Homemade Granola

My mom gave me a recipe for homemade granola

(she got it from my aunt...love recipes like that)

 and since we didn't have a busy run all over everywhere

weekend I decided to give it a shot

6 cups oatmeal (the real stuff - not instant)

1 cup nuts - your choice

1 cup craisins/raisins/whatever you have around the house

1 cup oil

1/2 cup brown sugar (I did a wee bit more)

1/4 cup honey (mine was closer to 1/2)

You can adjust your amounts

depending on how chunky you want it to be

more oil, brown sugar & honey = more chunky

First gather your little helpers

(warning they are likely to eat a good amount of your ingredients

so measure accordingly :)

We (Lilly) mixed up our oatmeal, nuts & craisins/raisins mixture

Also it is important to have your chaptstick at your side at all times

and SCREAM if someone tries to take it away

chap lips are serious business according to Nolee

Next mix up your brown sugar, oil & honey

and boil on the stove to dissolve the sugars

Lilly was totally fascinated by the little bear

in the brown sugar bin...I think she thought it was a toy

I forgot in there 

Let your 2 year old help you dump the brown sugar in

as she laughes and giggles...

warning she won't have the best aim 

but don't worry any spills will be totally taken care

of by your helpers

Nothing like brown sugar licked straight off the counters :)

After you pour your boiled mixture over your oatmeal mixture

bake at 350 for around 20 min

stirring around the 10 min mark

Oh and I did add a tablespoon or 2 of cocoa

just to give it a hint of a chocolate flavor

So when it was all said and done I had enough home made granola

to fill this canister and then some (this is a few days into it...so some 

of it has already disappeared :).  

The girls have been eating it as snacks and cereal

(note if you use the cocoa like I did this will turn give your milk

that nice chocolaty flavor and your kids will LOVE to drink it

after they eat the cereal...they even asked to drink mine!)

I have yet to put it in yogurt, but want to give that a try too

Note to Future Self

I am by rule not a pink person

(yeah and then I have two girls who will

literally fight over the pink spoon, dish, bear, whatever)

I grew up playing tball, helping my dad on the farm

riding snowmobiles & fourwheelers

and just all around being a tomboy (and loving it)

So it's a little bit harder for me to get into

princess movies and pink tutus

but my girls love it so what's a mom to do?

Anyway it must be growing on me

because I came across this picture at

Better Homes & Garden's the other day

and completely and utterly fell in love

So note to future self

if the girls are still into pink, pink & more pink as they get older

this would be an awesome tween room makeover idea!!



Re-purposing current decorations

So when we re-painted the living room

from deep Burgundy to lighter & brighter grayish/taupe

Our current decorations kind of looked out of place

So I am trying to not just go out & buy all new

but either re-purpose what we have

or make it myself

On the old walls we had a picture I had picked up at TJ Maxx

about 2 years ago...when we painted the first time :).

I still liked it, but it just felt a bit dark in the room now

it's the one on the left

So instead of just storing it downstairs

or putting it in the garage sale pile

I figured I could take it apart, play with it &

make it work with a lighter feel

First I painted the frame white

and the inerds (which was a plasticy insert made to look like metal)

a hammered metal I had on hand in the garage

Then I played around with different pictures

Here I tried it with different maps

Next I put in pictures from our family photo session with Carrie House

Scott voted for the photos

So I grabbed the mod podge

and just started gluing them on

(the pictures are just printed off from our printer)

Oh and then I decided the middle was too dark

and lightened that up as well

...still might need another coat

Here it is on our 1 finished wall (the others are still blank)

I love the green & blue picture frames

but I don't necessarily love them in that room so who knows they may

 change color again before this is all said and done :)

Expecting

So Nolee & Lilly were playing quietly the other day

and then they came out to show us

(extremely excited)

that they were expecting

After about 3 seconds of pulling & giggling

Nolee had herself a beautiful bouncing blue quilt

Lilly's had to work a little harder with hers

as it was a bit larger

but after about 5 seconds she had a cute & delightful

fuzzy pink blanket

I think having 2 prego Aunts has really worn off on them :)

