My Valentines...

Well, my big Valentine was sick with a migraine for two days- boo. But he was feeling so-so in the evenings, so at least was able to have some fun with us. Last night we ordered Steak Out and watched a documentary after the kids went to bed- really romantic, I know. But we were both feeling pretty yucky. I sure love my Valentine though- he's such a great guy, always working so hard to take care of us. He's so loving and understanding, and such a great dad. The boys just adore their Daddy. I love to watch him playing with them- they have such a fun time together. They are so excited to see him in the morning and as soon as he comes in the door after work, they are all over him. I love you Dave!





I had a fun day with my little Valentines too. I picked up Spongebob balloons and they were a big hit. We had seen them a few days before at Walmart- Chris saw them across the store, seriously, and was pointing and saying "Bu-bob! Bu-bob!" You can see how happy it made him to have one:




Since it was Valentine's Day, we of course had to make some treats, so we did cupcakes, which Ben kept calling muffins (their VERY favorite thing lately). All he wanted to do the whole time was just eat one. He wanted to lick all the frosting too!


Chris helped a little....

I showed them how to put the papers IN the holes of the pan, which he was good at, but then after a few, he decided it was more fun to take them back OUT and put them in a stack...

The hardest part was having to wait for them to bake and cool!!!

Mmmmm.... pink frosting...


Now it's time for frinkles? (sprinkles)

What a good frinkler!

Cupcake perfection!

Finally got to eat one!!! No, only one.... you can't have another one right now!

You should have seen Chris. It sounds mean, I guess- but if you know me, I'm kind of a sugar nazi with my babies. I know it's not healthy for them, and a little bit will affect them a lot more than a big person- they need the good stuff (plus they are picky and won't eat their veggies)! So anyway, while they're small and I have more control, I really limit what they get. Really, no sweets as long as I can get away with it, and then only rarely. Chris has had them earlier than Ben because of Ben having them, but I still really limit what they get. I gave Ben a cupcake and then I gave Chris one without frosting (sooo much sugar in the frosting), and he kind of wrinkled his eyebrows and looked at me, then looked back at the cupcakes on the counter, then back at his- and then was like "oh well" and scarfed it. No biggie. He's still little enough that I can usually "substitute" his treat and he's okay with it. It was just cute how he noticed, but then didn't make a big deal. I was so glad. Sometimes he does make a big (screaming) deal out of what he wants.

So we took cupcakes around to the family, which Ben loved. He was so excited to give them away. It was a fun day =)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

I realllllly need to put more videos on here. I need to take more, they're probably more fun- to see them in action. Dave usually takes a lot, but I don't. It's so fun to take them, then they want to sit and watch the replay. So cute. And it's on my phone, so it's not like it's not convenient!

So every Wednesday, we hit storytime at the library. They LOVE it. They always do some stories and songs, and then they get to do a little paper craft- Ben loves it when he gets to GLUE! It's really cute to watch them there. Especially Ben, he sits right in the front and gets really into the songs. He knows them so well.

One of the stories they do is a flannel board version of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" (Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle). It's one we have at home, and Ben used to read it all the time and had it memorized (it's not too tricky!) So, yesterday for the craft, they got paper versions of the flannel board pictures to color and take home so they could tell the story. Last night, he showed Dave, acting really silly and shy at first for some reason, but then totally getting into it and wanting to tell it over and over and over. So we got it on video to share with all of you =).

If you're not familiar with this story (you probably won't understand him as well as we do), it's pretty basic- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? I see a red bird looking at me. Then goes on and on, asks the red bird what he sees, etc... goes on to a yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog, black sheep, goldfish, and a teacher.. then the teacher sees children and asks them what they see, and they go back through the list....

(just hit play)

Manamana!

Dave has little video clips on his phone, which the boys just LOVE. They crowd around and sit on him so they can watch the little screen. It's pretty funny. Their favorite (especially Chris!) is Manamana (Muppets). He would watch it all day. I turned on the CD and that wasn't enough apparently, so he went over to Dave and sat there looking up at him and demanding "Na-na, na-na!", but Dave's phone is upstairs, so he said- why don't you pull it up on the computer. Bad idea! Whenever Dave has his phone out doing something, Chris sits there and begs for Manamana (or sometimes GooCoo, aka Blue's Clues). Now after watching it about 6 times, he is still sitting here next to me saying "Na-na" over and over and over....



