Happy Friday!

Well, hello!  Somehow as of yesterday my boys decided to sync nap schedules during the day (cue hallelujah chorus!).  It's weird.  Do you know what that does to my day?  I put them both down for a nap and just look around my clean house and wonder what I'm to do with myself.  Odd.  And when I say clean, I of course mean my floor and counters are semi-visible.  Hence this blog less than a month after the last one, woohoo!

We're pretty excited around here because Joshua's sister, Bethany, is coming into town tonight.  So, I should probably go scrub something here in not too long, but wanted to take advantage of this time to share a couple pictures to brighten your Friday!

 Cleaning little bro with a Q-tip... 

 (Luckily he doesn't know they go in the ears yet, phew!)

 Mr. Tummy Time 

(Ignore the drool spot, that's just how we roll...)

The neighborhood watch group...

 Brotherly smothering love...

Gasp!  A good picture of both of them, this was like take 80/100,000,000,000

Caution: Don't leave baby for one second unattended with bathroom door ajar...

 Um, buddy, you have some toilet paper attached to your foot... 

(He was actually on his way to go wipe Asher (poor guy) who was on the couch)

He LOVES waving to his shadow!

It's so funny to smell your feet than say "Peeeeee-yew!"

Sweet boy!

In. Love.

Mama's little love bug. *sigh*

Isn't God good!  We are so blessed with our two sweet babies.  It's amazing how God gives good gifts, every second with these boys is a gift!

Kendall

J is for Juice (and Judah) (and Judah's Juice)

So, I recently became the proud owner of one big honkin' tub of coconut oil.  I'm pretty excited about it, because I got it for a fantastic deal from vitacost.  I registered through this link and got $10 off, plus there's free shipping on Vitacost brand organic coconut oil, so I got 54oz for only 10.99 signed, sealed, delivered!  This is such a fantastic price for coconut oil, I couldn't believe it until it showed up at my door step from the coconut oil stork.  A wonderful, healthy bundle of cooking joy.  Okay, I'm going to stop this comparison before my actual babies get insecure...

 You know you're a hippy when:  Your child plays with tubs of coconut oil...

I looked at a few articles (like this one) about coconut oil, and it really is an amazing oil.  You should check it out for yourselves.  So, I thought as long as I'm in this coconut oil induced euphoria, I should write a couple of posts about what I do with coconut oil, so that others may benefit from coconut-ty goodness.  Buckle up though, I use it for a ton of things.  Today's coconut oil carrier is: the Green Smoothie.  Affectionately known in our house as "juice."

Now, we really only put coconut oil in here to give it a little coconutt-y flavor and as a way to get it's health benefits.  We all loves these, they are so nutritious and wonderful.  I will NEVER argue with my son asking for more organic, non-sweetened fruits and vegetables.  It's wonderful.  Now, before I give you the recipe, there are a few assumptions we must put asunder:

1.  It will taste like spinach and you will hate it. -  Yes, it's full of spinach, but you can't tell.  Honest, cross my heart!  You will Loooove it (especially if some honey finds its way in there.  Which I try not to do very often, but sometimes that honey's just a rascal and there's no helping it...)

2. You will have to drink or throw away the whole thing because there's no way your vegetable hatin' babies are going to drink it.  I can't speak for your children, but Judah is not a great vegetable eater (and that's putting it kindly...)  But he LOVES juice.  Loves it.  He gets all excited and downs it.  Now, we don't let him have a lot of sweets or other kinds of juice, but I've heard that lots of kids like this.  And you could always surrender a little easier to that honey trying to jump in there in order to sweeten the deal.  Whatever works, right?

3. You will get some.  I made 3 glasses worth of smoothies tonight.  SOMEONE drank one and a half glasses (going on two) and I got a half of a glass that I had to wrestle and steal back calmly reclaim from a certain 3 foot tall man.  I tell you, that kid loves his juice.

All gone (and this was after I poured half of my glass into his!)

So, there you go, now that we've put our faulty assumptions aside.  We're ready for the recipe that I got from passionate homemaking and kind of made my own.

(I would have taken a picture of a nice full glass, but I gave Judah half of mine before I got a picture.)

Blue Smoothies that Used to be Green Until I Put Some Blueberries in Because I love Me Some Blueberries
(Kind of a long title, but I didn't choose it.  Okay, maybe I did...)

1 cup yogurt (I use organic, whole milk plain yogurt from Trader Joes.  It's da bomb!)
1/2 cup water
1 orange (or you can use 2-3 Tbs orange juice concentrate)
A whole bunch of spinach or kale (About 3oz or 3 large handfuls)

~Blendy, Blendy~  It's better if you blend this first before adding in the extras so it gets nice and smooth

Then add your choice of add-ins, get creative! We love:

1 cup frozen blueberries (I use target's frozen organic blueberries)
1 banana
1 Tbs Coconut Oil (the star of this post)
2 Tbs Flax seed (Organic from Costco)
3 tsp local pollen (Research the wonders of pollen.  Your jaw will drop like it's hot, and it adds a nice honey flavor!)

~Blendy, Blendy~

Put in a fun glass (or a spaceship sippy cup), add a straw and enjoy!

Tune in next time when I tell you about my little experiment with making my own deodorant and forcing sweetly asking my husband to try it for me.

Kendall

Pictures Galore

Just wanted to throw some pictures up here.

 Judah loves anything on his head.  This should be good for blackmail eventually. :)

 Cheese (ball)!

 He thinks he's SO funny!

 His favorite activity: stealing Asher's pacifier.  He thinks it's hilarious!

 Such a sweetie!

