Bedtime Fun

Ryan was hilarious before bed last night.  Clayton and I were both distracted, playing on the computer.  I noticed that Ryan was being really quiet, which is never a good sign.  I thought I should go check on him.  This is how I found him:

I am still not sure HOW he got up on the counter.  He had pushed his stool up to the sink, but that still put the counter at armpit level for him.  He must have muscled his way up there, but hasn’t been able to do it since.  He was having a grand ol’ time playing up there, though. 

A little bit later, we were saying his prayers.  He’s starting to catch on to the idea and will, mumbling, repeat something sounding remotely like we are saying.  So last night we were thanking Heavenly Father and asking him for things.  Clayton was helping him, and said, “Help me to be a good boy.”  Instead of copying him, Ryan responded with a resounding “Noooooooo.”  We had to pause mid-prayer to keep our giggles under control.  It was pretty funny.  Sometimes it is so easy to love this little boy.

Apple Dumplings

So, I hope you are ready for another tasty recipe.  I made these the other day, only I cut the recipe in half, but I was wishing that I made more.  Hopefully you like them, too!

Apple Dumplings

2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
2 cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle soda (We have used both Mt. Dew and Cream soda)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees . Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cut each apple into 8 wedges and set aside. Separate the crescent roll dough into triangles. Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end. Pinch to seal and place in the baking dish. Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the apple dumplings. Pour soda over the dumplings. Cover with tin foil.  Bake for 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove tin foil and continue to bake until golden brown, about 5-10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.  Then put tin foil back on and carefully flip the pan over to let the juices coat both sides.  Flip back over and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Cake Pops

I don't mean to brag, but I have a wonderful husband.  I know this is a little late, but I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Clayton made french toast for me in the morning, complete with sliced strawberries and bananas.  He made a tasty dinner of pork tenderloin, and for dessert he made cake pops.  We had a originally agreed not to buy presents for each other for Mother's or Father's day since we just recently bought a car, but he broke the rules and surprised me with a gift certificate to Massage Envy.

Everything was wonderful, but I thought I would share the recipe for the delicious cake pops that he made:)

 Ingredients:
1 cake mix, prepared
8 oz. box of cream cheese
12 oz. Chocolate chips
1 tsp. Oil
Popsicle sticks

So you have to bake the cake first.  Let it cool.  Then combine the cake and the cream cheese and mush it all together.  Roll into balls, stick the popsicle sticks in, like a lollipop, and place in the refrigerator for an hour or so. 

Place chocolate chips and oil into a microwave safe bowl, and slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally.  Be sure not to burn the chocolate.  Once the chocolate is melted, dip the balls into the chocolate and place on some wax paper.  You SHOULD allow the chocolate to set up before eating, but it's okay to sneak one before that:)  Sorry I don't have any pictures.  Hope you enjoy!

Strawberry Sparkles

We did an easy, yummy craft today that I thought I would share.  I got the idea from FamilyFun.com.  This is one of my new favorite websites, by the way. 

Their website calls for a cream cheese mixed with a little powder sugar, vanilla, and milk but my cream cheese was still too cold to mix well, so I borrowed an idea from my good friend.  Her favorite way to eat strawberries is with sour cream and brown sugar.  So I used sour cream instead and it worked just fine.  Then we dipped in colored sugar.  I bought the blue and yellow from the store and tried making the pink with sugar and food coloring.  It worked pretty well, but dissolved really quickly.  

 Here is Ryan enjoying his strawberries once we were all done:

Sick

This little guys is usually very healthy, but he his sick for the second time in a month.  I think that his immune system was already worn down a little from his last cold, so when this nasty virus came along, he didn't stand a chance.  This is the sickest that I have ever seen him.  His fever got up to 103.  He's had a runny nose, a slight cough, and had thrown up a couple of times. Poor guy.  I hope he feels better soon!

Meal Planning

I love cooking.  I love making new recipes.  But I also love not having to think about what to make when dinnertime comes around.  I’ve tried a few different ideas to help me stay organized when it comes to meal planning, and I think I have found one that works for me.  I got the idea from this Pocket Full of Posies: Perfect Pocket Meal Planning.  I liked the idea, but I needed to tweak it to fit my needs.  

The most time consuming part of this whole project was organizing and formatting all of my recipes.  I have printed them on card stock and cut them down to be a 4x6 card.  On the front I have put the recipe:

 

On the back is the ingredient list broken down into categories: 

  

This makes it really easy when I go to make my shopping list.  I use this back side and quickly jot down all the ingredients that I need.  If I already have the item on hand, I don’t write it down.

I then made my pocket organizer.  Originally I wanted four pockets in all, so that I would be able to plan out an entire month at a time, but I messed up.  Instead there are only three pockets.  I will probably go back and fix it sometime.  To make the pocket, I found some cute scrapbook paper, cut it down to size, laminated, then sewed the pieces together:

When organizing my recipes, I broke them down into five different categories.  I have color coded each category to make it easier:

• Family favorites-this includes things like Hot dogs, Hamburger, Pizza and other miscellaneous item
• Chicken 
• Beef, Pork, and Beans
• Past and Casseroles 
• Soup, Salad, and Fish

When I’m planning my menu (three weeks at a time), I pick one card from each category.  I end up with five recipes each week.  This leaves room for us to eat out, try new recipes, or on a lazy night, just make breakfast foods for dinner.

 

Once I have selected all the recipes for a week, I put them in one pocket.  With just a few minutes of planning, I end up with THREE (four if I ever get around to making a new pocket) weeks of menus. 

 

Making my grocery shopping list is a breeze now.  Since all of the recipes are right there, I’m not looking through my various cookbooks to figure out what ingredients I need.  It’s also really easy for me  to maintain.  If I find a new recipe that I want, I have the template saved and I just plug it in and cycle it through. 

I've been using this for a couple of weeks now and so far, I LOVE it.  Like I said, the hardest part is gathering and formatting your recipes.  If you want, I can send send you the template for the recipes.  Just let me know!

Wildlife Experience Museum

This morning we went to the Wildlife Experience here in Parker.  We got a really good deal through Groupon and decided to take advantage of it.  It's a nice little museum with a few live animals, but mostly taxidermy and plastic animals.  They have a variety of animals from different habitats.  They did a really good job making the exhibits interactive and life like.  There was actually some snow(frozen wet stuff, not just fake plastic) falling in one of the areas.  Included with the Groupon was tickets to one of their movies about animals.  It had clips of animals, music, and rhyming dialogue.  It was pretty cute.  What a fun morning!

Ryan

What a cute little boy we have!  What a busy little boy we have.  He is constantly on the go, but occasionally he still cuddles, which is nice.  He is growing so fast.  He is finally catching on the some of the baby sign that we have been teaching him.  He can do at least 25 different signs.  I think  he is enjoying being able to communicate what he wants, and let me tell you, he KNOWS what he wants.  He really is a sweet little guy and we are so happy to have him in our family. 

Brushing Teeth

It's never too early to start teaching children to brush their teeth.

Yesterday we went to the dentist. Usually when I go they give a cheap toothbrush to take home. The office that we went to, however, gave us these electric toothbrushes. Too bad we just bought some for Christmas. Ryan might be able to get some use out of it though...