Tuesday, March 13, 2012

SHE'S HERE!


The first of our two beautiful nieces is HERE!

Charlotte Genevieve Martir was born on Thursday, March 8th at 8:31 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz., and has a full head of hair!

My sister was a trooper and delivered Charlotte a natural! Mom, Baby and Dad are doing great. They've had some time to bond at home as a family before my parents (now Grandparents) arrive tomorrow in San Diego to give mom and dad some much needed relief! We've been able to video chat with them and the Martir family is adjusting to having a little one at home quite nicely. Look at that mama- isn't she glowing?


Charlotte, we are so glad that you are finally here! We have been patiently waiting your arrival and cannot wait to meet you in May! We wish that we had a private jet and could just fly on out to meet you, but it will be even more special to meet you in Denver after your first plane ride. Until then, we can't wait to see more and more pictures of you and how you grow- you're already the cutest baby in the world! Love you lots Charlotte- Auntie Ams & Uncle Ryan

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Crafting Craze

Sometimes Ryan travels for work, and when he travels I usually hang out at home with Lola and we do "girly" stuff. Sometimes we watch marathons of Toddlers & Tiaras, and gawk at those crazy moms, and sometimes I do a little craft or decorating project to keep me busy.

But the last time Ryan was out of town, I went on a complete crafting craze. I remember thinking to myself on Sunday afternoon after he left that I should head to Michael's and get a few things to make a springy wreath. Well....springy wreath turned into blue vase, which turned into yarn balls, which turned into styling the mantle in our fireplace room and then finally sewing some decoration onto some pillows. I'm ridiculous, I do realize this. But once she gets goin' you better watch out! :)

Here's the real project I started with- a springy wreath. It was super easy. I took a foam core wreath, some robin's egg blue ribbon, and made these little cloth button flowers and voila! In less than 20 minutes I had me a wreath! It hangs on the door to our house. (there's more to come on the cloth flowers, but I have a gift that hasn't been sent yet and don't want to spoil the surprise)


After the wreath, I was trolling around the house trying to find something else to do. I completely overestimated the time it would take to make the wreath, so I was bored. I get bored easily. So I found my plethora of vases in the upstairs guest room and decided one of them needed to be blue. why not? I found some blue craft paint that I had from a previous project and just squirted some inside the vase.


After taking a foam brush to the insides of the vase, it turned out like this.

Now...it's definitely not perfect and I'll never put water and actual flowers in it, but it turned out exactly how I had imagined. And it now resides on our mantle.

While at Michael's, I had picked up some yarn to make yarn balls for spring. And since my last two projects took less than 40 minutes to complete, I figured I could whip up some yarn balls too. Wow- I never thought I'd hear that sentence come out of my mouth. haha. This project definitely took some time and a few trials to get it exactly right.

I picked some spring colors that would also transition nicely into summer. And since Ryan had purchased an exercise ball not too long ago, we had the perfect mini pump to blow up some balloons.

I grabbed a cookie sheet and covered it with some wax paper because this was going to be a messy project. And then I pumped up the balloons. Instead of using regular 5" balloons, I would suggest water balloons that are a little more elastic and end up in a more rounded shape...my yarn balls were a bit oval. But I guess they kind of looked like Easter eggs in the end :) After dipping a length of yarn in a water/glue mixture, I wrapped it around the balloon every which way. And in the end, I was left with this:


I let the glue dry over night and popped the balloons the next morning. They turned out pretty cute, and they now reside on the mantle with the blue vase. After adding a few other blue/green/yellow accents, my mantle was complete.

Now, sadly I didn't get an image of the pillows that I sewed some ribbon onto, hopefully that will be on the next post :)

Friday, March 9, 2012

Low Fat Peanut Butter Banana Muffins


Since Ryan has done such a great job lately of losing weight, I thought we'd celebrate one weekend by making some muffins! :) hehehe.

OK- small disclaimer here, they are somewhat healthy. I got the recipe from this site. And they were mmm mmm delicious!

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
  • 3 ripe medium bananas
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour and they turned out great)
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 10 tbsp Better'n peanut butter (divided into 8 tablespoons and 2 tablespoons)- I used organic peanut butter
Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°. Line a muffin tin with 12 liners.
Mash bananas in a bowl, set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce, vanilla, and 8 tablespoons better'n peanut butter, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.
Add flour mixture, then blend at low speed until combined. Do not over mix.
Pour batter into muffin tin halfway, then add 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining peanut butter into each muffin well. Top off each muffin with remaining batter, and bake on the center rack for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I added walnuts to the tops of my muffins with about 3-4 minutes left to bake and they turned out scrumptious!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Messy Eater

We switched Lola's dog food to the Adult variety now that she is over 1 year old, and I think its safe to say she likes it.


She was chowing down one night so fast that I had to grab my camera and capture the action. Apparently I interrupted her...she stared at me like that for a good 2 minutes, before I put the camera down. After I walked away, she finished her food. I think she realized the "momarazzi" was watching.

Monday, March 5, 2012

High School Hockey

Living in Minnesota, I've learned that hockey is a beloved sport. Every so often, I'd catch a glimpse of a hockey game on TV or hear about one while Ryan was watching ESPN, but I never really watched one until my first Minnesota Wild game. When we heard that Ryan's cousin, Josh, was on the high school hockey team in Fairmont, Minnesota- we told them to let us know when they were headed our way!

Well, just last week Josh's team came to Le Seur, which is only 45 minutes from our house- so we went and cheered on the Fairmont Cardinals.

Sadly, they didn't win, but it was fun to see high school kids play the sport. Whenever I watch pro or college I can never follow the puck ...they are too fast for me. But I was able to keep up with the high schoolers :)

Here's Josh, #18, waiting for his turn to sub in.


As much as I enjoy watching hockey, I think I would be nervous for my sons to play. Let's just hope Ryan and I have all girls someday :)

Saturday, March 3, 2012

My, How she's grown!

Our Little Lola Bear is not so little anymore. Tipping the scales at just over 60 pounds, Lola is now truly "full size."

She used to be so little, she fit in Ryan's arms. - this is the day we got her, she was just a little over 10 weeks old.


Now, that pose is much harder to get. At 1 year and 1 month, Lola is quite the pup.

I also want to point out here how much Ryan has changed. From that picture above to the picture below, Ryan has lost almost 60lbs. I am so proud of him and his weight loss goal- he has been so healthy throughout this process, exercising and eating right. Way to go Ryan! I think all the weight Lola gained is probably the same amount you lost! :)

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Sara's Shower


As many of you know, my sister and sister-in-law are both expecting little girls this spring. My sister is literally due any day now, and my sister-in-law, Sara, is due April 14th.

And because Baby Showers seem to be the place to be, I couldn't miss out on celebrating Baby Girl Rubin.

It was great to visit with family and family friends, here's Sara with Grandma and Aunt Lori.

And a photo with grandma-to-be, Denise, and the hostess, Vicki. Vicki's a character and couldn't quite sit still for this photo op. They had to re-take that photo at least 4 times :)


The shower was so much fun! Vicki read a bible verse and prayer before we started off. Sara opened gifts and told stories, and we played some fun games too.

And Sara really cleaned up after all was said and done!

We are pumped to meet Baby Girl Rubin! Come on nieces, we're excited to meet you!