Love

September 26, 2014 Dear Asher- This week has been quiet. We think you've said Dada but it's so hard to tell with baby babble. You do signal for "up" now, we will sign it then you will wave your hand mimicking it. It's pretty cute. You love playing with your brothers play toy balls, anything round you will chase after. You are also wicked fast little speed demon with the crawling and all we listen for is your thunder-hands, as Daddy calls them. Your face has started to thin out and you have a neck now for the first time ever. Makes me sad! I've also put almost all your one-piece 24 month outfits in the too-small bin because the buttons will pop the second you start moving. So I grudgingly got the 2T bag out and washed a few items. You're making me sad honey bear!  Love,  Momma

I've posted my moms scone recipe before but I thought I would repost it with my gluten free adaptations. If you want to make it vegan you can easily use a chilled butter substitute. I'm a personal fan of using tart dried cherries and blueberries. My mom loved dried apricots. Coach, of course, likes chocolate chips with cherries. Play with it! It's part of the fun! Gluten Free (Dairy Free) Scones 1 1/2 cup Gluten Free All Purpose Flour 1/2 cup sorghum flour 3 Tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp Xanthan gum 1 Tbsp baking powder 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed 2/3 cup cold milk substitute (we use coconut milk) 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup (chopped) dried fruit(s) Preheat oven to 400�F. Combine milk and vinegar and allow to combine into your vegan buttermilk. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with your paddle attachment, combine all the dry ingredients except the fruit. On low, add cold butter cubes and turn speed up to medium.     Allow butter to crumble in, but there will still ...

September 20, 2014 Dear Asher: Our photo this month is from the beautiful breastfeeding photos I had taken of us. I so desperately wanted to capture this sweet time in our life together. You still have that delicious milk smell when you wake up, and I know that soon that smell is going to disappear and make its way for all kinds of toddler mischief.  You started crawling this past month and it only took you a few hours to start making it quickly around the house once you finally did it. Your hair is also really filling in and starting to curl up in back as it gets longer; all day the comments about your red hair get us stopped by people. It's so you though, so spunky and unique. Your curiosity is really fun to watch. You also know your name and are hearing "No, Asher!!" a lot as you (constantly) manage to be exactly where you shouldn't be. You just look at me with those huge eyes and a beautiful smirky smile. Oh honey bear, so much adventure in your future! Love,  Mo...

September 19, 2014 Dear Asher: This week you have been hilariously chatty. Constant babble and bouncing around the house as you pull up on every surface you can manage. You tried spaghetti squash this week and couldn't shovel it in fast enough, the same with butternut squash. I love watching your chubby fists get after your veggies. You've got banged up knees from all the quick crawling you've been doing. This includes booking it to the bathroom when daddy or I are showering, ripping open the curtain, and managing to almost completely crawl in to splash the water. Every time we end up pulling your already partially soaked body in with us and letting you splash to your hearts content. You just want to be where the action is. You are always a little lost when big brother is at school; I don't think you know what to do in the quiet, just us! Love, Colleen

September 12, 2014 Dear Asher- You are just so big. You are signing milk now purposefully. You will often crawl to me, look at your hand, and sign it a few times--pointing those big puppy eyes at momma. You are also eating more people food. We gave you pasta this week and you could not shovel it in fast enough. Also, you pull up on everything and side step a bit now too. Current favorite: pulling up on the side table where my waters are for nursing, dumping them on the floor, and making your own personal pool and splash pad. You're very quick and sneaky. Not to mention you are completely drenched. One day it happened 4 times!! I also keep forgetting to write down that you find air being blown at you hilarious . Gut-busting, flat-out, hilarious. Daddy squeezing the half empty mustard container onto his sandwiches makes you die laughing, bath toys when not filled with water blown in your face, being waved with the hair dryer, all of it! You've always found air being blown at your...

September 5, 2014 Dear Asher: You crawled!!!! Finally! You just decided to take off and went from no movement to being able to book it around the house in no time. As a result, you got a hold of your brothers bath crayons before I could realize they were in your reach and managed to eat both the blue and red ones. You were one sneaky little bugger and happy about it. You love crawling to doors and swinging them, crawling to stalk after the dogs, and finding big brother. You crawl to anything that you can use to pull up and stand up on, sometimes unsteady things that can't hold you and you end up plopping down.  So far, your biggest nemesis is getting stuck under chairs: the kitchen chairs, desk chairs, anything with four legs. It's hilarious how mad and jammed in there you get! Love your cute tush bookin' it around.  Love, Momma

Oh. My. Word. I found (or was sent, by my awesome friend Amanda) this pin on pintrest for apple fritter bread. I converted it one evening and we could barely wait for it to come out of the oven after dinner it smelled SO good. I can't even. It's, honestly, almost a cake. Ridiculous. Coach put a scoop of ice cream on top and, really, I couldn't blame him. Half the loaf was gone that night.  Cinnamon Apple Bread (Original recipe adapted from here )  1/3 cup brown sugar 1 Tbsp sugar 2 tsp cinnamon Dash of allspice (optional) 2 apples, peeled and diced 2/3 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter, softened 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups GF All Purpose Flour Blend 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp Xanthan gum Dash salt 1/2 cup milk (we used original coconut milk) 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract Glaze 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1-2 Tbsp milk (depending on desired thickness) Preheat oven to 350�F and grease a standard loaf pan. Combine first five ingredients in a small mixing bowl and coat the apples well; set aside.  In t...

Since my diagnosis there have really been relatively few things I have missed or not been able to replicate. However, because of the way oats are manufactured even the gluten free varieties are not recommended for Celiacs. Guess what my all time favorite cookie is? Problem #1: Whomp-Whomp, sad panda.  After making some quinoa for nachos (seriously, try it!) I had left overs. Insert crazy cookie craving and a visit from my sister's mother-in-law aka Gigi. Figured it was worth a try for a special visitor! Problem #2: never having made gluten free oatmeal cookies.  Nailed it on try number one! They're ridiculously chewy, the flavor tastes pretty close, and wow were they good! You definitely want to watch them closely because if they go to far that quinoa takes on an odd texture. So here is the easy recipe, egg free option included. If you used Earth Balance "butter" instead of real butter you could even make them vegan. :) Gluten Free Quinoa and Raisin Cookies 1/4 cup bu...

And the winner is: Courtney!! You will receive and email shortly! Yippie! What what!??? A giveaway?  YES!  I seriously thought it was some crazy joke when the wonderful people at Rockin' Green asked me if I would like to do a Giveaway on my tiny little spot in the 'verse .  But there was no hoax!  I'm super excited to offer a: $50 Rockin' Green Soap Online Certificate Giveaway!! (How many times can I say 'giveaway' in one blog post you ask? A lot!) We have been using Rockin' Green exclusively for our house since Lloyd was about 6 weeks old (remember? I was even briefly on their blog about their pet formula ?).  We started using it for our cloth diapers and as I realized just how clean it was making our diapers and bedding, we stopped buying the expensive junk in the stores and going with that green bag exclusively.  It also enables us to keep our reusable paper towels in tip-top cleaning and absorbing shape as well!  It's a little odd coming from ...