WHAT'S COOKING | DIY LARA BAR

Anyone like Lara Bars? Mmmm, me too.  Anyone like paying that much for one? Yeah, me neither.  Luckily, it's pretty easy to figure out how to make these bars just by looking at the nutritional facts and working backwards.  But you don't have to worry about spending the time doing that.  I've got that covered.

 

When I make these at home, I always call them "cookies" around Conner.  He thinks that's what they are, and he loves them.  For me, it's a quick way to get him a nut and fruit serving all in one.

 

The recipe is pretty simple which of course is another plus.

 

 

DIY Lara Bar - Peanut Butter Cookie

 

8 oz dried pitted dates

6 oz peanuts

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 Tbs water

 

Place your peanuts into a food processor and mix until the peanuts are broken into small chunks.  Don't overdo it.  We're not making peanut butter.  Place your dates and salt into the food processor next and blend the two together until the dates have broken down into small pieces. The mix will be crumbly.

 

This step is important to do slowly. As you pulse or run the mixture, slowly drizzle in your water.  You may not need a full tablespoon or you may need more.  You'll want to add water until the mixture goes from crumbly to starting to clump together.

 

For the next step, I like to use a meatloaf pan and line it with parchment paper.  Dump the mixture into the lined pan.  Spread it across the pan evenly and press it down tightly.  Cover and let it sit for an hour or so to let that added water rehydrate the dates and bind everything together.

35 WEEKS + 1 DAY

 

How far along?  35 Weeks + 1 Day.  Countdown is on at 34 days.
Total weight gain:  23+ pounds. This growth spurt just keeps going for this baby and me.  The baby is approximately 5 1/4 lbs and about 18" long now (according to Babycenter.com).
Maternity clothes?  yaaas. I love jeans, but everyday I have a less and less desire to wear them. 
Sleep:  Still a losing battle.  But, maybe the constant waking up is a good thing to start prepping my body for that hard first month+ where sleep becomes elusive.  I never had the luxury of resting or sleeping when Conner slept  because I had to use that time to pump or else the kid had no food, and Conner was a habitual 30 minute napper which made things even harder. Why does everyone tell you to sleep when the baby sleeps?  You're not fooling anyone that's been through this before.  I'm going into this with no expectation of rest since I have a 2 year old that insists he has my attention. So, there's that.
Best moment this week:  Sometimes friends with unexpected plans are the best.  Amy suggested a pedicure this past week since she had some time freed up, so I snuck out over my lunch break to enjoy that with her.  Talk about a mood lifter, and now I don't have to look at my toes anymore thinking if I should even attempt painting them myself. 

Oh, and I should mention that Joe got a nice buck with a great looking 8 point rack.  I'll spare the pictures in case anyone has a sensitive stomach.  You should have seen how happy that man looked (and how happy I looked because he was able to get us venison for the year before the baby comes. Now he can be around more at night come Nov/Dec).  But since it's a really beautiful buck for this area, we're planning to get it mounted.  
Cravings:  Caffeine.  I drink a 6oz coffee everyday, but I want that fake burst of energy that I get from caffeine all.day.long.
Symptoms:  Exhaustion and fatigue.  I mean, there's exhaustion and fatigue, and then there's exhaustion and fatigue. But I'm beyond both of those.  I feel like death warmed up.  It's not that I'm tired, I just feel like my body is so weak that I have to go sit down at least 3 times while I'm trying to prep/cook any meal or snack.  Honestly, I'll grab food out of the fridge and then have to go sit down right away.  Maybe it's time to get my iron levels checked.
Looking forward to:  I'm really getting anxious to be finished with this pregnancy and hold this baby.  But more immediately, I'm still looking forward to finishing the nursery.  I got all the baby clothes washed and started grabbing some baby gear out of the basement.  There's now a swing sitting in our living room waiting to be filled with a squishy little baby. 



WEEKEND WRAP UP | FULL OF FALL

Let's see, if we sum this weekend up in a few short words they'd be: trains, crunchy leaves, and croup.  Man, croup just had to cramp our fall style this weekend.

