I don't even know where to start.

My last blog post was from way back in June.  Why? because that is when our laptop became an expensive paper weight.  No computing.  Nada.  It was ridiculous and frustrating.  I still took plenty of pictures though, in the hopes that one day soon I could share them.  THIS COULD BE THE DAY!!!          -although, there is a crazy lightning storm right this moment- now we fast forward 6 weeks....

The hard drive fried and $350 later, the laptop lives!!  Here is a small bit of what we had going on in these past months that WAS NOT on facebook.  

 

A gorgeous summer day goofin' off with some big ole bubbles.  If you haven't blown bubbles with a canning funnel, you haven't lived!!!!


We had some great birthday's this summer.  The big jump to double digits(10) for A and super #7 for E.  Since they celebrate within 5 days of each other, we partied hard.

 

 

 

 

A body pillow + Lacrosse Sticks = JOY for this kid.

 

I ask for a little smile for the camera, this is what I get.

 

I don't know why, but  his own slim jim was SUPER exciting. 

 We didn't just party at home, we took some buddies to the pool for hours of manly fun. Those pics get their very own post so stay tuned.

Fun running in the Rain

 

 

I was pretty proud of these fellas when they came home one day and told me they wanted to run in the Mile Fun Run put on by their school.  The days leading up to it, we put in some good training around the school soccer field, which was the location for the Race.  They had their water, I had my stop watch.  It was ESSENTIAL, we couldn't leave the house with out the stopwatch.  They both were quite serious to improve on the times each day that they did their laps. 

 

 

 

Austin ran first and finished in the top 5 for his grade!!!  It was chilly and rainy but if you ask me that's not bad for a run.  He was pretty excited about passing up kids as he did lap after lap, afterward he told me "it was the practice we did Mom, totally the practice."

 

 

 

 

Ethan tied for 1st with his pal here!!  (blurry shot darn it) First grader's didn't run as many laps, so Ethan had some juice left to sprint to the finish.  It was so fun to see both of these little guys trying to pull ahead of one another!!  It was too close to call, a totally appropriate time for a photo finish. 

 

 

Too bad I didn't catch it.  We could have used it when the volunteers announced the winners and NEITHER of the boys names were called.  Talk about a mess up.  2 other kids were called up.  Accepted the awards and walked away.  SAY WHAT!? It got sorted out eventually.  But it was really disappointing to say the least for these 6 year-olds.  Heck, I would have been just as upset if it were me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granola bars that might not change your life, but they sure as heck taste AMAZING.

My family is privy to a little secret that I am going to share, just once.  The first time I tried to make granola bars, they were burnt over baked. I followed this recipe to the letter.  My goodness I was ticked that they were basically good enough to present as a burnt offering to my sweet boys.  NOT ACCEPTABLE. 

Have you ever eaten something like that?  Over done oats? Not pleasing. Not at all.  Well, if you know me, I knew in my little baker's heart that I could get it right the next time.  I don't know how old the gal's oven is that did the recipe, but good gracious the statement "baking times may vary" has never been more true.  Check these little beauties out.

 

A pan of golden deliciousness!  Baked for about 22 minutes, not the crazy 30-40 recommended. Cooled and cut a double batch like this made me sad I wasted money buying granola bars all these years.  The beauty of this method is the variety!  Our family loves a more chocolaty bar, not ashamed to admit it.  You can add the ground flax, like she suggests, so I feel better about myself.

 

 

My most recent batch was for a Stake Preparedness event(using emergency food storage). Justin is the "go-to" guy for our Ward (local church congregation) for emergency stuff.  He "volun-told" me to enter a recipe, only made from pantry and food storage ingredients. NO PROBLEM.  Granola bars were the answer, easy to do. I had all the ingredients on hand - almost.  I decided my ratio of chippy-ness wasn't high enough.  Butterscotch chips made their debut, to rave results and a 2nd Place prize!  Scored a gift card too. 

 

The other side of the Mountain

What do you think can happen in 4 months to a house in shambles? One that needs seemingly epic amounts of work to restore and repair flood damage? What can be done week after week with an amazing contractor is nothing short of miraculous.  I left the house in Dayton on November 17th, 2013 as we relocated to our new duty station.  The pipes froze and burst during the 1st week in January 2014. Remember This?      