Nolee & her pink hat

So Scott was going through our ever expanding hat bin

over the weekend and pulled out this pink hat

amongst other things

that is a wee bit small for Nolee's noggin

Of course Nolee & Lilly both thought

that hats, scarves & mittens strewn all over the

living room floor must mean it is dress up time

So Nolee put this pink hat on

and proceeded to wear it the rest of the day

inside & out

Reminds me of Gossie & her red boots :)

Noravirus

So all last week my little Nolee has been sick

She caught that nasty noravirus that is going around

She wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink and just plain felt awful

Thankfully by the end of the week she was coming around

and I'm so happy to say she is back to her crazy cheerful self now

(of course Lilly puked on Saturday so who knows

we may be starting all over)

So I was off for 3 days last week

and in between comforting, disinfecting & entertaining

a 2 year old, I decided it was time Nolee had a big girl bed

I was willing to do anything to see that dimpley grin of hers and cheer her up

She has had her toddler bed for almost a year now

so with her helping and giving directions

I took down her old bed and grabbed one of the twin beds from

Lilly's room.  She told me right where she wanted it & helped me

assemble the rest of the room as well.

Right after we finished she gave me a HUGE hug & had the biggest

smile on her face.  She even felt well enough to play in her "new" big girl

room before she conked out.

We removed the closet doors so she would have more room to play

as her room is tiny - like 10x10 tiny

Now she has room for all her doll stuff

Right after we finished she got all the dolls out,

gave them baths and put them to bed :)

Farming

So track season is coming up
and Scott plans on coaching again, because he loves it

which means that after school

Lilly will not always be able to hang out with Scott

especially when he has away meets

So my dad has offered to let Lilly

hang out with him at the farm

until I can pick her up after work

I thought this was an awesome idea

my brother & sister and I grew up hanging out on the farm

and we all loved it.

I saw calves being born

helped feed the baby calves their bottles

sat in the milking parler watching in awe

of all the gadgets that go along with it

and of course there were the tractor rides

There is just something about kids and a tractor ride

oh and there was the added bonus of sneaking into

Grandma's house for a homemade, fresh from the oven,

still warm and by far the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted.

So I was telling Lilly about the idea

on the way home from gymnastics last night

and she was all for it

She also informed me in the most confident voice

that I should let Papa know she already knows how to milk a cow

You know...so she can pull her own weight :).

So being ever curious of how her mind works

I asked "So how do you milk a cow"

and Lilly said "You just grab it and squeeze"

After I controlled my silent giggles

I asked her where she learned this

and she informed me that she picked this up

by watching the Cat & The Hat show

and reading the book The Fox & the Hound

Amazing :).

Just one of the many reasons

So from all the projects going on at our house

and my brothers there is some extra wood laying around

I have totally been meaning to get started on some decorations

for the new lighter/brighter kitchen/living room

but I started taking a class (eeek!) for work

and I haven't had too many free moments lately

Oh and on a side note

it is totally freaking me out to take a class

as I haven't taken a class since college

which was ooh about 11 years ago!

So one day while I was taking a nap with Nolee

Scott took Lilly out in the garage

and they built a bird house

She helped design it and even got to use the finishing nailer

She was so proud when she showed it off

And she wasn't the only one...

I am so lucky to have such a great guy

who not only lets me get a nap in here and there

but who loves to be so involved with our kids

I tell you what

I don't know if there is anything I find more attractive

about a man than that

(well maybe when they vacuum or do the laudry...ha ha)

Then after they built it

Lilly got to decorate it

Those birds are going to have one colorful new dwelling place :).



Be Mine

So between the bazillion loads of laundry

we did yesterday we did a little

mini photo session for valentines day

I got to utilize my new chalkboard wall

We had the girls pick out a fun dress

and I'm not sure who initiated adding the boots

but they were fun so we went with it

I'm having them hold out their arms

so I can cut little slits by their hands & stick a sucker through

I totally stole the idea from Scott's cousin Katie (genius!)

but it was just so cute I had to give it a shot

to be honest this is the reaction I got most of the time

By this point Lilly was about done

so we told her to do some silly faces 

This one just completely cracks me up

Next up was Nolee

We did NOT tell her to do this

This is just our Nolee being her little ol self :)

She kind of reminds me of Matilda (from the movie Matilda

with Danny DeVito & Mara Wilson) in that dress

Happy Early Valentine's Day!!