Summer Vacation(s)

Since the February 2011 I have been on two trips - a cruise to the Bahamas and a short weekend in DC for family weekend. So, I have been missing my vacations! Solution: I have taken 2 trips in the last month, both ALOT of fun! Overall, it's led to a pretty busy month and putting off unpacking/cleaning up ouir new place (more to come on this in a post next week!), however, it's been a nice break from the craziness we have going on our lives! In early July, my parents and I took Luke and Logan on a trip to visit my family that live in North Carolina. My first cousin, her husband, and three wonderul children were the best hosts!

We had to drive abour 8 hours one way to get there, and we chose to do so during the day, which looking back...was an OK decision ;) Overall the boys did well in the car, but they did have bouts of shrieking and my dad even had to put in some ear plugs a few times. But, we did have 2 ipads to keep them entertained so that helped as well. We arrived and spent the week just hanging out, eating delicious meals prepared by my cousin (she's a GREAT cook!) and took a few a small day trips to the water park, costco, and a small zoo/amusement park. Overall, we had a blast, but it was probably one day too long for the little guys, as they didn't sleep well there and had several meltdowns throughout. Oh, well, lessons learned! Either way, it was nice to visit and relax with family and kind of fun to get away!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2nd trip I took was a girls weekend to Virginia to visit my sister. My mom, other sister and I drove to Virginia on a Friday and stayed through Monday morning. There are so many yummy places to eat in the Virginia/DC area! I definitely indulged a bit, which has lead to my strict clean eating/cleanse going on currently (I really needed it after the sugar overload I have had recently!). We also, took a little trip to several Virginia wineries which was so great! I found out I really like Chardonnay and there were several dry reds I enjoyed as well. We also, made sure to squeeze in some quality exercising, so we tried out aspin studio that I think my sister will be going back to and went to a flow yoga class at the studio she has a membership to. These were new experiences for my mom, and I think she enjoyed trying out something new. The weekend away from all my boys was kind of a nice way to relax and take a breather. As I have mentioned before, they keep me very busy and always moving, so having just a little break was nice. Here are some pics from travels!

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Souvenir for the little guys :)

Favorite for Breakfast

I have been making a few new recipes and a few old standbys and thought I I would try to share them with you! First, I have had a request to share my baked oatmeal recipe. What's like about this one is that you can make it and then reheat and eat it the rest of the week. And it's not just plain old oatmeal. I tend to tweak it a bit and try different things in it, but I'll give you the my recipe and the link to the original. Hope you like it

I have provided the link with the original recipe for the oatmeal that I make, but I usually make some modifications, so I'll list my recipe below, and you can check out the link if you want to!I also usually make 1/2 a recipe bake it in a bread pan and eat one serving fresh. Then chop it in to squares put it in the fridge and take out portions for breakfast each morning. When I reheat it I usually add in some milk and warm it in the microwave.


Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries and Bananas (Substitute strawberries/raspberries for bananas)

Ingredients:

2 medium ripe bananas, (the riper the better) sliced into 1/2" pieces - substitute sliced strawberries or raspberries for the bananas if wanted

1 1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup maple syrup (you can use honey or agave if you want)

1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 -2 tsp. of chia seeds or flax seed

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk - vanilla flavored

1/4 cup plain greek yogurt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Lightly spray a 8 x 8" or 9 x 9" ceramic baking dish with cooking spray; set aside.

Arrange the banana slices in a single layer on the bottom of the ceramic dish. Sprinkle half of the blueberries over the bananas, 1/4 tsp of the cinnamon, 1 tbsp of the syrup and cover with foil. Bake 15 minutes, until the bananas get soft.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the oats, half of nuts, baking powder, remaining cinnamon, and salt; stir together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining syrup, milk, egg, and vanilla extract.

Remove the bananas from the oven, then pour the oat mixture over the bananas and blueberries.

