Have A Coke And A Smile

I need more sleep.

I just asked Leah if she'd like yogurt for breakfast - she nodded and sat down at the table. I promptly went to the frig, pulled out a Diet Coke, opened it, and put it down in front of her.

"Momma?" she said in her little voice.

I cannot believe I just did that!

Power Balls

OK, these are seriously my new favorite snack - and they really keep you FULL in between meals, which reduces the snacking. My niece gave me the recipe and I've enjoyed making these for the family and keeping them in the frig. They freeze nicely too (just put them between layers of wax paper). And they're GOOD for you! :)

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey (I use raw honey)
3 cups oats (not the instant kind)
1/2 cup milled flaxseed (you can get this at HEB, Wegmans, any health food store)
1 cup chocolate chips/white chocolate chips
1 cup any of the following - nuts, raisins, craisins, dried apricots, etc.

Mix peanut butter and honey until smooth. Gradually add in oats and flaxseed, then fold in other ingredients. You can do all this in your mixer. Then roll into ping-pong ball sized balls and place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper. When you roll them they will appear and feel kind of oily from the peaunt butter. Once chilled - they aren't.

You can get really creative with these and add different combinations. I did chocolate chip/almond ones for the kids and pecan/white chocolate chip/craisin ones for Gary. They were a hit!

What We've Been Doing

Sorry for the bloggy break there - we've been sick. I have a sinus infection and mild double-ear infection, Leah has had a cold, and Gary has also had a cold. In the past 24 hours, Leah has thrown up on me (while I was on a conference call, no less), gotten poop all over her new Christmas shoes (they were a total loss - couldn't even clean them with a toothbrush), peed on the floor, climbed up on my bathroom counter and unrolled most of my dental floss, and broken one of my favorite dishes. She also keeps stealing baby Jesus out of the various manger scenes we have around the house and shouting, "MY baby Jesus!" I'm running constantly and can barely keep up with her in between popping 800 mg of Motrin and holding my head because it hurts so badly.

Anyhoo, we've been busy the past couple of weeks! We had a Christmas activity extravaganza last week - I hosted a Christmas brunch for over 30 women from my Bible study (we had a great time), Gary and I attended Beth Moore's Christmas event, we attended a friend's Christmas show at her church, and we drove with friends to have dinner in College Station, TX and see the lights at a local light display - it was so fun! The girls were so exhausted, they fell asleep on the way home (see picture). On Sunday, I took the girls to the mall to have their hair cut and to do a little shopping while Gary worked.

I spent the first part of the week napping whenever possible, and now I'm scrambling to get caught up with work and get our Christmas letters out the door.

It looks like we're going to have a white Christmas in Oregon - it's down in the 20's there and they keep getting snow! Fortunately, my parents were able to find snow boots for the girls so they can play in it. Snow boots are hard to find down here where the weather is often 70 degrees. :)

I'll Have the Side of Vegetables, Please

OK, I am giddy. I have figured out how to start hiding pureed vegetables in the stuff I make and my family can't tell the difference. I know, I lead a pathetic existence. But seriously - if I'm not looking out for them, who will?

I bought Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, last summer on eBay. I hadn't been able to take the time to really look at it and start pureeing the veggies until recently. My niece also told me that she was doing it.

Did you know that if you hide a 1/4 cup of cauliflower in scrambled eggs or pancakes, you can't taste it?

Did you know that you can make homemade chicken nuggets and dip them in pureed sweet potatoes before you bread and bake them? No one knows!

I have successfully hidden pumpkin and cauliflower in food this week and my kids gobbled it up (the hubby liked it too). It's an all-natural high!

I'm looking now in my cookbook for some other recipes. I steamed and pureed (and froze in 1/4 cup increments) broccoli, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and cauliflower.

Forget the fries, kids - we're having vegetables for dinner!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend - we had Gary's entire family over and he did all the cooking. It was a fun day. On Saturday night, I surprised Anna Claire and took her to see the Nutcracker ballet. Mom used to take me when I was little, so I thought it would be fun to continue the tradition. She had a great time and almost popped a blood vessel when she figured out where I was taking her - she was so excited! Now she wants to sign up to take ballet classes...

Anna Claire also lost one of her top front teeth on Sunday night, so she's excited about that, too. She was concerned she would look weird but I convinced her that she can suck on a mini candy cane without opening her mouth. Also, my dad is going to teach her how to spit through the hole at Christmas when we see my parents, so she's pretty pumped.

I just killed 2 more house plants. Thank goodness my parenting skills are better than my gardening skills. Also, thank goodness for the Lowes guarantee that comes with all plants where you can return them for a refund if you kill them. I've decided that having "foster plants" is a pretty good deal for me.

I've been decorating for Christmas throughout the day and our house is looking very festive. I'm hoping that Gary will agree to go get the tree tonight because I want to finish getting everything decorated. I put a little tree up in the girls' playroom in the window with a bunch of non-fragile ornaments - and I put a miniature tree in each girl's bedroom. Leah's has Sesame Street ornaments on it, and Anna Claire's has hot pink garland, Hello Kitty ornaments, and a glittery star on the top...just like her personality! I've always dreamed of having a house where I could put several trees up, so this is a fun thing for me.

I'm off to get dinner ready - I did a huge project in the kitchen last night (more on that later) and it's a mess. I want to get it cleaned up before Gary gets home...