Florida SNOW!!

A few weeks ago, we the people of Florida experienced snow...IN Florida!



Cami loved it!
We had to keep putting her mittens back on because she would take them off so she could touch the snow. She didn't care that it was cold.

This is my car COVERED in snow!

We scooped as much snow as we could off of our cars for her to play with in the yard. (Notice the grass is still green!)

She called it "No."

It was a fun day. I hope snow visits us again someday.

Baby food basics: almond bites

This is for my friend Jamie.

I started making these little "almond bites" for Cami once she began eating finger food around 12 or 13 months. I tried giving her cooked garbanzo beans (chick peas) at first but she turned her nose up at them so I had to get creative and disguise them.
These are full of protein, super healthy, and great for on-the-go.

**What you will need:

~ garbanzo beans - dried or canned (if you get them dried you must soak and cook them first: soak overnight in frig, rinse in cold water, cover with fresh water and cook covered on low for an hour to hour and a half)

~ almond butter

~ coconut oil (optional)

~ blender or food processor

~ bowl, plate, knife, large fork, nail clippers

* I started out using about half beans and half almond butter but have progressed to about 1 part almond butter, 2 parts beans. I don't measure, just kind of eye it.

* First, puree the garbanzo beans in the blender or food processor. You may need to add a bit of water if they are too chunky and not blending well. Not too much water tho...you don't want them too mushy.

This is a jar of beans being thawed from the freezer. I made a huge batch of beans and ran out of almond butter so I froze a bunch.

* Dump the bean mush into a bowl and add in the almond butter. The bowl needs to be large enough to accomodate a lot of mixing and mushing.

* I drizzle some coconut oil over the mixture to help it blend. Just start out with a little, then add more if needed. You don't want it to be too oily.
(I haven't tried this yet but you could probably use honey instead of coconut oil. It would definitely make them sweeter!)

* Mash and mash and mash with a large fork until it's all well blended. If you don't mind getting dirty just dive in with your hands and pretend it's Playdoh! I'm sure that will blend it quite well.

***The next 3 steps take quite a while if you're making a large batch so get comfy.

*Once it's all blended, take a good chunk of it and squish it in a nice straight line across a plate. (You can see in this picture why you need nail clippers before doing this.)

*Use a knife (butter knife works fine) to slice along in bite size pieces.


*Then take each piece, form into a ball, and toss in a jar or storage container (glass is best.)

*Store them in the frig. I usually make a big batch and freeze extra portions in jars.

Let me know if you have any questions!

catching up...

I said I wanted to catch up a bit from the past few months of blog-boycotting. So maybe I'll just post some pictures of what we've been doing.

We took Cami to Islands of Adventure and Universal back in November and she had a blast! Josh's parents came too and we all had a blast just watching Cami discover her first theme park!
Here is a sampling of some of her favorite moments.

She loved any of the water activities for kids. And she was fearless! She was soaked by the end of the day. I was proud of myself for thinking to bring a change of clothes...something you learn early on as a new mom.


She took time out to lay an egg.


She got a little frustrated in the Curious George land when she couldn't turn the pages in the giant books. She would go from one side to the other trying to turn them.


Good family pic that only took about half a dozen takes.

This is how we ended the day. We were all exhausted and ready to leave but had to make time for this final fun little kids water area.

something to blog about

I know I've been the worst blogger ever for the past few months. Okay, I haven't even blogged at ALL since our big announcement in November. I have reasons but I won't bore you with those. Most of them are stupid things like "I've been mad at the internet" which makes no sense I know, but first trimester is a crazy animal and you don't wanna mess with it. You just give it what it wants and back away slowly.

Second trimester has been great so far. I'm now 20 weeks along and today was the long-awaited event of our first ultrasound where we see the important baby parts.
I've been so excited for this day but kinda different than before (exactly 2 years ago.) I was nervous last time 'cause I wanted a girl so bad that it pained me to think of seeing a tiny you-know-what boy part on that screen.
This time I was fine either way which is so weird for me 'cause I always know what I want. Seriously though, I was 50/50 with this one. I knew Josh wanted another girl...or at least he really acted like it. He swore up and down, as did my mom, that it's a girl since the beginning! They based a lot of it on that Chinese gender chart which makes no sense at all but is somehow mostly accurate. I had no "feeling" either way...just wanted a healthy baby.

So first I should do some catching up since November...

just kidding!! I'll get on with the big news!
(But I will be better at blogging and will do some "catch-up" posts with Christmas pictures, etc.)

Do you see anything between those little legs???
NOPE!


Here she is! All 13 ounces of her!


Complete with little toes!

Everything is healthy and normal so our prayers are already being answered. Official due date is June 12th... 4 days before Cami's birthday.

So that's it for now.
I'll post some Cami pics and other stories soon.


"Bye bye!"