for him when we first met, and sappy love movies are GREAT for that. I also get to watch all of the reasons my husband is amazing, those things that maybe I forget about on a day to day basis. And finally, I get to realize all over again that I am LIVING my own sappy love movie! I have the romantic "how-we-met" story, I have the amazing honeymoon story, I have the star-struck first year story, the Big-Move story, the baby-makes-three story, and so many more! It's easy to get caught up in the here and now, which may not seem very romantic, but those sappy love movies, they help me remember what I have. I have a memory closet chock full of the most amazing chapters of the greatest love story ever....mine :)

Relentless-itis?

Day 5 of feeling awful and blah! Ugh! I took Marin and myself to the quick care today for a check up and although Marin has only had the sniffles for a couple of days, I thought I would get her checked out. They sent her off with a clean bill of health, I, however, got bronchitis and five days of antibiotics. I was actually hoping to I would get a little somethin' to help me feel better, my throat is sooo sore! I called in for work tomorrow, considering I can barely talk without squeeking, I don't think anyone will want me as their nurse. So, I am making a quick post tonight as I am about to lay down on the couch and veg. Have a good one!