300th Blog Post!!!

June 16, 2010 was my first blog post (you can read it HERE) and I can't believe I've been doing this for 2 years and 5 months with 300 total posts.

We started this little gig to keep our friends and family updated and to feed my love of writing (I am a journalism major for those that don't know) and it has developed into a wonderful little venture of family, friendships, motherhood, home and travel. I am excited to see where it goes from here. Thanks to everyone that reads and comments. I love that I have readers who suggest subjects for me to blog about, it challenges me and keeps it interesting. Thank you!
I can't think of a better way to celebrate our 300th post than with some pictures of Sawyer. Here are his first official school pictures. He is so serious in them, they just make me giggle.

Kitchen Experiments: Whipped Pumpkin Dessert

Another "Momma Engel" recipe that I stole. This one is healthy & fast. We had our Thanksgiving Food Day at work today so I knew I wanted to bring this after trying it my parent's a few weeks ago.
I have never done Weight Watchers but for you WW people out there it is only 1 point for one cup. I added graham crackers to mine so I am sure the WW points don't count them, feel free to leave them out if you are following the points.

Whipped Pumpkin Dessert

INGREDIENTS
Pumpkin (1 can)
Fat Free Sugar Free Vanilla Instant Pudding (2 packages)
Skim Milk (1 cup)
Fat Free Cool Whip (1 container)
Graham Crackers
Cinnamon

STEPS

1. Mix together one can pumpkin, two packages fat free, sugar free instant vanilla pudding, one cup skim milk and one cup fat free cool whip. I used my Kitchen Aid and it was fast.
2. Mash up a sleeve of Graham crackers and cinnamon (as much as you like) and pour crumbs into bottom of an 8X8 dish.
3. Pour the pumpkin mixture over graham crackers
4. Cover with remaining Cool Whip and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Presidential Election 2012

Whether you are happy or sad about the results of yesterday's election, I think it is still worth blogging about because it is another part of our history. Last night, Barack Obama was selected as the 44th President of the United States with his second term. We started watching the results at my parents house and then after we tucked Sawyer in for the night, John and I stayed up and watched the final results come in. I have to say, elections can really bring out some people's worst! Facebook was crawling with negativity and hurtful statuses. I choose to keep my political views to myself and I wish some people would at least try to do the same. Especially if it is just down right ignorant and crude. I am happy the election is over so I don't have to read one more angry political statement (or for at least for 4 years).

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/06/14976592-victorious-obama-more-determined-in-face-of-challenges?lite

The cliche "I Voted" shot

Sawyer was busy playing on Daddy to watch

Biting Daddy's eye

Adventures in baby-food Making: Turnips, Egg Yolks, Mangoes, Lima Beans

Should last us a while!

We are now in the “what has Sawyer not tried” phase so we are having fun brainstorming fruits and veggies that aren’t so typical. My mom is great at this, she knows way more about foods than I do so I have leaned on her for help (love you mom!). Sunday we decided to have a food making party while the boys watched football. After two hours, we had made 97 oz. of baby food, a huge success! I have actually been thinking about offering my services to other moms who want home-made food but don’t have time or equipment. So if you need baby food, let’s talk.

So patient as we cooked! You can see the excitement in his eyes!

With out further delay, here is a heaping dose of baby food instructions? This is the longest list I’ve compiled thus far.

We made: Turnips, Peaches (frozen), egg yolks, bananas and lima beans (frozen).

Bananas & Peaches are super simple, you just throw them in a blender with a little water and they’re done. The other foods have more steps, so instructions are below.

A couple weekends back, we also made mangoes that were a little tricky to make so I included direction on them as well.

Family Game Night: Loung wear style

Having a baby changes a lot of things including what you can do on a Saturday night. Most nights we stay in simply because it is easier.  I think I took for granted how easy it used to be to just make last minute plans and go out. Our friend's Reece & Krissy decided it would be an easy and fun Saturday  to have a Family Game night with the kiddos and to make it even more easy we all wore our comfy clothes. Sawyer (almost 9 months) loved playing with Paisley (almost 14 months), Pierce (3), Jackson (almost 5 months) and Avery (almost 5 months).  Their house is perfect for the kids to crawl/walk and play and most of them ended up crashing while we drank wine and played Apples to Apples.  Thanks for having us, we look forward to many more!

John & Sam with their boys watching the end of the Notre Dame Game

Mel with Jackson

Apples to Apples

Avery eyeing Sawyer

Ah, Paisley and Sawyer holding hands

Take 1

Take 2

burp!

Paisley hiding in the kitchen

Our little guys

Paisley is a good babysitter

Sawyer straight jacking Paisley's pacifier

Getting tired

First Slumber party!

Pierce tucking Jackson in