baby bum

How is it that cellulite can be so cute on a baby? Mine doesn't look nearly as precious. ;)

yummy healthy muffins

I just made these Whole Wheat Carrot-Raisin muffins today, after being inspired by Tim Horton's Whole Grain Carrot Orange muffin the other day. I tweaked the recipe a bit since I didn't have pumpkin pie spice. So here's how I did it. And with no sugar - just honey. Delicious snack.

Whole Wheat Carrot-Raisin Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup apple juice (or orange juice)
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins

Mix dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients.
Add carrots to the wet ingredients.
Combine wet and dry ingredients.
Add raisins.
Scoop into muffin liners.
Bake at 350 for 20 - 22 minutes.

exercising

I have been trying to be creative on ways to effectively exercise while toting around three children. It is easy to let the kids ride their bikes and put Koen in a stroller, but it always turns out to be very. slow. and I really wouldn't call it exercise! So I decided to take the kids and cram all three of them in the stroller, with the promise that if they sat nicely I would let them play on the playground for a bit.

I must say pushing around 100 pounds in a stroller is quite a good workout! :)

We saw a little friend along the way...

Landon was stoked!

fun at mimi's

My wonderful Mom often offers to take the kids for me so I can get some things done or have some "me" time. Lately I have been using the time to run errands and get more paperwork stuff done in the immigration process. Needless to say, however the time is spent, I am thankful to have some alone time and not have to worry about reigning in three kids for a few hours a week!

Today the kids had some fun playing dress-up with some stuff they found in the playhouse. I just love these shots. What great memories are being made. Seriously...so thankful to be living near my family!

sweetness

We had a great weekend at the lake house - enjoying fun, food, family, and friends!

Nothing like starting off a weekend with the best pancakes ever...(see recipe below!)

Koen making his way around...

He seems to always find his way to his favorite person (aka Daddy)

The kids had a BLAST playing in the muddy water...

Memories being made...
LOVE
Even Koen spent some time by the water. This hat stayed on for all of the time it took to snap this photo...
Saturday afternoon my Oma came out to see her fiancee and spend sometime with the great grandchildren. I just love this shot of them swinging the kids...
Look how big this sweetie is getting!
I spy with my little eye...a little girl and her Grammy who look a lot alike...don't you think?
Fun times in the hammock...

Jonathan & Alissa joined us again for Saturday night. Sunday morning Koen was completely content just chilling with Auntie Alissa in the hammock. :)

Uncle Jonathan got a little parenting practice... :)
We took the kayaks out...it was great fun!

Amazing weekend...and hard to get back to "real" life today...

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Oh, and the pancake recipe I promised...

BEST PANCAKES EVER

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk (or 2 Tbsp vinegar and 2 cups milk)
2 eggs
2 Tbsp melted butter

Mix dry ingredients. Mix eggs with buttermilk, then add to dry ingredients. Lastly add the melted butter. You know how to do the rest! :)

success = one less kid in diapers!

It's official - Landon is POTTY TRAINED. I never thought I'd see the day...but it has come. Actually, on Wednesday. Since then he has not had an accident in his underwear. He has told me when he has to go, and it has been AWESOME. We even went out of the house Wednesday and Thursday nights, and he did great! I am SO proud of him. And honestly I think he is pretty proud of himself! I just feel like a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders...another hurdle in motherhood...conquered!!!

Some pics from last night's walk around Mill Lake...We are off to the lake house for the weekend! Yay! Be back with pictures on Monday. Have a great weekend!

p.t. bootcamp - update

Yesterday Landon sat on the potty for FIVE HOURS before he peed...second day in a row. Then after that he had a accident on the carpet and a mess in his diaper before bed. Sigh. I was defeated at the end of the day.

I was texting with my friend, Sara, who suggested letting him run around with his big boy underwear on and let him have his accidents...that way he can feel it happening in his daily routine. So I decided today I would try something different.

And...

