Monthly Archives: March 2015

Somebunny is 2!

Posted in Family, Nolan by

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In some ways it’s hard to believe it has already been 2 years since Nolan came bursting onto the scene of life in an oh-so-dramatic fashion. In other ways, it’s impossible to think that life ever existed without his larger than life personality.

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It’s been 2 years of laughter, exhaustion, questioning our sanity, and thanking God every day for the gift that is Nolan. He continues to keep us on our toes and crack us up with his mood swings, catch phrases, and ridiculous obsessions.  He is also just about the easiest thing in the world to fall in love with thanks to his cuddly, smiley, thumb-sucking cuteness.

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While I admittedly never thought I could love anything as much as I loved Brady, (even while pregnant with Nolan!) I am forever in awe of how much my littlest man changed everything I knew about love. Like, heart exploding, best thing in the world, how did we ever live without you, love. Brady taught me what real love was, and Nolan taught me the infinite capacity that my heart could love.

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While it is bittersweet to think that our baby is no longer a baby, I’m too excited to see what life has in store for our sweet Rolie Nolie to ever wish for time stop. Even the surgeon who delivered him said that he must be destined for great things in life and was definitely sent to us for a reason. (Insert proud mom face.)

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So this Easter, as our little Bubba turns 2, we’ll be farther away from all the sleepless nights of his infancy and one step closer to the sleepless nights that he’ll undoubtedly cause us in his teen years. He’ll be going full throttle (as usual) and we’ll be there just trying to keep up with him (as usual.) His big brother will be desperately pleading with him to “follow the rules”  and “stop stealing my food!” all while laughing throughout the house, chasing each other or wrestling on the bed. He’ll be the maniac that he is and then stop for a quick snuggle and thumb suck (all while pulling my hair, no doubt.) We’ll soak up the good and try to get through the terrible 2’s with the mindset that this is all going by much too quickly.

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Thank you, Nolan, for the most challenging, hilarious, and love filled 2 years of our lives!

Love you,

Mommy, Daddy, & Brudder

Dinosaur Cupcakes- Kids Cook Monday

Posted in Kids Cook Monday by

The other day we had a boring, rainy day in Raleigh. Chris was out of town and it was too wet and cool outside to do anything fun outdoors with the boys. In other words, it was the perfect day to bake something. I told Brady we should bake something fun and asked him if he had any suggestions. He quickly replied, “A Dinosaur Cake!” While I was not exactly sure how to pull that off, I knew we had to make it work because he was so proud of his idea.

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This cooking session with B-Man was not necessarily about trying a fancy new recipe or pulling off some elaborate Pinterest project- but more about getting messy in the kitchen and having some fun. We didn’t pay attention to swapping out ingredients for healthier alternatives, in fact we used a boxed cake mix we had in the pantry. We indulged in sugar and fat and loved every minute of it. No regrets.

First, we made a list of the steps for making some really cool dinosaur cupcakes. We got out all of our ingredients and got to work.

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Our to-do list for making cupcakes. He loves lists! He’s so my kid!

 

We used a boxed cake mix (watermelon flavor!) for our cupcakes. Actually, we used half of a package of cake mix because we really didn’t need that many cupcakes. We added 1 egg, 1 cup of water, and 3/4 cup oil. Brady helped crack the egg and stir up the batter. We put our cupcakes in the oven and got to work on our homemade frosting.

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I used this recipe I found online for our frosting. http://www.supercouponlady.com/easy-buttercream-frosting-recipe/ Brady helped me use the blender to make it nice and fluffy and then we added in green dye-per Brady’s request.

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While our cupcakes were cooling, Brady got to work picking out some of his favorite dinosaurs to top our cupcakes with.

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Sidenote: Stop what you’re doing right now and go find watermelon flavored cake mix at Target. Smelled and tasted amazzzzzing!

 

B gave them all a bath so they were nice and clean.

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Decorating the cupcakes was definitely Brady’s favorite step. He was so proud of how they turned out and even wanted to bring some to our neighbor’s house.

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I loved this time in the kitchen with my Brady-Boo. He was so involved and so happy to be making his “vision” come to life! Also, despite the fact that he is not usually a dessert loving kiddo, he ate every bit of one of these cupcakes. He must’ve tasted the love in them!

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Best. Rainy. Day. Ever.

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I love that little finger sneaking into the picture trying to get a taste!

 

St. Patrick’s Day- Kids Cook Monday

Posted in Holidays, Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by

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We love to celebrate any and all holidays around here. An excuse to give a gift, decorate, or make a special meal- and we’re on it! For Kids Cook Monday we decided to start celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with some green food. Last year we attempted green smoothies and, while they were delicious, they weren’t, um, green. This year we were determined to have GREEN smoothies. And we got our wish! We also made some cute little shamrock quesadillas to go with our smoothies.

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Green Smoothie Ingredients

1 banana
2 kiwis
1 bag frozen peaches
1 container flavored Greek yogurt
about 1/2 cup of Orange Juice
about 3/4 bag of spinach leaves

Brady enjoyed helping me pick out green ingredients for our smoothie at the grocery store. He even chose key lime yogurt because of the green container. He was also excited to try kiwi- which he described as green strawberries with lots of seeds. Sounds about right to me.

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We tossed everything in the blender (tasting each item along the way.)

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Nolan did the honors of pushing the blender buttons. He’s come a long way from being terrified of it and running away screaming.

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Here’s how our smoothie turned out. Super green!!! This batch made enough for me and the boys to each have a very big glass. Nolan finished his and then asked to finish mine. That’s a big deal because he is not an easy kid to get healthy food into.

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And because we couldn’t just eat smoothies for dinner, we made some fun cheese quesadillas using Spinach wraps and a shamrock cookie cutter.

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These took just a few minutes to cut the shapes out and cook up in a pan.

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Helpful hint: these were much easier to cut out when warmed up for about 15 seconds.

We served them with some bright green guacamole and felt super festive!

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Not exactly an Irish tradition, but tasty and GREEN!

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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Oh, and because I can’t leave well enough alone, here’s Brady’s lunch for school tomorrow!!!

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Turkey spinach wrap, green apple with peanut butter, and cucumbers and hummus. Wonder if he’ll notice the color scheme?