.yummy bran muffins.

I recently came upon this recipe for Refrigerator Bran Muffins while on a search for healthy, yummy, filling muffins for a quick breakfast or snack. I have modified the recipe below, if you care to try it. I have made 4 batches of these in the last 3 weeks; they are really yummy.

Six Week Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Ingredients:
1 c. boiling water
1 c. whole bran cereal (I have been using Fiber One Honey Clusters)
1/4 c. canola oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk (I have also used 2 cups of regular milk with 2 T. of lemon juice, but the thick buttermilk does make a yummy recipe)
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (I use half WW flour)
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups whole bran cereal

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, add boiling water to the first cup of bran cereal, cool
2. Mix together oil, applesauce, sugar, eggs, and buttermilk. Add to bran mixture.
3. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Fold in 2 cups of bran cereal. Stir only until moistened.
5. Bake in preheated oven 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
Makes about 2 dozen muffins.

This batter can supposedly stay in the fridge for 6 weeks, but we've been going through them so quickly it hasn't lasted that long!

.4 months.

Our sweet little boy is growing so quickly. 4 month stats were 16 lbs. 4 oz (75th %), 90-95th % for length. Daniel continues to be such a delight to us. He is such a pleasant baby, which is wonderful. He really only fusses when he's hungry or tired and occasionally when he can't see anyone around (as soon as he makes eye contact, his face splits into a big grin). I am enjoying every second of time with this little guy, but even still I feel like time is flying by me faster than I can keep up with. And so I can look back on this post when I'm scrapbooking a year from now to see what was happening this month: accomplishments for this month are rolling over both ways (although I have yet to see it!), eating every 3 1/2 hours (almost on the dot! He's way more predictable than Kathryn was, and I thought SHE ate like clockwork!). He's pretty much taking three 2 hour naps, and sleeping 8-10 hours at night. I'm so thankful for our little guy- can't picture life without him now!

.at play.

Daniel: "Can I play too?"

K: "Okay, Hold Still, Daniel"

"Daniel, hold them like this!"

"I love my Daniel"

Happily at play together until the 4 month old unknowingly "takes" the forbidden:

[yelling] "No, Daniel! This is my SPECIAL blanket!" (Poor Daniel seems a bit confused on the subject)

Daniel: "Okay, no hard feelings, right?"

.Hobbs.

Our neighbor has a cat "Hobbs" who really likes the Lechner girls and Kathryn. I've never heard of a cat who likes kids like this cat does. He is extremely patient and doesn't seem to be bothered at all by tail pulling, chasing, and rowdiness from toddlers. This is the first animal (besides the Morrisons' guinea pig) that Kathryn has voluntarily pet. I loved watching her talk to her new "friend."

"See my doggy, Hobbs?"

.birkdale.

This summer we've gone up to the Birkdale Fountains quite a bit...Kathryn loves them this year, which is a bit of a change from last year. Last year it took her a good hour to warm up to the idea of getting even her hands wet, and this year she's been going through the middle to the "big" fountains, sticking her face and head in the spewing water, sitting on the fountains, etc. It's pretty fun to watch.

With cousin Tyler

.a (long) life update.

I thought I would write a quick update on each of the kids, while I have a minute.

Kathryn, almost 2 1/2, is such a delight. I love seeing her try to figure out life in the questions she asks. The other day we spent 20 minutes in the car talking about animals and what each farm animal eats. She was a little confused when it came to chickens, asking several times, "Chickens eat eggs?" Then I felt a little bad when she asked, "people eat chickens?" since in her mind they are sweet farm animals. :)

Her favorite (and most commonly asked) question is "What's that right there? Mommy, what's that?" Whether it's a picture in a book or a bug on the ground, she is eager to know the name for everything. And if she doesn't get it right away, she'll usually ask, "Again?" until she can say it. It's really something to watch her little mind developing.

