Deliciousness from my kitchen...

I've been drooling over this Apple Crisp recipe for a while.  Finally I remembered and made the recipe tonight.  This recipe is simple, but also more complex than the recipe I have previously used.  I was particularly excited about the fact that it used apple cider in the coating for the apples and that it called for ginger and nutmeg in addition to cinnamon.  I always love a good apple crisp in the fall.  It's the perfect way to welcome the cooler weather and at the same time enjoy the deliciousness of the apples that God has given us!

If you will excuse me now, I'm going to go dig in!

Recipe - complements of King Arthur Flour at their blog, Bakers Banter. 

Daniel's new bed!

Josue has a co-worker with two boys who are slightly older than Daniel and so we have been blessed with some hand-me-downs at different times.  The most recent blessing, however, was a toddler bed.  While we had not planned on using a toddler bed (we were just going to switch Daniel to a twin or full size bed), we thought that perhaps it would give us a little more time to keep the guest room a guest room.  We haven't switched Daniel over to the toddler bed yet and will probably wait a few months still.  But here are some pictures of him having fun with it. 

He seems to think it is great that he can get on and off it all by himself.  And, of course, he likes to stand on it and bounce on it!  We tried to get across to him that it was for sleeping, and he humored us a little bit with laying down on it.  Enjoy!

Interprative Bible Story-telling

Tonight's interpretive Bible story went something like this:

Daniel:  "Boom, boom!"  (Indicating thunder and the storm in the story of Jonah and the whale.)

Josue:  "Yes, boom, boom.  You see, God told Jonah 'Come!'  And Jonah said 'No, no!'  And so God had to spank Jonah!"

Me:  Hysterical laughter.

Josue:  "Well, I think that's a pretty accurate biblical interpretation!"

Daniel Visits Milburn Orchards

Just down the road from where we live is Milburn Orchards.  It is really a great place to go for kids.  Besides apple picking, berry picking and other U-pick fruits and veggies, they have animals, a great playground, a huge sandbox and other fun things for kids to do.  The day that Daddy was sick, Daniel and I took advantage of having access to the car and went over for a fun filled afternoon.  After much playing, examining pumpkins, talking to the animals and exploring the "bale trail" (think corn maize but with huge hay bales), Daniel and I ended our afternoon by picking out some acorn squash (which Daniel LOVES) and buying some oh so yummy apple cider doughnuts in the farmers market.  Here are some pictures from our outing.

Daniel enjoying the kid-friendly aspects of Milburns.  Our little wormy!

Exploring the rows and rows of pumpkins!

Playing in a wooden airplane, he loves planes!

Barely humoring Mommy with a picture.

Inside the pumpkin house, literally a structure with the walls and roof filled with pumpkins!

Selecting a pumpkin!  He really tried to pick up the one next to this small one, but no luck, too big!  :)

It was a beautiful day and a lovely time with my boy!  We'll hopefully do it again soon!

Daniel Helping Daddy...

About a week ago Josue wasn't feeling well and so he worked from home to try and give himself some time to recover.  Daniel and I love having Daddy home, but it really does throw our routine for a loop sometimes.  Daniel in particular always wants to be near Daddy and see what Daddy is doing and "help" Daddy!  Actually, all he really wants is to get his hands on Daddy's computer!  So here's a picture of Daniel's idea of "helping" Daddy while he works from home.

Definitely fun having your kid's bootie right in your face!

Todder belts

I'm thinking about needing to get Daniel a few belts for this winter.  After going through the clothes I have for this winter I've realized that the pants for some reason run extremely large!  I'm returning several outfits because the pants are so large that there's no way they will fit him this year and maybe not even next year. 

Since we've been potty training Daniel he doesn't need all that extra space in the pants for a diaper.  And then there's also no diaper to hold up the pants.  Our skinny little boy still has plenty of room at the waist in 12 month size pants!  He'll probably need 18 month this winter for the length, but there's no way they're going to stay up.  Hence the need for belts!

Have you ever tried to make belts for your children?  It seems super easy according to these instructions.  But I've got to say that I'm partial to the velcro style of belt, much easier for a young child to get on and off.  The one brand that I've found that looks really user friendly is Myself Belts.  They look pretty easy to make as well.  If I manage to make one I'll post pics with instructions...

UPDATE: Trying to setup FeedBurner

So I guess that FeedBurner only works if your blog is public.  Since our blog is private it cannot pull the feed.  I'm looking into whether there are any other systems out there that will let me do something similar with a private blog.  If you know of one please let me know!

----------------------------------------------
Just wanted to let you all know that I'm trying to setup a FeedBurner option with this blog.  FeedBurner will allow you to use a reader to follow our blog.  I'm also looking into an option for notification by email about new posts.  I'll let you all know once I'm able to set that up.

Just part of the daily morning routine!

Daniel helps Daddy get ready for work every morning.  This gives him quality time with Daddy, learning how to be a man.  And it also gives Mommy some time to get Daddy's lunch ready :-)  Here's a little glimpse into the morning routine.



Daniel putting on cologne with Daddy.

Lesson:  Smell nice for your lady, or in this case, your Mommy!

TRACTOR!!!

Daniel wouldn't be a boy if he didn't love tractors!  Recently we were blessed to find a little scooter tractor for him on craigslist.  He is officially obsessed!  Unfortunately I can't keep it upstairs because of our wood floor so he can only ride it downstairs, in the basement, or outside.  Whenever he happens to glimpse it downstairs he always insists to go down and ride it.  However, he hasn't quite figured out how to scoot forward on it yet, and so he scoots backwards or climbs on and off it and honks the horn.  So cute how much he enjoys it!

Honking the horn!

How could this delighted laugh not bring joy to your heart!?

Here's Daniel playing with Daddy with his tractor!

Turkey Point

So any of you who live in MD are familiar with Turkey Point.  For those of you who do not, Turkey Point is  a land preserve where there are hiking trails, a lighthouse on the point, places to go fishing and a place where all sorts of adventures to be had.  A couple weeks ago the mom's club from our church took some time to hike out there with the kiddos.  Only 3 mom's were able to go, but we still had a good time.  Daniel didn't mind the backpack too much (I carried him in our hiking backpack).  It was a bit uncomfortable for me though because I have a monkey for a son and he was always leaning to one side to see what was going on around him.  But I couldn't let him walk either because he was too pokey and always wanted to go in the opposite direction!  Oh well, here are some pictures.

Daniel is happy to be on the ground again :)

Quick picture with Mommy before he runs off.

Daniel with Aevyn and Will on the bench by the lighthouse.

And a pic with Mommy by the cliff. 

It really is beautiful out there.  The view is amazing especially when it is a clear day.