Easter, In Pictures

Katie and I got to go outside to take pictures, because the weather was so nice!

Grayson and basket--and bowtie!

Katie at the Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt.  She was a pro!

Katie with basket--Thanks Grandma for the dress!

Nate got Good Friday off, and we went to Sam's Club.  While leaving, he was holding Grayson in his left arm, and holding Katie's hand with his right.  This was my attempt to capture the sweet moment...unfortunately, it looks like someone had a wedgie. 

Easter weekend this year really seems to have marked the start of Spring...thank goodness!  We've been getting outside again, and exploring new parks, and we're all (especially poor Indy) SO excited for winter to be over.  Hooray Spring!

Super Delicious Banana Bread

Genuine reaction to eating it.

I found myself with 4 extremely ripe bananas yesterday, and so, clearly, they needed to become banana bread.  I started trolling pinterest, and all the recipes looked good, but so....fancy.  Fancy wasn't what I was going for.  I resorted to googling "Best Ever Banana Bread" and was led to All Recipes, which I have a love/hate relationship with.  Usually, the things that I've made from there are good, and the recipes are simple.  The ratings are where I get frustrated.  It seems like every comment on the recipes says "This recipe is SOOOOOOO good!!!!!! I added 3 cups of sugar, cut out all the oil, substituted in half a cow, and turned it into meatloaf instead of banana bread, but seriously, 5 Starzzzz!!!!!!"


I'm pretty sure when you change the recipe drastically, you can't rate the original recipe based on whatever came out of your oven.  

So, rather than rate a recipe that I changed drastically, I'll just throw another banana bread recipe up on the internet.  

Oooh, it's banana bread that looks just like all the other banana breads!

Super Delicious Banana Bread

4 very ripe bananas
4 eggs
2/3 cup oil (this could easily be cut to 1/2 cup)
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups oats
2 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, grease pans. (2 regular bread loaves, or 8 mini loaves, or 4 mini and one regular...you can figure it out.)

Peel the bananas, place them in the bowl of a mixer with the eggs, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Mix on medium-high until really well combined.

 In a blender, put in the 2 cups of oats.  Pulse a few times until the oats resemble flour.  Add in sugar, baking soda, and salt, and flour and pulse a few times to mix the dry ingredients well.  Add all the dry ingredients into the bowl of the mixer, and mix until everything is just combined.  Be careful not to over-mix.  Make enough batter for 2 large loaves, of 4 mini loaves and a large loaf.    Once you've poured your batter in, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top, and stir it a little bit right in the bread pan.  Bake for 45-60 minutes, depending on the type of pan you use.

Then I kept trying to take more pictures...she got tired of it.  Also, she does wear other shirts...but this is her Valentine's Shirt

Perfectly Pink Frosting

Do you all remember the big, pink, Granny B cookies from high school? Well, yesterday, I sort of accidentally recreated the pink frosting for Katie's cake: texture, thickness, and all.

In case you're searching for a bit of the super thick, very pink frosting yourself (just in time for Valentine's Day), here's the recipe:

2 sticks of butter
1 pound of Powdered Sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup flour
1 t of Vanilla
7 drops of red food coloring
enough milk to thin

I had one stick of butter in the fridge, and one in the freezer.  I took the stick from the freezer and microwaved it for 30 seconds, which made it a bit melty in the middle.  I put both sticks in a bowl and beat them with the hand mixer until they were blended together and fluffy, and it was perfect--I'm sure you could just have two, non-melted soft-ish sticks of butter and be in great shape.  Either way, beat the two sticks of butter until they're soft, and then add in the powdered sugar and mix until the mixture resembles small crumbs.  Add in the flour and mix, then then add in the vanilla and food coloring.  At this point, the mixture will be very thick.  Start thinning it out with milk until it reaches your desired consistency.

By using flour in the mix, you end up with a more stable frosting, and you don't have to keep adding in more and more powdered sugar.  This also keeps the sweetness down a little bit, and helps it mix nicely with a cookie, or with a cake, that's already got enough sweetness in it.

Happy Valentines Day!

Firmoo Glasses Review

Hat:  Forever XXI, Shirts:  Target, Old Navy, Watch: Ironman (thanks Nate!), Glasses:  c/o Firmoo

 You've all probably heard about Firmoo by now, right?  They're a glasses company that offers prescription eyewear for pretty cheap, and a virtual try-on feature where you can upload a picture and get a rough idea of how the frames will look on your face before you buy them.  Overall, very similar to Coastal Contacts or any other online glasses store.

