Who Will Outlast the Others?

My mother-in-law made the following comment to me 4 years ago: "If I could have vaporized any of my children when they were growing up, it would have been Trevor" while it made me laugh, I never FULLY grasped the severity of that comment until this evening. As my strong willed, or "free spirited" if you will, child is battling out going to bed with her even stronger willed father. I listen to Trevor's footsteps out of Brooklyn's room, just enough so she cannot see him, but he can peek at her, then quickly back in to lay her down. And hear her stand up in her crib as soon as he lays her down. The strong silence from Trevor and the slight giggle as he walks out, knowing that she is EXACTLY his mini-me. And the uncontrollable whine from Brooklyn as she is clearly not getting what she wants out of this evening.  I can't help but laugh, and find it only just that he be the one to break her will, without breaking her spirit.

Brooklyn is just like her daddy, in fact this is evident not only in her spirit but also in her physical appearance. Sure Trevor is a well adjusted adult-- responsible, caring, God fearing, among plenty of other things now, but as a child..... I understand he would cry until he passed out. Hmmmm, I can see that happening to Brooke sometime in the future. She cries without ceasing sometimes, even after all the basic needs have been met and she's been cuddled and loved on. Even sometimes while she appears to be asleep.  What does a 9 month old have to be so upset about? What can be so upsetting that snuggling up with mom or dad can't even fix? Back taxes? Unpaid parking tickets? Maybe she's behind on her mortgage...

Who knows. All I know is it's nearing 10PM and once again, for the 3rd night in a row, Brooke has got her cry on. Coincidentally her late nights ALWAYS coincide with an early morning event the next day.

I hope you are all out doing something exciting or getting ready to get some sleep.... let us know what it's like! :)  Have a quiet and peaceful night..... in honor of our household. LOL!

Chocolate Banana Muffins.... YUM!!!

Well, I was searching for a delicious, yet healthy, bran muffin to make for our family breakfasts during the week. Or possibly a healthy homemade loaf of bread. Unfortunately, my favorite recipe blog (Won in the Oven) listed the Chocolate Banana Muffin before any of the healthy breads I was looking for.... soooooooooooo.... Chocolate Banana Muffins win. Maybe next time we'll go healthy. Tomorrow morning we will be making a yummy batch. Crystal has been singing the praises of these muffins for weeks and I have yet to try them out. Here's the recipe for anyone who would like to duplicate them.

Chocolate Banana Muffinsslightly adapted from Handle the Heat

• 3 large bananas
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup white whole-wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat flour)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Recipe Note* She used half whole wheat and half white flour. I just used all (1 cup) of white whole wheat flour and the results where great.

This post is linked up with Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position a rack in the center. Line a muffin tin with baking cups and set it aside.

In a large bowl mash the bananas with a fork or potato masher then mix in the sugar, egg and applesauce. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and baking powder over the banana mixture. Mix lightly with a rubber spatula to combine. Fold in chocolate chips. The batter should be just moistened but still a little clumpy. Don't over mix!

Using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop or spoons, divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups and bake them for about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer them to a rack to cool. Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Best Bread Machine Bread Recipe

We bought a used bread machine at a yard sale this weekend and were just dying to try it out. Saturday morning, after breakfast, Hailey and Trevor tried it out. We happened upon an extremely easy recipe and bread turned out fantastic!

Best Bread Machine Bread
Prep time 10 minutes
Cook time - 40 minutes
Ready in - 3 hours
Serves - 12
Yields - 1 to 1 1/2 pound loaf


Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 (.25 ounce) package bread machine yeast
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place the water, sugar and yeast in the pan of the bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. Add the oil, flour and salt to the yeast. Select Basic or White Bread setting, and press Start.               

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 174 | Total Fat: 5.2g | Cholesterol: 0mg

allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-bread-machine-bread/detail.aspx

Our New Pillow Pet Plush

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Here are some pictures of the girls with their new pillow pet plush. THANK YOU Grandma and Grandpa Winder & Ben, Daniel and David!  We love you guys!  We feel so blessed to have you in our lives.

 

Ready to open gifts!

Brooklyn's room is lady bugs and she LOVES red and black!

So happy!

What's in here?

Hailey LOVES horses and Unicorns. Perfect fit there.

Great gifts for the girls!  They will love them.  I'll probably invest in the matching pillow pets now... : )

So excited, she fell down! HA!

 

 

 

Tina Winder
xoxo

 

~~~Why is it when memories are happening you don't know it, so you don't get
to appreciate them until its to late?~~~
*~*We all can use a little hope sometimes, you know. That feeling that everything's going to be okay and that there's going to be someone there to help make sure of that. So, here's to hope, and here's to a love that will not alter*~*

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Easter

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Tina Winder
xoxo

 

~~~Why is it when memories are happening you don't know it, so you don't get
to appreciate them until its to late?~~~
*~*We all can use a little hope sometimes, you know. That feeling that everything's going to be okay and that there's going to be someone there to help make sure of that. So, here's to hope, and here's to a love that will not alter*~*

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Phew!

What a rough couple of weeks we've had here.  Now the girls and the parents are feeling better.  Thankfully!  We are working on getting the house back to normal since everyone was sick no one wanted to do silly things like pick up after themselves.  Once we get the "just put it away" mentality back into everyones brains I will feel more at ease.  Until then, it's a never ending battle to keep the counter and table cleaned off.  We have a tiny dishwasher, which I am grateful for, don't get me wrong, but it gets run AT LEAST once a day, leaving a pile of dishes in the sink all the time.  One of these days I'll be completely on top of everything and not feel the stress of a messy kitchen.  It's not in my nature to have a mess, so I'm constantly picking up and cleaning off everything, and rarely ahead of the game.  That's just the way it goes when you're a stay at home mom I suppose.  I know my friends Jill and Crystal are reading this and nodding their heads in agreement. LOL!

Christian home preschool has taken a back seat to our sickness.  We are lovingly call it our spring break... hee hee!  We are getting back to that today too.  Why not yesterday you ask?  I had to do grocery shopping, which literally took all day.  Trevor and I started watching the Extreme Couponing show on TLC and have decided to work on getting a much free and cheap things that we can REASONABLY contain in our home and garage to sustain our family.  If it's possible, why not?  We have a little bit of room for these types of things and it would be wonderful to get things we use all the time for next to nothing, or even free.  This has consumed most of the nights and the girls naptimes, but I feel it will ultimately be worth all the effort.  In fact, yesterday I saved $28 at WalMart, $65 at Albertsons, and $42 at Safeway.  And I spent, out of pocket a total of $8.00.  So it was a great trip!!!

Well, that being said, time to empty the dishwasher (again!) and switch the laundry to the dryer so I can start another load.  Oh yea, and I should probably tend the the children and work on that home preschool with Hailey too, and then gracefully whip up some lunch... All in a days work! ;)