 

Saturday was a pretty easy going day to start out with.  After spending some time outside letting the chickens out (and chasing them), we came back inside to warm up.  Yes, it's that time of year when I get too cold after thirty minutes of being outside.  Call me weak, but in my defense, there were frozen snowflakes covering the porch so it really was cold.  I digress.  We broke out the train set in the morning and that little Conner spent hours watching that train go all around the track.  Hours, people. Hours. How does it even keep his attention that long? I mean he did take a few breaks here and there to run his Tonka truck around the house. 

 

There was nothing really exciting or out of the norm for our Saturday morning and early afternoon.  Right about 3:30 is where things took a little turn for us around here.  Conner woke up from his nap, and Joe and I could hear him struggling to breathe. Where did that come from? Shoes on.  Time to make a little run to the urgent care.  And how do these things only happen on the weekend after the normal doctor's office is closed?

 

In the end, they quickly pinpointed it to be croup and an ear infection in one of his ears.  Those darn ear infections. I can never tell when he has one since he never leads us on to them bothering him.  Anyway, they gave him a steroid shot and a breathing treatment.  I'm sure you can guess he didn't care for either.  Joe and I were impressed though because we were out the door after only 1 hour.  Talk about never being that lucky with timing at an urgent care.

 

Saturday Pics:

 

We are so grateful and blessed to be able to walk to the end of our driveway and have this as our view.  This right here is a perfect, crisp fall morning.

 

The yard only had a few leaves Friday night, and we woke up to this.

 

 We also woke up to pretty little snowflakes that I don't care to see until December.

 

 It was time to retire Conner's current diapers and move him up to the size large.  Look at that size difference.  I want this whole growing up thing to slow down.

 

Sunday was a little more fun.  We didn't want to take him anywhere to keep other kiddos safe even though the doctor said he'd probably be fine, so we had plenty of play time at home.  One thing we were told was to let him breathe cold air to help.  So we played with the train (again), and bundled up for some outside fun in the yard. 

 

Conner led the way to let the chickens out and then discovered that Daddy made one huge leaf pile in the backyard just for him to play in.  There was no explanation needed for what to do when you see a leaf pile, and that little boy wasted no time.  He jumped in that pile at full speed like he was jumping into a swimming pool.  Talk about having an awesome dad that will save all the leaves from the yard just to play in and then have to go back a clean up the mess again.

 

And of course, since we were in the backyard, we had to go on a hike through the woods.  Conner found every tree stump out there to climb and jump off of.  I, on the other hand, found bear scat.  I haven't seen any signs of bear since we first bought our house so I wasn't overly thrilled to see it close to the house.  I'd rather come across a cheetah than a bear.  I am not a fan.

 

Joe and I have been meaning to carve Conner's pumpkin with him that he picked out, but somehow these days fly by so fast that it's unfair.  We're looking forward to cutting open that top and letting that little boys dig his hands in and get dirty!

 

Sunday Pics:

Lately, this little thirsty bird has been trying to figure out how to drink from two cups at the same time.

 

 All of us still love the fact that he can sit in the dump truck bed.  We've had him sitting in there since he was 2 months old.

 

 Manly wrestling skills.  Conner's classic move is to get you into a bear hug and slobber all over your face while laughing.

 

The littlest family member just hanging out.

There can never be enough little kids and leaf pile pictures, am I right? (There's a lot more on my phone)

The hens enjoyed their own leaf piles.

I realized that Conner's not the only little bear in the woods after that unpleasant bear scat finding.

 

 

 



34 WEEKS + 3 DAYS

Little behind this week.