Anyway, Firmoo contacted me about doing a review of their glasses, and I'm all about free stuff (especially glasses with a girl who LOVES to dress up in any of my things and say, "I'm a mama!"), so I happily agreed.  I went to their website, used my webcam to upload a VERY unflattering picture of myself, and started "trying on" glasses.  I decided to hop on the nerd glasses trend, and chose these frames.  I got a confirmation e-mail and a tracking number soon after that.

Once I clicked on the link, I saw that the glasses were being shipped via the Flying Leopard shipping company, and that's when I learned that the glasses were coming to me ALL the way from China.  I don't really have a problem with getting things from China, but I was surprised.  I expected things to take a very long time as a result.  Happily, I got the glasses about a week and a half later.

Looking So much more hipster than I ever thought possible.

 I've ordered glasses online before, so the process wasn't new or scary to me--and it's really easy.  The most difficult part was figuring out my pupil distance, which I didn't feel like the website explained terribly well.  There are a lot of resources for doing this online though (like, here, for example).  Overall, the process was easy, and the quality of the frames and lenses is as good as the glasses that I paid $200 for a couple of years ago from Sears Optical Center (which I do not recommend, if you ever find yourself in Central Pennsylvania).

Also, as a bonus little tidbit of information, Target optical center will adjust your frames for free if you find that they're a little too tight or anything like that.  Just try to stop by when they're not busy.

Here's a somewhat terrible video review, so you can see more angles, but with the video comes a Giveaway!  You can have your very own free glasses from Firmoo too!  Just leave a comment below before Friday, the 8th at midnight Central Time, and a winner will be drawn at random (I'll use random.com to pick a number, I promise not to be biased in who wins).

Also, if you don't win, don't be too sad--Firmoo recently launched a First Pair Free program.  Using this you can get sunglasses or regular glasses for free, and just pay the shipping.

2013

It's been a little while here, but I think I'm ready to do the 20 second catch-up version.

So Grayson was born.  He's really cute, and super sweet and smiley, but we had some issues with sleeping. 

Not to worry--Swaddling to the rescue!

 Actually, he probably just sleeps like a normal newborn.  Katie spoiled us with sleeping really well from the start.  Grayson liked to sleep for about 4 hours, and then get up every hour and a half or so.  Couple that with a pretty hot summer, and we had a lot of slow, lazy type of days around here after he was born.  Lots of family came to visit us including Emily and Jordan, My mom, and Nate's parents

 

Supervised Sibling Love

 Grayson got blessed

Bow Tie, and little Short-alls?  I die.  Didn't think I'd ever feel that way about short-alls...

We toured Chicago with various visitors.  Thank goodness that nursing has been pretty much a snap this time.  Grayson has eaten at just about every tourist place in the city, and on the train.

Two sleeping kids

 We took a road-trip down to Missouri to visit with Emily and Jordan and My parents (Maybe all of us next year?  Ashley and Lance?  Ryan and Rie?  Jared?)  The drive down was great!  Grayson surprised us all by sleeping for most of the trip, and Katie played on the iPad the whole time.

Katie is VERY good at mimicry. 

 Then we moved to a new place, which is great!  We're on the first floor, so there aren't any neighbors to bother below us, and we have a hallway that is literally about 30 feet long, which both Katie and Indy LOVE to run up and down to no end.

After the move (11 days after, to be precise) I flew out to Utah with Katie and Grayson.  I was a bit nervous about it, since flying with two kids sounded a bit daunting, but both were really great little travelers  and we met so many people who were very kind and willing to help us out when we needed it.  After getting to Utah, we enjoyed 3 weeks of family and fun.  Christmas was wonderful, the Cabin was great, and so was Katie's birthday.

Family Picture at Aspen Grove

 Speaking of Katie.  She's 3!  I'm amazed at how much older she seems to me since Grayson's been around.  Clearly, she can do many things that he can't do, but it seems like having a baby brother turned her into a kid, and not just a toddler.  In fact, she'll gladly remind you that she's a kid, and not a snickerdoodle, ladybug, sweet pea, or any other pet name.

Also, right before we left Utah,  Karly took some amazing pictures of my children.  It makes me so happy to have these.  She's so talented!

A smile, even though she didn't really want Grayson leaning on her.

Right in the middle of her attempts to make a silly face

Such a handsome kid.  

Love these two!

About 5 days before we left, the kids both started sleeping in until about 8:30 Utah time, which translated to 9:30 Chicago time, and hasn't really stopped since we've returned.  They've been getting up just a little bit earlier in the last couple of days, but we're certainly not in any rush to ring in 2013.  

Oh, lastly, Nate and I had our 6-year anniversary.  We've now been married longer than I was in college...and I have a feeling I've learned a lot more in that time period too.  Happy New Year!