Her favorite activity is probably watching movies, as she asks "I watch a movie for a little bit?" But she also loves running outside, swimming in our little pool, taking baths, changing her animals' diapers on Daniel's changing table, playing with wipes (she would take out a whole container-ful if I let her), and playing with her toy food. Her other favorite phrase is "I do it." Whether it's getting her shoes on or buckling herself in a highchair, it's "I do it" or "I CAN do it!" It's fun seeing her trying to do more things on her own, but it can be a challenge at times since her abilities haven't quite matched her confidence level. She's officially sleeping in her toddler bed, an adjustment which was a lot easier than I anticipated. Thankfully she's only gotten out of bed a few times, but on the whole she's sleeping great.





Daniel (4 months) continues to be a very delightful baby. He is so sweet- pretty much smiles and coos every time someone looks at him unless he's hungry or tired. He has been a great eater from the start (as seen by his 17-ish pounds packed onto his little body! He's quite 'solid' now!) He's also turned into a great sleeper...I feel blessed indeed. He is mostly still sleeping in our closet, although I was putting the kids in the same room for a while. They actually did great, but I think I'll wait until Daniel is more reliably sleeping until closer to Kathryn's wake up time. She got pretty good at falling back asleep when he would cry, but I like having the option of letting him fuss a little to make sure he's really needing to be up before getting him. That wasn't very possible when Kathryn would start crying, calling "MOMMY! Daniel's Crying!! Take him out?"

This month has marked Daniel's first haircut, which is funny since I haven't even cut Kathryn's hair for real yet. Here's a before and after picture: much improved, although he's quite bald now. He had a funny mullet thing going on in the back, and it just looked so funny with his bald head on top. Other milestones this month are rolling over onto his back from his stomach and laughing.

As far as my adjustment to being a mom of two, I think it's definitely getting easier. The hardest thing for me has been trying to figure out how Kathryn's and Daniel's schedules can line up to, 1. keep Kathryn occupied and out of trouble while I'm feeding Daniel, and 2. maximize simultaneous naptimes. Through it all, I'm learning how to be slightly more efficient at different things around the house (by necessity), as well as learning that some things can (and have to) slide a little.

Nick and I are doing very well- he really is wonderful. I'm so thankful that he's my husband...I am very very blessed!!

Well, if anyone has made it to the end of this post, good for you! I think this has been long enough, and I'll save more for another day.

We're still here...

Boy, it's been a while since I posted. I keep thinking of things to write and pictures to post, but time has escaped me these last few weeks. But here's a short summary of what we've been up to:

For Mother's Day, Nick set aside some money for me to repaint our bedroom and bathroom, something I've been wanting to do for a while. After several trips to Home Depot, 5 different samples of different blues on the wall, buying 3 gallons of paint that ended up being too light, going back to Home Depot to have them darken it, we now have a beautiful blue in our bedroom and bathroom. I really love it! I have discovered in the process that finding a good gray-blue is hard! I had a vision of what color I was looking for, but everything I put on the wall turned out way differently than envisioned from the paint chip. So now we have a custom color that has turned out beautifully. :)

For Father's Day, we traveled to Indiana for the week to surprise Nick's Dad. We had a lovely week with Nick's family, including seeing some uncles, aunts, and cousins. I think we managed to pull off the surprise, and we enjoyed relaxing with Nick's parents for the week.

This last weekend we enjoyed some time with Pat (Nick's younger brother) and Sarah and their son Tyler, as they were passing through Charlotte on the way to Raleigh. They had never seen our house before, so we enjoyed having them here for the night. Nick's other brother Sean and his wife Stacey will be here for the 4th, so we have been blessed with lots of family time- a real treat when we're so far away from everyone.

Kathryn unfortunately came down with a stomach bug last night, but it seems to be short lived. She hasn't thrown up at all today, but I can tell she's not quite up to her normal energy level. Nick and I commented to each other that our marriage has reached a new milestone of cleaning up remnants of dinner on the crib sheets together, trading off giving baths to K, and a late night trip to the store for some Pedialite. :)

So that's pretty much what we've been up to these last few weeks. Hopefully I'll get some pictures on here soon. I'm playing with the Symphony for their 4th of July concert this week, which I'm looking forward to, so it may be a few days before getting my pictures off my camera...stay tuned!

.cutie.

Melts my heart!

.amazing.

