She's on Fire!

I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of the this whole juggling act called Food Allergies. What a wild ride!

I Thank the Lord Olivia is young enough,still pretty easily distracted,is a picky eater and doesn't like big dinners anyway..because she's taken to this food change remarkably!! Don't get me wrong it was definitely sad and frustrating that turned into pure torture,for both her and I, but now she's doing A-Ok and we feel back to 'normal' again.

A new normal.

Here's a little something about me. I hate change!! Especially when I wasn't the one who planned the change or knows every detail about the upcoming change so that when the change finally happens it's not really a change after all. But when it's sudden and catches me off guard I go kicking & screaming & crying. I'm a big baby! But I quickly get over it and dive in full speed ahead with my can do attitude. I'm hardwired to be stubborn and determined ;)

When I started this journey and I was forced to cook pretty much everything for Olivia I grew bitter and the thought of cooking dinner on top of an exhausting day made me grumpy. I used to enjoy cooking for my family but being forced to cook a full 3 meals a day on top of my daily schedule just stunk and I remember going to bed lethargic and dreading closing my eyes because I knew it would feel like only minutes and I'd be up doing it all over again.

Something amazing changed a week ago. I can't tell you what it is because well..I don't even know. What I do know is that probably after praying for strength before bed one night,I woke up with a fire lit under my butt. I'm joyful,not overwhelmed,look forward to finding & trying out new recipes. It's just amazing!!!

I have found some amazing recipe's that I've altered in some way,most of the time it only calls for substituting eggs and changing from white flour to rice and/or garbanzo bean flour.

Here's 2 recipe's that have become a staple in my weekly cooking! Sorry for the bad/blurry pics.

Oatmeal berry & Maple Fruit Bars

This recipe originally comes from my Flying Apron cookbook,but I've modified it a little bit for our taste buds :)

5 Cups oats-divided
1 cup maple syrup,divided
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
3/1/2 cups mixed berries (I use raspberries or strawberries)


Notes* It calls for 1/4 arrowroot powder but to me arrowroot is tarty and I love the mild sweetness of this bar instead (especially a little piece with my coffee in the mornings,Mmmm scrumptous!!). I also thought about using applesauce and less oil. It also tends to really crumble after a couple days if you don't eat it up,so halving the recipe would still leave you plenty to eat and it's a sinch to whip up in the morning. Once you mix it all up in the mixer take a few bites,the 'dough' is so yummy :)


*Preheat oven to 375*

*Place 2 cups of the oats in a blender and pulse until the oats are very fine. Then pour into a mixer bowl. Add to that the remaining 3 cups of oats, 3/4 cup of maple syrup,oil,vanilla,salt and thoroughly combine-about 3 minutes.

*Firmly press two-thirds of the dough into a 9x12 inch casserole dish. Bake until light brown,about 15 minutes.

*while the dough is baking,combine the berries and the remaining 1/4 cup of maple syrup in a bowl.

*Evenly distribute the berry mixture over the baked oat crust. Crumble the remaining 1/3 of the dough over the berries,pressing it down firmly. Bake until golden crust forms,about 35-40 minutes.


Good Old Fashion White Bread

You have no idea how happy this bread makes me!

I don't even know where to begin right now because I'm teetering between happy and fuming. Happy because this bread is awesome and you can litterally perfect it the first time making it and fuming because the store bought crap being sold in the store for $5.00 for a tiny loaf or 4 (FOUR) hamburger buns for $5.00 is dry and horrible tasting. I made this whole loaf for $2.00!!!!

1 Tbs. bread machine yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 1/2 cups gluten free flour of your choice (I used Bob Mill's all purpose flour. 1 bag = 2 loaves)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
3 eggs (egg replacer
1 1/2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp cider vinegar

*Combine the yeast & sugar. Set aside

*Combine flour mix,xanthan gum & salt.

*In a small bowl mix egg replacer,oil & vinegar.

*By this time the yeast should be ready. Mix everything together in a mixing bowl and mix for 4 minutes.

