Blending Baby Foods (or how to make homemade apple & pear sauces)

After purchasing baby food from the grocery store for the last month, I saw firsthand how quickly it can add up. Baby food is expensive! So I decided to experiment with homemade food using a Magic Bullet Blender. What a machine! It works wonders for fruits and vegetables and the clean-up is quick and easy. If you're in the market for a blender, I highly recommend checking it out.

Here are some of the blended concoctions I ended up giving to my boys. Nothing fancy here. Just simple, healthy stuff that goes a long way.

Vanilla Cinnamon Pear Purée (makes 8-10 ounces)

• 2 ripe pears, peeled and cut into cubes (if unripe, steam for 5 minutes)
• 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract

Put ingredients into blender for 30-60 seconds. Add water to reach desired consistency.

Carrot Applesauce (makes 8-10 ounces)

• 1 cup of baby carrots (steam for 5-7 minutes or until tender)
• 2 large Honeycrisp apples (peeled, cored and cut into slices)
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Fill a baking dish with enough water to coat the bottom (1/4" deep) and add apple slices. Bake for 25-30 minutes. When finished, drain the water and then combine carrots, cinnamon and apples in a blender.  Blend for 30-60 seconds or until smooth. Add water as needed to reach desired consistency.

Pears with cinnamon and vanilla. My boys couldn't get enough of this!

What Have We Been Up To?

Well hello everyone! Long time no post, right? Life has been crazy busy lately and I feel like I've treated the blog like a bit of a redheaded stepchild - it just hasn't been a huge priority compared to everything else going on in my life. What the heck has been going on, you might ask? Here's the rundown:

I've been working on decorating our master bedroom, which I'm ridiculously excited about. For the past two years the room has basically been a blank slate with zero personality so I'm looking forward to completing the transformation. I should probably share before and after photos, but I'd like to wait until I'm a bit farther along in the project.

We also ran our first 5k as a family. To be honest, the incentive for me was the free donut at the end of the race (Top Pot Donuts here in Seattle sponsored the event). Still, it felt good to complete something together and I'm sure there will be more races in our future, possibly even another marathon.

Let' see, what else... The boys turned 7 months old. I can hardly believe it! They are finally on solids as well. So far the only foods that trigger automatic gag reflexes for them are broccoli and blended meats. Can you blame them? Here they are enjoying squash puree. Mm... squishy mush.

I was also part of a friend's wedding in California back in April. Man did it feel good to have somebody throw me in a nice dress and then do my make-up and hair. After months of looking completely disheveled, which comes with the job of being a stay-at-home mom, I finally felt like I looked semi-presentable. Of course I bawled my eyes out through the entire wedding ceremony (it was beautiful) and quickly smeared away all of the make-up, but it was nice while it lasted. P.S. I'm convinced that tears flow much more freely after you've had kids, but that's a debate best saved for another time.

We also somehow ended up hosting one or two dinner events at our house PER WEEK during the month of April, which was insane, but also a lot of fun. Then there were trips to the zoo, birthday celebrations, and multiple twins club gatherings.

*Exhale*

Here's to getting back into the swing of things with the blog this week and sharing inspiring things once again with you all!

The Real Problem With Barbie - Soapbox Style

Have you heard about the new Barbie doll competitor named Lammily? She was created by artist Nickolay Lamm in order to draw attention to Barbie's "unrealistic body proportions."

The Lammily doll

Lamm's project has sparked discussion about how the doll might positively influence body acceptance among young women. While I think that's a nice thought, I don't believe that a doll with more realistic body proportions is going to shift body confidence in little girls or tweens alike. In fact, I don't know anyone who played with a Barbie doll as a kid who then compared herself to one as an adult. (I understand that there are plenty of Barbie doll types who are alive and kicking in the world. One only needs to look at the beaches of sunny, Southern California or watch any "Housewives of [insert city name here]" reality TV show for examples of that.)

The bigger issue here, for me at least, is that young girls get their body confidence from their mothers (or equivalent parental figures), and what mother out there hasn't dieted or fretted about her weight? Or her make-up? Or her hairstyle? Or wrinkles? I know my mom certainly worried about all of these things so I grew up worrying about them too.

I think it's sad that some mothers are willing to put their faith in a doll when it comes to improving body confidence in their daughters. Isn't confidence a learned behavior? We're fooling ourselves if we expect our daughters to love and tolerate their bodies when we aren't even willing to do that ourselves. No doll is going to change that.

Nursery Completion

It took me several months post-babies to complete, but better late than never! Here are a few snapshots of the nursery. We went with a Noah's ark theme, which basically means I put animals everywhere.

I also picked a flexible color scheme with lots of green, blue, orange, yellow and brown. I love the variety. The boys seem to enjoy it as well. They can stare at the stuff on the walls for hours. It's amazing watching babies explore the world in front of them. It makes all the effort put into decorating this room worth it.

