Three in the Park

Have you ever watched 2-year-olds play together?

These pictures from our play date at the park yesterday tell the story of what you often see....

Exactly! Three friends playing "together" at the park actually means playing as far away from each other as possible.

(not always....but often!)
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He's Getting a Big Head

Many of you have commented on and noted the "Eli-isms" in the right hand column over there. ----> They are some of the more memorable and humorous comments that Eli makes day in and day out. And these are just the ones that I've sifted out from the others as the "creme de la creme."

Well, this weekend, Eli had us laughing, as usual. And not one, but TWO of his comments will make it into the margin-o-fame.

Check it out and see if you think Eli is getting a little full of himself. I think it may be time to cut back on the compliments just a bit. What do you think? Is he getting a big head?

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Newlyweds

Matt and I went (sans Eli) to Lauren and Donny's wedding in Pensacola on Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception.

What a beautiful sight as you looked out at the reception on Pensacola Beach!

And what a beautiful and happy couple!

It was fun to get to spend some time with our brother-in-law (and brother of the bride...whose birthday is TODAY! Happy Birthday, Brother!), Ricky. We missed you Theresa....but know that you are growing a baby due in just a few short weeks.

CONGRATULATIONS Mr. and Mrs. Hanto!!

Beach Baby

We feel incredibly lucky and blessed that we have the ability to go the beach whenever we can. My parents have a house at St. George Island, and we live close enough that it is an easy weekend get-away. Because of this, Eli has grown up at the beach; he is a beach baby through and through.

He loves the sand......Daddy digging big holes is his latest fascination.

He loves the ocean...no matter how cold.

He loves the down time to swing,

read,

or just be silly.

And we love the Eli loves the beach!
We love the "taking-a-break-from-life's-busy-ness" aspect of the beach. When we're there it as if there are NO CARES at all.

For this we are thankful.
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ALLELUIA!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Despite being a few days late for the actual day, it is still Easter season, so I'm going to wish away. Aren't we lucky to have a Savior who willingly gave his LIFE for us and our forgiveness?

We tried talking to Eli a bit more this year about why we celebrate Easter. He seemed to remember that Jesus died and rose from the dead. We drew some pictures of hands and feet being pierced by nails. Eli was very concerned that Jesus had "boo-boo's" and needed band-aids. He actually put stickers on the drawings to act as band-aids. "Ouch! Jesus has boo-boo's. The nails hurt his hand. He is bleeding," Eli said. He also seemed to focus in on that we say ALLELUIA to celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. I wish I would have captured his little "Alleluia!" on video so you could hear his cute pronunciation of the word. I am happy that we have laid groundwork to maybe go a little deeper into the meaning of Easter next year. Now, where the Easter Bunny fits into all of it, who knows? I'm not sure I'm ready to explain why we have an Easter Bunny just yet....or maybe Easter baskets and goodies will be from Mommy and Daddy. Things to think about....

As usual, we captured moments from Easter and the days leading up to it on camera to share.

Earlier during Holy Week, Eli got a box of Easter goodies from Grandma and Grandpap Carson complete with a new (better fitting!) Blue Jays hat, sunglasses, stickers, and other fun stuff.

On Holy Saturday, Eli got to die eggs (at the beach....we went for the weekend!)

We tried to let him do it as much on his own as we could. We only had the high counter, so we stripped him down, had him stand on his high chair, and go at it.

The waiting was the hardest part!

Hands got messy....

...and several eggs got dropped. Slippery little suckers! :) Eli loved putting names on different eggs. Grandma, Grandpa, Eli, Mommy, and Daddy all got eggs...and Eli wanted to make Jesus an egg too. (The pink one on the end was Jesus's.)

Easter morning, there were a couple of eggs hidden around the house along with Eli's Easter basket. Eli actually cried when we told him the Easter Bunny hid his basket. "The Easter Bunny take away!!!" He was very upset to think that the Easter Bunny had taken his basket for good.

He was much happier after finding it and all of the goodies!

There were more eggs downstairs! Too bad it was so darn windy. The plastic eggs blew all over the place!

Counting all of his eggs and making sure we can see how many he has.

And finally, we made it back to town in time to get gussied up for Easter Mass.

We went to the extremely UNCROWDED Easter evening service. It was a wonderfully blessed Easter weekend.

