Four

My baby is four.  Officially out of the toddler years and on to the age of big boy things, like soccer, walking over to the neighbors house without mom (but with big sister), cracking eggs, rockin' preschool and loading up his library borrowed learning pack to go on 'adventures'.

And he's lovin' it.

Off to our family tradition of breakfast with dad.

 Noble was kind of all over the place when it came to deciding what he wanted for a birthday cake.

I think all he really cared about was whether there was frosting and cake involved.

Finally he settled on killer whales, but parrots were a close second.

I love how he jumped up after every gift to dole out the love.

He gives out the best hugs.

The kid looks like he's accepting an assignment overseas.

I guess you gotta take this blowing out the candles business seriously.

I am a big fan of store bought cakes.

Happened upon this blue baby at the Edmond Homeland.  And the lady heading up the bakery department was kind enough to whip out her icing bag and add some waves and the script.

Put the pre-purchased killer whale on top.  Boom.  Done.

And after hand cutting out 36 killer whales for his preschool party, a cute home made cake was not going to happen.

Let's face it, an ugly one wasn't happening either.

I'm an even bigger fan of home made cakes not made by me.

Behold Honey's butter batter cake. Delicious.

Noble was in agreement as he put down his fork and used both hands to get it into his mouth.

He was a fan.

And here he is sporting what this birthday was really all about.

And he hasn't taken it off since.  Literally.

It goes on in the morning and the shoes, mind you, just the shoes, come off at bedtime.

This boy is excited about some soccer.

I felt that it was wrong not to share

And I will never be able to go back to regular oatmeal again. Ever.

I'm not really sure what to call this, I guess the best name for it would be:

'Peanut Butter Pecan Maple Syrup Cinnamon Oatmeal that you will wake up on time (or even a little bit early) to make'.

Just a  side note to explain why I even stumbled upon this little piece of breakfast heaven.

James and I have been trying to wean processed foods and animal proteins out of our diet.

Well, except eggs and dairy; we haven't got there yet.

And we both love meat. And will probably (or certainly) continue to eat it, on occasion.

At least for now, (and probably forever).

Anyway, we just felt like we need to take better stock of what we put into our (and our children's) bodies.

And after watching one too many food documentaries, and jumping on the juicing bandwagon, we decided to make some (very small) steps in the eating 'plant based, whole foods' direction.

So there it is.

I'm officially making myself more accountable.;)

Anyway, back to the yummy food.  

After about a week and a half of eating a lot of raw veggies, I got a little (or a lot) desperate to eat something that wasn't cold, raw, and in the form of a salad.

So I got online, and got some ideas.

And I also later realized that this was body's desperate attempt to get some form of sugar, which, I'm apparently addicted to.

And it did.

It's very clever, that serotonin makin' brain of mine (it wants sugar and it wants it bad).

So here is the recipe and some pictures that don't do it justice. 

1-2 bananas

1/2 TBS butter (or dairy free butter)

2TBS peanut butter

1 cup rolled oats

1-2 tsp chia seeds 

(and if you're like me and have no clue what chia seeds are they are this teeny tiny little seed, that absorbs 10x their weight in water.  Apparently they are the best form of omega 3 around, help control blood sugar, lower blood pressure, and they do a lot of other wonderful things that I don't really know about.)

1tsp cinnamon

2 cups milk (or almond milk)
1tsp vanilla

Topping:

1-2 TBS peanut butter

Pecans

cinnamon 

Milk

 (or almond milk, or I've also used coconut milk)

Maple syrup 

(1-2TBS, or you could go a little crazy and add a couple more)

It's super simple, first, dice up your banana and put into medium pot on medium heat along with the butter.  Cook for 3-5 min.

Then add the peanut butter, oats, chia seeds, cinnamon and milk.

Continue cooking and stirring for about 5-7 minutes.
Add the vanilla,

then dish out, add the toppings and relish making something that is not only 'whole' and healthy, but also  extremely yummy!
(This recipe serves 2 heaping bowls of oatmeal).

The original recipe is from here.  And a word of warning: this blog will make you incredibly hungry; I would advise not making a grocery list for the week on an empty stomach while perusing through all the amazing pictures of food she has. 

You will come out of Whole Foods a lot poorer.;)

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

(I also think my husband's love for me grew a smidge the morning I made it).;)

Snow Days have their benefits

One of which is catching up on the ol' blog.

I guess I will start here.

Ahhhh, Colorado.  

It reminds me of when I was training, in decent physical shape, and had an extended weekend away with my hubby and good friends.

All good reminders in the middle of winter, when all I want to do is take a hot bath, curl up under a warm blanket and consume homemade cinnamon rolls in very large quantities.

I can still feel the inner-peace that was radiating from us in this photograph.

Still can't tell you what's happening here.

I love eating pictures. 

So humbling.

Gorgeous.

My dream backyard contains something similar to this.

Race day

Running around my backyard as a kid, jumping hurdles with my chocolate lab, Buddy, finally seems to have been useful for something.

I love the ferocity; there's no holding him back.

We made it!

And we're smiling.

Which is amazing considering I couldn't breathe at all up there.

Come to find out, it's probably a good idea to train for high altitudes.

I've filed that one away.....for next time.

And after swimming through really cold mud, we cleaned up and enjoyed the sights.

James will never live down finding the only gentleman that had never used a camera phone.

He seriously hadn't.

Makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Nothing beats getting the whole drum of ice cream.

Except maybe running a 5k in Colorado with this guy by my side.

A word of advice for all you 20-year-old-somethings: Nerds make the best dads

It's true.

This guy went on a late night run to Target (in inclement weather), to purchase 200 bowls, so he could fill them all up with water, add food coloring, and put them (neatly) in snow trenches, so that they would freeze overnight, in order to build the kids their own personal igloo the next day.

Now that's some daddy dedication.

 And don't forget the snowball fight fort, that you could slide to from the igloo.

Thanks for setting the bar so high honey; that's one way to win over the neighbors.;)

 Add a lantern after dark, and.......

 It glows!

 Noble may have had a bit too much snow fun at this point.

 The igloo could fit 3 small children inside, or

 one large, fun loving, selfless, and completely wonderful man.

I'm tellin' ya, go for the nerds girls, go for the nerds.

Sledding Fun