Zucchini Bread

It's been a while since I've posted any recipes but I've been having a craving for zucchini bread : ) And just had to make some so I figured I would share it with you. It's really moist and delicious the boys just gobble it up and so do I probably more than I should.  It never seems to last very long in our house.

Zucchini Bread

• 3 cups of flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of oil (can substitute applesauce if you like or do half of each)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups shredded zucchini
• (Optional) 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325° degrees. Spray two loaf pans with nonstick spray or grease and flour them.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder,  baking soda and cinnamon in a bowl. 

Beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients and beat well. Stir in zucchini and (nuts if desired) until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then remove from pans and cool completely. 

Enjoy!  If you try it out let me know what you think : ) What's your favorite kind of bread to bake?

8 week pregnancy update baby #4

Sorry I'm late at getting this up. I'm actually 8 weeks 5 or 6 days today. Not much has changed since last week. I'm still really nauseous all the time, bloated and gassy that's always fun. I'm still really tired.

As far as new symptoms go I've been getting some headaches here and there. I'm not one to get headaches rarely ever so that kinda sucks. I don't really take medicine barely ever I just don't like to so I've just been sucking it up. Last night I woke up extremely dizzy the room felt like it was spinning and I just felt really nauseous.

That's the first time that's happened but I'll be bringing that up to my doctor at my appointment this Saturday. I'm thinking that my irons low. I always get low iron so hopefully it's nothing and just normal symptoms. Also I don't think I mentioned this last week but smells are really getting to me some I just can't stand. From foods, fragrances, cleaning products, garbage seem to be just overpowering at times and make me sick.

This Saturday is my first doctors appointment so that's exciting. I'm not sure if I'll be having to go more often than normal like my last pregnancy (with little man) but I guess I'll find out soon enough. Baby is the size of a large raspberry this week so growing like crazy : )

That's about it and I'll let you know how the appointment goes in my 9 weeks update. The picture isn't that great it was early morning and the lighting wasn't the best. My 2nd son was actually my photographer for me which was really sweet : ) and he just used my phone.

Winter Breaks Over

Winter break is officially over for us. We'll actually it was supposed to be over one Monday but we've been getting hit hard with winter weather. We got well over a foot of snow and have had arctic cold. Monday was -22° and with the wind chill felt like -40°. Tuesday was -15° and today the low was -11°. It's getting better but still so darn cold. So due to it being so crappie they cancelled school on Monday and Tuesday, not that I would have sent the boys anyway if they hadn't.

Let me just say it's tough getting back on track with the school schedule when you've been off for a while not only for the boys but for me as well. This morning they had a little bit of a hard time staying on track with getting ready. Of course they would rather play and watch cartoons so a few reminders were needed : ) Hopefully they don't come home bombarded with a ton of homework but we'll see.

How has the weather been for you?

7 Weeks Pregnancy Update Baby #4

This is gonna be my first pregnancy update for baby #4. According to a online pregnancy calculator (it goes by the first day of your last period) I'm in my 7th week. Unfortunately I'm not one of those lucky people that barely has any symptoms : ( Apparently blueberry size baby's have the ability to suck every last ounce of energy from me : )

Pretty much since I first got pregnant I've felt like carp of course I didn't know that was the reason at the time though. I have terrible "morning sickness" which for me means all day and night. I haven't actually thrown up yet but I constantly feel like I'm going to.

I'm always tired and low on energy. I'm hungry all the time but can't eat much due to feeling nauseous all the time. There are some things I just can't eat they make me sick even thinking about it. Garlic bread and apples are some to name a few. The apple one is really weird but hopefully that will end up going away.

These next symptoms I'm going to share with you might be to TMI but I'm just trying to keep it real with you : ) I've been so bloated and gassy it's awful there's times it's so bad I look like I'm at least 4-5 months pregnant or at a few to many tacos ; ) Another lovely symptom has been constipation. I'm having to pee all the time and waking up multiple times threw out the night feeling like my bladder is going to explode lol.

Just a FYI that might help someone else out. I've been taking these gummy prenatal vitamins instead of the regular pills since I was prego with little man. The doctor recommend them to me since the other ones would make me so sick.

7 weeks baby facts
• hands and feet are starting to emerge from developing arms & legs.
• baby has doubled in size since last week.
• 1/2 a inch long and the size of a blueberry
• mouth and tongue are forming

That's it for this week. I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for there well wishes and kind words : ) I really do appreciate it and love reading your comments so thank you so much!

BIG NEWS!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and got to spend quality time with family. I actually got a little surprise my self right before Christmas. Looks like baby #4 is on the way!

 I was quite shocked to say the least. Even though this was not planned nor were any of my boys. It is still a welcome blessing. You might have read an older post here that kinda explains everything.

I'll probably be posting weekly or monthly pregnancy updates to document everything. I know they say you should wait until 12 weeks before you announce it but I feel anything could possibly happen at anytime not just within the first trimester.

I haven't had my first ob appointment yet due to him being on vacation but according to a pregnancy calculator I'm 7 weeks. The boys took the news good and are actually excited to have another baby join the family. Little man is to little to even understand but hopefully he'll do good with everything : )

MIA and 2 Birthday Celebrations

It's been so long since I've posted anything or even just been on any kinda social media related to blogging. Things have been busy.... well there always busy and chaotic but even more so lately. I'm sure you all can relate : )

Between the boys, school stuff, sickness,  regular everyday chores and errands, holidays, birthdays ext. I've just hadn't had time or energy to post anything. I have missed it though. Things are still busy and the holidays aren't over yet but I hope to get back into posting more often at least a couple times a week.

