comfy cozy

came across this snapshot from back in march

i adore my snuggle bugs!

meeting the great grands

two months ago, we packed ourselves up

and dared to travel with twins under a year old...as lap children!

actually, the travel part was much less stressful than we thought it would be

(although, if you do choose to  be as crazy as we were, I'd recommend getting an extra seat if you can afford it so that you can trade babies off and get a break now and then!)

but you'd be surprised at how friendly (and willing to help!) strangers can be

between all the volunteer helpers, extra snacks, small new toys (novelty is a wonderful distraction), and pacifiers for take-off and landing, we got there and back with minimal tears

but that's besides the point

the point was getting four generations together

we flew down to introduce the girlies to Daniel's extended family:

his grandparents, 

aunts, 

uncles, 

cousins...

they drove in from all over the place

showered us with hugs and love and even little presents for the girlies 

Daniel's parents graciously hosted us (read: spoiled us rotten) and his sister cashed in her vacation time to visit with us - it was a real treat!

even their neighbors came by to visit, loaned us baby gear to make our stay easier, even showered us with gifts!

we certainly felt blessed.

and watching the girls meet their great grands was so special,

i was camera happy, as always

the girls were surprisingly friendly and un-shy (hooray!)

and a good time was had by all

And again...

just a few more shots of my cute-as-a-button nephew

because i love him 

and because Daniel helped out a ton with the girlies this weekend

so i could power through some photos

still not done, but i'm so thankful for the time i got to carve out

and for the amazing husband he is, of course

southern snuggles

just looking through some pictures from our last trip down to NC and this one was too cute not to share

apparently, this little bug has an affinity for southern women

that's all for now - hope you're having a great weekend!  

unpublished

today my littles are ten months old ....will it ever stop taking me by surprise how fast the time flies by?!?  i started this letter to them two weeks ago, and never published it...better late than never, right?  

Dear baby girls,

You are now nine and a half months old!  I know, it's kind of a weird "milestone," but you're growing and developing new skills so fast, it's hard to keep up.  You can sit up really well now, so daddy and I went out last weekend and bought new "sit-up" toys to keep you busy from your new perspective.  You seem to really like them - as soon as I sit you down in your playpen, the squeals and giggles begin.  Although, they're also forcing you to learn to share...which I know will be a good thing in the long run, but right now it means random shrieks and a few extra tears here and there.

Speaking of your playpen - boy, has that thing been a lifesaver!  I love having a space where I know you can play safely while I catch a bite to eat or quickly get something done.  You tend to want me to sit in there with you towards the end of the day, though, which can sometimes get in the way of dinner-making, but some days I can't help but cave.  We play with your toys or read together or practice sitting down and standing up (you LOVE that game!).  And when daddy gets home from work, he usually jumps right in there and you climb all over him - once, we even had our dinner sitting in there while you played happily beside us.  I guess you just like knowing we're near sometimes - must get that from  your mama.  

Another big step we've taken is putting in you separate cribs...I'm not sure if I'm ready, but it's probably better for you at this point (even though my heart is dragging it's feet about it  - how did you get so big, so fast?).  At least I'm the only one upset here - you're pretty cute about it and peek over at each other from your suddenly-much-bigger cribs.  I took a picture of your first time sleeping separately on daddy's iPad - it is such a blessing it is to be able to grab quick snapshots of your life, even when I don't have time to grab the fancy camera.  Ives, you were definitely ready for your own space and Aria, I'm sure you'll get better sleep out of it - in the mean time, you can cuddle with your pillow instead of your sis.  (please don't send me hate mail / mean comments about that - she loves it because it smells like daddy, and she knows how to turn away from it ...I promise you, I would never do anything to endanger my little ones!!!)  

Girlies, I'm just now starting to look through some pictures we took during your delivery and in those first days with you and I can't believe how far we've come.  Let's be honest, some days are really tough and draining, but the Lord has been so good and I'm learning to look to Him when I fail or when feel like I just can't be the mother you need me to be and He pulls through every time.  Life with you two speaks volumes about His faithfulness; never before have I been able to apply scripture so practically to my life (and watch it's transforming work), and for that, I am SO thankful!

At any rate, I'm so glad to have so many memories captured in those pictures - they really do tell a thousand words; I don't think I realized how valuable they would be to me, and it's not even been a year since they were taken...it'll be so fun to show them to you and tell you stories about yourselves when you're older!  I'm beaming just thinking about it.

Anyway, I need to get going - never enough time to get everything done, but such is this season of life and that's just fine.  I love to the moon and back, girlie cues!

love, 

your mom

whole wheat pumpkin cream cheese muffins

i love muffins

but not the kind that is basically a cupcake without (or sometimes with!) icing

i like a hearty muffin

something i can grab on a busy no-time-to-eat-until-these-kiddos-nap kind of morning

or a guess-its-a-no-nap kind of afternoon

i also love fall produce 

all the squash, apples, pomegranates, persimmons, brussel sprouts, etc, etc, etc

  and pumpkin...i adore pumpkin!

roasted baby pumpkin

pumpkin bread

pumpkin pie

pumpkin spice latte

you really can't go wrong with the stuff!

so it's no surprise that i found myself craving pumpkin spice muffins the other day

i turned to google, found a good looking recipe, tweaked it to suit what i had around the house

and vwalla! 

these guys are not-too-sweet and a good nutritious snack  

the only thing i might do differently, is maybe make a smidge more cream cheese filling

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

(borrowed and adapted from this recipe)

makes 12 large muffins

Ingredients:

- 3 oz light cream cheese, at room temperature

- 1 Tbsp sugar

- 1/2 tsp ground pumpkin pie spice

- canola oil cooking spray

- 2 cups white whole wheat flour

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp ground ginger

- 1/4 tsp ground cloves

- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

- 2 Tbsp unsulfured molasses

- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

- 2 large eggs, lightly whisked

- 1 cup pumpkin puree

- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

- 1/4 cup 2% milk

- 1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt

- raw, unsalted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or sunflower seeds

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350* F. 

- Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin tin with the cooking spray or line with paper cups.

- In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar and pumpkin pie spice until well mixed and set aside.

- In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg).

- In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, molasses, olive oil and eggs until combined then add the pumpkin, vanilla and buttermilk.

- Add dry ingredients into wet and stir just until fully moistened.

- Spoon the batter into your muffin tin, filling each cup a little less than half way then add about 1 tsp of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each cup. Top with remaining batter. 

 - Sprinkle each muffin with a few pepitas.

- Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean (a bit of cream cheese clinging to the toothpick is fine, but there shouldn’t be any raw batter).

- Let the muffins cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

enjoy!

hello friends,

it's been too long 

we had sick babies

and i thought "i'll have to put blogging on hold until they get better"

then they got better

and i learned a valuable lesson

if sick babies = busy, then healthy babies = crazy busy!

these little bugs are getting into everything all of a sudden!

it's fun and exhausting all at the same time

 and boy is it time consuming

i've also been using whatever spare time i can scrape up to work on some personal projects

one of which had me looking through old pictures of the girls

i ran into these to from back in june and just had to share 

this mama's heart is just gushing  :)