Ben's favorite part is the end. He likes to say it to us "The question is what is Na-nop" so we'll say "the question is, who cares?" He thinks it's hilarious.

Food glorious food...

So, food and I... we have this love/hate thing going on. I usually love it, but lately I just hate it. This pregnancy has been way worse than the others. I've been totally sick, was on Zofran for a while for my nausea (haven't had to take it in a little while now) but mostly I just feel sick in general. Food doesn't sound good, I have to force myself to eat something.... dinner is a big pain- we've had way too much takeout... yeah. Not to mention the dairy thing- not being able to have milk or cheese severely limits your options.

But some nights lately I'm pretty hungry. And when I can plan some decent meals, it's nice. Last night was soooo good, and I had a couple of the leftovers for lunch. Had to snap a pic and share it. If you've never had a teriyaki burger, you are so missing out. My favorite way to make them is using King's Hawaiian sweet bread/buns. It's the perfect combination. A little mayo, some lettuce and tomato, and it's the best ever. I'm not even big on hamburgers at ALL lately, but teriburgers are different. Last night I made mini burgers on the griddle inside (too cold to grill) and put them on the King's sweet rolls-- so good, and perfect size for little hands.

They're super easy. If you live somewhere more west, you can probably find a powdered pack of teriyaki marinade- you can just mix that into your hamburger and voila! If you don't have that, I've found here that the Kikkoman liquid Teriyaki marinade works just as good. I just add a little at a time, mushing it in with my hands until it's pretty mushy, but not to the point where it will fall apart on me when I grill it. I think last night on a pound of hamburger, I used like 1/4- 1/3 of the bottle and they were perfect.



This morning I made these banana muffins that the boys LOVE love love. Ben loves his "nuffins" in general, and Chris calls them "muh mins". They would eat them all day if I let them. I made them last week for the first time, and they were okay, but I think a little overdone. Today I reduced the baking time just a tad (plus only made half the batch- one pan) and they were sooooo good. The recipe is from the Food Network website, from Tyler Florence. The recipe is from that show, "How to Boil Water" so it's really easy to make, stuff you have on hand (when you have a couple of overripe bananas) and very yummy... (ps I omitted the nuts, I didn't have any).

Banana Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out. Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The recipe is on their site HERE. It says it yields 12, but when I filled them 1/2 full, I got 24. This time I just made a half batch, it was quick and easy :) Also, for my oven, I reduced the cooking time, they only took 16-17 mins.

New header for love day...

They are so cute. Chris is a little stinker when I try to take his picture, though ;)

Uncle Jerdy again...

I'm trying to make sure I write stuff down more or I forget it =) They are so stinkin' cute and I haven't been taking many pictures or anything. I'm going to be better!

A couple weeks ago when we went to Little River Canyon, we saw this couple and for some reason Ben thought the guy was Uncle Jerdy (my brother, who we haven't seen in a year) I told him it wan't, but I guess he didn't believe me or something. Even though he didn't try to talk to the guy or anything...

This morning at breakfast, out of the blue: "Remember when we saw Uncle Jerdy? At the waterfall? And Keli too. Brady wasn't there...... he was still sleeping." It's so funny to me that he keeps mentioning my brother. Out of all the people in my family, he must remember Uncle Jerdy the best!

The last couple nights we have been watching our neice Nicole. I've had to tell Ben to not scream/ blow flutes/ etc. in her face, and also after she would go to sleep they would have to be quiet. So after breakfast, he saw a flute or something loud, and said: "Hey! There's no Nicole. Now I can be loud again!"

Today, Ben went to lunch with Grandma, so Chris got to have his own time with Mommy. He's been so cute today. Usually, he's pretty overshadowed by Ben, especially when we're out, but today he loved being the only one I think. He told the lady at Publix "thank you" and "bye bye" after she gave him the balloon. You have to know Chris to get why this was so cute. He's pretty quiet and he's only recently started to really get a lot of words out there on a regular basis. He's gotten so good at communicating with us. He's so cute.