Homemade Donuts!

 Last week on Wednesday Jack just randomly asked if we could make donuts. Since coming back from my women's retreat I've been trying to be more intentional with the kids so even though it sounded a bit daunting to make donuts I thought why not!  

 

 

After researching online I found a recipe that sounded easy and Jack and I gave it a go. In addition to having fun in the kitchen it was a great lesson on learning patience since the dough had to sit and rise twice...once after the original kneading and then again after being cut out into the donut shapes.

 

 

 

I don't have an actual donut cutter so I just improvised. I used a cookie cutter and then a smaller circle cutter from the kids Play-Doh set. Of course I washed it first!

 

 

After cutting out all the donuts there was a little bit of dough left so I let Ella play with the rolling pin and cookie cutters.

 

 

Then it came time to get the oil ready. Here's the part I was worried about since I don't own a Dutch Oven or a thermometer. I ended up researching online to see if there was another way to determine if the oil was hot enough. I found out that the oil is hot enough if you put the handle of a wooden spoon in the oil and if bubbles start to float to the top at a pretty consistent rate.

 

 

My other kitchen cutie was hanging out while I was frying the donuts. He just recently learned to use his sippy cup!

 

 

First I fried the donut holes and then rolled them in a half powdered sugar, half granulated sugar mixture.

 

 

It was fun dropping the donuts in and watching them fry.

 

 

Here they are all plumped up!

 

 

Yummy powdered sugar donuts!!!

 

 

These kiddos...

 

 

were all...

 

 

SO happy!

 

 

Okay maybe not everyone! Zeke thought that I was evil for giving him a donut! Silly kid!

 

I let each of the kids have two donut holes and one donut the night I made them. Then I saved a donut for each of them for the next day. The kids probably would have eaten all of them that night. As it was they literally....

 

 

licked the plate and the table!!!

 

The next night I decided to try my hands at making homemade onion rings, but those were a bit more messy with the batter so there are no pictures of that. Also they were eaten in no time! They seriously were heavenly....bye bye Red Robin's towering onion rings....I can make my own!!!

 

Then the next night we had a BBQ at our neighbors house and she asked me to bring a salad and something fun. So I decided to make donuts again! This time I made glazed donuts and they were A-Mazing! The thing with homemade donuts is they are best when they are still warm so we ended up eating the donuts before we even ate dinner!

 

So three nights of fried food and I was pretty much fried out...the house smelled like oil and I had splatter burns on my hands. It was fun learning something new in the kitchen though!

Don't Mess With Me!

She's a lady on the edge!!!

Recently we watched Tinkerbell The Lost Treasure and during that movie Tinkerbell gets REALLY mad. She turns super red and says some not nice things to her friend Terrence. When Ella first saw that part she jumped off the couch and folded her arms and said, "I don't like her anymore!" It was so cute! She was really upset at Tinkerbell! Thankfully Tinkerbell figures out she was in the wrong and apologizes so all is right in fairy land and Ella loves Tinkerbell again! The funny thing is whenever she sees that part in the movie she gets really animated and she make her angry Tinkerbell faces...hence the picture above!

They Work On Commission!

 

Michael and I just recently started attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church. We are really enjoying what we're learning and we're already implementing the tips in not only our lives, but our kids lives as well!  

 

 

On Sunday after our second class we had the kids do a craft with empty chocolate covered raisin containers. They got to decorate their new money banks with stickers.

 

 

Owen's bank has a log cabin and race car theme.

 

 

Ella Bean decorated hers with a bunch of puffy animal stickers.

 

 

Jack went with all predators....he's got lions, cheetahs, bears...oh my!

 

 

Here is their chart where we keep track of their progress. The responsibilities are things they are required to do because they live in this house. When they clean their room up they'll get a check mark and if they have a check mark for everyday of the week they'll get a bonus. For this particular job they're going to get paid on either Saturday night or Sunday morning. As for the boys extra jobs (we aren't too worried about Ella yet) they only have a few right now, but I'm sure we'll be adding more soon. We just wanted to get the ball rolling. When the boys do these jobs they get paid right away. So basically we're teaching the kids that they have to work for their money. They aren't going to get an allowance they get commission and if they don't do a good job they don't get paid. Also when they get paid for cleaning their rooms we are going to add up all the money they made that week and then show them the 10% that we need to give back to God as tithe. It's been fun talking to them about money and how we have to save for the things we really need. The kids have enjoyed getting to take their money out and count it!