 "Mama, I wanted to play with brother, not take a nap!" :)

 My big helper!  Asher goes down for a nap so much better when Judah helps!

 If Asher won't take it, I will!

 All tucked in and ready to sleep!

 Achoo!  (or as Judah likes to say Aaaaa-tooo!)

 Looking rather contrite after spitting up all over mommy, or not... :)

 Good thing he's the happiest baby ever, I love to see those dimples!

Happy Tuesday!!!!

Kendall

Long Overdue

Happy April!  We have been one busy little family the last couple of months.  Here's the scoop:

1. Joshua started working as a contractor at Meredith Publishing.  I know what you're going to ask since he's now working at a cool, hip publishing company.  Yes, he's the only person there not wearing skinny jeans, including the security guard (actually I have no idea what the security guard wears, but I will just say that in waiting to pick him up everyone had on tight, very tight pantalones.  Except my man. And yes, he's vowed that it will remain that way.  I'm okay with that.  He's really enjoying it there though, which is a huge blessing.  We weren't sure how it would go having him off to work everyday.  We're thankful it's at least doing work he enjoys and the people there are super nice.  You would expect them to be nice, what with them getting tight hugs from their pants all day.  Constant free hugs oh and free pop and free espresso and a panini grill.  Not even kidding. Poor Joshua can't enjoy the grill though since that commercial came out, "Paninis are for winnies."  It's given him a complex.

It wouldn't be a Kendall blog without random pictures of my children, right?  Don't lie, you like it... :)

2. Joshua is still working half time at Covenant Design.  This means he's working 60 hours a week.  This is a radical jump from the maybe-40-hours-if-he's-lucky-and-I'm-on-my-best-behavior-not-bugging-him-every-five-minutes routine we've been enjoying for the last year or so.  We miss each other, a lot.  We know this is what God has for us right now and God has been good in helping us adjust.  But it's still hard for all of us.  Judah and I kind of just push each other out of the way as we run to the door to greet Joshua.  I usually win.  Boo-yah!  

Couldn't turn this picture, but it's so cute I had to include it.  they dig each other. 

3. Me and my little boys are enjoying the bonding time.  We have all sorts of fun together at home.  We bounce balls, play peek-a-boo, sing, take all the contents out every open drawer, vacuum, shop, read, and make animal sounds all day long.  It's pretty awesome.  I will just give one bit of parenting advice to those mothers expecting additions to their families.  Do NOT teach your kids to point out their facial parts before your newest little one is born.  Wait until they are old enough to defend themselves against such educational attacks.  Some of us get excited pointing out our little brother's nose, mouth, and then we poke him in the eye.  Others of us are distraught mothers that freak out when still others of us decide not to open our eyes for a bit. The a fore mentioned distraught mothers may or may not call their husbands wondering if they should rush stubborn non-eye-openers to the hospital.  Luckily, all is well as the injured parties open their eyes while the phone call takes place and everyone can breath again once it is indeed confirmed that the eye in question is still very much in place and looks totally fine. Not that this took place in our family...

Pretty proud to have climbed into Asher's co-sleeper.  Silly goose. 

4. We moved.  We totally love our new place and can not wait to have lots of people over.  (Feel free to invite yourselves!) But oh my-lanta, who in the world thought moving was a good idea with two little boy in the midst of adjusting to husband's new schedule?  Aaaahhhhhh!  My house was a disaster. We washed all the dishes as they came out of the boxes before they went into cupboards, but it took for.ev.er.  Our dishwasher takes (and I'm not exaggerating here - if anything I am underestimating, no joke) at least 4 hours/ per load.  At least.  That meant piles of dishes (my poor OCD husband can not leave anything in boxes.  I am in the process of seeking therapy... for myself).  But we are actually just now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Now it's just all the little stuff that takes a ton of time.  But, we are so thankful for a place so near to Meredith so Joshua has a 2 minute commute.  I'm just excited for when we get settled in and can enjoy it!  We'll post pictures when we can, but you don't want to see it now. :)

5. We're getting used to having two wonderful boys (one of which is snoring on me as I type).  We are totally enjoying having two.  It seems like such a natural transition.  It really feels like Asher has always been a part of our family. We are doing really well. By nothing short of a miracle Asher is sleeping well, so we are able to stay sane.  Asher is such a sweet baby.  He is our little cuddle bug and we love it.  Even Judah loves snuggling with Asher it's so cute.  Asher LOVES Judah, he gives his brother the best smiles, it melts my heart.  The only hard thing is Asher does not like being in the car.  He's figured out that he can't be cuddled while in his car seat, so is not a fan.  We have to time leaving the house just right or I have to have my hand back with him and his pacifier the whole time we're driving.  Other than that he's a model child.  

Sleep with your bum in the air like you just don't care!

6. Judah is getting so big!  He can say a lot of words now and can do so many things.  We've recently discovered that he's pretty musical which we're not sure where that comes from.  If there's music on he's always tapping/ dancing perfectly in rhythm.  Today in the car I was clapping the beat to the radio since our musical friend said that was a good thing to do for kids his age.  When I stopped and looked back he was clapping the beat perfectly.  He's started correcting me when I do it wrong.  I missed a beat and he shook his head at me.  Oi!  So today was our first music class with other kids, it was awesome!  Right now his favorite things are his red bouncy ball (because every little boy needs a big red rubber ball), elmo, books, elmo, his plastic animals, elmo, and Asher). 

He caught us leaning against the kitchen counters, so now he leans on everything.  So funny!

And I think that's the scoop for now.  I'm sure that as soon as I hit "publish," I'll think of something else, but that will just give me inspiration for my next post!

Kendall