To: Lily

You're 3 today!

Hooray! Hooray!

We love you so much!

Try It Tuesday!!!

I wanted to make a delicious new brownie recipe the other day. As I checked out the ingredients in my pantry, I discovered one on the back of the powdered sugar bag. Little did I know that I would soon be baking some of the most delicious brownies that I have ever had. Don't be fooled by the ingredients...these babies are too good to be true. Try it!

Marie's Chocolate Almond Brownies (You can hold the almonds if you want)
From: The Enlightened Kitchen

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 package tofu, firm (I used medium firm)
1/2 cup prune puree (I used 1/4 cup oil)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup soymilk

Oven at 350. Grease 9x13 pan. Combine first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Add almonds and chocolate chips. Blend tofu in a food processor. Add prune puree; blend. Add sugar, extract and soymilk. Make it smooth. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add the wet stuff and stir until it looks like brownie batter. Bake for 30 minutes.

Frosting (The BEST Part)
Mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar with 1/4 cup cocoa powder. Add 4 tablespoons of soymilk (or whatever milk you've got) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Whisk. Spread on cool brownies.

Soooooo good.
I would post a photo, but they're gone.

MMM...delicious

Copycats

Younger sisters are notorious copycats. I should know. I am both an older and younger sister...being in between two of the best sisters a girl could have--Courtney and Whitney. That's right, we're all -eys. Growing up, I shamelessly tried to be like Courtney and prove that I could hang with her. Most recently, we both got sewing machines...I'm already stealing her ideas. Whitney did some copying of both of us and got in big trouble for being a clothing thief. Oddly enough, she ended up with the best fashion sense. Can we take credit for that? (probably not)

Recently, my two besties came for a quick visit to meet Griff and hang out together. Between the laughter, cooking and Griffin snuggling, we were reminded of how much we truly love to be together and miss each other. During my daily life, I do my best to pretend that it's really okay to see them every few months. When we're all together there is no denying it. It was a fantastic, super-fast weekend. In honor of my sisters, I am introducing two new additions to my blog.

Courtney's Great Ideas: A few ideas that Court has imparted to me over the last few days. Seeing as she generally blazes the trail, she has lots of good tips.

Whitney's Fashion Inspiration: Whit makes her fashion look effortless, but she knows Glamour inside and out.

So...here we go

Courtney's Great Ideas for Today

1. Start making dinner during the afternoon nap. Simple idea, but definitely decreases the stress of the baby's evening fussy time. (The chili is on the stove right now...at 3:17 pm)

2. To practice sewing, start with a cloth napkin. A great idea for packing lunches. And, really...can you sew something simpler? See my attempt below.

Whitney's Fashion Inspiration

Skirts...She wears them pretty much all of the time. It's not difficult to wear a skirt, but it automatically looks more pulled together than pants. Whit wore skirts all weekend long and paired with her cute boots, she definitely looked like a hottie.

Inspiration...I am going to try to wear the cute, winter skirts that I already own. And, I love my brown boots. I should put them on my feet!

Can you believe it?!

Six weeks old today!

Baby Steps

Each day offers the chance for Griffin to reach a new milestone...Napping with his dad

Awakening only once in the night for a feeding (he's only done this once)

Smiling

Successfully getting his hand in his mouth to suck on

Taking a two hour nap (two days in a row)

And...

Taking his first bottle!

Can you see the determination on his face. There is no hesitation here whatsoever!

A Photo Day

It's a new year.

LIST
LEARN TO SEW
GO TO MEXICO FOR SOME FAMILY TIME
TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS
LOVE MY SON WELL
RUN THE BOLDER BOULDER
HAVE AN EXCELLENT VEGETABLE GARDEN
LEARN ABOUT HEIRLOOM GARDENING
SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT
ORGANIZE THE BASEMENT
PLAY THE PIANO
GO ON DATES WITH MY HUBBY