*Scoop the dough into a greased loaf pan. Allow the dough to rise in a warm area until it is about 1-2 inches from the top of pan. Then bake at *375 degrees for 50 minutes.

Ohhh my goodness the possibilities are endless really,like adding some cinnamon sugar with raisins..does'nt that sound yummy? I talked to the hubster today and asked him how we can turn my kitchen counter/bar into a cutting board or something like that because this on fire Mama needs some space to cook!! I'm also diving into new dinner recipes and I LOVE it. It's like a whole new lease on life :)

I just made some Oatmeal cookies that are to die for. Recipe coming up soon.

Birthday #2

As if my heart wasn't already breaking...13 days after Jonah's birthday this sweet girl turned 11!



Just so you know,now that she's 11 she's just too cool for pictures. This would be the "mom your embarrassing me" pose.

But I stole some anyway. Cause I'm the mom!

This girl is creeping up on babysitting age! Yahoo for me and especially yahoo for the little ones she'll get to watch. Their going to have one fantastic babysitter! We have the best babysitter in the world of our own and I know Laini will be just as special to the kids she watches as our babysitter is to us. Kids flock to Laini and adore her and she is so wonderful with them-it makes my heart smile. We call her the animal whisperer because animals even flock to her so I'm not surprised she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She wants acres of animals. and I think she should. She can walk around the yard quietly and the dogs follow her. She can hold her hand up in the air and butterflies and dragonflies will land on her hands.

She's incredibly creative,strong willed & has a mind of her own. I pick stripes,she picks polka dots. I pick blue,she picks green. Although we seem to have complete opposite personalities, we learn from each other and are able to teach one another new things and the things we do have in common is only a bonus. She brings me out of my comfort zone but I love it. I can see why God chose her to be my daughter. She is good for the soul & it's a beautiful thing.

Birthday #1

This cute boy turned 8!

I think my heart just skipped a beat or two.

or stopped completely.

After God blessed us with Laini I didn't think we'd ever get pregnant again,but to our surprise 3 years later this little man arrived,stealing our hearts and holding US in the palm of HIS hands.

The first time he squirmed and made a pucker face with his lips I saw 2 precious dimples. He was so cuddly and still is. He's a thinker,follows the rules,a people pleaser,a compliment giver,loves wearing ties,is a natural after he tries something once & loves Lego's. He offers up hugs in the morning and hugs & kisses at bedtime while giggling and saying "good night super mama"-a nickname he came up with some months ago. We have thumb wrestles,stuffed animal fights & funny puppet shows and he giggles the most adorable laughter. He loves to rough house and at the same time has a sweet and gentle spirit.

Olivia is his biggest fan. I love the sequence of these pictures- she was so excited for him to have a birthday.

ahhh Memories....

We bought Seattle Motocross tickets back in January and I realized the race was the day after my Birthday. I thought well heck,why not make a weekend of it and we'll have some fun! So I booked the hotel for a couple of nights,made plans to go out to dinner on my birthday,plans to go to the Zoo,Aquarium,Museum of Flight.. all kinds of fun for the whole fam.

All that fun started going downhill quickly. Less than one month later we found out Olivia had allergies = no restaurant outings. So I found a different hotel with a full kitchen and close to downtown so we could eat at 'home' and then head back out to the fun! no biggie.. minor speed bump.

Jonah's baseball season started at the end of April. We were given his baseball schedule and saw he had a game the next week on none other than Friday- my Birthday aka the day we were supposed to leave to Seattle and Saturday. Oh boy. Obviously he was going to miss the Saturday game because of the races,but the Friday one too?? oh my.. Then right after getting handed the schedule we get handed the team pictures envelope and were told that pictures were Saturday morning at 9:30am. Jeez Louis!!!!

Needless to say we drastically chopped up into tiny pieces revamped our weekend plans,changed hotels yet again since we didn't need the kitchen because I packed a gazillion things for Olivia I made the day before, and we left for Seattle straight from pictures.





