Random Picture Friday

The many faces of Noah

and the pretty much the same face of Ryan

Guess what I did yesterday...

went on a date with my husband!

Can you believe it? It was so nice to just be still for 2 hours. Now, let me start by saying we did go to a country concert on Saturday and saw Lady Antebellum and Rodney Atkins. That was different though. Why? Because it was what Tim wanted to do and not really my comfort zone. I'm not really a people person. Although, the music was good, there were a lot of people smoking (ok, EVERYONE was smoking). I digress...

So yesterday I kind of reached a boiling point. I needed away from the house. To be honest, I think my kids needed a fresh face also. I decided not to go to life group (hard decision) but since I already had a babysitter lined up I wanted to just go sit and be still. My awesome husband decided to come with me. We went to a quiet Mexican restaurant, had a bite to eat, and a drink (of course) and just talked. We caught up on life, you know the things that we are to busy to mention during the day too day craze of life.

Best part, when we came home Ryan was in a GREAT mood. It was hard putting him to bed he was so happy with life. Ahhh, so refreshing. We had great bedtime prayers. Ryan did all the praying last night if I tried to pray he would put his hand over my mouth. After prayers Ryan told me God was big and happy. I laughed and told him he was absolutely right.

I started thinking about my day. How I was brought to tears because I was overly emotional over everything that didn't go as planned during my day. God is big. Bigger than my problems, my fears, my sorrows. He is happy. He is happy when we worship Him, we pray to Him, when we TRUST Him! What awesome perspective my three year old gave me last night. What a better day I had today in light of his perspective.

Have I told you lately, I love my guys!!

Yummy muffins

Here is the recipe for the muffins I made a few weeks back. The kids LOVED them! Enjoy

Cinnamon butternut squash muffins

Picture and recipe from www.5dollardinners.com

Ingredients


1 banana, mashed


1 cup cooked butternut squash


4 eggs
1/3 cup applesauce


1/3 cup white sugar


6 Tablespoon canola or vegetable oil


1 teaspoon salt


1 teaspoon baking soda


2 teaspoon baking powder


2 teaspoon cinnamon


1 cup whole wheat flour


1 cup white flour

Optional Topping:

1 tsp cinnamon


1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions


1. In stand mixer or mixing bowl, mix banana, butternut squash, eggs, applesauce, sugar, and oil, until well blended.


2. In separate mixing bowl, combine salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, wheat flour and white flour.


3. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until batter forms.


4. Pour into greased baking cups or muffin tins, and sprinkle with brown sugar-cinnamon topping. Makes 24 regular size muffins, 48 mini muffins, or 12 regular muffins and 24 mini muffins.


5. Bake at 350. Regular size muffins for 16-18 minutes. Mini muffins for 13-15 minutes.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with garlic zucchini and tomato

This is a new recipe I have made twice now. I love it and it's super easy and fast. Let me know if you try it

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with garlic zucchini and tomato

Picture and recipe from cuisinenie.blogspot.com

Whole wheat spaghetti

3 tablespoons olive oil

course salt and pepper

small red onion cut into thick slices

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 large zucchini cut lengthwise into sticks

2 plum tomatoes cut lengthwise into strips

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Boil noodles in salted water

Sautee 3 garlic cloves in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for 3 minutes

Add zucchini and 1/2 cup water. Let sit on med. for 10 minutes

Add tomatoes, onions and 1 tablespoon of oil.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Add cheese.

Picture of the week

POTW (although not taken this week)

Sometimes we just have one of those days!

already Thursday?

It's been quite a week. I can't believe it is already Thursday. I know, I usually don't feel that way but it's true for this week. Why is my week flying by? I am so glad you asked...

SUNDAY- Triathlon (read prior post)

MONDAY- Did you see the Chargers game?... ugh!

TUESDAY- ohhh, I got to sleep in today. My head did not come up from that pillow until after 7am. Just heavenly! I took the day off work as Ryan had his speech therapy evaluation. He did awesome and made us look like amateur parents for even thinking he had a problem with his speech. He was talking up a storm to anyone that would listen and most of his words, I kid you not, were very understandable. He is still rather lazy with the end of words so the speech therapist recommended a class once a week for 8 weeks that works both with the child and the parents on skills to help enhance this pronunciation. (side mention: had to get called out of my spin class to tend to a 17 month old that would not stop crying until I held him, so glad I was able to help you out Noah)

WEDNESDAY- I had to see the dental hygienist. I had a cleaning... a deep cleaning. I am a baby! I had a hard time speaking stern but nicely to my children without a pool of drool running down the side of my face. In the evening it was off to worship rehearsal. So glad the whole mouth area was back to normal by then.