Pour the milk mixture over the oats, making sure to distribute the mixture as evenly as possible over the oats. Sprinkle the remaining blueberries and walnuts over the the top.

Bake the oatmeal for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the oatmeal has set. Serve warm from the oven.

Enjoy it warm out of the oven (that's when it's best!!) and then for the rest of the week add a little milk or almond milk and reheat it and eat it!

Trying out something new on the Blog - Recipe Posts! Today: Yummy Egg Salad Recipe

I have been wanting to add some of my favorite recipes to the Blog forever and I have been waiting to for when I have time....errr, well I don't have any more time than I did before so I just decided to squeeze it in and post today real quick :) I'll try to add some more things soon! 

I found this recipe on one my favorite blogs - Eating Bird Food and I started making/eating this during lent because it doesn't have any meat in it. Of course you can substitute chicken or tuna for the egg in this recipe if you prefer! It's super yummy and a healthier spin on traditional egg salad and easy to make! If you want it with a li1ttle less calories, only use 1 or 2 of the egg yolks, and the rest just egg whites! I like to eat it with triscuits, but you can toast up some bread, lettuce, or just fork it in all by itself :) Enjoy!

Curried Avocado Egg Salad

Ingredients
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
½ large avocado, cubed
½ Tablespoon dijon mustard (I just use a litle bit of this, it can be a little strong...)
1-2 teaspoons relish or chopped pickles 
1-2 teaspoons green onion, chopped1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¾ teaspoon curry powderdash of hot sauce
sea salt and ground pepper, to taste

Instructions:
Add the avacado to a bowl and mash it up. Add in remaining ingredients except for eggs and mix up until blended. Chop up the eggs (or chicken or tuna) and add into the bowl and mix together with a fork. Season with additional salt and pepper. 

Check out the original blogpost for this awesome recipe: Curried Egg Salad

Our next BIG adventure!

So - I know many people already know this, but....we are moving! And we finally have some exciting things to share! We bought 8 acres of land in McCutchenville, Ohio. The land has several buildings on it and a huge hill. Tim and I have been talking about building a home for us since we got married and we have been working on the plans ever since, even though we weren't sure where or when it would happen. Once we had our two little squirts we realized we were going to quickly outgrow our current home. Eventually, it made sense to look for a piece of land near our family and Tim's job in northwest Ohio. While I have loved living in Columbus for the last 10 years and there are many things I will miss about it, I am very excited for this next chapter in our lives! We just finalized the purchase of the land a few weeks ago so the next steps are:

1. Renovate one of the existing buildings on the property to become our new interim apartment. (Tim is primarily responsible for this :) ) The building used to be a children's resale business and already had electric, a bathroom, laundry hookups. Tim and many of our family members are working on putting up a few bedrooms, installing cabinets for a kitchen, and renovating the bathroom so it has a bathtub/shower. It is a bonus that we will be living rent-free and so close to our new home, making it much easier for Tim to work on the construction while we are just minutes away :)

2. Move out of our home in Columbus (list it for sale) and then move into our new interim home (see step 1). I have been working very hard to pack things up and my parents have been amazing in that they have taken L&L for the past few weekends to give me some alone time to actually accomplish something! As you can imagine, I get little to no work done running after them! We are planning on moving very soon!

3. Finalize our home plans...they are really close, we just need to make sure have a few final decisions  made. We also want to make it to the Parade of Homes in Columbus for any last minute ideas we might want to use!

4. Break ground and start building!! Hopefully sometime in July.

5. Move into our new home (goal = end of 2013)....Ok so I missed a few steps here, but this post would be too lengthy if I put in all the gory details. I will try to post through the summer/fall updates and pics as we get through this.

I am excited/nervous for everything that is going to be happening over the next 6 to 12 months! It's definitely going to be fun to be able to build our own home, but I'm sure there will be many challenges along the way. I'm staying positive because I know this is such a great thing for our family!

