S'more stuff...

Just some random pics from lately... enjoy ;)

Looks like her daddy here for sure! :)

Uh-oh, Ava's taking off in the shaggin' wagon! You won't get very far my dear! :)

Play doh time... one of her favorite things to do.

Look at that girl looking at her daddy ;o)

Yea, Brutus!!!

TBDBITL, right? :)

Play doh snake!!

Oh, that face just screams ornery!!!!

Mmm, Fall Inspirations....

So far, fall has brought a few recipe inspirations to mind that I want to share with you!

First on my list...

Pumpkin Spice Sourdough French Toast with Wheat Germ & Flaxseed
Duuuuude, this stuff is so good!

Start with your usual egg & milk mixture for the french toast. Use real sourdough bread, the kind that's thick & spongy that you can get in the bakery section at the grocery store. Add 1/2 teaspoon or so of vanilla extract to the egg & milk mixture, as well as a couple sprinkles of cinnamon. Let the sourdough bread soak in the mixture on each side for about a minute or so per side. This is the secret. ;) Next, place the soaked bread on your hot skillet (or even better, your hot griddle:), sprinkle each slice with pumpkin pie spice, wheat germ, and flax seeds. I go kind of light with the pumpkin pie spice and heavier with the wheat germ & flax. The clove-y taste in the pumpkin pie spice is a little overpowering to me, so I tend to take it easy in that department, but you can go all out if you wanted!! The next secret... cook the french toast slowly on the griddle, so set your heat lower than you normally do for french toast. You want the thick slices that you thoroughly soaked with the egg mixture to cook through. Since the wet side was up when you first placed the french toast on the griddle the pumpkin spices, wheat germ, and flax stuck to that side better than it will when you flip it. I usually just fancy-up the one side of the toast. When your toasts are done finish them off with some butter and warmed pure maple syrup and you. will. be. in. heaven! Wish I had a picture to share with you... maybe next time! Enjoy these!!



I love using flaxseed because it seems to be the up and coming wonder food in keeping our bodies overall healthy and decreasing our risk from developing sooo many diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, cancers (especially breast, prostate, and colon cancer), and stroke. Flax contains omega-3 fatty acids (good stuff!), lignans (which have plant estrogen and antioxidant properties), and fiber (we all know fiber's good for ya!). Flaxseed has been shown to decrease plaque buildup in your arteries by 75%!! It also lowers your total cholesterol, including lowering your LDL cholesterol (the bad type) and raises your HDL cholesterol (the good type of cholesterol). Flax also decreases the severity of hot flashes in post menopausal women. ;) It is also supposed to be good for diabetics in reducing their HgA1C. Cool! So many good things packed into this tiny little seed! On a side note, you can buy golden or brown whole flax seed and use it just as it is, or grind it in a coffee grinder (which is supposedly the form in which our bodies absorb most of the goodness from the seed). Throw it in everything! Even if your husband is an anti-healthfood-nut like mine, he'll never even know its in there. ;o) Oh, and on another side note, supposedly, just as with soy products, you don't want to supplement too much with flaxseed during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. The lignans in flaxseed contain phytoestrogen, mostly a female hormone, so you don't want to imbalance your hormones while you're prego. ;)

Wheat germ on the other hand, is packed with vitamins & minerals, like folic acid, which women of childbearing age should consume lots of! It also contains a pretty hefty amount of fiber and a decent amount of protein, too. This is an all-around winner in my book! Put it in smoothies, yogurt, breads, muffins, cakes, meatloaf...pretty much anything! I like to sprinkle a couple tablespoons in my oatmeal (as well as flaxseed) with some almonds & berries or raisins. Just adds some extra goodness... ;)

Hope you learned a little somethin'! I know I was pleasantly surprised to read all the beneficial things about these two super foods!

Keep These for the Baby Book!!

A very good friend of mine and I got together last week for some baking! She brought her lil man Eli with her, whose name happens to be the only name that has come out of Ava's mouth everyday since he ate his breakfast from her highchair last week. :) These two were precious... I love watching how toddlers interact with each other... perhaps I should've been a daycare teacher so I could watch it all day long! ......... on second thought, forget I just said that....... ;) Anyway, Jess & I had fun baking Oreos and Baked Apples! She had lots of apples from her recent fruit farm visit, and I came across a homemade Oreo recipe that I could not pass up! Needless to say, I think the better of the two were the baked apples. Homemade Oreos, although still delicious, do not compare to the original Oreo. But hey, we gave them an honest shot! :) Enjoy the pictures... the kids LOVED that we had a baking day!

Mmm, mmmm Mom, thanks for the creme-filling covered beater!!

Eli is patiently waiting for Ava to share some of that sugary goodness!

Every last lick!!

There's that sweet faced boy!

Ah, score!!

