:: Day of Caring ::

We {Payless/CBI} participate in United Way and there is a volunteer day {Day of Caring} that our department usually gets a big group together for.  We volunteered at Harvester's on Tuesday, which is a community food bank, last year (actually might have helped put me into labor, I had Iz 3 days later) and had such a good time that we wanted to do it again this year, so here we are...

a couple of other departments joined us, so this is the big group (yes, we are all wearing the same 't', it says 'Live United')... we boxed up loaves of bread and filled bags for kids for their backsnack program, we got a lot accomplished for them so it was a very rewarding feeling!

Whitney, Marissa (for some reason her face is in fast motion) and Miranda.

And of course I had to add one of Isabelle from the morning, it was a little cool so she had her hood up and was happy as ever...



Productive Sunday...

and i was picture happy...

isabelle and i went for our morning run first thing.

i just love this little face...

i went through all of isabelle's clothes that are too small and got them boxed up to pass on to aunt ashley for their little girl that will be arriving in the next month or so... we will have a new cousin!  isabelle wanted to help by taking all the clothes out of the box and throwing them around her room (i started piling them anywhere she couldn't reach)... so helpful.

she would not let go of those pjs..

trying to stand..

she pulls herself up on everything now and i always get so nervous, especially here because i thought the box was going to tip over on her.

in for the steal... i could not keep her hands out of the box!

yep, caught you!

this just made me laugh, i was on the other side of the island and she got really quiet so i went to see what she was doing... just reading a little bobby flay... she is so strong, that book is kind of heavy and she just pulled it off the shelf and was checking it out!  oh and side note for isabelle's wardrobe change.. we had a major blow out, all up the back.. hadn't had one of those in months, brought back great memories of, holy smokes, how am i going to do this without getting it everywhere?!  especially because she doesn't really like to just lay down and get her diaper changed anymore, she loves to roll over and take off without any coverage... it's awesome.

snack time... i love bananas!!

here comes mama...

i'm almost there..

got you!  i just love this huge smiley face.. such a great pic!

no, i did not put lip gloss on my babe ;)

oh, here i am again, trying to pull everything off the shelves... we are totally regretting our choice of open shelving at this level!

then comes the time when i start to get sad because sunday is almost over, i almost don't even look at the clock because i don't want to face the reality of the work week beginning.  i just love being home and spending time with my iz... and my husband of course :).

what a saturday!

isabelle and i ran to the market (our saturday routine) and dad met us there this time, which we loved.  we got some delicious apple cider donuts (from rees fruit farm in topeka, highly recommend... isabelle loved her little taste), pears, okra and our favorite oatmeal cookie whoopie pies, so we made out well!

iz wanted to hold the cotton pads and candy corn at target... i love the season for candy corn!  it's the best snack mixed with peanuts, can't stop eating it!

this was just funny, jacob kept pinning her down and she would look so closely at his face and they were both laughing.. wish i would have recorded it because this pic just makes her look like she wants out, which at that point, i think she did ;).

we got to go to the legends game (alumni that went pro came back to play a game) so isabelle had her first basketball game (dad was so proud).. it gets so loud in there, so we got her some ear plugs and they seemed to do the trick.  thank you papa for isabelle's new favorite thing to hold, the little jayhawk, she gets so excited when you give it to her and jacob is trying so hard to get her to say 'jayhawk'.. i know, the brainwashing has already begun!

 izzy girl and gigi... she carried that granola bar all the way to the game (we walked) and then held it for a while at the game... it was nice and squished when i ate it.

 she was so mesmerized by all the lights and everything going on in there that we had such a hard time getting her to look at the camera...

jacob and aunt betsy's favorite person/slight obsession ;)... paul pierce (with sweat band on head)

family photo after isabelle's first game... hands in the mouth..

try again.. still distracted... nevermind.

we had a wedding at the oread right after the game (thanks mom for staying with iz again on your saturday night) and it was on the 5th floor terrace with a very pretty view of lawrence + the football stadium.

 Joe & Betsy

jacob and sears (scott)

we had such a fun eventful saturday with beautiful weather, you can't beat that!

best tailgate idea!!

with football season and fall starting, we had a tailgate treat day at work and it was the best treat day we have ever had, mainly because we had this... 

so, funny story about this is, i found the most ridiculous picture i could when i googled tailgating to put on our treat day invite (yes, i am part of what we like to call 'the fun committee', so we plan these things) and said, "who is bringing this?", little did i know it would turn into a challenge and really be brought!  a lot of people pitched in and brought an ingredient/component to donate and harrison was the wonderful one to put it together.. took about 2 hrs and includes everything below (just in case you feel ambitious)...

