A bit of July 2010

Chocolate Faces!

Birthday Girl!

Welcome PT!

Sweet Baby

Our Kids

Handsome

Water Color day!

New Boots!

Look'n good!

Little Explorers

June 2010

Second tooth out

Take a picture of my bear!

The beach

Bper and Lulu

Out with Daddy

Waves

Sandy Feet, Sandy Faces

Immy

JP

Lulu

Banana

VERY happy

Beach Sweetie

Pool party!

Cuz, your so cute!

Soakin' up the sun.

Hair cut donation day

Every year or so, when I get tired of having long hair, I get it all chopped off to donate. In May, when I was getting ready to go in for a chop, Immy decided she was ready for short hair too; so we both cut off our long hair to donate. We cut off the donation length at home and then went to the salon to have a style cut in. This was Immy's very first hair cut! She had 12 inches cut off, and chose to give it to Lock of Love. I cut off 8 inched and chose Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

It was really awesome to share this special day with my sweet girl; and a big thanks to Cricket for cutting my hair and the great pics!

Beach Day in May

Buddies

Running in the tide pools

Lulu, JP, and Immy

Banana and Baby Mew

No oil here!

We three by the sea

Here comes the wave, run!

A beautiful day at the beach

A collage of May 2010

"While daddy's away (business trip) the kids will play."

"Swim Class"

"Dancing after the Brown wedding"

"The girls with Uncle B"

"Lulu and AC"

"Far from ordinary"

"Lulu"

Welcome PT!!

Hi everybody, I'm still here, just had to take a break for a while and focus on the people right in front of me instead of the computer.
I developed anemia during the last few months of my pregnancy and didn't realize it until I was already feeling really low, emotionally and physically; taking care of everyday things like driving and cooking became very difficult and I had to just focus on my priorities and taking care of my children. A lot of the fun things got cut out simply because I didn't have the energy for anything more than getting through the basics of everyday. Unfortunately blogging was one of those fun things, and once out of the habit... Anyway, I think in some ways it was a good thing, because when my energy returned I was really able to appreciate the privilege of feeling healthy and caring for my kids. It's always good to be reminded how lucky we are.


We are all well now, and we had our beautiful baby boy, PT, on July 7th! He is almost two months old now and we are starting to edge towards a routine which will give us a more predictable flow to our day. I am going to try to start posting regularly again. So much has happened over the last few months! I will do a little catch-up and then (hopefully!) get back to posting our current news.

Our new little man.

Healthier Peanut-butter Cups

I know, I know, more food! That's all I have been posting about recently! I admit it, I have been cooking a lot. I should probably switch it up a little and do some sewing or crafting or something, but this seems to be where my interests and the warm weather have been pushing lately, so I'm just going to go with it until it's too hot to cook anymore.

Here are some delicious "healthy" Peanut-butter Cups that I made! I used this recipe from The Nourishing Gourmet and altered it a bit. I also found this recipe for The Nourishing Gourmet's PB cups after I had made mine.

for my recipe I used: 

• 1 1/3 cup Natural Peanut-butter (no sugar)  
• 1/2 cup Coconut Oil 
• 1/4 cup Honey
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract 
• Pecans 
• Large Dark Chocolate Chips

1. Melt the coconut oil, honey, and peanut-butter in the microwave on low heat until just melted. 
2. Then whisk it well, and added the vanilla extract.
3. Set the oven to 200 degrees, and place 4 chocolate chips in the bottom of each cup of a mimi muffin pan.
4. Place pan in the oven for about 1 minute until chocolate is just starting to melt (watch carefully, chocolate burns quickly!)
5. Remove pan from the oven, and pour peanut-butter mixture over the chocolate in each cup until half full.
6. Gently place 4 chocolate chips or pecans on top of the peanut-butter mixture in each cup. 
7. Place the pan in the freezer for about 1hr until the PB cups are frozen.
8. When they are frozen remove the PB cups from the pan by poking a knife down the side of each cup.
9. Makes 48 PB Cups. 
10. Store in the freezer, and enjoy as a frozen treat!

We loved these PB Cups! I thought they really hit the spot for the after dinner craving for something sweet. Having one or two was also very satisfying and did not leave you feeling like you wanted to come back and eat the whole bag in one sitting (the way some sugary treats do). They were not as sweet as the regular kind, so if you want them sweeter simply add more honey or sweetener of your choice.