Friday, January 31, 2014

 We had such a glorious time at the circus last night!
I won't lie...Darryl and I were quarreling over who would hold Joey.  Is there anything better than seeing something new with a two year old?
  I knew he would be so excited! 
 Alas, little lady wasn't having it and wanted mama all night.  
But, I did get to sit next to him and watch his face. 
 He sat with his mouth open the entire time!
Nicholas and Matthew had such a great time as well.
  They both loved the acrobats.  
Now, they both want to take gymnastics!









Juliana does not like baby food-AT ALL!
I bought all of these lovely organic purees and she wasn't having it.
So, then I made all homemade purees-Nope.
So, after much trial and error I figured it out.
She wants the real deal. 
 She doesn't want mush or puree, she wants her food whole.
Of course, she only has two little baby teeth that are sprouting through, so we have to be really careful.
She also loves complex flavors.
  She won't eat avocado, but if I make it into guacamole with lime, cumin, olive oil and salt she will devour it.
She also loved a sausage and kale soup I made last week.
Girl after my own heart this one.






Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Sweet visits

My sister and her daughter came to visit for a long weekend (along with my mom). 
 They were coming to look around Charlotte as they plan to move here in a couple of months and needed to find an apartment.  The kids were so excited to have Madi and Aunt Lana come visit.  Lana  also offered to babysit while Darryl and I went on a date for our anniversary.
  On a side note, 18 years we have been married! Oh my gosh!  18...that blows my mind (and yes I had to ask Darryl how long we've been married...I always forget-it changes every year and that confuses me...lol...)
Anyway, the kids had a great time.
 We had a great time
 We found an awesome apartment for Lana and her family and things are moving forward-Yeah! 

Just some random pictures from the weekend.

Madi and JoJo...
Nana bought JoJo a flashlight Pet to match Madi...he was so excited!


Aunt Lana brought lots of treats and goodies for movie night (while we were on our date).
Jo Jo loves marshmallows.


Getting ready for movie time!


Nana playing with the little ones on the playground.





Lana had me color and cut her hair.  She has always had long hair and wanted to cut it shorter.  I was so nervous but she ended up loving it and wants to go even shorter next time. 
Here she is with her new *do* on the trampoline with the kids.



I had to sneak in some pictures of my little Lady...Oh..how I love her so!



Wednesday, January 22, 2014

9 months

 I know it's been said before but I can't believe how fast time flies!
My sweet Juliana is 9 months old already.
She has two little teeth coming out on the  bottom and loves to *chew* her food.  She doesn't like mushy baby food at all, but prefers real food that she can feel in her mouth.  She loves pasta, bananas and meat.  
She is my sidekick, never far from mommy's arms, she loves to be close to me...and I love it!





My spunky lady


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Vasolopita (gluten free version)

 Since going gluten free I haven't made a cake. I've made cookies, brownies and cupcakes, but not an actual cake.
I couldn't find a gluten free version of Vasilopita and really wanted to start this tradition with our family.  It's a Greek tradition in the Orthodox church.  This age old tradition commenced in the fourth century, when Saint Basil the Great, who was a bishop, wanted to distribute money to the poor in his Diocese. He commissioned some women to bake sweetened bread, in which he arranged to place gold coins. Thus the families in cutting the bread to nourish themselves, were pleasantly surprised to find the coins.


Traditionally, this is a sweet bread but I just couldn't find something similar that was gluten free.  I figured cake is sweet and I've seen several recipes for gluten free cake, so we went with that.  
I don't think anyone minded...lol...
It's certainly not the prettiest cake in the world, but it was good.  
The big boys guessed that Joseph would get the coin and they were right!
I guess Joseph will have special blessings this year!






A Winter Hike


 On New Years Day, we took a lovely hike on the new Carolina Thread Trail.  Our small town has just opened a section of this, what is to be,  very long statewide hiking trail.  It's a lovely hike with some Piedmont savannah hiking up at a pretty high peak with views of Mt Pleasant.  It trails through some different flora and then over Adams Creek with a neat suspension bridge. 
We had a lovely time and will hike it again when the season changes.
















New Years Eve


 New Years Eve

Cheese fondue
Chicken Wings
Chocolate Fondue
Fireworks
Movie
Snuggles on the sofa
Perfect.