On April 19th, 2014 it looked like this:

I did not have my regular camera, so all we could get was some shots on Justin's phone. 

 Countless hours of hard work has gone into saving this house!  The demo work, cleaning up all that demo, fixing the walls, painting, ceilings redone,putting fixtures back in, bathroom retiled, carpet installed and a whole lot more.  This baby is better than when we left it in some ways. 

Here we are, coming down the other side of this "mountain" the stress, the frustration, the uncertainty, we conquered it.   We in no way did it alone.  Our wonderful Uncle Scott, family, friends and complete strangers who donated funds,  our incredible Ohio family (you know who you are and we can't thank you enough) a talented,  HONEST Contractor (Brian Grubb of Papaw's Home Repairs & Remodeling 937-315-0393) and so, so many prayers put it back together again.

All that is ahead of our family now is selling the house.  Another hurdle in our path for sure, one that can and will be overcome.  There is no doubt about that.  Our family has so much gratitude in our hearts.  Many times we felt they just might burst. The peace in our hearts has been such a treasure.

Thank you.

Brought to you by: Mother Nature

"Spring is here, Spring is here, it's the best time of the year!!!" Every year this little jingle comes to mind.  We used to watch "Little Bill" on Nick Jr. years ago and it was a song they did during a class performance.  Let's just say that this year it took a VERY VERY long time for Spring to show up!  Spring break at our house this year rolled around and we had a plan to camp out in one of the beautiful regional parks here in NoVA (that's how the locals refer to Northern Virginia).  Bull Run had a spot, so we packed up all the gear and drove off to bask in some Nature.

Side note: guess who forgot the camera?! These are all shots from Justin's phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fires, nap for the tuckered out Momma, burning sharpened sticks, fake Smore's (Nutella and grahams), trees, chillin' in a sweet hammock, dirt.  Camping Heaven. 

Well, it was until the rain started.  Around midnight it lightly began to pitter patter on the roof of our manly 9 Man tent.  The tent, I knew already was up to the task of keeping the rain out.  I took that baby to Girl's Camp.  I admit my faith in staying dry faltered, when at 4 in the morning, I ran for a bathroom break during lull in the rain.  When the time came to run back to camp, the rain was so bad, I could NOT see across the road to the camp site.  CATS AND DOGS.  It was that kind of rain.

We didn't get soaked until we had to break camp to head home.  Isn't that a lovely sight right there???  Good golly, the water ran right through our camp site and we were completely swamped.  Mercifully it did let up enough to get outta Dodge, packing up soaked EVERYTHING is not for the faint of heart.  Or the weak.  Thus began our 2014 Spring Break!  Thank goodness it ended on a much better note than it began. 

TO BE CONTINUED....

I am the mean Mom.

Before you jump to conclusions, I am calling myself mean.  My boys don't really ever say that I am a "mean Mom".  Probably because they know they would be in DEEP trouble.  I think a little healthy fear of consequences is a good thing. 

I am the meany because Mr. Ethan had his very first loose tooth.  It wasn't getting loose fast enough, the big one under it wanted to start coming up behind it. 

For days and days, he wiggled it, I wiggled it.  In my opinion, that baby tooth was ready to get on outta this boys mouth.  He wanted the old floss around the tooth extraction method, performed by Dad.

 

 

They gave it a good effort.  Not GOOD ENOUGH.  That sucker just didn't budge.  I know Justin thought it was too early, but if that next tooth is wanting to debut, the time was now, not later.  I grabbed a paper towel. Got it damp and....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sha-zaam!! Good-bye little tooth.  It was a tough yank.  I felt bad that it hurt like it did.  And that it bled for 5 minutes. 

 

 

 

Mission accomplished, we had an appointment that night with the Tooth Fairy, she did not fail to arrive as planned.  Although, since Ethan is not a kid that can sleep in just one position, his money fell on the floor behind his bed by morning.  He was TICKED that there wasn't anything under his pillow.  I assured him he should look under and behind his bed to be safe.  Jackpot.  So, not such a mean-y  Mom after all.