Hope yours was BLESSED too!

More April Showers

....except this time, it was a baby shower for a sweet friend, LA.

Lots of good food, friends, family, and fun!

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I was just one of 5 hostesses helping throw this wonderful shower. Jill was kind enough to have us all in her beautiful home. It was a beautiful day to celebrate such a beautiful mommy and her newest baby-to-be.

I just love this picture! Look at that awesome belly and all the love!

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This little guy has been fighting a terrible cold with a fever since last Thursday.

He's finally starting to feel more like himself since the fever broke sometime Monday. He's still got a lot of cruddy congestion that make for a boogie-filled nose and a horrible sounding cough.

And while Mommy was hosting a shower and Daddy was preparing for an upcoming trial on Sunday, Eli got to play with Aunt Kristi. He was very excited about getting to help her plant her spring vegetable garden. Luckily Sunday was a fever-free day. He had just enough energy to get in the dirt and help out.

Thank you very much, Aunt Kristi! Eli had a blast!!
(and thanks for taking/sharing the pictures too!)

Stir Crazy

Yes, indeed! I am going stir crazy!!

After rain for 2 1/2 straight days, Eli decided to get sick: low grade fever and a croupy cough that kept him up a lot of that night. The croupy cough has transferred to a productive cough that sounds nasty and hurts his throat. He has watched WAY too much TV and is now in that whiny "I don't feel good" mood. I hope to get him outside to wiggle some this afternoon and let the sunshine work on his germs.

And lucky us; right when I'm sure he'll start feeling better, we are supposed to get more rain....and then it is back to school. So much for Spring Break!

Tasty Treats

I secretly like to bake...not cook so much, but bake. OK, I like to cook too, but I don't think I'm as good at it... I like to find "perfected" recipes and then make them my own. Eli and I have tried a few new recipes out this past week or so. (Thanks to time off from school!) Eli is a great helper in the kitchen. The bench his Grandpa Snyder made for him makes him just the right height to help.

The latest recipe was one I got out of Parent's Magazine, an "Easy Turkey Stromboli". It was pretty easy and quite tasty!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pkg (10 oz.) frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
• 1 pkg (11 oz.) refrigerated thin crust pizza crust
• 1 cup pasta sauce, divided (I think I would have liked a little more sauce.)
• 2 tsp low fat milk
• 1/2 cup shredded Colby & Monterey Jack cheese blend
• 2 tsp grated Parmesan
• 1 lb. turkey-breast tenderloins, cut into strips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Boil a cup of water on medium in a large skillet; add turkey and return to boiling. Cover; simmer 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then chop.
3. Unroll crust into a 14"x12" rectangle on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
4. Spoon half the sauce down the center, lengthwise, leaving 3" on either side.
5. Layer spinach, turkey, and cheese over sauce.
6. Cut 12 strips on both sides of crust. Fold strips over filling, so they overlap. Brush with milk and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 12 minutes. Serve with remaining sauce.

Eli helped me layer the spinach, turkey, and cheese. He also helped "paint" the top of the dough with milk and then sprinkled the Parmesan cheese.

I also set out to find the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe this week to use to make "chip-wiches" (an ice cream sandwich using chocolate chip cookies...mmmm!!) I wanted tasty and chewy, so when I stumbled upon a recipe for "Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie", I knew I was on to something.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (i might cut this back to a little under 1/2 next time)
  
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg (room temperature!)
  
• 1 egg yolk (room temperature!)
  
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I didn't use quite 2 cups, and I combined milk and semisweet chips. We also added baking M&Ms for fun and color!)
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
   
3. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour (because of the melted butter, the dough needs to set a little more) And then Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
   
4. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
5. Bake for 13 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. For them to remain chewy, they need to cool on the baking sheet for a bit and then after they have cooled completely(on the wire racks), store them in an airtight container to maintain chewiness.

These really turned out wonderful...not as "fat" as I may have guessed based on their name, but I was pleased....and I didn't have a lot of time to cool them in the refrigerator...so I stuck the batter in the freezer to speed up the process. I wonder if more time and in the fridge would have *beefed* them up a bit. And to make them chip-wiches, I just put 1-2 scoops of vanilla fro-yo between two cooled cookies and rolled them in sprinkles for fun. (Hint: DON'T put the cooled cookies in the freezer!...All of the chewiness freezes and they become quite hard!)

