Good Morning Muffins ala Pheobe

Kingston is a picky eater. It's annoying. I try my very best to raise kids that will eat whatever is put in front of them. However, Kingston isn't quite there yet. I know he wouldn't starve himself if I just offered what we had and left it at that. However, I would have to endure a ridiculous amount of screaming if I were to go that route. Therefore, I'm experimenting with different foods to find what the heck this kid will go for. He's only 9 months old. I have plenty of time to food train him when he's better able to communicate.

One thing I've been cooking in attempt to feed the boy is a few different types of muffins. He has loved them all so far. MY favorite though were the Good Morning muffins I recently made. I took this recipe from Food Network and doctored it up to make it healthier.

First off, I used 100% whole wheat flour (ground in my wheat grinder). I was nervous about doing this for fear they would be too crumbly, but they weren't, and still tasted great!

I am trying to avoid refined sugar, so I substituted 2/3 c honey for the 1 c sugar the recipe calls for. It was a perfect substitution. Maybe even a tad less honey would work well, too!

I omitted the dark raisins. I bought golden raisins, but thought I had dark raisins at home. I was wrong. I did chop up the golden ones, though I think next time I will also add the dark ones, too. I like the natural sweetness they provide.

I used unsweetened coconut, too. I love coconut, but feel like the sweetened stuff is just junk. I really like the unsweetened (I got it from Sprouts).

I substituted coconut oil for the vegetable oil that is called for. It was a TON of oil though. I might try to cut it by a quarter cup (or MORE) next time to see if that makes them any less oily.

The parsnip was a MUST by the way. I loved the flavor it added to the muffins. YUM. Seriously worth the effort.

The pecans were amazing, too. I am actually allergic to pecans unless they are roasted, so I always roast them before throwing them into recipes. Not only does it prevent my mouth from hurting, it also adds an incredibly delicious touch to whatever they are added to. Next time I will remember to cut them up into tiny pieces though since I had King in mind. As it was, I had to pick out the nuts before giving him bites.

The end result was a WOW from both myself and my husband. Really, these muffins are fabulous. They are a bit of work, but oh so worth it.

Britta is 5 years old!

A momentous occasion at our house this past week. My little Britta turned five years old! I can hardly believe she is five.

Britta loves pink. Pink everything.  She loves princesses. She is fully aware of the fact that she is a little princess herself. She wears it well, I think.

I've been looking at pictures of her from when we first moved to Texas, and she was just a baby! Her hair is so long now! She is still or ray of sunshine though. Her smile lights up the room.

Britta has been counting down to her birthday since, well, since her last birthday I think. But it got really intense about a month before. We counted days practically every single meal (we have a calendar in our dining room). Two days before her birthday she said in her meal prayer, "Thank you that tomorrow there will be zero more days before my birthday."

One of the things she was looking forward to most on her big day was pancakes with whipping cream and sprinkles for breakfast. This has become quite the big deal on birthdays. I'm glad she enjoys that tradition of ours. Honestly, I'm pretty sure it started out as a joke when Cameron put sprinkles on my pancake on my birthday a few years back. The kids think it's awesome now and insist we repeat the tradition for everyone's birthdays and any special holiday as well.

Another thing Britta was insisting upon for her birthday was a pinata. We decided not to do a birthday party with friends, but she still asked for the pinata. So, we got her one.

We got the kind that has the ribbons on the bottom that you pull instead of slamming it with a giant stick. I actually really liked it. The three kids were able to do it in the living room without breaking anything. They were each able to pull a few ribbons before the one that released the candy was chosen. We were afraid they'd be disappointed they didn't get to smack anything around. Thankfully they weren't, and this pinata was a ton of fun for them.

Cameron and I got a handful of presents for Britta. Among them were three of the characters from the Disney movie Tangled in Barbie doll form. She is very into dolls and barbies right now. She also absolutely loves the Disney Princesses. They were definitely a hit.

We invited our neighbor Jan to come join us for cupcakes in the evening. Britta sure loves her! We are lucky to have such great neighbors!

I made fancy strawberry cupcakes for the occasion. They were ridiculously difficult and didn't even turn out very good. I was mad. AND it made way too many. I threw away more than half of the three dozen cupcakes (I thought it was only going to make two dozen, and we would have been fine with a single dozen.). Next year I'm buying cupcakes from Polkadots.

It was a pretty great day for Britta. I can't believe she will never be 4 years old again. Thank goodness she already makes a fantastic 5 year old! I'm also really glad I have so many wonderful memories of her from years that are past. So far, since Britta turned 3 years old, she's made every age she's been my favorite age. Keep it up Princess Britta!