The giraffe was a baby shower present and I think it adds a playful
touch to the room.

The letters hung above the cribs were part of a custom order on Etsy.

I love the shelves above the gliding chair. They're great for showing off
a book collection.

It's not very tidy, but here is the changing station. The boys love the
 mirror, which is great for keeping them distracted during
diaper changes.

Welcome to Parenthood

Although our boys weren't due to make their grand entrance into the world until today, I developed some third trimester pregnancy complications with the end result being an expedited due date. So...on Friday, October 4th, at 1:03 and 1:04pm, we officially became parents. Hooray!

Henry Joseph Davis is on the left and Liam August Davis is on the right. We are so in love with them!

What Have I Been Up To?

Hi Friends! It's been a while hasn't it? Over the last few weeks, I kept telling myself to post, but life kept getting in the way (a good thing, if you ask me.) So what have I been up to lately? Are you sitting down? This is a long update!

In early June, we kicked off a plethora of home improvement projects (that "nesting" thing that happens during pregnancy is most certainly real), starting with a complete front porch remodel:

The front porch BEFORE the remodel. 

The front porch AFTER the remodel, taken on the day of my baby shower. (More on that later.) 

We also spent some time in Montana celebrating the marriage of our church friends:

Snapped this from my iPhone so it's a little blurry.

This was taken at the wedding. I was at my
20-week mark, halfway through the pregnancy. Yippy!

Later in the month, I held a Mad Men-themed party for Mike's 40th birthday. We even had our very own in-house bartender:

A little snippet of the bar that we set-up in our kitchen.

These are the custom cookies we had made especially for the event. 

Doesn't Mike look fantastic in that jacket? I threw
on anything that would fit over my belly. 

In mid-July, we bounced around barbeques. Our neighbors hosted an excellent one for Independence Day, though I forgot to snap photos. We also participated in a 4D ultrasound session. I'd share the photos from that adventure, but most people find them creepy. I thought it was an amazing process. 

Then just last week, we hosted Mike's parents for 10 days. We had a blast taking them around the Ballard Locks, Green Lake, The Museum of Flight, Alki Beach... we covered a lot of ground.

Oh, and to cap off their visit, my mom came over to our house and threw me a tea party-themed baby shower. It was fantastic! I didn't even have to travel anywhere!

The table was set for a lovely afternoon tea 

Beautiful tea cups covered the living room tables. 

Some of the colorful decorations hung just outside the dining room.

Custom tea cup cookies made for great party favors. 

Needless to say, the last month or so has been a bit of a blur with all of the activity. Until I get back on track with my regular posting schedule, things may be sporadic. That's what this time of year is all about though, right?  In the meantime, I hope you are all having a fabulous summer!

More Home Improvements

We've also added some new pieces to our living room and dining room recently and I'm in love with the changes. In the living room, we added some french-inspired artwork on the walls and added a beautiful oriental rug underneath the coffee table. In the dining room, we added new lighting fixtures that also sort of have some french flair. One year after moving in, we're finally putting our stamp on our house. It's been a lot of fun so far!

Home Improvements

So we finally bit the bullet and paid to start our front porch remodel. It'll take about 30 days to complete and if successful, it'll return our porch to its former glory. It went through a bad facelift about 10 years ago when the previous home owner decided it would be a good idea to replace the tongue and groove flooring with cold, modern slate. Since our house was built in 1903, the slate is a bit of a red herring so I'm happy to get rid of it. 

Keep your eyes open for an update on the porch (with photos!) sometime toward the end of June. I think it's going to look amazing.

Out with the old...

Home Improvement Projects Galore

With two babies on the way in October this year (yay!), we've gone into a cleaning frenzy in preparation for our impending lack of free time.

Last week we tackled the rock steps in our backyard. As you can see from the first photo below, the steps didn't align with our gate and they were crooked and quite steep so climbing up and down them was tricky. With some heavy machinery, cheap paid help, and guidance from my father (who happens to be a professional landscaper), we were able to complete the project in about 4 hours. Now I just need to find some time to plant some water-absorbing ground cover around the stones so it looks a little more lively.

Up next week: we redo our front porch!

BEFORE

AFTER!

Good News on a Monday

Happy Monday readers! You may be wondering why I haven't posted lately. You may also be wondering what happened with Mixology Mondays.  The short answer: I'm pregnant! With twins!
As such, I've had to take some "me time" in recent weeks to deal with 24/7 morning sickness and all the fun stuff that comes with a first trimester pregnancy. This of course also means drinking has gone out the door and with that, so has Mixology Mondays. (I look forward to bringing the series back at a later time.) In the meantime, I hope you'll join me in celebration on this fine Monday. It's going to be a great week!

