Family

Family
You MUST Chase Your Dreams, For Your Dreams Will Not Chase You

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

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

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

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
and completely and utterly fell in love

Pink room
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 :)



Monday, February 27, 2012

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 :)

Friday, February 24, 2012

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 :)






Monday, February 20, 2012

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 :)





Thursday, February 9, 2012

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 :).

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

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 :).


Monday, February 6, 2012

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!!