 

 

 

 

Mixed reviews

I feel like there hasn't been too much on here about my boys lately, so I have made a serious effort to have the camera out and ready for their antics. Not limited too, but including,  goofiness, growing and excitement.  That being said, I also have some DEVINE muffins to share.  I was thrilled how the pictures turned out.  Bright, clear, colorful and don't worry, you shall see, you shall see.

 

 

Around here, Sunday nights can be a little on the wild side.  Especially when our Dad is involved.  This time though the crazy was all boy.  I love these times, until they get out of hand...those I don't love.

 

 

 

This new house has the perfect "circle" layout.  Meaning of course, you can run through the kitchen to the dining room to the entry, all on slippery wood floors!! Perfect environment for chases, sock sliding and major wipeouts.

 

 

 

 

Or maybe you just have to fight off and evade the villainous teen-age brother, either way we let the good times roll.


This night in particular, Justin had a severe hankering for sugar cookies, not just any type would do.  They must be chewy, soft, and have lime.  Well okay.  Austin was up to the challenge. 

 

 

Right here he is putting on the finishing touch, a lime glaze.  He got a 2 thumbs up for his efforts.  Soft, chewy and most assuredly limey.  Just hop on over to Pinterest and search the recipe "soft lime sugar cookies" I am singing the praises of the muffins in this post, not the cookies.

 

 

 

Alright, so these muffins I speak of are a new thing to me, chocolate banana, topped with peanut butter/chocolate chips.  Never in my life have I attempted them, I came across the recipe not so long ago.  Let me say, they are almost addicting.  Unless, like my sweetheart and my eldest child, you don't like the CHOCOLATE!!!  Then you wouldn't care for them. Well, you would be crazy too, just like them.

 

 

 

 

I just love these little babies!!!  The baking cups just add to the happy factor, I think. 

 

 

 

 

This recipe is going into the book of favorites.  Not gonna lie. 

from Tickling Palates

2 bananas mashed well

1C flour

1/2C brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2C vegetable oil

1t baking soda

2Tbs cocoa powder

 

Heat the oven to 400, prep your pans, mix all your dry ingredients and set aside.  Stir together bananas, the eggs, then the oil.  Add in dry ingredients -the batter is really thick-

After I scooped the batter into the cups I dotted chocolate & peanut butter chips on top of each.  Bake for 15-20 minutes. * I also doubled this batch since we have a big-ish family *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 lonely little bananas & love

What do you think when you see over-ripe bananas sitting on your kitchen counter? Wasted money, time to toss them, etc.?  Not me.  I convince myself that something must be baked! And it should happen soon.  Well, with 2 sad specimens, there aren't that many choices.  Chop them up and freeze for later, sure.  Toss them in a smoothie. That could work.  Neither of those choices involve baking though. So, today I knew in my little heart it had to be Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies.  That's a mouthful. No doubt about it, but man oh man, they are darn delicious in spite of it all.


They look like this all put together:  

 

Bee-utiful!!(as my Grandpa used to say)

 

 

Believe me when I tell you that they look pretty fantastic right here and now but taste better in 10-12 minutes.  I won't even hide the fact that I will ALWAYS snitch tastes of the uncooked dough.  There is only 1 egg in the recipe, small chance of poisoning right?!?!

 

 

  


Now, why did I mention love?  For one small ( but really actually enormous) reason.  Justin ADORES these cookies.  They might just be his number 1 choice in the whole wide world when asked what kind of cookie would he like.  I am not exaggerating.  He loves them.  Well, I love him even more and so right now, a whole entire bag of these babies are waiting for him.  He is gone on assignment right now.  Supposing all this Virginia snow doesn't mess things up, he should be home tomorrow afternoon. I love, love, love my hubster. No doubt about it.  I may or may not swipe one before he comes home.

 

 

 

 

Creating satisfies in so many ways

In the last 4 or 5 years, I have come to love being more creative. Creating fun birthday's for my boys, diving into new recipes for dinner or baking up amazing and delicious delights.  I have dabbled in sewing, I can't follow a clothing pattern to save my life yet, but I have made some fun baby gifts and gifts for family members.  I even completed a denim quilt that took YEARS to do.  It is immensely satisfying!  Having a son tell me he had the BEST birthday ever, the most AMAZING cake or dinner, I just love it.