We switched Kathryn into her toddler bed this week, and amazingly it has gone so smoothly! We've had the bed set up in her room for several months, so she's been really used to having it there. On Tuesday she was very tired at naptime and kind of crawled into the bed asking, "I sleep in big girl bed?" So I thought sure, might as well give it a try. We were going to wait until July, but if she was interested, I was fine with that. So I moved the bumper to wrap around the toddler bed, and I think it really feels like her crib. She LOVES having a pillow and a "big blanket," and she hasn't gotten out of bed once (she easily can if she wants to). I am so thankful that this transition has gone smoothly...once again, an example of something that has spent a lot of my thoughts, worry, fretting, proving to be completely fine in the end.

So now we're looking to move Daniel in with her in the next few months. I am hoping that transition goes as smoothly as this one has!

.little man.

It's hard to believe how much a little person can capture my heart in 3 short months!

.life in pictures.

I'm keeping pretty busy these days, but here are a few shots of the kids together. Hopefully I'll get to write more soon, but I hear my sweet two-year-old awakening from her nap...

.11 weeks.

It's hard for me to believe our little guy is almost 3 months old! These weeks are flying by, but in a lot of ways, it's hard for me to remember what our lives were like before Daniel was part of our family. I think I'm finally feeling like life is settling into a new "normal." I certainly feel like life is easier now than it was a month ago. Daniel started a nice trend this week of sleeping 7-8 hours at night, which has allowed me to feel much more rested during the day (I'm hoping this trend lasts!!) And as he's settled into a fairly predictable nap and eating schedule, I'm finding myself with a good chunk of time in the afternoons with both kids sleeping.

I'm starting to get used to the "juggling" of having two kids; things that would have ruffled my feathers when Daniel was first born don't seem like that big a deal now. And with Daniel smiling more and more, it's fun to see his little personality starting to come out. It's so fun to see him looking for one of our faces when he hears voices, then break into a huge smile when he makes eye contact. He seems to really watch us and gets upset if he's left alone for too long.

I love how he stays all curled up when I wake him up- we call him our little Bowling Ball. I love kissing his soft cheeks and fuzzy head. I love how he coos and smiles. I love his big blue eyes. He is such a gift to our family, and we are very grateful for him! Here are some recent pics:

.playing.

One of the things I love about having a two-year-old is watching how her little imagination at work. She's suddenly VERY into taking care of her "babies." She gets her babies up, feeds them breakfast in her highchair, wipes off their face and hands, gets them (Daniel's) pacifiers, puts the babies in Daniel's swing, then puts them to bed, telling me that I need to be quiet because her babies are sleeping. It's fun seeing her imitate the things that I do with Daniel as she's playing with her dolls. In fact, several times I've done a double-take, finding one of her babies somewhere, thinking it's Daniel!

Setting the table for "tea," another favorite activity.

.charleston beach trip.

We just got back from a great vacation at Isle of Palms (near Charleston) with the Seavers and Lechners. This is only our second vacation with friends, and we loved it! The drive down there was not very fun...we actually both wore earplugs for a good deal of the time, since Daniel was screaming for about an hour (he still is not a big fan of his carseat) and Kathryn was crying because she couldn't fall asleep. I think about 2 1/2 hours into the drive, we were both thinking, "And just why are we doing this??"

But the driving time aside, we had a wonderful time with our friends. We were a very short walk away from the beach (right across the street from the beach access), which made going to and from the beach a breeze. And we practically had the beach to ourselves, which was wonderful.

Thankfully the drive back went much smoother, since I decided to sit in the back with the kids (a little tight between the two carseats, but it was worth it!). I think Kathryn loved having so much of my attention the whole ride back, and I was able to hold Daniel's pacifier in his mouth, which kept him happy. Here are a few pics from the trip:

The Swans, Seavers, and Lechners

My men

Me with my peeps

My three favorite people

The "Little Ladies"- Sarah Evelyn, Alathea, Emma, Kathryn, Abigail

Did you know a group of girls is called a gaggle? I think this qualifies!

Kathryn's not in this one, but I loved how all the girlies were dancing around after we had our official photo shoot.

Looking for shells

Kathryn LOVED the beach and was totally fearless in the water. This was really a fun age for the beach, since I didn't really have to worry about her being knocked down by the waves, and she loved playing with the other girls in the sand.

Daniel was a bit unimpressed by it all