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.

phone pics from the week..

one of isabelle's new loves... the graham cracker.

this is iz being so excited to see the dogs.. i just love it.

she loves to open and close the drawers... this side profile of iz looks just like me when i was little, it's kind of crazy.

i love how she sits up so straight and perfect.. thought this was too cute.

after her morning bottle.. she loves to hold her toothpaste!

sitting up perfect again :)

the graham.. 

she would prefer to hold it herself and take bites, but i have to regulate her every bite because she likes to take big ones.. and often, so her mouth gets so full.. danger, i know.

nice weekend with the fam...

Isabelle still loves her door jumper... it's kind of funny.

I just had to share this pic because Iz and I ran to the Farmer's Market and we were buying some cookies from this guy and he kept going on about how cute my little 'fella' was and that 'he' looked so happy, it was everything for me not to correct him, but I just didn't want to embarrass him or have that awkward, 'oh I'm so sorry', 'it's okay', conversation, I wasn't worried about it and I did have her looking pretty gender neutral that morning, my fault.

These pics just made me laugh, they are both like 'the thinker' statue.

Ohhh... the puff...

I just love this little grin of hers, going in for the puff..

We had lunch with Papa and Isabelle just wanted everything on the table (shocker, I know), dad did a good job of entertaining and dodging her far reaching arms.

Little did we know, it was band day, so we got stuck on Mass. for awhile until all the bands were done.. somehow Iz fell asleep/crashed in the midst of drums, horns and symbols playing.

We had a wedding Saturday night in Maple Hill (right outside of Topeka) so my mom was kind enough to stay the night again and watch Izzy girl.  I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics from the wedding and it was at a really neat place, pretty much in the middle of nowhere... I will post some once I get them from Kel ;).  We had a great time!

I just love this pic of gram and Iz smiling at each other..

We got to have brunch with Papa..

We went to Target to get a few things and Iz wanted to hold mom's granola bars.. the face of determination..

And, we got some towels (Target has great affordable towels by the way) and dad thought the perfect spot for 6 of them was right on top of mama.. she is peaking out, hello up there...

'The thinker' again...

Isabelle is such a great trooper, she is our little bud and there is nothing I love more than our weekends with our mama.