Juice Jigglers

In our attempts to limit our kid's exposure to artificial flavors/dyes and excess sugar in foods, we've had to get creative with some of those normal, fun "kid" foods.  Like Jello Jigglers. Oh, I love those things.  I remember watching The Food Network and the show - Barefoot Contessa.  She featured these Juice Jigglers and I scribbled the recipe down in a little notebook.  We've made these often and the kids (and me!) love them.

**Disclaimer:  Healthy people can sometimes pick at each other and criticize each other's choices... just gonna say it now.  This recipe uses Knox Gelatin... and I know that some have strong opinions about gelatin. I know there are better gelatins out there -- So make your own substitutions... please don't tell me all about it.  :)

**Disclaimer #2:  These are photos taken from my iPad. I leave the real photography to my sister.

Ingredients: Juice, Knox Gelatin

Step 1: Measure one cup of juice.  Dissolve 4 envelopes of Knox unflavored gelatin in it.

It starts to look thick... like this.

Step 2: Heat 3 cups of juice to boiling and then add to thick gelatin and stir until it dissolves.

 Step 3: Pour into greased baking dish -- this one is an 11x7

 

Step 4: Refrigerate for at least 3 hours - or until set.

Here's the link to the recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fruit-juice-shapes-recipe/index.html

Throwback Thursday

Here's a throwback to 2002. 

It's Harder than it Seems

This blogging every day for 30 days is a bit harder than it seems.  I'm really struggling for content.  I need these kids to step up their game!  Kadence is always good for a few laughs.  She came through a bit for me today... but still.  I feel like I need more.

Car ride to church:

Kaleb is helping her get buckled in her seat.  You may be wondering why... I mean -- why do all the hard work myself?  Everyone deserves the pleasure of buckling Kadence into her seat every now and again.

She says in a super sweet voice, "Don't hurry."  And then not even 2 seconds later she screams, "I'm waiting on you!!"  Kaiya and I busted out laughing.  Kaiya says, "Well, that didn't make any sense!"

And then a good 10 minutes down the road we hear this little voice that says, "You is stupid."  Followed immediately by, "I wuv you soooooo much."

The child is clearly confused.

I'm meeting my deadline by 7 minutes tonight.  And so thankful that tomorrow is Throwback Thursday.  It shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a good one for that.

Please clean your room.

This is Kaleb's idea of cleaning his room. Shove everything into closet. Close closet door. Room clean. 

This mama has other plans..

What does the kid say?

Our kids are obsessed with the video "What does the fox say?" And by obsessed, I mean we listen to it at least 2 times every time we ride in the car.  But that's a post for another time.  Right now I need to document the latest kid sayings around here:

Kadence: Come oooowwwwnnnn.
Kaleb: smarshmallows
Kadence: No fair!
Kaiya: she is getting too grow up, darn it!
Kaleb: boob cushion (bra)

Leaky Diapers

Friday was a fantastic day.  And a day full of leaky diapers and little people waste all over me.  Kadence needs potty trained.  Like yesterday.  And I don't know what I have been thinking.  Maybe that Kaiya and Kaleb would just decide to take matters into their own hands and potty train their little sister?  Well, folks... that hasn't happened.  Apparently it is still up to me. Blast.

I've decided to be all relaxed lazy this time.  No need to rush her.  It will just happen when she is ready.  Hmm... today something in the universe was telling me to start potty training as soon as possible.  Because I was peed and pooped on multiple times today.

This is cute little miss all dressed and ready for the day.  Notice sweater, dress and tights.

She decided to go on the potty today at the office.  Yeah... that shot out all over my shoes and the bathroom floor.

Then we're sitting in the 3D Theater at Discovery Place and with about 3 minutes left, I start to smell something a little funky.  As we exit and I am carrying her... the stench is worse and I'm feeling a little dampness.  Here she is again... notice what's missing.  The sweater and tights.  The poo was everywhere.  On my jeans. My hands. Her tights and sweater.  I needed a hazard suit to change this diaper.  I wanted to put paper bags over all our heads while we changed her in the bathroom.  That way we wouldn't be recognized as we continued touring the museum the rest of the afternoon.