On another note both of my older boys have celebrated there birthdays well the actual day anyway they both fell on school days this year. We still have to do the whole fun weekend stuff with them.

I just can't believe how quick time has gone by! I know I say that all the time but I really can't. It seems like not so long ago I had them and they were toddlers. Know here they are 10 and 8 were already in double digits how crazy is that!

I don't know if I mentioned this before or not but the boys birthdays are only 5 days apart. It's kinda crazy having 2 December birthdays 5 days apart and so close to Christmas. I kinda feel bad for them they have to wait all year and then bam it's there birthday and Christmas all at the same time.

So since there birthdays fell on school days I tried to make it as special as possible. They had a more special breakfast (not just cereal). I made homemade waffles and stuck candles in them and we sung happy birthday.

They get to bring in a class treat on there birthday but it has to be store bought. They both decided on vanilla long John donuts with Christmas sprinkles. So we brought those in when I dropped them off at school.

 I also let them pick what they wanted for lunch and then me and little man brought them lunch (one picked culvers and the other picked taco bell) and we sat and had lunch with them at school.

I made them both there birthday cakes like I do almost every year. One wanted angry birds the other wanted batman and spiderman. I only had from the time the boys went to school and got home to make there cakes. And that's including bringing them lunch and of course taking care of little man. It was a little challenging and there not the best looking cakes but the boys loved them and appreciated them so that's all that matters : ) I  decorated the kitchen and had there cakes done by the time they got home from school.

They both decided this year that they didn't want to be surprised with presents. They wanted to pick them out there self so when they got home I  asked them were they wanted to go and they picked walmart. They both had a set budget but could pick out whatever they wanted with in there budget. We had dinner again they got to choose what they wanted and then of course cake and ice cream.

Sorry this is a really long post! Here are some pictures from there birthdays : )

Halloween Class Treats!

Sorry this post is a little late but I've been having issue with logging in.  I hope you all had a great Halloween : ) I just wanted to share really quick the Halloween treats we made for the boys classes. I had good intentions as always to get things done ahead of time. But like always I procrastinated till last minute.

So I had to throw something together for both of the boys classes. There not aloud to bring any homemade treats. So this is what I came up with. My oldest has a small class so that's why he got full size candy.

The bat treats I made using ca kit kat bar, black card stock, white card stock, googly eyes, glue dots and tape. I measured the candy bar and cut a piece of paper to wrap around it. The bat wings I just free handed and traced to make enough. I added a cute bow for the girls and his teacher/helpers.

The mummy's are reeses cups wraped with streamers and googly eyes. I used glue dots to attach everything. I'm happy with how they turned out : )

DIY Costume Fail......So Far

This is the first year I've ever attempted to make my boys costumes myself and I'm not so sure that was such a good idea. They've always been batman, spiderman, clone trooper that kinda thing. But this year they decided they wanted to be the red and green ninja for lego ninjago.

They wanted to actually be like the ninjago minifigure. But we've been so busy I didn't think I would have time to make 2 lego costumes. So we compromised and decided to make them just not like a lego figure.

I ordered them karate gi uniforms from amazon and just figured I'd dye them green and red and add stuff to make it look like the ninjago. Sounded easy enough. Well I was wrong. Let just say it's alot hard then it seems to get the right colors.

I got rit fabric dye from Walmart and tulip fabric dye as well. The first time I dyed them they seemed good till I washed them and the dark green faded to a really light almost mossy green. The red ended up fading to pink. The boys were less then thrilled so I bought some more dye to see if I could darken them back up.

Well they did get darker just not how I would have liked them to. The green is manageable but the red is still a wine pinkish berry color. So I'm gonna try and see if I can fix it one more time. Cause I don't think my oldest is to keen on being a pink ninjago.

If you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know I'd appreciate it!

Soft Pumpkin Cookies With Icing

These are one of my favorite pumpkin recipes. They are so good you can't have just one ; ) They make the house smell amazing when there baking. The boys love them! They taste great plain or with icing.

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

•  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•  1 tsp baking soda
•  1 tsp baking powder
•  1 tsp cinnamon
•  1/2 tsp nutmeg
•  1/2 tsp salt
•  1 1/2 cups sugar
•  1/2 butter or (1 stick) softened
•  1 cup of Pure Pumpkin
•  1 egg
•  1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze

•  2 cups sifted powder sugar
•  3 tbls milk
•  1 tbls melted butter
•  1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° and line baking sheet with parchment paper or grease.

Combined flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add in flour mixture and blend until well combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

Do you have a favorite pumpkin recipe?

We Have A Walker!!!

For the past week and a half little man has been walking! He had been standing up with out holding on to anything for a little while know but one day he just decided to take a step. We were blowing bubbles and he was standing up holding his bubble wand and in a blink of an eye he went to catch one.

He took a good 6 steps before plopping on his bum. Well since then hes kept on trying : ) He's doing really good and is just so proud of himself smiling ear to ear (so am I). He's growing so fast it's really bittersweet.  While I want to watch him grow and see him become this amazing little person part of me wishes I could prolong the baby stage at least for awhile longer : )