Week 15

Jonathan (left)- 15.9 pounds
David (right)- 12.8 pounds

I feel like we finally have our boys back to normal.  Hopefully we won't get any more colds this season.  The big news for the week is David slept through the night 5 of the past 7 nights!!!  We are almost there.  And a couple of the days they slept till 8 which was wonderful!  But the other days it's been between 7:15 and 7:30, so also wonderful.  And then they're usually awake about 2 hours and then they go down for a 2-2 1/2 hour nap, giving Micah and Mommy lots of one-on-one time.  They are very smiley and happy boys and even starting to laugh which is the sweetest sound.  David still at times thinks he needs to be held all the time after being held a lot while sick.  And unfortunately in a house with 3 children, it's just not possible to be held all the time. :)  I've noticed in the last couple of days that David really watches Micah when he's playing around him.  And Micah has grown to absolutely love his brothers.  It is so fun to watch him take care of them and play with them.  He loves it when I have them in their Bumbos; he'll just sit in front of them and shakes a rattle at them or gives them a toy.  And just this afternoon he decided first he wanted to hold them and then when he was done with that he decided he wanted to read to them.  So there he sat on the recliner with Jonathan reading him "Are You My Mother."  It was adorable.  At the parts where the bird asks the dog, cow, etc. if they are his mother, this is what Micah would say: "Woof, woof... no...Moo, moo...no...Cluck, cluck...no."  So cute!  I wished I could have gotten a picture of it but my camera was in the other room and I was too nervous to leave him alone with Jonathan on the recliner. :)  I'm thinking he'll want to do it again so hopefully next time my camera is close by.  Both boys are continuing to grow although Jonathan continues to grow at a greater rate at times.  I'll be curious what percentile they're both in at their 4 month appointment in a couple of weeks.  Jonathan is a pound heavier than Micah was at his 4 month appointment and he still has 3 weeks to go!  We shall see.  So lots of fun going on over here with all my boys!!!  

Fun Food Friday- Little Cheddar Meat Loaves

First off, let me apologize in advance, no adorable assistant today. :) 

These are one of my husband's favorite meal.  I got the recipe from his mom who I believe got it at an Apples of Gold meeting which is a young woman/wise woman :) mentoring program at her church.  They are very simple to make but oh so yummy, my favorite kind of meal!  I made a double batch and froze half, so if you only want to make one batch (eight mini loaves) just half the ingrediants.  However, when I freeze them, I don't put the sauce on top, I just do that right before I bake them, so the ingrediants for the sauce are for one batch.  How's that for confusing. :)  Enjoy!

Ingrediants: Meat Loaves- Ground Beef, Eggs, Milk, Oats, Minced Onion, Salt, Cheddar Cheese,

Sauce- Ketchup, Mustard, Brown Sugar

In a bowl, add 2 eggs and 1 1/2 cup of milk

Beat together

Add 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese...

1 cup quick cooking oats...

1/4 cup minced onions...

and 2 teaspoons salt

Mix together

Add 2 pounds of ground beef

Mix together

Eventually it's just easier to use your hands. 

I hate the feel of ground beef, plus it's really cold, so I always use gloves. :)

Divide the meat in half and the half and then half... so it's easy to get even loaves

Form into mini loaves

Place in greased baking dish

For the sauce (remember, this is just for one batch): combine 2/3 cup ketchup

1 1/2 teaspoons mustard

(I like to use Dijon mustard, it gives it a little kick :))

and 1/2 cup brown sugar

Stir together till well blended

(measuring spoons make great mixing spoons :))

Pour evenly over leaves

Spread sauce around to fully cover the loaves

Unbaked it should look like this

Baked it should look like this. 

(Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes)

Pair it with the Pioneer Woman's Au Gratin potatoes and you have yourself a fabulous meal!

Since no blog of mine is complete with at least one picture of one of my boys... :)  My dinner buddy.

