Heart Warming

I went in to check on Elijah today after I put him down for his nap.  I knew he was reading before he fell asleep, but it warmed my heart to see him asleep with his Bible open on his tummy.  The boy loves reading all kinds of books, but the book he always goes back to and carries around is his Bible.  I've had to tape the spine because it is coming apart from all the love he gives it.  There are very few (nearly) 2 year olds that I would give a book with paper pages and not worry about pages getting torn.  He does an excellent job!   

Do you see Bob snuggled up at his head?  (The giant red tomato) That is the replacement for his pacifier.  He has done really well adjusting.  I know he still misses it because on rare occasions he will try to sneak Madison's in. 

I pray as he continues to grow that he will ALWAYS love reading his Bible as much as he does now.

Picture overload

I've gotten behind again. I haven't had my camera out as much as I would like. I got it out again yesterday and just set it where I could grab it quick. Hopefully I'll catch more of our days. 

Elijah LOVES biscuits and gravy!!  One of the only foods he will consistently eat.  We work on using a fork, but it's just way faster to use his hands!

Baby Madison is most persistent, taking the shortest route to her new destination no matter what stands in the way. 

Aubrey and I had a whole 20 minute conversation one day, though I have no idea what we discussed.

Elijah loves playing with our old cell phones and he tries to take his own picture.

One of the only pictures I got of our trip to the zoo.

Elijah was roaring like a lion.

We played outside with Grandpa and Grandma's Tonka toys.

We had to get Elijah a new hat since he out grew the old one.  Madison inherited his old one.

They spend lots of time reading books.

Our first skinned knee of the summer.

Cheese!

Breakfast smiles

He loves his sister!

Tonight we go the rodeo!!  Elijah is so excited and keeps talking about seeing his buddy Wyatt!

Wrestlers!!

Madison LOVES her brother even when he's rough with her.  I see some crazy days in our future!! 

Oh No!!

The unthinkable has finally happened!!  The tip of Elijah's pacifier has come off!

 

The last week of school I noticed Elijah had chewed a hole in the end of his pacifier.  I was hoping it would last until school was out when I was planning on weaning him off.  We had been putting it away except at nap and bed time and he was doing well. 

 

This past weekend we went down to my parents house to celebrate birthdays.  By this time, he had chewed numerous holes and I was starting to worry about him swallowing it or choking on it.  We were in the middle of Sunday School and I had gone out with Madison (she was doing lots of squealing :) ).  The next thing I knew, Justin and Elijah were joining me.  The pacifier end had come off....

(Most Sundays in the middle of church we could give him his pacifier and he would lay his head down on Justin's shoulder and fall asleep.)

 

I was rather worried about the service.  We had several tense moments, but we made it!  Afterward we decided to check out a couple of Veggie Tales DVD's for Elijah to watch before he goes to bed.  He held those DVD's the entire 2 hour trip home.  That night he slept with them and has insisted on sleeping with them ever since.  Here he is clutching his DVD's!  

The poor little guy does not know how a library works and that he is going to have to return his DVD's.  I had an idea the other night and ordered him a stuffed Bob the Tomato. (He's the tomato off of Veggie Tales)  Bob has yet to arrive, but when he does, I'm hoping little Elijah forgets about his DVD's and starts snuggling Bob in his sleep.

She's on the move!!

Baby Madison is on the move!! She's been working so hard at crawling.  For the longest time she would push herself backward.  She finally figured out how to move her arms and legs to go forward.  Nothing is safe anymore!!  Poor Elijah has to get used to sharing his toys with little sister!

Picky Eaters

My little Elijah has become a picky eater.  He used to eat his veggies like a champ, but now that he feeds himself, he has decided he doesn't like them and boycotts them at every meal.  I've cooked them every possible way and he still just shakes his head and proceeds to eat around them.  I decided to get sneaky and hide them in foods I knew he loved.  The following is a muffin recipe I found on Pinterest. (Click here for the link)  As I type this he is sitting on my lap enjoying his second Veggie Muffin.  
The recipe works with husbands as well as kids.  My hubby eats his veggies, but he enjoys the muffins as well.  It's kind of fun to hide them to see what all I can get him to eat!!    

Veggie Muffins 
 
2 Cups All-purpose Flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 of a stick) softened butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup Prune or Apple juice
1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli (frozen or fresh)
1 to 1 1/2 cups smashed bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup yogurt (vanilla, plain, strawberry, whatever flavor)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Start by mixing your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) in a small bowl. Set aside.
Mix the sugar, butter, and eggs in a separate bowl or mixer. Beat for a couple minutes till everything is combined.
Next, prepare your veggies. Grate the carrots, smash up the bananas, and prepare your broccoli puree.
This is my favorite part of the recipe. You need about 1/2 cup of puree when done, which takes about 1 1/2 cups of broccoli–frozen/thawed or fresh/steamed–and 1/4 cup of juice. I used prune juice but apple or grape works too.
Combine the broccoli cuts and prune juice in the food processor and pulse till finely mixed. If you don’t have a food processor, use a blender or try to finely chop it up (but the chunks will be more visible to your kiddos).
Okay, throw the broccoli puree, carrots, bananas, yogurt, and vanilla into the butter mixture and beat for a minute. Finally, add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined and wet.

