I Did Not Want Another Boy

When I found out I was having another baby I was over the moon. Brian and I kept the news to ourselves until the second trimester and then proudly proclaimed that we would be a family of four. At twenty weeks we went in for an ultrasound to check on the health of our baby and were asked if we wanted to know the gender. We found out the gender with our first son and again this time. We were having another boy. We we going to have brothers! 

We went home, told Shane, then told our world. However, I was floored that along with the congratulations I was often asked if I wanted a girl this time. Was I disappointed I was having two boys? Would I miss the braids, the bows, the dresses, and the special bond a mother and daughter have? My answer was always the same. I never wanted a boy. I never wanted a girl. I wanted a baby. I was happy to have a healthy baby who happened to be a boy.

My second born was a missing part of my family. I prayed for him. I welcomed him into my heart and into this world. I have watched him grow, thrive, and change and will always love the sweet, winsome, easy going boy that is my second born. So in answer to the many questions of if I wish Keith had been a girl I can easily answer no. I never wished for anything other than another child. I did not want another boy. I wanted a child and who God made him to be.

I am so blessed to be this Little Man's mama.

One of my families favorite books these days is Brothers Forever.  This book talks about the special relationship that brothers have. It shows these two brothers doing chores, building forts, laughing, and even having a disagreement and making up. My boys love this book and in honor of the special bond of brothers I am giving away a copy of Brothers Forever to one lucky reader. Simply enter the contest below. Winner will be contacted by email next week for a shipping address. Good luck!

Next week you can come back and see what we did for Halloween, get a recipe for a healthy snack my family loves, see our fall decorations transition to Thanksgiving, and link up with me again on Thankful Thursday. I hope to have you back next week.

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Thankful Thursdays: The Brothers

Welcome to Thankful Thursdays!

I wanted to start a blog to write down memories of the fun activities I did with my boys, keep track of our favorite recipes, and share a few thoughts on motherhood among other things. My absolute favorite idea was to set aside one day to give thanks. I am smack dab in the middle of the happiest season of my life and I want to be reminded of all that I have been blessed with. So often we are reminded to be thankful when life is not going as planned, we have a bad day, or need a pick me up.  I hope you join me each week to share what you are thankful for no matter life circumstances. So share a comment or link up with The Brothers Mama and share what you are thankful for each Thursday. 

This week I am thankful for The Brothers I am blessed to call my sons. I prayed for this sweet duo and The Lord has blessed me. They are a handful of energy, they make me laugh, they give me the sweetest hugs, and eat up the attention I happily dote upon them. I love these two dearly and cherish my role as their mom.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Fall Decorations

Fall!

It's my favorite season for so many reasons. I get giddy seeing the leaves change color and hearing them crunch under foot. Pumpkin and apple anything makes my mouth water. I never feel more comfortable than in my skinny jeans, boots, and a warm top with a scarf tossed over. I love the cool weather, the promise of Christmas, the harvest activities, and  the decorations. Sigh. It almost makes my heart skip a beat when I think of this time of year.

As a former teacher I am all about planning and organizing to stay on top of my to do lists. At the end of summer its time to get our home decorated for fall. If I had it my way I would have decorations up at the first sign of fall which in Washington can start a bit early depending on the weather. My husband has a firm rule that I can' t decorate until September 1st so each year the boxes are out on August 31st ready to go. 

As a perfectionist I like my home, neat, clean, and looking like a Pottery Barn windows display. I used to have tables decorated with vases filled with pine cones and acorns, ceramic pumpkins, and dishes filled with candy corn. After I had The Brothers I had to let go of some of the neat and tidy to make room for fun a memories. It took Shane knocking down a huge vase and having it shatter around him for me to realize my need for this change. Total mom fail. Now my decorations are kid safe and not breakable. These days I traded glass fall decor for scarecrow dolls, some fun bell spiders, and pumpkins that the boys can touch and interact with. I still keep some of the old decorations out of little hands reach but I want my kids to have snowmen to hug at Christmas, advent calendars they can play with, little turkey pillows to lay on, and fall leaves to feel between their fingers. So with that said here is how I now decorate for fall with The Brothers in my life. Here is how I make our once neat house a kid friendly, happy, festive home. Come on in!

