Ladybug in the Lillies

We were playing outside a week or two ago (or more accurately, I was trying to pull weeds/clean up the lillies while the kids played in the gravel) when I found a ladybug resting on a leaf. I called the kids over and helped Grace hold the ladybug on her hand. She loves ladybugs and was in seventh heaven as the ladybug climbed all over her hand and arm. Ethan wanted nothing to do with touching the ladybug but was very interested in watching the ladybug crawl all over his sister. Eventually the ladybug had enough of us and flew off, a far happier outcome then the last time we found a ladybug while playing in the gravel. That poor ladybug got tired and needed to "sleep".





As a side note, I really like the new Halloween theme I put up on the blog this afternoon. What do you guys think?

Freezer Apple Pie Filling

I've almost used up my abundance of apples this year and for the first year in a quite awhile I didn't make applesauce. Mostly because it is a lot of work to make applesauce and since my Mom is busy with moving this month it just wasn't in the cards. So instead I borrowed my Mom's old dehydrator and I've been busy making apple chips. That process takes forever with my old dehydrator and uneven apple slices (oops) so I searched online for more ideas on what to do with apples that didn't involve canning applesauce.

First I had to clean up my home grown apples by washing them in the sink.

I found a recipe for Apple Pie Filling which can be froze in gallon sized freezer bags and I thought I'd give it a try. The first batch I made I forgot to peel the apples which kind of didn't work out so well. It tasted yummy, but the peels just made the texture all wrong. We ate it anyway and I didn't hear a single complaint from anyone so apparently the peels weren't so awful. The second batch I made I was sure to peel though!

Here's the recipe straight from Allrecipes.com:

18 cups thinly sliced PEELED apples
3 Tbsp lemon juice
4 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
10 cups of water

I cut the water to about 5-6 cups and used slightly less sugar since the apples I was working with weren't very tart. I also didn't measure out my apples exactly and had about two mixing bowls worth of sliced apples. Of course I don't measure things out exactly a lot of times when I'm cooking, especially for recipes like this one that don't require exact amounts.

Onto the directions...

In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and set aside. Pour water in large stock pot over medium heat. Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Add to water, stir well, and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Add apples and return to a boil. Cover and simmer for 6-8 minutes until apples are tender. Cool for 30 minutes. Ladle into freezer containers leaving 1/2" head space (I used freezer Ziplocks and got enough for 2 large pies or 3 smaller ones). Cool at room temperature no more then 1 1/2 hours before putting in the freezer.

The original recipe states that it makes enough for 5 pies but I assume they mean 5 dinky pies. I do not make dinky pies so I'd say it makes more like 3, but I still have no idea if I was using 18 cups of apples so who knows. The first time I made it I ladled part of the filling into a 9x13 pan and mixed up a cobbler topping for it and baked it for 45 minutes at 375 and it turned out fantastic. The topping was just some butter, flour, sugar, small amount of oats, and cinnamon that I mixed together and spread on top. I would have taken a picture of the final product but my camera battery died right after I took the picture of the cooking apples. It looked good but the SMELL was to die for!

Ethan's Birthday Dinner

I know I'm over a week late in blogging about this but I just haven't had the chance to get the photos off the camera until today. You'll probably get like 8 blog posts in a row now that I have the photos on the laptop! Anyways, these were too cute not to share. Since Ethan's birthday fell on a Wednesday we didn't have a lot of opportunity to do anything special. That's our busiest day of the week. We open Indoor Park at 9:30, send Grace to preschool from 12-2:30, and send Grace to AWANAS from 6:30-8pm. Plus David has jui jitsu that night and doesn't get home until after 8pm. Doesn't leave a lot of time for unscheduled activities, so I decided to take the kids to McDonalds for dinner as a special treat.

Ethan loves McDonalds. In fact, he can't pronounce Grace's name but you can hear him say McDonalds pretty clearly. And when he sees the golden arches he shouts it out on repeat. What can I say, the boy likes his fast food salty.

I got a chicken nugget happy meal with an extra cheeseburger for the kids to split and let them eat and play for an hour. They were in heaven. Ethan ate about half of his hamburger and mostly spent the hour running from the entrance of the play structure back to the table to slurp some chocolate milk and then repeating the process. Grace mainlined her chicken nuggets and then spent 50 minutes playing in the play structure with a few chocolate milk breaks.

For dessert I took the kids to Dairy Queen for a cherry dip. Ethan wasn't as interested in the ice cream which was a disappointment. Grace ate hers without too much mess though. Ethan liked the cone better then the ice cream and finished his off in the car on the way to AWANAS.

Ethan Grew!

