Easter Pictures(better late then never)

A little late in posting pictures form Easter... oops. Oh well. 

Here they are:

(Just figuring out what was in the eggs!)

Natalie with Aunt Amy

Brooklyn with papa Joe

Looking at a ladybug 

Our Family

LOVE

Me and my man!

My sister and I

Ahh it was a beautiful day! 

And I will leave you with a "verse for the day"

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."

Philippians 3:20

Baked Oatmeal with Strawberries, Banana and Chocolate!

We went on a trip to see some friends from church that live about an hour and a half away. It was a nice quiet ride there since Brooklyn slept most of the way and Natalie just played with her "monkey sock" I made them. (tutorial coming soon)

It worked out perfect for timing with sleeping. On the way there she got half her afternoon nap and on the way home she got the other half! 

Baked Oatmeal with Strawberries, Banana and Chocolate

So, the other morning I made this wonderful Baked Oatmeal! 

It put together really quick and came out soooo  yummy!! 

I will make this again for sure!  

Here is the recipe. 

Ahh! I love Pinterest!  

Follow me here if you want! :)

Almond Butter and Almond Milk

Hello again! 

I love homemaking things! I have been trying out so many new recipes lately and it has been a lot of fun! I feel so much better about what my family is eating! 

I was buying the "decent" peanut/almond butters anyways, but it is fun to make your own, and you can make sure your almonds are raw and organic! 

Almond butter is sooo easy! 

~ALMOND BUTTER~

All you do is put some almonds in your food processor... 

Turn in on and let it go! 

Scrape the sides down every couple minutes...

and about 15 minutes later... you have almond butter! 

Turned out great!

So, my girls are "milkaholics" 

Really! 

They were drinking soo much milk every day it was getting ridiculous! 

Then I found out how not good for you it was!

Raw milk from grass fed cows is great for you, but the milk we buy in regular grocery stores has nothing beneficial in it anymore.

 So I started buying Almond Milk for them. 

I also made them drink water mostly too. 

I don't know if it is cheaper to make your own almond milk or not. 

I haven't calculated it out yet. I will. 

But this is so easy to make, I thought I would try it also.

~ALMOND MILK~

 Soak your almonds for 8-12 hours.

(this is 3 cups raw almonds soaked) 

Put in blender with (1.5 cups almonds to 4 cups water) water.

And blend...

Then pour through a strainer and cheesecloth... (All my water couldn't fit in the blender, so I just poured the extra water through the cheesecloth with the almond left from the first straining)

Then squeeze out all the excess water from the almonds...

And put you "Almond meal" either in a bowl to use in baking, or in the trash.

Finish blending and straining all your almonds and water into your bowl

Add 1/2 tsp vanilla (4 cups water) and sweetener if you desire.

I haven't sweetened mine yet, but you can add Stevia, rice syrup, honey or any other reasonably healthy sweetener, to taste (when I do try a sweetener- I think I am going to try my Vanilla Cream Stevia drops I just got).

Then put in to your container(s)

refrigerate, and enjoy! 

3 cups almonds, 8 cups water and 1 tsp vanilla extract

 Made almost 70 oz, about 9 cups.

You will need to shake it up before you use it.

My family LOVES it! 

Have fun making your own butter and milk and rest easy know exactly what is in your food!

S'mores cookies

Oh goodness! I went over to a friends house the other day and we made these amazing s'mores cookie things. The were to die for! 

You can find the recipe here. :)

My Beautiful girls are growing up so fast! I love it! 

Brooklyn and her blanket that goes everywhere with her.

Natalie and her "earrings"

Too tired to eat. Ha!

Watching Dora on Netflix.

Love my babies!! 

I have been trying a bunch of recipes form my Pinterest lately and it has been soo much fun! Stay tuned for recipes and pictures! 

Homemade Deodorant

Homemade Deodorant

This deodorant turned out really good! I loved the smells I choose and everyone who tried it really liked it! We did find that a couple of us needed to reapply in the evening to keep off any smell. After a couple weeks of using this recipe my armpits started really itching! Like pretty bad! While researching recipes I found that this was a complaint for probably an allergy to the baking soda... I was the only one out of 10 to have this problem... So I will try another recipe soon to fix this! 

I hatted the fact of going back to deodorant with aluminum in it, but I couldn't handle the itching, and I need to wear something!

The recipe is easy! Here it is:

3 T Baking Soda

2 T Corn Starch

3 T Shea Butter

2 T Cocoa Butter

1 t Vitamin E

1 t Vegetable Glycerine

Essential Oil of choice

Melt all the ingredients except essential oils in a double broiler

Then add your essential oils (I just did to smell) and stir it in.

Pour into leftover deodorant containers or you can get some here.

Let them sit until solid. I put mine in the fridge to speed it up. 

This recipe filled 5- .50 oz deodorant container. 

I made 2 batches- one with Orange essential oils and one with Milk and Honey. They were both equally popular!

These can just hang out on your bathroom counter and use like regular!

Over the holidays we had a lot of family here! 

My parents had my brother and his wife from Amsterdam and there new little twins for a month! And I finally got to meet the little angels!! There were beyond perfect! And sooo cute!! X2!

 Baby Joey and Emma!

We couldn't get enough of them!

Natalie with Emma

Natalie giving Joey kisses

My dad, brother and nephew

Papa Joe loving being a grandpa!

Ryan's family was here also! Here was a busy place!

He had his grandpa and grandma from New Jersey here for 10 days over Christmas. Grandma from California, 103(almost 104)year old Great grandma from New Jersey here from before Christmas until The beginning of Feburary! Full house! 

Here is Nanny and Brooklyn: 100 year age difference!

:)

Also, Ryan's brother, Tyler, was here for the last weekend they were all here. He lives in Texas now. (ya, they are all over the US).

Surprisingly Natalie took to him right away! 

It was a fun, busy 2 months! :)