And...it's Friday night

The Brie-ster is asleep in her crib and Mat is also asleep in bed.  He came in from work and walked straight to bed.  I guess he's not feeling well.  So, I'm entertaining myself this evening.

Brie and I had a fun day, we did our jog/walk and two days in a row I've jogged more than walk my approximately 3.5 mile jaunt.  And we did it in under 40 minutes.  yay!  We'll see how long I keep that up and if I'm able to jog more of it where I'm jogging the full distance. 

Brie loves doing downward dog and she's started doing a somersault from that position.  When we showed her how to do a somersault we realized how old we were.  It kind of hurt our bones.  :-)

Tonight, I put her down without her bottle and just had her sleep sheep on.  Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I put it on, but I did pull her blankets up.   Anyway, she went down at 7 and she hasn't made a peep since.  We'll see if we can keep this up.  Supposedly, she shouldn't be needing anything to get her down at this point. 

I enjoyed a beautiful sunset tonight and now I'm going to sit down and read a novel.  Happy Weekend to everyone!

granola

Lately, Gabriella has been eating granola and yogurt for breakfast which she loves!  So I thought that instead of buying granola and spending lots of money not knowing what exactly is in it, to try and make it myself. 

Recently I saw a granola recipe on Pinterest I thought I'd try.  So this afternoon while Brie was napping I searched around and found the recipe on my food board and made it. 

I didn't have quite all the ingredients, but made do with what I had and I do think it turned out all right.  Definitely edible.  Next time, I won't do the brown sugar though.  I might try to make it with molasses and see if it comes out less sweet.  Especially if I'm adding dried fruit, because that really makes it very sweet and it's not needed.  Anyway, a big thing to remember next time is to not add the fruit until after the baking phase!  I didn't read the directions well enough.  

Also, next time, I think I'll break out my Grandma Annetta's cookbook that my dad typed up and make her granola recipe.  I'll probably half it as it calls for 8 cups of oatmeal!  Our family of three does eat a lot, but even we wouldn't finish that batch before it got old!

Now it is all ready for Brie's morning breakfast.  She had some this afternoon for a snack and LOVED it.  Most likely because of the dried cranberries...she adores dried cranberries and raisins.  :-)

Does anyone have a favorite granola recipe they want to share with me??

Lovely weekend, even if the weather wasn't...

Our lovely spring has turned back into a dismal rainy winter.  It's so hard to complain about it because we enjoyed such awesome spring weather back in February and it really has been such a mild, mild winter here.  BUT, I am trying to get out and exercise everyday and when it rains like it has the last few days - a sleet/rain combination - it really undermines my determination to go out in it.  Brie and I did brave it today.  We lasted about 15 minutes and then I declared it was so miserable that I turned the stroller around and we came back home.  Hopefully, soon, the weather will turn back to some warm spring-type weather.  The 5k isn't going to get any further away, it is just getting closer and closer...

Anyway, we had some pretty nice weather on Earth Day.  Which means, it didn't rain.  :-)  We went out to the El Dorado Nature Preserve and Mat took some nice photos with a waterproof camera.  A couple are below and more are located here on our flickr page.

Our own personal entertainer...

Gabriella is such fun to watch.  She's getting more and more curious and makes funny expressions on her face.  She's getting pretty good at remembering what is where.  For example, where her eyes are and ears, etc.  She's also starting to point to objects on a page when we ask where it is.  It's adorable.  But this video is mostly just Brie doing her thing while we are hanging out on our back porch.  At the end you can tell when Mat starts playing Simon Says.  Enjoy the video and here's to a great weekend.  Happy Earth Day on Sunday!

One Year

It is amazing to me that we've been here one year all ready.  Time does fly.  Brie is now 18 months old and has lived here 2/3 of her life so far.  Wow!

Surprise, surprise...

Gabriella likes books.  She will go to her bookshelf and pull books out to read on her own.  She'll grab a book or 3 and then sit down and "read" for upwards of 15 minutes by herself.  Then at that point, she'll either bring the book over for us to read it to her or she'll move on to play with something else.  (I love that she likes books, being a book-aholic myself.)

Snack Time

Gabriella and Maddy enjoying some raisins for a snack yesterday afternoon.

Our fantastic stair descender...

