Don't blame me

I decided to look for a bumper sticker that says"Don't blame me I voted for Romney".

Still teething

Miss Elizabeth is getting her 2nd 2 year molar. Poor baby. Thankfully she can now tell me "my mouth hurts", but it still makes a Momma's heart ache to see her baby in pain.
Thankfully she's easily distracted now by fun so going sledding on Sunday when the weather was beautiful was a perfect opportunity to spend time together outside & distract a sad baby girl.

18 weeks w/ BB2

145-150 beats per minute. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. 20 wk ultrasound in 2weeks. Baby Brooks #2 is well on its way. I felt this one stirring much earlier than BB1, but my placenta was also on the anterior wall last time too, which could have prevented me from feeling the early twists & tickles. Plus I know what to feel for this time. Elizabeth is @ a stage where she is cuddling her babies more and soothing them when they cry. "It's ok baby," she tells them as she pats their back and they stop crying. Hope she had that magic touch w/ this one too.

Brrrrrr!

-30 on the drive to work this morning. 13 above in the garage. Thank God for insulation & a wonderful husband & Dad-in-law who blew it in the ceiling this winter! Yikes. "This too shall pass."
Time to hang out w/ the girls in the house.

Check Out This Stringer!

GF Pumpkin Brownie Muffins

Ingredients: 1 can pumpkin and 1 box brownie mixMix: 1 can pumpkin & 1 box Gluten-Free Brownie Mix. Fill muffin tins. Bake @ 350 for 30-40 min.  You get a beautiful, dense chocolate treat.  Don't add any water, oil or eggs.  But remember to shape them pretty because they don't puff up.  They stay the same size and shape you put them in, but with a greased pan, they popped out nice.  I don't taste the pumpkin, but it's a really moist brownie/chocolate cake treat. Mmmmm. Thanks Mom!

Cookie Secrets

I love a good soft cookie. So here are two of my secrets to keep my cookies soft: Bread and pudding. To a single batch of cookies add one package of instant vanilla pudding. After your cookies are baked and in the cookie jar, add a slice of fresh bread. I use an end piece.
K there you go. My secret is out. :)

Can a Flashlight Burn a Rug?

Can a Flashlight Burn a Rug?
The MN MythBusters' results? YES! 
Elizabeth loves to play with flashlights.  This time she turned it on and stood it up (facing down) on the rug.  As you can see, it melted it.  For the longest time afterwards, she'd go over to the burn/melted rug and say "flashlight".  David had to explain to me what happened.  Needless to say the flashlights are now on a high shelf in the closet.
Just a warning to anyone who uses a flashlight and may forget it on anywhere -- they have the potential to be a fire hazard.

Petroleum Jelly

 After 3 winters of trying to find out what works best on my little Angel's dry winter skin, I've come to the conclusion I'm going with the ol' trusty: Petroleum Jelly.  The scents in the other lotions burn her dry, dry skin, even the unscented Arbonne Baby lotion, and she cries when we would put it on.  There are no tears with this and we only have to put on every 2-3 days because it works so well and lasts longer than mineral oil for her dry knees and elbows.  I highly recommend this no-tears approach if your baby is as dry as mine - and me.

Birthday Wishes to SPI

Happy 60th Birthday Grammy Koney!

Christmas 2012

Christmas brunch w/ the Makis



Opening Presents

Poor attempt at family photo

Beautiful Christmas flowers from David & Elizabeth

Brooks/Rowland kids

New baby doll from Gramma & Papa along w/ a homemade cradle & blankets

New ornament from Grammy & Papa SPI

Stockings

Brooks' Family Christmas with Great Grandma Ruth

And Popo stole the show...

Hide-n-Seek & Football w/ Papa Gary

Learning the ins & outs of Hide-n-Seek...its a working progress...

Papa Gary playing football w/ Elizabeth after helping us blow insulation into the garage attic.

December Happenings

T'was the weekend before Christmas

And at the House of Brooks

Was a crazy December

With Movers, Shakers, and Cooks

Pie, Fudge, & Cookie Spritz

Sweetie Baby So Sick



Decorating the Tree

Mom's Group Christmas Party

Schaefer Family Munch

Fun with a Brush

Stockings Hung with Care



Christmas Carolers Flair

New tree so Bright

Our Friday Fort Night

Yellow Dress Pictures

Elizabeth 2012

Isabella 2012



Ruby 2011

Christi 1983

Sharon 1954

Holiday Cooking is Under Way

Gluten-free: pie (no crust pumpkin) choc. chip cookies & Spritz

My helper, who loves to cook!

"Food" for Thought

Have you ever thought of this? 
I heard this on a Christian broadcast the other day and I thought with Advent starting, it was appropriate to share:

Jesus said,  “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35) & “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

John 4:14 "But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."

When the Jews were wandering in the desert for 40 years, God rained down “bread from heaven” to sustain the nation (Exodus 16:4).

Jesus is equating himself with bread, Jesus is saying he is essential for life.  The life Jesus is referring to is not physical life, but eternal life. Jesus is trying to get the Jews’ thinking off of the physical realm and into the spiritual realm. He is spiritual bread that brings eternal life.

And where was he laid as a babe?  In a manger -- a nicer word for a food trough.  Jesus was destined to be our spiritual food from the beginning. 

Luke 22:19          
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Simple, but beautiful.

2 Year Check Up

My Itty Bitty is getting bigger. 