Eli helped by pouring in the already measured ingredients and, of course, decorating them with M&Ms. He loved this last part!

And finally, my "Sneaky Chef" recipe that I got from the April 2009 issue of Parenting Magazine: "Peanut Butter Blondies". These not-too-sweet PB treats have veggies in them, but you'd NEVER KNOW! Eli (and his friends that we've shared them with) seem to like them and ask for seconds. That is a winning recipe in my book!
INGREDIENTS:

• Cooking spray
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 cup (packed) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sweet-potato baby food (stage 1 or 2)
• 1/2 cup carrot baby food (stage 1 or 2) (Note: Carrot and sweet-potato baby food can be used interchangeably; use one or the other, or both, as long as it totals 1 cup.)
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (plus extra to use as icing, optional - I did NOT do this)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup oat bran (find it in the hot-cereal aisle, near the oatmeal)
• 1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour (I used whole wheat flour.)
  
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips (optional - I didn't use these, but only because I couldn't find them in our Publix. I think they would add a touch of sweetness that adults may prefer. I would like to try them in my next batch.)
• Powdered sugar (optional - I did this, but it was quickly absorbed into the brownies!)
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray the bottom, not the sides, of a 9 by 13-inch pan.
2. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter and brown sugar. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool a bit.
3. Whisk in the baby food, peanut butter, vanilla, eggs, and salt. Add the oat bran and flour, and mix until just combined. Mix in the peanut butter chips, if using, then pour into the prepared baking pan.
4. Bake for 30 to 33 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in pan. Frost with peanut butter and/or dust with powdered sugar.

Eli was napping when I made these, but as an added treat, he sometimes gets to decorate one with mini M&Ms.

That's all for now. If you try these, let me know. Especially if you make any changes for the better. As I said, I like to make them my own and perfect them.

****NOTE: I found the cookie recipe on All Recipes. I love this site because it not only includes pictures, but it also has reviews from people who have tried it before. This way, I am less likely to get stuck with a bum recipe. And a lot of the reviewers add their tips for better results. I always end up using the tips suggested. LOVE IT! Check out the site if you haven't before.****
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April Showers

OK, so April is definitely starting off with showers, er....make that thunderstorms! We've had rain here since Tuesday afternoon. Being cooped up in the house for that long will make many people crazy, but toddlers especially. In between rain bands, Eli and I headed out for some puddle jumping.

I'm a little bummed that is has rained most of Spring Break, but we're hanging in there. When not getting into trouble for not listening, Eli and I have tried to keep busy with baking (come back later for another post on some of the recipes we've tried lately!), a few errands, and lots of imaginary play time.

And, yes, you heard correctly...Eli has been getting into trouble a bit lately. It mostly stems from not listening. Shopping has been the biggest nightmare lately. I'm trying to make plans to go when he doesn't have to come with or Matt can come along to help. You see, Eli is anti-shopping cart right now...except when it comes to pushing the cart. I've tried several different approaches and tactics from bribery to choices to bringing along snacks. Nothing seems to work 100% of the time. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Mommy stressing about this time in our week. I'd be open to suggestions as to how to make it more bearable. I have nearly left behind a full cart to get my melting-down little one out of there. Thankfully, he seems to get a hold of himself just in time....a little too late for my nerves and patience though.

On a happier note (no pun intended...), Eli remains quite musical and is singing along to any and all songs. His favorite musician these days is Laurie Berkner. We checked a couple of her CD's out from the library after watching her on Eli's newest favorite show, Jack's Big Music Show. It is often that I hear him singing a song from one of her CD's. The cutest is when he sings as soon as he wakes up in the morning or from his nap. He has a sweet little voice. I absolutely LOVE to watch his mouth work so hard to get out all of the words to the faster songs. And when Eli is giving me fits, he wins me right back over with moments like these. He's a cute little bugger!

And I just HAVE to share some pictures of the world's cutest preggo: my sister, Theresa!

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She is 34 weeks in these photos and looking DIVINE! And staying so active! We are so excited to meet little "RJ" next month!

(link to ALL of March's pictures....BEWARE! there are a LOT!)
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