Yesterday was Ethan's two year well child appointment which went really well. Our appointment was in the morning and we were in and out within 45 minutes. I love it when doctor's appointments don't involve a ton of waiting! Ethan stood on the scale to check his weight just fine but wanted nothing to do with standing next to the wall to check his height so he had to lay down in the room. He weighed 24.4 lbs and is 34" tall. That puts him in thte 10th percentile for weight and 45th for height. Most importantly his weight for height measurement doesn't put him in the malnourished category! Yay Ethan! If you remember back to last year his weight wasn't even on the chart and we had to come back for a weigh in a month later. The pediatrician asked what we were doing differently and I had to answer honestly that we're doing nothing differently. He's just a hungry boy! He quite often eats his food and half of his sister's. He's really a pretty good eater and must have gotten used to all the protein I've forced on him in the last year. We're keeping both kids on whole milk for the time being. Dr. Farah said to stick with the whole unless it looks like either one of them gains a lot of weight all of a sudden. Ha! I don't see that happening anytime soon!

We also talked about Ethan's slow verbal development. I told her that I've noticed his talking has really improved in the last two weeks. I've even heard him try to say Grace's name which is a first. He isn't putting two words together yet and if he goes another couple months without doing so I'll give Dr. Farah a call to have him checked out. Grace was also a late talker and didn't put two words together at her 2 year appointment either. She made up for it with a vengeance once she did start talking and she hasn't been silent since. I'm not that worried.

Both kids got a flu shot at the end of our visit. I was glad they did it for us so I don't have to bring them in to Salem on a Saturday morning for the walk-in flu shot clinic. We did Ethan first since I knew Grace was going to be difficult and I didn't want her reaction to scare Ethan. Ethan did fine, crying for about 20 seconds and that was it. Grace on the other handld threw a huge fit when it was her turn and it took both me and the nurse to restrain her to get her shot. I got her to calm down by telling her she could tell her preschool teacher and friends all about the shot she got. Grace *loves* to tell stories so once I told her that she stopped crying and started listing off all the people she could tell. At least she stopped crying!

Exhausted and Feeling Icky

This weekend we helped Mom get moved into her new place which was a lot of work but felt good. I know she's still got a ton left to unpack but we got her to almost functional. Her new place has a great feel to it and I know she's going to love it once she gets settled.

We drove around her neighborhood yesterday and when David spotted the movie theater he got pretty excited. We wound up going to see Couples Retreat last night while Mom played with the kids which was fun. I can see that pattern repeating.

I could feel a cold coming on yesterday but the free medicine I picked up at Rite Aid earlier in the morning did a really good job and kept me going all day. This morning when I woke up was a different story. I took some off brand Nyquil last night before bed and this morning I woke up feeling exhausted and very fuzzy. My brain just isn't working and I feel like I'm moving in slow motion. This is definitely my first icky cold of the fall. My throat really hurts but at least I can breathe so I'll be thankful for that. Hopefully I'm feeling better by tomorrow so I can get to MOPS. I really don't want to miss it!

Ethan is Two Today!

I can hardly believe my baby boy turned two today. It really doesn't seem like enough time has passed from that exhausting night of labor with him until now. Has it really been two years? Really?

Ethan is an absolute delight and I love him to pieces. He has the most infectious smile with matching expressive eyes. He is easily entertained and even now during this "No" phase his default demeanor is Happy. It's really hard to take his constant "No's" seriously when he's so gosh darn happy and does what I ask him to.

Ethan's favorite thing in the world is balls. Particularly basketballs, and yes he does know the difference. His short attention span does not apply to playing or watching basketball. The two hours he spent quietly watching basketball last Sunday attest to that! I knew he'd enjoy seeing the big boys play basketball but I never thought he'd actually sit still through it all.

Ethan watches all of us very carefully and copies what we do in an effort to be Big like us. He mostly copies Grace, but I find him copying Mommy and Daddy as well. Since he mostly copies his sister he often carries a purse to the car like she does. There is nothing cuter then a little boy with a pink purse slung over his shoulder and dragging along the ground as he toddles after his big sister!

I'm not sure how many little boys care what they wear but Ethan has already started voicing his opinion on the matter. He most definitely prefers shirts with balls on them and of those shirts he most likes his basketball shirts. He has two right now, though the short sleeve one is almost too small. He stands in front of his side of the closet and points up yelling "ball!" to tell me what he wants to wear. He also insists on choosing his own socks. I usually find 3 or 4 pairs that will match his shirt and let him pick from that. He is very deliberate in choosing his socks. It's really pretty funny.

His pediatrician's appointment is next Monday so I'll have all his stats then. I'm pretty sure he's grown and I'm guessing he's around 24-25lbs. He wears 18-24 tops to get the arms long enough (it's time for long sleeves!) and a mix of 12-18 and 18-24 bottoms depending on how long they are and how adjustable the waist is. We love adjustable waists. He's wearing a size 5/6ish shoe. I think most of his shoes are 6's right now with room to grow. He's also in a size 4 diaper and probably won't move on to the size 5's before he potty trains. Grace didn't either.

Happy Birthday to my little guy! I love you!


A few (ha!) favorite photos of Ethan this past year:

I started a new blog

I decided to start a new blog focusing on couponing/shopping so that this one doesn't get so cluttered. I'd prefer to keep this one about our family and the stuff we're up to. I have a lot of people ask me about how I shop so I hope this new blog helps!

You can find the new blog HERE