I like to decorate for fall as opposed for Halloween and Thanksgiving then I add in a few spiders and bats through Halloween and in November swap them out for a few turkeys. It makes my decorations last all season with little effort to transition from each holiday. It's also important to me to have decorations my kids can touch and interact with so they make memories and experience the holidays in our home. I have changed a lot of how I decorate after having kids. It's not quite like a Pottery Barn catalog but it is defiantly a kid friendly zone. So today I am showing you how I start off each year with my fall decorations.

Above my kitchen sink I changed a little display for fall. The square vase I had on hand and filled with extra leaves left over from my table centerpiece. The small box is one Brian made in wood work class in 8th grade and I think its just perfect. It is simple and adds a layer of height to this area and the natural wood color is beautiful. The signs I purchased at The Weed Patch in Bothell Country Village and I added a black bow to one just to make it a bit more Halloween themed. 

Above my kitchen cabinets and strung from my mantel are these great paper bunting banners. I made these last year and have a LOT of them in my home for various holidays and occasions. Shane loves flags so they are extra special and exciting for him. He even has them in his room now because he loves them so much. They add a inexpensive pop of color and are so easy to make. 

On my kitchen window S decorated pumpkins when we made our Halintines and we put them up. Prior to kids I would have cringed at this idea but Shane enjoyed decorating and seeing his art work up and you know what, so do I! I love seeing the boys play with these and that they can be on the window for some fall cheer. 

My table always has these big pumpkins on them scattered with Pottery Barn leaves that I have had for years. The center pumpkin is also Pottery Barn and the two smaller ones on the end I purchased at a small craft store a few years back. If you look close you will see my spiders crawling all over the pumpkins to throw a bit of Halloween in for the first half of fall decorating.  

I found these little spider on clearance one year from The Weed Patch in Bothell Country Village. I love them. They have a bit of glitter for fun, jingle when you shake them because they are made out of bells, and they are sturdy enough so my kids can touch and play with them. Shane thinks the are hands down the best part of our Halloween decorations.

I always purchase a few little pumpkins and add them to tables, the piano, and counter tops.

Right by the inside of the front door I switch out a welcome sign for each season. This one was a gift from years ago and I still use it each fall.

Outside I hang a wreath that has twigs, leaves, and acorns. Some years I hang spider webs but this year and last I have gone for more of a natural theme and cleaner look.

Shane picked out pumpkins for us all when we took the boys to the pumpkin patch the first weekend in October. I usually pot a mum or some kind of orange, red, or yellow flower in my pot that will stay until winter time.

There you have it! Some years I add more but this year with a two year old and a 9 month old it's as much as I could set up for while still keeping it baby proof. Decorations have simplified a lot around the The Brothers house because those boys can break more items and everything goes in the mouth...or an ear...or the nose. This is my happy balance as a mom to two little ones. I keep a bit of fun in while still letting them have their adventures around the house. I hope you enjoyed my little tour. How do you decorate with little ones around? Do you stick with a fall theme or go all out for Halloween?  I always like to hear what others have done!

Halintines

I love fall and I love family traditions. Before I had Shane I sat down and wrote down a lists of family traditions that I wanted to start with my kids or keep from Brian's and my family traditions list. I will add a post of that list in the coming weeks but today I wanted to share one of my very favorite ones for fall. Each year we make Halintines which are like fall themed Valentine's Day cards. We mail them to family, pass them out to friends and deliver them in person to our neighbors. The extra fun memory is that we send one to work with Brian on Halloween in his lunch box. I think on a night that is not as much fun to work for a police officer its nice to have a little fun card from your family. After he gets home from work we add the card to our piano display and can look back for years to come on the fun memories of our kids spreading some fall cheer.

So this year we made cute ghost cards. They took about an hour start to finish but they had to dry for about 35 minutes so only about 25 minutes of actual crafting time. To get started you need a paint brush or sponge to apply the paint, wet wipe or a damp towel for cleanup, white or tan non toxic paint, card stock paper in fall colors, googly eyes, scissors, and glue. I also used some cute letter stamps with a gold ink pad for the wording but a pen would work as well. 

To get started I cut the card stock into 4x10 inch strips and folded in half. Shane worked on coloring some pumpkins while I was cutting, I like to keep him busy with another activity if I am doing anything with hot glue, scissors, or  permanent markers. Keith was hanging in his high chair with some kitchen spoons which are awesome to a 9 month old.