Disney Shirts!

When I haven't been blowing my nose...lately I've been working on making Disney shirts for the kids. It's just ridiculous to pay over $20 for a Disney shirt so I knew I could make some cool ones for way cheaper. I found some applique patterns online and after talking to a friend from church on how to actually do appliques I felt like I was ready to go. 

I bought this plain green shirt at Wal-Mart for Ella $3.48. Then I printed out the letters in the size I wanted using my Cricut. 

I had this purple shirt lying around that had a couple holes in it so it was perfect for my letters.

 After cutting out the fabric I needed I ironed on Wonder Under to it and then traced my letters on the back (backwards) and then cut them out. The Wonder Under basically turns the fabric into a sticker so it will stay in place while you stitch it on.

I also read online that you should use a temporary stabilizer so the fabric won't pucker and move on you. So I pinned that in place...

 

And started stitching. As you can see the stitches around the 'n' were pretty big and a little squiggly in places.

 

Then halfway through the 'i' I decided to change the settings a bit and if you look on the right side of the 'i' you'll see how much tighter and nicer the stitches look. 

 

Here's what the stabilizer looks like ones all the stitching was done. And since it was temporary that meant I had to tear it off. This was surprising the part I was most afraid of. I was sure I was going to rip the stitching out. 

 

It was super easy though...thankfully!!! 

 

The finishing touch was a $2.99 Tinkerbell applique from Joann's. So all in all I spent under $7 on a super cool shirt! 

Now onto the boys....

I found this pattern online, printed it out and traced it onto the Wonder Under. I made both Jack and Owen this exact same shirt. 

 

For some reason...I think the fabric was a bit too silky the black fabric did not want to stick to the shirt even with the Wonder Under. 

 

Thankfully I was able to stitch it down just fine! When I showed this to Owen I asked him what it was and he said, "Mickey.....as a NINJA!!!" We've been watching Ninjago way too much over here! 

Since I didn't buy any appliques for these shirts they just cost me $3.48 at Wal-Mart since the black, red and yellow fabric was given to me. 

After seeing Ella's Tink shirt Jack requested a Buzz shirt. 

 

Again I printed the letters out and was just playing around with the layout when Jack came over and said, "I don't want my letters to be PINK!" That's when I had to explain that they were being used as a template.

 

Enter another shirt that I no longer needed because it was too big...can you say goodbye pregnancy weight! YAHOO! 

 

The letters ended up being too big for me to do what I wanted to do with them so I started playing around again with the layout and came up with this. 

 

Then I decided I did not like the orange. For some reason I thought Buzz had orange on him so I thought it would work, but his buttons are really red not orange. I search all over the house and finally found the one and only white short sleeve shirt that we have and it had stains on it...of course. After a spin in the washer with both bleach and Oxyclean it was ready to go. 

 

So this shirt was free and then add the purchased applique that was on sale for $3.51 and there you have it! Super awesome! I will say I was sure I had bit off more than I could chew with this whole applique thing, but it's super easy! I still have a few shirts to make I want to make 2 for each kid. Jack has his Buzz and his Mickey Pirate, Ella has her Tink and I'm going to make a Minnie Mouse one, Owen has his Mickey Pirate and I'm going to make him a Duck shirt with a Donald applique. As for Zeke I'm going to make a shirt that has a tie on it with a Mickey head and then I'm thinking make him a Mickey Pirate shirt too. 

When I was finishing up Jack's Buzz shirt he asked me if I was going to make any shirts for Daddy and I. I hadn't even thought about that since I've been so focused on the kids, but I think that might be fun! We'll see!

11 Months!

Look at this 11 month old bundle of cuteness!!!

2-piece pj's make me smile! Love that belly! 

 

In this picture Zeke seriously looks like a mini me at this age. His eyes, his lack of hair, his chubby cheeks. One of these days I need to scan a picture of my brother and I and post it. It's crazy the resemblance!

