Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Fall Party

Every year our friends have a fall party for the kids. This year it was freezing but the hay ride was still fun. Here is Ben and Roman on the hayride all the kids were quite cold when they came back.


Thursday, October 25, 2007

rock climbing and other fun things.

Doesn't this look fun? Yeah not me either my boys however think this would be fun. Lucas especially would really enjoy this as long as his mother never finds out:) Yesterday after working out at the YMCA the kids wanted to go do the rock climbing wall. So off they went of course it wasn't like this but they had fun just the same. They both made it to the top twice in different spots on the wall. There is four different spots to go up some are harder than others. I tried it once and made it only half way up it's much harder than it looks. They were happy they beat mom..:)

In other news today I made these chocolate peanut butter bars from tammysrecipes.com oh my are they good. So easy to make and they taste just like reeces peanut butter cups. I'm going to freeze a bunch so we don't eat them all at once. Now I'm off to bake home made wheat bread and some more apple muffins for this weekend. It's baking day in case you wondered..heehee.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Apple Muffins

Something that's been hard for Kaleb is not being able to eat cake or any type of sweets. So I made apple muffins today... ok I'll admit it for me to not just Kaleb..heehee. I experimented a little bit and didn't know if they'd turn out or not but they did. They are awesome!! I put an icing on top which I went a little over board with I know but mmmm it sure makes them tasty.
This is actually an apple bread recipe that I've made for years but it also made fantastic muffins.

Apple Muffins

2 C. Flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 C. butter, softened
1 C. white sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 C. peeled, chopped apple
4 oz. applesauce
1 t. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. In large bowl beat butter, sugar, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla. Stir in the chopped apple.
4. Pour flour mixture into the liquid's and stir just until moistened.
5. Pour into 12 muffin cups.
6. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

Icing

3/4 C. confectioners sugar
1 T. butter melted
3/4 t. vanilla
2 t. water
mix all together until a glaze forms and pour over warm muffins.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Fall Fun.

Today is leaf raking day we have two huge old trees in our backyard that just dump. We're raking up the first half of them today and the rest once they fall. The boys always have a good ol' time with them first though. Their favorite is to pile them up on the trampoline and jump with the leaves so to speak. I heard from two different neighbors that the boys asked them for their leaves to play with also. I'm sure glad that my neighbors both said no.


The boys pumpkins they painted after we picked them at the pumpkin farm last week. Kaleb's is the one is red and Lucas painted his with two different faces on it. I thought they turned out cute.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Dairy Free donuts

This morning I decided to try and make some home made donuts that Kaleb can eat. Being they had to be dairy free I wasn't sure how they would taste. I took this recipe from allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Plain-Cake-Doughnuts/Detail.aspx
I substituted the regular milk with soy milk that he drinks. I wasn't to impressed by them I don't think it was the soy milk I couldn't even taste it. But I didn't make any with regular milk so I'm not sure if there would be a taste difference. The kids loved them and had fun putting powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar on them. I have another recipe to try that's suppose to be like crispy creme donuts we'll see how those turn out. Maybe some other Saturday.:) I will say they were very easy to make.



The dough for the donut holes.







I had just dropped them into the oil.









Brown on one side. They float to the top as they cook the kids got a kick out of watching them cook.







Our finished product. They were very crispy just missing something that I couldn't identify.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Graduating from the "baby" bike.

I've been trying to get Roman on this bike all summer long. For some reason he was scared of it. Meanwhile he pedals and steers this baby big wheel all up and down the street at a speed any mother would be proud of. I knew he was ready for his big boy bike it came down to what any parent would do...bribery:) Yes I know terrible but it worked. For two pieces of liquorice he got on the bike and let help him down the street. With in minutes he was doing it by himself and wouldn't accept any help. All night long he rode that bike up and down the driveway and asking myself and Lucas to go up and down the street with him. Today he's very quick on it and told me "mom, I put the baby bike away". I think meaning he's done riding it..heehee. Boys and their bikes I tell ya it's my kids prized possession. Oh, he did get the candy to he was so proud of himself.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Update on Kaleb

Well it's been three weeks since our hive incident with Kaleb he had his follow up appointment today at the doctor's office. He came out very well he does have to be dairy free for a year. But he should be able to have dairy once or twice a week after that the doc said. He was 50% improved over all and would've been even better but last week he had some cantaloupe and had an allergic reaction to that. That reaction set him back a bit but overall he's doing much better. I'm very thankful he doesn't have to go off gluten dairy is hard enough on him. He's also off food coloring the doc said that when children have a dairy allergy they often are allergic to food coloring and artificial flavorings and sugars. He very rarely has artificial flavorings maybe once a year if he gets a diet pop from a neighbor or something but we just don't eat it in anything nor do we really drink pop. Now food coloring is all together different it's in everything that's been harder to avoid than dairy. I've found some candy that's food coloring free he can have and I'm learning to be creative when I cook and bake. But overall he's doing much better and I thank the Lord for healing my baby in such a timely manner!!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Farm fun..

Last week we had a field trip to a pumpkin patch farm. It was quite cold but a lot of fun. The kids got to take a hay ride out and pick a pumpkin to take home. The also did a hay maze, a story on how pumpkins grow, and had a pumpkin donut and cider..yummy!


