One of My Favorite Things

I LOVE pancakes!!  I could eat them everyday.  I still have yet to find my perfect pancake recipe though.  I've tried lots, but nothing that Ive loved more than the rest.  Im still searching...   I love really thin pancakes.  Almost crepe-thin! When I was growing up, my Mom, being the health nut that she is, always made us these thin, whole wheat, from scratch pancakes.  I remember I liked them, but I was always envious of my friend's fluffy, buttermilk, made-from-a-mix pancakes.  What was I thinking!?  I crave my Mom's whole wheat pancakes now!!  If only I could go back in time and tell my 7 year old self how lucky I was to have a Mom who wakes up a 5am to make the family healthy, from scratch pancakes in the morning.  I should have savoured every bite!!  One day, I will get a wheat grinder and be able to make my Mom's pancakes... and my kids will envy their friends and their made-from-a-mix pancakes.

Here is the part where my Mom is a genius though.  Instead of syrup, she would often use these 4 simple ingredients.  Apple sauce, frozen strawberries (or any frozen fruit), cinnamon (to taste) and vanilla (to taste).  Heat it all up in a pan and let it simmer til nice and warm.

Then pour it over your pancakes!!  Its delicious!!  I love it so much more than syrup.  I dont know if this is my Mom's creation, but thats who I got it from.  Its a wonderful piece of my childhood and never fails to make me happy.  Its my comfort food :)

And even better, kids love it!!  Its sweet and tasty and healthy all at the same time!

March

I realized that its been a while since I posted anything on here.  So, I thought I would put up a few recent pictures of the boys. 

We buzzed the kids little heads.  I think they look so cute!!  Although Im a little sad that Kalvin looks so much older now :(

We have been keeping pretty busy all month.  Brad has been studying like a mad man.  I cant wait for Spring Break.  The kids and I have been busy with yard work and planting our garden and flowers and doing as much Spring cleaning as I can squeeze into each day. 

We are enjoying the warmer weather.  We play outside lots.  The last few days we even broke out the hose and played in the water.  The boys have already started getting good and tan. (they are so lucky that they got their Dad's skin tone) We find ourselves wasting lots of time at book stores and at thrift stores, looking for a good upcycle project.  We've been experimenting with juice slushies and the kiddos are quite happy about that :)

We are looking forward so many things!!  My parents and two of my brothers are coming to visit us Easter weekend, then the next weekend is General Conference (yay), and then Fair weekend and more family coming to visit!  Now we just need to think of something fun to do over Spring Break..

Im sure there will be more exciting posts to come, but for now, thats all we have been up to :)  Happy, growing and enjoying our days!

Spring is Time...

Spring is time for our flowers to bloom.  For the trees to bud, the grass to green and the grapevine to stretch its way along the lattice above the back porch.  Time to watch our yard be restored to its former, pre-winter glory.

Time to wander around Star Nursery and covet all the beautiful things we could plant, if only I had a much greener thumb!

Time to plant our garden!!!  Homemade salsa, here we come!!

Time for spring cleaning.  As much as I can get done with these little monsters running around the house.  Like my Mom posted on my FB page, "Trying to clean while your kids are in the house, is like brushing your teeth while eating oreos".

But, Ive learned that monsters are happiest outside!

Digging in the dirt, throwing balls, throwing water and watching roly polys in the garden

But most of all, Spring at our house means its time for projects!!

Clark is old enough now that he feels he needs to help with everything

We steered him away from the power tools and gave him a paint brush... and a sucker

This is what we ended up with :)  Toy boxes for the boys.  I love love love them and we had so much fun putting them together!!

We found the cheapest, knottiest wood we could buy, put the boxes together, painted them with one coat of white paint and them sanded.  Ooohhhh the sanding!!!  Then we distressed the wood.  That part was the most fun.  We got some good scratches and dings in and then we used a dark stain over the entire box, then wiped it all off.  It gave them the coolest aged look.  The lettering isnt perfect, but oh well.  The kids are happy and so am I!!  I had an idea of what I wanted and they turned out even better than what I pictured.  Brad has a way of always making that happen for me :)