 

So what is Zeke up to at 11 months old...

- Zeke still nurses 4 - 5 times a day. 

- He sleeps from 8pm - 7:30am

- He takes 2 naps a day. His morning nap is his best if we're home. It's usually from 9 - 11:30. He's been waking up early from his afternoon nap which has been making for a pretty grumpy boy the last couple of nights. 

- Zeke is still mainly eating baby food. He has some texture issues so touching food that is the least bit slimy or wet he just won't do it. The only thing he will self feed himself are things that are dry and crunchy like Cheerios and Kix. 

- He is everywhere and has now mastered crawling with his belly off the floor. He was a wonderful army crawler for about a month though. 

- He loves to pull himself up to a standing position and has now been getting into things on the end tables in the living room. If it's within his reach it's fair game! 

- Zeke is a hard core thumb sucker! Only his left thumb though and when he's feeling anything other than content he's sucking his thumb! 

- Zeke's neck is looking great now. We've been using a steroid cream and it's such a joy to see his skin all beautiful again! 

- Zeke loves to be held! He does love to explore too, but when he's done exploring he will just sit where he is and whine until someone comes and picks him up. It's really quite pathetic! 

Can't believe it's only 1 month until my baby boy is 1 years old!!!

Ultrasound pictures!

Until recently I kept the kids ultrasound pictures on my full length mirror in my closet. Then I took them off so I could clean the mirror (With my Norwex Cloth....a whole other post coming soon) and now that it's so clean and there's no pictures on it I don't want to put them back up.

So I put them together as a scrapbook page and framed them! When I see these pictures it just amazes me that I carried those 4 precious babies in my womb. After all those years of struggling and thinking I would NEVER be a mom...Miracles DO happen!

Homemade!

I've been wanting to try Kale Chips for a while now and I finally got to. I had bought some kale to use in a soup recipe, but I didn't use all the kale and there was NO WAY I was going to let it go to waste. One small bunch of kale is $2.49! 

First step was to remove the stems and cut or tear the kale into chip size pieces. 

Then I put a little olive oil, Parmesan cheese and the kale into a Ziploc bag and shook it around. 

After adding the flavor I spread them on a cooking sheet and put some more Parmesan cheese on top. 

Then came the cooking part...the part that didn't go so well! 

 

You know that saying, "Your noses...knows!" Well I should have listened to my nose. About 10 minutes before the chips were supposed to be done they smelled SO GOOD. I wanted to eat them right then, but I wanted to follow the recipe since this was my first time making them. Well they got a little burnt. The above picture is after I stirred them around and we had eaten a few. Then do shrink a lot though! The ones that weren't that burnt were really yummy! I'm definitely going to buy some seeds and plant kale in the garden this year. 

 

We also recently made homemade chocolate syrup. We had almost used up our Hershey's syrup, but since we are trying to eat better I wanted to make this so it wouldn't have any HFCS in it. All it took was some unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar, water and vanilla. It's definitely runnier than Hershey's, but the kids LOVE it. A little goes a long way too and it tastes richer...sorry Hershey's but were never going back!

He's Everywhere!

Now that Zeke is crawling he is all over the place. Thankfully he hasn't shown too much interest in the stairs yet. We do have the baby gate at the top of the stairs, but I'm holding off putting the one on the bottom of the stairs for as long as I can.

One Saturday while Michael and the boys were eating lunch he crawled under the table and was standing up. It's the funniest thing seeing this little person stand completely up under a table. 

I posted these last two on FB already, but there were too cute to not include here. Ella left her Cheerios on the picnic table in the playroom. The kids still aren't used to the fact that Zeke can stand up now. So of course he got into her cereal and spilled it everywhere. While I was in the kitchen he was just sitting under the table eating away! He was quite proud of himself!

After he had his fill of Cheerios he decided to crawl into the open pantry and pull down his baby food containers. Cute boy knows what he wants and know where to go for it!

This was taken right before his first bath since he's been standing up on his own. He loved standing up in the tub and holding onto the sides. He's already started letting go with one hand and transferring from one thing to another. I'm sure he'll be cruising around the furniture in no time!