Our new home will be 10 minutes from both Tim and my parents' home, and we'll be close to many relatives. Also, it is 10 minutes from Tim's job. This will be such a great change for him, as he has been commuting to NWO since he moved to Columbus 5 years ago. I know it has been hard at times to make that drive and spend so much time on the road, so this will truly be a great thing for him! I am planning on keeping my current job as an accounting consultant out of Powell, Ohio. I can do my job remotely much of the time, and while I will need to travel back to Columbus for client meetings occasionally, I'm looking forward to having a reason to make it back down here. As I mentioned before, there are many things I will miss about Columbus, so it will be nice to still have it be a part of my life! I'll be sharing more updates soon, but just wanted to finally let you all know some of the details!! I have a few pictures below of our land and interim apartment.

  

Hill on the front of the property

View of the front yard/valley

We have a barn :)

Tall Grass

Home Sweet Home until we build our new house!

Driveway/parking lot by the barn and buildings

View from the top of the hill

View of the entire property from the top of the hill

Springtime Fun!

We have been spending a lot of time outside and with friends lately! I just wanted to share a few pictures and details of all that we have been up to!
Mother's Day
We spent time in New Riegel with both of our parents and families for mother's day. We had some really good food, and got to see our mom's! Also, Tim and L&L were very good to me on my 2nd mother's day! I received several homemade gifts (which I LOVE) and a few charms for my pandora bracelet. I also spent Sunday afternoon with my little squirts...don't know what my life was like before I had them!!

Gifts for Mommy!

My mom, L&L and me

Skyping with Aunt Alicia!

Tim and his mom with L&L 

My special little men!

Visit with the Siebenallers
 Growing up, we spent a lot of time with our cousins, the Siebenaller's. We have 5 kids in our family and they had 4 boys. We have remaining close over the years and now that we are "all grown up" with our own families, we try to get together every once in while, when we can. We are spread out all over the U.S., with Aaron and Angie living as far away as El Paso, Texas. So, recently Angie and Bryan & Kim and kids were in town and they all stopped by to visit! Bryan and Kim have 4 children (ranging from 5 years old to 6 months) and Angie and Aaron have 1 child, Athen, who is one month older than L&L. We don't have a large house, but we do have a swing set, and there is a park in our neighborhood, so with 7 children at 5 years old and younger, it was quite an event. It really is very fun when we are able to get together and catch up. It's amazing how many of us all have kids around the same age! I have some pictures from our get together, and a few flashbacks :)

3 Double Strollers!

All the kids looking!! (this wasn't the first picture we took :) )

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Sometime in the 1980s

Siebenallers & Kimmets

Henry's Baptism & Family 10K
I know there is a separate post  about our weekend together, but wanted to include it in our recent event-filled month with lots of family and friends! It was so great spending time with the Macks and Kimmets in Cleveland, and getting celebrate a very special little boy!

Trip to the Zoo with Grammie
While I have been very busy with work and things going on in our lives, I did take a half day last week to hang out with L&L and head to the zoo with them and my mom. It was so much fun! They loved the animals, especially when we got to see the birds and they flew right up in front of us. There was a lot of warnings to not touch them :) They also really liked the fish in the aquarium, lots of bright colors and they swim right up to you!It was really nice to have a morning out with the boys, but it got really warm out, so maybe next time we should hit a pool!

This one is a great pic! I love it when they hug and kiss!

Visit with Old Friends
My very good friend Josh, that I have know since we were 5 was in town this week! We spent a very fun night together along with my other BFF, Sara, at a friend's wedding. It has been ages since I have gone out and been able to spend time with both of them, and it was a TON of fun, just like old times (which means the next morning wasn't as fun ;) ) We also all got together along with our other college roomie, Laura and had a "kids" party. Laura has a little boy that is the same age as L&L and a 2 month-old little sweetie as well, so we all had a get-together at our house. It's always fun to get together and catch up, and fun seeing our kids play as well!

Now...at the beginning of the night!

End of the night, we are all looking a little tired!

Then....College :)