I was upstairs feeding Koen before naptime and Landon called that he needed to pee. I ran downstairs to see him standing over his potty with wet undies. Okay, so I was a bit disappointed, but at least he had ran to the toilet before he peed. Then, he sat down and completely peed (I guess it had just started to come out beforehand) right in front of me. SUCCESS!!! If you have known what we have tried so far with him this is a MAJOR accomplishment. I am so excited!!! YIPEE!!!

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(12:50pm update)

He went #2 on the potty! Success!!! I am one happy Mama.

so big!

Lately as soon as I open the dishwasher, I hear a little someone quickly crawling on the floor...I guess he wants to help his Mommy!

(I didn't notice until I downloaded this that he has something on his tongue...I'm hoping it's a leftover raisin from the floor...)

Standing up!

So proud of himself!

Meanwhile, Landon is still working on being a big boy. Yesterday, after FIVE HOURS of sitting on the potty, he finally peed! Then it was nap time, so his diaper went back on. After dinner we sent the kids outside to play (it was FINALLY sunny!) and he came running up the back stairs yelling, "Mommy! I need to pee!" By the time he got to me he was already wet. Not sure if he let me know before he started peeing or after, but either way, I'd say it's progress.

Today, we are back to sitting on the potty, waiting for the pee...He's been on and off a bit. Every so often he tells me, "I need to pee!" But then nothing happens...oh, I hope this works soon.

potty training boot camp: day one

I have dreaded this day...

It's not like I haven't tried before (see, this is October 2010 in Durango)...
This time I am armed with bribes...Candy for #1's...
...and Hot Wheels for #2's...

Ugh. So far we haven't anything leave his bottom - only lots of milk and juice consumed. Praying we catch something in the potty today.

Pray for me.

koen j - 10 months old!

I have done a VERY poor job of keeping up with Koen's month-birthdays. But anyways, here we are now...and Koen is already TEN months old! Time is just f.l.y.i.n.g. by and our baby is growing up!

He is now (thankfully) sleeping through the night. Well, mostly. He has been working on getting his two upper teeth the last couple of weeks so he has been up for an early morning feed between 5am and 6am - which I much prefer over the two times he was up per night before! Some nights he will sleep all the way through...love it. I seriously forgot how wonderful it is to live on good sleep!

He is getting around everywhere and into everything! He still doesn't do the full "real" crawl but he has made the army crawl work for him and he is QUICK! He is pulling himself up onto things, easily getting into a sitting position, and sitting on his knees while playing with toys! He looks so big!


Koen is still nursing, and going strong...which is still shocking to me! I have officially nursed Koen four months longer then I did Natalie and Landon. I am so thankful for this - because I don't have to pay for formula and I love the special time I get with him.

Natalie and Landon are Koen's heros. He will arch his back and turn his head to find them if he hears them coming. There's no point in even trying to nurse him when Nat and Land are around because he is so distracted! And he just loves his "Dada" - he will say his name thousands of times a day and gets so excited when Daddy walks in the door!

We are all SO in love with our little Bubba...

canadians!

...never thought I'd see the day! My kids are now officially dual citizens of the USA and Canada! These came in on Canada Day...perfect timing. :)

PS. How did I end up with the cutest kids ever? ;)

papa's birthday

This past Tuesday (the 12th) we celebrated my Dad's birthday! It was fun to (finally) be around for his birthday. To celebrate, I made some cupcakes to take to his store to celebrate with everyone there. The kids were SO excited to surprise him!

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and some with chocolate icing (thanks Alissa for the recipe!)

In the evening we headed over to my parent's for a barbecue...two parties in one day, my social-butterfly (Natalie) was in her glory! It was so fun and delicious - garlic wings, steaks, strawberry spinach salad, grilled asparagus, double-stuffed potatoes, and strawberry pie. Yum. And, it is so wonderful to have my family around, to love on us, and love on our kids!

Loves from Oma...

The grill master...

Cousins having fun...

Sweet Lacey was comforting Koen when he was crying...