TODAY- Wow, today was a doozy. Ryan has been constipated since he was born. At his last doctor appointment we scheduled for him to have a barium enema so they could take x rays of his colon. Ryan is a champ. I'm not going to lie, there was a lot of crying going on but he did great under the circumstances. It is so hard watching your child be scared and feeling so helpless. Ryan did go poo poo on the potty though (sorry, mom talk) and was calmly awaiting his sticker from the nurse for his accomplishment. After his appointment we went to Chili's (totally unneeded), picked up Noah, and hung out at the house.

That all leads us to this moment where I have pear bread in the oven and watching Oprah on TiVo. It's been an interesting week so far and I love it. Sitting here feeling blessed for the amazing family I have.

Triathlon

Well, it was an eventful weekend. On Saturday Lisa and I went and picked up our packets for the race. We listened to the race talk, and we walked around the expo buying ourselves some last minute odds and ends (like out race outfit).
Once I was home I decided I didn't really like the bike I borrowed and tried to convince Tim to buy me a $500 bike at REI. That plan was foiled once Tim saw the text message I got from Lisa letting me know I could borrow her mom's bike. Oh well, I guess I saved money (Note: don't decide what bike you are going to ride the night before the race)

The night before the race the family went to Lisa's parents house to celebrate her nieces' third birthday. Tim had to go on an errand so we ended up there longer then expected, which would be fine if I wasn't allergic to cats. Yep, eyes were scratchy, and starting to get bumps around my eyes. Had no other choice but to take a benadryl. Lisa drove us back to her house in my car where I stayed the night to get ready for the race.

RACE MORNING:

I'm not doing to lie, I was pretty nervous. We got to the race around 6am and set up our transition area. Then we waited!

The SWIM:

20 minutes.
Not the time I wanted. The swim was harder then I thought it would be. Seriously, it took me until the last 300 meters to settle myself down and do a complete stroke. The bay swim threw me a little. Not really what I expected.

The BIKE:

56 minutes
Again not what I wanted. Part of this comes back to the not having the bike I was going to ride until the night before. I didn't have a chance to figure out the gears as completely as I should have therefore EVERYONE passed me. Such a bummer. I think I could have done better it I knew how to use my gears. I knew how to use them within the 2nd left shifter but I need to kick up to third and didn't understand that at the time. Even the beach cruisers were passing me, it was bad! I knew they were not all peddling faster then me. So frustrating. I am pretty sure I can do better then that time.



The RUN:

35 min
Just happy I finished it. My knees were killing me along with my left ankle. I must confess, there were moments of walking but I tried to keep myself going and getting into a rhythm.



Total time:
1hr 58min

After the race

Lisa and me

My REFLECTION:

I had a great time. Not really because of the triathlon but because I was doing it with Lisa, LeAnne, and Christa. I will probably do it again next year. There are too many areas of this race I know I can do better on. Finishing doesn't inspire me, getting better and trying to better myself inspires me!

Christa, LeAnne, Me, Lisa

Lisa, muddy buddy??

What? Sunday??

I have thoughts, mostly on my triathlon SUNDAY. Here are some of them...

• I have a triathlon to do in 2 days (1 full day)
• I want to work out but I am going out today and my hair is looking curly but not frizzy, I don't want to mess that up.
• I decided to watch biggest loser to motivate me
• I have yet to ride the bike I will be riding in the triathlon
• It's been a long week
• I made cinnamon butternut squash muffins and my kids LOVED them
• I have yet to workout this week

Sometimes we have those days

Noah,

I am sorry you have been sick lately. You seem to be feeling better today though. I had so much fun dancing to Bon Jovi and Britney Spears with you tonight. Again, I am sorry that I didn't let you run around naked before bed. I am torn between being a fun mom and not really wanting to clean up pee from the carpet. I know how much you love being clothing free. You will run around pounding your bare chest- I think this may be genetics. Sleep tight tonight and I have some freshly baked butternut squash muffins for you in the morning.

Mommy

...he loves me!

Tim brought home some BEAUTIFUL flowers for me today.

They are orange- to bring fall into my home

I love you!

Oh yes, and can you smell my house?

Yep that is homemade brownies you smell

Tis the season to baking!

Yum!

Made pumpkin-chocolate chip bread this weekend. It was good but I decided to leave room for improvement!

Random picture of the day!

(right before we left for the Padre game!)

Where is your silly face?

Family photo booth

(minus Ryan because I don't remember where he was)

Guess what we did in julian...

Last weekend we pack up the family up and went on our annual Julian fall apple picking trip. We had TONS of fun last year.

The morning went something like this

"Ryan, do you and to want to go pick apples today?"

