BlogHer Food and Vacation in Florida

A few weeks ago, Dave and I traveled to Miami, FL so that I could attend the BlogHer Food Conference for work and we decided to extend the trip with a few extra days of vacation. While at BlogHer Food, I met a lot of great bloggers and reconnected with a few of the past CornQuest bloggers (#IACornQuest). I was fortunate to travel to the conference with a few CommonGround Iowa bloggers, Julie Kenney (Farm Eats, City Streets) and Kellie Blair (Home Again Finnegan). These ladies were great bloggers to have along because they enjoy talking to other bloggers about the food they grow on their farms to feed consumers! Read more about the BlogHer Food conference here.

At the BlogHer Food closing party, I was fortunate to meet The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. She was a very down to earth gal, and was easy to talk to and even gave a little chant, 'go agriculture' as we were getting ready to take our photo with her!

The Pioneer Woman and I.

After the conference was over, Dave and I were on vacation for the next few days! He graciously rented a convertible for our vacation days in Florida. I was excited but he was bummed when he found out it wasn't a mustang!  Oh well, we felt pretty cool driving down Hwy A1A with our top down, enjoying the sunshine. 

View from the sunroof while traveling along A1A.

Memorial Weekend Wrap Up

Our family enjoyed the Memorial weekend and were able to relax, catch up on various things in the house, plant flowers and plant the remainder of our vegetable garden. We also had to mow the lawn and trim but Dave had a little helper to fix the weed eater.

Little-C helping Dave fix the weed eater.

On Saturday morning, I taught cycling but only had a few participants due to the nice weather. The remainder of the day we packed up a few things to take to our storage unit. Yes, we had to rent a storage unit to clean out our closets, store the baby clothes and toys to make our house look bigger - or that's what we hope for once viewers look at it! We hope to put it on the market soon but we need to determine the approximate completion date of our new home first. We want to avoid moving to an apartment, if we can.

Building a new home - the beginning to a new adventure

Dave has been trying to convince me that we needed to move into a bigger home for a few years. Right now, our house is about 2,400 square feet (downstairs and upstairs). Before we had children, the house was plenty big because we could utilize all of the closets. Now that the kids are getting older and need a little of the space, I realized it may be time to move into something a little bigger. However, after looking at a few houses, I wasn't convinced. Did I really need something bigger, could we make our existing home work?

I kept going back to the house that I grew up in. It was about 1,000 square feet on the main floor and the basement isn't finished. My parents raised all six of us there (I have two sisters and three brothers). They still live in the house today and it's plenty big now that we are all gone. I mean, the house had portable closets, not built in ones. It was only a three bedroom house, my parents had one room, the girls had another and my brothers had the third. I kept going back to this thinking, do we REALLY need a new home? I survived, not happily at times, but somehow we managed with the tight quarters.

Weekend Wrap Up...a few days late

This post is a bit late as Dave and I were on vacation for a few days in Florida following a work trip. While we were gone, the kids spent the time at my sister Becky's house. They were well entertained the entire time because Becky has three kids. Her oldest one is basically a Mommy to C & R

We flew to Miami, Florida on Thursday afternoon so we dropped the kids off at my sisters that morning. Neither of the kids seemed to mind when we left her house, which made me kind of sad. But it was probably better because I wasn't worrying how much they were crying and such after we had left. Thursday afternoon, the kids took it easy but my niece had an orthodontist appointment so my brave sister took all five kids to this appointment. Thankfully, they were all good while in the waiting room for an hour.

R-man getting a ride with a Tonka truck. 

As the evening approached, little-C was missing her Mommy and Daddy. Probably Daddy the most since he is the one who usually tucks her in at night while singing ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Luckily my nephew was generous to let her sleep in his bed, which made things a bit easier.

Friday was cold so the kids took it easy and spent most of the day indoors with my nephew who is five - the older two were in school. Seriously, it felt almost like late fall weather as the kids had sweatshirts on because it was only in the upper 30's.