How far along?  34 Weeks + 3 Days. 
Total weight gain:  22 pounds. We definitely hit the third trimester growth spurt.
Maternity clothes?  Yeah... nothing's changed here except even maternity shirts are feeling shorter now.
Sleep:  It's becoming a downhill battle.  I have really broken up sleep now, but I guess it's going to be nothing like the broken sleep that's coming over the next couple of months, am I right? 
Best moment this week:  I don't know how to pick the best moment this week, so I'll just name them all - Conner's birthday party with family and friends, family visiting for the weekend, anniversary, pumpkin patch, taking Conner out for his birthday. 
Cravings:  Nope.
Symptoms:  The usual at this point - exhaustion, feeling huge, tons of Braxton Hicks, feeling incredibly slow these days, oh and heart burn's been back for an unwelcome visit.
Looking forward to:  Now that we don't anticipate having family visiting or any trips, I'm looking forward to setting up the nursery.  Washing and folding all those baby clothes I bought, putting the crib sheets back on, and make the decorations for the room.  Well, I doubt I'll accomplish all of that this week, but we'll get a good start on it.

We had yet another check up with the doctor last Friday.  Everything is still going great for this little peapod.  Fundal height was 33.5cm. Heartbeat was wonderful.  Blood pressure still low.  And of course, tons of movement.

CONNER'S 2ND BIRTHDAY | PART II

We officially have a two year old now.  As fast as I thought the first 12 months of Conner's life flew by, this past year seemed to be ten times faster.  We've had a blast with family this past weekend.  The day after his party we took full advantage of the best fall weather and hit up the pumpkin patch, pet some farm animals (Conner loved the sheep!) and went on a hayrack ride followed up with some Moomers ice cream.  Talk about an awesome Sunday with the fam.

 

 

 

Since today is Conner's birthday, Joe and I both took the day off to spend with Conner.  The weather's been drizzly and cool so we decided to spend the morning at the Great Lakes Children's Museum.  It was awesome! Conner loved playing with the different exhibits and we really only played with three different activities while we were there.  Which means there's still more to play with and discover the next time we visit.  And there's more.. I realized they have a year membership that you can get so I'm thinking we will definitely need to jump on board so we can hang out there throughout the winter and rainy summer days.

 

After that we hit up our favorite burger joint for lunch (Slabtown), skipped naptime, and opened birthday gifts.  (We're paying for the skipped nap now..)

 

TODDLER LIFE - 24 MONTHS

Toddler Talks
Conner's speech keeps growing and growing.  He said his cousin's name for the first time (Ben) which is actually the first real name he's said if we don't count words like "Mom", "Daddy" etc.  He's also starting to form more and more short sentences.  What's even better is that he identifies more and more things and makes connection between different objects.  When he sees anything baby related, he always calls it out as "baby".  Conversations are starting to grow!

Toddler Play
Conner is still in love with his Tonka dump truck.  Basically anything that has wheels has his love and attention.  This month he has really become obsessed with Mickey Mouse.  We only have Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Netflix so we watch that every night before we start the bedtime routine.  The same episode.  Every night.  He doesn't get tired of it but the two adults in this house do.  Netflix, please get more Clubhouse episodes on your list! 

He's also continues to love letting the chickens out to range and feeding them.  Of course the minute the chickens are out, he makes sure they get exercise by chasing them all over the backyard.  It amazes me that those birds aren't scared of him.  Other than that, we've been taking more adventure hikes through our woods.  Conner has grown to love hiking and exploring the woods.

Toddler Eats
We have successful days and not-so-successful days when it comes to eating.  Protein is still the hardest to get him to eat except for when it comes to hotdogs.  I've never seen a toddler love hotdogs as much as he does.  He's kind of a picky eater.  I've learned that he doesn't like it when different foods are mixed together like casseroles for example.  He does okay as long as the food items are kept separate.

He still loves his broccoli (steamed or raw), baby carrots, apples, avocado, yogurt, oatmeal and fruit smoothies.  Oh and basically anything with chocolate.  He's figured out that chocolate is pretty tasty for a little boy with a sweet tooth.
 
Toddler Sleep
Conner continues to be an awesome sleeper.  He's starting to sleep in a little later on the weekends instead of getting up between 5:30 and 6:30am.  There have even been days that he's slept in past 9am.  He does great at going to bed on his own.  Joe always has the most success with putting him to bed at night.

24 Month Photo Dump: