Some Things I'd Like to Brag About

First, I'd like to brag about my banana bread. You have never tasted banana bread this good, unless I've already shared my recipe with you. I collect bananas for a few months, throwing the ones that get too old to eat into the freezer. When the tupperware gets full, that means I have plenty of bananas to make a triple batch of my yummiest bread. Matt raves over this bread and even had the thought that I could sell it for a nice profit. Unfortunately, there are rules against selling things on base... and I had to shoot that idea down. But mark my words, it would have been a thriving business...its that good. Next, I'd like to brag about my new tea set. There is a little gift shop on base that collects goods from all over the Asian area and everything is priced so nicely. While browsing for some gifts for family, I came across this gem. Its the perfect colors for my kitchen and I love the little flower pattern on it. When I found out that the entire set- including the tray underneath, could be purchased for 30$, I nearly jumped for joy. It was wrapped up and we took it home immediately! I've really enjoyed having this treasure sitting on my counter, I get a surge of excitement every time I look at it! Anyone up for a tea party? I'll make some of my banana bread :) Of course, I can't have a brag post without talking about my family. Matt has been amazing these last 5 months since he came home. Matt is always looking for ways to hep with the girls and help make my stress level go down. Just yesterday he cleaned the entire high chair AND the floor underneath it just because he heard me complaining about how Lottie always puts her dirty hands on the sides of the chair and drops her food on the floor. And the other day, I complained about the rocking chair in the living room just not quite fitting and he took it upon himself to clean our bedroom enough to put the rocking chair next to the bed instead.

Now for Emmaline. Emmaline loves our family so much. She loves to learn and is learning Really fast. She already can write the entire upper case alphabet and is working on her lower case letters. She loves to dance and will turn the music on the keyboard on and let it play forever while twirling around the living room. She is eager to help and will jump up and say 'yes ma'am!' when I ask her to help clean the living room or her playroom. I love her hugs the most. She'll 'squeeze!' so tight and when she does, I can feel how much she loves me!

Lottie is such a spirited child. She doesn't talk nearly as much as Emmaline does and she doesn't know as much sign language as Emmaline ever learned (yet)- but Lottie is amazing in so many other ways. She is so brave and has learned to climb up every piece of furniture in our house. She rarely cries when she falls down but jumps right back up and keeps going. She loves to laugh and will get into playing games of peek-a-boo with anyone sitting still. Every morning she cranes her neck to see on top of the bunk bed to see if Emmaline is still awake and then climbs up my shoulder in excitement when she sees her sister. Lottie is very affectionate and has learned to give hugs and kisses.

I'm so blessed to be here with my family- I have two amazing daughters and a perfect husband who I wouldn't trade for the world. Isn't it always amazing what the Lord can do for us in our lives, especially when we never would have thought about it for ourselves? He has done more for me than I could have ever asked for.

A Study in Lottie

Lottie and Mommy hanging out on the hammock.

Lottie is a climber. She crawled up onto the shelves to get at the crayons (in her hand now...) and realized she'd gotten stuck. The way she was laying made it so she couldn't push herself up or slide down without hurting herself. As this is a very, very common occurrence, I didn't feel at all bad about stopping to take a picture!

Lottie's all-time favorite place to play.

Emmaline helped Lottie into the saucer the first few times, then Lottie figured it out on her own. We finally had to put it out in storage so Lottie wouldn't fall and hurt herself climbing in and out.

Chillin' with mom and dad.

One of Lottie's many faces during a tantrum. One of these days I'll get a video of her throwing a fit. I laugh pretty much every time.

We have been so blessed with such a beautiful, happy, energetic child!!

Weekend Getaway

Matt and I escaped for a weekend getaway from the girls. It was fun, sorta. Let me tell you about it!

We took off on Thursday night and went to our hotel. It was a crappy hotel but I could tell they tried, which gave them bonus points. The weirdest thing was the only soap they gave in the room was a liquid hand soap dispenser in the shower...