Here is Kaleb on the hayride with cousins Racky and Lula.





Lucas and Roman on the pumpkin train.















Roman and his pumpkin he was very proud of it.
















Kaleb and his friend on the pumpkin train.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Kaleb sayings..

This morning in my devotions with Kaleb we had read the story of Abraham and Isaac. When God told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac unto the Lord. I'm thinking when we get to the part where Abraham raised the knife and stopped mid air that Kaleb will say something. I'm explaining how much his dad and I love him and how hard as a parent it would be to sacrifice your child like that. He just looks at me and says:"mom, instead of the son what did they usually use"? Ahem,..So I tell him they used a lamb and at this his face just fell. He looks at me and says "Aw, that poor lamb you mean they took a baby and killed it"? So from then on in our devotions he kept coming back to this lamb and how bad he felt for this poor lamb. I used it as a teaching moment and we talked about how they sacrificed a lamb but that Jesus was our lamb and died for us. In a way it really helped relate to him what Jesus did for us.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Are we made from dust?

Here is a headline from our evening paper today "All we are is space dust in the wind". Here is the beginning of the article:
Quote 1:
"Astronomers know that planets and much on them, including humans, come from dust - mostly from dying stars. But where did the dust that helped form those early stars come from"?

Quote 2:
"A NASA telescope may have spotted one of the answers. It's in the wind bursting out of super massive black holes".

And further down in the article:
Quote 3:
"That still leaves a question about where the earliest dust in the universe came from". "It's formed in the wind" of the black holes, Markwick-Kemper said. The associated Press

I found this article to be almost amusing as a Christian I can go to the word of God and clearly answer all these questions. Now I'm not a rocket scientist or anything but God's word tells us we're made of dust and came from dust. Why is NASA wasting so much money trying to answer this question when they already have the answer to it in the Bible. I'm going to take the quotes and answer them according to the word of God.

The scientist ask where did the dust come from that formed those early stars. Also, where did the dust come from that humans are made from. Our answer is in Genesis 1:16 "And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also". Quite clearly God made the stars therefore the "first" dust these scientist are referring to that they can't find where it came from God made.

In answering there question of how did we come from dust and where did that come from I found the answer in Genesis 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul". Again, the dust they can't find where it came from originally God made.

I'll end with a quote from Genesis 1: 1-5 which teaches how the world was made and by whom.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth". " And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light". " And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness". "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day".




Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Dancing

At the wedding reception this weekend there was dancing with a live band. For many many songs Kaleb was the only one out on the dance floor. He loves to dance and and just gets right into the beat. He has an ear for music and really enjoys it. He was dancing so long the band loved him and got him up on the stage to join them in a song. He got to play the tambourine and kept the beat the entire song all by himself. It was cute and he was just on cloud nine we were also impressed with how well he got the rhythm.

Here is Kaleb dancing he danced to every song that night except the last four or five. He was pooped by the end.







Up on stage playing the tambourine can you tell he liked it..a lot!:)










Roman dancing with his cousin.










Lucas dancing

Monday, October 8, 2007

wedding

We had a family wedding out of town this weekend thus my blogging hiatus. It was a nice wedding the kids had only been to one other one before and that was five years ago. They did very good at the wedding and had a good time at the reception as well. Here is a family picture we had taken there.







Roman and his cousin Ambry playing after dinner with some cookie cutters. Ambry was the flower girl and looked so cute!







I just had to post this picture it's so adorable. Ambry had such a tiring day that when she danced with her daddy for the wedding party song she fell asleep on him. It was so precious.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Guitar lessons

The boys have taken up guitar lessons their first lesson was on Monday night. I really liked their teacher and so did they so I think they'll get along fine. As well as learning how to play guitar they will also be learning how to read music which is what I wanted more than actually learning an instrument. They also do theory and a few other music things as well. They are very excited to learn how to play and already have their lesson for next week mastered. Roman loves to have a "jam" session" with them also on the big bird guitar. He'll walk around the house singing at the top of his lungs while playing his guitar!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Football season...


Football season is here actually just ended for us. Kaleb loves the game of football and has played cub football last year and this year. It's flag football at his age next year he'll get to play tackle football. His big game was on Saturday this past weekend. He did such an awesome job we were so proud of him. He tackled (meaning he got another kids flag a few times) and ran so fast after that football. He was the fastest runner on his team and caught the person with the football quite a few times. I just can't say enough he made me so proud with how hard he tried.
In this picture he had just tackled the other kid and had gotten up. There not suppose to actually tackle just grab the flag but well..you know boys.


Running for the football.














In the huddle before the play. Those kids look so cute when the put their hand on the line. He had a great season and is really looking forward to next year when he plays tackle football...I am to:)

Monday, October 1, 2007

Apple Brownies

Well with Kaleb's dairy free diet I decided to try some dairy free recipes. This one www.tammysrecipes.com/apple_brownies from Tammy was fabulous all my kids loved them and so did I. It will be a recipe I make often also very easy to make. We have a wedding this weekend and will be bringing the kids so I need to take some sort of "cake" Kaleb can have. I'm sure the wedding cake with have dairy in it so I think I'll take some of these apple bars for him.