Summer Wrap Up!

Just a last few pictures that I wanted to post to wrap up our summer. Can't believe it's over!! Another summer in the books! Bring on the fall!!!

Ready for another zoo trip! We only live 5 miles from the zoo so its nice to escape for a couple hours and hang out with the gorillas... or polar bears :)

Our girls day out this year consisted of going to the zoo and Zoombezi Bay with all the girls! Mom, sister, and the girl cousins. We had a blast!

Monkey see, monkey do!

Bri & Torie... being crazy kids!

Petting the goats...

Out to lunch with Grams...

Pappy took Ava to the school across from their house to play on the play ground... still in her pj's! :) And dont' you love the necklace Ava gave pappy to wear?

Not so sure about that slide this morning...

Swinging with Grammy...who's also still in her pj's!

Too fun!

Whoa Ava, check out that playground!! You're in heaven!

Racing daddy down the slides!

Aaaand another zoo trip... this time with her buddy Eli! :)

My girl.

Eric's Big Night...

The night we were leaving for vacation Eric had an opportunity to go to an Indy car race in Kentucky... so he went! His company does work for Valspar, which sponsors the team of one of his favorite drivers, Paul Tracy. He landed some pretty cool tickets and pit passes to meet Paul and also ride in the pace car before the race started! I don't think I've ever seen this guy more excited in my life... he was on cloud nine... higher than cloud nine, actually!! He enjoyed every second of this race! Especially riding in the pace car... he said they went 125 mph in the turns on the race track! Sounds crazy to me... but he enjoyed the rush! Here's some pics... I don't know a lot about each of the pictures so I'll just put them on here for show :) I'm sure you can figure them out :)

Outer Banks

We had an excellent time in the Outer Banks! We stayed at Waves Village in Rodanthe. Eric's mom came along with us this year, so we got to soak up some relaxation, too! We may never vacation without family again! :o) Let's face it... vacationing with a baby is never truly a vacation unless you can escape from them for a little while. ;o) Know what I mean? I can honestly say, though, that our date night was kinda lonely without her. On our date night we ate at a seafood calabash kind of place, hit up Wings for some cheap souvenirs, stopped at the Food Lion for breakfast items for the next morning, and took a short walk on the beach. Relatively uneventful... but still wonderful! What else did we do on vacation? Well, we lounged on the beach, by the pool, on the couch, received massages & pedicures, and pretty much vegged for the week. :) It was amazing... I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking... Enjoy!

So, I start with this picture because this was our welcome gift when we got to the condo... one absolutely unbelievably gorgeous sunset. Eric mentioned a little something about me taking 800 pictures (not quite...but almost) of the sunset the first night we were there, but it was so breath taking I couldn't stop. Nature's beauty... how can you even take scenes like this for granted? You can't... you gotta take 800 pictures and capture every minute of a beautiful thing....

Man, I love this...

It was one of the simplest and most amazing things I've ever observed... I know, it's just a sunset, Liz.... but really it was amazing to watch the colors in the sky change from red, to orange, to blue, to purple, and eventually to black. I guess the simplest things just do it for me....

Ava enjoyed it as much as momma... :o)

Our view from inside the condo... it was gorgeous once the sun got low enough that it wasn't blinding us anymore...

Basically had the beach to ourselves!

Love these guys!

Ava absolutely loooooved the water & beach!!

Took me a little while to get in completely... kinda chilly at first!...but trust me, I was boogie boardin' by Thursday!! Eric didn't get any pictures to prove it though...

My little fish... I will be putting her in swim classes this winter!! She loves swimming... absolutely loves it.

In the pool... her 2nd favorite place to be! Beach was #1!

We've tried using this floatie with her for two years now and she hates the thing!! She can't stand it... I guess she'd just rather be free to swim, swim, swim!

I had to capture the baby footprints...

Would have been cute to get one with all our feet... oh well, next year!

Using her bucket as a purse... everything is a purse to her!

Those sweet blonde curls... man, we are blessed...

Just diggin their way to China... no biggie ;o)

Grammy says, "Yaaay Vacation!"

Before our date night... yes, our clothing coordinates... you gotta have some cheesiness in your life! ha!

Our little family.

Dad and his girl.

See, we don't always match... ;o)

Family pic!

We stayed at a kiteboarding resort. This day was very windy and there were lots of kiteboarders out to watch! It was neat watching them do flips and stunts on the boards... and yes, that is a doggie in the water...see it? :)

Breakfast at Grammy's diner. She made us some delicious sourdough french toast!

Packing up to go home... she is such a lil stinker! ;o)

I have so much more to tell about our vacation, but time is of the essence and I've got lots more posts coming up! Hope you're all enjoying the start of fall weather and football season! It's my FAVORITE time of year... and not just because my birthday is in October. ;o)