We went off to dinner the first night and then enjoyed watching Twilight together. Friday we figured we'd sleep in (no kids to wake us, right?) But no... there were, what sounded like, a herd of talking elephants running up and down the hallway. I'm pretty sure it was just college boys getting ready to go surfing or something.

We walked a little bit on the beach (a lot more romantic without the little ones!) and then took a stroll up and down the Tumon strip. There were so many Gucci and similar stores that I seriously think I saw more money than I ever have in my life during that walk. We also took a walk through the aquarium- which was pretty fun.

This was the coolest part of the entire aquarium!!

This statue of Kamahamaha was in the lobby of one of the stores we wandered through. Matt wanted pictures because I guess this God was in Dragon-Ball-Z or something. I just thought it was funny. This God, it was claimed, was responsible for uniting all the Hawaiian islands under one kingdom. We enjoyed having time away from the girls and not feeling rushed or needed or anything. Now, the 'sorta' part of my original statement- I got sick on Friday night. I got a yucky stomach ache and I couldn't figure out what it came from at all. It took me until about 3am for it to finally go away enough I could fall asleep and then the elephants woke us up again at 630. We didn't get the last few hours we wanted on Saturday morning because I was just too weak to enjoy anything.

We went home, unpacked, and picked up the girls. I missed them so much! Lottie literally looked like she grew in the short day and a half since I'd seen her! It was so nice to have time with my husband but it was also so nice to see my girls and be together as a family again!

Adventures in Leather Making

Mangos here went on sale last week- 67 cents a pound! My family can eat a mango a day, sometimes more if I let them so I grabbed an entire bag full of them! My plan was to make Mango Leather and Dried Mango. I made both, and both turned out nicely, although Matt and Emmaline like the leather better and I'm assuming its because I added a sweetener :)

Here's how I did it! Wash and then peel 4 mangos. I use a potato peeler, it works really nicely. Slice up the mangos. For the leather it doesn't matter how it looks, for the dried mango I needed to cut the sides of as nicely as possible and evenly slice everything. I put all the mangos in the blender and puréed them. I'm assuming a food processor would work nicer but I don't have one so I don't know. Add some yummy spices! I added about a 1/3-1/2 cup of honey, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg. (It smells like a really yummy pie the entire time its cooking!) I layered two cookie sheets with plastic wrap. No, it doesn't melt except for a slight bit around the edges. For the fruit leather, I tried to keep the wrap as wrinkle-free as possible. I did not use any wrap for the dried mango, just laid them all nicely on the pan.

I had to use a spatula to even all the puree out. I still didn't get it perfectly even. Its important to get it as even as possible because the thinner spots will dry faster and end up being crispy by the time the thick parts are dried. Also, if the plastic wrap folds down over the mango, that part will never dry. I had that happen on one pan, where the edge of the wrap folded over slightly. I pretty much just had to scrape that part off the leather. Next was the cooking. I put both pans in the oven at the same time. I cooked them for 2 hours at 200 degrees then another 6-8 hours on 170 degrees. You pretty much just have to gauge the leather to see how long to cook it. Toward the end I checked it about every 30 minutes for soft spots. This is the leather when its all done! Its easiest to peel off the plastic when its warm, it also rolls better. But my first batch I put in the fridge before taking care of any of it and it was just fine. For the dried mango, I pretty much waited until it was cool and peeled them off the pan. I peeled the mango, grabbed a cutting board and my pizza slicer... And cut the mango into strips. For the 'authentic' feel of fruit roll ups, roll them. I suppose you could just cut them all into squares or smaller strips and stack them... Maybe I'll try that next time. Finished product! This is two batches of fruit leather- so 8 mangos. Actually, this is less than that because Matt, Emmaline and Lottie enjoyed several pieces of the first batch before I made the second. Both the leather and the dried mango need to go in air tight containers. I was sad to note that the leather is only supposed to last 3 weeks, but knowing my family, it probably wouldn't last longer than that anyway. So this really is just a treat, not for food storage. I believe the dried mango will last a lot longer, especially in the fridge, as long as it is dried completely.