Saturday was a fairly relaxing day for them as well. My sister was working at the Nebraska Medical Center so my brother-n-law, Jeff, was managing the kids. My niece had dance and my nephews had baseball and t-ball practice so it was interesting for him to transport all five kids around to these events. My parents came down to visit that evening and he asked my Mom how she did it with six children because he was wore out. I often wonder how she did it with six of us too! My Mom asked Little-C where her Mommy and Daddy were and she responded, "at work." Whew, at least she thought we were at work instead of crying that we were on vacation.

Cousins (Katelyn, R-man, Little-C, Derek, Jake and Baby-B)

Weekend Wrap Up

This past weekend, we spent most of it outdoors. On Saturday morning, our entire family headed to the DMACC campus in Ankeny to take part in the March of Dimes walk. This year, our friends, Mike and Melissa Vogel were the March of Dimes ambassador family. Their twins were born at 27 weeks and spent 138 days in the hospital, hence the their team name - Team 138!  Click here to watch Mike and Melissa's story and their chance to give back to March of Dimes. This year, Team 138 raised over $21,000. Their goal was $13,800. 

Getting ready for the walk with 3,000 other walkers.

What Mother's Day Means to Me Now!

Growing up, I don't remember celebrating Mother's Day much except for what we did in school. When I was in elementary school we always made gifts for our Mom. The one I remember the most is making bath crystals and putting them in a used glass salad dressing bottle. This was a 1st grade ritual because all of my siblings made one too. Now as a mother, I'm wondering if I'd like one of those too!

As I grew older, I became nonchalant about the day. It was just another Sunday in May. Or that's how it was seen in my household because the chores were more important. However, my feelings changed when I became a mother. Everything changes when you birth a child, I mean everything. I began to see Mother's Day as a day to be treated and to be reminded of how lucky I am that God has given me two beautiful children. I finally understood why my mother loved Mother's Day so much. 

Mother's Day 2014

Weekend Wrap Up

This past weekend was spent at home and we managed to get the house cleaned up and laundry finished. Friday night, we enjoyed the beautiful weather. We realized that it's getting harder to get the kids to kids indoors after playing outside. They absolutely love it and I must admit...so do I!  There is nothing like breathing in fresh Iowa air! 

R-man (9-months) enjoying swinging. 

Little-C enjoying swinging too but hates to pose for photos. 

Kids Update - April 2014

Here’s a quick update from this past month.

Age: 
R-man is 9 months
Little-C is 2 (she turned two in December)

Little-C and R-man with their Easter Baskets. R-man wanted to just eat his straw. 

Stats: 

R-man:

Weight: 19.7 lbs (47%)Height: 29 ½” (91%)
Head Circumference: 17 ¾” (52%)

Little-C is 28.2 lbs

Teeth: 
R-man has two bottom teeth and one in the front on the top.

Clothes: 
R-man – we love to dress him in his little Under Armour and Nike outfits.
Little-C – she loves to dress herself these days and typically picks out her black dress shoes and cowgirl boots even if it doesn’t match the outfit. Unusually, they are worn with workout clothes but whatever…it’s just daycare.

Favorite Foods:  
R-man loves to feed himself these days and is kind of over baby food. He loves cut green beans, carrots, lil’ crunchies, goldfish, mini club crackers and chocolate. I gave him some of the bottom of a snickers and Kit Kat bar and he couldn't get enough.   

Little-C loves corn! I can’t wait until corn on the cob is ready because she loves eating it right off the cob.  

Apple Pie (Baby Food)

1/2 c. rolled oats, uncooked
1 medium apple, peeled & cored
3/4 c. water or pure apple juice
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
Wash apple well, peel core and slice. Place in a small pan. Grind oats in a blender to a fine powder. Add to pan and stir in remaining ingredients.

Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook, stiring occasionally for 20-25 minutes or until oats are cooked and apples fall apart.

Put apple pie mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. Thin with more apple juice or water as necessary. If desired, push through a mesh strainer.

Let cool then divide into containers.

This recipe was created by Jeff Park (foodcrew.com) but I modified the recipe a bit.