What the what?!?

Did you know that a wide-mouth mason jar fits a kitchen aid mixer?!?! My world has just been rocked! I found this out completely by accident. I was thinking of asking for a magic bullet for christmas so I wouldn't have to wash that huge blender each time i made a smoothie, I'm so glad I found this out first!!! I'm heading out tonight in search of those mason jars with handles, perfect for breakfast smoothies on the go!!!

Barbie bathtub

I love watching Tori play. She has such an imagination! Tonight she is giving her barbies a bath.... I was not aware of this plan until Brian asked her why the water was running in the bathroom. She had gotten out the barbies, found a "tub" and started to fill it with water. She has then informed me that they all need their hair washed and brushed, but first they need to dance in the tub. I'm sure this is the first of many many barbie baths to come.

Fall = fun times!

Our family has always loved road trips, fun family outings, spending time outdoors, and spending time together.  This is the main reason we love fall so much.  It seems like there are so many fun events each fall, filling our weekends with smiles and fun times right up to the big holidays!  As much as I love fall and don't want to fast forward even one minute (our babies are growing up SO fast!) I can not wait until Christmas time!!  

My absolute favorite time to photograph is FALL!!  I love the colors, the light seems gentler, and the temperatures are so mild.  I LOVE the way that our pictures turned out this year!!  I could't ask for any better cooperation from three such young kids!  I love the real smiles and that their little personalities shine thru!  These three are my whole world, and I love having pictures of them all together!

We went to Bomke's Patch to pick out our pumpkins this year, and it was actually really fun!  I was just expecting pumpkins but they had games, crafts, a big slide, petting zoo, and hay rack rides.  We didn't even get to do everything bc we hadn't planned on staying that long and the babies were getting hungry.  Tori cried when we left which always makes me feel so guilty because she doesn't get the upset very often.

Even with our crazy lives we love taking time out to spend together.  We try to avoid using the babies as an excuse to not get out, yes of course its more difficult with two infants and a toddler but we can still do almost everything with a little planing before hand.

These two have turned our world upside down but it is definitely for the better!  We are looking forward to lots of fun family outings this fall and many more to come!

Getting into trouble!

Well we have been noticing differences in the twins since birth but it is now very apparent that Liam is all boy!! Lizzi coos and makes cute little sounds, Liam growls or makes fart noises almost non stop. When we feed them peas Lizzi picks them up gently and inspects them, Liam smashes them with his open hand on the table. When the twins are in their walkers Liam is constantly getting into trouble! Pulling on the blinds, running hard into the walls, even figuring out how to get past the child locks on the buffet doors..... By breaking the handle off!!! And hes only 8 months old!!!! Oh goodness the next 18 years should be fun!! :)

August catch-up

We managed to lose our laptop, it died painlessly of a corroded hard drive.  Apparently three year olds can a hard on computers :)  We were letting Tori watch movies on the computer when Brian wanted to watch a game and it was getting moved around too much.  Luckily the guys at the computer store were able to get all my data backed up onto an external hard drive.  No gonna lie, I panicked!  I hadn't backed up ANY of the twins baby pictures!!  I would have only had the low quality pictures uploaded to facebook.  Learn your lesson from me, back up your data!!!

So a quick August recap.  The twins both started saying their first "words", Lizzi said "baba" first and then Liam started with "dada" which made Brian one proud father!  Liam also started crawling a few days ago!!!  Oh no!!!  :)  Lizzi can roll to get self where she wants to go but she is also VERY close to crawling.  

 Lizzi also got her ears pierced!!!  We had Tori's done at this age also and it went very well.  They're young enough that they sort of forget that their ears hurt after a few seconds and they don't mess with them while they're healing.  I remember going to get mine done when I was around 5 years old and it was such an ordeal!

 Pretty girl got her first sucker after she got her ears done!  They look so cute on her!

 The babies are starting to fight over toys.....we may as well get used to it right?  They don' seem to get upset yet when a toy is taken from them, but they do always seem to want what their sibling is playing with.  I see many battles in our future!

So big!

So I've given up trying to blog from my computer... If I sit anywhere near it Tori will whine until she can sit between the computer and myself. Luckily I found the blogger app!! The pictures will be much lower quality since they will all be from my phone instead of my canon but at least I will be able to post again!! :) the twins are 7 months old now!! Craziness!!! They sit by themselves, grab everything in sight (including tori's full bowl of cereal and milk....lesson learned!), babble, give kisses, and eat table food. I have a lot of catching up to do, so I will try my best to post much more often!!

Homemade smoothie freezer packs!

So in light of my love of freezer cooking and of smoothies and of saving money I decided why the heck am I spending $3 on a premade freezer smoothie pack?!?! Especially since the whole family has started drinking them!! I can make my own for under $1 each and they have the added benefits of spinach and protein powder to keep me full!! I bought the separate ingredients (yogurt, bags of frozen fruit, spinach and bananas) and was making them fresh each morning. WAY too time consuming for a busy working mommy of 3 very young kids plus the ingredients being frozen makes a nice thick smoothie. So it dawned on me to make my own preassembled freezer packs!

I've been making and freezing homemade baby food in ice cube trays so I know 2 cups fills my 16-cube trays up perfectly making each cube an ounce. So I put my spinach, yogurt, and protein powder in the blender, added until I got 2 cups, and froze in an ice cube tray! It works like a charm and keeps me full until lunch! Here's the recepie:

Ingredients-
Container of spinach
Large container of plain or vanilla yogurt (32 oz)
Protein powder if you choose
Frozen fruit (I used strawberries)
2 ripe bananas
Milk

For green cubes:
1/2-3/4 large container of plain yogurt
6-8 scoops protein powder (or 4 servings depending on brand)
A couple of handfuls of spinach

You're aiming for 2 cups finished product in your blender. Once mixed well (the spinach takes a little time to become smooth) pour into ice cube tray and freeze.

In 4 sandwich bags: put 4 green cubes, a handful of strawberries, and half a peeled banana. Place baggies in the freezer!! Each morning, grab your baggie, dump into blender, add milk to just below the top of your frozen ingredients, blend, pour, add a straw and enjoy!!! So easy your toddler can help!! :) oh, and if youre trying to stretch your smoothie dollars, and a few handfuls of ice, a little more milk, and you have enough to split! You can change up your fruits to keep it interesting but berries cover the taste of the spinach the best.

I am working on a Protein coffee smoothie recipe next :)