So what happens when the money that funded all that creativity is suddenly frozen.  LITTERALLY.  The house in Dayton is coming along.  We have seen some of the pictures of the family room and it has a wall separating the room and the garage again!!! It's wonderful.  That disaster has given me the time to become even more cunning with the way I can create now.  Looking into the stashed away collections of ribbon, material and paper.  Finishing off projects that I put aside for later. Seriously planning out menu's and filling them with new recipes to keep me feeling like I can still do creative things. Here are a few examples.....

This little project is a little embarrassing to tell about. I signed up to make the matching game thinking that my ward was doing it for a fun group craft.  I was totally crashing another group's "Super Saturday" leave it to me. I emailed the coordinator and told her my mistake, but that I still wanted what I paid for. Silly, silly Kresta.  I made this game for 2 of my darling nieces and then decided that the game MUST have a bag to carry it in.  I busted out a cute Fat Quarter and got a pattern off one of my Pinterest boards, and BAM!!! totally cute results.  Embarrassment aside, I loved the outcome.



This is a "summer-y" banner that I made simply because.  Cooper had a rather big Revolutionary War project he threw together this week using this patterned paper because it seemed rather patriotic to him. I agree.  Well, the leftover stack looked like it needed a purpose. It needed one right away.  Taa-da! A summer time banner is born.  I can't decide if it needs anything added to it, or if it will be left simply as is. 

And she shall be called Petunia.

With 4 boys under our roof, you have to expect and be prepared for rather odd situations.  Things like yarn strung all over the house to climb over, under and through...like a sneaky spy.  Try doing that in a skirt, on the way out the door to a church meeting!  Or maybe all the bedroom doors are tied shut with rope.  Perhaps with the occupants still inside.

Sometimes the strange comes to us. We didn't even have to bring it upon ourselves, the postal worker delivered it to us. 

Why, you might ask would this be strange? Well, it was a Trader Joe's bulb kit that came in the form of a Christmas gift.  We all know I kill things that get planted in the ground!  Nevertheless, I accepted the challenge. This bulb would grow and we named it "Petunia". Do I even know what variety of plant this is, no. But look for your self, it is ALIVE!! We called that triangular shoot, her shark fin.

 

 Petunia sat on the table, I moved her (yes we referred to the plant as a she) throughout the day to get good sun. On less frigid days, we put her outside to get the goodness of the outdoors.

 

 

 The shark fin got BIGGER. I have to reiterate the fact that at no time have we grown anything, but children.  I was getting excited as were the boys that Petunia was a fighter and had a chance!

 

 

 

 A few weeks passed and we were thrilled that she looked to  have a bloom in the works and 2 more shoots coming up.  I was pondering if we needed to re-pot our Petunia.  It was all going so well. A living plant in our house, who would have ever thought?! Well, her story does not end well, one day she got left outside.  The next morning she was FROZEN. FROZEN!!!! We killed her. Stone cold dead. Moral of the story, send us a book, mixed nuts or a gift card. Let the bulbs go to a home that will not freeze them.

 

Adieu Petunia.

The maiden voyage of the Ice Cream Maker

I doubt we are the only family that gives ourselves a "family gift" each Christmas.  One year, when I was a little girl, my parents got a new horse for my brothers and me.  Well, the horse got out of its corral and got hit by a truck and died before I could even see it alive.  This year went way better than that.  GUARANTEED. 


Justin and I decided our family gift would be this bad boy: 

 An Ice Cream Maker.  Oh yeah.  This puppy can be hand-cranked or electric and makes about 6 quarts at a time.  It's almost 3 feet tall folks. Serious frozen treat potential.

 

  We started out with the basic vanilla, then Justin had a sweet brain storm and we added Double Stuff Oreos.  I married a smart & handsome guy.



Looks mighty tempting and delicious.  We should have kept cranking it for awhile longer for it to firm up, but we were tired of waiting.

 

 

 

 

Not the greatest shot of the boys delighting in the cookies and creme, they tend to not hold still for the impending photo opp. They know it might end up here on the blog.