Height: 34" (74%)

Weight: 27# (55%)

Head: 19" (84%)

She also had her 1st dentist check-up to count her teeth. She did OK, but got a new tooth brush, toy, and lots of stickers for being such a good girl.

Election 2012

This is my blog, my on-line journal. Here I can write what I want. It's mine. My opinions, my record of events for my children to look back on in the future. So here...I write.

Tuesday evening I voted. I voted conservative and I voted YES for the marriage amendment to be defined as "One Woman & One Man". I voted YES for people to bring photo IDs with them to vote. I vote the ETHICS. But (sigh) America and MN went against the grain that God has set out.

OBAMA: A man was voted into the white house who wants to cut our military budget, and already has, making us a more vulnerable country.
He takes tax-payers money to give to places like Planned Parenthood to give free abortions to the low income (I know of women personally who use abortions as a method of birth control and have multiple abortions versus taking the Pill). Obama once was quoted, regarding abortion, "I wouldn't want my daughters to be punished with a baby." Punished? Really? And he supports partial-birth abortion - where the baby is near full term, partially delivered, and then it's brains are sucked out through a syringe in order to kill it. Disgusting and degrading.
This is the man who let us believe, for 14 days, a terrorist attack was really a "demonstration". He LIED to the American people. And later when he said he called it a terrorist attack, he did not, he said "The American people will not tolerate terror". That's not the same thing.
And this is who we RE-elected to run our country? A man who lies, kills. A man who claims the responsibility to have "...gotten Bin Ladin" when it was President Bush's decision to go after him in the first place while Obama said he was going to pull all troops back home as soon as he became president the 1st time?
Now he is going to raise the taxes on "wealthy" small business owners (anyone making over $250K - which is not a lot for small businesses), leaving these businesses with less money to hire more employees. Therefore more unemployed Americans. More taxes taken out of everyone's pockets to support the unemployed. He is going to put Obama Care into place, which is just devastating, and a joke once one reads into it.

I woke up Wednesday morning, barely got my robe and glasses on before turning on the TV to find out the election results. Living in a blue state, I wasn't much surprised by the MN results. Disappointed, but still not surprised. But my heart still sank as I saw that the Christians had been defeated all around. I kept thinking, "My God, my God. Why have you abandoned me?" Then I started to think: God didn't let us down. He didn't abandon us. God is a 'gentleman' and He won't go where he isn't invited. If a majority of our country does not want God here, He won't be. And maybe this is God's Will. We won't know why certain things happen until He comes again.

Christi: why do you vote conservative? I vote the moral & ethical issues. And even if the candidates aren't perfect, I vote for the least likely to go against God's will. My Liberal friends don't tend to like my answer because usually the ethical topics I bring up "don't apply to me", per them.  Hmm.

Abortion is a sin, yet it is legal. Homosexual marriages are a sin, yet becoming legal (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Just because something is written into law, does not make it right. 

What happens when we go to heaven some day and ask God, "Why didn't you give a cure for cancer? Or AIDS? Why didn't we have world peace" God's reply: "I did. You aborted the baby I gave you to solve your problems."

We are going to have to answer to God, face to face, someday as to the decisions we made and the people we voted for in our lifetimes here on earth. God isn't going to say, "well, who had the best tax plan?" He's going to say "who did you vote for who preserved life?" Is God really going to say "Well done, my good and faithful servant" after we explain to him that we voted for a weaker economy, a liar, and a baby-killer?

I'm not posting this on Facebook.  Like I said in the beginning: this is my blog for me and my family. If you disagree, create your own blog and write your own thoughts. I am just writing this down so that there is never any doubt to anyone as to where I stand. What more can you say than:"Jesus Christ, thy Will be done." 

October/Nov Catchup

All dressed up for Calgaro Wedding Reception

Groom the doggy before we go (See Lexie smile?)

Grandma & Papa

Say "Cheese" Brooks

Yeah ELMO!

3 Blind Mice and the Farmer's Wife

My Monkey ($3.99 @ Goodwill!)

Elizabeth's birthday pic with Grammy Koney & Papa Earl

3 Generations

Mmm, mmm good dinner Mom!

"2" "CAKE!" And she blew out the candles ALL by herself!

Birthday Girl with Papa Gary & Grammy Candy

"Cheese" with Auntie Grandma

Vegetable Spaghetti Sauce

Mommy's Little Cook

Vegetable Spaghetti Sauce
Brown in large pot:
1# ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped

Take 1 whole butternut squash, cut in 1/2. Scoop out & discard seeds. Put face down on plate and microwave 10 min. Let sit in microwave another 5 min. Scoop out inner flesh, mash w/ potato masher.  You could always put in blender, too.

Add following ingredients:
(2) 29 oz cans tomato sauce
Mashed butternut squash
1-2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 to 1/2 C. shredded carrots
Spices to your taste (basil, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic/ onion salt and/or powder, Mrs Dash, Lawry's Seasoning -- whatever is in your cupboard.)
1 bay leaf (take out before serving -- I always forget :))

Bring to boil.  Lower heat to simmer 1-2 hours.  Use what you want and freeze the rest.  This is an awesome recipe and a good way to get kids to eat their veggies.  Elizabeth LOVES spaghetti, and esp this recipe.  She was even helping me taste test and ended up w/ her own bowl of it, eating it like a soup.

Some recipes call for tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, fennel, or even broccoli and cauliflower.  But this is my doctored-up version that I thought I would share.  Plus I always lose this recipe and thought it would be easier to keep it on my blog to refer back to.