Scoop the mixture into a prepared muffin pan (you can also use cupcake liners if you want them to feel like “cupcakes”. That word always makes my kids excited about food).

Depending on how much you fill in each cup, the recipe makes about 20-24 muffins.
Bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes, until the tops are slightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Fun Age

Elijah is at a fun age where he is really enjoying more things.  We had some "Moon sand" at preschool I brought home for him to play with.

It's a sticky sand that he could build with.

He had it all over, but he really enjoyed it.

He has also been having fun with play dough

We moved him to a toddler bed and Madison has taken over the crib.  There have been several nights I have found him like this.

He LOVES playing outside and will stand at the door just waiting for an opportunity to go out.  Buddy was entertaining him from the other side.

We are anxiously awaiting summer when we can play outside every day!

Baby Babbles

Madison is really babbling, squealing, and shrieking these days!

He Speaks!

Elijah is starting to say more and more words! It's so fun to hear him try to say different things!

4 Months

Baby Madison is 4 months old already! (closer to 5 months these days but we will ignore that fact for the moment) She is really interacting and responding to us more and more.  It has been so much fun!  

We had several days of photo shoots...between her and her brother things got pretty interesting.  The quilt was so colorful she spent the entire first photo shoot in this position checking it out. 

Her brother loves to wrestle and believes that anytime someone is laying on the floor it's an invitation to jump on their back.  Every time I thought I was going to snap a good picture he'd jump, wiggle, or bump me making the image blurry. :)

Elijah loves taking pictures with Madison (or by himself for that matter) and was continually photo bombing the pictures as well.  I'm telling you it was a rodeo,

but so much fun though, I wouldn't change it for the world!

Miss Madison has been such a joy!  At 4 months old she has been:
-BABBLING-constantly babbling
-squealing and shrieking
-smiling-ALL THE TIME
-wanting someone to talk to her or pay attention to her
-batting at her toys hanging from her bouncer
-wanting to be upright so she doesn't miss a thing
-watching every move her brother makes
-consistently waking up once a night
-weighing in at around 16 lbs 

Life

Elijah spent the first part of his weekend reading books and snuggling.  He has a cold and ran a fever for the first time in his life Thursday afternoon.  Thankfully he is on the mend and we are just battling a runny nose.

 I told him to say "cheese"

 He's been extra tired and was too sleepy to lay down.

 The boy is a super picky eater. If the food doesn't pass the 'tip of the tongue taste' there is no hope of it getting eaten.  We have had spaghetti numerous times.  Each time he has been unimpressed.  Last weekend he ate some at my sister-in-laws so I thought we would try again last night.  He only ate a couple bites of noodles but he nearly ate three whole meatballs and loved them!

 This morning we had one of his favorites, biscuits and gravy.  He downed one and a half biscuits! (They were small)  Hopefully he will keep it up and put on some weight. 

 We can't forget Madison! She has been practicing holding her head up when she's laying on her tummy. 

 She's doing great! I can't believe she's going to be 4 months old Tuesday!

Black Forest Dump Cake

Need a quick easy dessert that's scrumptious? This is the cake for you!!  You basically just layer all the ingredients in a pan and bake, it doesn't get any easier!   

Photo by Taste of Home

Ingredients:

1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling

1 can (15 ounces) pitted dark sweet cherries, undrained

1 chocolate cake mix (regular size)

1/2 cup sliced almonds

3/4 cup butter, cubed

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spread pie filling into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish; top with undrained cherries.  Sprinkle with cake mix and almonds.  Top with cubed butter.

 

Bake 40-50 minutes or until topping is set.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Yield: 12 servings.

 

A couple of things:

I omitted the almonds because I didn't have any on hand.

 

I made this dessert twice.  The first time my husband couldn't find any pitted dark sweet cherries, so he bought pitted tart cherries.  The second time I made it with the pitted dark sweet cherries.  We both agreed that we preferred the tart cherries to the sweet.  It didn't make the dessert as sweet and the tart and sweet seemed to compliment each other. 



We're back!

After an unintentional break we are back.  I'm hoping to post regularly simply as a record for myself.  Life is flying by and I want to capture as much of it as possible.  Baby Madison joined our family in November.  Elijah is so happy to have his baby sister around and is a great little helper!

Elijah and I attempted our first craft together the other day. 

We colored coffee filter hearts with markers and than sprayed them with water to make the colors bleed together. 

He only colored on one filter and then watched as I finished coloring and cutting out the hearts.  He LOVED spraying the hearts down though.

Madison likes to be sitting up so she can watch everything we do.

Our hearts as they were drying.

Miss Madison was wanting to help out so badly!

"Are you talking to me??"

Our finished product!

 

 

Elijah loves helping me in the kitchen.  He always wants us to pull a chair in so he can stand and see what's going on up on the counter.  He knows good things come from the mixer and is frequently pointing at it babbling something. 

We made cookies yesterday and he was excited to lick the beater.