Ryan very excited "Yeah, apples!"

As the morning continued and Ryan seemed to need additional motivation we continued to bring up the upcoming apple picking experience.

"Ryan, if you want to pick apples you need to put your shoe on," and "Ryan, no apple picking if you don't get in the car right now."

Yep, that is how we motivate our kids... we bribe them. Hey, we learned early on in parenting to do what works.

We load up the car, pick grandma up, and proceed to Julian, Ca. When we finally get to the orchard we are a little concerned with the lack of apples we see in peoples bag. Ryan pick up an apple picking bad and said "Yea, we get to pick apples". Tim and I are staring to get nervous. As we are walking along the trees there are NO APPLES present. You heard right. Not one eatable apple. The only apples on the trees were moldy. How do you explain this to a 3 year old?

We let him pick the few apples we found that were not ripe, but it was something. After about 10 minutes we distracted him, took his bag, and made a run for it before he figured out what happened. It was a close call.

Here are what the trees looked like

And Ryan "apple picking"

Before we went to the orchard we went to a u-pick pumpkin patch. We had so much fun there last year playing with the animals and frogs that were in the mud. Well, this year the u-pick was more of a u-pick UP the pumpkins that have already been picked for you. There were a few animals there and we tried to get some pictures of the kids with pumpkins. Some are good, some, not so much.

The "not so much ones" were edited out.

Another year of non-apple picking down.

Inspiration

Sometimes in life there are events, stories, people, etc that change your life or at the least your perspective. Hang in there with me, I believe this will be a beautiful post.

Oprah is on my daily TiVo list on “things to record”. This season hasn’t been very spectacular to me so I usually just delete the episodes without watching them. Well, yesterday I decided to watch and I am so blessed that I did. There was a mother on there that is pretty popular as a blogging momma. Her story is convicting, tragic, courageous, and inspirational. I feel the need to share it here.

Stephanie “Nie Nie” Nielson is a mom of four and she is known for her popular blog about her life as a mother and wife. When reading her blogs you get an insight to her everyday life with her 4 beautiful children. They bake, and do crafts, and dance. She cooks, and makes sure she celebrates every occasion. Every year when her children go back to school she cooks them a back to school dinner. She loves fabrics, has such a retro style, loves projects, and is an artist. Reading her blog challenges me to be a better mom because she has so much energy and loves spending time with her kids.

Last August, Stephanie and her husband, Christian, were in a plane accident. The pilot of the small 4 seater plane died. Christian had a broken back, burns on 30% of his body, and was in a coma for 6 weeks. Stephanie was burned on 80% of her body and in a coma for I believe about 3 month. Her children were scared to visit her. One of her daughters visited her in the hospital only once and was to scared to come back. She wakes up having to stretch her skin, peel off the excess skin and lives in constant pain. She has a hard time picking her children up. Her kids range in age from 3-8.

Her story affected me. As I was reading through her blog I noticed she is my age. In June she celebrated her 28th birthday. Reading her blog you go through this journey with her. You get a good idea of her life before this accident and then the struggles after the accident. Her fears, her tears, her blessings, I wonder if she knows how many people her story reaches. I highly recommend reading her blog, her story. I promise it will inspire you as a parent, and as a person.

Personally, reading her life, I am inspired to do more crafts with my kids. She makes me want to wear those cute knee length dresses, and cute hats. I’m inspired to serve the Lord more with a giving heart, to express my love for my husband so much more then I do, to add color to my life, fabrics to my pillows. I am challenged to take more pictures with my kids no matter how bad I think I look, really I am blessed.

Here is an excerpt from Stephanie's blog:

Last night I called for my girls to join me in my bed for a chat. Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at my daughters. Such gorgeous things. I told them how sorry I was, how sorry I was that the airplane crashed. I wept. They looked stunned at my boldness. Claire patted my head softy and Jane wrapped her arms around me. There were no words, just tears.

I told them that I would never ever let anything like that disturb our family again.

I won't.

Then we all linked pinkies to reinforce the very powerful, very serious pinkie promise. Then we smiled and my pain felt lifted. As they jumped off my bed to retire to there own, I told them I loved them and that Heavenly Father has big plans for our family, and we need not worry just trust in Him. Jane looked at me and said;

"Is that why the airplane fell out of the sky? Did he do that?"

"Yes-well no" I slowly answered, a little confused myself "but He saved our lives and that was the beginning of the part of our big plan. We are in the middle of it right now and It is going to get easier."

I heard myself mimicking exactly what my Mom had just told me earlier and now I believed it.

I had too.