Next I laid the card so the crease was on the right and the left side would open which is backwards for a card. I wanted to stamp their hands so they were upside down thus the card orientation is flipped during this part. I painted a thin layer of paint on their hand, stamped their hand on the card anywhere, and then used a wet wipe to clean their hand off.

I set the cards on the counter to dry while we worked on more pumpkins and made some Halloween hats for fun.

After the cards were dry Shane and I used our alphabet stamps to stamp "BOO" on top of each card.

                                           

Shane picked out googly eyes for the ghosts. I dabbed the glue and Shane placed the eyes where he thought they looked best. These cards are so forgiving because they look better with the hands not perfect, the googly eyes slightly askew and mismatched, and the writing a bit off center. Perfect for kids!

After we were done I wrote on the inside of each card "Boo-hoo-hoo. We miss you!" and let the boys add stamps and doodles to personalize them. 

So that is this years Halintines! I really liked how they turned out. Brian's card I added both boys hand prints to and the rest were a singular ghost that Shane addressed with a little help from his mama. I love this tradition with my kids and adore how each year I can add one more to our collection. 

What traditions do you do with your kids this time of year? I would love to hear new ideas to add to my ever growling list of memory making tools.

Happy Halloween! Boo!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins and a Giveaway!

My family has recently made a commitment to cut out processed foods from our diet meaning no white flour, refined sugar, or artificial ingredients. Just real and whole foods. Surprisingly it was a very easy change for us once we found the right recipes and made time to cook most of our food. We don't stick to this pledge when we are invited over to peoples home for dinner or attend a wedding with a sit down meal but we do eat this way at home and do our best to make healthy choices at restaurants when possible. It was such a good choice for my family.

Here is why we made the change. My husband Brian struggles with sleep and my oldest son Shane has a load of energy, food allergies, and was prone to ear infections. I began researching how food impacts overall health and specifically how it is tied to sleep and energy levels in children.  I had always fed my family as much organic food as possible and offered fresh fruits and vegetables but then I started to find research shedding light on how some of my healthy choices could be healthier and how those healthier choices could aid in sleep and increase focus. I came across a food blog called 100 Days of Real Food that changed how my family ate. We took the challenge of cutting out processed food from our diet and the results have been wonderful. Does my Brian still have sleep problem, you bet. Does Shane still have an off day where he struggles to listen, absolutely. What I can say is we feel better, sleep has improved, and our focus is better. Its not a cure but its a lifestyle choice we made that has positively impacted our well being.

So today I am sharing a very simple and kid friendly pumpkin muffin recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food blog and giving away one of her new cook books titled 100 Days of Real Food. This cook book is amazing!  My favorites our these muffins, lettuce wraps, fish cakes, cinnamon raisin quick bread, and homemade tortillas with re-fried beans. My entire family enjoys the food made from this cookbook and I hope yours does too!  I really like the the lunch section pictured below to give me ideas of well balanced and healthy lunch ideas. Before I get started I want to point out that I was not contacted, paid, or asked to write this review. It's just a honest testament of how much I like this cookbook and I am personally giving one away to a lucky reader so make sure you enter the contest at the end of this post. Happy cooking!

Here is the cookbook. I wanted to show a peek inside because the pictures are great. The lunch section in particular is helpful for me. This section gives not only a recipe but shows a picture of a complete lunch which I found helpful. Below is the recipe for the Pumpkin Muffins and you are showed a food pairing of soup and a side dish. I found the visual examples very helpful.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole spelt flour (you can also use whole wheat but spelt is more cake like)
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp.baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup which my family prefers)
1/3 cup melted butter (or coconut oil)
1 cup pumpkin puree

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin pan (I like to use coconut oil) and set aside.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl combine wet ingredients until well combined.
3. Slowly fold the dry ingredients into the wet dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix.
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan so it is evenly distributed. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

I store these at room temperature for 3-4 days in an air tight container or I freeze them in wide mouth mason jars when we need a quick snack. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. Check out 100 Days of Real Food Blog and share your favorite recipe in the comment section for a chance to win Lisa's new cook book.

Come back tomorrow to check out how I decorate my home for fall now that the brother have joined our family. Things have defiantly changed and I think for the better!



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The Brother's Mama

Next week launches The Brother's Mama! Come back for a couple giveaways, some fall fun, and a chance to share what you are thankful for each week on Thankful Thursdays. I will be writing about faith, family, activities and crafts, topics on motherhood, and sharing recipes. Hope to see you Monday morning!

With Joy,

Heather