The motocross was fun but the kids were really fidgety and bored which made for a long day. On the way to our awesome hotel after the race I prayed for there to be a Starbucks close. We all but pulled into the parking lot at the hotel and I hadn't spotted a Starbucks yet..but wait..could it be? directly across the street behind the hotel? Taa daaa... Starbucks! Thank you Lord!!!!! It was actually what we saw when we looked out our hotel bedroom window-hahaha. God loves me :)

We went to bed at 1:00am..and I woke up wide awake at 7am. One kid got up after me so I woke the other two up and we headed downstairs to eat breakfast while dad slept.

We ate,snuck back into the room to change into our swimsuits then headed back downstairs to the pool. We were alone in the pool for maybe 10 minutes before it got overloaded with kids.

We stayed for an hour & a half then called it a morning and headed back to our room. We took a middle elevator up and I pointed 'that way' and we headed down to our room on the 5th floor down in the corner. We walked up to our door,wrapped in towels and holding wet life jackets, and I notice the door was cracked open-the dead bolt flip lock was blocking the door from closing all the way. Hmmm that does NOT sound like my husband. I pushed the door open and to my surprise there were 4 grown men sitting on the couch & chairs!! I gasped "oh dear Lord" and one of the guys said "well hellooo...". I Gasp again while I quickly said "sorry I have the wrong room" and bolted down the hall and out of sight as fast as I could. Ok the hotel is 5 stories and big and beautiful,but how did I get so confused???

Let see..2 elevators on that end.... (2 more elevators on opposite corners also)

a big walkway across the middle....

each corner looked like this...

From the middle looking down to the right....

From the middle looking down to the left...

I guess I shouldn't have gotten up at 7am after all huh? YIKES! We changed and headed straight over to Starbucks..Mama needed her coffee..bad.

We loaded up and headed down to the Fremont District.

I purchased a cookbook back in February called "The Flying Apron" which happened to be created from an actual bakery in Seattle. So cool! This book has been a life saver to me for making goodies for Olivia,so it was a must that we stop in and grab a baked delight before we left. I had emailed them a month prior asking about certain ingredients and wondering what things Olivia could and couldn't have,the sweet guy wrote me back with answers and told me he was leaving a $5 voucher behind the counter with my name on it. Wow that was nice of him! While I was ordering,Laini took some pictures of the artwork hanging in the bakery.

It's a small bakery and on the way to the bathroom there are quite a few old shabby-chic doors with glass in the middle as the 'wall' separating the hallway from the kitchen. It was fun to watch them prepare everything. We ate our goodies and walked up the street to see the "Troll" under the bridge.

My kids are hard core. They don't do things leisurely and to enjoy the moment. They get way too excited over things and I'm constantly telling them to slow down,we're not in a hurry,relax and enjoy. When they're busy bodied I just know they're going to get hurt.

...And wouldn't you know it, leave it to a public place to show their hard core-ness. Out of excitement Jonah,my monkey,climbs the Troll's left shoulder to the top.


And falls off right back off the left shoulder to where he started (in the above pic). Tumbling. He scraped his arm and was covered head to toe in dirt. More like some sort of dust/dirt which didn't come off with the brush of a hand. Jeez Louis!! We figured we'd call it a day and headed home.

What happened to my fun Birthday weekend full of Zoo's,Aquariums and galore? huh? I want it back!

Family & Mariner's Game

Last May we took a drive down to California to attend the wedding of Craig's cousin Erin. One year later Erin & her hubby Jason flew up to see us. They live in cali,but Jason is a huge Seattle Seahawks fan. We new we loved him for a reason!! :) They spent a night in Seattle and had some fun,then drove 3 hours to spend a couple nights with us. It was so good to see them again and I can't believe it's been a year already,sure feels like yesterday.