(For those of you trying to figure it out, this is Jonathan :))

 

Little Cheddar Meat Loaves

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup chopped onions

1 tsp salt

1 lb ground beef

 

Topping:

2/3 cup ketchup

1/2 cup packed brown sugar*

1 1/2 tsp mustard

 

In a bowl, beat the egg and milk. Stir in cheese, oats, onion and salt. Add beef and mix well. Shape into 8 loaves, place in greased 9x13 baking dish. Combine topping ingredients, spoon over loaves. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

 

For healthier version substitute 1 TBS honey for brown sugar

 

Week 14

(Look at those rolls :))

Jonathan (left)- 15.2 pounds
David (right)- 12.6 pounds
In last week's update I mentioned that it seemed Jonathan had avoided the nasty cold his brothers had.  Yeah, spoke too soon.  Last Wednesday and Thursday he had a fever, then again on Saturday morning and he was all stuffed up.  So this past week we spent caring for sick boys.  Today they both really do seem a lot better.  And all this past week David decided he needed to get up at 4:30 and eat.  I didn't have the heart to wake up sick Jonathan, and in doing so we discovered Jonathan can sleep through the night, some nights sleeping 10+ hours!  And then last night both boys slept through the night, Jonathan waking up at 7:20 and then I woke David up at 7:45!  It was awesome!  I love uninterrupted sleep! :)  So we'll see if this becomes a pattern or if it was just a one time thing.  Otherwise not much to update on.  They are continuing to smile a lot and talk a lot.  They don't talk to each other, I'm looking forward to the day that happens.  I did just get a Bumbo and then borrowed another one from my sister-in-law, so I like to sit them in those and then have them face each other.  They are getting close to needing their own crib (one of these days I need to remember to take a picture of them together in the crib, it's so cute :)).  If they start consistently sleeping through the night we can start trying to get Micah to sleep in a big bed and move his crib into the nursery (right now where the other crib needs to go is where I sit to feed the boys in the middle of the night).  I think Micah will do okay, we got him Cars sheets for Christmas for his big bed, so that should help.  Maybe once we're all done with being sick we'll try that one. :)  So here's hoping for a nice healthy week!

Daddy's Little Helper

Micah is not only a great helper in the kitchen, we discovered yesterday he is an excellent snow shoveler.  Well, excellent might not be the right word, willing is more like it.  :)  Of course, we didn't have a shovel his size, so he got to use a gardening shovel, but he didn't mind.  Unfortunately we've had about 4 more inches of snow since they shoveled, so it was for naught, but he sure did have fun doing it.

Totally unrelated to shoveling snow, I just got Boppies for the boys so now they all have their own seats (Micah got that red chair for Christmas from Steve's parents).  This picture helps me understand why I'm tired all the time, I have 3 little boys!!! :) But they're such cute little boys it's worth all the energy!

Fun Food Friday!- Taco Pie

I went to college in Northwest Iowa and one of my favorite places to go out to eat was Pizza Ranch.  My friends and I would go and get their buffet and absolutely stuff ourselves because we wanted to get our money's worth and then some. :)  My favorite pizza from there was a Taco Pizza.  This recipe reminds me a lot of Taco Pizza.  I got it out of our local Christian School's recipe book and it is delicious and super easy to make (so easy a 2 year old can help :)).  So here you go:

Today I had the cutest baking assistant around. :)  He loves putting on his Cars apron my mom made him and helping Mommy in the Kitchen.

The Ingredients: Ground Beef, Taco Seasoning, Green Pepper, Shredded Cheese (I used Colby Jack), Sour Cream, Tortilla Chips, Crescent Rolls

Start off by browning a pound of ground beef with some diced green peppers.  I also added some minced onions.  I would have added some diced onions which I think would taste so good, but my husband is not a fan of onions, so minced onions is our compromise. :)

Drain the beef.

Return the beef to the pan and add 1/2 cup of water.

Add 1/4 cup Taco Seasoning (which is how much is in a package of taco seasoning).

Mix it all together and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Separate the crescent triangles and arrange in a pie pan.

Two year olds are great at patting down the crescent rolls.

Form a crust.

Pour the meat mixture over the crust

Top with 1 cup of crushed tortilla chips (actually, the tortilla chips are supposed to go under the meat mixture, but Steve came home right at this moment and I poured the meat over the crust before remembering I was supposed to put the chips in first.  So... we put them on top of the meat and honestly, it tasted the same. :))

Spread 1 cup of sour cream over chips (or the meat if you put them in the correct order).  As you can see, fingers work fine for spreading.

And if you want, Micah thinks this is a great place to test how it's tasting.

Add some shredded cheese over the sour cream.

If you're feeling up to it, grab some of that cheese...

And put it in your mouth. :)

And top with some more crushed chips.

It's even more yummy to snoop when you have the chips on top.

I went to turn the oven on and turned back around and he was still snooping. :)  He must have decided that we had put more cheese and chips on than we needed.

While its baking at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes (until the cheese is melted and the crust is brown), chop up some lettuce and tomato and whatever else you want to put on top.

Taco Pie topped with lettuce, tomato and taco sauce, just like Taco Pizza from Pizza Ranch!

Food tastes so good when you had a hand in making it. :)