Right now Discovery Place has an exhibit called Grossology.  We could have been part of the exhibit today.  Seriously.  I was smelling that mess for a good 20 minutes after exiting the bathroom.

After our really long, full day I took the kids out to dinner.  Went to get Kadence out of her car seat and the entire half side of her dress is wet.  Lean down and take a sniff.  Yep.  It couldn't just be water.  It had to be that...  Somehow, with her diaper fully on, she managed to pee all over half of herself.  How does this even happen?  So this is how she ended the day dressed:  No pants. Wearing her brother's sweatshirt.

And next week... we'll start potty training.  Maybe.

She's a Dipper

The "blogworld" doesn't know Kadence very well.  We just can't imagine our lives without this little girl.  Words I would use to describe her: fierce, loving, two, funny.  And out of all three kids -- she is my little dipper.  Give her chicken w/ a bit of seasoning and she'll eat a couple pieces.  Give her chicken with a pile of ketchup and well... you won't even be able to blink and it will all be gone.  I have seen this kid dip food in some crazy combinations.  Strawberries and hummus probably takes the cake.  Today her culinary skills were coming out when she came up with this one:  PB & J dipped in Cinnamon Applesauce.

Zzzzzz...

So much for a fun trip with Mama to the library. She fell asleep on the way there, slept the entire time on this little bench, slept the entire way home.  And you should have seen the look on her face when she realized she missed it all! :)  She was so confused about how I had all those new books.

Thirty Days of Blogging... For Real

I've gotta jump back in here. This blog is like the pet you have before children.  It gets less and less attention, each passing year.  I start to say, "I have no idea how it got like this..."  And then, of course I know exactly how it got like this.  We started a business.  I worked full-time.  We had another child.  We started homeschooling.  I worked part-time.  Gymnastics, AWANA, Soccer.  And Facebook - I got lazy and resorted to little status blurbs, rather than blog posts.  Blah Blah Blah. Life!

But the truth is... this blog is 98% for me and 2% for the rest of you.  Family and friends... A few lurking strangers, I'm sure.  It's the place where I document milestones and funny moments.  It's the place we go back and look at with the kids to show them what they were like when they were little littler.

So it's time to get back. And I've gotta find a way to grab all of the facebook status posts and instagrams -- or at least my favorite kids ones - and import them into this blog.  That way the memories are all in one tidy place.

But for today... It's Throw Back Thursday.  So here's one for ya -- paired with this new beautiful picture of the two big ones.  Time flies... eh?

Spice Party guest post on Robyn's View

Today I wrote a guest post for Robyn about the Spice Party some friends and I did last month. Hop on over to Robyn's View At Home and check it out!  Thanks Robyn for having me!

Tooth Fairy Tin

Look at this little gem of a project I found on Pinterest: 

Started with this:

And finished with this:

With a small raid of my scrapbooking tub and a quick trip to the craft store for some zebra print paper, Kaiya has a clever little container to put her tooth into when she slips it under her pillow.

I just used clear Tacky Glue and a bit of ribbon around the edge of the container.

And used the scrapbook double sided sticky squares to help the paper adhere to the tin.

This little tin has made things so much easier on the tooth fairy. *wink*

Now I just need to attempt this:  Tooth Fairy Money

Imagination

We moved last month.  And this is what happens when you wait several weeks to hook up the television.  

Yes... that is Kaleb wearing a monkey harness.

Yes... that is both kids wearing Kadence's diapers over their clothes.

Kaiya Grace - Kindergarten

Got this idea from Pinterest and had to start this great "growing up" tradition.

Vacation End

We finished up our vacation by splitting up our drive on the way home.  Stayed overnight on Hilton Head Island, got up & had a sweet breakfast at a cute little place and then took a walk on the beach.  It was a windy morning... but blue sky & sun.

 Of course the little boy doesn't see any problem running into the ocean with his jeans on. :)

And this was our welcome home.  Locked out of our house.  Yay Daddy!!

