Our Photoshoot Around Town

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This Jar is Making Me Fat!

Last weekend I found this jar at a garage sale for a quarter.  I thought it was cute, and I can't help but keep filling it up with really good, sweet things.  Here's the recipe to the spiced muffins they serve at Mimi's Cafe.  Red Shoes and I made them this week, they were awesome!

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 t. baking soda
1 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cinnamon
3/4 cups + 1 T. buttermilk (we used yogurt instead)

Nut Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and the butter together with an electric mixer.  When they are thoroughly mixed, add eggs and beat one more minute

Sift the flour into a different bowl, together with the baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon

Add the flour and buttermilk to the first mixture, mix at low speed until smooth.  To avoid lumps in the batter, add the wet and dry ingredients alternately, in small amounts.

Make the nut topping; Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Grease muffin tins or line with paper.  Fill each cup 3/4 full of batter  Add a full, rounded tablespoon of nut topping on top of each muffin cup of batter.  Bake immediately or the topping will sink to the bottom of the muffin.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. 

Recipe makes 12 standard size muffins. 

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Spring in Pictures

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They Grow Up So Fast!

Seems like just yesterday I was snuggling my new baby girl...

Soon she was a chunky little baby who was learning to sit up in her crib.  

So busy jabbering that she just fell asleep that way.

Almost two years and a head of hair later...she still keeps her blankie close.
 Yet, she's becoming so independent, and growing up so quickly!
  I feel like if I blink it will be time to pick out her prom dress. 
I love you Happy Feet!

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Bird Nests

1 stick of margarine

1 cup white sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

Mix ingredients together and boil for 5 minutes.  Stir frequently.

1 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 oz. chowmein noodles

After first four ingredients have boiled for 5 minutes remove from heat and add chocolate chips, vanilla and salt.  Stir in chowmein noodles.  Form into bird nests.  After nests have cooled fill them with Peeps and jelly beans. 

Enjoy!

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Red Shoes' Sleep Study

Last night we had to go to our local Children's Hospital for Red Shoes to have a sleep study done.  He struggles a lot with his speech and we found out some months ago that his palate moves very little.  He loses a lot of air through his nose.  The surgeon feels that he would benefit from Pharyngeal Flap Surgery.  I'll write another post on that another time. 

Anyway, we needed to get this done to make sure that Red Shoes doesn't have any kind of underlying potential problem such as Sleep Apneia.  The flap along with Sleep Apneia could be a deadly combination. 

We checked into the hospital around 7 and for an hour to an hour and a half they wired him up.  He was a really good sport as always.  A Child Life Specialist came up to play with him and help keep his mind off of what was going on.  He really enjoyed that.  After all the wiring was completed here's what he looked like:

Can you imagine getting a good nights sleep with all of this garb on?  I can't.  I slept horribly and I wasn't wired to the max.  He did pretty good.  He went to sleep within 10 minutes.  He was beat!  I didn't have a clock nearby, so it seemed like the night took 20 hours!  He fell out of bed once and tried to come over to my bed once. Other than that the biggest deal was just wires getting loose.  And it seemed like they got loose a lot!  Everytime the nurse (who was awesome by the way) would have to come in and get him re-wired.  Pretty sure we saw her at least 12 times during the night.  I'm not exaggerating.

Finally the morning came!  I've never been so happy to start my day other than the time Red Shoes got his tonsils out.  It was traumatic for him when the nurse had to get all of the "stickers" off.  There were so many and they stuck so bad.  His skin is really irritated and sticky even after a bath and lots of olive oil. 

The worst part of the entire thing?  I had to take him to the lab so that they could draw his blood. I always hate that!  I'm not a wimp when it comes to these things.  But I always HATE seeing my Red Shoes poked.

The reason for the blood draw? They said because he moved around so much durint the night they wanted to make sure that his iron levels were okay.  Glad they're checking, but I can assure you that my blood would be checked as well! 

Finally, after all of that we got to go get some "num num" as Red Shoes calls it. We ordered lots!

Doesn't he look exhausted?  He was!

We came home and have taken it easy the entire day.  I made him lay down...he didn't want to.  He didn't get a choice today.  He played for a little bit then went to sleep.  He woke up a few hours later.  He checked to see what I was doing and then went back into his room.  This is how I found him:

We are so glad the sleep study is over.  Here's to a new tomorrow!

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