San Antonio or Bust

We have been going down to San Antonio to attend the temple monthly since we moved here to the Austin area. Before Kingston was born, Cam and I would hire a babysitter for the kids and we would drive all by our lonesome down to the temple. That usually took up a Friday evening. We would leave as early as we could (pending school getting out so our sitter was available), and arrive home late. Usually somewhere between 10 and midnight. Sometimes later. I hated the later. Once arriving home we still had to take our babysitter home. That usually took us between half an hour and an hour. I don't do well with driving after midnight. So, the whole situation was less than ideal.

When King was born we couldn't leave him with a sitter long enough to make the drive there and back. As a result, our temple trips have become a family affair. I actually prefer it! I like that our kids know we put so much effort into attending the temple regularly. I even like the time I get to spend with them while their daddy goes into the temple for his turn.

One tradition that we have kept up is our stop at Krispy Kreme Donuts. I do love that place (as I'm sure anyone who reads my blog regularly already knows!). There's just something comforting about those little traditions. There is also, of course, the added bonus of getting wonderfully delicious donuts every time we stop in.

This visit the weather was a bit warmer than expected and we were able to hit a park for a few minutes while Cam was in the temple. It was sunny, and the air was cool, and the kids were in a great mood (and subsequently, so was I). The kids ran and played and enjoyed every second. They even made new friends in the brief time we were there. I love how friendly everyone is in Texas.

It was unfortunate that the park is about 15 minutes from the temple. Cameron and I have only been going in for about an hour each. That makes for a too short park visit. I was really grateful that the kids didn't complain when we had to take off at the peak of their fun. They did ask if they could return with Daddy though. He took them to an indoor play place instead, as it was getting dark. They were totally fine with that. I have great kids.

I'm a bit surprised that I'm inclined to keep taking the kids down with us to the temple even when it would be okay for King to stay with a sitter. I do, however, think the ideal would be to drop the kids off to play at a friends' house so Cameron and I could go in at the same time. I do have a couple of friends in San Antonio. I just hate to impose! Besides, I'd much rather stay and visit with my friend than leave my kids with them. In any case, this works for us for now. I know our whole family is blessed by these trips. I'll enjoy them as long as we make them.

Rainy Day Pizza

It's been rainy in Austin! I love the rain. I think most people that grew up in the desert love the rain. I love going on drives in the rain. I really just like being places where you can watch and enjoy the weather during that time.

This time I had a good excuse. We had people coming to clean our house and had to be out of it. If we were on top of things we would have planned somewhere to go in advance. We were not, in fact, on top of things. After pausing in our drive way for a few minutes, we headed off to the mall with the intention of going to the Lego store.

As we were driving we realized it was lunch time. Cam said there was something appealing about sitting down in a pizza place on a rainy day. So, we took a detour and went to Austin's Pizza.

I really like the different Austin's Pizza locations around this area. The pizza is good, and the atmosphere is kinda fun, too. We just crammed into a booth in the corner of this tiny location on Far West Blvd., and we were just fine. We played 20 questions about 10 times, and then our pizzas came out. Rather, our delicious pizzas came out.

Yes, it's more expensive than Papa John's, but you sacrifice character in that case. I like the focus on local businesses in Austin. It enriches our lives. It also adds flavor to our rainy day. Delicious flavor.

New Years' Eve Pajamas

Okay... I admit it. I bought two sets of pajamas for the kids for Christmas Eve. Actually, Cam and I bought one set together. Then, a month later, I saw the Sock Monkey Christmas PJs on a great sale at Gymboree. Well, I also bought matching slippers for the first set of pjs, and they clashed horribly with the Christmas PJs.

The sock monkeys were too cute to pass up, but I didn't want to just return the pjs with the matching slippers! So, we decided this year the kids would also get a pair of pajamas (and slippers) on New Year's Eve! I have no intention of continuing this "tradition" next year though. I'm not that much of an over achiever.

We haven't really done much New Year's celebrating with the kids in years past. We figured it would be a fun thing to do this year. The pajamas and slippers were a great way to kick things off.

Unfortunately, Maddy's pajamas and slippers were BOTH too small (smacking head). But they were dang cute in any case. In my defense, the slippers were the right size, but they ran small. I did, however, purchase my nearly 10 year old size 8 pajamas. Definite Mommy Fail.

Apparently I didn't get a good posed picture of pjs and slippers. If you can't see, River got Darth Vader slippers, Maddy's are pink sparkly, and Britta's are Hello Kitty. Keep an eye out for them in future blog posts!

Our party started late, so we had enough time to make our own pizzas and watch Hugo before it was already 10 o'clock and time for bed! It was a fun time for all of us. We'll see how next year goes. They'd better not ask me for pajamas.