P.S. This is not an April Fools' Day joke. :)

"You Can Do Anything"

Have you seen this video featuring two brothers who won the Sports Illustrated SportsKids of The Year Award for 2012? The love these two boys show for each other is truly amazing. The doctor who told this family that their youngest son was going to be a burden due to his medical condition couldn't have been more wrong. The value this family places on life and perseverance against all odds is incredible.

You can watch the entire 5-minute video here.

Lately...

Remember all those unfinished projects I mentioned I'd be tackling as a result of unemployment? One of those projects was painting some of the rooms in our house that either need a fresh coat of paint or a completely new color. I started with our living room and worked my way into our dining room (pictured below). I'll be moving on to our hallway next. I'm thinking something along the lines of seafoam green there, but I haven't decided yet. Painting is a lot of work, but I'm having a blast!

Making the Holidays Merry

With our holiday shopping completed and no concrete plans ahead other than traveling to St. Louis for Christmas, I thought perhaps this last week or two might have been a bit slow. I thought wrong! I've been busy completing all those unfinished projects I blogged about last week (more on that later). I've also been preoccupied with fun little holiday gatherings. We hosted a young adults game night for church friends on Saturday, a holiday gift exchange with my parents on Sunday, and later today we'll be getting together with our neighbors to share a few drinks and some holiday cheer. Keeping busy this time of year is actually kind of fun!

My parents, nephew, sister, hubby and I all gathered around our tree. 

One of several Christmas baskets I made for our neighbors.

It was my first attempt at making gift baskets. Not bad, but practice makes perfect.

Useful Emergency Preparedness Tips

My husband and I were fortunate enough to not have to deal with something like a Hurricane Sandy this fall, though it did get us thinking about what we would do in case of an emergency like that. I've been digging around online for emergency preparedness tips and came across this DIY Emergency Preparedness Guide from Buzzfeed.com. Although I tend to disagree with most of the content they publish, this particular guide is actually pretty useful. 

Here are a few of their tips: 

Weekend Wrap-Up

I don't know about you guys, but I did a whole lotta living over the weekend and I'm feeling pooped going into this week.  It's definitely a multiple cup coffee morning, which feels about right going into a Monday.

Tiredness aside, it was a fantastic weekend filled with friends, family and holiday festivities. One of the standout highlights for me was a trip to Craven Farm to pick out our Halloween pumpkins for carving. The farm itself is adorable and a lot of families came dressed up in their Halloween costumes, which was a hoot for people watching. They also have a fun slingshot tool that you can use to send miniature pumpkins flying into space (see video below). We will absolutely make this pumpkin patch visit a family tradition when we have kids someday. It's so fun!

The friendliest pumpkin farm on the planet!

Craven Farm's corn fields looked gorgeous against the stormy sky.  

They had so many pumpkins to choose from and all of them were huge!

We settled on a short and tall combination. Kudos to hubby for doing the heavy lifting.

Anniversary Time

Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband Michael! Four years ago today, I made the best decision of my life.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Good morning, readers! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We entertained the in-laws and took a trip to the family cabin near Lake Wenatchee. The weather was perfect, the conversations flowed freely and the food was plentiful. Just the kind of weekend I needed to recharge my batteries!

Just another beautiful Saturday afternoon on the deck at the cabin.

An array of pink wildflowers in our neighbor's yard.

Cheese! Family photo time.

The Weekend in Pictures

1.  Escargot from RN74
2.  An unexpected Saturday morning shoulder massage from our kitty, Bella
3.  You only live once.  So true!
4.  Fresh, homemade bouquets. Daisies, chrysanthemums, roses, carnations and more.
5.  First sign of grapes growing in our front yard
6.  A night out at the theater - RENT!

Love is Forever

Sometimes you read inspiring stories of love that unexpectedly take your breath away. This L.A. Times story does just that:

Joe was married to Eileen for 40 years before ovarian cancer claimed her life in 2002. Ever since her passing, he's taken to placing ads in the L.A. Times newspaper, once on her birthday and once on the day she died. He'll say things like, "Happy birthday, Ei. Let's go shopping at Loehmann's. We miss you a lot." It's his way of showing that even though she's gone, he still grieves for her and loves her very much. 

What a touching reminder that love truly is eternal.

4th of July Roundup

It's Thursday, friends. Rejoice, the weekend is almost here!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. We had the day off from work so we decided to fill it with exercise. We started the morning off with a 9am jog around Green Lake (our backyard), then took a 2.5 hour walk to Gas Works park to check out the crowds gathering for the fireworks show. By the end of the day, we'd ran and/or walked 10 miles! Needless to say, I'm pooped, but it was a fantastic day!

                  

The view of Mt. Rainier from our deck, pre fireworks.

Enjoying a snack on our back deck. 

From our deck, we had a great view of the fireworks show on Lake Union.