Family Vacation - Rainforest Cafe

Rainforest Cafe was so fun with the kids... they couldn't decide if all the jungle animals were real or not.

And mom and dad had a bit of fun too...

Such a good one of Tony and his girls.

Sea World

In November, the whole family loaded up in the van and headed down to Orlando for Tony's Maximized Living Seminar.  It had been so long since we took a vacation day, so we built an extra day into our trip to have some fun as a family.  Orlando is known for Disney, but we opted for Sea World instead.  The deal we got was such a savings compared to Disney World, and the kids had both just seen Free Willy on Netflix, so we totally got away with it.

We spent the first day together as a family -- we didn't have to wait in line once!  Then, while Tony was in seminar on Friday, the kids and I went back for Day Two.  Here are a few highlights from Day Two.

 The coolest mom ever asked if the kids could have their pictures with the prince and princess from the dolphin show.  We've talked about that for months now...

Kaleb says these are his Justin Bieber shades.

It's also where we shot this gem of a video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-3f3V21k5U

Homemade Peanut Butter

We purchased a Vitamix earlier this fall and I decided to give making peanut butter a try.  I bought some raw Valencia peanuts online from Amazon.  We dry roasted them for 15-20 minutes on 350.  Then comes the most dreaded task.  Removing the skins.  When the peanuts are roasted they release a bit of oil.  After they cool, pick up a handful and rub them between your hands.  The skins fall to pieces and the peanuts slip out.  Definitely get the kids involved if you want peanut skins all over your kitchen.  :)

Here is our bowl of skinned peanuts.  Not perfect, you can see.  But a pretty good job.  This is 4 cups of peanuts.  I found that 4 cups of peanuts made approximately 3 cups of peanut butter.

Into the Vitamix they go.  

Depending on the consistency you like, you can add coconut oil -- I added about a Tablespoon and a bit of salt as well.  

Couple things I discovered along the way -- the longer you roast the peanuts, the darker the peanut butter will be -- and it will have a little bit more of a nutty flavor.  And... I also found that making everyone help with the skinning of the peanuts helps you not harbor bitter feelings when all the peanut butter is eaten within 12 hours of you making it. :)

Drumroll please....

Well... the good news is that this giveaway fared better than my last. :)  Last time it was a riveting $15 Save-A-Lot gift card which only one person commented on.  This time there were 4 comments.  ha ha...

And here is where I tell you that YOU ALL ARE WINNERS!!! :)

I had already purchased one for my mom.  And one for Connie.  So... even though Random.org said that Connie was the winner, Greg & Anita get one too!

This was fun.  Really... I just wanted an excuse to buy extra of these CDs.  Picked them up at church today and it's so good.  Can't wait to see what the charts look like tomorrow when it releases!  CDs will go in the mail tomorrow!

Games are more fun with friends

I'm playing catch up with some blog posts... these were taken in August.  Kaleb insisted on his puppy friend joining our game.

And of course he couldn't just be a spectator.  He had to play with us.

I decided to sit Uno Moo out.  What a good sport Kaleb is to close his eyes when he is picking for puppy.

For the Honor Giveaway

Everyone loves something free!  And the best part is that the cost of this freebie actually went to something that is going to make a huge difference in thousands of lives.  On Monday, November 21, Elevation Worship is releasing their latest CD, For the Honor.  I had a chance to worship on Sunday with many of these songs and it's a great great album!

Elevation Worship is partnering with Compassion International and adopting a slum in Uganda and all the proceeds from release day will go to that partnership.  You can read more about that here.

I picked up an extra copy of the CD to giveaway.  It's simple. All you gotta do is leave a comment.  And giveaways are always more fun when you get more chances to win!  So... if you link to the giveaway via twitter or facebook, give yourself an extra comment and tell me you did so.  Each "share" gets you 2 more entries.  I'll use random.org to generate a winner on Sunday night at 10 p.m. EST.  I'll post the winner immediately.  That way if you don't win... you'll be able to grab the CD on iTunes Monday!

This is one of my favorites from the album.