Twinkies (6 boxes in this bad boy)
1 bag Chex Mix
1 bag tortilla chips
1 bag Cheetos
1 bag Doritos
Pretzel Sticks (to hold back the fans)
Nacho Cheese (the tostitos in a jar works well)
Guacamole
Salsa
Sour Cream (for field lines)
Slim Jims (goal posts)
Combos (players)
Cheese cubes (helmets and to support the goal posts)
1 Olive (football)
Disposable aluminum pan (for the field)
Cake board or something like that wrapped for ease of carrying/displaying

Toothpicks (to hold the twinkies together/ and the slim jims)

the man with his masterpiece... thanks harry!

all of the wonderful people i work with.

vanilla, rainbows, hot pink...

..random things from the week... isabelle loves to get into all the fun things on the side of the island (wonderful for us) and i was getting breakfast ready while she was busy with the vanilla.. i know you can't really see her face, but i just thought she looked so cute with how intently she was checking out the vanilla and lucky for me, a little leaked on her + the floor, so i was frantically trying to clean it all up and get out of the house on time... and she just had to smell like vanilla for daycare.

sporting the beads for dinner... this is her, 'hurry up, i'm hungry + arm/hand twist' face.

so i had to post these because it was the third time i saw double rainbows on my way to work in the last month, kind of crazy...  and yes, i did take pictures with my phone out the window every time.

i thought isabelle and i looked cute together with our brights so i wanted to snap a quick pic before our nightly duties and jacob was gone for the night, so i had to set the handy timer (that's why the pic looks so good).  jacob was out of town for 3 days so i kind of felt like a crazy person.. it is so tough to be a single parent, i can't imagine being a full-time one, bless them!

i read this quote on a great blog i follow and it really summed up my week... my thoughts exactly..

{No, there are not enough hours in a day to fit it all in. Our passions, our talents, our friends, our kids, our jobs, our list of to dos. And the answer to "How does she do it?" is probably always going to be "...the best she can." ~kelle hampton} 

well said.

holy friendship bread!

A friend at work brought in some friendship bread and it was so delicious that I had to have the recipe, little did I know, it was quite a process and not just a simple recipe.  If you have made it, you know what I'm talking about, if you haven't, I don't want to ruin it for you because it really is good, it just takes a while + a lot of ingredients.  The white piece of paper is the instructions/recipe, it's pretty long so I didn't type it out, but you can check it out here.  It also tells you how to start one if you don't get a 'starter bag' given to you by a friend... hence the name, friendship bread ;).

*I did use whole wheat flour, raw turbinado sugar (reason for the darker color batter) and soy milk and it worked + turned out great.

It will make 2 loaves but since we love the mini loaves, I did one regular loaf and the rest of the batter as minis (bake for about 20 mins vs. 1 hr for the loaf)... look how pretty and puffed up they are...

It's definitely worth making, so if you ever get offered the starter bag, you should try it!

::delicious no-bake granola bars::

My mom gave me this recipe that she had torn out from somewhere and as much as I always appreciate recipes, they usually just go into my recipe binder and get filed away for a while.. I still had this one on top and happened to have all the ingredients on hand + love homemade granola bars, so I tried them out and they were delicious!  They were very simple to make and didn't take much time (my kind of recipe these days), so that was another bonus... and Jacob liked them a lot too!

2 C flaked cereal (the recipe recos Smart Start, but I just used regular corn flakes)
2 C quick cooking oats (not instant)
1/2 C chocolate covered raisins (I just used regular raisins)
1/2 C coarsely chopped peanuts
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C light corn syrup
1/2 C + 2 T creamy peanut butter
2 T canola oil
1 t vanilla extract

*Lightly butter (or spray with cooking spray) a 9" square pan
*In a large bowl, mix cereal, oats, raisins and peanuts
*In a small saucepan, stir brown sugar and corn syrup over low until mixture starts to boil.  Remove from *Heat. Stir in peanut butter, oil and vanilla.
*Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal; stir until combined.  Spoon into pan.  Press firmly so batter spreads evenly.  Cool; cut into 12 bars.  Bars may be frozen, wrapped well, for up to 3 months.

I didn't get a picture of them after I cut them because a few of them broke and then they didn't stick around too long... will get one when I make them again :).

such a gloomy weekend..

isabelle and i started our saturday with our run to the market, it was super gloomy and rainy, kind of bum saturday... iz was happy though, so that made up for it. 

this is her waving, she kind of just shakes her arm up and down with her hand out..

we still love our feet.. 

all bundled at the market.. 

dad took a nap on the couch with lucy and i couldn't resist this picture of her, her face was so squished and then with her ear sticking out was too funny.. she looks like a grimlin! 

we met some friends at south park in the afternoon for the ms bike race, they had bands playing, restaurants set up and all sorts of the blow up jump houses for the little ones.

lindsay, jamie, marissa

i wish this pic was closer, but it was so cute of iz with gram watching all the kids in the jump house.. is that what those are called? i can't remember and for some reason that sounds weird.

sunday was also rainy and chilly, which was a bummer, but we had lunch with gigi, aunt betsy and joe, so that was a highlight.. iz liked the potatoes from gigi's soup, no surprise there ;).

mama is all over the place and still has her 'peg leg'...

we didn't have a very exciting or eventful weekend, but still sad to say it's over.