Gabriella LOVES the stairs at our friend's house.  It's hard to keep her off of them.  Mat recorded Brie on one of her descents.  She had done several ascents and descents without our knowledge prior to this.  :-)

Happy Easter

walking with her stick

at the closed visitor center

trying to slide down

why isn't this working?

hey, do you see those things?

ahhh, chickens

looking over the railing at the water

We went to work with Mat on Friday since he was talking with a group of college students at a preserve in the Finger Lakes region and we were planning on going to our friend's house to spend the weekend.  It worked out perfectly.  Gabriella and I had an enjoyable time at the Lime Hollow Nature Center (even though the visitor center was closed).   Brie was curious about the chickens and enjoyed watching them.

Hanging out and playing outside enjoying the awesome weather.  Mat and the people we were visiting had to spend the day working, so we took advantage of the woods on their property.  The dogs had a ball in the pond and Ruby shared her fort with us.  Very fun.

In the top picture, Brie is following the string to her easter basket that Stevie was kind enough to get for her.  (Mat and I weren't even thinking about that at all.)  Then the kids went searching for easter eggs in Ruby's grandparents' yard and we had a fantastic easter dinner with them. 

The last photo is of Brie content hugging her Christmas Bear and riding in the back seat on the way home. 

It was a fun weekend and we are grateful that they invite us to all these traditional family events.  :-)

Yummy Veggie Burger made with sweet potatoes and beans

Such a delicious and yummy veggie burger.  I saw this on Pinterest this morning and even though it wasn't on the menu for dinner tonight, I veered off course and made.  And while I followed this recipe for the general ingredients, I didn't have some of the key stuff, BUT it still turned out fabulous.  Mat and Gabriella both enjoyed this for our dinner tonight. 

I substituted the tahini with olive oil and I only had one can of cannelini beans, so the second can was black beans.  Also, I didn't have either lemon pepper seasoning or cajun seasoning, so I just improvised with some curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder and ground black pepper.  Sometimes my improvising doesn't work, but tonight, it did.  I baked them at 375 degrees for 15 minutes on each side.

Oh yeah, in the future, I will probably half the recipe because it made 6 large patties.  The dijon mustard, lettuce, tomatoes and avocado were awesome as the toppings.  (And english muffins are just fine as hamburger buns!)

Yum.  I will definitely make this burger again!

(Sorry the picture is not focused on the right spot...I had to hurry, Brie was wanting to eat right then but I wanted a picture to remember it!)

Chocolate Egg Nest Cookies - no bake

Another find on Pinterest.  This site is quite addicting.  I can waste time on this site like you wouldn't believe. 

This week though, I've been making the stuff I've found on the site, instead of just looking at it. 

I decided to make these because they are so spring-y and the easter holiday is this Sunday.  This is the recipe I followed.  I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and butterscotch and possibly this is where I went wrong.*  Anyway, I used muffin tins to put the nests in and I highly recommend that you put the eggs into the nests before it all sets up.  Otherwise, the eggs just fall out.  Also, wait several hours for it to set up  before trying to pop the nests out of the tin.  I learned the hard way, they crumble if not completely set.

*Super sweet...even for a sugar-a-holic like me!  I couldn't even eat a whole one, so these will be delivered to friends tomorrow.  Also, if I were to make these again I'd just put on a cookie sheet and form the nests on my own so they could be bite-sized.

Mint Oreo Truffles

I've currently been spending too much time on Pinterest...

But one of my finds on there were these delicious truffles.  Here's the recipe.  It takes hardly any time at all to make this and I would suggest buying the mint oreos to give them a minty flavor.  Highly recommend these.  Seriously.

Oh, and I recommend using both white and semi-sweet chocolate to melt and dip them in. 

I also only recommend making these if you are going to a potluck or have a bunch to people to share them with.  The batch makes at least 30 (depending on the size you make the balls).  And they are very tempting, because they are, as I mentioned before -- DELICIOUS! 

Thankfully, I made them for a potluck and they were a hit.  Especially with the kids, but even some adults who don't even like chocolate!

Did I mention they are easy to make? 

I also had some in the freezer that I sent along with my aunt and uncle who stopped in on their way back home after serving an LDS mission for 18 months in Montreal.  This year has been fantastic with visitors coming at least once a month! 

Anyone looking for a place to vacation, think of us, as we'd love to keep this visitation rate up!

life with Brie

Me:  Brie, do you want your diaper changed?

Brie: Walks away with her cow baby, shaking her head no, but goes into the bedroom and grabs a diaper.  Comes back into the living room and puts the diaper on the cow baby. 

(Her cow baby is a cabbage patch kid that is a baby head, but a soft cow body.)

Brie trying to play with Maddy