Where did this rolling baby come from?

I would like to know how Joshua just got from one point of the living room to the other?! AHHH! Where did this rolling baby come from? Help Me Jesus! I'm not sure I'm ready for a mobile baby quite yet! I suppose I should be thankful that my almost (tomorrow) 8 month old son isn't rolling/crawling  yet! Got knew that I wasn't ready for it to happen early! He's just blessing my socks off everyday!

So I feel like we've finally hit a "normal" point for Joshua! Woo hoo! It's about time! Poor little guy. You can just tell that he feels better. He has so much more spirit. He wants to do things. He chit chats, sings, lays on his tummy a bit more, is interested in playing, and just has a sparkle! He giggles at people when they talk to him (as long as mommy's holding him), and he's starting to be silly! It's amazing to think that the simple thing of cutting out the food I was eating the most of would help his belly out. Ugh...so sorry little man, that I just kept eating what made you so sick. His diapers are MUCH better. Barely any mucous, has consistency, and the amount has decreased by 90%! He's finally over 16 pounds too, which is an amazing thing in and of itself!

The weather is changing and I LOVE IT! I love the fall weather. The crispness of a cool morning, the leaves changing colors, the spiders dying, pumpkins, the smell of bonfires, sweatshirts and sweatpants, warm soup, and football! I am so excited to be taking the boys to our annual trip to Vala's pumpkin patch! They're so excited too, and have come to rely on that trip!

Peyton's doing great in school, and you can tell he really enjoys it! He's made very good friends with some of the boys in his class and has already been asking about a sleep over! Parker is enjoying his time with just mommy and Joshua, but we're still keeping busy in that time too! We're doing the library at least once a week, if not twice, for story time and singing! He really enjoys the challenge and learning new things. It's kind of like a mini preschool for him!

Until next time...

So Yummy In My Tummy

All the cool weather last week put me in the mood for some warm, hearty beef stew! Here's the recipe I used for today. Even though the weather turned a bit warmer then it was supposed to, it was DELICIOUS!!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (a little spicy, so maybe cut down to 1/4 tsp)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth
• 3 potatoes, diced
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 cup water as needed towards the end of the cooking time

 

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.
2. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.

Perfect with a nice slice of warm bread and a glass of chilled wine!

Home Made Applesauce

The other day I went apple picking (10 pounds worth!) with the boys, and thought I should use this chilly day to put them to good use. The boys really wanted apple pie, but I couldn't help it but make some applesauce! Something we all can enjoy! The boys had a blast helping me peel the apples with the apple peeling machine grandma gave us. It's from when I was a kid, so it's neat to be using it with my kiddos now! I've been thinking a lot about how I come up with all these creative recipes, never write them down and then can never remember what I put in or what I made. Hence, what is going to follow. I'm going to try to put recipes in my blog, as I make them and enjoy them! Quick reference for me when I need them!

Home Made Applesauce

4 pounds of peeled and cored apples (I used Cortland, but I've heard using a variety of different apples is a good idea too!)
1 lemon- I cut 4 peels from the one lemon to add to the boiling process
               I also juiced the one lemon right into the pot

Put about 1 inch of water in a big pot and bring to a boil
Put all the apples, lemon slices and lemon juice in and simmer for about 15-30 minutes. You'll know when they're done. I kept checking on my apples to make sure they didn't burn, because they weren't too full of water (which some apples release a lot of water). I had to add about an additional 1 1/2 cup of water. I've also read that when you're done boiling the water you can ladle off some of the juice for your own, home made apple juice! Remove the lemon peel slices.

Place the apple mix into a blender and blend until desired consistency.
Place back in kettle and add seasoning as needed. (I pulled out a bit of unseasoned for Joshua as he doesn't need the sugar stuff).

I added:
1 tsp ground cinnamon
a dash of salt
3 tsp sugar

Keep applesauce warm until ready to can/freeze!

This made only 1 pint sized jar to freeze, I kept about 1/2 of one in some tupperware to eat now, and I stored away about 1 pint sized jar's worth for Joshua.

ENJOY!!

BSF Miracle with a Dentist Disaster!

This morning was our first morning of the new year of Bible Study Fellowship. Our mornings went great, and we were actually on time! The boys enjoyed seeing their teachers (Peyton had Parkers teacher from last year, and Parker had Peyton's from last year!), and meeting new friends. This was really the first time I've ever left Joshua, but I think he did fine. He got knocked down a few times by some bigger kids, but I never got called to get him early! Thank you, Jesus, for helping answer prayers for my children to have a good morning, learning about you! Continuing to pray that we all make lasting friendships with some great people who love Jesus as much as we do!

The boys had their first dental appointment today. I did some research on the best local pediatric dentist in town. I chose one that was the most recommended and, of course, the furthest away! They were both so excited, because of the fact that there was going to be trains all over the building. I really thought we'd have no issues, until they took us back. I started talking to the assistant about Parkers gagging/puking, and then got a little panicked! She just started cleaning his teeth and Parker started to pull away, and push her away. It went from not so good to really bad quickly! We decided to try for "pictures" and retry the cleaning later. No go on the pictures, and a no go on anymore cleaning. At one point he looked at me, said "I'm not coming back here ever again!" and walked out the door! Haha!

It was time for the Dr to check their teeth. We did Peyton's first and boy was he a champ! He was so enthralled with the TV in the ceiling, he wouldn't even answer any questions and could care less about what anyone did in his mouth! This still did not help parker relax at all. The dentist did everything to try to loosen Parker up, but it just wasn't working. We decided to try laying him in our laps and holding him down a bit so he could look at his teeth. This was where bad went to THE WORST! He was screaming and crying, and all of a sudden I saw it! Yellow noodles and brown pop coming straight at me! We made the poor guy so upset he threw up his whole lunch. The doc was great and was catching the puke in his hands. Parker was trying to nuzzle up to me, while I was pushing him away to keep the puke off me! It was madness! I remember looking over at Peyton who was just staring at me absolutely dumbfounded!

We got him all cleaned up, they gave him a brand new shirt, some toys and he was fine. He wouldn't let anyone touch him again, but did comply to show the doc the crack in his front tooth! I guess we'll just try this again in another 6 months or so! I'll have to pray, pray, pray until the next time we have to go in!!!!

First Day of School! First Day of School!

Today was Peyton's first day of preschool for this year! He was a little indifferent about the whole issue! We had an open house yesterday, where I went with him. It was nice, in the fact that I got to meet some of the parents and he got to meet the teachers and his friends with Mommy still being close by! His school is awesome! There's 9 kids in the class, 5 boys and 4 girls! It's going to be a great year, and I pray that he makes great friendships and learns about Got and everything that he needs to know for kindergarten next year!

He woke up okay and had a good breakfast! He was very excited, and eager to show off his new outfit he picked out! We were on time to school and even had some time to do pictures before we went off to school! He did great! He went right up to his class, hung up his backpack and went in without even looking back!

We picked him up and couldn't wait to hear all about his day! Parker does a great job holding the pick up number for the teacher to see, to let him go out the door, and Peyton came running out! He was so excited to tell us all about his day and all that he learned! We spent a great lunch with grandma eating pizza to celebrate such a great first day of school!