I want to have my cake and eat it too...

...but I don't really like cake!!

In an effort to establish better eating habits for myself I have been trying to find substitutes for foods that I like that are a bit healthier and lower calorie.  I was surprised to find that many of them are gluten free! If you are interested in seeing them/trying them, here are the recipes...  I did tweak each one a little for my own personal preferences.

My favorites so far are:

Spinach Quiche - discovered because Andrea was coming over and I wanted to be able to feed her!  The crust was a little tough so I might actually try using a gluten free flour next time!

Cauliflower Pizza - AMAZING.  I know that this sounds horrible but you make the crust our of cauliflower.  I will never go back.  This is a special treat because Max loves to bring pizza home and I rarely partake, now I can.  I actually plan on sharing this with KayLynn from now on as the veggies are better for her!!

Cauliflower Mac 'n Cheese - not That much lower calorie, but I like it and I like that I am eating more veggies than white flour.

This weekend I plan on trying this spaghetti squash recipe.  Spaghetti squash is only 42 calories per cup!!  Not that you care about calories - but I do.  And its gluten free!

You have probably realized from this post that I like cheese!

Enjoy.

The Bouncy Place

For those of you interested the bouncy place is in the supermall.  It is $6 a kid (which I realise is a lot for those of you with a lot of kids!) for 90 minutes.  They have 5 (?) bouncy rooms, one is for kids just 5 and under. 

It is really great fun for the kids but there are a few downfalls.  For the most part it is very open and you can see everything, but there is bathroom in the back corner behind one of the bouncy rooms.  While that is convenient it made me wary of taking my eyes off KayLynn for even a second.  With more than one child this would be frustrating but if you could keep them in one house at a time it would be fine!

The only other thing that bothered me is that other kids are brats.  one kid pushed KayLynn down really hard twice.  I had to yell to him to get his attention and tell him to keep his hands off her.  I was kinda amazed at what parents would let their kids do.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think K is perfect - and I don't think your kids are perfect, but parents weren't even trying to teach their kids to be patient.  I was teaching KayLynn to wait her turn and be polite to other kids, while the rest of them were just pushing and shoving to get their turns!  I was amazed when a few of them pushed me out of the way.  When I was their age there was no way I would ever treat an adult like that without a parent saying something to me.  Welcome to the real world I guess!!

However, all that aside it was great fun, and after 1 hour and 15 minutes KayLynn was exhausted.  Those two things that made me nervous were very small and I was able to get over it and enjoyed watching KayLynn have to much  fun!

Something for everyone...or everything for me?!?

Our weekend was filled with bouncing, put putting, owies, drama like only a 2 year old can manage, cleaning, laundry, cooking, friends, good food, dancing, laughter, tears...pretty much everything.

After our Saturday morning rituals of working out and getting ready (and having an early nap) were finished we headed to the supermall to go put putting...

 and to the bouncy room!!

 And the arcade which had this 'school bus' for k to ride!

 Sunday after church and consoling KayLynn about no Sunday school because of her cold, we settled down for a nice nap (for all of us) and then Grandpa Mark and Grandma Kandy came over for dinner - KayLynn got to help!

 KayLynn also got a nice valentines day present from them... matching dresses for her and her doll

KayLynn loved them.  So much so that I had to beg them off of her for night time and this morning I had to tell her that she could not change into it until after her bath.

Monday we had kinda a low-key day as KayLynn had injured her foot ( a little scrape) and refused to walk on it because she claimed she couldn't!  In the evening I was able to put a sock on it and she forgot about it a little and had to show me 'how her foot walked now'!

So, there is our adventurous weekend, hope you all had fun as well.

Four generations

Happy Valentines Day*

*celebrated on Sunday (I was pretty sick and so was unable to go to church)

We made heart (and butterfly) pancakes for breakfast

 covered them in berries and whipped cream, along with the candy hearts and cinnamon bears Max had to add!

 and my two loves bought me flowers.  I got a dozen red roses from my hubby and KayLynn got me daisies and mini white and red roses.  It was a fun day.  How was yours?

Snippets

Getting to feed baby Jack for the first time

 Reading books with Daddy

Too much shopping

Have you read this book?

I am reading it right now, and so far its pretty good.

This 'n That

Though there have been few pictures uploaded, many have been taken.  So I thought I would give you a glimps...

 KayLynn playing in her fort that we made with the kitchen table and some blanket (just like Grandma used to do for my cousins and I, alhtough I had no freeze dried ice cream for K)

 Florence loves to sleep like this, so I just had to share!

 Celebrating Pastor Krulish's birthday!!  I don't know if they had more fun decorating or eating!!  Max claims that Aria makes the best frosting in the world.

 KayLynn learned all about mail from Elmo so we wrote some letters and sent them out to some grandparents...  She had fun getting her own mail back from the grandparents.

Playing well by herself in her room - she had made up a song about the trains and was playing with them!

KayLynn's Big Adventure

Lets see if you can guess where we were...

Well, if you guessed laundry mat, you were right...

Beider needed his beds washed and since we can't fit them in our washer...we took a trip to the laundry mat and KayLynn had a blast!  I actually remember having so much fun at the lm when I was little so it was kinda funny to watch her, although I may have said, "don't touch that" a million times and I wouldn't let her use the bathroom!

Another free picture collage by Smilebox

Digital collage created with Smilebox

Eternal Encouragement

I just wanted to let you know about a great resource to which I have been introduced -- Eternal Encouragement.  Max's Aunt Julie asked me if I would be interested in doing some reviews for their website and I was happy to be involved as I am always looking for good encouragement and advice.

The 4 goals of Eternal Encouragement are

 

  " To help women:

• Look more like Jesus every day.
• Happily undergird their husbands.
• Love nurturing and training His children.
• Embrace putting their first fruits into their own homes."

If you are interested in looking at their website it is
http://www.homemakingwithteach.com/.  I will also be posting any reviews that I do for you information.  I hope that you enjoy looking around the site and that you are able to glean valuable information.

A new month...

OK I must admit it...I have not gotten to my art supplies in the basement...  Not because of lack of time, but because I just don't know what to do with it all yet!!  So, I will try to conquer that in the next week or two.  I am finished with the book The Shofar Blew.  Such a good book.  I can't wait to pick out my next book.

So, as far as goals this year I am off to a good start and we are headed into our month of Romance.  I have been trying to think of little things to do for Max this month to show him that I love him - feel free to add your ideas in the comments.  I will be writing him notes (that show up in his lunch), offering him time off from the kid and I and a few other things.  I will spare you the rest of the details.

**I'll have pictures and videos up soon of a fun event that we saw in Seattle.**