My pain, heartache and confusion have led me to state of mind that all is lost, but when I look into my children's eyes I see my Savior and I know that it is not lost, it is just the beginning of a "big plan" for us.

I hope the big plan includes lots of cupcakes. I have a feeling it will.

So go, look at her story. Get inspired. Embrace each day we are given, it is a gift.

Fall

More fall pictures to come, but seriously, how cute are these two? Now weather, it's time to change to crisp fresh air!! Love it!

Victory

Alright, it looks as if I underestimated my son. Ryan did great last night. Not one tear out of him. It took him a little time to settle down and fall asleep but that is normal. I am so proud of him. He didn't even mention his pacifier last night. I think he was on to new issues. When I put him down he said "No gate!". Since he is in our room and it takes him longer to go down I put the baby gate up so he doesn't keep coming out of the room.

This afternoon, there was also no fight. About 45 minutes after I put him down I went upstairs to check on him. I could not find him, ANYWHERE!! The gate was up so he couldn't have gone far. I'm thinking he is on the side of the bed, nope. Maybe the closet, nope. My room is not that big. I ended up finding him... under the top of the bed. I have no clue how this kid wedged himself in there! The headboard has slats in it and there were times when the kids would accidentally drop their pacifiers there. Well, Ryan stuck gold. There he was under the bed sucking the pacifier. The kid went through so much trouble to get it, I just left him there on the floor with the pacifier. After nap was over I fetched the rest of the pacifiers. NO MORE!!

Okay, one last thing I need to say. I love being a mommy! Noah is feeling a little under the weather today. I was putting him to bed, I turned out the lights and he let me just cradle him for a while. I wanted to cry. They grow up so fast. Every memory I had of staying up late, rocking him to sleep came back to me at that moment. All the little precious moments we shared just staring into each others eyes. Man, they grow fast. My boys ROCK!!

Pacifier- night 2

I know everyone is tuning into read about Ryan's pacifier saga so without further a due. Last night we put Ryan down at about 8pm. He cried off and on. In the last post I told you he was rather quiet, yes, it was the calm before the storm. When I went up to check on him he had thrown Owl over the gate along with his pants. Yep, you heard me right, his pants. Why? I have no idea. He had the light in our room on and was looking out the window. I walked into the room and Ryan jumped and said "Mom, you scared me!". (Adorable, I know). Around 10pm he was crying pretty hard and at 10:30pm I went to lay with him and he fell asleep right away. He slept pretty good until about 2am when we was yelling at the Owl again to give back his pacifier. That went on for about 20 min. Not as cute at 2am! I went down stairs woke Tim from the couch to have him come to bed and we all piled in...sort of. Ryan like to sleep horizontal so I was banished to the foot of the bed. He woke up at about 6:45 for the morning.

All in all, once he went down it wasn't too horrible. We had to fill out his papers with the district for his speech therapy today so we weren't able to try out nap time, I don't foresee it going very well though. He took is Owl with him everywhere we went today.

This all brings us to the present. We put Ryan to bed at about 8:40pm, later then normal. This time he was on to us from the beginning. The second we went into the room he wanted NOTHING to do with Owl. Best friends during the day and he turned on him at night. Ryan is currently upstairs sobbing at the door. This is where the speech delay comes in handy, he keeps yelling stuff out but we have no clue what he is saying. Every once and a while he cries out a "Mommy" which is heartbreaking. I just hope this stage passes fast. I told Tim last night, it feels like detox. There is really nothing you can do except put your head down and pile through it. So happy we are not going to have to go through this with Noah!!!

The owl

It is a milestone night in the Farmer household. This evening Tim and I took Ryan and Noah to Build- a- Bear. Ryan got to pick out any animal and then give his pacifier to it, he chose the owl. Noah also got to pick out an animal, mainly to keep peace in our house, and he choose the turkey. Don't ask me why he chose the turkey but he chose it the second he saw it.

Well, we kept on reminding Ryan that Owl (that is what he named his owl) is holding his pacifier and that he can sleep with him tonight if he wants to. All was going well until we walked upstairs to go to bed and Ryan was yelling to his owl "OUT"! Once he laid down he started picking at the owl and kept yelling "out". I let him know that he could hug his owl so he can be closer to his pacifier but that he is a big boy now. He wasn't buying this one bit. I left the room to Ryan sobbing, it broke my heart. Hw opened his door and just cried for us. He took a few minutes to leave the door of his room to go beat up his owl a little and then resumed screaming from the doorway. It has been about 30 minutes and there is nothing coming from his room. So, either this is going to be easier then we thought, or, there is a dead owl spread out in our room and Ryan is fast asleep with his pacifier. I am scared to look...

For now, just pray our family can get a good nights sleep.