Please Pray for My Brother

Sadly, my brother will be deploying to Afghanistan on Saturday.  He will be gone for one year.  This comes after being stationed 3 hours away for the past year and spending the previous year deployed in Saudi Arabia.  That's a lot of time away from your family...especially when you have a 3 year old!

Will you please remember Eric & his family in your prayers & thoughts? Thank you!


SFC Eric Egelstad
Platoon Sergeant 101st Airborne "The Rakkasan's"

Eric, we love you so much.  We are praying for your safety and the safety of your guys.  Anxiously awaiting your safe return!

Eric and his girls Logan & Jordyn

Eric & Donna

Fast Weekend

Our weekend went fast.  We met up with Eric, Donna & Jordyn Sat. afternoon in St. Louis and then departed late Sun. morning. The guys did a great job hauling Dad's car trailer and thankfully, all went smoothly!

"The triplets" (Jordyn, Bryce & Drew) were SO excited to see each other, and of course, to swim in the hotel pool!

 

The kiddos play so well together. They sat for over 2 hours at dinner just coloring, chattering with one another and playing quietly at our table...that NEVER happens with just my boys! It was nice to have fairly uninterrupted adult conversation!  Sadly, our visits with my brother are infreqeunt because we live about 10 hours away, so we cherish our visits with them.  Especially this weekend since Eric is deploying to Afghanistan in a few days.

We love you Uncle Eric, Aunt Donna & Jordyn.  We had lots of fun with you this weekend!

Almost Time to Deploy

My brother Eric is about to deploy to Afghanistan next week. He has asked if we would pick up my Dad's car trailer from him and haul it to our house, so... we will be driving to St. Louis tomorrow (1/2 way for each of us) and staying the night in a hotel.  We are thankful to have an excuse for a little road trip and another opportunity to see Eric, Donna & Jordyn before he deploys. 

Please be praying for Eric and his girls as they spend their last week together.  It is extremely difficult!  Thank you!

Family Food Faves

Prior to having children I always said "I will NOT bribe my children with food!"

Well...I've changed my mind!

I spend a minimum of 15 hours every week reading new recipes, menu planning, grocery shopping and preparing meals for my family that are well-balanced, mostly healthy, and things I think they will enjoy.  There is nothing more frustrating than to hear them say, "I don't like it" (without even trying it), or "My tummy is full" when I know darn well they are hungry!  So, on those ocassions, I don't mind having a few treats on hand (like the cookies below) for bribing purposes!

I am happy to share our new favorite "healthier" Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe with you!  I like to make a double batch of these and freeze them!

Healthier Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 T. unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2  cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar until smooth.  Mix in the brown sugar, then the egg, applesauce & vanilla.  Stir in the dry ingredients, then the oats & raisins.

Drop the batter by rounded teaspoons 2-inches apart on the baking sheet and use a fork to gently flatten the dough.  Bake 10-12 min.

Family Food Faves

As I searched Google for a healthy blueberry muffin recipe the other day I came across this wonderful blog and discovered our new favorite muffin!  The boys have asked several times in the past week to make more of these...and I don't argue!

Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins
recipe from joythebaker.com/blog/2009/01/oatmeal-blueberry-applesauce-muffins/

Makes 12-15 muffins
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp canola oil (I used the almond oil I had on hand)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases or spray with nonstick cooking spray. I simple greased and floured a muffin pan, saving the paper.

In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg. Make a well in dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake for 16-18 minutes

Christmas 2009 - Favorite Gifts

My boys were blessed with many wonderful & generous gifts from family & friends.  Here are a few of their faves!

The Quadrilla Twist Set
105 wooden pieces, 100 marbles, dozens of construction designs

Nintendo Wii

Lite Brite Cube

Mommy & Daddy's Fave

$ for Bryce & Drew's College Fund!

Joey Magnetic Play Set

Mommy cleaned out old, broken crayons - now they have their own box w/ built in sharpener!

Christmas #3 & Happy New Year

We decided to have the boys wait until the day after Christmas to open their gifts from Papa & Nana so they could enjoy their...

Wii!!!
Thank you Nana & Papa for the new Wii system and all of the accessories and games to go with it.  We'll have lots of family fun for many years to come!

It's so cute watching the boys bowl, play tennis & golf, and knock each other out boxing!  A great energy burner during the cold winter months!

After Christmas, Nana & Papa rented the condo in Branson for 5 days.  We didn't spend much time outside - it was frigidly cold.  Just long enough to do a little shopping and have a snowball fight! 

We had fun playing miniature golf at a cool indoor, glow in the dark course.  It was decorated with 4 differents themes, and also had laser tag and video games.  We're thinking about having the boys' "4th Birthday" party here.

To bring in the New Year our Nana bought crazy hats, necklaces, glasses & horns that the boys, of course, thought were hysterical! 

We had a wonderful couple of weeks with you Nana &Papa.  Thank you for the sacrifices you make to travel so far, for all of your help & love! We love you so much!

Christmas #2

Papa Jim flew down in mid December to help us out during Drew's surgery.  Children's Hospital didn't allow siblings in the waiting room so Papa stayed back at the hotel with Bryce so Jimmy & I could both be with Drew.  Thank you Papa for all of your help & love during this time!

This is a pic of the boys & their Papa Jim in the hot tub at our hotel the night before Drew's surgery.

Nana had to stay home to continue working so we were excited when she got to join us on the 23rd.

Bryce & Drew are slow opening their gifts.  They like to open a gift and then play with it for awhile and we certainly don't want to rush them!  So, on Christmas Eve morning we let them open their stockings from us and a couple of gifts from under the tree.

Our favorite tradition that we started with the boys on their 1st Christmas is to bake a birthday cake for Jesus.  Bryce & Drew were SO excited to do it this year...it's the first year they really understood it all.  We went to our Christmas service at church and then came home to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eat the yummy cake!

Christmas morning we had the boys' big gift from us set up and wrapped under a big bag.  We wrapped up the box so they could see the pictures of the gift and they we SO excited!

Christmas was so fun & relaxing.  The boys were so cute opening their gifts and had so much fun playing with their new toys.  Thankfully, they also got excited about GIVING gifts to others and  loved to help unwrap them!