Then they drove 3 hours back to Seattle and we followed in our own car so we could all attend a Mariner's baseball game before they had to catch their plane. Fitting it would be the Mariner's vs LA Angels :)

and we won!! :)

I QUIT!

my job that is :) Back in December I entered the 'real' workforce for the first time in 11 years! I got the job from another home school mom who also teaches at the kids co-op. It was working for a phone book company doing data entry-entering business names into the computer from newspapers so other people could contact them to renew/or create a new contract with the phonebook. I picked my own days and hours. It was heavenly kinda nice to have a few hours during the week by myself with silence surrounding me. But,once I found out about Olivia's allergies in February and had to form a game plan that second, my whopping 2-3 nights a week plummeted quickly and cooking,bathing every night,putting 2 creams on Olivia 2x a day,researching foods & recipes,Dr. appointments,more Dr. appointments... I was exhausted. Heck..I'm still exhausted but I think I'm getting the hang of being exhausted and functioning.

Craig was fine with whatever I wanted to do. I was a little worried about money,since I got the job to give us a little extra on the side. But when I quit last Sunday and turned in my key,I didn't care about the money (and boy it felt good to know I had one less thing to go do or worry about). My heart was at home so it didn't matter how much I made I knew where I needed to be. My friend who hired me was really awesome and backed me 100% for quitting. Love her!

Then the next day I was talking to my friend,who's little boy I babysit 2x a week and have for years now and she told me next year he'll be in all day preschool so she won't need me. God had been equally preparing me to not watch him next year so it was a relief to both of us :) THEN get this- I have been watching my 2 little nieces (5 & 2.5) pretty much all of May, 2 days after quitting my job at work and deciding not to watch the little boy next year, my sister in law asked me if I wanted to babysit my nieces full time throughout the summer,Mon-Thurs,and then just the 2.5 yr old full time starting in Sept while the 5 yr old goes to all day Kinder. I have wanted to babysit them since the 5 yr old was born,but with babysitting other kids at the time it just didn't work out. Things have come up on her end and apparently on my end also,so I'm free to watch them. So I get to stay home with my kids and get to make some money on top of it and Auntie gets to love on the girls all day and Olivia and her 5 yr old cousin are BFF's :) God is good!

I have been having a hard time staying asleep at night,but these last 2 weeks-after a day with 6 busy kids,once my head hits the pillow I'm out like a light! It's going to be one crazy busy summer but I wouldn't have it any other way because I don't have to be anywhere else but here at home.

Ahhhhh :)

It's Groundhog Day!

Have you ever seen that movie? Anyway..

The last few months have been a total blur to me. Each day seems just like the one before,and the one before that. Alot of it has to do with dealing Olivia's allergies.

Praise God there has been some distractions to snap me out of my Groundhog Day days.

Jonah started his first year in baseball aka coach pitch. He's taken after his daddy-O in the baseball department and is quite good at it and he loves it. I LOVE sitting on the sidelines cheering him on. Not to mention how adorable these little kids are!! We get some good laughs in. We love the coach for his hard work and that he's actually teaching these kids HOW to play,square up to the plate,hold the bat,line the feet up. If the kid isn't 100% on he walks up and positions him so that the kid can get a feel for the right stance etc. He even said Jonah has a great form when up to bat. tha'd a boy!

When Jonah's out in the field..well..that's a different story. At the first game,Jonah thought no matter what position you played you could run to get the ball. So he'd run as a 3rd baseman out to right field to get the ball. After the 5th time of running across the field Coach set him straight.

or like 2 weeks ago we were watching him stand in right field pretending to catch the ball. I looked down for a couple seconds and looked up when I heard Craig say Jonah's name. I looked at my adorable boy,smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Craig said "don't give him a thumbs up for doing 2 cartwheels in the middle of the play!" The boy doesn't like down time,he wants 100% action...even if he has to create his own ;)

Craig and I were talking one night after baseball started and both had that feeling of change. We don't have any young toddler kids anymore and our kids are getting into extra curricular activities that are keeping us busy,eating dinners on the run, week nights/weekends booked up. It's totally awesome. And there is nothing sexier than seeing your husband bond with his child ;)

Laini just got done with a pottery class through our city's parks & rec. She had alot of fun and made some cool things out of clay. She's artsy anyway so I knew she's have a great time and enjoy herself. Liv's and Jonah even got to make a few thing too. Pretty cool teacher! And last but not least, Olivia just started a summer of gymnastics ;)

I love my family~